Stacy threw open the door to the jail cells and hurried down the stone steps. I had to struggle to keep from losing my footing; she walked too quick for my liking. She leapt down the last few steps, mercifully letting go of me before leaping and allowing me to stumble down at my own pace.

As I landed on the bottom step, the jail room opened into a large basement that seemed to cover the entire area of the building. Several large cages and small rooms covered in bulletproof glass lined the room, and surprisingly the majority of the cells were occupied. Dozens of men and women rested in the cages, nearly all wearing red or green and segregated by color. There were only two men wearing blue sitting in the nearest glass case.

Stacy had stopped in front of an officer sitting at a desk watching the jailed. The officer wore large thick-rimmed spectacles which magnified his eyes so that they appeared to be bursting out of his head. His young face peered nervously as Stacy as she questioned him, and he stuttered as he whispered an answer.

I came over in the middle of Stacy's questioning. "Do you not know Patricia Quill?" She demanded.

"I… uh… the… the… the name rings a bell, I think?" His nasally voice whined. Approaching, I noticed the uniform was far too big for the kid, and that he had no decorations pinned onto his suit. He was an obvious rookie. "I think she's dead."

Stacy stared at him. "She's my mother. I need you to find her case or to direct me toward it."

"I don't think I can do that!" Four Eyes said quickly. "I need Chief Harmen to tell me."

"Chief Harmen gave us permission," I interjected. I stood next to Stacy, keeping a firm hand on her wrist to prevent her from running off. "Ask him yourself."

"I can't. I can't leave my post!"

I pointed with my free hand to the radio resting on his belt. "Call him, then. Just make it quick." I couldn't help eyeing the numerous people lined along the walls; I didn't want to know what war crimes the committed.

Four Eyes nodded and turned on his radio. "Uh… Chief…?"

There was a pause. "Four Eyes?" A voice that was unmistakably not Chief Harmen's asked. "Why are you calling me again?"

"You're… you're not Chief Harmen?"

The voice snorted. "Like I could handle that kind of stress. His number's 064, not 364, Four Eyes. This is like the third time, I swear."

"Sorry… sorry…" Four Eyes mumbled, turned a dial, and said uncertainly, "Chief?"

"Four Eyes," Chief Harmen grumbled. "Give them what they want." He hung up.

Four Eyes still hesitated, averting his eyes from Stacy's intense stare. He pulled out a key from the desk and tentatively handed it to us. "It should be in the Moemon section. Case… 7S42SR."

Stacy snatched the key and made her way to the staircase, but a voice from the cells shouted at us. "You! I know you!"

I stopped despite myself. I recognized the voice. Stacy stopped as well, turning to me impatiently. I turned to the cells, and one of the Mewtwo's Apostles stared back. Geoffrey, the doorman that I met an eternity ago.

"Hold on," I whispered to Stacy. "I won't be long."

I walked over to the cell and stood a few inches away. I didn't know how to react. I barely knew the man, so I didn't feel sympathy for him. Under the bright basement lights, he looked far uglier than he had in the darkness of night. His bandana had been lost, revealing that he had completely lost his left eye. It must have happened years ago, since it had scabbed over. Everything about him looked too big, and he hunched over as if unable to support the weight of his head.

"You're here," he noted. I knew immediately that this was not the same Geoffrey who I met guarding the Apostles. His mouth had recently bled, and he was missing some teeth. His arm was hastily bandaged, and the knot was coming loose as blood dripped from the wound. His voice was barely a timid whisper. "Where's Mary Beth?"

I looked at him curiously. "She's… she's dead."

"No," Geoffrey shook his head, closing his eye tight. "You're lying! Everyone says she's dead! She can't be dead!"

"She was in the tower when it fell," I explained. "She couldn't have survived."

"You're lying!" Geoffrey shouted. Some other prisoners turned toward us curiously. We were getting too much unwanted attention. Geoffrey started to sniffle, and snot dripped from him. "She saved me. I wanted to protect her. She can't be gone. I need to protect her."

I didn't want to talk to him, but curiosity got the better of me. "How did she save you?"

"I was a bad person," Geoffrey whispered. "I did awful things. I… I made a lot of mistakes." He pointed a swollen finger at Stacy. "Her, I know her. I did things to her." He pointed up to the ceiling. "To them. I did bad things to them. I need… I need Mary Beth to save me again so I can atone."

I turned to Stacy, who was staring at him with a mixture of curiosity and astonishment. "To her?" I repeated. "You've never met her."

Geoffrey sniffed, took another look at her, and shook his head. "Sorry, not her. Someone who looked similar to her. My worst mistake…"

Stacy approached, staring at Geoffrey intensely. "Someone who looked like an older me?" She asked carefully.

Geoffrey nodded slowly. I called Four Eyes over. "Why's he in jail?"

Four Eyes furrowed his brow in thought. His spectacles dangled dangerously on the tip of his small nose. "Some men to the east brought him over. They never explained why."

I turned back to Geoffrey to ask him the same question. Stacy placed her hand on the glass, and Geoffrey watched it curiously. "Stacy?" I asked.

"I need to know," Stacy whispered. "The woman you're thinking of, was she in an apartment building?"

At that, I knew exactly why Stacy was so curious. I quickly moved to her and held her shoulders. It was the same tension. I started to hate that tension.

"Yes," Geoffrey whispered. He seemed to have known as well. He looked down at her feet, unable to look her in the eyes.

"How did she die?" Stacy asked, her voice quivering. I tightened my grip on her shoulders; I needed her calm.

Geoffrey shook his head. "I don't want to remember. Mary Beth told me to forget."

Stacy wrenched away from my grip and turned toward the stairs. "7S42SR?" She repeated as she passed Four Eyes.

"Oh… yeah, I think so," Four Eyes said after a moment of surprise. With that, Stacy sprinted up the stairs.

But I needed to know, for his sake. I had a bad feeling I knew what Stacy was going to find. "Geoffrey, why are you in jail right now?" I asked. "How'd you get injured? I thought you were guarding the meeting building."

"I was, but I heard we were losing the fight so I wanted to help. I heard that Mary Beth was in the tower, and I feared she was kidnapped. I shouldn't have let her go; I should've followed her. But I didn't, and she was with the Saviors. I fought and fought, and we were winning, but then the tower started to fall.

"I screamed, I shouted, I panicked. I sprinted into the battlefield. I got hit, but I didn't care. I pushed past the Saviors as they were staring at their tower falling. I ran as fast as I could. I could hear her screaming; I knew I could. But then the tower fell, and the dust blew me away. I hit a wall, hurt my face bad. It was dark and warm and suffocating; I could taste blood and dust and dirt. I wanted to find her, I wanted to search the tower for her to save her, but the Apostles got to me. They pulled me away, away from the battlefield. I tried to fight them, tried to break free, but I couldn't.

"So I ran… I ran back home to protect myself. But I ran into the police. I tried to get them to help, but they wouldn't. I screamed at them, they screamed at me and pointed their guns at me. They wanted me to calm down, but I couldn't! Mary Beth was in trouble, and I couldn't do anything to help her! So they arrested me and brought me here with a bunch of other people."

I processed his story quietly. He seemed close to breaking down through most of it; he sniffed and sniveled and whimpered. For such a brute of a man, he had completely broken without Mary Beth.

"You said you hurt the police?" I asked for clarification.

He closed his eyes as if the thought pained him. "I…" He paused, looking fearfully at Four Eyes. "I can't…"

Four Eyes blinked curiously. "Why not?" Geoffrey simply looked down at his uniform.

"Because you're the police," I reasoned. "It doesn't really matter; you're in jail already."

Geoffrey shook his head. "Not for what I deserve."

Four Eyes looked up the stairs. "You'd better see where your Moemon went; she's taking a long time."

I nodded. I was getting worried myself. I ran up the stairs two at a time and saw the doors to the evidence rooms were open. Stacy sat on the ground and rummaged through boxes filled with files. The same intense concentration.

I knocked, and Stacy barely acknowledged me. "Are you looking for proof?" I asked.

Stacy nodded. "He admitted it," she said calmly, although I knew better to believe she truly was calm. "I simply need the proof."

"And then what?" I moved over to a random box and absentmindedly flipped through the folders.

"I'll get justice for my mother's murder."

I was afraid of that. "Stacy, we're in a police station, and he's in jail. You'll get us in trouble."

Stacy's mouth twitched in amusement. "You're not worried about me suggesting murder?"

I absolutely was. But I also understood Stacy's desire for revenge. I tried choosing my words carefully. "You said it yourself: you want justice. Your mother's murderers… they deserve to be punished for their crime. If you avenge your mother, that's justice." I paused, and she turned to me as if expecting me to continue. "You're intelligent and calculating and – at times – incredibly cold, and you never let emotions cloud your judgment."

"I am not blinded by emotion," Stacy stated.

"Not blinded," I admitted. "But you're acting out of rage. If you find out Geoffrey truly did play a part in your mother's death, and you decide to kill him, nothing good will come of it."

"A murderer will be dead."

"You'll just replace him."

"My mother is innocent; that man is guilty."

I paused, then I walked over to the door and closed and locked it. Stacy watched me suspiciously as I pulled out my Moeballs and let my Moemon loose. I wanted to weigh their opinions, to see if they sided with her or not. It didn't take them long to get used to their surroundings, and they listened to me explain the situation. I finished and turned back to the boxes while they tried talking to Stacy, who was intentionally ignoring me.

"Will you truly kill him?" asked Rose softly.

"If he is guilty."

"Do you think he deserves it?" asked Olivia.

Stacy turned to her. "My mother is dead. I will do whatever it takes to avenge her."

Olivia didn't back down from the stare. "You didn't answer my question," she said defiantly.

"Yes, he does."

Olivia nodded. "Then I'll support you."

"It's vengeance," Bailey added, shrugging. "That's the best reason to kill someone."

"He hurt you," Annie piped up, trying to sound supportive. "You should hurt him!"

Rose picked Annie up and hushed her. "That's not what you should say," she whispered. "You shouldn't want to hurt him. It's not the right path."

"It's the path I chose," said Stacy. "I do not want you to follow me, little one."

"But he hurt you!" Annie pouted.

"And I will hurt him, but this is my choice. Do not learn from me; I will no doubt regret doing this. You already have too many regrets."

Annie tilted her head in confusion. "But why do it?"

Stacy sighed, no doubt out of annoyance from having to repeat herself. She walked over to Annie and patted her head. "Because he hurt my family. I can't have that."

"And we're family, right?"

Stacy nodded. "We're family. I'd do the same if anyone hurt any of you."

Annie smiled. "I love you, Stacy."

"I love you too," Stacy looked up to Rose.

Rose frowned. "We all love you. But I wish you would reconsider. I hope he truly isn't the man you believe he is."

"A part of me wishes the same."

"I don't support your decision, but I support you," Rose smiled apologetically. "I hope it's enough."

Christine walked over and folded her arms. "On the roof, you asked if Arthur would act different if it was my family. What did you mean by that?"

"Is now really the time?"

"Yes."

Stacy turned to her, mirroring her pose. "You are his first and his favorite; he would do anything for you. I wanted to know if he felt the same about all of us; if he would do anything for all of us."

I paused from my searching and felt the need to add my input. "Of course I would. You're all my family. You don't have to doubt that for an instant. I'm there for all of you."

"Of course you are!" said Christine, grinning to me. "I know that!" She turned to Stacy, and her grin faded. "Stacy, I want you to promise me that you'll never say anything like that again."

"My fears were assuaged when you all came with me," said Stacy. "I will never say what I said on that roof."

Christine nodded, and her grin returned. "Then, as your family, I support you. If you want to do this, you will do this."

Finally, Stacy turned to me. "Will you stop me?"

I hesitated. I was with Rose: I didn't want Geoffrey to be what we believed he was. I wanted to avoid any possible problems. I wanted to avoid this exact dilemma. I didn't want to be indirectly responsible for another lost life; if I let Stacy go through with her revenge, I would be. I'd seen too much bloodshed already. If she went through with it, we'd have the entire police after us. I knew her intentions, and I could easily stop her.

But she was my Moemon, and she was my family. I was an idiot who was terrible with confrontation, and I saw the passion and fire in her eyes. I knew that if I stopped her, she would never forgive me. I couldn't. I couldn't lose her.

I shook my head. "If we find what you want, I won't stop you."

Stacy's mouth twitched into the hint of a smile. "If I find what I want, I won't need to be stopped."

It didn't take much longer to find the folder. Rose found it in a box hidden in the corner. She held it close to her chest as she read the number out for us, and we rushed over to her. She carefully handed it to Stacy, who held it as if it was priceless. She opened the folder, and a loose newspaper clipping fluttered out and landed at my feet.

I took it and examined it. It was a carefully cut article about Chief Harmen giving a eulogy at Patricia Quill's funeral. The picture that accompanied it had a few dozen people dressed in black standing above a plot of ground just outside the city. Ronald Quill and his family were at the front, but I recognized nobody else. The article itself told little that wasn't already known: it noted the police's unwillingness to release information and the subsequent disappointment of Celadon City's citizens.

I looked up and saw that Stacy's arms were shaking. Her face gave nothing away, so I could only assume it was a mixture of rage and surprise. Stacy seemed to finish her silent reading, looked up to me, and handed me the folder. My Moemon's eyes followed the folder as I took it. I gave Stacy a worrying look, but she seemed not to be willing to run away, and started reading through the remaining contents of the folder. There were three pages. The first was a police report.

"On a date over a year ago, the police station suddenly received several phone calls from the Celadon Apartment Complex. All reported similar things: Seven people sprinting through the building, up the stairs, and to the thirty-second floor. There were several shouts of anger from the assailants, and then screams, and then the sound of a door being broken down. A few seconds later, there was a loud shout of pain as one of the assailants sprinted out of the room and down the stairs clutching his face. One other assailant followed him shortly after, and both left the building.

"The remaining five remained in the room until police arrived. They were found completely enthralled in their attack. Patricia Quill was stripped down, bound, gagged, and stabbed in multiple places. By the time the police arrived, she had succumbed to her wounds, and four of the five were quickly arrested. The fifth, a woman, managed to evade police until she reached the roof. With nowhere to go, she leapt off to her death.

"The arrested assailants all wore the typical garb of the Celadon Saviors Blood at the scene revealed that one of the assailants was a Geoffrey Durnam, a janitor at Celadon City Elementary. The remaining assailant was wearing a ski mask and gloves and thus was unidentifiable. Unfortunately, as the four arrested men were being transferred to their jail cells, they were attacked by multiple convicts who had managed to break free. In the ensuing gang war, all four were killed.

"Geoffrey has gone into hiding, but the police will not allow the information that two assailants are still at large, for the public's interest. Photos taken of the seven assailants entering were confiscated and are held by the police. Chief Harmen has taken a special interest in this case and has taken over the report."

The second page was a collage of black and white photos of all seven entering and Geoffrey and the mysterious assailant leaving. Geoffrey seemed to be clutching his left eye as he sprinted from the building, and the mysterious assailant was still wearing his mask. The other five didn't matter much; they were dead.

There wasn't much on the final page. Chief Harmen had written a few notes down about the case. "RONALD QUILL – In Danger?!" was the largest in the direct center. Arrows pointed from Geoffrey to random scratched out names suggesting possible leads that all led to nothing. Finally, in the bottom right, in small letters as if an afterthought: "Saffron City? Hunters?"

I closed the folder, and we all turned to Stacy. Our assumptions had been confirmed. All of the evidence pointed to Geoffrey being there. Stacy didn't say a word. She looked at each of us in turn, and then sprinted to the door. I dropped the folder as we followed her down to the jail cells. She ran up to Four Eyes, who had finally calmed down from the intrusion earlier.

"Give me the key to that cell," she demanded, pointing at Geoffrey. Geoffrey was still pressed against the glass watching her.

"I… I can't…" Four Eyes stuttered, his eyes darting from Stacy to the jail to us as we approached. "I can't do that!"

"I will have those keys," Stacy stated, slamming her fist on the desk, shaking it and Four Eyes. "Give it to me."

"I won't!" Four Eyes cried. He pulled his radio up to his neck and dialed a number. "Chief! This girl from earlier is demanding the key!"

There was a pause. Then Chief Harmen's voice answered: "Four Eyes, come up here for a minute. I need you here."

Four Eyes blinked in confusion. "Sir? What did you just-"

"Four Eyes, I need you up here, now," Chief Harmen commanded. "That's an order."

"But, sir, the cells-"

"An order, Four Eyes!" Chief Harmen demanded. "Get up here in the next ten seconds, or I will send you out there without your rifle!"

Four Eyes cried out in panic and ran up the stairs. He closed the door behind him. While the rest of us looked at each other trying to interpret what had happened, Stacy moved behind the desk and rummaged through the drawers. She found a key ring and rushed over to the glass cell.

"Geoffrey," I said, getting his attention so that he couldn't watch her. "What happened last year?"

Geoffrey's gaze dropped to my feet. "I... I wish I could confess. I don't have think I have the time."

"I will give you time to confess," Stacy called as she found the key. The door slid open, and Stacy stepped inside. The other man in blue attempted to push past her, but she grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him against the wall, knocking the wind out of him. He sank to the ground. Geoffrey didn't make the same attempt. "What did you do to my mother?"

Geoffrey eyed her feet. "I was a good person. I was born a Celadon Savior, and I thought I would die one. That changed… six years ago. They made me do something horrible."

"Six…" Stacy repeated. "Do not tell me you murdered my father as well!"

Geoffrey shook his head. "Worse. I started the civil war." He looked at me, tears flowing from his eyes. "I was part of the team who attacked the police station."

I let that sink in. Hundreds if not thousands of people were killed because of him. I stared at him with newfound hatred. He was the reason why we were all in this fucking mess. "Why?"

"Because Greg told me to do it," Geoffrey answered softly. "Because they paid me and told me we'd win. We didn't win… so I hid. I thought I was safe when the war was over, but… danger is a drug. I got bored, and I wanted to go back to the Celadon Saviors. There were rumors they were readying another attack. But nobody remembered me, so I had to do an initiation. They told seven of us to go to the Celadon Apartment Complex and kill a woman.

"So we found out which apartment and went in. We broke down her door, but she was a Moemon. She sliced at us with her claws, and one of them pushed me forward and her claw caught my eye. I was blinded and in so much pain, I stumbled out of the building. I ran and ran until I reached the cathedral. I didn't dare go to the hospital. I collapsed, and when I woke up, Mary Beth was there to help.

"She saved me. I told her all of my sins, and she forgave me. She told me to forget them so I could be born anew, but I could never forget. She protected me, kept me safe from anyone who might remember me. I had a new life, and I wanted to save her like she saved me."

He smiled softly, as if was a fond memory. "I failed her. I suppose my sins have finally caught up to me."

"They sure have," I muttered. Whatever sympathy I might have had was gone. He didn't seem to fully understand how many horrible things he did. Or maybe he truly forgot. It made him feel better, but it didn't take back the losses.

"You weren't there when my mother died?" asked Stacy.

"No… I had no idea… I don't know what happened to any of the others. Mary Beth shielded me from everything."

"They're all dead," I stated. "All but one. The one in the ski mask."

"Nathan," Geoffrey nodded. "Good for him. He was a good man."

"Fuck off," I said. "He's a murderer just like you."

"I… I don't deny that."

Stacy stepped forward. "You were one of the men who killed my mother," she declared. "You may not have touched her, but you had the full intent. As her daughter, I will avenge her."

Geoffrey stood up to full height and nodded. "I understand."

Stacy bared her claw. "Do you have any final words?"

"I deserve this," Geoffrey replied. He gave a sad smile. "Don't feel bad; I would die one way or another. I'll be able to see Mary Beth again."

The two stood in silence, Stacy standing with her hand raised, ready to strike. She was hesitating. She was focused solely on Geoffrey, but her body would not let her move. She tried to push forward, tried to fight herself. But she refused to move.

She couldn't do it. I placed a hand on the glass. "Stacy," I said softly. "It's okay. Your mother-"

That was the word. The mention of her mother renewed her strength. She suddenly screamed with all the anger, the anguish, the fury, and the pain that she was pushing deep within her. Everything was released at the very thought of her mother. She charged forward and scraped her sharp claws straight through his neck.

Geoffrey's eyes opened in shock, and he gasped as he recoiled from the strike. Blood gushed from the wound as he spluttered and struggled to breathe. He stayed upright for what felt like a millennium, and then he dropped. His body gave one last gasp as he tried to fight in the inevitable, and then it silenced as he finally gave up.

Arthur:

Christine the Charmeleon

Stacy the Staravia

Rose the Roselia

Olivia the Dewott

Annie the Aron

Bailey the Banette

Quinton:

Melody the Metang

Wendy the Quagsire

Lucia the Lucario

Willow the Sudowoodo

Mary the Flaaffy

Eric:

Helen the Drowzee