RETURN TO ORRÉ
Despite the events of the night, Lu, Cyril and Rachel were waiting by Lawrence's flying machine when Lawrence, Julie, the three Ashes, and Lawrence's children arrived at the prearranged time.
"I told the kids they could stay with Mrs Farraday, but they wanted to come, and I can't see it being dangerous, we're only going to the Orré Pokémon lab, not any Cipher installations. Unless Cipher has invaded the Orré Pokémon lab, they should be safe enough. If we can get Julie back to normal, the first people she'll want to see are the kids." Cyril nodded: he hoped Rachel would soon start asking about their own children soon.
Rachel herself was looking at Julie. As she had the day before, she reached out to her, but this time Julie didn't react in a hostile fashion. She allowed Rachel to gently touch her face and shoulder.
"J-Julie." Rachel managed. Lawrence turned to face her.
"She's talking again?" he said.
"She started talking last night, just my name, twice, but then she passed out. I don't know what they did to her but I think she's recovering, but she has some pretty nasty side effects. It's like her body's rejecting whatever junk the Shadow process left her with, or as if there's an internal fight going on, and her normal self is winning. Her skin is peeling, and the lilac colour is fading with every layer."
"Perhaps she is rejecting something." came another voice from behind them. "Perhaps I can draw a blood sample to test, and have some of that peeling skin?" It was George. Cyril nodded, and George was fairly easily able to get some of the skin peeling from her face and arms, but getting a blood sample was another matter. She panicked the moment George got out the empty syringe to use, and it was all Cyril could do to stop her bolting away from George, as she cried out in wordless terror and fought to escape his grip.
"I don't know why, but it's the needle, she's terrified!" cried Cyril. The moment George put it away, Rachel calmed down, although her eyes never left the pocket that George had put the needle in.
"Rachel, George isn't going to hurt you, but I can see you're scared. We want to take some blood to try and find out what's happening to you. Would you trust me to take it?" Rachel looked at Cyril and nodded. "It's okay, I am trained, my sister taught me so I could assist her at times." Cyril told George.
Getting the empty syringe to Cyril was a problem, however, because Rachel fretted when George reached to get it. Letting Cyril take the syringe from George's pocket solved the problem, and he quickly took some blood from her, and handed the syringe back to George, who took it off to get it checked out. Once they had dealt with that, they all got on the flying machine.
It was going to be a long and rather boring journey, so Lawrence encouraged the others to all find something to do. The four children and Lu went down to the exhibition hall to play, and the two adult Ashes got back on the holographic chessboard. Cyril used his time trying to persuade Rachel to talk some more, getting out her Pokémon and asking her to tell him what Pokémon they were, and what their nicknames were. He also encouraged her to choose nicknames for her Sandshrew, and to pick one out for the Treecko to give it once it had been deShadowed. Julie sat in a seat next to Lawrence, looking either at him or out of the window, and her lack of expression broke his heart.
Several hours later, Lawrence could see the Orré Pokémon lab, and had called up Professor Krane to warn him that they were coming, and why.
"I look forward to your visit." He told them. "The receptionist will tell you where my office is when you get here. I have someone here who wants to see you, and I think I have some good news for you."
