Colress had spent the last few days in a state of numbness. Pain was the only feeling he could expressly distinguish, and only when he was awake. More specifically, when Zinzolin allowed him to be awake. He didn't know what time it was or where he was exactly, he only knew he was sitting on a wooden chair inside a poorly lit room, with two or more people also there.

"It's seems that bitch has finally gone to sleep," Colress heard,

"finally," he heard from another voice, "go get the target...and you know what to do...well well well, how peculiar, perhaps when one bitch falls asleep another bitch wakes up."

Knuckles contacted with Colress right cheek, there was pain on the outside as well as the inside of his mouth. Then he received a second smack on his left cheek, this time with an open hand. He had learned how to distinguish the difference between each sensation from the sheer number of times he had felt each of them. He opened his eyes as wide as he could with his head tilted to the side, it was hard for his tired eyesight to adjust, but he knew Zinzolin was right in front of him.

It had to be him. His forehead covered in sweat monopolized all of the light that came from the ceiling, it took Colress a few seconds to notice that he was wearing one of his own creations, for which he now felt deeply guilt-ridden, a 'will altering mask' as he liked to call it in an effort to justify his wrongdoings. What Colress did in the past destroyed his humanity, now he didn't deserve to be classified as a human being.

"Your stupid mind controlling machine failed us," Zinzolin said as he smacked Colress one more time, "now I'll have to do your work for you and make some adjustments, luckily I've found a way to enhance it...remember your dear friend Sabrina? I had no idea how powerful she was...can you imagine what I can do with all of her power...and your stupid machine, together? Absolutely no one would stand in my way, I'd win instantly."

In his poor state, Colress wondered if Zinzolin at least considered him a human, and if he was evil enough to act with such cruelty while knowing that his victim was a person full of thoughts and feelings. Perhaps Zinzolin was not capable of seeing his own humanity, perhaps he had lost it some time in the past, perhaps he never had it.

and if Zinzolin considered anyone human, including himself. The door opened, three men with gray short hair entered the room carrying another very tired and battered man by the shoulders, then sat him on a chair across the room,

"ahh, Rood, how have you been? It's nice to see you again," Zinzolin said as he ignored Colress and centered his attention on the robed man who seemed genuinely scared,

"it's so stange seeing you in the city," Zinzolin continued, "...on a cheap motel downtown...with Sabrina, a rather bizarre situation, why is she there?"

Rood looked away from him, "...I have nothing to say to you Zinzolin," he stopped his lip quivering to speak, then continued it,

"open him," Zinzolin coldly finalized, showcasing his abismal lack of patience.

The three men beside Zinzolin eagerly grabbed Rood and violently ripped his robe open with their hands, revealing his round, hairy belly. Colress then recognized the three men as the members of the shadow triad, they had become more decrepit but had retained all of their ruthlessness.

"Alright, go back and do as I told you while I speak with our friend," Zinzolin directed his orders to the three men, who hesitated for a moment before they left the room. Colress could sense how they were eager to have some fun with Rood, like Zinzolin was about to have. Meanwhile Colress started stretching his legs and arms in a slow and sneaky manner, but the faint and subdued movements were difficult to perform, as it had been a while since he had walked on his own.

Zinzolin took out a white plastic gun, with a flask filled with red liquid on its handle, and put the end of the barrel right up Rood's belly button,

"your tummy's going to get hot Rood, why don't you just talk to me?" He said, then fired the gun and made Rood let out a pungent cry filled with pain. Zinzolin started moving the gun around Rood's abdomen, visibly frying the gray hairs off his skin. His horrible screams almost sounded like a tune that changed accordingly to Zinzolin's movements all over his belly.

"Alright alright I'll sing but please stop!" Rood cried out,

"you are already singing, but fine," Zinzolin said dastardly,

"after they arrested the team plasma remnants Sabrina found me and detained me for interrogation!"

"WHY!?" Zinzolin shouted without taking the weapon off his skin,

"Because she said she needed to investigate further!"

"Why did she take you to that cheap motel on the corner?"

"Because she's not from here and doesn't trust anyone, because she thought there were snitches around, that something wasn't right? I don't know, all I know is that she said nobody would find us there!"

"Or so she thought, you do know we found out about her location because of you right? After you went and snitched to Grimsley about my plan, I followed you and I didn't let you out of my sight, knowing that you'd be useful to me in one way or another, and you came through, Sabrina has no idea what we have prepared for her, the motel is surrounded, and now that she's asleep..."

"Please take this off of me!"

"Did she ask about Grimsley?"

"Yes,"

"and what did you say?"

"I told her everything I knew about him, almost nothing, I told her that he might be working with you, or alone, or not plotting anything at all, or just using the remnants as servants, I don't know!"

Zinzolin removed the weapon from his belly and calmly cleaned the abundant tears and drops of sweat off Rood, he was basically caressing his face, in a rather gentle and sweet manner, but it was obviously a fake gesture and Rood knew this well.

"What did you tell her about me?" Zinzolin affably asked,

"everything, I told her everything," Rood said, visibly lamenting every word that came out of his mouth, "I told her how you wanted to reform team plasma and continue with Ghetsis plan, about how you thought that kyurem was still in the giant chasm when it wasn't, and how you took all of the remnants from Grimsley and the weapons from Colress..."

Rood closed his eyes and lamented himself some more. Zinzolin waited patiently until he opened his eyes again and then stuck the weapon back on his abdomen, resuming the torture.

"Doesn't matter! It doesn't matter! Even if she takes out her pokemon we'll poison them, or we'll make them fall asleep, and then we'll make her fall asleep and then I'll take her power!"

Rood let out a loud and violent growl as he looked directly at the wounding tip of the weapon parading through his abdomen; the pain and suffering were visible in his eyes. He clenched his teeth and looked at Zinzolin with hate and fury, winded up an attack with his open hand however he could, and smacked him hard on the head, knocking him back. Then, with his visible abdomen still vibrant red, Rood went for Zinzolin's neck and started choking him with both of his hands,

"you are weak and you lost! Just accept it! You are a sore loser who wishes he was stronger! That's all you are! Getting power from someone else doesn't mean it is yours!"

"SHUT UP!" Zinzolin quickly hit him with the gun while the barrel was still burning hot, right on his cheek,

"all you ever wanted was for people to think you are strong!" Rood pressed harder, now with his cheek also red,

"SHUT UP!" Zizolin shouted once more. He dropped the gun on the ground, the flask was empty. He started viciously punching Rood on the face repeatedly.

Colress stood up and took a deep breath, his body was so weak and he felt so tired that he had to focus on not falling down. He checked his pockets, no pokeballs, and the room was empty save for two chairs and an empty trash can, so he wisely chose to run out of the room and search for the nearest exit while the two old men kept fighting. Sadly, as Colress ran through the darkened hallway past the door, he failed to notice the set of stairs in front of him and fell all the way to the floor below, falling right on his left elbow. He spent a couple of minutes on the ground feeling the pain and lamenting himself while the fight upstairs continued. Then it stopped, and Colress could only hope for Rood's victory to be the result.

"AM I WEAK NOW ROOD?" Zinzolin angrily shouted upstairs.

Colress couldn't stay there. He focused all of his strength on getting up and went for the door in front of him. He opened it and found himself on a street at night, the scenery seemed eerily familiar, he knew he had been on that city before but in his state he couldn't be exactly sure of where he was. Still weak, Colress turned at both sides and found a brighter light to his left so he followed it. He reached the end of the street and stopped at the corner, bewildered. There was a building on fire across the street. It was a two story building which covered the whole block, although the street was a short one, it had plenty of parking space in front of it and the tall sign on the front, as well as the shape of the building itself, led Colress to believe it was a motel, and the motel was burning.

Right then Colress started feeling slightly more drowsy than he already was. He looked up and found six amoonguss on top of the three buildings cornering the motel, two on each roof, all of them wearing red masks, his red masks. And all of them were releasing what could only be spores and poison gas onto the air.

It wouldn't take much time for the spores to have an effect on him, and as far as he knew Zinzolin was right behind him and he wasn't keen on letting him escape, so Colress moved away from the scene as fast as he could in spite of the horrible state in which he was, and hid on an alley a few buildings past the motel, far enough to avoid the spores and the poison gas, but close enough to observe as the situation unfolded.

Meanwhile on the motel, two of the shadow triad members went up a set of stairs that wasn't on fire yet. They got on the hallway on the second floor, then forcefully knocked down one of the many doors there with just one kick. A struggle ensued once they went in, and a few seconds later one of them flew out of the window, shattering it in the process, and landed on his back on the pavement on the parking lot, badly hurt. Sabrina then got out of the window holding a black cloth of some kind, she grabbed onto the railing with both of her hands and used it to jump down to the parking lot, stepping on the shadow triad member on the ground. She then tied the cloth over her mouth and nose.

On the floor above, the remaining triad member seemed confused as he kept looking for Sabrina inside the room. Below him Sabrina closed her eyes and raised her hands, the bracelets on her hands started glowing, then the bed on Sabrina's room violently flew out directly at the man inside, and threw him out of the window unto the hallway outside, unconscious.

The third shadow triad member then arrived at the parking lot, he growled with anger and released two bisharps ready to fight, then the three of them ran to confront her. Sabrina sensed their presence, she opened her eyes and took a swift look around, locking her sight on the dark pokemon approaching her.

"What will you do against adversaries you can't control with your psychic poweres?!" The shadow triad shouted.

Sabrina closed her eyes again and directed her hands at the tall sign on the corner, which showcased the motel rates and the number of rooms vacant. The sign moved, first just a bit, then it got thrown out directly at one of the bisharps which flew away fainted after the sign violently impacted it.

The other two attackers stopped cold and turned away, knowing they were outmatched. Sabrina quickly made her hands into fists at the same time the sign broke into a million pieces, which she then threw at the other bisharp as it ran away. The bisharp kept running away as Sabrina kept throwing pieces of metal at its back, severely weakening the pokemon after each hit. Sabrina continued her ruthless attack until finally the pokemon fell on the ground, fainted. And she wasn't done, Sabrina then made the last triad member himself levitate to stop him from escaping, then she pulled him towards her. She stared into his eyes as he traveled through the air towards her, she could see the fear in his eyes, he knew exactly what awaited him, he could see his painful future in her eyes. She punched him hard on the face when he arrived at her, her fist and his face clashed with each other at the same speed, and he fell on the ground unconscious.

Zinzolin then arrived at the scene with a fiendishly smug look on his battered face, carrying a gas mask on his hand; he wasn't scared.

"Stop right there Sabrina, if you know what's better for the pokemon on top of the buildings," he heinously shouted, and she immediately understood what he was saying, "that's right...remember what happened at the giant chasm? Except this time I've packed a bit of extra power on the masks, their heads will disappear...I can guarantee it," he said, then he smiled and then put on the mask,

"You are a coward!" Sabrina shouted, with a tone that revealed her powerlessness,

"how slowly are you breathing? You can't hold your breath forever, why don't you take that off your face and take a long and deep breath for me, that should be enough."

Sabrina hesitated, she knew the air was too dense and filled with poison for her pokemon to act, and she had become way too tired to continue,

"NOW!" Zinzolin shouted as he took out a remote control.

Sabrina had no choice but to obey him, she took the cloth off her mouth, revealing it to be a pillowcase, then she took three deep breaths. Her eyes immediately changed, she started tumbling on the spot. Before succumbing to the spores, however, she tried to take the remote control off Zinzolin's hands simply by moving her fingers, but Zinzolin held on to it with all of his strength and moved his finger to trigger the explosives on the masks. Sabrina managed to push him away before he could do it, and before Zinzolin could trigger the explosives again, she channeled all of the energy and power she had left and broke the remote control into a million pieces, before collapsing,

"run!" She shouted before hitting the ground, obviously directing her order at Colress, who deduced that Sabrina could sense he was near. He obeyed her and ran away, turning only once to see Sabrina down on the pavement.