It became increasingly harder for Bianca to breathe as she ran through the streets of Opelucid city, trying to escape from all the people under Zinzolin's control. But there seemed to be no escape for her, not a single place to hide, they were closing in from all directions. She could feel their presence right next to her, they already had a hold of her, it would be just as painful to continue resisting as it would be to give in to Zinzolin's dominion.

Then she saw them, all around her, walking towards her with their arms forward like zombies,

"why aren't you under my control?!" The multitude shouted angrily. Bianca felt something hitting her on the shoulder. Bianca looked to the sky, above from all the hateful voices. She identified the roof of the pokemon center a few blocks away, but there was no way she would make it there without getting caught, there was nothing else for her to do. She closed her eyes, it was useless, she could still hear them and their empty noise; she received another hit from a rock, this time directly on her right cheek.

"Am I weak now!?" The people cried again. A third rock hit Bianca on the back of the head.

A hand grabbed her by the wrist, "why aren't you under my control yet?" The person holding her said. It was a strong, tall, older man, who had a firm grip on her right wrist.

Another man grabbed her left wrist, and together they easily detained Bianca as more people approached her. She could only watch helplessly as they ganged up on her. Two kids, a boy and a girl, crawled up to her with creepy smiles on their faces, and put their arms and legs around Bianca's ankles, making it impossible for her to move at all. The man on her right used his free hand to grab Bianca's chin, and directed her face to his own.

"You are not special, you are not strong," he joyfully said, as Bianca directed a stare filled with anger at him. It was the only thing she could do, she was hopeless.

Bianca closed her eyes once more, faces assaulted her conscience. Cheren, Helma, Juniper, Jonny, Lucia...Grimsley. She tried to get rid of him, he had lied to her. How could he give up so easily? How could he ignore the truth? He knew the remnants were innocent, he knew they wanted to change. It was something of which he was absolutely certain; no one needed to confirm or support his knowledge, and yet he had lied. Suddenly Bianca wanted to cry. It was so easy for that man to lie. Bianca would never lie, not to anyone, but more importantly, not to herself. She would never let the dehumanizing intolerance and selfishness control her, she would never let them take her.

She struggled with the four people holding her with all of her strength, and tried to forcefully break free from them, but they were much stronger than her, and she was despairingly outnumbered. But she wouldn't give up, and once she sensed that they were planning to move her, she sunk her teeth deep on the arm of the man to her right, who screamed out loud immediately after Bianca's teeth came into violent contact with his skin. The people around her tried to take Bianca away from the man but she didn't let go. The old, bald man kept screaming, he took his hand off of Bianca, but she didn't take her teeth off of him, instead she used her newly free hand to hold onto him as hard as she could.

And Bianca didn't let go from the old man, it didn't matter how hard the other people pulled from her limbs to take her away. Bianca was determined, she grabbed the man from his waist whilst still keeping her teeth sunk into his muscle.

"Ahh! Why are you doing that?!" The old man cried, seemingly free from the mind control,

"you have to help me get out of here!" Bianca shouted at him, right after releasing his arm.

"the hell I will! You are crazy, all of you are crazy!" The old man said as he started making his way out of the crowd, easily pushing people away as they vainly tried to hold him back. Bianca used the opportunity to escape behind him, also pushing the people who tried to cling from her jacket away, albeit in a gentler way than the older man, because she knew those people were innocent.

The crowd suddenly stopped chasing after them. Every person under Zinzolin's control started screaming and raging, each in a different way. Some of the punched the ground, others pulled from their hair, and some other people raised their arms and shouted at the sky,

"COME ON! SUCCUMB TO MY POWER! It is all your fault you witch!" The multitude cried Zinzolin's thoughts,

"what is going on?!" The confused old man asked,

"old, bald idiot! You out of all people won't rebel against my power!" The multitude cried once more,

"he's trying to control your mind!" Bianca intervened, "don't let him, you can fight it," she shouted at the old man as he closed his eyes and covered his ears with his hands, desperately trying to fend off Zinzolin's wicked mind whispers, while Bianca kept urging him to fight; but her efforts were futile.

Out of nowhere Colress appeared, swift as a ghost and with a ghoulish appearance. Pale and weak. He promptly placed a purrloin on the old man's head, effectively calming him down. Bianca was so startled by his sudden apparition that she had to close her eyes, and once she opened them again, seconds later, she couldn't help but let out a genuine chuckle, amidst all of the fear and frustration she was feeling; it was quite a bizarre sight. She laughed at the purrloin pleasurably resting on top of Colress' head, and at the second purrloin now standing on its two rear limbs on top of the old man's head.

"Quick!" Colress said with a tired and raspy voice, "I only have three purrloin with me so put one on top of your head, it will nullify the mind control!"

"I don't need it, let's just leave now," Bianca replied. Then she grabbed Colress' hand and ran away with him while the crowd was still raging.

The two of them stopped on a corner and hid in the first alley they found, and the second and third purrloin followed them soon after, without the old man,

"oh no, the old man," Bianca said as she picked up one of the purple pokemon and held it on her arms,

"there's no time to lament our losses, Zinzolin has captured Sabrina and is using her power to control the minds of people and pokemon all across the region," Colress said,

"how is he doing that?" Bianca asked,

"well, it seems that Zinzolin is now using a mind control device only on Sabrina, who can use her psychic abilities to control psychic pokemon, and is using said psychic pokemon as a type of satellite to receive and release the mind controlling signals. I must admit it's kind of brilliant, basically, Zinzolin controls Sabrina, Sabrina controls Psychic pokemon, and psychic pokemon control people and other pokemon. Luckily Sabrina's psychic powers have no effect on dark pokemon," Colress said as the purrloin on top of him casually waved its tail,

"good thinking, what do we do now though?"

"I don't know, I have no idea of how to stop him, it seems he is working from the ruins of N's castle, but there's no way we can get there without getting caught by his mooks,"

"you mean regular people and trainers?" Bianca asked rather sassily. It was still hard for her to concentrate with the sight of the purrloin chilling on top of Colress' head,

"yeah, trainers, how is it that you aren't under his control?"

"I guess it just doesn't work on me, I'm not really sure, I do hear his voice inside my head, but I just can't do what he says,"

"Interesting,"

"indeed," Grimsley said, startling Bianca and Colress, both of whom turned their eyes in disbelief at the man in black. Neither of them had noticed him quietly standing next to them, silently eavesdropping on their conversation,

"what are you doing here?" Bianca quickly asked him in a rather cold manner,

"the same thing as you I suppose," Grimsley answered, and Bianca was able to take a good look at him for the first time since she realized he was there. His face was badly bruised, his right eye was fully bloodshot and swollen and his left one was black, and his knuckles were purple,

"what happened to you?" Bianca asked, feeling much more concerned although still trying to feign disinterest,

"I fell,"

"yeah right, did you escape?"

"no, they just let me go, just like that, can you believe it?"

"Of course,"

"I'm sorry, did I miss something?" Colress interjected,

"I don't know, did you? Where were you anyway?" Grimsley asked him back,

"it's a long story,"

"don't worry we have time," Grimsley said sarcastically,

"I hate you," Bianca said, "anyway we can't stay here, now that we've lost Zinzolin and the trainers we should go to the hospital, so we can tell my friends to find dark pokemon, do any of you know where we can find any?"

Grimsley gave Bianca a tired stare, just to nag her...