The Book of Mal
Chapter Ten: I am Living Memories

His eyes were dull as he stared out blankly. He shook his head and grabbed the keys, hesitating only a moment before he pocketed them. He gently grabbed onto his jewelry box and put it back into his backpack carefully, before grabbing the drinks and walking back to the Pokémon Center. He sipped at his, trying to not think about what had just happened and who was that man.

He didn't know who G really was, but he somehow felt a connection with the man that had clearly cared so much about his cousin.

Mal wished that the other had stayed, that the other would have given him more information about Leaf. He wished that his order hadn't been so quick, that he could've gotten more time with the stranger. But it didn't seem like things were on his side, and now that man (whoever he was) was gone and he'd lost his chance to find out about what happened to Leaf.

By the time he'd made it to the Pokémon Center, he was practically brooding and unable to not look unhappy. Still, remembering the elderberry tea in his hands, he reminded himself he had a task he'd set out to do. Once again climbing up the stairs, he remembered the way to Sonia's room, where he stood before the door and knocked quietly. Kai, Sonia's Sawk he remembered, opened it and curiously but warily peered around the door at him.

Mal held up the tea. "I thought Sonia might like something to drink when she wakes up."

Kai reached out and accepted the tea, his look becoming fully curious now as he stared at Mal.

"Sa-Sawk," Kai nodded at Mal and then returned into the room and closed the door.

Mal felt his stomach rumble and he shook his head, letting his pokémon cling to him as he trudged back down the stairs.

Truthfully, Mal was exhausted. He'd had a heavy day, full of emotions, and he just felt drained. But he still needed to cook something for his pokémon and himself, so he made himself head to the Pokémon Center's kitchen, while letting out Sirona. She, Teddi, and Su Lin began to gather what he needed as he asked, with him deciding to make a simple pesto pasta dish for himself (and let them have a little) and also making specific, nutritious pokéfood for them. At the moment, Sirona was prepping the ingredients and singing softly in her language, with Teddi stirring the pesto sauce Mal made for his pasta and Su Lin cutting things up. Thankfully, it didn't take too long and he was in the midst of eating when Raphael found him. The other boy was dirty and covered with scratches and leaves, but still somehow grinning fully. He had a very satisfied look on his face.

"Oh, are you cooking?" he asked enthusiastically. "It's been awhile since I had your cooking."

He filched a fork from a drawer and jogged over to Mal, plopping down tiredly next to him and taking a forkful off Mal's plate. Mal's lips twitched up. Their mothers would be horrified, but the two of them had always been close enough for Raphael to regularly eat/sneak food off Mal's plate.

"This is good," Raphael said through his mouthful, moaning. "You should make breakfast for the group tomorrow morning. That way, I won't be alone in bothering you to make food all the time."

Mal hmmed. "Knowing you, you'll still be hungry. Any requests?"

"An omelet please?" Raphael looked at him hopefully.

"Go ahead and finish that," Mal pointed at his plate. "I'm done. I don't eat as much as you."

"You never had," Raphael noted distractedly, already beginning to dig in.

Which was true. Mal had always eaten less than normal…

As Mal got started on the omelet with Raphael rattling off what he'd like in it, Mal's thoughts drifted off back to his day. He was so out of it, he didn't notice he was done, had plated the omelet, and had handed it over to Raphael until his friend began snapping his fingers in front of his face worriedly.

"Hey, you okay?" Raphael asked softly.

"Had a long day," Mal reluctantly admitted.

Raphael nodded knowingly. "Viridian City? And your cousin…"

It was relieving and wonderful to have a friend like Raphael, who understood without him having to explain anything.

Mal sat back down heavily next to his friend and closed his eyes.

"Tell me about your day," he muttered.

So Raphael began excitedly talking what he'd done, talking about spending time with and training with Felix and Cascade, catching a really feisty Pidgey that he'd named Stryker…

He was already falling asleep, feeling peace come over him as he listened to his friend talk. Soon enough, Raphael's voice grew quieter until it was a full murmur and the last thing Mal felt was his friend pulling him close and letting him rest on him.

When Mal woke up, he didn't feel rested at all. Still, he noted he was in his room and concluded gratefully that Raphael somehow must've gotten him in bed. Taking care to clean himself up, he made sure that he looked normal and not as out of it as he still felt. When he finally went downstairs, he noted it was early morning, with the sun barely risen. Not that many people were up, though he managed to catch sight of Felix and his Buizel having breakfast.

He walked over to the other. "Good morning," he greeted him and Cascade.

"Morning!" Felix greeted back cheerfully. "Where's Su Lin and Teddi?"

"Still sleeping," Mal answered wryly. "They're lazy bears. How are you two? I heard you were with Raphael when he caught…Stryker?"

Felix nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yea. He tell you how feisty she was?"

"I heard," Mal's lips quirked up a little. "She's a fighter then?"

"Definitely –oh, morning, Kai!"

Mal turned to look and saw Sonia's Sawk coming towards them.

"Morning," Mal greeted as well, which Kai returned with a "Sawk!"

But, traveling behind him, was a familiar furball, chattering excitedly with a freshly woken Teddi and Su Lin.

"Zorua," Mal stood up abruptly, actually giving a full-on smile.

"Zoru, Zoru~!" Zorua gave a wink and then ran towards him and Felix, performing a flip. Mal clapped indulgently.

Felix gasped. "Zorua! You still have a sling and a cast! You should be more careful for now," he said worriedly.

"Zor, Zor, Zoru!" She stuck her tongue out playfully.

For a while, they were just a relaxed group hanging out, and they waited for Raphael to wake up as well. However, when they heard footsteps, it wasn't Raphael that came down but Sonia. Mal felt himself break out into another full-blown grin, while Zorua changed into a mirror-image of Sonia. They had a tearful reunion that Mal was glad to see, though it was strange to see Sonia so open with her emotions. He was a little concerned since it was unusual and he worried if she was alright.

Just then, a harassed Nurse Joy interrupted, ending up flat on the counter and wheezing, and asking for Mal's inhaler (which surprised him a bit)

"How were you aware that I'm asthmatic?"

Though Nurse Joy joked it was "Nurse Magic," it became clear as she explained how she was one too and could recognize the outline of one in Mal's pocket. Hers had broken, courtesy of the Chatot she'd been chasing around. But then Nurse Joy turned to Sonia and questioned her about being Psychic, and Mal tensed up a little.

But he didn't seem to need to worry much, since Nurse Joy looked to be only asking Sonia about what happened and how did she exhaust herself and how Zorua got hurt.

However, he did wince when Nurse Joy revealed how close Sonia had been to getting Zorua killed. Seeing Sonia getting genuinely upset and her pokémon trying to comfort her, he tapped Felix's shoulder and gave a meaningful look. The two of them and their pokémon moved to the other side of the room.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Felix asked in worry.

Mal glanced back, seeing Sonia pulling herself together and she and Nurse Joy suddenly at a computer.

He smiled slightly. "She'll be fine. She's strong and has loyal pokémon and friends." Still, he was a little curious as to what they were doing now. While they waited, in that time, Raphael came with Sola and Lune and greeted them briefly.

Raphael yawned, glancing over to Sonia with a frown and an acknowledging nod. "Well, good for her that she's awake and things seem good. I'll skip breakfast since I had a good meal late last night," he grinned at Mal. "I'm gonna go train."

And then he went off to train, leaving them behind. After a while, Sonia came over to the table booth he and Felix had claimed.

"Mal, do you happen to have anything sugary on you?" she asked.

He was shocked and he could see Felix was too.

"Zorua deserves a treat," Sonia explained, which made him laugh a little.

"Sorry, no. I could go make some…"

But then Sonia looked like she remembered something and took a chocolate bar from her pocket; it was the very same one he'd given to her under her door. He didn't know if he was miffed she was giving it away, or more amused at Zorua's reaction. Well, Zorua did deserve a treat and at least someone was going to enjoy it.

She sat down across from them, though he noted she kept looking over to Zorua. He saw Felix open his mouth.

"Sonia –"

"She'll talk when she wants to talk," he said quietly, knowing it was better not to push then.

She asked about Raphael briefly before asking about them. Mal immediately thought of the Archives and the newspaper articles and –He shut it all down quickly.

"I went out and explored the city a bit," he said loosely, voice quiet. "I got you some elderberry tea, and the chocolate."

"That was you? Thank you so much! The tea was perfect!"

He was surprised by how grateful and outwardly vocal Sonia had been about it, but he was glad she seemed to have enjoyed it. He kept note, in case of a time he needed to cheer her up.

"That was Nurse Joy, not me. I asked her what was good to give Psychics and she told me what and where to go."

"You were still the one who asked in the first place. And then you went out and actually got it."

Mal was amused and inwardly shook his head. Ah, the two of them were going to be stubborn about this. Felix looked a little bemused, and seemed to be conversing with Cascade in Buizel in undertones.

He smiled. "I refuse to take all the credit, but I agree to take some. Is that good enough?"

"Most of it," she arched an eyebrow that he ended up mirroring next.

He paused. "Agreed." He'd been right. They both ended up being so stubborn.

She then turned to Felix and asked about him. Mal had to wince at her harsh criticism about Raphael's Eevee when Felix brought up his best friend and the pokémon, and how much training they and Felix had been working on. He nearly balked when Felix mentioned needing Sonia to battle Raphael to test a theory about his weakness. He just had a feeling about it. But then Felix mentioned researching Psychics and the feeling grew worse.

While Sonia approved of that and thought learning was better than ignorance, Mal finally got his answer about what Sonia and Nurse Joy had been doing at the computer. It sounded like she had been registering something…

"If you don't mind me asking, what was the conversation you had with Nurse Joy there? It sounded like you were registering for something, if you pardon the inadvertent eavesdropping."

Seeing Sonia sigh made him frown. She then explained the laws that govern Psychics and how closely monitored they had to be, including needing to register every few days at a government building –ten days in her case. Fines and prison sentences were the consequences.

He didn't like it. It just seemed…unjust somehow.

When she mentioned Johto being worse than Kanto, he decided that he needed to brush up on his own knowledge of Psychics. He wasn't liking what he was learning.

"Sonia, what Grade are you?"

He had to ask it. He knew the higher the Grade, the worse it'd be on her.

That feeling strengthened when Sonia asked them "Can you not freak out? Or tell Raphael?"

That gave him pause as Raphael was his friend. But this wasn't his secret to tell.

"I'm Grade Alpha."

Mal's breath caught.

He wasn't a lawyer or trained as one, but his family had always –given their status –emphasized the importance of being able to be a step ahead of the law.

He definitely needed to brush up on his Psychic knowledge.

Mal played referee, and he'd been so right about it being a disaster. Sonia won, Raphael accused her of cheating with her powers, and there was just this big blow up. Raphael stormed off, though he'd yelled for Felix and Mal to follow. By experience, he knew to let Raphael cool off a little first and let him let off steam as he rushed off. Still, he saw Felix chasing after the other boy, and he silently wished him good luck and thought to maybe warn him next time. Instead, he stayed with Sonia, thinking that she probably wasn't used to someone staying by.

"He is a bit reactive when it comes to Psychics," he said idly, watching Sonia closely.

"Maybe I should just leave," she growled, and he saw how she held onto Zorua like a comfort blanket. "He obviously hates me and I hate him too.

"He doesn't want me here, and I agree," she said, trying to sound firm.

Mal shook his head, mind trying to quickly put together strings of words that would form something that might help convince her to stay.

"Sonia. I want you here."

"What?" She sounded so shock and it made him a little sad.

Mal chose to smile slightly though. "Felix does too, even though he may be a bit over-enthusiastic at times. First of all, I'm only here because Raphael needs some familial support. He needs someone to give another opinion on what's best for him. I think having you around, learning about Psychics and being exposed to reality is what's best for him."

Though she looked like she didn't accept that reasoning, he wasn't done yet and was just building up to his final reason. "I haven't finished. Second of all, I myself want to learn more and broaden my horizons. You, Sonia, can help me do that, and help Raphael."

She was still not convinced, but he hadn't yet finished.

"I still haven't finished. Most of all, I want to be your friend."

She looked completely shocked out of her mind this time, which made Mal hopeful.

"I…I suppose I could stay a bit longer…"

Satisfied and relieved, Mal let out a happy, free smile at that.

He'd gone after Raphael after that and ended up catching up to him in the Pokémon Center and trying to cheer him up by telling him about the Trainer House, remembering Greg telling him about it.

His friend immediately brightened up, more so when it was clear Sonia wasn't coming, and he, Raphael, and Felix made their way to the Trainer House. Mal found himself mildly interested, seeing that Raphael was clearly the most invested in this place. It put a smile on his face and he was glad the other boy had cheered up.

But very soon, to his consternation, he found that the three of them had just split off. Felix had wandered off somewhere and he had told Raphael he was going to find the other, which led to him looking all over the place for Felix, only to find no trace of him. He heard something about a trainer being arrested and saw a police or two still hanging around, so he'd ended up heading back to where Raphael was.

He was gone too.

Making a noise in frustration, Mal was almost tempted to let go of his usual cool and clutch at his crimson hair. He looked around him again and saw no sign of either of his friends, and decided to give up. They probably had headed back to the Pokémon Center.

Finding himself a little hungry, he headed over to his favorite café diner, deciding to try one of their blueberry pie and order a slice of it. Finding it was a nice day, he decided to find a seat outside and was having trouble when he saw the only empty places being at a spot near a man with blond hair, thin, oval glasses, and a lab coat.

Mal wasn't sure what to make of the blond man (was that a blue strip in his hair…?) that was taking up two tables, had pushed them together, and had covered them in what looked like blueprints.

One of the papers flew away when a burst of wind came then, and came towards Mal, who neatly caught it with one hand, the other carefully holding tight to his plate.

"Ah, thank you so much! That is very important," exclaimed the blond. "I'm Dr. Colress Achroma," he introduced himself as Mal came over and handed over the paper.

Mal did his customary bow. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Mal Thrones."

Colress beamed at him. "I really appreciate you catching this. I'm inventing a basic translator that hopefully will be able to translate –somewhat –what a pokémon's saying. It's a difficult task, especially given the varied and many different pokémon languages. I probably won't have a working prototype for a few years, and even then it'll probably only be very basic."

Mal's eyes lit up. "Really? That sounds fascinating. How do you plan on working on that?"

Colress scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Actually, I'm not quite sure. I'm leaning a little towards trying Aura-based specs. I had an idea that a typed-human could charge up one of those translators with their Aura, and according to whatever types they have, would be able to translate whatever same-type pokémon."

Mal was enraptured and began shooting off questions at the other, who eagerly answered them, pleased to be able to talk to someone about it and was ecstatic to find a like-minded individual. It wasn't long until the two of them were engaged in a full-blown discussion and ignoring the rest of the world.

After a while, Colress noticed the time. "Oh! I'm late for a meeting," he said sheepishly. "That's too bad. I'd have liked to continue this discussion with you…Say, when are –if you are – heading to Pewter City?"

Mal thought on it. "Either next morning or in a day."

"Perfect! You see, I will be in Pewter City by tomorrow to consult on some fossil work, so if you'd like, we could meet up there?"

It really was enjoyable to be talking to someone like this and to find someone that was like him.

"That would be nice. Where and when?" he asked.

Colress wrote down something on a piece of paper. "I'll be staying at the Stonewall Hotel. You can come anytime –I included my number there. I've really got to go –oh, I'm so late –but it really was nice to meet you. Until then!"

Mal waved him off, happy to have made a new friend.

Mal had ended up back in the Pokémon Center, and had been reading on a tablet while Su Lin and Teddi ate, when Felix found him and had ended up excitedly talking about joining Team Plasma.

Team Plasma.

Still remembering all those years ago in Kalos put a shock of fear in him and he could feel himself tense, the very air coming out of him as he could once again feel hands around his throat. They were squeezing and he was barely hearing what Felix was saying, but he didn't want to alarm the other. He subtly clenched his right hand tighter and tighter the more Felix talked about this "pokémon civil rights group," and the more he desperately tried to get a hold of himself. And then Raphael came and he scrambled for that anchor and tried to focus on his oldest friend's presence, slowly bringing himself back to normal and attempting to give his congratulations and support to Felix, despite wanting to scream at the other to be careful and just run to the other direction of that group.

He'd have to be careful and look out for the other, hoping against hope that Felix wasn't getting himself into trouble…

Mal, to distract himself and now wondering where Sonia had been and worrying about her, had gone to look for her and found her at a computer. She'd told him about trying to look up the members of "Team OJ" (or Team Orange Juice, as Raphael liked better) and then revealing some surprising stuff that Team Rocket Psychic had said to her. That led to him encouraging her to tell the others, and then soon after that, he and Felix had escorted Sonia to the police so she could also share what she'd told them to authorities as well, giving her official statement while she was at it.

Felix ended up going back to the Pokémon Center to help Raphael train, and Mal decided to have one last look around Viridian before they left the next morning.

To be honest, though he wasn't as much into battling as Raphael, he was curious about the gym there. He had heard whispers and conversations all culminating around the gym, and more importantly around the gym leader.

Giovanni Rocketto –world renown for his prowess as a pokémon trainer and also for his business Gio Corp., which was internationally recognized and beyond successful. On occasion, even his mother and father had dealings with him, though Mal had never met him himself.

He was also, according to trainers around the Trainer House, frightening and extremely hard to beat. Trainers camped out there and around the city, trying their best to get better and hope to beat Giovanni and get their last badge.

"Seems like tough luck," Mal murmured, standing in front of the elegant, Roman-era styled building.

Even the gym's structure looked intimidating.

Shaking his head, he entered it and looked around hesitantly.

"Can I help you?" Even the receptionist/greeter looked stoic and intimidating. It was fitting.

However, Mal smiled politely and bowed. "Hello, I'm not here for a badge. I would like to know if it's possible to watch any matches if any are going on?"

"Spectators go to the left stairs, walk all the way down the corridor, enter through the only door there," he told him and Mal nodded.

"Thank you," he said softly, already heading to the stairs on his left.

He followed the directions he was given and then entered, finding it occupied by someone already. It was only one person and Mal politely kept quiet and moved to the side of him. He said a quiet 'hello' and then started to watch himself.

To his surprise, it wasn't Giovanni on the balcony, looking down at the challengers. A brash boy and girl were the opponents and were fighting at the same time, both of their pokémon against a single frightening and vicious Absol.

"Surprised about something?" the man beside him said in amusement.

Mal faced him, but found the other was covered by shadows. He bowed slightly and introduced himself first. "Hello, I'm Mal Thrones. And to be honest, I was expecting to see Mr. Rocketto battling."

"Hm, yes, you're right. It is his gym after all. I'm sorry to have disappointed you."

Mal blinked in surprise and then turned bright red, easily matching his hair color, as Giovanni stepped out from the shadows and smirked slightly at him.

"I'm letting my…protégée of sorts handle these two. They're pretty rash and haven't even gotten any badges, so she's teaching them a lesson for me."

Hearing the amusement in the man's voice, almost a little dark, made Mal's eyebrow raise…but then again, hearing it like that, he could see it was much deserved too. The two trainers sounded like arrogant idiots, and he admitted he really didn't have much patience for them either.

"It looks like they're being soundly beaten," Mal almost had his own tinge of satisfaction in his voice, which Giovanni nodded approvingly at.

"If you can't back up the confidence you have, don't be so surprised when it comes back to bite you," Giovanni hmmed. "In all the time I've done this, I haven't found anyone aside from Leaf Alexiandre who had impressed me enough to think that phrase didn't apply."

"You knew her?" Mal asked breathlessly, but Giovanni just smiled lightly and focused on the battle.

Mal bit back his questions and turned back to the battle as well, wincing at the vicious beat down. It was impressive and awe-inspiring in a terrifying way, and he admired the way the Absol speedily worked around the Bulbasaur and the Pidgeotto, even as the two were working together against the Absol.

It was such a losing battle.

He wasn't surprised when the battle ended against the trainers. He shook his head again, feeling a little pity for them, but he glanced at the woman in shadows at the balcony, wondering about the owner of the powerful Absol.

"Would you walk with me?"

Caught off guard, he almost gaped at the older man, who had already started to walk away. Struggling to catch up, he found himself standing in front of a picture with Giovanni in no time. His eyes widened when he saw it was of him and of Leaf together, in some kind of fancy hall.

"That was taken in Viridian Fall –a hotel near to here."

She looked so pretty, wearing a forest green dress that flowed down her body and lay flat against the floor with how long it was. She had a natural sense of makeup, with only the bright red sheen coloring her lips to show she had any. Her hair was elegantly put up and showed off the tiny rubies in her earlobes and the familiar necklace around her neck –a necklace that Mal now wore.

His hand darted to the pendant.

"So you wear it now, huh?" Giovanni murmured and Mal looked at him wide-eyed. "When I gave that to her, I was sure she'd throw it at my face."

"You…you gave it –"

"Giovanni," someone said sharply, a red-haired woman walking towards them.

Mal felt like his breath stopped.

She looked so sad, this red-haired woman who was pushing him towards the house. Why was she so sad? Why was she…

"Are you alright?" Giovanni asked him, looking at him curiously.

Mal swallowed, looking away from the woman, who was staring at him with a strange expression.

"I'm fine," he forced out.

"It looks like I must leave for business matters, so I cannot continue this with you," Giovanni told him and Mal wanted to scream in frustration. He couldn't –he couldn't! Mal wanted to talk to him. He needed to hear more about Leaf, whatever he could.

And Mal was leaving tomorrow morning and wouldn't be getting another chance.

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning," Mal blurted out, desperate to find a way to keep the man there.

Giovanni frowned. "I see…When you find yourself in Saffron City, see to it you come to my building and ask for me. I will have had you authorized to come see me anytime."

Blinking in surprise, Mal smiled slightly. "Thank you so much, Mr. Rocketto."

"Call me Giovanni. Family of hers are always welcoming to address me as she had."

And then he was walking away with the red-haired woman, and Mal was calm and happy to find someone had associated his name with hers and recognized them as family.

The next morning found Mal waking up and meeting up with Sonia down in the main lobby of the Pokémon Center. After a while of it just being Sonia and him, Felix came rushing down in a panic and Mal had to end up helping him repack. Then Zorua messed it up again, and he and Felix had to start all over, though Felix apparently had fun chasing Zorua and pretending to be angry at her.

Then came Raphael in the midst of that with his sloppily packed bag and asking Mal for help in embarrassment. Mal's lips turned up and he had quickly gotten through it when a mysterious man came into the Pokémon Center.

And it was the strangest thing, since it ended up with the group acquiring an egg.

"How very, very curious," Mal murmured.

He wondered who that man was and why it seemed like the other was strangely important and seemed so strong.

Started 9/26/16 – Completed 10/6/16

A/n: Hi guys! Been awhile, but hope people are still reading. Please remember to be kind and leave a review! They're much appreciated.