Pathos「Pokemon Fanfiction」

Eleven

Chapter Eleven: Childlike Dreamer

The first thing he registered when he came to was the room.

His head felt like it was stuffed full of a Cottonee's fuzz—it pounded like a herd of Tauros were ravaging his brain, and it hurt. He could only be thankful for the fact that he wasn't delirious yet, but that gratitude could only improve his bad mood so much.

Panic flooded his mind for a moment as he took in his surroundings; he wasn't in a bad room, by any means, but that made him all the more anxious. The place had a style that was distinctly anything but Kalos.

Avis' first thought was to bolt for the door. It was, after all, the most logical choice, and there would be a chance that the frame was unlocked.

When the door clicked loudly, however, and the distinct sound of someone's footsteps sounded behind the wooden panel, he decided against it. If he wasn't alone, there wasn't any reason why the person behind the door wouldn't try to stop him.

He tensed when a hand pushed open the entrance, eyes narrowing as he realised that the captain was coming in and fingers freezing when he realised that the sword that had hung by his side the previous day was missing.

"I thought you would have woken up," the man commented, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "But the drugs did do their work after all. I was able to get you back here."

Avis tensed at his calm tone. "Where is this place? What did you do?"

"You're the complete opposite of your brother," his captain bit back, but the both of them knew that it wasn't quite true. "This is the main Hoenn base in Kalos. Don't worry, you're not going to be seriously harmed."

The Hoenn base...? It took him a few seconds for him to make the connection, and he started to suspect that his sluggish mind was a result of whatever Takeo had slipped into his drink. "So you were the one who killed them?"

"I'm sorry that this happened, alright?" There was a certain frustrated tint to his even tone. "You even tried to defend me—I appreciate everything you did, even if it was on your brother's behalf."

"No, I actually decided to trust you," the boy hissed back, but his head was still pounding far too much for him to do anything. "You were my brother's captain. Why did you do it?"

Takeo settled himself onto a chair next to the bed, letting a nonplussed expression skim over his face for the shortest fraction of a second before deciding to answer. "There's always a reason when someone does something that seems unreasonable," he sighed. "It was orders from higher-ups in Hoenn."

His eyes widened at that, and it felt as if the cotton wool hanging over his consciousness was starting to degrade. "Are you trying to say that—"

The panic that his heart had so carefully controlled came flooding back all at once, like a thousand pounds of bricks crashing down on him and muffling out his surroundings so that the only thing he could hear in his ears was the sound of his own heartbeat.

"I was never part of Kalos' military." His gaze hardened at that, mimicking the usual cold gaze of a Hoenn soldier. "I've been working undercover for a few years now. It was two days ago when I received the order to take out Kalos' main unit."

The man assumed that it was a sign to continue when Avis remained silent. "You haven't seen me kill much, right?" he probed. "It must be a shock to you. I apologise for that."

"Why am I here, then?" Avis muttered. "I know that I'm going to be dead soon, but you could have just let me go."

"You'd be killed or taken hostage if Hoenn found out that the best soldier in the unit was still alive," he countered. "I'm doing you a favour by sparing you. Do you want to spend the last few moments of your life in pain?"