LUNA

            The door in the chamber opened, and Thomas, Ahab’s young sidekick, entered the room. “Sir, Her Grace has apprehended the Pirate. She wants you to begin the interrogation immediately.”

            Luna trembled as Ahab traced the outline of her face. “So sorry, my dear,” he said. “Your husband must attend to his duties. Rest well for tonight.” Ahab stumbled out of the bed they were sharing… or was it the one he was keeping her in? Luna had her arms tied to the bedpost so she couldn’t move. The rank of sweat and alcohol lingered even when Ahab dressed.

            That was the punishment for raising her hand to her lord husband. Luna had been close, so close, to killing him in his sleep during the night of their wedding. Unfortunately, a drop of nervous sweat had plopped onto her vile husband’s face. He had awoke in a rage, squeezing her hand that held the crude knife she had gotten a hold of. Her hand still throbbed in its shackle. It was most likely broken. Luna was no stranger to broken bones.

            After Ahab had dressed he brushed Luna’s sweat drenched hair out of her face and kissed her on the forehead. “I love you,” he said, mockingly.

            Luna tried to stammer out an “I love you, too.” It was best to just give Ahab what he wanted. She had been a bad wife, she knew. It was her fault that she had still resisted his advances while she was tied up. It was her fault Ahab had knocked out three of her teeth with a drunken fist.

            Ahab turned back to Thomas, “Where did they take him?”

            “To the dungeon, my lord,” the young man said as the door was shut behind them.

            Luna was alone in the chambers again with Gardevoir. After the wedding, she had not moved rooms. The bars were still on the windows, and Gardevoir was still bundled in a heap of heavy chains next to the wall. Even though Thomas was sent to feed the Pokémon once a day, her face was thinning.

            Luna turned her head to the side, to look at Gardevoir next to the wall. These were the best moments of her life, now. The moments when Ahab would leave and she could be alone with Gardevoir. She had even thought one time that Gardevoir could talk.

            She remembered how her head had pounded after Ahab had come into their chambers. “Don’t give up, Luna,” Gardevoir’s eyes said. “Be strong.”

            It was so hard to be strong, and eventually she had found it easier to be weak. “It’s my fault,” she told Gardevoir. “I need to be a good wife, and he won’t hit me…” She knew what she was saying was wrong, deep down, but she also knew that there was no hope for her. Apollo would be too busy marshalling the armies and navies of Slateport and defending the kingdom to try and save her.

            Luna accepted her fate. It was to be a life of torture for her. Tears streamed down her face, and the blood rose to her face. Her cheeks felt warmer and warmer the more she cried. She turned her head to look out the window, the bars were dancing in the heat.

            That’s when the fire started. Bits of flame came pouring in through the window, and eventually it burst inward with a clang. He’ll hear, Luna thought to herself. My husband will return and he’ll punish me for ruining the window… Two dark shapes rolled into the window, the taller one slowly approached her as the short one waddled over to Gardevoir and began breathing fire on the chains that bound the Pokémon. She couldn’t make out the shapes between the tears in her eyes and the way they were almost swollen shut.

            “Dear gods,” Luna heard the figure whisper. Her eyes were blurry with tears. She saw the thing draw a long metal object from a sheath at its side, and then cut at the ropes that bound her arms to the bed. “Quick, come with me!” Luna trembled and let him cut the other bond.

            Luna screamed at slapped at the figure before falling from her bed and cowering in the corner.

            “What is wrong with you woman? I’m here to take you with me!”

            It’s a trick! It’s a test of my love for my husband. He’s sent one of his men to trick me, Luna told herself. “No! I love my dear husband! It’s my fault. I was a bad wife. I won’t try to hurt him again. Please! Just leave me alone.”

            “Com! Busken!” short shape as it pointed at the door. Five Sootopolis guards had entered the room.

            “What was that noise?” one asked before wheeling around to look at the strangers who had entered Luna’s room through the window. “Intruder!” one man called. He turned to one of his companions. “Sound the alarm!”

            “Damn!” the man who had cut her bonds cursed. One of the guards attempted to turn around deliver the message when there was a sickening crack as the man from the window threw his sword and it got lodged in the head of the soldier.

            Luna screamed.

            “Quiet, woman!” He yelled. His features were becoming clearer as her tears evaporated from her cheeks. He had short red hair, and there was an orange bird like Pokémon using a stream of fire from its mouth to melt the chains that bound Gardevoir.

            The other three guards walked into the room and shut the door behind them. “Leave the woman be,” said the head of the guards, “and come with us. You’re under arrest for breaking into the royal palace.”

            “Come and take me, prick,” said the intruder.

            The three remaining guards all rushed at him at once. The intruder whipped out a second sword and ducked under the first man, slicing his belly open as he stood back up. The second put up more of a fight, parrying the intruders blows. The third man tried to rush behind him when he was engulfed in a river of flame. The intruder then dropped to the floor and pulled the soldier he was fighting over top of him. The bipedal bird like Pokémon had its sharp claws waiting for him as they pierced through the soldiers face.

            Luna screamed again. This red-haired demon and his demon Pokémon were monsters. She heard shouting and footsteps coming down the hall. The intruder took a look outside the chamber door and cursed again. He began to topple every object in the room and set them in the door way.

            “Combusken, light ‘em up!” he said. The wooden chairs were engulfed in flame, and the tapestries that hung in the room began to catch as well. The room grew very hot, very quickly. The demon man ran back up to Luna. “Come with me, or die!”

            “Ahahahahahahah AHAHAHAHAHAH!” Luna cackled maniacally. It all made sense now. She was being punished for her sins. The fire. Yes. The fire, I know where you’re taking me! Take me to hell for all the wrong I’ve done to my family. She took the demon man’s hand and rushed over to the window to jump into the rocky lagoon below and end all her suffering.

            Before Luna could leap, she felt something on her shoulder. She turned to see Gardevoir, skinny and unbound from her chains at last. Burns from the demon bird’s fire covered her body but now they were both free.

            “You’re a Psychic Pokémon,” said the demon as he pointed below. “Levitate the lady down to the boat just under the window, I’ll follow after.”

            CRASH! The fiery entry way to the chamber collapsed. Luna looked up at the tapestries all around her room. The fire was dancing along the edges of the ceiling, getting ever so close to the huge Wailord Oil lamp that gave it light. Luna laughed a mad woman’s laugh again: “It’s going to explode.”

            “I don’t have time for this! Go lady! Now!” the demon said. There was a flash of light and Gardevoir was gone.       

“She left me,” Luna mumbled to herself. “She’s finally escaped. Good for her.”

“I said go!” There was a shove on her back and Luna was falling. The cool kiss of the lagoon’s water would feel nice on her body after the heat of the fire in her chamber. Would she feel the rocks crush her bones as well?

Luna didn’t even scream as she twisted in the air and saw the demon and his Pokémon leap from the window as well, just before and ear-shattering BOOM sent a shockwave through her.

It seemed she was floating so slowly as the tower room exploded above her. The heat and fireball expanded before her eyes reaching out to her, beckoning to her, ready to swallow her whole.

I’m ready. I deserve it. I’ve been a bad wife, and a very bad mother…

Luna love didn’t even feel herself get released from Gardevoir’s Psychic grip. She didn’t even see the demon and his Pokémon splash safely into the water.

“It’s her,” came a voice. A familiar voice. A young man’s voice. Where had she heard it before? “We’ve got her. Take us back.”

Luna laughed as a wooden boat pulled by a couple Huntail zoomed through the lagoon below the Sootopolis palace. “Take me, take me!” she screamed to the demons in the boat. “Take me to hell! I’ve been bad! Aahahahahaha!”

She only recognized Gardevoir’s sad face. And as Luna laughed, the graceful Pokémon cried.