Counterbalanced – Chapter 28
Yena immediately sank down on the ground as she was pulled onto the pier, trembling and shivering.
One of Nicholas' men stood by her side, probably making sure she wasn't running away.
But she was feeling so miserable, that even standing up seemed like an impossible task.
Violent swearing announced Alex being hoisted from the water, up to the Prime Pier.
Kicking and screaming with a short burst of renewed energy, she managed to punch one man in the stomach, and break another one's nose, before finally collapsing to the ground, where she was immediately overpowered and pushed on her knees. Panting heavily, and now fully drained from her energy, Alex glowered at her older brother as he came closer.
Nicholas shook his head.
"Such a wild thing, as always."
He glared at two of his men.
One of them was still rubbing his stomach, the other one clutching his bloody nose.
"Congratulations, gentlemen. You've been beaten up by my little sister.
You must be so proud of yourselves."
Nicholas then seemed to remember Yena, who was still shaking.
He looked happy to have an audience, because when she looked up, he theatrically waved his arm at Alex.
"Behold, the person who has so horribly deceived you."
More to Alex than to Nicholas, Yena said with a shaking, but determined voice:
"I... I don't feel s-so... deceived."
Nicholas grinned.
"Are you sure? I can't wait to see what you think after hearing the whole story.
It is my pleasure to properly introduce you..."
He glanced at Alex.
"...to Elizabeth Kauri."
He laughed as Alex flinched, and growled:
"Don't call me that!"
"Ha! That's right... You always preferred to be called Liz, instead. So common."
Trembling from both the cold and anger, Alex hissed:
"That's not my name anymore."
Nicholas bent down fast, his face now only inches away from Alex'.
"Oh yeah? Then what have you been calling yourself?"
When Alex just stared at him, her lips pressed together, some frustration crept into Nicholas voice.
He waved his arm to Castelia City behind him.
"Do you have any idea how much time and effort I put into looking for you?
I search the whole of Unova, and you turn out to be hiding here all along!"
He roughly pushed Alex' shoulder, then shook her.
"And you just kept running from me! Because of your noncompliance, you put your friend here in danger!
It's your fault she nearly drowned!"
Powerless, Alex looked away from her brother.
Yena, on the other hand, responded immediately:
"That's not true! It's y-..."
Nicholas interrupted her by laughed again, but this time, it sounded more like a mad cackle.
"True? True...? I don't know you can recognise truth when it stares you in the face!
You put your trust in the wrong person, young lady!
Whatever you think of me, I'm not like Elizabeth. I'm not a murderer."
A moment of silence.
Yena looked like she'd been slapped in the face.
"...murderer?"
Nicholas grabbed a handful of Alex' hair, forcing her to look up by pulling her head back.
"Why don't you try telling the truth for once, Liz?
On the day of the fire, what was it that you did in the forest...? Tell her!"
Alex was breathing fast, her eyes going back and forth between her brother and Yena.
"I was... sending smoke signals with-..."
"Ha! Smoke signals! You played with fire...!
And somehow you end up in the middle of the fire that killed our parents!
You took a burning branch home with you that day, didn't you?"
He slightly shook her.
"Well...?"
Tears had started running down Alex' face.
"I... I can't remember!"
He pushed her again.
"You think the house set itself on fire...? Try a bit harder!"
Now sobbing, Alex cried out:
"I don't know! I can't remember anything!"
Nicholas straightened his back, and looked down on his sister.
"You can cry and play innocent all you want.
All the evidence is pointing at you, and I'm sure any judge will agree... It's obvious!
Being the wild child that you are, you did an irresponsible thing, and now you'll have to face the consequences."
His glare was merciless.
"Because of you, our parents are dead."
A sudden cry of pain behind him made Nicholas look around.
Yena had chosen this moment to jump up, elbowing her surprised guard in the face before dashing towards Castelia City, sometimes stumbling as she ran.
Nicholas' Houndoom barked ferociously, and prepared chase the girl, but Alex called out to her brother:
"...Let her go! Please, Nicholas! You don't need her anymore, right...?"
Yena was approaching Castelia City's wharf now.
As Houndoom jumped after her, Alex was quick to add:
"Think, Nicholas! What would people think if she was attacked by a shiny Houndoom right in front of the Pokémon Center, in plain sight...?
You're the only one with a Pokémon like that..."
Nicholas considered her words for a moment, then called out to his Pokémon.
"Houndoom, come back here! We'll find the girl back later. She's tired, and won't get very far."
He turned around to Alex again.
"As for you, I don't want to take any chances..."
He gestured at Hypno, who had been patiently waiting its turn.
As the Psychic Pokémon approached, Alex tightly closed her eyes, and turned her head away, determined not to get hypnotised.
She heard Nicholas growl.
"You worthless, little... Would you cooperate for once...?"
Alex gasped as she was slapped across the face.
The one, shocked second she opened her eyes was enough for Hypno.
As she was drawn in by the back-and-forth motion of the pendulum, she felt her muscles relax.
Her shoulders lowered, and the man that had been holding her down stepped back.
Nicholas' voice sounded somewhere in the back of her mind, but she no longer really registered what was going on around her.
"Alright then, that's a good girl. Stand up for me."
Her knees almost gave in as she got to her feet.
Nicholas grinned.
"Heh. She's completely drained. She won't be going anywhere soon, even if she breaks out of the hypnosis."
...
...
No one noticed the lone figure on the Cruise Dock pier, that picked up Alex' bag.
...
Nicholas scraped his throat once, then told Alex:
"Pay attention, Elizabeth. What I'm about to tell you is very important.
…When you wake up, you'll start to realise that you did take a burning branch from your fire in the forest.
You thought it'd be a good idea to show mom and dad your smoke signals, but accidentally dropped the thing in the living room.
You got scared, ran from the fire, and managed to get away. So in the end, it's your fault they're dead."
Alex breathed in deep, and shivered as the wind blew right through her wet clothes.
She stared at her brother without really seeing him.
One of Nicholas' men spoke up.
"But boss... what if she told people about what happened here on the piers...?"
Nicholas was quick to answer his question.
"Of course that'd made me look bad. But she won't tell them, because she won't remember a thing."
He turned to Alex again.
"Listen up, Elizabeth. You will not remember getting hypnotised. Furthermore, yo-..."
But Nicholas' instructions were suddenly interrupted.
With the wind blowing around them, they never heard the sound of hooves.
It was almost too late when the man standing closest to Nicholas saw Tauros, but he managed to shove his boss aside before being trampled by the furious Pokémon.
Without holding back, Tauros ran right past Alex, tackling both men and other Pokémon.
Houndoom yelped as she flew through the air, helplessly thrown into the water, and was soon followed by Hypno as the bull wildly waved its head.
The yellow Pokémon was instantly knocked out by the blow, and disappeared into the waves.
...
...
Alex blinked as her mind broke free from the hypnosis.
"...What?"
Her voice was barely audible.
Disoriented, she slowly turned her head towards the ruckus behind her.
There were wounded men scattered across the Prime Pier.
Tauros was standing near the edge of the pier, its horns only inches away from Nicholas' chest.
The brown Pokémon sniffed angrily, scraping one of its hooves along the ground, in preperation of pushing the man in front of him into the water.
Alex felt dizzy, and her memory was foggy.
She could hardly remember the things that had happened from the moment she was lifted out of the water, and she couldn't recall standing up, or Tauros appearing on the scene.
"...Tauros?"
The bull instantly turned his head towards her, almost knocking Nicholas into the water in the process.
Leaving Nicholas to stand on the edge of the pier, Tauros stepped over the injured men and gently nudged his owner's arm.
Completely numb from the cold, Alex felt like she could cry of relief as Tauros let her lean against his warm body.
Moving slow, she put one arm on his back, desperately trying to get her cold hand to claw into Tauros' manes.
Her clothes and hair were still dripping from her ordeal in the ocean, and the cold was making it difficult to move at all.
"Elizabeth...!"
Nicholas had called out to her. She turned her head.
"Don't come any closer, Nicholas. Tauros will attack you, if you do."
Her brother's eyes were wide.
"He's your Pokémon...?"
Alex ignored his question, and made another attempt to climb onto her Pokémon's back.
Nicholas ground his teeth.
"Don't you dare running away again, you..."
But he didn't have the courage to finish his sentence, as he was interrupted by an angry sniff from Tauros.
Nicholas' desperate words gave Alex' arms a tiny bit of energy.
She managed to pull herself up, just enough to lie down on Tauros' back.
As she clinged onto her Pokémon, Tauros started running for Castelia City, leaving her brother standing among his injured men.
As her Pokémon went into a gallop, Alex held on for dear life – her hands in his manes, her legs tightly around his body.
Keeping this up required all she had, so she never registered where Tauros ran to, nor the people he nearly ran over in the process.
...
Quinn frowned as he looked down the Gym Street.
Two minutes ago, he had almost been knocked over by Tauros, with Alex on his back.
The duo had caused people in the street to jump aside, before disappearing into an alley on the left side of the street.
He'd usually just feel irritated by Alex' ways, but he now strongly felt something was wrong – Alex' hair and clothes had been soaked, and he had not looked like the ridiculously alert young man that broke his nose more than a week ago. In fact, he hadn't even glanced aside as they galloped past.
As Quinn turned his head back to the wharf, another surprise awaited him.
There was a group of men running in his direction, some of them limping as they tried to keep up with the others.
The tall man in front, who seemed to be in charge of the group, sometimes stopped to question people present on the wharf.
They soon approached Quinn, who was curiously studying them.
The leader was panting slightly, but his dark eyes were constantly scanning the area.
"Young man, you should be able to help us out here.
According to what other people said, a girl went into this street a couple of minutes ago, riding a large brown Pokémon."
Quinn's jaw dropped slightly.
"A girl...?"
"Yes, a girl! You must've seen her...! It's important we find her, she's... wanted for murder!"
Quinn's eyes went wide.
"Murder...?"
The tall man nodded impatiently.
"Yes, yes! Now did you see her, or not?"
Quinn took one step back, and looked into Gym Street again.
After a short hesitation, he said:
"I saw her..."
The group of men immediately gathered behind him as he pointed down the street.
"See the building next to the gym...?
There's an alley immediately past there, on the right, and that's where they disappeared into..."
He pointed right to enforce his words, and that's all the group needed.
Without even thanking him, they started running down Gym Street.
Quinn waited until they were gone, his thoughts all over the place.
He'd just sent those men in the wrong direction.
What if Alex was really a criminal...?
Then he started walking for the alley on the left side of the street, mumbling to himself:
"I must be crazy for doing this..."
...
She couldn't hold on anymore.
This was the third time she had almost slipped from Tauros' back, and every single muscle in her body was screaming as she tried to climb back up.
Falling off while the Pokémon was still running would cause more damage than she could handle.
"T-Tauros... Stop..."
Her words were weak, but the Pokémon heard her.
He slowly came to a halt.
They were standing in the middle of a narrow street.
Alex let go of Tauros' manes, and landed on the ground quite ungracefully.
She lay down there for a moment, her eyes closed, cold and wet to the bone. But she was stirred back into moving when Tauros dropped something from his mouth, before his warm tongue started licking her face and hands. She slowly sat up.
There was a Pokéball on the ground, covered in saliva.
Tauros had been carrying it in his mouth all along.
Some of the things happening on the pier came back to Alex.
"Yena sent you..."
Tauros mooed softly, and bowed his head, before licking his owner's face again.
Her thinking clouded by the constant cold, Alex reached for the Pokéball, and held it out to Tauros.
"I s-should go and hide somewhere... But y-you stand out, so..."
Tauros now mooed loudly, protesting as red light from the Pokéball enveloped him, returning him to his Pokéball. Shakily, Alex got to her feet.
Calling her Pokémon back had been a case of poor judgment, but as she started to seriously be affected by hypothermia, she did not realise it. Without Tauros, there was nothing shielding her from the wind, and she cooled back down immediately.
Now shivering uncontrollably, she managed to stumble into another small alley.
She had no idea where she was.
As she took another step forwards, she stumbled and collapsed to the ground.
That's where she lay, barely conscious, Tauros' Pokéball clenched in her hand.
...Until he found her.
He observed her for a moment.
He then put one arm around her shoulders, the other under her knees.
Lifting her into his arms without difficulty, he turned around and started making his way through the streets.
...
...
'You will face truth and lies.
And in the end, you'll have no choice but to trust.'
...
...
Nestled against Quinn's warm body, Alex sighed once, before finally sinking away into unconsciousness.