Rustie couldn't sleep. When she sat up, she saw an open Poké Ball at the foot of her sleeping bag. Raboot was gone.
Salazzle and Serperior were awake, too. They sensed something, after being with their Trainer for so long, that no-one else could. Their eyes narrowed. They glared at Rustie. Maybe Chalcedony wasn't asleep. She didn't stir even when Dirk's snoring woke Zileh. Rustie crawled out of the tent. She had to find Raboot. She couldn't just let it run away.
She didn't have to walk far. Raboot sat on a rock, staring glumly up at the crescent moon. A concerned family of Numel surrounded it. Rustie sat amongst them.
'Do you want to go back, Raboot?'
Raboot ignored her. The Numel didn't exactly look angry. They looked suspicious. Was it not just about the trade, but what Rustie couldn't bring herself to admit to Chalcedony? Yet surely Wyatt would be fine. He was strong enough to beat Lyndon. Like all Gym Leaders, he used a weaker team for Gym battles, but if he didn't keep his strongest Pokémon close by, he was a little silly.
But it's not just about that... it's that she kept her word even when it hurt her, but I couldn't stop myself blurting that out to Jet... maybe that's why Raboot hates me. Pokémon sense these things...
Rustie returned Raboot to its Poké Ball. It burst immediately out and returned to its Numel friends. She didn't know what to do. She returned to the tent to gently shake Chalcedony. Zileh and Golbat giggled at a video of a drunken Wes dancing on her P★DA.
'Chalcedony...?'
'I promised.'
Zileh cast her P★DA aside. 'Just take him back, Chalcedony.'
'I'm working on my promises.'
'But Chalcedony... I'm not perfect.'
'No-one is.'
Bagon clung to its new Trainer. It admittedly stung Rustie that she dreamed of the Gym Challenge all her life, studying until she knew almost everything there was to know about Pokémon; yet Chalcedony just waltzed back into Orre and even Bagon didn't want to leave her...
Rustie never learned to hide her emotions. She didn't need to in her strange, but sheltered upbringing. Zileh read her face like a book.
'It's not personal. Chalcedony has been a Trainer for, like, 15 years. That's longer than I've been alive!'
Yeah, but she only had a pet Salandit that held an Everstone for edge value...
Maybe it was Chalcedony's acting experience that read even Rustie's silence.
'I would've caught more Pokémon. But my mom had five. Dad had two. They couldn't afford to feed more. I couldn't afford to feed more until I got tips from stripping. Zileh's right. It's just experience. It's not personal. I couldn't be a Trainer, but I loved my little Salandit. Trust me.'
That seemed a very 'Alfie' thing to say. He insisted he 'couldn't' be a professional Trainer. Rustie wasn't thinking straight. She was upset. She felt inadequate. Maybe a shared feeling of discomfort was how she could connect with Raboot. She returned to the circle of Numel to sit in silence. Her P★DA buzzed in her pocket. Why was her mom calling her at 3:39AM? Rustie hadn't even opened her last few messages.
'Mom, please stop calling me in the middle of the night.'
'Finally! I'm–'
'Just... please stop calling me in general. I'm not a baby.'
'Babe, this is real serious! I'm so worried. You don't know what you're getting yourself into!'
'With Jet? I can make my own mind up.'
'Not just him. But her.'
'Her? His sister?'
'No. The stripper chick.'
'Don't be ridiculous.'
'You can't trust her, Rustie.'
'Have you met her? No. You haven't. You don't know anything.'
'She's a member of the AC.'
'There is no Alfie Clan!'
'There is and she's part of it. His own son is following her on Rotogram. She likes all of his dad's photos. And leaves coded comments.'
'Why are you stalking my friends?!'
'It's all over Rotobook, babe.'
'Look, I don't like Alfie, either. I don't get why anyone would. But Chalcedony is a fan for whatever reason. A fan. Not a cult member.'
'His son only follows 64 people.'
'We met him at Mt. Battle!'
'You're lucky you're safe! You are safe, right? Please switch on video, babe.'
Rustie irritably switched to video call. 'Look! I'm in the middle of nowhere! There's no-one behind me!'
'You're lucky. Mt. Battle is under investigation right now.'
'No it isn't.'
'Babe, even the AC news outlets are reporting it. The whole Orre League's under investigation by the Pokémon League HQ in Kanto. I wish you'd come home. I wish y'all would convince Winchester to come home. It ain't safe out there.'
'Well, Mom, since Alfie and his friends are such awful villains, care to tell me why I'm wearing his dead daughter's pendant?'
'Huh?'
'Don't tell me you haven't seen his tattoo. Or the photos of his daughter. Fire Agate. This was her pendant.'
'That pendant was a gift from Fateen. The fortune teller. It ain't nothing to do with the AC! Please stop using his name. His creepy son is a hacker! He could be listening right now!'
'If Lyndon is awake, he's probably fucking his wife, not listening to you.'
'His wife's old enough to be his mom! And she's a hacker, too. She's literally setting up her evil team in Orre as we speak and the AC-lovin' government are just letting it happen!'
Rustie was lost for words. Chastity continued regardless.
'Everyone knows their lights are always on. They think they're hiding behind their curtains, but when it's the only apartment that never switches the lights off, people notice.'
'Mom... what's happened to you?'
'What's that Pokémon behind you?'
'What? Numel?'
'Is that a Raboot?'
'What's wrong with Raboot?'
'Who gave that to you?'
'Professor Mesquite gave him to Chalcedony.'
'Babe, that thing's come from Galar! It's probably chipped! It could even be one of "those."'
'What?'
'You know what I mean. The kinda Pokémon produced by The Gloom. It'll hurt you!'
'Mom! He came from Professor Mesquite! Yeah, Chalcedony traded it for my Bagon, but–'
'The Pokémon HQ Lab is under investigation, like everything else. It was probably all planned. Maybe it wasn't even one of "those" when that chick got it. But she's turned it into one since. Ready to give it to you.'
Rustie's eyes welled up. 'I want my mom back...'
'They're the ones taking you away from me. I'm still here. Trying so hard to open your eyes, but you won't listen! Just like your brother!'
'Why did Fateen give you Fire Agate's pendant?'
'Maybe it was a sign.'
What if Chastity was mad all along? If she thought receiving that pendant from a fortune teller was a 'sign' that it was her duty to 'save' Fire Agate, so she adopted her?
Footsteps rustled. Chalcedony and Zileh stepped towards Rustie.
'You OK...?'
'Hey!' Chastity snapped, 'Maybe you think my kid's too dumb to figure you out, but I can see straight through you. Her family have her back. Take your Shadow Raboot and go back to your cult!'
'What?!' Zileh exploded, 'Who the fuck are you?'
'You can't trust that stripper chick, kid. Don't say I didn't warn you. I'll call you back later, babe. We don't need her listening in.'
'You know,' Chalcedony said as coolly as she told Raboot it had to go, 'I'd appreciate it if people who've never been so desperate they have no choice but to turn to sex work would stop bringing that up like I'm contagious.'
'I'm – I'm sorry, Chalcedony. She's lost her mind. She thinks I'm lucky Lyndon didn't kidnap me and that you're leaving "coded" comments on Alfie's Rotogram...'
Chalcedony spent too many years keeping her own anger and hurt inside to let it out then. She did, however, get angry on Alfie's behalf. She didn't care that he was a celebrity who didn't know she existed. It still annoyed her.
'Oh, yeah, he's a total villain, running a marathon at 55 to raise P2 billion for an anti-abuse charity. How dare anyone comment, right?'
'Mom literally just sent me a message about that photo... she says their numbers in the marathon spell "clan." Alfie's starts with 3, Fayiz's with 12, Abbey's with 1 and Leon's with 14...'
'Fayiz is a child. He's 15. Your mom hasn't lost her mind. She's being a classist, abuse-denying dick because she feels like it. She's more likely to be a Cipher member than any of the people in that photo.'
'I... I don't think that's true. She's been manipulated...'
Chalcedony returned to the tent. Zileh hesitantly followed. Rustie opened Alfie's Rotogram.
Chastity was right about the numbers. That was a weird coincidence... but like Chalcedony said, Fayiz was only 15. He couldn't be part of it. Unless he didn't know... then Rustie had a thought so awful, she felt guilty for thinking it. What if Fire Agate's parents were in on the kidnapping? If the death really was, as Chastity believed, a planned hoax? What if they planted the pendant on her? Rustie knew she was thinking that because she didn't want to be Fire Agate. She hated Alfie. She loved her mom and she just wanted the kind, loving mother she knew to return from her Raboot hole. It still seemed logical in that moment of panic.
Dirk slept through. He was oblivious when he drove his friends back to Mt. Battle the following day. Rustie tentatively offered Raboot's Poké Ball to Chalcedony.
'Please take him, if you're really hurting.'
'He'll never warm to you if you keep trying to give him back.'
'But...'
'I promised.'
Chalcedony was gone, beginning a double battle challenge, before Rustie could protest further. Zileh followed one zone behind. The day before, Rustie told Dirk they could do a multi battle challenge together to force him to focus on strategy. They mowed down the first nine Trainers, but they lost to the new Area Leaders, Eldes' sons Skord and Rezar. Raboot refused to obey Rustie. It kicked a burning rock at Skord instead of his Pokémon. He was startled. He asked if Raboot was usually that way and scanned it with a P★DA app that Rustie knew was an Aura Reader.
Was it possible that Raboot was a Shadow Pokémon? Did Victor, the man who bred Galarian starter Pokémon, give it to Alfie who turned it into one? They were good friends. They worked together at the Battle Tower and Victor was the bassist in Alfie's band. Or were they all in on it? Rustie was almost certain it wasn't Jovi... but if it wasn't her or someone in Galar, it could only have been Chalcedony. That would explain why she didn't want to take it back...