CHAPTER 194

Tears streamed down Cecilia's face, and for a second I didn't know how to react. I'd expected her to be disappointed, but I hadn't known she'd cry. She sobbed and silently sniffled, and I hesitantly approached her, grabbing her arm before wrapping her into a tight hug. She buried her face in my shoulder and let out a few incomprehensible words.

"It's okay," I gently said as I rubbed her back. "I know it hurts."

I made out a single 'okay' out of the jumble of words she said, and she clumsily wiped her tears and sweat with an arm after our hug. The rest of the group joined me, although Denzel lagged behind because he'd been further away to be a referee. I caught a trainer filming the entire ordeal and I glared at him. He froze, taking a few steps back until Pauline began to berate him and insult him, his parents, his career… she really went above and beyond. He hadn't been the only one filming. Dozens of people were all too happy to capture the first time Cece had ever lost her composure in public. Denzel finally arrived, and everyone formed a circle around her to stop her from getting filmed while Lauren awkwardly waited a few feet in the distance.

"You were great out there, Cecilia. You truly have nothing to be ashamed of," Louis said.

"Great doesn't have enough oomph. She was badass, that's what!" Pauline huffed, having joined us. "You'll get her next time!"

"Uhuh," she cried. She still couldn't form proper words yet.

"Come on, Cece," Denzel said with a sad smile. "It was close."

"It being close makes it worse," I explained. "This is basic stuff, Denzel."

"Is it? My bad," he grimaced after Pauline elbowed his arm. "You… fought well. I mean, the amount of power and skill you put on display was incredible."

"I ztill lozt!" Cecilia sobbed.

"Let's just get your team to the Pokemon Center and you in a room for now," Maeve said.

I turned toward Lauren, who had taken a few steps in our direction.

"I—I'm sorry?" She said.

"Not your fault," Denzel shook his head. "You both gave it your all, and that's that."

"I still feel responsible… I was the one that asked her to battle out of the blue. Sirris would usually tell me what to do. Sorry if I'm being stupid or rude."

"Why don't you tell Cecilia what you thought about the battle?" I asked.

The raven-haired girl fidgeted for a few seconds, and then inhaled. "It was the most fun I've ever had. It made my blood pump unlike any other battle and it pushed me to my limit. You were an amazing opponent, Cecilia Obel."

"...Thank you," she said.

First losses were difficult, but seeing Cecilia like this was tough. Her eyes were red as we walked back to the Center and her breath occasionally quivered. Lauren refused to go back with us, but she did promise to actually text when she wanted something this time instead of just dropping out of nowhere. I was still hoping to battle her, and I'd gotten a lot of information from that battle that would prove invaluable in a potential fight. Duosion was severely weakened if you split his two brains, Aggron was terrible at fighting at range, Rhydon now listened to Lauren, but he was still as dumb as he used to be and something told me that he'd slip back into his old habits if I angered him enough. Magmar and Seismitoad were trickier, and I'd have to think for longer on how to counter them, and I hadn't seen her Sceptile in action yet. Maybe Chase would tell me about him.

For now, though? I'd worry about Cecilia. The videos of the battles would always be here.

She handed in her Pokemon and crashed into her bed without a word. Whereas I'd scream in my pillow at how unfair my loss was, she simply dejectedly stared at the ceiling. Our friends tried to cheer her up but slowly filtered out as time went on. Louis wanted to go look for Justin, and Maeve followed him with Pauline, since she was hoping to pin him down and 'talk him straight.' Denzel and I stayed, however. I sat next to her on the bed, but she didn't even dare to look at me. My best friend leaned back against the desk's chair with a troubled look on his face.

"Hey. Cece," He asked.

"What?" She sighed exasperatedly, her voice muffled through the mattress.

"I won't tell you to stop sulking or anything," he said. "But you do know that you're a good trainer, right? One of the best first years."

"I don't follow."

"I'm saying that you've held yourself to an impossible standard and that even if you lost, that doesn't mean you're a bad trainer."

She didn't answer.

"Who would you even compare yourself to?" He continued. "Even Cynthia lost when she was going through the Circuit. Nobody's perfect."

"I guess. I was just— just so close," she said, finally twisting her body to face us. She stared into my eyes, but immediately averted them. "I can't stop but replaying the battle in my mind and think: what if I'd done something different?"

"That tends to happen," I smiled. "It's actually a good mindset. Helps you figure out your mistakes."

"I shouldn't have sent out Slowking against Seismitoad," she sighed. "That was the biggest one. If I'd saved him, he could have worked wonders against Rhydon and Aggron. She might have used Sceptile to counter him, but I could have stopped it with Talonflame. I'm so stupid."

"Mistakes are what makes us human," Denzel mused. "And to be honest, there isn't really a way to know if that would have worked for sure. You would have done this, Lauren would have done that… I try to live in the moment, you know?"

"I disagree with that, but there isn't a point in arguing," I said. "We all deal with defeat differently."

"I want a rematch. I want one right away," Cece grumbled. "This sucks."

"It does," I smiled, grabbing her hand.

"I thought I'd win until the last moment. I didn't doubt myself for an instant. I think that's what makes the loss so hard to swallow," she said. "Even when Talonflame went down, it took a few seconds to sink in."

"I just wish you hadn't been recorded," I sighed. "People always jump at the newest, shiny controversy… it's not even a controversy."

"I don't care about that at all," she said.

"See? Good mentality," Denzel smiled. "Let's see if there's anything good on TV to cheer you up."

"There isn't. I have a lot of thinking to do… about my team and how I work with them. I could have won with them as they currently are, I think, but there's a lot of progress to be done. Talonflame needs to get better at attacking from a distance, Slowking needs to get better at multitasking, I need to try to reproduce those few seconds of independence that Golett had during the battle, and I need to improve what Zweilous can do. Right now, he's got only a few tricks, and it's not cutting it. He's still far off from evolving, so I have to figure something out."

"See? Now you're getting it. I know it sounds morbid, but if you hadn't lost, you wouldn't have been thinking about all of this."

"What about Scyther?" Denzel asked.

"I don't— it's not up to me to make him do things. He decides what to work on. I'm happy enough he listened to what I said during the battle."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"You worked well together," I said, squeezing her hand. "He might be warming up to you."

A sad smile stretched across her face. "I wouldn't go that far, but we're moving in the right direction. Let's just switch topics for now, talking about this just frustrates me."

"Oh, I can talk about the Game Corner. I made a friend at the Casino called Ashley, and she sort of took me under her wing— or maybe I forced myself there? They've got some really fucked up system…"

Denzel ranted about his Game Corner woes, and we listened. Cece was slowly getting better, and she lay her head down on my chest while I hugged her from behind. The battling betting system appeared simple, but was actually extremely convoluted. I still thought I'd be good at it though, from the way he explained it to us. I was glad that he at least looked to have a good amount of self-control on his spending and someone to guide him so he wouldn't just lose 100,000 Pokedollars in a single day.

Eventually, even Denzel left, although he said he wanted to talk to me one-on-one when I was free. I paid it no mind, since I was focused on comforting Cecilia. Something about her reaction did bother me.

"Hey," I whispered. "Beyond the obvious fact that losing hurts, is something wrong? Between us, I mean. You wouldn't even look at me."

I felt her freeze in my arms.

"You know I'm not disappointed in you whatsoever, right?" I asked. "I told you that you were great during the battle."

"It's not about the battle, it's about the way I was after," she sighed. "Isn't it pathetic to see your rival cry uncontrollably after a loss?"

"Come on, now," I said. "You're just being silly."

"I guess."

"When you beat me after our double battle, I spent hours ranting at myself and I screamed into a pillow," I revealed to her.

"What? But you were so nice to me when it ended! You took— you took me to my room at the Center because I was so wiped out!"

"I held it in, duh," I laughed. "It's like Denzel said, right? We're all human."

"I still feel silly. I shouldn't have cried like that."

"At least know that I don't mind whatsoever," I said. "Now sleep. I know you're tired. You were dozing off during Denzel's story."

She chuckled. "The Game Corner doesn't really interest me."

I waited until she fell asleep and left, making sure to close her door as softly as possible. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have done this and I would have stuck around longer, but I felt like what Denzel wanted to tell me was important. I'd known him for so long that I knew when he was being serious and when he just wanted to hang out. His room was one floor down, and he yelled that it was open when I knocked.

I decided to ignore how potentially dangerous it was that he just left his door unlocked and stepped inside. A sudden chill creeped down my spine and I jumped out of my skin when Froslass made a noise behind me. The ice type giggled as she flickered all throughout the room.

"Don't do that," Denzel said. "I told you it's fine when you do it to me, but not my friends."

Froslass ignored him, content to mock me for getting scared. I could feel mischieviousness emanating from her, but I knew that it was just a harmless prank. Lopunny was lounging on the bed while reading a book, and upon closer look, I realized that she was learning how to read. It was one of those pre-school books that taught children what letters looked like and I assumed that Denzel helped her figure out what sound each one made. The normal type lazily waved at me and returned to her reading, but she used the opportunity to kick Roselia off the bed. She screeched at her, fuming in anger. I squinted at her and focused. She was feeling injustice and rage, but below all of that, there was a playfulness that they all shared.

They were rude to each other, but it was all just a game.

Milotic was happily sitting next to Sylveon, and the fairy type was licking his nose. He was the happiest of the group, and despite there being some jealousy from the others, it seemed that their relationships were all functional and loving. Sylveon blinked at me, tilted his head and nodded.

I nodded back.

"I'm gonna recall you guys, this is private," Denzel said.

They all groaned and complained at that.

"It won't take that long. And Lopunny, you've got to stop pushing people off the bed. It's not your bed, it's mine— why the hell are you kicking me?! I'm trying to help you!"

Roselia stomped on his foot once more, for good measure. With a tired sigh, Denzel recalled his entire team.

"I didn't know you were teaching Lopunny how to read," I amusingly said.

"She wants a phone," he explained. "And she can't get one without knowing how to read. She's been learning for a few weeks."

"A phone? What for?"

"I don't know. But if she can read and write, it'll be a lot easier to communicate with her, and my team by extension," he smiled. "Anyway, sorry about Froslass. She's a little bit of a prankster."

"I can tell. It was harmless, don't worry. You wanted to speak to me?"

Denzel exhaled. "You'd better sit down for this."

I frowned, but I listened.

"I spoke to your mother. She called me earlier and asked about how you were doing."

I scoffed. "What? How does she even have your number?!"

"Grace, I've known her my entire life. We were neighbors," he said. "Obviously she has my number."

Right. I'd been stupid to think that she'd just give up after one try. She'd moved back to Twinleaf into my grandmother's house when Denzel was still a toddler, so she'd seen him grow up all this time.

"So? What did she tell you and what did you tell her?"

"Well, she just asked about how you were, and how you had been after all the stuff in Solaceon. I told her you were doing well, but not much beyond that. I called you here to tell you to meet her."

My eyes narrowed. "Why? You know what she did, right?"

"I do know. Samantha told me about you when I was growing up a few times, you know? Not your name or anything like that, but that she had a daughter my age that she couldn't see because she messed up. She always kept the details vague, but you know, then I met you and figured it out."

"And you still want me to see her?"

He exhaled as he sat on his chair. "Do you think it's normal that a parent has to call their kid's friend to know what's going on with them? If they're alright after having gone through a traumatic event and almost died?"

"I think that she should give me space."

"She's given you plenty, right? I mean, sure, she asked to meet you, but other than that, she left you alone. All she does is text you and you answer once in a blue moon," he said before pausing. "Here's what I think, Grace. This isn't you— stop being a baby and let me finish."

I realized I'd been glaring at him. "Sorry."

"You were getting closer to your mother for a while. You spoke to her in Twinleaf and called her in Oreburgh. I don't think you realized how happy she was when you did that, Grace."

Memories came back to me. My mother giving me advice before my gym battle with Roark and telling me to get a good night's sleep to make sure I minimized my mistakes.

"I… I know."

"Isn't the reason you started this journey in the first place because your dad wanted to make you reconnect with your mom?" Denzel pressed. "You said you would try to balance this fairy stuff with your human side, but I'll tell you right now, you wouldn't have done this before. The fact that you used to be closer with your mother is proof."

"So what, then? You think I should meet her after what she's done to my dad? Do you know he's never dated anyone else after that because he has trust issues now? He just focused on work and me, and he made no time for himself. She screwed him up, Denzel. All because she couldn't keep it in her pants. It might have been more than a decade ago, but dad is still suffering because of her right now."

"I know."

"And you're telling me to meet her, still?" I shook my head. "Do you realize how— how messed up she is?"

"Samantha's human, Grace. Humans make mistakes, some bigger than others," Denzel sighed. "I was like that, once. I never called my parents because they opposed my career choice until we got to Snowpoint and I realized that I could have died before making up with them. She knows she was in the wrong. She takes full responsibility and isn't making any excuses. All she wants to do is see her daughter grow up. And if the meeting goes badly and she's an asshole, then that can be on me and you can call me a moron."

I chewed on his words in silence, but he continued.

"She's a nice lady, you know? She'd let me sleep at her house whenever I had a fight with my mom and she's the one that helped me at first when I found Sylveon wounded in the wild. I was scared that my mom wouldn't take him in, so I brought him to her instead. She gave me some of the supplies she kept for your dad's Herdier. She managed to convince my parents to get me to keep him too."

"Stop it," I said, my voice meek.

He frowned at me and shrugged. "Fine. I won't try to force you to do anything, I just wanted to give you my two cents. Sorry if that came out of nowhere."

"No. I'll— I'll try to do it," I said. "I was angry at her— I am still angry at her, and I thought I'd blow up at her."

"You will?" He beamed.

"Not today! I'll message her… I'll tell her tomorrow," I sighed.

Most of what he had said made sense, but what had truly pushed me over the edge and changed my mind was that Denzel had reminded me that dad himself wanted us to reconnect. Even after everything she'd done to him, he was still that nice to her and wished her the best. I didn't know how he was that nice of a person, but despite my instincts telling me not to go, it made me want to at least try. And if he thought she'd paid enough, then she deserved a chance to redeem herself in my eyes.

"I'll meet her," I said, my tone more resolute.

"Thank you for listening to me. I thought that you might have stormed out the minute I brought her up."

"Come on. You're my friend, I'd at least listen to what you have to say," I said, grabbing my phone. "Now to set up a meeting… I know I only want to see her, because there's no way in hell I'm giving my grandmother a chance. She called my dad a son of a bitch."

"You know what, fair enough," he said, raising both of his hands. "Why don't you meet her at a restaurant or a bar or something."

I pursed my lips. "No… I think I'll do a park, actually. That way I can introduce her to some of my Pokemon if things go well. She's only seen Princess before, and that was when she was a Togepi."

"That's nice."

"It's not just to be nice. It's also because I want to know what they think about her," I explained. "Aside from Sweetheart, they're all good judges of character and they can come at this from a neutral perspective. Plus, if she's rude to them, well…"

I made a thumbs down, and he nodded. After typing out the entire text, address and time to get her to meet me, I finally got the courage to press send. She instantly answered, much to my surprise and agreed right away.

As I stared at my phone and mused on her words, an alert rang out of the device. I didn't exactly know of the consequences this would have and how it had happened in the first place, but Cecilia's father had somehow broken out of his house arrest.

Well, broken out was the wrong expression. He'd been kidnapped by Abel himself.