Interlude – The Test

Interlude – The Test

INTERLUDE - THE TEST

"Arceus, it's raining like a motherfucker," Pauline complained. "I'd rather be inside of Mount Coronet than this. At least Charizard could warm me up."

"Raining like a motherfucker doesn't mean anything," Denzel said.

Cecilia rolled her eyes, but she was too focused on her leg to retort. It had taken so long to heal that they left the city half a week late and had to rest in the Café Cabin, but at least, they were in the last stretch of the journey. She walked through the forest floor with a slightly pronounced limp, unable to put her full weight on her leg for more than a second before the pain became unbearable. Zerst snarled toward a rustle behind a tree, almost blowing the entire thing up with Dragon Pulse, but Cecilia calmed him down with a hand on his scaly head. It was coarse to the touch.

Sol, for all his usual calmness also felt anxious. He hadn't even rammed his full weight against Zerst to keep him quiet as he would usually do. Sylveon simply stared at the two with a grimace and stuck closer to Denzel, who wiped the rain off his Poketch and squinted at the screen.

"There should be an overhang we can take a break under soon for your leg, Cece. It'd be better if you were fully rested before we climbed the actual mountain."

"Arceus... I bet Justin and Louis already have their badges by now with how late we are," Pauline grumbled.

"I'm sorry," Cecilia said. "I didn't mean to slow you all down."

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that— shut up Gothorita! I know!"

"What's she saying?" Denzel asked.

"That she feels like shit because she can't see the stars in this weather."

"It's daytime," he said. "Wouldn't be able to see 'em anyway."

"She can see them at all times of the day, just not through clouds. Anyway, I'm sorry Cece. I'm just feeling anxious about time running out, that's all."

"No worries," she said.

It wasn't as if Cecilia wasn't anxious too, although for different reasons. Beyond the group separating and being away from Grace, there was something deeper that worried her and had been nagging at her since leaving Hearthome.

Her father was under house arrest. Louis' father was in jail, awaiting his trial. She had enough money to live comfortably— not forever, but for around half a decade, at least.

So.

Now what?

Her entire goal to become Champion of another region had been to escape her family's clutches, but Abel had inadvertently saved her with his phone call and let her expose her father's adjacency to Harvey's criminal links with Galactic. Her entire reason for this journey had been resolved while she'd been halfway there, as if the rug had been pulled from under her. Now Cecilia was drowning, desperately trying to find something to hold onto. Sticking with Grace was one— her promise to challenge Cynthia was another, but these were shallow. They weren't goals that she had set for herself, but goals that had been pushed onto her.

There was no structure to this journey any longer. No meaningful goal to the progress she made each day. Peel away the layers and at the heart of it, Cecilia was quite empty, or at least she felt that way.

"There it is!" Denzel pointed as thunder roared.

An overhang large enough to fit all of their teams and stay dry while they took a break and ate. Pauline broke into a jog and breathed a sigh of relief when she made it under the ceiling, but her small moment of respite was interrupted by a group of wild Pokemon sitting at the corner of the cave. Zweilous roared at the three small Sentret, flames dancing in their mouths and illuminating the dim overhang until they finally ran off.

"They could have stuck around," Denzel shrugged. "I don't think Sentret are that threatening."

"It's better if they leave, or Zweilous wouldn't have let me hear the end of it," Cecilia said.

"Fair enough."

Finally, she could sit down. The rain had seeped into her bandage, but Pauline quickly noticed and helped her change it while Denzel stood guard with Lopunny and Sylveon. The normal type looked to be bothered by the rain as much as them, funnily enough. Sylveon couldn't care less, and it was sometimes disturbing to see the water dripping down his unblinking blue eyes. Pauline, for her part, released her entire team apart from her Vigoroth and Cecilia did the same, leaving Talonflame in her Pokeball. Scyther quickly went to his own corner and worked on sharpening his scythes against a rock. Slowking watched her with a curious eye, clearly wanting to speak, but opted to wait for her to be done with her friends first.

Golett slowly turned on as the hum of machinery began inside of his body. He slowly trudged toward Zweilous, who chomped on his arm like a Lilipupp would with a bone. The ground type didn't care about all of the slobber getting on his limb... and torso, and— everywhere.

"Say... why do you guys want to become Champion?" Cecilia asked.

Pauline stared up as she carefully wrapped the gauze around her leg. "I don't want to be Champion. I want to have fun and battle a bunch of people," she shrugged. "The Conference's the place that will probably bring me the most excitement, so that's where I want to be."

"And after that?"

"After that, I do it again and again until I'm bored," she continued. "Then after another year or two, maybe go to another region to travel until I've got to settle down. It's all about the journey, right? Traveling with friends and my team is fun. Being the Champion sounds like a pain in the ass anyway. Too many assholes looking up to you as if you're perfect, and the moment you slip they come for your throat."

Cecilia blinked. Her friend had given this more thought than she would have imagined.

"What region were you thinking of?"

"Eh. Haven't given it that much thought yet— why are you laughing!"

In retrospect, never mind. Pauline was just like Cecilia had expected her to be.

"Thank you for the help with the bandage."

"I wasn't done! I haven't given it much thought, but somewhere that isn't boring like crummy Galar or Unova. No offense."

"None taken," Cecilia smiled, turning to Denzel. "What about you, Denzel?"

Her friend was staring outside of their refuge, his eyes mesmerized by the rain.

"Denzel!" Pauline yelled.

"Wha— oh, sorry. Can't hear anything on this route," he said, scratching the side of his head.

"Why do you want to become Champion, beyond your aspiring influencer career," Cecilia asked again.

"Well, you say beyond like that isn't a huge part of it," he said. "There's more, but it's kind of embarrassing."

"Spill," Pauline said.

The trainer groaned. "Fine. I want to be someone that, uh, people feel like they can depend on. A figure for young aspiring trainers like Craig is to me."

"So you want to steal his shtick?" She asked.

"A little, but I also want to be more accessible than he is. He does a lot of interviews and stuff, but he doesn't actually speak directly to his fans like I want to do. I want to make guides, give advice in Q & A sessions and stuff like that. It's about time trainers catch up to their coordinator counterparts, don't you think? That way, people who think that they wouldn't have what it takes to make it could get a little boost, and sometimes that's all someone needs, right?"

"You know, if it was someone else, I might have made fun of them, but it's you, so I'll call your goal endearing," Pauline said. "You're a great guy, Denzel."

"Obviously. Look at me," he laughed, flexing an arm.

"Annnnd, you took it too far," she said. "You're a joke."

They both laughed, but Cecilia was stuck to her own thoughts. Denzel's aspiration ran so deep that it made her feel completely inadequate. She didn't feel the need to help people grow like he did, and she didn't really want to walk through what Pauline would call exciting. She might have hated anything ghost related, but she was still the same girl that kept the group's cohesion during their trip through Eterna Forest.

So what did Cecilia have?

After fixing up her leg, Pauline struck up a conversation with Denzel by punching him in the shoulder with her good arm. She was hurt too, and couldn't move the shoulder that had been stabbed properly, but she hid it better than anyone else.

Cecilia relaxed with a sigh. Now she knew what people were subject to when she was alone with Grace. It was no fun being the third wheel.

Lady Cecilia.

The words brushed against her mind, no longer painful to her. Instead, they felt like a comforting embrace.

"Slowking. I believe you wanted to speak to me?" She said.

This talk of goals troubles you, and when you feel this way, I am troubled as well.

"Oh darling, I'll live. It's just something wise to think about. I wouldn't want to become the Champion and feel aimless."

Do you truly believe you could do it in a year after witnessing Cynthia's power and hearing her stories?

It was true that Cynthia had talked to her and shown her one of her recorded battles against Lucian during one of their many talks in Solaceon. The amount of power she wielded was unimaginable, although her brother Mark came close. She'd beaten him three to six, but that was without using her Spiritomb, who she had said would shut him down completely.

She smiled, feeling no hesitation. "If I don't believe in myself, who will?"

I will, he answered.

"Thank you."

Although Cecilia was done running away from her father, she still wanted the power Cynthia had so badly. There was something about fundamentally destroying the arena you battled on that was so appealing to her, but she needed a reason to wield that power. For Cynthia, it was to protect Sinnoh from threats, and the truth was that Cecilia did feel like she would succeed in the political aspect of being a Champion. Cynthia favored slow, incremental change in order not to rock the boat, which was a philosophy that Cecilia agreed with.

The problem was that she simply had no attachment to the region of Sinnoh.

She hadn't even been there for a year. Her true home was still Unova, and she couldn't imagine a life outside of the region.

"Slowking," she said as something began to click into place. "Do you think that it is wrong to take things from family?"

"Uh, okay," he nervously said, releasing his entire team.

They had all seen Hatterene at least once, but they were clearly rattled by her presence. Milotic's body coiled and tensed as he averted his eyes away from her. Roselia did not dare do her usual hissing or disrespectful sneer. Froslass' control of the cold was the best it had ever been and no frost leaked out of her body, and Lopunny's ears constantly twitched in anticipation of a fight. Only Sylveon appeared calm.

Very well. We shall go and speak alone.

"Wait, you meant alone?!" Denzel exclaimed. "Why can't I be there?"

Because that would go against the entire point of this test. Fear not, it is only to converse. No harm will come to them.

"Can I at least watch?" He begged. "I don't— I don't have to be close enough to hear, and you can cut off the telepathic link."

The fairy type paused, but then agreed. Very well.

Denzel sank deeper into the forest with his team while Decidueye kept an eye on Cecilia and Pauline. She came back forty minutes later, looking weaker than Cecilia expected. Not because she actually looked beatable in a fight, but because of how tired she looked. Cecilia immediately whispered to Denzel, asking what had happened.

"I couldn't hear. She just spent the entire time speaking to them, and they won't tell me anything about it," Denzel sighed. "I think it's some kind of test. First the wild Pokemon, then they follow us, now this? It feels like Hatterene's analyzing us—"

You with the fiery hair. It is your turn. Do you wish to watch, or will you stay behind?

"I'll watch," Pauline dryly said.

Thirty-four minutes later, Hatterene came for Cecilia.

—

Five Pokemon stood in front of Bellatrix. Golett, a being of clay and dusk whose stare appeared as empty as the void of space itself, save for a few flashes of individuality whenever someone it cared for was near, including its trainer. A Scyther that had a permanent anger permeating out of him. She could almost feel the intent to kill. He was the complete opposite of the docile Scyther she had once known, centuries ago.

A Talonflame awkwardly hopped through the forest floor, but she worried the most for her trainer, as did the Slowking who had annoyingly attempted to speak to her a dozen times about what she was doing. Bellatrix had thrown her psychic side to the wayside long ago, giving in fully to the ways of the fae thanks to her mother's teachings. She had no time for a psychic playing pretend.

The wyrm was also there, foul and as unpleasant as always. Her time with Turtonator had taught her not to judge a book by its cover, but by the Legendaries, these two were barely coherent enough to understand. It pained her to admit, but they were nothing compared to Turtonator's occasional wisdom.

Cecilia stood far in the distance, fidgeting as she looked to her Pokemon.

DESTROY! DESTROY! KILL! The head that she called Zerst roared. CHEW. CHEW.

Sol, for his part, bit at the dragon's neck to stop him from yelling. Restraint, Zerst. Your anger, too large. Destruction later. Surprise attack.

He was slightly more coherent but just as stupid. Even Tangrowth was better than this.

What do you want with us? Talonflame cawed. For days, you have stalked us like prey. Out with it.

FOOD. FOOD. HUNGRY— WHY TALK WITH ENEMY? KILL!

Golett, please let him chew on your arm, Slowking said.

The ground type silently offered Zerst his arm, and he wasted no time to begin chewing on it. Hatterene wrinkled her face at such a lack of proper manners. Maybe she'd been too quick in offering them the benefit of the doubt.

Scyther hissed, fanning his wings. I grow tired of this. Out with it.

This was... this was the worse team by far. There were no way around it. The boy's team had been dysfunctional and full of bickering, but there was love hidden beneath the insults. The redhead's team had been fierce, aggressive, and she had to stop that annoying Vigoroth from attacking her, but at the very least, Gothorita seemed to keep them under control. All of them seemed to love their trainer and were not victims, so they had been allowed to go back.

With this lot? The two normal ones, Slowking and Talonflame were completely accustomed to their behavior and only enabled it further. It was the complete opposite of Grace's team, but they somehow made it work. Bellatrix was almost too flabbergasted to speak, but she regained her composure after a short pause.

I have gathered you here to speak your mind about your experience with Cecilia Obel. If you were mistreated in any way or forced to do things against your will, you may tell me.

Slowking went first. I don't see the point of this exercise, but I will be the first to tell you that Lady Cecilia's skill as a trainer has only improved, and her care for us grows each day even while she is under mental anguish.

Hatterene nodded, using his feelings to confirm that it was what Slowking truly felt. He genuinely cared for her and almost considered himself a parent— no, a parent was wrong. He still disliked disagreeing with her and would not speak out against anything she decided unless it was a truly terrible idea. Perhaps a butler, then? Nightstalker had told her about those once from one of his books.

My feelings are the same, Talonflame chattered. She is not perfect, but nobody is. She has cared for me and I mirror her feelings. It is love.

Very well. What about you, young Scyther?

I hate her, he responded. I hate her fuckin' guts. I hate how she treated me when she first snatched me from my territory. She forced me to train against my will for weeks and those three shmucks used to help her do it, he hissed, pointing a scythe toward Zweilous, Slowking and Talonflame.

Hatterene absorbed the information and immediately prepared to execute her plan. The goal of this questioning had been two-fold: first, examine the relationship between the Pokemon. A trainer that did not foster a good relationship in their gathering would be an incompetent one. Cecilia had barely passed this section of her test. Second, see if there was any mistreatment taking place. If there was, then she would offer the Pokemon to stay with her and live in her fief.

She had failed— but Scyther's feelings were conflicted, which confused her. It reminded Bellatrix of how her old gathering used to feel when her old trainer started to treat them like people again. A penchant to forgive, but also lingering dislike.

I despise her, you hag. But I don't want your fucking pity. I'll kill you if you keep looking at me like that. She has gotten better, and I don't feel the urge to kill her every time I see her damned face, so I guess that's an improvement.

Bellatrix hummed. Cecilia was heavily indebted to this Scyther, but unlike Nohea, she had righted the ship in a few weeks instead of nine years. Did she deserve forgiveness? Would she repay the debt?

She has gotten better, Hatterene repeated his words. But do you feel like she is enough? Does your relationship with her feel fulfilling?

That's a lot of meaningless drivel. Has anyone ever told you that you sound so full of yourself every time you speak?

Scyther's words sent Zweilous into a laughing fit, and Hatterene had to place a barrier in front of him to avoid getting spit on her.

Be careful, she warned. Her tentacle flexed, and the bug type finally began to feel fear. Answer the question, young Scyther.

He sighed, and his eyes drifted toward the floor. I don't know yet.

There it was. That doubt that familiar doubt that had infected Bellatrix's old gathering and spread like a cancer. But she could not afford to be biased. A fairy was fair in all things, and like all others, this human deserved fairness.

I see. I assume you seek to find out, then.

Yes.

Then your trainer passes.

—

Cecilia breathed a sigh of relief when Hatterene motioned at her to come closer. She quickly ran through the forest floor and laughed as her Pokemon surrounded her. Golett let out a small beep and his head spun around, which was a neat little trick he did when he was happy. Zerst and Sol screamed, demanding her attention until she scratched the scales on their necks. Talonflame cooed and rubbed her head on her hand.

Scyther rolled his eyes at the entire display.

You have passed her test, Lady Cecilia, Slowking said with a smile. And Zerst and Sol are hungry.

"Thank the Legendaries. I don't even know why this happened, but at least it's over."

She could breathe lighter now. Cecilia hadn't known the consequences for failure, but with this Hatterene, she imagined the worst.

Cecilia Obel. You have passed, Hatterene said. I will no longer be tailing you and your companions. Your group's emotions were pure and your thoughts were not nefarious. You have treated the Pokemon on this route with... an adequate amount of respect, and you cultivate a relation of love with your Pokemon. You are free.

Her eyes bulged. All this time, she could read thoughts? Cecilia scrambled to remember what had even passed through her brain these last few days.

Worry not. Like I stated, you have passed. Nightstalker.

The ghost type appeared in a rush of wind so powerful that Cecilia struggled to keep her two feet on the ground.

We are leaving.

The grass type nodded, disappearing into the sky once more. Hatterene crawled away, but turned before Cecilia decided to leave.

And one last thing. Tell Grace Pastel that she has good friends.

—

"Thank Arceus, it's over," Pauline whined. "We definitely need to report this to the Rangers. I don't want anyone else to be a victim of Hatterene's sick games."

"Guys..." Cecilia said. "I think she knew Grace."

"What?" Denzel yelled.

"She told me to tell Grace that she has good friends before she left," she continued. "I think they came across each other while she was traveling through the route."

"Arceus," he sighed. "We'll have to ask her about it when we get to Veilstone. At least it sounds like she was friendly with her."

"By the way," Pauline asked. "How did you know what the hell that even was? I'd never even heard of a Hatterene before."

"I used to want one a few years back. I had one on my list."

Pauline wheezed. "Of course you did."