ALEXANDER

Alex couldn't sleep that night. The vision played in his mind over and over. Interchanging feelings of sadness, anger, betrayal, and relief washed over him. His aunt, the only member of his mother's family who was left, holding a poisoned dagger to his little brother's throat. If his arm hadn't have been injured, he would have jumped out of his hiding place in the grove, and told her to stop, and to demand further explanation from his aunt.

Would I have, though? He wondered to himself as he wandered down the halls of Mt. Pyre that night. It was easy to tell himself that he would have said something, that he would have stood up to those that would harm his family... but could he do it if it was his own family who held the knife? Alex wasn't sure who he was anymore.

When he exited the entrance to the mountain fortress, he turned down the same path he had followed Leo down earlier in the day, and down to the grove of trees where the confrontation had happened. Occasionally, he looked to his side for Banette, but his Spirit Pokémon was nowhere to be found.

I'm truly lost, he thought to himself.

He reached the grove and looked up at the large tree that Caitlyn had meditated in front of earlier. It brought to him a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen them before, but he couldn't remember when.

Alex gazed up at the tall trunk, leaves seemingly an eternity away as they rustled in the sky above. It helped him clear his mind, he felt. Suddenly, the words came back to him, words that had simply washed over him the first time.

Did you ever wonder how my sister died? Alex's poor mother, she had said. He had been told his whole life of the treachery of Solomon Forrest, his mother's brother who had resisted the Empress in her great Unification of the Hoenn region. He witnessed firsthand his Aunt Caitlyn's admission of guilt. However, his mother still remained a mystery to him.

Alex thought about his mother: who she was, why his father had chosen her as his bride... and then about her death. He turned back and began to trace the steps back to the arrest earlier in the day.

He found the spot where Caitlyn stood over Leo, and saw the shriveled plant life that crunched under his feet where the venom had dropped onto the ground. Seviper venom, he thought.

A tear began forming in his eye. Everything about his Aunt Caitlyn had been a lie, it seemed. Yet for some reason, his aunt's voice quietly responded to this sentiment in the back of his mind. 'And what of your mother? Is everything you know about her a lie as well?'

Alex realized it was the seed of doubt that had caused him not to sleep that night. It wasn't the betrayal of his dearest Aunt, nor the threatening of his brother that kept him up. It was the realization that someone knew about his mother, about what could possibly have happened to her.

He looked across the tree-line, the dark Shadow of Mt. Pyre loomed large. Tomorrow, there would be a trial, where his aunt would be questioned, and a jury would pass judgment, as was the custom of law. "I will ask her," Alex said aloud. "I will ask her what happened during trial." It may be the last chance to hear her side of the story, to gain any inkling of his mother, lest she be locked in a prison for information about the Draconids to be extracted from her. If there truly was no due investigation into his mothers' death, he would most assuredly open up the case.

"A little late for a walk in the woods, no?" came a soft voice, yet strong. Alex could barely separate it from the sound of the rustling leaves. He turned and saw a middle-aged man, younger than his father, but with the experience in his eyes of a much older man. His face was brown and his almond-shaped eyes seemed to pierce into Alex's very soul.

"I could say the same for you," the young noble responded.

The man walked towards the large tree and sat, gazing up at the leaves as Alex had done earlier. He spoke to Alex again. "I've come a long way, I must make it by morning. There's a trial. All of the people are speaking of it."

"Which people?" Alex asked, approaching. His father had placed a strict hush among the people of court not to speak.

The man turned around. "The people, of course. The shoe-makers and berry growers, the tailors and the butchers. Word travels fast. Something is happening tomorrow that hasn't happened in a long time."

"And what is that?" Alex found himself perplexed by the traveler in his worn clothes.

The traveler turned and glanced at him, and sighed. "A trial of guilt for a noble. These things never happen for them. Justice seems to always escape them. The people are ravenous for justice to be done, of course, but they're not very happy that it only happens to be done when someone in power is the victim."

Alex laughed at the man. "You make it seem like justice is not done, that those who write the law and keep the peace are not just. Justice will be done tomorrow, as it is done in all cases, for all victims."

"You mean all noble victims," the traveler said. "Tell me, who is the victim when a butcher is arrested for dealing in gold coins? Who is the victim, when the farmer shares food with a traveler? And who is the victim, when the murderer is finally brought to justice?"

Alex didn't know what to make of this man. "Justice is done, society is the victim. The Empress royal decree specifically outlaws the dealings in gold. It's such selfish greed that threatens to undermine Hoenn. I know of the farmer you speak of, he was charged by the court with providing food for the terrorist band the Draconids." He recalled the case out of Mauville a couple of years ago.

"And the court always gets the charges correct?" The traveler asked. Alex looked at him more closely, his dark hair was flecked with white strands, and tied into a tight bun at the top.

The young man didn't have an answer for the question, but this traveler interested him. "Who are you, and where are you from?"

The man laughed. "I'm nobody anymore. I've been dead to the world for almost as long as you've been alive, Alexander Specter. Oh, don't be so surprised. The people talk. The young lordling who risked his own life to secure the lady's release, the brave soul who was beaten to within an inch of his life by the Draconids. Besides, I've seen you before, a traveler like myself takes note of the nobles in and around Hoenn."

The man was refreshing. He had a different perspective, a different side of view than what Alex was used to. "What news have you heard recently, then, traveler?"

The man hung his head and said quietly. "An entire town, an entire group of people, gone. Drowned by the sea. I've seen other towns across the land be run over by outlaws and criminals from a different land." He looked at Alex. "There is a storm coming, young man. All around you the clouds take sides. My friends, they are taking sides. Who's side will you be on?"

Alex had no idea what he was talking about. A drowned town? Outlaws from a different land? The man seemed to spew nonsense. He thought back to Caitlyn holding a dagger to Leo's throat and said, "My family's side. I will fight to protect my family."

The traveler sighed. "If I had any family left, I might fight for them, I might not."

Alex looked at him questioningly. "You might not?"

The man looked deep into Alex's eyes. "I would fight for what is right, no matter what. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to sleep in the public square where the trial will take place. A wise traveler knows when to arrive early for a good viewpoint."

With that, the traveler left him. Alex found himself lost in thought about the mess his life had turned into, about Elli, who somewhere was lost, not knowing when the end of her life would come...

He awoke to the sound of Taillow chirping in the tree. They were screaming and trying to frighten off a rogue Wingull who happened to be eating wild berries from what Alex assumed to be the Taillow's territory.

He remembered the trial, and made his way to the public square, as fast as he could. When he got to the square which was by the docks, he noticed a large crowd of common folk had gathered around. On one side, was a large wooden stage. On the stage, Alex spotted his father, wearing his ceremonial armor complete with the shimmering sword. Beside Lord Specter was his stepmother, Elli's mother, Leo and Dusclops, Franco and his Ninetails, and bound on her knees was his Aunt Caitlyn, still wearing the same green robes she was arrested in. Absol jerked violently in its own heavy chains.

"Guilty!" voices here and there in the crowd chanted. Finally, Alex saw his father raise a large hand, and the crowd silenced.

"We have heard the testimony of the defendant, as well as the victim, and all the witnesses. Is there anyone of noble blood in the crowd who wishes to present the accused with a question of their own?"

The crowd didn't expect Alex to raise his voice in answer. "I do." As if he was a disease, the crowd parted away from the young man they finally recognized as a noble lordling. When he made his way through the crowd to the front by the stage, he saw the old traveler out of the corner of his eye. He looked at his father and stepmother. "I wish to ask a question of the defendant." Leo's mother looked at him with revulsion.

"Alexander," his father softly answered. "When you didn't respond this morning, we assumed you had not wanted to come."

"I was not in my room this morning," he said. "I took my thoughts for a walk. I wish to ask a question of the defendant," he said again.

He could tell his step-mother would have loved to deny the request, to get on with and sentence his aunt to eternal imprisonment for threatening the life of her son. "You may ask," the large Lord Specter gracefully allowed.

Alex bowed to his father. He looked up at his Aunt Caitlyn, it was clear she had not expected to see him here. There was a look of regret in her eyes, of love.

He wanted to scold her, to ask her why she had threatened his little brother's life, to ask her why she would associate with those that had beaten him nearly to death, but his anger didn't come out. Instead, choked by his feelings, he asked one simple question. "What happened to my mother?"

Tears streamed down Caitlyn Forrest's cheeks, and for a second, Absol stopped fidgeting. She stole a quick glance at Lord Specter, but when she opened her mouth, Alex's father broke through the silence.

"That is not a question pertaining to the crime we are judging today, and it won't be answered. If there are no other questions, about the crime for which the accused is charged, I have no choice but to pass the sentencing."

"But-" Alex tried to make himself heard, but his father spoke louder, overruling him.

"FOR THE CRIME OF THREATENING AND CONSPIRING TO THE DEATH AND IMPRISONMENT OF NOBILITY," his voice boomed. Alex fell quiet again. His father took it as a sign of submission. "As well as dealing with the terrorist band, the Draconids, I hereby sentence Caitlyn Forrest to death by beheading."

The crowd roared with approval. Justice will finally be done today, the traveler had said. The nobles will finally be held to the same standard... But for some reason this didn't seem like justice.

"SHE MAY BE OF SOME USE TO US!" Alex heard himself yell. "SHE MAY HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DRACONIDS!" Unfortunately, Alex was the only one who heard himself scream those words. "She knows about my mother..."

No one was listening. The crowd was in a frenzy. Instead, Lord Specter called up a helmeted guard, and handed the soldier his glimmering sword. Absol jerked at the chains violently, trying to break free, to fight. He saw his father's Dusknoir materialize onto the stage, its one eye leering at his aunt with spite.

He looked at his aunt, and time seemed to pass in slow motion. It's all my fault, he realized. If he hadn't told his father what he had learned, then she wouldn't have been arrested, and perhaps could have brokered a deal with the Draconids to secure Elli's release. Alex knew his aunt's death today would surely mean an end to the captive girl he was beginning to worry for.

The crowd still was in a raucous mood around him. Though they were screaming cries of "guilty," and, "murderer" it all seemed too quiet to him. He caught his aunt's eye one more time. A soldier was holding her head up by the hair, and tears were streaming down her face. To Alex, she still looked as tall as the tallest tree in the grove; a towering, proud woman. The noise around him was deafening, but he read her lips as she looked straight at him, then past him. "A forest is a forest," he saw her mouth say, not to Alex, but to someone else in the crowd, or maybe to no one in particular. "no matter how many-"

"Trees," Alex mouthed as he watched. The last word never came as the sword swung down.

In a trance, he never noticed anything else as he made his way back to the grove and gazed up at the sky, tears blurring his vision.

When evening came, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was the traveler.

"Did you see what you came for?" he asked venomously. "Did you get your entertainment?"

To his surprise, the traveler looked sad as well. Tears in his own eyes. "Remember this day, Alex," the traveler said. "Today, justice was not served, and you now know what the people of Hoenn have known for seventeen years. Justice doesn't matter. Only the law matters, and those that write and decree the law matter. What you witnessed today was murder." The traveler looked at him inquisitively. "What will you do after this. Will you be strong like this strong tree here, in the midst of evil and injustice? Will you finally fight for what's right? Will you seek the truth about your mother?"

Alex was shocked. Had the traveler heard him amidst the crowd? There was a knowing gleam in the man's eye. "What do you know about my mother? What do you know about my mother's family? Of my Aunt and why she did what she did?" he asked.

"All I know, is that a Forrest is a Forrest, no matter how many trees," the traveler turned to walk off, but he stopped when Alex called out to him. Was it an accusation? So many of this man's words stung when the traveler spoke them.

"I am no Forrest," Alex said determinedly.

The traveler turned back to him and smiled. Something shined through his cloak in the evening light. "I never said that you were. No, you are something else entirely. Remember who you are Alexander. You must remember who you are, before you can do the right thing." Alex watched as he disappeared into the trees.

He collapsed to his knees in the grove, as his whole world collapsed around him. Guilt took his anger as he looked at his hands, and for an instance, he thought he saw his Aunt Caitlyn's blood on them.

He thought of the swiftness of the sentencing. In a moment of realization, he knew it came too quickly. I'm not the only one with blood on my hands.