As the two climbed higher and the path around them grew quiet, Jacob glanced over at Nina and lowered his voice. "By the way — how are things going with your Metagross?"
Nina smiled at the mention of it. Her Psychic abilities made bonding with Pokémon come naturally to her, and even though Crystal Metagross wasn't a Dragon-type, that had never stopped the two of them from communicating. They had developed a genuine connection. "Pretty well," she said warmly.
Then she looked around, making sure no one else was on the path. Satisfied, she leaned a little closer to Jacob and murmured, "Speaking of which — when are you planning to move on the transaction we talked about?"
"After New Year's," Jacob said. "Meyer isn't coming with good intentions. We need to be ready before anything happens."
Nina nodded, then after a brief pause, spoke quietly. "If you need support, I could reach out to my father. Ask him to help."
"No." Jacob shook his head without hesitation. "If he found out I was Giovanni, he'd have my head."
That wasn't an exaggeration. Jacob genuinely felt a knot in his stomach whenever he thought about Maximus. It wasn't fear of his strength, exactly — it was guilt. He had run off with the man's daughter. And then there was Raya, and the child she was carrying. If Maximus ever put all of that together alongside Jacob's identity as Giovanni, Jacob wasn't sure he'd walk away from that conversation in one piece.
Just imagining it made his skin crawl.
Maximus absolutely could not find out.
"Actually..." Nina bit her lip gently. "I think he might have already figured something out."
Jacob's step faltered slightly. "Figured what out?"
"Your identity. As Giovanni." Nina kept her voice low and serious. "Not long ago, he called me and asked a lot of questions about you — what you'd been doing lately, whether you were in the Imperial Capital. I just told him you weren't usually in the city during that time." She paused. "Then he went quiet for a moment, said something about you being trouble, and told me that if anyone asked, I should say you'd been staying at my place."
She looked up at Jacob. "I didn't think much of it at the time. But after you told me the truth last week, I started putting it together. I think he may have worked it out."
Jacob said nothing for a moment. The shipwreck incident — that brief encounter with Maximus — it was possible. Maximus was not a man who missed details.
After a moment, Jacob's expression settled into something quiet and firm. "No," he said again. "We can't pull your father into this."
Nina looked at him, puzzled.
"He's the chief of the Four Heavenly Kings, and he's at a critical point in his push toward Champion. Getting him involved in something like this could seriously complicate things for him." Jacob shook his head. "He hasn't moved against me yet — and that's already more than I deserve. I'm not going to repay that by dragging him into my mess."
He squeezed Nina's hand gently. "Don't tell him anything, either. Whatever he's guessed, as long as he hasn't said it outright, we leave it alone. And don't worry about the Meyer situation — I'll handle it." He gave her a small, reassuring smile. "Come on. Let's just focus on the mountain."
Nina let out a soft breath. "Okay."
She wasn't the type to see angles within angles the way Jacob and Maximus did — her heart was too straightforward for that. She didn't fully grasp everything at play, but she could see clearly enough that Jacob was trying to protect the people around him. That was enough for her.
The two kept climbing.
The path grew sharper and more demanding the higher they went. Several sections were nearly vertical, and a few stretches past ninety degrees forced them to turn around and scale the rock face backward. It was the first time Jacob had truly felt the danger Thousand Mountains was known for. He kept himself just behind Nina the whole way, ready to catch her if she slipped.
Despite all of it, as the sun began to lower toward the horizon, they reached the summit.
Clouds spilled across the sky in great sweeping rolls, mixing with mist until the two were nearly indistinguishable. The last light of the setting sun poured over the peak in deep amber, draping across their shoulders like something woven from gold.
Jacob and Nina pulled down their masks and stood there, breathing it all in.
"Good grief," Jacob said, staring out at the view. "That is genuinely stunning."
Nina laughed — a real, full laugh. "There you go again."
The last time they had made it up here, Jacob had stared out at the snow blanketing the peaks and said almost exactly the same thing.
"What can I say," Jacob said with a grin. "Looking at scenery this beautiful, you'd think a man would have something poetic ready. But I've got nothing — so 'good grief' will have to do."
"Please," Nina said, still smiling. "Your grades were perfectly fine. You're just too lazy to try." She tilted her head at him. "Last time you quoted something about north winds and peach blossoms. Do you have anything for a sunset?"
The teasing warmth in her eyes — the way she looked at him, openly and without pretense — made something in Jacob's chest straighten up with a ridiculous sense of pride.
He looked out at the horizon and recited quietly:
"The clear sky suddenly adds a thousand feet of emerald; the setting sun, unhurried, releases its weight of sorrow."
Nina turned to look at him. The fondness in her expression didn't need any words.
The two sat together near the edge of the summit and watched the sun ease its way down to meet the horizon. As the last of the light faded, the first signs of night began to rise in the east.
And then — without warning — both of them felt it.
A sudden tightening in the chest, like the air had been pulled away all at once. A pressure that came from every direction, heavy and suffocating, like being dragged underwater. It lasted only an instant before it vanished completely.
Nina turned to Jacob, a small crease between her brows. "Did you feel that?"
Jacob's expression had already shifted. He gave a slow nod. "I did."
He had felt this before. Twice before, in fact. He reached for Nina's hand and pulled her to her feet, his voice calm but his eyes steady. "Unless I'm wrong — we've just entered a Secret Realm Gap."
The words had barely left his mouth when the ground dropped out from under them.
The sensation of weightlessness hit first. Then their vision lurched sideways, and the two of them were falling — fast, straight down through open air, with nothing beneath them but sky.
"Ah!" Nina's cry cut through the wind.
Jacob's stomach dropped. Thousand Mountains was gone. The summit, the clouds, the boardwalk — all of it had vanished. Below them was only a vast expanse of open air.
"Metagross!"
The Poké Ball opened in an instant. Crystal Metagross materialized in a flash of light, and without a moment's hesitation, it threw out a wave of Psychic energy — wrapping around both Jacob and Nina, slowing their fall, pulling them to a stop.
The two hovered there, suspended in silence.
Around them, in every direction: endless white cloud. No land. No Pokémon. Nothing moving at all.
"Where are we?" Nina whispered.
Neither of them had an answer.