"Project Medium," Agnes mumbled.

It was Thursday. Agnes laid on her bed in her night gown, her bedsheet pulled up to her hips and covering her slightly bent legs that precariously supported the laptop she held on herself with her right hand, while her left hand travelled along Topa's beautiful mane. Lost in a place somewhere in her mind, the ninetales was huddled up on her trainer's side, head on her chest, her eyes down and riveted on something nobody but her could see. I had opted to sit by Agnes's side without cuddling – Topa needed the comfort, not me, and not from me.

My human's eyes were hidden under a grimace of extreme focus as she stared at her laptop, occasionally swiping upwards on its touchpad with the hand that pushed it on her.

She let out a heavy sigh and glanced at me.

"I can't find anything on a Project Medium," she whispered as if to complain to me. "The only vaguely interesting thing I found is that mediums are people who can speak with the dead. The old cleric order had an entire branch dedicated to them, but they're nothing more than street entertainers and charlatans now. Did they just call themselves that way because they are teaming up with Ghost pokemon?" She grumbled, her shoulders dropping as her laptop hung dangerously from her lap, and turned to me. "Do you think they really could talk to the dead?"

I shook my head with conviction.

"You're right," she said with a smile. Her voice faded as she turned back to her computer with a sad frown, "You're right…"

All three of us jolted when the doorbell rang.

"That must be them," Agnes said. "Ruby, would you get the door?"

I sprang up with a joyful bark and rushed to the entrance. As expected, it was the commissioner's voice that came from the interphone, and I pushed the door button for them, waiting by the door to Agnes's apartment. They were once again in full uniform, the commissioner accompanied with his absol, and Doctor Belish with Ilma. He carried with him a large suitcase as well as a rectangular pouch wrapped around his shoulder.

A cold shiver shook my body when I saw my vaporeon friend, images of her terrifying armour coming back to me.

"Good afternoon, Ruby," Doctor Belish said. He knelt and gave me a few gentle pets on the head. "Is Agnes awake? I hope we didn't pull her out of her sleep."

I nodded with a bark and led them to Agnes's bedroom. While Dante opted to sit by the door, Ilma hurried in and jumped onto the bed almost on top of the sleeping ninetales, then barked towards my human. Agnes chuckled, winced in pain, and patted her head as she greeted her superiors with a tired voice. Her laptop had been closed and rested on her night stand.

"Good morning," the commissioner said. "How have you three been doing?"

Agnes's smile disappeared as she glanced at the ninetales, then gently wrapped her left arm around Topa's beautiful neck and dragged her into a tighter embrace. Ilma jumped out of the way and walked around Agnes's legs to sit next to me.

"Ruby and I are doing fine," she said after a delay, "Topa is… considering what we found, I would say she's handling it remarkably well. I've been taking care of her as much as I could."

The ninetales whined and quietly readjusted her position.

"I'm sorry," Doctor Belish said.

"When will my parents be told?" Agnes asked. "My mom needs to know. She's been grieving for him for too long. She needs closure."

"When the investigation is over, we will release the body to your family," the commissioner said with a stern frown. "Until then, this discovery must be kept secret. We still don't know who those people are and what they have access to."

Agnes's shoulders dropped. "Was there nothing interesting on those drives?"

The two policemen glanced at each other in silence, undecipherable frowns distorting their concerned faces. Agnes peered at them, her eyebrows drawing together and her gaze jumping between the two at an increasing pace. As I glanced towards Ilma, her cold stare sent a terrifying shiver down my spine and my eyes fled back to my trainer.

"What is it?" Agnes asked in a pressing voice.

"There wasn't much in there, the files we could access concerned only the pokemon that were captured within the cryotubes. Mostly notes about the experiments that were performed. But–"

"What did the notes say?"

Doctor Belish let out a frustrated sigh. "From what I gathered, the pokemon were killed in the forest, and whoever these people are just watched them die and took notes. Then they brought the bodies back, autopsied them, and stitched them back together. There were more experiments to be done, but nothing happened and there was no explanation why."

"Why autopsy the bodies? They were the ones to kill these pokemon. They don't need to figure out the cause of death."

"They were looking for something. The reports were quite detailed on changes that happened during death. I assume the autopsies are looking for internal changes as well, at least a specific one. I don't know what it could be."

"Can I read them?"

Doctor Belish stepped forward, opening the large suitcase he carried with him. He pulled a laptop out of it, switched it on, then carefully placed it on Agnes's lap, and made a quick head gesture towards Ilma who hopped down from the bed and walked back towards him.

"This is the only computer that contains these files," he said. "They are highly confidential, so I trust you won't talk about them with anybody."

"I don't talk to anybody anyway. I figured you would be talking about something confidential when you called me yesterday. I even sent Rakuen home before you came here. We'll be fine."

"We also won't allow you to transfer the files to your own laptop for safety reasons. The encryption was fairly easy to breach, but we don't know if the files contain a virus or some spyware. We requisitioned a new computer from a shop unrelated to police in case the files were dangerous."

"Obviously."

"One more thing," the commissioner said. His voice wavered with insecurity. "Don't read the file titled Unit Two. Not yet."

Agnes frowned in confusion at first, her eyes lowering themselves and pacing left and right. Then, they widened, her shoulders dropped, and she peered at the ninetales by her side; and she replied with no words but a grave nod.

"Knock yourself out, then," Doctor Belish said. "It's going to take you a bit, so would you like me to make you something to eat?"

"If you can make those awful chansey eggs edible, please do. I wouldn't say no to a snack, to be honest. You can get something for yourself and for the commissioner too."

The colonel chuckled. "I can't work miracles. I'll go fix something for us then."

He tapped the commissioner on the back with an amused smile and gestured for Ilma to stay, then withdrew from the room, and I laid on Agnes's side as she began browsing the files.

She read in absolute silence, her face remaining surprisingly neutral. I couldn't see the screen from my position and couldn't read what she was reading, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. My eyes were drawn to Ilma, nested on the floor as if to sleep, and for a split second, I considered huddling up on her – but I wasn't certain it was appropriate for us to cuddle in a setting that I wasn't sure was entirely private. Belish returned quickly with a cup of chocolate milk for everyone, as well as slices of cakes, and a few treats for us pokemon.

"This is horrible," Agnes said when she finished reading. My vision had turned cerulean again, and she picked the last bit of cake from her plate hovering about her side. "The way they describe… searching the bowels. Turning the heart around like they expect it to start beating again. Is that what they're trying to do? Prove they can talk to dead pokemon?"

"We really don't know," the commissioner said. "All we know for sure is that the deaths were not accidental. They intended to kill all those pokemon. We believe the Project Medium group to be cultists, maybe former clerics, but we have no idea what their goals are."

"The haunter were key to their experiments," Agnes whispered. "But all four of those pokemon were wild. Topa's son wasn't. Did they think he was?"

There was another silence, and the two policemen stared at each other again. Agnes frowned in their direction, confused, her eyes now wavering in ostensible distress.

"They did not," Belish said after a pause. "Read the Unit Two file."

My ears perked up, and I barked with energy.

Agnes peeked at me, then at Topa, and heaved an insecure sigh. "May I read it out loud?" Belish nodded, and she gently shook the ninetales by her side. "Topa, please wake up. You might not want to hear any of this, but I think it's important."

"It's about your son," I added as the ninetales raised her head. "The notes they have about him."

"Oh," she said in a neutral tone. A yawn then took her, and she shook her head. "Thank you for waking me up. I want to know what they did to him. I need to know."

She greeted our trainer with a quiet whine – earning her a few gentle pets on the head – and nodded. Agnes took a deep breath, turned to the computer on her lap, and began reading.

"Subject number eleven has already been chosen," she read out loud. She marked a break and the laptop trembled. "He resides in the Founder's home and must be disposed of. The family's ninetales must follow suit."

Topa chirped with anger, and Agnes raised wide eyes towards her superiors.

"The Founder's home?" she asked in a wavering voice.

The commissioner nodded sternly. "How long have your parents had ownership of that mansion in the forest?"

"No," Agnes whispered, shaking her head. "They have nothing to do with this. That's not possible. They bought the mansion at an auction a few years ago. Mom was pregnant with me. Topa wasn't even born yet. They lived way far west in Goldtown, in the Greatlands, and moved here to expand their business and get away from the tourists."

"We will have to check the town's records and interrogate your parents. If what you said is accurate, then they might not be directly involved since the murders started long before you were born, so before they came here. Still, these records make clear mention of their mansion – several times, even. Keep reading."

"Tell me you're not suspecting my family. Why would this group attack and kill one of their own? They're not–"

Doctor Belish silenced her with a hand movement. "We are not suspecting your family. We do however need information on the mansion and that is why we've subpoenaed them."

Agnes opened her mouth as if to protest. Sitting by her side, I frowned with anger towards the two policemen – was it not a bit excessive to summon her parents to court just to obtain information on their house? Were they lying to my trainer when they said her family was not being suspected?

Was she suspected?

Agnes cleared her throat, let out a defeated sigh, and resumed. "Our attempts at penetrating the mansion have all been thwarted by the ninetales, but the young vulpix has been receptive to our signals and we have successfully captured his attention. We will slow down the break-ins and try to drag him out instead. Once the family is scared enough to leave, we can make our way in and retrieve the journal."

Her breathing accelerated, as did Topa's and mine. She looked up at the two policemen again, but the commissioner gestured for her to continue reading and she turned back to the monitor with a deep breath. Her pupils shrank progressively as she read in silence, until she glanced at the ninetales, a sorrowful frown on her face.

Her words wavered as she read, "We've managed to lure the vulpix out. We caught him escaping the house and trying to hide behind the swimming pool. All it took was opening the portal to get him to follow us, and we took him to the edge of the forest for processing. Unfortunately, nothing of value was noticed during his–"

Topa's powerful whine echoing with sadness burst through the silence of the room. She had raised her head and intently stared at the screen as if hoping to read its contents, tears falling from her eyes.

"I've had enough," Agnes whispered.

She slammed the laptop shut and handed it back to Doctor Belish. No sooner were her hands free than she dragged Topa onto her, embracing her with as much strength as her weakened arms allowed her to.

The two policemen observed a few minutes of silence as the ninetales wept in her trainer's arms. I stood by Agnes's side, stupefied, my eyes wandering across Topa's body and my legs trembling with the will to do something to help her but stopped by my mind's inability to decide what.

I jolted when cold fur brushed my side.

"There is nothing you can say that will help her right now," Ilma whispered, standing next to me. "She is experiencing the full shock of grief. The realisation that her son really was dead was difficult to stomach, and she did so with strength I wouldn't have expected; but now she has confirmation that he was murdered and that is too much to bear."

"No," I whispered. "I don't think that's what's happening. She had already accepted the death of her son."

I remained quiet as Ilma frowned in my direction and attempted prodding me for more information. Her voice seemed to have faded as my attention was deported to the weeping ninetales, and hidden deep in the midst of her dismay and despondent sobs, merging with the tears of pain that wet her beautiful fur, I could hear shameful gasps of relief.

"Whatever this journal is that they're talking about, it must be extremely valuable to them," the commissioner whispered.

"Enough that they would send people in pretending to be regular burglars," Agnes said. Topa laid on her, fast asleep but still breathing rapidly. "And it is somewhere within the mansion."

"We figured that we may have given them an opportunity to take the item back when we removed your family from their home, so we have the area under constant surveillance now. We will be alerted of any suspicious activity. It's been quiet so far, but I can only guess that they are preparing their attack since all their previous ones failed – thanks to Topa, if I understand it right?"

"That's right."

My heart raced as I sat beside Agnes, tapping the bed with impatience.

"Maybe you were right," she whispered, her head and shoulders dropping. "Maybe my parents know something."

"Do you have an idea what that journal is?" the commissioner asked. "Anything in particular we should be looking for? Or at least where to start?"

"Oh, I know where to start." She shuddered, and her right hand crawled along her bed to reach me. "There's a wing in the second floor that my father forbade us from accessing."

"For–"

A powerful bark caused my body to spring up and Topa to jolt awake. Tails wagging furiously, I walked towards Agnes, nodding with energy and barking repeatedly. My snout bobbed up and down as I sniffed the air.

"It would seem you hit the nail on the head," Doctor Belish said. "I'm going to summon a small team to search the mansion immediately. We can worry about the legal minutiae later. We shouldn't give the cultists any more time to prepare."

The commissioner nodded, then turned to me as Doctor Belish rushed out of the room, Ilma in tow. "Ruby," he said, "do you know anything about that wing?"

I nodded furiously once more, and intently tapped the bed sheets with my nose.

"A smell," Agnes said. "I'm willing to bet that it's like in the forest, isn't it?"

I nodded, then tapped the sheet once more and shook my head. To my surprise, my trainer let out a despondent sigh, then looked away.

"I'm blind," she whispered. "Had I been better at communicating with Ruby, we could have solved this much earlier. Maybe fewer pokemon would have died."

"No, you couldn't. You couldn't have known your own house would wind up being related to our investigation. Besides, the breakthrough that allowed us to make progress was the lack of smells, which was your discovery. Without you, we would still be stuck."

He peeked back towards his pokemon, who took a few respectful steps forward.

"We don't have time to weep over our mistakes," the commissioner said. "Where is the saddle? Let's get going as fast as we can; Colonel Belish will join us at the mansion. Until we've recovered the journal ourselves, we must assume that the enemy has us beat in speed."

"Saddle is in the living room," Agnes said. "Topa, can you fetch it? Ruby, get me my keys and come help me here."

Getting Agnes and Dante prepared was more difficult than I would have expected – particularly given that my entire body trembled and made my telekinesis unsteady as a result – but we were out in the commissioner's personal car in less than thirty minutes and on our way to the mansion. Seated by our human, Topa too trembled visibly, her uneasy eyes wandering through the interior of the vehicle and constantly avoiding mine. I opened my muzzle many times, but couldn't find anything to say that could have cheered her up or calmed her down. Even Agnes seemed uneasy, taking controlled deep breaths and clenching her fists upon her thighs, but her gaze at least sought mine, and I looked at her as much as I could on our way when I was not peeking at Topa and trying to talk to her.

It should have been relief that shook my spine when the car stopped away from the oversized portal of the mansion and under the cover of the trees surrounding it, but apprehension finally managed to take hold of me as I stepped out of the vehicle and the commissioner helped Agnes mount the kneeling absol. Topa, on the other hand, displayed a focused frown, her tails forming a fuzzy fan behind her, and her eyes creeping over the metal gate as if trying to burst in through the power of her telekinesis.

Finally, I managed to compose myself and walked up to her.

"Topa," I whispered.

She lost her focused frown and turned to me with a smile, but I couldn't find anything else to say.

"Thank you," she whispered. "I know you have been trying to find something to say to help me. I am sorry, but I do not want to talk right now. I want to focus on this and find out what has really been going on and who those people who lured my son away to kill him are."

"I doubt we will find much information on that," the absol said as Agnes adjusted her position on his saddle. His deeply resonating voice caused me to jolt. "At least until we claim possession of the journal the files mentioned – assuming our enemies did not already claim it."

"Let them try," Topa whispered. Ears laid and fangs bared, she snapped a terrifying gaze towards the absol. "I hope we find some of them."

"That we might, but if we do, please give me your word that you will not kill them."

"I will not kill them. But I cannot promise they will be unharmed."

The absol nodded. "That is your right."

"Topa, please don't be so angry," Agnes said. "We might need you on this, so keep your wits about you, okay? You'll have all the time to vent once we end this whole thing."

The ninetales looked up with a whimper, but nodded docilely. Sitting away from her, another terrified shudder shook me, and I couldn't bring myself to look at her. For the first time since we had met, she had shown the true extent of her power – an aura so strong that it overshadowed mine completely and was on a level similar to what I had felt coming from Pico.

And, for the first time since we had met, she was angry.