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-Your POV-
A low, unhurried cackle echoes through the room. "So! You managed to make your way here, little girl. I must admit, I'm impressed." My gaze darted, but in the pitch black, I couldn't locate the owner of the sinister voice. "Team Rocket captures Pokémon from around the world. They're important tools for keeping our criminal establishment going. And I am the leader of this enterprise... Giovanni!"
"I'm not here to fool around!" I shout, with each fist clenched around a Poke ball at my side. "I'm here to put a stop to your malicious plans!"
"Is that so...?" He pauses to chuckle deviously once more. "Fwahahahaha! You came barging into our hideout just for that? What an amusing child. To think of you to stop me... But — for your insolence — you will feel a world of pain!"
Before I could respond, two pairs of hands harshly grabbed my shoulders and jostled me, tugging me away. I lose my grip on the Poke balls containing my team in the process but as I'm about to scream, a cloth is tied over my mouth and eyes.
Giovanni's voice rings out again, stinging my ears. "You never had a chance if you thought someone like you, a terribly inexperienced trainer, could take out Team Rocket!"
I'm thrown around and I pass out once or twice, but eventually am chained to a hard stone wall. The metal cuffs burn into my flesh as I thrash around, my screeches still stifled by the gag. Scarlet blood dribbles down my arms, staining my skin with a trail of the vibrant ruby-red liquid. I sink to the hard, cold paved flooring, tears rolling down my face and soaking the cloth covering them.
Was there no escape? I wouldn't know. They left the blindfold on, but let me breathe, removing the gag but keeping the iron chains that bound me in place. There had to be hope. But who would save me?
- - -
A world of pain, huh?
I had no world.
I hadn't seen the light of day in a month. All I knew was shallow breathing and my racing thoughts that bounced around pointlessly in my head. I knew blood and tears. I knew the brittle line between hate and insanity was constantly blurred.
One thing was clear, I was losing my grasp on my mind that was warped with blood loss, fatigue, and starvation. A deadly combo that was ready to end me at any moment.
Nothing mattered, and I didn't want to be alive in this nightmare of reality.
One day – after many, many long days of agony – a sharp, familiar voice shatters the silence in my confinement cell. It was the person whose voice was the last I heard before I was locked in here. "One must acknowledge one's defeat before he can move on... One day, you will understand, boy." Giovanni snarls.
A forceful thump of a body falling to the ground met my ears, but I didn't say a word. "H-hey-!" A boy's voice. I suppose that's who had been thrown in here to join me.
The slam of a steel door cuts the male off, and still, I don't dare utter a word. After a moment of bated breath, when I'm sure there's not a soul in here other than the newcomer, I roughly pull at my chains, growling in a quivering voice, "Who are you, kid?" I hadn't spoken in weeks upon weeks, so my words were clipped and ragged as I choked them out carefully.
"I'm probably older than you, but-"
"YOU THINK I CARE?!" I bark, twisting my features into a scowl. Then, in a faltering and sorrow-plagued whisper, "... Do you know how long I've been here? I can't see you, but I want to bet so badly that it's longer than you've been alive."
He pauses for a moment as if he knew that there was no way that was the truth. To me, however, a month with nothing was an eternity. Then, he speaks up, "Hmph. If I'd known that my old man was keeping a girl in here, I swear, I'd come to get you."
"You... YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" I shriek, pulling against the chains once more, and they clatter against each other, still unrelenting.
"Hey- Hey, calm down, let me help you!" He insists, and I can hear his feet paddling against the floor as he cautiously approaches.
Pressing my back against the cement wall, I furiously decline, "It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair! Why aren't you restricted to? A favorite captive, or somethin'? And I have to hang here-!"
I feel a pair of hands slide around my neck and fumble with the securely knotted-up cloth. The words fade on my tongue when suddenly light floods into my eyes, stinging me. My jaw drops when everything, every color, scene, and texture, can be played out before me.
"I... I-I, uh, I can see..." I murmur, surveying the area for the first time. I probably looked like a newborn child just gaining their eyesight, but I didn't care. Now, in an almost inaudible tone, I softly mumble, "Thank you, thank you so much..."
"...You look like you're going to tip over at any second."
My gaze flits over to a boy who indeed looked a little older than myself. His piercing, violently crimson eyes matched his hair perfectly as it framed his pale, pale face. He wore a button-up indigo shirt with pants of the same, bold shade. Everything about him screamed defiance. A rebel, almost.
"Ugh, everything hurts." Tears well up in my eyes, and I slump to the ground, losing my fierce and fearless demeanor entirely. "I can't feel my fingers, and... Oh, Arceus, that's a lot of blood. Can, um, can I get something to eat? I haven't gotten any food since I was put in here. By the way, do you know how to get out of here?"
"You've been here longer than I have." He states and places his hands around my shoulders to steady me, but I'm still tied against the walls and held at gravity's mercy. I gaze into his viridian eyes, and he notices the dull, blank stare of my (e/c) eyes that tells him everything he needs to know. I felt no hope.
He moves away to search the room, and in that moment when he walks away, something ignites within me. "What's your name?"
"Hn?" He turns with a baffled look on his face. Exhaling, he says, "If you must know, it's Silver."
Silver... A name that thrilled me to the bone. There was something about it that made me smile, and I can't remember the last time I smiled. "My name is (Y/N)."
He doesn't acknowledge what I said, but he turns to look me in the eye. "The only way out is the door," Silver explains. "One of the admins or executives should have the key."
"... So?" I narrowed my eyes at him. "They're out there. We're in here."
"Hmph. Won't they come in to give us food?" Silver asks, but I sadly shake my head. I'd lost a lot of weight in the past several weeks. Not a soul dared to enter the madwoman's cage. "Are you certain?"
"Yeah, I-"
The creak of a door opening makes me shift my gaze off Silver and to the entrance. A tall, extremely slim woman with curves in all the ideal places walks through with a deep frown. Her ruddy cheeks complement her middle-length bright cherry-red hair as it swishes around her face. "Silver?" Her shrill voice slices through the air. She doesn't address me.
Silver takes up a fighting stance, subtly stepping in front of me. "What do you what, Ariana?" He grumbles, not taking his eyes off her, on edge and skeptical.
"I heard you were in here, so, I thought I'd-"
"Hey," I mutter, squinting at the lady. "Did'ja forget about someone?"
"Oh!" She places a dainty hand over her perfectly lipsticked lips. "You were in here all this time? I could've sworn they disposed — I mean, uh... I wasn't aware that you were, um, still in here. My apologies."
Silver takes a step backward, closer to me, lifting his hand to shield me.
Ariana sighs. "Don't fret, Silver. I'm not here to harm either of you. I realized that I've made mistakes in my life. I didn't know or care if what I was doing was right or wrong... I just put my faith in Giovanni and did as I was told." She pauses to lift her weight uncomfortably. "So, in an attempt to make amends, I'm here to set you guys free."
"Lies," I spat.
Ariana's tall pearl-white heels click across the stone-hard floors, her slender hands searching her pockets. Standing in her way, Silver crosses his arms over his chest until Ariana lifts up a singular key.
"Here," she thrusts the key into Silver's waiting hands. "You do it yourself. I promise I have no reason to harm you, as I said."
Silver casts a glare at her, but turns away to stand beside me, raising the key to the cuffs. First, the right one. Then, the left one. With a startling clank, the bonds released me, and I crumpled to my knees.
It was as if my limbs didn't function after all this time kept in the same position. "Oh, Arceus..." I groan as I try and fail to stand, having to slump against the wall. "Silver, help me up, will you?"
With wide eyes, he nods. Silver extends a hand, and I stare at it, stunned. I was actually getting out of this horrible place. All I had to do was slip my hand into his. A slow, tragic smile slips across my face and I accept his help, rising to my feet.
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Author's Note:
And... another chapter was published! Did you enjoy it? If you did, don't be a silent reader, I love hearing from you guys!
Seems Team Rocket is slightly more evil than usual, huh? But we made an ally out of Ariana, so that's something.
Thanks a bunch, Reader, and see you soon,
Lillian
Word count: 1714 words
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