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When Victoria had first met Carly, the latter girl had just been a victim— and one of two survivors— of a train bombing.
Carly had stumbled up to the Grand Hall, dirt and ash in her long, dark brown hair, and all over her torn clothes and her skin, the latter of which was littered with injuries. Her bright green eyes had been darting left and right, as if thinking something or someone might jump out at her. Victoria took it upon herself to help her into the building, despite the fact that they were right outside of it.
Shortly after they entered, a purple haired doctor had shown up just to check over Carly. To both girls’ great relief, she had needed little more than a few bandages for some of the worse wounds.
They both ended up going to bed in some rooms in the Grand Hall meant for visitors to stay overnight in soon after. Ame was, understandably, a bit too busy to give them their starters, and it was pretty late anyway.
The next morning, Victoria had been worried that Carly would still be freaked out, or have trouble getting up. But instead she’d cheerfully greeted Victoria by the front desk.
“I’m surprised you seem so excited,” Victoria said. “I would’ve thought you’d at least had had trouble sleeping.”
Carly shrugged. “That’s never stopped me before!”
Before Victoria could ask what she meant by that, Ame had shown up, and taken Carly upstairs to choose a starter. When she came down a few minutes later, she had been grinning ear to ear, holding a very happy looking Popplio she had proclaimed to be named “Percy.”
Victoria went and got her own starter, Litten, then came back downstairs and found Carly with a boy named Cain. After a battle between the two girls— where Victoria was defeated, not that she felt that bad given the type matchup— Carly had asked if either of them knew a good place to grab breakfast.
“I know a place nearby,” Cain had said. “Great pancakes, cute waitstaff. We could call it a date~”
Carly snorted. “You’re too young for me, but I am interested in the pancakes. And either or both of you guys’ platonic company.”
Victoria had agreed, so Cain guided both of them to a surprisingly nice little restaurant in the Peridot Ward. He’d been right, too… about the pancakes, of course.
The three had gotten to know each other a bit as they ate. Victoria talked about Apophyll, Cain said he wasn’t quite from Reborn City, but nearby, and Carly shared that she was all the way from the Sinnoh region.
“I wanted to see somewhere new,” she said, starting to cut into a fifth pancake. “I already saw most of Sinnoh when I was younger, so…”
“That’s pretty impressive, for you to come from so far on your own,” Victoria said.
“Yeah, must be pretty hard,” Cain agreed.
“It was, but worry not!” Carly said. “Because so is… this dick.”
Cain had found that hilarious.
As they finished up, Carly pulled her Pokégear from her skirt pocket. “Hey, before we go, do you think I could get a picture of us all together? I wanna let my mom know I’ve made some friends.”
Friends, huh? Maybe Carly was calling them that a bit quickly, but Victoria hadn’t minded. Both her and Cain agreed, and another restaurant patron had been kind enough to take the picture for them.
Before the three had split up, they exchanged numbers, and promised to hang out again soon.
— — —
In the present, Victoria sits and waits at Grandview Station.
She’s worried. Adrienn had said that Carly would likely be returning from Tourmaline Desert today, specifically by train, although xe wasn’t sure when. So Victoria has been coming to the station whenever she could get away from the office, hoping to be able to greet her friend. But even as it starts to get dark out, there’s still no sign of Carly.
It’s been over a month since Carly left for the desert. It’s not too surprising that she’s been gone so long, as Victoria has always known her to be one to explore places thoroughly. And of course, she knows Carly can handle herself. But still, it’s only natural to worry a bit. The lack of signal in the desert means she had gone dark, and after what had happened at the Devonyx building…
Victoria’s train of thought is interrupted by an actual train pulling in. And to her immense relief, Carly steps out of it— hair braided, Victoria notices.
“Hey, Carly!” Victoria says, standing up and waving.
Carly perks up a bit, and once her eyes land on Victoria, she hurries over. Victoria opens her arms, and Carly leans in, the two sharing a quick hug.
When they separate, Victoria looks over her friend and notices Carly looks… pretty tired, actually. But Victoria chalks it up to being due to traveling through Tourmaline.
“How was your time in the desert?” Victoria asks.
“…Tourmaline was nice,” Carly says.
“That’s good! How about we go meet up with Adrienn and Arc? We can all get dinner together, and talk about what we’ve all been up to,” Victoria suggests.
“Sure,” Carly says.
The two of them leave the station.
— — —
Less than a week after Victoria started the League challenge, chaos had erupted in the Obsidia Ward. And she and Carly had gone to do something about it.
They’d helped people together. Ventured through the slums together. Entered the horrendously overgrown park together, along with a pair of Gym Leaders.
Then they’d split up, and Victoria had been kidnapped by a member of Team Meteor.
She’d found the agent that had been rumored to be skulking about, Borealis, and thought maybe she’d be able to take him in. But it had been the other way around, and Victoria had ended up captive.
It had lasted around a week, although she hadn’t been able to tell that until later. It’s hard to keep track of the passage of time when one is spending all of said time either locked up, or being watched over by people intent on making sure escape is impossible.
Borealis had been the one in charge of her for most of it. And to Victoria’s surprise, at no point had he confiscated her Pokémon, instead telling her to keep them and wait for the moment to strike. At several points, she’d even been able to train them in secret.
Towards the end of Victoria’s time as a captive, custody of her had shifted from Borealis to Team Meteor’s leader, who she would later learn was called Solaris. A man that she would come to hate… but at the time, he had just been intimidating. Even when she had been alone with him, she’d been unwilling to strike… not that she could, anyway, with the way her wrists were bound.
It was silent as he led her down into a large cave underneath the Grand Stairway, until they got to a room with oddly shining walls and a strange door. He asked her if she’d known about it, and she’d shaken her head.
“I am not surprised. Most of the city’s people are ignorant to this place, even as they walk above it. Unknowing of history, they pass over Reborn’s core each and every day,” Solaris said.
Its core? Normally, Victoria would probably have questioned what made this place special enough to be considered the region’s “core,” but… she would be lying if she said she hadn’t felt something. Something emanating, a power she couldn’t explain, so faint but there.
“To build this wretched city, its founders covered up a holy site, and stole its symbols for their own use,” Solaris continued. “It is a practice that the League’s Champion and founder has carried on. Remember this, even once you leave this place.”
Victoria had only been able to nod.
Solaris led her to a makeshift holding cell— bars clearly set up quite hastily— and made her enter. After, he instructed her to stick her arms out. When she had, he withdrew what she’s pretty sure was a dagger, of all things, and cut through her bindings.
Another pair of Meteors had shown up soon after to guard her, and Solaris left, or at the very least, left Victoria’s sight.
After a while, Carly showed up, and Victoria had known that that was the moment she had been waiting for. The two of them defeated the two Meteors together, as a team.
And then one of the Meteors had muttered something about Borealis being dead. Carly had flinched.
The Meteors fled soon after, and Carly opened the cell.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Don’t worry, I’m not hurt or anything,” Victoria said. “Both of them— Borealis, and their leader— treated me quite humanely.”
“Well, that’s good, at least,” Carly said, looking relieved.
“But now Borealis is dead? Wasn’t he on their side?” Victoria asked.
“It’s… complicated,” Carly said. “Do you remember Corey Molinar, that doctor who treated me when I first got here?”
Victoria nodded.
“He turned out to be Borealis. But he wasn’t in Team Meteor because he wanted to be,” Carly explained. “It’s a long story, but… he ended up doing something to upset the others, plus his identity was revealed to the police. He… he chose to take his own life.”
Victoria was struck by cold shock for a moment. “I— that’s—”
She had had to take a deep breath, before changing the subject.
“…as for the leader, all he did was talk to me— about that gate up there. And how, in order to start the Reborn League, Ame plastered all over some kind of holy site…” she said. “It doesn’t sound right, but maybe this is just some kind of propaganda? I don’t get it.”
“He said something similar to me,” Carly said. “Like you said, though, I don’t really have any way to verify if it’s true…”
“Either way, I’m not just going to stand by and let them do whatever they want,” Victoria said. “Before anything, let’s get out of here.”
“Right! I actually kind of wanted to check up on the Gym Leader in Lapis,” Carly said. “She’s really young, and she saw Corey’s body… I think she might’ve known him, too, so that’s even worse…”
“That’s… oh, god. Nobody should have to see something like that, especially a child…” Victoria said.
“We might not be able to see her, since she had a friend with her who seemed pretty protective. But maybe we can at least ask if she’s feeling okay?” Carly suggested.
Victoria nodded, and the two of them left.
— — —
Victoria, Carly, Adrienn, and Arclight end up going to a pizza place in Obsidia together. It’s chosen specifically because pizza is Carly’s favorite food, and this is her “return party,” so to speak. Coming back to the city after a trip that lasted over a month with both a new Badge and the Sapphire Bracelets, she surely has every reason to celebrate.
Carly eats pretty slowly, but Victoria doesn’t find it too odd. She knows that eating after going for a while with less or no food can be difficult, and while Carly went to Tourmaline with an abundance of supplies, she wouldn’t have exactly been able to pig out.
What is a bit odd, though, is how she talks.
“So, did you see anything cool out there?” Arclight asks at one point. “I’ve heard rumors about a tower that only appears to certain people. Any truth to that?”
“Uh, something like that… anyway, how’s your show been?” Carly asks.
That’s weird, Victoria thinks. Not that Carly’s asking about Arclight’s show, but that she’s not going into more detail about this mysterious tower. It sounds like exactly the kind of thing that Carly would be interested in, and Victoria would’ve expected her to either go into detail about her discovery of it or ask Arclight for more details.
And she keeps doing it, too. Anytime one of the other three ask about Carly’s time in the desert, she skirts around the subject and asks about what they’ve been up to instead. As they eat, and as they walk back after, she barely says anything concrete about her travels.
“I’m pretty tired… I think I’m going to go to bed,” Carly says once they’ve arrived back at the Grand Hall.
“Your stuff is all still in the room where you left it,” Adrienn says. “Good night, Carly.”
“Good night, you guys,” Carly says, then walks off.
Once she’s gone, Adrienn looks to Victoria and Arclight. “Would you both follow me?”
They nod, and xe leads them downstairs to the office area, and into what used to be Ame’s office.
Once the door is closed, Arclight speaks. “So it’s not just me then, yeah? Carly’s definitely acting off beat.”
“Absolutely,” Victoria agrees. “She’s never been a braggart, or anything, but she’s always willing to talk about what she’s been up to when asked.”
“It’s certainly a bit strange. I’m hopeful it’s just something small that she’ll bounce back from in a few days, but…” Adrienn says. “…well, maybe we shouldn’t worry too much. She could just be having an off day, for all we know. But still, let’s keep a close eye on her, all right? Until she leaves again, at least.”
Both Victoria and Arclight nod in agreement.
Victoria just hopes Adrienn’s right.
— — —
The night after Kiki died, Victoria couldn’t sleep. She had wound up sitting on the beach, looking out over the lake.
She had felt more awful than she ever had before. How could she have let a thing like that happen? Kiki hadn’t had to die…
It was true that her sickness had already been killing her. But she still could’ve been able to live for months, or maybe even years.
And… well, Victoria had never said it aloud, but a small part of her had always been hopeful that Kiki would live somehow. Her illness had been said to be incurable, but then there were lots of illnesses that had once been incurable that people had ended up finding a cure for. So Victoria had always had a bit of hope that a miracle would happen.
But that had been childish. She had been childish. Miracles don’t happen, at least not in Reborn.
And now Victoria was left to run Apophyll Academy alone. Before Kiki had even finished training her to take it over.
She was upset at herself. This wouldn’t have happened if she had been better. If she had been smarter. If she had never brought Cal to Apophyll.
She was upset at Cal, too, of course. How dare he? How dare he pretend to care about Apophyll and Kiki and Victoria and everyone, only to be a member of Team Meteor the whole time?
And Solaris… Victoria couldn’t believe she had once described that man as “humane.” He wasn’t human, he was a monster— how else would he have been able to have his Garchomp execute someone like Kiki without even flinching?
“Hey. Couldn’t sleep?”
Victoria looked up at that to see Carly, in her black pajamas, although she was still wearing her pendant, a pale green and yellow feather of some sort.
“No. You neither?” Victoria asked.
“I got some sleep, but a dream woke me up,” Carly said.
Victoria didn’t feel like she had to ask what of. Even outside of what happened to Kiki, Carly had seen no shortage of things to have bad dreams about since coming to Reborn, after all.
“Cain’s still asleep, so I thought I’d take a walk,” Carly said. “Can I sit with you?”
“Sure,” Victoria said.
Carly sat down nearby. It was silent for a few minutes, her staring up at the sky while Victoria stared out at the lake.
“I’m sorry,” Carly eventually said.
Victoria sighed. “Thanks, but—”
“No, I mean…” Carly interrupted. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it from happening. I knew, remember?”
Oh, right.
As they had climbed Pyrous Mountain, Carly had told Victoria about something disturbing she had seen in Shade’s Gym— a video of Kiki, getting her head lopped off by a Garchomp. A Pokémon that Solaris happened to have.
Obviously, Victoria had been concerned… but she had decided that it was a problem for later. After all, Team Meteor was specifically at Pyrous, and Kiki was safe at the academy, so obviously unable to get to the top of the volcano in the state she was in, right?
What a fool Victoria had been.
“You did everything you could. You managed to beat that thing somehow, but Solaris used a Revive. There wasn’t more you could’ve been expected to do, with your team nearly wiped out,” Victoria said. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s—”
Mine.
“—his.”
“…I guess…” Carly said. “…so, um… how are you feeling…?”
“…sad. Angry,” Victoria said. It hadn’t seemed like enough of an answer, but at the same time it had been all the answer she could give.
And yet to her surprise, saying it caused her to tear up.
“That makes sense,” Carly said. “You guys were close, right?”
“…I don’t know,” Victoria said. She had always kept some distance from Kiki, but at the same time… well, she wasn’t sure what the answer was. Didn’t know how to put it into words.
“Well, that’s okay,” Carly said. “I guess what really matters is that you care about her a lot.”
“I-I did. I do,” Victoria agreed. “A-and now she’s…!”
Tears had started to fall despite her best efforts. But Carly was understanding. She reached out and rubbed Victoria’s back.
“It’s okay to cry. That’s normal,” Carly said.
“I-I’m sorry, I just—!” Victoria said. She had already cried earlier. Why again, she wondered? Why was it hitting so much harder?
“No, don’t be. Crying is good, even if it doesn’t seem like it,” Carly said.
And Victoria cried, even though it felt embarrassing. She’d felt like she was supposed to have better control over her emotions, after training at the academy for literal years, but it was like Kiki’s death had thrown it all out the window. She cried, at some point even burying her face in Carly’s pajamas, the other girl wrapping her arms around Victoria.
“It… it hurts…” Victoria eventually said.
“Of course it does. That’s okay,” Carly said.
Victoria sniffled.
They’d stayed like that for some time. Victoria would later realize that it was the first time she’d been held like that in a while.
— — —
Victoria walks through the Grand Hall with a box of donuts with napkins on top in one arm, and a coffee carrier in the other hand. Instead of going down to the office area, she heads to the area where the overnight rooms are.
It’s been a week since Carly returned from Tourmaline Desert, and to Victoria, Adrienn, and Arclight’s worry, her attitude has been consistent. She’s just been so down, and she won’t say why.
The other three have been trying to figure out what’s wrong, of course, but she won’t say, and so they’re forced to wonder. The best they could come up with was when Arclight had suggested that maybe she had come down with something while in the desert somehow, but then, wouldn’t that have either cleared up or gotten worse by now?
Whatever it is, Victoria is determined to be there for her friend. So she finds the door to the bedroom Carly’s in, puts the coffee on top of the donut box, and knocks.
“…just a second,” comes Carly’s voice after a moment.
After a few more moments, the door unlocks and opens, and she looks out with tired eyes.
“Sorry, did I wake you?” Victoria asks.
“No, I just hadn’t gotten out of bed yet,” Carly says. Then, her eyes move to the box. “…food?”
“Yeah, I got us some donuts and coffee!” Victoria says. “I was thinking we could have breakfast together?”
“…yeah, that sounds nice,” Carly says.
She opens the door wider, and Victoria enters the room, setting the food and drinks down on a small table nearby. They both sit down, and start to eat, Carly doing so a bit slowly. Victoria hopes it’s just because she’s tired.
“So, do you have any plans for today?” Victoria asks.
Carly nods. “Yeah, I agreed to help with one of the community gardens today. You?”
“Oh, you know, just more paperwork,” Victoria says.
She’s a bit relieved to hear Carly’s plans, given how much time she’s been spending holed up in this room.
“Ugh, good luck with that,” Carly says.
“Those Vulpix you found are pretty cute, at least,” Victoria says. “Oh, but I actually have some free time around noon. Maybe we can go grab lunch together? We could go to the pizza place in Obsidia.”
Carly thinks for a minute, then nods. “That sounds nice, let’s do it.”
“Great!” Victoria says.
They eat in silence for a bit until Victoria has to head off to work.
“You can have the rest of the donuts. See you at noon!” she says as she leaves.
“See you,” Carly says, waving a bit.
Victoria heads out and down to the office area, and approaches Adrienn’s desk. “Hey, do you think I could take an extended lunch break today?”
“What? Victoria, we really need your current work done soon…” Adrienn says with a small frown. “But why do you ask?”
“I want to spend some time with Carly. I already got her to agree to get lunch together,” Victoria says.
“Oh… in that case…” Adrienn says, looking thoughtful. “…well, I can try and pick up some of your paperwork, as long as you can finish up the rest of it later, okay?”
“Thank you,” Victoria says.
“Of course. Just try and make Carly feel better, all right?” Adrienn requests. “I know we’re all getting really worried about her…”
“I just don’t get what could be wrong,” Victoria says. “She wasn’t even this down after what happened in the Devonyx building, but she won’t tell me anything about the time she was in Tourmaline…”
“I know. Arc and I haven’t been able to get anything out of her either,” Adrienn says. “But, you know… I actually talked to her when she arrived at Titania’s Gym.”
“That’s right, the monitor,” Victoria says in realization. “Did she say anything about what was wrong?”
“No, actually, that’s the weird part. She seemed incredibly happy,” Adrienn reveals. “She even said she had had a wonderful time exploring.”
“That’s…” Victoria says, surprised. “You think something might have happened at the Gym?”
“It seems like the most likely option,” Adrienn says. “Though in that case, the only other person who would know what happened would be Titania, who… well, I’ve only talked with her a few times, but she doesn’t seem like she’d be especially forthcoming with the information…”
“Yeah… it’s probably better not to ask her,” Victoria agrees. “But then, what could’ve happened there to upset Carly so much?”
“I’m not sure… maybe she lost against Titania a few times before winning?” Adrienn proposes.
“I don’t think she’d be down about that for as long as she’s been, though…” Victoria says.
“Me neither, I just can’t really think of anything else,” Adrienn admits. “But whatever it is, I think she needs someone to be there for her. You’ll do that, right?”
“Of course!” Victoria says.
Adrienn nods, and both of them get started on their work for the day.
— — —
Helping to rebuild Reborn City was difficult. Had seemed like an impossible task. And yet… it had worked. Day by day, it had improved through many people’s hard work, including Victoria’s.
Sometimes, she would get scared that she’d wake up and it would all have been useless. That Team Meteor would swoop in and tear everything down. But they hadn’t, and things just seemed to keep improving.
As she stared down at her mentor’s gravestone, she had wished, not for the first time, that Kiki could have seen it.
Would she have been happy? Approved of Victoria having the academy chip in? Maybe not— Kiki had purposely built her school away from the main city, after all.
But then… maybe if she had lived long enough for it, it would’ve been her doing the things Victoria was. Kiki had always been all about self improvement, after all. Did the city’s people working together to build it back up count as that, in some sense?
…she wasn’t sure what the answer would be.
“Hey, Victoria!”
She looked up, surprised, as Carly approached. “Carly? I thought you were stuck up in the Aventurine-Carnelia areas.”
“I was, but Julie and Rini gave me the Machine for Fly, and I recently got Ciel’s Badge,” Carly explained. “I stayed up in Calcenon for a while, but Meteor hasn’t been able to do much there since the PULSE Clawitzer got taken offline.”
“That’s a relief. I was actually really worried! But of course, you’re just fine. You always are, right?” Victoria said, before looking back to the gravestone. “We always are.”
“Yeah. We are,” Carly said after a moment. “I came back for my next Badge, and to see if there was anything else that needed doing. I didn’t expect the city to have changed so much!”
“It has, hasn’t it?” Victoria agreed, actually feeling a bit of pride for a moment. Her lips then spread into a small, sad smile. “…I just wish I could say the same. Trying to take over the academy has been… well, they’re not shoes I’m capable of filling. It’s never going to be the same without her, but then it’s thanks to her sacrifice that it even still exists.
“So I’ve been thinking, how can the place continue to grow? It turns out the answer wasn’t to tear ourselves away from Reborn City like we did before, but to give ourselves to it.”
“That’s right, I heard you and the students have been a big help,” Carly said. “I think Kiki would be proud.”
“I hope she would be, but I don’t know,” Victoria said. “I still feel… a lot like I did the last time we saw each other. Sad. Angry. It fades, at times, but it’s still there.”
“I think that’s just how grief is,” Carly said. “I mean… I don’t have any real experience with it myself. I’ve only heard, and read, and seen things about it. But that sounds like how it goes, from what I do know.”
“…I guess that’s true,” Victoria said. “But anyway, what have you been up to?”
Carly gave an exaggerated sigh. “A lot. Maybe I could tell you about it over lunch? Unless you’ve eaten already.”
“I haven’t, actually. And there’s actually a restaurant nearby that opened up recently that I think you’d like,” Victoria said.
“All right, lead the way!” Carly said.
The two left, Victoria feeling a bit better than she had before.
— — —
A few minutes after noon, Victoria walks through Obsidia Ward. The restaurant comes into view soon, and so does Carly.
She’s sitting on a bench outside the building, talking on her Pokégear. Percy, by now a Primarina, is out of his Poké Ball, head laying on her lap.
“I’m telling you, it’s fine,” Carly says to whoever she’s talking to. “I can’t— I’m not coming back. If you’re going to keep insisting, I’m just gonna stop picking up when you call.”
Her eyes flick up to Victoria as she approaches. “Listen, my friend is here, I’ve gotta go. Yeah— yeah, we’ll talk later. Bye.”
She hangs up, sighing. Then she looks up at her friend. “Hey, Victoria.”
“Hi, Carly. Hi to you too, Percy,” Victoria says, reaching out to pet the Pokémon on the head for a moment, causing him to coo happily.
Carly recalls her Pokémon, and the two girls head inside.
Once they’re sitting at a table, Victoria speaks again. “Who were you talking to?”
“One of my friends back in Sinnoh,” Carly says. “I’m not even sure they should be up right now, but, well… they’ve been worrying about me since Team Meteor activity has picked up, and especially since I’ve been getting on the news myself.”
“Oh, yeah… that makes sense,” Victoria says.
“They’ve been keeping an eye on Reborn news since I got here, but it wasn’t so bad at first. It isn’t as easy to get over there, and I wasn’t really well known,” Carly says. “But a while ago they saw a news piece that I was mentioned in, and… well, most of them have been pretty worried ever since.”
“You’ve been dealing with that for a while, then?” Victoria asks.
“Not exactly. It actually started just before I left for Tourmaline,” Carly says. “And then obviously I didn’t have any signal out there, so they weren’t able to contact me for over a month. I told them about that in advance, of course, but I think me basically disappearing for over a month for them still kind of exacerbated their worries. They’ve been calling me a lot over these past few days.”
“Has that been… upsetting?” Victoria asks cautiously.
“I mean… yeah,” Carly says, shrugging. “One of them’s been pretty cool, but the other three… they’ve all been trying to convince me to go back to Sinnoh. But I can’t do that. Even if I could buy a train ticket out of here, I couldn’t just leave before the fight against Team Meteor is finished…”
“What about your mom?” Victoria asks.
“She actually hasn’t been trying to convince me, although I have a feeling that it’s not because she’s not worried so much as it is because she knows it won’t work,” Carly says.
Could this be at least part of what was bothering Carly? A sense of inferiority, over the idea that her friends might not think she can win? Guilt over worrying her loved ones? Or maybe just… general homesickness?
Victoria can definitely understand that last one. She often has to stay at the Grand Hall overnight for several nights in a row, only getting sparse, short trips back to Apophyll, and she finds herself often longing for it. What must Carly be feeling, on the other side of the world from her own home?
“It’s natural for them to worry, but I know you can do it,” Victoria says. “Maybe once you do, you could take a trip back? And if it’s okay, maybe… I could come with you?”
Carly looks taken aback at that. “…huh?”
“Only if you want me to!” Victoria says quickly. “But if you did, I’d like to. I’d really love to see where you came from, and didn’t you mention one of your friends comes from a family of Aura Guardians?”
“Oh, yeah, I guess you two would have a lot to talk about, huh?” Carly asks. “I… have been thinking about taking a trip back, once things are all settled down here…”
“No pressure, or anything, but if it would make you happy, it’d make me happy too,” Victoria says.
Carly hums. “I’ll think about it.”
The two of them chat lightly after that. Mostly just about their days and how the city is. Not anything that really helps Victoria figure out what’s wrong, but at least it’s something, she tells herself.
When the food comes out, Carly eats… normally. Maybe a bit slowly, but not anything that would seem odd to an outsider. But Victoria can’t help but find it concerning. She’s always known Carly to be a big eater— a tad voracious, to be totally honest— especially when it comes to her favorite foods. And it can no longer be chalked up to having to get used to eating again or having just woken up, so this is yet another worrying sign.
Victoria’s instinct is to ask if Carly is okay, but she knows that won’t work. She’s tried that already, a few times even, and Carly just insisted she was fine while seeming very much not fine. So instead, Victoria racks her brain for something that her friend might be willing to talk about. Something that’s related to Carly’s time away, but that won’t just upset her. And after some thinking, one idea stands out.
“So, did you catch any new Pokémon while you were gone?” Victoria asks.
“A few, actually,” Carly says.
Victoria internally lights up a bit. Just a few words, but it’s the first time Carly’s answered a question about her time in Tourmaline without immediately changing the subject. “Really? Like what?”
Carly opens her mouth… then hesitates for a moment. “Uh… an Aegislash… though she was a Honedge when I found her.”
“Really? Those are really rare here, where’d you find one?” Victoria asks, surprised.
Carly glances away. “Oh, um… she was in this sorta… hidden area, I guess… I’d rather not talk about it…”
“That’s fine!” Victoria says quickly, desperate not to have Carly shut down again. “So, er, what’s she like?”
“Nice. Noble. She was helpful against Titania,” Carly says… and then she frowns. “…so what kinds of things are the academy students working on?”
Victoria answers… but internally, she wilts. What had she said wrong?
— — —
When Ame had told Victoria, Carly, and Adrienn that there was one more Meteor base in the city, all three had been able to guess that it was the Devon building in Obsidia. Adrienn and Victoria because it was the only place in the city the former hadn’t been past the lobby in, it was incredibly shifty looking, and they were the only company in the city to not donate to restoration. As for Carly…
“…this is gonna sound crazy, but I actually first met the son of Meteor’s leader there,” she revealed.
All heads snapped to her.
“Wait, you what?!” Adrienn asked.
“It was back during the first PULSE Tangrowth incident,” Carly explained. “Victoria and I split up to pop into a few stores and ask people about the situation, and he was there, pretending to be a salesman.”
“You never mentioned that!” Victoria said, shocked.
“I didn’t know who he was at the time!” Carly said, bringing her hands up in a defensive gesture. “When I was checking to make sure everyone was all right after defeating the PULSE, he was gone. When I found out he was part of Team Meteor, I figured he’d been planted there to monitor the situation. It was only during this last week, while I was doing some poking around, that I started getting suspicious of the place. Anyway… keep going, Ame?”
Ame had finished explaining and laid out the plan, and they had split up, Carly and Victoria heading off to the old railnet together.
“You really met Solaris’ son during the Obisidia incident?” Victoria asked after they’d entered the railnet.
“Yeah. Why?” Carly asked.
“I’m just surprised, is all. Though now that I think about it, he was also there at Pyrous Mountain, wasn’t he?” Victoria asked, causing Carly to nod.
He had been the one Victoria battled while Carly had fought Solaris, but to be honest, she hadn’t really paid him much mind outside of that, more preoccupied with Cal and Solaris. But then…
“I’m sure he’s as awful as his father,” Victoria said.
Carly looked surprised at that, for some reason. “What? No, he really doesn’t seem that bad…”
“Please. He’s Solaris’ son, and he’s part of Team Meteor,” Victoria said. “He was there at Pyrous, and didn’t do anything to stop any of it. As far as I’m concerned, he’s at fault for what happened, too. I’m sure that, no matter how he acts on a surface level, he’s just as bad as the others.”
Carly glanced away for a moment, fiddling with a Premier Ball on her belt. “…anyway… didn’t you mention the city’s got a new project in the works? What’s that about?”
“Oh, that’s right! See…” Victoria started, explaining the city’s newest project to Carly as they walked.
— — —
Victoria isn’t able to learn anything more from Carly by the time she has to go back to work.
Later, at night, when she heads back to the bedroom she’s using, she finds Carly just about to enter the one she herself is staying in.
“Carly? You know you can tell me anything, right?” Victoria asks.
Carly gives her a small, sad smile. “…of course I do, Victoria. Good night.”
And then she heads into her room, leaving Victoria alone with the overwhelming feeling that Carly doesn’t believe what she just said.