INTERLUDE - HOUSE ARREST

Pauline could still hardly believe it.

Cecilia, Denzel, and Grace were gone. They had fallen to the depths of Mount Coronet.

They had tried to find a safe way to climb down or to send Emilia’s Beldum down the chasm, but there hadn’t been any way to do so safely, and the psychic type would have died down there alone. The rangers had come and quickly found them an hour later, and they had scaled down the hole with their specialized caving equipment. Pauline and the others had waited with their eyes full of tears and bated breaths to see them come up with their friends. They would probably be wounded, but hopefully alive, and they would be able to put this behind them.

The rangers came back up empty.

There’s nothing down there, one of them had said. Just dead ends without any bodies. Are you sure they fell down?

Pauline almost slapped that man right then and there. The tone they employed had been so nonchalant. They hadn’t cared enough. And the truth was, they didn’t. Some had been rattled or sad, but this was work for them. They had probably heard the same story about dead trainers plenty of times before. The rest of that day had been a blur that Pauline could barely even remember.

The young girl got up from her bed and instinctively grabbed at a Poketch on her bedside table that wasn’t there anymore. It had been two days since her friends had fallen down into Mount Coronet’s depths, and the news had picked up the story and declared them missing. It wasn’t the first time trainers had sneaked into Mount Coronet since the entrance closed, but it was the first time someone might have actually died—

Pauline’s body jerked. They weren’t dead. There hadn’t been any bodies. Just like the news said, they were missing. She had to hold onto that thin layer of hope, otherwise she didn’t know if she would be able to stand up in the morning. Harvey and Clarence’s agents had picked them up at the ranger station after they had been brought there to treat any injuries. Maybe they could have tried to run that day, but no one had the energy to do anything. They would have gotten caught eventually anyway.

Pauline sighed. It wasn’t like her to think like this.

They had been brought back to their hotel, and they were now under house arrest. When they got back, both of Cece’s letters had already been taken, and since they had no phones, there was no way to contact the outside world. They still had their Pokemon, but starting a fight with the hundreds of trainer guards that littered the building would never end well.

Plus, they had Pauline’s mother, whose traitorous intentions had been figured out somehow. She still hadn’t spoken to her, but she had been assured that she was safe. Today, she would learn more about what was going to happen to them.

Pauline stopped her foot from bouncing and got into the shower. There… there had to be a way out of this somehow. Even if— Arceus forbid— her friends were gone, she wanted to fulfill Cece’s last wish. To ruin her father’s reputation, and Louis’ father as well, for good measure, but how? They weren’t allowed to go out, and there were two experienced adult trainers standing at her door at all times that were on Louis’ father’s payroll.

Her arms slumped, and she leaned against her shower’s wet walls. It was hopeless.

“Come on, Pauline. We’ve gotten out of bad shit before, we can do it again.”

Her head snapped toward her bathroom door. There was nothing there.

Pauline knew she was going crazy. Sometimes, she randomly heard her friends’ voices as if they were still there, right next to her, but it seemed that she heard Denzel’s voice the most. The girl could almost picture his stupid childlike grin that came with the words, and he was trying to cheer her up, as he always did when the situation appeared desperate.

Pauline let out a sad chuckle that turned into a cry. “They’re not real,” she sobbed as she crouched in the shower. “They’re gone.”

She wanted the voices to stop. She felt that if they kept going on like this, then she would end up like Emilia or Justin. Her best friend had cried until she ran out of tears, and now just stayed in her bed all day, while Justin often sat on his balcony and just… stared off into the distance. He hadn’t spoken even once since.

Together with her, Louis was the only one left. He hadn’t even cared that she originally joined their group to sabotage his engagement. His mind was elsewhere. He had demanded to speak with his father so many times and with such rage that she thought he would try to fight off a dozen guards at the same time, and he was finally getting his wish. Harvey and Clarence were here, and they were both going to meet him in thirty minutes. They had flown to Eterna city today.

The redhead finally stepped into the cold and out of the shower to get dressed, and she opened her room’s door. She stared up at the guard who awaited her. He wore a suit with sunglasses and an earpiece, as did all the others.

“Only you today?” She spat with her unending hate imbued in her words. There were usually two of them. “What even is your name? You all look the fucking same.”

“No Pokemon are allowed when meeting Mr. Bianchi,” he said, ignoring her question.

Pauline stared at the two Pokeballs on her belt and cursed. Was Harvey so paranoid that he thought they would attempt a suicidal attack to kill him? She sighed, realizing that she might have, depending on what they said. Pauline placed her Pokeballs back inside of her bedroom and followed the guard into the elevator.

“Do you realize you’re helping one of the most fucked up humans on the planet?” Pauline asked him. He ignored her. “Does that make you feel good, motherfucker? Do you like the fact that Harvey and Clarence drove a girl to such torment that she thought the only option she had was to kill herself?”

Pauline noticed his fingers twitch.

“How do you sleep at night? How do you do it, knowing that three children might be dead because of the man you work for, you piece of human filth? I see you have a ring on your finger. Does your wife know how much of a sociopath you are? I truly wonder what it takes for someone to go home and kiss their wife after a hard day’s work causing children to be murdered—”

“Stop.”

“Or what, you little bitch? You’re going to hit me? Hurt me like you hurt Cece—”

“What is the point of this?” he hissed.

“I don’t know, maybe I wanted you to think about the consequences of your actions. Real consequences. It feels good to just keep your head down and pretend you’re just following orders, doesn’t it? That nothing you do would change anything anyway? I hope the guilt eats you up and spits you out like a discarded hump of trash. You already know what Cecilia looks like, but since their faces are all over the news, you know what Grace and Denzel look like too. I want you to imagine them when you fall asleep at night. I want you to imagine their lives getting interrupted early. Fifteen and sixteen years old. You seem old enough to have a child that age. When you close your eyes, I want you to imagine their corpse having been mangled by some wild Pokemon. Imagine them having died alone and scared.”

The elevator opened on the ground floor, and the bodyguard led her to where Harvey and Clarence would be, which was a restaurant he had completely bought out for the day. His stride was faster this time. He was jittery. Less confident.

Good, Pauline thought. I hope you fucking choke on the guilt.

The redhead could see the press in the distance, begging to be let in, but they weren’t allowed to. They were obsessing over this story— so much so in fact that it was going toe to toe with the fact that Team Galactic’s base in Eterna City had been successfully raided yesterday by Cynthia, the League, the Elite Four and the International Police.

She was frisked before being allowed to enter the restaurant. Louis was already in the entryway, waiting for her. Pauline stared at the wound running from the corner of his lip to his ear and winced. It still wasn’t completely healed, and the scar would always be there, but Louis insisted on showing it. Pauline agreed with this decision. They wouldn’t let the assholes that worked for Harvey and Clarence ignore what they were doing. What they had caused.

“Pauline,” Louis said. Gone was the innocence on his face. He wore a perpetual frown now. “They say my father’s waiting for his meal first, so he’s going to be late.”

He clenched a fist tightly at the last word.

“He’s treating this like some kind of vacation?” She spat. “I want to gouge his eyes out.”

“So do I, but we have questions to ask first—”

Louis’ face contorted into a look of rage when he saw Amy walk out of the restaurant. Her eyes were red like she had been crying, and she looked like she hadn’t slept. Pauline let out a hearty chuckle that died in her throat.

“Amy,” she started, her voice trembling with anger. “Why are you crying?”

“Why do you think,” she sniffled. “I’ve been crying since learning that Cece was gone.”

Louis slammed his fist against a wall, and his knuckles started to bleed. She flinched.

“Excuse me?” he asked, his voice dangerously calm. “Could you repeat that for me?”

“I— I didn’t know that she would go that far! I was trying to save her. Grace and Denzel must have manipulated her somehow—”

Pauline stepped forward and slapped her so hard that her hand felt numb. Amy fell to the ground, placing a hand on her reddened cheek, and guards rushed in to put some space in between them before she could beat the shit out of her.

“You still don’t understand?!” Pauline screamed so loudly that her throat hurt. “You fucking did this! You’re a fucking monster!”

“No! I was just trying to help! If your mother hadn’t tried to derail everything, it would have been fine!”

“Your words,” she hissed. “Your words are the ones that pushed her over the edge. You can’t pretend to be innocent in all of this. In fact, you’re one of the biggest culprits. You killed Cecilia, Amy. You killed her.”

Tears streamed down Amy’s face, and Pauline smirked. “Don’t you even dare act like the victim. You are inhuman. You could have helped Cece with her issues. You were her best friend, who she loved. Instead, you chose to be a collaborator. You dealt with evil, and now you can never be redeemed. I hope you can never get a wink of sleep again and that you get nightmares so bad that you go through one-tenth of what Grace went through. I hope you know that you caused Denzel’s death, who was the brightest and most positive person I knew. I hope you know that even though you weren’t the one holding the metaphorical knife, you killed Cece, who, despite her circumstances, was the most ambitious, most—”

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The bodyguards dragged her away before she could finish her sentence. She tried to follow her, but they held her back.

“That was for Cece,” she whispered. “And it still wasn’t enough.”

“We’ll see her again,” Louis said, clenching his hand in pain. “She’s going to be here a while.”

“I’m going to fucking grill her every time I see her,” Pauline hissed. “She doesn’t get to pretend nothing is her fault. She doesn’t get to wash the blood off of her hands.”

“Good.”

Seven minutes later, they were led deeper inside of the empty restaurant. Pauline scoffed when she saw that every utensil had been taken away. That’s how paranoid they were. Louis’ father, or Harvey, was almost a carbon copy of him. Their hair was exactly the same shade of blond, they had the same eyes, nose and face shape. The main difference came in eye color, which was light brown for Harvey and blue for Louis. Still, even though it wasn’t Pauline’s first time seeing the older man, it was disconcerting to see how alike they were. Clarence, on the other hand, couldn’t look more different than Cecilia if he tried. He shared her brown skin and appeared a lot younger than he actually was. He had a small nose with thin lips.

Pauline was surprised to see that Clarence actually looked shaken. His daughter was dead or missing, so it was obvious that a normal father would be stricken with grief, but he was anything but normal. He had directly caused her death. He was the one that held the knife and had been pressing it against her throat the entire time.

Still, that wasn’t it. There was another man sitting on another table, with ten Pokeballs on his belt, and a Malamar standing at his back. Pauline flinched when she saw the dark type stare at her and give her a wicked grin that sent a shiver down her spine. Malamar were the most evil, most depraved species of Pokemon on this planet, and to Pauline, any trainer that owned one must have been just as perverse.

Mind control, Pauline thought. It was all beginning to click now. Cecilia had been threatened with mind control, and the reason this trainer was here was to intimidate them. The Malamar’s trainer wiped his mouth and gave them a respectful nod. He looked so unassuming that she would never have guessed that he owned a Malamar.

“Louis, Pauline,” Harvey started after sipping on some red wine. He motioned to two chairs on their table facing them. “Take a seat.”

“What’s that Malamar here for?” Pauline said, already knowing the answer. “Gonna mind control us?”

“No, of course not,” Harvey shook his head. “Abel is just here for some protection.”

“You already have hundreds of trainers on your payroll,” Louis hissed. “But enough of that. Do you fucking—” he started, slamming a fist against the table. The plates shook and Clarence’s glass of wine fell on his suit, causing him to groan and call a server. “—know how many times I’ve been trying to reach you until today?”

“Calm down, Louis. A man of your status must not employ such language needlessly.”

“I will not calm down! What is this, dad? Why are you treating us like prisoners after our friends died?”

“Calm down,” he repeated more forcefully. “Allow Clarence to explain.”

Clarence took a short breath as he wiped his suit. “Let us address the obvious first,” he said. “You associated yourselves with poison, and they made my daughter not be in the right state of mind.”

“You have to be fucking kidding me—” Pauline exclaimed. Amy had said the same thing. Was that the narrative they were fucking creating? They wanted to ruin Denzel’s and Grace’s reputation, even in death!

“I miscalculated. I thought a good scare would get her on the right path again, but it did not. The news are all over this since we couldn’t shut the story down in time. Reporters,” he spat. “Both of our companies’ stock prices have taken a slight dip, and our boards want this story out of the news cycle as fast as possible. You know what that means, right?”

Pauline’s eyes widened. This man… this man wasn’t shaken because his daughter was possibly dead. He was shaken because his company was taken a slight fucking hit.

“Who cares about money?!” Louis asked. “The company could go under today and we still would have enough to last generations!”

“You are too shortsighted. I raised you better,” Harvey said. “A man’s life should always be about the legacy he leaves behind.”

Clarence nodded. “Getting back to my point, that means that you must stay silent. Do not speak to any reporters. You shall stay inside until the story dies down. Justin’s father and Emilia’s parents agree with this.”

“Funny, because they haven’t even spoken to their kids once. Do you know how depressed they are? They barely ate anything since—” Pauline said, but Clarence interrupted.

“Regarding your mother, Pauline. We have decided to give her another chance to redeem herself. We could have pressured her by funding her competitors, and she would have been out of business within five years, but I believe that everyone deserves a clean slate. Still, any more action from you and her, and you will pay. Understood?”

Pauline said nothing.

“I don’t understand,” Louis stammered. “You’re acting like nothing bad happened. Like it’s just business as usual.”

He had a look of disbelief on his face. The last threads of hope that he had held of his father somehow still being a normal man were being torn apart in front of his eyes, revealing the monster for who he actually was. It was one thing to hear about it in Cece’s letter, but it was another to finally see it with his own eyes. The veil had finally been lifted.

“I believe we’ve said everything that needed to be said,” Harvey nodded.

“So what about your pet project about sending us all to the Conference?” Pauline smiled harshly.

“Sacrifices will have to be made. We now have different priorities, and we have to negotiate with the new government about potentially giving us more… business-friendly terms.” Harvey simply answered.

Pauline shook her head and spat into the man’s food. They looked at her with more disdain than they had while talking about dead children.

“You,” she called out to the man called Abel. “You’re a piece of shit too, I hope you know that.”

“It’s just business,” he said with an exaggerated bow.

“Malamaaaar,” The psychic type said, imitating his trainer’s gestures and intonation.

Money. Stocks. Investments. Business.

Pauline was sick and tired of hearing about it.

——

“Emi,” Pauline said, shaking her friend. She was under layers and layers of covers, and she couldn’t even see her face. “Emi, have you eaten today?”

“I’m not hungry,” she sobbed.

Pauline caressed her friend’s body through the thick layers of fabric. “I can make you anything if you need, just say the word,” she said, trying to keep her tone positive. “I’m here for you.”

Her friend just continued to cry. Beldum hovered over her, ever vigilant, while Aimpom and Rockruff had fallen asleep next to her.

“Drink lots of water, okay? I’m going to go, I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Hmhm,” she answered weakly.

Pauline stepped out of her best friend’s room, walked to hers with an escort, and collapsed on her knees.

Stay strong, she thought to herself. The King family is strong.

“If you need to cheer up, we can play a round of Old Maid. You’re terrible at it, but I’ll even let you win if you want,” She heard Denzel say.

“Shut up!” Pauline yelled, waving her arms. “You aren’t real! Leave me alone!”

She had to do something. Her friends’ reputations were going to get ruined because of two men’s greed, but how? If she could somehow escape, she would have to get to the nearest Pokemon Center to use one of their public computers and post something on the forums. That would be the quickest way to do it. But getting out of here was a task in and of itself. Say she went for broke and decided to fight her way out of here anyway. Two Pokemon weren’t enough, and even if she combined her forces with Louis, they wouldn’t even make it close to the exit. A trainer almost always got their start in the League Circuit, but not all of them retired. If they were good enough, some went into the League and started working there to become a League trainer, while the weaker ones or people with ambitions of becoming a gym leaders became gym trainers. That wasn’t what paid the most, however. The private sector hired a lot of retired trainers and lined their pockets with more money than they could ever dream of.

So she would have to go through bodyguard after bodyguard, who would fight to the last to protect their salary, and she wasn’t even guaranteed to be a better trainer. She hadn’t seen any of them use their Pokemon yet, and there was still Abel—

Pauline heard a knock on the door. She composed herself before opening the door and saw that a bodyguard was waiting for her.

“What is it?” She asked. “Don’t bother me.”

“My name’s Cedric,” he said.

“What?”

“You asked what my name was earlier. It’s Cedric.”

Ah, he was the one that had escorted her to the restaurant downstairs.

“Well, fuck you, Cedric,” Pauline spat. “Are you done?”

“I’m not,” he said. “Your words… they struck a chord. I know I do a lot of fucked up shit. I’ve known all along, of course, but when I heard you say it out loud… I truly realized what it is I was contributing to. I have a kid.”

“So?” She said, crossing her arms. “Want me to feel bad for you?”

“No. I don’t expect forgiveness, of course, nor do I need it. But I do want to make things right— as right as they can still be,” Cedric corrected himself. He grabbed a Poketch from his pocket and gave it to her. It was hers. She recognized it instantly.

“What if I rat you out and get you fired?” She asked.

“I’m quitting anyway,” he sighed. “Can’t keep doing this.”

“Well, Cedric,” Pauline said. “You’ve been promoted from a piece of shit to a piece of trash. Thank you.”

Somehow, her verbal beatdown of this guard had made him become a better person, and he was potentially ruining his life for her. As her mother sometimes said, tact was the ability to tell someone to go to hell and make them look forward to the trip.

The bodyguard nodded and closed the door. Pauline immediately ran to her bedroom door, locked it, and opened up her phone. She was going to type a statement— no, first, she was going to call all of the news organizations and tell her story, and then type a statement on the forums. That way, both civilians and trainers would learn how fucked up the Obel Energy Company and the Bianchi Conglomerate were.

But her mother… her mother would suffer the consequences. And so would she after this. Her finger hovered over the call button, trembling like a leaf. She didn’t want to risk calling her mother beforehand to warn her either because she was sure her phone had been bugged. Once she started the first call, it would only be a matter of time until the guards realized something was wrong and stopped her. There was no time to waste.

“Mommy would respect my choice no matter what,” Pauline exhaled. “She’ll understand.”

Pauline pressed the call button and began talking to the first reporter. She was risking everything, but what could they do to even counter her? When the Meowth was out of the bag, there was no way to put it back in. She would fulfill Cece’s last wish and burn these companies to the ground if it was the last thing she did.

Pauline talked to seven reporters and typed out a long statement on the forum that day.

The very next hour, the new story broke. Harvey and Clarence’s lies were revealed, and the truth of the story came out. They had abused a girl so badly that she had decided to die in Mount Coronet, and Grace and Denzel were heroes who tried to go save her. She threw Abel under the bus too, saying that they had hired a trainer that threatened the use of mind control. Hopefully, with all the media attention this would get, law enforcement wouldn’t just ignore this one. Just tying down Harvey and Clarence in legal battles would be enough, even though they would eventually win. Pauline breathed a sigh of relief and smiled when she heard the bodyguards breaking down her door.

That day, the Bianchi Conglomerate’s stock price crashed by 19%, and the Obel Energy Company’s crashed by 26%.

And hopefully, it would only be down from there.