CHAPTER 265 - Rout

The Moonblast came quickly, but Zoroark was faster. While Abel and Machamp stayed frozen, their eyes captivated by Sylveon's moon, the darkness under Zoroark rippled, then surged like an enormous wave toward us. A gust of Fairy Wind from Princess, powered up by everything she'd learned with the wind, weakened the darkness before it could get there, and Honey stepped up as Denzel squeezed himself next to me to fit into his Protect. The wave of darkness turned into a mass of scythes, bloodying all of our Pokemon save for us and Milotic, but what came next was unexpected.

Machamp picked up Abel in his arms and ran.

They were retreating.

"Honey!" I barked.

Tired he may have been, but he was still nowhere near done. Sparks of electricity hummed around him until he blitzed past Zoroark, not bothering to hit her even if beams of energy still grazed her. The dark type tried to follow, but Roserade fired off two Poison Cutters from her flowers that came even faster than they had in our battle. The poison actually punctured through Zoroark's shoulder and gut, proof that the grass type was aiming to kill. Honey fired off a Thunderbolt at Abel while Jellicent sank into the walls in an attempt to follow. Machamp threw his trainer forward so he wouldn't get caught in the electric attack and took the Thunderbolt with a grunt.

Abel was still running, and Zoroark and Machamp were following. Kecleon had turned back invisible and was escaping as well, although I knew he was near Abel and still on the ceiling.

"We follow," I declared.

"Got you," Denzel replied without missing a beat. This was do or die, and I knew he would have my back no matter what, just like the rest of my friends. He was pale, terrified, and wished that none of this was happening, but he would still do it, because Denzel was steadfast.

"Princess, stick around. Zoroark's planning something," I said, turning to Angel. "Pick me up."

Tangrowth placed me on his head and broke into a run, which Denzel followed on foot. Every bounce hurt my ankle like hell, but I'd deal with it. I had to deal with it.

They were organizing some kind of fighting retreat, but Zoroark had a hungry look in her eyes, along with the pain and everything else she felt, which was mostly worry. Lopunny stomped the ground, her muscles bulging as Sweetheart shot off the ground with her remaining gas to take down the dark type. Princess tried to slash her apart with the wind, but a wall of darkness stopped Zoroark from getting cut. It would not, however, stop Lopunny from punching the shit out of her. Zoroark narrowly avoided the first Power-Up Punch, but she couldn't avoid the flurry of kicks and hits that followed. She gritted her teeth, but instead of fighting back, she transformed, losing half of her body to dodge Sweetheart's Iron Head. Princess tried to fire multiple drills she'd ripped from a brick wall toward Abel, but instead, Zoroark jumped like a spring was at her feet to slap them away without a fuss. The few that made it through, Machamp stopped. The fighting type could jump higher than I'd thought. Wouldn't work like it had against Harry Rodriguez.

In the front, Honey desperately tried to dodge Machamp's brutal strikes. The fighting type had used the momentum from landing from his jump to slam an elbow into Honey's forehead, but Electivire narrowly managed to get a Protect up. A shaky one, but it would do. Machamp was a giant and had a few inches on Honey, but he was faster than he looked. I heard a sickening crack when he punched Honey in the shoulder, but Buddy emerged from the floor, crawling along the fighting type's skin as Sylveon joined the fray against Zoroark with ribbons that acted more like swords. Zoroark still kept up with Lopunny, Sweetheart and Sylveon without too much difficulty, but she was starting to get overwhelmed. Machamp's skin began to boil as Jellicent slithered all over him with Scald.

"Inside and Water Spout," I said.

Zoroark's eyes twitched when I gave that order, and she instantly blurred back with fear. She clawed a hand along the floor, sending tendrils of darkness to grasp at Jellicent and wrest him away before he could climb inside of Machamp's mouth. The fighting type roared as he jumped back, tanking a Dragon Pulse from Sunshine with a tired groan. Honey couldn't move his arm very well, but another Thunderbolt took to Machamp. Denzel barked out a few orders for his Pokemon and then turned to me.

"He's gaining ground," he huffed. Fire was in his lungs, having grown tired from all of our previous trials, but he wasn't slowing down. "If you send Princess to get him with her psychic powers—"

He stopped when Zoroark's eyes shone and Roserade fell asleep in an instant.

"Hypnosis," I hissed. "Princess, Psychic interference!"

So that was their play, then. Running away for too long would no doubt have them run into reinforcements, so they were going to turn the fight by having us lose our numerical advantage before that came to pass. I called out to Angel, and Kecleon's tongue almost slammed into me, puncturing the wood in front of us in the process. That would have broken a few ribs. I suddenly felt sluggish, my eyes struggled to stay open until Denzel had his Milotic use Protect in front of me and Angel, and I snapped back awake. It was surprising, how he'd taught the water type to move through hydrokinesis already. Zoroark snarled in response, but not before her lapse in attention got her a punch in the face from Lopunny. The normal type was speeding up and excelled in drawn-out fights like these.

"Her psychic powers are better than Princess, or at least she can push past her," I breathed.

Denzel turned, recalling Roserade before running again. "But slowly. That gives Milotic enough time to work with. Can you deal with Kecleon?"

"I can. Sunshine."

The dragon was keeping up with us, but he was among the slowest here when he couldn't speed himself up with Flame Charge. We couldn't waste time extinguishing fires if they were behind us.

"Dragon Pulse next to that chandelier, and don't hold back," I whispered.

Denzel side-eyed me, but just dove to the side as he dragged me next to Milotic. He told Froslass to go for Abel, and I decided to follow suit. Target him first, and his Pokemon would follow.

"Buddy!" I yelled. "Go for Abel—"

The water type listened instantly, but the Dragon Pulse obscured my vision. Everything exploded as flame and draconic energy burst from Turtonator's snout. The green, shimmering Protect came before I could even feel the heat on my face. I knew the Dragon Pulse must have hit Kecleon, because I sensed him fall down to the ground, along with a thunderous crash of the chandelier and half of this section of the roof. Machamp called out to Abel as the fighting type dueled Honey, who was continuously dodging his strikes with Radiant Leap. Bad at range, I noted. Milotic was attentively waiting to spring up Protect when needed, but he also extinguished the nascent flames while Buddy was hunting Abel down. There had been no Protect for him to resist the Dragon Pulse, but darkness' defensive capabilities never ceased to impress. Zoroark had raised a wall of it, and it had absorbed the attack before it could reach Abel.

He was burned, at least. His skin was crinkled and reddened.

The Unovan stared back for an instant, and I swore that I noticed him pale, even in the dark. He pulled out a Pokeball, and—

"Princess!"

An entire section of the wall flowed like liquid in front of Kecleon before the red light could reach the normal type. Abel clicked his tongue and stopped running. Honey tried to run to finish off Kecleon, who was still squirming on the ground, but Zoroark blurred, tearing across his back and Machamp punched him with a glowing fist faster than he could put up a Protect. My heart sank when multiple of his massive teeth were knocked out of his mouth, along with an ample amount of blood, and he fell back. I recalled the electric type, but he wasn't the only one aiming to finish off Kecleon. Lopunny decked the normal type in the jaw and threw him back, and Swablu blasted him with a Dragon Pulse for good measure. Angel grabbed him with a tight vine, and Kecleon's tongue stuck out of its mouth as he began to choke. Of course, Princess had formed another wall of stone in front of us, so Abel could only hear his Kecleon's desperate, hoarse cries. Terrible as my fight against Maylene might have been morally, the experience I'd gained from it could be called nothing but useful. I held out a hand, and we stopped right in front of the fallen chandelier. It wouldn't stop us, of course, just slow us down some. We could just walk around it, but Abel had stopped, not taking the opportunity to put some distance between us because deep down, he cared. He could have continued beating us, probably taking down almost our entire team in the process with Zoroark's Hypnosis if he caught us off-guard again. Hell, he probably would have if they weren't so focused on defending him.

But the fact of the matter was, Abel Torres loved his team.

And that made the fact that he tore Pokemon away from their families even more sickening. He understood the love trainers had for their teams because he felt it. This was why Abel was among the worst people I'd come to face. Because unlike Mars or Saturn, he behaved like an actual human being who was just evil, and that made it all the fucking worse. Hate pooled in my stomach, but I kept it there before I could make a mistake. I knew Buddy and Froslass were waiting in the wings, but Zoroark stood guard in front of Abel, darkness wreathing and pulsating in her palm. From the way half of her fur was frozen or burned, and ghostly smoke wafted off her body, they'd already tried to strike once or twice in tandem, but it clearly hadn't worked.

Still, we had the upper hand, and had only lost two Pokemon for it.

"Surrender," I said with a sharp smile, "or Kecleon dies."

—

Abel had, he finally understood as he heard Kecleon's choked cries for help, drastically underestimated these 'uppity' teenagers, as he had called them. Kecleon had been extensively covered by Malamar and Hypno, so how in the world did this girl know exactly where he was at all times or when he'd strike? Once was a coincidence, but twice? Had he known, he would have recalled Kecleon right away. He'd planned to use her as a hostage to get her and her friend's Pokemon to surrender right then and there, because he couldn't keep running without running into trouble. They were probably two minutes away at most. He'd heard a little about Grace Pastel. She was the one Mars was obsessed with and had asked him to kidnap her, and from the way she gleefully held Kecleon's life over his head, he could see the resemblance. When she'd first arrived here along with her group, Xatu had told him that they'd been the cause of the wild fluctuation in her calculations. She'd told him that they made no sense, and Abel had never seen her that terrified, in that moment. Denzel Williams, he knew less about, but the problem wasn't that their Pokemon were too strong, it was that they knew how to fight these kinds of battles. Fights to the death with no rules. He would have expected them to be green, and to have come into this like they were fighting a Gym Battle. Abel sighed as he clipped Kecleon's Pokeball back onto his belt. Xatu, Hypno, Shedinja, Mimikyu were down, Malamar had his duties to attend to and had to sustain the darkness in the mansion, not only to stop reinforcements through Teleport but to power up Zazza's fighting capabilities. Dan and Klefki couldn't fight at all, so they'd get absolutely crushed.

Abel hadn't expected Mimikyu and Shedinja to fall before he got there. They'd been meant to buy time while he worked on getting Backlot to give up and escape instead of holing up in his fortress. Once Backlot had fully realized that there was no winning this— which he had at this point, he would have given Abel the location of the airfield, after which the Unovan would have promptly tied him up somewhere and left him to rot while Zoroark would have pretended to be him escaping to Unova with Abel. He had also not expected the ACE Trainers to almost kill Xatu and defeat Hypno in the small window of time they'd have to react when getting Teleport away.

He had, in the end, completely fucked up.

Part of him wanted to run anyway, thinking that Grace wasn't serious about killing Kecleon, but a look in Denzel's eyes told him that she was. Zazza's face turned into a human's so she could speak, and she growled.

"Abel, you can't be considering this offer—"

"Shut the fuck up," Grace hissed, lording over her Tangrowth. "You don't get to speak, or Kecleon dies."

Abel held out a hand. "Quiet, Zazza. Look. If I may speak?"

The scarred girl nodded.

"I'll surrender," he said. Saying it didn't feel as bad as he thought it would. Like a weight lifted off his chest. He'd probably get killed for this after a swift trial, if he even got that, but he was tired. Months, he'd worked just to get home, and for months, he had been denied this. Arceus, his face hurt. He was pretty sure he was covered in burns. "Just make sure the League doesn't imprison my team. That's my deal."

Grace Pastel frowned. "Almost all of them are just as complicit in this—"

"Grace," Denzel bit down.

The blonde sighed. "Fine. Recall your Pokemon, and we'll ask the League to spare your team. They'll… probably listen."

But why? Why would they listen? What kind of influence did these teenagers have? Abel's eyes widened when Kecleon cried out with words. Words he did not understand in full, but that he had learned to comprehend in his years with the normal type. Zoroark muttered something under her breath.

"No—"

She grabbed Klefki's Pokeball, releasing the fairy into the world. Frost spread at Abel's feet and Jellicent struck from the other side, but Zazza pushed him away into a door as she barked something at Klefki. He crashed into the door, flinging it open as Klefki followed. The steel type's assortment of keys jingled with a bright light, and suddenly, the door slammed shut.

Malamar, he had understood.

Zazza had told him to run with Malamar and to keep Dan and the others safe.

Ah.

Abel stared at his hands and noticed that his fingers were trembling. His vision went blurry and he exhaled with a shaky breath.

He hadn't… cried in a long time. Not since he'd lost his mother.

It took five minutes for Abel to get his bearings back. Five minutes to stand and convince himself to keep going. He stood up in the billiard room he'd been thrown into and ran a hand through his hair. Kecleon, Machamp and Zazza had given themselves to the enemy to save him, and Abel doubted they had time to kill the two kids before the ACEs got there to help. He wasn't even sure they'd won either, but he had to keep the faith.

"I'm not going to abandon them, Klefki," Abel said.

The little ring of metal shook his keys in protest.

"We're more than that," he continued. "This is a… precarious situation, but not everything's lost. Zazza and Machamp can beat them, if they play this correctly." Which wasn't guaranteed without him to guide things and with how angry they probably were at the moment, but he had to have faith that they would achieve victory before the ACEs got there. "So what we need to do is regroup and get to Malamar first. Can you do that for me?"

Klefki jingled, although Abel knew his face couldn't change (it was metal after all), he knew the steel type disagreed. His Pokemon would all disagree. They wanted him to escape, even if he couldn't make it back to Unova. To keep living as a free man and to eventually figure out a way to make it back and fulfill their dreams of retirement in Alola.

"Klefki," Abel said. "Let me out of the room. Take me to Malamar. I have a plan. Not a good one, but it'll… have to do. Call it our last chance."

Grace Pastel could somehow know where Kecleon was no matter what, and she'd known that Zazza would use Hypnosis and kept her Togekiss on a leash because of it, so it was not an illogical leap of faith that she was some sort of empath. Maybe some kind of League experiment, like that ACE Trainer that followed her around that Abel had tasked Shedinja and Mimikyu to get rid of? If she was, and since she could bypass all of the means Abel had employed to keep Backlot hidden in his zoo, then it was only a matter of time until they found the room. From that point on, then they would eventually be able to get in, even if it'd take hours. What he had noticed was that the ACE Trainers had no more psychics capable of standing up to Malamar. Oh, the teenagers had a few, but none would be able to stand up to him individually, and they would no doubt split to look for him. That dark type specialist ACE had been Teleported away, and even then, Malamar knew how to weave his Hypnosis through the dark.

Abel strode toward the door, opened it, and suddenly, he was somewhere else.

—

I didn't order Angel to kill Kecleon when Abel escaped, but that was only because Zoroark had pushed him in the door against his will. Everyone attacked at once as soon as she pushed him, and they redoubled in their efforts to kill us, now free from having to protect Abel. I knew instantly that he'd been brought somewhere else, because Klefki had just disappeared. Not Teleportation, but the room itself had shifted, like what had happened in Mount Coronet during our first trek there.

"Shit!" Denzel yelled.

Machamp hit Lopunny with a flurry of punches, sending the normal type sprawling back with too many broken bones to count, and he would have stomped on her head and squashed it like a bug and crushed it had Denzel not recalled her just in time. Zoroark weaved in between our team, slashing Sylveon, Sweetheart and Sunshine apart with darkened claws. There were no thoughts to her attacks, only rage. She was sacrificing herself, I realized. They both were. They wanted Abel to run away with all of his heart. Princess tried to break Machamp's limbs with Psychic, but the fighting type's bones and muscles were too strong to bend, so all she could muster was hurting him.

We were losing, now, and not slowly. One of Sunshine's front plates was torn off by Zoroark and Machamp joined in, grabbing Pupitar like she was a leaf and squeezing until her entire cocoon cracked and she screamed in pain even as Froslass and Buddy desperately attacked him to free her. Machamp didn't budge from any of the attacks. No Hydro Pumps, Scalds, Shadow Balls or Ice Beams worked, and every time Froslass tried to freeze him, he just flexed and the ice cracked. I recalled Sweetheart before more damage could be done with a sweaty hand around her Pokeball. My heart drummed against my chest, her cries echoed in my ears and I braced myself.

No choice, then. With Machamp here, we would lose, and a loss meant that eventually, we would have to recall all of our Pokemon until we got killed.

"Can you distract Zoroark?" I whispered.

He didn't even answer me, just springing to action instead like he was a second set of limbs. Froslass moved on from harassing Machamp and brought out her arm. Zoroark didn't freeze in place— she always exploded in darkness before that could happen— but she did slow, and that was all we needed for Angel to grab her with a dozen vines, which left her open for Swablu and Princess to cut her apart with the wind.

"Water Spout in Machamp," I said.

Buddy didn't have to hear it twice. He slipped inside of Machamp's mouth even as the fighting type desperately tried to keep it tightly shut. Zoroark finally freed herself from the vines and desperately sent a line of dark energy to save her teammate, but it was too late.

Machamp's head, neck, and chest exploded with red mist, and he fell to the ground, lifeless.

The entire mansion shook as one, and Zoroark's eyes ignited with a fury that would have made me fall off Angel had he not been keeping me steady with a vine. The grass type prepared to get me off his head and next to Milotic, who had been coiled around Denzel, but Zoroark was focused on Buddy entirely. The ghost's form was soaked in red with Machamp's blood coalescing in his head, and he only shot Zoroark a displeased look as he sunk into the floor.

Zoroark wrestled him up with newfound power, as if the entire mansion had decided to spit him out. She tore him to shreds faster than Palafin had until there was nothing left of him but droplets. My heart dropped when I saw that he wasn't coming back together, but I could still feel life emanating off of him. She'd somehow exhausted him completely, and he wasn't even forming a puddle for me to recall.

Zoroark turned to glare at us, wisps of white and red forming in her hair. Sylveon fired off a Moonblast, but darkness enveloped it, and it exploded before it could even form and hurt our own Pokemon.

I swallowed. Her state was too volatile to use Kecleon as a bargaining chip—

Tendrils of darkness formed over Froslass and Zoroark grabbed her by the throat, somehow knowing where she had been and dragging her back into reality kicking and screaming. She squeezed, and the tendrils did as well. The light went out of Froslass' eyes, but she didn't die and return to the Dusk. The hold faltered when Princess fired off a series of Air Slashes at her and collapsed an entire facade of the wall onto the dark type. Zoroark's form flickered through the stone, which was abnormal, but eventually it buried her enough for Princess to mold it into sharp spikes that stabbed through her entire body and for Sunshine to turn them molten with a Flamethrower.

None of it worked. She just got rid of it with a simple Dark Pulse.

Zoroark shifted her focus to me, but our Pokemon had placed themselves between us now. She tried to weave in between them, riding the dark like a wave as she jumped over Sunshine and clawed Swablu in the air, shattering Princess' hastily erected barrier instantly. The flying type cried out with a deafening shriek as Zoroark almost tore her apart, but Sylveon snatched her with his ribbons, and this time they did not break. He had spread his glamour to them, I realized. An incredible breakthrough in the face of adversity. With a snarl, he slammed her against the wall, but void snuck up on the surface to soften the impact. Denzel almost recalled his Swablu when he saw that the flying type could only muster weak twitches, but her neck began to stretch as light overtook her. The hit had been so heavy that she'd started to evolve.

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There was no joy on Denzel's face, for this wasn't the time for it. He recalled her as soon as she was done while Zoroark jumped back to avoid our attacks. The dark type circled around us with maddened eyes. Zoroark broke into a room, destroying the wall and two seconds later, she tore her way back into the hallway faster than we could react. She slipped past our Pokemon a second time, this time hitting Turtonator right in the chest. Angel placed me back on the ground, pushed me back, and tried to hit Zoroark with a flurry of Brick Breaks that destroyed the mansion around them. Only one of them landed on her arm, and instead, she pulled forward as a lance of darkness formed in her hand and she stabbed the grass type with it. He didn't go down, but the pain made him stop attacking, and that was enough.

Time seemed to slow as Milotic's shimmering barrier formed around me. Zoroark didn't even give us the time of day, jumping up toward Princess instead by using the Protect as a platform. She held out a hand, and Togekiss was wrested toward her, leaving way for Zoroark to lance her through the chest. It was darkness, I remembered. Not physical. Yet the light went out in Princess' eyes and she fell to the ground in one hit and her screams sounded just as real.

There was only Milotic in between us now, and since Zoroark had faked him out, his exhaustion caught up to him— Zoroark was already here when the barrier collapsed—

Angel's vines and Sylveon's ribbons snagged Zoroark, but that didn't stop Denzel from clasping my wrist and dragging me into a protective bear hug. I didn't see what happened exactly, but his hold tightened and he screamed. The sound of fighting was further away now, and Denzel let me go.

"A—are you okay?" I stammered out.

My best friend was pale, and he answered with a wince. I recalled Princess and thanked the Legendaries Zoroark had been focused on us instead. My relief was short-lived when I saw the huge diagonal gashes on Denzel's back, seeping blood all over the floor.

"You're bleeding!"

"Uhuh," he hoarsed out.

He had saved me, I realized. Angel and Sylveon had kept him from getting sliced in half, but Zoroark still managed to get some of her attack off. Had he not been there, my entire face, neck and chest would have been torn open, and I might have been— would have been bleeding out on the floor. Had his team not been there to back me up this entire time, I'd be dead where I stood.

"Plans?" Denzel muttered in cold sweat. "We— we can't hold her at bay forever."

Flames raged across the hallway as Sunshine desperately kept Zoroark away from us. Denzel only had Milotic and Sylveon left, and I only had Angel and Sunshine. The four of them wouldn't be able to win this, especially with Milotic being as tired as he was, and Denzel losing a lot of blood. Too much blood. His eyes were unfocused, and I had to yell at him for him to stay awake—

I sighed in relief, and a mountain was lifted off of my shoulders. "We won't have to."

A Dragon Pulse hit Zoroark from behind, followed by an Aura Sphere and a dozen different attacks.

Our friends and their ACEs were here.

It was largely clean up after that. Sunshine's fires were extinguished by a surge of water, although they had spread far and it took a lot of effort. Zoroark fought back with the rage of someone who'd just lost everything, because she had, but there was no way she was standing up to all of us combined. She took down two ACE Pokemon and nearly got one killed before being brought to heel, panting and drooling all over due to her blind rage until she was made to breathe a heavy dose of Sleep Powder. I fell back against the floor, collapsing from exhaustion with heavy breaths. I was so tired, I realized. I hadn't slept at all last night, and we'd been spending the last few hours just fighting, both in and out of the mansion with close call after close call. I didn't even remember what not having adrenaline in me felt like. Chase pulled me up before Angel could, and we reunited with our friends. There was only sheer relief in the kiss I shared with Cecilia, but it was short-lived. There was too much to attend to. Miraculously, none of them were more wounded than they had been before. Chase's wound on his arm had started bleeding through the bandage again, but other than that we were all safe and sound, thank the Legendaries.

I scooped up Buddy's form so he could be recalled, and I got the faintest thank you in return. He had never been this weakened. Denzel was sent away, along with Sylveon and Milotic. He couldn't stay, not when he needed medical attention as soon as possible. They had set up a triage in the garden, apparently, and some League Nurses had come to tend to the wounded. He was barely holding onto consciousness when he left, but I couldn't do anything but pray he would be okay. Those claw marks had been deep.

We all hugged one by one again, although Mira could only do so with one hand, but the celebrations were short-lived with one of our own being hurt so much. One of the ACEs cleared their throats, clearly expecting a report from me. I explained everything that had gone on, from our entry into the mansion to Hypno and Xatu Teleporting the ACEs to an unknown location, to our fight with two of Abel's Pokemon. Two of his Pokemon, and we had nearly lost, I shivered in frustration. If I hadn't killed that Machamp… my eyes drifted toward the fighting type's corpse. Maybe Zoroark would have been easier to contain if the fighting type hadn't died. Would we have been able to hold against both him and Zoroark until help got here? Would Denzel have been hurt as badly as he had?

There was no way to know, I realized. I did it because I had to save ourselves now. I didn't work with the power of hindsight, and we were losing just as hard when it had been Machamp and Zoroark fighting us. Abel was a terrible person, but he clearly loved his team, and the opposite was also true, which left an ashen taste in my mouth that would take a long time to wash away even if I'd done this to save our lives. Mira told us that her Porygon had scoured through all of the phones here, but she hadn't managed to get any information on Backlot's ilk, but she had gotten past texts proving Backlot's crimes, including everything the guards did to steal Pokemon and an extensive trail of what Pokemon were stolen at what times and where, so at the very least we'd be able to release that to the public and it would help redistribute Pokemon to their owners or their routes.

"So Abel escaped in this room with Klefki," I shakily finished. One of the ACE Trainers opened the door I pointed toward and obviously, nothing was in there. It was empty, and some kind of wine cellar. "Now we have no idea where he went."

"Klefki's properties are rather unknown to the Sinnoh League," an ACE spoke. "Not many people have trained one to have the abilities Abel's has, and none of them in Sinnoh, or at least none in our recorded history."

"Back in Unova, it was said Abel could get into any room with Klefki," Cecilia whispered. "But there was no talk of him disappearing into rooms. This is something he's discovered recently. If Grace's theory is right, this is a similar phenomenon to what happens in Mount Coronet's deeper layers."

"Fairies are beings of belief," I said. "And Klefki's specialized in opening and locking doors. The next step in his development would be to pull something like that."

"I think that he used Klefki to hide Backlot's captures, then," Mira said. "Something like a pocket dimension? No, not a pocket dimension, the power needed for that is unimaginable. But still using Klefki fits."

All of the ACEs agreed with that assessment.

"I can feel them," I said, closing my eyes. "The Pokemon that were kidnapped. They're somewhere next to the foyer."

Chase frowned. "Really? We all passed through there and didn't notice anything."

"Because it's concealed, Chase," Mira said.

"I thought Lucario would have sensed something with Aura…" he grumbled.

Our bodyguards' eyes narrowed at me, and their stares washed over me like a tidal wave. They knew now that whatever power I had could bypass any methods Abel had employed to keep Backlot's prison hidden, but I had made a vow to free them, and I wasn't going to break it. We moved as a united force now, although I had to sit on Angel's head to keep up with the pace. Arceus, my ankle hurt, as did the deep cut on my arm. I never thought I'd reach the point where sleep was more appealing than revenge, but there was still work to be done. Mira was in front, discussing the properties of Klefki with a few ACEs while I was in the back to not obscure their view.

"Since it's not a pocket dimension, could it be some kind of shift? Like, Klefki can shift the rooms of this mansion around?" Chase asked.

"It'd be like Cecilia said. Mount Coronet, but on a much smaller scale," Mira agreed.

That was possible. Things like pocket dimensions would require presence, and Klefki had only been here for two months or so. Not enough time for the world to start feeling like he was a fixed entity and to give him all of the powers that came with it. I nodded along when an ACE mirrored my exact thoughts and continued. If Klefki was moving rooms around, then he wasn't moving the complex where Backlot's stolen Pokemon were contained. Abel had called it a house of horrors, and since he had been stealing far before the Unovan criminal had come under his employ, the room had existed beforehand in the mansion and was probably large enough to fit all of his captures. Moving rooms that were large probably required more energy, which Klefki might or might not have. Chase used to have theories about it being buried underground somewhere, but the League would have found such an obvious ploy the first time they investigated him.

I bit my lip until it hurt when we reached the foyer. Half of it was burned, with parts of the ceiling barely hanging on by a thread and the smell of burned wood was hard to miss. League Trainers that I didn't know filtered in and out of the foyer to cover and carry the dead bodies out of the mansion. Horror, sorrow, fear and more negative emotions seeped everywhere, so much so that I felt like I'd choke on it. I held back in tears as Angel placed me on the ground and gently caressed my head.

"A Flareon went insane and got a bunch of people killed," Chase explained with a heavy sigh. "Then, Zoroark…" He stopped and turned toward his own ACEs, but continued when they didn't seem to react. "Zoroark struck from the crowd and got one of us killed and the stampede that followed injured even more people. Her name was Rene."

My eyes turned toward the dark type in disgust. Angel had been carrying her sleeping frame in a tight bundle of vines along with Kecleon. I didn't think I would ever truly get how the hell Abel's team's morality functioned. Did they think they were the only ones entitled to being happy?

"Grace?" Cecilia probed. "Anything?"

My eyes drifted across the foyer. It was easy to see that the once luxurious room had turned into a shadow of its former self, even if I had never been there. The grand staircase was now wounded and bore the scars of the fire's fury. Its dark wood was warped and splintered, the carvings marred and unrecognizable. Even there, the fire had spread. I painstakingly made my way toward them and scraped my hand against the torn wallpaper until I reached the twist in the stairs that linked the two staircases together.

I crouched and knocked against the wood, wincing at the amount of anguish emanating from the wood.

Chase frowned. "So it is underground. See?"

I lifted a finger. "Hold on."

Continuous cries for help, deep below. My hand shifted around the half-burned carpet and tried to lift it, but it was a lot heavier than it looked. Our Pokemon easily got it done, and… nothing. There was no secret entrance or trap door to be seen.

"Try hitting the floor with an attack," I said.

We moved out of the way, and a Throh slammed a fist against the ground with enough power to shatter steel, but the ground didn't budge. Instead, it shimmered and revealed a small crevasse all around what was evidently a trap door. Throh tried hitting it a couple of times, but the wood didn't even budge. Next, we had him try to punch his way to the room from the side, almost like we were tunneling from the bottom of the stairs, and we were making good progress until he reached a point where nothing budged. We even tried poison, but it had no effect. Poison can eat through anything, Jasmine had told me, and yet it looked like our dosage wasn't powerful enough to make it through. That was some serious belief that Klefki was working with. Punching through that would take time.

"Glamour?" Cecilia asked.

"Yes, it's more than that. This is something that only Klefki can do," I guessed. "He's chosen a room to keep people out, and now no one can get in."

"Abel said that Klefki didn't need to stay here to keep the room hidden, and the fact that this was working while he was in his Pokeball lends credence to the theory," Cecilia said.

"Keep it here, yes, so long as Klefki keeps believing in his work. Sustain it, I don't think so," I said. "Glamour fades if you hit its user enough. Just look at Sylvi. Hit him, and you'll destroy his armor, so there's the possibility that we could just brute force past it, and that Klefki wouldn't be able to build it back up if he was far enough away. I doubt Abel thought we'd be able to find the actual room, so he was probably comfortable obscuring the truth to make himself sound like he was in a better position."

"So what? We just hit it over and over and hope it gives?" Chase asked.

"I mean, we could, I guess."

My voice must have been wavering, because all of my friends shared the same look when they turned toward me. Worry, and pity. Just being here hurt, and Denzel having been nearly clawed apart by Zoroark shook me. It shook them too, but they were better at dealing with this than I was when I could actually feel things and I wasn't dissociating. Cecilia clasped my shoulder with a reassuring touch.

"That, and we can try to find Abel, but if Klefki doesn't want us to find him, then I doubt we are, but—" Mira stopped, and her eyes widened. "Grace, you said that Abel didn't use his Malamar?"

I nodded, and then it dawned on me too.

"He would have used him during the fight if he was in his Pokeball," I muttered. "If he had a third Pokemon, then the entire fight would have turned on its head. Abel's going to look for him. We need to go, now."

Carlos gruffed. "Good, you figured it out. We would have said something if you hadn't in the next minute."

So they'd known and not said anything? I turned toward Carlos, but he shut me down with a stare.

"This is a learning experience for you," he said. "Problem-solving is an important skill set, and I wouldn't have waited long."

"Try to be less condescending, Carlos. She's having a tough time," Mira said.

Leaving one ACE to guard the trapdoor and his Pokemon to keep trying to brute force his way in, we all scattered throughout the mansion.

Cecilia demanded to come with me.

—

"Send Talonflame scouting down the wing," Grace told Cecilia. "It's a shame the damn thing is curved, or she could have just seen if they were there or not."

Cecilia acceded, and Talonflame blurred, going so quickly that the air around her warped. She looked to Grace, who was continuously fidgeting. Not even two minutes since they'd decided to split with the others, and her worry had turned to anger that begged to be let out. The ACE Trainers behind them were content to wait in silence. It wouldn't take long for Talonflame to scout the entire area, but Abel could have been hiding Malamar in rooms too. Cecilia had no idea if he had run away already, and none of them had seen Malamar while scouring through the mansion, but double-checking in case he had somehow gotten there wouldn't hurt.

Talonflame came back thirty seconds later, bringing with her another strong gust of wind and shook her head. Not here, then, Cecilia mused.

"I can just sense Pokemon, so no need to clear the rooms again," Grace said. "Abel needed his Klefki out to escape from us, so I think he'll have him out to avoid us too."

"Bringing you through the entire hallway will be too slow," Cecilia said. "Angel can't run that fast when it's this dark."

Grace clicked her tongue, but Cecilia knew she hadn't meant it toward her, instead of just it being a general feeling of annoyance and powerlessness. She had never gotten used to her broken ankle, and Cecilia doubted she ever would.

"We have no choice," Grace insisted. "Either he ran off, or he's still in here somewhere."

"We haven't searched the tower," Cecilia said. "It might be worth looking at. Talonflame?"

The fire type nodded, and was off toward the only remaining area that they hadn't cleared, but Cecilia knew she would probably find nothing. If Abel could travel from room to room without having to get caught, then even the ACEs would be stumped.

"Klefki's no God," Cecilia said, clasping her girlfriend's bandaged hand. It was just idle talk to reassure Grace, and herself as well. "He will have his limits."

"You know," the blonde said absent-mindedly. "Abel loves his team."

"Hm?"

"He loves his team, even after everything he's done," she continued. "And his team loves him in return. Abel takes care of his Ditto like a father would take care of a toddler, from the reports we've gotten. He was distraught when his Pokemon were almost killed, and I'm sure he'll be affected once he learns that Machamp is dead. Even after everything he's done," she stopped and inhaled, "I don't think he would abandon his Pokemon."

Cecilia loved the look in Grace's eye when she figured something out. It was something she'd learned to discern all the way back in Mount Coronet when she and Denzel figured out a way to get them out of the mountain. There was brilliance there, brilliance that Cecilia knew she could not match, because her expertise lied elsewhere. The way Grace learned about people and Pokemon after a single meeting with them was as endearing as it was terrifying.

"We need to head back," Grace muttered. "Now."

Cecilia realized soon enough that Grace had been correct when the first sound of the muffled splintering of wood rang out in the hallway. Grace was slow to move, but she kept up with Tangrowth. Cecilia ran there right away with the ACEs. The darkness in the mansion winked out of existence like it had never been there in the first place.

It wasn't a fight. Abel didn't fight when he knew he would lose. The ACE and his Pokemon were all hypnotized, hanging in the air until they dropped like ragdolls and fell asleep. Cecilia couldn't tell if Malamar was tired in the single look she got at the dark type before everyone around her froze in place. They had no psychic to counter him, she realized, and Abel must have known this too, because he was in plain sight. Slowking tried as best he could, but Malamar's skill went far beyond his. Mira and Chase were gone, and there was no telling when they'd get here. Had they heard the sound of splintering wood? Cecilia needed ACE psychics, and unfortunately, none remained, which was why Malamar had come out in the first place.

Abel climbed up the stairs with a calm step, avoiding the gaping hole Throh had created.

"Malamar, keep them still," he said as he recalled Zoroark and Kecleon. "Where's Machamp?"

She'd been so frozen that Abel hadn't known that she wasn't Hypnotized. Unfortunately, before a plan could form in her head, Malamar croaked, pointing a tentacle toward Cecilia. Abel wanted to leave, she knew, but he wouldn't. Grace had been right.

"I'll tell you if you let them go and surrender," Cecilia tried.

Abel's jaw clenched and clasped his head with an anxious hand. "Enough stalling. I don't understand why Malamar can't control you, but you're going to answer the fucking question, or I will have Malamar snap all of their necks. I don't do mindless killing, unlike the League," he spat to the side. "Every time I've crossed that line, I was paid for it or I had no other choice."

What a sickening philosophy. As if getting paid for murdering innocents justified the act. She had come here ready for this, had been convinced to do this, but the words were hard to get out. It felt like Cecilia was about to lose a part of herself that made her her. The young girl who valued freedom above all else, ripping it from someone else. Someone who deserved it, but a person nonetheless. The League would learn about it, but that wasn't the main issue. Could Cecilia look her friends in the eye after this? They would not care, but she would.

"I'll tell you two," she said with quivering lips. "I'll tell you to recall your Pokemon and for all of you to surrender."

Fire in her throat! Cecilia hacked out the words and doubled over as every ACE and their remaining Pokemon fell to the ground and quickly picked themselves up. The pain came in waves, but it was soon replaced by exhaustion. She wanted nothing more but to close her eyes and sleep. It was not that she was not justified in using the Voice. Abel would, and deserved to rot in prison for the rest of his life. Cecilia knew herself, and she knew that after using it once, not relying on it more was something that would be infinitely more difficult to do, and Legendaries, she knew Unova would push her to.

Cecilia Obel was no longer the idealist that she thought she could become. For the first time, she peeked behind the horizon, and what she saw there horrified her.

Ultimately, Cecilia thought, she was the sum of her parts. But there was more bad in her than good.

Azelf, had won, in the end, and their laugh was deafening.

—

The ACEs took Abel and his Pokeballs right after Cecilia used the Voice.

Hers was different than Chase's. It was an insidious whisper. Whereas Chase was like a loud, boisterous command that you couldn't imagine not listening to, hers was more of a suggestion that would make you believe she had your best interest at heart, and that you should therefore listen. Like a gentle hand to guide you while you were lost in the dark, whether that be to your doom or not, because not having her here was terrifying, or at least that's how it felt in the moment. She hadn't wanted to speak at all after the fact. Just to go home and be alone.

"Our time apart during the next month or two will do me some good," she had told me, and that hurt more than anything else she would have said, because she was essentially telling me she wanted a break. She wouldn't message or call me, I knew, because she couldn't come to terms with what she'd done.

And it had been my fault. I had convinced her to use it if needed, and she must have hated me for it. The worst part was that Chase and Mira's group had gotten there fifteen to twenty seconds later, so one could argue it might not have been necessary.

Chase and Mira were busy explaining the concept of the Voice to the League, and we'd no doubt get some very strongly worded sermons from them. Ideally, we would have kept it hidden, but I couldn't fathom the fact that Abel could have escaped. Not again. Or at least that was what we believed without hindsight. Abel was like a shell of his former self. The command had only lasted around twenty minutes, and now he was answering questions with a muted demeanor as if he had given up on everything. He gave us all of the names of Backlot's associates, and they would soon be arrested and given over to us. Two, I would hand over to Carnivine. The rest, I would execute. A drill through the head when Princess was healed. It would be quick and painless, but death was a price of its own. I'd told Carnivine she would be able to look at what happened to Backlot, but the ACEs quickly told me it would be politically convenient if we just did the deed right away and pretended like he died in the crossfire.

Klefki was ordered to open the door to Backlot's zoo, and I was the first one to step inside, followed by Mira and two ACEs. It wasn't the dark prison I had expected, but it was still a prison. Rare Pokemon sat behind thick walls of glass that reminded me of the ones Pokemon Center used. Bagon, Gible, Kabuto, Turtwig, Galarian Darumaka— they were all rare Pokemon that cost millions. They were clearly malnourished and were kept sedated with some kind of gas. I held in my rage as we walked through the halls. We couldn't just break through the glass, not before we got Backlot to turn off the gas.

It took everything I had not to grab my hatchet and cut him apart right then and there, but we needed to take care of the Pokemon first. Edward Backlot trembled like a little weasel as he crawled backward until his head hit a wall and he hurt himself. He was overweight, with a greying beard and hair arranged in a toupee. The place was arranged like a giant living room, with a coffee table for him and his friends to drink at while they looked at their abused captures. In fact, a bottle of some kind of alcohol sat on the table, nearly emptied.

"P—please. I was mind-controlled. Abel made me—"

"Shut the fuck up," I said as I limped toward him.

"Who even are you? Please, members of the League, let me call my lawyers— ah!"

I slammed my axe into the wall right next to his face, and he shut up after that.

"The gas. Turn it off."

"Right away," he squealed.

He reached for a lever hidden behind a wall, and the glass slid down into the floor, freeing every Pokemon there. I tended to them as best I could. They were shaken, and some of them had lived the last years, drugged up and unable to tell how much time had even passed. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw one of the ACEs taking care of a Leafeon. Carnivine's son was safe and sound.

"I need to call my lawyers," Backlot repeated in a whisper, but none of the ACEs gave him the time of day.

"You're not getting due process, Backlot," Mira said.

The man blanched when the ACEs left, leaving only me, Mira and Backlot in the room.

"Are we not a nation of laws?" He hissed. "I want to speak with a superior—"

"Princess fainted, so this'll have to do," I interrupted. I angled my axe up.

Haunter appeared behind Mira with a cackle, and I cut him in both thighs, digging deep into the flesh as blood splattered all over my clothes and bandages. It was harder than I thought, cutting through a human. I'd never been the strongest person around, and my arms were thin. Backlot still screamed and spoke nonsensical words that filled me with a tired satisfaction. I took a few steps back and threw him the axe for future use.

Then, Haunter got to work.

Mira and I both watched.

—

It was late in the evening, now, and I watched the garden slowly empty out as civilians were taken back to their home. Most of them would be going back up to Hearthome, where they would disperse and Teleport back home with hired Kadabra or Xatu. Save for Buddy, my Pokemon had all been given to one of the Nurses for their wounds, where they would have to stay for days.

We'd stopped Abel and Backlot. Abel's Pokemon would be sent to the League and assessed to see if they could be rehabilitated, just like the rest of the guards' Pokemon. If not, they would be put in prison or killed, I didn't know which. Pokemon prison didn't really exist, it was more of an expression. They'd be placed in their Pokeballs for a set number of years and only released to be fed, for those that did eat. The League had its own system for sorting through criminal Pokemon, but it was common knowledge that Pokemon often got a lighter hand than their owners. Rare was the Pokemon that wouldn't take at least one of the new leases at life the League threw at them, be that the Battle Frontier, Ranger work, League work, or something else.

Seventy-six hostages had died in the raid, and Sinnoh's richest caste had gone through a traumatic experience that would ripple throughout the entire region. Emilia's parents had been among the wounded, although thank Arceus they hadn't died. From what I knew, they both had lung problems due to smoke inhalation from that Flareon. Their real estate business saw them often involved with Backlot's parties, and despite having a rocky relationship with them, Emi was shaken. She hadn't even known they would be there because she'd blocked their number in Sunyshore. Our friends who hadn't come on the raid were outside, and that would be an annoying conversation to have, especially since Pauline had gotten herself arrested by trying to get in to help us. Denzel was conscious, and he'd be able to get back on his feet in around three to four days. There were… talks of nerve damage. The clawed area would apparently never return to normal and feel continuously numb and tingly, even if he chose to have surgery to make most of the feeling go away. From what I'd heard, Cecilia was already gone on Lehmhart's back. Her plan was to just sign up for Wake and leave as soon as possible.

There had been bad news, I knew. The Game Corner's raid had gone far better than this one, and Wooper…

Wooper was dead. She'd died to another drugged Pokemon in one of the fighting rings in the Game Corner a day after arriving.

The League Trainers that had been Teleported by Hypno and Xatu were safe, although Lou was still unconscious due to that Shedinja.

This was a mess. A mess that would require me to stay in Pastoria for at least an extra week to sort everything out. There was just so much to deal with, and most of it wasn't even bittersweet, it was just bitter. I hadn't even gone through my calls and texts yet. I should, I thought to myself. Just to think about something else. I grabbed my phone and decided to call my father first.

Oh and also,

Gengar were terrifying.