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A full moon hung in the sky over Celestic Town as a cloaked figure ran through the ancient village. She was like a shadow, swift and silent, keeping her hood wrapped tightly around her face to hide. Staying concealed was a priority. She had seen her face along with those of her former team members in the wanted section of almost every newspaper, and she knew that the international police were likely tracking her at this very moment. But she had already embarked on her mission, and she was not about to let anything stop her from retrieving what had been stolen from her.

She walked through the rustic town, keeping to the shadows until she came across a small, rather ancient-looking cave. She stepped inside, but it was impossibly dark. She grabbed a Pokeball from off of her belt and threw it towards the ground, revealing a large, gray, cat-like pokemon. The woman placed a finger against her lips as if to hush it, and then gestured toward the expanse of darkness that lay beyond them. The pokemon, a Purugly, seemed to understand and a small ball of light formed in its mouth, as if it was beginning to charge for thunderbolt but never released the move.

This was a technical move that Master Cyrus had helped teach her Purugly. She recoiled a bit at the memory of him, now tainted with the pain of loss. When they were on the brink of creating a new, better world, he was pulled into some sort of shadow realm, never to be seen again.

The only thing that could bring her out of these flashbacks was the feeling of a kick inside her swollen belly, which always brought a smile to her face. She had always dreamed of being a mother, and this child was the one thing that she would never allow to be taken from her. She would find a way to reach Cyrus again, and her baby would grow up with a father.

Eventually, after a few minutes of walking, the woman and the Purugly came across a cave painting. The quiet crackle of electricity coming from the pokemon's mouth illuminated it just enough to see. It depicted the classic legend of the lake trio— Uxie, Mespirit, and Azelf— gifting humanity with their abilities: knowledge, empathy, and willpower.

The woman in the cloak already knew this legend. There had to be something more. She didn't come all this way to not learn anything new. She frantically searched the walls and floor for any sign of more information, but couldn't find anything. Defeated, she sighed and leaned up against the cave painting.

And that was when she noticed it.

Her fingers slid over a slight oval-shaped indentation on the wall where the red gem on Uxie's head belonged. She gave Purugly, who was still illuminating the cave, an excited glance, and rummaged through her bag to find something she thought might fit into the hole— A fragment of the red chain. She managed to salvage it from the spear pillar after everything went wrong there a few weeks ago. She placed the gem into the groove, her eyes gleaming with both hope and obsession. As soon as she did this, the wall swung open like a door, leading into another room that was covered in even more cave paintings.

The left-most painting depicted people committing unspeakable crimes against each other, murdering and pillaging and raping. It was complete chaos. The next painting looked like a giant, familiar snake-like shadow swallowing the evil parts of humanity in a whirlpool of darkness. She suspected that the shadow was the same Pokemon that took Cyrus away from her. The third picture showed the lake trio inside the hearts of three surviving women. The final part of the painting depicted one of those women dead in the Spear Pillar, killed as a sacrifice by a dagger made of darkness sunken into her heart. The shadow emerged once more from the wound in her chest.

"Purugly, this is it," a grin tugged at the corners of the cloaked woman's dark lips and her pokemon let out an enthusiastic meow, "this is how we find Cyrus."

The sound of boots stepping against the cave floor startled the woman out of her sense of victory. She spun around and came face to face with a tall woman with long blonde hair wearing an elegant black dress. Cynthia, she remembered her name was. The Sinnoh champion. Next to her stood a rather handsome man in a tan trenchcoat whose name she was unfortunately very familiar with. Detective Looker. A Garchomp and a Toxicroak were on either side of them in an offensive stance. This made the cloaked woman's heartbeat out of her chest.

"Purugly hit them with a thunderbolt!" She yelled and then tried to run past the group of them. But Garchomp jumped in front of the beam of electricity shot at them, absorbing the hit, and striking the giant grey cat with one of its massive claws, instantly knocking it out. The woman continued to run away from them as quickly as her legs would carry her, but with the Garchomp blocking her attackers from the electric blow, they were already hot on her tail.

"You had to know you'd be brought to justice eventually!" Yelled Looker, nearly a foot behind her at this point. The woman's lungs were burning and she knew she couldn't run much longer. Not with the child inside of her.

Looker grabbed the hem of her cloak and it began to tear until the neckpiece holding the garment together snapped, causing the woman to fall onto the ground, her identity finally revealed. In the dimly lit cave laid a rather helpless looking woman in her twenties with undeniably familiar short red hair.

"I knew this is where you'd be, Commander Mars," Cynthia stated cooly, arms crossed.

Mars glared up at her with intense amber eyes, "My name is Marceline."

"Doesn't matter. You're under arrest for conspiracy in a plot of genocide." Looker stepped on Marceline's back to keep her pinned down and cuffed both wrists behind her waist. Tears stung the redhead's eyes as the life she was so close to achieving slipped away into a pair of handcuffs.

"Please be careful." She coughed, her breath labored underneath Looker's boot, "I'm— I'm pregnant."

Looker gave her a sympathetic look, as if he knew what was going to happen next. He helped her onto her feet and ushered her out of the cave, towards a police car. Marceline didn't struggle anymore. She stepped into the car and took a seat. She knew that there was nothing she could do at this point.

"I really do wish you'd made better choices." Looker frowned, almost making Marceline feel guilty, "Maybe then I wouldn't have to be doing this to you right now."

"I regret nothing." She replied, "I loved Cyrus and I will love this child."

Cynthia closed the car door and peered through the rolled-down window, not looking nearly as sympathetic as Looker.

"You loved a psychopath who wanted to destroy the world. Because of his actions, my sister is dead and my niece is an orphan." when Marceline didn't respond, Cynthia continued, her tone mocking, "but don't worry, we'll make sure that your baby will grow up in a kind, loving home. Far away from the prison we're sending you to."

And in that instant, Marceline's world fell apart. Cynthia motioned for the driver to leave and the pregnant redhead began screaming and thrashing in the backseat, unable to contain her fear and rage anymore.

"No! You fucking bitch!" She screamed so loud that her throat hurt, "This is my baby! Mine! I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you if you take it away from me!"

Marceline continued to yell expletives and curses all the way to the prison where she would be held for the next twenty years. She cried and screamed and resisted all of the guards from then on out. It was her act of rebellion against her injustice.

Commander Mars had been so close to finally bringing her family back together, and all of her hopes were ripped away right before she could act on her plan . . . But even twenty years in prison wouldn't stop her from seeing it through.

Hey there! Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to give my story a read. I truly appreciate it!

When you see the little graphic of me nomming on some french fries, that means that I'm stopping by to interact with you all. Sometimes I'll share a song that reminds me of the chapter, or post some character art, or even just ask some questions to start a debate and stir up the pot.

I'd love to interact with all my lovely readers, so if you have any questions, funny observations, not so funny observations, critiques, or just want to start up a conversation, please don't be shy!

I will also post a question of the chapter (or QOTC for short) at the end of every part. Here's the first one:

Based solely off of the prologue and summary of this book, how do you think the story will end?

I'm curious to hear your theories and see how accurate they are!