Chapter Twenty-Six: Trust Me

The blonde laughed at her question—a clear, amused sound that made her skin crawl just because it was Fabio and he was capable of anything—and he leaned against the counter as he spoke once more.

"You trust me too little," he joked, and she took note of the warning edge in her tone. Sure, it was concealed with the practiced ease of a master, but she had known him for long enough to read him like a book. "I did come here to buy something, after all."

"I don't serve mercenaries," she replied through gritted teeth. "Get lost."

Ignoring her, he made his way over to a shelf and picked out a relatively cheap bottle of medicine. "I'll take a carton of these," he hummed, dropping a handful of silver coins onto the counter. "This should be enough to pay for my purchase, right?"

Yan raised an eyebrow in suspicion, and she hesitated a few moments before taking the money. "It's not going to be for anything good, isn't it?"

If she was to be honest, she wouldn't have been surprised if the coins had been poisoned.

"I wouldn't know," he hummed, a thin smile forming as he accepted the cardboard box from her hands. "It's for a mission, after all, and I don't meddle in the moralities of my client's intentions. Though, if I were to say, this is an assignment that might involve you this time."

She frowned at that, shooting an anxious look at the teenager and shaking her head. "I'm not going to get involved with whatever you do," she sighed. "Look, I'm already being a literal saint by risking the reputation of my shop to sell you things. Please reciprocate and get out before I make you."

Fabio continued to grin. "Part of my contract was to bring you to my clients. They think that you would be useful in whatever they're going to do because of your information on Hoenn's bases."

His expression was unsettling, and she forced herself to gulp down a breath of air—she knew that look well and she hated it. It was one of those times where it looked like the boy was going to force her to come along no matter what, and she knew that he was disgusting enough to use any means to drag her there.

"I don't have a choice, do I?" The silence screamed a yes back at her, and she shot a quick glare at the boy. "Fine, I'll come. Just let me get my Butterfree—you're up to something illegal again, aren't you?"

His beam was as sharp as the dagger in his hands. "I always am."

§

The girl clenched her fists as she glanced at the two teenagers that Fabio had named clients, turning to look at him with a nonplussed expression and speaking in a low voice. "If you knew that I know these clients of yours, you could have just said so."

"What do you have against them, anyway?" For once, the questioning lilt in his tone was genuine, and he glanced back at her with a tilt of his head. "From what I know, Aiden is a pretty nice guy. Are you like this because of Avis'—"

Yan jolted upwards at the mention of the deceased teenager. "You didn't have to mention him. Weren't you his friend too?"

Fabio responded with a small, sad smirk, rolling his shoulders in a gentle shrug and stopping to reply. "Sort of," he stated. "I mean, I was pretty close to him and he helped me out when I needed it. I guess that made us friends."

She looked away from his piercing gaze, choosing to focus her eyes on the duo before her instead. Lillian regarded her with a sparkle in her gold eyes, as if she was up to something nasty, and Aiden looked every bit out-of-place as she did, standing behind the smaller girl and shooting them the occasional flighty glance.

Knowing that someone was just as awkward as her calmed her, even though she had just yelled at him for something that he hadn't been able to control the day before and she felt like a piece of shit for doing so.

"I've brought her," the taller boy noted, nodding to the confused girl beside him and folding his arms behind his head. "The next thing you want me to do is help you break into that building, right?"

Lillian smiled at that. Her smile was just as stretched and fear-inducing as Fabio's had been, maybe with a little less menace in her expression, but the resemblance between the two caused a shudder to run through her shoulders.

"Yes," she replied with a simple nod of her head, and her golden irises twinkled as she took a step forward. "You have training and Pokemon suited for these kinds of jobs while we don't. It's as simple as that."

Aiden's face was grazed with an uncomfortable smile, and his gaze flickered from person to person as he spoke up for the first time that morning. "I never thought you would have come back here, Fabio," he pointed out. "Doesn't the city offer better jobs?"

"I'm a mercenary." The blonde looked up with a mirthless grin, and he fingered the five stone Pokeballs hiding beneath the fabric of his coat. "I engage with the clients that offer me the best money, and right now, Lillian's paying me pretty well to help out from time to time."

From time to time...? Yan froze at that careless statement. She hadn't recalled ever seeing the older boy around, but then again, their ways of life were different. It was most likely for the best that they were able to have stayed out of each other's business.

"Anyway, I have the information that we need for Kalos' headquarters." Fabio reached into his bag and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. "It helps that Kalos-born people get scared so easily, you know—and I'm getting off track. There are sixteen—"

"Wait!" the blush-haired girl yelped in protest. She didn't like the stifling atmosphere presented—it caused the slightest trace of goosebumps on her skin to rise. "Why are we even doing this? Breaking into a building?"

At the same time that Fabio was about to answer, Lillian straightened up and beat him to it. "Complicated things," she muttered. "We're trying to find the cause of those mystery attacks on Kalos. That's why we're going to break into Kalos' headquarters."

"What?" Yan's voice rose in pitch at the revelation. "You do know both of those things you're trying to do are against the law, right?"

Lillian snorted. "The government is too busy with their war with Hoenn that they dropped all research," she sighed. "Someone has to do something. Are you saying that you're satisfied with how we're doing now?"

The girl before her fell silent, looking at the ground and trying to come up with a protest, but no words seemed to reach her lips—and the older female shook her head with a knowing smile. "That's why we're doing all of this."

"Um—you want to get this done by tomorrow, right?" This time, it was Aiden who spoke up, words soft and unsure as he glanced at the two girls. "I guess we should start planning now."

A harsh laugh escaped Fabio's lips, and he patted the knight on the head before speaking. "Thanks, Aiden. I was talking about that and got interrupted." His emerald eyes shared the same glint that she'd seen in Lillian's. "There are sixteen knights guarding the doors outside."

"I'm on duty there tomorrow, so I'll serve as a scout," the purple-haired boy continued sheepishly, as if he was guilty of what he was doing. "Faust—or should I call you Fabio?—has infiltrated the company and placed an order for a carton of Yan's herbs in their name. He'll take care of knocking out the guards."

"Come on, Aiden! You know me pretty well." The taller blonde smiled, though there was something brittle about its quality. "Faust may be my alias for missions, but I know pretty much everyone here. It's fine to call me Fabio."

Lillian snatched the piece of paper out of the mercenary's hand. "Anyway, Aiden will scout once again once we reach the office. Yan, you and I will grab any records that look relevant in any way. We'll be breaking in at two a.m."

"Before that, are you OK with doing this?" The knight shot her a concerned look—he must have noticed how her clammy hands were close to wringing the fabric of her dress. "Lillian and I have talked about this. You don't have to go for this mission—we're just giving you some experience before we tackle Hoenn's headquarters."

The girl shrugged. "With Fabio of all people dragging me here, it's impossible to get out of this. Though—are you sure this plan will work?"

Before she could get any further, the black-haired girl regarded her with an even expression, her head tilted up the tiniest bit as she glanced at her. "I'm always right with my plans."

"She has factual information to back up this plan," Fabio cut in. "From all the information gathering we've done along with Aiden's job as a knight, we've gathered almost everything there is to know about how the government operates."

The group was glancing at her now, as if waiting for a reply, and Yan folded her sweaty palms behind her back with a sigh. "I don't think I can get out for this, so I'll join you guys for a while. All of this ends when we finish getting information from both headquarters, right?"

"That's if the first job goes well," Aiden answered, but the steely look in Lillian's eyes told them that she wasn't going to take failure as an acceptable outcome.

"That settles things," the blond teenager finished. "Everyone except Aiden will meet here at ten, since it's unusual for people to be alone at later hours. If everything's ideal, we should finish in two to three hours without killing anyone—not like I care, but I was told not to."

He seemed to seal the conversation, and everyone started to turn and leave—and as Aiden was about to disappear down another path, she caught hold of his wrist and watched as he turned back around, a confused expression on his face.

"I just wanted to apologise for yesterday," she mumbled in a low voice. "I wasn't myself, and I hope you can forgive me."

He jumped a little, still startled by her touch, and made haste to lower his head in a nod. "That's fine,' he laughed, a kind smile accompanying his words. "I understood how you reacted. I'm not angry at you or anything, so don't worry."

Something inside her seemed to deflate in relief at his response. "Thanks."

§

For someone who had woken up just a few days ago, the grogginess and feeling of lead in his limbs never had never seemed to go away.

The purple-haired boy sat on the edge of a fabricated river, his bare feet dipped into the icy water while his boots remained at his side. He found himself tense despite the quiet environment; as if something was going very wrong and he wasn't yet aware of it.

He yelped as the silence was broken for a split-second. He'd lost his balance on the river-bank , apparently, and it was enough for him to go tumbling into the water face-first.

His clothes were still dry by the time he had pulled himself out, and that surprised him. He knew he was dead, but perhaps he had made too many assumptions. There hadn't been much feeling in him when he'd woken in the first place.

If this is what Arceus calls Heaven, then I'm not very sure what to make of it. A frown tugged at the corners of his mouth as he observed the playing silhouettes of two Goldeen. It seems to be an ideal paradise, but I can't seem to enjoy myself here.

"You never actually enjoyed yourself much when you were still alive, so what's the difference?"

He let out a small gasp, scooting to the side as the voice whispered something in his ear—and he saw an older woman that had appeared beside him.

"How did you do that?" Aiden forced himself not to cower, but there was something intimidating about his companion's prescence. He was sure that he had been alone a few minutes ago, and he hadn't sensed anyone coming.

"I used to work for Arceus a long time ago," the indigo-haired woman replied. "I had the Creator himself merge me with a Psychic Pokemon so that I could work better." She glanced at the younger boy with a hard look in her eyes. "You still haven't answered my question."

Is that even possible...? Forcing himself not to question that, he looked at the crystalline lake with a sullen expression. "It's different," he argued. "Back then, I still had Avis and Lillian—and I knew what was going on. Here, the world could end and I wouldn't even know."

"I see." Her stare remained impassive. "That's why you're like that. Still, as a psychic, I retain my powers. I came here to tell you about something that might interest you."

The former knight wanted to reach for his sword—the woman spoke in a way that reminded him of several of his enemies—but that wouldn't work here. Everyone was already dead, and besides, something told him that she was speaking the truth.

"What is it?" He asked, choosing to move an inch away so that his breaths came easier. "Is it anything about my village?"

"It is," she answered, choosing to fix her gaze on the lake in front of them. "I have foreseen a horrible future in Kalos if everything continues like this. And it's not just that—your friends are going to make some terrible decisions that are going to cost others their lives."

He tensed at that, and it took all his willpower to remain where he was. The lake's water seemed so much colder now, as if it had become his enemy, and he shivered at her words.

"Why are you telling me this when I can't do anything about it?" he asked, and he noticed then that his breathing had become ragged as he spoke. "I'm in Heaven. I can't interact with anyone from the real world, Miss..." At that, he looked up. "How would I address you?"

"You may call me Lacia." The tall woman hid a smile with a fan that she brought to her face, and she wrapped a firm arm around the younger teenager as she wrapped him in a forceful embrace. "Now come here, Aiden. I have a plan—and if you follow it, you could save all those you care about."

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woo!! aiden returns :D

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