I sat in the living room, thinking about what Lethe had told me. Joy had escaped. He helped her out and had given her my Musharna to keep her company. That explained why Musharna went missing the moment the entire organization had disappeared. Still, it didn't help knowing that Joy and Musharna were running around who-knew-where.

I pulled my knees into my chest and wrapped my arms around them. Joy was only sixteen. There were Trainers younger than her who started their journeys. It was silly to think she wasn't going to be alright. Joy was smart.

Still, I couldn't help but to worry a bit.

"Well, if it isn't Ms. Gray," a voice said from behind.

At the sound of that name, I stiffened. There was nothing I hated more than to be called Ms. Gray. I'd rather be on a first name basis with everyone, even as a Pokémon Nurse.

Only one man had the audacity to call me that. I looked in the corner of my eyes to see Nox leaning against the wall, with a coffee cup in his hands. It seemed like this guy ran on coffee as he always had a cup in his hands. Even before bed, the man was seen making coffee.

Coffee was good, but only in moderation.

"What do you want?" I growled, remembering his and Rudi's conversation earlier this morning. Had it not been for the purple and pink pigment covering Nox's swollen eye, I would've almost forgotten about what had happened.

"Can't a man say hi?" Nox asked.

I buried my head into my knees, glancing at my phone that sat on the couch. After calling Lethe, I called everyone I could think of to keep an eye out for the young Joy. Everyone told me the same thing. If they saw anything, they'd let me know. As of right now, I just had to wait.

The wait was eating me up inside. The longer I waited, the greater the fear that ran inside me. Hope was the only thing keeping me going. I needed to hope that Joy was alright. She had to be alright. All I could do was wait.

And I didn't like it.

"You didn't even say hi," I grumbled.

"Jeez, someone's cranky today? What is it? Did your boyfriend forget something?" Nox challenged.

That was it. I leapt from the couch and stood up to face him. My hands tightened into fists. "Tais-Toi!"

Nox smirked. "Stop trying to be as innocent as a cinnamon roll. You've probably said worse before, so stop trying to cover it up by speaking Kalosian. Besides, 'shut up' isn't a bad word."

I growled. "Just stop it! Can't you see everyone here is trying to help you out. Your lousy inventions are about to get everyone here killed. You're a danger to everyone here, and yet, we are trying to keep you safe. Not because it's out of the goodness of our hearts, but because we are trying to keep every person in Unova safe, and all you do is create fights with people."

"Key word. You try to keep everyone safe. How's that working out for you?" Nox asked.

I took a deep breath. "Just fine. Joy is out of harm's way. Just got a call that she escaped, and I'm waiting for another one to get her back here. I'm doing my job, just like everyone else here. Why can't you just be nice for one minute?"

Nox stood up and walked over to a chair across from me. I watched as the man sat down, and placed his coffee mug on the side table beside him.

"You want to hear the cold hard truth? Being nice gets you nowhere. Do you really think I got to where I'm at by playing the rules? No. Your friend, Rena, is no different. I'm sure she's told you everything about why she kicked me out of her workshop that day, but that's only half the story. If I didn't make my move, well, for starters, Rena wouldn't have gotten as far as she did in those competitions. You know why? Because she doesn't come from a powerful rich family, and she's a girl."

"You take that back," I hissed. "Rena deserved first place every year."

The dark haired man gave a short laugh. "She did, and that's why I helped her. You've read the Rhea-Nox scandal, didn't you?"

The Rhea-Nox scandal was nothing more than a lie. It was all over the news the moment Rena's two most trustworthy employees, both by the name of Nox, quit on her. The first Nox, Johnathon, he disappeared for good. As for Isaac Nox, he stole a blueprint of Rena's and entered that invention to get himself noticed.

It sickened me every time I heard about it. Rena didn't say a word about it to the press, but Nox would tell them anything to everything. Lies, truths, it was hard to tell if he was even being honest.

Rena assured me it was all lies. Nox claimed that it was his invention, that Rena debunked everything about it. He painted himself to be the good guy, even making up some love story that one of the reasons why he left was that he cared for Rena, and she didn't return the same feelings.

All lies.

It made me sick to think someone would create such a lie.

Nox took my silence as a yes. "Had we not made a big deal of it like that, Rena wouldn't have placed that year because Johnathan and I weren't nobodies like her. True, she did have her brother, but that story would only last her for her first year. I set that rivalry so that she'd have a shot."

"You're lying," I claimed.

The man smirked. "I'm just saying how it is. You can never get far in life if you play by the rules. What you need in life is to be cruel, to bring others down so you can get to the top. Rena should be thankful. I didn't think that scandal would keep her business going for so long. Then again, she now has a name for herself because of what I did. Here, I thought I was just buying her another year in the industry."

"You're sick."

"It's the truth, besides, even you know you can't save everyone, or do I need to remind you of that Swanna of yours?" Questioned Nox.

The anger inside me dwindled. My face dropped. For a split-second, I felt like I couldn't breath. I just stared at him in shock.

"H-h-how did you know?" I whispered.

Nox frowned. "You're not the only observant one here. Those news reports had a female Swanna. The one you have now is a male. Small difference. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't have known about it had it not been for me studying Pokémon differences, even those that aren't seen to the naked eye."

I took a step back as I felt my shoulders suddenly getting heavy. Swanna... Things would be a lot different if she was still here.

"You have my condolences," Nox softly said. "No one deserves to lose a Pokémon, but it just proves how cruel this world really is."

I turned away from him and grabbed my phone. The last thing I needed right now was for someone to crush any hopes I had right now.

Rena warned me about this. This man was a lying, two-faced jerk— her words not mine, though usually she'd use profanity in the mix. I thought everyone should be shown some sort of kindness, but this man made it nearly impossible. I'd faced so many bad people and understood why they were the way they were.

But Nox didn't make any sense.

I left him in the room, forgetting about him for a moment. My arms wrapped around my stomach, as if I was about to be sick. I wasn't. It was more of a coping mechanism. There wasn't anything that could make this any worse.

As I walked, I found myself heading straight towards the kitchen, knowing there had to be some sort of food to be eaten. While I wanted to ignore the empty feeling in my stomach, I knew I couldn't go without it. I just walked there, keeping my head down.

Once inside, I started to make myself a sandwich while eating some Lava Cookies. Normally, I'd limit myself to one cookie, but after what Nox did, I felt like today was one of those special occasions.

But Nox was right. I did let Swanna down. Knowing what I know now, I knew there was a way to save her. I just wasn't thinking. If I had just used my brain for one minute, I could've come up with a solution to save her.

Memories flooded my mind, but one stuck out in particular. It was the day I found her. I remembered doing everything I could to stop Team Miasma from hurting her. At the time, I didn't want to admit it, but I knew that little Ducklett was special the moment I laid eyes on her.

A smile crossed my face, when I realized what I did. She could've let herself be injured, but she didn't. For once, she let a human get close to her. For a Pokémon living in the streets, that was rare to do.

It was then I realized why she made the sacrifice she did that day. Swanna knew I would do anything to keep her safe. When she made that sacrifice, it was her way of telling me she'd do the same.

My phone rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. I dropped the sandwich on the plate and quickly tossed the half-eaten box of Lava Cookies out of the way before I grabbed my phone and answered it.

On the other end, I couldn't hear anything but crying.

"Shh, everything is going to be alright," I assured whoever was on the other side of the phone. "My name is Sylvia, and I need you to calm down so I can help you. What seems to be the problem?"

"Sy-Sy-Sylvia?" Joy's voice trembled.

A wave of relief filled me. "Thank goodness, Joy are you alright?"

"N-no Sylvia," Joy's voice shook. "They...they're after me, and I—I don't know why. I'm at the Mistralton City Po—Pa—Pe—PMC."

Without thinking, I started to run out of the kitchen, nearly running into Rudi. I grabbed his wrist and pulled the half asleep man with me.

"Just stay calm, Joy. Rudi and I are on our way. Ask for a room to stay in until I get there," I instructed. "I'm not going to let you down."

"Okay," Joy's voice was faint, but I heard her hang up. I wasn't sure how much time we had. Lethe said he let her escape last night.

Even if it was a trap, I didn't care. My first priority was keeping Joy safe.