Race of a Lifetime

Chapter Seventeen-Multiple POVS

(Author Note: Can be triggering, will go over some torture and abuse. Please skip Gladion's POV if you want to avoid it.)

Adira's POV:

"We'll be back! We are going to go train together!" 

"Alright Marie and Lillie, be back before dark and we will get going towards the next clue!" 

"Okay!" Once our little sisters were out of sight, I notice Gladion staring at me. I look at him with raised eyebrows, silently asking why he was looking at me so intently. 

"Your father wasn't just a cheater." 

"What?" I feel my heart rate increase. There is no way he could've found out. 

"Your father wasn't just a cheater. You are trying to protect Marie from him by disappearing." My eyes widen before I feel my body turn to stone. He knows. How does he know? I feel my facial expression harden. "You don't know what you are talking about."

"Yes I do. Your father sent a letter to you." I feel my breath hitch. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. Gladion holds up a paper that I grab away from his hands and look at it. Giovanni's handwriting. He knows about Marie. He has Gladion and Lillie's father in his captivity. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO! I feel my grasp lessen, the paper falling out of my hands. He will kill them. I need to go back. I need to go back and no one will get hurt. No deaths, no losses. I need to go back. 

"Adira!" I wake from my trance to see Gladion in front on me, shaking my shoulders. I turn away and start to pack quickly. 

"Adira?" I ignore his question. 

"Adira, you are not leaving." This makes me stop. I turn to see him with the same calm expression, though his eyes are laced with concern. "I have to, it will bring your father back, and protect all of your lives. Marie's included." Gladion shakes his head. 

"You will die."

"What matter does that make?" I realize my mistake a moment too late. 

"Marie, your pokemon, your mother, they would all be devastated. You know that." 

"If I don't leave, you all will DIE! Giovnni never goes back on his words!" Crap. 

"Giovanni? Is that your father's name?" I look back to my nearly packed bags, my hands shaking. I don't want to go back there. I don't want to be the lab rat again. I just want to not be reminded of hard things. I just want freedom for myself and my family. Why is that so hard? I don't realize I'm crying until I feel a tear slip from my watery eyes and onto my shaking hands. I quickly blink my tears away and go back to packing. Marie is in danger. I can't let Giovanni get to her. He would wreck her. I slowly realize that Gladion had gently grabbed my shoulders. 

"You need to find another way Adira. This isn't the way." 

"I can't-I can't lose her. I just can't let him hurt her. I just can't." 

Gladion's POV:

I manage to back Adira away from her bags. Her eyes are tight with fear, her facial expression stone cold but cracked. She reminded me of a cracked mirror, stable, but barely and losing its grip on the stability. I help her to her feet and somehow get her away from the bags. Sitting down, I can tell she was to speak but is terrified to. I remember what Magnolia told me. The way to achieve Adira's trust. Silvally. I smile softly, and take out the familiar premier ball. 

"What are you doing?" 

"Showing you that I trust you." 

What-?" I let out Silvally, who comes out of its ball with a small thud. I can hear Adira's breath hitch. Slowly, I watch as she takes out a normal poke ball and tosses it into the air. Emerging from it is another Silvally, this one looking at me and Silvally warily. It instantly notices its trainers mood and with a flash, gets in between us, growling. 

"Silver." Adira's Silvally looks at her, perked up at its nickname. 

"Grrrr..."

"They are friends. They won't hurt you. They are here to help us, as we are to help them. Understood?" Silver nods and backs off, sniffing and crying out to Silvally, Silvally joining in their conversation. Adira smiles a little bit. 

"They seem to be quickly forming a friendship." I nod. I feel Adira grab my sweatshirt sleeve, grabbing my attention and turning away from our pokemon. "What is it?" 

"I'm going to tell you the whole truth. But don't freak out or tell Marie. She doesn't know a thing and I prefer it stay that way. Fair warning, my story doesn't have a happily ever after." I nod, and she takes a deep breath before letting it out. 

"When I was around six or seven, it started. Giovanni told Mother that we were going to have some bonding time. When we were far away, I was knocked out cold. When I woke up, I was chained up in an unfamiliar room, with masked people in lab coats all around me. Giovanni told me he was going to use me to create the daughter he deserved, he wanted. The heir who could fulfill his dream with him. I didn't realize until the pain started what he meant. I was injected with several serums all at once, causing blood curdling pain like electric shocks all over my body from the inside out. It was so bad I blacked out." She takes a moment to breathe and I take the opportunity to speak. 

"What did the serums do?" 

"Enhanced me, spliced my DNA and redid it. I became a soldier, a powerhouse. I became able to speak to pokemon, my mind became a machine that saw any weak spots and created a strategy to defeat them in a moments notice. I became able to bond with the pokemon I catch extremely quickly, the bond being strong enough to create the Bond Phenomenon, which is basically Mega Evolution without the need of key or mega stones. During that time, anything my pokemon see, feel, experience becomes mine and vice versa. Giovanni, my own father, wanted to control the world, and I was his ticket." My breath hitched, my throat dry.

"How did he find the materials and money to do this to you?" Adira looks away. 

"Ever heard of Team Rocket?" I nod, thinking back to the idiots I had met before. 

"My father is the founder and leader of them. He is in charge of them all. But unlike some of his grunts, he and his inner circle are no fools." My eyes widen. 

"How did you survive? What did they do to you?" Adira sighs. 

"Every week, the torture of 'father daughter bonding time' became a routine. My mother never knew. But they did practically everything to me. Beat me, verbally, physically, emotionally, even some of the grunts decided to have 'fun' with me when I was too weak to defend myself. Though, that only happened a handful of times. I don't want to go into much detail but to say the least, it was a miracle my mother didn't find out until she found out about Giovanni cheating on her. That was how we escaped." I felt myself harden. How dare they. How dare they touch her that way. My hands clenched into fists, and I noticed that all of Adira's pokemon were out now. A different colored Milotic, Snow, Twilight, Silver, and a Salazzle. 

"Salazzle?" 

"I'm okay Hestia. I'm okay."

"Milotic?"

"Yes Cerulean, he is trustworthy." Adira then continues, "four years ago I got a letter from him. He said that he was coming for me. I knew that he would kill Marie or treat her the same way he treated me and I knew that it would wreck her. Her ignorance is what keeps her in the bliss you see her in all the time. So I fled. I left a note and fled. I have been on the run ever since." 

(Author Note: Triggering scene over.)

Adira's POV:

During the entire time of me telling my life story, I could tell it affected him. It hurt him. It hurt me to let all this out to someone, anyone, much less Gladion. When I finished, he was silent. 

"How are you sane?" I look away, my throat parched and not allowing me to speak. Next thing I know, Gladion has pulled me into a hug, sitting next to me, and seemingly trying to comfort me. I let him. I felt so many emotions at once. Pain, Anger, Fear, Comfort, Peace, and Safety. For the first time in my life, I let myself cry in front of someone. I let all my emotions come out, which only made Gladion hug me tighter. I wrapped my arms around his waist and allowed myself to let it all out. 

"Its going to be okay Adira. I promise you, he won't harm you or anyone ever again. I promise." I stopped crying and just allowed myself to be comforted by him. I didn't know why or how, but I knew for certain that this moment, fully connected us for the first time.