Interlude – Maylene II

Interlude – Maylene II

INTERLUDE - MAYLENE II

Maylene had barely slept all night, a far cry from the twelve hours she had gotten her first day back from the Distortion World. The sun hung low over Veilstone, and the sky was clear this morning after rain clouds had covered the entire eastern part of the region yesterday. Maylene stood at attention with a cohort of her oldest, highest ranking Gym Trainers in front of her Gym. Most of them were people who had seen her grow up and taught her, too. People her father had hired back when he still ran Veilstone. Maylene was wearing her Gym Battling uniform, a sleeveless, dark blue top and white pants with a red stripe down the sides. Her fingerless gloves felt comfortable around her hands, and she was usually, but not always barefoot. Since she was out, she had her shoes on— simple running shoes.

Closest to her was Lucario, who was just as nervous as she was. Barely a day out of being stuck in his Pokeball, and he was already being made to meet their father. He had been just as hard on him growing up as he had been on her, demanding excellence at every single step. Miss one, and he would unravel you right where you stood. Beat you up mentally so you could either rise a stronger person or break so he could reforge you into the person he wanted.

Legendaries, Maylene had been blind. The signs had been everywhere for her to see, yet she had instead thrown herself into running her Gym in hopes to impress him. Maybe, just maybe, if she had done a good enough job, then he would finally tell her that he was proud of her.

Their lining up in front of the Gym attracted plenty of stares from early commuters. A lot of them would walk up to Maylene and shake her hand, thanking her for her service to the city. It was difficult to take their gratitude and compliments seriously when she could have been working right now, or Teleported to Snowpoint or Hearthome to help out the cities in need of the most help. There, her fighting types would be a godsend.

"Think it's that one?" Maylene leaned close to her sibling to whisper.

I sure hope so. Better get this anxious feeling over with and break the tension, Lucario frustratingly answered. His eyes lit up with a cold blue, and the fighting type shook his head. Nope. Not this one.

"Unless he's masking his aura." A little trick he'd taught her to keep it suppressed, even if she rarely did so. The taxi passed them and the Gym by without a fuss.

Look, we're both nervous but he has no reason to. Lucario patted Maylene's back. And even then, I would have been able to tell. Don't let your anxiety make you underestimate me. He tried to be cheeky, but Maylene wasn't in the mood.

"You're right. Sorry."

Maylene asked one of the Gym Trainers for the time, and the older woman replied with 7:12 am.

"He's late. It's not like him to be late," she said. "There's like no traffic, either."

Oscar, her father, was not a man for luxuries. He had advocated for them to live a humble life and not use the Gym's resources for their own gain for as long as she could remember, or at least that was until he met Maylene's step mom, decided going to live in an Alolan Resort and that dumping all these responsibilities onto her was a great idea. Who knew, maybe Alison had changed that part of him, too. It wasn't like they messaged regularly at all beyond him checking up on how the Gym was doing, so it had been an entire year since they'd held an actual conversation aside from when Maylene had her breakdown. There, he'd called to berate her for being weak before disappearing again, but she had already hit rock bottom so it hadn't had much of an effect.

It took another seven minutes for Oscar Suzuki to arrive, and he did so in one of Veilstone's taxis, as predicted. As soon as Maylene saw him step out of the car, she found it difficult to breathe clearly. Her hands behind her back twitched, and she had to stop her eyes from darting all around her Gym Trainers. Her father was not the stereotypical fighting specialist. He did not have the body of a body-builder, although he was toned, as was shown by the tanktop he was wearing. He had the same uniform as her on, and in his— in her Gym, it was reserved only for Gym Leaders. Her father still had a head full of pink hair, although his was more of a faded color than hers, akin to Charon's. Usually it would be short— he had always told her to keep her hair short to stop it from being grabbed in a fight— but his time in Alola had allowed him to let himself go. It was long enough to reach his neck, now, and had been curled. It looked like a wave cascading around his head.

Speaking of his time in Alola, he was still relatively tanned. Oscar said something to his taxi driver with a loud laugh before looping around the car to let Maylene's step-mother out, as if she couldn't open the damn door herself. Alison was a delicate little thing, akin to a flower. Her father had met her during the Gym Trainer hiring process, and that meant she was young. Twenty years younger than him, at a striking twenty-six years old. Young enough to be her older sister. She'd been rejected at the interview stage two years back for reasons unknown to Maylene, but they went out for coffee that very week-end, and the rest was history. A year later, they were married and decided on a honeymoon that had never ended.

Instead of being tanned, she just carried the remains of sunburns on her arms and legs. Maylene's step-mother was dressed in what the Gym Leader figured must have been a traditional Alolan garb, an ankle-length dress with colorful, flowery patterns and fabric that flowed like water. Her light brown hair... ugh, they had the same Arceus damned hairstyle. It was enough to make her want to puke—

It was when they both swung around the car, that Maylene figured why her father had helped her up.

Alison was pregnant.

She was pregnant. She was pregnant. She was pregnant. She was pregnant. She was pregnant.

A small nudge from Lucario snapped her back to reality, although she wished she was fucking dreaming. Her father hadn't thought it a good idea to fucking tell her? Maylene gripped her wrist behind her back and struggled to contain the wisps of aura desperate to burst out of every inch of her skin to accompany her anger. Oscar and Alison walked up the Gym steps, and every single Gym Trainer bowed their heads, including Lucario.

Maylene did not. Only she was Gym Leader, and therefore above her father in status, but the fact that he had hidden a pregnancy from her— he was staring; staring her down so intensely she wanted to crawl into a hole and die. He looked larger than life, and each second he did so was like she was being crushed under the weight of his expectations.

She lowered her head.

The dam of tension broke. Finally, she could breathe again. "Maylene! Oh, it's good to see you." Oscar wrapped her into a tight and uncomfortable embrace that she didn't care for. "Sorry for the tardiness, it looks like every single taxi decided to have a day off. Sloppy." He clapped Lucario's shoulder next, and the fighting type answered with a nervous smile and greeting. "I missed you too, Lucario. I hope you've been taking good care of Maylene."

Oscar then greeted the cortege of Gym Trainers one by one, which was going to take a while, but was the reason why he had such dedicated personnel here at the Gym. Maylene glared at Alison when she ignored her greeting as usual. She wasn't a bad person or anything, or at least Maylene didn't think so. Maybe a little aloof. It was unfair of Maylene to expect a twenty-six year old to be the mother-figure she never had (or at least until she got herself pregnant; she was going to have to be a mother soon enough). The problem was that she just constantly acted like Maylene didn't exist, like so, and the Gym Leader didn't find it in her to say hello louder or confront her about it.

The reception now over, Oscar led everyone inside the Gym. Already, he was acting like he was in charge even if he had been neglecting his duties the year he had met Alison and then dumped them all on Maylene because he was so madly in fucking love. Where had all that 'duty' talk been for, if he was going to be a hypocrite about it? Irritating. Balloons in the lobby had been set up to spell out 'WELCOME BACK, OSCAR' right above reception, and nearly eighty Gym Trainers erupted into a thunderous applause as soon as they stepped foot in the building. The man of the hour laughed, making small talk with his employees he hadn't seen in over a year while his wife hung off his arm like a leech.

All Maylene could do was observe with Lucario. Some people just had this... this magnetic property to them. Like, they could step into a room and immediately capture the attention of everyone in it. To some, it was innate, like Cynthia, but Maylene's dad had cultivated this reputation in Veilstone over the decades, and even more so in his Gym. The year Maylene had been in charge had done very little to change that. You couldn't cut away at the roots he'd planted so quickly.

He's just come back and he's already acting like he owns the place, Lucario grouched with his arms crossed. How annoying. It was us who kept it standing. Why does he get the damn victory lap?

She wanted to reply, but didn't. Her father's hearing was as sharp as hers, so for many years, it was only Lucario, who had been able to vent his frustrations whenever a day got tough.

Outwardly, Maylene appeared zen. She had, after all, learned to pretend that she wasn't angry, or frustrated, or sad, or feeling any kind of negative emotion with Oscar in the vicinity. Drinks were brought by a few trainers, though none of them were alcoholic. They'd come from pressed fruits they'd bought at the grocery store yesterday, and of course the Gym had paid for those. Oscar grabbed some freshly pressed mango juice and jokingly complained about how bad it was compared to Alola.

Maylene ground her teeth. She had busted her ass to get this shit ready, so even a joke was getting on her nerves. She hated the fact that she found it difficult to hide what she was feeling, now. A year ago this would have gone over her head, but now...

Stay calm, Lucario whispered into her mind. The day is just beginning.

Alison cackled at every single joke Oscar made with that obnoxious Honchkrow-like sound she called a laugh, but most of her time was spent recounting how beautiful or welcoming Alola was. Oh, did you know they went hang gliding over Akala Island? Oh, you just had to hear about the food, they ate like kings every single day! What about the resort with the fucking 10 pools, the lazy river and the minigolf? The Aether Foundation having built a completely artificial island called Aether Paradise where they cared for Pokemon who needed it? While she'd been working day and night here to keep the Gym running and stop Team Galactic, they'd been having a grand old time!

Fuck off.

"Maylene." Oscar slowly approached her, carrying the confident swagger of a man that owned the world. "What's wrong? Your aura's showing." His hand gently gripped her shoulder, and it was only now that he noticed the hearing aid in her ear. His finger traced its contour, but he didn't say anything.

The blue light permeating through her skin was snuffed out like a candle. Instinctively, she lowered her head, staring at his feet instead of into his eyes.

Giratina had stood not one hundred feet from her, yet her father still made her feel like this. Pathetic.

"Just a little tired," Maylene finally answered. "I—I've been working long hours 'cause I'm helping out the other cities. I've been helping with their paperwork and such, too, when I can."

Finally, she gathered the courage to face him. A prideful smile stretched across his lips. "You're as diligent as always, Maylene."

"You heard her! My daughter's tired!" His voice bellowed across the room. Aura coalesced on his palms, and he clapped them twice. Each sound was a thunderclap reminiscent of yesterday's weather. "Enough partying! Drain your glasses and it's back to work!"

They did just that. Within the next five minutes, the lobby was empty. There was no need for a receptionist when the Gym was closed, after all. Alison and Oscar still remained, the former of which had opted to go on her phone.

"I'm tired, too," she complained. "Sinnoh's totally harshing my vibes right now, it's so depressing compared to Alola."

Before Maylene could protest at how out of touch that was, her father spoke up, "Why don't you go to my old room and rest?" he asked. Maylene had known him long enough to know that the calm in his tone was just a facade. The easiest way to tell was the unnatural smoothness in his voice, but also how he suddenly took three steps away from her. It was good to see that he still cared, at least. "I hope you didn't convert it to something else." Maylene shook her head. "Good. Maylene and I have some catching up to do."

Alison chewed on her lip for a moment. "Are you sure you don't need me here?"

Why would he ever need you here? You don't do anything.

"No, we'll be just fine on our own." He forced a smile. "I'll check up on you and the baby later."

Finally, she took the hint and left, leaving the three of them alone. Lucario shifted uncomfortably under Oscar's gaze, and Maylene could barely even meet it.

"Surprised?" He watched his wife exit the lobby with his arms crossed. "You're getting a baby brother soon. Sorry about her, by the way. She didn't want to come back, so she's a little miffed."

"It's okay," Maylene lied. She never got so many excuses.

"Thanks for the party, but," here we go, "what's with the way you carry yourself?" Gone was the soft tone he'd used for his wife. Her father spoke down to her, his face marred with displeasure. "You sat in the corner for twenty minutes; people barely noticed you were there at all! I raised you better than that!" Maylene flinched at the sudden yell. "You are a Gym Leader, you need to act like it. If you keep acting so lost and weak, people will notice. It'll reflect badly on the Gym, especially in these trying times!"

You were the one who wore a Gym Leader's clothes.

You were the one who stared me down until I bowed my head in front of the others.

You were the one who acted like you were in charge and didn't leave enough oxygen in the room for me to speak.

You were the one who taught me to be subservient to you.

She wanted to say all of this...

A pathetic, coarse "yes, sir," was all that came out.

He clapped her shoulder. "Good, good. Now, show me around the Gym, will you?"

What followed was the longest hour of Maylene's life. No, correction; the longest hour since she had helped Grace and the others save the world. She would show her father around the Gym, both the old and the new, and at first, he would praise her. Make her breathe a sigh of relief and allow a small amount of pride to rise in her chest. Allow her to smile and look up at him, as if to say 'I did a good job?!'.

Then, he would notice something.

It was always the minutest of things. Like too much dust gathering in a corner, or there being not enough four-badge Pokemon, or her not handling the training of the 1st and 2nd-badge level Pokemon anymore after her break, or them having too many Gym Trainers on payroll because she could handle more work, or that Lucario wasn't doing enough, or that—

Or, or, or. There was always something, it was never enough.

No matter how Maylene believed that this time, this room, this hallway, he would not find anything to yell at her about, her father always found a way.

And then he broke her down. Slowly, first. "You are better than this, I know it," he would say. But the more wrong he found, the more these backhanded encouragements turned to insults. "Worthless," he would call her. "You should never have been made Gym Leader. I should have picked x, or y, or even z." Maylene had long learned to disassociate when her father did this to her, so she could barely keep track of what he was saying. That worked for some time, until he asked her "Are you paying attention? Am I boring you?" and suddenly she was forcefully dragged back into the world as if his voice had a grip on her neck and was forced to nod or answer back with "Yes, sir."

Oscar wore her down, slowly but surely. Like a sculptor chiseling at stone. He took her to one of the Gym's lower-level training grounds, a room half the size of a normal arena filled with a myriad of blue fighting mats with bright lights shining from the ceiling. Then, he had a Gym Trainer bring out a few first-badge Pokemon. A Mankey, a Scrafty and a Croagunk.

"Let's see how you train them," he said behind her.

Lucario spoke up, Oscar I can help—

"No. It is the Veilstone Gym Leader's job to personally train their fighting types as soon as they reach the first badge level. You're giving them the foundation from which they will be fighting years from now. That cannot," he insisted on the word, "be half-assed. We won't be doing grapples today. Just hone their reflexes."

Lucario shrank and remained quiet.

"C—Croagunk first," Maylene said.

The poison type nodded. It was nervous to be fighting her for the first time, but it jumped onto the mat with the tiniest of croaks. Maylene raised her fists in a guard—

"Arceus, what even is that?" Oscar complained. "Slightly higher— lower! Your legs— your crouch is all wrong! Where's your center of gravity? I could knock you on your ass with a tiny push. Straighten your back a little. I said a little!" He let out a frustrated scream. "Why are you so scared? No need to look like a stiff wooden board! Relax your body, you're supposed to be fluid. There. Good, you've got it."

Maylene knew her posture wasn't wrong. It was excellent, yet because it wasn't perfect to the exact millimeter, her dad hounded her for it.

"I guess I'll have to move our sparring to tomorrow. If this is how sloppy you got in my absence, we'll have to rework the basics into you first." He exhaled, crossing his arms and shaking his head. Maylene stopped herself from sighing in relief. Spars with him rarely ended well, even on his good days like this one. He must have been happy to be back. "You're squandering so much potential," he continued. "You'll make it far one day thanks to this, trust me."

"Thank you, sir," she muttered.

She hadn't even begun the fight, and she was mentally exhausted. The Gym Leader slowly flexed, working aura through her body until it flared to life and Croagunk flinched. The mat felt firm and supportive beneath her feet, a reminder of the countless hours she had spent honing her skills there. Her father counted down from three, and then the battle began.

With a swift movement, Croagunk lunged forward, its sharp fists aimed directly at Maylene. Slow. She sidestepped swiftly, feeling the rush of air as its attack missed by mere inches. Her heart pounded in her chest, and the harrowing, judging gaze of her father pierced through her—

"Sloppy!" he called out. "What is this? You're worthless!"

She gritted her teeth. Maylene pushed herself down the mat and kicked behind her, but her foot only found air. With a defiant croak, Croagunk lunged at her, forcing her to push herself with her hands into the air away from the fighting type. She landed in a crouch around ten feet away at the edge of the mat.

"Stop dancing around it and win," Oscar pressured.

"Yes, sir!" she yelled.

Your body is a spring. Don't be stiff and let every action lead into another.

Her foot slammed against the ground and within a second, she was up to Croagunk. The poison type's eyes widened as she jammed a fist into its stomach, sending it away from the mat and onto the wooden floorboards. Croagunk rolled nearly forty feet before it managed to catch itself.

"Good," he gruffed. "Sloppy, slow, but good enough to be borderline passable with some guidance. Now the other two."

Maylene shut her eyes. Relief flooded her, but she knew it to be only temporary until he took it away from her again.

She should have been working to help Sinnoh right now. "Yes, sir."

—

Their Gym tour and her sparring now done with, her father finally told her she could go back to work, though not before worming himself into her duties. He had made himself at home in her office because he didn't want to disturb Alison while she rested, but at least he had allowed her to keep her seat at her desk and he was quiet now, not criticizing her every move. He'd sent Lucario away to work through the Gym, as if he hated when the two of them were together. He was sitting on the floor, just as he liked, with his own laptop on his knees that he had connected to the Gym's email without asking her. Sometimes he would ask what she was doing, and depending on her answer he would tell her to prioritize something else, but he really wasn't that bad—

No! Maylene's knee hit the side of her desk, and she quickly apologized to her father for the sudden noise before he could blow up at her. She heeded Cecilia's words and took a deep breath. Just because her dad wasn't that bad right now did not mean he was not awful. Maylene had lived through the cycle thousands of times. She was lucky Cecilia had texted her last night— or early this morning, she supposed— with many warnings. The girl rarely ever slept anymore. Maylene finished answering a message telling Candice that she would Teleport to Snowpoint early tomorrow, but she struggled to press send. Countless questions ran through her mind. What if her father tried undermining her position and took over while she was gone? Sure, Oscar would never be the actual, de jure Gym Leader, but in practice? Cynthia and the others were too busy for her to ask for help, so she would either have to confront him herself or let it happen...

She liked this job, even after everything it had put her through. She enjoyed helping Veilstone and testing trainers. Maylene liked being a Gym Leader despite the fact that she had been woefully unready when she took over. She didn't want her entire Gym to be swept from under her feet just because Oscar's standards were ridiculously high. It had been difficult to adapt to, but the job was actually fulfilling, now.

No, his standards were only ridiculously high with her. Because he saw potential in her and got angry at her when she didn't meet his absurd goals. Because she was his blood. Because her talent with aura went beyond even his.

Legendaries, she hoped her sibling wouldn't have to suffer the same fate.

But Maylene was being stupid. She sent Candice's Gym the message and leaned against her hand, which clenched at her forehead. A dull headache had been building up from the moment she'd set her eyes on Oscar, and now it was becoming unbearable.

"You know, now that we're in your office, I've been meaning to ask," Oscar said. "What happened to you in Coronet?"

"I—I can't tell you, dad," she sputtered. "I—"

"None of the other Gym Leaders were out there, I checked," he spoke over her. He got up and started pacing. "You can't blame me for being curious, can you?"

"No, I don't, but it's classified." Every time he got close to her, it took everything not to flinch. "It's literally for the Champion's eyes only, even the Elite Four don't know the entirety of what went on."

"You aren't the Champion, Maylene," he said. "And yet, you know anyway."

"Okay. Okay. I can do this," Maylene whispered to herself. "You can do this. I'll tell him to leave, I'll tell him that—"

Then,

Her world froze.

A knock on the door. Three distinctive booms that felt like electricity coursing through her skin. Her breathing grew so rapid she couldn't tell exhale from inhale. That was her dad. Grace and Cecilia's voices seemed far away now, and her vision grew blurry, save for that door. It narrowed, staying in focus, and she couldn't help but imagine her dad behind it. Deformed, tall, monstrous. 'You'll never be enough,' she already heard. He'd come for her, he had—

"Maylene," his commanding, deep voice rang from behind the door. "Someone told me you had people over. This isn't what we discussed." Three other knocks, stronger this time.

Damn it, someone had fucking leaked anyway! This place was a den of Sevipers! "I can't do this, I can't fucking do this!" Maylene gripped the sides of her head.

She heard a soft, metallic scrape, and then a subtle click. The door opened, revealing Oscar's looming frame that nearly spilled over the door frame. He always looked bigger than he actually was to her, as if he was leaving her no escape.

He had anoter fucking skeleton key. Or maybe he'd had a double made years ago— whatever, now wasn't the time!

Her father's eyes were instantly drawn in toward Cecilia's wounded face, then to Grace, then to her, where his gaze remained, and by the Legendaries, it was just so heavy until he finally stared at Grace again.

"You. I recognize you," he slowly spoke, his voice low and threatening. "You're the girl who humiliated my daughter. This is the kind of people you have over, Maylene? Have you no self respect?!" Maylene flinched away as if she'd been struck. "Making friends with the person who proved to the world that you weren't enough to run this Gym?"

Grace and Cecilia had been silent up until now. Maylene guessed it was to see if she was going to retort, but she couldn't. It was as if her mouth had been sewn shut.

Cecilia stood back up, her movements quick, yet clunky. "People change and learn from their mistakes," she bit back. "Apparently, you haven't." She raised a finger. "Oh, and also. Is this why you're back and trying to sweep the rug from under your daughter's feet? Because she was hurt and dared to show it in public?"

"And this is— this is the Obel girl. A foreigner." Oscar scoffed, then shook his head as if incredulous. "I thought you were smarter than this. Arceus, do you ever think about the consequences of your actions? About what people will say about this when it comes out?" he berated Maylene. "They'll say you're a weakling. That you're making a mockery of us. And maybe you are." Oscar jammed a finger toward Grace. "You let the people who walked all over you put ideas in your head—"

"Shut it," Grace said. "That is your daughter. Your child, the person you're supposed to love the most in the world. She's not a thing you can yell at until she fits the mold that you want. She's a living, breathing being."

"Give me a break." He rolled his eyes and laughed. "You're the cause of the problem in the first place. And what does a teenager know about raising a child?"

Grace bit her lip. Maylene could almost see the calculus going through her head. She considered her Pokemon her children, and no one could take that away from her. The thin thread of restraint she had left snapped on her face in an instant, and it morphed into twisted anger.

Then, she lashed out.

"Hey, no, you know what, fuck you!"

"No need to get so emotional," her father smugly said.

The yelling grew frantic, with Grace growing louder and louder and Oscar taking it all in as if they only made him stronger. If looks could kill, her father would have been a crumpled corpse on the floor. It was only a few exchanges later, that he—

"Maylene is my daughter!" His voice, amplified by aura, was like a shockwave washing over them; so loud it was like being hit by a hammer. "As you said, she is my child. I will decide what will happen to her until she's ready. You're just a kid who's way in over her head..."

Maylene wondered why he'd stopped.

Then she saw Grace's hand hovering over her Jellicent's Pokeball.

"What are you going to do, exactly?" Oscar asked. "Release a Pokemon and attack me? My, it must be true what they say about you."

Grace's face just shattered in a way that was agonizing for Maylene to look at. "I—I—I'm sorry, I—" Her hand shot up, and she seized it with her other one to stop it from moving any further, as if it had a mind of its own. She started mumbling under her breath, so fast and quiet Maylene could barely catch what she was saying.

Aura surged and crackled right beneath the edges of her skin, like a cup being filled with enough water to nearly, nearly overflow. Maylene yelled, suddenly finding her confidence, "Hey! Leave her alone—"

Before she could finish that sentence, Cecilia lunged at Oscar with her hand ready to wrap around his neck. She jumped at him with exaggerated movements, as if she was being controlled by a drunk puppet master, but Maylene restrained her first by grabbing her from behind and pulling her. Her father didn't budge, though he did end up flinching when her hand ended up an inch from his throat. Usually he would have snatched her wrist and squeezed to hurt, especially when it would have been self-defense. Maylene let Cecilia helplessly struggle against her, and her father slowly regained his wits and just laughed.

"See who you associate with, Maylene?" He chuckled darkly, taking a step back. "Violent children who have outbursts instead of communicating. And I'm the problem."

Maylene finally let go of Cecilia, who glared at her, as if Maylene hadn't stopped a catastrophe from happening. "The way you communicate might as well be violence, with how it's wounded your daughter for life," the Unovan hoarsed out. Grace was still quiet; somewhat dejected, but at least she'd stopped mumbling to herself and had recovered a little.

Riding the wave of outrage she had from her dad hurting Grace, Maylene took a deep breath. "I think... I want you to... um... like, leave. With Alison. Please."

It had been said in the tiniest, meekest voice possible. She'd been staring down at her feet, sweating bullets and her hands had been fiddling together.

But it had been said.

"No," he simply answered. Crap, what could she respond with now? "You need me here to run the Gym. This place is being run by amateurs—"

"Sir," Cecilia interrupted him, her voice cold and barely-tempered. "You are a malignant growth. A parasite that has come to gorge on your daughter's own exhaustion and hard work so you can take the credit when everything is said and done and Sinnoh returns to normal." Maylene's eyes widened. She hadn't heard her speak with so much strength since she had died. "I know your kind and what must be done to dispose of the likes of you. You are a cancer lodged deep into this place's ecosystem who can only be removed through scorched earth. The Gym Trainers and your daughter fear you for your reputation; you hold much sway over their fates and power over their heads, but take that away and you. Are. Nothing. Another few years, and you'll be entirely forgotten— a bad memory!" She sounded high-strung and crazed by the end of it. Her twisted smile seemed to stretch too far to be natural. It was as if it had been plastered on her scarred face.

"Maylene is ten times the Gym Leader than you are," Grace said a little shakily. "Being a Gym Leader implies that you have to be a leader. A good leader is compassionate. A good leader is not feared by the ones they rule, they are respected and liked. Otherwise, well... we know how the stories end," Grace shrugged before declaring, "you are a monster, Oscar Suzuki, and it takes one to know one."

For a moment, there was silence.

"You— you aren't that," Maylene mumbled to Grace. "You aren't a monster. And yeah. Um, dad, I think I'd run the Gym better alone. Sor—" Maylene stopped herself from apologizing. "You need to leave. This is an official order from Veilstone's Gym Leader."

Oscar was fuming. Maylene could see a vein popping out on his forehead behind his faded pink hair. His body was tense, his arms were crossed and she was honestly surprised he hadn't started yelling at her yet.

"Fine. See how you like it when the Gym collapses without me," Oscar growled, turning toward the door in a motion so fast it left Maylene dizzy. "You think your Gym Trainers will just accept the fact that you've kicked me out? They're loyal, something you still don't seem to understand."

"I suppose we'll see," Maylene said.

"Hmph. I raised you better than this," he grunted. "These 'friends' have been a bad influence on you."

Then, he was out the door. He slammed it, and hard. Enough for the wood to splinter around the hinges, causing the frame to crack and the door to hang slightly askew. The force of the slam left a visible dent in the wood, and the handle rattled precariously, as if it might fall off at any moment.

Maylene would have collapsed on her knees had Grace not caught her. She felt like she'd run for a marathon for a week straight. With ragged breaths, she struggled back to her feet as tears welled up in her eyes.

"You did it," Grace softly said. "You were amazing."

I was worthless, she instantly thought. You both did most of the talking.

Cecilia walked up close to the broken door and wrinkled her nose. "This is only the first step. He'll be back. He might speak to the press, too. Luckily I doubt he'll find much attention there, and he'd probably appear tone deaf given the situation."

"I saw him for who he was— pride and ego. I think he genuinely believes Maylene to be incapable," Grace said, shaking her head. "But hopefully if he actually tries more of his bullshit the other Gym Leaders will be less busy and will be able to help. Though we're always here if you need it."

Maylene remembered, back when all of her fellow leaders had called her shortly after her breakdown. Byron had offered to have a stern talk with her father for him, going as far as threatening to smack him in the back of the head with his shovel. She remembered as a child, how estranged both he and Roark had been. He knew about bad parenting and burying your child under heavy expectations, even if he'd changed for the better. She just wished her dad had been the same.

She just wished she had a dad who loved her.

"Th—thank you," Maylene sobbed. "Thank you so much for be—being here for me."

Maylene felt a rush of relief as Grace stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her. Her embrace was warm and tight, her presence a soothing song to Maylene's frayed nerves. Maylene allowed her head to sink onto her friend's shoulder as she cried and probably soaked Grace's t-shirt with tears and snot. She could feel Grace's slow, calming heartbeat against her chest. Did that mean Grace could feel her own heart beating so fast it hurt? How safe she felt in her arms, how soft and delicate Grace was, how nice she smelled, how gently her fingers ran along Maylene's hair and touched her scalp; the silky strands of hair she'd missed in her ponytail brushing up against the side of Maylene's face. Finding all of that pleasant was probably natural.

Her neck was a little uncomfortable because Grace was shorter than her, but she still didn't want the moment to end.

Yet it did. She didn't know how long it lasted, but it did. Cecilia was irritatingly tapping her finger on her elbow by the end of it, yet she had said nothing. Maylene supposed it might have been too much given that Grace was her girlfriend.

Maylene wiped the remainder of her tears with her arm. "Ugh. Sorry 'bout your shirt," she said.

"It's alright, it's just fabric with no meaning attached to it, I'll wash it later."

The door rasped open, dragging against the floor. For a moment, Maylene balked, thinking her dad had come back. "Maymay? Wait, what happened to the door?"

Maylene's head swiveled up. All caught up in her emotions as she had been, the Gym Leader hadn't noticed that someone else had been approaching.

"Nia?" She could barely believe her own eyes, yet her fellow Gym Leader was standing there in baggy clothes and khaki overalls. "What are you— I thought you were busy."

The grass type Gym Leader had been hit somewhat hard by the news of Craig's death, but none of them had been hit as much as Candice.

"I knew your father was coming back today, so I decided to swing by anyway. I had a meeting planned with the City Council, but it's just procedure to pick and choose where to allocate our emergency fund. Eterna has that archaic law saying I have to be present or send a representative, yadda yadda you know the drill. They're just putting a stamp on what I already decided, so I sent Roro instead. So, the door?" Gardenia asked warily. It was only then that she glanced at Cecilia, who was the closest, and jumped a little.

"Sorry," the Unovan dryly said.

"No, I just... you know what, I can't phrase this in a way that isn't offensive," she said.

"H—hi. Nice to meet you, Gardenia. Leader Gardenia!" Grace stumbled over her words. Maylene had never seen her that nervous, but she remembered Candice telling her that Nia was her favorite Gym Leader. "Sorry to intrude!"

Nia sighed, returning her gaze back to Grace and Maylene. "Nice to meet you too, I suppose."

"It was my dad." Maylene hastily went on to explain the entire confrontation, save for the murder attempts or near-murder attempts. It still didn't feel real to her. She'd stood up to her father. She used the opportunity to finally tell all of them that Alison was pregnant, and she was glad she hadn't just been insane. It was normal to be angry that Oscar hadn't told her. Growing up, she'd always felt like the crazy one, or at least her father insisted that she was always in the wrong, always too emotional, or that she didn't know what she was talking about. "Now he's gone for a while, I hope. I don't know when I'll want to see him again," she finished.

Gardenia pinched the bridge of her nose. "God, I'm so confused. Okay. Yeah, okay. I'm sorry, Maylene, I should have come here sooner and been there for you. Your father would have gotten stern words from me." Maylene did not doubt it, from how she could dismantle someone with only a glance. They'd been colleagues for a bit, too. She walked up to Maylene and wrapped her in a tight hug that Maylene returned. Warm, welcomed, but no funny feeling in her stomach. Odd. "I have an hour free, if you want me to stay. Well, it's really more like forty minutes, but I can stretch it to an hour."

"Nia, don't. Eterna City needs you," Maylene protested. "Forty minutes is okay."

"And you two...?" Gardenia asked.

"I—I guess we'll leave." Grace leaned against the kitchen island. Maylene's heart sank. "I wouldn't want to intrude— Cece, what about you?"

She simply nodded. "If your father ever comes back, give me a call."

"Maybe I should be here too in case you attack—" Grace stopped, then cleared her throat awkwardly. "Anyway. Yeah, we'll get out of your hair."

"If you want to," Maylene said with a forced smile. Maybe they wanted to leave? Maybe she'd asked too much of them, and now they wouldn't speak to her anymore.

And just like that, they decided to leave. Maylene and Nia walked with the two until they were back in the Gym's lobby waiting for Kadabra to come back and Teleport them back to the League. The goodbye was awkward. Maylene thanked them again for helping, but she couldn't formulate the words the way she wanted, especially toward Grace. All she got was a wave, too. A few days ago she'd be content with a wave. She'd have been happy with it, even.

Maylene left the lobby in a hurry, but she didn't go back to her office or her living quarters right away. Instead, she skulked around the door, telling herself that she was better off waiting for Kadabra to get here. Teleporting within the Gym wasn't allowed, after all.

Gardenia shoved her hands down her overall pockets. She'd been texting someone on her phone. "You wrote to them to help you out, huh." When Gardenia looked at her, there were no secrets. Her amber eyes could read her like a book. "I underestimated how close you were. I thought you were just friends." She wasn't bitter about it, nor was she accusing her of anything, Maylene knew.

"We are," she said. "I mean, I hope so. I don't know."

Gardenia snorted and caressed her arm. "Come on, Maymay. You'd have to be close for them to accept facing down your dad. He used to be a Gym Leader, for Arceus' sake!"

Maylene leaned against the wall, hidden from view of the glass doors. She rubbed her tired eyes and sighed, both happy that they'd gotten her father out and sad her friends were already leaving. She knew dreams of hanging out were just that, anyway. Dreams. She'd already been on a break for too long, and she hadn't even eaten. Lucario, the rest of her team and her Gym Trainers needed her at the helm to right the ship. Hell, she had recalled Medicham for basically no reason.

She took a step forward.

Maylene's hearing had always been better than average, even with her now-damaged left ear. Consciously or unconsciously, she opened her senses and leaned back against the wall despite Nia looking at her weird.

"...difficult. I lost my cool there, I should have been better," Grace said.

"Why is it that you have to be better while others can just walk over you?" Cecilia questioned. "I doubt you'd have killed him. He would have stopped you, I think, and if you did, well he deserves it," she spat. "But maybe... maybe I need to figure out how to put a lid on these feelings too. If I attacked someone in Unova this way for bad mouthing you, it would ruin me."

"It would," Grace acquiesced, her voice soft. "Thanks for— thanks anyway. It means a lot to me."

"Hmhm."

A beat of silence.

"Do you think Maylene will be fine?" Cecilia asked.

"Oh, she will. She's strong and never gets knocked down for long," Grace praised. Maylene felt her face heat up. "Better we leave her and Gardenia to work things out, though; we'd just get in the way. They've known each other for a lot longer. Candice told me they were like sisters, you know?"

"They did seem rather close."

"You know, it'd be nice if we could go back to that restaurant you took me to that one time, you know?" she said. Maylene could hear the smile in her tone. "Ugh, Be— Hatterene's so close, too. I wish I could go see her and Nightstalker."

Cecilia laughed. "I'm pretty sure that's like the fiftieth time you've nearly slipped with that Pokemon's name. She should start charging you."

"Hey! Believe it or not, I have enough stories to pay her tenfold, now!"

When she finally left back toward her office, she saw their hands intertwined so tightly, Grace leaning against the side of her girlfriend's shoulder. That new feeling; the pain in her chest came back at full force.

"Maymay, is something wrong?" Gardenia asked.

"No," she lied and fixed her face.

"Hm. Okay." The word was drawn out in a way that Maylene knew just meant she had figured something out, but Maylene had been too shaken to inquire any further.

Ah, Kadabra was waddling over. Back to chatting with Nia, then back to work.