Rudi and I were not expecting anyone to be barging in so soon. When I looked to see the imposter—or Draven as Rudi called him—standing there with Gallade by his side, I suddenly remembered what our deal was. I had ten minutes to convince the person inside this room to cooperate with them. Ten minutes.

It did not seem as if I had been with Rudi for ten minutes. I felt cheated, needing much more time than what Draven had given us. Rudi must've felt the same way as his arms wrapped around me as we sat there, completely defenseless against both Draven and Gallade.

We needed more time. If I'd known that Rudi was here, I wouldn't have wasted those ten minutes fighting him. I should've just believed him, but after everything that I'd been through, I couldn't.

All I ever wanted was for a few more moments with Rudi, and now, I had wasted what could've been the last. I didn't want to leave him. Seeing Draven standing in front of us with Gallade, I knew there was nothing we could do. Even when Rudi and I fought by holding on to each other with all the strength we had left, it wasn't enough against Gallade's psychic power.

The worst part of it all was that I didn't have a chance to say goodbye. Gallade's Psychic attack on me forced me to look away as he floated me back into a cell surrounded by sleeping criminals. I pulled my knees into my chest, trying to process what had happened in the past fifteenish minutes. Too much had happened that I didn't even know where to begin.

There was only one thing I knew: Rudi was alive. Whatever that Draven and whoever this Mr. Rogue wanted him for, I wasn't quite sure, but I knew it couldn't have been good. I just hoped Rudi would be alright.

Questions started to pile in my head as I thought about it. Would Rudi be alright? What were they going to do to him? Why was it they wanted Rudi of all people?

"Huh, fancy seeing you here of all places," a familiar voice scoffed.

I turned my head, finding one of the two men in the cell next to me had woken up. I had been put in a cell by myself, but I didn't really pay attention to what was around me until the man spoke up. He had dark unruly hair and greedy green eyes. His face was dirty from what looked to be different oils and other dark smears, but he still wore the white lab coat over his sweaty clothes I remembered from last time.

Of all the things that could've happened, having the inventor trapped inside a cage beside me was the last thing I would've expected. At this point, I shouldn't have been surprised. I didn't hear anything about him on the news or from Rena, but I just assumed that after all that had happened, he would've wanted to stay under the radar.

Having Isaac Nox trapped inside a cell wasn't something I'd expect.

"You know, I thought you would've been smarter than this," Nox taunted. "So, tell me, how did those two criminals manage to get the last standing superhero? Did they lure you in with your boyfriend?"

My forehead dropped to the tops of my knees as I closed my eyes. I didn't want to talk to anyone, but from the time I knew Nox, I knew he wasn't going to let this go. He would continue to pester me until I snapped. It was what he did to Rudi the night we came home from a mission to stop Team Oblivion, causing Rudi to resort to violence. Rudi wasn't one to do that. A day later, he tried pestering me in attempts to get me to snap too.

Thinking about it even more, it made me wonder how Rena was able to put up with him when they worked together when she first started inventing. There was no way those two would have gotten along for long.

"It's a long story," I muttered.

Nox gave out a short chuckle. "Oh, I don't know if you've noticed, but we've got time."

I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping he'd disappear, but when I opened them and turned my head to look at him, the man was still leaning to the back wall of his cell, smirking at me.

If I didn't want to snap, I'd just have to listen.

"My Pokémon were trapped inside their Poké Balls which could only be stopped by a Lunar Wing," I started to say.

"Ah, so you were the victim of my invention, the Dark Capsules. How'd they work?" Nox wondered.

My eyes widened before I snapped my head over towards him. "What do you mean that you inven—never mind. I shouldn't be surprised that you'd do something so horrible."

The inventor smirked. "Well, if we're being honest, that was just a prototype that went wrong. When I have someone willing to pay five grand per device, even though it wasn't guaranteed to work, of course I'd sell it to someone in the black markets. Course, there's only so much I could do there before business starts running low."

Hearing that, I could feel my stomach twist and turn. As smart of an inventor Nox was, he wasn't really that bright. It was no wonder why no one wondered what happened to him after everything happened with Team Oblivion.

Apparently, Nox had just figured that out as he let out a heavy sigh. "It didn't take me long to realize that was a bad idea, so I stopped and tried looking for work. I think that's how they tracked me down so easily. I got offered a job that promised good money, but the downside was that I had to live here. After they were done with me, I was sent here instead of getting what I was promised."

A part of me wanted to comment that he deserved that, but I didn't have any room to talk. After all, I helped Team Miasma after Team Oblivion was taken down. They weren't just taken down either. I was the one who had killed the leader instead of stopping him and pulling him out, so he could get the justice he deserved.

Maybe being ripped away from Rudi and being forced here was what I deserved.

"So, how is it you got trapped inside here?" Nox questioned. "I'm assuming you weren't temporarily hired to do their dirty work. Did they lure you in by promising to break your partners out of their Poké Balls, or—"

"I lost the last Lunar Wing I needed to get the only Pokémon who was trapped inside," I muttered. "These past few days, I've been hunting them down and finding them, so my Pokémon could be freed. I just needed one more, and I lost it."

"And Draven and Mr. Rogue must've found it and tricked you," Nox concluded.

Instead of answering, I nodded my head before I threw it back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling. They tricked me. Draven tricked me. Whoever this Mr. Rogue was, I didn't want to know. All I knew was that I was forced here, saw Rudi for what seemed like second, all before getting torn away from him again.

Maybe it was for the best. I wasn't the same woman I was a few months ago. I wanted to be. If I could turn back time, I would have just let Gila trade me off to Team Oblivion in the first place. That would've just sped things up, wouldn't it? Rudi and the others would've gone out to fight Team Oblivion before I was pulled out of there. Would I have gotten out of there alive? Maybe not. At least I wouldn't have made things worse for them.

They would've found a way to defeat Team Oblivion without me. I just made things worse by striking a deal with Gila, pledging my allegiance to her—even if it was temporary—all before I was the one to take someone's life.

Once Rudi found out about that, he would never look at me the same way again.

Maybe...maybe this was the punishment I deserved.

"Oh, don't tell me you're actually going to give up," Nox pouted. "This is not the Sylvia Gray I know, the Swanna Girl who could take on anything."

"Maybe that's because you have no clue what's happened these past few months," I guessed. "My Pokémon deserve to live happily. As long as they get out of here, I'll be fine. Rudi too. None of them have committed the crimes I have like..." I couldn't even finish the thought as my stomach tightened at the thought.

"Killed off Shadow? Joined Team Miasma?" Nox asked.

His words took me by surprise that I opened my eyes and looked over at him. He was still sitting in his cell, but his hands grabbed onto the bars that separated the two of us. Nox looked me dead in the eye, looking disappointed.

"People have shrugged off your most horrendous crime. There were eye-witnesses that saw that man drag you into that burning building. At that point, it was self-defense," Nox said.

"It wasn't self defense," I corrected him. "At that moment, I wanted to kill him. I-I never wanted to do that to anyone."

"So an adrenaline rush kicked in, and your survival instincts took over. You know, being trapped in a fire like that cuts off your oxygen supply. You don't think straight when that happens. Now, you're probably looking to face some jail time with your next crime, but humor me," Nox continued. "Why did you join Team Miasma? Hmm? Did they hold something over your head? Threaten you? Make you feel as if you had no options left?"

Once again, I answered him with silence. He was pretty much right with his guesses on why I joined Team Miasma. I was trapped, forced to either go to Team Oblivion for whatever reasons they wanted at the time, or to walk away free. My decision was the cowardly one, being that it only led to having to work with them to find an ex-member.

Only, I made it worse by promising them I'd work alongside them until then, and he was wrong about how I felt the survival instincts. I had been in a similar situation before. It was years ago, when I had first became Swanna Girl. If these survival instincts were to take over, they would have when I had faced Taipan in the final battle.

I didn't kill him back then, but I did kill a person. Once Rudi found out, he would be disappointed. It was why I wanted him and my Pokémon to make it out of here. If for some reason I didn't, I'd be okay with that.

Besides, I probably deserved not making it out.

"See, you're not one-hundred percent bad. You're not good by all means, but everyone's made up of a little bit of both. When you share your truth on the matter with the world, when this whole thing is over, people will see that. It's not like you did anything to directly hurt anyone did you?"

Hurt anyone? I thought back to all those times I was on a mission with Team Miasma. I had rules I needed to follow or else I'd be punished. My arms pulled my knees closer to my chest as I tried to shake those thoughts away. The most recent one was by far the worst: having Plusle taken away while Swanna, Audino, and Mienshao were trapped inside their Poké Balls. Punishments like those only happened because I didn't listen.

All I did was try and save as many lives as I could.

My silence must've been enough to give Nox his answer as he exhaled. "See. I'll give you my lawyer's number who got me out of my mess, and everything will be fine. Just don't dwell on it too much. You'll drive yourself mad."

I narrowed my eyes as I looked at him. "Is that why you don't feel guilty with anything you've done? Like when you betrayed Rena?"

Nox rolled his eyes. "Well, that was a valuable lesson. Speaking of my favorite little blue-head, how's she doing?"

His response was annoying. I shook my head as I overheard something in the distance. Scared of who it might've been, I jumped to my feet and walked to the front of my cell. While I couldn't poke my head out of there, I tried my best to see where the noise was coming from.

The other prisoners around me started to moan in annoyance, retreating to the back of their cells as they covered their ears. I wasn't sure why. While I could hear something, it was still very distant. I looked back and forth, trying to see if I couldn't see anything down the hall, but there was nothing.

All I knew was that whatever I was hearing wasn't coming from a pair of keys. It was coming from a person.

"Just like a Grookey I've been dancing my whole life," Archer's voice slowly started to echo against the halls, causing everyone to moan even louder. "C'mon everyone, sing with me! Dance for me, dance for me, dance for me, oh oh oh."

I shook my head in disbelief. Wherever that Krait twin was at, he needed to learn to keep it down. It was no wonder why these prisoners were retreating to the backs of their cells.

"Does he do this everyday?" I asked.

"Every moment he can," Nox answered. "It's just louder now that he probably got some water or something. That's when he's at his worst."

I nodded my head as I turned back and walked to the back of my cell. It made sense. As I heard Archer change tunes to an overplayed pop song, I noticed that his voice was much clearer than when he was singing that Christmas carol earlier.

Everyone here must have been doing what they could to stay sane. While Nox was in the cell next to me, the other cell had someone who had just woken up. The first thing she did was take off her shoe and started juggling it from one hand to the next.

How long have these people been trapped here? I wondered.

"Nothing we can do about it though," Nox told me. "We've tried getting Mr. Rogue and Draven to take him away the first night the entire team of Team Miasma came, but they were more interested in Gila."

My head snapped over to look at Nox. He was still leaning against the wall of his cell as he looked at me. His arms were crossed over his chest.

"Why would they need her?" I asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine, isn't it?" Nox said. "I thought maybe to be used against Braviary Man, but obviously that's not so if they brought you back here."

Used against Braviary Man...earlier Draven told me he wanted me to get him to open up about something. Rudi didn't know anything. At least, I don't think he did. He would've told me if he was hiding something.

Then again, he hasn't always been truthful with me, but this was different. Right?

"You wouldn't happen to know what they'd want from Rudi, would you?" I asked even though I was terrified to find out.

Nox shrugged. "Bits and pieces. All I know was that I was brought here to create a device to keep Giratina contained. They were already here before I started my job, but you know, there was only so much I could do. I'm an inventor, not a healer, and—"

"A healer?" I asked. "Who needs healing?"

"Giratina, but it's not in the way you Pokémon Nurses can heal," Nox warned, "Zie is fading in both the Distortion World and this world. My device could only contain zim for so long. While I don't know much, I know these guys think that young man is the key to it."

I looked down at the ground. None of this was making sense. With all the myths I've read and researched about Giratina for my nursing classes, that Pokémon could live in both the Distortion World and this one. It was even rumored that Giratina was banished into the Distortion World, meaning zie had to have been here at one point.

What did Rudi have to do with all this? It didn't make sense.

As I was thinking about all that, I noticed the entire room had fallen silent. Even Archer stopped his singing. I looked up to see what was going on, but all I heard was nothing.

"Thanks for telling me," I whispered to Nox, not looking at him. "But why tell me this when you weren't willing to work with us before?"

"Cuz I'm running outta luck, so I need to build up that good karma again," he claimed.

He seemed like he wanted to say something else, but he didn't continue one. The only thing that could be heard were a pair of footsteps. They grew louder and louder, becoming so uneven that I started to realize it wasn't just one person walking down the hall.

Even though I didn't have to look to see who was coming down, I felt my heart racing. I backed up to the back of the cell I was in, hoping they'd pass me. After hearing what Nox had told me, I knew that was just false hope.

There was nothing Rudi could do to help these guys. If they knew, maybe they'd let Rudi free. He wasn't like the rest of the people trapped in these cells. All Rudi ever did was help others. There might not have been a time where I would've believed that, but it was the truth.

Maybe they'd let him free alongside his Pokémon.

Two men stopped in front of my cell with Gallade standing behind them. The one I recognized right away. He tossed his blond hair to the side as he looked particularly annoyed. Standing beside him was someone I didn't know, but I had a feeling. It just took me by surprise. When people talked about Mr. Rogue, I expected him to be younger, or at least, not someone like him.

This man was rather frail. Wrinkled were indented all over his face while bags hung under his foggy-looking eyes. He stabilized himself with a cane, and he wore a white lab coat over a polo and a pair of khakis.

Hearing how afraid people were of this man, including Rudi, I was not expecting this.

"You had one job," Draven said as he pulled out a key and placed it into the door of my cell. "Get Braviary Man to cooperate, but he still doesn't—"

"You have to have the wrong guy," I warned them. "Let him go! Rudi doesn't have any special powers that can help you guys, so leave him be."

Draven froze for a moment as he looked at the older man. Mr. Rogue didn't even react as he looked in my general direction. We all stayed silent for a moment before he shook his head.

"Don't believe a word she says. If anything, they just don't know," he said. "Move on with plan B."

My eyes widened as Draven swung the cell door open and side stepped out of the way. He did so just in time for me to see an Aura Sphere hurtling towards me.

Author's Note:

First off, a quick shout out to scftsmiles- for helping me with this chapter and the next. Things could've ended pretty differently without her help, so thank you again for everything!

But yes, yet another cliffhanger. Oof...I think I should be banned from using them sometimes. Oh well. Gotta keep you guys interested somehow. Good news, the next chapter will be updated in about a week. I know I promised twice weekly the last time I updated with the long hiatus; however, I honestly don't think that'll be possible. Next update will be sometime next week.

In the meantime, we finally have heard of the major Legendary of this book. So, my question to you is this: who is your favorite Boxed Legendary Pokémon?

That's all I've got for you for now. Hope you all enjoyed. Cya later!