Chapter 19

Darkness fell upon the 336th precinct. The power to the entire building went out. From the bullpen to the breakroom and basement below, a primordial hush quieted the police station. Neither time nor space could escape it, making it impossible to tell how long the power was out before the backup generator kicked in. Unable to sustain the usual illumination, a second smaller set of emergency lights flickered on. Small and set deep into the ceiling with outdated filaments, they pulsed with the heavy red glow of a dying heart. Even heavier shadows filled the space in between beats. Their combined weight pushed out the rest of the color spectrum. Only those of the same ilk squeezed their way in.

Zach hid in a pool of shadow at the edge of a stairwell entrance. He held a firm grip on the door frame and peered down the hallway towards the holding area. A set of iron bars pushed their way into solidarity with every red flash. Maybe if he timed it right, he'd pass right through. Then again, Zach wasn't sure he wanted to. What if he was wrong? What if Baby wasn't here? What if she was and blamed him for everything? Zach didn't know which was worse. He inched closer to the door frame.

"Who's there?" a small but stout voice demanded from within the cell at the end of the hall. She was here.

Baby stuck her neck out over the cot she was sitting on. Her hands clutched the stale mattress beneath her. She inspected the unknown beyond the shadows of her cell. Even across the hallway, Zach traced the pencil thin frown drawn across her lips. She disapproved of this sudden darkness, especially the figure that appeared within it without sight or sound. Gut instinct warned Baby that she wasn't alone. Now, she never had to be.

"I won't ask again," Baby declared, hackles rising. She was such a good watch dog even when there wasn't anything left to guard.

Zach stepped out of the doorway. "Don't bite my head off," he barked back. "I'm coming, but this damn light is giving me a seizure." He marched up to the bars almost as quickly as Baby. She hopped out of her cot and grabbed the metal with both hands.

"You're alright!" she exclaimed, revealing all of her cards at once. The thought of a smile crossed Zach's mouth. Playing poker wasn't Baby's strong suit. Go Fish was more her style. "What are you doing here?" she quickly reeled in.

"What does it look like?" Zach grunted as he pulled a blue keycard out of his pocket. He swiped it across the lock built into the wall beside the cell door. Spots of purple marked the corner where the lanyard used to be. "We're getting out of here."

A loud buzzer unlocked the door. Zach wrapped his fingers around the cold iron and slid the door open. He didn't need axillary power to get the job done. Baby mouthed a stutter as the bars rolled past. They clanged to a stop and knocked her jaw back into place. "Here," Zach continued as he thrust a bag at Baby's chest.

She looked down at the clear plastic evidence bag in her hands. It contained everything on her persons at the time of her arrest, including a set of house keys on a squirtle keychain, a wrinkled leather wallet, belt, holster, and highly prized peace keeper that had yet to be distinguished from her personal effects. The arresting officer probably thought it was a toy. Baby bypassed the articles and poked her fingers through a set of neatly arranged holes in the bag. They punctured the thick plastic all the way through. With Baby packed and ready to go, they had no time to waste.

"Let's get the hell outta here," Zach said.

Something heavy suddenly fell against the floor from above, drawing all eyes up with a dull thud. So much for stealth. Baby looked down and the line between her lips tightened.

"What's happened?" she demanded.

"The station is under attack," Zach briskly answered. If he spoke fast enough with just enough truth to satisfy, Baby might not ask any more questions. "We need to get out of here."

Another vibration rumbled through the floor. It gyrated with the distinct clatter of demolished furniture. Baby ripped open the evidence bag without another word, stuffed her pockets, and strapped the holstered weapon around her waist. Zach grabbed her hand and pulled the officer down the hallway before the barrel could break free. He couldn't afford to lose her now.

"Come on," he urged, pounding up the steps with a magnitude 3.

Baby stumbled behind him, unable to catch her footing in the aftershock. "Wait, slow down," she called, and for once, she couldn't make her way to the front.

With victory in hand, Zach threw open the stairwell door to the main level and passed through the gates. He knew what he was doing and where he was going. To let Baby off leash now would only slow them down. "We're almost there," he told her, kicking through a field of loose papers and empty case files.

Baby hopped, skipped, and side stepped as much sensitive material as she could. The red glow of the lights must have stamped everything classified by the way she wrenched his arm around. It was either let go, slow down, or lose function of his shoulder. Zach ground his teeth and feet to a measured speed walk. Giving Baby's eyes time to wander wasn't ideal, but he couldn't exactly blindfold her with a spheal bandana either.

True to checkered habit, Baby's eyes darted around the room. A landline telephone was sprawled on the floor. It's beeping silenced by an electrical beheading. On the desk above it, a computer screen buzzed with disconnection. Silent, erratic, black and white fingers shuddered with the ghost of a connection. The emergency lights continued to beat overhead. They drifted in and out of the dispatch room. Legs of a fallen chair rode the tide back and forth. A handheld radio swung gently from side to side over the edge of the desk. A voice scratched through the speaker. "McKowski? McKowski, are you there? Answer me damn it!"

In the center of the bull pen, two halves of a wooden desk covered a dark stain on the linoleum. It wasn't big enough to hide the matching speckling on the adjacent metal trash can. Upon approach of the front desk, a hole in the glass partition let a chill draft in. The edges of the hole flashed and sparkled with the fragmentation of a polished blood diamond. Baby lowered her head as they passed through the gate.

Zach shouldered their way through the front door with a clank of the broken entry bell. A light rain peppered their clothes. It made the smooth stone steps slick as ice. Zach squeezed Baby's hand and hurried down the steps. Words of protest flew by his ears but they weren't fast enough to catch up. There was no need for caution. He'd catch Baby if she fell. They splashed through several puddles and into the street. Water soaked into Zach's boots. He'd have to get a pair like Baby's. She shouted something at him again. A color recommendation perhaps. It sounded like black. But that couldn't be right. A bleak infamous word so akin to his nature wouldn't have constricted him the way it did. Zach ground their escape to a slow abrasive halt in the middle of a pothole.

The word. It was his name. Zach. It'd been so long since anybody used it that he didn't recognize it a first. Even when Baby called it again, it sounded like a foreign language. Some demonic tongue used to invoke memories of a past life he would have gladly traded for the petrified terror of a dream eater. Where did she learn to speak such curses?

"What did you say?" Zach growled. He didn't want to turn around, but he did. Baby held her ground against the mean look. She stared straight through the attack into his rotten seedy core.

"Zachary Binx," she said. "What did you do?"

Twenty seconds too long in the bull pen and a shred of truth hidden in some measly words and Baby knew he was guilty of something. And the department was just going to throw all of that talent away. But if Baby knew his real name, then she must know the rest of the story. The picture perfect suburbs where he and his nightmares were spawned, the crime, retaliation, and asylums. Yet, she still stood with him in the middle of the rainy street in the dead of night, willing to show her hand despite the many times he tried to bite it. Why would he ever let something like that go?

"How do you know my name?" Zach quickly defended. He couldn't let her know how right she was, and the only thing stronger than Baby's determination was her conscious. Apply pressure to that weakness and she was guaranteed to break focus. Having never told Baby his name, she must have gone behind his back to acquire confidential documents. Snooping so deep around someone else's personal life, especially a person you just recently met, was sure to put a spot on her soul dark enough to draw attention. Zach wore his best scowl to ensure maximum guilt.

Baby squeezed his hand a little tighter. Her shoulders lifted slightly and her lips thinned just enough to give her away. She had a secret. One big enough to chew on before speaking. That's OK. He had them too.

"Midtown is my home," Baby answered, revealing as much as she dared before dodging the issue with a diversion of her own, "and I can't just break out of a police station and run away with you!"

"Of course you can," Zach replied, turning to the street again.

Baby tugged him to a stop and waved at the mausoleum behind her. "What happened back there, to the station, to the others?"

"Hell if I know," Zach shot back. Pantera moved too quickly in the dark for him to see anything clearly. "What do you care anyway?" he picked up. "The building could've been on fire and they still wouldn't have come for you." Maybe he should have gone that route from the beginning. Burn the evidence. Maybe next time he would. Wouldn't want to get labeled with a MO. Zach whirled around for the street again.

Baby's hand slipped out of his. "Answer the question." Her eyes burned like the electric streaks in the sky above Reynolds. "What. Did. You. Do?"

Zach turned around, surprised to find his hand empty. He quickly tightened his fingers into a fist. What did he do? He looked up at Baby. Swollen cheeks. Bruised skin. Hair tossed loosely in knots around her shoulders. What did they do? Baby kept one arm close to her chest, wrist bent like a wounded mightyena. She leaned to one side to displace the weight from her dominant foot. No slings. No crutches, bandages, or pain killers. There was only the raw uncut image of a girl who took a beating from the people who were supposed to be her precious family. The monsters. What had they done to her? Without the shiny badge and fancy uniform, she was nothing to them. But she meant everything to him.

"You don't get it, do you?" Zach snapped. Rage sparked hot off of his tongue. "They're blaming you for everything: the meltdown, the murders, all of it."

Baby wrinkled her chin, but her voice was already in his head.

"They aren't looking for the truth," Zach explained. "They don't care about your side of the story, only that you've been at the heart of it since day one. Use that police detecting bullshit on yourself for once and you'll see that everything points back to you and me. You're the perfect scapegoat."

Baby's shoulders tensed and lifted in an attempt to regain her breath. Smearing salt into the fresh wound was the only way to convince her that staying here would cause her more pain.

"Right or wrong doesn't matter anymore. No matter how hard you fight against it or believe in it, it doesn't change the fact that the system you bet everything on just turned its back on you."

Baby lowered her chin and tightly clutched the empty space above her heart.

"I warned you that this world was cruel and I'm no exception. That's why I did what I had to do and I don't regret it." Zach offered Baby his hand. It reached down to her as if she had fallen to her knees. "But we don't have to face it alone. You taught me that."

Baby looked at his calloused hand. How the rain made it soft again. She looked up that blue olive branch and squeezed the spot over her heart even harder. It was like looking in a mirror. Zach kept his arm outstretched. The seconds ticked by. All she had to do was take it.

"Come with me," he gently added.

The plea was tender enough to convince Baby that he might just be right. But a lifetime of devotion had its habits. Her chin began to drift over her shoulder. Both eyes were drawn to the monument of ancestral legacy behind her.

"Don't look back," Zach pleaded and Baby paused. She was so close. He reached a little further. "Look ahead like you always do."

Such positivity surprised even Zach. It was proof how far Baby had wriggled into his life. Surely, she could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Baby turned to him and dropped her hand from her chest. She reached for him, but instead of grabbing his hand, she snatched up a fistful of his sleeve.

"Watch out!" she yelled, yanking him closer. Her free hand flew to the eve of her back.

Only one thing in the whole city could cause a reaction like that. Zach staked a foot into the pavement, stopped his stumble, and grabbed Baby's hand before it reached her back. The contact of their skin sounded like a slap. "Wait!" he yelled.

A dark purple gleam cut through the night. Water rippled and an inky mass covered the shine of the puddles below. Instead of trying to break Zach's grip, Baby swung her other arm around behind her. All worldly pain vanished in the presence of an otherworldly creature. A shift of the eye shaped Pantera from the shadows.

"Get away from him!" Baby snarled, mane bristling and teeth bared. She pulled up the back of her shirt. Pantera pulled back her whiskers in a matching hiss.

"Stop!" Zach commanded, throwing himself once more between the two warring parties. His eyes were on the officer. "It's not what you think!"

The fact that the Pantherian hadn't attacked yet proved as much, but the two crossed claws enough to electrify the air. Zach always intended to reveal Pantera's involvement. He couldn't hide anything from Baby anyway. Maybe the shock of the unexpected reveal would dull the officer's suspicion long enough for them to get away from the station before the voice on the radio held true to its promise.

"Just give me a second to explain," Zach insisted. He slowly lowered his hand and swept it out beside him to pull back the curtain of darkness. Pantera slid up beside his legs. Her eyes looked down at Baby even from below Zach's waistline.

"See," Zach soothed. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

Baby glanced back and forth between the two in an attempt to diagnose this new dynamic. She kept her arm bent behind her back, eyes as firm as the resolve to stand her ground. It was amazing how she maintained such balance when the rug was swept clean out from beneath her.

"That pokemon is dangerous," Baby announced, unable to say more while the gears were still churning.

Zach didn't deny it, but Pantera wouldn't do anything against him. She was completely under control. "It's OK," he explained, "because she listens to me now."

Pantera nuzzled his legs and made sure Baby saw every whisker that brushed his pants. The officer slightly lowered the elbow poised behind her back. It was working.

"She attacked us," Baby said, eyes stormy with the clash of contradicting facts.

"Pantera was trying to help me," Zach explained.

Baby's attention quickly refocused. "By attacking all those people?"

Zach's eyebrow twitched. They didn't have time for a moral debate. The voice on the radio could show up at any minute. He had to try another approach. "She's a pokemon. What else would she do, file a lawsuit? She's proof of your innocence!"

"That's not the point," Baby announced.

"Then what is?" What more evidence did she need to close the case?

"That pokemon killed people, Zach. It's murder."

"She was protecting me."

"I was protecting you!"

Pantera flicked her tail sharply behind her. Zach limped forward and jabbed a finger at the muddy bruises on his face. The cuts. The scars. "But you can't protect me from everything! You saw what those trainers did. What they'll continue to do no thanks to your checkered friends. Those bastards deserved what they got!"

Baby flinched against the venom spat at her. She had no right to deny his claim so she didn't try. "There are other ways," she said, dropping the hand behind her back.

"What, like your ways? That happy go lucky attitude that landed you a death sentence? Face it. Your perfect dream of justice doesn't exist." If Baby wouldn't bend to his will, he'd have to break her. It was for her own good. "Aren't you tired of pretending that everything is OK? That living this blue and white lie hasn't cost you everything: your badge, your career, your so called brothers. Hell, even your father and mother. Stop lying to yourself. I've never seen anyone so hell bent on self-destruction. You inflict more pain on yourself than anything Pantera could ever do. At least she doesn't deny what she truly is."

"I know exactly what I am," Baby stated, voice cracking. "I'm a cop!"

"You're an outcast! A traitor! A GOD DAMN FILTHLY CRIMINAL!"

A vacuum of silence followed the howling rush of hatred. Even the sound of the persistent rain struggled to resurface. It came back slowly like the nostalgic musings of a few forgotten piano keys. Baby back stepped into a puddle.

"You don't have to do this," she finally said.

"Of course I do!" Zach bellowed. "They've left us with no other choice!"

"There's always a choice!" Baby cried back, lips quivering.

"For the love of god, open your eyes! We'll never be more than the villains they've made us to be!"

"If you're such a villain, why did you rescue me?"

"Because I owed you!" Because you're special. Zach trembled with a rush of emotion that he couldn't explain. He didn't know it and he didn't like it, so he cast it away as fast as he could. "And if we don't leave right now, it's the chair for the both of us!" He should have stuck with the confession.

Baby's jaw slowly pulled back into place. The taunt hard skin gave no sway to the sensitive bruises underneath. "I can't come with you," she said. "I won't."

Baby the stupid fucking hero.

"There's no going back now," Zach snarled. "You've already escaped in the eyes of the law the moment you stepped out of your cell. They'll never believe a word you say! They'll never take you back! NEVER!"

"Maybe not," Baby answered, "but I won't know unless I try."

Zach's jacket flared with the heat of his rage. "I risked everything to come here!" he screamed.

"Then you better leave while you still have the chance."

She was letting him go again.

"I did this for you!" he shrieked, spittle flying from his mouth.

"You made your choice. Now, it's time to make mine."

Baby looked over her shoulder at the brass placard of Precinct 336. Its granite steps and carved columns laid the foundation of her resolution. She closed her eyes, felt the rain on her cheeks, and opened them again. Baby then gently lowered a smile onto the man in front of her.

"Thank you for rescuing me," Midtown Police Officer Annie Cofield said, "but I'll take it from here." She turned away with no intention of turning back.

So this was what it felt like.

"Stop!" Zach commanded.

Baby waded through the street to the sidewalk.

"I said STOP!"

Baby wouldn't listen. She never did. Her boots squeaked up onto the sidewalk.

This wasn't over yet.

"DON'T RUN AWAY FROM ME!"

A bolt of lightning struck. It was so quick that there wasn't any flash. Only darkness. And a set of paws capable of shattering reality without making a sound. Pantera landed on the sidewalk. She held Baby by the throat a foot or so off of the ground. Long slender fingers clawed and scratched at the cat's face and neck. It was all Baby could do to keep from dangling by the jugular. Normally, there wasn't any screaming. This time, it ruptured Zach's windpipe.

He threw himself onto the Pantherian. He pulled and grabbed whatever he could find but the muscles were too tight. The coat too smooth. There was nothing to hold onto. Nothing. Curses and commands neither understandable by pokemon nor human spewed from Zach's mouth, burning his lips and tongue with unprecedented desperation. Baby tried to speak but the muscles in her neck were pierced with four two inch fangs. Wild white fear rimmed her eyes.

Zach kicked and scratched, pushed and clawed, but the cat wouldn't move. Maddened with panic, Zach thrust his fingers into the cat's mouth and tried to pry it open. He couldn't. Pantera wouldn't budge. He curled his fingers into her cheek and pulled as hard as he could. Flesh tore from her gums and teeth. Pantera jerked back with a yowl. She dropped Baby to the ground. Zach fell backwards in the opposite direction.

Pantera pushed him into the street with a flurry of claws and snapping teeth. Zach wrestled the shadow, catching a claw to the face, another in the arm, and a bite in the hand. He slapped aside clapping teeth, lost his hat, and part of a sleeve. Fabric ripped. Something tore and the melee gouged out new lines in the pavement. Another thunderous crack exploded across the street. A gunshot. The echo ricocheted off of the brick and cement, magnifying it threefold.

Pantera flung herself into the night. She disappeared, black to black, and Zach shot up onto his elbows. Baby was on her feet in front of him, gun in hand. Smoke drifted off of the barrel, even as it slipped from her fingers and clattered against the gutter. Blood squirted from the side of the officer's neck. She slapped a hand against it, forcing the geyser to spew between her fingers. Baby staggered. She dropped to her knees, eyes still focused on the scythe that had reaped her small slender neck.

More screams filled the air as Zach sprinted to his feet. The distance between them suddenly stretched from a few feet to a hundred yards. He wasn't going to make it. Baby collapsed on the sidewalk. Zach fell down beside her. Gutter swell splashed across their legs. He hovered his hands over her. What did he do?

Baby turned her head to the side in a wet cough. Several holes punctured the side of her neck. Bleeding. He had to stop the bleeding. Zach ripped the spheal bandana from his pocket and pressed it against Baby's hands. Her life soaked through the fabric faster than tissue paper. She turned her head the other way and that's when Zach saw the matching holes in the other side of her neck. They boiled over with the heat of a hot spring, coating her lungs and throat with an impassible barrier of blood. Baby reared up in a sudden spasm of alarm when she realized she was drowning. She shoved Zach away but there was no surface to breach. No more air here than halfway across the street. She was making it worse. He had to stop her from moving.

Zach pushed Baby back onto the ground and straddled her. She groped at her neck, but between the blood, rain, and depleting strength, she couldn't get a grip. Another surge of adrenaline blew the holes in her neck even wider. Shoving aside her desperation with his own, Zach thrust his hands down and clamped them around Baby's neck. Her chin lifted against the bulk of his grip. His hands were bigger. Stronger. They would make a difference. Baby grabbed Zach's wrists, eyes just as white as they were before.

"Let me help!" Zach pleaded. His voice shook as much as his hands. One by one, crisp red lines dripped down his knuckles. "STOP!" He squeezed even tighter and Baby grunted. She dug her nails into his wrists. He was suffocating her. Zach frantically released her and blood gushed into his palms. He cursed and latched on again, splashing her passion like pool water across the stoop. He was killing her, but she was dying. What the hell was he supposed to do!?

Baby coughed, choking on the blood that filled her lungs in the lapse. Red droplets splattered across cheeks, adding color to her rapidly paling face. Underneath, Zach saw she had freckles. Spots. The puddle beneath them began to spread. The rain carried it over the curb and into the gutter. The farther it traveled, the weaker Baby became. Her legs stopped flailing. They tipped to one side and nudged Zach's ankles. The nails in his wrists retracted.

"Shit! Shit! SHIT!"

Zach held Baby higher. He couldn't let her sink into the pool beneath them, but she grew heavier and heavier with each drop. The weight of the ocean pressed in against them.

"Don't you dare give up!" Zach yelled. This time, the shouting didn't close the growing distance in her eyes. A sob rocked his chest.

"Don't leave me," he cried, bringing his forehead close to his hands. "Annie, please."

Baby's eyes shifted. They twinkled at him like a faraway star. Zach quickly lifted his head. "Yeah, that's right," he laughed, tears streaming down his face. "I remembered."

Amused, even in the face of death, Annie smiled. It was a small and gentle thing. A tickle in the corner of her mouth. Far more than what she had the strength for. Annie's feet stopped kicking. Her body went limp. Several fingers brushed by Zach's before they dropped into the thick red puddle below. There was no hiss or sizzle as the torch in her eyes finally went out.

"Annie?"

Zach slowly unfurled his hands. Annie didn't answer. She didn't move, but the bleeding finally stopped.

The screaming didn't. It only grew louder and more voices joined the chorus. One, a grade above the rest.

"Hands above your head!" it shouted.