Pokémon Lapis

Chapter 2: Shambles

(Victoria Larson)

Oh come on, Victoria thought to herself with vehement annoyance. This is so cliché.

No matter how many times she told her eyebrow twitch to go away, though, it stubbornly remained. Stubborn was the name of the game for everything these days. Gina's insistence on throwing her Pallet friends and family off the scent of their project she could handle. Zahlia's Haunter being out of his ball 24/7 and popping up out of nowhere to scare the bajeezus out of her she could handle. Hell, even Kaylee's obsession with researching Broome she could handle. It was Gav's persistent, protracted silence she could absolutely not tolerate.

Even in the throes of what was clearly depression, Gav remained stubbornly and maddeningly Gav. He didn't throw a fit like Jason had on the front lawn, letting all his anger and disappointment show all at once. He just wasn't that guy, and it had taken actually watching his sister's arm snap in the jaws of a feral Pokémon to make him beat up a tool shed for one night, a night that felt like it had taken place years ago in another life. Gav wasn't Jason, and as a result he carefully controlled how he showed his depression outwardly. He'd never go so far as to wall anyone out of his life completely, or be caught staring morosely off into space. When he was addressed he always responded. When anyone argued with him he listened patiently and responded concisely, intelligently and logically, explaining his views. He managed to eat, sleep, and even spend time with his team outdoors every so often, watching Cubone chase Diglett around the yard. Nothing was outwardly wrong with him.

She had never seen him so wounded so deeply.

This was, more or less, what she'd been begging him to see and admit for weeks. Her approaches had run the gamut from anger to sorrow to gentle patience to cool logic. Nothing worked, and Gav always seemed so genuinely remorseful and understanding about it all. Of course I understand why you and the others are upset. I know this project stopped being "mine" and Kaylee's years ago. I know how hard this is to accept, but we have to face facts. I'm sorry, Victoria. I truly am.

Just be real with me, she wanted so badly to snap back at him some days. Just say what you really feel, don't apologize to me like it was my heart that was broken the night we had to turn our backs on the League.

Victoria stared into Gav's face, not knowing what she'd been about to say and, on some level, not even caring. He'll just keep on resisting you and pushing your words away until it's you he's pushing away next. The advice, calm and insightful, sounded like something Beth would say. Victoria let out a slow, even breath and tried even harder to let everything else go.

"Alright," she said softly, furrowing her eyebrows and looking to the floor of his bedroom. "Alright. I won't push you anymore. It's clear it's not working." She wanted to work up the courage to look him in the eye, and call forth an encouraging smile or a compassionate expression. She knew she couldn't manage any of that just now—only the eyebrow twitch. "This will be the last time I do this."

Gav looked up at her, resigned but also looking strangely afraid. Victoria didn't know why until he asked, "the last time?"

Her face remained blank and uncomprehending as she stared back at him, trying to unearth his hidden meaning, and then it hit her followed closely by a wave of offended anger. "What?" She asked, a shiver in her core. "No. Of course I don't mean that, how could you even—" she cut herself off, biting back on more words spawned from a place of hurt. Getting up to excuse herself before she could make it worse, Victoria parted with, "you can't get rid of me that easily." Gav had nothing to say, as usual, but she could practically feel his discomfort and remorse in a palpable aura as she walked out into the hall to get some air.

Victoria didn't know where her feet were carrying her at first, but she supposed it wasn't surprising when she found herself at Beth's door. It was open, as it always was, and Victoria didn't bother knocking as she let herself in. Her sister had always been extremely relaxed about personal space and privacy, even through their volatile preteen years.

Beth looked up from her phone and gave Victoria a tentative, worried smile before she stowed the device back in her bra. "Gav?" she intuited as Victoria took a heavy seat on the bed beside her.

"Gav," Victoria confirmed. Beth gave her a sympathetic smile as she shifted over to make more room. Beth didn't pry and Victoria was grateful for it. There was nothing new to say, anyway. It was always the same story with them.

Instead Victoria poked Beth in the bra, where her phone was peeking out. She wanted to talk about something else. "Rei?" she inquired, keeping with their pattern of speaking in only monosyllabic boy names.

"Yeah," Beth said, and the way her eyes flicked down and away told Victoria there was something bothering her sister, too. She nudged her to get her to go on and Beth shrugged. "It's really not—"

"Nope," Victoria said, cutting her off. "Lay it on me. I'm tired of talking to dead-ends."

Beth gave her a complicated, fond and sad smile but sighed. "Just… Rei. Been thinking about how he'd… benefit, maybe, from knowing about this. You know?" Victoria remained silent to let Beth know she should elaborate. "I mean, Zeke attacked Ida. He's had a situation happen to him similar to Gav's and Kaylee's or Amaris'. I just kind of… you know."

Victoria sighed. "I know. It's tempting to think we could just adopt him as our Amaris #2."

"He's even a redhead, too," Beth added, a tinge of hopefulness poorly concealed under a layer of humor. "Our redhead recruits."

"I refuse to believe that his red is natural," Victoria said with a light snort, but her face must have given away the fact that she was about to play Devil's Advocate to her sister's plans.

Beth sighed. "Yeah. I know."

Victoria reached out to snag her hand and hold it, giving it a squeeze. "I'm sorry. I want him, for you. So you can be happy. It's just—we're really not at a place to recruit right now. Our leader is—gone, we're in shambles."

Beth shifted to face her better, tucked her knees under her and took Victoria's other hand in hers. She looked her dead in the eye as she spoke the next part, and not for the first time Victoria could see her sister as a future politician, winning over the masses with her open honesty and her unbroken, sincere brown gaze. "You're our leader now, Victoria. And you're not in shambles. You're my indestructible, fearless sister."

Victoria felt a lump rise in her throat and squeezed Beth's hands back. "I love you for thinking so," she said. "I wish it was true."

Beth scoffed at her and somehow made it sound like an affectionate gesture. Then she settled in beside Victoria instead, resting her head on her shoulder for a bit.

Blake's silhouette passed by the open door like something out of a horror movie, a silent, pale, dark-haired spectre that almost made Victoria leap out of her skin. He froze in place when he saw them standing there, Victoria in particular probably giving him an accidental death glare out of surprise. Blake looked down at the two mugs of tea he had in each hand, the little strings and slowly twirling orange tags telling Victoria they were tangerine flavored. Then Blake looked back up at them, and, seeming to make up his mind in an awkward burst of determination, stepped into the room and set the mugs down on the nightstand for them before abruptly retreating back to the kitchen to, presumably, make more tea.

Victoria cast Beth a glance and quirked her eyebrow, pulling out her phone to have a covert girl talk. Beth, resigned and looking like she'd rather break rocks with her teeth than talk about this, pulled hers out as well.

Okay, so, what's going on there? Victoria sent. Beside her Beth's phone buzzed and her sister tapped back a reply.

sigh. nothing.

Victoria smiled at her phone. I love that you typed out "sigh." Seriously though. Everything ok?

Victoria and Beth had learned throughout the years that the walls in Edith's cottage were treacherously thin. Though chances were Blake was too far away to overhear them, it always paid to be cautious.

everything is fine. he just probably figures—rightly—that you know about The Thing That Happened in VR and feels unspeakably weird around you now.

Victoria chuckled as that message pinged up on her phone, noting from the corner of her eye that Blake had slipped past the door again with two new mugs. as he should, she wrote back. I offered for you to have a hit out on his head.

Beth bit her lip and laughed at that, then nudged Victoria with her shoulder. She put her phone away, sighed, then said, "Wanna read my latest email from Spikey?"

Victoria smiled back. "Yeah, sure," she said, getting to her feet and following her sister as she padded on bare feet out of the room and down the hall to where the computer was set up in the corner of their den area. Beth had been trading emails with Spikey for about a week now, ever since the State of the League address, testing the waters and feeling her out as a contact. Spikey, though she had to get thousands of messages per week full of inquiries, ideas and commentary, showed a surprising propensity for replying in a timely manner. Beth had rolled her eyes at Victoria when she'd suggested the matronly talk-show personality merely had an algorithm setup which would automatically generate random happy responses with the occasional bubbly icon face. She liked icon faces almost as much as Beth did.

Case in point—the most recent email from Spikey read:

Of course! I investigate ALL story leads, that's what EUTS is all about! I sadly lack the time & resources to investigate EVERYTHING under the sun though… SIGH! If only D8

"I don't think she knows what that face is supposed to mean," Victoria commented, and Beth pouted at her.

"Give her a break, she's like fifty."

"Emailing your mom?" Edith asked from the kitchen, and Victoria glanced up to look at her, having again not heard the arrival of one of their group. Edith somehow creeped her out less with her silent comings and goings than Blake and Zahlia did.

Beth made a face at Edith as if to say, are you serious? "Mom? Email? No way, she can barely work her cell phone. Nah, we're talking about Spikey."

Beth might have been making a joke, but Edith looked as if the last thing in the world she wanted to do was smile or laugh. Victoria frowned and looked back at the computer screen, nowhere near blaming Edith for feeling this way. Talking to Spikey meant they were working on their project, and working on the project meant the danger wasn't over yet. Edith averted her large dark eyes and wrung her hands, turning away to retreat into the back hallway rather than stay out here and impose her cloud of worry on them.

Beth had picked up on the reason why she was nervous, and she sighed heavily as she turned back to the email. The mouse cursor hovered over the "x" button in the browser window but Victoria shook her head.

"Just answer her. I know E doesn't like it, but there's nothing we can do about that." Beth pinched her brow but nodded, and after a pause began to type up a reply to Spikey that was a lot giddier than the atmosphere here.

While Beth wrote, Victoria pulled her phone towards her from where she'd set it down earlier on the computer table. She scrolled through her recent messages and came across one from Amaris, a group message sent out to them two days ago.

No luck with Wilbur. He doesn't answer many people and apparently I'm not on his list.

Victoria lowered her head down to rest it on her arms, violently and bitterly wishing for the five hundredth time that she had Gav here to bounce ideas off of. He and Kaylee had the most experience working with the police and though Kaylee was speaking more logically these days, Victoria still could not trust her to be 100% objective. She had insight but was still easily excitable and liable to exaggerate or downplay facts to get the result she wanted.

"Wilbur?" Beth asked, showing her remarkable propensity towards mind-reading.

"Yeah," Victoria said. "I dunno. Amaris isn't getting anywhere and I haven't even begun to be able to address that. Too much other crap going on."

"Maybe I should try," Beth said, peering over her shoulder at Victoria and winking. "I'm a hell of a lot more beguiling than Amaris."

Victoria smiled at her sister, unable to deny that. "When are those two leaving, anyway?" she asked, her mind a sieve that was losing relevant bits of information at an alarming rate.

"Tomorrow," Beth supplied, clicking "send" on her email to Spikey.

"Yeah, okay. Take over for him while he's gone, then."

Beth navigated to a new search page, typing in the site for the Celadon City Police Station, and Victoria gave the back of her sister's head a warm, fond smile as Beth scrolled through pages of contact information, writing down promising email addresses for colleagues of Wilbur who might be able to get in touch with him. It was a trickle-down effect without Gav there to guide them, and Beth and the others had all taken on a sudden shift of weight, more work added to their plates and more time robbed from them. It truly made Victoria understand and appreciate, even more than she had before, just how much of their burden Gav had hauled before his loss of faith.

Don't torture him anymore, Victoria scolded herself as the urge to go to his room reared up again. You said it was the last time you'd ask, and it will be the last time you ask.

"We will," Gina said for the millionth time, releasing Edith from a hug. "They're never going off, not for a second. I'll actually remember to charge mine at night. Promise-promise."

Edith gave Gina a grateful, but distinctly watery smile and turned to Amaris, who seemed ready to cringe back from a hug. Edith knew better, though, and merely clasped her hands in front of her. "I'm so glad you're doing this. Telling your families and friends that you're safe. It's a good step in the right direction."

Gina looked uncomfortable at that, and while Amaris seemed to be masking his expression, Victoria knew he chafed against the implication, too. They all did. Edith wanted so desperately for them to be done with everything, the only person under their roof who agreed with Gav. Jason, who was not here to see his best friend off to Pallet, probably would have been brooding over this if he was present. Off training himself half to death again, Victoria groused.

Gina certainly noticed the absence of her friend, and her countenance bore the weight. Victoria wasn't the only one irate at the sight of Gina glancing out the window as if hoping to see him returning from the line of trees, cloaked in sweat, his team tromping behind him. "Well," she said, swinging her arms a little and glancing around, never directly at anyone's face. "Guess we better… get a move on."

"Yeah, do that," Kaylee grumbled, going in for another parting hug. "I'll slug Jason for you when I see him next."

Gina gave her a sad, half-cringing smile and Edith bit her lip, looking disappointed and disapproving of Jason's absence, too. "Be careful," she said again, her constant mantra.

Gina gave Edith a half-hearted salute, and then she and Amaris were off, heading over to their designated teleportation landing zone before Amaris sent out Alakazam. In a moment they were gone.

Literally five seconds later Edith's phone buzzed and she nearly dropped it scooping it out of the front pocket of her apron. Her eyes flicked over the message and her face fell.

Kaylee didn't bother asking, snagging the phone to look at it over Edith's arm. "Motherf—" she exclaimed, letting Edith take it back while she gestured emphatically in the air with her free hand. "Seriously, Jason? What the flying fuck?"

"What?" Beth asked, though Edith was now reading the text aloud.

"Training journey to mt. moon. be back in a few days. need moon stone for Nidorino. Love—" Edith paused, strangely shy about reading aloud Jason's affectionate salutation, but it didn't matter. The core of the message had been received.

"Well," Beth said, rubbing her face with both hands and muffling her voice in the process. "What can we do. It's not like we're under house arrest here. He can train if he wants."

"Serious?" Kaylee asked again, shooting a withering look at Beth. "You can't keep making excuses for him and for everyone. He's being—" she glanced over at Edith, not wanting to smack-talk Jason in front of his fiancé, but Blake did it for her.

"He's being a selfish jerk and a dumbass," he reported, arms crossed. "Just be grateful he isn't hoofing it back through Victory Road to the League. You know that's where he's ramping up to go."

"We don't know that," Victoria cut in, really not wanting to defend the loose cannon that was the youngest Fremont brother, but not wanting this to degenerate either. "Blake's right, though. Pewter's not that far. Edith, try to text him back, tell him he needs to check in with you every three hours at a minimum. Tell him I don't give a crap what lame-ass excuse he comes up with. If he goes off the grid for longer than a three-hour window we're sending a search party after him."

Edith looked unabashedly miserable at having to be the middle-woman here, but did as Victoria asked, carefully typing up a text and hitting the backspace key so often Victoria wondered if Jason would have returned by the time she was done perfecting it. Perhaps Edith wasn't the best girl for this job, but Jason had made it clear—Edith was his point of contact while he was gone, and Victoria assumed she or any of the others would merely get radio static if they tried to reach out to him themselves.

Zahlia and Beth headed over to Victoria as she made her way in a daze to the kitchen. It was stunning to her no matter how many times it happened; she had the support they had normally given to Gav, the attentive obedience and eagerness of all the others to help her wherever they could. She made a suggestion and it happened. She forbade an action and, for the most part, it was final. Victoria had expected the usual bullshit and shuffle, perhaps Kaylee trying to take over Gav's position and feeling resentful that Victoria was taking point, or Amaris refusing to defer to her the way he had learned to do to the eldest Harrison. Yet no one argued, no one stood in her way, and even when they disagreed with her it was for the greater good.

We're not in shambles, Victoria thought to herself, her eyes lighting on Beth. We're lost but we're a unit, and we can still function.

"You're going to reach out to Wilbur's contacts today, like we discussed?" she asked Beth, and Beth nodded at once. To Zahlia, Victoria asked, "anything new on Broome's side projects?" She had Zahlia researching this alongside Kaylee, partly for extra eyes and ears to the ground, and partly so she could be sure there was a completely objective party reporting to her on the current Champ.

"It's all over the net, but it's a lot of speculation. He's been silent since the address. I'm monitoring news sites, but also League forums. Useful to keep an eye out for any rumors, even if they're unfounded."

Victoria smiled at her, deeply grateful and just as deeply exhausted. Then she pressed her palms into her eyes and sighed loud, the way she did to release stress and make herself feel better. "I could really go for some pancakes right now."

Zahlia nodded in vehement agreement and, to Victoria's slight surprise, moved off into the kitchen at once to start on the batter. Beth's face split into a broad grin and she began banging pots and pans around at once, locating syrup and piling plates up on the counter. Evidently Zahlia was being roped into Beth's and Victoria's sisterly telepathy, as they were all now on the same wavelength for food cravings, too. In spite of everything, Victoria couldn't help but chuckle softly at that as the kitchen noise drew out some of the others, their breakfast food senses tingling.

Victoria took up a post beside Zahlia, bringing out measuring cups and wooden spoons, and while the others orbited around the kitchen she glanced up at the eldest Nakawa, studying her profile. She looked tired, as they all did these days, but something about her face today belied an even deeper weariness than before.

Victoria paused, putting the utensils down on the counter, and nudged Zahlia gently with her elbow. They all reacted differently to physical contact. Beth usually nudged back and leaned over to smile or make a face at Victoria. Zahlia jumped a little and recoiled, just a little, though her face told that she wasn't upset or offended, just surprised. "You alright?" Victoria asked, lifting her eyebrows and trying to don an expression that was mildly curious and not shrewdly investigative.

Zahlia gave Victoria a brief, bland half-smile and a shrug. "Full disclosure," she said, something she often tacked to the beginning of something she didn't want to share, but had to, "I had another dream about… my brother, last night."

Victoria paused, not staring at Zahlia, since she didn't want to make her uncomfortable, but not acting like everything was fine, either. Beth hadn't heard—she was still finding the exact perfect pan for making the pancakes and that seemed to entail bringing out every single last piece of Edith's kitchenware and inspecting them all. To the backdrop of clanging and clattering, Victoria murmured, "What about?"

It was Zahlia's turn to pause, now. Victoria seamlessly took up the rest of the measuring for the ingredients for the batter while Zahlia backed off on the pretense of washing her hands for a second time. When she spoke up, it was quiet enough to not draw more attention to them. "He was in the woods outside the cabin. Just, watching."

Victoria felt an unstoppable chill curl down her spine. "So this marks the second dream you've had where he's near here."

"Right," Zahlia confirmed. "Though it… doesn't feel like Dream Eater. He has yet to speak to me, or acknowledge my presence at all, the way… the way Orion did."

Victoria swallowed, awkward, and spilled a little extra flour over the top of the measuring cup. The soft powder landed like fresh snow on the counter and she absently smeared it up with her thumb, only succeeding in spreading it out more. "That's a good sign," she said, trying to inject more confidence into her tone than she felt. "He doesn't seem… at all stable, and I think if he really knew where we were, we'd know, too."

Zahlia nodded, though she looked far from convinced. "It's probably nerves," she said, clearly wanting to contribute to the positive line of thinking. Victoria knew on some level she did not believe that.

Thankfully Beth came to the rescue, cradling in her arms what she deemed to be "the perfect frying pan" like it was a child she had just delivered into the world. Victoria snorted at her and stepped aside so Beth could place it with the utmost care and precision directly onto the largest burner. Zahila had gone back to actually creating the batter, and Victoria lifted her eyebrows at her as she realized how far along she'd already gotten. Her slender arms had far more muscle than Victoria gave her credit for, and when Zahlia saw her looking she gave her a small smile. "Did most of the cooking growing up. Pancakes are an old favorite."

"Gimme," Kaylee said, leaning over Zahlia's shoulder and dipping her pinky into the batter. Zahlia gave her a weird look.

"It's… it's just pancake batter. I mean, it isn't sweet, or anything." In spite of her protests, though, Kaylee was humming happily.

"Says you. This stuff is great."

Blake had appeared at Zahlia's other side, now curious. He also dipped a finger into the bowl and Victoria let out a testy sigh over the question, "Can you guys not?" Blake's verdict was decidedly less pleased, and he flicked his hand in reaction to what was evidently deep disgust, landing some of his half-eaten batter directly onto Kaylee's cheek. Victoria could tell what was going to happen before it began.

Beth was hit with the next glob of batter, shrieking and diving aside as Blake had ducked to avoid the stuff aimed for his face. He looked momentarily remorseful that he'd gotten Beth roped into this, and while he was distracted looking back at her Zahlia slapped some across his jaw. "I don't think this is good for eating anymore," she explained as her brother gave her a deeply scandalized, open-mouthed look.

"Prepare for war," Blake said, but before he could make good on his threat, Kaylee got true vengeance by flinging batter into his face. Victoria ducked down behind a cabinet door like she was in the middle of a strafing run.

"Do you guys—oh," Edith said, and Victoria popped her head up to look at Edith's face to gauge her level of horror to amusement, but the timing was bad. She got a sloppy glop of batter straight to the back of her long hair.

"I will end you," Victoria snarled, turning back as Beth and Blake seamlessly pointed to Kaylee, who was looking at Victoria with wide eyes. "My hair takes for-freaking-ever to clean."

Kaylee shrieked and dived out of the kitchen, getting hit with batter as Blake retaliated, and Victoria managed to catch that Edith had both hands clasped over her mouth, not in horror at the havoc they were wreaking on her kitchen, but with barely-contained laughter. Relieved, Victoria gave her an apologetic smile and got a slap of batter to the face for her moment of weakness.

"The floors will run with your blood!" Victoria promised, picking up a globbing handful and missing target miserably. Blake and his bizarrely nimble dodging skills had now roped Edith into the legendary battle, and the kitchen soon dissolved into a chaotic war zone of shrieking laughter.

Author's Note: My chapter buffer is a lot healthier now! I will soon have a three chapter buffer back. -strut strut-