Chapter 25: Play This Game

(Orion Fremont)

The Pokémon Center's fluorescent lights seemed too bright to Orion when he pushed his way in. It hurt his eyes and made him feel exposed, and a crawling feeling spread over his skin.

Gina and Jason seemed to notice how uncomfortable he felt. They both gave him matching worried looks, and Orion managed to smile at them. "Just tired," he explained. "We'll deal with this stuff in the morning."

"Yeah," Gina said, a jaw-cracking yawn suddenly interrupting her would-be sentence. "I'm gonna hit the hay too." She headed off down the hall to her room, but Jason stayed back. He glanced up at his brother, regarding him silently for a moment. Orion wasn't sure what he was thinking, which was strange for him. Jason was normally an open book.

"You aren't going to run off in the middle of the night, right?" Jason finally asked. Orion's expression of surprise must have been a good enough answer. Jason smiled and nodded. "Good," he said, his seriousness dissolving as he stretched and rubbed the back of his neck. "See ya in the morning."

"Right," Orion said, heading to the hall with him. Gina's room was already dark, and Orion suspected she had collapsed on her bed fully dressed without bothering with anything else.

Jason paused by his door, since Orion wasn't making a move to enter his own room. Orion smiled, unstuck his feet from the floor, and opened his door. "Night, Jay," he said.

"Night." Jason disappeared into his room. Orion waited a few moments for the light to go off, and a few more seconds to make sure neither Gina nor Jason would be coming out.

Then Orion headed back out into the lobby, picked a seat by a window, and waited.

Orion had known he was going to take the rap for Jason the instant his little brother, in all his Kindergarten glory, had spilled the ink. It had been completely Jason's fault, and they both knew it. Orion had to admit, he was never a good baby-sitter. He let his little brother, so precocious and sassy for a five-year-old, get away with everything.

They didn't have a lot of time to devise a plan. Jason just looked up at his brother, his blue eyes wide with shock. His "sword," aka an old broom handle, fell to the carpet beside the ever-growing dark blue stain. Orion looked down at it, wondering for a moment if their Comet soap under the sink would get the stain out in the next five minutes. He vetoed that idea pretty fast. He might only be seven, but he'd had enough schooling to know that the stain might as well be chemically bonded with their carpet now.

Orion crossed the room to Jason, who cringed, expecting a verbal lashing. Orion took the broom-sword, stuffed it in their closet, and dragged Jason over to one of their big orange arm chairs. He helped Jason get up on the chair, then handed him a juice box. Jason still looked shell-shocked, but that was okay. Orion then walked over to the kitchen, grabbed a big wad of paper towels, and started vainly soaking up the excess ink.

A moment later, their mother walked in. She was in a gray business suit and was carrying an iced coffee. Orion always remembered her this way, for some reason. Though he had seen her in pajamas, a bathrobe, sweats and a t-shirt, his mind always conjured her up in a business suit when he thought of her.

Orion looked up at her, guilt written clearly over his earnest face. It wasn't a hard emotion to fake; he felt guilty for the lie he was about to tell, at least.

"Rye!" his mother exclaimed, almost dropping her drink. That wouldn't have really helped the carpet situation, Orion thought bleakly. "Oh my God, what happened?"

"Sorry!" Orion said at once, picking up the soggy dark blue towels and tossing them away, then getting new ones. "I didn't see it, I knocked it over… sorry."

"Wait till your father sees this," she said, the words "your father" coming out in a tense sigh, the way they had been for years. "He's not going to like this."

That was sure an understatement. Orion cast a quick look to Jason, who was now looking down at his lap, his hair in his face.

Their mother noticed it too. "Don't worry Jason," she said. "Daddy will be mad at Orion, but I'm going to deal with him. It'll be okay." To Orion, she whispered, "You really have to be more careful! Do you want him to be in a bad mood?"

"No," Orion said simply. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright," she said, sighing tersely. "Oh Orion, you're all blue." It was true; the dark ink was stained all over his hands, under his nails…

"Guess you could say I've been caught blue-handed," he joked.

It was a little too early for it to be funny. His mom just raised an eyebrow at him disapprovingly and said, "Go wash up. Jason, go with your brother."

Orion was soon standing on the step-stool in their bathroom, scrubbing his hands and watching as azure water swirled away into the drain. He was able to get the darker color to fade, but his hands were still a rather pleasant shade of lapis lazuli and the water would just not run clear. Orion stared down at them, a little disheartened. He wondered how long they would be blue. Becky and Dianne at school would sure get a kick out of that.

Jason was extremely quiet, which finally struck Orion as odd. He turned to face his brother, a questioning frown on his face, and Jason took one look up at him before bursting into tears.

Orion, shocked, jumped down from the step-stool. "What's wrong?" he asked, flabbergasted. He'd taken the blame for the ink precisely so Jason would not be sad. He hadn't expected his plan to backfire so incredibly.

"I'm sorry!" Jason howled, and Orion put his blue hands up to shush him. "It's my fault, and you're gonna be in trouble, and it's my fault!"

"Shhh!" Orion insisted. "It's not a big deal, really! It's fine, like Mom said, she's gonna talk to Dad. Okay?"

Jason managed to stop wailing outright and downgraded to heavy sniffles. Orion walked over and pulled him into an awkward hug, since he had to keep his hands away from Jason's white shirt. Jason hugged him back ferociously, and Orion felt his brother's various kinds of facial-moisture soaking into the front of his shirt slightly. It was a mark of how close they were that this didn't gross him out.

"Why'd you do it?" Jason asked, hiccuping slightly now and looking up at Orion with miserable eyes.

Orion laughed and ruffled his hair up. "You're my brother! I've always got your back."

He realized his mistake a second later; his brother now had a slight tint of sky blue in his blond hair. "Oh no," he said, dropping his face into his hands. Of course, this only succeeded in giving Orion two pale blue hand-prints.

At least it had made Jason laugh.

Orion, sixteen years old and sitting near the window of the Cerulean City Pokémon Center, blinked once, slowly. The memory before him dissolved and the real world came back all around him. Instead of his brother's childish laughter, a newer memory filled his ears. It was Gina, saying in her completely confident tone, "We've got your back, Orion."

She couldn't have possibly known how much those words meant to him. He was sure not even Jason remembered the details of the ink incident. He'd been so young, and even though he was always a sharp, smart kid, Orion knew that the best of their shared memories were blurry and indistinct to his younger brother.

A bitterness Orion tried never to feel rose in him like a hot column of steam. Orion was a calm person, careful and organized, patient and mellow. Whenever he got this way, though, it felt like he was not Orion anymore. Everything about him changed.

He hated that he had not been able to share more experiences with Jason up until now. He hated that their mother had not been able to take him to Saffron, too. He hated his father, even though he told himself he was lucky, that other kids had it so much worse. Orion was not hit, starved or abandoned. He got sworn at a lot, sure, but over the years he had learned to tune that in one ear and out the other. He hated his father for the fact that he didn't do anything really terrible outright, something that would allow Orion to go to the police with a big ol' shiner. If only Nathan Fremont had kicked him once, or knocked him into some furniture. Orion would be on his way to Saffron so fast his father's head would spin.

He hated the fact that, even after all these years of neglect, bottled up anger, and fierce arguments, he still felt subordinate to his dad. Nathan Fremont had power over him, and Orion had no idea how to tell that to Jason and Gina. To them, it was simple, a mere matter of law. Orion was sixteen. He could do what he wanted. They had no idea how hard it had been for him to pack his things, climb out his window, and run into the night. His eyes had darted around like a prey animal under the wings of some fierce night predator. He was so certain his father would emerge from some shadow, grab him in one swift motion, and drag him back home though some magical tunnel through space and time. Nathan Fremont was not a mere mortal in Orion's eyes. It made him feel like a mad man, but he could never shake the feeling that his father had a secret power over him Orion had never been able to understand.

The full memory of his dream in Mt. Moon came to him all at once: Use Psybeam, what the hell is wrong with you?

"Well, you decided to show up."

Orion didn't have to turn around. Of course he'd recognize his dad's voice anywhere. Instead he just sat still as Nathan Fremont walked around to the other chair, opposite Orion, and sat down in it. Orion looked up at his dad, observing the fading scar at his right temple, and another near his lip. His face looked a lot better than it had the last time Orion had seen him.

Orion thought he had experienced some pretty awkward silences in his life, but this one really took the cake. They must have sat there for a good ten minutes before his father finally spoke up.

"So, why'd you run off?"

"To be fair, I warned you," Orion said reasonably. "I wanted to go on a training journey."

"Yeah, you did, and I said no."

"I'm sixteen," Orion said, calling on Gina's logic to try to keep him afloat in this conversation. "I'm legally allowed to go where I want to."

"You are my son," Fremont said, and Orion could feel his dad's pale blue eyes boring holes into his forehead even though he couldn't make himself maintain eye contact. He found it funny that his father only used the words "my son" when he was trying to control him. "You do what I think is best until you move out on your own and get your own house and family."

"I don't need your money, if that's what you're talking about," Orion said dully. "I'm doing fine on my own."

Orion waited for the explosion. When it didn't happen, he figured his dad didn't want to start shouting and cursing in the middle of the Center at two a.m.

He could hear him grinding his teeth, though. "Orion, you might think you're smart. But I know why you left."

"Uh, yeah, I just told you why I—"

"Don't patronize me, boy." Fremont said it in a calm, even tone, which took Orion off guard completely. The words were aggressive, but the way his father was behaving was so completely out of character. Orion actually did look up at him this time, just to make sure he was speaking to a human and not a robotic look alike.

"I don't know what you mean," Orion finally said.

Fremont sighed. "We're really going to play this game? You're really going to sit there across from me and waste my time? Fine. You left because you think I'm up to something illegal, and you freaked out."

Orion's blood turned to ice in his veins. He was a terrible liar, but he called upon the Orion who had once been able to tell a bold-faced lie about an ink stain to his mother. "Is this about the break-in?"

"Okay, still playing dumb. Fine. Yes, son, it's about the break-in." The sarcasm dripping from that last sentence was more like his dad now, and strangely, that relaxed Orion a little. "I know you're entertaining some pretty weird ideas right now, but hey. You're a kid, it happens."

Orion's face twisted into something like disbelieving confusion. He felt like reminding his father that he was a legal adult and insisting that his dad was just spouting nonsense at the same time. He decided on saying nothing for now.

"You're coming back to Vermillion with me, you know. It's going to happen eventually, so you can drag this out, or you can make life easier for both of us."

Orion actually snorted at this, and he did not miss the widening of his father's eyes. Orion had never behaved this way to him before, and it gave him an exhilarating and terrifying rush. "Sure, Dad. Whatever you say," he said, each word dripping with sarcasm.

Fremont clenched his fist on the table. "You can't do this forever. Just remember that." He made a move to stand up and walk away, and Orion felt a surge of relief. It was cut short though, as his father instead stuck around and asked, "Where's Jason? I know he's here with you."

Orion shrugged, his expression and voice cool and remote. "Oh, I'm sure he's around somewhere," he said.

Fremont appeared to be counting in his head. He was struggling so obviously to reign in his temper and be calm that Orion knew he was playing with fire here. He just didn't understand why his dad was trying so hard not to be his normal brutish self. "Fine. I'll talk to him later. You'll be ready to come back to Vermillion with me soon."

He said it like it was a command and a prediction at the same time, and Orion wasn't sure which one it was. As his dad stood up, he glanced over at a table across the Center. Orion followed his gaze and saw four yawning teens against the other window, looking at a map and sticking it full of little post-it notes. They had four mugs of something with them.

"So, did you pay those guys?"

Orion looked up at his father, his brow furrowing. "What?"

"At the table there. You have to hire body guards against your own dad?" Fremont scoffed and shook his head before heading away from the table and out into the night. Orion had somehow thought his father was staying at the Pokémon Center, but he supposed he was mistaken. He shot a glance over at the table of four, and caught one of the girls looking his way. She looked back down at the map, and, on impulse, Orion got up and crossed the Center to their table.

The boy looked up at Orion as he approached. He had dark skin and eyes, and hair the color of an oil slick pulled back in a ponytail. Across from him was the girl who had caught his eye, and she looked sort of like she was related to the boy. The other two were definitely not relations, probably friends.

Orion cleared his throat. "So, you know my dad?"

They exchanged a look and smiled sheepishly. "We're sort of fans. Sorry if it's weird."

Orion had no clue how he knew they were lying. It was not a hunch, or a gut feeling. It was just a simple, clear-cut fact that leapt into his mind. They were lying, even though they were doing a really good job of it. He glanced at their map. "Planning a training route?"

"Mmhmm," the redhead girl said. "You're welcome to sit with us if you like. There's a chair over there."

Orion hesitated for a moment. All he really wanted to do in the world right now was go pass out. Something told him not to just yet, however, and he pulled up a chair at the end of their table. He caught an expression of bewildered shock on the brunette girl's face.

They made small talk about his dad's Gym. Orion wasn't able to pretend that he was proud of his parentage, but was polite and answered their questions. After a while though, it just became tiring. Orion rubbed his temples and sighed.

"So, who are you guys, exactly? Dad asked me if I'd hired you to protect me from him, or something. That leads me to believe something weird is going on here."

There was silence at the table, and finally the boy spoke up. "… No, we're just traveling together. Like we said before, we're fans of his Gym leading… one night he caught us trying to get an autograph from him—"

The redhead girl groaned and laughed. "So embarrassing. We did get our autograph though."

Orion just stared at them blankly. "Ah-huh," he said in a flat tone. Peripherally he was amazed that he was acting this way. This was not normal Orion behavior. It seemed today he was just a big ball of sarcasm and suspicion. "Look," he said earnestly. "I've just had the most freakin' bizarre talk in the world with my dad. He wants me to go back to Vermillion with him, but you know what? I really don't like my dad. He's a jerk. I don't want to go back, and I've got good reason not to. So, that's a bit of truth from my side. Can I maybe get a bit of truth from yours? You have some other reason for tailing my dad."

The girl who looked like the sister spoke up, a slight challenging look on her face. "You seem like a cool guy and all, but seriously, what's your problem? If we've been making you uncomfortable, sorry. It wasn't intentional."

Orion suddenly got brief insight to how his dad must have felt, talking to him and knowing he was lying, but unable to pry the truth from him. It was pretty frustrating, he had to admit. Orion heaved a sigh and decided to parrot his dad's words for the first time in his life. "So, we're going to play this game? Alright then, fine."

The redhead girl was not behaving like her friends. The brunette girl seemed shy and awkward, and was looking away from him. The two siblings were still set with confused frowns on their faces, looking more and more like this talk was an unwelcome one. The redhead, however, just stared at Orion, a strange and shrewd expression on her face. The boy looked down at a phone, reading something on it.

Orion got up from the table suddenly. He moved his chair back to where he had found it and shook his head. "Well, goodnight, then."

He was halfway across the Center when the guy caught up to him.

"I've been going out on a limb a lot the past few weeks," the guy said. "I really don't know what your deal is, or if I can trust you."

Orion laughed. "Well, if it's a comfort, that is precisely how I feel."

The guy and Orion stared each other down for a moment. The guy finally spoke what seemed like a very long time later.

"Let's talk about this stuff tomorrow. Somewhere secluded would be good."

That night, Orion did not sleep. He left the door to his room wide open and sat down on the ground, leaning up against the side of his bed. He could face the door this way, and hear if anyone came down the hall. He counted the breaths he took, unable to think of anything else. Next door, he was sure Jason was sleeping soundly, perhaps tossing and turning in his sleep, completely unaware of these new developments. Orion's eyes adapted to the darkness, staring unblinkingly out in the hall. A few times something moved in the dark, and Orion stood, ready to go out and stop his father from getting to Jason's room. It never was his father, though, and most of the time it wasn't a person at all—just a shadow, moving through Orion's imagination.

When the sun came up and dyed his room a soft pink, Orion thought only one thing as he got up to stretch out his sore, stiff body. I've always got your back.