I woke up to small hands gently shaking me, and a young voice whining into my ear. Groaning, I rolled my face into my pillow,doing my best to ignore whoever wanted me awake. After another small shove into my side, I sighed as a shrill voice screeched into my ear. Pushing thoughts of sleep out of my mind; I pressed my face one more time into my pillow before lifting my head and blinking blearily at whoever had dared to wake me up. An irritated grunt escaped me as big blue eyes and blonde pigtails, both of which were much too perky for me to deal with this early. “What?” I managed to croak out.

“Daddy didn’t come and wake me up this morning.”

I can’t say I am the sharpest knife in the drawer when I first wake up. So, instead of reading between the lines I just stared at her with a stupid look on my face. It could have also have been that her words hadn’t quite registered in my mind quite yet.

Under my gaze she shifted nervously before going on. “I am still mad at you. But… do you think you can make me breakfast or something? I can’t find anyone else…” Still mad at me? She had laughed at my pain all day yesterday as Arthur put me through the ringer.

I just stared at her while my brain started to warm up. Eventually something must have gone through, or sparked some sort of reaction from it. “Did you dress yourself?” Probably her loud clothing and clashing colours, patterns, and what have you.

Her small face lit up at my comment, I was sure she thought it was a complement. “Yes! Normally Daddy doesn’t let me.” I could see why, the clashing colours were hurting my eyes more than lights in the room. ” But since Daddy didn’t wake me up I got to dress myself!”

Shutting my weary eyes against the aggressive assault on them, I thanked my sleepiness that kept my face neutral as I listened to her joy. “I… I see.” I eventually muttered. Then it seemed like everything else she had said finally registered in my head. “Wait, where is your Dad?” Sitting up a bit I looked around, when I didn’t see him I felt a small chill run down my spine. Normally the older man woke me up in the morning, this was defiantly different.

She shrugged and looked up at me expectantly. “Make me breakfast. It’s almost lunch time!”

Chewing on my bottom lip, I felt the weight of suspicion settle down on me while my mind sharpened into full focus. “Almost lunch time huh?” I asked as I forced myself to get up. There was defiantly something going on here. I had gotten used to being forced awake at 8am the short time I had been here. Looking over at my clock I noticed the time and confirmed what she said, it was almost 11, I probably would have slept the day away if she hadn’t come in.

“Right! Do you know how to cook anything good?”

“Anything good?” I blinked down at her, that stupid look probably making it’s way back onto my face. I actually didn’t have the most, read any, experience cooking. My mom and I ate out all the time when I was growing up. It wasn’t until we had settled down that I had ever even lived somewhere with a full kitchen, now I was expected to actually cook something? “Hmm, well, no I can’t really cook. I am sure between the two of us we can figure something out though.” Actually, I was really just feeling a sense of dread. I had been here less than a week and I could tell that this was a very out of the ordinary situation.

“Yay! Daddy doesn’t let me cook! Now come on! Get dressed so we can go!” She whined and grabbed my hand making a good attempt to drag me out of bed.

Sighing I pushed myself up letting my legs dangle off the side of the bed. This was going to be kind of tricky. I had been told that I would be getting a boot to limp myself around on, I wasn’t supposed to rely on the chair so much anymore as just sitting around wasn’t going to help me in the long run. The other day of painful physical theory had left me feeling sore yet accomplished. I also had been under the suspicion that Arthur had been getting his revenge on me for the day before; my suspicions had not yet been confirmed. Either way, it was exciting to be more mobile, or at least be able to move around on my own more. Now though, now I was chairless and bootless, this struggle was real. A giggle broke me out of my thoughts; glancing over at its source I arched an eyebrow at her. “Oh? What’s so funny.”

She giggled some more, small hands doing their best to hide her face. “Nothing.”

Well, that wasn’t very convincing. “Uh-huh” Looking back at the grounded I decided to just go with it and limp around the house, I just hoped it didn’t mess me up more, then again I couldn’t make it too much worse could I? I sucked my teeth for a second before putting weight onto both feet and gingerly pushed myself up, I just ignored the continuing giggles. Keeping my hand on my bed post I stood there for a moment feeling the weight and testing my balance before letting go. Scooting over to the drawer that somehow seemed to refresh itself with fresh clothing every day I opened it up and noticed, nothing. “Hmm…”

“Nothing is in there.” Lucy chimed in oh so helpfully as she peeked into the drawer as well. Nosy brat.

“I can see that.” I muttered. Looking down at myself I took inventory, loose fitting sleeping pants and the tight bandages that were wrapped around my ribs. As much as I was ok sleeping with no shirt on, I was not at all that ok walking around this house without one, especially a strange house filled with strange people. Hearing her giggle again I cast her a confused look before shrugging. “Well, I guess we can just make our way to the kitchen then.” I muttered. No one else was here so I wouldn’t be made fun of, hopefully.

“But…” She giggled again. “But you aren’t wearing a shirt!”

Raising an eyebrow at her I finally realized why she was acting so goofy. “Is that why you are giggling so much?”

“Yes! You look so silly.”

“Great.” I knew I wasn’t impressive to look at, even more so with the bruises, bandages and casts, but silly? That was not a huge confidence booster. At least my face was pretty, and apparently usually my hair was a source of interest for others for whatever reason.

“Hold on! I can get you one of my shirts!” Before I could say anything to stop her she had run out of the room

“Hey! Wait damn it!” I cursed as I limped over to the door. Something was wrong with the house today and I did not want her running off on her own. Frowning I limped out of the room, one hand staying on the wall for support. I released a sigh of relief when I saw her running towards me, a familiar looking shirt in her hands. I frowned as she shoved it towards me. It was a shirt I recognized, the one she had work the other day in fact. I wasn’t even sure a shirt for a little girl would fit me… It probably would, just because it was me. “Don’t run off from me today ok?” I muttered as I found the bottom and slipped my arms through it and tugged it over my head, I pretended not to notice the tag was still on it. “Oh, look at that, it fits.” Granted it didn’t fit all that well. Still now I was in flannel pajama bottoms with a way to tight purple belly shirt with a bunch of little Eevee faces on it. I was a walking fashion disaster. What was it that they said though? If you were confident in what you are wearing anything looked good? Well, I wasn’t confident in what I was wearing, but I took solace in the fact that Lucy was dressed worse than me, and I had been in worse before.

“Thanks for letting me borrow this.” Yeah, thanks. She just beamed at me and took my hand. “So breakfast?”

“I want French toast!” She yelled as we slowly made our way down the hall, I wasn’t going to be winning any races soon.

“I don’t know how to make that.” I muttered, what was even in that? Bread? Did you toast the bread with some sort of syrup on it? I knew that there was bread, that was good right? Eventually we made it to the kitchen in one piece and we were greeted by the empty room. “Hmm, wonder where everyone is?” I muttered as I scooted over to the fridge.

“I dunno, Daddy didn’t tell me that he wasn’t going to be here.” She muttered as she pulled herself up onto one of the chairs on the other side of the counter.

That sent all sorts of alarm bells off in my head. “That’s odd.” Was all that I said aloud, I didn’t want to worry her too much with my suspicions. “Well, there isn’t much I know how to make here… toast ok?” There seemed to be bread and I was sure I could find a toaster, plus there was butter and peanut butter.

“But I want FRENCH toast. Not regular toast!” She cried as she watched me curiously.

“I told you. I don’ t know how to make French toast.” It didn’t really matter, we were having toast. The only thing I knew how to cook aside from eggs in the fridge, and I would be damned if I would willingly eat eggs anytime soon. The hunt for the toaster took a bit longer than I expected but after a moment I emerged victorious. “Ah ha!” I crowed.

“I want French toast.” Lucy whined as she jumped up onto the chair, practically laying on the counter now.

“I told you I don’t know how to make that, now either come over here and help or sit your butt down in the chair.” She giggled at the word butt, then decided to not listen to me as she got down and pranced over to my side. “Why do I even bother.” I muttered as I plopped two pieces of bread into the toaster slots. “What do you want on yours? Butter or peanut butter?”

“You can’t put peanut butter on toast!”

“Yes you can.”

“Nuh-uh!”

“For that I am just going to put peanut butter on yours and you are going to try it.” I smugly grinned as I rooted around in the drawers for plates and a knife.

As I was looking around a loud bang sounded out from the hallway. Freezing at the sound I looked up, watching the door carefully I straining my ears to hear what all was going on behind it. Every instinct in me was telling me to just run, something was wrong, and here I was stuck with a kid, a broken arm, leg and I still wasn’t quite sure how messed up ribs were. Well, it didn’t really matter all that much, what mattered was that I was trapped in here there was only one door in the kitchen and the sound had come from the other side of it. “Lucy darling.” I kept my voice low as the sounds got closer and closer to the kitchen. “Do you think you could hide in the cabinet here? I have a bad feeling. Just, stay quiet until I tell you to come out, unless I tell you to just… just stay in there and be quiet.” Something must have gotten across to her because she looked at me with her big blue eyes before biting her bottom lip and quickly getting into the cupboard. Closing it as silently as I could, I took a few steps to my left and leaned over the counter, and watched the door. The moment the door opened and it was someone I didn’t recognize stepping through. It felt like a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped over me, I did my best to not let my surprise show.

“Oh, who might you be.” A forced calm voice came from the stranger.

“You don’t know? I can’t say I am surprised.” That confirmed my suspicions of only trusted people had been allowed near me, or even knew about me staying here. I forced amusement into my eyes as I leaned over resting my chin on my hand. The person who had come in looked slightly disheveled, the only reason I could really tell was that he had the look of someone who was normally very put together.

“Sorry, I haven’t been around lately. You wouldn’t happen to know where everyone is would you?” He asked, while he sounded friendly there was a certain edge behind it, like someone who was rushed but didn’t want to show it.

Raising an eyebrow at him, I did my best to appear nonchalant as I reached over and pulled the finished toast from the toaster. In no rush I put it on a plate and took the butter knife grabbing the butter as I tried to think of something to say. “Well,” I started as I spread the butter onto the toast, finishing I gently placed the knife down. “I figure that if you were supposed to know that then you would know.” Taking a bite of the toast I watched him with a small smile on his face. After all, I was in the same boat as him in a way, if I was supposed to know then I surely would.

There was a flash of frustration carefully hidden on his face, to me though it seemed obvious, probably not to most people though. After a second though he cast me a small grin and countered. “Or you just don’t know.”

Shrugging I took another bite and watched him my face relaxed into a lazy expression. “Does it matter? Either way you aren’t finding out from me.”

We watched each other for a moment, probably sizing each other up in our own way. It had been so long since I had to force myself into this sort of state, my poker face was firmly in place and blocking out any other emotion or thought out of me, right now every worry or frantic thought were firmly locked away and shoved into a dark corner of my mind. I just wished that I could bring about this state of mind when I was in battle, along that train of thought I wished I had brought my Pokémon with me. This sort of calm was really the only way I knew how to fight my way out of situations, Mom had been very vocal about her thoughts on violence. Hypocrite, she liked to break things with her hands.

I could see a sort of light flash behind his eye, he had something on me. He probably had a lot on me actually, I was just winging this as I was going.“Why are you wearing Lucy’s shirt?”

Raising an eyebrow at him I picked at the Eevee shirt and gave him a look as I took another bite of my toast. “Is it?” I laughed at that and shook my head. “Honestly, I don’t have any clothes here, I just found this in the hall and put it on.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Well, you can find it hard to believe however much you want. That doesn’t make it any less true.”

We both stared at each other for another moment. Finally he spoke again. I did my best to hold my tongue, the first who always spoke first was always the one who was going to lose. There was also the fact that I just didn’t know too much about anything here, I didn’t want to give anything stupid away, so my mouth would stay shut until he broke the silence. “I am going to ask again, do you know why no one else is here?”

Oh so that was how he was going to play this. Try to threaten it out of me?? Well, that wasn’t going to work to well, seeing as I regularly dealt with threats, usually after I had run my mouth off at someone. “I would think you would know the reason for that.” I tossed back casually. Finishing the rest of my toast I leaned forward, ignoring the pain in my ribs and watched him, a lazy smirk spread across my face.

a dark look crossed his face and suddenly the air seemed to fill with a sort of open hostility. “Who exactly are you?” He asked. I just grinned at him, it probably wasn’t the best response but I kept it as he took a few steps forward threateningly. “Look kid, this isn’t a game.”

“Did I say I thought it was one. Calm down. What exactly do you want? You come in here demanding things from someone you don't even know. Take a breath and settle down, when you are ready, ask me what you want.”

“Boy, don’t act like you have any idea what is going on here. Look, things aren’t what you think they are here kid.” He seemed frustrated, rushed like something was bugging him that he wasn’t quite willing to let it out, almost reluctant.

“They aren’t? What do you mean by that, things seem pretty straight forward from my point. Maybe you are the confused one.”

“Don’t give me that! You don’t know anything! I see that now.” He yelled, taking a few more steps forward, now he was on the other side of the counter where I was.

Taking a few steps back I raised an eyebrow and studied him with a concerned eye. “Look, calm down. Whatever your pissed about I am sure we can talk it out. Just take a seat, want a drink or something?” I made a few placating hand gestures. As I spoke though I knew that things weren’t going to settle down, there was something in his eyes, his body language, he was just much too far gone, all I could do is stall and hope for the best. What had gotten him to this state I didn't know, it must have been building for a while though.

“No, you don’t get it. You’re under their spell, I was too, but now… Now I can see what is really going on here.” He ran a hand through his hair and took another step closer to me quickly. Before I could even do anything he reached over and placed both hands on my shoulders pulling me closer and looking into my eyes. Eventually he gave up shaking his head, he apparently hadn't found what he was looking for. “You truly don’t understand. You don’t know anything. If only you knew. If you knew you wouldn’t be hiding them.”

Ok crazy man. I thought as I eyed him somewhat wearily, I was glad just what I thought of him wasn’t quite making its way to my face. “Well, if I don’t understand, why don’t you explain it to me?” I offered, at least this would buy some time before someone capable came to rescue me, I felt like a princess.

The man looked away, removing his hands from my shoulders he started muttering to himself, as if debating aloud if he should talk to me. I watched as he ran his hands through his hair, disheveling it further. In no rush to help him decide I just leaned against the counter, Discreetly I removed the weight off of my casted leg, it hurt but I wasn’t going to sit down any time soon, not with mumbles here. While he was distracted I glanced towards the door, why wasn’t anyone here? Surely they must have known he entered the home, didn’t some sort of alarm or something go off? Going back to watching my distraught guest I noticed he seemed to be coming to a sort of decision. I stayed silent as he turned to me a serious look on his face. “I have decided to tell you. I need more on my side.”

“Oh good.” I muttered, then wanted to kick myself. Do not make witty retorts to the clearly unhinged man in front of you. “No rush.”

“Yes! There is a rush. You have to understand! They are coming for me. Chasing me all week.” He stepped forward his eyes wide and darting to the only door to the kitchen.

“Right, sorry to interrupt. You know how teenagers are impatient.” I waved my hand as I leaned back trying to make it look like I was just relaxing back. I was uncomfortable with this whole situation here, everything about me was telling me to just say fuck it and leave, or tell him where Lucy was. No, that wasn't quite right, I might be a bit of a coward when it came down to it, but I still hand standards, and giving little kids to people who aren't all there was lower then even I was willing to go, and I could go pretty damn low.

My comment seemed to throw him off a bit though, he took a small step back and regarded me again, as if something had just clicked. “How old are you boy?”

So that was it? He had been calling me kid earlier and now he was stuck up on it. “Such a rude question.” I teased.

“Shut up! They don't just let anyone in here! You have to work for years to get invited in! When did that bastard recruit a kid like you?” He seemed a bit outraged at my age, wonder why?

Raising an eyebrow at him I gave him a small smirk. “Well,” I began, pausing for dramatic effect; and to gather that bit of teenage condescending attitude that came the moment you turned 13, I just toss that right into the mix. “maybe for you.” Chuckling slightly I gently pushed the man away from me and left to circle slightly out and around the kitchen island. “ I mean,” Shut your god damn whore mouth Dante! “you aren't getting anything out of a cocky kid, aren't you supposed to be the expert here?”

What the hell was I doing? It was like I couldn't stop myself. It was like a small war was going on inside of me, it was strange, I hadn't felt myself like this in so long. Not since I was traveling around with my Mom, not since I had to fend for myself. Never since I had Pokemon that could fight for me. No, this was back when I had to rely on myself, when I had nothing but my own wits to get me out of the shit that my normal mindset or fate got me into. The whole, let's poke the sleeping Ursaring with the stick and see what happens mindset. Back then it always got me out of trouble, and I always was oh so happy to jump right back into it as soon as I was free. The calculating, very much in control, part of my mind was watching my opponent with an amused glint shining in my black eyes. If only I could be like this during battles, the blocked out rush of emotions certainly helped keep my head cool and collected.

The man seemed momentarily thrown off by my attitude but after a second he chuckled and shook his head. “Just because I don't know who you are doesn't mean you know more then me. After all, you don't know the secret of this place, you don't know who you are working for. If you did you wouldn't be here. So let me educate you boy.”

“Get on with it.”

“The Boss,” He spat that name out like it was a curse. “and his brat of a daughter are actually Pokemon.” He paused a triumphant look on his face as he revealed his huge secret to me, what had apparently driven him off the deep end.

Oh, so I was right on that front! A feeling of triumph rose up though me, though I did my best to keep my face bored, and I was about to raise an eyebrow at him before a soft cry came from the cupboards near his feet. Lucy! Doing my best to pretend I didn't see it I watched him carefully, did he miss it? Either way it didn't look like he was moving, instead I watched as his face fell from celebration to confusion. “Oh? Was that it?” I asked that eyebrow raising now. “Welcome to the party.”

“Don't you care? They have been lying this whole time! Who knows if any of this is real?” He cried out, he seemed more outraged at my lack of reaction then anything else.

Shrugging I regarded him my face devoid of any interest. “Why should I?”

“They are Pokemon! They aren't human and yet they act so high and mighty, bossing us around! They laugh at your intel, thinking they are so much smarter then us. Fuck!” He kicked hard at the counter that I was sure Lucy was hiding in, luckily that impact must have hid any sounds that the young girl let out. “This whole place could be an illusion. One of his twisted little games he loves to play!” He was breathing heavily now continuing to kick at the cabinet, I wasn't quite sure how much longer the wood would last under his assault.

“Again. Why does it matter? Would you be doing something else under a different boss?”

“What matters is that with them you don't even know what is real or not! This could all be that bastards illusion.”

“I am not sure that Zoroark's illusions are that strong. Besides, if you were any good you would have figured it out before you decided to join.” There it was out. I just hoped my guess was as good as to what kind of Pokemon it was, I had never seen a Zoroark before, or been under their particular brand of handy work, honestly any psychic Pokemon was a good guess as well, none of them fit the basic body shape that was needed though to go this long undetected though.

He whirled around to stare at me his eyes wide and his face furious, maybe I should play at being more understanding? Well, to bad on that one, to late for all of that. “Are you saying I am not good? I got here without them finding me didn't I?”

“What are you even doing anyway? Whats the point of even coming here?”

“I need to leave.”

“Right, you do. So why come back?”

He growled in frustration and ran his hands through his hair, he was back to pacing. “I need to leave!”

“Then do it.”

“You don't get it!” He turned and yelled at me. “I need leverage to leave. A reason why they won't come after me! I know too much.”

I stared at him a moment my brow furrowing as I took in his words. “You were going to use Lucy weren't you.” It wasn't really a question.

“I was, no I am going to.”

“It won't work. Well, not for long anyway.”

“Shut up!” He screamed at me, swinging his arm over the island sending my plate and knife flying, the plate smashing hard against the tile floor. “Just shut up you stupid brat. You don't know anything. Your just as bad as they are.”

“If you want to leave you should talk to him. Work a way for you to get ou-”

“Shut up!” He screamed again, he advanced towards me a determined look on his face. “Just shut the hell up kid.” I didn't say anything as I did my best to take a few more steps back from him, unfortunately I wasn't exactly the fastest, and I definitely wasn't going to be winning any medals with my injuries. Before I could do anything he was on me, his superior weight, and probably craziness easily bowled me over. We crashed down to the ground my head hitting the ground with a crack.

I must have blacked out for a moment because the next thing I knew his hands were around my throat and he was chocking the breath out of me. Instinctively I tried to grasp air into my lungs as I reached up grabbing at his hands trying to pull them off of my quickly collapsing windpipe. Time seemed to slow down and speed up all at the same time as I desperately tried to pry him off of me. Fear seemed to take over, I didn't want to die, I really didn't. Fighting for air I fought like a desperate animal, black started to cloud into my vision and my limbs started to feel heavy and my lungs burned with a need for air. I just wasn't strong enough to get him off me, the look on his face as he chocked the life out of me was unhinged, whatever he had been holding in before had boiled over past the point of no return. Oh Arceus I didn't want to die.

I couldn't anymore though, my limbs were to heavy, my mind drifting out as the fight left me as life drained from me. As my vision blacked out I imagined I heard a loud shriek and felt a slam of something, maybe a door nearby, maybe nothing, I couldn't see anymore. It didn't really matter though, I was done.