Chapter Text
It shouldn't be a surprise. That doesn't stop it from being one.
Our shadows reach almost to the far side of the street now, but nothing moves beneath them. Two hours waiting, and still nothing. We've been here since we found the address, watching from the far side of the rooftops, but for all we've seen we might as well have been watching the moon rise.
"Let's get down," says Wes, his voice tight. I hiss, red sunlight bleeding into my eyes as I stare at him. We’d come looking for a fight, and now we were leaving without one? Even if it’s a trap (and it probably is), at least that’ll be something.
Elena shoulders past me on the way to the ladder, and she stalks down without saying a word. I follow her, feeling strangely lost. Daylight's almost gone, and it's doubtful that anything will happen after sundown. Where does that leave us, though?
I step off the metal rungs and touch solid ground, but I still feel adrift, aimless. Anticipating a burst of adrenaline that'll make everything clear and knowing that it's not going to come, and I’m just wondering if this is how it all comes to a stop.
"What now?" I ask Elena, as we fall in behind our trainer. Funny that I'm asking her now, after all those times I'd give her grief for not knowing. Uncertainty turns the tables on all of us.
She scrunches her face up to think, and it takes two blocks of walking for her to finally speak. "Maybe we just go." She shakes her head, looks at me, keeps speaking without breaking stride. "We go west, into the sunset...so far that they can't chase us. We were going that way anyways, right?"
We were - we are. Gateon was always the goal. And...even if we leave this unfinished, so what? There's no chance that the Phenac boys would chase us past the wall, and for once we could let live.
As the sun drops below the earth, the lights flicker on one by one, their glare keeping the darkness at bay. We're not too far from Phenac's upper levels, the enclave of those like...the wealthy, the haves. Not too far from where we'd started out, either - no matter where we'd run, we always kept coming back to the same place.
They call Phenac a diamond, but all I've seen are red brick, chrome and water. All of which I've seen out east too. The corners of the Outskirts are just as grimy as the ones here, and maybe the cafe served better food, but..would Gateon really be that much better than this? Would Unova or Kalos?
If only it were so simple.
"It's not our call," I sigh. "And even if it was...there's desert and gangs and checkpoints between here and the coast. We stopped here looking for a ticket, not a death threat."
"A ticket?" Elena cocked her head. "You mean papers of some sort?"
"Papers of some sort," I echo. I'm still not sure what Elena thinks of writing, whether there's any sort of power to it. I used to think that way before I worked out what the black lines meant.
The streets have steadily emptied out as we've moved - just a few pedestrians ahead, watching us warily. Between me and Elena, they probably have reason to be. You don't see that many Pokemon on the streets while the sun's up, and even with the sun setting there's only three of us here.
Three of us. Me, my sister, and the earthy-smelling creature passing by the end of the alley. Funny - smells like two distinct fragrances coming from that direction, and the hairs on my back are prickling. We're not too far from that address, and for all we know this could be the ambush. I tense-
"Wes?"
Rui?
------
The dust cloud sweeps slowly away from the low-hanging moon, glittering in the starlight as if it was a constellation itself. The procession of steel and smoke has come to a halt in its wake, yet the sand continues onwards over the plains of the east heedless. What has been set in motion cannot so easily be recalled.
"You've always been friends to Snagem," says the thin man, his tone conveying none of a friend's warmth. "And we don't ask much. Just some extra muscle to hunt down the runaway."
The man in the gray coat tsks, more for his guest's benefit than a watcher's. He takes a second to adjust his sunglasses before speaking. "We have no 'muscle' to loan. Dakim is scouting past Mount Battle, and until he returns we don't have anyone to spare."
"Scouting?" asks the thin man, something close to interest in his voice. "Past Mount Battle...that's the Howls. What're you looking for out there?"
The man in the gray coat smiles beatifically. The man in the thin coat stares at him, through him, thinking if it might be worth killing him to negotiate with the next in line. Cold calculus, almost certainly not worth it.
"You did not come alone," the man in the gray coat notes. "Eight men and women - nine counting yourself. To me that seems sufficient to run down a lone coward." But not enough to storm this base, his voice implies, pushing that point a little further.
"He's faced worse odds than this," says the thin man coldly. "You can’t blame us for being careful."
“Neither can you blame us,” the man in the gray coat responds, half-turning to indicate finality. And that should be the end of it, but for the thin man’s parting words.
"If you can't spare muscle, then a few of your black balls would be appreciated." The air seems to grow colder as he says those words. The man adjusts his coat and stops walking. He doesn’t turn to face the thin man’s eyes, glinting in triumph.
"Word travels, you know," says the thin man. "And we know you have to be doing something with the ones we bring you. But there's no reason that this secret has to go beyond us."
"Three," says the man in the coat, finally looking back. "We can give you three, if you'll pay fair price." The thin man's smile is as sharp as it is sudden.
"You can bring them out to us. I'll tell the crew to wait up," and with that the thin man turns away. "We don't have cash on hand, but you know where to find us," he adds, almost as an afterthought.
He misses the white apparition that slides across the sands to the man in the coat. The two of them withdraw into the compound's shadow before the white figure begins to speak, her voice high and hopeful. "We could kill him. He wouldn’t go talking to anyone if he was off the air
"If we kill him, then we have to kill the ones he came with," responds the man in the coat, adjusting his sunglasses yet again. "And we don’t have the strength to stave off Gonzap coming for us in force, even with the shadows."
"Could our patron do anything?" the white woman asks fretfully. Her hazel eyes twinkle delicately, even as she continues, "certainly he could sweep up the lot of them and crush them all if he wanted. Crush them like the mice they are..."
"We’re not his only concern," the gray-coated man responds, morosely. "In fact he called to tell me he wants me looking into this Snagem runaway. With all the work I’ve been doing with the shadows, having to deal with this too-"
The man perks up, looking out into the black as if something has occurred to him. "We could give him shadows - we should give him shadows. He can field-test them, see how they perform, and if they get caught then it’s Snagem taking the fall and not us." He smirks. "And the new specimens - if I’m right about sending Dakim after the others, then even the most recent ones will be second-tier troops at best. Perfect to hand out as bribes."
"I still say we should kill him," the woman in white pouts. "He can’t walk in here and threaten us like this. Our patron pays for everything, and even he doesn’t-"
"We’ll get around to it," he whispers. In his hand is a small purple sphere, emblazoned with a black lightning bolt. "Once they’ve outlived their usefulness, they’ll die screaming." He strokes the sphere in his hand, and then, almost absently, he presses the button in the middle. The reek of ozone fills the air, shadows blanket the ground and no, it can’t be-
In the distance the storm roars back to life, sudden thunder startling the guards. They’ve loosed this storm, set it into motion. Corrupted them with their shadows. To bring them back from the brink will not be so easy.
------
It's Rui!
Lune hangs back, looking like he’d looked that time she’d led him to the storehouse in Echo Canyon. Surprise and bemusement are the two emotions that she can identify on his muzzle, but the rest are too faint, too distant. She was never good at reading her brother even before he evolved. But this should be a good thing, it’s Rui!
Elena smiles and chuffs, turning to face the young woman. She makes her way over, sparing a glance for the Bayleef standing behind Rui, who’s watching her warily. “Don’t get any ideas,” the Pokemon whispers, the leaf on her head fluttering in the wind. They look like they’d get along well with her brother.
Rui bends down to greet her, finding the right spot behind her ears to massage. “...said you lived on the east side,” she says, awkwardly.
“We found our way over this way,” Wes responds awkwardly. Elena skips back to her brother’s side. “Nice Bayleef,” her trainer continues offhandedly. “What’s his name?”
“Joel,” Rui responds, running a hand over her ponytail. “We were just heading back to our place, but it’s getting late.” She looks a little fretful. “Don’t want to get caught while it’s still dark out. Mind coming with?”
Coming with? Wes and Lune seem excited by that too. The five of them soon fall into stride, Rui and Wes talking quietly as she pushes ahead.
“..your sister?” she hears the Bayleef ask. She feels a strand of contempt from him, but it vanishes quickly.
“Yeah,” Lune responds. “We were from around here, even if I’m not sure she remembers. Spent the last few years out east, though.”
“The war?” asks the Bayleef. It takes Lune a while to answer, and his ‘yes’ seems a little guarded. She wants to add that they were too busy with Snagem to leave, but something told her that Lune wouldn’t want her talking about that
“Never got the chance to come back till now,” her brother sighs. “Where you from?”
Elena finds herself dropping back to try and join in. “Johto,” says the Bayleef.
“Johto Joel?” she finds herself asking. It sounds funny.
“Yeah, Johto Joel,” responds the Bayleef, sardonic, as if he’s never heard it before. “Was her starter, we made it up to Cianwood before she decided that the Gym challenge wasn’t for her. And now we’re out here, setting up a new office for Professor Krane.”
“Cool,” her brother responds. He sounds interested and somewhat sad, and she wonders what’s there to be sad about, but Joel doesn’t continue. Maybe it was the ‘Johto Joel’ thing. Eventually her brother shakes his head and turns back to her.
For a second she wonders if it was something she said. Whether she should say anything else. Ever since they’d come down from that rooftop it’d been like...they’d been coming down. Watching what they’d wanted slip away. And walking away from it.
She wonders if there’s something she can do for Lune right now, something to bring back the highs of last night. But faces are hard to read, minds are too confusing, and the moment passes. And they haven't stopped coming down yet.
The sun’s almost set when they arrive...wherever they were going. “So now you know where I live,” Rui comments off-handedly, cocking her head at Wes. Elena wonders if they might get a chance to visit for real later.
“So I do,” says Wes. For a second, she thinks he’s going to continue, but that moment passes too, and they settle for farewells before parting ways. The three of them walk to the end of the street - Lune looks west, into the setting sun, while Wes settles into a crouch beside them, eyes closed.
She wants to go with them, go west, see the ocean and the seaside groves of Gateon and whatever else lies beyond the desert. And she wants to stay in Phenac, chase street toughs, sit beneath cafe tables while Wes and Rui laugh and joke. And she wants to show whoever’s after them who they’re messing with...and she wants to know why they can’t have all of those things if they try.
Maybe they just keep running. Maybe that’s all there is.
Wes sighs, then he reaches down to scratch her ear. "We can't run, not now," he says. "If it's a trap it's a trap." He sounds resigned. Lost. "Battle it out or perish. And if so, then why not here, where you stand?"
The sun falls and the night sweeps in. In the silence that surrounds them she hears their conviction, feels the wind calling them back. They'd never run from a fight back in the Canyon, after all. And they wouldn't start now.