Twenty Two: The Flood
Elaina woke up on a bench outside of the Artazon battle court. She would have panicked if Penny hadn't been sitting beside her. "Why don't I remember anything since Amara came out to battle Mela? I thought we were done with the amnesia." Penny squeezed Elaina's hand. "Elaina, your father is a horrible man." She said, fear leeching into her voice. "He hurt Amara really bad, and she doesn't want you to know how bad." Penny was as white as a sheet as she looked Elaina over. "I love you, Elaina. No matter what you find out about what happened to you and Amara. I will be here. I love you."
"By Azelf, what happened to us?" Elaina put her head in her hands. "He was just a normal dad with a shady career, right? He was a good dad, wasn't he?" No, Elaina. Our father is a monster. Elaina went pale. "If I think he's a good dad then that means you got all the bad stuff, didn't you?"
Yes. Elaina stood on shaking legs. Do you want to know? Amara's tone had turned from jovial to horrified as she kept talking. I'll tell you. Go back to the hotel and lay down. Keep Penny with you. "Alright, thank you, Amara. Penny, will you come back to the hotel with us?" Elaina asked. Her girlfriend took her hand, and they made their way back to their room.
This is going to hurt a lot. Are you absolutely sure? Amara asked as Elaina laid down on the bed. "I'm sure. What happened to you, Amara?" Elaina's eyelids began to flutter as she dissociated. Then she was five, strapped to a chair, and staring a Kadabra in the face. She was terrified, and then she heard her dad's voice.
"Kadabra, use Confusion." Then her head started to scream. Everything hurt as she felt herself torn apart at the deepest roots of her mind. As the sensation stopped, Giovanni looked down at her. "What is your name, little one?" he asked sweetly. "Amara." The little girl spoke. Giovanni looked back to Kadabra. "Again." He said sternly, and the pain returned. Amara sat in agony for what felt like hours as her mind was torn to pieces.
As the pain stopped a second time, Giovanni asked again. "What's your name, little one?" Amara repeated her name from before and was put back under Kadabra's assault. This time she screamed. "Daddy please make it stop!"
"No, honey. I need you to be a good girl and let Kadabra hurt you. You're doing so good for me. Kadabra, Extrasensory." The pain got worse as her vision went blindingly white. She felt like she was floating and watching herself from outside her body. After a moment, her body spoke. "Daddy, where are we?"
"What is your name, little one?" Giovanni asked for a third time. Her body responded without Amara's input. "Elaina." Giovanni undid the straps holding her body as Amara watched her father hug and lift this new being. "My lovely little Elaina, that's right. Now, do you feel the other girl inside your brain?"
"Yeah, she's not me though. Why is she here?" Little Elaina asked, confused. Giovanni hugged her again. "She's my daughter too. I was so happy to be your dad I had to have two. Now, relax and see if you can give her control of your body, ok?" Giovanni sat the little girl down and Elaina scrunched up her face, thinking. As she started to dissociate, Giovanni struck a tuning fork, and Elaina lost consciousness. Amara quickly jumped to the front of the brain and took control of her body.
"Welcome back, Amara." Giovanni's smile was wicked. "Now, we teach you how to be a good Team Rocket operative. Are you ready?" Amara shook her head. "Kadabra, Extrasensory." Amara let out another scream before looking back up to her father in a trance. "You are ready, Amara." He said, then the memory went black.
Amara is twelve. She looks around at the people gathered around her: Archer, her father, and a few other people that she hadn't seen before. "Now, Amara. You have your mission. This mark has a weakness only you can exploit." Her father's words cut like a razor, and Amara flinched. "Is this really the only way?" She asked. Giovanni nodded and handed Amara a gift box. She opened it to reveal a black dress. "That's for you, for tonight. Do not fail us, Amara."
"Yes, daddy." She looked at the dress again. The entire idea made her want to vomit, but if she did it wouldn't make a bit of difference. "Arianna will do your hair and makeup. I'm really proud of you, my girl." Giovanni said again as Arianna came to lead her away. As they stepped out of the room and the door closed behind them, Arianna gave Amara a hug.
"You can do this, sweetie. It won't change who you are." The look on her face was hard for Amara to understand, but she hugs Arianna back. Then she's taken to a room where Arianna washes and styles her hair. She's adorned with makeup and then she's led down the hallway to another room. Arianna opens the door, to reveal a bed. "You can do this, Amara." Arianna said as Amara walked into the room. The door closed behind her, and the next thing she heard was "You're so pretty." From a chair by the door. Then the memory went black.
Amara is fourteen. She carries her possessions in a bag on her back. A couple of changes of clothes, a toothbrush, and a Pokéball. She's dirty, hungry, sleepy, but she can't go back. She ducks through a hole in a chain-link fence and pops into a backyard. A Stoutland snoozes in a doghouse. Amara looks around. The family seems to be asleep at this time of night. She darts through the yard, startling Stoutland awake. She's over the fence into the next yard before Stoutland can reach her. Her legs move by themselves. She'll run forever if it gets her away. As she hopped into the next yard, she finds a garden of Oddish. They haven't fully sprouted yet, but she walks over to them. She plucks a few of the budding leaves and tucks them into her pocket, then keeps running.
After a few blocks, she finds a familiar house. She knocks, a man answers. She offers him the buds. "Let me stay and don't tell my father." She's ushered inside. There's no electricity, but they had running water. She grabbed a cloth and washed the dirt off her skin. She makes sure to only wipe what's visible, so she didn't have to take off her shirt. "Don't ever take off your shirt in a trap house, Amara." Arianna's voice echoed. "They'll want you to keep going." Amara shuddered. With what she was running from, that almost seemed preferable.
"You good in there, girl?" the voice came from outside the door. Amara opened the door to reveal the man and his Mabosstiff. "Yeah, just tryna scrub off the streets." The man chuckled. "Good luck. I've been trying for twenty-five years. You got any coin? The bud's nice but Mabosstiff here's a hungry boy." Amara shook her head. "Spent the last of my coin on a waffle last night. You need something run?"
"Always, but I ain't got coin to pay you upfront. I give you twenty percent though." Amara nodded and stepped past him into the dark living room. She sat on the couch and put her feet up. "What do you need to run, and where?" There was a long pause. "That depends on what you'll carry." He said with a smirk.
"Just tell me what the job is." Amara fired back. "I need that bread." The man smiled. "An old friend of mine likes the vitamins I got. Ones you can't get at Chansey's. You feel me?" He asked. Amara was getting annoyed. "You want me to run denatured vita to a guy, cool, where?" The man blinked in surprise. "Your daddy must be treatin' you like shit if you know so much. Here's the kicker. He's a real piece of shit, so you might be able to get somethin' else out of him if you work that side hustle. You feel me?"
"Yeah, I feel you. If the coin's good enough, I'll put out. Where's the shit going?" The man walked back into the bathroom and pulled three bottles hidden in a caddy under the counter. "39th and Evans. House is blue. Take it to the guy on the corner. Tell him you've got Girl Scout cookies. He'll let you in." Amara nodded and stuffed the three bottles into her bag. "Bitchin', I'll be back." She walked out the door with her bag snugly on her back. "Make me a vita Mudbray for twenty percent. Dick." She walked down the road for about three blocks before she saw it. A black Sedan was driving down the street. It slowed as it approached Amara, and after not wasting a second glance, she darted into the trees. She ran through the woods and into the park, where she hopped over a bench and kept moving. Her body ached, her breathing was heavy, and now she had her father hot on her tail.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit." She said as she ran. The sedan had pulled into the park, but the roads didn't come down this far. Amara ran and climbed up a tree. Three men in Team Rocket blacks ran through the park. Amara set herself above a very leafy branch, hoping for the best. As she breathed, a Spinarak webbed down to her shoulder. "You better be here hiding from a Swellow." She said. Spinarak chirped and webbed down to her legs, where it started to spin.
Amara leapt from the tree into a forward roll and kept moving. "Fuck, dad has the loyalty of random Spinarak now?" She said to herself as she ran. She left the park through the east exit and kept running. After a fifteen-minute bout of terror, the sedan was nowhere to be found. Amara let out a deep breath. She made her way to the address and after a quick knock, an older man answered the door. "And what can I do for you?" He asked.
"I have the Girl Scout cookies you ordered." She said, and he waved her inside. He sat in the armchair in the corner of the room. This place, thankfully, had lights. "What do I owe you?" he asked. Amara did some quick math. "Fourteen thousand." The man pulled twenty-five thousand Poké from his pocket. "That's for the cookies." He said as he handed the fourteen thousand. Amara tucked it into her bra. "And this could be for the Girl Scout." He held the other eleven thousand out to Amara. "If you make it worth my while." Amara gave a smirk, and the memory went black.
Amara is fourteen. She wakes up in her own bed, with her mother and father arguing down the hall. She's horrified. She moves to jump and run but her wrist is handcuffed to the bed. "Shit, shit, shit." She looks around for something to help her escape, but to no avail. Her father walks into the room. "Do you know how I found you?" he asked.
"Not exactly." She said with a sneer. "I just know the city ratted me out." Her mother walked into the room next. "Honey, we want you to stay home. Please don't run away again." Amara locked eyes with Giovanni. "Mom, can we have the room?" Her mother sighed and shut the door behind her as she left.
"When are you going to tell her?" Amara asked through clenched teeth. Giovanni slapped her across the face. "Never, and neither are you." Amara looked back up at him with a bruise forming on her cheek. "I'll get out again. I swear I'll get away from this hellhole."
"Go, Alakazam." Giovanni tossed the Pokéball. Amara buckled and screamed as Alakazam burst forward. "Lock her in, bring out Elaina. Extrasensory." Alakazam'a spoons bent, and Amara let out a wail of pain and agony. After a few moments, Elaina looked back to him. "Daddy, what's going on? What have I been doing?" Giovanni pulled Elaina into a hug and undid her handcuff.
"We found you after you ran away. We're so glad you're home safe." Amara was locked into the back of their brain. She screamed and writhed, but Alakazam had forced Elaina to the front, and Amara couldn't break through. Amara collapsed into the void at the back of her mind and cried. The memory went black.
Elaina is nineteen. She comes to in a hotel room. Her girlfriend sits on the bed beside her. Elaina puts her head in Penny's lap and cries.