41: Becca Blakely's New Rival

"I see no point in eliminating him." Billiam's cool response leaves burning anger within his partner as Daisy practically heaves in anger. "You're free to go."

Nathan takes in the sight of the leader of the alliance he was facing off against with his fellow Rejects and withholds judgment. "Why would you let us go? You better not be underestimating what we're capable of."

Billiam smirks at him and slicks his hair back. "I don't underestimate opponents, but I don't believe in eliminating you right now when I have teammates who could benefit from fighting you instead."

"You just want your lackeys to take us down?" The ferocity in Nathan's countenance put to waste Billiam's prior confidence.

"The people I've chosen to accompany me are no lackeys. I seek to give them a fair shot at moving forward in this competition." Explaining his intentions briefly, he turns to Daisy. "I agreed to help you find them and battle them with you, but defeating them goes against my own aims."

Gripping her side, the colour returns to Daisy's face and her breathing grows less heavy. "You bastard… I'll make you pay for this."

Billiam raises his hand out and as Deino steps underneath it, he asks. "Would you care to fight me over this?"

"There's no point… in that…" Daisy shakes her head and the darkness encroaching on her mind is pushed deeper into the background. "Unlike you, I know how much of a threat these punks are. They…" She turns to see Nathan sprinting off into the brush after Reina and with a sigh she hangs her head low. "This will cost you dearly, Billiam."

"I doubt that." Billiam's confidence returns to his voice as he looks over the results of the day's six matches. "Our goal as an alliance now is to wait out a couple of days and let the other fighters thin each other out."

Daisy clicks her tongue with an unsatisfied grimace. "If you want those weaklings of yours to make it, they need to be aggressive before massive players take them out."

"Only two contestants have been eliminated thus far." Billiam pauses and thinks over said losses. "Sadly they were two of my own team."

"And they thought the Rejects were trash." Pride becomes her as she mocks the one team she sees as inferior even to her own. "Do you have a backup plan for when your loser squad bites off more than it can chew? Jamal, Kent, Finneas, Raymundo, you don't actually expect them to make it, do you?"

Billiam opens his map up and observes their locations. "Finneas and Raymundo have made camp at our back up locale. Jamal and Kent will make landfall on the other side of that small river tomorrow and be able to meet with Emi and Taba soon."

Daisy senses an ulterior motive to his plans and drives home her own suspicions. "Do you expect to replace those guys with the rest of Shauntal's little team if this goes tits up?"

"My word, the language you have on you…"

"My dad was in a fuckin' gang back in the day, asshole. We didn't come from old money like you and your gullible sister." Daisy remarks cruelly.

Billiam takes offense and stares her down. "Gullible? Becca is the only person to rival me in any sort of competition, you included."

Daisy and Billiam clash wills as she presses her body closer to his and stares into his dark blue eyes with razor-sharp judgments to be made. "You must have had it sooooo hard. I bet your father groooounded you." She drags the words out to mock him and then exposes the damaged and bent arm she hides in her long sleeves. "You talk about strength as if you ever required it."

"Just because I appear able doesn't mean I didn't suffer to get here, Daisy." Logic and reason would be the guiding light for Billiam in the face of such a petulant ally.

"You talk big for someone who didn't bury a sibling." Jackson Banks comes to her mind as emotions, both good and bad, play about her features. "He was… the only friend I had…"

As she speaks, a thought comes to Billiam's mind and he voices it. "I do have one question about that. Tyson… that is, he was the result of your father being with another woman, correct?" Daisy nods, glaring daggers at him. "And you're both close in age, right?"

"What are you getting at?" Daisy demands of him.

Billiam pauses and opens up a notebook containing little tidbits of information he had written down about the other contestants. "Your father married Madeline and just after that you were both conceived, and James had met Madeline about two years before then, right?"

"Yes, they met after… Well, they… Dad wouldn't tell me if I asked." Not that she would. Who cared how he met a dead woman?

Chills begin to creep down Billiam's spine as he enters a territory they may have never anticipated asking about. "If Jackson is your older brother by about five years and James met Madeline two years before he had you… Who was Jackson's father?"

…

Aytham drinks from a near empty cup as he stares down at the Dark Ball he had helped design for Madame Rocket back in his youth. The design had been mass-produced by Silph Company unknowingly since then, but few knew of what the changes were.

Once a master of design and creation, now Aytham stares at a computer screen hunting down some half-breed hybrids left behind by a missing professor.

"Lizzie D'Eon, daughter of Grace D'Eon and her powerful disciple Machamp. First target found by Halloran's men. Heavy resistance led to so many casualties Halloran gave up on this little project for a year or two."

Another long drag of a cigarette he leaves in a Foongus-shaped ashtray.

"Raya Arces, daughter of Luna Arces and her loyal partner. Second target found by Halloran's men. Luna agreed to sell her daughter's services to Halloran and was promptly interred into the organization." What a sickening thought. Grace and her 'husband' had fought Halloran to the last, choosing to die and flee instead of bowing down.

Rocket Admin Luna, new codename, The Matron, was one of the northern admins they had yet to regain contact with.

Aytham takes one last hit off of his used ciggy and tosses it into the bin next to the small desk he's seated at. The old office he's sitting in used to be for an old mill that used to run in the forest where the little event Raya was in used to grind up trees for the locals. Though it was now a Rocket hideout, or what was left of Team Unovan Rocket, the quiet keeps the man sane.

Rubbing his grizzled chin and scratching the whiskers that grew to upset the daily shaving gent makes him wonder if torching it would be a more permanent solution. Maybe Ricardo would… No, he'd take off more than just the hair.

"Heh, you're still here?" Aytham glances over at the stout man in the doorway. A wide grin on a fat face greets him from the dark as Dee Koi steps into the room. Codename 'The Thug', Dee was the last guy promoted by Halloran and the only northern admin they found that had escaped the purge from Commissioner Rodrigo and his men.

Dee Koi was a broad and short man with stubby legs but massive muscles clinging to his bones that intimidated the common grunts. Educated he may not be, but loyal and violent were enough in this line of work.

Aytham remains focused on the documents in his hands as he pores over every option. Adolphus Wolfe and Madeline Banks are both on a small list of options left in Reyvin's scrawled writing.

"Madeline was from the northern half of Unova like you, was she not?" Aytham asks his new companion as he leans back and places his feet on the edge of his desk. "Did she have contact with Reyvin up there?"

Dee Koi shakes his head. "I wouldn't know 'bout that. I was a grunt in the woodworks back then, mate."

Aytham sighs and rubs his temples as the exhaustive search leaves him drained. "Well, where can I look?"

"You could ask The Quill or The Butler. One or both of them should know… but why? Madeline's dead, what more could you want from The Snake?" That codename bothers Aytham and as he looks up, Dee Koi begins to sweat. "Did I say somethin' wrong?"

"Madeline was a full-fledged Administrator?" The codename thing was an old Halloran idea so signed documents could be delivered without risk. It also signified status in the group. "Are you serious?"

Dee contemplates how much his intel is worth and decides to be nice to the overworked former teacher. "Reyvin had contacts with Halloran before he knew what he was. Halloran funded his work because… well, you know, hybrids to rule the world and all. Madeline wasn't a bad lass back then, so it stands she would have been helpin' Reyvin… outta kindness maybe?"

Aytham sighs even louder and rises from his seat. "Then I go to Amos. He was very close with Reyvin before his job became what it was. I can just act as an advisor for James. I'm surprised he didn't ask."

"He was gonna get offed, ya know?" Dee answers Aytham with a serious look on his face. "I was hired on to do it. Once Alterra got that dumb sword and the hand-off was made, we were s'posed ta knock him off. Halloran's orders."

"Okay, pause." Every time this dumb ass blade of Alistair's got mentioned, more would come to light that bothered him. "Alistair paid for it and Madeline ditched her man to ride that same plane. Now you're saying Halloran knew and was going to assassinate James once Alistair got the blade? I thought Alterra only wanted the blade for his stupid plan."

Dee Koi shakes his head. "That part didn't matter to Halloran. I mean, why would his men be on the plane that crashed if he wanted the sword?"

Aytham's eyes bulge for a moment and he regains himself. "You mean to tell me his men were on the plane as well? I thought Bob and Richter were all James hired to watch it."

"Yeah, and Halloran had more put on the plane to get somethin' else."

"What else of value could…" Once it clicks, Aytham's blood curdles in his veins. "Reyvin… Halloran was trying to get a hold of the hybrids. Was he trying to…?"

Dee Koi shrugs. "I don't know how the crash happened, so it doesn' matter ta me with Halloran dead. Better question is why YOU would care, Wastrel?"

Aytham sees an image in his head of the smiling face of a young woman and grips his chair hard enough for the plastic to crack from the immense pressure. "You know, Dee Koi… if Halloran wasn't dead already…" Cold red eyes meet the thug's. "…he would be."

…

Becca expects all kinds of horrors as Jonas leads her into the encampment of the bloodied killer.

A snoozing Glameow cuddling small bird Pokémon in a circle as a perplexed Staravia tilts its head in both directions looking for a place to curl up in wasn't on the Bingo card.

"A predator is just snoozing with its prey?"

Midnight opens his eyes and stares at Becca for a moment before closing them again and wrapping his tail around the baby Pidgey chick he was lying against as its mother held its chicks close.

Becca does a double take and is further perplexed as Jonas walks by, petting the snoozing Serade on the ground as the little Budew takes in moisture on its leaves in the evening haze.

"The map will show you where it'll be safe to sleep without being in a challenge zone. Most of this valley is safe during the night, which is why we selected it once the map was in full view." Jonas explains the basics of their plans as he moves to a small campsite that Lizzie and Kelsie helped make for him. "Ah, Kelsie, that girl is a treasure."

Jonas focuses on setting down his things outside of his tent and watches Becca observe him from the corner of his eye. Mark's approach from the far side cuts the tension as the bumbling bespectacled boy brings naught but bravado. "So you're one of those Alliance guys hunting us? Luke figured they'd send someone… scary."

Becca holds her tongue and decides not to waste words on such a paltry foe.

"I think it's more so her alliance lacks anything to scare us besides its leader and Daisy." Jonas replies earnestly as he sits down in front of his tent and pets his resting hound lying on his side. "Here to raise up hell or just to do reconnaissance? We're not ones to hide in the shadows like that foul woman."

"Do you want me to terrify you?" Becca answers him coldly as her beloved partner Axew appears by her side from a gentle flick of her Luxury Ball. "Don't make me sick Haxew on you."

Mark adjusts his collar as he hears the name. "Oh, like… hacks you. Oh… yeah no, that does it for me."

Jonas raises an eyebrow as he sits up and nudges Mark's shoulder. "Like in a bad way or…?"

"Bad and good?" Mark blushes slightly at his own joke until Becca's gaze cuts through him like an axe.

Kelsie and Aqua enter into the small gathering and eye up the blue-locked femme fatale that has infiltrated their camp. "This is the Blakely heir?"

Jonas nods and drinks from a thermos emblazoned with his family's crest writ upon it. "One of them at least. Probably the less reasonable of the two."

Mark adjusts his posture. "I mean, at least she's… nice?"

"Don't overstep your bounds, meat." Becca's harsh tone sends goose bumps down Mark's spine as her vitriolic hiss at his very existence quiets him.

Becca ignores Kelsie entirely and focuses on the shiny Kirlia standing by her side. "So you're his ace, I take it?"

Aqua bows in deference to her and Becca, unaware of the sass implied by the Mon's attitude, hesitates in her judgments. ""I'm certainly the best he's capable of keeping in check."

"The best?" Midnight snorts at her with a voice Becca can't understand.

Kelsie shakes her head. "You're never in check. A king can't outmaneuver his queen on a board."

"A… what?" Becca's expression shifts slightly at Kelsie's words. "A king and his…?"

Aqua puffs out her chest and stands on top of her toes to appear larger than she is. "Perhaps you're right, Kelsie. I'm the one in charge here. So, tell me-" Aqua intensifies the intensity of gravity as sorcery-level psychic aura exudes from her small form, enough to pin Becca and Axew in place. "-why you deign to stand before a queen and her royal table!?"

"Royal Knight Mark reporting for duty!" Mark Nitz may have never once considered himself cool; but in that moment, as he summons his loyal Ace Servine to coil around his arm and raise vines from the earth to grip Becca and her Haxew in place give him a sense of purpose.

In tandem with their idiocy, Jonas fakes a pose from an old show he liked reading as his dog who could survive a furnace lunges over the two interlopers to guard their exit path, charging a Pursuit.

Kelsie, the third Royal Knight of Aqua's questionable Table of Ill Repute sends Bacon Bits out to stand by her side as she stares down their potential new foe.

Becca winces through the intense gravitational pull and asks the obvious question. "Is it really fair to jump a girl like this that you invited?"

"I can sense the malice in you." Aqua's purple glow illuminates Becca to her recent developments. "You didn't come here to fight my idiot master. You came to hurt him."

"How'd you know?" Becca laughs at the thinly-veiled rage burning in Aqua as her hands reach for a small device on her belt sleeve. "But knowing isn't enough…"

"Stop with this nonsense." Everyone pauses as Luke exits his own tent and steps into view of the crowd of would-be knights and would-be attackers as Lizzie flanks him on one side and Torbital spins in front of him, shooting excess energy off to make the introduction more intimidating.

The mass static energy spikes Luke's hair upwards and frizzes Lizzie's fur out in awkward directions as the trio de danger appears before the woman designated to defeat them.

Luke observes the situation, from the annoyingly smug Kirlia to the contemptible heiress and makes a series of judgment calls that line up with his own prior knowledge rather quickly. "Even if you think of me as a monster, attacking me is more than just immediate disqualification. If I pressed charges, you could go to jail. Do you understand that?"

"Jail!? Me!? For what!? Making you pay for a crime you confessed to!?" Becca's anger bubbles as the emotions within her boil over into magma. "Should it really be a crime to… punish people who just walk away from what they do!?"

"That's an interesting thought." Luke leans down to meet her hateful gaze. "But if that's something you believe, then why am I a villain?"

Jonas and Mark exchange a look that contains a thousand words and none of them are good.

Luke's dismissive and methodical approach to her complaints goes against his normal methodology of wearing his heart on his sleeve. In this moment he is playing a part, and play it he does. "Perhaps you forget why Laurence Baker met his end."

"You bastard…" Becca growls and struggles under the intensified weight plaguing her joints and limbs from moving.

"That callous man was a failure of society who destroyed anything he touched." Luke turns away and in his hands is a small reddened collar with a small heart carrying the name 'Buddy' on it as he rubs it for luck or perhaps a sense of purpose. "He killed my dog and laughed about it. I killed him… but you know what I forgot?"

"What!?" The snarl from the heiress flies in the face of everything they thought they knew of her.

"I forgot this…" Luke then lets out a horrendous and chilling laugh, perhaps forced, perhaps out of some semblance of dark humor as he uses the juxtaposition to rile up his new foe. Not every fight could be won with force. Sometimes, the mind was enough. And in that moment, as he laughs at the death of a person he once loathed with all of his being, he watches Becca break through Aqua's barrier and take a mighty swing at him.

That's going to hurt, he thinks.

…

In the wilderness Skyla makes her way through forests and trees as her partners soar through the air. Despite everything that had gone wrong, she breathes easy knowing she had friends out there.

Even if Elesa was gone in another city, someone would support her nevertheless.

Now if only she could find them. Spotting one of the illusive challenges laid out on the map, she smiles optimistically, knowing she just might find a way to find her friends.

Watching Jaycen and Aria approach each other on the map, she wonders if they would keep their bloodlust in check or just start fighting now.

Either way, she would keep distance. For now she would focus on the less-difficult obstacles she must overcome to fulfill her dream.

Her dream? She smiles bitterly at the thought.

…

If it hit.

Within Luke's grasp stands Becca as her arm hovers inches from his cheek. His grip is demanding but carries enough slack to not pressure her skin with force.

"I'm curious to know why you care so much about that bastard. If you're so against needless bloodshed, you should be thanking me." Cold words from a colder heart is all Becca hears as she wrings her arm out of his grasp and glares at him, contemplating attacking him with her team then and there. "After all, he caused pain to so many people."

"Was there a trial?" Becca squares up and readies herself for another strike. "Just because hateful people spread rumors about a young man to make him appear like a monster doesn't make it true!"

Jonas interjects with his own interpretation of the facts. "You don't get murdered…. Or in this case nearly murdered by a dad if you're innocent."

Becca narrows her gaze and sharpens her more violent features. "Oh yes, vigilantes never get the wrong guy. My mistake."

"If you think he's innocent because he wasn't put in trial…" Luke leans down to her level. "Then I didn't beat him over and over as he choked on his own teeth and blood while he kicked up dirt on that dusty route I was on. Did I?"

"I'll destroy you!" Haxew jumps in front of Becca to defend her master and projects an aura of strength in its little body that would crush a normal man's body asunder.

Mark closes the gap and commands his Servine to block the path between the two with vines. "Hey! Calm down!"

Luke grips the vines and despite the sharp thorns pricking his fingers, he pulls them apart. Servine and Mark watch with mouths agape as Jonas shrugs, expecting an outcome like that.

The blood dripping down his hands onto the dirt would stir up any Zubat or Golbat as Luke raises his arms to shrug off the pain and give her a noncommittal reply. "Tyson said that too. He moved past it, I think. So will you."

"You couldn't stop me from taking you down." Fiery passion builds in Becca as memories of the Baker family fill her mind. She draws strength from it, unknowing of the reality she never saw in her home and in her classrooms. "After Laurence died, his family was driven to lose everything! Louisa deserved better than how she was treated!"

Luke runs the bloodied hands through his hair like it was a common thing for him to do now. With how often people wounded him that badly, it was common by now.

"His family wasn't on my mind when he attacked me."

"You're a thug like that lowborn father of yours!" That remark earns a small response in Luke's eyes, not that the girl looked long enough to notice. "A thug couldn't have a child worth a damn now could he!?"

Luke hides his feelings well enough as he folds his arms. "Now you just sound hateful."

Becca grips another PokéBall in her hands and summons a Vanillite to float by her side. "So what if I do? I'll stand up to garbage like you."

"Bold talk from girl best friends with the sister of a kid killer like Laurence." Jonas finally feels his own emotions well up. "I can't say what she went through was right, but her family kept that boy from prison and that's what killed him."

"Fuck you, too, Alterra! Arceus himself already killed that rat fuck brother of yours and you'll be next if you run that mouth of yours!"

Reasonability was gone as Becca crumbles under memories of a dark room and the sound of rope clinging to rafters up above as a small girl with blue hair stares up into the horrified face of a girl her age turned blue and bloodshot eyes with the last remnants of tears flowing down her face.

Becca's blood pumps adrenaline into her and her mind flits back from where she stands now to Louisa, hands covered in scratches and blood from a desperate last minute regretful and clearly unsuccessful attempt to undo the knot that held her aloft above a small step stool. That girl's lone partner, a Snom too small to even get underneath her feet, wobbles back and forth in some vain attempt at moving the stool back into place.

As the Becca in her memory steps into the room, she breaks out into an animalistic scream and kneels down before Luke, Jonas, and Mark as the mostly unvisited memories come to brand her as the unfortunate finder of Laurence's battered and bruised bullied younger sister.

Snom jumps in place and in tears plead in its own language for the girl who just arrived to save her friend.

The young girl sprints forward and frantically reaches for the rope. As her fingers run across it, she finds that the binding wasn't made of rope but silk.

That was what broke Becca. Snom, the Pokémon given to Louisa to cheer her up and protect her after the other students began their assault on her had been tricked.

Tricked into making a weapon.

Perhaps the little bug knew that as it clicks and screeches in shrill tones as Becca tears at the silk in hopes of dropping the girl down to the floor.

When Louisa's mother steps into that room behind her and her eyes meet the dull lifeless orbs, all that remains of the beautiful seas of green where the soul of her youngest daughter once was housed within, her mind shatters and she collapses to her knees.

The wail she made surpasses what Becca amounts to on the ground.

"She didn't deserve to be harassed! She didn't deserve to feel hopeless! She was persecuted until she died because of you, you bastard!" Becca loses herself completely in the past and the future she should have fades into nothing as her rash anger boils over.

Luke's silence leaves all of his friends unnerved. Kelsie pipes up from the corner of the spectacle that is boiling over far beyond what she expected. "Luke… Did you know…?"

Luke bites his tongue. "I was a child. How was I going to know that a girl my age would…" They had been neighbors once. He had seen Louisa and Becca back then on the other side of the fence. Their dog would sneak into his yard and he'd bring it back and see them with her older sisters.

Those memories taste like ash in his mouth. "I thought I knew you…" Becca glares at him. "I even…"

"I don't think anyone knew me until her…" Luke places his hand out in front of him and points at Aqua. "The first person I opened my mind to… had to be a Pokémon." Returning his hand to his chest, he specifies his thoughts. "People had hurt me… not nearly as much as they could have, I'll admit."

"Who cares about you!? She's dead!" Becca releases her Petilil and Heatmor to her side, all ready for a battle. "You don't get to be sorry!"

Luke's expression blanks as he looks her dead in the eyes. "I never was."

Becca's mind fractures in the moment. He couldn't have just said something like that.

"I spent years wondering if I deserved to go to hell for what I did, and maybe I do." Luke speaks his mind. "But if he had lived and hurt another person, left another grieving father behind… That world would be worse. At least I can pay for what I did in this one."

"But you're not! You're getting away with this fucking bullshit; you're the same as him!" Becca reaches for Luke and works herself up to strangle him to death.

"And you'll leave people behind who might end up like Louisa if you do what you want here." Those words quell Becca's mental break long enough for him to finish a coherent thought. "Lizzie lost her partner she loved. Kelsie would go back to an abusive home. Aqua and Torbital, Skittle and Midnight, Serade… they'd all be left with my parents or Rubin or… or even caught and used like pawns by some asshole thinking he can be a Champion…"

Becca grips Luke's shirt and pulls him hard enough to choke him with his own collar. "So I let you get away with murder because they'll get hurt!?"

Luke's pitying look enrages her until his final words on the matter come to light. "You kill me and you become me." Her grip ceases tightening. "I killed Laurence in self-defense and anger. You can do the same, and you'll leave others hurt in your wake. But unlike Laurence and I… you'd be arrested and charged. You'd be punished. And your brother would have to bear the pain of losing you and going through what your friend did."

"He… They… I…" Becca throws Luke away and into Kelsie as he stumbles and she collapses into a mess of tears and screaming. "YOU DESERVE… I HAVE TO…" Incoherence follows as no one says a word and the once proud Blakely heiress breaks down completely.

…

A small campsite at the edge of the safe zone is where Becca idles away her time with the communicator in her hands. Her brother's name is highlighted and the text she is unable to bring herself to send is an admittance of defeat. 'Why did you send me here, Billiam? Why him?'

She knows why. Billiam knows Luke's reputation of late and his calculations led him to believe Becca could slip beneath the cracks and unsettle him. Their shared past would be how.

If he understood the hearts of those close to him, he'd have known it would hurt her too. Did he even care?

No, Billiam may be thoughtless, but never cruel. He truly believes in his sister. Now if she had only been worthy of his trust, this wouldn't be happening.

In her hands lay a small silk ribbon; the beautiful white glean on the fabric gives it a crystalline appearance. The icy visage calls old memories to mind as she stares at it and fights back emotions.

"Do you want food?" Kelsie enters the small clearing that Axew had mowed down with his arms for his master with a steaming bowl of stew that Mark and Jonas had made with Baron's help and an accidental fire. "I don't know if… you have the supplies to cook it."

Bitterly Becca Blakely bickers back at her. "You think an heiress wouldn't have the funds for basic supplies? Haven't you insulted me enough?" The anger in her words are naught but ash as the fire had long died down in the face of the chills running through her as she sits in silence and sorrow.

Kelsie bites her lip and sets the steaming bowl down on a nearby rock covered in moss and dirt. "You know, Luke saved my life."

"Did he now?" Becca glares at Kelsie, considering her nothing more than an interloper.

"Yeah, I…" Kelsie hesitates and then decides to be honest as possible. Shifting and contorting back into her true form, the Zorua staring up at Becca leaves her breathless. In a burst of light, the girl named Kelsie appears before her eyes once more with a grim expression. "There. I showed you… the truth."

Billiam had it figured out earlier on. He had done research on all fifty possible participants. Kelsie hadn't been one.

Becca's mind runs through the options. "You were Shauntal's test; a fake student infiltrating our rather large class. You're just an impostor hiding among the group."

"I'm an experiment." Sitting down next to Becca, Kelsie decides to try to understand the girl with so much anger inside her. "Adolphus Wolfe breeds Ditto with other creatures for experimentation. Everything Reyvin ever did, he twists into cruelty."

"That's… the Wolfe Estate may have rumours around it, but…"

Kelsie thinks back to her own childhood. "There's an incinerator for broken projects. Sometimes they make too many subjects and instead of just releasing them, Wolfe likes to hide his crimes by…" Silence pervades as the girl remembers the fate of her litter mates. "Do you know what screams something can make as it burns?"

Becca shakes her head. "Stop. Just… stop."

"Jonas's father left some marks on him so horrific he has to use make up to hide it." Kelsie could see the lines of burns on the sides of his cheek. They were recognizable to her. Whenever Jonas rubbed his face too much, foundation came off and the sin could be seen. "Your family… you're lucky to have them."

"You don't know anything about my home." Becca replies coldly, but the distance between them seems to fade.

Kelsie hands the food bowl to Becca and tilts her head. "Only you and Luke know what I am. He knew because… I had to transform to stop Tyson."

That bastard tried to kill her. Right. Becca's blood boils again. "He should be dead."

"That's how I felt." She would have done it, too. "Luke stopped me."

"I guess murderers have to stick together." Despite her reason, her mind can't deviate from the righteousness of her beliefs. She bites into a piece of Tauros beef as she slurps the stew like a hungry animal.

Kelsie decides to be blunt. "He told me afterwards that he didn't want me to bloody my hands with that. He said it's something you really come to regret. At the time I didn't know what he meant." The scene at the cemetery comes to mind. "It wasn't until after he confessed. Right at Laurence's grave he told us just what really happened."

Becca pauses eating and just listens to her.

"It made sense. Why he hid from others, why he preferred Pokémon over people, why he didn't want me to kill Tyson. He was afraid I'd be like him one day." Kelsie thought he had been crazy, but after thinking on it, she understands. "If I had, and found out after how he had been tortured. Starved, beaten, limbs broken and bones shattered, thrown into a cage to die, not just by an evil woman but by his own father who regretted him being born… It makes me think of how people would treat me if I turned out like a monster…"

"You're not a monster." Becca didn't know what else to say but what she felt. "You…"

Kelsie closes her eyes. "If you met Sir Wolfe you'd see he thinks differently. We are tools to be used by humans with ambitions. That's all Pokémon ever amount to in many people's lives."

Becca is reminded of why Snom was received in the first place; a companion for their daughter because the parents who cried at her death couldn't be bothered to be there for her in person. Resentment for said parents had been in her heart all this time and now…

"The Rejects don't seem to think that way." Becca puts two and two together and finally understands the real reason behind the name. "You're not rejects because you're losers or rejected by society." She meets Kelsie's gaze. "You're rejects because you reject the society that makes your kind seem lesser."

"Nathan trains his partners like war buddies. Reina treats them like friends and gossips with them knowing they can't talk back well." Kelsie, having spent days on and off with all of them, takes pride in knowing this. "Mark considers them his lab assistants, Daisy views them as the only real family she ever had, and I guess Tyson did, too…"

Becca bristles at his name but keeps herself in check as she imbibes more of the stew.

Kelsie fumbles with her hair as she absentmindedly twirls it in her fingers. "I… I guess Shauntal put me on this team because they had the best chance of noticing I was different."

"Jonas seems to talk of his Baron with such pride it's like a child of his." Becca had born witness to at least one moment of Jonas strutting about and talking highly of his hound in the cafeteria days before the tests began. Not even a month ago felt like years.

"And Luke doesn't consider there to be a difference." Kelsie finishes the thought and reflects on this realization. "Rejected by society or rejecting it? Either way, now that he and Aqua are dating it's clear he sees Pokémon as equals."

Becca's mind latches onto the wording and turns to Kelsie with a deer-in-the-headlights stare. "They're WHAT!?"