This is a quick update O.o
I think I've lost a lot of my reviewers, lol... Sad. I guess that's what I get for hardly updating .-.
Dedicated to eeveeluvr, the first reviewer! HAPPY BIRTHDAYYY! (If what I read on your profile is correct lol... Stalker? No, not me *shifty eyes* xD) I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Ooh I was reading a review by iloveikari, and what this reviewer said made me laugh xD This reviewer said something about Paul might've just hit Dawn until she had amnesia and that it seemed like something Assassin Paul would just do. xP
Forewarning: a LOT is revealed in this chapter. So read it carefully!
Chapter Twelve
Unveiled
Brianna was sick of the games everyone was playing. She was utterly through with being cast aside and being used. Months ago, Veil had approached her with a foolproof plan for the downfall of the Assassins. Not thinking twice - after all, Veil hated the Commander with a passion and it was no secret to anyone - she accepted.
Veil owed her for having to play the bad guy. Drew was strong, and him slamming her against the wall hurt.
Everyone was playing a game, holding back secrets, no one completely honest with the other. Only by a lot of difficult digging by both her and Veil had they figured out everyone's secrets.
Listing each person off on her fingers, she mused. There's Veil. Who knows how many secrets that mysterious creep has. Auburn? That he's the grandson of the late Professor Oak and the only reason the Commander wants him is for his legendary Pokemon knowledge. Shadow? His family, his past, and his involvement with Guardian and Platinum. Forest? His family, his Assassin past, and his involvement with Sapphire.
Brianna frowned. Sapphire wasn't even a real Assassin. The Commander had recruited her when he had found her alone, promising to show her Drew once again if she'd listened to him. As far as Brianna knew, Sapphire had never killed.
Platinum's only considered an Assassin in place of her mother. Years ago, the Commander had murdered Dawn's parents in revenge, and sought to kill Dawn as well. Instead, Guardian had fled with her and Shadow had taken Platinum in. Guardian still hadn't been found.
Sky's only purpose was to avenge his mother. The Commander had poisoned Ash's mind by telling him that Ash could have saved his mother, and the only way to avenge himself for not saving her was to condemn himself and destroy more lives.
She herself was no exception. Her family had been killed, presumably by the Commander. He had taken her in, and trained her to slay. She wondered if the Commander had also planned for Drew to fall for May and for her to fall for Drew. He knew people well, after all.
The Commander wasn't stupid. There was no way that he was going to fall. He had played them all along and intended for them to die. Even her, Brianna, would fall somehow, and she had come to terms with the fact that she was going to die.
He had, after all, chosen his Assassins wisely...
And the Commander had one last weapon up his sleeve, one that was being put into motion right that very moment - Cerulean.
Dawn's memory was returning to her, piece by piece.
"Zoey, get Dawn to run! Don't get caught," Johanna had begged the redhead. The blunette was staring, shocked, at the knife between her mother's ribs and the pool of red.
"Shadow, I can't take her with me." Zoey was standing in front of a tall boy around their age, hands on her hips and a demanding look on her face. "You have to take her."
"Come with me, troublesome girl," Paul said, lifting her. "If they find you, they find me, and I can't be caught helping someone who's supposed to be dead."
"Is that the best you can do?" he challenged her. "Being weak will get you nowhere! Try again!"
"Hey, troublesome, over here," she heard Paul call, and she turned. The first thing her eyes registered was a pair of glowing red eyes. Then blackness.
"Platinum, are you ready?" Veil asked her, and she nodded in confirmation. "Here they come." Her breath caught in her throat as she saw someone so familiar to her but she just couldn't put a name on him...
"You did that," Dawn breathed into Paul's shoulder. "You erased my memory before we began the academy task."
"Yeah."
"Why?" Dawn drew back, looking at him. "Did you not trust me to go through with it? Am I that weak?" Tears began to flow anew from her blue eyes, and she rubbed at them in frustration. Oh yeah, Dawn. Crying would totally prove you're strong.
"That's not it," Paul sighed. "The Commander has spies everywhere. You know this whole organization is your fault, right? He won't stop until you're dead."
Dawn's eyes widened. "This is my fault?"
"Your mother's," he clarified.
"Mom's?" Dawn tried to remember, but her mind drew a blank in the jagged part of her memories.
"Your mother left the Commander for another man," Paul briefly explained. "He naturally wants revenge. And you're the proof that something actually happened, so he also wants you dead."
"But why are you protecting me? If I'm dead, the organization would fall apart, right?"
"I won't let you die." Paul's jaw clenched.
"But you'd let innocent civilians die?" Dawn stood up and glared at him. "I'm one person. They're several hundred."
He looked up at her, his onyx eyes smoldering. "This isn't all about you. The Commander plans to destroy us all. You would be the trigger."
"Oh..." Dawn couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment at his words. So he hadn't been protecting her because of, well, her. Only because he didn't want to die. "I understand, I guess."
Paul braced himself before continuing to speak. "But if that wasn't the reason... I would still protect you to my last breath. I... I care about you." His tone sounded slightly irritated.
Dawn blinked. Did he just say..?
"Why?" she asked in a small voice, sitting back down. "You hardly know me."
"You hardly know me." His voice was still irritated. "After I erased your memory." Dawn felt a spark of anger at those words.
"Didn't you trust me enough to carry out my position in the task?" she demanded. "I would have been able to, you know! I'm not that weak!"
"I know that!"
"How can you not trust me and take all my memories, and then tell me you care about me?" Dawn shouted at him. "Liar! You're just a cold-hearted Assassin, there's no way you can have feelings!"
Dawn suddenly felt as if she had gone too far at Paul's glare. "U-uh..."
He jerked her roughly to him and gazed intently at her. There was anger in his eyes, but something softer as well. Before she knew it, they were leaning in close to each other.
Then he kissed her.
Drew was determined to avenge May's death. The question was - how?
He wandered out of the Pokemon Center, thinking hard. Who would've killed her? Had the Commander found her?
"Flygon!" He sent out his Pokemon and ordered it to bring him to the old town where he had first met May.
He could've saved her. If he hadn't left her alone, if he had brought her with them...
No, Drew. You had to leave her. She doesn't know anything about the true nature of the Assassins and she can't know what you really do.
But now she's dead, he argued with himself.
Once a solo Assassin, Drew had delighted in the agony of others. He felt as if that had been the only way to remove the agony from himself if he took it out on others. The Commander had been by his side since the beginning, quietly and maliciously encouraging him to continue. But when he had been assigned to slay May's brother, and met May, that had been it. He couldn't kill anyone close to May, and he wanted more than anything to be normal so he could maybe win her heart. When he had to leave... It had been heartbreaking to see the pain in her expression. Wishing for it to go away, he had asked Dawn to erase her memory for him.
Dawn had agreed.
Then his thoughts turned to Dawn. Daughter of Platinum, a name well known in the Assassin circle, a name spoken with scandalized fear as she had abandoned the Commander and married a police officer. Dawn herself would have been killed as well, but Guardian had smuggled her away and she inevitably fell into Paul's custody. Guardian had disappeared, and Dawn had been trained to defend herself. Then Paul had erased the part of her memory concerning him and Guardian before she went to Darkstone Academy to fulfill her task.
Drew thought about what they would do. Veil wanted to bring down the Commander, and Dawn shared the feeling. But what would that accomplish? Sure, the Assassins would be obliterated. But they would all be condemned to a lifetime in prison, and that was if they were lucky. Was it worth it?
Flygon reached the old town and Drew recalled his Pokemon as he walked around.
Again, his thoughts returned to May.
He had to avenge her death. Then he'd rethink the idea of turning himself in.
As he was deep in thought, he hadn't realized just how far he'd gone.
Drew looked down and saw himself at a graveyard. He swallowed and walked cautiously in, trying not to let the spooky aura of the foggy area get to him. One gravestone mattered to him, and he zeroed into it, far on the other side of the cemetery.
Rosalind Hayden.
Here lies a beautiful young woman, who died long before her time.
A bouquet of fresh red roses was lying on the grave. They couldn't have been placed more than an hour ago. Surprised, Drew bent down to take a closer look. There was a small card attached to the bouquet and he read the two words printed.
From Sapphire.
He stared, shocked. From May? Was she still alive? Or was it a trick? But no, that was unmistakably her handwriting. So was she still alive? How?
Brianna would never lie. She was cruel, yes, but she was brutally honest.
I have to be hallucinating...
"Are you sure you can move?" Gary asked Leaf intently.
The brunette girl was standing up, leaning against the wall as she waited out Gary's inspection. She rolled her eyes. "Yes I'm sure. Now can we go? I don't feel safe just staying in one place for so long. We need to get the Commander and figure out a way to save the others."
"Okay fine, if you're sure." Gary sighed; he knew stubborn Leaf when he heard one.
"So you're good to go?" Zoey asked, materializing by the doorway.
"Yeah, thanks for taking care of us," Gary replied, checking his Poke Balls. "We should check out what Pikachu was doing there, if that was Pikachu at all."
"Thank you," Leaf told Zoey with a smile. "I appreciate this, Guardian." Zoey just grinned in response.
"Who'd pass up a chance to save the infamous Veil?" she said in response. "I mean, it's not as if anyone had actually seen your street image before."
Gary froze.
Leaf shot him a glance before laughing. "Well then, I guess it's about time they knew."
"Wait, what? Hold up, you're Veil?" Gary jumped up from his crouch on the ground. "Leaf? Veil? What the heck is your real name? Who are you and have you been playing me for a fool this whole time?" He glared at Leaf, who stared back steadily.
"My real name is Leaf Green, just as yours is Gary Oak," she answered. "But yes, I suppose you'd know me as Veil."
"Y-you look nothing like her!"
"Dye and shadows disguise a girl well." Leaf shrugged. "Are you going to turn me in to the authorities?"
Ignoring her, Gary turned on Zoey. "And you're Guardian? The protector of the legendary Pokemon Uxie?"
Zoey smiled in response.
"Dawn's memory... It was wiped by you? And May's?" Gary was aghast.
"Technically, Uxie did the memory erasing," Zoey said. "But yes, I had Uxie for a while. I gave it up when I ran from the Commander, though. And you can guess where it went."
Gary's mind was going a mile a minute. "You're Veil... You're Guardian... You helped Dawn escape, and you're the one who gave her to Paul... That's the favor you owe him, and Drew recruited Dawn's help when he erased May's memory using the Uxie you had given her? Then Paul took the Uxie and erased her memory and..." He sat down. "I'm so confused." He looked up at Leaf. "Leaf... Veil... Whatever. What the heck is your plan?"
"Destroying the Assassins is already the Commander's plan," Leaf told him. "I'm just going to find a way to protect Dawn and buying us all time for escape."
"Then we'd better get going," Gary conceded, standing back up.
"He's taking it well," Zoey whispered to Leaf, who grinned.
"Yeah well he's Auburn!" She got up too. "Are you sure you don't want to go with us, Guardian? You might want your Uxie back."
Zoey shook her head. "I'll let you do the destroying. I'll stay here."
Leaf hugged her. "Be careful. You don't have Uxie anymore."
"I know. You be safe too."
"So... Does that change anything?" Leaf finally spoke. It had been hours of silence, and they had almost made it back to the forest that surrounded the academy.
"Change what?" Gary glanced at her. "You're still Leaf. And now that I know you're Veil, that honestly makes me feel a little better."
Leaf looked confused as she tilted her head to the side. "How come?"
"Because now I know I've known you long enough to actually love you." Ever the charmer, Gary's intense gaze made her heart flip.
The ever composed Veil's face turned red as Gary leaned in.
"Pika-chuuuuuuu!" the Electric Mouse screeched, echoing through the trees. Both their heads snapped up.
"That sounds like Ash's!" Leaf exclaimed, hand hovering over a Poke Ball.
"Let's go," Gary decided, grabbing her arm and running towards the sound. A streak of lightning shot up like a beacon ahead of them. He had a Poke Ball out already and threw it as they ran. "Blastoise!"
"Hey! I was going to use my Blastoise!" Leaf sweat dropped.
Gary looked at her for a second. "Are we really going to be arguing about that now?"
"Good point. Nido!" Leaf tossed out a Poke Ball and a Nidoqueen materialized in a flash of red light.
"Wait. I have a Nidoqueen too!" Gary and Leaf looked at each other in surprise.
"Copycat!" Leaf muttered, trying not to giggle.
"As if!" Gary threw back, smirking.
They upped the pace, and their Pokemon ran alongside them.
They stumbled into a clearing where they saw a badly wounded Pikachu glaring defiantly at a Weavile and Honchkrow. A Crobat, Gyarados, and Houndoom were lying unmoving between them.
"The Commander's Pokemon!" Leaf exclaimed.
Gary's eyes quickly assessed the situation. It was clear Pikachu had been fighting for some time, but even though the Electric Mouse had immense strength, even it couldn't fight against that many Pokemon who were also trained to fight til the end.
"Nido! Double Kick!" Leaf shouted.
"Nido-queen!" The Nidoqueen leapt forward, kicking at both Pokemon. Weavile dodged to the side and Honchkrow evaded the attack by flying into the air.
"Blastoise! Hydro Pump!" Caught unaware, the blast of water caught Honchkrow and threw it to the ground.
"Pika!" Pikachu struck the immobilized Honchkrow with another round of lightning. Hoping it would faint, Leaf and Gary were shocked to see the bird Pokemon rise again, flapping its wet and dirty wings.
"Krow! Krow! Krow!" It flapped its wings directly at them.
They were blasted with a wave of heat, searing them. Leaf could swear her hair had gotten singed.
"Weavile! Weave!" Nido was thrown back by a Night Slash from the weasel-like Pokemon.
"What a surprise," a slightly familiar voice said, clapping. Someone emerged from behind the Pokemon. "Auburn and Veil working together? Could it be that Veil was in fact, unveiled?" The person laughed at their own joke.
"No way." Gary's jaw dropped while Leaf's only reaction was to clench her fists.
Brianna had come through for her, May thought as she sat in a Pokemon Center room, watching the news of her 'death.' The world believed she was dead, which was exactly as they needed to put their plan to action.
The Commander hopefully thought she was dead as well, but that didn't matter as much.
She leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes.
May remembered everything.
"May Maple. How sad are you that you can't remember a specific time in your life?" a man had approached her where she sat on a park bench.
"How do you know that?" May whirled around.
"I know Drew. I'm his guardian, for lack of better words." The man smiled at her and indicated the space on the bench beside her. "May I sit?"
"Uh, s-sure."
"Where was I?" he mused as he took a seat. "Ah yes. I know where Drew is, and I get you your memory back." He showed her a picture of a green-haired boy and May's heart flipped as her subconscious recognized the photo.
"You can give me my memory?"
"On one condition." He looked at her. "Drew is part of an organization where secrets are kept. I can't give you your memory back unless you, too, join."
"Deal!" May said impulsively.
His sudden triumphant smirk startled her. "As a joke, this organization is called 'Assassins.' Fun huh?" His voice was soft, tailored towards the young and gullible. He had her right where he wanted her.
That had been the most impulsive moment of her life. To join the Assassins and thinking it was a joke, simply because she wanted to chase an imaginary face in hopes that he wasn't just that - imaginary.
"Are you the new recruit?" A russet-haired girl stole to May's side. "The Commander calls you Sapphire."
"I-I guess that's my real name," May admitted.
"So I heard somewhere that you're here just to look for someone," the friendly girl said. "Want to talk about it?"
"U-um, it's just someone from my memories that I can't remember that well. I know he's here though." Earlier, she had caught sight of him.
"Who is it?"
"Someone with green hair and emerald eyes" was May's immediate response. She scanned the others around them, trying to find him again, and didn't see the shocked look on the girl's face nor the sharp intake of breath.
"That would be Forest," she told May.
How many times did she get selective amnesia anyway? About three years in her life and there were missing patches afterwards as well. She was getting really sick of this whole erasing-her-memory-so-she'll-forget-everything-she -ever-knew tactic.
"Forest!" May yelled, running after him. They were out on the streets of the town, light from the street lamp spilling out on the both of them. She took a second to memorize the attractive lines of his face, the emerald shade of his eyes.
She could tell he was looking at her, too. There was something between them, something crackling like lightning. Tension was thick.
"Who are you?" he demanded, even as a flash of recognition flashed across his eyes.
"M-Sapphire," she answered, using her Assassin nickname in hopes that he'd recognize her face and see through her lie. "Don't you remember me? There's something about you that I know from my past... You gave me roses, a lot of them. I found a letter signed by you and I remember your face from that time."
Drew cursed under his breath, but then his demeanor changed completely and he smirked, flicking his hair to the side. "Did you dream about me? I get that a lot," he said arrogantly. "It's okay Sapphire, I'll give you a rose in consolation."
"No!" May flushed red in anger and embarrassment. "I know you. Stop lying, you know me too."
He dropped his facade almost immediately and walked up to her. His eyes were anguished. "How long has it been, May?"
Her breath caught in her throat when he lifted a hand to touch her face. "Too long," she whispered back, not understanding why he looked so upset. "W-what's wrong, Forest?"
He withdrew his hand and chuckled harshly. "Forest. You don't know anything, Sapphire. Go back."
"Wait," May cried as he turned away. "I know your real name - Drew."
Drew stopped moving.
"I don't remember much, but I remember you. And roses." May blurted out anything she could think of desperately, like she was trying to fix a break in a dam by filling it with as many stones as she could get her hands on. She couldn't let him leave again! "You gave me a lot of roses. I have them all still! And the note you gave me. You called me your Red. I remember."
Before she could react, Drew turned to face her and he pulled her towards him, holding her tightly. Stunned, she didn't react at first. Then she slowly relaxed and hugged him back.
"You know I'm going to have to erase your memory again after this..." he whispered into her ear.
"Make it worth it," May said, suddenly bold. She was in Drew's arms - again, her subconscious whispered - and everything felt right. This was where she was supposed to be, she just knew it. It didn't matter that she didn't exactly remember who he was or who he was to her, she was just happy to be with him even though they were awkwardly standing in the middle of the street at night.
He drew back for a moment, long enough for May to feel disappointed that he hadn't taken her words to heart. However, he smiled a genuine smile. "If you say so," he replied, and he pressed his lips to hers.
May cursed, opening her eyes as she sat up and glared at the wall, pretending it was Drew. He had erased her memory of their second kiss too!
If everything went according to the plan - no, when (think positive, May) - she was going to settle the score with him. He freaking took away her memories! Did he know how awful it was to not be able to recount anything for a span of three years?
Veil would contact her soon, May was sure of it. Then the next stage of their plan would commence.
Well, that's that for this chapter! This has got to be the quickest update ever, lol. Thank eeveeluvr for that, I had to make this appear on her birthday (or at least profile birthday... hehe)
Just six questions this time!
1) Are you ikarishippers out there satisfied? Oldrival? Contest? (If anyone wants Poke, I'm sorry, that'll be solved later in the story!)
2) VEIL WAS UNVEILED YEAH! Opinion? Did you expect that at all?
3) Yay May's alive! Brianna's working with her? What? O.o Opinion please!
4) What shocked you the most in this chapter?
5) What do you think will happen next chapter?
6) This story's winding down! I think three more chapters counting the epilogue will wrap Assassin Guardians up for good :o I'm curious, would any of you guys be interested in an extra 'story' that shows the back story of every Assassin mentioned in AG?
Review please! And I'm really grateful to those who've stuck by me throughout the writing and rewriting of this story :D
Oh, vote on my poll please!
~Air
