Blanche awoke to a glowing, crystalline world. Thick crystal columns and spires rose around them at wild angles, intersecting and exploding apart, melding together until they reached the circumference of tree trunks. For a few moments, Blanche couldn't move, so struck were they by the glimmering formations that surrounded them.
But spectacular as the crystals were, Blanche had no time to admire them further. They pushed themself off the cold ground, rolling the stiffness from their joints. They remembered everything. Falling through the trapdoor, the hypno in the dark, falling asleep before they could call upon their pokémon. They even remembered the small circle of metal on the side of the hypno's head. They'd only had a second to see it, but that was enough to determine it wasn't natural.
Spark and Candela were nowhere to be seen, but Blanche wasn't surprised. Whoever their captors were, they knew better than to imprison the three leaders together. Though Blanche already suspected they'd been stripped of their pokémon and communicator, they checked to make sure, and came up empty.
They turned their attention to the crystal chamber for clues. It seemed to go on forever to their right, but the hundreds of crystal columns overlapped with such frequency that it was hard to see far in that direction. There was enough space to pass through the crystal forest, but perhaps not comfortably. The crystals thinned out to their left, and the room narrowed into a dark tunnel, just tall enough for a human to walk through.
"If you expect me to scurry through your maze like a rattata in a lab, you'll be disappointed," Blanche announced, loud enough that whoever was monitoring them couldn't help but hear.
"Blanche, you put me to shame. You're even sharper than I expected."
A scientist (or so Blanche surmised from the dirty lab coat) with a warm smile and gentle features strolled out from behind a thick crystal tower. She carried herself professionally, though Blanche immediately noted her disheveled hair, crooked glasses, and muddied clothes. Blanche also noted the R-marked uniform beneath the coat, and a distant memory struggled to resurface.
"Dr. Dillinger. It's a pleasure to meet you," said the scientist, extending her hand.
Blanche ignored the invitation. "Joan Dillinger. I'd hoped we would never meet."
Dr. Dillinger withdrew her hand and shook it, pretending it had been singed by Blanche's words. "Oo-hoo! That's a bit rude, don't you think? I presume Willow has disclosed a little of our history to you? How much?"
"Enough to know that you're an unethical pokémon researcher who sold your soul to an immoral secret society," Blanche said.
"It won't be a secret for much longer," said Dr. Dillinger. She traced her fingers down a length of crystal, and the refracted light cast rainbows over her hands. "And your choice in adjectives has clearly been tainted by hearing only Willow's side of the story. I'm surprised he would go into such detail with you in the first place. You don't seem like the natural pick for someone to confide in. I suppose you excel at keeping secrets, though."
To tell the truth, Blanche had been surprised when the professor opened up to them one quiet autumn evening about his old friend Joan. He'd been upset in that withdrawn, contemplative manner of his, and Blanche supposed he'd only chosen to speak to them because he'd wanted to process his thoughts out loud, and it didn't really matter to whom. His friend, he explained, was a brilliant woman, but lacked the conscience vital to a pokémon researcher. She had no limits, no principles, but Willow had always hoped she could change. Willow told Blanche that he'd had to cut Joan out of his life altogether now that she was teaming up with a seedy organization that mirrored her own misguided ideals. Team Rocket, that was it. Ambitious, explosive, lethal.
"Not much of a talker, are you?" asked Dr. Dillinger.
"I have no interest in talking with you. If you have something to say to me, get on with it," said Blanche. They scanned the environment, looking for a weapon, or a distraction, or anything that could give them leverage.
"Straight to the point. I like that." Dr. Dillinger reached into her coat, and Blanche braced themself. "No need to be so jumpy! You were right about the maze, but I think you had some of the details wrong. Here."
The scientist tossed something to Blanche, and they caught it by reflex. A pokéball. Resolute's pokéball, they realized as they inspected it.
"You're clever enough that you probably already know why you're here, but humor me a moment longer. Your genius is outrageously limited by Professor Willow's lab. To truly shine, you need a freedom that he would never permit you. But Team Rocket would never shackle you to an arbitrary code of conduct. Nothing stands between us and our scientific domination."
"I'm never joining you. I request you return my friends and my pokémon to me at once and let us go," Blanche said, tightening their hold on Resolute's ball. What was this woman trying to accomplish here?
Dr. Dillinger pursed her lips in a look of mild disappointment. "No, see, I'm not inviting you to join my lab. I'm telling you to. You don't have a choice here, Blanche."
With a whisper of scales over crystal, an arbok slithered down a column by Dr. Dillinger's head, spiraling slowly to the ground. Blanche prepared to release Resolute.
"Not yet," Dr. Dillinger said in a calm, almost motherly tone. "Blanche, I've analyzed the weaknesses of your teammates. They are faulty, ruled by emotion, imperfect. By finally eliminating emotion from yourself, you can transcend them completely. You would be the ultimate pokémon expert if you could free yourself from your emotional attachments and arbitrary definitions of morality. So, I'm going to help you take your first step to being a Rocket today."
The arbok coasted over the stone floor like a length of purple silk, light and effortless. Instead of coming toward Blanche, she angled toward the corridor that led into the vast chamber. She positioned herself behind a cluster of crystals, hidden from the dark passageway, but visible to Blanche and Dr. Dillinger. A million terrible possibilities flooded Blanche's mind.
"See this diode?" Dr. Dillinger tapped a small device on the side of her head, and Blanche remembered the matching one on the hypno. "I can transmit a command to Arbok with a mere thought. I'm telling her to pump a fatal dose of venom into anyone that passes her hiding place. So, your job is to stop anyone from passing her, by any means necessary."
Blanche held their pokéball up. "And this is for…?"
Dr. Dillinger smiled patiently. "As I said. Any means necessary. Your goal is to send the person who's about to enter this room back the way they came. But there are some rules. You must not mention Arbok, or I'll have her strike. You must not use your pokémon against me, or she'll strike. You must not even mention me, or she'll strike. Ideally, you'll force this person back into the passageway by convincing them that they cannot follow you, that they should not follow you, that they should never want to see you again. You see, I can't have anyone thinking they can rescue you. Do you understand?"
Sweat dripped from Blanche's hairline. They understood perfectly.
Uneven footsteps sounded from the corridor, and Dr. Dillinger clapped giddily and slid out of sight of the entrance. "Now, if I'm not convinced by your performance, I'll take matters into my own hands and kill your would-be savior myself. So if you want them to live, make it a good show. And remember, this is for your own good."
Blanche glared at her horrible, grinning face, but they didn't have time to come up with a counter to Dr. Dillinger's gambit. They had to remain cool, not let her break their concentration. They focused on the corridor and the approaching steps, hoping they had the wits to keep whoever appeared alive through the scientist's mad game.
Though Blanche knew there were only two people who could come out of the tunnel, their heart still fell to see Spark limp into the light. His beloved puffy coat still hung from his shoulders, but it was torn and dirtied, much like Dr. Dillinger's. A small trail of blood ran from his temple to the base of his jaw, and he favored his right leg as he walked. But he still beamed when he saw Blanche ahead of him, and it felt like a knife in their stomach.
Spark immediately called out to them, trying his best to hurry despite the limp. "Blanche! You're OK! Right? I didn't mean to jump to conclusions. You always have your stoic face on, so it's hard to tell, and-"
"Stop!" Blanche shouted, holding out their hands.
Spark did, several feet away from the unseen arbok. The pokémon's tongue wisped in and out, tasting the air, judging the distance of her prey.
"What's going on?" Spark asked, his smile turning quizzical. Suddenly, his expression changed to alarm. "Is this your trap? Just tell me what I need to do. I'll get you out, and then we'll find Candela."
So, he'd been in his own trap. No. He was still in the trap. Blanche swallowed hard and pushed down the heartache. Memories tried to break through their mental barrier, but they couldn't afford to linger on them. Spark singing a very loud, very off-key birthday song to them, even though it wasn't their birthday. Spark tucking a blanket over them when they fell asleep in the midst of a long night of data-crunching, and bringing them coffee and sweets in the morning. Spark leaning on them when he left the hospital after the storm, soaking up the sunlight, looking so joyful despite the sorrow Blanche had seen in his heart.
"I'm not in a trap, Spark," Blanche said, locking any trace of emotion out of their words. This was for Spark. They had to do this for him. He would suffer, but he would live.
"Great! Because I have been having a hell of a time playing hide-and-seek with the world's giggliest psychopath, and I'm in desperate need of some good news," Spark said with a breathy, fatigued laugh.
That could only be Dr. Dillinger. The woman sure got around. Had she gotten to Candela yet? Blanche set aside the thoughts, knowing that one false move could mean the difference between life and death.
"You need to go back," Blanche said.
Spark tilted his head. "Go back? No, Blanche, there's no way I'm going back there. It's all darkness and dead ends. Have you explored that way?"
Blanche searched their mind for something to say, but saw the arbok lift her head and tense, as though preparing to dart for Spark. Dr. Dillinger was acting on her threat. Make it convincing, or else…
"You're not coming with me. Get out of here," Blanche said, louder than before.
Something changed in Spark's eyes and Blanche could see him physically flinch at their words. "Blanche… what are you…?"
"I can't carry you through this. You'll drag me down."
Even from several yards away, Blanche could see his breathing abruptly shift from slow and measured to quick and irregular. They were reminded of the moment on the trail, when Spark had collapsed. They kept their face as flat as they could manage.
"Blanche, please… please don't say that," Spark said, forcing a weak smile.
He stepped forward, and Blanche called Resolute from his ball. The venusaur appeared facing Spark, only a few feet from the waiting arbok. Resolute turned his head, watching Blanche, trying to understand what he was meant to do.
"Don't make me do this, Spark," Blanche said.
"You met her too, didn't you? The mad scientist?" Spark asked, taking another step forward.
Blanche glanced at Dr. Dillinger, who nodded permission. "Yes, I met her. She invited me to join her lab."
"She's making you act like this, isn't she? She gets in people's heads, Blanche, but she's not as all-knowing as she thinks," Spark said, his voice steadying again.
The arbok arched up as Spark hobbled toward the cluster of crystals. Blanche had to act immediately.
"Vine whip! Don't let him take another step!" Blanche commanded.
Resolute obeyed without hesitation. He must have heard the conversation with Dr. Dillinger from within his ball. That thought at least provided Blanche with a small comfort as his vines snapped at the ground in front of Spark.
Spark stopped, but didn't move back. "You wouldn't…"
"She was right about you. You've been a hindrance to me ever since you joined the lab. With her, maybe I can finally do something other than babysit you," Blanche stated. It took everything for them to hold eye contact with Spark as he processed their words.
"Please, stop talking like this. Whatever she's doing to you, we can overcome it!" Spark pleaded. He tried to hide his trembling hands in his coat pockets. "Just please, stop saying these things. I… I can't…"
Blanche had no choice. He wasn't going to hear them. If they were going to convince him, it had to be with more than words. There could be no coming back from this.
"Venusaur, again! His ankle!"
They saw the fear flash in his eyes the moment before the vine struck his injured right ankle. He cried out as it hit, and he fell to the side, where he curled in on himself to brace against the pain. When he had himself under control again, he forced himself to his feet, barely allowing pressure on the wounded leg.
"Blanche…" he started, but they didn't let him continue.
"Drive him back, Venusaur," Blanche ordered.
Resolute snapped his vines at Spark over and over, but Spark crossed his arms in defense, and the vines succeeded only in tearing the sleeves of his coat and knocking him back one small, clumsy step at a time.
"Harder," Blanche said.
Spark dropped his arms and met Blanche's eyes as Resolute wound up the strike. For that fraction of a second, the fear was gone from his face, replaced with intense focus. Blanche felt his eyes cut into them, searching for something far, far below the surface.
And then the whip cracked forward so fast that Blanche barely registered what had happened. One moment, Spark was facing them, and the next, he was sailing backwards, his head twisted to the side, his body limp. He hit the ground like a sack of flour, and for several agonizing seconds, Blanche thought they'd gone too far. Why had he dropped his guard? Why had he let Resolute strike him like that? Why wasn't he moving?
But then Spark pushed himself up, much slower than before. He'd been flung far enough back to use the corridor wall to help pull himself upright. His cheek was marred by a red, angry welt, and he kept his eyes to the ground.
"You… you really want this, then?" he asked in a low voice.
Blanche gritted their teeth. "Stop wasting my time and leave."
Spark nodded, still unable to look at them. "OK. I trust you. Goodbye, Blanche. Take care of yourself."
He turned and, using the wall as support, limped back into the darkness of the corridor. Blanche waited, frozen, for Dr. Dillinger to make the first move. After a few minutes, the arbok slithered back into the shadows, and the scientist stepped out of her hiding place and sauntered toward Blanche as if she were approaching an old friend.
"And a decent actor, too! Blanche, you are simply-"
Resolute's vine knocked her back, slamming her against a sideways bar of crystal. Dr. Dillinger gasped for the air that had been knocked from her lungs as Blanche descended on her with the inescapable deadliness of an oncoming storm. They pinned her against the crystal to give Resolute time to cross the cavern and assist.
"I didn't even need a diode," Blanche said, their face as calm and blank as it had been for Spark.
Dr. Dillinger grinned up at them, but her shifty eyes betrayed her uneasiness. "See how much stronger you're already becoming? Just think of the baggage you're leaving behind with Candela and Spark out of your life. Especially that Team Instinct fuckup. How could Willow pick such a useless, pathetic, idio-"
A strange thing happened as Blanche's fist crashed into Dr. Dillinger's face. The impact seemed to explode across the cavern, rattling the crystal formations, shaking the very stones they stood upon. Blanche quickly realized it couldn't have been their punch alone that caused the quake, but somehow, it felt like the power behind it had come pouring out of their body and into the cave.
A sound like a thousand ringing bells, like a mighty wind through ice-laden trees, rose from somewhere deep below Blanche's feet. The power surged through them a second time as they remembered the cry of a pokémon they thought they'd never encounter again.
"Jynx! Blizzard!" Dr. Dillinger shouted.
"Resolute, come back!" Blanche cried, clumsily extending his pokéball. They couldn't risk him fainting to his type advantage.
Resolute vanished into the pokéball, but the attack hadn't been meant for him. Dr. Dillinger's jynx, called while Blanche had been distracted by the quaking, spread her arms and summoned an icy wind. Blanche covered their face, but it was too late. The ice caught them and threw them back, and the last thing they saw before they passed out was Dr. Dillinger's bloodied, smiling face.
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AN: Ugh, folks, I'm so sorry that I keep having pronoun slip-ups. Please do point them out to me (thank you, jaguarspot!)! Even when I reread and edit my work, they can slip by. As someone who doesn't fully identify as my assigned gender, it's especially important to me to remain consistent and get the hang of using neutral pronouns like they/them casually and comfortably.