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Part 31. Acquaintances.

Fletcher woke up to the sound of arguing. He sat up and opened his eyes to see Silver, who was yelling at Red while she had her back turned away from the taller redhead. Red glanced over at Fletcher, and gasped at seeing him awake before rushing over to him and kneeling down next to him.
"Fletcher! You're okay!"
"Yeah, uh...what happened?"
"You hit your head on a rock when I pushed you down."
"And the blast that caused those chain of events is your little sadist's idea of an escape plan." Red's head whipped round to look at Silver.
"Hey! It worked! And who are you calling a sadist!?"
"Hmm, I don't know, maybe the person who nearly killed us to test out a theory!?"
"That blast would've only knocked you out for a few hours if it had hit you! Stop crying, you baby!"
"Oh, I'm the one crying!? What about you when-"
"Shut up! Don't talk about that!"
"Uhm...guys?" Fletcher cut through the argument, holding the side of of his head. "Where are we now?" Red immediately looked back at Fletcher.
"We're in another clearing, still near the castle."
"Enough chat, Red, tell him what you told me." Silver folded his arms, almost glaring at Red.
"Tell me what?" Fletcher looked at Red, studying her face as her expression changed to one of unease.
"Those people..." Red sighed. "I used to work for them. They're known as the Order of Shadows and they were the ones who broke me out of prison."
"The Order of...Shadows?"
"Yep, but I got tired of being their leader's lap-Lillipup, so I stole his crown, and that's why I left Castelia City, before you showed up and changed my plans, Fletcher."
"Me? What did I do?"
"I was going to go into hiding...disappear from the face of the Earth...but I can't really do that with a cop on tail." Red stood up and started walking away from Fletcher. "I...you should just go home...I don't want you here..."