Locke laid in his bed, a steady stream of tears flowing from his eyes as he looked down at what remained of the pendent. There was only one half of it left, and the photo inside was torn into shreds so small they were well beyond recognition.

Never before had he put his heart into an object like so. He'd only known objects for practical purposes, like food being valuable to feed someone or a blanket being valuable to keep warm. For most of his life he never knew what sentimental value was like, or what it felt like to lose it. Now, after he had put his heart into it, it had shattered along with it.

He couldn't put into words why it had hurt him so much, but he felt it nonetheless. Above all else, he felt that he failed Elley. She'd given him that accessory- with the assumption that it would be kept safe- no doubt. And now, just like the family shown inside, the pendent was shattered with little remaining. He struggled to think of a way he could explain it to her or keep it from her, but came up empty-handed. He couldn't even cope with what transpired himself.

He lingered in that bed, weeping. Hours and hours he spent there, broken with only a faint amount of sleep. Anytime he remembered what kind of shinx he used to be, that twisted the peripheral knife.

Eventually, after it seemed like days of tears had accumulated within the side of his bed, a different sound had finally come in. Hard knocks hit against the chamber door, like a screeching creature coming to prevent any cohesive thought.

"Locke! Wake up! It's breakfast time!" Niot shouted between the knocks.

Locke managed to stave his tears off and snorted the loose phlegm back into his body. "Yeah…" he managed to speak in a raspy voice. "I'm coming."

"Locke are… are you okay?" Niot asked through the door, he could hear his tone of voice.

"Y-yeah… I just need a minute."

His legs felt weaker than they did on any other day. Even the times when he was poisoned, he had an easier time pushing himself to stand up and move, but it was this day that his bones felt brittle and the muscles like jelly. The distance to the door felt three times as long when he got himself to actually move.

Eventually he got to the door. Wiping his face off, he weakly pulled the door open and saw the chatot on the other side. He faked a smile at him, but it didn't even come close to reaching his eyes.

Niot looked straight at him and blinked a few times. "...alright, good to see you're awake. If something is troubling you then I wish you the best in getting better." He turned back to his board and walked to the next door in the hall, snapping back to his usual routine as though he'd seen nothing.

Locke forced himself to the mess hall and hopped himself onto one seat. On any other day this would be when he would begin grabbing foodstuff to plunge himself into, but that wasn't what he was up to. He had absolutely no appetite whatsoever; he couldn't even imagine the flavor of the bland ingredients when he gazed at them. They all seemed utterly scentless too. He just sat there, staring as others were far more active like nothing was different.

There was not a single mirror present in the room, giving him no way to see how he truly looked in that state. As a result, he couldn't adjust his face or posture to look more normal, he couldn't see what he truly looked liked in that state, he could fake a smile even if he could remember to do so. While Locke might've been unable to see how he looked, the others in the room had no such limitation.

"Hey man, are you okay there?" Dewott asked.

"Umm, y-yeah," Locke did his best to keep it in. He didn't want to start crying again, not there.

"You don't look so good," Dewott said. "You look like you've been- well, you look like you've seen better days." He was going to say he looked like he'd been crying, he could see it in his eyes plain as day, but realized this wasn't the setting to be saying those things out loud.

"I- just- I," Locke's breathing grew irregular and he could feel his eyes beginning to water up again. "Just, leave me alone."

As soon as he had gotten onto the chair, Locke hopped off and began walking towards one of the hallways.

"Hey, what's going on?" Dewott asked with mounting concern.

He wasn't the only pokemon in the mess hall to notice Locke, Tamin had just as well. The moment before he stepped out of the room, she slipped out of her chair to pursue him. Dewott mirrored her action.

"Locke, I can tell something serious is going on. What is it?" the minccino asked.

"I- I'm- no," he stammered out without turning to look at them, unable to form cohesive words while being overwhelmed and trapped in his grey reality.

"Are you sick?" Dewott asked.

He kept walking, silent.

"Did Hunter get to you yesterday or something?" Tamin asked.

He kept walking, sniveling.

"Did you lose somefin?" Dewott asked.

He felt those words, they felt like a knife that cut through a mental scab to reopen it. He froze in place, and all the emotions poured back.

The full waterworks started right back up again, Locke collapsed to the floor, bawling too much to even form a single coherent word.

"Locke! Are you okay?!" Tamin called out.

"Woah, woah, calm down man, calm down..." Dewott said.

Both of them put their paws on him and tried their best to console him, getting down to his level and comforting him in any way they could. There wasn't anything they could do resolve things instantly, but they could give him reassurance.

The scene began attracting a crowd. The sound of someone crying was inherently something that called for investigating, this time being no exception. Several more pokemon stepped out of the mess hall to look at them. Mienshao, Scampi, Froslass, and some they didn't really know. Each kept their distance to give them some personal space, they just observed while trying to figure out what was going on, as clueless as Tamin and Dewott were.

Though most stayed back and gave room, there was one outlier among them. "Locke, what is going on with you?"

Crystal stepped forward from the gathering crowd, walking straight towards him. Locke's reaction was swift, he raised his head to look straight at the weavile's face, fear embedded in his eyes. "Crystal- I- no- please," he frantically stammered while stepping back.

"Stop freaking out, Locke. Just start being normal again, please," Crystal stepped closer.

Before she could get too close, Dewott stood up and put himself between Locke and Crystal. The action was instinctual for he still didn't have a clue on what was going on, but Dewott still did it with stern conviction. He raised a paw up to signal for her to halt, and the two stood off.

As concern was mounting for more pokemon there, another voice would pierce into the chaos. "Everyone take a step back, keep calm," Sylveon said.

Pokemon moved to give Sylveon room to get in. He reached his feelers forward towards the shinx. Not quickly like a snap, but slowly. "I'm not here to punish or restrain anyone," he elaborated to everyone present. "My feelers have the ability to calm pokemon down. Please, let me handle this."

With reluctance, Tamin took a step back to provide Sylveon a clear reach of Locke. He gently wrapped each of the ribbon-like appendages around him as he turned to look at him back. Almost immediately, his crying began to slow and his breathing became more regular.

"No one disrupt us, I need some time with him to defuse," Sylveon spoke to no one in particular.

Dewott looked back at Crystal again, giving her a dead stare as he still stood between her and Locke. He took a step forward, which made the weavile take a step back.

"C-can," Locke whispered as he was stabilizing.

It was at a volume so low that only those close could catch it. Sylveon moved his ear closer to him. "What is it?" he asked at a matched volume.

"I need some time alone," Locke articulated.

"So you want me to leave you?" he asked.

"No," Locke said. "Alone with you."

The eeveelution's eyebrows raised in intrigue. "Alright everyone, give me some space," he spoke up. "I need to get him somewhere safe to finish helping him."

The crowd scattered to give him room. Crystal stayed put at first, even trying to open her mouth in hopes to protest the situation. But before she could get a word in, Dewott grabbed her wrist. "Back off. Shut your mouth," he commanded. "I. don't. trust. you. I saw how he reacted to you. So back off and give them some room. Now."

Crystal's legs seemed to move on their own as those words shook through her body. With the weavile out of the way, Sylveon picked Locke up and carried him away. He didn't fight back, he appeared limp.

No one followed the two of them. Sylveon went to the office and took Locke inside. Once in, he set him down and locked the door.

"Is this room private enough, or would you rather somewhere else?" he asked.

"No, th-this is fine," Locke uttered.

"Great. So what did you want to tell me?" Sylveon asked.

"It's about Crystal," he admitted. He felt heavy feelings of guilt come to him, but knew he couldn't keep going on how he was any longer. "I have… a lot to say."

Sylveon felt a sinking feeling form in his gut, the kind of feeling you'd have after not breathing for an entire minute, but all coming down at once. He had remembered when Locke said he was giving all of his money to Crystal and being incredibly suspicious at that time. He saw other less glaring signs of abuse as well, enough to give him a bad feeling but not enough to act against standard protocol to deal with it. Now with those words, Sylveon could feel that his fears were being materialized. "Tell me," Sylveon said, but more so commanded. "Don't be afraid to spare any details, I need to know."

And that is what Locke did.

He had started from the beginning and worked his way forward, telling of everything she'd done to him. Every coin taken, every scratch on his fur, every kick, everytime she made him stay up horrendously late, every terrible thing she said to him, and then told of the amulet. He choked up when getting to that last part once again, but he was told to spare no detail, and so he summoned up whatever power he could to do just that, past all his sorrow.

Five minutes in, Sylveon asked if he could bring in Espeon to have him hear the details as well. Locke agreed to this. So after a short excursion, Sylveon brought Espeon in for them to hear every gruesome point together. Espeon took a step further and began writing down what he said.

When it was done, they all felt tense and emotionally exhausted. Sylveon went to Locke again to calm him down with his feelers, the only thing that kept him from collapsing again. Espeon used his psychic powers to begin talking with Sylveon telepathically.

"You still alright after all of this?" Espeon telepathically asked him.

"I… think so. Just… disturbed I think," he responded, also mentally.

"I feel the same way. Needless to say, we've got to do something about this, and quick."

"Have a plan?"

"I do," Espeon reassured. "Pay close attention, this is going to take a few hours to do, but I think it'll be necessary and we can't postpone a single thing. First things first, you're going to take Crystal and I'm going to take Locke. From there…"

Four hours later.

Crystal sat alone in a windowless room. Her wrists were tied together behind her back, and she remained in a durable wooden chair. Directly in front of her was a black table with two chairs on the other side. The weavile had been there for some time, planning out what to do, what to say, what demeanor to assume, and listening for footsteps in the neighboring hallway. She personally had no idea how long she had been in there, over an hour to be sure, but time melded together when it was past the time she would normally go to sleep. It was also getting tiring to try and retain vigilance for such an extended period of time.

Eventually, the room's lone door creaked open. Crystal quickly got herself into her planned position as Espeon walked in, closely followed by Sylveon.

The two of them went onto the two unoccupied chairs and looked at the weavile. "Good to see you finally got here," Crystal said.

"Hello, Crystal. Do you know why you're here today?" Espeon asked.

"Yeah, I know the whole ordeal," she responded. "Just give me chances to explain my side of the story and I am sure we can all come to an understanding."

"Don't worry, you will get your chances to speak. But we need to ensure this entire conversation goes orderly," Espeon replied.

"Are you still confident about all of this?" Espeon telepathically asked Sylveon, preventing Crystal from hearing. "Need to make sure you are. She's a dark type, so I can't just mind read to get everything, I wouldn't want to do that anyways."

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'm more confident about this than you are," he thought to respond. "So, I was thinking that we did good cop and bad cop with this. I'll be the harsh and demanding bad cop, while you act like the empathetic and reasonable good cop."

"You do that. But I've got a plan for the long run, and I'm going to need you to play along. Most importantly, make sure to write down everything she says. Can you do that?"

"Of course, I won't fail you."

"Good."

"If you don't mind me asking, where's Locke right now? Do you have him in a separate interrogation room, or somewhere else?" Crystal asked.

"He was sent to audino's infirmary about an hour ago as he showed signs of both sleep deprivation and dehydration," Espeon answered.

"He was sent there three hours ago, Espeon," Sylveon telepathically said to him as he got out a pen and notepad.

"I know, but trust me. Play along," Espeon responded.

"So is he knocked out by sleep seeds and sleeping on an infirmary bed right now?" the weavile asked.

"He is by now, presumably. It would be a breach of privacy to go into more detail, sorry," Espeon said.

"Alright," Crystal leaned back on her chair. She tried to get into a comfortable position, but that wasn't possible with her arms being bound. "So, what questions did you want to ask me?"

"According to Locke, you've been hurting him many times in the past. So just what the heck are you doing to him?" Sylveon said, trying to lean into that 'bad cop' persona as he pulled out a notepad and pen.

"It is not true," Crystal said.

"Unfortunately, it's not that simple. We will need some more details of your side of the story," Espeon said.

"I never harmed him grievously. Maybe a playful push that I put too much effort into, but I certainly never punched or slashed him with malicious intent," Crystal sternly argued.

"Oh is that so?" Sylveon said as he reached into a satchel beside him.

"Don't pull that out yet," Espeon told him. "I have a plan to use that, but you need to be patient. Just let her talk for now."

"Yes, it is," Crystal affirmed. "Most of our days and nights together were quite nice, actually. Typically he'd be laying on a soft cushion while I was making some calligraphy art, and we'd just talk. I think some of my best pieces I've ever made were when I was just casually talking with him. Don't know what would possess him to do this.

Yeah, I have been working on calligraphy for awhile now, a few years in fact. Pretty sure I started not long after I joined the guild. It came naturally to me as a sneasel, but I still have gained a lot of skill in it. There really is more to it then you'd think, and I think you should see it sometime. I've been getting some new brushes-"

"Alright, I get it, Crystal," Espeon interrupted the strange tangent. "Let's try to keep this on subject. I need to get your full story on what things were for you. As a refresher, you said all of his abuse claims were false, correct?"

"Yes, I did not abuse him in any significant way, and he is completely blowing it out of proportion. I really think he should be the one you have in this seat right now," Crystal said. "Thinking about it, I guess it's probably something to do about stereotypes. I mean, what am I? A dark and ice type? That's just a two-fold bad thing. Not only am I a 'mean and scary dark type', but I'm cold-blooded so that makes things ten-times scarier, doesn't it? I mean, might as well just assault me the moment I step into the guild with that combo right there. Huh, do you think Locke's bad experiences with Hunter gave him a bad impression of dark types, and he's lashing it out against me?"

"I wish I could believe everything you were saying, as I understand you were a valuable member to this guild. But Locke was explicit with his descriptions of your alleged abuse," Espeon utterly ignored Crystal's question. "He didn't just say 'she hurt me', Locke went into great detail as he described being cut and kicked by you at various times. He was also quite emotional when telling this and giving genuine tears. This makes it doubtful he made it up on the spot, hence why we are wanting to know what happened."

"You must understand that for most of his life, Locke didn't know what his birthday was, or even what his family was like. He only discovered what they were very recently as he had his reunion with his sister, but for the rest of the time he genuinely had no clue.

This shows that Locke's memory is clearly flawed, and he cannot recall past experiences very well. So you cannot trust what he recounts from his past, memory really is a fickle thing," Crystal argued. "I am not denying that he was hurt by someone he trusted, I think it is likely in fact. But I can confirm it was not me who did it. If I had to guess, it was Tamin, Dewott, or his sister that had hurt him, and he is misremembering what happened to think that I was the one who did it."

"Uh-huh," Sylveon said as he worked to write all that she had said down.

Espeon paused for a second to let him catch up with writing. Crystal took this opportunity to talk about herself again.

"If you're only asking if I've been unkind on occasion or not, then I will admit I have, and I apologize for that. Our different sleep schedules mean that I often have to stay up late to spend time with him, and being tired makes me more grumpy. But Locke has done something far worse than just be unkind to me, he betrayed me today. He talked behind my back and told a bunch of lies about me to get me in serious trouble. We were boyfriend and girlfriend, he was even the one who asked to start this relationship, and he completely stabbed me in the back today. He could have just asked to break up and I would've respected that, but he did something so much worse. He stabbed me in the heart and got me in this room, and that is cruel beyond words."

"Uh-huh," Slyveon said. "Give me a minute, I've got a lot to write."

"...So I see your opinions of him is quite strong," Espeon commented.

"It is now, after he pulled this stunt," Crystal said with overreacted emotion. "I just don't know why he'd do something like this, I certainly would never betray him like this."

"I see…" Espeon paused once again to allow Sylveon some time. "Moving on, he also said you've been yelling awful things to him, effectively verbally abusing him. What do you say to these accusations?"

"Never happened. Not sure if I can give any more specificity," Crystal said. She was finding it tricky to seem authentic when she was unable to add hand movements to her lies. "As I said, memory is fickle. In fact, there are some interesting studies in psychology about how memory can be distorted. People who were once a part of cults often defend the cult's actions and don't realize how bad it was, even when looking back."

"Are you insinuating that Locke was a member of a cult?" Sylveon asked.

"No. I'm just saying how easily memory can be distorted by all sorts of biases. Especially for a pokemon like Locke who couldn't even remember his birthday or his family. It's best we don't rely on that."

"I suppose that is true. Anything else you want to add?"

"Don't worry, I'm not actually agreeing with her. Just trying to get her trust," Espeon spoke in telepathy.

"Gotcha. You're doing wonderfully."

"Yeah, yeah, you mentioned that memory is fickle. Do you have anything new to add or are you just going to be a broken record?" Sylveon snapped.

"Well, I suppose there were times when I criticized his technique in missions. It was really just constructive criticism, but looking back I can see how it was a bit harsh," Crystal conceded, figuring it was more believable than flat-out denial. "Those must've been the things he misremembered as verbal abuse, now that I think of it."

"Could you elaborate on that?" Espeon asked.

"Uh, no? Like, what do you want me to say? I gave him some harsh criticism and he took it too seriously. I suppose he was just fragile with a really weak ego. Not sure what I can add onto that."

"What parts of his technique were you criticizing?"

"Is that really important?"

"Just answer the dang question, Crystal," Sylveon said.

"Alright… just, give me a second to remember…" she said. "I think it was when I criticized him for wasting his supplies too quickly and blowing his one flare early into a mission."

"So during a mission?"

"Correct."

"When was this mission?"

"About a month ago."

"Could you be more specific?"

"Like exactly a month ago. Twenty-eight days ago, twenty-nine days ago, somewhere around that ballpark."

"I brought notes for every mission Crystal and Locke embarked on with me. Want me to pull that out?" Sylveon asked Espeon.

"Not yet, wait a minute."

"Okay, enough beating around the bush with vagueness. Locke said a while ago, shortly after he joined the guild, you slowly clawed at his neck, just because he wasn't doing what you told him to do. Given we have a specific date for this incident instead of a vague accusation, we'd really like to hear what happened," Sylveon said.

"That did not happen," Crystal said. "Again, must be fickle memory."

"Problem is, Locke went to a nurse's appointment with audino shortly thereafter, and we have official reports that she saw him with a frostbitten wound during that appointment. So if it wasn't you, could you explain that?" Espeon asked.

"Can I ask when this appointment happened?" Crystal said.

"December tenth."

"Right… I was watching theatre plays the night before, catching some daytime theatre plays as well because I wanted to get as much of it as I could before it closed down for the winter. So I could not have done that."

"So your alibi is that you were watching plays for literally all day and all night?" Sylveon asked.

"Not all day, just most of it. I would've interacted with him in the morning, and then went to sleep before he departed on a mission. By the time I woke up, he would've still been out on his mission, then I went over to the theatre shortly after before he came back," Crystal argued. "The only time I could have possibly scratched him would be in the morning."

"So is that when you cut him?" Sylveon asked as he kept on writing.

"No. Think about it: during missions guild members consume oran berries or similar items to heal themselves after getting attacked. If I had scratched him in the morning, then that scratch would have later been healed by him eating an oran berry during the mission he would next take. Which means it would not have showed up at the appointment he took the next day, and I could not have done that.

It was very nearly winter at that time, and ice types were getting more active. He must have gotten the frostbitten wound from a wild pokemon during his mission, late enough into it that he didn't consider it worth it to heal with an oran berry. Or he had already run out of healing supplies."

"Alright…" Espeon once again paused to give Sylveon time to write. "Let's move on. Locke claims that last night you intentionally broke a pendant that was deeply sentimental to him as he had a picture of his old family inside of it, and then attacked him several times afterwards. What do you have to say for this accusation?"

"I broke the pendent by accident, not by intention. He left it on the floor and I mistakenly stepped on it."

"Why did he take the pendant off and leave it on the floor?" Espeon asked.

"I don't know. What, do you think I can read minds? Ask him," she retorted. "Or don't, he is dishonest..."

"Alright. And what about the accusations that you hit him yesterday?"

"That was a lie," Crystal said bluntly.

"Okay… so just to recap, you did some playful pushing but never intentionally cut him, you gave some harsh criticism at times when you were tired or on a mission but didn't verbally abuse him, you didn't attack him at all yesterday, and you broke his pendant by accident by stepping on it? Is that all correct?"

"Yes," she confirmed.

Espeon physically turned to Sylveon, cracking a slight smile. "Alright, I think it's time to bring it out now," he spoke physically this time, not through telepathy.

"Wait, what?"

Sylveon returned her smile. He reached into the satchel with one of his feelers, and then tossed a series of photographs onto the table. Crystal leaned over to look at them, each was a picture of Locke's hide with bruises clearly visible.

"These are photographs that Audino took of Locke two hours ago. We waited to have them get developed before starting this interrogation," Espeon explained. "Each of them clearly show Locke having bruises, which Audino stated appeared to be caused by kicking."

"You said Audino only took in Locke an hour ago!" Crystal snapped at Espeon.

"Oh, I know. I lied," Espeon said. "It takes over an hour for photographs to develop. So I wanted to see what you'd say before we presented our evidence and you didn't think we had any."

"You lying piece of crap! You set me up!" Crystal said.

"Not really, no. If you are innocent, then your story should be the same regardless of what I say. Whether Locke went into the infirmary one hour ago or three does not retroactively change what happened yesterday. But if you are lying, then me giving wrong information will change what lies you make up," Espeon said. "Anyways, would you kindly explain these photographs?"

"You're a dirty filthy liar!" Crystal snapped.

"If you cannot explain your side of the story and give a proper defense, then I can only assume you are guilty of Locke's accusations," Espeon's tone was relaxed. "Please, ad-hominem attacks against me will get us nowhere."

"He did that to himself to frame me."

"Audino included notes with the photographs, where she indicated the bruises came from last night, which is suspiciously similar to the time in which you could have attacked him if you did, they aren't recent like from this morning. Moreover, he is sleep deprived, which makes it questionable on how he both came up with the plan to self-harm and have the energy to do so."

"Okay fine, yes, I hurt him. But it was in self-defense!"

"How?"

"After he got mad at me for accidentally breaking his amulet and attacked me, so I had to fight back for my safety," Crystal argued. "That's not the first time he's done that either. You know how he hurt Sebastien and Hunter? Yeah, happened to me as well."

"Why didn't you mention that earlier?" Espeon asked.

"I did. You must have just forgotten since you were so focused on condemning me. As I said, memory is fi-"

"Syvleon, please read back the notes on what she's said before during this interrogation."

"Mmm… nope, she's said nothing about self-defense this entire time."

"You're miswriting what I've said!"

"I trust Sylveon far more than I trust you, and I have no reason to believe he is randomly omitting things," Espeon said. "Frankly, your attempts to antagonize me is just making you look more guilty."

"Okay fine! I did hit him a few times yesterday. But that was an exception, not the rule. And all the other accusations are false!"

"Noted. Now let's get back to that pendant. Sylveon, give us the photos of that."

"Of course."

Sylveon pulled out and tossed a few more photographs on the table, these showing the diminutive fragments of what remained of the pendent.

"We went into both yours and Locke's rooms, and found what remained of the item. Could you explain how this was broken so badly if you apparently only stepped on it by mistake?"

"It was fragile."

"The paper of the photo inside is completely and deliberately torn up."

"It was made of glass-like material that cut up the photo inside when it was crushed."

"Oh really now," Sylveon said.

"Yeah, I find that pretty unlikely."

"Doesn't mean impossible. You're just biased against me."

"I mean, something being cut up produces a pretty different result from it being torn up. I'm pretty sure the glass would poke holes in it, not give these thin strands."

"Well that's what happened."

"We can test this out if you want," Espeon offered.

"Wait a second, Locke wore that pendant for weeks, even bringing on missions. How could it have possibly lasted for that long if it was apparently so fragile it exploded into hundreds of shards and completely destroyed the photograph inside after one step?"

"Alright! Fine! I broke that pendant because he'd been treating me horribly that day and I wanted to make him feel similar to how he treated me!" Crystal confessed. "I was bad to him that day, I'll admit. But as I said, there's a big difference between being unkind and completely betraying someone like he did!"

"You were the one who reduced him to tears so bad that Audino reported he was dehydrated. Sounds like you also betrayed his emotions."

"That's whataboutism!"

"What the hell are you going on about?" Sylveon said.

"You're bringing up actions I had done in response to me pointing out bad things Locke had done. That's whataboutism as whether I did those actions or not is irrelevant to the things Locke had done."

"So calling people out on their hypocrisy is wrong?" Espeon asked.

"Yeah, because it's whataboutism and whataboutism is wrong!" Crystal was shouting.

"Enough, let's move on," Espeon ordered. "Crystal, you say this was a off-day for you and not consistent behavior, correct?"

"Yes. And I promise this won't happen again, just as it didn't happen before."

"Mhm. But if this is a one off time, then why is it that Audino reported him having a frostbitten wound so early after joining the guild, back on December tenth?"

"We already went over this."

"Then tell me again."

"There is no possible time I could have done it. The day before I had spent most of it watching theatre plays, and the only time I was with him was in the morning. But if he received the cut at that time, then it would have been healed at some point during the mission he took later. Therefore, it is impossible that I was the culprit, so it must have been something he received during his mission."

"Syvleon, read back what she said."

"Hmm… seems to be a consistent defense."

"See? I was speaking the truth."

"Alright then. But I just find it interesting, because I lied about that as well. Audino found that frostbitten wound on December 14th, not December 10th."

"...So? I guess the stuff must have happened on a later day then. I don't have a perfect memory of remembering every event and what day they happened on which day. You'd need an eidetic memory to do that."

"The reason I find that so interesting is because the theatre closed for the winter on December 12th of last year," Espeon stated. "So if Audino saw the wound on the 14th and received it on the 13th, then your alibi that you were watching plays at the time is impossible, as the theatre would have already been closed."

"Oh so that's why you had me bring this as well," Sylveon said. Shortly after, he flipped a flier onto the table. It was from last year, informing how the theatre was temporarily closing and when.

"But- that doesn't- you lied- I was still watching- uh," Crystal spurted out.

"Wait, I still have more. Sylveon, bring out the missions' report information."

He brought out two pieces of papers with spreadsheets written on them, setting them both in front of Crystal on the table. One detailed every mission Locke had embarked on, one detailed every mission Crystal had ever embarked on since Locke had joined.

"I actually decided to look back on what sanctioned missions you've done before just an hour ago, as I felt it would come up one way or another. So you're a nocturnal pokemon and Locke is diurnal, making it unlikely that you've ever done a mission together before. Sure enough, I checked and I cannot find one that you both did together.

Earlier, you told me there 'were times when I criticized his technique in missions' and those are the times you believe were misconstrued as verbal abuse. So if it apparently happened during missions, could you please explain to me when that could have possibly happened, if you never even did a mission before?"

Crystal stared down at the assortments of things that were placed on the table with mounting frustration. She was showing her teeth as if she was an animal about to bite, and the anger was palpable in her eyes.

"Enough of this!" she loudly shouted at both of them, "You are clearly biased and out to get me! I demand to have Umbreon be here and for her to be the one to judge me!"

"...Can I ask why?"

"Umbreon is the one who manages the guild during the night, and is someone I have spent far more time with! I've barely spent any time with you at all! She is far more familiar with me and knows what I would or would not do, and would be a far more fair judge than you'd ever be!"

"Even assuming that I have spent no time with you whatsoever, wouldn't that just make me an impartial judge who doesn't know about you, and can see you through an objective light?"

"She knows me better! I demand Umbreon be here!"

"You do realize you are literally asking for a more impartial judge to be replaced by someone who has potential bias from being your friend, right?"

"You have clearly shown to be bias from how you've been ganging up on me and spreading lies about me!"

"What lies have we stated? I would like to know."

"You already know what lies you've said!" Crystal continued shouting, her voice echoing against the walls of the small room. "Get me Umbreon here now!"

"Come Sylveon. I think we're done here," Espeon said to him. "She is clearly no longer cooperating, and I believe we've already gotten all the information we need."

The two eeveelutions collected what was on the table and got down from their chairs. "No! Wait! What the hell are you doing! We are not done!" Crystal continued shouting as they left.

Once they were both on the other side, the door was shut and locked from the outside. The sounds of Crystal's tantrum screaming were muffled away as the door was shut, leaving behind indiscernible muffles as it was locked.

"Thank you for helping me out with that," Espeon said. "Made things a lot easier."

"No problem, glad I could help," he replied. "I am curious though. Were you unconvinced that she was bad, and started this interrogation to see if she was good or bad?"

"No, I trusted Locke. Only a manipulator can tell detailed lies through tears, and that's not what he is," Espeon explained. "I really just wanted to catch the liar on her web. Plus the information we got will be useful if we need to explain this to her friends, or possible lawyers if she drags those into it."

"I see. I feel the same way," Sylveon said. "I'll admit… there were signs Locke was being abused I saw, and I really wished I hadn't passed up. He dismissed it when I brought it up to him, so I thought things were fine, but now…"

"I know, the same goes for me…" Espeon looked forlorn. "But, we can't change the past, and we can start correcting that now.

Guard the door, make sure she doesn't leave that room. I'm bringing out notes to Niot so we can discuss what to do with her. No way she's still going to be working at this guild. Best case scenario for her is that she's going to get kicked out, and the worst case scenario is she's going to get locked up."

"Understood. I won't disappoint."

"Thank you. And after that… we have a lot of help we need to give to Locke." Espeon looked at the door again, finding it hard to believe that a second manipulator was present and caught in his guild. Espeon's mind wandered for a bit; are there more guild members does these awful things in secret?

End of chapter 33.