Chapter Thirty Three – Confrontations pt 1
Keith stood in front of a jewellery stand in the Driftveil Market, which was bustling with shoppers visiting the numerous stalls with their Pokémon. One of the stalls sold an assortment of clothes that included fedora hats and wool sweatshirts, one sold a variety of dairy products and another sold fresh vegetables; Ava watched as a small Fennekin sniffed one of the carrots with curiosity as his Trainer spoke to the stall owner regarding what she wanted from his stand – it was fortunate that the Trainer wanted carrots in her order, as her Fennekin helped himself to one while she was distracted, much to Ava's amusement. Keith, meanwhile, accepted a gift box half the size of a standard sheet of paper with a beautiful emerald green ribbon tied around it from the middle-aged woman on the other side of the stall.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, honey; I'm sure the recipient will love them!" Keith laughed nervously.
"Y-Yeah, I hope she will..."
"Go get 'er, Raikou," the stall owner winked as Keith began to make his way out of the market.
Keith soon strode through the main lobby of the Driftveil Star Hotel; more patrons were checking out of the hotel than checking in, but, somehow, there was slightly more chaos than Keith had recalled seeing – in fact, there was a Froakie on the ceiling! Keith was about to turn a corner when Naomi made her way to the lobby with Steven, Robbie and Reese next to her. Keith happily reunited with his Sawsbuck and Buizel, petting them on their heads as he greeted them.
"Steven brought your Pokémon back here, but what's going on?" Naomi asked worriedly. "They seemed upset."
"You mean nobody brought you up to speed? Xavier had an... ...no, it's not an accident; he was brutally assaulted," Keith explained resentfully.
"Oh, my gosh...! Is he okay?!"
"Nobody is."
"Pardon?"
"Xavier's still in surgery as far as I know and Alexa's even more of an emotional wreck than usual... Hell, even Ryder's not doing so good!" Naomi was shocked.
"I-I'll have a word with Harvey about it later, but...oh, gosh... If you're going to go down and see her, please give her my regards."
"I will; I'm planning to take Robbie down to Castelia City afer a shower anyway."
"I'll look after your other two Pokémon if you'd like," Naomi offered kindly.
"Are you sure? You've already done me a favour by having your Gallade bring the boys here from Troy's Daycare Centre!"
"It's no trouble at all, really," Naomi smiled.
"Thank you, that would be great!" Ava jumped off of Keith's shoulder and grabbed onto Robbie's antler as Keith waved Naomi farewell and walked over to the elevator at the end of the corridor.
Alexa sat in front of the Leavanny water fountain in Castelia Park, with Ryder sitting on one side of her and Jollie sitting on the other side of her. Both Pokémon kept a concerned eye on Alexa, who held onto her knees and stared at her feet lifelessly, feeling greatly depressed after her heated verbal fight with her father.
"...m-maybe I shouldn't have said anything..."
"I thought you said you had to before Adelina did," Ryder said carefully.
"I know..." Alexa sighed deeply. "I was damned if I didn't and damned if I did...either way, it-it was coming out today..." Ryder looked down at his own feet with depression.
"...because of me..."
"Huh?" Alexa looked over at her Lucario with confusion.
"If I'd have just kept my mind-mouth shut-"
"Ryder, don't-"
"Then Xavier wouldn't be in that Theatre place where Gabby died!" Alexa was horrified; Ryder had essentially presumed that Xavier would die solely because he was in Theatre.
"Xavier is NOT going to die!" she yelled. "T-The doctors KNOW what's wrong with him; they didn't know what was wrong with Gabby until it was too late!" Ryder hung his head even lower, feeling ashamed to have even conjured up such a presumption in the first place.
"...sorry..." Alexa looked away from Ryder, her anxiety swiftly returning to her.
"...but... ...oh, Xavier...!" Alexa buried her face in one hand as she tried not to succumb to her tears for the umpteenth time in one day; she was getting exhausted from all of the times she cried her eyes out within an hour alone! Ryder gently placed his paw on her shoulder.
"Go and see Keith."
"Huh?" Alexa faced her Lucario again and saw how meaningful he looked.
"I know you wanna sort things out with Hayden, but I don't think you're ready yet. At least let him know how it went!" Feeling even more pessimistic, Alexa looked back at her boots. "Alex..."
"I'll see him if I can't nip this in the bud...I already told you that."
"What do you want to do now?" Ryder asked. Alexa stood up and brushed some dust off of her backside before taking a deep breath, as if she instinctively knew she'd come to regret what she had in mind.
"...I'm going to talk to my Dad..." Ryder and Jollie stood up; despite mutually agreeing to support whatever decision Alexa made, they both had a bad feeling about this one.
"...lead the way."
Daniel lay on his bed staring at his ceiling. He appeared to be content, knowing that not only his parents had stopped arguing, but that his mother had also decided to stop her fight with her brothers – more importantly, he finally managed to get Peggy's discovery across to the bulk of his family, despite neglecting to mention Peggy's name. Rhonda lay next to him, her head and front paws resting on her Trainer's chest, smiling sweetly as she felt Daniel's fingers slowly and softly running up and down the back of her head. When his Xtransceiver began to emit a series of rhythmic beeps, Daniel looked at his communication device curiously; Keenan was calling him. Though slightly cranky, he accepted the incoming call; when Keenan's face appeared on the central screen, Daniel instantly noticed how shaken up his cousin looked.
"You okay?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine..."
"Your voice and shivering say otherwise," Daniel said quietly. Rhonda shifted herself to look at the Xtransceiver from over Daniel's shoulder. At the exact same time, Iara moved herself to look at Keenan's Xtransceiver as well; the two Eevee evolutions waved at one another. "What's up?"
"I-I, uh..." Keenan kept his voice as low as he could. "I think I know what happened to my sister..."
"Hence the anxiety," Daniel guessed. "What is it?"
"I-I think it was blackmail..." Daniel was alarmed by Keenan's assumption.
"What makes you think that?" Keenan felt heavily awkward; he had information for Daniel to follow up on, but how was he going to share this information without mentioning what he'd just heard from Alexa? Keenan decided to give some sort of answer before his pause gave Daniel more reason to grow suspicious.
"...A-Alex...told us something that-that was only brought up after A-Adelina attacked her...a-and it wasn't mentioned before then..."
"Something significant enough to warrant blackmail?"
"A-Adelina probably heard Alex and Ryder talking about it a-an threatened to tell the rest of us," Keenan explained timidly.
"But Adelina's-...no, wait; we've already established that she wants to take the whole family down," Daniel muttered to himself.
"B-But that got me thinking; i-if that's what happened, what if she'll do it again?" The alarm bells in Daniel's head rang louder; Keenan's hypothesis seemed realistic to him, which was disturbing in itself.
"...no...that wouldn't make any sense!" Daniel exclaimed as he sat up, nearly knocking Rhonda off of his shoulder in the process. "How would she-"
"M-Maybe she has a scout!" Keenan said suddenly. "T-This might be irrelevant, but b-before our battle in White Forest, I saw a Beautifly just before Adelina showed up!" Daniel's heart began to race as the revelations became even more startling.
"...that...yes, of course! That would make sense! I mean, Troy was attacked by a Jellicent in his Daycare Centre not too long ago, but he didn't HAVE any Jellicent in the Daycare at the time – meanwhile, Adelina just HAPPENS to have one! And, as far as I can tell, nobody told her about Troy's trauma!"
"See!? If-if she knew that, she could just as easily find out about yours!" Keenan's words touched a raw nerve for Daniel; he stared at the wall in front of him with a look on his face that could only have come from facing fear itself.
"...I-I need to see the girls."
"Go!" With Keenan's encouragement, Daniel hung up his Xtransceiver and bolted from the bed hastily, grabbing the idle moss green belt bag from the door handle on his way out of the room, slamming the bedroom door behind him – Rhonda was lucky her tail made it over the threshold in time!
Keenan sighed as he lowered his arm and stood himself up off of the floor, using the door behind him for support. He took a deep breath as he slowly opened the door; as soon as he walked over the threshold, Hayden and Lily looked up at him from the sofa on the far side of the room; Hayden still looked emotionally hurt, but Lily was relieved to see Keenan had calmed down at least somewhat since he fled into that bedroom.
"Hey, kiddo," Hayden said glumly.
"How do you feel, sweetie?" Lily asked with concern. Keenan felt awkward again and it was worrying Iara.
"I...I-I dunno yet..."
"Can't say I blame you..."
"Hayden-"
"I'm sorry! But...it's...it's just..." Hayden sighed as he ran his fingers through his fringe. "It's been one heck of a morning... The meeting went well, but...everything went downhill after that..."
"...w-why did you have to drive Alex away, Dad...?!" Keenan asked tearfully. "S-She was really, really scared of what she told us...l-like it happened to her an hour ago...! ...w-why did you drive her away...?!" Hayden kept his eye contact on the carpet beneath his feet; part of him felt ashamed that he pushed his daughter away, but he was mostly still hurting from the harsh truth he heard from her. Hayden's lack of answer for his son worried Lily further.
"Hayden-"
The room door suddenly, yet gradually, opened; Hayden, Lily and Keenan watched as Alexa shyly made her way inside the room with her Lucario and Buneary. Alexa was purposely avoiding eye contact with her father, who, in turn, looked away from her, very slightly in disgust, which was a feeling that he never imagined to carry for his own daughter. Lily, however, was relieved to see Alexa was all right, all things considered, and walked over to her, giving her a loving cuddle that, once again, Alexa didn't feel like returning; Keenan could tell she didn't really want to be in Hayden's presence.
"Alexa! Oh, are you all right, honey?" Lily was confused and concerned when Alexa ever so gently broke free from her embrace and looked over at Hayden; even though his eyes weren't on her, just looking at him made Alexa feel tense.
"...D-Dad...?" Hayden kept quiet; instead, he listened intently to what Alexa had to say for herself. "I-I-I... ...I-I know that w-what I said hurt you...a-and I'm sorry..." Hayden didn't appear to show any regard for Alexa's apology, which annoyed Lily.
"Oh, for Arceus' sake, Hayden, say something!" Alexa began to panic; noticing this, Ryder instantly stepped forward and practically used himself as a shield, ready to protect her from Hayden if he needed to.
"N-N-No, h-he doesn't-"
"What do you want me to say, Alexa?" Hayden asked crabbily. An overpowering sense of dread crushed Alexa's spirit as Hayden stood up and walked over to her. Ryder held his arms out and kept his violent gaze on Hayden. "What is it you want? To be forgiven for your recklessness?" he asked as he stood in front of his daughter, arms folded and staring down at her sternly. Alexa recoiled as she tried her very hardest not to look away from her father's eyes.
"...no..." she said in a mousy little voice.
"Then what is it that you DO want?"
"Back off," Lily cautioned firmly. But Hayden waited almost impatiently for Alexa's response. Alexa held onto her arms for a vain attempt to calm herself down.
"...I'm sorry...t-that I hurt you-"
"Hurt me? That is the BIGGEST understatement you have EVER made!" Alexa looked up at her father in horror; he wasn't angry as she initially thought he was – on the contrary, she saw a crystal clear look of devastation in his eyes...and it made her feel even worse about her confession. "I-I mean...why NOW?! Y-Your Aunt's dealing with a friendship issue and you're trying to find out if y-your relationship with Keith can be salvaged! ...w-why would you tell me – tell US – a-about this trauma now?!"
"B-Because Adelina threatened to tell you herself!" Alexa almost screamed her response, her father's despair starting to get the better of her. However, the revelation she'd just released sent shock waves through Lily and Keenan – Keenan almost looked spooked.
"...thought so..." he whispered to himself. Iara gulped silently; the hypothesis Keenan had shared with Daniel turned out to be true after all!
"W-What...?!"
"T-That's how s-she g-got me t-to battle her!" Alexa explained sorrowfully as the memories of her forced battle and the blackmail in question began flooding her mind, further adding to her anxiety. "S-She heard us t-talking a-about it a-and...s-she said she'd tell you herself i-if I d-didn't keep out of h-her affairs...! ...e-even though I was t-trying to anyway, Dad, y-you have to believe me...!" Hayden shook his head, but not because he didn't believe that Alexa wasn't avoiding an issue that, in the grand scheme of things, had no relevance to her.
"B-But I don't understand...w-why were you e-even talking about it in the first place...?!" Ryder relaxed his stance; he lowered his arms and looked up at Hayden with a softer demeanour.
"That's my fault," he confessed. Alexa looked down at Ryder in shock.
"Ryder, n-no-"
"I brought it up," Ryder said abruptly.
"What for?" Hayden asked shakily.
Keith stood near his hotel bed as he pulled his navy blue T-shirt over his grey long-sleeved shirt; he felt relaxed and cleaner as he picked up the gift box from his duvet and placed it on the bedside table, near his lamp, just before he left the room entirely.
He eventually made his way out of the hotel, with Robbie as his only Pokémon companion. Once the pair were through the hotel doors and actually on the streets of Driftveil City, Robbie crouched down to allow Keith to climb onto his back. With Keith safely on his back, the Sawsbuck began his gallop to Castelia City.
Adelina and Huey watched over the Striaton Academy playing field from the seclusion of the nearby woodlands, watching as, very gradually, the students were called back into the school to resume their learning. The pair kept an eye on Daphne and Peggy in particular; they were standing near the only tree in the playing field, which, as Adelina understood, was where Daphne and Daniel loved to reside during playtime. Daphne appeared to be giving Peggy some reassuring words rather than listening to her form's number being called by a teacher; Peggy soon cheered up and cuddled the equally euphoric Swablu in her arms. However, Adelina began to snigger, much to the confusion of her Delcatty.
"Hello, Danny." Exactly as expected, Daniel walked out of the shadows and confronted Adelina from behind. Rhonda stood firmly next to her Trainer, keeping her eyes locked on the smirking cat Pokémon next to the antagonistic woman. Adelina turned around to face the suspended twin; Daniel glared daggers at her, which didn't appear to faze her in the slightest. "May I help you?" Daniel was in no mood for trivialities; instead, he told her very simply, yet very fiercely...
"You will NOT hurt my sisters."
To be continued...