Chapter 29

"Ow!" I shrunk from Fateen's touch. "Why are you ripping things?!"

"Quiet, child!" The old woman grabbed my arm and sat me back down in the chair. "You think that getting sliced by a shadow god like lugia would be like getting a paper cut? Wrong! Infections, infections everywhere! These scabs harbor nothing but bad materials under them! All of them must come off, and all of them WILL come off!"

I have to admit, when the mayor had offered me the largest shower in his house to use, I had been excited. When I realized that Fateen was going to accompany me in her old granny swimsuit, standing under the water tearing at my flesh while I sat naked in an old white lawn chair, all excitement vanished. I was in pain. A lot of pain. Lugia had left bruises, cuts, scars, and boils that Fateen was all too happy to get rid of. The floor of the shower was an unhealthy dark pink from all the ripping. By some miracle of nature I had managed to keep from crying and funneled all that into anger, but it wasn't helping my case.

"I'm losing a lot of blood," I protested. "Can't you let me get a break?!"

"We're more than halfway done, be patient." She leaned into my face. My orange hair was dangling in front of it, masking my expression. She brushed it to the side briefly before slapping it back on. "From the looks of your skin color, you are fine! You should consider yourself lucky! If Wes had been torn up as much as you, I'd have to do this over the course of a week! Your purifying powers make you a lot stronger than you think."

"It sure doesn't make it feel any better," I mumbled.

"Sit down and wash behind those ears!" She handed me a bottle of shampoo so red it nearly matched the blood spiraling down the drain. "And if I see you miss an ounce of your hair, I'll scrub it myself!" I caught a glance at her fingernails. Sharp and long: not what I wanted near my scalp.

As I went about scrubbing it she continued to tear and rip apart every part of my body that had been exposed to Shadow Lugia's sharp scales. It was painful and it took forever, but eventually it was finished. I thought we would have to wash the open wounds out with soap, but those were taken care of just by the flowing water. That hurt considerably less than the ripping. In fact after a while of soaking, it felt amazing.

Now pruned and clean, I stepped out of the shower and quickly changed into some new clothes. The mayor had gotten me a new outfit. It was much better than those white clothes that Ein had forced me to wear every day. Now I was back in my blue coat and pink boots; this was the life.

I stepped into the main room, adjusting my pigtails accordingly. I was surprised to find that besides Wes, Silver, Duking, Fateen, and the Mayor at the table, my grandparents had decided to attend as well.

"Rui!" They said in high-pitched relief. Grandpa darted forward and hugged me, lifting me into the air and spinning me around. I briefly considered asking him to put me down but quickly decided against it. I hugged him back. The sores hadn't made me cry, but this sure as hell did. Eagun was crying, Beluh was crying, even Duking looked like he might shed a tear or two. This was stopped by Silva who punched him in the shoulder, glaring. The bodybuilder quickly complied.

"We were so worried," Grandma Beluh explained, the first to pull away from the group hug. Grandpa kept his arms wrapped around me as she spoke. "We sent trainers near and far to find you. At first we thought we weren't going to find you at all."

"How did you find me?" I asked, gently pulling away from my grandfather. His eyes were draining tears almost as much as mine were. "How did you guys figure out where I was?"

"It wasn't us," Beluh continued. "It wasn't even any of our trainers. No, your friend Willie happened by the building one day when you were staring out the window." My jaw dropped in her direction. Like on cue, Willie sauntered in from the kitchen. His left eye was black, his right arm in a sling, and he was wheeling himself about in a wheelchair, both legs wrapped in heavy bandages. He smiled at me, one of his top teeth missing.

"Oh my god, are you alright?!" I ran over to him and kneeled at his side. Regardless of my concern, his smile was unwavering. "Willie, what happened to you?"

"I was training Ziggs and Zaggs," he started, voice stronger than I first anticipated, "and I happened to walk out a bit far in one direction. I saw the building in the distance and thought, hey, why not take a good run out to there? Well when I got there, there was an unmarked building with a bunch of goons running around it. I considered asking them what the place was doing in the middle of godforsaken nowhere when I saw you looking out the window." He chuckled. "I'm no dummy. I'd heard around Outskirt that you'd been taken away. I wish I had the common sense to get help before I tried to save you. Managed to get away, though."

I wrapped my arms around him. "Thank you so much, Willie! Thank you so much!" I could feel his face warming from my touch.

"Aw, shucks, Rui." He wrapped a single arm around me. "Anything for a friend." He was gently quivering, was he still in pain? I was about to ask when the mayor stood up behind us. He had a soft smile on his lips, almost like he was sad.

"It is amazing that they managed to find you. I'm glad that you're safe, Rui." I released Willie and turned to him.

"Thank you." My expression turned serious. "I need to tell you guys what happened while I was gone. Team Cipher has a terrible new weapon."

"New weapon?" Grandma and Grandpa joined hands. Eagun's voice had dropped low. "What do they have now?" The mayor raised his eyebrows.

"Another skarmory feather. This one is nothing but Haze." I pulled out my sword and clasped my fingers around the hilt. "It's evil. I could hear it whispering to me, beckoning me. I felt like it was trying to change me into a Shadow."

"A sword that does the opposite of what yours." Silva put his hand on his chin in thought. "They can't have been working on it for long if they got the idea from your sword."

"I know they haven't, or else they wouldn't have kept me there as long as they did. They did all these experiments, seeing how long I could run and how long I could hold my breath." I paused. "I think they began to realize I wasn't powerful at all, and that it was just the sword."

"But they couldn't change the sword," Wes added, "so they tried to get you to try theirs to change you instead." Eagun and Beluh exchanged glances.

"It's a good thing you didn't touch the sword, then." The mayor clapped his hands together. "Now, we must think about what to do next. I say we go ahead and-"

"Wait." I turned to him. "I didn't say anything about them making me touch the sword. How did you know that they tried that?"

The room was in silence for about three seconds of surprised epiphany before Evice pulled out a gun and placed it at Wes' head. The trainer closed his eyes and lowered his chin, gathering a calming breath. Silva and Duking made a move to grab them but the mayor cocked his gun loudly. Beluh was suddenly in Eagun's arms.

"Now, now. Hold still, everyone. I don't want to have to try and kill anyone." The mayor's voice had dropped to a raspy, scathing tone.

"It was you!" I pulled my sword into a defensive position. "That Ho-oh feather wasn't stolen, then. You took it out yourself! You put that same gun to my head that night I saw you sneaking out! And you could've killed me, but you didn't! You didn't know what use I would be to Cipher. Not until they did all those tests!"

"Smart." The hair on the sides of his hair popped out to the side a lot like a spring that had just broken it's tape seal. His eyebrows and mustache did the same; he was looking a lot like a porcupine. "Here's the deal, sweetie. I need to bring you back to headquarters for that final transformation. You know, the whole shabang with sword. If you want everyone here alive, you're going to need to come quickly." I flashed a smile.

"I can't do that."

"Oh?" He bared a full set of jagged teeth. "We'll see who's smiling now!" He pulled the trigger on the gun. The powder ignited and the aduible sound of the shot echoed throughout the room. Wes flinched and the others pried their gazes the other way. I, however, watched as the bullet from the gun refused to surface until long after the click, dropping to the ground. The psychic power that had enchanted the bullet was suddenly throwing the gun against the wall. Umbreon smacked the gun to the side and approached the mayor with teeth bared. Behind him, Umbreon was still holding the mayor in place.

"Good job, Espeon." A bead of sweat dropped down the side of my head. "I was hoping you read my mind."

"H-hoping?" Wes stammered.

"You're too late, sweetie." The mayor could barely talk through his forced shut teeth. "The plan with you fell through, so Cipher is going after the next best thing."

"Next best-?"

"Ho-oh," Grandpa figured out for me. "They're going after Ho-oh! We're leaving to MT. Battle now!"

"By the time you get there you'll be too late." The mayor cackled. "They've been climbing there ever since young Rui was first captured. You don't have the time." I could see him breaking the barrier to force a grin.

"We have plenty of time." I reached into my pocket. When I pulled the time flute I had repaired back on MT. Battle, Evice's expression change entirely. I didn't even wait for him to think of anything to say. The instant my lips touched the flute, the time traveling pokemon was right in front of me.

Celebi blinked, confused. Then she met eyes with me. A smile lit up her face.

"Rui!" Her voice was light and filled with life. She flew into my arms. I embraced her in a tight hug before holding her up in front of my face, arms under hers like a baby.

"I need your help."

"I figured." She blinked thrice. "To Mt. Battle with all of you?"

Mayor Used Transform!

Mayor Transformed Into Evice!

Evice Tried To Attack!

Attack Failed!

Saving Game…

Game Saved!