Bianca pushed the door violently with her shoulder and went inside the lab. She looked incredibly distressed, her forehead was covered in sweat. Her entrance made a loud noise that resounded all over the laboratory and made everyone turn to her in shock.
"Where's Cheren!?" She shouted, "I went to Aspertia city but they told me he was here!"
Bianca focused her eyes on every startled face on the lab searching for Cheren, and found him just as he had gotten right in front of her. He was just as exasperated as her. He grabbed her tight by the shoulders,
"Bianca! I shouldn't have sent you that letter telling you to go there, I'm so sorry!" Cheren said almost screaming,
"No! It's okay, I have something very important to tell you, the remnants, they..."
"Don't worry," Cheren interrupted her, "Sabrina will take care of it,"
"what do you mean?" Bianca asked genuinely confused, "the gym leader?"
"Yes, she'll stop them and disband them again, this time for good,"
"no! You don't understand, the remnants don't want another team plasma, Grimsley's actually a nice guy, well, at least he has good intentions this time, very good intentions,"
"what are you talking about?! I was worried this would happen, he must have brainwashed you in a ploy to convince us that he's not plotting the destruction of Unova." Cheren let go of Bianca, pushing her back a bit, "oh no! I didn't mean to do that Bianca," he cried out nervously.
He approached her and tried to grab her by the shoulders again, gentler this time, but Bianca put her elbow forward and backed away from him. Cheren's comments had hurt her deeply, she realized the remnants weren't the only ones who were looked down upon. She clenched her teeth and turned away from him, hoping to find someone else she could talk to. She found professor Juniper already approaching her with a serious and concerned expression on her face,
"you have to believe me professor, we should accept the remnants and let them stay there, they really have changed," Bianca pleaded to her with her arms forward, seemingly trying to grab the air,
"of course Bianca, we'll listen to everything you have to say, don't worry." The professor put her hand on Bianca's shoulder and saw relief appear on her face,
"really?"
"Yes, but first there's something we need to do," the professor said.
Bianca looked at her in the eyes but the professor looked away. She felt betrayed. She moved away from both of them. The professor backed away too, she turned to her left and looked at someone, it was Bianca's dad. He was sitting next to a desk with his arm resting on top of it, looking right at his daughter. He wasn't exactly angry, more than that it seemed like he was tired of being angry.
"Dad? What are you doing here?" Bianca asked,
"I have a better question, what are you...doing?"
Bianca didn't answer him. She didn't have to look around the room to know that everyone was looking at her, and that they all thought she was crazy.
"We want to have a chat with you Bianca, there's a car outside waiting for us," the professor spoke with her softest, least threatening voice possible, but Bianca sensed danger; she knew they'd never hurt her, but they didn't have good intentions either.
Then there was a knock on the door.
"You arrived at the perfect time," Cheren said, making Bianca even more afraid and confused. She closed her eyes and made her hands into fists, then she ran outside. There she found that her troubles were bigger than she could've ever imagined. A crowd of people had manifested outside the lab, all of them trainers around her age, wearing showy clothes and cool hats, sporting confident smiles on their faces. Some of them had pokeballs on their hands, some of them were petting their starter pokemon, but all of them looked like they were ready for battle.
"No..." Bianca whispered to herself.
And behind all of them, a very tall man leaned on a car with his arms crossed, he was wearing a black suit, red tie, and a trench coat. He opened the backseat door for her as soon as he saw her. Bianca knelt down on the ground, covered her face with her hands, and started weeping.
Popito's loose tongue made sure that the news of Sabrina's intrusion into the cave spread like fire around the remnants, and Grimsley was one of the first people to learn about it. Everyone gathered in the lounge as soon as they saw Grimsley get in to have his drink, in a sort of unofficial meeting to discuss their future. And he knew this well.
"Where's Bianca?" Jonny asked in front of everybody. He only meant for Lucia and Helma to listen but everyone in the room heard him, even Grimsley, who was sitting on his chair with his back turned to them. He stood up without finishing his drink and went up on top of the largest table, his table, and faced his crowd.
"Who cares where Bianca is, she's not part of us, she never was," Grimsley said with a calm, sorrowful voice, but loud enough to be heard by everyone,
"that's not true, she chose to stay here like me, it is obvious that she likes us," Helma shouted at Grimsley waving her fist on the air, "she works with professor Juniper AND she understands us so if we ask her maybe she can help."
"Yes, Bianca does understand what we are doing here, maybe she cares for us, maybe she will even try to help us but it's useless, people like her mean well they really do," Grimsley looked at the ground with visible sadness in his eyes, but immediately regained his composure, "however, she will not be able to convince anyone, and they'll come after us no matter what."
Popito raised his hand at the same time he sipped on a glass of juice. Grimsley and everyone else looked at him, and waited for him to speak.
"What if we hide from them?" Popito finally asked,
"we are already hiding," Grimsley replied, "and they've found us, if we hide again they'll look for us again,"
"alright, but what if we leave?" Popito insisted,
"it'll be the same,"
"fine then, what if we hide underwater or somewhere Sabrina won't find us?"
"That's impossible," Jonny answered him,
"I mean they have to stop at some point, don't they?" Popito asked again,
"have they ever stopped?" Grimsley asked him back, "think about it, they don't actually care about saving the region or maintaining peace, all they want is for there to be someone evil to beat, a punching bag they can kick around to get stronger, they are glad that we exist because it gives them a chance to be heroes,"
"wow, that's straight up lame," Helma stoically added,
"that's exactly right Helma, they are lame, they are all so far up their own asses that they genuinely cannot acknowledge that each and every being around them is just as much of a person as they are, everything revolves around them and they take pleasure knowing that they are better, so they take pleasure in knocking you down, and keeping you down."
Grimsley stopped talking and took a look around the silent room, every face was serious and focused, they were all listening to his every word. He got down from the table continued talking to them at their level,
"so if they won't stop coming after us, looking for a fight, let's give it to them, not for them but for us, because that will be your true redemption, fighting for yourselves."
Jonny started clapping and cheering wholeheartedly and then everyone followed suit, except for Lucia.