Chapter 6 - The Sought-For Matter
Having earned the Beauty ribbon in the Normal Rank, which was the lowest level of contest competition, Solonn's next goal was to obtain a ribbon in the third-highest rank, the Super Rank. The next Super Rank contest was slated for November fourteenth. Solonn lamented the long span of time that separated him from the opportunity to gain his next ribbon, but also recognized its value. He would have even more time to rehearse than he had had prior to his last contest, time which he would certainly need in order to sufficiently prepare him to compete to the higher standard now demanded by his higher rank.
Though Solonn would have more time to prepare for the upcoming contest than he'd had to prepare for the previous one, he would have less time to train with his coordinator. It was now early September, and a new school year had begun, leaving Morgan with less time to spend at home.
Morgan wasn't the only one who was being drawn away from home. Her mother, Eliza, was a second-grade teacher at one of the local elementary schools. With both of the Yorkes away during much of the daytime, Solonn now found himself left home alone for several hours on end nearly every day. Even Morgan's other Pokémon were not around to keep him company; most of them preferred, for whatever unimaginable reason, to remain in their capture balls at nearly all times. Sei was an exception, but she seemed to prefer to go out into the city (doing gods only knew what; she never spoke of what her excursions entailed) while the Humans were away.
Not that Solonn exactly minded the solitude, though. He readily made use of the good, quiet time afforded by the absence of the others in order to meditate upon his connection to the element of Ice, conceiving and practicing new expressions of cryokinetic artistry. Solonn quickly grew to treasure these hours alone, time which belonged strictly to himself and his element. The only thing that could make these solitary sessions any better was if Solonn was able to operate Morgan's stereo and thus invite the transcendent beauty of the music it could provide to enrich them.
One Tuesday morning, Solonn was preparing to commence another of these sessions, initiating a ritual he had devised that now preceded each period of solitary rehearsal. He was about to enter the meditative state that would allow him to more quickly achieve a very strong and deep connection with his element, when he heard a rather strange sound, a sort of scrabbling noise coming from just outside the backyard's fence. Solonn would normally have dismissed such a sound, but the noise that immediately followed it - distinctly a vocalization of some sort, and one that sounded rather puzzled - made it hard to ignore. Solonn listened closely to the scrabbling noise, noting a change in its quality as its source transferred whatever action it was committing that was making such a racket onto another type of surface.
There's something on the fence...Solonn knew at once, but could not even begin to guess what that something could be. A second later, however, the mystery solved itself, as six clawed, purple fingers appeared atop the fence, closely followed by the rest of their owner's body.
Solonn was now staring into the huge, bluish-white, crystalline eyes of a small, deep purple-skinned Pokémon. Short spikes lined the strange creature's long arms and the sides of his large head, and a brilliant, magenta gemstone adorned his chest.
The Sableye sat atop the fence in a manner that made it resemble a frog sitting on a lily pad. He cocked his head at Solonn, his somewhat lizard-like face holding a quizzical expression.
"Who're you?" the Sableye queried in a perky, slightly rasping voice, with seemingly earnest curiosity.
Solonn gave the Sableye a bemused look. "I could ask you the same."
The Sableye chuckled weirdly, giving no other response to Solonn's retort. He then sprung from the fence and onto the trunk of the Sitrus tree in the backyard, clinging to the bark with his limbs spread out in a very lizard-like fashion. He scrabbled up the tree and sat down upon one of its branches, letting his short legs dangle off the side.
Solonn could not even begin to figure out what on Earth the weird little creature was doing, but decided that he had better things to do than to bother with him. He closed his eyes and commenced his meditation, determined to ignore the Dark/Ghost-type perched above him. He might have succeeded in this endeavor were it not for the overripe Sitrus berry that burst against the top of his head a second later.
Solonn turned a flat, annoyed glare upward. The Sableye above him was grinning, showing an incredible number of tiny, pointed teeth. "What do you want, exactly?" Solonn demanded of him.
The Sableye stared down at Solonn for several moments with his brow furrowed above his crystalline eyes, feigning deep thought. "I think I want to throw more fruit at you," he replied finally. With a faint whoosh, the Sableye seemed to turn to smoke and shadows, then vanished in a Faint Attack. There was a split-second's worth of the sound of rustling amid the branches before the Sableye reappeared on the branch above Solonn, both arms laden with more Sitrus berries. He proceeded at once to throw them at Solonn, but the yellow fruits collided in vain with the Glalie's deep blue Protect aura.
"You're no fun," the Sableye pouted. He clambered down the tree trunk and sat down next to Solonn, drumming his clawed fingers on the ground for a brief while. Then, he began poking Solonn in the side, prodding at the gaps in the Glalie's armor.
With an exasperated sigh, Solonn turned to face the bothersome creature. "Could you leave me alone, please?"
The Sableye left Solonn alone - for about thirty seconds. Then, he emitted a massive groan of boredom. A second later, he climbed back up the tree. He hung upside-down from a branch for a moment, and then dropped down right onto the Glalie's head.
Growling deep in his throat, Solonn tried very hard to ignore the little oddball who was now dancing atop his head. There is definitely something wrong with that creature's mind, he determined with absolute certainty. After all, sane, normal people typically did not just enter someone's personal space and begin pestering him, her, or it with no reason or explanation.
"Is there any reason why you need to be doing this to me?" Solonn asked, somehow managing to keep most of his impatience out of his tone.
"Hm? No, not really," the Sableye answered airily. He continued to skitter around upon Solonn's head for a few moments more, and then crawled headfirst down the Glalie's forehead like an overgrown, purple gecko and lowered his face between Solonn's massive eyes, grinning creepily. "Hi."
"Go away, please," Solonn requested through gritted teeth.
The Sableye shook his head solemnly and maintained a stare into the Glalie's eyes. Suddenly, he recoiled, pulling his head back as though something had just taken a swipe at it. His faceted eyes flashed; he'd have been blinking in surprise if he had possessed eyelids.
"Hmmm..." the Sableye uttered as he brought his face even closer to Solonn's, staring very intently.
"What in the name of all gods are you doing now?" Solonn demanded.
"I'm seeing you in a whole new way..." the Sableye said in a phony mystic voice. "Hmmm...very interesting. Very interesting, indeed..."
"Are you quite finished bothering me?" Solonn snarled, at the very limit of his patience.
The Sableye seemed to take a moment to consider the question. "Almost," he responded. Then, inexplicably, he planted a very juicy kiss right on the bare, diamond-shaped patch of hide in the middle of Solonn's forehead. The Dark/Ghost-type then sprang off of the Glalie's head and onto the lawn. He turned and gave Solonn a Cheshire grin. "Buh-bye!" he said cheerfully, and scampered off across the lawn, scaled the fence, and disappeared over the side.
Supremely baffled by what had just transpired, Solonn breathed a sigh of relief now that the little purple weirdo had left the scene. Don't try to make sense of that, Solonn advised himself, you'll only end up with a headache for it. Giving the bizarre occurrence no further thought, Solonn gratefully sent himself into the sweet serenity of his meditation.
* * *
The Sableye scampered through the alleyways of Lilycove, anxious to get home as quickly as possible. He had made quite the discovery while pestering that oversized Glalie...The Sableye's great, crystalline eyes held a very special sort of sight; if he looked hard enough, it showed him things beyond a person's appearance - including secrets. Among the Glalie's secrets, there was one in particular that was quite remarkable, and the Sableye knew that he wasn't the only one who would take interest in it.
In no time at all, he arrived at a modest brick house, a place that he had called home for only a few days. He hurried up the walkway, pausing before the front door. Summoning his Faint Attack technique, he felt a momentary tingling of Dark-type energy throughout his body before it swept him into a quick transfiguration. His solid form changed into shadowy wisps of black vapor before disappearing altogether. He then reappeared inside the house, coalescing into solidity once more on the other side of the door.
Once indoors, the Sableye began screeching excitedly to inform another resident of the house of his arrival. In short order, a male Human picked his way swiftly but carefully through an adjacent hallway and into the living room, dodging scattered cardboard boxes that were filled with the things he still had yet to unpack. He was a fairly tall young man, and one who had apparently just emerged from the shower; his collarbone-length, wavy auburn hair was still sopping wet, and he had only bothered to throw on a pair of boxers before going to greet his Pokémon.
"Hey, Xi," he addressed the Sableye jovially. "Back kind of early today, aren't you? Are you feeling all right?"
-I'm okay, Daron!- the Sableye cheerfully assured the Human, employing the telepathic skills he had inherited from his Gastly father. He chuckled effervescently, his multitude of pointed teeth flashing in another of his ten-mile-wide grins. -I just found something really neat, and I just couldn't wait to tell you about it! Oh, you won't believe it!-
"Is that right," Daron said with a small laugh as he crossed the living room to the front door and scooped his Pokémon up into his arms. He carried Xi over to the sofa and sat down. "So, what'd you find, hmm?"
Xi chuckled again. -You might not believe me if I just told you...I have to show you instead...- Xi told Daron, gesticulating dramatically and using his "mystic" voice once again.
Daron sighed. "Ah, that's never pleasant...but, if you insist..." He lifted Xi up to eye-level. The Sableye beamed at him, then pressed his palms against Daron's temples. Daron braced himself for an experience that he knew would not be any less unpleasant than it had ever been before, forcing himself to stare unwaveringly right into the Dark/Ghost-type's crystalline eyes. Those great eyes lit up from within, and a sudden, painful jolt lanced through Daron's temples as Xi's most recent memories rushed into his brain.
Almost as soon as the memory transfer had been initiated, the task was finished. Xi let go of his trainer's head, and Daron produced a sound halfway between a sigh and a groan as he set the Sableye down on the sofa cushion beside him, grateful that the process was such a quick one.
Xi looked up at his Human companion with a grin. Daron was returning the Sableye's gaze with a positively awestruck expression, his mahogany eyes wide and staring.
"You did it..." Daron said. "I don't believe it...less than a week on the job, and you hit pay dirt!" He let out a short laugh of sheer amazement and pride. "Great work, Xi!" he congratulated.
Xi gave a squeal of delight. -I knew you would like it!- he exclaimed while cheerfully applauding himself for his discovery.
"Oh, I'm not the only one who'll like it," Daron said. "I'm gonna go call him right now," he added. He rose from the sofa and made his way into the kitchen, retrieving the cell phone he'd left on the counter and immediately placing the call he had thought he would never get to make.
"Mr. Saller?" came a kindly-sounding, elderly male voice through the receiver a second later. "What a pleasant surprise to hear from you, my boy! Have you quite settled in to your new home yet?"
"Getting there," Daron replied. "I've still got a bit of unpacking to do, I'll admit, but I've gotten pretty accustomed to this place already. Xi and Cleo love it here," he added.
"Oh, good, good!" the voice on the phone responded. "So, tell me, my boy. What's the occasion for this conversation, hmm?"
Daron smiled. "You might want to make sure you're sitting down, sir." He took a deep breath, then announced, "We've found it."
Not a word issued from the receiver for a very long moment. "...You're quite certain?" the old man queried finally.
"One hundred percent," Daron answered confidently. "Xi's eyes don't lie, and he showed me exactly what they showed him."
"Well, he'll need to show me, as well. Can't be certain any other way, after all, and we mustn't move ahead until we are indeed certain," the old man said. "You can transfer him here from the Pokémon Center."
"Will do, sir," Daron assured him.
"Good, good..." A sigh of happiness issued from the receiver. "It's a wondrous thing, my boy, to see our goals coming to fruition so soon..."
"It sure is," Daron concurred, nodding.
"Well, then," the old man said crisply then, "once I have had my consultation with Mr. Xi, we'll discuss our further course of action. Be on standby, my boy."
"No problem, sir...And the authorities?"
"You can count on us," Daron said coolly, as the old man on the phone terminated the connection.
* * *
Eight days had passed since the appearance of the bothersome Sableye. Much to Solonn's appreciation, the little pest had not returned since. Thus, Solonn had been free to practice his art without any disturbances.
At his summons, twin spires of ice extended towards the heavens, catching the sun's rays with a brilliant sparkle. They began a sinuous dance, while their choreographer watched them through tremendous blue eyes, an expression of deep serenity playing over his features.
"That's very pretty," came an unexpected monotone from above.
Surprised, Solonn turned towards the source of the voice. Overhead, a large, pale purple moth hovered, scattering a small quantity of a fine powder into the air with every flap of her great wings.
Another unexpected guest, Solonn thought, his expression somewhat wary as he looked upon the giant insect. He could only hope that this visitor would not give him the same, noisome sort of company that the previous one had. "Er...thank you," he said a bit awkwardly. He moved out from beneath the Venomoth; the powder that was falling from her wings was beginning to irritate his eyes.
"Sorry to interrupt your performance," the Venomoth buzzed, "but I was sent to give you something."
The Venomoth gave no further explanation for her next actions. Her wings suddenly made a dramatic shift from lavender to baby blue, and with a single, powerful flap, they tossed a huge cloud of pale blue Sleep Powder on a swift gust of wind at Solonn.
Taken by surprise, Solonn failed to do anything to avoid the cloud of dust, and inhaled much of it before he could stop himself. He tried to retaliate at once, but his Ice Beam missed its mark, for his eyelids had closed irresistibly before he could aim it. He dropped to the ground, swallowed up in a profoundly deep sleep.
There was a faint rushing sound, and a mass of black vapors formed out of thin air just outside the back door. The vapors coalesced into the form of Xi, who clutched a Great Ball in his clawed hands. His great, faceted eyes found the sleeping Glalie, and he broke into his trademark grin. "You did it, Cleo!" he congratulated, happily scampering across the lawn to join the Venomoth.
The great moth's pale blue eyes traveled downward towards the capture ball that Xi held. "Are you sure that's the right one?" she asked in her buzzing voice.
"Uh-huh. I checked them all. This is the one!" the Sableye answered with confidence, having scanned each of the capture balls and thus found the signature which designated the Great Ball as belonging to the Glalie.
"And are you sure you know how to use that?" Cleo questioned.
"Uh, yeah," Xi said a little crossly. With a ridiculously exaggerated demonstrative air, he aimed the capture ball's lens at the sleeping Glalie and recalled him into the device. "See? I told you I could do it," the Sableye said triumphantly. Cleo merely rolled her eyes at him, eliciting a chuckle from her partner.
"Okay! We got what we came for," Xi said then. "Let's go!" With the Great Ball clutched tightly in his hand, he quickly scampered up and over the fence and departed the scene in gleeful haste, with Cleo winging her way close behind him.
* * *
Roughly three hours later, Solonn at last awakened from the sleep that had ambushed him, his eyes opening with something of a delay. At once, they registered the sight before them as unfamiliar. He found himself in the middle of a semi-large, high-ceilinged, and presently rather dark room. The place was quite bare; there were no furnishings around him, and only a couple of scattered, Human-made objects strewn about suggested that this place actually belonged to anyone. As far as Solonn could tell, he was presently alone.
He knew not what this place was, nor why he had been taken here, and he was quite sure that he didn't want to stay to find out. He promptly ascended from the ground, the drowsiness of his induced sleep gone entirely in the face of his urge to be gone from this place without delay. His gaze swept the room in search of an exit and found one in the form of a door in the wall to his left, near the back of the room. It was plainly too narrow to admit him, as portals in Human-made structures tended to be, but Solonn wasn't going to let that stop him. He was prepared to smash right through that door.
Without a second's hesitation, he lowered his massive, horned head, ready to ram the door down and burst through its frame. With a surge of speed, he charged towards the exit - but unexpectedly, violently, he was caught short by some unseen barrier, one that arrested his charging form smartly and sent him reeling harshly back. Partly stunned and taken utterly by surprise by the recoil from his thwarted charge, he wildly overcompensated to regain control of himself. He lost hold of his equilibrium entirely and ended up crashing face-first into the wooden floor, the boards beneath him splintering on his impact.
Solonn hissed and snarled in pain as red and white flashes played across the inner surfaces of his eyes and a shrill whine rang within his ears. He lay face down for a moment, wondering what in the world had just happened. Ignoring the throbbing in his head and the dizziness that came along with it, he lifted himself back up from the floor. He stared hard into the empty air before him, as if trying to will the unseen barrier that had caught him there moments ago into visibility. But neither the force that had halted him nor anything that could have been its source would appear unto his probing eyes.
Solonn was baffled by this phenomenon, but was determined to figure it out. He knew that his escape from this place, from the ones who had brought him here, and from whatever their intentions might be required him to overcome this obstacle. He approached the invisible barrier slowly and carefully, mindful of the recoil it had given him when he'd charged it at full speed. He soon found it and felt it firmly resisting him as he pushed against it.
Closing his eyes in determination, he began to slowly increase the pressure he placed on the repulsion field. He gradually entrusted every ounce of his considerable weight to the barrier, exerting it upon the obstacle before him with all his strength. But no matter how he pressed against it, the barrier would not yield to him. Still, he tried, despite how the pressure of his forehead against the invisible wall aggravated the pain from his recent fall.
Then, all of a sudden, the force that held Solonn at bay ceased resisting him altogether, causing him to pitch forward and fall onto his face for a second time. He exclaimed a muffled oath into the floorboards as the intensity of the pain in his head spiked sharply.
He heard a sound then, and recognized it as that of quickly-approaching, Human-sounding footsteps moving towards him from behind. He suspected that this signified the arrival of someone who was somehow involved with his abduction and detainment, probably coming to subdue him after hearing the commotion caused by his attempted escape. Quite certain that he couldn't get away from whomever was approaching, he prepared himself to fight his captor off. Growling a warning deep in his throat, he rose and turned to face - and to strike - whomever had just arrived.
But Solonn caught himself short of attacking as his eyes fell upon the newly-arrived Human, and he surrendered the elemental energy he had gathered for his intended Ice Beam. Standing there a couple of yards before him was none other than Morgan, breathing hard and casting furtive glances about her every few seconds. Solonn noted at once how badly disheveled she looked; her skin was pale and drenched with sweat, her hair was mussed, and her eyes were swollen and bloodshot as if she had just spent an hour or two crying. Her right hand gripped the handle of an oddly-shaped, heavy-looking object - a hammer - that wobbled as her shoulders heaved, looking ready to drop to the floor at any second.
"Oh...thank God I found you..." Morgan said almost voicelessly. "Now try to move towards me..."
Still quite dumbfounded, Solonn did as Morgan requested. He found as he moved forward that the repulsion field was indeed completely gone, allowing him to go unimpeded to her.
"It's gone," he noted aloud as he came to hover before her. "Some kind of invisible barrier was holding me here - you stopped it somehow, didn't you?" Solonn asked. Morgan nodded. "Do you know what it was, exactly?" he inquired.
"It was the Mean Look technique," Morgan said hoarsely. "I found a Sableye...just out there." She indicated the vast, maroon-hued expanse at the front of the room; Solonn had assumed it to be another wall, but now saw that it was actually just a soft, hanging partition through which a person could pass by merely pushing it out of the way - a curtain. "He was using that technique to keep you within a certain distance of him...until I hit him in the head with this." She raised the hammer, then let it fall to the floor. "He's out cold now."
A Sableye...Solonn had told Morgan of the strange little Pokémon who had paid him a visit eight days ago, and she had told him the name of his visitor's species. The image of the Dark/Ghost-type flashed within Solonn's mind...and was then closely followed by that of the Venomoth who had come that very morning and drugged him with Sleep Powder - another unexpected guest within such a short frame of time. It seemed to Solonn an awfully unlikely coincidence...
"Did you find anyone else here?" he asked Morgan. "A flying, purple Pokémon, perhaps?"
Morgan shook her head. "No. I searched this whole place over. No one else here except that Sableye...I didn't find the rest of you here, either," she added, her voice quieting considerably on those last nine words.
Solonn's brow furrowed in sudden, troubled confusion. "The rest of...what? Morgan, what are you talking about?" he queried worriedly.
Morgan's eyes closed, and she turned away as abruptly as if she'd just been struck in the face. She opened her mouth to speak, but a strangled gasp was all that could emerge, as whatever words she'd had prepared caught in her throat. "I'll explain soon," she finally managed in a constrained voice, then turned again to face Solonn. Her eyes were brimming with tears. "Let's just get you out of here."
Solonn nodded, and made for the curtain.
"No," Morgan called, halting him. "That way just leads into another part of the building. We'll go out that way." She pointed towards the exit that Solonn had previously spotted. "That'll take us outside."
Solonn made his way over to the exit, and Morgan followed. "You're gonna have to smash the door down," the Human told him as they reached the exit. Having already figured such, Solonn was already backing up for a charge as she spoke. Once he'd put sufficient distance between himself and the door for a full-velocity charge, he lowered his head (resigning himself to the fact that this would reawaken the pain there), then hurtled forward in a Headbutt attack. The door exploded from its hinges as he crashed into it, its frame bursting apart as he emerged violently into the sunlight.
Morgan quickly joined him outside. "Sit down just for a second," she instructed him at once. "You're much faster than I am - we can get out of here a lot quicker if you give me a ride."
Not quite comprehending what Morgan was asking of him, Solonn nonetheless complied. As soon as he set himself down upon the grass, he found, to his surprise, that Morgan was clambering onto his back, using the gaps in his armor as handholds and footholds to climb up onto the top of his head.
Morgan situated herself there upon the Glalie, sitting with her legs extended forward and her hands clutching his horns. She began at once to shiver quite severely in such close proximity to the chill of his body; noting this, Solonn took on a more conscious effort to focus his elemental power and keep his coldness to himself.
"Okay," Morgan said, "okay. I'm going to tell you which way to go...you just concentrate on moving as fast as you can. Now, go! Hurry!"
Solonn set off in an instant, achieving his maximum velocity quickly. He worried that the Human he was carrying might fall from him at this speed of travel, but she seemed to hang onto him capably enough. While he'd expected her to have him hurry towards her house, she instead steered him into unknown territory, guiding him through a maze of alleyways barely wide enough to admit him.
Her directions eventually led Solonn out of these alleyways...and then, unbeknownst to him, out of the city itself. He had been rushing along at top speed for minutes now and was tiring. Had he been one of those creatures that moved by the power of their limbs and muscles, he would have been far wearier still. Morgan urged him to keep going, and he figured that she probably had a good reason to urge him on so far from the scene they had fled. Preferring to be safe rather than sorry, he reckoned that he'd do best to trust that notion, and so, he continued on, ignoring the rising complaints of his body.
Solonn and Morgan were now swiftly making their way westward along a scenic, grassy route. Delicate-looking metal fences lined the path on either side. Some distance beyond the fence on the right, a large, flat building stood. The fence on the left provided the sole barrier between the road and a treacherous drop off of a sheer cliff towards a sparkling expanse of water. Even though only able to see the scene to the south through his peripheral vision, Solonn found himself in awe of what he could glimpse of the calm, sapphire waters and the great, solemn mountain they embraced that stood tall against the backdrop of the southern horizon.
At length, this route gave way to a lush, verdant place teeming with trees and vast patches of tall grass. By this point, Solonn simply could not go any further. It's far enough, he figured, it has to be...Groaning, he allowed himself to sink to the ground, managing with something of an effort to keep from obeying his body's desire to roll over onto his back so as to avoid casting Morgan off from him and possibly crushing her in the process.
Morgan climbed off from him somewhat awkwardly. She sat down in the grass in front of him and promptly buried her face in her hands.
For a very long moment, Solonn sat silently, trying to catch his breath and to ignore the fact that he ached everywhere. "What's happened?" he asked finally, still practically wheezing.
Several seconds passed before Morgan made any sort of response. Her face remained buried in her palms, her fingers knitting themselves fretfully into the hair that framed it.
"They're gone," she finally croaked in barely more than a whisper.
"...What's gone, Morgan?" Solonn asked softly, the edges of his voice frayed by the sense of dread building rapidly within him.
"Not 'what', Solonn," Morgan corrected him, her voice breaking. "Who." Her shoulders started to shake uncontrollably; then, she gave a wrenching sob. "My other Pokémon are gone. Stolen. All of them."
"What?!" Solonn could have sworn that his heart had just stopped at the news he had just received. "Oh, good gods...When did you find out?" he demanded.
"A couple of hours ago," Morgan answered miserably, still hiding her face. Tears were now streaming through her fingers. "I wasn't feeling so good at school...really, really nauseous...and they excused me early. I came home, and you were gone, and all the others, too...they took the balls they were in and everything," she sobbed.
The news struck Solonn like a hammer. Oth...Raze...Sei...Aaron...Brett...all those people who had come to be good friends of his...gone, taken gods only knew where...As he thought about the others, he became brutally aware of just how helpless they had been, contained within their capture balls - small, portable devices, easily carried away...
But wait...Not all of them had been in that vulnerable position..."What about Sei?" Solonn inquired. "She was out of the house, wasn't she?" The possibility of Sei still being free offered a ray of hope for the others - her Psychic abilities could certainly aid in locating them...
Morgan shook her head. "No, she wasn't. Before I left, she said she was staying home...some marathon on TV..."
Solonn uttered a low, sorrowful hiss. He hadn't even noticed that Sei had been home the whole morning...he supposed that he must have been too engrossed in his practice to be aware of her. "My gods..." he muttered. He almost feared to imagine what sort of abductors could have successfully subdued such a powerful Psychic as Sei...he realized that he had been beyond fortunate to have safely escaped from what were certainly very dangerous captors...the others, however, had not been so lucky. A sickening feeling ran through his veins as an unbidden parade of the grim scenarios that might have befallen his friends played within his mind.
"How did you manage to find me?" Solonn asked then.
Morgan took a very deep, shuddering breath, her body trying in vain to calm itself. She finally took her hands from her face, revealing her bloodshot eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. "When I found you all gone," she started, having to pause to catch her breath in between sobs, "I called the police...they came and talked with me for a while...
"After that...I don't know. I just started wandering - when I'm sad, I'll just do that, just go for a walk - and then I saw this place, with this sign in front..." Her face contorted into what was unmistakably a grimace of disgust. "'See the Amazing Talking Glalie!', it said."
Solonn's eyes widened dramatically. The light within them blazed with outrage. He hissed again; not a low lamentation this time, but a vehement, explosive outburst. "That's what they took me for? Some kind of freak to show off?" Morgan nodded regretfully. "How...how could they have possibly found out?" he demanded fiercely.
"I don't know!" Morgan blurted. "I sure didn't tell anyone!"
Solonn winced. "Sorry...I wasn't trying to accuse you..."
"Oh..." Morgan's tears began to fall even harder in a fresh surge. "God...no, I'm sure you weren't...God, I just feel awful!" She broke into sobs so violent that they barely allowed her to breathe.
Solonn gave a long, galing sigh. "It's all right..." he muttered. With no small measure of difficulty, he lifted himself from the ground, setting himself back down closer to Morgan. Burying her face in her hands once more, she leaned into him at once, her side against his - he wished she wouldn't. He barely had any strength to keep his element at bay, and the poor Human was shaking enough without his frigid chill right up against her. But Solonn just didn't have the heart to try and persuade her to move.
For innumerable seconds, they just sat there beside one another, neither saying a word. Nothing disturbed the silence save for the faint calls of distant seabirds. Even Morgan's sobs had grown quiet, though they remained just as violent.
"Did you say that you called for help...for people who could possibly help find the others?" Solonn finally asked in the softest, most soothing tone he could manage at the moment, trying despite his own terrible worry to provide a calming, consoling presence for his distraught friend.
"Mmm-hmm." Morgan responded weakly.
"They might still set things right," Solonn said, in as much an attempt to reassure himself as to reassure Morgan. "They might still find out who did this...they might still find the others..."
"...God...I hope so...Do you know anything about the ones who took you?" Morgan asked then. "Anything that might help the police find them?"
"Not really," Solonn answered with a sigh. "Some sort of winged Pokémon came and threw some kind of strange dust on me, and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was where you found me. I have no idea what happened in between...I know that creature couldn't have worked alone, though. We know that that Sableye was involved, but there had to be others...I'm so sorry; I wish I knew more..."
"It's okay," Morgan muttered, "it's not your fault. If anything...it's probably mine."
"What? Gods, no, you know better than that!" Solonn responded incredulously at once.
"Solonn, think about it. They probably came for you. Somehow, they found out about you, and took you so they could make money showing you off...and all the others were just in the wrong place at the wrong time..." Morgan turned her gaze briefly to the east, then closed her eyes. "I should have let you go when you first asked. Then none of this would be happening."
Solonn closed his eyes. "Please, Morgan...don't blame yourself. Please." He opened his eyes again and turned them upon her, their light low and their color deep with sorrow and weariness. "Besides," he added, "I'm the one who told you not to take me back right away, remember? It was my idea."
But Solonn's words seemed useless. The look in Morgan's eyes told all too clearly that she was not consoled, and not convinced. "Doesn't matter," she said, almost whispering. She tried once again to steady herself with a deep breath, but to no avail. "I shouldn't have kept you here. I guess there's just no safe place for someone like you among Humans. Solonn...I'm letting you go now."
Solonn stared at her, dumbfounded. A part of his mind returned to the last time Morgan had offered to release him from her custody, that night that he had revealed his talents to her. Though he had come to know her quite well, and knew that she was not nor certainly was she ever the sort to treat him as a possession, somehow he was still amazed by the notion that she, the very creature who had taken him from his home, would so willingly relinquish him. Twice, he thought to respond, but neither time did he have any clue what to say.
"Listen." Morgan rose shakily to her feet, casting another glance eastward, then turning to face Solonn once more. With an obvious effort, she kept her gaze locked firmly into his eyes. "Since...since the others are gone..." she said with difficulty, "...well, I can't have you Teleported home, and there's an ocean between here and there, so..." She swallowed hard, running a hand fretfully through her hair. "What you're gonna have to do is just lay low for a while. I'm...I'm kind of scared for you to go back to Lilycove right now; the people who took you are still out there for now, and when they find out you got away...if they find you again, God knows what they'll do. Just stay away from Lilycove for a week or two, just to be safe, and in the meantime, I'll try to get a hold of someone who can get you home. I promise. Maybe...maybe the others will be found by then...then Sei or Ominous could take you. But if you find some way to get home on your own...go ahead and take it. Please. Don't wait for me if you don't have to."
Still in disbelief, Solonn remained silent for several moments more before responding. "If you're sure this is what you really want..." he began uncertainly. Morgan nodded almost imperceptibly. "All right," Solonn said quietly, "all right. I'll return to Lilycove after a few days. Until then," he gave her a solemn look, "I want you to take care of yourself. You're a good person, Morgan. You really are. I wouldn't want to see anything happen to you."
Morgan nodded again. "Okay," she whispered, wiping the tears from her eyes as best she could. She wrapped her arms around the giant Glalie as far as they would go and gave him a long embrace, then let go and took several steps back from him. "Guess I'll see you again soon, but if I don't..." She shrugged feebly. "Goodbye, Solonn."
"Goodbye," Solonn echoed. He rose from the ground, ignoring his body's protests, and bowed deeply, inclining his great face towards the ground.
"Stay safe," Morgan said. With that, she turned and set off for the city in the east.
"You, too," Solonn called after her, allowing himself to sink back into the grass as he watched her go. He worried for her, she who had been parted from so many dear friends in the blink of an eye. He feared even more for the other Pokémon, they whose fates remained unknown. There was no way of telling if things would be set right again for them. He could only hope that they would be.
* * *
Morgan Yorke returned to her home, listlessly casting the light jacket she was wearing onto a nearby chair as she passed through the living room. Her mind was somewhat distant after such a long, difficult day. Out of habit, she made her way straight to the back door, to the backyard where she had shared so many hours with the Glalie who had become one of her best friends. A sickening pang struck her at once as the door opened upon the empty space near the Sitrus tree where he should have been.
"Oh...my God...Where is he?!"
Next time: Solonn is offered a place to lay low for a while, but what might await him there? See you then!