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'Hello to you too, little sister,' Zack replied with a frown. 'Finished your period, or should we brace ourselves again?'

Salieri also raised an eyebrow at Zack's joke. "You're gross."

Then she addressed Ben. "No, I made a meeting site at the city, but we've got a problem." She plopped herself onto Banksy's shell, which the Torkoal was indifferent to. "He wants to meet soon. Like in two hours from now. I tried to push it back, but he wasn't having it, so here we are. We need to get our act together and fast."

Salieri ran a hand through her air, and then gently pet Banksy on the head. Even though this deal would give Skarada no reason to stay in Kalos, she wasn't doing it for her country. She was doing it for her family. Zack and Ben already knew that, so she wasn't going to give them that spiel again. "I've got some more ideas to flesh out the plan. Zack, Helena needs to talk to you, so how about you guys get that out of the way so we can really focus. Ben and I can start talking shop."

She gave Helena a quick look, while covering her mouth so the boys couldn't see her mouth the words "Are you?", referring to Zack's accusation.

'Like making fun of someone with a broken arm isn't a horrible thing to do,' Zack grumbled, mostly to himself but just loud enough for everyone to hear it. That's the problem with people getting to know him; they lose all sympathy. Still, he listened to Helena's story and wasn't quite sure what to feel. Anger, sure, but with so much going on his capacity for emotional reactions was temporarily tapped out.

Besides, his mentor had taught him to focus on the task at hand, no matter what tried to grab his attention. The fact was that Helena was safe and sound enough to make fun of him literally having his arm snapped in half and put in a sling, which, he reminded himself, is pretty uncalled for and warrants like three period jokes. As long as she stayed that way, the Jean situation could go on the back-burner.

But since he couldn't vocalise that thought process and she probably expected a response, he went with: 'Well. That's distracting. Anyway, we've got something to do, so stay here while we do it. And uh, don't flip your s**t or anything but someone trashed the tower's back yard and they'll probably want help fixing it. You can do that if you're bored.'

Zack's solution for Helena's problem was good enough for Salieri. Helena was safest in a compound of Aura acolytes, and Gurkinn at the least could sense most dangers.

More importantly, unless Helena could give her a clear path to Ratio, Salieri still didn't want to bother with her. One trauma didn't put her back into Sal's good graces, and neither did a two word apology stuck in the shadow of her previous tirades. Bringing her to the Tower was mostly for Zack's sake, and a little bit out of the extra goodwill Salieri denied having in her heart. She really didn't like seeing other people cry.

"The boss around here is Gurkinn, talk to him and he'll set you up," Salieri told Helena. She didn't bother getting the other girl up to speed on the Skarada situation.

"The place I'm meeting Ska is at the cross street leading down to the cove," said Sal, pointing south to the shore of Shalour City. "A wide open space. He could hide backup if he wants, but he can still be sniped from an upper part of the city's strata. Zack, you'll need access to one of the taller buildings on a higher level in the city. Two, maybe three blocks up if you think your Clawitzer can shoot that far. Preferrably inside a room and not from a rooftop, he could have eyes in the sky."

Sal pointed to Ben. "If you put yourself in a building between the two of us, you should be in range to connect us all with Telepathy, right? We can synchronize our attack that way, and you can suss out backup he might have close by."

She released Durendal, who stood straight and alert when he saw how many people he was in the company of. "Ska's going to have Prou walk over to me with the Dex and her Pokéball. Dune's my fastest, so I'll have him walk over with the stone. As soon as Prou's ball is in my hands, Zack, you can take your shot at Ska if he starts something. And if he leaves on his airship without picking a fight, good ******** riddance."

Dune nodded. This was his first time hearing about the specifics, and they gave him some way to be helpful, which was always nice. "Ska will pull something for sure, Prou is too powerful an asset for him to just give up like that." Sal put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "...this isn't a good plan, but it's all I've got. So if you wanna back out, I get it. But I'm doing this no matter what."

She reached into her belt bag and pulled out the packed file that Juliet had given her. "This is everything we need to know about Skarada and his pirates. The schematics of his ships, wanted posters of some of his top dudes, a glimpse at some of their Pokémon rosters. And backstory, if you were curious."

Sal held up the one sheet detailing Skarada's military participation. "Ska and most of his pirates were on the frontlines when Kalos invaded Orre years back. They lost a lot, and they hate this place. Erin, Ska's girlfriend, is the most likely to hold a grudge. I think they might be after more than just the Stone. Could be after blood. Speaking of..."

Sal tossed the file over to Ben and Zack for one of them to catch, then looked at Zack. "Did you get the Sablenite back?" she asked him, holding out a hand in anticipation.

Zack caught the file and slotted into his backpack in one smooth motion. Where the hell did Salieri get something like this? A dossier is far too much like homework for her to have put together herself, but that was a can of worms he ought to open in private. Instead he reached into his pocket and produced the Sablenite, pale and sparkling in the sun.

'Gurkinn doesn't want it if Ska wants it. Here,' he said, tossing it over to Salieri. He frowned when Helena wished them luck. It was suspiciously reasonable of her. He went over. 'When this is finished, we can talk. Good?'

"Never go in unprepared," said Sal, smirking proudly at Ben's compliment. She plotted her various escapades carefully, at least when she had the time. "But don't knock yourself, you would've schemed up something fine."

She stood up, feet planted firmly on Banksy's shell as she caught the Sablenite. All this trouble for a shiny rock. She could've sworn Arnaud had a similar one in his study. It was a paperweight. "The sandbar goes away in an hour and a half, so I'll be out of here before then. Zack, get some target practice in, we wanna make sure we don't kill Ska. Can't pump him for info if he's dead. Ben, I don't know, keep doing what you're doing. Any questions? Concerns?"

'We've all got a job to do, all that's left is to get it done. Let's not waste any time,' Zack said. He caught Salieri's eye and nodded his head to the side, which is universal body language for: "Hey I need to have a word in private so make your excuses and come over here."

Once they were alone he had a dramatic revelation of his own to reveal.

'Me too,' Zack said. 'You kids play nice now.'

Tower Of Mastery - Like Twenty Three Feet From The Tower

'Ska's not the only one with a prisoner,' Zack said once he was out of earshot of the others. 'Gurkinn has one of Ska's crew chained up in the basement. Apparently he was here looking for the Sablenite, which is why Gurkinn wanted me to get it out of here. Does this change anything?'