Amara and the others were wrapped in blankets on Amara's floor asleep when they heard the noise. A gunshot, then the sound of shattering glass, then footsteps in the stairwell. Amara and the others bolted awake and looked around, then they heard the banging. "Is this the place?" she heard a masculine voice on the other side of her door. Amara shuffled everyone as quietly as possible into the Bathroom and back to Nemona and Allie's room. Then there was another gunshot, and her door handle turned as Amara stood in front of the closed bathroom door.
"Yep, we're in the right place." The man approached Amara and grabbed her shoulder. "Your father wants to see you. Come on." He pulled Amara from her room, down the stairs and out the broken glass door. She couldn't think. Everyone was whipped into a panicked frenzy unable to take hold of her thoughts. I don't want to see him. Elaina sobbed. Amara steeled her wits as the Rocket Grunts led her through campus to the west lawn, where her father smiled at her.
"Hello, Amara. I didn't expect to see you ever again. Tell me, have you poisoned Madilyn against me?" Amara spat at her father's feet, causing him to rear back and deliver a right hook into her jaw. She spat out the blood and gave a wicked grin.
"You used to be tougher." She smiled through bloodstained teeth. "That used to knock me out." She looked around for any sort of escape but found nothing. She saw Penny poke her head around the building, and her heart sank. Please don't let them be so naïve that they think they can rescue us. This is an operation. Madilyn was actively turning over Amara's back brain to find a solution, then her father spoke.
"Je t'accorde l'obéissance, ma fille." Then the world went black.
Narrative Continued by Penny
Penny watched as Amara went limp and cursed under her breath. She pulled Amara's phone from her pocket and dialed Mr. Vaughn. "Mr. Vaughn, it's Penny. Team Rocket is on Campus, and they just brought Amara under their control. Please, we need your help." She stuffed the phone back into her pocket and ducked through the gaps between buildings to make her way back to Dragontongue, where the others were waiting. "Did you get ahold of the police?" Penny asked. Nemona shook her head.
"They answered the phone, farted into the end, and hung up. We're likely on our own." Nemona recounted. Penny told the others that they had control over Amara, and that Giovanni was likely to take them away at the end of this. "Uxie knows where he'll take her. We have to move. If we can get our girlfriend back before any of that happens, we'll be golden. Mr. Vaughn came up to them then, with a grizzled look on his face and a pistol tucked into his waistband.
"I reached out to some of my police buddies. Mesagozan police have been bought out, so we're going to have to hold out until my crew arrives. What can you tell me? Penny hit the highlights, that there were at least sixty to ninety armed grunts on campus and Giovanni had said something to Amara that forced some kind of dissociative episode. "Fuck, I was worried that might happen. We need to move to intercept her, but quietly. She won't come with us willingly if we're right about what Giovanni has done." He pulled the Goon Squad into a huddle. "Everyone, hide. Go back to Dragontongue and hunker down. Break." He released the huddle, and everyone started to walk back inside. Mr. Vaughn motioned for Penny to stay behind.
"Penny, my plan requires your help. It will put you in danger, but if we don't try it, we may never get the Plowmans back. Are you with me?" Penny nodded wordlessly. "We're going to try to Isolate the system and force front one of the alters who loves you. I know it can be done, but it's a risk, especially if the fronter is hostile."
"I'll do it. I'd do anything for Elaina and Amara." She thought for a minute. "And I think that I know how to do it." Mr. Vaughn led Penny back through main campus as quickly and quietly as the two could move. They found the Plowmans shortly after. They were flanked by two armed guards as they made their way eastward, toward the library. "The fuck are they doing breaking into the library?" Penny muttered under her breath. Mr. Vaughn pushed her up against the building and told her to stay put. He stuck his hands into the crack in the bricks and started to climb. The building was only two stories, so he was on the roof fairly quickly.
Penny lost track of Mr. Vaughn as he ducked out of view, then she watched one of Amara's guards crumple. The other followed shortly after, and Mr. Vaughn jumped from the roof into a forward roll. He popped up on his knee and aimed the pistol at Amara.
"Shoot me, Vaughn. You know you've always wanted to, after what my father did to White. Do it. End my life like he ended hers." Amara opened her arms, and Mr. Vaughn pulled back the hammer. "That's right, feel that hate in your heart? Daddy put it there, and now you can make it all go away by putting three rounds in my heart. Come on, Vaughn, don't disappoint another woman."
Vaughn turned and shot the rocket grunts behind Penny, who let out a squeal and jogged into the open. "My beloved, have you come here to kill me?" Amara's voice was off, somehow. It sounded less like a different person was fronting and more like Amara had been put into a trance. Mr. Vaughn lowered his weapon, and Penny spoke.
"Amara, honey, I came to bring you back to bed. It's late, and so cold." She took a step forward, and Amara took a step back. Amara raised a hand to her temple and swore. "Sweetheart, please come to bed. The bed's too big without you in it." Amara smiled sweetly at Penny and responded with some words of her own.
"Penny, darling, I hate you. I always have, deep down. I kept you around because you're good at eating my pussy, and it was so stressful helping daddy plan this operation. You understand, I'm sure. Now piss off, I'll find another tongue to moisten my folds." Penny gasped, and tears started to well up in Penny's eyes.
"No, Amara, all of it was, you, you raped me!" Penny's scream rang out through the courtyard, and Mr. Vaughn winced. Penny collapsed to her knees and cried. "I loved you. You hurt me just like all the others. Fuck, stupid girl." Penny started to dissociate when Mr. Vaughn called to her.
"Penny, it's the trance. It's trying to keep you from breaking it. Keep pushing!" Penny pushed the darkness from her head and found her footing again. Her mind was screaming at her to run, to accept that she'd been tricked again, but despite every cell in her body screaming at her to run, she took a step toward Amara.
"I had a thought, dear, however scary,
About that night, the bugs and the dirt.
Why were you digging? What did you bury,
Before those hands pulled me from the earth?"
Penny sang softly, but Amara still flinched at her words as she took another step closer.
"I will not ask you where you came from,
I will not ask, and neither would you.
Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips,
We should just kiss like real people do."
Amara doubled over in agony as her body and brain rebelled against one another. Penny bemoaned the anguish racking Amara as she sang, but she resolved to stop when her love was cuddled in her arms again.
"I know that look, dear, eyes always seeking,
Was there in someone, that dug long ago.
So, I will not ask you why you were creeping,
In some sad way, I already know."
Amara let out a scream as Penny poke holes in the trance plaguing Amara, Amara looked toward Penny with the blinding hatred of Giratina itself, but Penny kept going. She would break the mind control on her beloved. She would stop at nothing to have Amara in her arms again.
"But I will not ask you where you came from.
I will not ask, and neither should you.
Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips,
We should just kiss like real people do."
Amara's body writhed for a moment, then went still. Penny ran to her and cradled her head in her lap as Amara blinked twice and her eye shine returned to her.
"I will not ask you where you came from.
I could not ask, and neither could you.
Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips,
We could just kiss like real people do."
Amara's voice was haunting as she sang the last chorus from Penny's lap. "Where are we, Penny? What's been going on?" Mr. Vaughn jogged up to them and told them the exposition would have to wait since the three of them needed to get out of there.
"Giovanni's got ten guys on his way, and I only have nine rounds. Haul ass!" The girls stood and took off running behind Mr. Vaughn. He ducked in between Dojo and Beedrill and climbed up a fire escape with Penny and Amara hot on his heels. Then a man and woman Penny didn't recognize stepped into the alley and whistled. Mr. Vaughn hopped off the building and rolled into the woman's arms. "Took you long enough, best friend." The man clapped Mr. Vaughn on the shoulder, then looked up at Amara and Penny.
"Come on down, you two. Teach here called us in." Amara and Penny climbed down the fire escape and headed over to the three of them. "Special Agent Wes, this is my wife, Agent Rui, we're your teach's best friends." Wes turned to Mr. Vaughn. "We've got five tac teams on site, with four more heading this way now. Red and Ethan are cleaning up the east side, and Silver's moving to apprehend Giovanni."
"My brother is here?" Amara asked, bewildered. "Fuck, dad will kill him on sight." Amara started to shuffle nervously. Silver swung around the building and clapped Mr. Vaughn and Special Agent Wes on the shoulders, then he looked to Amara and Penny.
"I'm prepared for that, Kit. I've wanted to kill him since I was six." He hugged Amara and Penny tightly. "If you end the night as an only child, know I love you, and tell mom I love her too." Amara squeezed Silver tightly, then both of them let go.
"Take care of my sister, Vaughn." Silver said over his shoulder as he darted off toward the courtyard. Mr. Vaughn shuffled Penny and Amara back to Dragontongue and told them to hunker down, then darted out into the night.
Narrative Continued by Markus Vaughn
He ran, it had been so long that he'd almost forgotten what it felt like. He found Looker shortly after and fell into formation. Looker smiled at him and asked if he planned to come out of retirement at the end of the evening. "Not a chance. Right now, they're on my home turf though, so you can have me for the evening." Looker snorted at Markus's words, then took out three Rocket grunts with shots to the head. "No prisoners isn't like you, Looker." Markus muttered as Looker quickly dropped his magazine and popped in a fresh one.
"Neither is fending off mob violence on a university campus. Life's full of little surprises." Markus snorted at that statement, and he and Looker went around dropping grunts. Then they came to the eastern courtyard, where Markus stopped Looker.
"This is where the stargazing club meets." Markus disclosed. "Nonzero chance there are hostages to think about." Looker nodded and crept along the side wall. There were three guards holding a group of about twenty people at gunpoint. Looker spotted Giovanni and Silver shortly after, both swearing and in a standoff. "Wes and Rui are in position. We have enough firepower to secure the courtyard and rescue the kids. Let's get this over with." Looker popped out of cover and shot Giovanni in the back of the leg, dropping him to the ground. Wes and Rui dropped two of the Rocket grunts, with Markus taking down the other. Looker moved to secure the kids as Giovanni writhed on the ground. Silver had kicked Giovanni's gun away and was in the process of cuffing him as Markus approached.
"This is my petty revenge for White." Markus stomped on Giovanni's bullet wound, causing him to scream and black out. Silver finished cuffing Giovanni and he and Markus hauled him to the maintenance tunnel, where sat an ambulance, and a single Mesagoza police cruiser. The police chief stepped out of his car and Markus had to stop himself from slapping him. "Chief, why didn't your staff come out tonight?" he asked.
"They're all out of work with the plague, so no cops were in the station to show up." The chief shrugged his shoulders. "That or everybody got paid off to lie to me about what was going on. Either way, Looker promised me an audit, so here I am." Silver and Markus stuffed Giovanni into the cruiser and Silver hopped into the front as the chief drove away. Director Clavell approached Markus next, seemingly appearing from nowhere.
"Mr. Vaughn, you're fired." He said, then his facial expression caved from stern to terrified. "That was a joke, to be sure, we're so happy to have you. I will need a report come the morning, however." Markus affirmed that Clavell would get the report, but not until Markus walked down the Great Staircase, walked into his apartment, and collapsed into bed next to Miriam. "Godspeed, Mr. Vaughn, and I hope sleep finds you well."