The interior of the Sinnoh League is spacious and extravagant.
The polished marble floor is so shiny that Drew can see his own reflection in it. Looking good, as always.
This isn't his first time being here, considering his older brother's position as an Elite Four member, so he is significantly less awed than May, whose jaw has dropped.
She may be just a tad adorable.
Not that he's ever going to tell her that.
Their group is led through a set of large double doors, leading to what looks like a lecture hall, complete with chairs lined up in rows and a huge screen in front.
Drew quickly assesses their company.
Cynthia Shirona, the Sinnoh Champion, is present, and currently in heated discussion with Professor Rowan. Professor Sycamore has somehow already reached, until Drew realizes that he likely hopped into his private jet and flew here through the night.
Not for the first time, Drew feels a little bad for his own regional head professor. As the next Hoenn flight to Sinnoh is later this afternoon and the helicopter can only pack in that many people, poor Professor Birch was left behind while they all rushed here. Some professors who were caught up with their current work also opted out; both Professors Oak and Elm have chosen to stay behind in their home regions.
His gaze quickly moves onto the next two arrivals: one is a tanned girl with bushy, indigo hair, and the other a disinterested boy with plum-colored hair and a fierce scowl. They're sitting on the same row but opposite ends.
Alright then.
Since he doesn't recognize them, he supposes they must be the "Arcana" – his brother has confided in him that much.
Everyone looks up when they enter.
The relief on Cynthia's face when she sees Steven is almost heart-wrenching.
She's beautiful as always, but right now she looks very haggard. Dark eye circles, listless movements and a tired voice.
In fact, she looks like she may faint while standing up.
Steven is alarmed, hurrying over to inquire about her health, but Cynthia promptly bombards him with details of their next step and so forth, leaving him scrambling to keep up.
Drew's sharp gaze doesn't miss the way Steven holds Cynthia's arm comfortingly. Or the way she ever so slightly leans into him – just a bit more than the confines of a platonic relationship allow.
He has a strong inkling the two may have more going on than they let on.
Diantha stands beside Cynthia, offering her silent support. She had given Cynthia a hug the moment she entered earlier, because her poor friend really needed it. Right now, she's just praying that Cynthia can hang on a little longer.
May, meanwhile, has bounded over to the two Arcana. While the guy keeps up his unapproachable front, May seems to have quickly become friends with the indigo-haired girl, whom Drew hears introducing her as Iris.
Drew strolls over, leaving Wallace to mingle with the adults, and he says with a warm smile, the kind that melts any girl's heart, while flicking his hair, "hi there, I'm Drew."
Iris blinks at him, then says with a wide grin. "Sup, I'm Iris!"
He's taken aback at her very unflustered response.
May laughs at the look on his face. "Oh, I like you a lot already, Iris."
"Me too. At least more than him." She openly nods her head towards the purple-haired guy. "I don't even know his name."
He glances up and says boredly, "Paul. And you didn't ask."
Iris glowers at him. "Well, nice to meet you then, Paul."
He doesn't reply.
Iris mouths "rude" and May suppresses a giggle.
Drew can't say he's too keen on this Paul guy either.
More people trickle in moments later.
A pretty tortilla-haired girl introduces herself as Serena and a guy who isn't super friendly but is the freaking sun compared to the ice age that is Paul introduces himself as Alain.
A bubbly redhead falls on the steps twice, but brushes it off with a giant smile. Seems like she's used to it.
"I'm Mairin!" The petite girl had said brightly.
The four girls quickly strike up a conversation while the boys fare less well, standing around in radio silence. Except for Paul, who is sitting and reading a book.
Well, good for him.
He's completely unperturbed towards whatever is going on around him.
Then Alain is dragged into the girls' conversation by an innocuous Mairin, so Drew is left alone.
Wait. How did he end up standing alone?
A bit miffed, he decides to eavesdrop on the adults' conversation. He moves down the steps and lounges against the wall.
And a good thing he did.
"How can he simply be missing?" Cynthia is saying, her voice clouded with fatigue and anxiousness. "If he's not found by now, then…"
"Then he's dead." Diantha finishes softly.
Drew stiffens. What? Someone is dead?
"So when will they arrive?" Professor Rowan asks, his voice a deep gravel.
"Soon, hopefully. One girl was saying she wouldn't go without him, but the others managed to persuade her to come here first. If he has really been targeted, then the others will be in grave danger." Steven says in a grave tone.
"Have we located the other Arcana yet?" Aaron presses. Drew's brother looks frazzled, his usual chirpy self nowhere to be seen.
Steven shakes his head. "No, there are still many missing from the twenty-two."
Twenty-two? Drew thinks bewilderedly. There are so many of us? But why twenty-two? And how did they know that for sure?
"Is there only one person from Unova?" Professor Rowan questions.
Cynthia shakes her head, and explains a bit irritatedly, "there's another guy, but guess which Champion didn't show up so he was waiting for him."
Diantha tilts her head. "What about Juniper?"
"She's on her way here. She took the flight here immediately after the league conference because she wanted to tell me in person. Something important, apparently."
"And the one still in Unova?" Wallace asks, thinking this is quite the mess. He's almost impressed at how the league had screwed up so badly. He's glad he called it quits and handed his Champion spot over to Steven years ago.
"I contacted him a while ago and told him to ditch Ald –" Cynthia begins.
"Hey, what did I miss?"
Everyone pauses.
And then turns around.
Standing there in the flesh is none other than Alder. He scratches his head. "Uh, why the serious faces?"
Wallace mutters, "really? Really?"
"Where were you?" Cynthia asks, her voice deathly calm.
Alder rears back. "Huh? I was in Sinnoh all along. Didn't I tell you that?"
Cynthia presses two fingers against her temples.
"Alder, do me a favor."
"Anything for you, Cyntia darli –"
"Get the hell out before I make you."
Drew swore that flames almost came out of her mouth.
Misty's nose is all clogged up from crying.
This isn't her. She doesn't do crying.
But here she is, a sobbing wreck.
Gary silently hands her another tissue. For once they aren't at each other's throat.
"Mist," Ash says worriedly. She knows he is upset, too. That he is concerned, too.
She dabs at her stupid watery eyes.
Lance glances at her from where he is driving them to the Sinnoh League.
"We're reaching in five minutes." He reports.
"Uh, thanks Lance," Ash says, but the usual liveliness in his voice is noticeably missing.
The occasional silence is only broken by Misty's sniffling.
Brock is missing.
Or worse.
Don't let your mind go there, Misty warns herself firmly. Yet she can't help imagining all sorts of morbid scenarios – all ending with Brock's death.
There goes another wave of fresh tears. They're almost running out of tissues.
Why are her tear ducts suddenly so active?
"Brock may not be dea – he may be fine." Ash corrects himself. His voice cracks at the end, though.
He hasn't known Brock as long as Misty, but Brock was his very close friend.
No, not was.
Is.
Why is Misty thinking about Brock like he's – like he's gone already?
If anybody knows how Misty feels right now, it's probably Ash.
She wants to punch something, anything. Not be in a car like a sitting duck. Because if Brock, one of the strongest guys she knows, has been singled out for the mark, who's to say no one else will come after them?
But Misty glances out the window at the passing scenery, her eyes not seeing anything.
When Misty felt overwhelmed by her Gym Leader duties, it was Brock who stepped in, being the older sibling she never had with her biological sisters. It was him who helped Misty pull through the highs and lows of running the Gym, when she had no one to lay herself bare to, not even Ash.
Ash wouldn't have understood how she felt, but would have forced himself to understand her, and she couldn't, wouldn't put him through such misery.
"We're here," Lance breaks the silence as he pulls up through the Sinnoh League driveway.
They alight soundlessly, grabbing each of their own luggage.
Gary moves to help Misty, but she bats his arm aside. "I can do it." She says, her throat dry and parched.
He silently hands her some water.
Another day she might have teased him for being so uncharacteristically thoughtful. Now… thoughts of Brock in grave danger consume her mind.
Misty chugs it down, and then the group makes their way into the Sinnoh League.
Misty can't even summon the energy to be dazzled by the interior design of the league. She feels numb.
Gary and Ash converse in low tones behind her, also for once not bickering.
She's… grateful for that.
To know that Brock's disappearance means a lot, not just to her, but to others as well.
She'll find him, no matter what it takes. No matter how long it takes. No matter what it costs her.
They enter the meeting room, and Misty blinks dully at the sea of unfamiliar faces. If Brock were here, he would have guided her and taught her the names of all these people – especially the Champions and professors.
A woman in a lab coat whom Misty doesn't recognize lets out a sob – just once – and then flings herself into Lance's arms.
"Lance, oh, Lance… What are we going to do?" She buries her head in Lance's neck. They're probably lovers.
"June, what's wrong?"
"That kid… He's… He's…" She shakes her head.
Misty goes cold.
"What kid?" She demands, stepping in.
The woman – presumably a professor – looks at Misty, and whispers, "was his name Brock Harrison?"
Misty finds herself trembling. "Yeah. Finish your statement."
"He has been found dead."
Someone gasps. A girl who is sitting down, her amber eyes wide in horror. But what does she know?
What does anyone know?
Someone grabs her arm.
"Mist. Mist!"
Ash. Right, he's Ash, he's her friend, but so is Brock, Brock is her friend, Brock was her friend, a friend who smiles at her, no, smiled because she would never get to see that gentle smile ever again in this lifetime or the next or the nex –
MIsty shrugs off Ash's hand, crouches down, covers her ears and screams.
She screams and screams and screams.
And then she's crying and Ash is hugging her and there are burning tears streaming down her face and he's telling her everything will be alright when nothing will ever be the same again and he's lying, and they're lying, and she's lying –
But she can't breathe, oh, everytime she inhales it feels like claws are scraping down her throat and she's breathing in hellfire –
The world that has been spinning dizzyingly fast on its axis stops abruptly, the world that is Misty's world, and blissful darkness finds her.
She wishes she would never wake up.
Paul watches the spectacle unfurl before him.
Some call him unfeeling. Others call him cruel.
But is it his fault that he's not a busybody who gets involved in others' business?
So some guy is dead.
Paul won't lie and say he feels bad for that guy – he doesn't even know him. People die. Death is natural. Hell, without death, there would be overpopulation. Immortal humans will turn this world from disgusting to destroyed.
Even at this moment, while they're talking, numerous others are out there dying.
So some stranger dying isn't really a big deal to him.
He isn't blind, though.
He can very well sense the evil glare that the bushy-haired girl – Iris – is shooting him. He just doesn't care enough to point it out.
So he continues reading. It's an interesting outlook, or at least it would be if the people around Paul just shut up, on the religion of Arceus, who was said to have supposedly saved the world from meteors thousands of years ago. There's no actual truth to that fable, but because of that, people have worshiped Arceus for millennia.
He still likes to keep tabs on his surroundings, so he half pays attention as Cynthia has the fainted girl moved into another room where she will be kept under monitoring, and the two guys who came with that orange-haired girl make to move as well.
They're rejected though, as Cynthia says sternly that the last thing the girl needs is for two men to watch her while she sleeps. They can see her again when she has woken up.
When she puts it that way, the two guys almost sound like creeps. They cave in slightly embarrassedly.
The pair makes their way up the steps, congregating with the others present.
Paul doesn't really care at this point so he tries to tune them out, yet it's impossible when they're being so loud.
"I'm Ash, and this is Gary. I would say nice to meet you all but given the circumstances of our meeting…"
Great. Two blabbermouths have just joined them.
The only one Paul can decently stand around here is the guy named Alain, and that's because he doesn't talk much.
As they're chit-chatting, Ash walks over to Paul.
"Hi, I'm Ash." He smiles at Paul. Even Paul, who isn't close to him at all, can see how strained it is.
Paul stares at Ash coolly. Then he asks, "why are you forcing yourself to smile?"
Ash's smile drops. He clenches his fists.
Then he replies firmly, "I cannot have a meltdown. I must be strong, for Mist. I don't want her to have to comfort me while she's going through such a painful period."
A few overly sentimental people look touched at his words.
Paul only snorts. "Spoken like a true idiot."
"What?" Ash recoils.
Iris stands up. "What's your deal, huh?"
Paul closes his book and replies coldly. "At least brush up on your acting. If I could tell how forced it was, what about that friend of yours?"
Ash falters.
That guy… has a point.
This guy has known him for less than ten seconds. Misty has known him longer than ten years.
If she were to see him now, she would only get more worried about him.
A new arrival puts a stop to the escalating conflict.
"Um, hello?" A green-haired man walks in. Iris brightens when she sees Cilan.
"Finally!" Drew exclaims. "Someone else with naturally green hair. At least, I hope it's natural. Please say it is natural."
The man blinks, and replies, "oh yes, it is most definitely natural. My triplet brothers have red and blue hair. I'm Cilan, by the way."
"Triplets?" Mairin calls out in amazement while May mutters, "impossible". She's convinced that Drew has all along been bleaching her hair, so him giving her this smug grin is irritating the hell out of her.
Paul vaguely wonders why Cilan isn't a blonde to complete the primary color set, then realizes he doesn't particularly care.
Cynthia breaks away from the adults and says, "almost everyone is here, but we still need to discuss something."
The screen flickers to life. It's basically a mega-size television.
"So rest, converse, do whatever you want and please give us some time."
"Wait!" Mairin cuts in. "Um, you said almost everyone is here. Who else are we expecting?"
Everyone else is curious, too, except Paul. He's just… bored out of his wits.
Reading is fun only when you're not being interrupted every five seconds.
Cynthia hesitates. "She's probably not coming…" She murmurs. Cynthia suspects that Dawn is the Arcana in the Berlitz household, and not Lucas because there was a hoo-ha over Dawn Berlitz suddenly canceling all her schedule for the entire week.
The Johanna she knows is capable of and certainly will pull all sorts of strings.
This does stir up Paul's interest.
At the moment, the soap opera on screen is intercepted by an emergency, regional wide broadcast.
Cynthia swivels around. Based on her reaction, that was clearly not supposed to happen. And clearly, it's not the Parelle League who placed that broadcast there.
Paul's brow creeps up as gasps run along the audience, primarily the girls.
Dawn Berlitz, some random celebrity in Paul's opinion, has allegedly gone missing. If anyone has news of her or finds her, they will be rewarded with half a million dollars by the major shareholder of the Platinum Group, Johanna Berlitz.
"Missing? Another one?" Cynthia mutters, paling. Paul narrows his eyes.
It can't be… But her reaction and wording… Suggests that this Dawn person may just be…
Paul frowns.
Meanwhile, the girls are in a frenzy.
"No, Dawn can't be missing!" Serena is saying, horrified. This is the first time the mild girl has shown such an extreme reaction.
"Precisely! I finally clinched tickets to her next runway," May wails. "Now I may never see her again?"
"Never mind that I helped you secure those tickets," Drew mutters under his breath.
Even Mairin looks sad. "So she's called Dawn?"
Alain looks at her briefly. "Do you know her?"
She shakes her head. "I saw her on the cover page of a magazine that my orphanage had."
Mairin doesn't seem to have noticed the expressions on the others' faces. None of them knew, nor guessed from her conduct, that she came from an orphanage.
"I thought she was very pretty and I wanted to be like her someday…" Mairin trails off awkwardly.
Gary rolls his eyes. "Okay, she's a hot chick, but get over it. It's probably some crazy fans who have kidnapped her."
May glares at him, saying hotly. "And you can go to hell."
"Seriously, you guys don't even know her." Gary argues back.
Paul's eyes catch onto the queasy look on Drew's face. The guy looks more affected than anyone here, even the fans of Dawn.
"Drew, are you alright?" May asks, noticing his pallid face.
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," he says weakly. "It's just… Dawn… uh… yeah…"
Iris squints at Drew. "Do you know her?"
May blinks, then pivots to face Drew. "Right, you were the one who got the tickets for me!"
Forget what he said earlier; right now, Drew really wishes May had forgotten about that detail.
"Uh, yeah…" He stalls.
Ash, who can't read the room, asks curiously, "so what's your relationship with Dawn?"
Everyone is dying to know. Meanwhile, Paul is already dying from the melodrama.
May doesn't know why but she feels a little, just a little, on edge.
Drew is let off the hook when the doors open abruptly and someone walks in.
But a rather strange someone.
People express varying degrees of perplexity at the newcomer.
She carries a gigantic backpack, wears large round glasses, and looks like she's been through hell. There's twigs in her flamboyant orange hair, tied in twin braids, and she looks like she rolled around in mud, dirt and then some. Even her white mask has been stained brown. Her baggy and ill-fitted clothes complete her hobo appearance.
She suddenly puts down her backpack.
"Who are you?" Cynthia asks warily. She wasn't informed that anyone else was coming. Then her phone chimes with a notification. Her eyes widen when she reads the message, and she glances up.
Just as the girl pulls off her glasses, letting everyone have a clearer view of her navy eyes. Shrugs off her jacket and kicks off her frumpy pants, revealing a tank top and tight jeans. Yanks off her wig, apparently, and cobalt blue hair cascades down her back. When she tugs off her mask, people gasp.
They look from the screen, where a description of the missing Dawn Berlitz is airing, and then look down at the newcomer.
"Hi!" The girl beams.
"Dawn Berlitz?" So many people shriek that Paul prays for his ears.
Dawn runs a hair through her tangled hair, trying to make herself more presentable. Wearing a wig without a wig cap is definitely not preferable.
Aaron is there as well, so she gives the Elite Four a little wave. He only summons a small, strained smile at her. That's when she knows things have gone to hell – the Aaron she knows is always cheerful and high-spirited.
She turns to Cynthia, whom she has met on a few formal occasions.
"It's crazy out there," she says, shuddering.
Cynthia frowns. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, you guys haven't heard yet?" Dawn flops down onto a chair in the front row, facing the adults. In contrast with some of the others who were gawking at the sight of so many league members gathered, Dawn doesn't even bat an eyelash.
"I'm talking about – ah, that," Dawn points a finger at the screen.
The broadcast on Dawn is replaced by emergency news.
Cynthia has seen enough emergencies to last her a lifetime.
Yet this one in particular takes the cake.
"What the fuck is that?" Alder chokes out. No one chastises him for cursing.
In the end, Alder didn't get out; he merely relegated himself to a corner of the room furthest away from Cynthia, where currently he has a bird's eye view of the scene on the screen: the sky above Sinnoh has darkened to a pitch-black with swirls of menacing blue, purple and the occasional red. It doesn't look like it'll stop at Sinnoh, either.
No, the darkness is continuing to expand slowly, and at the rate it's going, it may very well engulf Parelle soon.
"Reporting live at Amity Square, Hearthome City," to her credit, the reporter's voice doesn't waver. "A mysterious phenomenon has struck Sinnoh and is on the brink of spilling over to neighboring regions. Based on several eyewitnesses' reports, the pool of darkness originally manifested directly above Hearthome City. A frantic mother called in at the Hearthome Police Station, claiming that her ten year-old son had been sucked into a strange portal."
Here, the reporter's face is replaced by an interview with a distraught woman.
"M-my son, my little Joey, oh he was kidnapped when I was using the washroom. I-I came out and, and he was, he was sucked into a portal." She breaks down into tears. "Someone will find him, right? The police can find him, right?" Beside her, her husband comforts her, though his own eyes are also swimming with tears.
The reporter continues, "we urge all residents in Hearthome City to evacuate immedia –"
Dawn flinches and Mairin screams as a black hole thing appears and enlarges before the reporter. There's pure terror in the reporter's eyes as the thing lets out a monstrous sound and sucks her in, flailing body and microphone and everything, and the audio picks up the shrieks of the reporting team, and then the screen glitches and goes completely dark.
Everything occurred in the span of less than ten seconds, so everyone is still reeling from shock.
Cynthia's body trembles, and she collapses onto Steven. He catches her easily.
"Steve," she whispers to him, using her nickname for him. He grips her tightly. "The Arcana will rise. The Arcana will fall. The Arcana…"
Her head lolls back. "… will triumph through it all."
He blinks. "What?"
But Cynthia has already fainted.
Arcana. He knows about it, as the Champion of Hoenn. But the one who knows the most about it is Cynthia.
Who is currently in his arms.
He stands, saying to no one in particular, "Cynthia needs to rest. The briefing can continue later."
Professor Rowan pinches his nose. They need to make haste given how the situation has exacerbated, but now Cynthia, who possesses most of the information, is in a dead faint.
"What is going on?" Mairin asks, her voice quaking, just as a familiar figure stumbles into the room.
"Mist!" Ash calls, forgetting all about the disaster they've just witnessed as he pretty much flies down the stairs, enveloping his friend in a fierce hug. Dawn is surprised by their interaction, since she didn't hear about Brock's death. She lets them have their moment and walks up the stairs with her heavy backpack.
Misty's eyes are as empty as ever, but she looks marginally better.
"What did I miss?" She asks, her voice hollow.
Ash keeps her up to date with the current situation, and Misty feels an emotion other than all-consuming numbness for once. Fear is a welcome change, though it feels dulled by the pain she is still carrying from Brock's death.
She hasn't come to terms with it yet.
Dawn is greeting the others, who pretty much know her, when May's phone rings.
She picks it up. "Max, I'm in the middle of –"
"Mom and Dad got sucked into some portal," her brother's voice comes out in a breathless rush.
May stills.
"They told me to run. I… Oh, Arceus, I abandoned them and ran home. May, what do we do?" He sounds like he's crying.
"May?" Drew probes her, concerned at her wan face.
Her phone drops, and he catches it.
"May?" A familiar voice calls from the other line. Drew recognizes it as Max.
"Max, your sister is kind of in a daze right now."
"Uh, is this Drew?" Max asks, then says, "right, she probably needs time to deal with the shock… I know I need it, at least. Tell her to call me back later."
The call ends and Drew hands the phone back to May.
"Hey, May – May?" Drew yelps in surprise as May's eyes glisten with unshed tears.
"Drew. My parents…" She faces him, and a look of dawning horror appears on Drew's face as he glances at the blank screen, then at May, and at the screen again.
The others quickly understand what has occurred to May's parents, and all wear similar expressions of sympathy and somberness.
Drew's lips thin, and he stands, whirring to face the adults.
Without Cynthia and Steven, he directs most of his anger onto the other Champions of the Parelle Union present, namely Lance and Diantha. Alder is a hopeless case. The Parelle Union consists of only six regions, and other regions not part of it include Alola, Galar and Paldea.
"So why did you guys bring us here? What exactly is going on? What is the mark on our palms? Why do we have it? There's some strange disaster occurring outside right now, but none of you seem particularly surprised." Drew spits out furiously.
His eyes glint with dark hatred. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if everything was a conspiracy cooked up by you guys!"
Diantha and Lance exchange glances. Diantha is shaking her head at Lance.
"There are nine of them still absent!" She hisses. It's true; only twelve of the required twenty-two are here, and Brock is dead. But Lance says quietly to her, "we can't wait any longer. Even if there are only twelve, they have to be enough."
Lance steps forward.
"Everyone, please take a seat. I'll try to explain to the best of my ability, though you should hear the rest from Cynthia."
People sit, albeit begrudgingly. Drew puts a comforting arm around May, who at least hasn't started crying yet.
"You are the Arcana. The Major Arcana." Lance meets each person's gaze calmly. "And you will save this doomed world."
A/N:
Another update! It was nice writing from selective characters' POV, but in upcoming chapters it'll be more of third-person omniscient narration. When I wrote Misty's scene I really felt bad for her... But she's strong, so she'll definitely pull through. (Maybe? Do you think she will?)