Psychologue One: Amara

Elaina left his office and headed back to her dorm room, where she sat and began to dissociate. He lied to us. A voice in her head chided her. He really hates you now that he knows who our father is. Elaina tried her best to shake off the dissociation, but eventually she blacked out.

Amara shook her head as she returned to consciousness. "Here's hoping the bitch didn't do too much damage to the operation while she was mucking around in my body." She pulled out her phone and typed in the number she knew oh so well.

"Hello, my darling." Came her father's voice over the phone. "It's nice to have you back with us." Amara's grin grew wide and wicked. "So, what do you want to do about Vaughn?" she snickered as she talked.

"Nothing. Vaughn is out of the picture and that's enough for me." Her father's words echoed in her ears. "But daddy. He's right there…" Amara pouted as she moved to sit in the dorm room chair. "Is this part of your "Violence as a last resort" campaign?"

"Yes, violence is hard to cover for these days. You know that. I know I taught you better, at least." Her dad's stern voice came through the phone line like a barb into her ear. "As for what I need from you, Elaina's independent study is the perfect opportunity for you to find ways we can get Team Rocket to have a foothold in Paldea. If you find anything, send the information my way. Do not allow Elaina to discover you. I love you, my flower."

"I love you too, daddy." She hung up the phone and deleted the call from her recent calls list. This was going to be fun. Elaina had no idea she even existed, let alone what she was capable of. It was perfect, even if the process of her creation had been a bit extreme, she'd forgiven her daddy a long time ago. "It was the cost we paid to make me perfect." She looked around at the sparsely decorated dorm room. "Gods, Elaina. Aesthetics matter."

There came a knock on the bathroom door and a voice came through the wood. "'Layna, are you in here? Let's hit the city now that we have off campus permissions. Bring Penny." Amara gagged. "She's a fucking creep, Elaina. Nice job making friends." Amara stood and opened the door. "Come in, Nemona." Nemona looked at Amara and paused. "Who are you?" She asked as her eyes narrowed. "Because you're not 'Layna. I didn't know y'all had a dissociative thing." Nemona walked in and took a seat in the desk chair. Amara sighed and sat on the bed. "Elaina has no idea I exist. She's very much in the dark."

"Typical. So, what's your name? Tell me about you." Nemona sat forward with rapt attention. "I want to know all about 'Layna's headmate." Amara snorted. "I assure you that you do not. I'm Amara. Also, if you tell Elaina about me, I will brand your tongue with the letter F."

Nemona blinked and nodded. "Why specifically the letter F?" She asked, completely undeterred from the conversation. "Like, for fuckup?" Amara nodded her head. "Ok, cool. So, you're the trauma holder." Nemona made a mental note. "Well, you're my friend too, Amara. Don't be a stranger, ok?" Amara let out a sigh.

"You're fucking insufferable." She said as Nemona stood up. "Let me know if you need anything, Amara. I'll be in my room. Come hit me up later and we'll grab dinner." Nemona walked out of Amara's room and back to hers. Amara gave a sigh of relief, then pulled that sigh back in when she got a text from Elaina's girlfriend.

Analytics look good, babe. I think I'm going to make this project work.

Amara let the sigh escape again, this time in exasperation.

We need to talk, Penny. There's something I need to tell you. Come over.

The response came quickly. Are we ok?

Yes, Penny. We're fine. This is not a breakup talk.

Be there in 5

Amara put the phone on its charging pad and sat in the chair. "I hate this. I wish you didn't have to share this body with me, you stupid girl." Eventually, she made her way downstairs to collect Penny. As she stepped outside to collect her, Penny looked into Bianca's eyes and asked, "And who are you?" She smiled as the two stepped into the stairwell. "I didn't know 'Layna had a headmate." Amara let out another exasperated sigh. "How does everyone know at a glance that I'm not her? Nemona knew too." Penny shook her head as she climbed the stairs. "Your eyes shine differently than hers." Amara followed close behind. Once they arrived at Amara's room and she'd ushered Penny inside, she gave Penny the same speech she'd given Nemona. Penny's response was wildly different than Amara's suitemate. "I don't keep secrets from 'Layna, so you're just going to have to go ahead, or are you all talk, Amara." She stuck out her tongue and Amara's posture went slack. Penny pulled her tongue in her mouth and Elaina's eye shine returned.

"Penny, what happened? What have I been doing?" Elaina looked around and shook her head. "I feel like I've been passed out for the past however long." She went to pull Rotom from her pocket before looking for her phone on its charging pad. "It's 6:00? What the fuck?" She turned to look at Penny.

"You have a headmate named Amara." Penny shrugged. "She was driving your body for the last little bit." Elaina went ghastly pale. "Is that why there are holes in my memory? Like, months long holes? Shit." Penny pulled Elaina into a hug.

"You're not the first person I've met who has headmates, baby." Penny stroked her lover's hair to calm her down. "Just, I know it's a lot to take in, but you're going to be ok." Elaina's body went slack, and after a moment Amara looked to Penny.

"You're a good girlfriend, Penny. I'm glad she has you." She pulled away from Penny's embrace. "Now, do you want to know the whole story?" Penny nodded and Amara stood up and brought an empty trash can to Penny's side.

"When we were little, our father was trying to groom a successor to run his criminal network. When he had a baby girl, he thought that we would be perfect, so he started using Pokémon to hypnotize us and keep us from fusing when we were young. Elaina got the loving father who doted on his darling daughter. I got the mafia don. He taught me how to get things offhand. Stuff like back-alley information, contraband substances, all of it, and how to move it. He groomed me from the time I was five to move product, money, and my body."

Penny nodded, listening intently, but with an expression Amara couldn't read. Amara continued. "It went on like that for months and then years. I ended up running a lot of product for him. I trafficked Pokémon. I hurt people, all because my father told me to." She shuddered. "I called him up before Nemona came in. Elaina doesn't even know his phone number. He kept the daughter and the criminal separate from each other."

Penny nodded again and opened her arms. "You may not be my girlfriend, but I'm not leaving you out in the cold, Amara." Amara let a tear fall from her face as she looked to Penny.

"You're too good for me, Penny. I'm glad she has you but I'm not really the type." Another tear fell. "I've kinda been destroyed by the grooming. Do you know what I've done for that man?" she asked sarcastically. Penny stopped her.

"Look me in the eyes, Amara." She said. Her usual timid tone had vanished. Amara did as instructed. "Tell me everything you just said about you. Tell me I'm worthless because of what happened to me. Say it to my face."

"No." Amara snapped. "I'm not fucking doing that to a person." Penny smiled wide."Amara, you're forgetting a crucial detail. You're a person too." Amara blinked in surprise and looked down to her hands. Then she looked back up at Penny while tears welled up in her eyes. "She picked a winner. How about that? You're a good woman, Penny." Penny wrapped her arms around Amara and let her cry. "I'm glad we met. Now I need to figure out how to get away from my father."