The guilty and the innocent,
Chapter four
Hintings of the Dark-Oak
"You never told me how it went, your father's reaction to you having a Meowth." Oak commented, they had both been flipping through a few of the books in the study, reading together as they had when Giovanni was much younger.
Leo set aside the book, an intensity to his eyes that was slightly disturbing.
"What do you know of Raphael?" He said at last.
"From what little you've told me he was not above making deals with those of…" Oak coughed, not even liking to recall the day he knew for a fact just how vile Giovanni's father was, "dubious repute. From what the papers spoke of him he was a hard brutal politician and businessman, and as a trainer and Gym leader his was cruel, harsh to his Pokemon and not above killing a rivals. The only reason he was allowed to open a Gym was because he had bribed the officials of the League and kept paying them."
Leo smiled a cold bitter smile.
"He would have found those words as the highest compliment. He would laugh at them when they accused him of having an insatiable lust for power and wealth…" The man sighed. "They were right of course, there is only strength, the strong are those who make the rules so in all the world you find the strong and make them weaker then yourself, bend them to your might, enslave them to your will…. Raphael was a man who believed that heart and soul, what do you think he said when I brought back a half starved Meowth? Worse yet that it was, in his mind, the weakest type ever to exist? He was furious, enraged that I dared decide to keep the weakling."
Persian, who was now curled over Leo's boots hissed as if at a bad memory.
"I didn't know it was that bad."
"You weren't supposed to. I wasn't to tell no one was to guess." Leo frowned, seemed to strain to remember something. "I have a question of my own. There came an…. anonymous witness that reported a few things no one was supposed to know. A law suit of child abuse was filed and some of the witness came from this town. Despite my Sire's," Leo spat the word out like venom, "formidable resources he was unable to track the person who made that call. Were you involved with that?"
Samuel nodded.
"No one may have been meant to see, but only the eyeless didn't see. Myself, and a few others around here saw what was happening and decided to make some racket. I sometimes wish I would have stepped forward publicly, if one of us had…"
"It wouldn't have changed anything." Leo soothed. "Raphael would have ripped your reputation to blood tatters, arranged an accident that would have killed your family, and probably would have butchered your Pokemon just for the sake of causing you more pain. You know his contacts as well as I, with them he could have done anything."
Samuel nodded, feeling sick; Raphael had contacts with the Rockets, had had great influence and had backed them with his vast wealth. In exchange they would in turn do him favors, deeds that no one was to hear of, opponents, questioners, witnesses, the all quietly disappeared…
"The only reason I was allowed to keep him was… well it is three fold. One, my Mother insisted on it, second, I insisted on it despite the threat of a beating, and third, I was able to prove not only my strength by Meowth's as well."
"He made you fight him."
"Yes, his Machop against my Meowth, not a pleasant fight that." Giovanni grimaced. "I won by the skin of my teeth, or rather we did when I picked up a large rock and the throw distracted the enemy long enough for Meowth to get a bite in on it's jugular."
"He made you kill…" Oak gasped, horrified.
"Kill or be killed," Giovanni shrugged. "One of the rules, which, when explained to other Trainers made them walk out on the fight. When the Pokemon falls the Trainer takes their place. Raphael never killed a Trainer, didn't dare, that would have exposed him and no amount of money would have swayed the League to let him remain Gym leader. Broken bones, wounds, those could be explained, after all, accidents happen."
Oak shook his head, disgusted. "He was a monster."
"No arguments here." Leo grimaced.
X
"Leo… what are you doing here?" Oak looked up from taking some notes for the next class. He hadn't seen the boy slip in during the lecture because unlike all the other times before when Leo visited, he was dressed casually. No fancy suit, no diamond pin, no tie even. The child was sporting a pair of new jeans and an over large orange shirt, a simple black backpack was slung over one shoulder.
"I… I came to tell you Raphael said I could go on my journey!" Leo chirped, for once enthusiastic, and open about his enthusiasm.
"What?" The young man lost his façade of composure and dropped his notes. "Aren't you a bit y-" Pain flashed in those black eyes, almost as if he had slid a dagger in the boy's side. "Congratulations."
Oak changed what he was going to say, could not help himself, he had to respond to that pain. He made some show of looking the boy over, this wasn't a man but a mere child, and that fact became more obvious when he honestly looked at Leo rather then listened to him. He was a child, despite his adult pose and adult dress and even his adult word choice. He had to be twelve; it couldn't have been more then a year since the first visit when the boy picked –or rather was picked by- his Meowth. Oak knew of the boy's shockingly wide streak of maturity, the adult reservation that he showed around others, but still God above he was twelve years old!
"I'm honored that you told me." Samuel said at last when he was sure he would not betray himself.
"You're worried."
Samuel winced at the boy's astute observation, but then he was born and reared in intrigue and scheming, little wonder he could read through the open Professor, or rather soon to be Professor when the diploma came in the mail.
"A little." He admitted and the boy blinked at him, like no one's ever told him the truth.
Anger stirred in Samuel, but it was a low anger that didn't touch his expression, a smoldering anger that was in his soul but not known to the rest of him just yet. He would later identify it as anger at Raphael Giovanni for doing his damnedest to squelch all the curiosity and hope out of this child, knowledge of that would come later however, all he knew at the moment was a bitter taste filled his mouth at the pleased shock on Leo's face for hearing the truth.
"It's alright; Meowth and I got some practice at Raphael's gym before we decided to go."
Some of the cheer left Leo, and Samuel wondered why. Fighting in a Gym, even for practice, was a rarely bestowed honor.
"If you say so." Samuel tried his best to sound like he wasn't worried, decided to change the subject. "Have you had lunch yet?"
"No, not yet, I got a lot of… normal clothes to wear and some other stuff just, now and since I was in Pallet I'd thought I'd say hi and let you know."
Leo had not said poor, having heard a little of the older Giovanni's pep talks about how the rich were better then the poor… It was almost an act of open defiance against the father. No, it was defiance, and if the elder ever heard of it would pit father against son. He wouldn't have dared that before, he was becoming if at all possible more daring since he got his Meowth.
"Well," Oak swung a hand over those shoulders, "You came to tell me good news and you're just in time for me to tell you some good news of my own. I…"
Oak paused dramatically, and waited until he could see the enthusiasm and impatience peak.
"Graduated."
"You did... Is that good?"
"Of course it is." Samuel laughed. "That means I'm out of school and I can teach adults, maybe open a school of my own or a research facility. You see when you're a student there are important people, deans and teachers and you have to write papers for them. But sometimes because you're a student and you're young they laugh at the papers, don't believe them because in their minds a child wrote them. But when you graduate, which is the academic version of growing up; they start to take you seriously. Plus they call you Professor after you graduate." Samuel chuckled. "Professor Samuel Oak; that sounds rather pompous doesn't it?"
"How about, Professor Oak, it's shorter." Leo offered.
"Hmm Professor Oak," Samuel tasted the title. "I like it. Now then, let's have a bite and a bit of a chat. If I know you you're hungry enough to eat a Snorlax and come away hungry."
"Me?" Leo grinned.
"Yes you." Samuel chuckled. "You're in what we call a 'stage' the wise people say that from twelve to eighteen or so you'll have to eat ten times your weight every day, then around nineteen, maybe twenty you stabilize and stop trying to eat up all the food in the world and live off the air for a few years."
"That's not true!" Leo protested.
"You'll see."
X
"Heh…" Leo turned the book over so Samuel could the loose paper inside. "This almost looks like your level of artistic talent."
Oak toyed around with the idea of chucking his book, but Persian met his gaze and he flexed his claws. Oak decided against it at that point.
"Gary drew that for me when he was little; I've wondered where it went."
Giovanni turned it over, looked at it.
"Are you sure it isn't yours? It looks just like your chicken scratch handwriting…"
"Hugely funny," Oak grumbled.
"I fought a boy named Gary some time back… Does he have an Arcanine and a Nidoking?"
Oak nodded, "He does, and they are here since he left Kanto and went to Jhoto on a new journey… He mentioned something about fighting a new type of Pokemon when he visited your Gym. I pointed both the boys in your direction, thinking you could do with some challenge, the funny thing was that when he called me after he was absolutely shaken by whatever happened but refused to talk of it."
Giovanni coughed, looked rather uncomfortable.
"Leo, you have been avoiding talking to me of this for a while and I want to know, after all this is my Grandson that it affected, and I am concerned…"
"There was an accident, trust me had I known it was your Grandson I would not have used that Pokemon on him. It was… a new breed I found in Orange Isles, and it was vicious, cruel and completely uncontrollable. It, it had no gender as far as we dared check, very nearly killed me, it annihilated the scientific community that originally captured it… It pretended to be my ally, agreed to fight for me, but every fight it went a step farther and farther beyond the acceptable, the first Trainer it attacked was plagued by nightmares from being on the farthest edge of a Dream-Eater, the second was grazed with a Psybeam and luckily she didn't need medical attention, the third, your grandson, was thrown across the Gym by a full blown Physic."
Oak went pale, dropped the book in his hurt leg and didn't feel it in the slightest.
"He didn't hit the wall, my Machoke made sure of that, and I made sure he got to a doctor and an expert on the after effects Psychic attacks. I kept him in the clinic until I was certain he was recovered, and then I dealt with the problem that started it all."
"Dealt with... you're saying you killed…"
"No, it's too strong for that. I drove it off, I have a group on watch waiting for the second that thing comes anywhere near a city to warn the inhabitants and… have them try to finish what I started."
Oak felt his mouth was dry, he felt sick. This was almost as bad as the day he'd discovered…
He firmly shoved that memory down there were some things better left not thought upon.
"If there is anything you have ever trusted me on my friend, trust me in this. I never meant anyone to be hurt by that... thing."
"If it was so dangerous…"
"In some ways I am not so different from Raphael." Leo said softly. "The allure of having it to myself, of taming something so powerful, it's as much a seduction to me as it was for him."
Oak shivered at the matter of fact tone, the unapologetic stating of a fact tone which Giovanni used. There were times when Leo could chill him, could worry him, this was one in a string of incidents that worried him.
"I would say, if there is one major difference between me and him it is that I have boundaries, lines I won't cross no matter the profit. He never had that."
X
"Leo, what's wrong?"
"No… nothing."
"Nothing my rear, your lips split and bloody and you've more bruises then I care to think of!"
"Never could fool you could I?" Leo sat down on the empty stool with a hiss. "I… Raphael let me go on the journey on one condition, that when I finished with the League I come back home and… And fight him for right of the Gym."
Oak sat down, his eyes wide in horror. He'd heard some rumors of Pokemon and Trainers even, who came out at deaths door. Those rumors were true, so Leo proved with his state, but how could Raphael do that to his own son?
"Do you need to go to the hospital?"
Stupid question, the Gym was at least five miles away from here, Leo had probably walked that far to get here, and it looked like there were no problems save a little pain.
"No," Leo smiled, blood slid from his split lip. "Thanks for askin' though…"
"Leo." Samuel gripped the younger man's shoulders. He was nearly Oak's height now, and despite the thrashing he'd gone through was still the picture of the college hero. Well built, well muscled yet not over, with a square face and sharp features. No few girls had broken their hearts over him. What none of them knew was the scars over that heart they so pined over. Oak knew, only a little, he was after all the boy's mentor, and as close to a friend as the b- young man allowed any to get. "What. Happened."
"Nothing..."
"Leo," Oak felt tears stinging in his eyes. "You promised me long ago that you'd trust me, now I want to know what happened."
"I can't tell you all of it, or you'd hate me, I can't tell you all of it because it'd make you break your promise, so I can't tell you the whole truth."
"Tell me what you dare then."
There were walls, barriers, they kept them apart but Leo kept them up because he said it'd keep the Rockets off of him. It would allow him to live. And recalling the somber thirteen year old who'd said that… Oak knew it was no lie.
So young, he had seen death of Pokemon and human, and fought to the death against those who his father backed to save the life of his only friend. Each death, each scheme, left a scar made the walls higher, yet those walls kept death away and they both endured them. Leo did not shrug off Samuel's near embrace; seemed to need to be touched, to know he was real and not an illusion. He was in shock, that shock the horror of what had happened filled his eyes with darkness, made them glitter so hard. Like twin blades, they ripped apart all they saw with their scorn as the final illusion of life being sacred, of his life being sacred, was cast aside.
"Leo..." Oak shivered as Raphael's eyes looked back at him. "Let's go somewhere a little less open, I'll leave a note for my students and if you're up to it we'll walk to my house."
X
"Yes, he was a bastard wasn't he?"
"Profanity Sam, isn't that out of character?"
"If there ever was a man I could hate, your father was it." His leg was hurting and he picked up the book with a grimace. "I am glad you are not your father's son."
"Sam, there are times when I look in the mirror and wonder if I'm not."
"You aren't, you have lines, compassion, and a conscience." Oak said firmly. "Your father never had those things."
Giovanni sighed; a small smile curled his lips. "Hearing you say that, it helps a little."
"Good." Oak sniffed, "tell me, are you honest enough to remember how to cook?"
"Rather then being the corrupt, money leeching, incompetent businessman who hires all his cooks?" Giovanni chuckled. "I am somewhat capable, but if I burn down your home it's not my fault."
"How so?"
"Because I warned you. The usual?"
Oak nodded and Giovanni picked up the sleeping Persian and set him in the chair, then went off to 'burn down the kitchen' AKA cook.
X
"We fought, he made me fight him, and I defeated him in the Gym and earned the right to it."
"It must have been a hard fight."
Leo swallowed. "Yeah, you could say that, it was a hard fight."
"Leo. Why do you have a gun?"
Dead quiet, the young man took a deep breath and stared straight into his eyes.
"It was kill or be killed, I fought alongside them, that's the rules of the Gym. It's supposed to teach you… that they aren't worth anything, that Pokemon aren't worth anything, because if one of the most powerful Gym leaders doesn't care whether they live or die… then why should you?"
"It's not true," Oak whispered, "tell me you don't believe…"
"He made it true, for himself. He made it true for me, for a while." Leo shivered, his eyes haunted. "But it's not true all the time, and it's not true for everyone."
Leo no longer possessed the innocence that Oak himself held to, the ideal that all life was sacred, because he'd seen life end, he had made it end by his own two hands. He had taken a step into a place Oak could never follow. They both knew that.
"Your father, where is he?"
"He died."
Oak felt his eyes grow wide, his face was cold and he shivered, drew back in horror at the calm tone in which Giovanni said those horrible words. Those words, when he'd spoken them for himself he'd broken down in tears. Yet Giovanni, he did not care, spoke them as plainly as if he was saying the sun was shining.
"What happened to him?"
"After the fight he… called me in his office and we talked. He grew angry and his heart stopped. I called the ambulance, waited with him for help to arrive, they confirmed he was dead, and I left. The… funeral arrangements are in the hands of those he knew best, those who cared for him." The lips curled in a dark smile. "They told me, when I called them, that… I was ordered not to go to the funeral, all of his wealth goes to the companies, which I inherit by the law, but until they make some profit I'm official broke. The house will be razed, the items inside destroyed, so he orders it in his Will."
If he had sold so much a rooms worth of furnishing, gave half of it to charity… half of it to any charity and that would be a massive donation.
"Even in death, he gives nothing to no one." Oak whispered, staring at Leo, torn between pity and sadness.
"It's how he wanted it." Leo rubbed his hands, the gesture was almost neurotic, like he was trying to clean them. "It's how he was. I don't have anyway to pay you back but… I need a place to stay for a few weeks. Trust me, Raphael was no fool. Not even in his craziest was he gone enough to destroy what he had, even though he knew that I'd probably be getting it. I can almost hear it now, 'a few weeks on the street will toughen you up boy, it'll make you hard enough to do something right, make you cold enough to be what you're supposed to be'."
"Well Raphael can just rot in his nice coffin in whatever ditch they toss him in." Oak said coldly. "And he can roll in that coffin for all I care. Like hell I'm leaving you out on the street. You'll stay with me, and I'll hear nothing about paying me back."
"But!"
"No buts," Oak said firmly. "I'll hear nothing of it."
Leo stared at his hands and Samuel followed those lost eyes. There was a ring, a black banded ring with a crimson shape in its center. A letter that was the color of blood…. Oak went pale, grabbed the hand and turned it over so he could see it. A black mount for the crimson "R", the older man began to shake.
"It was my Mother's." Leo whispered. "Her name… was Rosalyn; well her last name was before she married Raphael."
Leo would not look him in the eyes when he said that, could not look him in the eyes.
He looked to the Persian who was sitting at Leo's feet.
There was red about the paws and around the mouth.
It was human blood; something told Oak it was human blood.
"Leo, I trust you, I am going to keep trusting your word, even though I do have doubts, but I'll only do this on one condition. That one day, when we are much older, you will tell me the truth, all the truths that you can't tell me now because it's not safe."
Leo met his gaze, his face haunted, his eyes tortured.
"You have to promise not to hate me." He sounded like a lost child. "You have to promise not to hate me, to turn our friendship into a lie."
"I won't."
"Then I can make that promise, and someday keep it."
X
The tea was over sugared, the toasted sandwich under meat-ed and the spicy mustard too aplenty, and the bread cooked to much on one side and too little on the other.
"No wonder you have chiefs, you'd kill yourself if you tried to cook on your own."
"I survived almost six years of my own cooking, thank you very much." Leo snapped, sounding much like the touchy adolescent he'd once been.
Samuel laughed as Leo sipped at his tea and made a face.
"Maybe I put too much sugar in this." He admitted slowly, rare was it when he made a mistake so admitting to one was a strange thing to do.
"Take a bite out of the sandwich," Oak taunted, feeling a bit like the young man who'd dare Leo to pull some rather stupid stunts long ago.
"I know that tone." Giovanni grimaced. "Dare I?"
"I dare you." Oak grinned and Giovanni looked very worried.
"I know those words, and my cooking can't be that…" He took a bite and chewed it, then looking sick he swallowed. "…bad."
"Milk's on the second shelf behind the butter, that'll deal with the fire in your stomach, the bathroom is where it always is, and the phonebook is supporting the brown chair in my room."
"Phonebook?" Giovanni snatched the plates from Oak's hands; he would not sink so low as to poison the older man. Tease and pull a joke, even sic his Persian on him, yes, poison, no.
"You're calling in the pizza, and I want pineapple you can pick the other topping."
"Topping?" Giovanni raised an eyebrow, he looked confused, and Oak did his best not to laugh.
"Yes, when you order pizza, which you'll be doing in a bit, you put things on top of them, called toppings. Really Leo, how sheltered were you? You sound like you've never ordered pizza before."
"I haven't."
"Consider it on the lines of a new experience then."
"Last time you said that you had me mucking out a Ponyta's stall!" Giovanni called over his shoulder.