Chapter 7: The Story You'll Never Tell

"When fate throws a dagger at you, there are two ways to catch it;

By the blade, or by the hilt."

~ Chinese Proverb

AN: Hey there! So, I've been writing a lot. Yay. Here's another chapter for you before I go home and pass out. Yay coffee overload. Just to let you readers know, I'm posting this alongside a short fic which is a sort of crack-fic sequel/prequel thing that goes along with the Christmas Special I posted a while back. If you're looking for something short and amusing, I'd suggest checking it out. Or not, you know, whatever. Anyway, uh... Here's a chapter for you.

Warning, I'm posting this without my standard pre-posting check ('cause I'm not conscious enough) so I'll apologize if there's any odd grammar bugs.

Michael sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. It was too early in the morning to be getting headaches. Cysgod was curled up on a rather flat boulder, head resting on crossed forelegs and red eyes closed as she dozed in the early morning sunlight. Thanau had pressed himself against the absol's white-furred flank, his eyes also closed as he too dozed, his flame-tipped tail twitching and leaving little scorch trails along the edge of the boulder. Broga had elected to sprawl himself out in Michael's lap rather than fight with Thanau for rock-space. A little bubble had formed on the froakie's nose, growing and shrinking as the little frog breathed in his sleep. Michael was the only one awake.

As a young inexperienced cop, Michael was relieved to have someone else on the case. Someone he could bring information to, and trust to see things that he missed. Someone else who could be in charge. As the agent Archangel however, he was suspicious and wary. He didn't know anything about the stranger who went by Titan, and even though he was also an agent, that made him an unknown variable. Amersu's reaction to the mention of Titan's codename was somewhat reassuring, but Archangel didn't fully trust the sprite that had gotten him into his situation in the first place either.

Michael blinked and brought his mind back to his surroundings as Cysgod abruptly opened her eyes, lifting her head and staring into the trees. Her movement woke Thanau, who glanced up at her and then to Michael before staring into the same patch of trees as the absol. A few seconds later, Agent Titan ghosted out of the trees, moving almost silently over the leaf litter. He was shortly followed by a massive Mightyena and a smiling Gardevoir, the latter of the two nodding politely to Michael as she stepped into the small clearing. Titan himself paused, ice-blue eyes meeting with Cysgod's red gaze as the agent and the absol stared at each other.

"Huh." Titan muttered, shaking his head and shifting his gaze to Michael. He didn't move however, simply staring at the younger agent. Finally, Michael had had enough of squirming under the searching gaze.

"What?" He half-demanded, staring back at the agent in challenge. One corner of Titan's mouth twitched up in a partial smile as he shrugged and shoved his hands into the pockets of his black jeans.

"I'm just wondering if this is going to be a meeting between Titan and Archangel, or between Darius and Michael."

Michael blinked in surprise at the question, thrown off by the implication. The older agent was giving him a choice. They could converse as two unfamiliar agents working the same case, or they could speak as two concerned people with information on a common threat.

"Not sure I'm ready to meet anyone as Agent Archangel yet." Michael admitted with a sigh as he leaned back against his tree. Titan nodded and his half-smile grew and softened as his stance settled into something more casual.

"This is Kuraishi and Ayashii." Darius introduced, indicating the Mightyena and the Gardevoir in turn. "My third Pokémon, Ryuushi, is up in the sky; the trees were too close together for her wingspan to get through comfortably."

"These are Thanau, Broga, and Cysgod." Michael introduced, indicating the charmeleon, froakie, and absol. Darius nodded to each Pokémon, but his eyes lingered on Cysgod, his smile slipping into a partial frown again.

"Did you catch her just recently?" He asked, cocking his head to the side in curiosity. Michael frowned warily at the odd question, but he answered anyway.

"Just yesterday actually. Stole my hat and started following me around."

"You had three Pokémon with you when Lysandre was interrogating you." He commented, bringing his gaze back to the teen. Michael's heart skipped a beat and promptly lodged itself into his throat. Should he tell the other agent? Tell him when Michael hadn't even been able to admit to himself what had really happened? It was ludicrous, and even after several weeks, Michael expected to wake up any minute from the decidedly strange dream. How could he expect someone else to believe the truth when he didn't believe it himself?

While Michael debated with himself, Darius sighed and sat himself against another tree facing the younger man.

"I've never told anyone this directly, not even Looker, but I see things others can't." Darius said, breaking Michael's internal turmoil. "In the coffee shop, your face was completely composed, but I could see underneath that. It's how I could tell you were afraid of Lysandre. And how you weren't afraid of me until I introduced myself as Titan. It's how I could recognize that Lysandre is someone to be cautious around, even if I have no idea why. And it's how I can see that you're afraid of explaining to me that fourth Pokémon, even though you're not afraid of the Pokémon itself." Darius shrugged. "As long as it's not a threat to any civilians, I'm fine with not knowing. Everyone has secrets and stories they'll never tell anyone else."

Once Darius fell silent, Michael shivered. Slowly, he reached down to his belt and retrieved Amersu's Pokeball. He stared through the red dome at the little sprite within, frowning. Finally, he shook his head and returned the ball to his belt.

"I'm pretty sure she's trying to help." Michael admitted hesitantly. "And I should tell you what happened; without that story most of the information I have would be highly questionable, but I can't even admit it to myself right now. Maybe in a few more weeks, or maybe a few months. Maybe even years."

"And maybe never." Darius concluded knowingly, nodding. Seeing that, Michael let out a heavy sigh. He took a few seconds to acknowledge that he wasn't going to have to explain what Amersu had done to the other agent before he focused his mind once more. Darius allowed him that time before asking his next question.

"So just who is Lysandre?" The blue-haired agent asked. Michael took a second to think out how to explain Lysandre, and convince the other agent that the accusation he was about to make really was the truth.

"You said you could recognize that he was someone to be cautious around?" Michael asked cautiously. He could recognize that Darius's reading of people was Michael's Amersu; the story he'd probably never tell anyone, but he needed at least something to work with. Darius was silent for a few seconds.

"If I had to describe him in one word, I'd say predatory." He said slowly, folding his hands in his lap and frowning in recollection. "I've gotten those kind of vibes from some other businesspeople, who are just a bit too exuberant about making a sale, but he wasn't trying to sell us anything. That sense was out of place in that conversation. And as soon as he realized neither of us were biting, we became nuisances in his mind." Michael nodded, fitting Darius's observations of the confrontation into what he knew about Lysandre.

"This is going to sound far-fetched, and I'm afraid I can't explain how I know, but Lysandre has a plan." He paused, thinking about how to explain. "I don't know why, but he seems to despise the idea of time passing." He shook his head. "That's not quite right. Its growing old that he despises, I think. He was trying to recruit us to his cause, back in the coffee shop."

Darius seemed to think about that, combining what he'd picked up in the coffee shop with what Michael had said. Slowly, he began to frown. Then abruptly, he swore. Loudly.

"Team Flare." Darius stated, staring at Michael, who nodded quietly. "He's their leader." Michael blinked at how quickly Darius had made the jump, but nodded anyway. Darius didn't stop however, his racing thoughts practically written across his face. "Do you know how he planned to achieve that?"

"I didn't have much time to study the file before…" Michael took a deep breath, still unable to speak, and pressed on. "There's some kind ancient machine buried in Genosage down. I know one of Team Flare's bases is in that town too, but I don't remember where the entrance was. I know the machine is in the centre of the base though. The town was practically destroyed when the machine activated. The machine was supposed to harness the power of the two legendary Pokémon, Xerneas and Yevtal. I'm not sure how it was supposed to work, but…" He paused again, taking a deep breath as his memories of smoke and death and decay rose up to choke him.

Darius was silent as he allowed Michael to simply breathe. He recognized the throbbing chill coming off the teen as the same hurt he'd felt coming off people after the disaster in Hoenn. People who had seen others wounded and even killed by the violent disaster. The 21-year-old hadn't missed the odd tenses his junior had used when speaking of Lysandre's plan either. He'd dealt with the rulers of time, space, and distortion; add that to Michael's sure knowledge of what Lysandre's plan was, and it wasn't a far jump to figure out just what trauma the teen had experienced. No wonder he couldn't bring himself to tell Darius what had happened. Or explain how he'd come across his knowledge. While Michael was still calming down, Darius's communicator beeped, startling both agents and their assorted Pokémon. With a quick motion Darius plucked the device from his pocket and flipped it open.

"Hey there boss." He greeted in a chipper voice.

"I told you to take vacation Stellon." Looker growled without preamble. "It's not optional."

"I am on vacation sir." Darius said with a smirk at Michael. "In fact, I'm sitting in a beautiful woodland clearing enjoying the fresh morning air, away from all potential lunatic criminals, and in a while, I'm going to go sip coffee, probably in front of a fireplace, at a café. And then after that, I think I'll go enjoy a visit to the harbour over in Coumarine. Maybe visit a museum or two." In front of him, he could see Michael gaping like a fish. The volume on the communicator plus Looker's natural volume meant it was highly likely that the younger agent could hear both sides of the conversation. Looker, for his part, was surprisingly silent for a few seconds.

"I know you Stellon." Looker finally growled. "I don't know about fresh air and coffee and oceans, but visiting a museum sounds like Stellon-talk for research. My supervisors will have my ass if they know you're running around on this case when you're on medical leave."

"I thought I was on mandatory vacation." Darius teased.

"You got a concussion and several fractured bones Stellon. You did not go to a hospital like you should have, you hid in a bar in a completely different region so I couldn't lecture you. Its medical leave, Stellon, and that means the bosses will have my hide if they know you're running around before you've been cleared!" And with that, Looker hung up, leaving Darius with a quietly humming communicator and an open-mouthed teenager.

"Medical leave?" The teen practically squeaked. Darius shrugged and tucked the device back into his bag.

"I have a tendency to attract trouble. And bounce off hard things. I made a miscalculation, and it was just a concussion. Looker was exaggerating. Sort of." Michael blinked and shook his head.

"You're crazy. Your boss sounded pretty pissed." Darius just shrugged, rising to his feet.

"Looker knows I don't stop working. I'm pretty sure he's given up trying to convince me to do otherwise. It's all word-games now." Darius snickered. "We use half-truths so we never lie. I told him I was enjoying the air and I'll have coffee later. I'm talking to you now, and later on I'm going to get coffee for breakfast. Then I'm going to make like a vacationer and enjoy the harbour in Coumarine for a while, and after that I'll head to Luminose and visit the museums. If there's legendary Pokémon involved, there's legends to be studied. And besides, Looker only mentioned the supervisors hearing about this. Which means he's not going to tell them. He's warning me that he's heard stuff, and I'd better not stick out any further or they'll know too. And then he'd be in trouble."

"That is convoluted and confusing." Michael informed the blue-haired young man, also rising to his feet and following Darius out of the clearing. Darius laughed and shrugged.

"Welcome to my life. Now come on, it's too early to work without coffee, and I want to see the docks."

"Darius again sir?" Johnny asked, watching his boss furiously pressing the end call button on his communicator.

"If no one from Team Flare manages it first, I'm going to kill that kid." Looker growled, still pressing the button. The call had disconnected, but he was still frustrated. Giving up, he slammed it down on his desk, grinning darkly at the sound it made. Noticing his subordinate's badly hidden smirk, Looker growled.

"Hanging up on people isn't nearly as satisfying as it used to be."

AN: Like I said, not conscious enough. Review please? Tell me if I'm being confusing, or if you have any ideas. And maybe go check out my other story while you're at it. Title is "In the Muse Department". Heh :)