Chapter Thirty-Eight: Resisting
Jenna laughed aloud as the chaos of battle raged around her, her every sense filled with adrenaline-induced excitement. She was riding through the sky on Flame's back, giving her attack commands to the dragon even while she watched her golduck and tyranitar wreaking havoc among the New Republic troops below her. Pokémon covered in flaming feathers plummeted from the sky each time Flame shot off a flamethrower or fire blast; even when she had five or six other flying types bothering her, she never missed her intended target. And with that smell of burning plumage came the sickening scent of seared flesh and the terrifying sounds of the screams of dying men and women.
Jenna only laughed all the harder at these atrocities. To her, war was a game. Moreover, it was a game at which she excelled.
And though she was the only one who battled with such carelessness and disregard for life, she was not unique in her ability to kill the enemy. Lance, Bruno, Cynthia, and all the available gym leaders were also causing massive destruction to the enemy lines that were defending the plain between Ilex Forest and the southernmost part of Goldenrod city.
As they already knew, this massive – and so far successful – onslaught was not without its risks. They had been battling since daybreak, and they were nearly six hours into the battle now. Morty had already been gravely wounded when he had gone too far into the New Republic's ranks and found himself massively outnumbered. The only reason he wasn't dead at the moment was because Mark had been using Tim's teleporting and his own strategic mind to act as commander-in-chief during the battle, and he'd been able to sense Morty's danger and save him; but even so, it was doubtful whether or not Morty would be able to see his beloved ghosts ever again – unless, perhaps, he came back as a ghost himself.
Other key figures of the Old Army had faced similar problems as far as numbers go. Though all of them together had at least three times the number of truly powerful pokémon as the New Republic, the New Republic had over twice the number of trainers on their side, and therefore close to six times the number of pokémon. And just as Jenna had overpowered both Palkia and Ho-Oh in the past by overwhelming them with numbers, so too would entire sections of the New Republic's army make attempts at the lives of the Gym Leaders, the one member of the Elite Four, the two Champions, and Jenna.
Some of the Gym Leaders had also been injured by pokémon teleporting near them to gain the advantage of surprise; but towards the beginning of the battle, Mark and Tim had taken care of all those who tried. Now the only teleporting pokémon that the New Republic might have had at that battle were either dead or in hiding after seeing their comrades' deaths.
As the battle continued, Mark suddenly teleported onto Flame's back just behind Jenna; Flame faltered in the air for a second, momentarily allowing some bird pokémon to get near enough to Jenna to try for the kill.
Tim, however, was fast enough to take care of the enemies in spite of just completing a difficult teleport. Purple flames suddenly rose from the abra's body, and though they touched Mark, he was not burned; in a split second, the fire grew to some fifteen or twenty feet and formed a shape roughly equivalent to the head of some reptilian pokémon.
The sudden appearance of this monstrous form was enough to cause all of the bird pokémon to veer away from their target. But before any could escape far, the massive dragon head swung out and bit down upon a large number of them; the head itself disappeared as soon as its maw snapped shut. The bodies of trainer and pokémon alike were instantly engulfed by the purple flames; and no matter how fast their bodies fell, the flames refused to go out until Tim allowed the draconic flames that surrounded his own body to dissipate.
Jenna grinned maniacally as she watched the bodies falling. "Nice hidden power. My pokémon have all tried it, but they've never managed to master it to such an extent. Not to mention, Sandy is probably the only single one of my pokémon that's stronger than Tim, and so would be able to manage something like that. That was a dragon hidden power, I'm guessing?"
"Yeah," Mark said absently, as if he was purposely trying not to think about what Tim had just done. "Tim, I do wish you'd save your energy. We've still got quite a bit of teleporting to do. Anyway, Jenna, Bugsy desperately needs you over on the right flank of the battle. Karen is destroying him – his scyther is already dead, and he was only barely able to return one or two of his other pokémon before mortal blows were dealt. Get over there, now."
Leaning down closer to her charizard's neck, Jenna chuckled a bit. "Shows what you get for having kids like him in battle. Even type advantage can't help him. Stupid kids, thinking they can be gym leaders with simple bug types. Anyway, Flame, zip by Silver and Rasu so I can return them to their pokéballs, then hurry over to the right flank."
Mark and Tim teleported away again, this time onto the back of a dragonite that was flying a good ways above the main part of the aerial battle. The whole purpose of this dragonite – which was, of course, one of Lance's – was for Mark to have a centrally-located base from which he could use his 'sight' to comprehensively view much of the battle. At Mark's command, the dragonite dove over to the right flank and hit one of Karen's many murkrow with a thunderbolt; to the murkrow's credit, it didn't faint. Instead, it flew to a relatively young, silvery-haired female trainer, who quickly withdrew it and turned to see her new opponent.
Karen hurriedly ordered her whole flock of murkrow (which she had apparently trained as flock specifically for large battles such as this, if their coordinated movements were anything to judge by) towards Mark, which was exactly as he had planned. Despite there being well over two dozen of the birds, Tim and the dragonite were easily able to fend them off. Meanwhile, Bugsy's two remaining a pokémon – a pair of heracross –were finally able to make a comeback against Karen's umbreon and houndoom thanks to the disappearance of the birds.
Still, they were tired. Though their bug and fighting attacks did a good bit of damage, they simply couldn't keep up with the houndoom's speedy movements and ranged fire-type attacks. Thankfully, just when they were reaching their limit, Jenna finally arrived. An absol that was standing guard at Karen's side warned her of the approach, and the dark-type trainer quickly got on the absol's back and recalled her houndoom and umbreon.
Mark sensed what was happening despite the storm of black feathers around him, and tried to order the dragonite to block off Karen's route of escape; however, though the dragonite was easily able to hold the murkrow at bay, he could not get past them no matter how hard he tried.
He also sensed Jenna trying to get to Karen, but she was forced to stop when a large number of the nearby New Republic troops began calling out more pokémon and having them aim all their attacks at Flame; Karen must have given some signal for them to cover her before fleeing to the back of the ranks. Mark gritted his teeth at the lost opportunity to capture or kill one of the enemy Elites, but didn't dare teleport after her now. Too many New Republic troops were now surrounding her.
"Well, she'll reappear at another part of the battle soon enough," Mark said to himself. "Let's get back above the battle, Tim."
Tim teleported himself, Mark, and the dragonite back to their starting point; the dragonite unbalanced a bit due to the different wind currents (which is why Mark hadn't done this to catch Karen in the first place), but the dragonite quickly recovered. Mark then had the dragonite swoop close to the ground – a very dangerous spot for any pokémon in flight – and fly along the length of the battle, so that he could get the best sense of what was going on.
As the dragonite dodged the attacks that were inevitably aimed at him as he flew along the ground, Mark saw that the battle was undeniably in their favor. Though Karen, Will, and Pryce were all present – as well as several other trainers probably deserving of all eight badges, and multiple trainers commanding the now infamous five gyarados – they simply could not keep up with the much larger number of insanely powerful pokémon. Their only possible method of attack had just been demonstrated by Karen: come out of the middle of a unit, strike quickly at any weak point, deal as much damage as possible, then retreat as the mediocre trainers get themselves killed in an effort to provide cover.
Mark assessed the battle with surprising composure, despite the jerky and fast movements of the dragon beneath him. Three gym leaders were out of action now: Morty, Bugsy, and now Whitney. What had happened to Whitney while he had been distracted, Mark couldn't be sure; but based on the suddenly depleted state of her unit, it appeared that at least one gyarados plus perhaps Will or Pryce had managed to take her down. Whether she had died in the assault, been captured, or had fled to the back of the lines, Mark didn't know.
As he got farther down the line, he realized that Will couldn't have been the culprit. He was currently locked in a battle to the death with an enraged Lance, and – unsurprisingly – he was losing. Mark saw that Lance's two dragonair and the dragonite he was riding were easily destroying the xatu and slowbro that were trying to defend their master. And as Mark watched, one of the dragonair slipped past the defenders, slithered over to Will, and wrapped its long body around the trainer.
Mark sensed the life quickly leave the once-great trainer as his spine snapped beneath the power of the coils. Both of the psychic types in battle felt him die, as well, and retaliated with blind rage; but even with the strength this anger lent them, Lance finished them off with little difficulty. Even as strong as Will had been, no mere Elite could possibly stand against Lance. Especially not an Elite who had betrayed the Champion, thus inciting the full wrath of both him and his dragons.
Whoever was giving the commands on that side of the battlefield must have known that Will was now dead, because all the troops on that side now started an organized retreat. The front ranks fled while the ranks farther back prevented any from following their fellow troops; then, once the formerly front ranks were far enough back, the formerly rear ranks repeated the action.
All the troops of the Old Johto army saw this and cheered as they pursued their quarry. Lance, of course, noticed as well, and began enacting the next stage of his plan. He scanned the skies, spotted his other dragonite in the sky, and flew up to it so that he and Mark were close enough to speak.
"Mark, you haven't been battling at all, have you?" Lance asked gruffly as he tore off a strip of his shirt and tied it around a large wound on his leg; apparently, even the Champion couldn't entirely avoid injury while in the thick of war.
"No, Sir," Mark answered. "Tim's had to defend a few times, and he's a bit tired from all the teleporting, but that's the extent of our troubles."
Lance nodded. "Good to hear. Follow me to land among our lines, near where Cynthia is; I'll return both of my dragonite to their pokéballs to make it easier on Tim, then I'll need him to teleport you, me, and Cynthia to the very edge of Goldenrod City. We'll be cutting off their escape and forcing their surrender."
Mark didn't question the command, though he doubted whether or not the three of them would be able to cut off an entire army. He was more concerned about where or not the three of them could keep themselves from getting killed when faced with the desperate remains of the New Republic's army. Though Cynthia and Lance were Champions, Mark was a mere five-badge trainer. He was good at strategy, but that only helped so much when being assaulted by dozens of pokémon at once.
The plan was executed quickly, and Cynthia, Lance, and Mark all found themselves about twenty feet from the first few housing developments that marked the southern edge of Goldenrod. The New Republic troops were still maybe half a mile away, but at the rate of their retreat, they could manage to make to it their position in as little as fifteen minutes.
Lance let out all of his pokémon; both Mark and Cynthia followed his example. Then Lance commanded, "Tear up the ground here as much as possible. Make craters and canyons with hyper beams; soak the ground with hydro pumps; whatever it takes. All we need to do is slow their progress so that they cannot get into the city. Now go."
And with that, he ordered his two dragonair, two dragonite, and charizard to use hyper beams, then commanded his gyarados to use hydro pump.
Cynthia chose a similar strategy: her gastrodon and milotic used water attacks, and her garchomp and lucario used earthquakes to break up the ground. Her last two pokémon – a roserade and a spiritomb – were incapable of such widespread destruction, and so stayed at her side, ready for battle if any of the retreating force reached them before they were ready.
Mark had to be a little bit more creative. He had his ditto transform into Lance's gyarados and begin using hydro pump; he had his zorua make the illusion of herself as a dragonite, to intimidate the New Republic troops should they arrive; and he had his castform create a small rainstorm to further muddy the ground. Tim, like roserade and spiritomb, didn't really have any attacks that could make a great impact on the landscape, so he limited himself to using psychic to uproot small trees and lay them down on their sides. And for the moment, Mark kept his other pokémon in their pokéballs, since they too couldn't do much to damage the land.
The three trainers and their pokémon continued this destruction for about fifteen minutes, and in that short span of time they so completely ruined the ground that it would probably take a good twenty minutes for any human to cross the fifty feet of small chasms, swampy earth, and craters.
Yet when the New Republic troops finally reached their side of the destruction, it wasn't because of these swamps and chasms that they stopped. They were desperate; they gladly would have tried to traverse it if it meant escape. They stopped mainly because they could see Lance, Cynthia, and Mark standing on the other side, with all of their pokémon ready and waiting.
Upon seeing that trio, many of the New Republic forces turned to try a reckless dash through enemy forces; but as soon as they saw people like Jenna and Bruno easily cutting down those troops that were still fighting, they didn't dare stick with the idea. Many looked back and forth in confusion, wondering what the best choice was: head back towards the opposing forces, head towards two Champions, or give in entirely.
The lucky few at the very edges of the trapped forced tried to make an escape from their prospective edges, where neither army nor torn ground stood in their way. As the first few broke away from the bulk of the army, however, they were picked off one by one by Faulkner's birds. Those on the flanks who had been planning on following them now chose to stay put.
The troops of the New Republic of Johto had been rendered completely immobile.
Lance got onto one of his dragonite and ordered it to fly a bit closer to the confused enemy ranks. "As you can see, you are trapped," he shouted out; though his voice wasn't notably deep or loud, it had a sort of menace within it that sent chills down the spines of all it was directed towards. "Withdraw all your pokémon and surrender. Who is your commander here?"
All the soldiers looked around hopefully for a few moments; but soon, this hope turned to resignation and many began returning their pokémon. Their problem was clear enough. Those leaders whom they looked around for were gone. And sure enough, Mark could sense none of the powerful trainers who had been directing the New Republic's side of the battle. Pryce, Karen, and numerous other highly-ranked trainers had disappeared.
Lance's gaze darkened as he realized what had happened; the war would have turned in his favor had those trainers been captured with the rest of their troops. Then he flew back to Cynthia and Mark, turned his anger-filled eyes to them, and said, "You two stay over here. We'll be slowly funneling the enemy troops around the sides of the mess we've made, and we'll confiscate their pokémon in the process. You'll just need to make sure none of them try to make a run for it. Kill any who try."
Though Mark and Cynthia both inwardly flinched at the brutality of this order, they nonetheless nodded their heads in acceptance of it. But as the process began, they found that they didn't need to worry about carrying out the order that Lance had made in his anger. Though the confiscation and moving of the conquered troops took hours, not a single person in this time tried to make an escape. Most had been reluctant enough to continue the battle as soon as they saw that Jenna and both Champions were present; now that the battle was lost, even those who were most attached to their pokémon didn't even consider resisting.
After many cold and miserable hours of Old Johto troops guarding the new prisoners of war as their pokémon were taken, all the troops and prisoner were escorted into the city itself. Mark knew the area well, and so he was the one to decide to move the prisoners of war to an arena in the south part of the city.
They met resistance along the way, of course; there were plenty of New Republic troops that had been left in the city itself. Despite the fact that nightfall was fast approaching, Lance ordered several squadrons to begin clearing out the enemy from the main parts of the city.
Due to all this activity, the sun had already fallen by the time Lance had both found an appropriate place to set up as the base of operations in Goldenrod and gathered together all those important in the war effort. And by that time, there was plenty for them to discuss.
"So Mark, what are the results of the battle? Do you have the numbers?" Lance asked as they began the meeting.
Mark nodded and stood. "We went into the battle with around nineteen thousand trainers. They had about forty thousand. Despite this discrepancy, Karen, Will, and Pryce were the only truly notable trainers on their side, as contrasted to the larger number of strong trainers on our side.
"Our initial tallies indicate that we have suffered nearly six thousand casualties, about half of which were deaths. They have nearly eleven thousand casualties, about seven thousand of which were deaths."
Cynthia and Faulkner both visibly reacted to the news, the former with sadness and the latter with disgust; all others kept a neutral face.
"So it's the bloodiest battle of the war yet, as we expected it to be," Lance said.
Mark replied flatly, "Yes. That is the result of having so many high-level trainers set against an army that was large enough that it would not immediately surrender or flee."
"We know that!" Faulkner said, obviously agitated. "Just tell us how many of us made it? What happened to Morty and Whitney?"
"Morty is still in critical condition, but it's believed that he will survive. Whitney is missing in action; either we have not found her body yet, or she was captured and taken by those who escaped. We suspect the latter." Mark spoke slowly and clearly, without any hint of emotion in his voice. But to the others in the room, it was obvious that he was, in his own way, just as upset as Faulkner.
For that matter, nearly all those who had survived the battle had been affected by it. The past battles had shed relatively little blood. Most trainers on both sides had been able to escape before their pokémon were completely overpowered and killed.
This battle had been different, however. The regular soldiers of the Old Johto army had been so outnumbered that escape had often not been possible; and, as Mark had mentioned, there was little that any but the largest groups of New Republic soldiers could do against high-level dragonite and milotic and tyranitar bearing down upon them.
Only Lance and Jenna appeared completely unmoved by the death and destruction that they had been pivotal in bringing about.
"What of the Eastern Front of Goldenrod?" Evan asked. "There were New Republic troops stationed on that front, were there not?"
Lance signaled for Mark to sit down, and then stood up himself. "It appears that they have retreated to Ecruteak. When they received word of the southern assault, their leadership probably guessed that they wouldn't be able to reach the battle in time to make much of an impact against our strongest trainers. From what we can piece together, it appears that several of the strongest trainers from that group did end up rushing over to battle. Many of those same trainers escaped with Karen and Pryce."
"That's all fine and dandy," Jenna said casually, "But I'd like to know how many didn't escape. I know I took out a good number of high-priority targets."
"Will is dead, as are maybe ten of their top one hundred trainers," Lance said. "As important as all that is, however, we have a more urgent issue to consider. We managed to capture only two of the traitors' leaders; after questioning, one revealed that they have been alerted to the existence of a way to speed the evolution of pokémon. He also said that a number of pokémon had already been sent off for evolution; if not, this battle might have been much worse."
"Do we know where they were sent?" Mark asked, with just a hint of urgency making its way into his carefully guarded expression.
Lance looked at Mark carefully, as if judging whether or not the information he had would spur Mark to do something less than wise. In the end, he replied, "We don't have an exact location yet. As we suspected, it's top-secret even among those highly ranked in Team Rocket's organization. Both Koga's spies and our captives, however, have seen the trucks that were loaded with pokéballs headed towards Olivine. We suspect that Eve is being held either there or at Cianwood. As before, we will continue to keep her rescue a priority. If-"
A huge booming noise shook the building, causing everything in the room to rattle. Despite its loudness, it sounded as if it came from some distance away.
Lance's gaze narrowed, and he looked to Mark and Tim.
Mark nodded, understanding Lance's unspoken command. He and Tim teleported away; the Leaders, Elite, and Champions all waited in silence, anxious to know what had happened but knowing that Mark would get the information to them more quickly than any normal messenger could.
In five minutes, Tim and Mark appeared in the room again; both were covered with ash and dust and rubble. Whatever had happened, it had apparently been bad enough for Tim to wake himself up. He was still awake now, and though he was still perched on Mark's shoulders, he seemed like he might fall off at any moment due to exhaustion.
"There's been an explosion at Goldenrod Radio Tower," Mark said, quickly, breathlessly. "When one of our squads tried to enter the second floor, it seems as if a couple dozen voltorb exploded. I've already retrieved those who were still alive after the blast; however, the destruction is going to be massive when the tower falls over entirely, which it will. We need as much help over there as we can get, to help evacuate those closest to the tower. With your permission, Lance, Tim and I will return immediately and continue to do all that we can."
Lance nodded, and Tim and Mark disappeared. As soon as they were gone, Jenna half-snorted with derision. "And what's the use of blowing up that tower to Team Rocket? At most, a hundred of our troops could die from it, I guess. Not that many of the are near there at the moment. More civilians will die, but they don't particularly matter. Why waste so many perfectly effective voltorb?"
Already, all of the trainers in the room were hurrying out; even Lance was ignoring her. It was her husband who finally replied with a weary voice, "That tower could send out radio signals to nearly all of the Johto region. It was going to be our prime conveyor of propaganda. That tower alone was half the reason why Lance wanted so desperately to take Goldenrod."
Jenna only grinned at this idea as she, too, got up and headed towards the door to help. "First the initial takeover, then Eve, then this. Looks like those Rockets or the New Republic or whoever they are are always a step ahead. I can't help but wonder – was today really a victory? Or does the enemy just want us to think that?"
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After Eve's initial meeting with Brian, she was moved to a slightly larger room that – other than the fact that this one actually had a light switch – was no different than the place she'd first woken up in. A dinner meal was waiting for her when she arrived, though whether it was actually dinnertime or not was impossible for her to guess. She was absolutely starving by then, and so she'd eaten the meal and then gone straight to sleep.
The following day (if it really was day) set up what she presumed would be her routine for however long Team Rocket needed her. She was woken by a knock at her door and was led to a large, empty room. Two men brought in rolling containers so large that they could barely fit in the door, one of which was filled with pokéballs. One of the men released the pokémon one by one, and Eve laid her hands on them to try to make them evolve. Then the pokémon – evolved or not – was returned to its pokéball (each of which had a sticker with a name and platoon number on it) and placed in the empty bin.
Of course, Eve received meals, too. And they were decent meals. But other than those breaks to eat, her entire day was spent doing exactly what Team Rocket needed her for.
To her dismay, she found that nearly a fourth of all the pokémon brought to her were able to evolve. How much more damage will be done to Mark and Katsu and Rose and everyone else if things keep up at this pace? She thought to herself at the end of the second day as she lay on her bed in the darkness of her room. If a quarter of all of these pokémon evolve, then Lance and everyone else will be in big trouble, no matter how strong they are.
She felt strangely drained, to the extent that putting even that obvious fact into a coherent thought was difficult for her. It was hard to say whether this exhaustion was due to some strange aspect of how she caused evolution or due to the continuous emotional fatigue of knowing that Basil was dead.
And it was due to this exhaustion that it wasn't until the following morning that she finally thought of a way to both keep her pokémon safe and limit the damage she was doing to the Old Johto's army. She was following her guards to the evolution room when the thought entered her mind:
What if I still went through the motions, but actively resisted allowing any pokémon to evolve? Pokémon can stop their own evolution, can't they? If I'm helping the process, could I stop it, too?
She perked up without thinking; her guards didn't notice, but as soon as she entered the room, both men who handled the pokéballs apparently noticed something and stared at her searchingly. Eve realized that she was almost smiling, and she quickly tried to revert to the dull, sad demeanor that had possessed her ever since her kidnapping.
The men seemed to pass off the expression as nothing, and the first man took out a pokéball and let out the pokémon inside; but as Eve placed her hands on this first pokémon, the fact that they had clearly noticed her change in attitude filled her with doubts and fears.
What if they suspect something and tell their superiors? She asked herself as the first pokémon, a phanpy, evolved; she hadn't even tried testing her theory on this one, so suddenly afraid was she of the implications of getting caught. Hannah, Aiden, Pebble, Thistle… Their safety is only guaranteed so long as I do this job correctly. If I get caught stopping evolutions, will Team Rocket do to one of them what they did to Basil?
But as she placed her hands on the next five pokémon without any of them evolving, her mind wandered back again to Mark and all the others that would be fighting any pokémon that did evolve. Now that she had had her idea to help them, she couldn't easily dismiss it. Besides, she reasoned with herself, What proof could Team Rocket come up with that would justify any retaliation against my pokémon?
In the end, she decided that she had to at least try to keep too many pokémon from evolving. So when the next pokemon, a venonat, was called out, she inwardly willed it not to evolve, even if it was strong enough. With this intent in mind, she reached out her hands and touched them to the venonat's fur.
Almost as soon as they made contact, Eve felt an unpleasant tingling sensation in her hands. The venonat felt it, too, and shifted away slightly as he said, ~What's going on?~
Eve was horribly conscious of the men's eyes upon her, and she wondered if maybe part of their job was to carefully observe Eve's actions when evolving pokémon. But she nonetheless persisted in keeping the venonat from evolving, and in a few seconds, she withdrew her hands just as she would with any other pokémon incapable of evolution. And though both men's gazes seemed to pierce through her soul to the truth, they said nothing. Instead, they continued the process as if nothing had happened.
I think he guesses that something's up… But he can't prove anything. I've just got to be careful. I'll only stop an evolution every five evolutions or so… And if that works for a while, then I'll slowly stop more, if I think I can get away with it.
Then she thought of Basil, and almost lost all her resolution. It could be Hannah next, who aside from Basil was the first pokémon to join Eve on her journey; or Aiden, who would without hesitation die for her; or it could be Pebble, who had comforted her when she had felt rage for the first time in years; or maybe it would be Thistle, whom Eve had raised from an egg and who was less than four months old.
But then she also thought of Tim, and Rose's pokémon, and Katsu's croconaw and servine and slowpoke and paras. Though Eve would without hesitation save one of her own pokémon over all of these, she now had the opportunity to possibly help them without endangering her own pokémon. I can't just ignore the chance, even if it is risky, even if… Even if… But what if they do kill Pebble or Hannah or Aiden or Thistle?
And though her mind was constantly going back and forth like this throughout the day, she nonetheless worked up the courage to stop a decent number of the evolutions. Oftentimes, she cried as she did this, due to both the near-pain her hand felt when she did so and her fear that she would be found out and her pokémon harmed.
This small effort to resist Team Rocket's control continued without any change for another five days. The doubts and fears never went away, even as time passed and Team Rocket did nothing to indicate that they had guessed what she was doing; if anything, she became even more paranoid the longer she went without being caught. Even when she got to see Thistle on the fifth of those five days of secret rebellion, it did nothing to ease her worry despite the fact that Thistle appeared perfectly healthy.
And even though she was more paranoid than ever after those five days, she went to bed that fifth night deciding that if she was going to be risking her pokémon anyway, she might as well step up her effort and stop the evolution of a slightly larger percentage of the pokémon she came into contact with.
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She was woken by the customary knock the next morning. But as she was fumbling for the light switch, the door unexpectedly opened and someone snuck from the light of the hallway into the pitch-black room before closing the door behind him.
Eve froze for a moment, terrified. This wasn't how things happened when she was being taken to evolve pokémon. They normally gave her a couple minutes after the knock before opening the door and escorting her to her job. This was change, and it was scary change at that.
Do they know? Could they possibly have found out? Are my pokémon… Are they…?
"Eve, it's me," a voice came out of the darkness. And though she hadn't seen him even once since first arriving here – and, for that matter, couldn't see him now – she knew who it was.
"Brian?"
"Yes," the voice replied; it seemed like he was sitting on the floor somewhere near the door. "I want to make this quick, since even though the camera in here can't work unless the light is on, I'm afraid someone will find out. Luckily, the two guards on duty now have been friends with me for a while; and while they still want Team Rocket to succeed, they also sympathize with my position."
Eve calmed slightly, though she was still worried. Even if Brian was on her side, he wouldn't be here unless something had changed or would change. "What's going on? Why are you here?"
"You can't keep on not evolving pokémon," Brian said urgently, getting straight to the point. "They're onto you. The men who observe you and who manage the pokéballs sent to you have noticed some weird behavior, both by you and by some pokémon when they can't evolve. The numbers show that the last four or five days have yielded significantly lower results. But even that wouldn't be enough to condemn you if not for the fact that they've been sending some pokémon back to you after you've already had contact with them, and a few of these have evolved the second time."
Eve paled so much that if even the smallest bit of light could have entered the room, she might have appeared a ghost. So many pokémon were presented to her each day that there was no way she could keep track of them. Whichever side Brian was on, it was clearly well within the realm of possibility that this was the truth.
"Are my pokémon all right?" Eve asked.
"For now, yes," Brian said. "Those who make the decisions concerning you are excusing it for now. They think that maybe you've slowly become more exhausted after the first few days. They've even been giving you more time to sleep over the last day or two to try to reverse this, if it's the case. Or they think that maybe some pokémon simply have to be with you more than once for a few seconds. I don't know if those could be right or not, but if you really are purposefully stopping the evolution, as I supsect… Well, they'll eventually figure it out or guess it. Anyway, I'll leave now."
Eve heard a knock at the door, this one probably made by Brian; the door opened slightly in response, and Eve saw the form of Brian slink out as stealthily as he had first entered.
Eve sat in the darkness for several minutes without moving, stunned by Brian's unexpected visit and the news she had just received.
Then, slowly, she lay back down in her bed, her eyes still open to the oppressive black around her. Not a tear fell from her eyes, though, as her panicked mind finally comprehended what happened.
They really are onto me.
If not for Brian's warning, I would have made things more obvious to them.
One of my pokémon might have died or been hurt because of me.
One of my pokémon would have died because of me. I'm sure of it.
And then the panic left, pushed out by resignation and despair.
I can't keep on holding back the evolutions. Not even every now and then. Mark and Katsu and Rose and Lance and everyone else… I'll just have to apologize, if I ever see them again. No matter how much I hate it, I have to help the enemy as much as I can…
I won't allow another of my pokémon to die.
So, um, that's that! Out a bit early at the request of TubaHero something-or-other on this site, who I'm so glad finally got a fanfiction account! ^_^
Don't have much else to say (again), so thanks for reading!