Pokémon Fool's Gold | Orre & Galar Fanfiction

Chapter 86: Living a Lie

Anabel and Looker sat with Trip, Amber and Bianka at Lyndon's kitchen table. Commentary on the launch buzzed on the TV. Looker took out his notepad and recorder.

'Bear with me,' Trip said, 'I'm still unravelling what was true and what wasn't. And processing being lied to my entire life. Even my last name wasn't real.'

'Oh, yes.'

Anabel opened her briefcase. She passed Trip an Orrean passport. A folded piece of paper jutted out.

'We finalised your change of name.'

'Great. Thanks!'

The briefcase was still open. Smiling, she pulled out two pieces of red fabric, one paler than the other.

'We interviewed Lon and Cail on our way here. They know you won't need these when you go to college... but they want you to have them anyway.'

He shared her smile as she shook them out. The new jerseys, a little smaller given the weight he'd lost during his time with Cipher, no longer belonged to #11, Raco but #11, Joyner-Massey.

'How are they?'

'They do still feel guilty, unfortunately... though it's positive they're already taking steps to arrange proper training for mandated reporters.'

Looker switched on the recorder. Anabel nodded.

'If you'd like to begin with your earliest memory, Trip...'

'I have vague memories of sitting on the couch with my mom. And her smile. That she loved me. But I guess my earliest clear memory is... what happened. I really don't remember my dad at all. Or his mom. But coming to The Under brought this back to me. I remember being on the doorstep and my grandma shouting. Saying my mom was a "terrible mother" and she was looking for drugs. I sort of remember pain. So I guess she'd hit me.'

'Your dad said she was throwing plates.'

'Nice. Well, mom ran. Grandma followed us on her scooter. We hid behind some crates. We were both crying. Mom had no cell phone service. Grandma had cut it off.'

'The provider, Virizion, has verified that, if that's of any comfort to you.'

'Yeah... so my mom made a phone call from the Poké Mart. Grandma always told me she was calling her dealer, but I think now it was my dad.'

'We can't recover the call itself, unfortunately, but Karsyn kept that month's bill... so we can still confirm without a doubt that it was their landline she called.'

'OK. That's good. Then we walked. Her Kirlia carried me for a little while. We were in the desert for what felt like forever. She took the steps – the steps where Lumir fought Ardos. We got to the upper level and hid in the bar that became the Bronze Bouffalant, right where the stage is now. It was full of boxes then. She promised I'd be safe. That my dad was coming. She said he'd look after me while she made sure these "horrible people" could never bother us again. Then we saw a grey uniform. I didn't know then, obviously, but the yellow scarves are Commanders. My mom tried to hide us both in a box, but it was too late, so she just hid me and three of her Poké Balls. Grandma said...'

He wasn't emotional, but unsettled, as if a ghost hung over him. He repeated their words.

'"You can't beat me, Laila. And you can't run or hide."'

'"But Don can. When he gets here..."'

'"He'll find your corpse. Unless you..." and I guess that "unless" was "join Cipher." Then mom told her Kirlia to use Confusion. I managed to tip my box over. Grandma's Mightyena flung Kirlia across the room. She said "I knew you were a despicable mother, Laila, but bringing your son to see you die? You get worse." I didn't really know what any of that meant. But I could see my mom was in danger. She sent out her Chansey. She didn't stand a chance. Grandma told Mightyena to kill Kirlia. He didn't want to. But she just whipped him until he was in so much pain, he obeyed just so it'd end. He literally tore Kirlia limb from limb in front of us both. It was horrible. And my mom was crying, screaming "Don! She's gonna kill me! Lyndon!" Then grandma threw me in another box and sealed it up. I... I could only see a little through a tiny hole, but... my mom was just screaming. I'd never heard her, or anyone, sound so scared. She wasn't even yelling dad's name anymore. She was just screaming. There were cracking sounds... and I heard those again when she broke my legs. So I guess that was... her breaking all my mom's bones. She was obviously beating the shit out of her. The screams kind of faded. They were just, like... resigned whimpers. One of grandma's Pokémon, I think it was Medicham, picked up my box. We were moving. I heard scraping. I think Mightyena was dragging mom along behind us. We stopped suddenly. Back then, I guess I thought my mom was gone already... but there was a thud and one last scream, that sounded way louder than it was because it echoed, like, endlessly. Then that faded, too. Like she was falling. And she was.'