The empty heart
Here's the second chapter of this story. I hope it's good enough to make you forgive me for not having any idea what to write a Christmas story about. However, enjoy this tale nonetheless.
I'd always love to know what you like or dislike about my story, be it the content, my writing style or anything else you want to say. ^^
I don't own the characters, places or Pokemon itself, and I have no intentions to earn money with this story in any way!
The next time Whi-Two woke up was at 10am. Hugh and Leo were long gone to search for Lack-Two, and Cheren guarded her sleep instead. She found that this time keeping her eyes open was easier. „What... What happened?", she asked after making sure she wouldn't loose consciousness again.
Her teacher had just been staring on his Xtransceiver, reading about how to handle such situations, as her words startled him. He quickly turned around to look at her. „You apparently jumped down from the Lookout. Hugh and Leo brought you here. I was told Lack-Two was involved somehow, but that's all I know."
His words only earned a slow nod from the girl, so he tried to change the topic. „Your mother also wanted to come, but she didn't show up. I heard local residents saw her leave the house together with an unfamiliar man in a brown trench coat for whatever reason."
The former Team Plasma grunt didn't respond. She deducted from this a partner of that boy had arrested her mother. They would probably come back for her then, and she couldn't escape anymore.
Cheren couldn't stand the silence in this room. He was still quite new in this job, and nothing had prepared him for a situation like this. He had to get out. Students would be a better company than he had been, wouldn't they? So he planned to get back to the school and send some of the girls in his class who were under the care of a substitute teacher at the moment. „You should sleep a little more, Whi-Two. I'll send some of your friends to keep you company when you wake up again", he suggested, being already on his way out.
„Goodbye, Mr Cheren", Whi-Two mumbled. Maybe he didn't hear her, but she didn't care. Her eyelids sank slowly, and it wasn't long until she drifted off.
Mei couldn't sleep in this castle at night, and dozed off during the speeches of so-called sages in the daytime. It was her third night in these facilities, and the third night she couldn't close her eyes. This place scared her. Everything here scared her. Everything except for this boy, but she hadn't seen him again. She couldn't even find his room because everything here was just too big.
The only thing she was sure of was that she didn't want to stay. Stay in this bed, stay in this room, stay in this castle. So she stood up. Looking at the clock, she found it was way past midnight already. She knew her parents always slept at that time, and she thought maybe every adult did. There was nobody around when she looked through the peephole of the door to her room, which the girl had found to be pretty useful. Since the corridor was empty, she was able to sneak out for her late night walk evading all possible troubles.
Her destination was the roof terrace, her favorite place here. Favorite place meant the only place she would have missed if she had left. Mei enjoyed gazing at the stars above the castle more than anything, being amazed by their beauty more than she had been amazed by the boy. She didn't know how much time she spent deciding which of them formed symbols, but it must have been hours.
There was still nobody around when she left the terrace to not be seen by the early birds. She got rather imprudent when entering the corridor leading to her room, and was surprised by seeing two men standing at the last crossroad she had to pass. They talked quietly with each other until they heard her steps. The little girl managed to hide behind a pillar only fractures of seconds before the two of them turned around.
„Did you hear that, Zinzolin?", a slightly rasping voice asked.
A cold and weak voice answered. „Indeed, my Lord."
„We can not risk that anybody hears us", the 'Lord' slowly said as he walked towards the source of the sounds. As she heard his steps getting closer, the girl felt utterly terrified. Those men seemed violent, and her mother had warned her about this kind of people – people like her father.
„And why not?", Zinzolin wanted to know. His words made his superior stop in his tracks. „Why would we care if one of these fools knew about our plans? It's not like they can stop us."
The other man let out a sigh. „Oh, my friend, they most certainly can. We need them for our plans, and we need them to believe this is about liberating the Pokemon. This is why they play along, and we can not do it without them playing along."
„Right, I get it", the sage agreed, mostly because he didn't want to take part in this conversation. He rather wanted to find the one spying on them and punish whoever was responsible.
So his counterpart went on. It was when he had almost reached her hiding place that the lost girl saw N carefully looking around the corner. He apparently got the situation immediately and hurried towards the men. „Father, there are some people fighting at the other side of the castle", he said to the man closer to his friend.
N's father was evidently surprised to see the boy, but tried to pretend this was normal. „Is that so? And they wouldn't listen to you?", he wanted to know, suddenly sounding very gentle.
„They won't stop, no matter what I do. If nobody interferes, their Pokemon might get hurt", his son explained, earning a slow nod.
Alright, thank you for telling me, son. I'll see what I can do about it." N put on a slight smile as his father said these words, and for a short moment the girl thought he gave her a wink. Then the man addressed Zinzolin again. „Could you escort him back to his room while I take care of everything?"
„Of course, my Lord", the other man quickly confirmed, and then watched his superior leave. The girl wasn't able to see it from her position, but Zinzolin was now smiling evily as he grabbed the boy's arm. „So, 'young Lord', why don't you tell me what you heard when spying on us?"
The cluelessness in N's voice when he said the following words wasn't fake like his worry before had been. „Spying? I wasn't spying, I just wanted to..."
However, the sage disrupted him with a devious laugh. „Ghetsis might believe you everything, but just because you're his son I won't let you do whatever you want." He dragged the boy away through one of the other corridors. „I'll make you regret your deeds, I promise."
Mei had to wait until they were all gone before she could move, so she could do nothing but listening to N soon starting to scream in pain as they kept departing further. She had never been able to forget his screams. It was her fault this amazing and kind boy had to suffer. She had never forgotten his screams...
Whi-Two wasn't waken up by the memories this time. But as Yuuko, Mayu and Yuki entered to visit their friend, they heard her whimper in her sleep. It was Yuki who spoke up first. „How do you think she hurt herself like that?", she whispered to her friends.
„I heard someone say Lack-Two pushed her", Mayu said quite insecure.
„Don't say that", Yuki protested. „If she really has been pushed, it sure was Hugh."
Yuuko nodded. „Yes, that sounds more likely. I mean, he went missing after yesterday evening, too, didn't he?"
„Hm, so did Leo. I wonder if there's something going on", Mayu murmured.
Yuki took a short moment to think before speaking out what probably all of the three thought. „Whatever it is, it definitely isn't Lack-Two's fault!"
Whi-Two's subconscious caught a few of their lines while she slept. If only they knew what she knew, she thought. If only they knew Lack-Two was the most cold-blooded deceiver one could imagine...
Said boy had just entered the Pokemon Center calmly. People greeted him as he came in, but since he just watched while his friend jumped down from the Lookout only a few hours ago, maybe it wasn't surprising that he ignored them. He went straight for the communication device in the corner.
It would allow him to send the data stick removed from the girl's pendant directly to the chief of Interpol. He had spoken to his direct superior many times, however always about work, and he had no intention to change that. He still remembered his first talk with the firm man.
Lack-One leaded the boy through a big building. Even compared with the other skyscrapers of Castellia City it was big. Kyohei was slightly nervous, but that was the only emotion he felt when looking into some offices and out of large windows showing how high above the ground they currently were. „Here we are", the young man finally said when reaching a black door in one of the top floors.
It was the office belonging to the chief of the International Police, as the letters next to the door read. The boy had questioned what was so special about him that made him deserve this honor. The agent said he couldn't answer that and kept being as stunned by him as before. So Kyohei figured it was because he would be experimented with. This was at least partly correct.
As the two of them waited in front of the door, the younger one could hear two people speaking inside. „So, will you consider bearing the costs for my project?", a rather soft voice asked with a trace of excitement.
The man who answered sounded more serious, somewhat grave and croaky. „I'm very sorry, Mr Colress, but I can't see investing in your device actually be worthwhile. Sadly, that's my final answer."
„That's fine, really", Colress returned. Then Kyohei heard him chuckling. „In this case, I'll sure find someone else to provide me with the necessary resources and give my best so you can regret this decision."
The sound of two men standing up rang out. „Good luck and goodbye", his counterpart saw him off.
The boy turned towards his attendant. „What project were they talking about?", he wanted to know.
Lack-One looked at him with his eyes wide open. „You can understand what they're saying? This wall is supposed to be completely soundproof..."
It was at this moment that the door opened. A man dressed in a white lab coat stepped out of the room with a slightly amused smile. The young man watched how he left for a moment, then he snapped out of his thoughts and entered the room. The boy followed guardedly.
„Sir", the agent said after saluting and sitting down. „I've come to present you the boy as announced. He has passed all our tests without having any trouble and..."
His chief disrupted him. „How old is he?"
Apparently, Lack-One didn't want to answer, since what follows was silence. So Kyohei did. „I'm almost seven."
The consequence of these words was another break. It lasted for about thirty seconds and was only interrupted by the gaffer's whispering. „Agent, are you out of your mind?"
„I promise, Sir, this child is a prodigy.", the younger man assured. „He has the highest score of all our contenders, his senses are preternatural and..." For a second, he hesitated. „He has just recently been freed from all emotional bonds."
„Yet still he's just a child", his counterpart murmured.
Kyohei followed their conversation fully aware of what both interlocutors' aims were. He had never been told by Lack-One, though – he read it in their faces. He heard their words, saw their facial expressions and gesturing, analyzed their surroundings, in this case the bureau, and afterwards knew more about the conversation than even the two of them: He knew what it would lead to.
However, the agent came closer to his boss and lowered his voice, probably hoping the boy wouldn't hear them. He still had no problems to do so, but pretended so the conversation wouldn't be influenced. „This boy is so much more than a child. He is a machine. And it would be better if he was our machine than anyone else's."
The old man's doubts weren't reduced a lot, but he was ready to listen. „A machine, you say?"
„If we raise him the right way, he'll be a weapon."
After this claim of Lack-One, the discussion proceeded, and it took all the turns the child had predicted. After a short amount of time, he had an idea of the chief's appearance, character traits and attitude towards his work. He liked how the man stayed firm and realistic despite his opinion, but still questioned his interest in the development of unnecessary weapons. On that day, he didn't understand he'd become exactly that soon.
About thirty minutes later, the two men stood up. „Well then, I expect you to take complete responsibility for everything the boy does and ensure he will deliver as you promise", the boss concluded before addressing Kyohei. „Welcome at Interpol, agent Lack-Two."
„Still a bad code name", was all he mumbled in response.
The man answered the call after exactly twenty seconds. „Even dust, when plied...", he started.
„...can become a mountain", Lack-Two ended the phrase. „Sir, I have retrieved the data stick as I was ordered to. I am able to send it to you now."
„Excellent work, agent. You have proven your reliability once again, so you'll be the one ending the job. Your next step will be searching for any trace of Team Plasma and arrest their leaders with the aids we can send you now that we have the data", his superior instructed him.
The boy nodded. „Understood, Sir." Then he used the teleporter to despatch the stick. He watched on the monitor how the chief examined it for a short while.
After laying it aside, he gave the boy another look. „Is there anything else, agent?", he wanted to know, probably noticing something in Lack-Two's look not even the child knew of.
Taken aback by this question, the young superintendent started to stutter. „Sir, the girl..." His counterpart raised an eyebrow. „She fell. I..." Then Lack-Two blinked, and whatever had just been there was gone. „If she told anyone about it, our status could be damaged."
„Very well, make sure she doesn't", was the answer, and then the man turned to end the call.
„One more thing, Sir", the detective quickly said. His chief stopped moving, which was enough of a reaction to assume he was listening. „Now that you saw how the Colress Device works, do you... Do you regret your decision not to invest?"
The addressed person's eyes widened. „This conversation is over, agent", was the only answer he got before the screen went dark. More words weren't needed to answer.
Kyohei took a deep breath and turned to leave the Pokemon Center. However, as he wanted to do so, Leo and Hugh entered. They were almost out of air, as they had run through the entire city searching for him. But exhaustion would never be enough to stop Hugh's rage. „We came for the pendant, and we're not leaving without it!", he screamed as he spotted his target. Everyone in the room turned towards them.
The reaction of their classmate was anything but what they had expected: He took the wanted object out of his pocket and threw it over to the bawler. „Stop making a scene in public, Hugh." Said twelve-year-old was completely stunned by this behavior as Lack-Two walked up to them. „You can't walk the way back to the hospital, my assistant may bring us there", he pointed out.
„But why?", Leo questioned as soon as he reached the two of them.
The answer sounded as emotionless as possible. „Because it's my job."
Hugh, being tired of not understanding this mind, stomped on the ground as the agent had passed them to take the lead. „What are you?"
„You know who I am", Lack-Two started again. „International Police Superintendent Bla-"
But the blue-haired lout disrupted him. „I didn't ask who, I asked what."
At these words, Lack-Two stopped in his tracks. He turned around, and in his eyes the two boys saw something unexpected – candor. „I'm empty."