BOOK TWO: UNCOVERED
Chapter Twenty-one: Confrontation
'N-no... It...it can't be happening. Not again,' I told myself helplessly, but I was quickly losing faith.
The Mr. Mime managed a grin amidst his concentration, and the togepi kept his broad as he opened his mouth. "So, you know our colleague, do you?" he asked, and I couldn't help but wish I wasn't constricted by any kind of rotten bind. I wanted to fry that pokémon like the egg he was.
Sed, now evolved, was a timid ivysaur barely different to his previous self as a bulbasaur. However, there was a certain fire in his eyes. At first I mistook it for passion, but suddenly I realised it was nothing positive. 'Revenge.'
"It...it was your fault!" he bleated hysterically, his face contorted with betrayal and agony. He looked uncared for, and I could only imagine what he had gone through. Still, I was obliged to ask.
"Sed...what happened to you? I...I thought you were..."
"Dead?" the togepi intervened, and I threw a glare at him—as best I could in my condition.
"I thought...Team Rocket..." I swallowed, hardly willing to admit my thoughts. "...I thought they executed you."
The statement only brought forth the ivysaur's anger, and it was entirely directed towards me. "Shut up!" he screamed, and at that point I realised he was still just a child. When we had met, he'd told me he had only been with his trainer for two weeks before Team Rocket got a hold of him. From my experience, I was led to believe that the pokémon that trainers receive as their official firsts were fairly young when obtained, and no more than two weeks had gone by since I had last seen Sed, making him still very young.
"Sed, listen to me. You don't have to do this."
"You don't know anything," he answered in a deep and wounded voice, his head low and his pupils partly obscured because of his angle.
"If we're done here," interrupted the togepi, glancing to the Mr. Mime.
The psychic type relaxed and all at once I was free. "Aah," he began, "that really gets the mind flowing."
Before I had the chance to take a step to flee, Sed's vines rocketed towards me at a speed I wasn't aware a grass type could possess, and I was once again constricted. I was shocked to find that he had not wound his vines up my torso or bound my legs, but my neck. The seriousness of the situation dawned on me as a poisonous wave swept through my veins; this ivysaur was scarred. And I had been the one to make the mark, whether I meant to or not. It was me that condemned him to his life as it was now, and, in his confused and merciless state, I felt momentarily frightened.
"Sed," I breathed, suddenly realising I was short of breath. My eyes grew and my limbs began flailing, although a use of too much energy would result in a shortage of the amount I reserved for surviving my hanging. "Sed!" The pressure began building, and I felt my eyes dampen as they slowly began leaking. Panic slashed my insides as my toes straightened and my fear instigated shivers. I could inch only a tiny gasp of air through my throat as the vines ceased to tighten, the ivysaur's face alight with pure hatred. My lungs threatened to burst as my head screamed; my brain thumped restlessly inside my skull whilst my panic swelled like a serious injury. The pressure expanding in my head gripped me as if a mighty snorlax was squeezing the blood from my face. I struggled harder, my jaws tightly compressed and my desperation increasing without rest. I longed to scream at him again, but the only thought occupying my mind was raw fear; I could die as a result of strangulation, and that information itself was deadly enough.
"What's wrong?" the togepi sneered, his eyes fixed on my struggle as he upheld his grin. "Can't breathe?" I choked and blinked out more tears; it was horrifying to know that this sick togepi found pleasure in witnessing me suffer. On top of that, he looked barely older than a child!
The best response I managed between fits of struggle and a further river of tears was a spray of flames that slipped between my teeth which barely ended a pace in front of me. My pain was similar to that of the armaldo incident, although vines were the culprit this time rather than water. However wrong the place and time was, I found it ironic that opposite elements could have an identical effect on the same target.
"Sed," the Mr. Mime muttered, "that's enough." He was still mildly amused, but the feeling seemed to slip from his face as Sed's intensity failed to pacify. After a moment without a reaction, his tone leapt to a somewhat sturdy one. "Sed. I order you to stop." But the ivysaur's rage couldn't be dulled, and his indignation burned more furiously as his face only seemed to twitch with more contempt than before.
"It's your fault," he spat, saliva seeping from his mouth and spattering the soil. I instantly recalled that the same sentence had been screamed from his lips the last time we'd seen each other; it was difficult to forget. I would have found his unforgiving expression contorted with pain and feelings of betrayal heartbreaking had he not had such a serious advantage over me; due to the current hierarchy, those things were only all the more frightening.
"Sed," the Mr. Mime growled in a harsher manner, the vitality in his voice streaming clearly through. "You know we need her alive." His pressing eyes warned even me of the apparent importance of my life, but with my increasing loss of consciousness, it was hard to tell what was what anymore.
The Mr. Mime made a move to repeat Sed's name, but he was cut off by the piercing seeping sound of poisonous spores launching into the air. Step by step the purple haze erupted in plumes to envelop the space directly around the ivysaur's body, and as it drifted closer, I could only feel my heart hammer as my ribs attempted to keep it contained. I barely noticed the Mr. Mime back away as the poison spread to the air surrounding him as well, and he threw his forearm under his eyes to mask his mouth.
Sed's sanity didn't hesitate to disintegrate sections at a time, and the realisation that this could be my end taunted my mind while I could do nothing but live the nightmare. The situation was no longer centred around Sed, but me. I was at the receiving end of his rage, and he showed no sign of letting up.
I couldn't take any more. My insides were bursting with a need to breathe while my brain expanded to the point where it was forcing the edges of my skull apart; my vision blurred, all signs of oxygen inhalation came to a halt, and my flailing died down. My connection with reality mollified, as did my cognitive and physical functions. I could literally feel myself shutting down, and it was then that I truly believed I was on the brink of death.
Thankfully it appeared that someone wouldn't allow that.
A shot of sickly dirt and gunk projected itself into the vines, striking with the advantage of unexpectedness and caused them to fling me into the trees nearby. I had been released! The joys of oxygen returned to me, but I knew my strength was failing and I could do nothing to stop myself from becoming tangled with branches and restless leaves.
I thought I had fainted as my eyesight plunged into blackness and my limbs seemed to go numb. Only seconds later did the pins and needles set in, and I was suddenly at the mercy of my own bodily functions. The needles stung and tickled fiercely at the same time; it was one of the weirdest feelings a pokémon could feel—besides evolving. My vision took its time to return, but in the meantime, my ears detected sounds of battling, and another pokémon appeared. As soon as I heard speech I identified her as Azure, and by her surprised mentioning of Splash, I'd say it was his gushing water attack that saved my hide. Although my sight and muscles weren't fit for aiding me, my speech still functioned.
"Azure!" I shouted hoarsely, feeling the effects of a sore throat when trying to speak. "Get rid of them!" I would have said more, but I was hardly in a suitable state.
It wasn't long before I heard padding and more voices, and I knew reinforcements had arrived before I happened to slip into a spiral of unconsciousness.
ooo
I murmured myself awake and proceeded to sit up quicker than I should have. The world spun as my eyes failed to maintain a clear view, and I was forced to lean forward on my front legs as I began to recover.
"You're up," commented Zhol, and I was immediately reminded of how Izante had an annoying tendency to state the obvious, especially as it happened. With Zhol it wasn't so abundant, however.
"I am," I responded wearily, happy to find no new bandages. "Where are we?"
"This is my home," the sneasel told me steadily. She kneeled before me and seemed ready to help if I needed it.
"Nice...house." I lifted my head and scanned the room, noting pretty much what I saw in everyone else's. One corner was iced over and had an ominous icy steam radiating from its surface, and I nearly admired it before becoming disgusted by its existence. "How does that stay unmelted?" I questioned, a slight frown patting my face.
The sneasel rose, inhaled slowly and forced a shaped spray of freezing air. As it made contact with the ice, the particles solidified and the clump had no choice but to double in size. I shuffled back a pace or two, and she seemed to flinch, resting a cautious gaze upon me. I could tell she was uneasy about my reaction, and it became evident that she feared she had done something wrong as she continued her almost-worried look. She gave the ice a few seconds of attention before presumably switching back to me, but by that time I'd looked away.
I was disorientated. I felt marginally cold, which was unusual for me, and the streaming sunlight reaching me through slits between the logs told me it was no longer the time of the night hunters. It was morning. Last I remembered, I had been strung up in a tree and a few members of the colony – Splash, Azure, and others – had been fending off the invaders. Or ambushers. Or whatever they were.
Wiping my eye with a paw, I turned to Zhol. "What are you doing here?"
She adopted a shred of perplexity and melded it with her face. "This is my home," she simply stated with edged concern.
"No, I mean—why are you here now? Don't you have other duties?"
She must have been unknowing about the nature of my question. "I stayed to ensure your safety," she answered as if I'd offended her slightly.
"Oh, I—I just...didn't know." I shrugged, pushing a sigh between my lips. "It's nice of you to wait for me to...greet the morning," I half-heartedly chuckled.
"Yes, well... You were out for the entire night. You were brought to me upon the fleeing of some intruders, and you've been asleep ever since. I assumed you'd been unconscious by violent means to begin with, and that you'd combined your unconsciousness with sleep." She stopped to feel herself breathe, staring at me with nothing more than an informative face. It was a moment before she averted her eyes and uttered, "Anyway. I best leave," and pressed against the wall to hoist herself upright. The question of why she wasn't in the clinic resting sprung to my mind before I figured she must have gotten treatment for her wounds after Shard escorted her to the clinic the night before, and that she returned to the comfort of her home shortly after. It was either that, or she refused to leave me unattended at her home.
"Zhol," I began, and she looked without emotion. "You shouldn't be out and about in your state." I rose to my paws and stood before her, adamant about my decision. "Don't tell me you're fine, or that you can handle yourself. You need rest. You're a strong pokémon, but—"
"I'm going to Aemara's clinic," she mumbled, her tone clouded with a tinge of blatancy. Although she did manage a smile.
"O-oh..." I began whispering embarrassed apologies as I helped her out, and took her to the clinic where Aemara was waiting. However, as I entered the room, my fur suddenly erected. My nose curled into an instant snarl and my claws seemed to rise, as if prepared to strike at any moment.
On the end table to the left lay a small familiar sphere. The unmistakable patterns branding his irremovable shell called for attention as his tiny arms and legs seemed to sprawl in useless directions. The lack in movement told me he was unconscious, and for that and only that I was thankful. "What the hell is he doing here?" I growled, low-toned and instinctively protective.
Aemara turned in her graceful innocence and raised a hand to her mouth to gasp. She looked about to greet us with wariness when she instead turned only her head towards the egg elevated beside her, and then back to us. "He—he's injured," she admitted between swallowing. "I was told to—"
"But he's the enemy! He attacked us last night!" I spat, taking care to shield Zhol from whatever could happen next. "Him and that Mr. Mime, and—" I cut myself off as I recalled the early morning's events. I was still preparing to whisper the next word before Aemara dived in.
"His injuries were only minor; he will be moved to another building soon." The froslass kept her gaze fixed on me, as if waiting for my approval. I only snorted. My fur slowly descended to meet with my skin.
"If his injuries were minor, then why is he being treated instead of Zhol?" I stepped aside, as if to reveal my friend properly, but Aemara's decision didn't teeter.
"Dusty, please," Zhol hissed, and her sudden hint of hostility caused me to reconsider my whole argument.
Only fuelling an awkward situation, I renounced my place and stepped off my branch, touching the ground with suspicious agitation. "Aemara," I muttered, solid and blunt, "who told you to take him here?"
"...Shardclaw," she answered after a moment's hesitation, and I turned my tail and exited the confinement.
Bounding with a clear goal in mind, I aimed to seek out that oversized bug type. 'I knew I couldn't trust him,' I thought bitterly, connecting the dots. 'He was so damn suspicious of my relations with Luck, and now he's suddenly put all the injured at risk simply to treat someone not even part of the colony? That togepi is dangerous, and Shard should know it.' I knew that something was going down. And I had to suss it out. The scyther must have had his reasons, but I was convinced he either didn't think his decision through, or he had some kind of alternate story behind it.
In hot pursuit of answers, I stormed through the colony with a stumble in my step before reaching where I believed the suspicious pokémon lurked. Following some form of vague trail, I snuffed out his doorstep and whipped my head around, seeing only other colony members about. 'He was here recently,' I concluded, speeding in the direction the scent led me. Once I crossed the clearing close to the fire place and passed the tree I had been thrown in, my eyes growled for some form of verbal action. They had captured the image of a sturdy scyther leaning with his sharp scythes against the wooden fence bordering the younglings' play area.
"Shard!" I barked sharply, catching him unaware as he flicked his body into a fighting stance and eyed me off. He failed to let his guard down as his wings rose and his scythes reflected the dull gleam of the sunlight. His head lowered and his expression conveyed messages of focus and caution. However, his half-arsed facade didn't fool me. "Why did you let Aemara heal that togepi?" I pressed, skipping formalities.
"He was injured," he answered, slightly less defensive than I'd expected.
"He's the enemy," I snapped.
"Even the opposition deserves a chance at life," retorted the bug and flying type, and to that I only scoffed.
"Life, maybe, but his injuries were minor. Aemara said so herself."
"Once the togepi is better, we can interrogate him," he reasoned, and I thought it over for a mere moment.
"Will you treat him to a fresh drink and a hot meal as well?"
The scyther's immaturity seemed nonexistent as he barely responded. However, I knew that if he was totally innocent, he would have no reason to hold his form like he was, and it only further confirmed my theory.
The detective in me began to surface as I spoke in a slower and slightly condescending tone. "I've learned that your reputation leads you to gain respect amongst the colony members..." I didn't move as I spoke. If I advanced, he might assume I was challenging him. I was simply responding to his challenge. "You can get as many followers as you like on your side... You can also admit anyone to the clinic and make important decisions on your own grounds. It seems even the leader is under your scythe."
"You know nothing of this colony," he hissed, and seemed thinly startled by his own bitterness. Blinking it out, he refocused and I saw the flicker of his nostrils within a few delicate moments. "You have no authority here, and you certainly don't have the right to accuse me of treason." He curled his neck and filed his eyes. Their abrupt severity shook even me as I tried to maintain my composure. He closed the space between us by one step, and even such a small portion of our distance removed seemed dramatic. "Don't think I can't see through your lies, flareon," he spat, and in an instant an army of shivers worked their way through every inch of my body. A savage twist sliced at my stomach and I was close to gagging. My eyes lost their confidence and suddenly my armour slipped. Even my toes threatened to give me away as they began trembling under the crushing presence of the fearsome scyther. "I know you're neglecting something from your convincing tale, and I will be the one to uncover the truth."
I could do nothing but stare with horror as fear shot through my veins. My fur stood on end as I was cornered with a boulder suspended above and a tidal wave storming closer. Needles from a cactus pinned me against a rock wall, and my muzzle was bound closed by the chains of justice. The ground I felt so sturdy upon began to split. I was trapped.
With a fierce flutter of his wings, Shard sliced into the air and tore his way across the sky, landing short of Wynore's house. The great ursaring emerged with the tiny teddiursa at her side, and both absent-mindedly greeted Shard as they fixed their gazes to me. My urge to move swelled like a growth as they approached, my eyes flittering and unable to keep still. I must have looked like a fuzz ball as my fur turned to spines and my nose flared with each step they took. The wave was closing in on me, but the needles prevented my movement. A sickening feeling played with my belly, shooting butterfree through my passageways.
"You refuse to enlighten me with the truth," Shard snarled, following slightly bent with his scythes out in front, "but you owe them an explanation." Stopping only metres before me, the bug and flying type rotated his spiky head to the left, and his eyes followed the two sienna pokémon take their place beside him. His eyes were wandering and I could tell he wasn't going to stay; he ushered the teddiursa with the flat sides of his scythes away from her mother and led her to the play pen before she squeezed through a space between the wooden beams.
Realising my place again with the pokémon I had been wary of since my first encounter with her, my claws hid behind rocks and grains of soil willing to unearth. However, the slight breeze was enough to blow the grains away, stripping them bare and sending yet another shiver racing through my body. I hid my embarrassing tail and tried luring my pride to my chest, puffing it bravely and repeating internally that I could hold my ground.
The ursaring's solid expression was of pure disdain. A frown was carved tactlessly into her features, and her stance spoke of potential brutality and ruthless rage. I nearly jumped as she spoke. "Where is my mate?" she growled without bothering to hide her forwardness. I could basically confirm by her behaviour that she and Shard had been conversing.
My brain turned and I held my lip between my teeth. "I—I told you," I stammered, swallowing and trying my hardest to keep eye contact. "He fled the ship."
"Lakane doesn't flee from things," she snapped, stomping her right foot. I knew immediately that she was going to get the truth out of me one way or another. She had no intentions of playing me softly, and it seemed that even Shard was willing to turn a blind eye to whatever the ursaring may bestow upon me. Half of me understood his motives, but the other part loathed his sorry hide for calling my bluff.
"Or maybe he helped the other pokémon off the ship," I reasoned, finding that as a more appropriate explanation.
Wynore fell silent as she contemplated her words carefully. She took a breath. "I truly hope he is alive," she spat, hardly allowing her sincerity to seep between the gaps of her euphemistic threat. "We have a cub to raise. I look after an entire kindergarten of young. Lakane was Habib's bodyguard!" she boomed, and my eyes widened in a heartbeat. I caught sight of Shardclaw who, in the distance, seemed to respond to the last sentence. In a panic, I knew I had to reply.
"His death has noth—" I froze. A horrific feeling suddenly swamped my heart.
Death. I said death. 'She was talking as if he was dead! I completely let it slip—'
"Tell me, flareon," Wynore rumbled, her looming figure forcing me to crane my neck and scuttle frantically back a few paces. Her expression had morphed into a grief-stricken and livid one, and I could clearly read that she was both guilty and moral in her decision to blame me. "How many pokémon did you kill because of this ship incident?"
I was taken aback by the comment. Personally I hadn't thought of them as deaths, but, rather, necessities. I didn't really have a word for them. "I didn't count," I growled. "And for your information, I only killed when it was imperative."
"Nidorino, nidorina," she retorted, comparing my definition with another similar one. Essentially she questioned my definition of justice. "How many of those pokémon had trainers? Homes? Families?!"
My face lost its formation and my jaw was suddenly loose. My ears drooped and my mind returned to the many incidents whose severity was ambiguous. "W-well... I only killed Rocket pokémon. They had the choice to join us or—"
"You KILLED them!" she roared, forming some kind of invisible sphere between her two palms as she held her clawed weapons suspended at her belly.
"Killed..." I whispered, feeling my head rattle from side to side. "No...no... I protected the innocents and slayed the evil."
"You murdered humans too," she accused, her face clouding over with hatred.
"N-no!" I held my teeth before admitting, "Y...yes..."
"All vine whip users—throw the humans off board, along with any pokémon that try to oppose us!" I halted, witnessing a Rocket man being tossed over the side a few metres up ahead. He yelled all the way down, being silenced by a splash. The wind whipped around our small group, almost chilling me. I barely noticed as I crept closer, taking in the deep claw gashes that ran slashed across the human's neck. His metal gun sat alone and separated from his hand. Cerise blood stained his uniform, and a dense pool soaking his black hair and hat had formed from the wound's leakage.
"It was kill or be killed!" I shouted, a new sense of guilt laying itself onto what already plagued my mind. My head restarted its shaking. "I...I had to! And I had to destroy the ship afterwards..."
Her glare drilled itself through the barriers my skull was supposed to maintain, twisting parts of my brain and constricting my heart with the unravelled structures.
"You had to do nothing!"
"You destroyed the ship?" a voice spiked, and I jumped to find the infamous scyther join our ever so joyous conversation.
"Yes!" I exclaimed, capturing more space as I stepped backwards, losing my grip on sanity.
"Did you let everyone escape?" he pressed, following my movements as he too towered over my frail form. "Or did you leave some on board?"
"STOP!" I screamed, binding my eyes and clenching my jaws.
"I knew I never should have trusted you!" the scyther roared, his wings beating furiously. "Fire types can't be trusted! You're all the same; your fire is deadly, and your spirit is no different."
"Lakane is dead because of you!" Wynore raged, chancing a swipe and scooping the space a hair away from my tuft.
"All those other pokémon...those humans," Shardclaw highlighted, stabbing me with each word. His voice was tainted with the disgust of a million pokémon.
"You killed him!" she screeched, landing a hit as her great paw beat the side of my face. With devastating force, I was thrown metres before rolling to a halt. Stones pricked me as sticks stabbed my wounds; blades of grass cut my eyes and the soil forced itself into my mouth.
My paws seized as my legs started their violent vibration, my jaws so tightly interlocked that I could have shattered my teeth. A stream of tears stained my face, pooling beneath me as my bandages lay limply hanging from my flesh. I was suddenly overwhelmed with an emotion combining grief and guilt, slaughtering my only hope for redemption.
"Tell us," Shard demanded scathingly, baring his deadly set of fangs.
My nose continued to fizz as my eyes bled their painful liquid, and I blubbered with uncontrollable consistency. The never-ending abyss I had fallen hopelessly into was not going to end upon my request. "I...I...can't."
A weight flattened itself along my back with impetuous force, and I jerked as my breath suddenly left me.
"Confession will release you," Shard tempted, appearing inches from my left.
"Tell us what happened to Lakane!" Wynore thundered, increasing the measure of power applied to her leg.
However, I couldn't respond. Beside my anguish and inability to unchain my secret, it had become impossible to gather the air to push out a response. I began to relive the horrid events that had occurred only that morning, and I knew my body was incapable of yet another torture session involving a lack in oxygen inhalation.
My problem was fixed as the ursaring released her hold on me, although I felt no more luxury as she scrunched her claws around my mane and lifted me from the ground. My legs wiped the ground before hanging without a stone of support, and I pierced the air with a squeal of discomfort. Naked fear contaminated my conscience, launching spears of serious self doubt into the depths of my mind. I wanted to tell them... I didn't want to lie! Master had always told me lying was a misdeed that nobody should ever have to do commit... However, I was on trial for much more than just lying.
"You murdered pokémon who got in your way... You didn't think of their needs or their reasons for fighting." The scyther circled me, halting smoothly once he reached each side of the ursaring's body. Never faltering or losing a grasp of his temper, he kept his imprinted glare of scorn and suspicion as his interrogation continued. I was no different to that togepi. "Did you even give them a chance?!"
"ANSWER ME!" the ursaring raged, thrusting my wilted body to the ground.
The wind was knocked from my chest, and the continuous tears wove between every strand of fur as my pain increased. Finally I snapped, scrambling from the threatening monsters and shrieking, "OKAY! I ADMIT IT!" They fell silent, holding their sneers until I spoke again. "I..." On the verge of spilling the secret of Luck's death, I attempted to contain it. However, my ability to do so was waning, and it was only a matter of time before I exposed the truth and stripped myself of any dignity I may still have stowed between the cracks of my heart. Cramming my trust in the jaws of words, I whimpered, "I killed...many pokémon." I had prolonged my confession once more.
Shard's anger nearly overtook him as he raised his scythes and boomed, "That's not what you were going to admit!"
His seriousness frightened me to my core as he looked ready to bring them down, when suddenly a blur knocked him clean off his feet. Our combined shock was enough to influence the mightiest of pokémon; for a moment I had myself convinced that one of the togepi's deadly accomplices had returned to seek vengeance, but as soon as the scyther and the blur rolled to a stop, I gasped. Shard was unwilling to raise his blades to the pokémon pinning him down, and his anger was temporarily shelved. Nothing but shock seemed to occupy his mind. Wynore's reaction hardly differed.
"Zhol!" cried someone from behind me. I rotated my head to view a worried raticate holding her paws to her face before scurrying past me and to her friend's aide. I barely knew what to make of the situation.
"Answers!" the sneasel roared through anger and confusion. I wasn't in a position to view her face, but rather the back of her, as she sat warningly on the scyther's chest.
Shard's face returned to a less severe version of what he beat me with, and it was clear the he feigned innocence. "You should be resting," he responded with a mix of concern and frustration.
"What were you doing to her?" she growled, arching her back as her face neared Shard's. I found myself blinking out my tears and exhaling a great breath of relief. Her concern for my welfare was utterly flattering, especially in such a situation. At the same time, however, when she found out of my misdeeds, it was clear that I would be framed as the villain and even she would accuse me of my lack in responsibility and honesty.
"Zhol," Shard began gravely, lowering his tone as his eyes flicked from me to her again. "You can't trust this pokémon. She's—"
"I said," she hissed coldly, her pressing tone striking me as extremely outraged, "what were you doing to Dusty?!"
"She lied to us!" Wynore stepped in, curling her claws to somehow emphasise her point. "She lied to the whole colony."
Zhol's position didn't dissipate as she continued to listen. I could only picture her doubting face. That alone was enough to make me want to flee and never return. She had faith in me, and that was about to be shattered.
Shard snorted but didn't make an attempt to resist Zhol's actions. "We believe that she is hiding something." He passed me his frightening stare, but I quickly rejected it as I searched the back of Zhol's head for some sort of comfort. I needed her eyes. "She may not even be who she says she is."
"I know who she is," Zhol uttered bluntly, holding her position before removing her strong claws from the section of arm connecting Shard's scythe with his shoulder. Silently she shuffled off him and rose to her uninjured foot, moving her head half way to meet eyes with Wynore. She found Gigin for support and turned slowly around, meeting my gaze for but a moment before murmuring for me to follow her back to the clinic.
Shame glazing my entire face, I heaved myself up and followed sluggishly behind.
ooo
My head hung from my shoulders as the darkened streaks of fur marking my face told of my recent emotions. My eyes occasionally wandered the clinic's interior to spot Zhol, Aemara and Gigin soundly making amends to Zhol's injuries. I had forgotten that she was half lame, and because of her kind-hearted actions only minutes before, she had stressed her wound to the point of its reopening. It was clear that Gigin had been propping her up on her way to where we resided, and as soon as her eyes fell upon the situation, she took matters into her own claws and zipped to my presumed rescue. I had cost yet another pokémon their futile effort; I was positively cursed, and yet I would still be blamed.
"Your bandages," began Aemara softly, her delicacy almost strange compared with my previous encounter with the colony's pokémon. She hovered towards me, but as she decreased our distance to that of a few paces, I cringed, withdrawing into myself and turning my head from her. She stopped, her body beginning to sway as it caught up with her mind. I fixed my gaze on a grain of dirt coloured differently to those around it, drawing my paws in as my tail attempted to wrap itself around them. Half a tail was hardly substantial.
I sensed her backing away once she ended her period of stillness, and floated back to Zhol. I heard shuffling and a soft click, and could only imagine that she had lay a foot on the ground after climbing from an elevated bed. She approached unevenly, leaning against the raticate. "Come on."
I waited for them to leave and after a moment's hesitation, I picked myself up and trudged after them. I caught sight of a few pokémon as I made my way to Zhol's home, noticing their intrusive stares. It was as if Shard and Wynore had already spread news about my untrustworthiness, and all the pokémon of the colony were growing to condemn and even hate me. I had betrayed them all during the late hours of the previous night, and not one of them deserved treatment installing false hope into their hearts.
After we entered Zhol's house, the sneasel requested that Gigin left. She did so with no more than a nod, and repeated the same action to me before scuttling from the rectangular hut. I could hear the bustling of Den Row as I sat silently, eying my paws as I waited for the moment Zhol would interrupt and begin accusing me. I played with the insides of my lips using my fangs, searching for tissue I could tear off and chew without creating a wound.
"What did you tell them?"
I felt my jaws slide together and my eyelids meet, my ears stiff and my nose quivering. I was reluctant to answer; saying the wrong thing would surely result in disaster. Zhol was the only friend I properly had in this colony, and I didn't want to foil our friendship so early. I had already lost my best friend. Losing her as well was a frightening thought. 'The least you can do is answer her,' I growled inwardly, knowing full well that I owed her that. "I told them..." Ashamed and bitter, I muttered, looking up, "That Luck went missing."
To my surprise, she didn't comment immediately. Instead she seemed to shift through reasons why that would be my choice of words, and ended with a scowl. "That was wrong." She let her head wander in agitation before returning it. "You only prolong their suffering. They have to know the truth."
"I couldn't!" I barked defensively, suddenly displaying stress. My breathing rate increased, and my front paws became separate. "I couldn't tell them about him. He's their family. If I found out my family was dead, I'd..." Images of my master flashed behind one eye and moved to the next just as fast.
"You wouldn't want to be kept from the truth, either," she retorted. I knew she was disappointed. That was one of the worst feelings I could have added to my list. She must have thought I was a cruel fool.
"But, I..." I lost my words. I wasn't sure how I felt. I knew I was guilty, ashamed and greatly saddened! Yet I couldn't decide whether I wanted to break it to the colony or not.
More seriously, she lowered her tone. "It isn't your right to keep the colony in the dark."
Suddenly my mind returned to Shard, and my paws tinkered with desperation. I became restless as my gaze wouldn't hold and my face began to twitch with confusion. I began to scamper into the corner and steadied myself so I wouldn't continuously shake. "I know!" I shouted, feeling the tears beginning to well once more. I felt as if I was brewing a fire storm that was likely to explode any moment, my eyes blurring and my nose undergoing an odd sensation. "I know... But, I... I didn't know what to do, Zhol..."
After moments of immobility, the dark and ice type edged towards me, finishing her movement as soon as she must have felt she was close enough. I wept silently once again, and I could tell Zhol wasn't sure how to comfort me. Feeling the steely but somehow comforting touch of her claws on my shoulder, I flinched, only to relax. Her words were simple and didn't go unquestioned. "Tell them the truth."
My stare met hers, my teary eyes choosing the centre of her pupils. I managed a weak, misleading smile that quickly formed a wailing opening, and I slid my head onto her shoulder, raising my right paw to rest on her other. "I'm just so confused," I whined, drawing a breath between blubbering. "She was my best friend, and she just...left. And now these pokémon have to deal with the loss of their friend..." I tilted my neck, half lying my head on its side as it straightened from her shoulder. "Why is this happening?"
The only response my friend instigated was a left claw resting on the back of my mane and the placement of her head on my shoulder for balance. I sensed her temper quell and her understanding increase, and for that I was thankful. Nobody could ever completely replace Izante, but Zhol was immodestly filling her place.
ooo
"Tell me," squawked an enraged bird-like pokémon, her crest rising and her puffy wings fluffing up all the more. Receiving no answer, she fired a dragonbreath onto the togepi strapped to a log, and the normal type screeched in discomfort as the odd flames seared what skin wasn't obscured by shell. His fixed feet hardly moved, and his arms, in a similar state, were of equal uselessness.
"I told you," he sneered, "that I'll only speak to the flareon."
"We know where you're from," she huffed, altering her emotional appearance by a tone. "It's a hideout in the mountains."
The togepi released a dark chuckle and mumbled, "You'll never find it alive."
Tarla let a grin peck the edge of her beak. "And you just ratted out your comrades."