A/N:

Here it comes. In the first chapter, I did warn that things would get political in this story. Now I'm not one for "trigger warnings" at all, however, this chapter strikes a bit hard. Some things might come across as upsetting to some people, and that was not my intention if that is how it is perceived. Without giving away spoilers, I will say this: please keep in mind who the villain is. Just because I did type all of this up does not mean that anything here reflects my personal views. Like, at all.

I still do not own pokémon or any of the companies in this story.

Thanks to both Lunar Knight Archangel and Lamosamo67 for giving suggestions about this chapter.

If you enjoy reading, please consider leaving a review. I always enjoy your all's feedback.

"…" - Spoken dialogue

Italics - Michael's thoughts

'Italics' - Telepathic dialogue

/\/\/\ - Lemon Scene


"Savage, despicable evil. That's what we were fighting in Iraq. That's why a lot of people, myself included, called the enemy 'savages.' There really was no other way to describe what we encountered there."

-Chris Kyle


Ch. 18 - Confrontation

"H-hey dad…" His father wasted no time in embracing him, making Michael feel more than a little awkward. Hesitantly, though, he returned the gesture.

"What brings you over here so early? I thought you weren't headed here for at least a few more weeks." His voice possessed both authority and smoothness. One never would have thought that he did what he did.

"…The girls and I got tired of it. Thought we might head over here a bit earlier."

"Ah, alright." He stepped aside, holding the door open. "Well, you gonna stand there, or are we gonna head inside and catch up about the past year?" This was his only chance to divert Ethan from the house.

"Yeah, about that - I was thinking that we might actually take a walk. It'd give us plenty of time to talk…" His father looked at him strangely.

"So would sitting around the fireplace over a cup of coffee. Hell, it's… barely over forty degrees outside." Shit… "Ah, what the hell, this is the first time you've been over in a year. I'll join ya outside - just let me grab a coat. Do you want one?"

"No thanks. These things are actually pretty warm, you know?" Ethan simply shrugged before heading back inside.

"That couldn't have worked out any better," Wesley said through his earpiece. "Keep it up. Once you're in the woods, we'll begin quarantining the area off." It wasn't long before his father joined him once more outside, shutting and locking the door behind him.

"Alright, where to?"

"Let's see… remember that place towards the end of Juniper Drive? I think there was a pretty decent trail in there. Ran over a creek. Was it Builes?"

"Guiles Creek," his father corrected, "and yes, I know the area quite well. Follow me." As he led Michael gradually away from the suburbs and into a small clearing, he fished a pack out of his coat pocket, followed by a lighter. Ethan took out a single cigarette, then held the half-empty pack out for Michael, who simply shook his head. Still found them repulsive, though they surely wouldn't hurt him at this point. Ethan lit his own, then pocketed the lighter. "So," he began, "how's the army been treating you?"

"Good, most of the time is waiting around, but the girls and I enjoy it. Get a lot of cool toys to play with."

"Yep, I'd imagine that fully automatic stuff is fun, ain't it?"

"Mhm." He remained silent for a moment, unsure of how to continue. Well, I guess I can start by shifting the conversation to his job… "What about you? How's work been lately?" The distant sound of the creek could be heard as the only sound permeating the dark silence.

"It's slowed down a bit, that's for certain. But everyone has their ups and downs, you know? It won't be long before the companies are back up on their feet, and business will be better than ever. I've never failed to make a comeback, and that ain't changing now." Words couldn't describe how much it hurt to hear those words.

"So nothing's changed then," Michael murmured absentmindedly.

"No. Not a damn thing."

"Just curious, dad - what companies do you work for?" All he had known previously about his father was that he was involved in private investing; for all Ethan knew, that was what Michael still believed.

"Oh, dozens. It would probably be easier to list the companies that I haven't done business with."

"An all-around type, huh?"

"I guess you could say that." Taking a breath, he exhaled a deep fume of smoke into the wintery atmosphere. "Why do you ask?" He carefully considered his response.

"I was just curious…"

"Uh-huh."

"I wanted to see… if you would tell the truth." Ethan flashed him a confused look. Making eye contact with him, though, Michael could see the well-hidden signs of fear.

"Good luck, son," Wesley said.

"What are you talking about?" Michael slowly retrieved something from his shirt pocket. Something small and symbolic, representing all the hard work he had put into becoming what he was. He tossed it to his father, who caught it.

"You… you aren't the only one who's lied about his profession…" Ethan simply stared at the insignia. One would've thought that the dragonair was staring back, straight into his very soul. It knew, and it was judging him. He tossed the badge back to Michael.

"Then my worst fears have come to life," he sighed, withdrawing the cigarette. "A Reaper… You had to be a Reaper…"

"Yes, I did. After seeing what had happened over there in Hoenn… I knew I wanted to help stop whoever was responsible for those atrocities. I just never would've thought… that my search would lead me back to my own family…"

"I should've known. Things weren't adding up. Seeing that you had a latias… over there at Cianwood... I wondered if it might have been that one that we had back at the Power Plant, and if maybe, just maybe, you may have been the Reaper involved. But I didn't take the thought seriously… and now look where that's got me." He turned to face his son. "Surely you planned to get me out here. I doubt I could make it back to the house if I tried."

"No one can. It's blocked off by now."

"Heh, that's just great. So, what now? Come to take your old man out?" Michael slowly shook his head.

"I've come to take you in… and also, to find out why… You've never given a shit about money. So why did you do it?"

"That's a long story," his father said.

"I've got time." As much as the Commander likely wanted Michael to get the arrest over with, any information that they could gain would be valuable.

"So then I am right to assume that you will hear me out? I mean, surely you must have learned of the darkness within the CIC by now…

"Yeah," he nodded, "I know of Giovanni and their relationship with Rocket…"

"Good, so then you are used to hearing the full story before making a judgement." Ethan walked over to a fallen tree, taking a seat on the moss-covered log. "Ah, if I had to pick a place to start, it would have to be Hoenn."

"Hoenn?"

"About eighteen years ago - the year you were born. I traveled there often for business. Back then, I was a legit."

"Where the hell did it all go so wrong?"

"Well, it was due to the political climate. The way things were headed…" Michael nodded, remembering his history lesson about the subject.

"Did it have something to do with the crackdown on the revolutionaries back in 2014?" Dozens of people had been arrested, and a few even killed, for plotting to overthrow Hoenn's government.

"It had everything to do with that, yes. What'd they teach you about it in Kalos?"

"Let's see… it was a bunch of fascists that were upset about the effects of the Equal Economic Opportunity Act, right? Wanted to create an uprising and topple the government." His father grinned, then shook his head.

"Go figure - they would distort the truth to suit their narrative. Their twist on reality. No, it was a conservative revolution, not a fascist one. That term has become meaningless now - the hard left calls anyone that has common sense a fascist. Go back several years before shit went down. That act increased the safety nets of the poor at the expense of the wealthy and the average taxpayers. Only thing is, nothing seemed to be getting better for anyone. The inner cities were still shit, the education system didn't change a bit, and the amount of people that registered for public benefits went up by over thirty percent - in two years' time! So that raised the question: Where the hell was all that money going? I'll tell you where it was going - into the pockets of those damn liberals that passed the law! They spoke all sympathetic-like so that they could get their brainwashed hordes to show up to the polls. They come out ahead, and when they have enough in the Senate to write it into law, they do it. And nothing fucking changes! Coincidentally, though, their campaigning budgets all rose. Fundraisers, speeches - the whole nine yards. They took almost all of the conservative seats that were up for reelection the next go around, and it became clear that conservatism in the country had taken a huge hit. One that it probably would never recover from."

"So cue the revolution…"

"The right wing grew sick and tired of it. They had tried reasoning with the left throughout the process. The thing about the lefties, though, is they are incapable of having a reasonable, ideologically consistent argument. How the hell do you think it's okay to say that the government should stay out of the private lives of its citizens, and yet you want that same government to control their wallets? No, try to talk sense to them, and they start yelling, calling you all sorts of 'ist' names - fascist, sexist, imperialist… There is no reasoning with them. So the revolutionaries decided to split away from the rest of Hoenn, and they were ready to defend their claims if need be."

"But the liberals in power wouldn't have any of that, would they?" Michael asked.

"Of course not - they need conservative money to survive. We are the people who work; we are the people who build a nation. But they are the ones that destroy it. Take it all for themselves. So they set the police and the military after the people that wanted something else - something better. They took conservatives out of their own homes - even those that had nothing to do with the rebellion. Some of them never came back. It became clear that the right wing wasn't going to be around for much longer, so people started leaving. They'd lost Hoenn."

"What does this have to do with anything, though?" Michael asked.

"I never said I was done," Ethan countered. "The revolutionaries had the right ideas, but they lacked the resources and intelligence to effectively revolt. That was the case for all except the boss. He was young at the time. Young, but smart and charismatic. Only twenty when he got involved in it all, but what he lacked in age he more than made up for in brilliance. Douglas was willing to defy society in order to show Hoenn the error of her ways, but those in power were united against him. He fled the country and left for Johto, taking only what he could carry on him and his treecko.

"I met Douglas while he was at a political rally for Senator Hayter. He had a way with the people, and even listening to him could fire you up. He spoke of the liberalism that was creeping into society. How they were gonna do the very same thing that they had done to his country. I know it sounds like a bunch of shit, but the more you thought about it, the scarier it became. It was the same exact process every time - they get ahold of the education system, where they can start pumping your brain full of their agenda, their 'ideals,' if you can even call them that. They appeal to the poor by promising handouts, and pretty soon, they use all of these brainwashed supporters to take advantage of democracy. People that hardly know anything about politics or reality can vote all the same. And once they've won the seats, here comes wealth redistribution, globalization, and the rest of their socialist agenda. They won't be satisfied until the whole world is under their control. If they would, the liberalism wouldn't have left Kalos. But it spread to Hoenn, and took it over in a matter of years. Now Kanto is the new battle ground, and next will come us. We can't let that happen."

"So then what?"

"I held him back afterwards. His ideals needed to be implemented, and I told him that. But Douglas had escaped without a penny to his name. I was the one that got him started. I formed a partnership with someone half my own age to protect our way of life."

"And in order to do that, you need to sell people?"

"I'm getting to that. Douglas, you see, laid out the tactics for dealing with the left. All we want to do is to keep the disease contained, to keep it from spreading. Maybe, if all had gone well, we might have been able to take back what had been lost before. Even if the left had won through democracy, they won through the stupidity of their naive followers. That is not fair to the people who work hard to build what they have. In order to fight them off, we needed to take back control of what they had infested. The media, the internet, the schools… Believe it or not, it can all be bought. After all, those greedy fucks are in it for the money; give them a bit more, and a lot of them will actually back off. But you need the money… we needed the money… That's where the organization comes into play."

"So you sell drugs, weapons, and people in order to generate money in order to buy off the left?"

"You could say that, yes. The thing is, though, all the girls we've sold… don't think for one damn second that they were just snatched from off the streets. All our targets are carefully planned. The left forced our hands; they made us go dark. It was only fair that they be the ones to pay for that. Every girl sold was taken from Hoenn, or from a lefty household within Kanto."

"But… how do you know?"

"Well, anyone in Hoenn is pretty much a guarantee. Now as far as Kanto is concerned… the voting record tells on everyone. Like I said, with the right amount of money, you can buy anything. Confidential data is no different. And as always, the greedy liberal elites were happy to sell. It's ironic, isn't it? We are literally buying the means to destroy them from right under their noses."

"What… what the fuck?" Michael was terrified - how could people be this heartless? He could never identify as a liberal, but there was no denying that this was pure evil. "You all have sold your souls…"

"We have done what needed to be done," Ethan replied. He stood up and dropped his spent cigarette on the ground before crushing it under his foot. "And soon, we will destroy them. And here's the best part - some of the lefties actually want to try to 'understand' or 'tolerate' us. Hell, we've gotta be tolerant of all ideologies - all except for conservatism. They would rather defend a bunch of criminal thugs for all they know than their own people. A truly despicable bunch, and they deserve what they are getting." Michael shook his head.

"Then why are you selling pokémon?"

"For the same reason we sell drugs." he replied.

"Like they're property, huh?"

"Product. I know what their mental capabilities are. Everyone does. But I have a duty to those who deserve to live in the human race. I cannot concern myself with the wellbeing of them when our organization is fighting to conserve the right." He placed his hand on Michael's shoulder, coming much too close for the young Reaper's comfort. "Listen, I know this all probably sounds… well, horrifying. I would be lying if I said that I like what we do. I'm kept awake every night because of all the suffering we've caused. Maybe some of those young girls might have come to their senses… But all the pain, all the hurt - every bit of it will pay off in the end. Those of us in charge, those of us that really know what's going on… we know we will be looked at as the villains. But we've come to accept that. We love our country and our ideals enough to lose everything, including our reputations. Everything that we do… none of it is for money. Not for power. Not even for respect. That's why we have no formal name. All we want is a society that is worth living in. If it comes at the price of liberal lives, then so be it…" Michael only stared at him with a look of horror.

"Liberal lives? You would sell and kill them, just like that?"

"To tell you the truth… yes. I would, and I have. Douglas and I, as bad as it sounds, have been willing to do that from the very start. When you condone cowards, thugs, and perverts, I have no sympathy for you."

"Perverts?"

"The left is fascinated with sexual abnormality. Don't act like that comes as a surprise. All for pushing their agenda of 'open-mindedness' and 'acceptance.' They villainize conservatives for disliking homosexuality, or transgenderism, or poképhilia."

"Oh, alright," Michael said quietly, before looking his father in the eyes. "Perverts like me." Ethan's expression became one of shock.

"W…what? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You gave orders to have your own daughter-in-law murdered…"

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me… To think that you would be one of them…" The disgusted tone in his voice struck Michael to the core.

"I love my mates, and there's nothing wrong with our relationship. If Arceus thought that pokémon and human relationships were immoral, then he wouldn't have made them able to reproduce with one another."

"Oh, so there's more than one? What the hell… Where is your sense of decency? Where is your self-respect?" Michael shot his father an emotionless glare.

"Funny that you, a leader in the trafficking organization, would ask me that." He took the set of handcuffs out of his pocket. He was done with this conversation; it was time to take him in. "Turn around." Ethan did as he was instructed, placing his hands behind his back.

"Alright, good work," Wesley said as Michael locked a single cuff around his father's left wrist. "We've got the house, so go ahead and bring him back to the—."

The unthinkable happened. Ethan head-butted him in the face, causing him to stumble back and clasp his mouth. He could taste the warm blood as a result of his busted lip, but at the moment, it was the least of his concerns.

Ethan swiftly turned around, reaching for something from within his coat. He had only a split second to react. Michael lunged at him, catching his father's wrist as he withdrew a snub-nose .38 special. He grunted as he struggled to turn the gun towards his son, fighting Michael's grip on his arm. "If I'm going down… I'm taking you… with me, you fucking sicko!" He struck Michael with the cuff on his left hand, slicing the hinge over his left eye and opening a deep, red gash. The momentary flinch gave Ethan the break he needed.

The small revolver went off. The familiar burning, stinging sensation tore through Michael's left shoulder. "F-fuck!" he yelled. Nevertheless, he pushed back harder against Ethan. Another shot could be fatal, and that wasn't a chance he could take. This time, he made sure to grab his father's other wrist.

"Backup is on the way now!" Wesley told him, though he didn't hear it.

"You had… such a future… I had you set up for life," Ethan grunted. "And you throw it all… away! And for what?!" Michael brought his knee to Ethan's stomach, causing him to wince from the pain. That was his chance. He threw his right hand into crook of his father's elbow; the gun hit the ground with a soft thud. Rather than try to pick it up, though, Ethan continued his onslaught, quickly reaching forth and grabbing Michael's injured shoulder. Punch after punch was throw under his ribcage, knocking the air out of him. "Over a bunch… of fucking… pokémon!" Michael surged forth, hurling his father to the ground. The moment he fell, he tried to get back to his feet. Ethan was met with a harsh hook to the face, knocking him down onto his side. The following sound was a recognizable click.

Michael had his own revolver pointed at him, the hammer drawn back and ready to fire.

"You had it all… You could have made it big, son. We were going… to set you up…"

"I did what I did… to take people like you out," he snapped. "And I don't regret it one damn bit. As far as my girls go… They have always been the best thing to happen to me. They've always been there from me, from the moment we met, while you shipped me off to another fucking country for years!"

"You needed the best education possible. But also, you needed… to see how those degenerates ran things."

"And I did. They may be a spineless, immoral bunch… but the worst of them are far better than the best of you all."

"One day… people will look back and understand where we were coming from. We will be despised, but everyone will know that what we did was necessary. We will be the ones that saved the world from spiraling into darkness. Into filth like you…" He shook his head, glaring at his son. "I… you are a disappointment…"

"Coming from someone of your moral character, I'll take that as a compliment." Despite his words, though, Michael couldn't deny the fact that his father's hatred of him hurt.

"I'm not gonna pretend to be some leading moral figure."

"Good."

"But," he continued, "anyone with sense knows… that people that engage in the shit that you do… people that abandon their very sense of dignity and self-worth have no place in society…" He eyed his fallen revolver on the ground. Only a foot or two away…

"Don't you dare…" Distant calls grew closer as the reinforcements neared their location. His time was up.

"The left has no place in the new world. They need to dealt with like an epidemic. If nothing is done, this nation's ideals will fall, never to rise again. We can't sit by and watch as they take over this country too…"

"There… there has to be another way," Michael said. "Another way that doesn't require us to sell our very souls…"

"There is no other way. But you won't accept that, will you?" Ethan spat. "After all, you turned out to be just another filthy fucking pervert!" He snatched up the revolver as quickly as he could, and in the blink of an eye, it was pointed at Michael's chest. Another gunshot echoed within the woods. But this one was far louder than the last. It was a magnum.

The gun fell out of Ethan's hand, and he fell short of breath. The red stain was growing prominent through his clothing, right in the center of his chest. He stared at the wound, knowing what it meant. "So I guess that's just it then, huh?" he said, half to himself. Ethan stared at Michael with an empty expression. Blood began to seep out of his mouth. The sound of it choking him would remain with Michael for the rest of his life.

"It… it didn't have to be this way," Michael said, perturbed by the sight before him. He looked as though he would become one with the cold, lifeless ground below him.

"Y-you have… already l-lost…" he choked. "We have… what we need to… f-finish the job…"

"W…what?" Michael asked, trying hard to restrain the tears. This wasn't at all the way things were supposed to go.

"We will pr-proceed… as planned. You won't be able to… take out Douglas." Despite his predicament, he let out a low, rumbling laugh, which eventually turned into sickening gurgle. "We will… take back th-this… world…" Ethan faintly said. He convulsed - a sharp exhale - and his chest remained still. Blood trickled down his chin, coloring the snow below him crimson. A blank stare emanated from Ethan's face. A lifeless stare.

Several footsteps approached, crunching the snow beneath them. Michael silently turned around, placing the revolver back inside his holster, and walked out of the clearing. The troops parted, not a one saying a word to the Reaper.

He had reacted, just as he always had. His mind was numb, only brought back down to earth from the painful throbbing in his shoulder. I just… killed my father… I just fucking killed my father… He had made his way back to the road. Already, he could see the flashing lights of cop cars everywhere he looked. People were walking outside of their houses, wondering what could be causing such a disturbance. He caught more than one horrified look, reminding him that his face was covered in blood. But at the moment, he couldn't care less.

The van drove up, coming to a stop in the middle of the road. Immediately, the girls rushed out. "Arceus!" Charlotte cried. "Michael, y-you're hurt!" She turned to Wesley in horror. "Y-you need a medic right now!"

"No," he mumbled, "I'll be fine…" It wouldn't take long; the injury and the pain would subside. The physical pain, at least.

"I'm… I'm so sorry," Alaina cried. "You had to…"

"I did… I did what I had to do." He shook his head, no longer withholding his tears.

"Come on son," Wesley said gently. "Let's get you outta here."

"No…" Michael replied. "Not yet…" He needed to see what was going on. What had become of the house. He walked past the vehicle, retracing his steps back to the house. All the way, a tingling sensation coursed throughout his shoulder, and the blood seeping from the cut over his eye reduced to a slight trickle.

The front door had been kicked in. He watched as the secret service carried objects of every sort out of the house, from trash bags full of papers to houseplants. At the rate they were going, they would tear the building apart brick by brick within the next hour or so.

"Michael?!" A woman called out from behind the blockade. The police were blocking her from entering the premises. He turned to face her, recognizing the familiar voice.

"Mom…"

"Arceus, what happened to you? What's going on? And why are all these men going into our house?" How the hell could he explain this one?

"Mom… did you know what was going on?" She responded with a puzzled look, then shook her head.

"What are you talking about?"

"Dad… he was running a… a trafficking organization…"

"Why the hell would you even joke like that?"

"Do I look like I'm in the mood for humor? Dad was selling people!" Despite all the evidence around them, his mother still refused to believe it.

"Where is Ethan? I'm sure he'll be able to clear everything up."

"Mom… he's gone…" He looked down, unable to look at her shocked expression. "He came after me, and I… I did what I had to do…"

"You… killed my husband?!" It was all she could do not to topple over; one of the officers blocking her access to the house had to catch her.

"Mom, I wasn't t-trying to—."

"Don't call me that!" she yelled. Alaina had made her way to the two of them, trying to calm his mother down.

"Mrs. Higgs, your husband attacked Michael, and—."

"I wasn't talking to you! You stay out of this!"

"Don't speak to her like that!" Michael countered, only to be completely ignored by her.

"To think that you… you would kill the man that gave you life…"

"B-but I was just - look, I just defended mys—."

"Go to hell!" She pushed the officer away, then stumbled to her knees, sobbing heavily on all fours. Eventually, though, she managed to look up at her son through burning, tear-filled eyes. "You have ruined everything… I knew there was something off, but… I never asked. It was all going well… we were happy. And then you come and bring all these people and… took it all away. Just… just leave." The spite was audible in her voice. "You're no son of mine." Alaina took him by the hand, pulling him away from the scene.

"Come on," she said angrily. "Let's go." He nodded, following her back to the van. He stopped, though, and turned back to face his mother one final time.

"…You're right. If you're gonna defend a trafficker… then I'm no son of yours. Between you and... Ethan... it will be a cold day in hell before I use the name Higgs again…" With that, he left it all behind, never to look back.


A/N:

Glad to see you made it through that. Again, I just want to clarify that anything said above does not necessarily reflect my views (particularly the things said by Ethan), but this was a necessary step to take for the development of the trafficking organization.

Anyways, hope to hear from you all! Please tell me what you think, and see you next chapter!