Chapter Thirty-Six: Coercion
When Eve finally awoke from her sleep, it didn't happen slowly. She jolted upright before she was even fully conscious. Some half-remembered thought was wrapped around her mind like an ekans squeezing a rattata to death; and whatever this memory or idea was, Eve's heart told her that she would perhaps be the rattata than remember what it was. She felt that if she did remember it, the mere thought could destroy her completely.
So in desperation, she looked at her surroundings, trying to fend off the dread that loomed over her only partially awake mind. She was in a small room that was maybe seven by five feet at most, with its walls, floor, and ceiling made out of concrete. In one corner of the room was the small bed that Eve found herself upon, and near the foot of the bed was a simple wooden chair. On the short wall opposite of Eve was a solid-looking metal door, and on the long wall opposite her was a wooden door. The latter of these had been left ajar, revealing a tiny bathroom with only a toilet and sink.
These strange, cramped surroundings added fear and confusion to Eve's already somewhat delirious mind. Nothing seemed certain. I don't know this place… My head hurts. I wonder… And why am I…? Her thoughts bounced through her head without any sense of coherence. A feeling of panic rose in her chest, practically choking her.
And then she saw the crisscrossing the remnants of a bug-type's silk stuck all over the jeans and the jacket she was wearing, and everything suddenly flooded back to her.
"Basil is… Basil is…" She muttered to herself, and though her face was devoid of emotion, she couldn't bear to say the last word.
The panic and fear and confusion left entirely, and a sort of numbness came upon her. She pulled her knees close to her body and laid her forehead down upon them, as if it was the only thing she could do to hold herself together. And she sat like that, with her eyes staring off at something an infinite distance away.
The tears came after some time; maybe it was a minute later, or maybe an hour. There was no way to guess the time in this isolated room, and even if there had been, it's doubtful that Eve would have taken any note of it. Once those tears started, there was no stopping the body-wracking sobs that soon followed. No intelligible thought went through her mind during this: not the idea that she'd never see Basil again, nor the memories of their friendship, nor the regret that he had sacrificed himself for her sake.
The only realities to Eve were the truth of his death, and the all-encompassing sadness that accompanied it.
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Eve woke up again, sore from having stayed in that same position for so long. She was thinking again, and though she remembered what had happened to Basil, she didn't go into hysterics again. The numbness of earlier had returned, but with a different cause. Before, the lack of feeling had been due to a rejection of the truth; now that she had realized and mourned, she felt emotionally fatigued. More tears and sorrow simply were not in her capacity, for the moment being at least.
Slowly, she stretched her legs, turned her body, and stood up next to her bed. Her stomach growled at her and she realized her mouth felt terribly dry, and she wondered how long she'd been gone from Indigo Plateau. And she wondered if anyone of the thousands of people at Indigo Plateau had realized that she was gone, and if so, she tried to guess whether or not Lance would think that she had deserted the army. But these were only dim thoughts at the back of her mind. For the most part, she just felt empty.
Instinctively, Eve reached down to the pouch at her hip, only to realize that it wasn't there. She snapped her head down to look, wanting to make sure that the nerves of her hands weren't lying to her. But it was true - the pouch was gone.
This realization made her heart skip a beat, and worry began to gnaw at her chest. She completely forgot her hunger and thought only of what had happened to Basil. Or, more specifically, what Team Rocket had done to Basil, and what they might do to her other pokemon. They had to be in Team Rocket's grasp, just as she guessed herself to be.
What will they do to them? No – what might they be doing to them now? She paced back and forth, trying to think of something – anything – that she could do to somehow find out where they were. In her desperation, she dropped to the floor and checked under the bed, as if perhaps there was even the slightest chance that her pokémon might be there. But no pokéballs were below the bed. She even lifted up the mattress, but nothing was under that, either.
It's stupid to think they'd be in here somewhere, of course… But…
The metal door at one side of the small room was still shut as tightly as ever; it seemed to glare at Eve, challenging her to open it and search for her pokémon. At first, she didn't even want to try, despite her urgent desire to find her friends. The idea of it being locked somehow terrified Eve, and the unknown of it being either opened or shut somehow seemed better than the chance of knowing for certain that it was locked.
Nonetheless, she walked over to the door and put her hand on the metal handle. She took a deep breath, and then pushed her hand downward.
The handle didn't budge.
She tried again, and then again with more force, and then again with both hands, and then again using all of her weight to force the handle down. That failing, she slammed herself into the door itself once, twice, ten, twenty times. It didn't so much as rattle in its frame. Panic overtook her. Some primal instinct couldn't stand being confined in this small room, with no way to escape. Whether this was due to the unrestrained nature of the human mind or the limitless power and freedom of pokémon, she didn't know or care. Perhaps it was the same instinct that made wild pokémon fight almost to the death to keep themselves from being captured by trainers.
Whatever the reason, the result was the same. Just as she'd been consumed by sorrow earlier, now Eve became obsessed with the idea of escape; even Basil's death and the safety of her other pokémon left her thoughts. When she finally quit pounding on the door after five minutes, she hurled herself at a crack in the cement of the wall; when that didn't work, she went over every bit of space available to her in a mad frenzy, as if she'd somehow stumble upon some microscopic button that would unlock the metal door. Her shoulder was terribly bruised now, but she hardly noticed it.
When a knock sounded some minutes later, Eve turned to the door and froze; she was kneeling on the floor near the head of the bed. She wasn't sure how to react to this new development, so she stayed frozen. In a couple moments, the door opened, and a familiar face cautiously looked in and locked eyes with Eve.
"Eve?" Brian said cautiously as he walked in, closing the door behind him. He had a genuine look of concern on his face, and he extended his hand to Eve to help her up. The panic had left her, and now she was confused and afraid again; she ignored his hand and pushed herself up off the ground. She stood and faced him.
"Where are my pokémon?" she asked, trying to sound brave and determined but only managing to give her fear an audible form. She was trembling, due both to her earlier panicked exertions and her worry for herself and her pokémon.
Brian sighed – not in exasperation, but in apparently true sympathy for Eve's plight – and took a seat in the wooden chair. "They're fine. Please, sit down, and I'll try to explain everything."
He gestured to the bed, but Eve was so relieved that he'd said her pokémon were fine that she couldn't stay standing for even a moment longer; she fell back to her knees, then crossed her legs to take the pressure off of the already raw skin. Crawling around on the cold, rough floor had done some damage.
Rather than stay in the chair, Brian lowered himself to the floor and sat there. Now the two faced each other from opposite sides of the small room, one filled with pity, the other with a bitter sensation of hope.
"Eve, first of all… I'm sorry that all of this happened. So very sorry. And a lot of it is my fault, too, for getting people so fired up," Brian started. "I told you before that my parents were killed by wild pokémon, right?"
Eve looked at him dumbly and did not respond.
He seemed humbled by her gaze. "I'm sorry, I'm just making excuses now. But I always thought that wild pokémon need to be managed so that humans can live in safety, and Team Rocket indulged my belief. I even did illegal stuff for them, with the understanding that they were working to control wild populations through over-catching and then selling the pokémon on the black market. And when they asked me to campaign against you for them… Well, I thought I would just be using their power and my talent for speaking to convince others. I didn't know that Team Rocket would use it to completely overthrow the government. So yet again… I'm sorry. And I'm especially sorry about Basil."
Basil's name spoken aloud brought tears to Eve's eyes, but she still didn't speak. She didn't know whether to trust Brian or not. Whenever speaking to her alone, he'd seemed kind; and yet he worked for Team Rocket, and he had been like a completely different person whenever rallying for support. She desperately wanted to put her faith in someone, yet after the betrayal by Hope, Eve wasn't sure she could ever believe in anyone again.
"I didn't know that Team Rocket was going to do any of this. Really. If I had, I would've left regardless of how hard Team Rocket works to screw up the life of anyone who quits. But now…"
"Now what?" Eve finally said, her voice full of sadness and distrust. "You're still working for Team Rocket, or else you wouldn't be here. What do they want? And why should I believe that you didn't actually want this revolution? Are you trying to convince me that you're on my side?" Rivulets of tears leaked from her bloodshot eyes; she was truly a pitiable sight.
Brian met her eyes and held her gaze, though any other person would have been ashamed to see the complete dejection in her face. "Yes, I'm on your side. I don't expect you to believe me, but it's true. I tried to warn you after our battle was over, remember? I told you to brace yourself for the worst. Back then, I thought that was just because the people following me would get more and more aggressive as I gained momentum… As we both know now, it turned out to be far worse. And yes, I'm still working for Team Rocket, but only because they would probably kill me if I didn't. Unlike the rest of the army of the New Republic of Johto, the trainers who worked for Team Rocket before the revolution are held to higher standards. We have more privileges, but anyone who deserts is considered a traitor – and a dangerous one at that – since we have knowledge about the workings of the government that the regular soldiers don't possess."
"If you're working for Team Rocket, then that still means you're here on their command, whether or not you do it willfully or not. I can't trust you."
"But Eve, please just listen," Brian said emphatically. "The only reason they have me here talking to you is because they know that I've spoken with you before, and they know that I'd hate to see you hurt again.
"I'm still involved with the upper ranks, you see. They want to keep an eye on me, and if I don't look like I'm in an important position, then a lot of the people who joined Team Rocket and the New Republic of Johto because of my speeches will probably desert. And since I'm still high in the ranks, I hear a lot, even if I don't get to voice my opinion. When I heard them saying that they were going to kidnap you by whatever means necessary, I tried to convince them that they shouldn't attempt it, and that at the very least, they shouldn't be so quick to kill any of your pokémon. They wouldn't listen.
"But since I did that, they thought I could get you to comply with their demands. Which is what I'm going to try to do. If you don't…" he broke off mid-sentence, looked away, then ended, "You'll just get hurt more. It wouldn't be hard for Team Rocket to repeat what happened to Basil."
Eve clenched her fists tightly and looked down at the ground. She was so terrified right now, both for herself and for her pokémon. "And just… What are their demands?" she said, her voice trembling as she continued to stare at the ground.
"They want you to evolve pokémon for them."
Eve looked back up and her eyes opened a little wider. "But how do they know that I can do that? I've only ever told…"
He saw the realization dawning on her face, and nodded. "It's partly my fault, again. Do you remember when we met outside of Ecruteak, when Hope was all cut up by that pidgeotto? Well, I knew of Hope, and I recognized her as soon as you mentioned her name that time we met. She'd been a bit of a rising star when she'd been working for Team Rocket. She'd joined at only fourteen years old or so, but was already known for both her three strong pokémon and her ability to follow any orders without question. She left Team Rocket without a word about a year ago, and of course Team Rocket didn't like that.
"When I saw her, I reported her to my superiors… I just wish I hadn't been so loyal to Team Rocket then, otherwise I might have let her be. But anyway, they had someone follow her, and they more or less kidnapped her at their first opportunity. It was right after she had beat a gym; all of her pokémon were knocked out or very weak, so it was the only opportunity. She came back without complaint; it was as if she didn't care either way whether or not she was controlled by Team Rocket. Some of the superiors asked her to tell them all she knew about you, and she mentioned that you could evolve pokémon, and that that was how those gyarados had evolved, as well as how her own houndoom had probably evolved."
Eve felt more drained than ever. "But they didn't dare kidnap me whenever I was with Jenna or Cynthia or Mark, huh?"
Brian looked ashamed. "Right. They had to wait until after the revolution began, though they desperately wanted to strengthen their forces with your ability beforehand. Hope kept Team Rocket informed on what you were doing as soon as you joined the Old Johto's army, and they tried to capture you in the battle that you were in. Did you notice how many bird pokémon were with the bird that grabbed you? Even though each and every one of them should have been doing its own fighting and capturing? That was planned. They simply didn't expect how much of a force your aerodactyl would be."
Eve scrunched her eyes shut, as if what came next physically hurt her. "So they had Hope lure me out by myself as soon as possible. And they had her… had her kill Basil to show me that they mean business."
Brian nodded sorrowfully. Then he stood up, walked forward, and sat right in front of Eve. She was too paralyzed by sadness at the memory to even notice the movement.
Then he said, "Listen, Eve. All you've got to do is evolve pokémon for them. I've already negotiated for you. So long as you evolve pokémon, then your pokémon are guaranteed safety. They won't be used for the war, and they won't be sold to the highest bidder, even though they'd all be useful in both regards. They'll be kept in their pokéballs most of the time. They'll be fed every now and then, since pokémon in pokéballs still use small amounts of energy; that way, they won't be starving. You'll be allowed to see one of them every few days, so that you can be assured of their safety. Even if you tried to escape, they won't take it out on your pokémon so long as they catch you again."
"But how can I trust that they'll hold true to that?" Eve asked, looking up and into his face, which was now just a few inches away.
"I told you, you'll get to see them every-"
"No, that's not what I mean. What about when I go through all of the army's pokémon? It might not happen for a year or two, but eventually I won't be able to do any more for them. What reason will they have to keep my pokémon safe then? Why would they keep me around?"
Brian rubbed his forehead. "You underestimate the value of your ability. Even if you go through all their pokémon, and even if we win the war, they'll still make more money off of you than they would your pokémon. Do you realize how much people would pay to take the easy way out of years and years of training? Even if your ability only works as a catalyst on pokémon that are already trained – as the higher ranking officials think, since not every pokémon you touch evolves – even then it's still worth so much more than you can imagine. The good thing is, they will never do anything to your pokémon. The bad thing is that…" He trailed off and continued to rub his forehead, as if trying to ward off the headache of the situation.
"What?"
He let out a pained breath. "The bad thing," he said again, "Is that they'll never let you go. Even if they lose the war, the higher-ups will escape and take you with them, either to build up another army or to make money off of you. And since your pokémon will be essentially in a state of stasis that entire time, they won't die before you; the threat to them will always hang over your head.
"But even beyond that reasoning for their safety, there's more to make you believe that they'll stick to their word. You see, those above me compare you to a pokémon that needs to be trained, and they see two possibilities for the training. One is through abuse and fear, completely breaking you so that you have no choice but to cling to their orders. They would kill your pokémon, then hurt you. Their other option is to befriend you and gain your trust, which is what they're trying to do by guaranteeing your pokémon's safety."
Eve looked back down at the ground, and her body trembled more. They've already killed Basil… And now they're enslaving me.
"I'm not sure if this makes the situation any better, but… The New Republic of Johto isn't necessarily an entirely bad thing, even though I think even the old government was better," Brian said. "They promise a truer republic than what we have had before, where only eleven people represented the entire nation and where a dictatorial Champion and Elite Four chose what laws could be broken and which should be upheld. True, Team Rocket will essentially have control, at least for a while; but I'm confident that eventually the citizens will get sick of that, and will revolt against them just as they revolted against the old Johto government. Crimes with trainers as victims will no longer be placed behind those of a city's citizens, as they have been in the past. A system will be developed so that pokémon and humans come in contact less, preventing injuries and deaths caused by one race to the other. And-"
Eve shook her head from side to side, more violently than she meant to; Brian immediately stopped talking and waited for her to say whatever objection she had.
She calmed down after a few moments, but couldn't say anything for about another minute. She kept her head down, and Brian saw tear after tear fall to the cold cement beneath them. Her body shook up and down as she sobbed, yet she somehow managed to keep a sound from escaping her lips.
Finally, after some minutes of silence, she managed to slow her sobbing and say, "Just… just stop talking. I can't justify this. But after seeing Basil slaughtered, I can't… I can't…" she broke into sobs again, and it took her another few minutes to get control of herself. When she did, she finished, "I can't see any of my other pokémon get killed. I even know that they'd all willingly die to keep me from doing something that I know is wrong, but that just makes it all the worse if I did something to kill them or get them sold to someone else or something. And I can't see them die in front of me, never again. I don't think I could…" She trailed off.
Then, suddenly, she stood up. She let out a shaky breath to try to calm herself down, then glared at Brian and said, "I… I don't know whether to trust you, or to believe that my pokémon will be kept safe, even if your logic makes sense. But I have no choice but to agree to the conditions. Just… just let me see my pokémon. Even if it's just one of them, please let me see one of them now."
Brian stood up and turned to the door. "Of course. And Eve, yet again… I'm sorry. And for your sake, try not to go crazy in here like you were doing before; I know that this is hell for you, but know that there's always someone watching and listening, and any weakness you reveal could be something they could use against you in the future." He gestured up at a camera in one of the corners of the ceiling; in her earlier fits of sadness and panic, she hadn't seen it at all. "Anyway, just follow me; I'll lead you to a place where you can see your pokémon."
He knocked on the metal door, and someone opened it for him; he walked out of the room, and Eve quickly followed. She ignored the two guards who began to follow her as soon as she was out of the door. Their ominous presence was nothing compared to the thought of being able to see one of her pokémon.
So Brian led the group down a hallway and into a small elevator. They went down to the first floor of the building, and Brian led the way down the hallway again and then went into another metal door. All through this journey, Eve had seen no windows, and so had no indication of where exactly this building was.
Eve entered the door and found herself on a small battlefield; she, Brian, the two guards, and one other man were the only people in the room. As soon as the door closed behind the group, the two guards let out six pokémon each. Most of them were small, but the message got across: even though Eve would have a pokémon out, she shouldn't even think about attacking or escaping.
The man who had been in the room when they arrived pulled a pokéball out of his pocket and said harshly, "This place is reinforced with steel, and the door will be locked remotely if you try to do anything. We have plenty more troops ready for battle in this building if anything goes wrong, so I suggest you don't try anything."
Then he handed over the pokéball.
Eve took it tentatively, afraid that maybe this was all just a trick. But it was a real pokéball, at least. She pressed the release mechanism, and Hannah appeared in the burst of light that followed.
~Eve, what's going on?~ Hannah asked as she tensed, looking around at the twelve pokémon that surrounded them. When Eve didn't answer, she turned to get a better look at Eve; Eve just looked at the purple-leafed bayleef, tears in her eyes.
Seeing that the pokémon around her weren't attacking, Hannah lowered her guard and moved towards Eve, a comforting scent emanating from the leaf on her head. ~Eve, what's wrong? Why are you crying? And why are all these pokémon around us?~
But Eve couldn't answer. Instead, she knelt down, threw her arms around Hannah's neck, and cried with all the intensity of a child the first time he is punished for a crime he didn't do. And just like such a child, she felt shock of the truth of how cruel the world can be. And also like such a child, she couldn't comprehend this truth at all.
So, um... Sucks to be Eve right now...
Anyway, this was originally going to be a much longer chapter. However, that ended up being well over 8,000 words. It divided quite nicely into two, however, so the second half will be the next chapter.
I don't have much else to say right now, so I guess I'll just repeat how glad I am that there are people out there who apparently like this story enough to read and review!