Chapter 17: Curtain Call at the Tampico

"That ghoul's presence in the theater has activated casino security. Until you shut it down we can't learn all the Madre's secrets." Elijah's voice echoed off the Lobby's speakers, "Then if that ghoul's still alive… correct that."

Dee took a deep breath as she reached the door with the words "THEATER" over top. Even if she wasn't that fond of Dean he still didn't deserve this, none of them did.

Dee entered the theater's reception area to find just a desk and the passage to the main theater. It was eerily quiet as she walked through the short sideways hallway into the main theater. Like the rest of the Madre, the theater was pristine with a stage ready with microphone, seating at tables all over ready for an audience and a bar by the exit ready to serve snacks and drinks. Dee wandered around the eerily quiet theater floor until she was drawn to a music stand in front of the stage.

"Finally, a friendly face… hey! Partner! Up here." The voice drew Dee's eyes up to a small balcony overlooking the theater from backstage where Dean stood. "In a bit of a predicament here… had to duck backstage, take a powder, the audience is a little… murderous tonight."

"Dean? Wait… what audience?" a laser blast struck her in the side as a form of answer and Dee spun around to see three security holograms advancing on her, glowing red with their hands to their heads. Two more beams shot at Dee but she jumped back as Dean shouted from backstage.

"Hurry! Run to the left and-" he stopped when he saw Dee jump up and land right in front of him on the balcony. "Almost forgot you could do that."

"Yeah, can't really do that anywhere else. No intact buildings this close together in Kalos." The two of them retreated backstage to avoid the security holograms' gaze.

"Ahh yes, the rest of the wasteland. The other tourists mentioned it before but none ever stuck around long enough to describe it. Hmm?" he got a better look at Dee's gold neck, "Say… where's your bowtie?"

Dee touched her neck, "I was able to remove it after the Madre's security blew out most of its power." She turned to Dean, "I can take yours off too, but it's gonna hurt."

"Well… a little pain will be better than the indignities I've suffered and what the old man put us through. Go ahead, just don't take my head off." Dean stepped closer to Dee who charged her hands with aura and grabbed the ring around his neck. Dee took a deep breath and pulled at the ring, less aggressively than with herself or Dog. Dean winced as Dee pulled harder and harder until the ring burst off his neck.

Dean rubbed his neck, "Not the most pleasant way to get out of a contract… but less violent than some of my experiences."

Dee sighed in relief, "Thank Arceus. So how did you get here?"

Dean smirked, "I was already halfway off the rooftop, through the service tunnel and making a break for the gate before the light show started… and before Vera finished her Gala speech… I know what'd happen with 'music' in the streets and lights in the sky… Shadow Pokemon. Lots of them. Also meant the front gate was open, and now way was I missing it after all these years. Then… I walk in… and… blinding pain… woke up here, thought I was dreaming for a second… right back on stage, the mic…" he pointed out the small doorway they'd been standing on, "Thought I was back at the Pikachu Club… well, except no audience, used to pack theaters back then… so stepped up on the stage, checked things out… Then suddenly holograms walked out of the wings… and they started raising their hands to their head all creepy-like, not a good sign."

"The security holograms," Dee nodded, "Elijah said the security system here is blocking access to… whatever he's looking for here."

Dean folded his arms, "Those electric ghosts aren't the kind of audience I like at the best of times – at least the ones in the Villa had manners. As for how I ended up here… guess the casino still recognizes guests even after all this time, huh? How that for history." Dean reached into his pocket, "If we want to get out of here we need to give those glowing stiffs the boot." He pulled a key out of his pocket and handed it to Dee, "If I remember correctly… there's a demo tape in my dressing room back here. If you play that on the holo-projector it should shut security down. That key will unlock every room back here. I don't have your legs so I'll wait until the hecklers are gone. The projector is above the bar, getting to the stairs might be a challenge."

Dee accepted the key, "I'll be back as soon as its safe." She headed for the exit door from backstage, unlocked it then checked the hallway to make sure there were no security holograms present before she stepped into the hall and shut the door behind her.

The area backstage had three dressing rooms: one large for multiple average and low-key performers and two private ones, one for Dean Domino and the other for Vera Keyes. The public room didn't have anything of note but scouring Dean and Vera's rooms turned up a couple keys and a video holotape labeled "Dean Domino. Saw Her Yesterday".

"This must be the demo tape," Dee took off her backpack then headed onto the theater floor, holotape in hand.

As soon as she emerged, Dee was targeted by the security holograms which turned red and began firing at her. Dee ducked under the first few shots then charged towards the projector balcony. She jumped aside to avoid more shots but then was shot in the leg and then the back twice. She ignored the pain as best she could then hopped up on the bar and used the extra height to jump up to the projector booth. She took another shot in the back before she landed on the projector balcony. Dee ducked below the railing as more laser shots rang out then reached up and slammed the holotape into the projector and hit 'play'.

A moment later the muffled sounds of singing began to play through the theater. Dee stood up to look at the recording and saw a hologram of Dean Domino was on stage. Dee didn't recognize the song, but it didn't matter, security was gone. Dee winced from the laser burns she had received and turned to walk down the stairs from the projector balcony.

After Dee retrieved her backpack and injected her last stimpack, she heard Dean on the theater floor. "I was quite the looker back then, still have the pipes at least."

Dee returned to the theater floor to find Dean had emerged from the opposite backstage door then looked up at the hologram singing on stage, "I've never seen a… live performance… well close to live at least." Dee sat down at a table near the center, and Dean sat down one table over, both facing the stage.

"I'd get up there to show you a real-life performance, but I don't want to interrupt myself, that and an audience of one is too small for my liking,"

Dee nodded, "Maybe you can come to see the rest of the world after this. Most of the world's in ruin but Lumiose City is still there."

"Really? Old Lumiose still around?" Dean sounded amused, "Still standing after all this time. What's it like?"

"Haven't been there yet, was on my way before I got sidetracked here," Dee sighed.

"Well now, I think I'll stick around the Madre, once the old man isn't a problem anymore. See what there still is to do and plunder." Dean turned to face Dee, "Now that that's settled it's time we discuss things. I'm not an idiot. I know the reason I'm in here now is because of the old guy – and you. Since you got me out of a bad contract, I trust you a little more than the old guy. He's more controlling than I'd like. Thing is, here's where being my partner pays off. See, I know how to get into the casino vault."

"Vault?" Dee turned to face Dean with a look of surprise, "You mean this place is a fallout shelter?"

"No… well yes but not like Silph Co's Vaults, I mean like a bank vault, but that's besides the point." Dean waved off the topic, "There's a private elevator, Sinclair's elevator. It's up in the Executive Suites, in Vera's room. Not a coincidence. Vera. She was… my other partner, before the war. Took some legwork. Some convincing, made it happen."

Dee turned to face Dean, "What do you meant?"

Dean turned his whole chair to Dee's direction, "Sinclaire was already puppy-eyed, so all I had to do was the introductions. She smiled, fluttered her eyes, showed a little leg… and he built this whole place for her. Made her the key to her vault, like a joke, 'cause of her name. Her fake Hollywood name. Except Sinclair didn't know I'd been there first. I could twist her whatever direction I wanted." Dean smirked, "All she had to do was get inside the Sierra Madre for the Gala, then use her voice to open the door. After that… smooth sailing. Of course, then the war hit and everything well… you've seen enough to know…"

"So how does that help?" Dee was getting nervous as she felt something sinister from Dean. Envy.

"I'm getting to that," Dean sighed and rolled his eyes, "So for the longest time I waited here for something to happen. Then the old man showed up. Then… that Zoroark-woman showed up, covered in scars. I put her in the Clinic, tuned her like an instrument. If she heals up, it's not going to be her voice speaking any more. That is, if the Sierra Madre didn't get her. If it did… well, there's enough of Vera around for me to spend time piecing a book together. Then she can make some beautiful music. I'm not banking on it." Dean turned back to watch the performance on stage.

Dee stared across at Dean in horror. He had shoved the Zoroark-woman into the Auto-doc! Ripped apart her vocal cords! For what? A heist?! Dee clenched her fists and grit her teeth, she so badly wanted to make him pay as she felt the red mist rise in her eyes again. She forced herself to swallow her rage and take a deep breath. Even if he deserved something it wasn't her call to make, not now anyway.

Thankfully Dean either didn't notice or didn't care that she had fought back the urge to go ballistic on him for this. "So here's the short of it – piece together Little Miss Vera Keyes' song in the right order? Sierra Madre opens its legs, we're in business. The password is: Begin again but know when to let go."

Dee took another deep breath, "What happened between you, Vera and Sinclair?"

"What happened?" Dean scoffed, "That Sinclair, always so high-and-mighty. Lording it over everyone. Acting so self-righteous, like nothing could touch him. Never got mad at anything. Nothing seemed to shake him. Even after… his life kept getting dragged through the dirt." Dean's voice was full of venom and Dee could see the envy pouring from him as he continued his rant, "Always kept looking for the bright, shining future in everything. So… I decided to take everything from him. Would have been the biggest heist in history. Sinclair left holding the bag. Ruined."

Dee just stared, "What… what did he do to you?"

Dean rounded on her, fuming, "Do to me? What, weren't you listening? He thought he was better than me. Don't believe me? Look around." The ghoul spread his arms to indicate the whole theater. "This big casino, this big colossal monument – think it was for some woman? No, all ego, all self-righteous-in-lights, fit him perfect." Dean settled back down but the venom in his voice only intensified, "Had to take him down a few pegs, bring him down to my level. 'Begin again?'," Dean snorted, "Some things you don't get up from… I was going to prove it."

Dee just stared. She couldn't form words, Dean was so… petty… a pathetic man clinging to a grudge as old as her own home Vault and for what? She wanted to get up and slap him for holding on to this petty grudge. But she didn't want to sink to his level, and even now he wasn't worse than Elijah.

Dee stood up and picked her backpack off the floor, the stimpack having helped her injuries heal and ease the pain, "I need to go. I need to find her and stop Elijah."

Dean turned back to Dee as she pulled her backpack on, "Go knock yourself out. I'm just going to catch my breath a bit. That performance… well, more pressure than I was expecting."

"Right," Dee's voice was distant as she left.

If Dean noticed, he didn't say anything, just got up and grabbed a bottle of still somehow fresh booze from behind the counter and took a swig. "Ahh, The Shadow. Marvellous preservative, this stuff's as good as the day it was brewed, or my taste buds have worn down enough I can't tell the difference. Still at least Sinclair knew quality when he saw it, same reason he fell for Vera." He drained the bottle, barely affected by the strong drink, "Since I'm a guest, there might be plenty here to explore, see just how resilient this place is and what it has to show for it. When I'm done here, perhaps I'll take the stage in New Lumiose, I might be seen as a novelty act, but an old world artiste, like myself, could make one hell of a comeback tour."