Pokémon: Out of the Woods | A Galar, Unova & Sinnoh Fanfiction

Chapter 90: The Ideal Hero

Nayden Noble and his wife, Charlotte, lived at Victor's home in Wyndon with their four year-old son. He was still awake. It was the second time one or both of his parents disappeared in the middle of the night. Peonia was asleep last time. She was wide awake now. She watched with a distantly troubled frown when Triton sat opposite Nayden and Charlotte on the couch. Triton noticed that Charlotte's hair was light blue. She wore it in pigtails.

'I don't have all night, so... why were you at the Slumbering Weald when Victor Noble was killed?'

'That's where you went...?'

Peonia's eyes narrowed in suspicion, as Nayden and Charlotte feared. Nayden fidgeted.

'I felt like... like something was calling me... but I was a coward... and... I just ran away before I made it to the shrine... I think I passed someone in there...'

'And I stayed outside,' Charlotte nervously added, 'I went with Nayden because I was worried, but those woods terrified me up close...'

Triton blinked. 'And... you didn't think to tell anyone until now?'

'I'm sorry!'

Charlotte burst into tears. 'I'm sorry... I've been judged all my life because I'm Brynlee's kid... I was terrified... I was terrified I'd be accused of murdering my own father in-law...'

Brynlee was a Cipher Admin and a serial killer who killed her own husband. Until she died, the daughters of that fatal union lived under fake names in fear. Charlotte was sent to Galar as a child. Her sister was sent to Johto. It was true that people realised and judged them regardless, but...

'I'm not gonna lie, Mrs. Noble... that was incredibly selfish. If you'd come forward sooner, an innocent woman – my own sister, who happens to wear her blue hair in pigtails like yours – wouldn't have been accused of murdering Victor. She's a famous actress. No matter what we say, the world is never going to forget. Her life will never be the same.'

Peonia glared. 'They might've caught the actual murderer... but they haven't because they've been looking for a woman with blue pigtails!'

'I'm sorry... I'm really, really sorry...'

Triton turned back to Nayden. 'And I guess you said nothing for the same reason?'

'Aye... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... when we ran off, we had no idea what was going on in the woods... but then... then we saw the news... we were so upset and freaked out... it was like losing our dad for both of us... my dad took Charlotte in... and I didn't want her to suffer any more than she already has...'

If Galatea wasn't the killer, who was? It wasn't impossible that it really was Charlotte. Did Triton need to at least take her to the police station for further questioning?

Peonia's Tyrantrum opened the curtains to let in the morning light. As it passed the TV, it gestured to its Trainer. She glanced back. Then she grabbed the TV remote.

'Uh... Mr. Pickett... have you seen this?'

A Dynamaxed Buzzwole rampaged through the streets of Hammerlocke. Tatsuko battled a Guzzlord as Fayiz helped her Gym Trainers evacuate the crowd of thousands from the stadium. A random Lombre fell from the sky. As the camera turned to the gaping tear in the sky over Hammerlocke, a quake rocked the ground as far away as Wyndon. Pictures of Victor's family fell off the walls. Windows smashed. The panicked cameraman climbed onto his Corviknight to follow a reporter to the source of the quake: the castle rising from the ground in the hills beyond Hammerlocke until it loomed over the city. Jahzeel's voice boomed through the streets.