The only thing she hated more than the piece of rock shaped into omega was Samuel Oak. Which was ironic because she used to worship him.
"It's like... he's never in the lab anymore!" She was laid on the opposite end of Grace's bed, the two of them were tossing the omega unown like a ball of rubber, "I mean, it's like I have to figure this rock and that... stelae! Ugh!"
Grace didn't answer, she had been feeling a lot better before Delia started yapping for what seemed to be years. Her complaints about Samuel took her back to when she had just met James in the Academy and just couldn't agree with his techniques and a stubborn hero complex.
When Grace didn't pass Delia the ball, she finally shut up.
"Pass the unown, Grace." She said.
The ebony-haired woman took a deep breath and smiled, "I thought I wouldn't have to hear you complain about men after you started dating James."
Delia frowned, "Well, you also thought that you would be the one to kill your wretched brother."
She shrugged, "Clearly I was wrong."
Delia sank back on the bed, "I'm so tired of him! He's just acting like a little boy after meeting that wife of his!"
The brunette went on to complain about Samuel for what seemed like a whole year, at that point, Grace's eyes were fixed on the wall which had the clock. She couldn't wait for the little hand to struck eight, which was the time for her physical.
Grace Rejoiced when the instructor dropped at her door. She quickly stood up and started shoving Delia off her bed.
"Come on, go!" She urged.
"Why?!" Delia asked.
"Physical," Grace said with a smile.
"But you hate others touching you!"
"Um... my body is attacking my ovaries which is causing all sorts of crazy juices to spill in my body!"
Delia narrowed down her eyes on her best friend, unable to believe the length of her lies. "The doctor is a woman."
Grace thought for a few moments before saying, "Maybe I can swing both ways."
The brunette sighed and sank back on the bed. "I attended three years of med school, I can do it."
Grace was trying not to lose her anger which was only possible if she had at least an hour away from her. But Delia was as blind as her grandmother when it came to noticing Grace's reluctance. In the end, she didn't have any choice but to use words.
"Delia I swear if you don't leave now, I'll kick you!"
The brunette left, she didn't want to find out whether Grace was kidding or not.
"For Arceus's sake Delia! My son has been kidnapped by those crazy islanders, cut me some slack."
Delia was taken aback, both by the sudden revelation and the outburst. Professor Oak had always been calm, even when he was in trouble for not meeting his deadlines back when he used to work at the university.
The brunette wasn't giving him a hard time. She had just asked him why he hadn't performed the Kishner or the Babinski reflexes on the m-unown beta, which seemed to be alive (omega was still a rock and the other two nearly the same).
"Honestly I'm shocked you aren't as messed up as I am!" He cried, "it's your son too! And with that... that Scar-face!"
Samuel Oak had unpleasant memories of the island of Citadark. He too was once captured and... torchered.
Of course both good and bad had come out of the little detour. He'd been discharged from the Chamber, he had the chance to reunite with his Pokemon's and his son but he had lost Ailsa, his wife.
"What do you mean it's my son too?" Delia repeated, "Ash is at the Southern Center along with Charlus coming up with a plan to rescue. My son is safe."
The look on Samuel's face said it all.
The passion Delia harbored in her heart for her research had turned into poison, her mind cycled through the recent setback faster than a kid flipping the news channel. All the blood and emotion had left her face, what was left was chalk-like white dust.
"You didn't—"
"No," her voice was heavy with emotion, "I didn't."
She didn't know where she was going, her legs took her to one place... the one person who would know, who always knew what was going on.
Delia didn't bother knocking when she reached the conference room where Ailsa was always present.
And true to her thought, she was present in the said room, leaning over the map and the controls with the same emotionless face.
"Haven't I told you this a hundred times?" She sighed, "knock before—"
Delia's fist cane flying towards the silver-haired before she could finish the sentence.
Ailsa stumbled backward, the intensity was enough to knock her to the ground, weeping in pain and covered in pain. But her tears had dried out the day she had to leave her family and when her brother had died.
The emotional pain in her life was greater than any physical. She'd learned it today.
"Why?!" Delia was roaring in anger, "why didn't you tell me?!"
The silver-haired woman wiped the blood off her lip, "Tell you what?"
"Ash!" She cried, "why didn't you tell me Ash was captured!"
Ailsa wanted to know who told her the secret information, but then she remembered that in front of her stood Delia, the woman who went to study at a university at the age of five. Who had multiple degrees in not one, but three different fields?
And yet, Ailsa was sure it was her damn husband who told the brunette.
"You were busy with researching," she lied, "and besides, it wasn't important."
The brunette was baffled, "Not important? He's my family Ailsa! The only one I have left! And you..." she sank on the nearest chair.
Ailsa clenched her fists, not out of anger, but out of frustration. She knew the pain Delia had gone through, it was hard to miss. When the news had reached her ears that Ash Ketchum, her lovable son had been captured by the barbarian Islanders, it had broken her heart.
The last words of James came haunting back to her, refusing to let her have a moment's of peace.
Promise me, he had said, if I don't make it, you'll take care of my son. You won't give up on him. Promise me, Ailsa, promise me.
Ailsa had promised him, perhaps because Red was the only person who ever truly got her hardships and decisions.
He understood her pain, rather than lash out in anger.
She sympathetically put her hand on the brunette's back to coax her, but it was violently shaken away.
"You were just going to leave me?!" She cried, "how could you be so heartless?!"
Ailsa didn't want to lash out, but she had no choice. "I wasn't going to leave him to die, Delia." She emphasized, "I promised James."
Delia looked up, teary-eyed.
"I had been coming up with a plan to... negotiate." She sat down next to her, "Of course Scar-face is only interested in money... I was going to make a trade from the three of them and the unown... but..."
"But what?"
"That son of—" she clenched her head in agony, "Alain, Serena, and Gary! They decided to go on a rescue mission and all is..." she cried in anger, "The islanders sold Spencer and the Unown to Apocalypse!"
The brunette was sniffling her nose. "But what of—"
"They rescued them," she sighed, "Alain made contact and said that they're on a secret location because... Charlus's injuries are... intense."
Once Delia was done crying, she said. "So, you were always going to rescue them?"
Ailsa looked at Delia with hurt in her eyes. "Of course! What type of person do you think I am?!"
Delia shrugged. "But why didn't you tell me?"
A sigh escaped her lips as she said, "What you don't know; won't hurt you."