Disclaimer: Pokémon and its related properties are copyrighted to The Pokémon Company and Nintendo, respectively.


A Yearning for the Mud
Chapter Twenty Eight – Ice Cream

This love is silent – T.S. Eliot


A long slender lump moved through a blanket of orange and yellow leaves that coated the grass between two of the ICO's wings. As the lump carved a pattern through the leaves, a lumbering ludicolo kicked through piles of leaves groundskeepers had raked in hopes of tidying the yard. Two girls trudged through the leaves that swallowed their feet as they kept their distance, moving outside the range of the dancing ludicolo and the lump beneath the leaves.

Wallace flipped the rusty latch of the window above his bed and pushed the glass out, the hinges squeaking as the window opened. As he rested his arms on the sill of his window, Wallace narrowed his eyes on the girls below. They dressed alike, jeans and hoodies with their hair tucked into their hoods as they moved through the yard.

As the white-haired girl moved away from his building, Wallace made out Willow's face, her pale cheeks reddened by the autumn chill.

"Sienna, stop messing around with me," Willow said. "Polonium, wrap!"

A serpentine body shot from the leaves, its full body larger than the bulge in the leaves portrayed, as it lunged toward the ludicolo.

"You and seviper are too hasty," Sienna said as she moved in time with her ludicolo. "Use fake out."

Wallace watched the seviper's mouth come unhinged, large fangs bared at it neared ludicolo. Spinning, ludicolo smacked seviper out of the air, one of its large palms swatting the poison-type away. Seviper hit the ground and rolled, its body coiling as it tumbled through the leaves. Its body scrunched as it hissed at ludicolo who hadn't stopped dancing with Sienna.

"Swords dance," Sienna said as she hopped from foot to foot.

Ludicolo froze and threw its hands into the air and shook its whole body. "Co! Lo!"

"You and that stupid dancing tree," Willow said.

"Ludi isn't a tree, he's a dancing fruit," Sienna said.

"Whatever, Polonium, go for another wrap and follow it with poison fang."

"Viper!" Seviper's body flattened as it cut through the leaves and lunged for ludicolo again.

"Zen." Sienna stopped dancing as she moved behind ludicolo. "Wait for it, headbutt!"

Ludicolo tipped its body back, a glint of purple light crossing its forehead as seviper made another lunge for it. As seviper's mouth opened, ludicolo flung its body, its head smashing against seviper's and sending the poison-type shuddering back to the ground.

"Dragon tail!" Willow blurted.

Wallace watched the blade-like end of seviper's body flick into the air and swing over ludicolo.

Sienna spread her legs shoulder width a part and clapped her hands over her head. "Intercept!" she said.

Ludicolo mimicked its trainer's movement and clapped its hands overheard, catching seviper's tail. "Ludi!" it cried as it pulled on seviper's tail, but rather than throw the poison-type, ludicolo went back to dancing through the yard, dragging the flailing seviper behind it.

Wallace held back a laugh as he watched seviper make poor attempts at biting ludicolo, though the dancing pokémon paid it no mind. He turned his attention to Sienna who skipped through the grass, following ludicolo. As seviper tried to wriggle free, its thrashing body uncovered a rock in the yard that tripped Sienna, who managed to avoid falling face first.

Willow yowled, her hands clenched in front of her. "Sienna, this isn't a game, fight me!"

Despite her words, Wallace didn't think Willow was as upset with her sister as she seemed. Though Sienna seemed to toy with her sister and shrug off their battle, Willow's anger seemed phoned in.

"Garret, are professors supposed to fight students?" he asked. Wallace turned to find Garret sitting with his legs outside a blue kiddie pool he'd set in the middle of the floor.

In the pool, in a few inches of water, Wink thrashed in response to Garret blowing bubbles in the water with a straw. At Nurse Joie's suggestion, to keep Wink comfortable through colder months, he found find a place for Wink to swim in warm water to maintain his body temperature while his scales developed.

"Not normally," Garret said, dropping the straw from his lips. "But it's National Battle Day, didn't you get the email?"

Wallace puckered his lips and glanced to the expensive paper weight of his laptop on his desk. "Well..."

"Right," Garret laughed. "I forgot, you don't check your emails. I put a flyer about it on the dresser."

Wallace watched as Garret went back to teasing Wink with the straw as he searched their dresser and found a bright green flier beside Garret's television. As he looked over a pixelated design of two trainers facing each other with exclamation points over their heads, spinarak scaled the side of the television and nipped at the corner of the paper.

"October 22nd, National Battle Day. When two trainer's eyes meet, they must battle!" Wallace read aloud and then surrendered the paper to spinarak who dragged it behind the television. "Any trainers?" he asked as he stared at Garret and waited for him to meet his eyes.

"Well, the only exception is if both agree not to fight," he said, holding Wallace's stare for a second. "You can both decide you don't want to fight, but if you lock eyes with someone and they want to battle you should engage. No one is going to make you, but you should, it's all in the spirit of the holiday. Was someone battling outside?"

"Professor Oakburn and her little sister," Wallace said as he moved back to the window.

"What's her name?"

"Willow," Wallace said, below, the sisters threw their arms in the air as their pokémon clashed between them.

"Is she the one who wanted to post the video of Andrew?" Garret asked.

Wallace sighed onto the window, his breath fogging a blob of the glass. "Yeah," he said, watching as Willow's seviper circled ludicolo, its tail slicing through the leaves.

"I thought about you when they played the video, cause your name is Wallace too," Garret said.

"Yeah?" Wallace said again, his voice breaking on even the single syllable.

"It's just weird, hearing your name on the news all the time," Garret said. "It's all they show around campus. Different reports about the police looking for Arlan's son, but it doesn't look like anyone can find him and Arlan isn't saying anything. I heard the police are looking into him again, Arlan. I wonder why Wallace, Pearce, hasn't come forward, if he's Andrew's friend. Is it weird hearing your name like that?"

Wallace pressed his fingers into his eyes while Garret spoke, each word striking him deep, as if Garret knew the truth and patronized him with ignorance for fun. "Yeah," he said, at a loss for for anything else to say as stuffed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie pulled out a note he'd found taped to his door that morning. Thankful he saw it first. he unfolded the folded square and read the words inked in thick lines.

RICH BOY RICH BOY

WALLACE WALLACE

KILLING PEOPLE

IN HIS MURDER PALACE

Wallace pressed his knuckles into his temples and rubbed in circles, trying to clear the storm brewing beneath his skull. He couldn't help but think his daring trip back to the safari had triggered the note appearing on his door. If he was brave enough to approach Chara's hideaway, Chara could do the same to him. Though, as he looked over the note again, he couldn't shake the feeling that ominous and threatening notes weren't Chara's style.

Part of him, a part desensitized to fear, wished Chara would have busted through the door and finished what he started, if he had been the one to leave the note. In place of fear were the near paralyzing thoughts of what would happen if the search for Wallace Pearce reached the campus.

"You okay?" Garret asked.

Wallace cleared his throat and stuffed the note back into his pocket. He'd have to do his ritual later of ripping the note into pieces no bigger than confetti and discarding the remains in trashcans throughout the first and second floors, and maybe even one behind the building, the only surefire way to ensure no one found all the pieces.

"Headache," Wallace said, finding it easier to tell the truth, at least parts of it. Looking over his bed, and a sleeping elgyem who claimed a pillow to himself, Wallace took a seat beside the pool. He dipped his fingers into the warm water and splashed some at Wink, whose mouth cranked open as his tail splashed back.

Watching the water foam and calm, for a moment Wallace saw the baby blue bottom of the pool tinged with red as blood filled the water. Reactively, he splashed his hand across the top. The water missed Wink and sprayed Garret, dotting the butter yellow of his shirt as the sight of blood in the pool vanished in front of Wallace's eyes.

Garret drew in a sharp breath as he wiped water from his forehead and upper lip. "I should go," he said, standing and pulling at his shirt to inspect the water stains.

"I'm sorry," Wallace said, though it seemed moot as Garret started unrolling the legs of his pants. "I thought I saw something in the water."

"Neo's waiting for me," Garret said, as if he hadn't heard Wallace's apology. "C'mon, Amber," he said and pat his thigh, his mareep leaping off his bed and prancing across the floor toward him. "There's a battle show going on at the stadium later if you want to come."

Wallace sighed as the door shut and looked to his dresser. Spinarak had suspended the flyer in the corner of the dresser on a newly made web, and in the reflection of the mirror he saw that elgyem hadn't moved.

The month of October had flown by and Wallace had done his best to avoid his classes and all the emails his professors bombarded him with, urging him to return or risk failing. But the idea of facing people, regardless of their suspicions or opinions of him, kept Wallace hidden away, and his pokémon had become accustomed to their new lives as hermits.

"Just you and me, Wink." Wallace scooped a handful of water up and let it fall across Wink's back. The totodile hissed in response and Wallace wondered if the pool was big enough for him to sit in without breaking it.

Choosing to avoid the clean-up that breaking the pool might cause, Wallace slipped off his socks and climbed onto his bed, opting to dip his feet into the water that Wink saw as intrusions. Wink plopped on his belly and blew bubbles in the water as he nosed his way forward and bumped into Wallace's feet.

As Wink nipped and scratched at Wallace's toes, the water changed again. He watched drops of red hit the water and sink, leaving behind wispy strands of pink that turned the water orange against the blue base.

Rather than jerk at the sight, Wallace let his mind wander astray to the memory of a bloodied mouth and the rushing water of a river. The gush of the water rinsed blood from the mouth and turned the foam pink as the current carried it downstream.


Wallace shifted his focus from the fallen houndoom to what had saved them. Pyroar stood above the body of the houndoom, a chunk of bloody flesh in its mouth. Its body was bundles of muscles under a taut blanket of golden brown fur. Wallace narrowed his eyes to see past the intense burning mane at two great, savage, solemn, terrifying eyes; and he felt himself go weak with relief. "Mom," he whispered.

"What?" Andrew shrieked as he laid on the trunk, his head whipping from side to side. "What's happening?"

"My mom!" Wallace cried out, braving to stand on the trunk at the presence of pyroar. Wallace watched the pyroar shift its attention toward him, but the sound of nails on wood made Wallace realize he wasn't the pyroar's concern.. Turning back, Wallace saw that pyroar's appearance hadn't deterred one of the houndoom that had taken the chance to creep further onto the fallen tree.

With its snout and chest a fan of blood, pyroar bounded across the shore in a few steps and stepped onto the end of the tree, a warning growl rumbling from its throat. Wallace felt the panic boiling in his chest as the two fire-types stared at each other, he and Andrew in the middle of what was to become their war zone..

Andrew had been smart, flattening himself to the tree, making himself as small and insignificant as possible to the two beasts. The houndoom snarled and leaped overhead, its jaws opening as it flew toward pyroar.

Pyroar charged the tree and shook it with each of its powerful steps, but houndoom was smaller and Wallace watched its mouth clamp onto pyroar's front leg.

Pyroar bellowed as it jerked the houndoom, lifting the dual-type off its feet. Its igneous mane intensifying, pyroar twisted left and right as it shook houndoom like a rag doll. Too focused on the leg it had secured, houndoom didn't let go in time as pyroar slammed its body against a thick branch.

Houndoom's head snapped back, its jaws flapping open as it went wimp on the trunk, feet from Wallace. But the houndoom didn't rest, it sprung away from pyroar, but pyroar lunged in its path and with a quick flash of teeth, pyroar's mouth closed again the back of houndoom's neck.

Wallace flinched and covered his ears as houndoom let out a series of pained cries, its paws kicking haplessly through the air as pyroar lifted it.

Wallace's head shot toward the shore at the sound of branches snapping off, fearing other houndoom had found them. But not counting the corpse pyroar left on the shore, the other houndoom were nowhere insight. Wallace hoped they were more concerned for their lives than the hunt. Instead a woman and man charged through the trees, their bodies visible in glimpses before they broke the edge of the forest and sprinted across the shore.

The man wore khakis and a blue dress shirt and paused at the river's edge, scanning the water before he locked eyes with Wallace. "Camille, he's on the tree!"

Wallace dropped back onto the trunk as his eyes swelled seeing his parents storming the shore.

"Arlan, call Charles, tell him Andrew is okay." Camille Pearce dressed in dark jeans and shirt, a weathered leather jacket molded to her built frame as her boots bounded the bed of rocks alongside the river. "Wallace, stay where you are! I'm coming!" she yelled.

"Mom!" Wallace yelped, tears spilling from his eyes as he clutched the tree for dear life.

"Milo, finish it!" Camille said, stripping her jacket and boots as she ran. Kicking her last boot off, she lunged into the river.

Wallace heard a deep snap from behind him as Milo the pyroar released the motionless body of the houndoom. Though Milo laid the body on the trunk, the houndoom's lower half slipped from the tree and carried the rest of its body with it until it dropped into the river with a splash.

"Hi, Milo," Wallace said in a quiet voice as he made himself smaller to the approaching pyroar. He lowered his gaze and watched Milo's great paws slap the trunk as he balanced without effort. Wallace ducked his head as pyroar's mouth came close to his neck and he felt the fire-type biting the back of his shirt, dragging him off the trunk.

Wallace kicked and scratched at the trunk out of fear until he felt a pair of arms encase him and he sank into the familiar scent of his mother's perfume. "God, if you ever do something so stupid again wild houndoom will be the least of your problems? Do you hear me?" Camille asked as she turned Wallace and pressed her hands into his cheeks, forcing their eyes to meet. "Say you understand. Say, I understand, Mom."

"IunderstandMom," Wallace said, with some difficulty as his mother made it hard to move his face.

"Milo, take Andrew to shore," Camille said as she held Wallace to her chest, his legs wrapping her waist, and trudged through the water.

Wallace watched Milo treat Andrew like he was a cub and bite at the back of his shirt, nosing him across the trunk as they climbed off and met Arlan on the shore. Releasing Andrew to Arlan, Milo lowered his face to the river, mindful of his mane as he lapped water. Wallace watched as the river's rushing water washed away some of the blood coating Milo's face, the foam below Milo's face turning pink with the runoff.


Images of the cold day on the river swept from Wallace's mind as pricks of pain coming from his feet brought him back to the reality of Wink gnawing on his big toe.

"Ah, ah, ah," he whined as he tried to pry his foot from Wink's mouth, but the totodile hissed and thrashed his tail in response. "Wink, let me go, I'm not a snack." Wallace fell back on his bed and grabbed a rolled bag of food from his window that he jiggled in front of Wink.

He ripped a hole in the side of the bag and let a dozen pellets tumble out and float on the surface of the pool. Wink hissed as his good eye opened and he released Wallace, scanning the pool for his food. Careful to stand, Wallace slipped across his floor to his dresser and tossed a towel from his drawer to the floor to dry his feet.

Despite deliberately avoiding school events for the better part of a month, as he looked over the flier, the sound of feet stomping on cold bleachers and bundling in a sweatshirt to brave the autumn chill and ordering food from the concessions sounded like the perfect Saturday afternoon.

Grabbing a maroon sweatshirt with the school's emblem ironed onto the front, Wallace started to get ready, but a knock on his door stopped him. Slipping on socks and his sweatshirt, Wallace slid across the floor and pulled the door open. "He–llo," he said. His heart dipped in his chest at the frumpy girl in his doorway.

"Can, can I come in?" Arlette asked.

The sound of his heartbeat and the blood thundering through the veins in his ears deafened Wallace to the girl's question, and instead he stepped into the doorway, blocking her. "Garret's not here."

"That's good." Arlette nodded. Her eye that was never covered by strands of her hair focused on the floor. "I wanted to talk to you."

Patches of his skin pricked with heat as he felt sweat gathering on his arms and legs. "About what?"

"I've been thinking about you, since they played that video during the dance," Arlette's eye flicked from the floor, to the door, to Wallace's face, and to the doorframe as she spoke, the pieces of her body moving similarly. In front of her, her hands teased at a hole in her grey hoodie as she wrung her hands, popping her knuckles while her feet took turns digging the toes of her sneakers into the tile. "I had my suspicions before, but I know it now, who you are."

Straining to keep his face solid and unmoving like a mountainside, a different kind of storm brewed in his mind, one that stirred the piece of him that dismissed fear.

"I think you're Wallace Pearce, and I don't say that lightly" she said. "I've been thinking for weeks about everything. The last time I talked to Andrew, when I met you in Camphrier, everything the police have said about Andrew's disappearance, it's falling into place. Can you tell me why you're here? Why did you change your name?"

Wallace's nostrils flared as he swallowed, which felt like an admission of guilt, though he remained quiet, trying to hold Arlette's stare for as long as she dared for their eyes to meet. Desperately wishing for the conversation to change, his mind drifted to Garret's battle flyer, wondering if a battle would make Arlette forget her entire line of questioning and suspicion.

"I've tried to remember what you looked like when we first met, but I really can't. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of you before," Arlette said. "No one really knows what Wallace Pearce looks like, but you're all the news people are talking about, even though they don't have a picture of you to show. There are so many coincidences. Please, if I'm right, just talk to me. I have so many questions."

"You should go," Wallace managed to say, focusing on keeping his voice level as he moved to shut the door.

Arlette's hand shot out and touched the door, the action causing Wallace to flinch back, the sound startling him.

"Please," she said as she retracted her hand. "I don't want to bother you, but Andrew believed in you. He knew something bad was going to happen, he wanted you to be the one to remember him and not let Arlan do whatever he wanted. If everything Andrew was doing was true, if he had proof on things about Arlan, he wanted you to follow through."

A cramp in the pit of his stomach caused Wallace to hunch over and press his head to the edge of the door, the corner digging into his skin. "Arlette."

"He believed in you!" she said, stronger. "And if you are who I think you are, I believe in you too. I know we're not friends and things haven't been good between us, but none of that has to matter anymore. Maybe you left home because you were scared or this was part of a plan you and him had, but it doesn't matter, nothing matters except the truth. He deserves that. If you are who I think you are, then you had to care about him, just like I did."

"I, I can't – you don't understand."

"Make me understand," Arlette pleaded as she took a step inside and grabbed him. Arlette held Wallace's hand in her own small hands, the smooth pads of her fingers running across his knuckles.

Wallace stepped back, Arlette following him, but as he fought the urge to let her inside, the truth formed in the back of his throat as he tried to find the right combination of words to tell her the truth in one sentence. "Arlette, I'm –"

"You exist, you're real, you're a part of his past," she said, squeezing his hand. "We can do this together. Finish what Andrew started or at least get justice for him. Maybe we can help each other, fill in some blanks. I mean, Andrew never mentioned you and I didn't really think he had friends back home and that's why he traveled so much. When he told me he was coming back to Kalos he didn't mention a friend or his family, so maybe I can fill in more blanks than you can."

Although he found reassurance his new identity would remain safe by the lack of his existence in any of Arlette's diary entries, hearing the words come from her mouth, Wallace felt the storm dying away, replaced instead by an anger for her. He pulled his hand back and made a show of wiping the back of his hand across his jeans. "I don't know, I don't know what you're talking about," he said, dryly.

"What? Wait, what?" Arlette asked, vigor and intensity in her voice fading. "What? Wallace?"

Wallace swallowed and wet his lips as he shook his head. His poker face shattered and he replaced it with a guise of confusion and dismissal, his brows knitting and his lips curling. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said again, slower for her benefit. "I've never met Andrew, and I'm not Wallace Pearce. It's tragic, what happened to him, and I hope they do find his friend, but despite our names, that's just not me. I don't know why you're stuck on me and why you think I have anything to do with what happened, but I think you should let it go." Wallace took in a long breath that quelled the rumbling in his gut as he watched Arlette's eye grow watery. "I think you should leave, like I said, Garret isn't here."

Basking in the look of defeat that flooded Arlette's face, Wallace shut the door on her. He stood there for a breath, watching two shadows beneath his door, her feet, unmoving. Rolling his eyes, he stepped away from the door and crossed his room, raking his hands through his hair and clawing at his face. "Ugh!" he grunted.

He took to walking the perimeter of Wink's pool, grinding the bones in his palms until his phone buzzed on his dresser. He grabbed it, but didn't stop his ring around the pool, and opened a new notification of a message from Tempest.

Tempest: OMG. So it turns out azalea foxe was the one who blew up our window. The Roses made her change her major. Someone saw her in their breeding class yesterday and I just heard from a friend she was crying about it in the basement this morning. Can't believe it.

Wallace sighed, sucking in air to calm himself as he went to reply, but glimpsed back to his door and the shadows at the bottom of the floor. "Take a fucking hint," he growled as he threw his phone on his bed and stormed to his door. Twisting the knob and pulling the door open with excessive force, a bellow started in his chest, expecting to find Arlette outside, but it was Don who stood on the other side, fist held in the air, interrupted mid-knock.

Wallace's anger evaporated, leaving him numb for a moment as he took in the sight of Don. The typical bright boy looked disheveled with strands of his hair standing at odd points and dark circles haloing his eyes. "Hi," Wallace breathed, the taste of tainted berries and alcohol buzzing in the back of his throat as the memory flashed back to his mind.

Like Arlette, Don's eyes darted in their sockets to keep eye contact to a minimum as he shuffled from left to right on his feet. "Can I come in?" he asked.

"Sure," Wallace said as he pulled the door open. "Ignore the pool," he said, his words catching in his throat that had dried again.

Don choked on a laugh as he walked by the pool and bent to pet Wink. After what felt like a dragged out distraction, Don stood and faced the wall, away from Wallace. "I'm sorry," he blurted and turned, his hands out and grasping at air. "There, I said it. I'm sorry. So incredibly sorry and embarrassed and mortified that it literally took Cosmo holding my hand to get me to the third floor of this building."

Wallace bit his tongue as he watched Don's face come to life, his eyes growing wide and his mouth flapping as he babbled.

"I was out of my mind at the dance and you told me to leave and I forced myself on you," Don said, his voice breaking as he said the last part, his eyes falling from Wallace's face. Don's arms came back to his side and he wrapped them across his mid-section, hugging himself.

"Thank you," Wallace said as he walked along his dresser, keeping his distance from Don as he walked toward his window. Sienna and Willow were below, a sawsbuck and a leafeon prancing through the leaves between them. "It was Cole's fault. That punch he was serving, that's what made me sick," he said, opting to ignore the donphan of Andrew's video in the room. "I just – don't want you to feel bad, if that makes sense?"

"Yeah, the punch," Don said, his voice trailing off. "I can't say I'm sorry enough. I'm so selfish, I just thought... You liked guys, maybe you do and you just don't like me. I swear, I'm so stupid and selfish. I'm really sorry. I should have known, I heard you liked Tempest, but then I saw her dancing with someone else and – that doesn't even matter," Don scoffed and let out a low laugh. "Ellie told me you and Azalea were together before the dance and you were dancing with her at the dance. God, why am I like this?"

Wallace focused on the shaking antler's of Sienna's sawsbuck as he listened to Don choke out a sob, followed by the sound of footfalls. Wallace tensed, thinking Don was going to approach him, but with a look over his shoulder he saw Don heading for the door.

"I like ice cream," Wallace said, awkward and loud the way it filled his room and bounced back into his own ears. He listened to Don's footsteps slow as the knob to his door twisted. "I like frozen yogurt too, but I like ice cream more."

"What?" Don asked.

"I like Tempest." Wallace pressed his hands to his stomach as he inhaled, trying to quell the unease bubbling in his chest and the fluttering in his gut. Fighting the urge to face him, Wallace locked sights onto Willow's leafeon who danced by sawsbuck, kicking leaves as it moved. "And I almost kissed Azalea."

"Oh. I didn't know that," Don said, his voice faint and broken between gasps of air.

Wallace wet his lips as he heard the hinges of his door creaking. "I like girls, but I've never kissed one. So I can't really say what that feels like. But being around girls, being around Tempest and Azalea, dancing with her, it feels like having the best spoonful of frozen yogurt," he said with a slight laugh as he pressed into his stomach, physically hoping to calm the fluttering in his gut. "It's sweet, and good, and almost like an electric sensation. But even though I was drunk and not feeling well," Wallace let out several short huffs of air and stained himself to focus on the battle below. "I remember what it felt like when you kissed me, it was like ice cream," he said as his eyes crawled from the battle and he spared a glance over his shoulder to Don who clutched the knob and the frame of the door, eyes wide. "I like ice cream."

Wallace watched Don's hands fall from the door and clasp in front of his chest as he pulled at his fingers and rubbed his hands. "Oh?" he asked.

"I'm really sorry for throwing up," Wallace said. "I was having the worse night, I can't imagine what you've been going through since that night, let alone the fact it was your first time on campus since Nat was attacked. I've barely left my room and it was hard to get out of bed because – life is just rough right now. I'm new to people, to dealing with people and their feelings and I should have talked to you before now, to tell you not to feel bad."

Don bobbed his head and opened his mouth, letting out a wet choking sound. Sputtering, he turned and swiped at his eyes. "Um, there's a battle thing, battle event going on at the stadium, um it's today. Were you going?"

"Yeah, I was going to head over," Wallace said, braving a step toward him.

"Okay." Don wet his lips and ducked his head. "Maybe I'll, maybe I'll see you there?"

"Or we could go over together?" Wallace asked.

Don flashed his teeth as he smiled and nodded and let out a soft chuckle. "O-Okay."


The sun was on the verge of setting when Don and Wallace made their way to the stands. The normalcy of the whole thing, joining his classmates following a month of seclusion with elgyem on his shoulder and spinarak dangling from his chest, it was as if the night of homecoming hadn't happened, though Don walking ahead of him, looking back and grinning at him, was a clear sign that something had changed.

Following Don, Wallace spotted Garret and Neo sitting near the top of the steps with Eleanor. With a sizable gap between them was Cosmo with a small device pressed to his face.

"You didn't bring a telescope," Don said as he climbed over his brother's legs and took a seat.

Cosmo smiled as and pressed a retractable telescope to his knee, condensing it. "Of course I did, the stars wait for no man," he said as he extended the telescope and turned his attention to the sky as Wallace crossed in front of him. "Oh, hi Wallace," he said, his face splitting into a grin.

"Hi," he said, taking a seat between Don and Eleanor.

Eleanor leaned over, pressing her weight into Wallace and pinched his leg. "Hey," she said, smiling.

"Hi?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her overly cheerful tone. "What's up?"

Eleanor smiled, the lines in her face deepening near the scar on her cheek. "You're out of your room," she said. "I'm happy."

"Yeah," Wallace said, casting his eyes across the arena field and taking in a deep breath of the chilled air. "So, who's battling?"

"It's random," Neo said. "Remember the first tournament of the year? It's like that. They call names for different battle sets. Your friend Johnny just got off the field, he beat Persia."

The crack of a loudspeaker split the air and quelled the crowd's chatter and a voice echoed across the stadium. "Hi everyone! I'm Professor Summers, but you can call me Professor Vivi! I just wanted to thank you students for that last battle, and all the battles today! You're all so awesome! We've pulled the next set of rules and participants! Our next battle is a double battle!" Though the professors's voice vanished from the speakers, the sound of papers shuffling her whispers could still be heard. "Oh my gosh, this is so exciting," she said, followed by a loud squeeing sound. "Okay! The participants for team red are: Cosmo Freelily and Ignatius Mercer. And for team blue: Arlette Bellerose and Shannon Oxton. Students, please take the field! I'm so excited!"

Wallace looked past Don, whose eyes were on him, as he saw Cosmo drop the telescope from his face. "Looks like you're up."

Cosmo sighed and slumped over. "Hold my stargazer," he said, thrusting his telescope into Don's chest.

As Wallace watched Cosmo climb the steps he saw a few other heads raise from the stands. The back of Ignatius' hat rose above the crowd as he shuffled toward the aisle. Shannon's chocolate brown locks bounced as she darted to the steps. Near the bottom of the bleachers he saw Arlette stand and inch her way to the balcony as the others surrounded her and the four of them vanished on the steps, reappearing on the field below.

Turning to the scoreboard, Wallace watched the screen come to life with two split views as the teams took their sides of the field. Focusing on Arlette and Shannon he saw the reluctance on Arlette's face as she looked left and right, looking out of place at the center of attention. Scanning the other side of the screen he saw Ignatius and Cosmo talking, in his periphery he caught Don's eyes on him again. "What?" he laughed, rubbing the side of his face.

Don pursed his lips and shook his head as he fiddled with Cosmo's telescope. "Nothing."

Wallace narrowed his eyes at Don, holding back a smile as a whistle signaled the start of the battle.

"RedShot!" The camera focused on Ignatius who tossed a ball into the air that released a zangoose with course-looking fur beside him.

A flash of light beside Ignatius pulled the camera to the right as an altaria landed beside Cosmo who wasted no time in burying himself into its fluffy wings. "Nimbus!" he cried, his voice muffled.

On the upper half of the screen, a dark blue meowstic with white accents rubbed against Arlette's side and a rowdy darmanitan beat the ground in front of Shannon.

"Iggy!" Shannon sang out, waving her hand across the field to Ignatius. "It kills me we're not fighting on the same side."

"I can't relate," Ignatius said. "RedShot, use hone claws, follow up with slash."

The zangoose pushed off from the ground, standing beside its trainer, as it clashed its claws. The camera zoomed on zangoose, catching its shifting eyes darting between its two targets. It lowered itself to the ground and darted across the arena.

"Bleu, can you stop him with psychic?" Arlette asked as she rubbed the top of her meowstic's head.

Meowstic pushed on its toes into Arlette's hand as the microphones on the field picked up its loud purring. The blues of meowstic's eyes shone bright as it raised its arms to the dashing zangoose and stopped its movements as blue light haloed the normal-type's body.

"Nice work," Shannon said with a snap. "Fahrenheit, use hammer arm while we've got the opening."

"Man, man!" Darmanitan threw its fists into the air and slammed them down, throwing itself into the air toward the frozen zangoose. Raising its fists overhead, darmanitan's shadow fell over zangoose as a ball of white light shot across the field, slamming into darmanitan's side, throwing it off course.

The crowd gasped as the camera focused on Cosmo and his altaria, whose body glowed with the fading light of an attack.

"What was that?" Shannon asked as she ran toward her fallen darmanitan and helped him stand.

"Moonblast!" Cosmo said, pointing to the sky. "Do it again, Nimbus."

Altaria fluttered its wings as it pointed its neck to the sky and emitted a singsong cry, another gleaming ball of light gathering above the field.

"Arlette, can you back me up?" Shannon asked, eyes shifting from her partner to altaria's attack.

"I can try," Arlette said as she rubbed meowstic's ears.

"Good, Fahrenheit, we're gonna put it on all the line, go for belly drum," Shannon said.

Darmanitan leaped from side to side as it smacked its stomach with its hands, a low bellowing sound filling the stadium with darmanitan's cries.

"Bleu, use heal bell," Arlette said.

Turning in a slow circle, meowstic touched its hands over its head causing ripples to break the air. "Meow!" he purred as his body glimmered with blue light that covered darmanitan whose hopping stopped.

"Fire," Cosmo said, aiming a finger gun toward Shannon's fire-type.

"RedShot, go for fury cutter, this time on meowstic," Ignatius said.

"Go for a flare blitz, the target is your choice, Fahrenheit," Shannon said, flipping back a lock of her hair.

Darmanitan slammed its fists onto the ground, growling, as blue flames licked its red fur and it enveloped its body. Grabbing the ground, darmanitan threw itself like a slingshot, a line of fire following it as it zipped across the field, heading straight for altaria.

"Bleu, try and dodge the zangoose!" Arlette gasped.

Meowstic lowered itself to the ground as it faced the incoming zangoose, but as the charging normal-type passed darmanitan, the fire-type altered its course, digging its feet into the ground and hurling its body sideways, slamming into zangoose.

Shannon shielded her face as altaria's moonblast tore across the field, singeing away grass prior to dissipated several yards away from Shannon.

Zangoose and darmanitan tumbled in a mass of fire across the field until zangoose leaped up and darmanitan got to its feet and they began trade blows. The camera picked caught their mini-battle as darmanitan made sweeping blows with it arms, each of which the zangoose blocked or deflected its with claws.

"Slash!" Ignatius called out.

One of zangoose's claws shone under the stadium light as it raised it above darmanitan, catching the fire-type in between attacks. As zangoose's claw came for darmanitan, a glint of blue light covered each of the pokémon and pulsed them apart, causing zangoose's claw to cut harmlessly through the air.

"Dragon pulse!" Cosmo said.

Pulling away from darmanitan and zangoose, the camera caught a glint of multi-colored light vanishing inside altaria's mouth. Shannon said something that called darmanitan back to her side and Arlette had meowstic rushing onto the field as altaria's spat her attack out.

As it touched the grass, the figure of a serpentine dragon exploded across the field, the gradients of its body sending colored streaks in all directions as the dragon pulse rushed toward meowstic.

"Misty terrain," Arlette said, hands clasped in front of her chest.

Meowstic twirled on the spot, raising its arms toward the incoming attack as pink fog lifted from the grass, coating the arena in a seconds. As the beam of altaria's dragon pulse drew closer to its target its size began to diminish, shrinking into naught.

"Aww," Cosmo said, rubbing altaria's side. "Well, at least we tried."

"Don't say aww, it's not over yet," Ignatius said. "RedShot, another fury cutter!"

Arlette gasped as she scanned the field, most of the grass out of sight under the pink mist, along with Ignatius' zangoose. A break in the fog pulled her attention to a spot on the field behind meowstic as zangoose burst into the air, using the cover of the fog to hide its movements.

Zangoose landed with a loud thud that blew away a circle of the fog. Without waiting for meowstic to turn, zangoose launched itself to its target and plunged its claws into meowstic's back and tugged to the side, the camera caught the arc of blood and fur that zangoose ripped from meowstic.

"Bleu!" Arlette shrieked as she ran onto the field, causing a gasp to break out from the crowd.

"Get out of the way!" Shannon said as darmanitan charged onto the field, its fists and feet pounding past Arlette.

Arlette flinched back as darmanitan passed her, but didn't stop running. She swerved past darmanitan and zangoose who rolled through the pink fog, arms and claws clashing as she reached meowstic who had fallen below the mist.

"Nimbus, use the misty terrain to boost your moonblast," Cosmo said as he climbed onto his altaria's back. "But watch out for Arlette."

"Aria!" Altaria cried, spreading its wings as it took flight, a ball of light gathering above it as it soared across the field.

"Dummy, get off the field!" Don hissed as he extended Cosmo's telescope and followed altaria's path of flight.

Altaria let loose another singsong cry andfired its moonblast toward the ground. Darmanitan leaped away from its path, leaping over Arlette and Bleu, but zangoose darted close to the shadow of the moonblast that exploded against the ground behind it.

Bracing for the explosion, zangoose launched across the field, propelling it toward the fleeing darmanitan. Reaching the fire-type, zangoose slammed into its back and sent darmanitan tumbling. As darmanitan fell flat on its stomach, zangoose ran for it and climbed into its back.

"Crush claw!" Ignatius said.

"Zan!" Zangoose raised both of its arms, its claws glowing white, and it lowered them over darmanitan's back, but a burst of blue light tossed zangoose off.

Arlette fell back onto the ground as her meowstic stood, panting with its eyes pinched shut. "Bleu, you okay?" she asked, wiping the corners of her eyes.

Meowstic nodded to his trainer as it walked, laggard and with a limp, to rejoin the fight. But after a few steps, a round shadow fell over its body.

"Fire!" Cosmo yelled.

A moonblast, the size of an exercise ball, shattered against the ground behind meowstic, throwing the psychic-type across the field.

"Bleu!" Arlette cried as she got to her feet and ran through the dissolving mist of Cosmo's attack.

"RedShot, fury cutter again, put meowstic down," Ignatius said, running alongside the shifting action.

Zangoose leaped over darmanitan, its claws shining as it raced toward meowstic who had gotten back to his feet. Zangoose lunged for him, its claw slicing meowstic and cutting a gash across the psychic-type's chest.

Meowstic cried out as he staggered back, his eyes glowing blue and coating zangoose in the same light, but the normal-type hissed and seemed to break free from the hold.

"Flare blitz!"

A sizzling sound from the ground caught zangoose's attention as a blue-fire missile shot toward it. Zangoose dove to the side, the flying darmanitan shooting past meowstic and slamming back into the ground.

As meowstic fell to one knee, zangoose charged it again, its claw cutting deeper across meowstic's chest, another arc of blood flying through the air.

"Stop!" Arlette wheezed as she sprinted to reach meowstic.

"Arlette, get off the field!" Shannon yelled, hands cupped to her mouth.

"Keep going, more fury cutters," Ignatius said.

Zangoose darted across the ground on all fours, dipping past meowstic who struggled to focused on its movements, half concealed beneath the fog. Without the strength to fight back or dodge, meowstic was victim to zangoose driving its claws into its body.

Darmanitan propelled itself overhead, landing beside zangoose and took one of zangoose's slashes to its forearm as it began swinging its arms. Zangoose bobbed out of range of darmanitan's retarded blows. Zangoose deflected one of its arms with its claws and took the chance to slice across darmanitan's arm.

Ignatius moved in closer to the action, fanning away the misty terrain. "Crush claw!"

Ducking, zangoose avoided another swing from darmanitan and it climbed its back and jumped off. Zangoose's claws shone as it came down over darmanitan and slammed onto its arm as it tried to block. A sickening crunch filled the stadium and earned a gasp from the crowd as the pink fog filled the air, obscuring the camera's from seeing the result.

"Look!" someone shouted a few rows below Wallace.

Wallace stood from his seat and narrowed his eyes at the cloud of pink mist, trying to make out any shapes, but people in the stands had their eyes focusing on another part of the field.

"Oh my god," Don breathed as he handed the telescope to Wallace and pointed toward the left corner.

While the camera tried to find what everyone else had noticed, Wallace pulled the telescope to his eye and focused on the corner of the stadium, to someone stepping onto the field. His jaw fell and blood ran cold at the sight of someone dressed in a dark suit with blonde hair and blood coating half of their face, stumbling onto the field.

The crack of the sound system filled the stadium again, but rather than Professor Summer's voice, a different one came through. "This could be my last video ever, I can't look crazy." The voice paused and a disembodied laugh boomed from the speakers. "Um, if I can't delete this, if I don't come out, if I go missing... If I die... If I die... If I die... If I die."

Wallace lowered the telescope as the audio from Andrew's final video played through the stadium's sound system, but kept pausing and replaying certain parts, like a twisted remix.

"Step on the little people, little people... make them feel like they don't m-m-m-matter... Easily forgotten... Something happens to me... you... want to know what happened and would want justice for me. But... If I die... If I die... If I die... He's my best friend... get away with making me disappear... If I die... If I die... If I die... Find Wallace."

Hushed conversations broke out through the bleachers like wildfires and Wallace saw people turning in their seats to find him in the crowd, an easy task as he was the only one standing. With knees turning into goo, Wallace dropped onto the bench and flinched as he felt a hand land on his back and rub in a circle. Beside him Eleanor had her hands to her mouth and Neo was on his feet, tablet aimed at the field. Beside him Don's face knitted with worry.

Wallace's eyes darted from Don to the scoreboard, the camera had focused on the person walking across the field. Across their chest was a hanging tag that read: Hi, my name is... Andrew. Two large men charged onto the field and ran toward the fake-Andrew, all for the camera to see. One of them tried to grab them, but fake-Andrew dodged and all the man came away with was a blonde wig as a boy with dark hair sprinted away from them, the look on his face deranged.

The sound system came back to life, but with Professor Summers' voice. "Um, I'm sooo sorry!," she trilled. "I don't know what – I apologize for the interruption but –If I die... If I die... If I die..."

The students gasped and started screaming as Professor Summers' voice cut out and Andrew's overlapped through the speakers again. A group of girls flew out of their seats and ran from the bleachers, sparking similar responses from others. Students screamed and fled to the steps, making an exit from the stadium as the boy on the field evaded the two men chasing him.

"Please – if I die – leave the stadium in an orderly manner – if I die – today's battle event is cancelled, please return to your dorms," Professor Summers said, between interruptions.

Brushing past Don, Wallace stumbled into the aisle, dropping Cosmo's telescope on the ground. With a hand on elgyem's leg to keep the psychic-type from flying off, he ignored the sound of glass shattering as he tripped on the steps, falling in line with a horde of other students, all flocking to the bottom row. Behind him he heard Garret and Neo's voices, along with Eleanor and Don behind him.

Following the wave of students who ran from the stadium, Wallace followed the ramp that led him to the pathway outside the stadium. Heart pounding so hard the veins in his eyes thumped, Wallace made out the sight of Willow standing against a stone pillar, his eyes focusing on her face when a pair of hands fell on his shoulders.

Elgyem slid off Wallace's shoulder, falling down his back and came floating back up, flashing his red lights at Johnny. "Elgy!" he beeped.

"Wallace, something happened," Johnny said, panting, as he hung his head.

Wallace thought his heart might have actually skipped a beat at Johnny's sudden appearance, a jump scare during the rising action of the endless horror movie that was his life. "What?" he gasped, trying to focus on the boy in front of him.

"It's Nat," Johnny said, wheezing.

"Did you say Nat?" Don asked, slamming into Wallace's side. "What happened, is he okay? What happened?"

"He's fine, he's fine, for the most part," Johnny said, his voice light before he hunched over and gulped air. He looked up, letting go of Wallace as he sucked in air. "I ran all the way here... I went to the clinic after my battle and all the nurses in his unit were running around crazy, they said he pressed the emergency button and when they got to his room he was out of his bed, on the floor, completely detached from his machines."

Wallace swallowed hard as he watched Don run his fingers through his hair and bite his lip. He held his arms out and elgyem floated back into his grasp. He pulled the psychic-type close and stroked his head, a nerve tick as his heart didn't have a moment of rest.

"No, no, no, is he okay?" Don asked as he started pacing. "I have to go to him!"

Johnny's hands slammed onto Don's shoulders to steady the boy. "He's fine, they got him back in bed, nothing's wrong. They said it's not impossible for someone to fall out of their bed and end up on the floor."

"So what, did he roll out?" Wallace asked, his head pounding, the veins in his eyes blooming black across his vision and blinding him to parts of Johnny's face. To focus, he pressed his fingers against the colored pads of elgyem's hands, counting to three in his head each time.

Johnny shook his head. "The head nurse said the state of the room looked weird. The sheets were untucked and rolled up on the bed, like someone grabbed them and pulled them up to roll Nat out. She said all his IVs looked like they'd been unplugged and left to hang, unlike if they'd come out because Nat pulled them out when he fell." Johnny explained. "They think someone unplugged him from his machines and rolled him to the floor," he said, his eyes shifting between the boys.

"He was attacked?" Wallace asked, his voice falling faint as the idea of the Orphans on campus.

"They think so," Johnny said, his hands tightening on Don's shoulders. "But no one was around when they got there and Nat didn't say much, just mumblings."

"What did he say? Did he see who did it?" Don asked, fighting to shake off Johnny's hands. "Let me go, I need to see my brother!"

"They're not going to let you, they put him on a special watch. They barely let his nurse into his room, he's blocked by guards," Johnny said, pushing Don back.

"Johnny, what did he say?" Wallace asked, louder.

"It's nothing, it's not important," Johnny said, shaking his head. "Just mumbles."

"What did he say?" Don yelled, grabbing Johnny by the shoulders as the two fought to overpower the other.

Johnny's eyes went wide as he shrugged off Don's hands and let go of him in return. "He just said: 'Tell him there are five of them' that's it."

Don's eyes narrowed, his mouth curled up as he bared his teeth. "What? What does that even mean? "Five? Five what?" he asked.

Johnny held Don's gaze and shook his head. "Orphans, he said there were five orphans, but I don't know what that means. Like I said, just mumbles," he said, shrugging.

An icy prickling sensation crawled Wallace's back, raising the hairs on his arm as he turned. The feeling of ice frosting across the back of his neck made Wallace turn, an odd sort of magnetism directing him as to where to look. Though he expected her to be long gone, he found Willow still propped against the pillar, waving at him. "Is this funny to you?" he asked, loud enough students still fleeing the stadium paused and gave him a double take. Ushering elgyem to his shoulder, Wallace moved past Don and crossed the path to Willow who dropped her arm, the smile on her face falling. "Is it funny to you?" he asked, louder still as he got into her face, pinning her against the pillar with his body, mindful of spinarak hanging between them. Elgyem's hands jabbed in Willow's direction, the red lights flashing in her face.

Willow's eyes, fractured mixtures of yellows and browns that layered into orange, turned down as she cast glances around her as students stopped to stare. "W-Wallace, you're making a scene," she said, her eyes flicking from Wallace to elgyem.

"I'll make one," he growled, holding her eyes, though she wouldn't look back at him. "This was you," he said. "The audio. No one else had the video, you were upset you didn't get to post it."

Willow's eyes flicked to his before they fell to his lips and across his other features. "Shouldn't I be?" she asked, her voice a whisper. "Mad, that is. I had a plan, and someone went and pulled the rug from under my feet."

"Not someone, his parents!" Wallace said. "You said you wanted to post the video for the right reasons, no, they did! You're just selfish and get some weird kick out of this."

"Everyone has a hobby," Willow said, her eyes dipping away from his face as she tried to push past him.

Wallace slammed his hand flat against the pillar, blocking her between his arms as he leaned in and rested his chin on her shoulder. "In my room, there's a folder, and it's labeled Oakburn. Willow Oakburn, went to a trainer school here in Kalos. Your dad died in a work accident and a crash killed your siblings. The scars on your face, they're from that day, right?" he asked, grazing the back of his hand across her cheek as he pulled back to find her glossy eyes.

"H-How," she breathed, tears spilling the lower lids of her eyes before she wiped at her face and coughed. "How do you know that? You shouldn't –"

"Your mom died too, making you an orphan," Wallace said, cutting her off. "Is that how it works? You're alone and you join up with them? Chara, James, the others... You become an orphan and then you're an Orphan? Why me?"

Willow bit at her lip, her eyes darting from side to side. "I don't know what you're talking about, let me go," she said as she made another attempt to leave, but was blocked by Wallace's arms.

"Why are you going after Nat?" he asked, leaning in close again. "You work for the Roses. Serena is supposed to be your friend. They burned him! How could you do this?"

Willow's stare hardened. "It wasn't my choice," she said. "I'm not like the others, I don't work with them. Why Chara is obsessed with you, I don't know. Why the others follow him, I don't know, but I guess it has to do with fear. That's why I did what I did."

"What did you do?" he asked through gritted teeth, his palms slapping the pillar.

"People are staring," Willow said, her eyes low and still scanning the sidelines.

"What did you do?" he asked, louder, blind to the crowd of students who had gathered around them.

"I sent a message," she growled. "Okay? They wanted me to send you a message, that every action has a reaction. Chara wanted you, but you involved Eleanor, so she's a target. You avoided them in the stadium, so they attacked Nat. You visited the safari, ran from James, so I unplugged Nat and roughed him up. I told you, I don't know why they want you, but stop running, or else everyone you care about is fair game."

Wallace's arms fell from the pillar, unblocking Willow, though she didn't take the opening to run. "Is that a threat?" he asked, the base and bravado fading from his voice.

"It doesn't come from me," Willow said, shrugging and adjusting her hoodie. "I said it, I'm not like the others."

"You're just as bad," he quipped. "How many more of you are there?"

"Just us," Willow said and fingered a strand of her white-blonde hair behind her ear.

"How many is us?" he asked, his voice raising. "Nat told me four, now five? Johnny just said that was all Nat could say, that there were five of you, his only words were a warning to me!"

"Wallace?" Don asked. "Is everything okay?"

"You said you don't know why he's obsessed with me," Wallace said, throwing a look over his shoulder to Don and Johnny, along with a horde of students were slowly walking past, trying to catch a bit of the drama.

"I don't," Willow said. "They just tell me where to go, what to do. I don't go to the safari, I don't keep in contact."

"Did they give you the video?" Wallace asked.

"Something like that," Willow said.

"Why do you work with them?" Wallace asked.

"You wouldn't understand," Willow shrugged.

"Make me understand," he said, borrowing Arlette's words. "Do you have a heart? You had a family, you have your sister, you can't be that cold. Do you care that they're murderers and stalkers? Tell me something!"

"I'm not a murder or a stalker." Willow rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Wallace, I let you dance on me at homecoming, but we're not friends. Stop asking questions, you're dipping your toes into an ocean, Wallace, not a rain puddle. I don't know why Chara is so focused on you, but I know it wasn't always like that. I know he wasn't in the safari by chance, you're a target, a job."

"A job? For who?" Wallace rubbed his eyes, his vision blooming in neon colors. "Why do they want me? What would happened if I told your sister? Or the university, about what you've done," Wallace said.

"Do you have proof?" Willow asked before she held her arms out, her knuckles touching. "Are you going to arrest me for being bad?" she said, pouting. "I don't think so, because something tells me you're not a fan of law enforcement. The Orphans don't target civilians like that, it's a system, orders come from somewhere. They wouldn't have targeted you for no reason, someone wants you to suffer, or to pay, or to be miserable, I don't know. But we'll never find out if you keep dodging them."

"So I let them take me? Hurt me? Kill me?" Wallace asked, his voice breaking and squeaking. "To save the people around me?"

Willow stepped off the pillar and shrugged. "Not my concern, just don't shoot the messenger," she said as she patted his chest, waved to elgyem, and walked away. "Belladonna, give my regards to Nat."


End of Chapter Twenty Eight


Question of the Chapter #27: Do you think Willow will be a key for Wallace to unlock the secrets of the Orphans?