A/N - Slight delay due to family commitments, but here it is! Thanks for all reads, reviews, faves and follows! =D

33 - Infected

It was a somewhat gloomy morning. The sky was smattered with clouds, which the sun seemed insistent on remaining behind despite the vast smudges of blue between the grey. Cleo was grateful for it. It meant it would be likely to rain soon, bringing an end to the oddly dry cooling season.

Faith assisted Cleo in folding away the blue sheet that had formed their tent, while Spark and Mischief popped the pegs away. The dedenne almost keeled backwards under the weight of the iron thorns, but refused Harlequin's offer to help. No one had been surprised at the zorua's offer. Since leaving the Fairy Garden, Harlequin had been oddly compliant. No longer did they wear that sneer or try to intimidate the Outcasts with constant glares.

Cleo cast a glance at the zorua, sat hunched beneath the tree that had held up their tent. Harlequin's blue eyes were dark, watching the group with a sad, wounded expression Cleo hadn't seen before. Harlequin's ears were droopy, and they cast occasional glances back towards a bramble thicket. Cleo followed their gaze, but it was as barren as the trees surrounding them. The meowstic's eye found the mega stone around Harlequin's neck and she returned to folding the sheet.

"We can't go back," she told Harlequin. "If we find your friend on our journey, then that will be an added bonus."

Harlequin looked up at her abruptly. "I wasn't-" The zorua drifted off and sighed. "I was just thinking. That's all."

Faith gave Cleo the ends of the sheet so she could tuck it away. "If you need to talk to us, Harlequin, you can."

Cleo looked from the stunned zorua to Faith's sympathetic smile. Ordinarily she'd want to tell the mawile that they didn't let their prisoners confide in them. The Darkness would only feed them lies. But there was something very odd about Harlequin.

The zorua shook their head and looked away. "I'm fine."

"Okay." Faith beamed and moved over to Harlequin. "Then let's finish clearing up. We need to remove all evidence we were here right?"

Cleo stood up straight, stuffing the sheet haphazardly into her bag to free her paws. "Faith, be careful! You're getting too close."

"It's fine, Cleo, really." Faith dropped to a crouch where they'd been sleeping to smooth out the ground. "You need to have a little more faith in others."

Spark and Mischief both stopped what they were doing to watch the mawile and zorua. Harlequin shifted uneasily and returned to gazing at the thicket, leaving Faith to finish the task she'd started. After a few short moments, Faith rose and beat the dirt from her paws.

"Done!" She turned a smile onto her new friends and tucked her paws behind her back. "I think we're finished here, aren't we?"

Cleo nodded stiffly and adjusted her bag over her shoulders. She gathered the sack of medicine and tossed it across her back, just before Spark decided to claim her free shoulder. Without a word, Cleo lead the group away from their campsite, retracing her steps back towards the dirt path. She didn't remove her map to check where they were. It wasn't needed. She knew they needed to follow the path until they reached the glen, taking the longer route through the Moorlands Forest to avoid Heretic territory and the darkest, deepest parts that the Darkness liked to lurk in. But it wasn't just that. She was feeling unsettled. Faith's blind acceptance of Harlequin had set a fire inside Cleo. She'd seen it in the Fairy Garden, and it had confused her, but given everyone was that way inclined made it seem less… odd. However, outside the Fairy Garden, in the dangers of the world, Faith's behaviour was beginning to rub Cleo the wrong way. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with Faith. She was lovely. Perhaps she was too lovely? It made her seem oblivious.

Faith was just ahead of Cleo, chatting with Mischief. The whismicott was still as quiet as he'd been when they arrived back at New City. Their voices seemed loud in the silent forest, but it washed over Cleo before she could process it. Even Spark had fallen silent, perched on Cleo's shoulder as she tucked into her breakfast of the last overripe cheri berry they'd managed to rustle out of New City's supplies.

"Faith?"

The mawile looked round at Cleo's voice and stopped so the meowstic could catch up with her. Mischief gave them a glance over his shoulder and continued on ahead out of Harlequin's reach.

Faith's smile dissolved into a concerned frown as she read Cleo's face, and she inclined her head on one side. "Is something wrong?"

Cleo steered her along with a paw and spoke in a low voice. "You need to be more careful around Harlequin."

"Why?" Faith asked. "She's not done me any harm. She's actually been good company."

Spark snorted at that, and Cleo cringed as a sticky glob of cheri soaked through her fur.

"I know she worked for the Darkness," Faith went on, and Cleo didn't fail to notice the deliberate past-tense, "but pokemon can change when given the chance. Can't you see it?" She waved a paw towards the zorua. "Is that really the same pokemon who tried to hurt you?"

Cleo grit her teeth. Faith had a point, and Cleo knew it. She glanced back at Harlequin trudging behind them, head low, ears back. No longer fighting their constraints. No longer throwing verbal abuse. No threats to attract their evil allies. Had Harlequin actually changed or were they just accepting their fate? They had managed to enter the Fairy Garden, after all.

Cleo sighed and shook her head. "I don't know what to believe, Faith. But trust me, you should be careful. I don't trust Harlequin as far as I can throw her."

Faith gave Cleo a small, friendly smile. "It doesn't hurt to be nice though, does it? I know she's your prisoner and I know what she's done, but you need to give others a chance. Besides, it's pretty clear she's upset. She's stuck here as your prisoner, the world she's known since birth is changing around her, and she's just discovered a friend she believed dead is alive! Not to mention her other friend who is fatally wounded. She's worried sick!"

Cleo looked up so abruptly Spark had to cling to her ruff before she tumbled to the floor.

"Careful!" Spark squeaked. "I almost lost my breakfast!"

"Fatally wounded?" Cleo asked. "Is that what she told you? Because I hardly doubt someone with that level of injuries can-"

"She hasn't told me anything," Faith explained. "I've seen him for myself."

Cleo's jaw went slack and she felt a tug at her wrist. Harlequin stopped dead, staring wide-eyed at Faith.

"When?" Cleo's voice was thick with warning.

Faith's expression fell and she brushed a lock of black fur back from her face. "He appeared to me last night."

"While you were on watch?" Cleo's eyes narrowed. "Why didn't you wake us?"

"He was hardly a threat," Faith explained. "I knew something wasn't right since he lured me out. If he was going to-"

Cleo threw her arms in the air. "It could have been an ambush! Didn't you consider that?"

Faith opened her mouth, but it was Harlequin who spoke. "Enigma doesn't work like that."

Everyone looked to Harlequin. Their head was still low, but a look of confidence had taken over their dour expression.

"He's a lone wolf," Harlequin went on. "The only pokemon he's ever worked with are me and Kera."

Cleo snorted. "I've never heard of a Kera."

"You won't have," said Harlequin. "She was killed many years ago. You were probably still a hatchling." Harlequin raised their head slightly. "My point is, it couldn't have been an ambush. No one else in the Shadow Lands will co-operate with him."

Everyone was silent for a moment, staring at the zorua as they took it all in.

"Yeah, no," said Spark. "I don't buy it."

"Me neither," said Cleo. "How can we be certain what you're saying is even the truth?"

Harlequin's eyes narrowed. "Because he's a ghost-type. Think about it. What does Hydriegon want?"

"I thought ghost-types worked for Hydreigon?" said Cleo.

"He's the only one."

Cleo blinked at that, unsure what to make of it.

"This makes zero sense," said Spark. "If you're telling the truth and he's the only one, then why's he workin' for Hydreigon of all pokemon?"

Harlequin shrugged. "I don't know. I could never work Enigma out. He's not an open book and he never talks about his past. But it's not only you outsiders who are scared of him, let me tell you that. If any other Darkness would co-operate it would be out of fear, either of Enigma or Hydreigon. Like I've told you before, fear is a strong motivator in the Shadow Lands. You either obey, flee or die." Harlequin paused and jerked their face away. "And hardly anyone manages to flee without being hunted down."

There was no hostility on Harlequin's face. It was clear they weren't lying. Cleo let her arms relax at her sides. She looked between Faith and Harlequin, feeling that fire inside her fade away.

"The problem is," said Cleo, "Faith still left us exposed to confront Enigma."

"She wasn't the only one awake." Harlequin dodged Cleo's probing stare and flashed a canine. "I couldn't sleep, okay? I saw her get up and go, and when she didn't come back I panicked. When I heard Enigma's bell, I thought he…" Harlequin trailed off and closed their eyes, but a lone tear glistened at the corner of their eye. "Forget it."

Faith beamed and rocked back on her heels. "He didn't hurt me. He couldn't in his condition anyway." Her expression fell and she brushed her fur back from her face. "If anything, I just made things worse." She caught Harlequin's worried glance. "I offered to help, but… I'm sorry, Harlequin."

Harlequin lowered their head and looked away. "Don't worry about it. You had to defend yourself." The zorua's blue eyes welled with tears. "He's just stubborn."

Cleo stared at Harlequin, aghast. Was she actually hearing this? No scathing retort? No accusations towards Faith? Cleo glanced back at Mischief who was waiting patiently a few feet away, watching.

"He's pretty good at hiding things, too," Faith went on. "I hadn't realised he was hurt at first, otherwise I wouldn't have retaliated." She wound her paws together, and Cleo fidgeted beside her as she followed the mawile's glance towards the thicket. "I really hope he's okay."

Cleo bit her lip and gave herself a mental shake.

"If not, it's one less assassin to worry about." She steered a stuttering Faith back onto the path, ignoring a low growl from Harlequin.

She wasn't about to start worrying about Enigma. Not if he was still trying to pose a threat.

Cleo kept her sights on the path, ushering Faith ahead of her. "Let's get a move on before Stonehaven wonders where we are?"

...

Quiet voices infiltrated Enigma's mind as the black fog of unconsciousness lifted. Bright light stung his eyes and he screwed them shut. Wherever he was, it definitely wasn't a forest. The floor was much too hard, and slipped beneath his fur. Everything hurt. It was impossible to push himself up, and every one of his limbs felt like lead. Sluggish, reluctant to move. His muscles complained with the effort, manifesting into a groan as he flopped onto his back like a beached magikarp.

"Finally back in the land of the living, I see?"

Enigma's breath froze. He knew that smooth, mocking voice. He cracked an eye open, blinking until the shadowy form of a meowstic came into focus. Rio sat beside him, criss-crossed by a mesh of fine metal bars. The meowstic's icy blue eyes watched Enigma's every movement as the banette tried to push himself up to no avail. A quick survey of his surroundings confirmed his fears, however. He was in a cage, suspended in the middle of what appeared to be clinically clean cells. Several curious and fearful eyes watched from behind their own enclosures. The only pokemon close enough to strike were Rio, and a raichu and heliolisk. The latter was sat so close to Enigma he could stuff his paw right through his back and out his front if the assassin had the strength.

Instead, the banette shuffled backwards into the bars, lifting a paw to rub his eyes. But as soon as his back met the metal, a surge of electricity coursed through him. He let out a cry and rolled away from them, lying stunned and wide-eyed in the middle of the enclosure.

Rio quirked an eyebrow at him and lowered the pen he'd been writing with. "That wasn't exactly the way I wanted you to discover that little mechanic."

Enigma narrowed his eyes at the meowstic and tried to push himself up again, but his muscles were still jerking with the electricity.

Rio put his folder on the chair beside him and reached for a green box by his feet. "It might not be comfortable but it's a necessary feature if I'm going to keep you detained."

"You can't keep me here forever, Rio." Enigma's voice came out embarrassingly weak and hoarse.

He managed to push himself up, sitting awkwardly. His fur was on end, and his mane was a dishevelled mess. From the smirk Rio gave him, it was clear Enigma looked more pathetic than wild.

"I know full well ghost-types can't phase through the elements," Rio explained. "So long as that cage is charged with static, you won't be going anywhere."

Enigma looked back at the heliolisk, who glanced back at him with a look of uncertainty. So that's what the lizard was doing? Enigma cast another glance around at the bars as Rio continued speaking.

"I don't imagine you've ever found yourself in this situation before? I mean… detaining a ghost-type?" He chuckled. "I suppose I'm the first one to manage it? There aren't enough of you left for the Outcasts to have considered locking up someone of your reputation. Although it was surprisingly easy."

A sharp click came from Rio, snapping Enigma's attention back. The meowstic had opened the green box, and Enigma's blood turned cold. Several pink syringes glistened in the artificial light.

"You're not looking very well." Rio looked up at him with a smirk. "What happened to you to get you into such a state?"

Enigma lowered his head but didn't take his eyes off Rio. "I think you know full well what happened to me, doc."

"I think I have an idea." Rio leant back in his seat, leaving the open box on his lap. "Either you had a nasty run-in with someone you severely underestimated, or Lou is very… very… unhappy with you for murdering his sister."

Enigma sneered at Rio's mocking smirk.

"Either way," Rio went on, "I think it's clear to anyone that you're not as terrifying as the rumours say. Someone gets the upper paw, and look at you." The meowstic rose to his feet, almost dancing in Enigma's crimson glare. "Battered, bruised, and locked in a cage! Pokemon will be writing songs about this. The feared jingling assassin, brought to his knees by a mere scientist!"

Enigma dug his claws into the plastic base that served as a floor, watching the meowstic's every movement. Rio swivelled on the spot to face him, paws tucked behind his back. He lowered his face to the bars, and a few stray sparks of static danced harmlessly across his whiskers.

"I can give you that reputation back," Rio went on. "No… I can renew it. Pokemon will have nightmares about the shadowy figure who breaks into homes to kill them while they sleep."

"I don't kill pokemon while they sleep, Rio." Enigma narrowed his eyes and his voice was laced with venom. "I like them to see me do it."

Rio stood and raised his paws in a shrug. "Whatever takes your fancy. I'm giving you something bigger than the tools you've been using."

Enigma's spine stiffened. "'Giving'?"

Rio chuckled. "Caught that, did you? Well, I guess Hydreigon doesn't keep you around for nothing." He turned back to the box and pulled out a syringe. "No. You don't have a choice in the matter."

Enigma's eyes were no longer on Rio. They followed a small spray of pink as it flew from the fine point of the needle. His heart galloped, beating against his sore chest, and he frantically sought a way out of the cage. But there was nothing. Just a lock on the other side of the fine mesh walls, unreachable through the field of static.

"So I was right," he said as calmly as he could muster. "You are making monsters."

"Call them what you will," said Rio. "But I prefer 'living weapons'."

He turned back to Enigma with a flourish, brandishing the needle in one paw. Enigma's eyes widened, losing their ferocity. He shuffled backwards, away from Rio.

"What is it?" he demanded, his voice remaining steady.

"I suppose there's no harm in telling you, since you'll be receiving it very soon anyway." Rio looked from the needle back to Enigma and grinned. "Besides, I'm really enjoying seeing you like this." He crouched slightly as if he was addressing a hatchling. "Tell me. How does it feel to be on the receiving end of your mortality?"

Enigma said nothing, willing the confidence to return to his glare. But it washed over Rio like water.

The meowstic rose again and frowned down at the quaking banette. "This," he said, indicating the syringe, "is just a little pokerus. Not the kind you're familiar with, but one that bends the infected victim to its will. It makes them stronger, faster, more fierce. And, as I found out during Project A, who sadly couldn't handle the strain, it possesses remarkable regeneration properties."

Enigma spat at that. "Your tyranitar crumpled like paper."

"I said it helps to regenerate, but I didn't say it could help one grow back an entire limb or restore a mashed heart." Rio flashed his canines then quickly regained his composure. "Now. Shall we begin?"

Enigma tensed as Rio moved closer, reaching for a set of keys hidden in his tail. The banette braced himself, looking between Rio and the two electric types. If he timed it right, he could spring from the cage and end them all before they even had the chance to ready their counter-attacks. He'd regained enough of his strength to vanish and warp. It might be messy, but he could make it out of this alive.

The keys rose into the air in Rio's psychic, and he motioned to the raichu. The large electric mouse's cheeks crackled, and a few threads of electricity ran up and down his long tail. Enigma's heart sank as any hope of leaving vanished into thin air. Rio was smart. Too smart.

The keys rattled in the lock at the same time the raichu released a thunder wave. Enigma crumpled to the bottom of the cage, cursing loudly. He turned his head stiffly towards the door as it pinged open, revealing Rio's stoic face. The keys hung from his paw as he lifted the syringe with his psychic.

"Don't worry," he told Enigma. "It will only hurt for a moment."

The banette hissed as Rio injected the pink liquid into his shoulder. It was over in an instant. The cage door slammed shut and the rattle of the lock made Enigma's heart sink even further.

Rio swung the keys around in his paw, smirking at the assassin. Electricity still sparked over Enigma's smoky grey fur.

"You might want to get some rest," Rio told him. "Although… my subjects do tend to complain of tiredness after being infected. But they do often wake up as right as rain! I'll be back later to check on you." He turned from the room, and the raichu plodded along behind him, leaving Enigma with the heliolisk and a lot of curious eyes.

Enigma pushed himself up, his limbs stiff once again, and muttered under his breath. He stared out at the lab, noting the vast array of pokemon locked in cages and the wary eye of the heliolisk. Sparks danced up and down the mesh frame of his cage, a constant reminder of the nasty shock he'd receive if he tried to phase through it.

Enigma swore again and slumped in the middle of his prison. Great. How was he meant to get out of this one?

...

Rio strolled back into his office, whistling a jaunty tune. He twirled the keys around his paw and tossed them towards his desk, startling Mint. She dropped the documents she'd been reading and upset a glass of watmel juice, sending its luminous green contents over Rio's paperwork.

Rio tutted and joined the grovyle as she hastily tried to mop it all up.

"I am so sorry!" All words seemed to come out at once, and she avoided looking directly at Rio, her eyes wide.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "It's all expired data anyway."

She turned her head stiffly towards him, pausing mid-mop. "You're in a good mood…"

"I have reason to be!" Rio tossed a wad of soggy paper into his waste basket and wiped his paws on his ruff. "My plan is officially in motion. I have Enigma behind bars and successfully infected."

"And his memories removed, I hope?"

"Now why would I do that?" Rio reached for his Project C folder and flopped into his seat, nicely warmed by Mint.

The grovyle stared down at him, her jaw slack. The odd sound came from her, but nothing remotely coherent.

Rio paused his writing to look up at her. "You seem at a loss for words?"

"Why on earth aren't you removing his memories?!" Mint spat.

"Simple, really." Rio returned to scrawling his notes. "Revenge. I want him to experience every last moment leading up to me eradicating his memories. I want him to suffer for what he's done." He paused and tapped his pen on his lip, gazing off at the far wall. "In fact… come to think of it… it may be much more convenient to leave them with him. Or at least not remove them entirely."

Mint leant backwards into the desk and placed her paws on it to steady herself. "Rio… you really can't do this. If you leave him with them then there's nothing stopping him from wiping us out first!"

"That was always a risk, memories or not. When one of these weapons goes wild, they lose all sense of morality and attack whatever moves. Project B had no memories prior to infection, just like every other subject, and it was wild towards even those who cared for it every day."

"Yes, but you've not had a member of the Darkness here before!" Mint's voice lost its certainty and wobbled as she added, "Have you?"

"Only Boomer, but he was too curious to pose a threat. And I didn't go into detail about pokerus' interesting little side-effect." Rio didn't look up from his notes, and he paused to scrawl down the day's updates. "Stop worrying, Mint. All memories will be erased to protect us come the time he's released, including any hostility towards me. None of our subjects have found their way back here voluntarily." A light went on in Rio's mind and he drifted for a moment as something began to form. "But… If we were to leave Enigma some sense of where his home is… he might head straight back there first." He wagged his pen as excitement filled his chest. "This… this might work."

Mint stared at him wordlessly, following him with her eyes as he rose from his seat.

"We wouldn't need to bait him to the Shadow Lands," he said quickly. "The bait would already be there!" He began to pace back and forth behind his desk. "As a precaution we always remove any memories of the lab and the pokemon here, to prevent the amnesiacs from returning back here. That just leaves them to go wild out in the forest or wherever they are dropped. But if we were to leave Enigma's memories of the Shadow Lands he'd be drawn back there, and none of us would have to enter the Border Woods! He'd do our job for us! This is perfect!"

"All right," said Mint. "And in the meantime, what about the rest of the Darkness?"

Rio stopped to look back at her. "What do you mean?"

"Enigma has been here before," she explained. "He's seen what you're up to. He destroyed your tyranitar, and he knows of Type18. You let him leave, so what if he's told Hydreigon or someone else in the Darkness? When Hydreigon notices Enigma is missing, he could have him traced back here!"

"That's always been a risk," said Rio. "That's why this place is hidden behind my shield."

Mint let out a flustered sigh. "You're forgetting most of Hydreigon's troops use odour sleuth. The mighteyena pack. The Wildfires!"

Rio rolled his eyes.

"They'll be through here in an instant!" Mint went on, taking a step closer to him. "You've hardly any defences here at all! You have what… ten pokemon working for you? And one of them is a hatchling!"

"What about my army of living weapons?"

"Terrified, unstable amnesiacs?" Mint gasped. "Trust me, Rio. Your plan is seriously flawed!"

Rio shook his head and looked away from her.

"You're losing it, Rio," said Mint. "Hydreigon has already lost two of his aces, and now you have a third locked up here! And before that, you even had Harlequin!"

Rio rounded on her and flicked his tails. "I know what I'm doing, Mint! I know the risks I'm taking! They're for the greater good!"

Mint sighed and rubbed her paws over her face. "I know you think that, Rio, but you're playing with fire."

Rio's eyes flashed and his fur stood on end. "Don't you talk to me about fire," he hissed. "You weren't there!"

Mint placed her paws on his shoulders and his fur smoothed back out. But his twin tails swished dangerously behind him. Regardless, Mint met his eyes, her warm amber ones trying to melt through Rio's ice.

"I know you hate Hydreigon," said Mint. "We all do! We all want him gone, and we'd do anything to see that happen. But this…?"

"Fine." Rio shoved her paws away and turned his back.

"Rio, please!"

"If you're too afraid to help, Mint, then leave."

Mint fell back into his desk, her eyes stinging with tears as she watched him march from his office. As the door slammed, she screwed her eyes shut and choked on a sob.

"I can't leave you… not this time."

...

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