ELIZABETH

She awoke to the rattling of keys at her door. With a squeaking of hinges, her captor entered.

"Is today the day?" she asked them, without an ounce of nervousness in her voice. She had long past given up hope, or any reason to be nervous. Elli just wanted it all to be over. This life of hers had turned into a nightmare, and she just wanted to wake up.

The Draconid didn't answer her. He pointed out of the door. "The leaders want to see you."

Elli had counted the days since they had brought her here. The first four had been spent moving from place to place in the northeastern jungle of Hoenn, and Elli had lost all track of direction and movement. Always moving by night, they slept a few hours during the day before packing up camp and moving somewhere else. The last two days, she had spent inside some tunnels underneath some old abandoned building.

Her prison was not poor and earthy like the place where she witnessed Alex's beating. The walls and ceilings were made of wood, and the Draconids had even provided her with a makeshift pile of cushions to sleep on.

Elli, as if in a trance, stepped onto the floor and obediently followed the jailor out of her chamber door. The tunnels underneath the building were torch lit, but still she found the footing difficult. Up they went, then down, sometimes rounding corners and even at one moment spiraling around in a circle it seemed.

The seventh day, she knew. The day it was all going to be over for her. The day she could rest in peace, and be with her friend Jessi. Finally, the jailor stopped at a ladder at the end of a tunnel. He nodded to her and she got the message. Still in her once-beautiful dress she had worn to the masquerade, she climbed.

Elli found herself inside of a room in the building with light streaming in. It was dark when they arrived three days ago, but now when the young lady's eyes adjusted to the brightness she saw forest giving way to the desert on the horizon.

She was startled by the clang of a trapdoor being shut. When she turned around, her nerves returned. The tall, tanned, and tattooed face of Burningtree welcomed her, and he wasn't alone.

Beside him, was a middle-aged man, battle scarred and bald, with an eye patch over his left eye, who sat on a chair stroking a ferocious looking Tropius. In the corner of the room was an old, wizened man, almost weathered away by age. A Claydol hovered by his side. Finally, a skinny young woman not ten years older than herself stood by the door accompanied by a Doduo.

The leaders, the jailor had called them. When she looked Burningtree in the eye, her nerves returned, and she couldn't find the words to speak.

The assassin spoke for her. "Today's the day, girl." His voice was deep and his eyes pierced through her like a needle through delicate fabric. "Today your fate will be decided."

Elli looked around the room at the four people that circled her. My fate hasn't been decided already? It's been a week. Surely Alex hadn't killed his own father?

Burningtree spoke again. "It seems that there are those in the Draconids that have different designs on you than initially planned. If it were up to me, I'd keep my word and you wouldn't have woken up this morning. It's important to me that those in the Empress's circle know that I am a man of honor." He spoke as if her life was nothing more than that of a single autumn leaf.

"Honor? For the Gods' sake, Assassin," growled the man with an eyepatch. Then again, Elli couldn't tell if he was growling or the Tropius. "The deal you made with Lady Forrest is over. Your client will not be bringing any more payment without her head. It's time we made the most of our asset. Her life still holds value, and a value far greater than your pride."

Elli noticed that Burningtree seemed irked by that statement. Was he not the leader of the Draconids, after all? Who were these other people who had such sway over him?

"I concur with Jason," whispered the voice of the old man in the corner. His voice was ancient and tired, but the silence of the others that observed him was a signal of great respect. "Times are changing rapidly, if the rumors are to be true, the Empress's influence on her Chiefs is slipping away. Oldale, Verdanturf, and Petalburg may be convinced by the Odaran invaders to turn against her at any sign of weakness."

"What does the girl have to do with any of this?" Burningtree asked the old man as he beckoned to her.

The Claydol's eyes lit up and it rotated as the old man nodded. "It may be that she could use her highborn influence on those around her to turn Lilycove against the Empress as well."

By the door, the skinny girl's voice interrupted as the left Doduo's head squawked. "Highborn Chiefs like yourselves are always sticking up for each other. I'm with Burningtree, she should die, and publicly, the same way Lady Forrest died. We can hang her from a tree. So what if the client can't pay? Serves her right for groveling at the feet of the Sea Bitch for seventeen years, I say. And now I say, kill the girl. The smallfolk around Hoenn are tired of Chiefs and Lady's making secret alliances and using the people to fight their battles."

The man with the eyepatch and Tropius, Jason, Elli remembered, shot up out of his chair. "You'd like to watch your mouth Taryn! I served Lady Forrest's family since I was a lad, and if the Commander heard you utter those words he'd have your head."

Burningtree stood up in response and approached Jason. The other man didn't flinch. "It seems we're at an impasse, then. But don't presume to speak for the Commander. I'm in charge when he's not around, and you know it. One more outburst from you and I might just take your other eye."

"What a big tough man you've grown up to be, aren'tcha?" Jason growled. "I'm shaking in my boots when I think about all the little girls you've killed."

"At least Burningtree's done something," screamed the skinny girl. "You just sit in here all day war gaming and strategizing while the real Draconids like me are out there actually caring for the smallfolk!"

Jessi, Ellie thought, tears gathering in her eyes.

"If the Commander didn't value your experience, you'd be rolling on the floor as your Spirit Pokémon's throat bled out," Burningtree whispered to Jason.

"We'll see what the Commander thinks when he arrives," the old man spoke up, louder than Elli could have ever thought he would speak. With that, Burningtree took a step back and sat in his chair.

"Burningtree," Jason muttered starkly. "We all know underneath all that talk and shadow-killings, you're just the same scared little boy that the Commander took pity on."

Elli gasped as Burningtree moved like lightning in a stormy sky. With a swift flurry, there was a slamming sound, and the assassin had the eye-patched man pinned to the ground with his foot. He held a knife held to the throat of the Tropius.

"STOP THIS MADNESS AT ONCE!" came a booming voice at the door. Elli turned around and saw a middle aged man with a tanned face and almond shaped eyes in the door's entrance, his hair was pulled into a tight bun. The skinny girl with the Doduo looked at him wide-eyed as she dropped to a knee. The man swiftly made his way to Burningtree and grabbed a hold of the hood of his cloak. "This is not how I trained you. You remember the last time you did something that you regretted?"

Burningtree looked the new man in the eye as he nodded silently and stepped back.

"It's good to see you again, Commander," the voice of the old man said. "This generation is out of line. I tried to keep the peace."

"Aye, Randall, they've grown up in a different time," the Commander said as he eyed the skinny girl. The Commander's eyes met Elli's. "If the council of leaders is at an impasse, then it rests upon me to determine this girl's fate.

"There's been much death recently, and more will come. I bring news of the rest of Hoenn. The rumors of Odaran invaders are true. Our spies put their base in the Northwestern part of Hoenn. Whether they're friend or foe, I don't know. Our men will determine their intentions and relay the information to me when they have it.

"I also bring grave news. The islands of Pacifidlog are gone. The Empress drowned the entire settlement when they rejected her rule." Silence ensued as the Commander looked around and his eyes rested on the girl with the Doduo. "This is why it is important to stay in the shadows until the time is right."

Finally, he looked at Elli. "We cannot hope to face the Empress and her forces in open confrontation. We must wither away her support from within, from showing those that support her the error of her ways, and of her sick philosophy of peace through force." The Commander reached out and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "It is time we reached out and began making friends through peace, instead of turning them into enemies with our deeds."

Elli's heart skipped a beat. Does he mean, that I'll live? Strangely, she felt thankful at this man, despite the fact that it was his terrorist organization, the Draconids, who had kidnapped her in the first place. Then again, she wondered, there seems to be division amongst them...

"The girl lives, and you all are dismissed. Teryn, a word if I may," the Commander said. Elli saw the old man in the corner of the room smile. The skinny girl scowled, while Jason simply looked at Burningtree with a look of contempt. The assassin himself simply bowed.

Elli burst into tears of relief, and wiped them away quickly, trying to appear strong. She felt a hand on her shoulder, but she didn't know whether to push it away with revulsion or accept the kindness. Were these terrorists and outlaws her friends or enemies? It was hard to tell. What was clear, however, was that this Commander was no adversary of hers. He seemed to be a man genuinely saddened by the death and destruction taking hold over the Empress's Kingdom.

"Who... who are you?" she asked the Commander.

"We're the Draconids," the Commander said. "We exist to protect the people of Hoenn from those that would control them, from those that would oppress form them, and those that would kill them. This," he pointed to the old man, whose Claydol was escorting him out of the door, "is Randal Sand, former Chief of the Mirage Desert. He's my oldest and wisest council."

Jason approached the Commander, bowed, and Elli heard him whisper: "Keep a leash on your dog, he's beginning to get out of hand." The Commander simply nodded as the eye-patched man led his Tropius out the door and mounted the large, leafy-winged Pokémon before it took off out of site.

"Jason has been one of my fiercest captains and supporters from days long past," the Commander said before Teryn, the skinny girl, approached them. "Teryn, you will be in charge of watching of Elli from now on. Show her the plight of the people. It will take more than words to change her mind about us after what she's been through. You're dismissed."

Teryn glared at Elli with a look of loathing, but bowed and descended back down the ladder into the tunnels with her Doduo from where she came. Elli now found herself alone in the room with the Commander and Assassin of the Draconids.

"I'm sorry to hear about her," the assassin said quietly after a long time.

The Commander's voice grew stern. "I am too." He rounded on his underling. "What were you thinking?" he asked, his voice full of scorn. Elli marveled at Burningtree, a man whose name inspired fear in the hearts of generals all over the Empire, being talked down to like he was nothing more than a servant, a second, a student. "When I left to my travels to commune with our other cells, you broke the one rule I had given you, the one rule I had instructed you to obey since the beginning. And what was that rule?"

Burningtree looked the Commander in the eye, and in his deep voice, he said, "Do not involve family."

"Do you have that much disrespect for me? Do you think you could run this organization should something happen to me? I used to think you could, but now, I have my doubts." Elli noticed a single tear fall down his cheek. "My only remaining sister, dead."

"The bounty she promised us was-"

"The bounty?" the Commander's voice boomed, though it was scarcely louder than a whisper. "We have piles of gold down below, more than enough to secure any resource or need from anyone in the Empire, and you obliged my sister's penchant for vengeance to her death for money? How much was my one command worth to you? Don't answer that. I have a new assignment for you.

"Go back to Mt. Pyre, and secure our guest's Spirit Pokémon, and bring it back to her. They've been apart for too long. Tell me, dear, what species is it?"

Elli swallowed hard and croaked out, "a Luvdisc."

"You heard her," the Commander said. "And watch over the boy. Keep him safe. If one hair is harmed on his head I swear to you my wrath will be more than you have ever known. You may be young and powerful, by I am still the master. You're dismissed." Burningtree quietly made his way out of the door.

"Walk with me, Elizabeth," he said. She realized she couldn't take no for an answer, and Elli followed the Commander out the door.

She gasped as she crossed through the threshold and saw a sight that made her heart drop. The Pokémon that stood before her was one that only existed in her textbooks she had read in Sootopolis. It was a tall, green, lizard like Pokémon with a leafy tail. It was sleeping soundly,

"Sceptile has taken her death harder than I, but I've determined not to let it shake me. Caitlyn was always independent, and willing to choose her own path. I had hoped by staying out of her sight, and dead to her, that it wouldn't be my fault should anything happen to her."

Elli was shocked. She put the pieces together in her head, and the histories of families and their Pokémon from her classes at Sootopolis were being put to use. First this Sceptile, and Lady Caitlyn Forrest was his sister... he must be...

"I could have saved her. In that moment, I could have saved her. If I wanted, I could have let my love for family stop me from keeping my own life a secret, and jeopardizing my purpose, and my ultimate plans. I'm sharing these secrets with you in good faith, as an apology for everything we've put you through. We know you're a smart girl, and we need you on our side, Elli."

The Commander turned around, and Elli followed suit. Burningtree stood there gazing back at them, a tall red Pokémon stood by his side. The Assassin and what Elli assumed to be his Spirit Pokémon began to walk into the trees.

"Not all of us take the loss of family so calmly," the Commander told Elli. "Some of us use our anger, our thirst for revenge, to lead us to do terrible things. I'm sorry about your friend. It was not something I authorized."

Elli began to cry, and she leaned into the Commander's chest for support. "I don't ask you to forgive the man called Burningtree, or our group, the Draconids. I want you to understand the men, Solomon Forrest, and Carson Brightflame, if you make the decision to join us, and change the world for the better."

Elli found herself strangelyrelieved, but in the back of her mind, she knew with the secrets now in hermemory, that she would never be free to leave on her own. She said a longinggood-bye to her mother and father in her heart. Was she going to be a captiveforever, or something else? Elli didn't have those answers.