Author's Note: Um, well, in this chapter, you'll figure out whom um, Sinal is, righto. And Sinal might not really be his name. Ooh, spooky. What could it be…? Whaaaat coooouuuuld iiiit beeee (my spell check hated this line)?

Chapter Eleven: The Truth Behind It All

"I don't see why the murderer would leave behind some note. It just doesn't seem like the thing an evil guy would do," Kyte decided, nodding in full agreement to himself. "I mean, unless he's new to this sort of thing, which I doubt he is. He seemed to be knowing what he was doing."

"I don't think the note was from him, Kyte," Des replied, shaking his head to Kyte's idea. "I think Abigail sent that message right before she was captured. That seems to be the only logical explanation to this."

"Who said it had to be logical?"

"Without logic, we would all lose control."

"Is it logical of why he did this?"

"We won't know until he tells us, or whoever, does tell us why he's behind all of this, why he's slaughtering masses of people. Perhaps it's for his own, sick pleasure. Maybe he's, just…"

"Crazy?" Lexus finished in a questioning tone, fiddling with the paper between her fingers, folding out the creases to find any further clues not seen by the naked eye. "That would be the only word for him, wouldn't it? I mean, as you said, he can't be exactly sane, can he?"

"I guess not."

"Who cares if he's crazy or not? I just want Abigail back!" Ashley hissed, beating her fist into the desk, causing it to rattle and their drinks to shake. They were obviously at Ashley's home now. "So, it says Ashton Lott, right? Well, my last name is Lott, so it must be one of my relatives! I just don't see how. My dad's first name is Ashton."

"Then let's go ask him! Where does he work, huh?" Amphie asked cheerfully. Ashley turned away with her arms crossed against her chest, strands of hair falling into her face as she slouched in her chair. Lexus frowned, while Kyte looked perplexed, and Des sighed, muttering a few sayings under his breath. "Um, problem?"

"There wouldn't be if he was still alive," Ashley answered bitterly, sitting upright with a jolt, as if remembering those thoughts brought something to her mind that she wished to forget. She felt sweat glisten on her forehead and temples, and wiped away the few drops with a pathetic snort. Des looked sideways to Ashley, almost as if for permission, his face full of sympathy, and Ashley nodded, allowing. Des sighed, straightening himself in his chair.

"Ashley's father was killed in a house fire when she was small," Des explained to the four, while Ashley attempted to ignore the tale, although it didn't seem to be working much, as she bit her bottom lip and nibbled on it to distract herself further.

"Oh." Amphie breathed a small 'sorry' to Ashley, who waved her hand as if to dismiss it. She hadn't known, Ashley reminded herself, so she didn't blame her. "What about her mom?"

"She was also killed in the fire. They were both in the home at the time," Des responded, shaking his head with a small sigh. "Ashley has been raised by her grandfather ever since."

"How old were you?" Lexus asked in a quivering voice, directed to Ashley. "I mean, like eight?" Ashley nodded, and Lexus frowned. "Oh, that is rather young."

"Hm, well, then who can we ask like the note said?" Kyte inquired, tilting his head and tapping his chin in a stupid attempt to appear smart, even if he wasn't. "I mean, do you have any other relatives called Ashton?" Ashley shrugged. "Well, what's your grandpa's name?"

"I don't know. I just call him Grandpa." Ashley's brows furrowed in deep thought. "I don't know his first name, and I don't know where his driver's license is, or if he still has one. He was supposed to get it renewed, but I don't know if he's done it yet."

"Does he have any other sources to find his true identity?" Des asked. Kyte narrowed his eyes into slits, signaling his displeasure at Des's large words. "What? You can't take my large vocabulary for your tiny brain, dog boy?" Des teased.

"No, I just don't see why you have to act so damned smart, dragon boy," Kyte barked back, baring his fangs. Des hissed and bared his as well, and by then, they had started to let a flow of oaths and curses come from their lips, that made Amphie, Lexus, and Ashley pause and stare.

"Um, back to finding out Ashley's grandfather's first name," Lexus began, taking her eyes off the two fighting boys, "I think we should search his room, maybe. I hope he doesn't mind us snooping though." Her ears twitched as she shrank down a bit, frowning. "Their bickering is hurting my ears…"

"And yet you can stand dance clubs but not this?" Ashley asked suspiciously. "I mean, it says Clefable are supposed to be timid around large crowds and places with a lot of noise. That's why they live alone in caves."

"Oh, dance club music doesn't affect me at all! I'm really used to it. And besides, I've never been one to like arguments. My parents get into them a lot."

"Hmm, parent issues?"

"Yep, that's it. Mom and Dad didn't always get along a lot. They divorced not long ago, actually, but that hasn't caused any sort of effects on me or my schoolwork." She paused. "I think that's the only reason why they stayed together so long, for me. But they were really astonished that I didn't take any notice of their divorce. I think they might have divorced much longer ago if they had known I wouldn't have cared." She paused again. "Or maybe it's because I'm older now." She smiled. "But, enough about that. We're getting off track!"

"Well, since Abigail sent a message, I suppose this has to be pretty serious, so we'll need to deal with it quickly or she could be harmed by-what was his name? - Oh, Sinal. Kyte, take notes, will you?" Des tossed him a pen, in which Kyte completely ignored, letting it hit the wall before falling to the carpet. Des raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Do you not get what I asked of you, Kyte? I asked you to take—"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you. But what for? You just said we should move quickly. I don't think taking notes is doing anything about it. It's not important."

"Actually, Kyte, it is. You're going to copy down what we know about him, in a sort of profile, his age, Pokemon, height, looks, weight, name, and the rest."

"We don't know his weight or height! We only know one of his Pokemon, who knows if he has more! And I don't think we know anything else about him, unless you can tell by a glance at—"

"Height of six feet, four inches, weight of one hundred seventy-two pounds, six ounces. Pokemon, Metagross, others unknown," Des stated in a robotic sort of drone. His encased black eyes with a ruby glass covering sparkled, and he slouched down a bit, crossing his arms against his chest.

"Whoa! How did you know all of that?" Amphie asked in awe. "I mean, how could you figure all of that out?"

"I bet it's not even true," Kyte spat. "No one could know that."

"When we capture the man, I'll let you take a tape measurer to him." Des smirked, causing Kyte to growl and cast his look away. Lexus frowned, sensing tension between the two boys, and sighed with a moan. Obviously, Kyte and Des had the rivalry of a Zangoose and a Seviper, although she didn't think they would kill each other over it like Zangoose and Seviper would.

"Damn, we're not getting anywhere! I'm going to check the mail! Maybe that'll give us some sort of clues or something!" Ashley huffed angrily, standing up with a jerk and stomping out of the room and down the hall towards the mailroom. Not at all phased as she opened the door to the dozens of rows, all around six feet high with hundreds of mailboxes for the employees' mail, she stepped into the second row, walked down to the very end, and stood on the tips of her toes, and putting her eye in front of a small red light.

The light flashed, sensing someone in front of it, and casted a bright flash over Ashley's left eye. It then emitted a loud buzzer, and shut off immediately.

"Damn it! Figures it wouldn't work! Grandpa has blue eyes, not my eye colour." Her red eyes flashed dangerously. "Have to get in some other way," she said grimly, fingering her Pokeballs. Snatching one and tossing it into the air, Likuri, the young, little Umbreon, bounded out with a cry of her species name, prancing about cheerfully.

"Oy, Likuri, front and center, heels, now!" Ashley ordered. Likuri stopped and blinked. At Ashley's command, she walked forward with renewed grace, lifting her paws high like a Hackney horse, and stood in front of Ashley, nose poised as she sat on her haunches, looking up with starry eyes.

"See if you can get this mailbox open. Oh wait." Ashley tapped her finger to her chin in thought. "Shade four, blue." On her command, Likuri hummed a little melody, and her rings turned a rather ocean blue, exactly matching Ashley's grandfather's eye colour. "Good girl. Up you go…" Ashley picked up the Umbreon around the waist, holding her in front of the contraption where one of her rings would stay in front of the machine. With a buzz, denying her, Ashley cursed, and set the creature down.

"We'll have to blow it open! Likuri, Shadow Ball!"

Likuri cocked her head to one side, and nodded. Her ears laid back on the sides of her head, as she raised her rump into the air, her head low to her paws as if she were to pounce. She then opened her mouth, and her rings flashed red. With a surprising battle cry from such a small Pokemon, a ball of shadows flew from her jaws, smashing into contact with the mailbox, blowing the front of it off easily. Ashley reached into the box, and sighed in relief: the mail hadn't been damaged.

"Thanks, Likuri. Let's go." Ashley opened the door, holding it for her Pokemon, and returned to the apartment, which she found had been snooped around by the gang, looking for any clues to Mr. Lott's identity. So far, they hadn't found anything, they informed her as she walked in.

"Well, I've got the mail." Ashley held up a few white envelopes. "So, let's see what we've got. Never know, might help us." She plopped down on an armchair, Amphie, Lexus and Kyte sitting on the couch, Des preferring a chair at the small table, away from the others. Lexus looked to him with concern, but turned her attention back to Ashley.

"Hmm, bill, bill, magazine, bill…hmm, what's this?" Ashley set a silver envelope on the coffee table for the others to inspect. Likuri settled on Ashley's lap, purring.

"Looks like some contest thing," Lexus said thoughtfully, picking it up and using one of her manicured nails to rip the seal perfectly. "Aha! Just as I thought! Just one of those fake contest things." She handed it to Kyte. "See if it has Mr. Lott's name on it."

Kyte scanned it quickly, the others holding their breath. Finally, Kyte sighed, shaking his head. "Nope. Just Mr. Lott."

Amphie frowned. "We'll never figure it out! Any ideas, Des?" She turned hopefully to Des, who looked incredibly annoyed. "Something wrong?"

Des stood up, walked towards Kyte, and snatched the envelope from his hands. He then pointed a claw to the envelope address. "Here, stupid! It says 'Ashton Lott'!"

"…I was going to check that afterwards!" Kyte protested. "You just never gave me any time." Des snorted.

"You would have never thought of that. Don't lie, dog boy." Kyte opened his mouth to retort, but thought better against it. Des obviously wasn't in the mood, and he could tell it wasn't from one of their arguments.

"…Wait, you're telling me we have to ask my grandpa about the murderer?" Ashley asked flatly. "That doesn't make much sense."

"Neither has any of this, really," Amphie considered. "I mean, a guy rampaging about, killing everyone in sight. It's like, complete nonsense." Ashley sighed, and glanced towards the door.

"Well, when he gets home, I guess we'll have to ask. That is, once they let all the employees back in. They're still edgy about the murderer having barged in here." Lexus glanced behind her shoulder nervously. "Come to think of it, so am I."

"No wonder. They did take the heir to the Devon Corp Dynasty," Kyte joked. "I mean, when Mr. Stone kicks the bucket, they'll have to choose him, if he's not busy with picking at rocks, anyway."

"It's not they, it's he," Des corrected. "Sinal doesn't work in a group. If he did, we'd all be dead by now."

"Hey, I wouldn't. I'd be—" Kyte suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, and turned towards the door. His ears twitched and swiveled, trying to catch even the smallest and delicate sound. He could hear footsteps, and the squeaky turn of a key into a doorknob. "Someone's here!"

"Grandpa?" Ashley called out hopefully, standing and striding towards the kitchen table near the entry door. With a lurch, the door opened, revealing Grandpa, looking somewhat pale. "Ah, so it is you."

"Oh, is that the greeting I get?" He smiled warmly, chuckling. "Hello Ashley, and…others." His eyes widened as they took in the sights of how many people were in his home. He pointed towards Kyte. "How in the world did you fit him in here? He's enormous."

Kyte mumbled, not sure whether that was an insult or a compliment. He obviously took it as the former, however. "Actually, I'm only Des's size, sadly." Des narrowed his eyes towards the morph, which returned the angered look.

"Mr. Lott." Des took his eyes off Kyte, instead looking to Ashley's grandfather. "We need to speak to you, about something quite important. About the…murderer that had taken Steven hostage."

"But why would you like to talk to me about that? I wasn't here. I was evacuated; the entire building was, before he took more hostages. Steven just happened to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time." Ashley took a spot at the table with Des, allowing Grandpa to sit himself in the armchair she had been only a few moments ago. "And can you tell me the other…three that are present in my house, please, if that isn't too rude."

"Lexus."

"Kyte."

"Amphie!"

"Oh, hello to you all. Pleasure to meet all three of you." Grandpa smiled, but his face grew stern as he sat back in the armchair, waiting what he knew had been figured out. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and into his eyes, which he wiped at with haste. "Sorry. It's been quite hot out lately."

"Amphie, can I have the little piece of paper, please?" Lexus cooed, holding out her hand. Amphie smiled, dropping the black material into her clutches. Lexus then handed it to Grandpa. "…We thought this had something to do with you, sir."

"…I knew you'd figure it out eventually, just not this quick." Grandpa sighed in suspense, taking a long, dramatic pause while he stared at his fingertips. He clenched his fists, and unclenched them, repeating this several times, ignoring the group growing suddenly impatient.

Finally, he spoke up. "I don't know how I could hide this from you, Ashley, for all these years. You should have known almost six years ago, but I've hid it from you to protect you. So you wouldn't go after him, and I'd have both of my grandchildren taken away from me."

Ashley blinked, puzzled. "Both? But I'm your only grandkid-"

"No, you aren't. There's one more," he interrupted. "There's the other child, the one who left…six years ago, just about." He fingered his small beard, while Ashley was left gaping. The others just seemed mildly interested. "This also has something to do with your parents." Ashley frowned, but her face melted into a scowl. "I know you don't want to bring that up, but I'm afraid I have to.

"You see, you were only eight when this all happened. Not even recognized as a young lady. You know how your parents were killed, but not who was responsible. I never told you how it was caused. It was caused by…you."

"…You're lying to me now. I would never kill my own parents!"

"I'm afraid you never even knew you were. You were too young to realize your actions would lead to this. And I know this because I was a witness. I was in the home, and so were you. However, I didn't pay the price they did, what they did to save you.

"I was there to pick you up to take baby-sit you, as your mother and father were heading out into town to pick up a few things. I was just heading outside to check the lawn- always has to be watered, I swear-, when I saw smoke emptying from your room. Obviously, I figured out what had happened, and ran over to the neighbour's home to call the Fire Department. However, since some sort of festival was currently going on, it was far too late before they arrived. Your father broke down the door of your room, which was nearly completely scorched. You had passed out by smoke inhalation by then. You were only eight, remember; children have smaller lungs, and therefore, cannot take in as much smoke. However, at that moment, the Fire Department arrived; you were on the second floor. The way your parents had gotten in was completely blocked off by a wall of flame. They passed you out to the ladder first, and as your mother was climbing out, one of the support beams fell and sent the house crashing down. They barely were able to swing the ladder out of the way before it caught onto the crashing window. Sadly, your parents didn't make it. Their funeral was a few days later.

And now comes in Ashton. All the male offspring were named Ashton, and have for generations. He was your older brother, Ashley. He was fifteen at that time, almost sixteen, at that time. The loss of his parents got to him. He suffered severe depression, and I had to monitor him incase he cut his throat wide open in a suicidal attempt. Cameras were kept in his room at all times, and he was monitored thoroughly. I even sent him to an institution, to get over the depression. He only became worse. He actually killed someone, one of the aids, with his bare hands. He was exiled from the city at the age of fifteen, since we had different laws and children could not be given the death penalty until age eighteen. And in order for you to forget him-you were so close to him then-, we had to erase your memory that he had ever existed. You were a guinea pig for a new type of product that we had just come out with for trials. And it worked. The Police Agents now use them when investigating humans and Pokemon alike. I'm sorry you never knew about this earlier, but I just couldn't bare telling you."

"…So, who is this Ashton?" Ashley asked calmly, although her head was spinning. She had done this? She had killed her parents? She bit her lower lip, fighting back her tears successfully; she was strong. She wouldn't cry in front of the others, especially not Amphie.

"Ashton…is the murderer."