Chapter Twelve: Anti-Clockwise

Her father was out, and to her, that meant that it was time to commence her plan.

It had been bugging her that Damien Albus had been doing paperwork for all of yesterday—he was a man that had his place in commanding armies of soldiers to achieve nothing but victory, but she supposed that all jobs had their moment of unsettling normalcy.

Now that he was gone, however, she had gained a little more freedom to do as she pleased, and that included taking a look around the Hoenn base. As suspicious as she was, soldiers didn't have the authority to argue against their general's daughter.

In a way, it made her prideful. She had always been a confident person, having lost count of the number of times she assured Avis that her plans had never failed, but the thought made her haughtiness just a little more justified.

Of course, there were one or two idiotic officers that tried to stop her, but those were the exceptions. They'd be fired sooner or later if they were so insolent.

Leone had left the base that morning. She hadn't talked to him after seeing him alone in that room, but she'd woken up too early and caught a glimpse of him striding down the corridor with his bag.

She wouldn't miss him. She hadn't missed the boy in the years that they'd been separated, and she wasn't about to start feeling sorry for him after one small conversation. The both of them knew that pity would be wasted on him.

Instead, she headed down to the underground basement. It was a place that few soldiers knew about, after all, but she had gone there too many times to count that she knew it like the back of her hand.

The two officers guarding the entrance faltered a little when she walked up to them, golden eyes impassive and settling on their faces with unsettling firmness, and the first one tried to nudge her away. "You shouldn't come in here, Miss."

"Nonsense," she shot back, folding her arms behind her back and straightening up so that she fit the image of the Hoenn military. "You must be new recruits. Do you know who you're talking to? I'm Damien Albus' daughter, so I'm pretty sure I outrank you."

There was a pause before the taller man spoke up. "You've been mentioned around here, Miss, but I believe you've left the organisation. You don't hold any position."

"And who told you that?" she countered. "I never resigned from the military, you idiots. I simply relocated, and I still hold the position of Lieutenant General. If that's not enough, I have the badge to prove it."

The golden object in her hand was dull with years of use, but it did the job well enough.

As the two of them scattered, she scoffed and shoved the badge back into her pocket. "Seriously, is this the new calibre of Hoenn's military nowadays? No wonder you two are so pathetic you got put on patrol duty."

"If all the new soldiers are like that, then it's no wonder if Kalos wins the war against you." She raised an eyebrow at them before slamming the door shut. "Go back to your duty."

Lillian turned her attention back to the office before her. She only had a few hours before her father returned—and as much as it would have seemed like a lot of time, Damien Albus kept far too many drawers and far too much paper in his room.

A frown flitted across her face as she got to work, bending down and aiming her hand for the chest of drawers below the biggest desk. If her father's habits remained the same, the most important documents went there, but it was locked and normal people had no way of getting them.

She'd learnt a trick or two, however, from Aiden's Klefki, and while the actual Pokemon would have been a bigger help, she was still able to pry the object open with the help of her Beautifly's rod-like mouth.

"Recent plans about the war with Kalos..." Her eyes narrowed as they skimmed across the title, but the stack of papers were't what she was looking for and she forced herself to put them down. "Is that what's most important to the army now?"

Still, she continued to sift through the reports, opening drawer after drawer until she found what she was looking for.

"I knew they couldn't leave this part of the matter alone." A smile started to form, but she squashed it before it could distort her lips any further. "No matter how much they fight with Kalos, they have to pay attention to the situation that they raised.

If there was one thing Hoenn did well, it would be the fact that it was able to both wage a war and do research at the same time.

It was unreasonable to continue the war—and she had a feeling that a few of the soldiers felt the same way—but Hoenn was angry, and a few papers based on rocky terms wouldn't be able to dissolve the feelings of their hatred.

Focus, she chided herself, and glanced down at the sheets in her hand. She wished that there was some kind of image to guide her, but there were only scrawled words, and she supposed that they had to make do.

The cause behind the attacks we blame Kalos for is in Terminus Cave. Her lips settled into a thin line at that. According to various legends, a powerful Pokemon called Zygarde lives there. We do not have solid evidence, but it may be causing the multiple deaths in Hoenn.

Her mind drifted back to the time they'd been in Yan's past life. The witch she'd talked to had said something about the creature living in Terminus cave—finding it again was confirming her suspicions.

Zygarde had a role to play in the huge mess they were in, one way or another.

Lillian grabbed the papers with haste, stuffing them into her bag and making sure they weren't too crumpled, and she stumbled to her feet. She'd found what she was looking for, and it was time to leave before her father returned.

...was the information worth the things she'd done for it, though?

Sure, all the research she'd done with Aiden and Avis had led to her discovering the heart of her old home, but was finding information that could save the region worth the pain she had put Yan and Avis through?

At first, she'd tried to justify it, telling herself that she was doing Avis good, but then she'd started dragging him all over the region and not allowing him to pay attention to his job. And Yan had nothing to with anything in the first place—she'd been stuck with them, and she was less than thrilled with it. Hell, she'd gotten Faust to get her to go in the first place.

You're a selfish person, she reminded herself at last. You had to do this if you wanted to figure out a way to fix the world, and you concentrated on your goals. It's what you'd do.

Though she found some comfort in that fact, it wasn't enough to make all her guilt go away, but pain was something that she didn't care about.

Lillian Albus had never failed a plan before. She wasn't about to let guilt make her fail one.

§

Terror didn't even come close to describing his emotions.

Avis considered himself an impassive person most of the time. He turned a blind eye to most things that didn't concern him, and injuring soldiers from the Hoenn army hadn't fazed him too much either—all he had to do was blink a few times and he'd get over something.

He'd gotten over to the Headquarters as soon as he'd heard the news. It was funny; he didn't even know why he was so worried about his brother's comrades, but Lillian had forced something in him to change and he didn't know if he liked it or not.

Some part of him thought it had been a joke, and he was reminded now that the army never joked around.

"So you came." An unfamiliar man looked up from where he was standing, but Avis' gaze was focused on the medics who were still working on taking away the last of the bodies. "I mean, you are a replacement. It wasn't an obligation."

"What happened?" he stumbled out in response, barely registering that the person before him was one of the army generals.

He raised an eyebrow at that, and his tone was more accusing than he expected. "Are you sure that you don't know anything about that?"

The anxiety knotted in his features shifted to one of chagrin, and he tried his best to keep his voice level as he replied. "I just received the news that this happened, so why are you trying to accuse me of anything? It's not like I have a reason to—"

Avis stopped at that, aware of the fact that the hospital staff were still there, and he settled for a firm glare instead.

"Calm down," the older man sighed. "I'm just trying to state the facts. Most of your platoon is dead, and you and your captain are the only ones out of the survivors that don't have an alibi. The chance of an overnight Hoenn attack for no reason is close to zero."

The remaining knights had gathered now, forming a pathetic semicircle around their superior, and he saw his captain take the lead, stepping in front of him so that he was nearest to the general.

"I don't think Aiden would have done it," one of the soldiers tried to say. "He's too young and too naive. I mean, how could someone as kindhearted as him wipe out almost all of us? It may be suspicious, but I honestly don't think it's him."

Another of his brother's friends edged forward, raising his hand and gazing at the ground as he spoke. "He doesn't even dare to kill a Hoenn soldier, and no one in the psychology department has sniffed a lie out of his personality."

"In that case—" The general's fingers curled around the sword by his side. "The logical answer would have to be the captain, right? If everyone believes that Aiden is innocent, then he will have to face the punishment."

He refused to glance up at his superior, knowing full well that he was only evading punishment because of his brother's innocent front, and he knew that the punishment for a crime like that would be death.

Avis was someone who didn't care about most things, but he wasn't immoral. He wasn't about cause death on the captain.

"Actually, I don't think that Takeo is the culprit." He made sure to keep his voice soft, hoping that he'd remembered the man's name. "I mean, he was promoted to captain because he was capable, right? You wouldn't put your faith in someone you don't trust."

The soldiers stared at him as if he had grown another head, but the general simply crossed his arms in response. "Then how do you suggest justifying this matter? You're admitting to being the murderer if you defend him."

There was a moment of silence as the two of them glared at each other, with the man's serious gaze lingering on him and Avis breaking character for just a moment.

"It just shows that Aiden's innocent," the first soldier frowned. "No sane man would admit to killing an entire platoon in one night. Besides, neither of them hold any reason to plot against Kalos, right? There has to be another reason."

Across him, the general shook his head. "Since we can't come to an answer, we'll let the both of you off for now. It's true that neither of you would come to mind as possible suspects, but we had no choice. The army will investigate further onto this issue."

"What about the soldiers that died?" Another knight in the back spoke up this time, his eyes red-rimmed, and he gestured to the faded smears that stained the floor.

"Their funerals will be seen to by the army." The man's voice was stoic as usual, his tone filled with a firmness that made his subordinate shut his mouth at once. "They were great assets to the military. We'll let their families know that."

Another long bout of silence passed. The remaining knights were starting to disperse now—Avis assumed that they didn't want to stand in a place where their comrades had been killed—and even the general had turned to leave.

"I need to talk to you about something."

He almost startled at his captain's voice, but he managed to keep his composure, steadying his breath and looking up so that he met the stare with an even gaze of his own.

"What is it?" he replied. Takeo had paid so little attention to him that he had almost forgotten the man by now, but he was sure that it was because he wasn't his brother and their relationship wasn't something that could be rebuilt in two weeks.

The older guy shook his head, letting a sigh trickle out of his clenched jaw. "I'm not going to discuss it here—it's something private. I'll meet you at the local bar instead."

§

He'd never been to a bar before, but from what he was seeing of it, he didn't like it in any particular way.

Alcohol wasn't something that he desired, after all. Liquor was something that was more of a luxury to people; something fickle and temporary, and it was why he'd never chosen to take a drink in his life.

"You haven't drunk much before, right?" The older man was already seated, waving to the bartender to attend to him. "I know that you've only just passed the legal age, so you wouldn't have had a chance. I'll order for you."

As suspicious as it sounded, he didn't know any of the drinks in the list that he saw, and he had to admit that it was a better idea to let his captain handle the issue.

"Anyways, I wanted to talk about the number of off days you had," the man started. "I know about your situation, but it's the middle of the year and you've already hit the quota for your leave. Is that alright with you?"

Avis scoffed at that. "What do you really want to talk to me about?" he asked before lowering his voice. "You know that I'm going to die soon, so it doesn't really make a difference in the first place."

"I—" The brown-haired man let out yet another sigh as their drinks arrived. "You know what? I think it'll be better if we drink first. Conversations tend to go smoother if we have a bit of alcohol—there's a reason why some generals like bars so much."

He frowned down at his drink. It didn't look like much, just a strange-looking liquid in a wooden mug, but he accepted the cup and clasped it with both hands anyways. The most that would happen was that he would get tipsy.

The liquor was warm, and it tasted like a type of cough syrup that Yan would make, but he took another sip anyways and resisted gagging.

Avis decided then that he didn't like alcohol.

Yet, he took another small gulp to be polite, and he watched as his senior downed his own mug with practiced ease. He didn't know just how people could stand the taste; he wanted nothing more than to spit his drink out, and seeing the unfinished contents of his cup didn't help.

"What—" He was starting to suspect that his drink wasn't right. His head was already starting to swim, with an incessant pounding that never went away, and it felt like someone had stuffed his brain and ears full with cotton.

"You're not going to drink any more?" The expression on his captain's face was more toxic now than anything. "Who would have guessed that you were a lightweight?"

—that wasn't true. He hadn't even drunk a full cup yet, and after spending the first seventeen years of his life alone, he'd learnt to read people. The words that came out of the man's mouth had the genuineness of a Zoroark.

Trying to glare at him didn't help either. He was hunched over the table, resting his head in his arms in a half-hearted attempt to calm the pounding, but it didn't work in any way. His vision was still as hazy as ever.

The feeling of being slung against a warm surface was the last thing he felt before his consciousness fizzled out.

§

longer chapter than usual o Op

it's like 11pm here and i feel tired maybe i'll sleep a bit earlier today

just realised how choppy this story is eek i'm going to hardcore edit the shit out of this sometime (all i've fit in is a few extra sentences here and there kill me)

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~ nyxia/miya