Pokémon Obsidian | An Orre Fanfiction

Chapter 102: Freedom

Laila, Ilirian and Raidne didn't head back to The Under right away. It was the morning after the trial when it sank in that if Raidne wanted, she could go out into the city. She wasn't just free. She no longer had to fear her family or any other abuser. Her parents, Leucosia, Lovrina, Primula and Wilmot were jailed for life. Ein was probably going back, but for now, he was under house arrest in Obsidian City while he told police everything he'd never said before. Oleana had died, apparently of old age, by the time police found her. Leroy was in the courthouse, his trial ongoing, until prosecuters decided whether he was a truly willing member of Cipher.

Raidne was never afraid of Ryland. She knew, despite his petty nature, that he was another product of abuse who hardly had it in him to hurt anyone. As for Jamie... she was never afraid of him, but afraid for him. Most often, she was afraid that she didn't matter to him.

She was yet to check the memory stick. Technically, she was allowed to check it offline, but she didn't ask for permission. She expected the contents to upset her.

Whatever you think of me... it's because of you that I'm still here to experience freedom. Whether people like it or not, no cop or soldier could've ended the abuse at the resort. Only Grand Master of Cipher could do that. Not even any old Grand Master... it had to be the most competent Grand Master who could scare the worst of Cipher. And the only person capable of that was Jamie.

Ardos knows it. Ryland knows it. Every one of those abusers knows it. Even Ein is saying it. How can the justice system ignore the lives he's saved? The lives that would have ended or become too miserable to bear by the time that system intervened?

For now, there was nothing Raidne could do for Jamie. Even if there was, her top priority was something she owed herself: to finally step from the void of Cipher into the real world. She was born in Phenac City, but never saw views beyond the windows of her grandparents' suburban home.

For 25 years, she longed for everything others took for granted. It wasn't Phenac Stadium, the famous fountain or even the views of Realgam Tower that took her breath away. She saw those things in photos. It was the threads that held the real world together: the Pokémon Centers and Marts, the supermarkets, the schools, the local and Boltund buses from as far away as Unova; collecting and dropping off weary passengers who would never know that once, on a day they wouldn't remember, they were as wondrous as legendary Pokémon to a random face in the capital city's crowds. The rumble of traffic, the flowing canals, the rattling manhole covers, urban Pokémon and anonymous chatter... it was all incredible to Raidne. Like the city overflowed with water in the forbidding desert, she felt like she finally found refuge after a hopelessly endless trek.

It was something else, however, that brought tears to her eyes. The smiles of her friends, real friends who walked with her because they wanted to, were more precious than the most exciting city in the world. When jet lagged Holly met them at Hexagon Coffee, accepting Raidne as if she'd known her all her life because if she mattered to Laila and Ilirian, she mattered to Holly too; Raidne could hardly believe she wasn't dreaming.

The barista who prepared her iced coffee spelled her name wrong. Her cup said 'Rainy.' She still washed it out and kept it. It was a souvenir at least as precious as the ones from Jamie that Leucosia destroyed, if not more so, because it was a souvenir of her first day of true freedom.

When everyone else was asleep and she sat at the shop's computer that she was now free to use, she felt like she was doing something wrong; like she didn't deserve Laila's trust. She knew, though, that if there was ever a moment when she could accept whatever awaited her on that memory stick, it was then.

Even if you never want to see me again, Jamie... it's OK. I'll understand.

'I don't know what's going to happen to me... if I'll ever really stop feeling... or if I'll never have existed at all... but either way... there's something I think should be preserved. That you deserve to know. So. This is for you.'

Raidne glanced at the envelope. There was no question that her name, in Jamie's handwriting, was on it... but there was even less doubt that he took the time, even while he was whisked off his feet in a hurricane of hate and fear, to learn guitar and sing for one specific person. Before, Raidne might have wondered if he was already singing for Lavender. She didn't. She knew when she heard the first words, let alone when she saw that smile at the end of the video, that her love was not one-sided. It never was. It never would be.

Laila padded downstairs in her pyjamas. She found Raidne sobbing incoherently on the floor, but when she looked up, Laila saw they weren't tears of distress. On the computer screen, the video was paused on Jamie's smile, reflected like a mirror on Laila's face when she realised what moved her friend so.

'I called it.'

'Y-you... you really did. Laila... I know... you're worried that you never really knew your brother... but... you obviously know him better than anyone. You saw that... even when I couldn't. But... I can't help... feeling a little guilty that...'

'You know, my grandma Abbey loves Alfie just as much as she loves Gramps. She'd never go back to him, but she still loves him. Loving them both doesn't mean she loves either any less, or that one or the other is right or wrong. Jamie did love Lavender. But he also loved – and still loves – you.'

Laila paused. 'But... I guess Grandma's with one, not the other, because that was what she needed, when she needed it most. Same thing with Ryland and Reira, innit? He couldn't give her what she needed when she needed it. Tragic for him, because it wasn't his fault, but it's how it is. I don't believe – no matter what anyone says about vanity or selfishness – that Lavender was a bad person. I don't believe she was using Jamie or that she didn't love him. But she didn't love him in the way he needed her to. She might have done in time, but life's cruel like that. She didn't get the chance. You always loved Jamie in the way he needed you to, though. So just like fate favoured Gramps over Alfie, or Zane over Ryland... fate is being kind to you for once. And it's about time. Innit?'

Maybe it was about time that fate was kind to Raidne. Yet as wonderful as it was to know she was loved, to be free to feel how wonderful it was to love, she couldn't help feeling as if the sky wasn't as clear as it seemed.

She would survive if Jamie was jailed for life. Her heart would ache that she couldn't share her freedom with the person she loved most, who apparently loved her equally, but she would survive. What would hurt more was that she firmly believed he was responsible for that freedom. He was responsible for Ryland's freedom. Personally, Raidne believed that one day Leroy would appreciate his freedom from Primula. If GoD had been anyone other than Jamie, even if Cipher's victims were eventually freed by police, they would be sucked back in by people like Brynlee, or out of fear of the abuse that would never have ended.

Yet if one Cipher member never saw the light of day again, it would be Jamie. Some of the charges against him were dropped. The Bank of Obsidian City was emptied to reimburse the Bank of Unova and Bank of Orre. They were fully repaid and compensated. Both banks still refused to drop the charges. The Phenac residents and lone Gym Trainer refused. Brynlee's one defensive daughter, Alice, demanded the death penalty. It remained to be seen whether Jamie would also be found guilty of treason for attempting world domination. If he was, the other charges didn't even matter. Treason on that scale meant life without parole.

Raidne asked Laila to teach her the traditional prayers she recited, like Amber, five times a day to beg whoever was listening to spare her brother. The concept of a higher power, even as a legendary Pokémon like Celebi, was abstract to Raidne. She didn't know who or what she was praying to. If there was any chance, no matter how small, that someone or something was listening, it was worth it.