Chapter Text
The sun breaking through the thin curtains didn't wake him.
But the heat of it warming his bed to the point of it being uncomfortable certainly did.
Groaning, Arven rolled away from the heat spot and onto his back now.
He lifted a hand to sweep his hair from his face - only to grimace when he felt how the thick locks were plastered to his skin from the inevitable sweat.
A morning shower had already been in order for the day.
But it was definitely on the docket now as he was forced to do a second sweep with his hand to catch any remaining stragglers.
The idea of possibly putting his old blackout curtains back up crossed his mind as well.
He had swapped out the thicker curtains for ones that were thinner and shorter.
The past week or so had been either overcast or just straight rain, so today was the first day he was experiencing a drawback with that change now.
But sacrifices had needed to be made.
He wanted to make an attempt at growing some of the herba mystica for himself, and the window sill made for the perfect testing ground.
Or at least, as perfect as one could get in a dorm room.
While he didn't have high hopes for a successful attempt, he did have success in growing basil and other assorted spices in his room, so the least he could do was try.
Plus he already had all of the necessary supplies so there was no point in not trying it out.
He had even collected dirt from the caverns where he and Juli had found the herba mystica to begin with, to better his odds of success.
And if it did end in failure then he would at least know that this set up wasn't compatible, which would allow him to move on to his next available option.
Worst-case scenario, he could always try and grow them on the first zone of Area Zero.
But he really wanted to avoid doing that.
Fingers blindly began to prod at the sheets around him as Arven searched for his phone amongst the tangled mess.
Only for him to realize that it was missing.
And that his blanket was missing as well.
And so was Mabosstiff.
Which could only mean one thing.
Arven pushed himself up just enough to peer over the edge of his bed, and he looked down to where Mabosstiff was curled up next to him on the floor; which was not where the dog Pokemon had been the previous night. His yellow blanket was crumbled on top of the Pokemon as well, which was also not where it had been the previous night.
"Looks like someone rolled off again," he chuckled.
Mabosstiff lifted his head at his voice.
And Arven watched as the dog Pokemon hastily began to look around as though equally surprised to find himself on the floor now.
He was a little surprised no one had made a complaint about the obvious noise Mabosstiff would've made when hitting the floor.
But the avoidance of yet another complaint worked out just fine for him.
At the very least, that was one mystery solved.
Now on to the next one.
"Rotom," Arven called, "where are you?"
His first class wasn't until 10:00AM, so he wasn't worried about being late.
But after the whole Area Zero / Zero Lab ordeal, Juli had more or less been forcing him, Nemona, and Penny to hang out with her - and in doing so, hang out with each other. Which usually meant that the four of them would spend a couple of mornings together before class. Juli had tried to set up some meetups after class, but with everyone's schedules being vastly different from one another's it really wasn't worth the additional hassle.
That being said, it probably didn't help that there was a decent amount of resistance at the idea of the four of them hanging out together.
There was resistance from three of them anyways.
Okay, maybe just two of them.
Arven wasn't exactly eager to maintain whatever 'bond' had been created down in the crater.
But at the same time, it wasn't exactly hurting anyone.
And it wasn't like having more friends was a bad thing either.
It was just that the three of them came from three clearly different backgrounds, and the only thing they all had in common was Juli.
And Arven wasn't completely convinced that Juli was enough to keep them all tied together in the same group.
Despite having the power to say no though, he couldn't bring himself to turn down Juli's invites - even if he knew the other two would be there.
After everything Juli had done for him, it felt like the least he could do was try.
Even if it meant hanging out with Student Council Girl and Pipsqueak.
Arven heard the familiar, although faint, responding buzz of his Rotom phone.
"Mabosstiff, are you laying on my phone again?"
The dog Pokemon gave a wide mouth yawn before he slowly hoisted himself off the floor, only to then slide himself into an even larger stretch.
The movement allowed for his phone to fly out from underneath the beast, which was good timing seeing as Mabosstiff immediately plopped himself back down afterwards. The yellow blanket was still draped over his back and the dog Pokemon made no motion to get rid of it; if anything, it looked like Mabosstiff just tucked himself back underneath it.
"I thought so," Arven remarked as he held his hand out and felt the phone land on his palm.
Lying back down himself, he had the phone hover hands-free above him while he tapped to activate the screen.
It was only 8:06 AM, so he had plenty of time to take a shower and cook breakfast before-
200 messages.
56 missed calls.
Arven's brow furrowed at the text boxes that now flashed in front of him.
On top of making everyone hang out with each other, Juli had also made a group chat for the four of them.
It wasn't always active, but given Juli and Penny's quick fingers and their knack for late-night shenanigans, Arven wasn't really that concerned about the two hundred missed messages. He had a feeling Nemona had probably popped in at one point to remind the other two to go to bed, as she usually did even though it never really worked. Which then usually lead to Juli and Penny running Nemona around in circles and pulling her into whatever nightly conversation was going on - at least for an hour or so until Nemona caught on.
But fifty-six missed calls was definitely concerning.
What could have been so important that he needed to be called that many times?
Especially in what looked to be a short amount of time?
If there was an actual emergency, why didn't someone just come to his room and get his attention directly?
Grabbing his phone now, Arven unlocked the screen and watched as the most recent message popped up in front of him.
"CALL ME!"
It was from Juli.
In fact, they were all from Juli and they all said the same thing.
And the most recent one was only ten minutes ago.
A quick look at the rest of his messages showed that that same message had been repeatedly sent in varying intervals of time - all of which had started a little after 6:00 AM it seemed.
So they weren't about whatever game Penny was staying up to play.
That could not mean anything good.
Arven sat up now and hit call on Juli's number.
And there wasn't so much as a single ring before she picked up.
"Hey, what's going-"
"Arven, your dad's AI is here."
It took a moment for Juli's interruption to click and for him to understand what exactly she had said.
And when it did inevitably click, he found himself unable to respond to her.
It had been three months since the Zero Lab incident.
And after feeling borderline comatose for the first of those three months, he was just starting to feel like himself again; he was starting to feel like he was finally able to live his own life again.
As far as he was concerned, they never should have gone into the crater to begin with.
Did he finally get the answers that he wanted, that he had been looking for? Sure.
Were they worth what he had had to witness in order to get them? That answer changed every day it felt like.
Ignorance really was a blessing compared to the alternative of knowledge.
"Arven?"
The concerned tone of Juli's voice prodding him for a response was enough to snap him back to the present.
"That's not - that's not possible," Arven started, stumbling over his own words as he spoke, as he tried to recollect himself. "He - IT - I don't know what to call him- either way, it said it couldn't leave the Zero Lab. That can't be the-"
Arven caught himself from saying that whoever Juli claimed she saw couldn't have been his father's AI.
But that was the only possible solution if she was telling the truth.
There was no real Professor Turo anymore.
Just an impersonator.
"It can't be him," Arven stated again. "We saw what happened down there - I saw him basically blow up and shut down."
"I know, I know, I saw it too, but I also saw him here," Juli replied, clearly attempting to blow a hole through his doubts. "Nemona saw him arrive this morning while she was doing warm-ups with Dendra; she said the whole staff was freaking out over him. She called to tell me, and I didn't believe her either so then I went out looking and I saw him - and that's him. He was speaking with Director Clavell so I didn't get a chance to get close or anything, but there's no one else it could be."
If this had been Nemona or Penny calling him, he would've brushed it off as a cruel prank.
Not that he thought either of them would actually try and pull off something like this.
Or could, for that matter.
But Juli - she knew better.
She saw firsthand how everything down in the Zero Lab had affected him.
And while he still had his doubts that what she saw was correct, he also didn't really have much of a choice but to believe her - to an extent.
"I know this is a lot and it's very sudden, but we need to figure out what to do," Juli continued. "Which is an issue because... I don't know what we should do - or even what we can do. "
Arven didn't know either.
But if everyone else had confirmation about the AI then he needed to see it for himself.
Even if the thought of doing so made him want to crawl into a hole again.
"I guess we need to figure out-" Arven started, only to be interrupted by the familiar crackling of the P.A. system turning on.
Despite the system speakers being out in the hallway, he could still hear them clear enough in his room.
"Would Arven please report to the Director's Office."
He felt his stomach sink at the announcement.
If Juli was confident that she had seen his father's AI speaking to Director Clavell himself, then there was no getting around it now.
Arven knew well enough why he was being called to the Director's Office.
And that was all he needed to know to justify the overwhelming voice in his head that was telling him not to go.
But the request had already been broadcasted school-wide so it wasn't like he could just sneak out the back of the building.
He could try but someone on staff would probably catch him before he got too far.
Mabosstiff wiggled his head out from underneath the blanket before he turned and propped his chin on the edge of the bed, which now allowed the dog Pokemon to look up at him.
There was no doubt Mabosstiff had recognized his name being called, even if the Pokemon couldn't understand the rest of the words.
"Don't give me that look, you have no idea what's going on right now," Arven sighed; he reached over and rubbed the Pokemon on the nose, before he turned his attention back to his phone, and back to Juli. "Looks like there's no getting out of this now, I guess I'll have to see this for myself."
"Unfortunately so," Juli replied, sounding almost as defeated as he did. "I'll meet you outside the dorms."