Category: Pokémon

Rating: M

Couples: ?/OC

Warnings: AU, hint of rape/character death

Chapter: 19

Copyright: Characters & places © By Game Freak, Plot © by me

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"Fantina!" Cynthia was the first to reach her Gym Leader, helping the Drifblim gently lower the form fully to the ground. "What on…?" In the span of a moment, the purple-haired Gym Leader had become completely unresponsive.

"Is she alright?" Diantha came to a stop beside her colleague, only briefly looking up at the mansion. There was a SUV closer to the building, though for some reason it seemed to be flickering in and out of existence. She chose to ignore it for now, focusing on the matter at hand.

"No." Lucian was standing a fair bit down the lane. "She is not..." And neither seemed he; Sinnoh's Elite was trembling, looking as if he was in physical pain from something. They noted in worry that he would briefly flash with his psychic power, staggering every time. "Neither is Olympia..."

"Lucian?" The blonde woman looked almost grateful when Siebold appeared at his side, guiding the form to a relatively clean bit of road to sit down.

"I can't get closer." The Psychic ground out, grinding his teeth. "I'd follow Fantina..."

"Follow her where?"

"Into the Mind Break that is building here..." Pressing one hand to his forehead, lavender eyes trailed up to the building visible through the opened gate. "I want to bet my yearly salary that the building should not be so well-kept."

"That's a given." Malva looked between the poorly kept road and the pristine driveway heading up to the building. "What's it got to do with anything though?"

"Mind Break." He repeated himself, curling up as small as he could. "Olympia's mind is broken, and has shattered reality around her." He retched, the pressure growing by the moment. "I can feel it. The grounds have fallen under her sway… and Fantina with them."

"Olympia did this!?" Diantha demanded sharply, gesturing to the form at her feet. Steven meanwhile gently lifted the unconscious Gym Leader and carried her a bit further off where she could rest on something else than coarse grit. The Drifblim, though it's expression did not change as such, hovered close to its' trainer, one tendril always touching the unmoving form.

"Unintentionally, no doubt, but yes." With the help of Siebold, Lucian managed to stagger over. "Olympia is powerful, and Mind Breaks are nothing to trifle with." His hand hovered over the female. "They are like whirlpools… Dragging in any that are unfortunate enough to be caught nearby."

"So why are we unaffected?" Wulfric looked up from where he was using his jacket to make Fantina more comfortable. "They got just as close as Fantina." He gestured to the three Champions.

"Sensitivity." Sweat started beading on his forehead. "I am a Psychic myself… Fantina as a Ghost-type Gym Leader is more sensitive than average… and emotionally more connected… to this place… to Olympia herself, if her way of acting was any indication..." He groaned in pain. "You must… must help her." He groaned again, own eyes blazing with power at this point. "It's getting worse… If it is not stopped soon… if Olympia keeps sliding down this path… it will kill her, as well as Fantina, trapped inside as she is."

"That seems not very smart." They were unaffected now, but would it stay that way if they went in deeper?

"You… ought to be fine, unless Olympia actively turns on you." He assured them, looking up at the three Champions. "Your minds are strong and you are not as connected to this place as Fantina." Trembling, he reached for Diantha. "Don't use your Psychic-type Pokémon. Leave their Pokéballs out here... If this Mind Break is fuelled by another Psychic falling to it, there might well be no stopping it. Use Dark-types, if you must use any."

"I don't have any..." Diantha realized in worry. And even if she had had any, she had only brought Gardevoir. Beside her, Steven seemed to have a similar thought; the Hoenn Champion also had no Dark-types on his team.

"Take Houndoom." Malva promptly held out a Pokéball to her Champion. "I'll stay out here, so I should not need her."

"I have my Spiritomb." Cynthia rose to her feet. "Are you sure you'll be fine, Lucian?" She relaxed a bit when he confirmed as much.

"Do any of you have a Dark-type I can borrow?" Steven looked at the assorted people present. He was not going into something like that all on his own and though he had brought Pokémon beside his Metagross, he'd rather not find out that they could fall to this before him. None of them had.

"Fantina has though." Siebold carefully patted her hips upon the realization. "Remember? Allortan's Pokémon; she said it was a Dark-type." He managed to find the Luxury Ball, holding it out to Steven.

"Let's hope it'll obey me." It was with some trepidation that the Champions entered the grounds, finding that to their relief, Lucian's assessment of things seemed to hold. "Are we going to have to sweep the entire place?"

"I am not waiting for that with this size building." Diantha was leading the way, finding that the crunch of stone under her feet sounded just the tiniest bit off. "Allortan is aware of things, so I am calling him." She just hoped her Holo Caster would still work if reality itself was breaking down around them.

Thankfully, it did, Allortan's holographic face appearing before them. "Diantha, did you find her?"

"Sort of." The white-clad Champion muttered. "I am going to have to invoke my right as Champion to bend laws in cases of emergency with you."

"That sounds ominous." The lawyer's eyes narrowed. "But very well, I am at your service. What do you need?"

"Olympia is suffering of Mind Break, apparently." She did not have the patience or the luxury of beating around the bush. "In a mansion north-east of Anistar. Explain where she could be. I don't have the time to search all four floors… assuming the damn thing doesn't have a cellar as well."

Holo Casters, for all their abilities, were monochrome in colour for the face-chat-features, meaning she could not tell if he actually paled, but the shock on his face was palpable.

"Merde..." Pressing his eyes closed, the man she was talking to needed a moment to catch himself. "I… I do not know…"

"You must know something?" Cynthia spoke up as they reached the front-door, which was firmly locked. It promptly wasn't after the quickly-summoned Spiritomb Shadow Balled it into oblivion. "Please, Fantina has already fallen to it."

"Fantina has..." He blinked a few times. "Find her first." At their disbelieving stares, he continued. "I do not know much of Mind Breaks, but I have heard they are somewhat on par with a PTSD-flashback made manifest. Fantina must have fallen to it because she was there back then. I never quite learned the details of what happened to Olympia and Therese and where they were, but I know the where and what of Fantina. She arrived with Olympia and her mother, but was ordered running for a phone to call the police by said mother when she realized what had happened. She ended up in a library on the first floor, hiding under a desk there with a phone. Find Fantina there and she can tell you how to get to Olympia."