The Void She Filled

Chapter 7: A Terrifying Revelation

The warp led me into what looked like an office, or a solitary surveillance room. A regal blue rug with gold embellishments sat under a plain wooden desk. A large, black office chair was flung aside carelessly, with technological panels attached to both of its arms. An array of monitors lined the wall and curved around the bow of the ship. Each glowed with pictures: some showed different floors of the Frigate (and one, I noticed chillingly, of the chamber where I fought Colress), a couple were trained on Kyurem's prison, and the rest revealed the cold landscape of the Giant Chasm. A quick scan told me Hugh and N were nowhere in sight.

Wait... if there are cameras all over the ship, why wasn't I caught sooner?

Between the desk and the monitors stood a man I couldn't immediately recognize. He wore what looked like a black robe, his form hunched and scowled over whatever he was seeing.

My heart did a backflip as I really took in the details. That green-gray shade of hair... It looked reminiscent of N's in style, but not exactly the same. The way he quivered in maniacal contemplation. That wheezing laugh, sounding incredibly frail and yet paradoxically full of raw power.

No. That can't be possible...

My shock transformed into a sickening dismay when he finally spoke, making a verbal reveal instead of a visual one.

"That blasted Colress! He can't even do the job right when it matters most. Pathetic. I don't know why I ever thought I could hire him."

Ghetsis. Part of me wanted to vomit as my worst fears were confirmed. There was no mistaking that voice. It was an echo of the past I had heard many times before, from the speeches that were televised from the cities and towns around Unova. The supposed spokesperson for the liberation of Pokémon. Smooth, calculating, and ruthless. It disguised the contents (or lack thereof) of the person inside: empty and rotten with greed.

My disbelief choked in my throat, becoming all the more palpable as I struggled to breathe. I never, never could have imagined this. I jammed my knees together to stop them from shaking as I try to rationalize this impossible scene.

How the hell could this be possible?! We all saw him getting guided away in handcuffs! We all heard the curses he yelled at the cameras as he was being taken away! And it wasn't like he had been incarcerated in any old jail cell. They locked him in one of the tightest prisons in the world. Escape was completely out of the question.

But, if there was one person who had a chance of pulling it off, it would definitely be him.

And he wanted me to come here, didn't he? That's why I wasn't caught...!

My mouth flew open to spew all of my inquiries when he turned around and slammed his cane, startling me. He must have known I was there because he showed no surprise whatsoever. His front side proved even more disturbing than his backside. Upon closer inspection, I noticed with a shiver that his black robe was full of disturbing patterns: there were varying shades of gray and black patches that held an ominous similarity to eyes. Gray buttons lined the middle of his robe, and only the top one was done. His black outfit was hidden in the shadows of his encompassing cape, with one sole arm covered in golden rings serving as the only protruding figure. Perhaps most disturbingly, what appeared to be a glass red eyepatch was covering his left eye.

"Surprised to see me, perhaps? You really shouldn't be." He rested his gloved hand upon the metal cane, which was adorned with the Plasma logo. "Doppelgängers can be a wonderful thing. Poor Ryoku. That fellow pulled the short straw among the Sages. He must be rotting away in that hole if he isn't already dead. Even felons have a moral code in the guts of prison, you know. But how kind of him to take the fall for me— truly loyal unto the last. The DNA patterns we engineered as a last resort were not in vain after all."