(Third Person POV)
"...got any threes?"
"Nope. Draw."
"Shit..."
Rena's lips involuntarily curled up into a tiny smirk as she held her cards in her hand, winning at "Go Fish" against her cell mate.
Kim Daley, Rena's former classmate and a total bitch, bitterly pulled a card from the deck on their cardboard box table, glancing at the metal bars that confined them to this tiny, below-average room. "I swear you're cheating or something, Ren'."
"What?" Rena somehow managed a laugh at just how ridiculous that was. "It's Go Fish! How do you even cheat at this game!?"
Kim threw her cards up into the air out of frustration. "How the hell should I know! You just are! ...somehow." She glanced down at the cracked concrete floor, furrowing her ginger-colored eyebrows together as she rolled her neck to the side.
The two girls dressed in grocery-bag-esce orange jumpsuits with thick, greasy coated hair pulled up into ponytails were enjoying their typical day of playing cards with each other in their prison cell. They did this every day; yesterday, Tuesday, was black jack day. It's not like either of them had much else to do, anyways... Rena had luckily found herself jammed in a cell along with another woman her age by the familiar name of Kim Daley.
Kim Daley, the single most horrible person on earth who gave Rena such a hard time when they first met, had been in prison for nearly two and a half years now for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Stylers from the Ranger School and setting Rena up for it. She still had one and a half years to go, unlike Rena, who was stuck here for life. The brunette had only been here for two weeks now, but after being cell mates for that long, Kim couldn't help but throw old grudges aside and get along with her. After all, she wasn't completely inhuman.
Prison and solitary confinement changes a person. That was a lesson Rena learned her first day when she met Kim again. She remembered how she was a little more than just nervous at first about getting to stay in the same cell as her, concerned the ginger might shank her in her sleep, but the two actually sort of became friends and watched each other's backs while they were locked up. Even if Rena had Kim for company for only less than two years, she was still grateful.
KNOCK KNOCK!
The loud pounding on their cell door echoed throughout the hollow prison and sent chills up through the two convicts. Rena casually swung her head around with a lazy roll and stared at the moderately armed prison guard addressing them with a bored expression.
The female guard stared into Rena's cell with her typical, unamused glower as her inky hair brushed over her eyes. "Hey, Deveraux. You've got visitors."
Rena's eyebrow shot up into her hairline at the sound of those odd words. "...What? Who?"
The guard shrugged carelessly, not really giving a damn about who or what was in the prison. "Don't know, don't care. Let's go."
Kim watched her cell mate slowly get up, crack each joint in her elastic body, and walk through the door the guard unlocked. The former adversary of Rena called out to the woman of dark brown hair really quick. "Hey, Ren'... Again, I'm really sorry for what I did to you."
Rena smiled at her as she began to walk away. "We've been over this, it's okay." She smirked devilishly at the ginger for what neither of them knew would be the last time. "I know being a bitch is just something that you just can't help."
Kim couldn't really argue that Rena was wrong about that, and she held up two fingers to her. "Retweet."
Rena chuckled under her breath as she was lead down a long, narrow, grey hallways that was stained with dirt, possibly blood, and grime from who knows what. Minimal light was inside the prison to guide the way as if lighting one's way in a horror film, so Rena relied on the guard to guide her to the visitation room.
As they stopped, Rena's eyes slowly scanned the door up and down. Despite the rest of the world around her, this one object was clean. Polished. Bright.
A false hope to many.
The renowned grifter let her mind wander as she sighed with the bitterest hint of remorse.
Honestly, who would come to visit her? And now of all times...
The guard opened up a steel-plated door and practically shoved Rena through it, locking the door behind her with a swift clinking of the metal keys.
The brunette was about to turn and look at who was in here when she was suddenly embraced tightly around the neck, and a blob of puffy blonde hair was suddenly smothering her face like the wool of a Flaaffy.
"Rena!" Rhythimi squeezed her tightly and held onto the grifter for dear life, squinting her eyes tightly from just how much she missed her.
"Guys...?" Rena pried Rhythimi off of her and looked across the room, blinking at the three others quizzically.
Rhythimi wasn't the only one who came to visit; Isaac, Chairperson Erma, and Professor Hastings were there too. And not just them: Looker was leaning up against the wall right next to them, his ten o'clock after-shadow scruff coating his chin as he couldn't help but hide a low smile.
"What are you doing here?" She blinked at them owlishly, then looked over at Rhythimi for the possible answers.
Rhythimi grinned excitedly at Rena. "We're busting you out, you dummy!"
"Well don't say that in front of the cops, you dope." Rena thwacked the blonde in the back of the head, just like old times. "...can they really do that?" She craned her neck to glance over at Looker, having tons of questions without answers racing through her mind.
Looker pushed himself off the concrete wall and joined the conversation, his thick leather trench coat shivering with the change of movement. "Well, that's why we're all here today: to negotiate."
Chairperson Erma hobbled across the room and stopped in front of Rena, leveling her honest gaze with the nineteen-year-old. "Rena, I have something to ask you."
The brunette's posture instinctively straightened as she respected Erma's presence. "Yes...?"
Erma's lips slowly curled up into a tiny smile. "How would you like to become Keith's partner: Top Ranger twelve?"
Rena was so shocked by this question that she couldn't even possibly fathom what her response would be. She just held up her index finger as her mouth opened and closed like a Magikarp out of water, completely stunned.
"...WHAT!?" Rena involuntarily screamed her surprise, then quickly lowered her voice. "You're kidding, right? Did you forget that I'm a criminal? A criminal in prison!"
"Well...that may be something we're willing to overlook." Looker butted in as he set down a stack of papers on the steel table he was sitting on.
"What is that?" Rena eyed the stack of papers as she unconsciously began to walk towards them, flipping through the papers with her fingers.
"A contract." Looker handed her a pen cautiously; it was one of the most lethal weapons the world had known. "Since the moment you were locked up, your friends here have been working with me to find a way to get you out of prison."
Rena tore her eyes from the large stack of papers and scanned the crowd of smiling faces that were looking at her. "Why...?"
Isaac patted Rena on the arm, trying to show his support with his awkward and clumsy smile. "The Rena back then is the one who should be doing time, not the Rena we have come to know now."
A tiny tear slipped from her eye at his touching words, and she glanced down at the contract. "I... I would be honored to be a Ranger, but..." She sadly looked up at Chairperson Erma. "I'm not qualified to be a Ranger, let alone a Top Ranger."
Chairperson Erma seemed to disagree with that. "You graduated from Ranger School, didn't you?"
"Y-yes, but," they all stared at her kindly and it all fell down on her. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. It all just didn't seem real. "Is this...really happening?" The tears couldn't stop coming at this point, and she was feeling the most hopeful she had in a whole month.
But...
Where was Keith?
...
Rena's eyes flickered to the floor in sadness and disappointment. He must have torn up the letter she had sent him after all, and that's why he wasn't here to get her...
Because he didn't care. And she, after everything she had done to him, didn't even have the right to expect his face in the crowd of people before her.
"Hey." Rhythimi walked over to Rena and patted her shoulder. "You're getting out! Aren't you happy?"
"I..." She stared at Rhythimi before her confident hope faltered. Like watching a vase fall, knowing that nothing can be done to stop the inevitable crash. "Rhythimi, I don't think..."
Rhythimi reached forwards to set her hands on Rena's shoulders with a slow and forgiving blossom of a smile. "My friends call me Rhyth."
Rena slowly curled her lips up into a smile at Rhythimi's forgiveness before retracing her gaze back to Looker. "Are you seriously willing to forgive all of my crimes and give me a job working for the region?"
"As long as you agree to the DA's terms." Looker placed his fingertips on the stack of papers. "...then you're free to go."
"Which are...?" Rena wondered her thought out loud, throwing her questionable gaze over in Looker's direction.
"Return everything you have ever stolen," Looker began counting off the terms of agreement on his fingers, "turn over your client list, and agree to be supervised at all times by an authority figure to keep an eye on you."
"...that's it?" Rena blinked over and over again in shock, truly amazed by this.
"That's it." Looker handed her a pen, looking at her with a half smile as he waited to see if she would take it.
Rena's questionable frown slowly stretched up into a grin as she took the pen from him. "Consider it done."
_________________________________
Isaac and Rhythimi had forgiven everything that Rena had done to them, and on top of that, those two finally got together. Hastings and Erma gave Rena her one chance at redemption and her dream job. Sven was at Wendy's side back at the Ranger Union, worriedly taking care of all of her injuries, both pre and post Operation Brighton. Mr. Kaplan finally worked up the courage to propose to Ms. Claire, inspired by Rena's own courage. Lavana and Heath were quickly apprehended, caught trying to flee the scene almost instantly. Ice was taken to the Ranger Union for medical treatment straight after Operation Brighton was over, and Chairperson Erma offered him a job at the Ranger Union as well. Melody was taken back home and was immediately embraced by her worried sick parents. Luana got so caught up in the excitement of the Ranger's victory after they arrested all of the Dim Sun morons that she abruptly grabbed Crawford's collar and forcibly crashed his lips into hers, shocking their Base Leader Barlow, even though he had a hinting suspicion that those two liked each other. Blake Hall and Wheeler were never seen again, presumably lost within Darkrai's nightmare void of permanent darkness. Mightyena had been taken care of by Rhythimi while Rena was in prison back at the Ranger Union and was living with her and Eevee, and both the blonde and Rena were both surprised and happy to learn that their two male Pokemon had a thing for each other all this time. Kim would get out of prison soon, and she had already made plans to get an apartment in Pueltown and go work for her mother at the hospital she owned as a doctor after she got out. And Keith...
Rena wasn't quite sure what happened to him. All she did know was that if he hadn't forgiven her, she was going to have a very awkward conversation with her new Ranger partner as soon as she got back to the union.
After a couple hours of processing and deliberating, all charges against Rena were dropped. She had been transferred to Pueltown's Police Station to fill out a lot of paperwork, and a majority of the cops were not too happy about letting the notorious Raux go. She really had to work hard to prove that she was reformed, and honestly...
Her life was finally starting to turn around.
Rena Arisa Deveraux, the notorious thief Raux, was dead.
And now, a simple girl named Rena was reborn as Top Ranger twelve: proudly serving her civic duty as a Pokemon Ranger for the Ranger Union in Almia.
Chairperson Erma and the others had stayed behind inside the Police Station; they still had a few kinks to work out with Rena's release. In the meantime, the brunette, now changed into her Top Ranger uniform, pulled her messy hair out of her ponytail and let it tumble down past her shoulders as she walked out the front doors, wanting to get out of the stuffy police station and get some fresh air.
Rena strode through the front doors and stood on the concrete steps in her black boots, gripping Mightyena's Pokeball tightly. She was about to descend down the stairs further when she found herself standing face-to-face with someone waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.
Rena's eyes slowly widened as her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. "Hey..."
"Hey." Keith stuffed his hands into his pockets awkwardly, looking up at the shorter girl standing up on the stairs.
"I wasn't expecting to see you here..." She blinked at him repeatedly, awkwardly shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "Did you...read my letter?"
"Every word." Keith breathlessly took a step closer to her, completely serious about every word he said.
"I, uh..." Rena instinctively looked down at the floor, not sure what to say. Her heart was like a guitar being played to metal. "I thought I would never see you again, so I felt that I needed to apologize to you all..." She stared down at her feet, biting down on her lip awkwardly. "You don't have to forgive me, but..."
"Forgive you?" Keith rose an eyebrow in confusion. "Blue Eyes, there's nothing to forgive." He shook his head as he walked right up to her, placing himself no more than an inch away from her tiny body.
Rena blinked back her shock as she stared into his ruby-red irises owlishly. "What did you...just call me?"
"Blue eyes." Keith answered firmly with a smirk on his face.
An involuntary tear rolled down Rena's cheek as all the shattered pieces felt as if they were returning back to their places. Her face started becoming scarlet. "I... Am I really forgiven?"
"Yeah." He casually relaxed his posture, looking into her beautiful eyes that put the stars to shame. "I was a jerk before, and I never realized that everything you did was to save us..." He looked off to the side. "To save me..." His guilt was plastered all over his face, and he didn't bother to hide it. There was nothing but the raw and true Keith being displayed at this moment.
Rena's plain look twisted up into a completely content expression of happiness as she reached out to touch Keith's cheek. "You were well worth every sacrifice."
Keith wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into him, unable to control himself anymore as his heart beat wildly for her. "How can you say such things to me after the way I've treated you? If anyone deserves to not be forgiven, it's me..." He rested his hand underneath her chin as he tore his eyes away from her.
Rena smiled sweetly up at the most handsome man she had ever had the pleasure of meeting, gazing at the strands of his spiky, fiery-red hair that were lit up by the sun setting behind him. "Because I love you, you big dummy."
Keith pulled himself back to her and looked into Rena's eyes deeply, staring right through her soul. "I... I never stopped loving you, Rena..." He threw his gaze down to his feet. "I tried to get over you, and I tried to hate you, but I..." He held onto her tightly, afraid of losing her again. "But I just could never get over these...crazy feelings I have for you."
Rena's lips twitched up into a wide grin as she held onto Keith tightly. "So, Keith. Do tell me... How do you intend to steal the heart of a thief?" She inquired mischievously, just teasing him now.
Keith laughed lightly at her question as a small smirk crept up onto his face, and he leaned in close to her. "I don't have to do anything, because I already have." His face suddenly fell as he replaced his cocky arrogance with an intense look of shock. "...somehow. Seriously, I have no idea how that happened." He held his hands up defensively, completely confused. "I mean, you're just way too good for me---"
"Just shut up already." Rena threw her head back and laughed as she placed her hands on the sides of his face lovingly.
The ex-thief pulled the red-headed Top Ranger closer until her lips crashed into his, creating the most passionate kiss the world had ever witnessed. Keith wrapped his arms tightly around her and refused to let her go, expressing his love for her in the only way he thought possible.
And finally...
The butterfly spread her wings and took a dive into being in love for the first time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*is sobbing ferverously that this is finally over and is obnoxiously blowing nose into a tissue*
After two long, hard years of planning, plotting, outlining, writing, and editing... TSTHOAT has finally come to a close. I'm thrilled but also a bit depressed about this XD and you guys were worried I wouldn't finish. I was literally editing this chapter while I was trick-or-treating with my friends tonight dressed as Ciel Phantomhive. I'm not even kidding, I worked hard all the way up to the deadline with two hours to spare! XD
To end this author's note, I would like to say a few things:
This is easily by far the best book I have ever written, and I am so, so proud of this. It truly is a work of art in my eyes. I worked so, so hard on this you can't possibly imagine. I know you guys read my books and think I come up with these amazing, thrilling story plots so easily, but that's not the case at all. I spent three months building the plot of this book and getting rid of all the holes in it; I struggled planning this book more than I have on any other book I have ever written/am going to write.
Sorry that Ice and Rena didn't work out, guys XD that'd be a really gross incestual relationship. However, I know that a majority of you are positively thrilled with this ending, so I am very pleased that you all enjoyed this book so much.
I am so, so honored that you all took the time to read, comment, vote, draw fan art, and make fan trailers for this book. You have no idea how happy this makes me XD I actually cried a little these last few days that you all have been sharing your words of encouragement with me.
I've been so stressed trying to finish this, and it is finally...done. Final word count for this book: 178,562 words :O
Big thanks to my beloved best friend Dragons_Rose who drew the fan art attached to this chapter, AND who made a BEAUTIFUL fan trailer for TSTHOAT that I literally cried from happiness watching. It's attached to chapter one for those of you who would care to watch it :) even though you've already finished reading it, you should go watch it!! (Rose: DON'T FORGET ME BEING YOUR EDITOR FOR THESE LAST CHAPTERS! Oh, and you're welcome)
And now, to close this book with the answer to the most commonly asked question about TSTHOAT...
.
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There's no way in hell I can just end Keith and Rena's love story here.
Oh yes, that means exactly what you think it means.
I'll post an author insider for TSTHOAT's sequel in The Book of Sese 2.0 later on ;) all I'll tell you now is this book, unlike TTTDU's sequel, will, in fact, actually happen. I'm so psyched for it.
So now, as my final adieu for TSTHOAT...
Read, comment, and enjoy, my wonderful, wonderful readers :)