Chapter 24

Wes threw him against the ground before he could finish the last word. It was too late, I had already heard it. I took my hand off his shoulder. He turned to try and retrieve it, but I had pulled it against my chest. He met my eyes. There was so much pain in his gaze. So much I felt my own chest tripling the anxiety I had felt before. He opened his mouth once, twice, three times before clicking his jaw shut.

Then, "Sorry won't explain how bad I feel, but I am."

"Wes-"

"I didn't know she was going to suffer worse than the rest," he interrupted, "I thought Serenity was just going to be another Shadow Pokemon. When I brought her back here I thought- I suddenly knew how bad of a mistake I made. But I was undercover. I couldn't-"

"Wes, it's fine."

He froze. I kept my expression steady. "It's alright. I understand." He heard my words but he didn't believe them. I was in pain. A lot of pain. The one person I had come to trust in this world had started off by taking my pokemon and turned her into a Shadow Pokemon. Not just any Shadow Pokemon, the queen of all of them.

He was the reason all of this had happened.

"It's not alright," he insisted. "I-"

"I know," I interrupted again. "You're working to fix it, aren't you?" No response. "I won't ask you to do much more than that." My heart did a painful backflip in my chest. Serenity, poor Serenity. How could she hope to be saved by the man that kidnapped her all those years ago? Wes sighed softly through his nose, thinking.

"If there was a way to apologize correctly, would you take it?" I rolled my eyes. There was no time to sit and here and think of a way to say sorry. It was over.

"Let's just get my sword and- mmf!"

I can't believe it.

He… he kissed me. Like, hands on my cheeks, eyes closed kiss.

All that pain, all those terrible thoughts against him vanished in the blink of an eye. Now that he was right there, pressing himself against me so I could feel his fluttering heart, it didn't even matter. I know he had gotten the courage to start it, but now that he was kissing me the trainer was frozen solid. Was he waiting for me to pull away? Or had he just reached his courage limit for the day?

I put my hands on his shoulders and leaned into him. His lips were soft and warm, too enticing to think about pulling away. When he finally felt me accept his kiss, he wrapped an arm around my waist, drawing me closer against him. His other hand kept to my cheek where he wiped away the stale tears I had shed before he had arrived. That's when I closed my eyes and let him press his chest against mine, showing me what it felt like to have two hearts beat together as one. He finally took a breath through his nose. He must've forgotten how to during the exchange.

We pulled apart. I was tempted to go right in for another. I wanted that to last longer. The swirling sensation in my chest, the warmth of him near me, the exhilaration of love coursing through my veins. But he hugged me instead, both arms holding me so close that I just wanted to melt into him. I buried my face in his neck, holding back from kissing that too.

"More later," he promised, out of breath. "Sword now, us later."

"Right." I embraced him tighter and felt his heart flutter. His breath caught in his throat briefly. "Thank you, Wes."

"Anything for you." We separated. He wanted to kiss a bit longer, I could tell. Later, I promised myself. I wasn't going to let him down now that the both of us have come so far. Get the sword, get out. That simple.

The hallways had been completely emptied by the time Wes and I stepped out in them. No doctors, no scientists, nobody to confront us. So I took Wes by the hand and guided him through the mazes of rooms and hallways until we reached the elevator. I mashed the button with my thumb. The machine gave me no response. The lights on it remained dark. Had the power to them been cut? Probably. Wes and Ein's struggle couldn't have gone in secrecy. It was shut down to keep the both of us in the building. That meant the others had already used it.

They were in the basement.

"We'll have to take the stairs," I decided, pulling him the other way. The stairs would lead us to the first floor, but I had never found any stairs that had led to the basement. Multiple days here in this prison and I couldn't find a way down to the lower levels. Were there even stairs to the basement in the first place? Did we have time to find them? What were they doing down there, anyway? Something not good, I was sure.

The stairs spiraled down the eastern side of the building. No matter how much deeper into the building we traveled there remained not a single sign of life. Food was left uneaten and computers were left to idle. The silence was broken by our loud footsteps, obnoxiously loud against the marble tile. We reached ground level without a problem. When we stopped to catch our breath, Wes scanned the area.

"There's no stairs down to the basement," Wes said, confirming my fears. "In emergencies they wouldn't want Shadow Pokemon escaping so easily."

"What if the elevator breaks?" I asked. "What if that is broken and there's no way up?"

"Team Cipher believes that accidents like that would erase any sign that they had even been here." Sacrifices. Killing innocent pokemon and people for the sake of the company. The leader of this corporation was a sick freak. "Let's make our way down." Like on cue, Umbreon and Espeon emerged, blinking in attention. "Dig our way to the basement, you two."

"Eon," the two of them agreed in stern unison. They reared up on their back legs. Their front paws began glowing, first dim than brightly. Before I knew it they were scratching their way down through the marble like it was rice paper. The dirt under was even easier to go through. All they had to do was brush it aside with their claws before the basement was within sight.

Umbreon and Espeon went down first. Wes followed before helping me down by the waist. The two of us were lost in each other's eyes for about five seconds before he set me down and we forced our eyes away. His two pokemon rolled their eyes with a smile.

The first level of the basement appeared to be just as empty as the rest of the base. That was until someone crept up behind Wes with a fist cocked. Instinct took over. I pulled Wes to the floor by his hand, released it, then kicked the scientist in the face. She sputtered a mouthful of blood before falling to the floor, unconscious. The pokemon trainer had put his hands over his head, unsure of what was happening. When I grabbed him and lifted him to his feet, he caught sight of what had nearly clubbed him. He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Thanks, Rui."

"Anytime." He smiled at me.

"Espe," I heard his pokemon call. She was standing by the top of a tall flight of stairs. "Espeonnnn!"

"We're hurrying!" Wes responded, pulling me towards her. Umbreon followed at our side. As we followed her down the stairs, the sound of scientists and Ciphers was beginning to get louder. They were talking hurriedly, running about the lower levels in a rush. They weren't making any effort to be quiet, that was for sure.

I expected there to be several seveals to the basement, as it had shown on the elevator. Yet as we descended the stairs did not give way to any other floors, just the occasional elevator entrance. Had they put several buttons on there for no reason? No, there was a reason. And that reason became clearer the further we traveled. Each floor had been sealed off by marble bricks the same color as the walls. The deeper we went, the clumsier they were with placing them. There were floors, they had just been blocked off completely.

I suddenly didn't want to know what was beyond them.

The stairs started to get exhausting. Running down in circles repeatedly was not only making my legs burn from overuse, but dizzying as well. I didn't know how Wes and his pokemon were able to hold up for so long. It didn't even look like they were even remotely tired. And there I was panting and huffing like an asthmatic hyena. I might've passed out if Wes hadn't stopped a stair below me and crouched slightly. Not a single objection left my mouth as he allowed me to crawl onto his back and give me a piggyback ride the remainder of the way.

If it wasn't for the face that I was nearly unconscious from the breath I had lost from the run down, I would've considered this romantic. I tried to make it that way to energize me again, but to be honest, just lying against him was putting me to sleep. It was so calming and relaxing that I had to force myself to keep my eyes open. Luckily it was a bumpy ride so it wasn't too easy.

"We're getting close," Wes said. I blinked groggily. "I have to put you down, alright?"

"Alright."

I stumbled once my feet were on the floor, but I managed to catch myself before I tumbled over. Where were we? Still on the stairs? How could he tell we were getting close? I turned towards him.

Oh. That's why.

A giant metal door, taller than any pokemon I could hope to compare it to, stood proud at the bottom floor. The door was such a deep black that lamps on the walls weren't bright enough to be reflected on the smooth surface. It had been broken and patched in several different places messily. Scratches from the other side bled through visibly to the other side, but nothing was more frightening than the giant indent of some unnameable pokemon after it had hit the door so hard it had left an indent taller than the previous five floors we had descended from.

"This is where they make Shadow Pokemon," Wes decided.

"Have you been here before?" I asked, stepping up to his side.

"No. I wasn't high enough rank to be allowed anywhere near this place." He stepped up to the door, gently tugging me towards him, and put a hand on the black metal. "Reinforced obsidian, they really didn't want anything getting out. Anything that tries to break the door will end up bending it." I could see what he meant by that.

"How do we-?"

The door clicked. The four of us jumped back, startled. Wes pushed me behind him defensively as the door came to life in a series of screeches and squeals. It began to open, inch by inch, until a crevice barely wide enough to fit the both of us side by side appeared. It stopped then, breathing like it had exhausted itself, and became dormant once more. Silence filled the air.

"Once we go in, it'll be hard to get back out." Wes couldn't have been more spot on. Someone had opened the door for us. Not as a common courtesy, but to keep us trapped. Trapped or die. Neither of these sounded even slightly pleasant.

"Serenity and my sword are in there," I reminded.

"Then we have no choice." He grabbed my hand. "This could be the end." I could tell by the way he said it what he meant. The end of us. The kiss we had shared may be our last. If we didn't come out of there, we may never be able to have the relationship we've wanted from the beginning.

"I'd rather go out with you than anyone else," I told him. His cheeks reddened.

"I couldn't think of a better way," he admitted. We joined hands, took a deep breath, then walked right into the inky darkness behind the door.

Wes Used Sweet Kiss!

Rui Is Infatiuated!

Wes And Rui Are In Love!

Saving Game…

Game Saved!