"Your phone has been going off almost nonstop for ten minutes, Mr. Volkner."

"That was why it was where I couldn't answer it." The blond turned over his shoulder, the movements of his hands on wires temporarily coming to a stop. "Unless this is very important, I'm in the middle of construction here."

A sigh came from the ace trainer standing in the doorway. "You could at least keep it where nobody else has to hear it."

Volkner held out his hand wordlessly, and the other tossed the Pokegear across the room. For a moment the gym leader felt a fleeting ray of hope that it would hit the floor and shatter, but no such luck. Perfect aim; the ace trainers were all the same. He listened for the sound of the door closing before checking the missed calls and hitting the button to call back the first number he saw.

"Oh, hello, Volkner." A sneer cut across the phone. The blond rolled his eyes, holding the phone between his shoulder and his ear as he continued fiddling with odds and ends of electricity.

"Hello, Byron. What's the problem?" He tried to keep his voice businesslike, but honestly, at this point it was enough if he sounded like he even remotely cared what his junior had to say.

"As the one in charge of the monthly Sinnoh gym leader conferences, I'd like to know why you weren't at yesterday's meeting. I'm sure there's a good reason for it."

Volkner pinched the bridge of his nose. "The entire city has been blacked out for three days, Byron. You can hardly expect – "

"My son tells me it's remarkably bright over there for your city to be blacked out," the iron leader cut in. "I had him swing by yesterday evening, you know."

Shit.

"I've been busy," the younger man said lamely. "Happenings around the city."

"Hmm-mm. And what would those be?"

"They're all strictly confidential. Byron, I'm sorry, but I have another call coming in. I'm sure we can discuss this in more detail later." Without waiting for a response, he clicked off the phone, seething quietly. Who the hell did Byron think he was to send his son clear over to Sunyshore to check whether another gym leader was lying? In frustration he jammed a plug into the wrong socket. It sputtered and began to smoke.

Really, it was nobody's business why they couldn't open Sunyshore to the public right now without making some very unfortunate news headlines. It was hard enough keeping people out, especially those trainers who were upset about not being able to challenge the gym and go on to fight the Elite Four. It had actually been necessary to hire someone to stop people from coming into the city.

And anyway, there was no point to those stupid conferences! It was just an excuse to put too many gym leaders on long train rides to talk about how many ten-year-olds had beaten them and eat doughnuts and sneak a little vodka under the radar. He pushed another plug into the wrong outlet. So – stupid!

Another sputter, and the lights flickered. The generator coughed and Volkner, encouraged by this noise, thrust another couple of useless plugs into outlets. It coughed again, a deep groan coming from it as the lights flickered once more and went out.

Sunyshore's gym leader forced out a rough laugh before he stood and groped his way to the door. The sunlight outside was blinding – he had a few hours before anyone would notice the lack of electricity.

It had been three days since Volkner had last been able to sit in the lighthouse. On the top level there was a low fence that one could easily climb over, so as to allow for sitting on the edge of the lighthouse with one's feet dangling over the water below, and this was where he spent a good deal of his time.

Oh, it wasn't as though this was okay to have a design where it was so easy to fall off, but it mattered very little. There had been one suicide off of the lighthouse once, but only one – and when they tried to talk him into making the fence higher, he fought until all that was done was the addition of a sign: "Please do not climb over the fence. Parents, please watch your children on this level."

But four days ago, it had been early evening when Volkner was suddenly aware of a young woman's presence behind him. After a moment she spoke.

"Sir?" Must be a stranger, to call the gym leader "sir." "You're not going to jump, are you?"

He had opened his mouth, hesitated, closed it again, and gave a few shakes of his head. Had started to ask her something, but then her lips were moving in slow motion and her feet and there was a shout and –

Hit.

He had made it all the way home and to the bedroom before getting sick. And that had been all that night, made him unable to sleep because he was so violently ill. He staggered out around two in the morning and put a 'Closed' sign on the door of the gym, groping for the light switch as he got back, and when it clicked nothing happened.

Of course.

A raw laugh tore itself from his throat and he began to cough so that he bent double and retched heavily again before collapsing on the couch. He had just managed to drift off sometime around nine in the morning when the ringing of his Pokegear woke him.

"Mr. Volkner, sorry to disturb you, but there's been an incident at the lighthouse – "

"I know about the suicide," Volkner had cut in, not wanting to discuss it any further.

"It's not that. We've just had an accident involving several children."

"Oh, shitting fuck." He stifled a gag with the back of his hand and was grateful that his stomach was finally empty. "What's happened?"

"We're not entirely sure. All we know is that someone found six children dead this morning and – "

oh shitfuckdamnHELL.

"What immediate action do you need from me?"

And he had gotten the information and hung up the phone. It had been nearly twenty-four hours before he was able to eat again.

Blacking out the city had been the simplest effective solution to keep tourists out. Sunyshore would never survive if this news got out, and neither would Volkner's job. And the idea of everything changing like that, the idea of one accident shaping the rest of his life forever when nobody even knew for sure what had actually happened –

You're not going to jump, are you?

He was sitting on the edge of the lighthouse now, again, just like so many days and weeks and months before. His fingers unconsciously dropped to the cement and began to trace out the carvings that had been there for as long as he could remember, the initials in hearts and the drawings. Strange how everything could change so fast. Last week this time, he had been nothing more than bored. Today, he was seriously considering just setting a box of badges outside the door of the gym and…

"Mr. Volkner?" A voice cut into his thoughts. "You need to come back now. They're going to start putting up the glass here."

The blond stood and for a moment could only stare at the dizzying drop just two steps away. It would be so simple. Wouldn't even really be jumping, just walking, just sealing his fate.

"Mr. Volkner? Are you all right?"

"Of course," he said, knowing the formula: how are you? is answered with fine. He swung one leg, then the other, over the fence, and kept on walking. His first destination was the power station, locking the doors with the one-of-a-kind key. The next, Sunyshore Gym, where the doors locked again and the handles were replaced with a box of Beacon Badges. Enough to last a while, he hoped.

He finished in time to see the workers fitting the glass of the lighthouse in the late evening light, and it was fifteen paces to a sitting place on the other side of it where nobody would bother him, and when the city went dark, the eighth gym leader put his head in his hands and wept.