Disclaimer: Pokémon and its related properties are copyrighted to The Pokémon Company and Nintendo, respectively
A Yearning for the Mud
Chapter Fifty-One – Hi
"Tell me everything you know about Reed Whitfield."
"Wh-What?"
Chara pulled back and jerked Wallace forward before he slammed him back against the wall again. "Tell me everything about Reed Whitfield!" he barked, digging the serrated edge of the blade into Wallace's neck. "Don't make me ask again."
"I don't know an-anything!" Wallace squeezed his eyes shut and suppressed the urge to swallow, fearful that any extra movement would allow one of the blade points to open a tear in his throat. He pictured Chara like a predator in the ocean, one drop of blood in the water was all it would take. "He-he's one of you!" he said, peering through his lids to the ceiling. His eyes rolled to the side and found elgyem lying on the floor before he looked away he swore he caught a glimpse of the lights on his hands glowing.
With another jerk, Wallace was pulled off the wall and slammed back again, his vision flashing white on impact. "He's not one of us, so where the fuck did he come from? And why is he so interested in you?"
Wallace recoiled under Chara's tone, his body shaking uncontrollably. "I-I don't know – he's working with M-Mieko! I assumed he was an O-Orphan." Wallace felt a moment of relief as the blade vanished from his neck and Chara's hand untwisted from his shirt, only for that relief to be squeezed out as Chara's hand gripped his throat.
"He's not!" Chara snapped. "Dammit, Mieko!"
Wallace grunted as he tried to pry Chara's fingers from his neck. "He took you!"
"He did," Chara hummed, a scowl distorting the boy's androgynous features. "He said he couldn't have me in the way of getting to his prize. He said he wanted you all to himself. But now here I am, and here you are. I guess plans changed."
Wallace's mind flew into panic mode as he felt his sneakers lose contact with the ground. He felt Chara's grip tightened, the ends of his nails cutting into his skin as the vertebra in his neck struggled to uphold the weight of his body.
"Tell me where Reed is so I can repay him for the favor of trapping me. Or can tell me where your boyfriend Don is, so I can repay him for what he did to James. Or I can skin you alive for compensation on both accounts."
Wallace's eyes rolled to the back of his head as patches of darkness started to flood his vision. Trying to breathe was a fruitless effort, but more than cutting off his air, he was depriving blood from reaching his brain. "Ll...gee...hem."
Chara's grip tightened as he pressed Wallace harder into the wall before a short flash of light lit up the chapel. Chara's grip vanished in a second with the sound of a loud pop. Wallace dropped to the floor into a coughing, heaving, and sputtering ball.
In the corner of his clearing vision, Wallace saw elgyem's red lights flashing down on him. As his mind commanded oxygen and blood to continue pumping as normal, it allowed panic to replace the unfiltered fear of imminent death.
Pressing against the ground, Wallace forced himself to sit up and threw himself back against the wall. With clumsy fingers, Wallace dug into his pocket and teased a random ball out onto the floor. He rolled the ball into his palm as his eyes shot toward a sound on the other side of the chapel.
Rising to his feet, face twisted by a possessed looking smile, Chara's eyes were locked on him. "You must want to die tonight," he said.
Wallace enlarged the ball tucked into his palm and let his hand relax around it as he pushed himself into standing. He chucked the ball at the floor just ahead of him, releasing Mila onto the carpet. The dual-type shook her head once released, as if shaking off her sleep and stretched out, her tail whipping the air in the process.
"Pathetic," Chara said as he reached behind his back and brought out a great ball he let fall to the floor.
A pokémon nearly Chara's height emerged, its bright bug body reflected the chapel lights while a pair of wings buzzed behind its back. The sound filled Wallace with dread and memories of running from a horde of combee as a child.
"Slash them open, Scyther."
Wallace tensed as the scyther scraped the curved keratin on its arms together, the curves of the blades scratching together like nails on a chalkboard.
"Headbutt!"
Scyther's legs bent before it tore off from its place and crossed the chapel to them faster than Wallace thought possible. Wallace stumbled back as he watched Scyther lift its arm, its blade catching the light as Mila lowered herself to the ground and pounced.
What looked like an innocuous action registered pain on Scyther's face as Mila's head rammed into its abdomen, knocking it off balance.
"Scyther!" Chara yelled. "Kill them!"
"Mila, take down!"
Mila mewed as she took advantage of the stunned Scyther and climbed its body, leaping off the bulbous shoulders of its thorax. Her jump sent her high into the air, near the ceiling, as she flipped and came down, paws outstretched as Scyther leaped up to meet her, scythes poised to strike.
Wallace watched Scyther's blade graze Mila's fur, a gush of blood flying through the air. Mila cried out as they connected, her paws landing on Scyther's head and halting the dual-type's progression as Mila drove them both down to the floor.
The impact rattled the floors and in the second Wallace took his eyes off the fight, he saw Chara sneering. "You don't have to do this anymore, Chara. My father is dead. Charles is in the wind. It doesn't matter anymore. I know you were told my Sonai to find me, but it's over!"
Chara squinted at Wallace, his mouth opening for a moment before he shook his head. "Scyther, wing attack!"
Scyther let out a grating cry as it stretched out and jumped back from Mila, its wings glowing and flapping rapidly as distorted crescent-shaped pockets of air cut across the chapel. Mila charged ahead, avoiding the first few attacks, but the third caught her and lifted her off the floor and sent her flying back to Wallace.
Preparing to catch her, Wallace waited before Mila was covered in purple light. Elgyem moved his arms until Mila was righted in the air and she was facing Scyther again. "Gy?" Elgyem asked, pushing his arms forward a few times.
Wallace looked between his team and their opponent and nodded. "Got it. Mila, use your fire fang."
Mila roared as she snapped her jaws together a few times, licks of flames dancing between her teeth. Elgyem brought his arms back then thrust them forward, the light coating Mila exploding behind her hind legs and propelling her across the room like a rocket.
Scyther crossed its blades over its face a moment too late as Mila flew by its head. Wallace thought she was moving too fast to make it, but when Scyther cried out and lost its balance, he knew he was wrong. Mila sunk her teeth into one of Scyther's wings, the energy contained behind her teeth unleashed in a fury of flames that burned away as Scyther's back and wings.
Eager to shake its attacker off, Scyther began to dance around, whipping its body left and right until a crisp ripping sound dislodged Mila and a chunk of Scyther's wing.
Shaking her head, Mila toyed with the torn wing as her body started to glow before Chara's hand shot down and grabbed the scruff of her neck and picked her up. Wallace saw the flash of the knife as Chara pressed to her throat. "You were a job for me. Bring you to Sonai, or to Charles, or kill you where you stood. That was my job, and I could have finished it at any time, but this game of ours became a lot more fun than any job I've ever had. Don't you get it? You, and that girl," Chara pulled the knife from Mila's throat and dragged the flat edge across his cheek and grinned, "you're the ones that got away. And you, you got away too many times to count. To an apex predator, what could be more fun than to hunt the prey that just won't die?" Chara moved the knife back to Mila's throat but balked at the sight of her body exploding with light.
Wallace watched the petite form of his litleo expand and Chara's face as her body became too much to hold aloft. He dropped her and backed away as a low rumble filled the chapel before the figure of light leaped off the ground and tackled Chara. As Chara landed on his back, pressed under the weight of Mila's body, the light vanished. The all too familiar sight of a pyroar pinned Chara to the floor as a gold and crimson mane crested from Mila's head and down the length of her spine.
"Scyther!"
Chara's choked word caused the flailing scyther to pause, small embers still burning away on its back. Scyther turned to Mila's backside and charged, blades at its sides.
"Elgy," Wallace said, flicking his wrist out.
Elgyem shot off of his shoulder, arms out, and wrapped Scyther in his light before it reached Mila. In a flash, Scyther had vanished from the chapel floor and reappeared in the air, still charging. But rather than its intended target, Scyther charged into the wall with a thud and fell back, falling without hesitation to the floor.
Eyeing the fallen scyther, Wallace crossed the chapel to Chara's side where Mila had her fangs bared at him, a constant growl coming from deep within her chest. A few feet away, Wallace found Chara's knife and retrieved it, testing the point against his fingertip.
"Are you going to kill me?" Chara asked.
Wallace's eyes flashed to Chara's face, at the threat of death he didn't look scared. The sight didn't surprise him, though he tried to guess what emotion Chara might feel at the moment of his death, he didn't think he would ever find out. "No," he said, pocketing the knife. "I'm not a killer."
Wallace spread his hand out and ran it through Mila's mane, reaching and massaging her head, though his display of affection did nothing to calm her. If anything, his presence seemed to urge on her fury as she pressed down harder on Chara's chest and roared into his face. "I want you to leave me alone," Wallace said.
"What is this? Trainer's school?" Chara asked. "Are you going – "
"I mean it," Wallace said. "Forget about me, forget about Eleanor, forget about Don and I'll make it worth it."
"Do you think you can buy me?" Chara asked as he lifted his head off the ground, wincing against Mila's weight. "I'll gut you and bleed you dry over your daddy's fortune before I take a penny of it."
"I never said I would give you money," Wallace said. "I never thought you would care about money. I'll pay you in blood. Reed's life for mine, and Eleanor's and Don's."
"I thought you said you weren't a killer," Chara said, grinning as he settled back against the floor.
"I'm not killing anyone," Wallace said, trying to settle himself with the fact that Reed would be as good as dead once Chara had his hands on him. "Whatever you do with Reed is your choice. I just need him, and you, gone. You said you were the apex predator, but Reed was able to take you with ease," Wallace said, aware of the thin ice he'd begun to stomp over. "He decided to let you go, he didn't have to. Are you going to let him get away with that? He wants me, he's going to come back for me. Let me catch him and bring him to you in exchange for our freedom."
Chara's lip twitched before he averted his eyes. "You bring him to me, on the island. I want him delivered on the mansion's front doorstep like a present with a bow. You better hope you find him before I do, otherwise, it's open season on you and your friends."
"Deal," Wallace said as he tapped Mila's head. "Let him go," he said as he backed away, hand settling on the knife handle. From what he felt was a safe distance he watched Chara get up and recall his scyther then head for the doorway.
"If I find out you're working with him. I'll kill everyone you know," Chara said as he stopped in the doorway.
Wallace waited until he heard Chara's footsteps fade to naught before he checked the hall to ensure he really was gone. He collapsed onto the doorframe and allowed himself a moment to breathe, cry, and punch the door before he forced himself to focus. After closing up the chapel doors and taking down the murdered CPR dummy with elgyem's help he headed back to the others, taking the time to admire Mila's evolution. Like with ariados, elgyem seemed to take joy in pokémon bigger than him and decided to ride on Mila's back rather than sit on his shoulder.
Similar to the aftermath of his battle with Reed in the freshman dorm, following Chara's appearance, Wallace walked without fear back through the clinic as he rounded the corner of the resident hallway. Though he was for the most part physically uninjured, he found himself massaging his throat, sure that the knife had cut him, even minutely.
Mila and elgyem moved lazily behind him, Mila's head bumping into the back of his knee when he stopped abruptly outside of the guest room.
"Gy?" Elgyem hummed, rising to eye level and turning to the room. Inside, Rosanna and Serena were sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing each other, while the others surrounded them. Wallace studied each of their faces, all knitted in concentration.
Propped against the observation wall with Alice, Nicki stood watching the scene before their gaze shifted to something else, then passed over him. "He's back!" Nicki said, altering the room.
Cole slid into the doorway and bulleted into the hallway, ensnaring him in his arms. "Where were you?" he asked, his eyes darting from Wallace to elgyem, then finally to Mila. "Whoa. What was it?" he asked. "What did Serena find? What happened? She evolved? Were you in a battle?"
"I went to the chapel," Wallace said, choosing the easiest answer first as he moved away from Cole and further into the room, trying to avoid the other questions for the time being. He had to tell them, either about Chara or Reed, but at this point, he wasn't sure which was the biggest danger. "How's it going in here?"
"Rose and Serena are trying to open a pathway," Madeleina said, standing near Neo.
"No luck yet, but I suppose it's hard to know if it's working until it actually works," Neo added.
"I'm finding it hard to think about someone I can't remember," Serena said, her brow furrowing. "All the thoughts I'm bringing up are from other people. It's like I'm trying to recall a movie from someone else's explanation."
"Is there any way for her to remember him better?" Rosanna asked as she stretched out and hunched over, pulling her sewaddle out of her lap and planting a kiss on his head that he tried to wriggle away from.
The moment from the hallway with Brent flashed through his mind, the first beacon of hope that all memories of those taken hadn't been erased. That some memories couldn't be wiped away entirely, the next instance had been Eleanor's recollection of Chara's attack. "Serena," he said, making his way through the room to the bed. "At breakfast the other day, when Reed made that comment about the Roses you did something weird when you stopped talking, it looked like something was wrong."
Serena blinked a few times as he craned her head from side to side. "Yeah, I know. I was waiting for something to happen, but it never did. I don't know what I was expecting."
"Were you waiting for Nat to come to your defense?" he asked. "Because he did that, all the time. Anytime someone talked back to you, or made even a negative comment about you, he was there to defend you."
"Wallace, we've been at this for nearly an hour," Neo said. "Nothing seems to be working. Why don't you try and use elgyem to jog her memories?"
"No!" Wallace snapped. "I'm not going to get involved with that kind of stuff! It's dangerous. You saw what Reed's mom was like, what if he practiced on her before he started doing it here?"
"Forget I said anything," Neo said, holding up his hands in surrender.
"Maybe you should try, Wallace," Eleanor said. "Rosanna is family, but you were around these missing people all the time and you're the only one of us who can recall any of them. Maybe your memories are enough. Maybe if you sit with them it'll help."
Wallace wavered at Eleanor's offer at first before he moved closer to the bed. "I'll try," he said as Rosanna shifted over on the bed and he eased down beside her. Mila butted her way into the space, sniffing at Serena, then Rosanna before the sewaddle caught her eye and she nipped at him.
The sewaddle squeaked and scurried up Rosanna's shoulder and buried himself into her hair. "What are you thinking about?" Rosanna asked.
Wallace inhaled and closed his eyes, trying to calm his rampant thoughts in order to focus on his clearest memories of Nat. "The fire," he said. "I was there that night, running from the Orphans. Nat showed up at some point trying to put it out, but he was attacked. I was here when they brought him in. My totodile egg cracked and I brought it in. I was waiting when they brought Nat in. He was screaming, he looked like his skin had been peeled off he was burned so bad. Even though he was in so much pain he warned me about the Orphans, that there were three of them coming for me." Wallace's breath caught in his throat. Nat had warned him of three boys, Chara, James, and the one that had burned him, who he assumed had to be Reed, but as Chara had proved, Reed was not an Orphan. A dark and damp fear clouded his mind and dripped down his spine like ice water. The thought that another Orphan hadn't revealed themselves yet chilled him. "He told me to run and to get his family away from here."
Wallace's focus broke as he gripped the sides of his head, Nat's warning replying in his mind. "He warned me, and I didn't listen. I didn't think it would turn out like this. He wanted his brothers safe and now they're gone." Wallace sucked in a shuddering breath as he fought the urge to breakdown and collapse onto the floor. "He put himself in harm's way to protect the school and its students even though the students are the reason he wasn't allowed to battle on campus. He allowed himself to stay here at a disadvantage in his classes and obeyed those made up rules by the Roses because he loved you, Serena. Bandaged, broken, and bruised, he still fought Julian to protect you. That's who he was, a protector, to his brothers, to you, to sister, everyone he cared about."
"His sister?" Serena gasped. "Lily."
A chorus of gasps opened Wallace's eyes to a column of light spreading in the middle of the room. Eleanor spread her arms out and forced Neo and Madeleina to back up as the light expanded, taking form as a flat circle whose edges faded off into white smoke-like wisps.
"W-What?" Alita gasped as she tucked herself into Aleigha's side.
"It's a portal!" Cole shouted from the doorway.
Wallace slid off the bed, moving as carefully as he could, terrified that any sudden movement would cause the light to fade and vanish. "No. It's a path," he said, staring into the center of it, his eyes grew tired from the constant glare before a dark blotch stained the center of the light.
Rosanna and Serena got off the bed and joined at his sides as the blotch darkened and grew wider, taking shape. He distinguished arms, legs, and a head as he watched the pattern of the figure's walk as their shape grew larger before a hand pierced the veil.
Those around him sucked in a sharp breath and recoiled back as an arm, scarred with glossy pink flesh emerged. Before they had fully emerged, the light began to fade, the edges of the circle retracting before it vanished altogether, like a flame being blown out. He found a familiar and stunned face there once the light vanished.
"Nat?"
Wallace thought he'd said the name that was on his mind, but it was Serena who'd spoken as she inched by him. Eyes in the room weren't sure where to look, Wallace found some on him, others on Nat, others on Serena, somewhere exchanging glances with each other before the room exploded with sound.
Serena screamed as she threw herself at Nat who sagged under her assault but wrapped his arms around her waist and managed to stay standing. Rosanna let out a screech while Neo and Eleanor cheered and kissed. Behind Nat, he caught sight of Aleigha wiping her eyes while Alita looked to be in the middle of crying her eyes out.
As Serena fell back onto her on feet, Nat's hands climbed her body to find her face, bringing her close until their foreheads touched. They stayed connected for a moment, their eyes glued to one another. "Hi," he said.
Serena's body jerked as she started to sob again. "Hi," she replied, breathless and choking as she kissed him and collapsed into his arms again.
"Found you."
The hairs on the back of Wallace's neck stood at attention as he looked to his right to find Reed standing in the hallway, smiling. "Cole!"
Cole's brows shot up as he started to turn, but Wallace saw him reacting too late as the too-familiar swirling pattern started to warp the air around him. Wallace rushed forward and grabbed Cole's arm, yanking him back as the distortion behind him widened.
Something hard smacked the floor and a burst of light blinded Wallace. A grating sound like an old computer error alarm filled the room and a spastic moving pokemon appeared. Like a cartoon program come to life, a blocky and sharp-edged pokemon hovered beside Wallace.
"Porygon, shadow ball!" Neo said, covering his head. "Get down!"
Wallace squeezed his eyes shut and hollered as he pulled harder on Cole's arm as a deep warbling sound filled the room. He listened to a soft pop before something shot through the room and an explosion knocked him off his feet and someone slammed into him, sending them both to the floor.
Chatter and cries filled the air laced with smoke that gagged Wallace when he tried to take in a breath. Squirming to free the body on him, Wallace realized it was Cole and that something wet and warm had dripped through the front of his shirt.
Cole tried to push himself up, but once he placed a bit of his weight onto his right arm he gasped and collapsed, his chest smacking the ground. Pushing himself up to get a better look, Wallace saw blood coating most of Cole's arm. Dark curved grooves covered Cole's arm from the top of his shredded sleeve to his wrist as blood poured from every wound.
A flash of red light lit up the floor and Wallace scanned his immediate area under he saw elgyem wriggling out from under the bed and Mila emerged from the foot of the bed. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Is everyone okay?"
A few moaned their responses as Cole managed to roll to his back and free Wallace's legs. Wallace shifted back and gave Cole a once over as Neo nearly kicked him in the head as he stepped by. Neo positioned himself in the doorway to the room, his porygon orbiting him and through the gap in his legs, Wallace saw Reed standing back up across the hall, his dusclops lifting itself off the ground.
As the smoke cleared Wallace could make out the shapes of his friends in the room and watched as Nat stumbled across the room, nearly tripping over Eleanor, to come to Neo's side. "Get away from him, he's dangerous."
"Yeah, we know," Neo said.
"Oh, I didn't expect to see you here, Nat," Reed said. "What a surprise."
Wallace leaned over Cole to get a better look at Reed and found him clenching his fists, his nostrils flaring as he spoke in the same tone he used to scold Julian.
"We figured out to bring them back from the other side, and it's only a matter of time before we bring everyone else back too," Neo said. "Your little game is over."
Reed shook his head as he planted his palms flat on the wall. "How can the game be over when you haven't gotten to the final boss yet?"
"Porygon, use shadow ball!"
Wallace flinched as Neo's porygon fired another attack off. He heard the warbling sound before it smashed into a wall along with the patter of footsteps outside the room.
"He's getting away!"
Wallace opened his eyes in time to watch Neo vanish around the corner as he ran from the room and scrambled to his feet as well. "Mila and Elgy, let's go! Garret, make sure everyone is safe!" he yelled as he darted into the hall, but recoiled and slipped as a dark projectile flew overhead. His back smacked the ground and from the corner of his eye, he watched Neo and porygon dancing backward as dusclops's shadow snaked across the tile toward them.
As he struggled to get to his feet, chunks of the destroyed wall giving him uneven footing, Eleanor and Cole emerged from the room, the latter using the wall for support while Eleanor rushed to Neo's side. In a flash, a pungent yellow electabuzz stepped ahead of Eleanor and joined porygon in the hall.
With a roar from the electabuzz, Wallace felt the air prickle with energy that raised the air on his arms. Getting to his feet, he watched porygon fire off another shadow ball that dusclops leaped over as Eleanor's electabuzz charged up a similar attack, a sparkling ball of electricity.
"Wattson," Eleanor said. "Electro Ball!"
Wallace wavered on his feet, Cole's hand shooting out to steady him as the crackling of electricity deafened him.
"Dusclops, use shadow sneak, clear a path," Reed said as he darted to the left and hugged the wall as his dusclops melted into the floor, its shadow darkening into a solid mass on the tile.
Wattson's electro ball flew by, crashing into the far wall and leaving scorch marks as Reed sprinted down the hall at Eleanor and Neo, dusclops's shadow following him step for step. He watched Neo and Eleanor hesitate to command their pokemon as the shadow lurched off the ground in front of Reed and slammed into electabuzz, throwing him off balance before it dove back into the ground.
Reed propelled himself off the wall and slammed into Eleanor, his elbow connecting with her side and sending her howling into Neo who stumbled to catch her in time. Wallace watched Reed leap over the rubble and head straight for him, his dusclops peeling itself out of the floor too.
"Wallace!" someone from the room shouted.
"Psybeam! Headbutt!"
Wallace strained his eyes to stay open as the hall filled with purple light and Elgyem swooped down beside Wallace. A jagged beam of energy fired from his hands that struck dusclops in mid-air. In the chaos, Mila's vibrant mane soared across the space and connected with Reed. Wallace watched his dark form flip backward and land on his shoulders, legs in the air before he flipped and landed on his stomach.
"Dammit," Reed groaned as he struggled to get to his feet. "Dusclops!"
"Get him!" Neo shouted from the other end of the hall as a dusclops's shadow flew across the wall and bled down to merge with Reed's on the ground. Wallace scooped back as he watched the dreaded spiral absorb Reed in a matter of seconds and leave his spot on the floor empty.
Heavy footfalls vibrated the floor as Neo and Eleanor rushed to him and stopped short of the spot Reed had vanished from. "Is he gone?" Eleanor asked, panting.
"For now," Wallace said as Cole rested a hand on his shoulder. Wallace gripped Cole's forearm, his other hand snagging into the front of Cole's shirt before he pulled him in for a hug.
"Is everyone okay?" Serena asked from the doorway, her eyes tracking the various damage spots around the hall.
"We're fine, Reed's gone. He got away," Neo said, recalling his porygon. "Nice shot, Elgy"
Elgyem lit Neo up in green and hummed with excitement as he flew to Wallace's shoulder. "Gy!"
"Wallace, you evolved your litleo?" Neo asked. "I'm impressed."
"We're not safe here anymore," Cole said, pulling back and looking toward the room. "We've got to find someplace to take everyone. He could come back at any moment and take someone else."
"I know," Wallace said, untangling their limbs as he locked eyes with Eleanor. With the secret about Reed out of the bag, he had to let the secret that Chara had returned out as well, at least to one person. "Make sure everyone is okay. Ellie, can we talk?"
Eleanor nodded as she fiddled with the chain around her neck and motioned for her electabuzz to follow. Wallace backed up down the hall as Cole and Neo filed back into the room and heard the chatter start-up as he and Eleanor turned the corner.
"What's on your mind?" Eleanor asked as they reached the end of the hall. "Other than, everything."
Wallace considered the question as they walked, their footfalls and the breathing of their pokémon the only sounds in the hallway the further they got from the others.
"The fact that we're not safe here," Wallace said. He wondered if choosing to keep Reed's appearance in the chapel to himself had been for the better. In his mind, he weighed the scales of whether or not telling the group of his encounter would have helped them or if it would have delayed them getting back Nat. "I don't know where we can take everyone to keep them safe. Reed has access to any building, and I don't think locked doors are going to stop him."
"I want to suggest hiding in plain sight, like the Religious Life Center, but maybe that's too close to him," Eleanor suggested. "He could be using that as his hideout. For a second I wanted to suggest the mansion in the safari, but Chara could be – "
An electrical current so real struck Wallace that he glanced back to make sure Eleanor's electabuzz hadn't hit him by accident. He dared a glance at Eleanor as she stopped walking and seemed frozen in time.
"Chara," Eleanor said, again, testing the name. "I remember now," she said as she touched her face. "Wallace."
Wallace stopped too and turned to watch the gears in Eleanor's mind churn out the answer to the unasked question. From her reaction, the knife-sized gap in Eleanor's memory had been filled when Reed unleashed Chara on him.
"Did you know?" she asked, her voice low.
"I ran into Reed before we got Nat back, he brought Chara back."
Eleanor's eyes widened as she puffed air through her cheeks and her hands snapped up and started to claw at him through the air. "What – why would – Wallace!"
"I'm sorry!"
"Sorry? Wallace! Two of the most dangerous people we know were in the building with us and you didn't say a word! I can't believe you would put us in danger like that!" Eleanor said as she turned and stormed off. "You could have warned us! What if he had managed to take Cole, or someone else just now?"
Wallace jogged to get ahead of her and planted his hands on her shoulders to stop her. "I know, but it's complicated. There's more to it than just Chara being back, and the Reed thing, my mind was reeling and then Nat was back and then Reed showed up anyway, I didn't have time to process. I'm sorry, but trust me, we're safe, from Chara at least. Once we get away from here we'll be safe from Reed too."
"Wallace," Eleanor said as she laid her hands on his arms and moved his hands from her shoulders. "You can't make those kinds of decisions for everyone. This is dangerous. There's no such thing as being safe when Chara is loose."
"I know, but this is different," Wallace said. "Isn't it weird that Reed took Chara in the first place?" he asked.
Eleanor sighed as his question seemed to quell her irritation. "Aren't they supposed to be working together?" Eleanor asked. "Neo said that Reed was an Orphan too."
"According to Chara, he's not," Wallace said.
"According to Chara. Did you talk to him?" Eleanor asked as she led Wallace to the side of the hall and started to whisper. "What happened?"
"He wants Reed gone just like we do," Wallace said. "So, I made a deal. We just need to get Reed to Chara in the safari, and then both of our problems are solved."
"What is Chara going to do to him?" Eleanor asked.
Wallace shrugged and sighed, trying not to think of all the colorful and messy things Chara would do to a victim. "I don't want to think about it honestly."
Eleanor pursed her lips and let herself fall against the wall. "This is dangerous. Wallace, you're betting our safety on the word of a madman."
"The enemy of my enemy. Isn't that what they say?" he asked, pressing himself up against her shoulder. "As much as I want Reed gone, I really want the other students back. We need to move everyone to someplace safe, probably off-campus."
"If Chara is supposed to be helping us take care of Reed, maybe the mansion isn't a bad place to consider?" she asked.
Wallace curled his lips over his teeth and winced at the idea. "I don't trust it. Yes, I believe Chara wants Reed for himself, but I can't trust him not to do something while we're there. There's got to be another place we can take everyone."
"I'm sure you've got enough space back home," Eleanor said. "What about that?"
"Reed said he learned his tricks from my father," Wallace said. "I can't risk him knowing about the townhouse - Eleanor, I've got it, you're brilliant," he said, digging a hand in his pocket for his phone. He started to type out a lengthy text as he moved down the hall.
"What did I say? The townhouse?"
"Not the townhouse exactly, but Andrew is there. There's a place he can take us," Wallace said as he typed out an urgent but brief text to Andrew.
"Andrew Gates?" Eleanor asked. "Wow, I didn't think I would ever meet him. Sorry, I know this isn't the time to be a fangirl."
Wallace snorted as he sent the text off and pocketed his phone. "Tell the others we're leaving, have them get supplies from nearby rooms. Try not to let people spread out too much. I'll be back in a minute with Andrew."
He waited until Eleanor was back inside the room before he took off for the lobby with Mila on his heels, a few times he felt her claws on his heels like she was trying to catch him rather than keep his pace. He pushed through the lobby doors as a flash of purple lit up the already bright room.
Andrew appeared as the light faded, dressed in khakis and a polo, like Wallace had pulled him away from a game of golf. At his side, a cross-legged alakazam floated in space, clicking two spoons together slowly. "Yo," Andrew said, with a wave before he stuffed his hands into his pockets and crossed the lobby. "This place looks the same."
"You've been here before?" Wallace asked, taking in the sight of his friend. He'd only been on campus for about a month, but Andrew looked different from the last time they'd talked. Older somehow. "I didn't know, that's why I asked you to meet me at the doors."
Andrew nodded as he gestured over his shoulder. "I came here during one of my first trips to the school as part of my tour. Honey hadn't evolved yet, but she still remembers."
Wallace peered over Andrew's shoulder to the floating alakazam, her human yet creature-like appearance unsettled him, but as an abra, Honey had been one of Andrew's favorites from his time in Kanto. Honey knew how uncomfortable she made him and she clicked her spoons together at him after his eyes lingered on her for too long.
Elgyem zoomed away from Wallace and flew around Honey, his eyes lighting up as he stopped at her eye level. Honey's eyes did the same, turning a bright blue as it looked the two of them shared a mental connection.
"Quite the text," Andrew said, motioning at Mila who sniffed at his hand before she inched closer and accepted a head scratch. "A pyroar, just like your mom. So, how many people are we teleporting?"
"Over a dozen," he said, as he backed up to the doors and held it open. "I couldn't think of too many places that would be safe for them, but I thought about the house on route 14 you visited. It's kind of out of the way."
"Why are we hiding these students anyway?" Andrew asked Mila galloped away from him and through the doors followed by Honey and Elgy. "You said there was an emergency on campus."
"His Reed, he's been taking the students using a dusclops," Wallace said. "We've figured out how to get them back, but we need a place that's safe to work on that and figure out a way to take care of Reed for good." He continued walking, the doorway for the observation room coming into view when he turned to find Andrew far behind him in the hall. "Andrew?"
Andrew's head snapped up and he darted down the hall to him, his eyes flicking from side to side. "Wallace, you said his name was Reed?"
"What's wrong? Do you know him?" he asked, gripping Andrew by the shoulder. "Reed Whitfield."
Andrew's eyes kept moving, never focusing on one thing for too long as he shrugged away from Wallace's touch and started to pace the hall. "There's something I need to tell you."
Wallace felt a stone plummet into the pit of his stomach at Andrew's tone. "I can't take it, whatever it is. Andrew, please tell me it can wait."
"I don't know if it can," he said, his eyes flicking up to meet Wallace's gaze for a moment. "Reed, um, he's average height, brown hair, freckles on his nose?"
Wallace bit into his tongue and nodded his head, trying to mentally and perhaps physically prepare himself for whatever Andrew had to say.
"Wallace, I don't – I don't know how you're going to react, but I do know Reed," Andrew said, his pacing creating a greater distance between them. "I met him overseas, years ago. Not long before I returned to Kalos. Um, he was the one who gave me the flash drive."
Wallace's eyes widened and his neck jutted out, the impact of Andrew's words falling short on him. "Flash drive. What flash drive?"
"The flash drive that I brought to your house the night of my birthday," he said, flatly. "The one with evidence of the embezzlement. What I said that night, about meeting people who'd been wronged by your father was a lie. I was just doing my thing, battling and winning. I was excited because I knew I was coming home for my birthday. On Christmas Eve, Reed walked up to me in a mart. He handed me the flash drive and told me everything I would need to tip the scales was on it."
Wallace's mind absorbed every word Andrew said, but one thing stuck out in his mind above the rest of the din. Christmas Eve.
"Everything was there, invoices, records from transactions, receipts, contracts, everything that would bring your dad down. I know now that it was just your dad's efforts to protect my dad," Andrew said, wringing his hands together. "Reed left me a note on the flash drive with a way to contact him. We met up and he explained how he came across the information, how he found me, everything he hoped to achieve with the flash drive. He said someone with a reputation like me needed to bring it to light so that it wouldn't go unnoticed."
"Why would you trust him?" Wallace asked, his voice wet with anger. "A stranger walks up to you and hands you information that could ruin the life of your best friend's family and you just take it and agree to run with it?"
"It's not like that," Andrew said, stepping forward, his hands working over themselves more and more. "I didn't plan on doing anything with it. I told him I didn't want any part of it and threatened to throw the flash drive away, but he said he had copies. He told me that his parents had been working on a startup business that Arlan had assisted with, but took all their savings. He said it drove his parents into a depression and that they took their lives as a result."
"He lied!" Wallace said, shouting. "I met his mother, she's alive. His father –" Wallace paused and pinched the bridge of his nose, his frustration building to an unhealthy level that made him want to explode.
"Wallace, I had no choice but to believe him," Andrew said. "When he was talking about it he broke down and started crying. He said all he wanted was for the world to know who Arlan really was. I looked at everything he gave me again and started researching the companies Pearce Productions had worked with and found stories about small companies that never got off the ground because of those deals. I couldn't have known he was lying, it all added up to me."
Wallace shook his head, his lips trembling against everything he wanted to say. "No," he said through gritted teeth.
"It made me so mad, eventually I was kind of on board." Andrew sucked in a deep breath and rubbed his palms against his shirt. "I knew it would hurt you, but that's why I went to my dad first. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know that my dad was a part of it too. That night he tried to turn it on Arlan because whatever Reed found never mentioned my dad. Then Arlan threatened him and I stole the flash drive back and went to confront him, and you, I guess. I made the video outside of your house as insurance and then – well, you know the rest."
Wallace felt a vein in his forehead throb as he replayed that night in his townhouse. Andrew's fury toward his father had come from an argument their fathers had had earlier in the night with Charles trying to use Reed's evidence to gain the upper hand. Everything that had come after, the fall, the police, Andrew, Radix, the Orphans, all of it stemmed from one decision. Reed giving Andrew the flash drive.
"The night I took the flash drive to my dad he told me about why Arlan kept me away for so long," Andrew said. "Because he blames me for your mom, and because he was upset about what I did to you. I was so upset that he could keep me so close, but hate me the entire time. It blinded me. Looking back, I know that my dad saw that as the opportunity to ruin your dad's life to save his own, and I guess I ended up trying to do the same thing and I'm sorry. I guess you and me, we're not so different from our dad's after all."
"He lied to you," Wallace said, again. "I met Reed's mother. She lives in the Alola region, her husband died when Reed was seven. The Christmas Eve that my father left me at your house, that was the night a fire killed Reed's dad. Maybe they did have a business my father – no, Charles – ruined, but he still lied, or didn't tell the whole truth. He lied to you from the very beginning. Just like he lied to me and everyone else."
"Why? Why would he make up a story like that?" Andrew asked. "Why give me the flash drive in the first place?"
"To get you on his side," Wallace said, shrugging. "He needed you to believe him. To get directly to me, or maybe he did want to ruin my father."
"But why, what's the endgame?" Andrew asked. "Why go through all of that? Gather records of a crime, give it to me and hope I would expose Arlan. Now Arlan is dead, and he's here kidnapping your classmates? Why?"
"It has to be the fire," Wallace said. "The fire in Po Town on Christmas Eve, it killed that man. His name was Keith Whitfield, Reed said that Keith wasn't his real father, but that could be a lie too. But that's the first time there was any connection between everyone." Wallace drifted from the scene in the hall as he replayed some of Reed's words over in his mind. My bloodline runs deeper through this story… "Andrew, I think Reed –"
"Oh!"
A gasp from behind Wallace alerted him and as he spun, he found Eleanor, Neo, and Cole peeking into the hallway.
"We're done packing, everyone is ready when you are, Wallace," Eleanor said. "Hi, you must be Andrew."
Andrew weakly waved to her and the others. "Nice to meet you."
"Everything alright?" Cole asked, his eyes shooting up as he looked between Wallace and Andrew.
"We're fine," Wallace said as he pulled Mila's ball from his pocket and recalled her before motioning for Andrew to follow as the others moved back inside the room and he stepped inside. "Everyone, this is Andrew Gates, he's going to be teleporting us away from here. We've got to get someplace safe to working on bringing the others back without fear of Reed popping in on us."
Andrew shut the door behind his alakazam and clapped his hands, waving to a few people in the room, particularly to Rosanna's friends as his alakazam floated into the empty space in the room. "Gather around Honey, place your hand on her directly, or touch someone that is touching her. We'll be able to take everyone at once."
"Wallace," Cole said as he placed his hand on the small of his back and led him through the doorway into the observation room. "I didn't know what to do about tyrogue, but then I found this, they're Cheryl's notes," he said, knocking his hand against a clipboard hanging from the wall.
"You remember Cheryl?" Wallace asked as he grabbed the board and skimmed some of the medical jargon.
"Yeah, I do," Cole said. "I guess she really is just away from campus. That's a relief. But on the second page, her notes read them."
Wallace bit at the corner of his lip as he flipped to the second page fastened to the board. The nurse's slanted script filled up two-paragraph boxes on the page detailing the tyrogue's condition. "The patient's condition has severely improved. The new lungs, the combination of artificial fibers and what I could salvage, are performing as expected. Tyrogue's breathing is regular and his vitals are returning to normal. The operation was a success. The dilemma is finding a home for him. I would not advise the patient to be released into the wild. He's spent too much time in the care of nurses and other humans, integration into a wild pack may not be ideal. May contact regional professors to see if they will take him. Needs to be looked after and not trained too hard. His condition has caused his muscles to deteriorate. Will not experience growth in the normal sense."
Wallace flipped the first page down and hung the board back up as he turned his eyes onto tyrogue. He hadn't been able to tell from the other room, but the only machines connected to tyrogue seemed to be monitoring his breathing and heart rate with sticky pads as well as a drip that Cheryl said were nutrients he needed to live. If he watched close enough, Wallace could follow the rise and fall of the pokémon's chest and even hear the eased sound of his breathing.
"From what she said, he seems fine to leave," Cole said. "I didn't think leaving him behind was a good idea."
Wallace looked up and caught Cole staring at him, smiling. "What?"
"Take him with you," Cole said, nodding at the fighting-type. "You could use another pokémon on your team."
Wallace fished a ball from his pocket and waved it in the air. "I got this in Alola, so now I have five."
"Even better, a full team of six, just like any respectable trainer," Cole said. "These will help you too."
Wallace looked up again as he slid the Alola poke ball back into his pocket and found Cole holding up a large dark blue pouch. "What is that?"
"You remember that candy I gave you that you said tasted terrible, but it was meant for pokémon?" Cole asked as he palmed the pouch and dug his fingers through the top and pulled out a blue spherical ball. "It a rare candy made just for pokémon, it makes them stronger, and can ever trigger evolution if they eat enough of them. I found this pouch when we were looking for food and supplies to take."
Wallace stared blankly at Cole, still in awe at the sound of tyrogue's breathing. "So?"
"So I want you to take them, give them your team," Cole said. "You need to be able to do more than just teleport to safety. You should be able to hold you own in a fight, in case something happens, and you can't get away," he said as he placed the pouch down on the edge of the table.
"Mila just evolved, she's plenty strong. Besides, isn't that cheating?" Wallace asked, glancing at elgyem who eyed the pouch. "Making them stronger enough the work?"
Cole shrugged. "People use them all the time for a little boost. We're not exactly students right now anyway, no teacher is going to care. I just want you to be safe, whether I'm here or not. If nothing else, take tyrogue with you." Cole reached into his pocket and pulled out a miniaturized poké ball and laid it on top of the candy pouch."
Wallace straightened up and clamped his hand over the pouch and dragged it toward himself. He plucked the ball off the top and enlarged it. He stared at the glossy finish for a moment before he touched the locking mechanism to tyrogue's head. The fighting-type flinched before his body was enveloped in light and sucked into the ball.
Elgyem leaned over Wallace's shoulder to watch the ball wriggle slightly in his palm before a faint click echoed from the ball. "Gy?"
"We've got a new team member," Wallace said, miniaturizing the ball and pocketing it, wondering why he hadn't insisted Cole take the tyrogue instead. He grabbed the candy pouch and peered inside; it was full of spherical candies of different colors. "I know one thing, elgyem will not be evolving."
Elgyem touched a hand to his chest and lit himself up in yellow.
"Any reason why?" Cole asked as he folded his arms.
"Because of what my father and Reed have been able to do with beheeyem, I don't think I could look at elgyem the same way," Wallace said, rubbing elgyem's head as he moved around the table and headed back toward the adjacent room.
Cole stepped into his path and with one moment pressed his body against Wallace's, pinning him to the wall. "So, your friend. Who is he?"
Wallace was breathless for a second as he started to flail internally under Cole's golden stare. "A-Andrew?"
"Andrew," Cole said.
"He's a childhood friend," Wallace said, catching a hint of something in Cole's voice as he repeated the name. "Were you feeling jealous when you saw us talking?"
Cole nodded, then shrugged as he backed away. "Maybe a little," he said as he let Wallace go. "I haven't forgotten our deal. We save everyone, and then there gets to be an us."
"I believe I said we can talk about us," Wallace tease as he headed back into the room. "Are we ready?"
The room gave him a variety of responses as everyone fell into position around Andrew and Honey, reach of them laying a hand on the person beside them until everyone but he and Cole were connected. Cole rested his hand on Neo's shoulder and Wallace moved to grab Eleanor's hand when a knock on the door shook the room's focus.
The hushed chatter started immediately, everyone was whispering amongst themselves and Wallace found himself scanning the faces around him. Had they forgotten someone, was someone missing? He kept losing count as seconds passed and another knock came.
"Wallace?" Eleanor asked at his side.
An explosion blew the door off its hinges and sent chunks of wood spraying across the room. In the chaos, he caught a glimpse of Reed and dusclops. "Knock. Knock." Reed lunged into the room, dusclops at his side and Wallace propelled forward and into his path.
"Andrew, go!" Wallace cried as he reached out, focusing on the sight of Reed's hand reaching for Eleanor. "Elgyem, take us!" he said as his hand clamped down on Reed's wrist as his dusclops's eye started shining. The room exploded with light as he watched the air around them ripple as Elgyem's power warped them from the clinic.
End of Chapter Fifty-One
