"All I'm saying is, this might not be the best place for you, Piper" Amanda assured Piper as she arrived in the waiting room outside of the ICU at Titanio Hospital. "There are going to be a lot of people coming soon and no one to watch your niece and nephews. I think Arya and James would love to have some time with Auntie Pipe."
Piper was not too happy about being asked to leave Michael's side. "If I leave and something happens-"
"There isn't much else you can do but hope now, Piper" Jenna Kingston added, agreeing with the woman who would one day be her Sister In-Law. "I need to stay as the King's health proxy and Amanda because she stands for Annie until she's able to come back to work. Take some time to rest and enjoy those three kids. If things don't go the way we want, we may be seeing a lot of them in the future."
Piper squeezed her eyes shut and hugged both women before walking slowly out of the waiting room and out of sight.
"Poor thing" Jenna remarked sadly.
"We all talk about how much Michael meant to us" Amanda added, "yet here she is. Piper was basically raised by him."
Jenna sighed. "We're going to have to set up some kind of security measure in case something like this happens again. Though I'm personally hoping those kids are old enough to take care of things when that day comes. I'm not ready to bury Michael. Not after we just buried my Dad." She was about to add more, with Amanda expecting to have to comfort her again, but a door opened and one of the nurses came out to address them. Jenna quickly collected herself and Amanda watched admirably as she rose quickly to work again. "What's going on?"
"Will the King be okay?!" Amanda worried.
"We're...honestly we're confused, Jenna" the nurse admitted. "You and I have been dealing with coronary issues for most of our careers. Have you ever seen something like this?!" She handed Jenna a folder full of their scans and x-rays done of the King's extensive injuries.
Amanda could tell, shuddering at the initial look she got, that the King was not in good physical health. Even if Chris hadn't egged him on as he had, she expected something like this was bound to happen at some point. But she realized she must be missing something when she saw Jenna taking focus on one of the looks in particular of Michael's heart. She peeked her own look and was confused at what they were looking at. "What are we looking at?!"
"Have you ever seen a heart like that?!" the nurse asked. "Jenna, he doesn't look like someone who should be suffering from stuff like that."
"And yet, here we are" Jenna admitted sadly as she continued to visually scan the picture. "I'm sorry, Mary, but I-"
"This is the scan we took of the King when we brought him into the operating room. By all accounts, his heart has the durability of an elderly person with a history of health problems. From a twenty eight year old, this is alarming enough. But what has us puzzled isn't that. We all know the King's history with the Crimson Fury. It's almost common knowledge now. What's getting us is that he has horrific health issues and by all measures should be dead already. But he's not. I can't explain it. It's almost as if something is fighting this off, but no one can simply will a Heart Attack away. It's just not scientifically possible."
Amanda scanned up and down the picture, herself deeply uncomfortable at what she saw, until she spotted something on the King's heart. From first glance, it appeared to be a flash from a lens of some kind that had gone off when they were taking the pictures during his emergency surgery. But closer inspection indicated something else. It was a small, barely even visible to the human eye, circular object that looked vaguely like a bright green leaf. Even as the rest of the King's left side of his chest looked black from all of the stress and tension built up inside, this lone part was keeping his heart from collapsing altogether. Of course, Amanda was skeptical herself of what she saw and opted to keep it to herself until she and Jenna were alone once more.
"As the King's health proxy" Jenna explained, "I need any updates to inform the Council as well as the Thirteen Families of. And I also ask that, for the sake of security, no one release this to the press or to the Queen until her own health is controlled."
"When can we get an update on that?" Amanda wondered.
"Cynthia and Tori can handle that." Jenna handed back the paperwork to her fellow nurse. "Just keep us updated. And until he is able to see people, only myself and Amanda are allowed in his ICU area with him."
The nurse nodded. "That I can do. Keep your fingers crossed."
The moment the other nurse was out of sight, Amanda tapped Jenna anxiously on the shoulder. "Jenna, did you see that green light thing on the top of his heart?"
Jenna smiled as tears fell from her eyes. "I was beginning to think I was going crazy for noticing it."
"What do you think it could be?"
Jenna shook her head, took a deep breath and then a firm grip of Amanda's hand. "If you and I are both right, I think we may get some more time with him after all." Amanda simply nodded and the two sat in silence, waiting for the next wave of information.
{}
Concentrate...concentrate...concentrate...
For the last few hours, while the rest of the world seemed to be imploding all around her, the only solace Addison could find was in her meditation. She had not liked all of the meditating and endless waves of thoughts that her now blossoming mind was full of when she first became an apprentice to Countess Rosemary nearly eight months earlier. But she was beginning to get used to it, now. In times of peace, there was more time to focus on other things. And despite all that had gone on in the last few hours with the clashes between Annette and Leon and then Michael and Chris, she was intent to ride this era of peace for as long as she could.
She had family. Her parents, despite having renewed their own passionate relationship with each other, still adored her ceaselessly. Even with a new addition to the family along the way, Addison was secretly hoping for a little brother, but she couldn't be sure as her mother was still too early on. She still was in regular contact with her Aunt Caitlin, who had returned to Hoenn to live a much less stress inducing life and maybe start her own family. And of course, her connection to the Kingstons remained as strong as ever, with the King and Queen allowing her full and complete use of Countess Rosemary's chambers for her meditation sessions. They adored her and she them.
Friends were in great supply to her as well. She did not have to look too far to find someone who was willing to do anything she asked or help her figure something out. Be it Lucas, Dawn, Holly, Annette, Matthew, Jeremy, Tommy, or even now Morgan Augustine, the last of her White Guardians who has declared she is duty bound to the White Mage until all of the Three Prophecies have been spoken of and concluded. Two were down, but one last stanza in the third one evaded them. And one that Addison felt she had to complete so she could feel whole again.
But trying to figure out the meanings behind these words and the precise locations of where she needed to be to do the unthinkable was proving to be astronomically difficult. This was something that had never been attempted before and would likely never be possible to replicate. She was going to dive into the very abyss itself, find the wayward soul of Ryan, and bring him back home with her. But with Mirage Island gone and no possible way of making it to Mystic Island without dying herself, the only chance she had was to find this mysterious White Door in Paldea. But even getting this information took months. Paldea was a forbidden region. No one from the outside had seemingly made contact with the region in fifty years for unknown reasons. Even Addison's now far-seeing eyes could not possibly fathom what it had been that caused the region to shut it's doors.
She had sensed that the way to Paldea would be through the seas. She did not know how this could be achieved, but again, her mind had a way of showing her that just because she saw the ocean, did not necessarily mean a literal ocean was all it would take. This ocean would come to her as all of her visions had so far. Whenever they did and in whatever form they would. She would welcome it with open arms.
Now, she simply tried to find out where this White Door could be. The Queen had mentioned to her some time ago that it was on a place called White Island or "Isla Blanca" as they say it in their region. But there was nothing in any book in James Kingston's library or on any online database she could reach that would tell her what she needed to know. Not even the Queen, the only true source of Paldean culture she had, could help her more than she already had, especially now with her health and those of her incoming twins in question. She was attempting to bridge the gap on her own, but her mind was muddled the more she thought of it. And thus, she attempted to attain some form of inner peace before she could continue further. But finding inner peace was much harder than declaring her intent to search for it.
She had to get her answer soon. Time was passing by too quickly for her not to have a way to find Ryan and bring him home. She had lost out on so much, already. Not being able to compete in the Master Cup, not being able to be there with her mother and father, even passing on spending time with Annette following her victory over Leon just hours earlier.
Concentrate...come on...concentrate...why is it only I find things hard to do when I actually want to do them? She opened her eyes moments before a knock on her door caught her attention. "Yes?"
"Addy...uh, I mean, Mage?!"
"Morgan, you don't have to call me that" she assured her.
"I know, but it still feels rude to not. In either case, you have a visitor. It's Piper."
Addison nodded. The aura felt familiar. "Send her in." Piper had done so much for her in the past, it was only fitting she could return the favor in some slight way, though she sensed that her old Contest mentor and rival had a long list of woes on her mind. The doors opened with the help of Rosemary's Alakazam, who also meditated nearby, and Piper shuffled inside nervously, trying her best to make herself comfortable on the couch the Countess often counselled her on during her darkest moments.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything" Piper begged.
"I always have time for you, Pipe" Addison assured her.
"I guess you know all about what's going on out there."
Addison nodded sadly. "Yeah. And I guess that's the main reason why you're here."
Piper took a deep breath, as if trying to give herself the courage to even speak. "I know you can't tell me exactly what will happen, as even you don't know. Even someone like your mentor had her limits."
"The Countess did not reveal out of fear of one expediting that which they hoped to avoid" she responded plainly. "That was a lesson I will never take for granted."
"But there are some things I need to know" Piper admitted. "At least to have some kind of idea of where life is going forward."
Addison could not help but probe into her mind. She could see the main focuses of her largely unfocused and befuddled mind were the three people that had been the makeup of who she was for the better part of the last decade plus: Her prodigal sister Julia, her doting and affectionate brother/father figure in Michael and her love and likely guilt-stricken husband, Chris. Piper was no doubt fearing for their well beings, as well as a future where none of them were huge portions of who she was as a person. She too had fears of losing them, mostly Michael and Julia. She had the tools to answer all of Piper's questions, but could she give her false hope when even she did not know exactly how things would transpire? Rosemary had taught her much, but not how to fully harness her mental gifts.
"Will Julia die?" Piper sputtered out. "I know I can't be too sure, but I also cannot bear to be left in such turmoil."
Addison sighed. "Julia's aura remains as it has for the last few months. Her concerns for her own health are largely unfounded. She simply wants to ensure her children are taken care of, especially the twins. If her infection causes problems, I can't tell if she will make it through them this time. Having it with one baby was enough, but two could be beyond what she can physically handle. Above all, Julia's concerns are on the babies as well as on James, Arya and Little Michael."
"That's not exactly reassuring, but it's better than a guarantee that she won't make it. And for Michael?"
Addison frowned. "This one is much harder to nail down."
"Why?!" Piper hurried over to her side and put her hands on top of Addison's. "Addy, please."
"It's hard because his fate is in the hands of Arceus the Creator" she admitted. "If he is ready to bring Michael to his domain, then he shall choose to. If not, Michael will remain." She lowered her head. "I'm not ready to say goodbye to him either, but it's not in my power to try and defy his will, considering it's only because of his grace that I had the means to beat Mewtwo." In her mind's eye, even as she spoke to Piper, she could see a lone leaf and perhaps the silhouette of Celebi nearby, even though Michael and his Mythical Pokémon ally had parted ways some time earlier.
"Is there something else you can give me?!" Piper was on the verge of breaking and Addison could feel it. "Addy, I love him. He's been so much to me my whole life. If he goes..."
Addison did as much as she could but saw very little of the King's future. For some reason, she saw several people, three young women and three young men, with sad looks on their faces. People she wasn't quite sure she had seen before. But when one of the men stepped forward and reappeared in her mind wearing a crown, Addison thought she was beginning to see a clearer image. "All I know for sure is that your nephew is going to take up the mantle of King sooner than he expects and is ready. But we can hope that he's at least an adult when this happens." The looks she saw on the man she thought James Edward Kingston would grow up to be showed someone deeply unsure of himself. She could only hope this was indeed what her vision meant and not that James had been King from the time of being a baby, never having truly known the amazing man his father was.
Piper took a deep breath. "What about Chris?"
"Chris? Is he hurt, too?"
The Contest Queen laughed sadly. "I don't even know where to begin with him. I know he's in pain. I saw it in his eyes last night and when I saw him in Arcana Colosseum. He has been through so much, but every time I feel like he's ready to move on from the pain, he just does something so reckless and stupid I want to hit him where it hurts!" She balled her hand into a fist. "This goes beyond dousing me in beer while we were at that party on the way to Mirage Island and leaving me and Cam behind to try and rescue Michael. Michael could die because of what Chris said to him. I am so angry at him, but I also see he's struggling. I want to hold him and tell him I'll be there, but I don't even know if that's what will happen in the end."
"Are you asking if you should abandon your marriage to Chris?" Addison asked bluntly. "Because I'm not a marriage counselor. Heck, all the experience I have is this promise ring from Ryan on my finger."
"I don't know what I want" Piper admitted. "I love Chris and I am certain that if it is over between us, I will never love someone like him again." She put her face into her hands. "I don't know, Addy. I don't know and that's what scares me."
Addison hardly needed to concentrate on Chris's behalf. He was such an obvious case that she almost feigned even looking at him. But she did, in case she was wrong. But it was clear to her what Chris had not yet done with himself. "Chris has done a lot to improve himself in the last few years. I see a better person than the hero I grew up rooting for as a kid. But there is one lesson he has yet to learn. And I'm not sure who will be the one who teaches it to him."
"I can try to if-"
Addison shook her head. "Again, I can't be sure if that will only exacerbate the issue. He has to learn if he wants to hold onto you, Piper. And I think he will in the end. But he's going to have to do something I know he won't want to. And to convince him to do it, it's going to have to take someone who has an inner look at how he acts. He can be a bit inconsistent in his thinking and actions. It's one of the few dividing lines between him and Michael. The other, arguably biggest one, is the last hurdle Chris has to overcome. One hurdle that everyone has issues with, but especially Michael. It may be too late for him, but if Chris can get over it, I think he will become a better person because of it."
"What could Chris possibly get that Michael doesn't already have?"
"A way to truly move on from his past" Addison finally answered. "To understand what's happened has happened and he cannot change it, but that does not mean he needs to take brutal and cruel actions to avenge those who have fallen, least of all himself should Michael not make it through this. To understand that the curse of his past is not something that needs haunt him forever. The key will be for him to decide whether he will continue to run from his mistakes or to learn from them." She saw in Piper's own soul, a fragment of one nestled deep inside of her. "The more he chases the past, the more he loses out in the future, including that of your child."
"The last thing on our mind is baby making at the moment" Piper joked. "I doubt we can even-"
"Well, it shouldn't be, considering you're a few weeks on as we speak."
"A few weeks on-" Piper's eyes widened. "What did you say?"
"You two will not just be fighting for yourselves and any relationship that exists" Addison warned. "The wellbeing of your incoming baby is also going to be of vital importance."
Piper leaned back on the couch. "I'm pregnant?!"
"Piper, do you think you know someone who can reach out and help Chris figure this lesson out?!"
Piper thought for a long moment, as her entire world seemed to be taking shape with the news that she, along with her cousin, Annie, Victoria and Deidre, was going to be adding a baby into the next generation of Kingstons. But Addison could sense Piper knew the answer all along. She nodded and looked at her directly in the eyes. "There are only two people I can think of. But considering one of them is still in the process of bringing twins into the world, I think Bridgette Duon has to come first."
"Bridgette Duon? Who's that?!"
"You don't remember Bridgette?" Piper inquired, almost surprised.
"Should I?" She glanced over to the Alakazam, who simply eyed her as if he already knew what this meant for the future.
"She was the Titanio City Gym Leader for eight years. Water Pokémon expert, Chris's cousin on his mother's side, loves surfing and swimming in the seas?"
Finally, Addison understood. The universe has a weird way of showing me what I'm looking for. "Very well, Piper. If you think Bridgette will help, then make sure she knows where to find Chris. Then, if you don't mind, could you ask her to come and meet with me?"
"You're that curious?"
Addison held her hand close to her heart. "More hopeful than curious."
{}
"Are you sure Chris is gonna be in a place like this?!" Bridgette asked Billy as he flew his Skarmory down with towards one of she shadier parts of Titanio City's bar scene with both of them on her back. They had been looking for hours for where their mutual cousin had vanished to since the end of his battle with Michael in Arcana Colosseum. Bridgette knew so little about Titanio in the years she had been gone that going into what Billy said was the darkest area in the city was not high on her list of desires in the world.
But Billy, unlike Bridgette, had seen the dark side of Chris's life for long enough to know this would be a place where a down and depressed Christopher Kingston would go to if he had nowhere else to. As he steered his Skarmory towards one of the tamer blocks on this portion of Titanio's underbelly, he recalled a time he, Jon, Malcolm and Michael had gone there to bail Chris out of a brutal bar fight. It would have turned into a full-fledged brawl had Michael not grabbed one of them by the throat and slammed him against the wall with such force, the others backed down immediately. "Bridge, there are few things I am one hundred percent certain of. This is one of them."
"If you say so" she said nervously, keeping her arms wrapped around his torso, a notion that naturally made Billy blush. Bridgette had been a babysitter and longtime friend of his, but she and Malcolm had mentored him as a Pokémon Trainer during the darkest days of Giselle's regime, when Professor Maria Pines was forbidden from running her school for teaching green trainers the ropes. He had always crushed on Bridgette, as any boy their age would if they knew her. But he respected Malcolm too much to ever voice his feelings. And by the time he was old enough to act on them, Bridgette was gone, Malcolm was dead and he was happily with Amanda. And, of course, he was still happy with her, but old attractions don't simply die that easily. He hoped Amanda would forgive him the occasional relapse, especially since he had no interest of acting on those impulses. Not after all they had been through just to get back together.
"You've got me watching out for you, Bridge" he grinned. "Ain't nothing you have to worry about."
"Who has your back, though?"
"Touche" he laughed as his Skarmory landed. He slid off of his Pokémon's back and fed her a Sitrus Berry before helping Bridgette off as well. Once both were situated, he recalled his flying ace and took out a Poke Ball for his Klingklang, urging Bridgette to do the same. "This place can get a little rough. Make sure you're ready if it gets ugly."
She slipped two Poke Balls into her palms and nodded. "This isn't my first rodeo with thugs, Billy."
"Two?!" he snickered.
"You want more?!"
He laughed to himself. "One's plenty. I figured you would want me holding your hand or something. To keep a lady like yourself safe in a place like this, you know?" He mockingly held out his hand to her, only for Bridgette to nearly kick them.
"You're way past the point of needing a babysitter, Billy" she winked. "But if you're that scared, I'll let you hold onto my Tentacruel." She patted him on the back. "You can grow up all you want and you'll still always be that kid Malcolm and I looked after."
"Don't insult me" he replied as he took stock of their location. "This looks like the place we got into that scrap."
"Why would Chris go back to the same place?! Especially not knowing if you guys will have his back?"
"Relive his past glories" Billy theorized. "Chris isn't the kind of guy who let's go of his past, be it good or bad."
"Well, unless he starts to" Bridgette admitted, "he won't have much of a future to look forward to." The two walked through the alley in quiet before they approached the side entrance to the local dive bar, which was said to be run by a couple of former thugs from the Orre Region. Billy opened the door and ushered Bridgette inside quickly. She gave him a look, but complied. Once both were inside, she continued to glare at him. "You still trying to look out for-"
"Sorry" he admitted. "Just...never mind." He didn't feel right bringing up her ex-boyfriend to her. But long ago, when he was being mentored by Malcolm and Bridgette as a boy, he recalled Malcolm's advice about how to treat women, even ones who can take care of themselves like Bridgette. It was why so many people knew of him as a distinguished gentleman in comparison to his less egalitarian cousin. But knowing how bad things ended up between them and then about how close they were to getting back together before Malcolm's death made him keep quiet. Some things were better left unsaid. Bridgette seemed to accept this and both went into the bar.
As Billy expected from Wes's recollections of buildings in Orre, the bar was stylized with a bit of flair from Orre. Metallic walls and pipes bursting off the wall, occasionally spitting out steam. There was no music playing, no atmosphere apart from the steampunk styled architecture. The patrons of the bar were the seediest and most thuggish brutes either Billy or Bridgette had seen in some time. Few gave them more than a sideways glance before resuming their slow destruction at the hands of alcohol and salty/fatty snacks. A pool table was in the corner, which a local denim wearing biker gang called their own habitat. Some of the people, upon seeing who had entered, immediately turned away and kept their heads down, as if knowing that Billy still had some sort of power when it came to catching and turning in the thugs Claude had used to seize power in Arcana several months earlier.
I wouldn't be shocked if some of these were Syndicate thugs either that ran off, Billy mentioned to himself. None of them looked familiar, though. Almost all of the Syndicate's ring leaders were either dead or had been rounded up, having been transferred back into the newly restored and heavily fortified Klefki Prison. Of the few not accounted for, none were worth truly fearing. Davis, Claude's secretary, had been funneling money into the Cult of Mewtwo that Betsy Seissuon had tried to start up, but had vanished since. The twins, Lily and Lena, who were viewed as little more than mildly dangerous kidnappers, had also vanished, themselves being missing since being lured into a trap set by Ryan and his Gallade. If any Syndicate thugs were there, Billy had no interest in arresting them as long as they didn't stay in his way. They could worry about stocking up Klefki with people when he was sure the Kingdom would survive it's most recent ordeals.
The bartender, upon noticing them enter, simply resumed cleaning some of his beer mugs until both Billy and Bridgette were in front of him. "I reckon you two find yourselves another bar. Yer scaring my clients."
"We won't be long" Billy assured him. "We're picking up someone."
The patrons lowered their heads in worry. The bartender chuckled at this. "I reckon you'll not find who yer looking for here. Unless yer part of the King's Forces."
"And if we are?!" Bridgette snapped.
The bartender lowered the glass. "There are some here that would like to show the King's Forces what they think of them. I can't guarantee your-" He cut himself off when from out of the corner of the room, where the biker gang had parked themselves, they heard the sounds of a scuffle. Before Billy could even react, one of the bikers was thrown just in front of him. Bridgette looked past the fracas and towards where the body had come from and rolled her eyes.
"Just great" she growled. "We really should have brought more help."
Billy shook his head. "We don't need it."
"Don't tell me you took up Chris's bad tendencies."
"I'm more of a theatrical person than an actual fighter" he assured her. But they would have to act fast. Billy could see Chris was surrounded on all sides by the thugs he was either picking a fight with or had been picked to fight with. He could not slow them all down if they wanted a piece of him. Billy pushed his way towards the pool table where the thugs were preparing to skewer or pummel a drunken Christopher Kingston with pool cues. He seemed completely uninterested and was eager for the whole fight to happen at once. Billy made it to his side and shook his head. "Look, I get you need to blow off steam every now and then, but can you please pick some place easier to get out from?"
Chris wiped some blood from his cheek and kept his focus on the thugs surrounding them. "You remember I got us out of here last time?!"
"Only after Jon, Malcolm and Michael bailed us out" he reminded his older cousin. "This isn't a game, Chris."
"Don't hush my buzz, Billy" Chris fired back. "If I'm about to torpedo my whole life, I can at least physically not be there."
Billy was about to say something, but the thugs moved quickly. Billy had precious seconds to decide whether or not to intervene on his cousin's behalf. With great reluctance, his hand was forced when Chris was grabbed and slammed through a table. He leaped onto another table and slammed the weight of his body against one of the thugs, causing him to fall over and Chris to kick himself free. Before anyone could react to another joining the fight, Billy immediately picked up a chair and smashed it down on the biggest thug's back. Chris was already in the brawl again, Billy sure nothing was going to stop him from fighting until every single one of his bones was broken. He himself rec3eived a punch in the cheek, only to return one in kind to the thug who had come after him.
The biggest thug recovered and turned his attention towards Billy, only for Chris to rip the pool cue from his hand and break it across his cheekbone. Billy then bull rushed the thug, causing him to crash into the last functional table in the area. The thugs were shocked their enforcer was taken down so easily by these two "punks" and proceeded to come at the two of them. But any hopes for a truly violent brawl to break out ended when several Smokescreen attacks were spat out by Bridgette's Kingdra.
Taking this as their chance to escape, Billy grabbed his cousin's arm and dragged him out of the area. The bartender was soon coming after them, only for Bridgette's Pokémon to again strike with more Smokescreens and allowing the trio to get out of the fight. They quickly slid out of the entrance and slammed the door behind them. Chris was determined to go back inside, but both Bridgette and Billy dragged him out of the affair.
"For the love of Arceus, Chris!" Bridgette shouted. "STOP!"
Chris seemed uninterested, doing his best to reenter the bar. "Let me skin a few of those-"
"ENOUGH!" Billy snarled. Fed up with his cousin's arguing and issues, he did what he had to do and struck him hard in the head, knocking his drunken cousin out. He then put Chris over his shoulder and signaled for Bridgette and he to make their escape. He called out Chris's Charizard, still winded from it's battle with Rhaegar, putting him and Bridgette on it's back while they flew off towards the Pokémon League HQ. Billy himself mounted his Skarmory's back and the two Flying Pokémon were out of sight of the bar in a matter of seconds.
He knew he would never hear the end of it from Jenna, Amanda, or Annie about how he might have caused a tabloid catastrophe getting involved in the fight, but he hoped someone would squash the story before it caused them anymore issues. They needed to get to somewhere safe and convince Chris to stop his path of self-destruction.
Upon landing on the outskirts of the slowly reconstructed League HQ, he helped Bridgette lower Chris's body down onto one of the building supply stocks from the reconstruction crews of the Skye-Waters Construction Company before Bridgette's Wartortle began to douse Chris with water guns to wake him up and hopefully snap him out of his drunken stupor. While Billy paced nearby, Bridgette remained the calmest of the two as she waited patiently for her Pokémon to work it's magic.
Finally, Chris began to stir from the blow he'd taken to the head. "Ugh, what?!"
"Rise and shine" Bridgette responded dryly. "Get up. We need to get you cleaned up."
"What for?!" Chris groaned. "I've caused enough trouble. Just ask Billy's sister."
Billy lunged forward and grabbed Chris by the scruff of his shirt. "Listen up. I know you're feeling like ass for what happened. But you need to pull yourself together before things become infinitely worse! Michael and Julia may not make it out of their current predicaments! Our niece and nephews may not have parents and you sit around getting drunk like the old days?! Get a hold of yourself and stop acting like a reprobate!" Bridgette tried to intervene, but Billy's strength kept him from budging. "We have been through too much for one of your escapades to cost us everything!"
"Can't you just let me cope my own way?!" Chris replied, his expression becoming emotionless.
"How about you stop acting like a damn child and face up to what's happened?!" Losing his cool, Billy punched Chris where he'd been hit before, prompting Bridgette to finally step in and pry the two apart.
"Can one of you control yourselves?!" she snapped. "Let me handle this, Billy!" Billy seemed eager to argue, but held his tongue and allowed Bridgette to try and work her magic. "Chris, do you remember what I wanted to tell you all back at the Colosseum?! About your mother and why I should have told you when you were younger?!"
"Does it matter?" Chris replied, spitting out some leftover blood from his mouth and rubbing where Billy had struck him. "If I'm just gonna ruin my life, can't you just-"
"I'm trying to do my Aunt a favor by keeping her son around for a few more years at least" she insisted. "And the Kingdom by keeping one of the King's most trusted lieutenants from killing himself!"
"Not anymore. Not after I basically put a knife into his heart."
"By hook or by crook" the elder Duon continued, "Michael is going to make it through this. He's been through far worse and I know he's not going to die on us yet." She took Chris's face up in her hands and made him look at her. "Chris, this is important and you need to know the truth. Now, will you shut up and listen to me?!"
Chris, with no other alternative, nodded. "Whatever."
Bridgette took a deep breath. "Okay, so I was one of the first few people to know about your father and Shannon. Naturally, I told your mother as soon as I knew, but it wasn't the time for her to do anything about it. Michael had just been condemned by Claude and Giselle and was set to be exiled. So naturally, I waited for your Aunt to torpedo him in divorce proceedings. But, she never did. They did separate and were in the process of divorcing, but your mother just stopped. I didn't know why. I was angry. I thought your father had convinced her not to and was going to lace into her about why this had to happen..."
{}
"You mean to tell me you're going to do nothing?!" a fifteen-year-old Bridgette Duon snapped at her Aunt Jane as she visited her late in one evening many years earlier. She did not have any qualms about holding her tongue, as Chris and Cam were with their father in Titanio City for the evening and she and her aunt were alone in their spacious home in Parlor Town. She was hurting for Jane. She was crushed Jeice Kingston would do such a thing to her Aunt despite all of the proclamations of love they had. She was annoyed that Jeice Kingston was free to see the woman he cheated on his wife with whenever Chris and Cam were not with him and essentially be let off the hook for betraying someone he allegedly loved. And she was most upset that in all of this, Jane was not fighting him. She wasn't fighting to get him back, to destroy him in the divorce. She was doing nothing.
Jane Kingston, as stoic as ever, simply sipped her tea at the kitchen table while her niece vented her anger. "There is no reason to get angry. Jeice betrayed me, but my priority is where it's always been: my children."
"He's probably off telling them how great a woman Shannon is for doing this!" Bridgette continued. "Trying to convince them-"
"Shannon is a good woman" Jane commented. "She apologized for doing what she did and I have no quarrel with her. My husband will pay for his actions, but that will not come from me or from our children. They do not need to get dragged into this. I've already seen what divorce can do to children firsthand, as did you when it came to Big Mike and my sister in-law. I saw the mudslinging, the custody arguments and what it did to my niece and my...well, you get the idea."
"Why aren't you fighting for yourself? For your children, for anything?! I can't bear to see you shoulder this pain and he gets off with nothing? Don't you feel broken at all?!"
Jane looked at her niece and gave her an exasperated smile. "Bridgette, my heart was shattered to a million pieces and has been for the last several months. Jeice's betrayal was the final nail in the coffin for any hope I might have of rekindling some kind of spark for myself. The final in an endless series of events that broke my faith in all but my faith in Arceus." She took a deep breath before continuing. "My marriage to Jeice was over for him the moment he stepped out, which is a consequence he will have to deal with in due time. But for me, it ended when he essentially made me choose between family loyalty and the love I have for my son."
"For Chris?"
Jane shook her head. "I have more than one son. Once Erin proved to be the callous and vindictive woman I knew her to be, Michael became my son. In a way, he always was more mine than hers. I practically raised him, after all. I loved that boy more than anything besides Christopher and Cameron. He was my priority throughout that ordeal he went through. And I pray every night that he has some kind of roof over his head and some kind of food to eat. That he feels even a small bit of the love I have for him wherever he is out there. Jeice took it as a betrayal that I would ever consider Michael to be innocent of what Giselle laid at his feet."
"You truly think he's innocent? I have my doubts."
"If you knew Michael like you say you did, you would know he was not capable of those things without whatever it was those people did to him. And even if he had, he deserved someone by his side. You forget, literally no one else had faith in him. His own mother cast him out and let his grandmother lock him in a dungeon. His friends, family, no one stood by him. And Claude was determined to make an example of him. The Kecleon showing his true colors after all of this."
Bridgette frowned. "It's not that I think he was guilty, but-"
"You can have your position on the matter" her aunt assured her. "I don't hold it against you, Malcolm, Heather Setenn or anyone else who has their own place to stand in. I do, though, against the Kingstons themselves. They lost their backbone when James died and will cast anyone they must to the wolves if it means they save face." She took a sip of her tea, but Bridgette could tell her aunt was truly distressed. "Michael is gone now. And I have no idea where he is, but I pray every night he is looked after in some way, shape or form. Which means the only thing I have left is to tend to Christopher and Cameron. And I intend on doing that. Keeping them from missing out on anything in life, even as Giselle tears Arcana apart, root and stem."
"Malcolm never believed it" Bridgette recalled. "About Michael, I mean. And I have a hard time buying what Giselle said he did, but strange things do happen from time to time." She recalled to herself all of the times she watched the trio of them, of how much she and Jane did to protect Michael. All the times she took them to the beach and how she taught Michael how to surf. How Michael had become a strong Pokémon Trainer very quickly, rescuing her from a madman at the Northern Outpost and making her so proud. Dancing with him at the Queen's Ball, watching him defeat trainer after trainer, yet never losing that same joyful expression. She did love the boy. In all that he had suffered, sometimes she forgot just how much he had meant to her.
"There will be a time, I'm certain, when the truth gets out. Both about what occurred between myself and Jeice and what happened to Michael. What matters then isn't that the right side is avenged or prevails in any sort of way, but that my children do not have to suffer in a world that's as miserable as this one we are in now. I'm more than certain Jeice will find shame in what he's done, as will all of those who didn't believe in my son. But it is not for Michael, Chris, Cameron or anyone else besides Arceus the Creator to cast judgment." She took the final sip of her tea as she contemplated the future.
"Well, won't it be great when we can all look back on this with some kind of better perspective?!" Bridgette laughed quietly, hoping to stir a bit more positive vibes into the conversation.
Jane shook her head. "I won't be here when that time comes." She kept her eyes looking at her empty cup of tea. "I have a feeling I'm not long for this world. My heart is broken, my family is crumbling and I suspect I will be asked to join my father in-law in the Celestial Plains above one day. But I know you will be and I have faith that my children will be. But when that time comes, I want you to understand what I say now."
Bridgette was confused. "Won't be here? What do you mean? Are you sick?!"
"Bridgette, my dear" Jane counselled her. "Family is what makes us who we are. Not just organically, but emotionally and spiritually. My children know this and I know Jeice will come to see it, soon enough. But that same idea of family can be construed and damaged. I never want that to happen to my children. They don't have to be happy with Jeice for what happened, but I won't have them throw their father to the wolves the same way he did to Michael. He will have to atone one day, but not to me and not to them." She took her niece's hand. "I want you to promise me you won't let them go astray. Not Christopher. Not Cameron. And if by some miracle he comes home, Michael too. Please. They all loved you so much."
Bridgette could not find all of the words she wanted to say. She only let her Aunt speak and grasped her hand when she concluded, nodding as she did.
{}
"Your mother was right about a lot of things, Chris" Bridgette admitted as she concluded her story. "She didn't want you to be led astray and she definitely did not want you enacting any vengeance on her behalf. Their parting had nothing to do with you." She took a moment to let Chris absorb what she spoke of before going on. "Once she was taken by Cassius, your father basically insisted I stay away. He'd already lost his wife and didn't need to lose his children as well."
Billy nodded. "Okay, at least I get why you'd hate your father now, Chris."
"It's why I basically trained you with Malcolm when we did, Billy" the surfer girl admitted, keeping her eyes focused on Jane's son. "I wanted to be in your lives as much as possible, but Jeice blocked me until he and Shannon had married. I still hold a great deal of resentment towards him, but once Malcolm and I found out the others had convinced Michael to come back, we knew things were going to be fine in Arcana. Your father, to his credit, couldn't go about making demands anymore and basically pleaded for me not to say anything to any of you. The truth about the Syndicate's involvement in your mother's death and Michael's branding was let loose and anything else that might cause issues with those, he knew would destroy the blended family you have. I agreed not to, on the conditions that he forfeited Titanio Gym to me and then that he would tell you when the time was right."
"And Shannon was the one who told me" Chris responded, coolly and quietly. "He kept no word of his own."
"He took your mother's death harder than even he thought was possible. And now you can add Cameron to that list. He knows this is all karma. All of it. Now, his wife is gone and his daughter with her. If he loses his son, your father will be a completely broken man. Even Renee and Katrina won't be able to salvage anything. Shannon, either, but since she was the one who was honest and finally came clean, I think any anger towards her should be limited as well." Bridgette sat beside Chris. "You don't have to forgive him. You don't even have to play nice family with him. But you need to let go of the past and accept that things happened and there isn't a thing you can do about it."
Chris remained silent and contemplative.
Billy kept himself calm at the story's conclusion. "But there is something I don't get. Why take things out on Michael? What did he do in all of this?"
"He wanted his revenge on our uncle for betraying Jane" Bridgette theorized. "I spoke to Michael and convinced him to simmer down himself. I honestly thought Michael was the driving force behind this. If I had known how deeply Chris was affected, I would have went for him first. But what's done is done. What we need to do now is help Chris understand that the past needs to be let go. Completely."
"How do you let go of this?!" Chris asked grumpily.
"Gotta admit, I'm not the master of letting things go" she sadly answered. "I only came back because I knew you two needed me. If I didn't get word from Katrina, I'd still be out there mourning Malcolm and the life we might have had." She looked over to Billy. "How would you let go of the past?"
"I don't think I hold many grudges, to be honest."
"What about the one with Danny?!" Chris asked. "About how he wanted to be a double agent for Claude?!"
Billy felt his face darken as he was reminded of that day. He had been so worried about Amanda's wellbeing that he was blinded by hate when he discovered Daniel had betrayed them. He would have strangled his younger cousin to death had Jon, Maddy and his sister not intervened. "In truth, I haven't, really. Let go of it, I mean. I...I'm happy Danny is back. But I don't think he atoned for much being a glorified statue in Parlor Town. I still don't trust him. Truth be told, I don't think I'll ever trust him like that ever again."
"Who is someone you can talk to about figuring out how to let go of it all?!" Bridgette implored. "The one person you know can help you get over this."
Chris shook his head. "I wish I knew. Everyone I know has some kind of resentment or emotional pain inside of them. Even my wife." He put his head into his hands as his pounding headache began to swell. "Ugh."
"Well, we need to make sure you get to the hospital tomorrow and make your peace with her" Billy insisted. "The last thing you need is for Piper to leave you."
"Wait." Chris spoke up. "I think I know. The only person I know who hates themselves for something they did more than anyone else." He slowly staggered to his feet. "I need to get some rest. Then, I need to go to the hospital."
"Michael is in no condition to-" Billy began.
"You mean Julia" Bridgette interjected.
Chris took a long moment before responding. "You said I needed to let go of the past." He held his hand close to his heart. "I will never forgive my father for what he did. Shannon at least had the decency to admit guilt. My father can rot for all I care. But I can't let go of that part of my life if I'm still sore about another part."
"What does this have to do with Julia?" Billy inquired.
Bridgette sighed. "Nothing and everything, Billy."
"How does that even make sense?"
Bridgette put her hand on Chris's shoulder. "Chris, get some rest. Hopefully we'll know if Julia can see anyone by then." She kissed the side of his head and gave him a gentle push. "And wash up. You smell like ass."
