"...what are you doing here?"
The calm, emotionless voice made Cynthia almost jump. She instictively held the book she was consulting closer to her chest, and turned around to see Cyrus still at the doorframe, eyeing her. The woman couldn't see any anger or irritation in him -actually, she couldn't see anything at all- but she was still somewhat panicked.
Thankfully, she had always been good at keeping her cool, and her reply came within seconds, as she remembered Mars' words: "Well, you did say to make myself at home, wasn't it?"
Seeing as he wouldn't move, Cynthia turned back to the desk full of scattered books, quickly adding: "A-and then, your batty lackeys gave me the information and permission to do so…!"
From the corner of her eyes, she could see Cyrus leaving a small sigh and pinching the bridge of his nose, seemingly mumbling something to himself.
"Fine then. If you find any enjoyment in this, you are free to access the library. However," he paused a second, and walked towards her: "I assume that this would mean you are accepting, or at least aknowledging, my rules."
"Like I would ever…!" started Cynthia raising a fist, but stopped mid-action as if frozen.
"Fret not. I have no intention to do anything right now...it's not the moment, nor place. But, I am afraid my patience is limited."
Cynthia found that she could move again, and slowly lowered her arm, still suspiciously glaring at the man.
"...mythology?" briefly inquired Cyrus, eyeing the book the blonde was holding and those scattered on the desk.
"Just an hobby," she quickly replied, closing the open books and setting them all aside: "I was bored, that's all."
"Is that so."
"Well...you seem to be really into this stuff though, aren't you?"
Cyrus slightly arched a thin eyebrow: "Did my assistants tell you anything?"
"Ahahah, no no! Just told me you like to read, no worries!" she briefly chuckled, before realizing with who she was talking and stiffened again: "I just noticed the multiple notes left on the books, that's all. That must be your writing, isn't it?"
The man silently scanned the pile of books again, nodding to himself: "A research. I hold no particular interest of personal connotation to the subject."
"May I ask what's this research about then?"
"I doubt a mere human may understand my aspirations."
"You know, the fact you keep underestimating me is starting to irk me."
"That is none of my concerns."
Cynthia rolled her eyes and returned to the books, absent-mindedly browsing through the pages of a random one: "Well, if you have to be such a killjoy, why don't you just leave me alone? You know, reading is supposed to be a relaxing activity."
"Until proven otherwise, this is my house, and I may do as I please. But," he continued as she was starting to open her mouth: "I see no point in continuing this conversation."
He turned to leave the room, and the woman made a face of distaste before returning to the books. She heard, however, him stating as he walked out -in an almost mocking way-: "You will not find what you're looking for; not in those books."
"Soooo, what would be your "master's" research all about?"
Saturn narrowed his eyes at the blonde woman, crossing his arms: "It's not my place to tell. Right now, I'm only supposed to bring you dinner…!"
"Awww, come on!" pried Cynthia, slightly elbowing him playfully: "It's surely something quite important, isn't it? I'm sure he asks your help as well, you all must put so much effort into it, I bet it's something you should be proud of!"
"Weeeeell…" started Saturn, but was harshly interrupted by Mars: "What are you, dumb or deaf? Where were you all the times me and Satty told ya how wonderful Master Cyrus is because he wants to create a perfect world, one without injustice, sadness or whatever bad things?"
"Create a perfect world?" Cynthia had a look of disbelief: "But that's impossible, it's just an utopy. And what would mythology help him in that? Maybe he wants to study how the world was at its origins, and see if he can implement some if its apparent peace in modern times…?"
"That's none of your business! And then...he doesn't share much about it with us. Just enough for us to understand and carry on orders." admitted Saturn, scratching the back of his head and looking away.
"Well, that's too bad. I am rather well-informed about mythology, and if it's of so much interest to him, I may be even able to help. A world without injustice sounds just like my type of world, I guess he's not that much of a bad guy afterall." replied the blonde woman, a bit pensive. She made a mental note to inquire more with Cyrus about the topic.
"Would you really?"
"We don't need your help!"
Was the simultaneous reply, from Saturn and Mars respectively.
"Why not?" started Cynthia, deciding to ignore Mars' remark: "I mean, I would have to know more from Cyrus first and…"
"No, no you will not." came Jupiter's sharp reply. If there was something Mars -and now also Cynthia- didn't like about Jupiter, one was how she managed to sneak in without a sound and scare the beejezus out of her. Oh, and how she acted all superior, how cold she was 85% of the time...Mars' mental rambling was interrupted by Jupiter, who had now approached the three.
"You stay out of this, human. It's none of your business, what does make you think that our Master would want you to help? You're no more than his favorite candy bar right now; you may come in a pretty packaging, but that's all you are."
"You think she's jealous?" asked Mars in a whisper to Saturn's ear.
"Nah silly, that's you, Jupiter's not the type." was his equally whispered reply: "She's probably just butthurt at the possibility that Master Cyrus would want help from a human stranger instead of ours. You know, she's always been quite the prideful one."
Cynthia was seemingly unaffected, and turned to her dinner, which was starting to get cold: "I'm sure your "Master" will tell me himself in such case, surely he's clever enough to not need a lawyer. Don't you get all worked up for something I merely mentioned, sweetie...and now, would you please leave me have dinner in peace? You wouldn't want to spoil the nutritional factors of your Master's favorite candy bar, mmmh~? I'm sure he wouldn't like that."
Jupiter only gave her a glare and turned on her heels, motioning to Mars and Saturn to follow her. She never liked debating, and she surely wasn't about to cave in one because of a stupid human.
Cynthia smiled to herself, and finally enjoyed her dinner and the silence of her room.
The morning after, Cynthia was woken up by the sound of a rambling Mars and something soft thrown on her.
"What, wait….what?!" the blonde only managed to mumble in confusion.
"Your clothes! Since the ones Jupiter took on second day apparentely weren't enough, today it was my turn to go and fetch your majesty her things!"
"Hey, now, it's not like I asked to be kidnapped!" replied Cynthia now fully irked and awake, gently folding the clothes and setting them on the nearby nightstand.
"Whatever! I have no intention on doing it again, there were so many people around…!" screeched Mars as she took her Pokémon form and flied out of the room.
Cynthia looked down at the still unfolded clothes in her hands, saddened.
It had been almost a week. People were worried, and looking for her. To think she was causing so much trouble, and just for the whim of a monster…
She resumed her folding work, and as she got to her jacket she noticed something hard in one of the pockets. Her phone.
In hope and disbelief, she immediately started fiddling with it: it appeared to be turned off, but she probably had done so manually because the phone lit up without an issue, half battery still charged.
Only one person knew about the whole issue with the three bats and would probably be more inclined to believe her; and so, without hesitation, she dialed up Steven's number, and crossed her fingers.
Steven was talking with Lucian and the others of Sinnoh's E4, repeating for the umpteenth time what he had said to the cops, to Cynthia's family, to the press, to Cynthia's Garchomp…
"Yes, it seems I've been the last person in contact with her. We were on Skype before she would go to sleep, as usual, then she got up to get a tub of ice-cream -so she said-, Skype glitched and I haven't heard anything from her since…" his face went white as he saw Cynthia's name popping up on his screen.
"It can't be….guys, it's Cynthia!" he only managed to exclaim, immediately picking up.
But all that filled his ears was faint static and the slightly distorted voice of Cynthia, anything she was trying to say incomprehensible. Steven tried talking to her, looking panicked at the E4 while fiddling with some tools he got from Devon to at least track her position.
Sadly, all he got were mostly glitchy results, but for some seconds it would give Turnback Cave as Cynthia's -or at least her phone's- position.
Cynthia threw the phone on the bed in frustration. Of course it wouldn't work. Not to mention she stubbornly clung to an older phone model which already had shitty coverage in her own dimension, let alone another one. All she could hear was Steven's voice distorted, and static.
She was back to step one. The young woman sat for some minutes on her bed, head in her hands, trying to bury the inevitable delusion that comes with shattered hope.
There had to be another way.
Mechanically, she sat up, roughly combed her hair, and resumed to put her clothes in order. So, what did she knew about Distortion World? Basically nothing. Cyrus was probably the only one who knew how to go to and from the two dimensions, and he surely wasn't going to tell her. His servants may know that too, given they ran errands for him, but it was very unlikely they would tell her, even with some manipulation. The only time she actually tried to gather information she couldn't find nothing in the books, just like Cyrus said…
Cynthia suddenly halted. He said she wouldn't find anything in those books. That meant there were probably others in which she could find information.
She smacked her head in realization; the private library! How didn't she think about it before?
The woman had just finished dressing up for the day and was opening the door, only to find a quite nervous Saturn who was almost going to knock on her face.
"Oh! So you're up!" he said startled, immediately lowering his hand: "May I have a moment? We need to talk."
Cynthia chewed a bit on her inner cheek in annoyance, her mind stuck to the private library, but let him in. Maybe she could shape the conversation to convince Saturn to tell her about that room.
The young man sat in one of the white chairs in the room, waiting for Cynthia to take a seat as well. She complied, and he almost immediately started talking: "It's been almost a week, miss. Listen, I am aware this is not the ideal situation to you but...I can tell my Master is starting to lose his patience, and if that happens, this already unpleasant circumstance will become even more so. For everyone."
"Are you here to treathen me on Cyrus' behalf? That's low, even for a vampire." commented the blonde raising a brow.
"No no! He actually wants you to collaborate, since he doesn't like physical action he wouldn't like to use force at all! He doesn't want to drug you either, says it spoils the taste of your blood."
"Oh, how nice of him."
"Just please, consider cooperating miss!"
"Does he really have to -ugh- bite me? Can't he just take a syringe of my blood or something, like you and your friends did the first months?"
Saturn mulled on it for a moment: "I'm guessing it's the natural instict of a vampire taking over, finally. But I know he doesn't like physical touch either, that's why he hired us in the first place, so it may be the best situation for both…"
"Well, tell him it's like that or nothing." concluded Cynthia standing up and storming out of the room.
"H-hey, it's not like you make the rules! Know your place, human!" was the only thing the blue-haired man replied, but he didn't go after her.
Guessing which of the rooms was the private library was going to be hard. Cynthia managed to find, among the others, Mars' bedroom (in which she was still sleeping very cutely if she could add) and another public library, which she planned to visit later. There were a few locked rooms, but the blonde's excitement about her new plan faded as she realized she had no clue how to open them (traditional locks were not a thing in this place apparentely, everything was hi-tech), and she didn't know which one was actually the library either (as she certainly didn't want to barge in Cyrus' bedroom).
Lost in thought in front of one of those locked doors, she gasped in startlement as she felt someone behind her, leaning a hand against the door as if to trap her.
"Looking for something?"
And there was again that feeling, making Cynthia unable to move.
"Yes, actually. But I doubt you'd help me." she managed to reply, fighting the paralysis with all herself.
"Well, you're not helping me, so why should I return the favor?"
"You're a freakin' psycho, why would I want to help you in the first place, you kidnapped me." her replies now were whispered through clenched teeth, and she couldn't tell if it was because of the paralysis or anger.
"Rest assured it's not a want, but a need. I'd rather not have strangers in my home, snooping in my rooms." shot back Cyrus, and slowly set her thick blond hair aside to expose her pale neck: "What is this nonsense about syringes you've been telling my servant?"
Cynthia shivered, but could otherwise not move: "Nonsense? It would be the most logical resolution, don't you think? It's my blood you want, not contact with me. And I sure as hell don't wanna be touched by a sick fuck like you."
"That would be ideal, yes. But see, there's something I aknowledged while feeding on you during this time: first, the taste seems to different, better, if consumed directly from the source. Second, it seems that "hunting" brings also psychological benefits, and trust me, it's something I myself am disgusted by. Think of it like a snake refusing to eat an already dead mice."
Cynthia faintly shivered again; she thought to have a chanche to avoid this whole mess, but it looked like his mind was already dead set. And as much as she hated that, as long as he kept her paralyzed who-knows-how, she was powerless to stop him.
The vampire, not hearing further replies from her, was already starting to near his fangs to her neck, and in a panic Cynthia raised her voice as much as she could: "N-no! WAIT!"
Cyrus was visibly irritated, but halted.
"I, uhm...will...will it hurt?" she was grasping at straws to try and delay him as much as she could, but she couldn't think of anything better to say.
"No. I doubt you may remember, but the first couple times my skills were rusty, yes; but now, my bite is regular just as any other vampire, and I'd dare say it will even bring you pleasure."
He inched again towards her, and she tried squeaking out something else: "P-pleasure?! No way! How in the world could I possibly enjoy this…?"
Cyrus sighed, stopping again: "It's not about whether you like it or not, it's just science. I will inject you with a pleasure-inducing substance. Even some Pokémon do that -Jupiter does-, it's in order to keep the prey paralyzed...let's just say that for my kin this tactic has developed."
Now she really didn't know what else to add. She could feel already his breath on her neck, his canines prickling her skin...and then she suddenly got an idea.
"Nnno, wait...not now, I just woke up…! Why don't you tell me about your perfect world, instead? What if I can help you with that?"
Cyrus froze, and backed away. Even though she couldn't move, Cynthia could see him deep in thought from the corner of her eye, and for the first time since she was there she saw life in his eyes.
"Sounds doable," and hearing that, she gave a sigh of relief, but was immediately interrupted: "but we'll have to postpone this for later -I just can't focus when I'm hungry."
A/N: and here it goes with the shitty chapters...! Because Cynthia agreeing to being bitten and bonding with those four dorks will be extremely hard, if not unbelievable, to build up xD Still, I'll try~! There's always some point in fanfics where I find it hard to continue writing because I'm unsure of my storytelling skills, but in the end hey -I'm not writing a book! I realized I should do this just for fun, as it was supposed to start c: So constructive critique and suggestions are always welcome, as I really want to improve, but please remember I'm doing this for fun ^^ Anyways, thanks to anyone who may be reading this! It means a whole lot to me! /sends kisses*