Into the Shadows
Chapter 2: Rediscovery
Terra and Ardos sat in office chairs as hey both watched a surveillance video in silence. “Ardos?” Terra inquired, slightly scared by the situation in general.
“Yes?” Ardos replied, a tinge of anger in his voice.
“Say word of this gets to your leader...”
“Andrea?”
“Yes, Andrea. Say word of this gets to her. What will happen to you, being kind of responsible for
Eldes staying where he is, er, was?”
“Well, either she kills me or imprisons me. Most likely the former. Depends on who tells her.” Ardos paused, watching the video intently. “It looks like Ashley started it. See, here, she's giving Eldes instructions.”
“How could Ashie... help someone so... terrible?” Terra began to whimper.
“Terra. Please, this is no time for crying. Just deal with it. She committed treason against two organizations simultaneously. Cipher, by taking Eldes out of here, and Team Magma, by ignoring your cries of disapproval. If Andrea got her hands on such a heinous criminal, why, they would not even get a chance to defend themselves. Just die. A slow, painful death that not even Eldes is deserving of. Andrea does not take kindly to treason, and, at Andrea's hands, Ashley would take four, maybe five hours to die. Eldes, well, his fate is up to me, but we need to catch them first.”
Terra continued to watch the video, the screen reflected in her watery eyes. “Wait, rewind the tape. I think I missed something.” Terra said, holding back tears. Ardos held down a button on a console.
“Tell me when to stop.” Ardos said. Terra watched the screen and waited a few seconds.
“Okay, now.” She indicated. Ardos let go of the button. Terra observed the video. “...Claydol...” she observed. “I know where they are.” Terra declared boldly, her eyes drying up. “Gateon Port. Claydol only responds to Ashley's commands. Here, they Teleported.”
“How do you know they haven't gone elsewhere?” Ardos inquired.
“Hoenn is too far away, and the only place Ashley's been to in Orre is Gateon Port. The only problem now is making sure they both stay there long enough for us to get them.”
“And what if they've left Gateon? They probably are going to keep moving no matter what.”
Terra chuckled nervously. “I hadn't thought of that...”
“Number one rule to not get caught: keep moving.” Ardos recited.
“Should we get some help?” Terra questioned.
“From who?” Ardos questioned back.
“Nascour or Andrea?”
“Are you insane? They'll kill us!” Ardos scoffed.
“Who else would we get it from? Besides, they should know better than both of us how to find these
two. We can try Nascour first.”
“Fine. We'll try.” Ardos replied, deeply worried.
***
Eldes sighed, turning towards the dilapidated building. His first few hours of freedom had felt good-- at least better than being Cipher's prisoner. The red-haired man looked at the device Ashley gave him and smiled. The joy of seeing the machine was short-lived, however, and replaced by a sense of urgency. Cipher was still out there, and any minute they could come crashing into this building. He was an easy target, especially with no Pokemon. Immediately, Eldes turned on the pocket PC and sat down on the hot ground, angry at himself that he did not think of doing this earlier. He still remembered his ID number, even after not using it for four years. After all, every good trainer had their ID number memorized. Eldes' boxes showed up, nearly full of Pokemon he didn't even know he had before. Cipher must have been using his boxes to store extra Shadow Pokemon. Each Pokemon's icon throbbed a deep purple in unison, confirming Eldes' suspicions. After much deliberation, Eldes settled on a team consisting of Bisharp, Togekiss, Lapras, Chandelure, Marowak, and Solrock. He decided on a team for Ashley as well: Manectric, Swellow, Hippowdon, Aggron, Scrafty, and the Claydol Ashley had with her. Eldes began organizing the Poke Balls when Ashley and Claydol teleported to the building, in front of Eldes. Ashley was shouldering a large brown backpack.
“So, what did you buy?” Eldes asked.
“Well, I got this backpack.”
“Okay, that is going to slow you down if we have to run. But, I guess that's your problem.”
“Well, so is that robe.” Ashley took off the backpack, digging through it until she produced a pair of khaki shorts and a red t-shirt. “Not to mention, that robe is too recognizable to blend in. Put these on.” Ashley handed Eldes the clothing. Eldes moved behind a pile of rubble to protect his modesty, and he quickly changed outfits. Eldes picked up his old, tattered, bloody garment and brought it to Ashley.
“Put it in the backpack, please.”
“Huh? I'm confused. Why do you want me to keep that?”
“If Cipher comes here, they won't find my robe. If they did find it, they might decide to wait until we come back.”
Reluctantly, Ashley put the robe in a side compartment of the backpack. Looking at the ground, Ashley saw two distinct piles of Poke Balls. Claydol examined them, as if it saw something odd. “So, I see you were busy with that PC,” she giggled.
“Yes. I got us both a team ready,” Eldes declared proudly, “Be careful, though: those Pokemon are Shadow Pokemon.”
“How did you get those?”
“Cipher has been using my PC boxes to store Shadow Pokemon.”
“And you want me to use them?”
“Yes, but you can keep your Claydol. Take the pile with five Balls.”
“Why? Aren't these Cipher's? If Cipher finds out, won't they try even harder to find us?”
“They probably are looking hard enough as it is. Any harder and they might compromise security. Just take the Poke Balls.”
“But why?”
Eldes smirked. “Purification.”
“Huh?”
“Opening a Pokemon's heart.”
“Oh. How is that going to help us?”
“Cipher is powerless without their Shadow Pokemon.” Eldes chuckled.
***
Terra and Ardos nervously approached a large, ornate door. It seemed very out-of-place amongst the rest of the gray doors Terra had become accustomed to seeing. Terra's hand instinctively moved towards the ornate knob and turned it. Through the door, there was a large office. A young woman with deep red eyes was sitting on one side of a desk, lecturing a man not much older than herself, who was sitting on the other side nervously.
“So, Wes, you have no explanation regarding those eleven missing Pokemon?” The woman said imposingly.
“No, Mistress...” Wes weakly said. The woman's eyes glowed an even deeper red as she raised her arm towards the man. Wes groaned in pain as he was lifted off of the chair he was sitting in.
“You have twenty- four hours to figure out what happened, or you die.” The woman said coldly as she roughly dropped Wes onto the floor. “Is that clear?” The woman asked, Wes lying on the floor.
“Y-yes, Mistress.” Wes replied nervously, getting up from the floor.
“Good. Now get to work.” Wes turned around, and nearly ran out of the office. The woman turned to face the door, noticing Terra standing in the doorway. “Who are you? The door was closed for a reason. What is so important that you needed to barge in here?” The woman asked angrily.
“She is with me, Mistress.” Ardos announced, stepping nervously into the doorway.
The woman's face relaxed slightly. “Come. Sit down.” she beckoned. Terra and Ardos sat down in front of the woman. The woman turned to Terra, her gaze slightly suspicious. “Identify yourself,” The woman commanded.
“T-Terra Rohare, Team Magma Admin of Intelligence.” Terra stuttered slightly.
“Andrea Sarlous, Head of Cipher.” The woman replied.
***
“Eldes, do you think we can get some sort of shade?” Ashley panted. “You've been sitting there for about an hour.”
Eldes laughed. “Oh, sorry. I guess I just don't know what to do with myself now that I'm not a prisoner anymore.” He rose from his sitting position, heading towards the building. Ashley began to follow him.
“Claydol, are you coming?” Ashley said, jarring Claydol awake. It nodded and floated towards the two escapees as they entered the destroyed building.
“Okay, I know where we can stay for the night. The old main office.” Eldes announced.
“I have no idea where that is.”
“Just follow me.” Eldes carefully walked among the rubble.
“Just what is this place?” Ashley asked, nearly tripping over a fallen iron beam.
“It was Team Snagem's Headquarters. They once were partners of Cipher before Cipher was defeated the first time. They since have disbanded, I believe. When I hid here before I was captured, no one was here, so I'm pretty sure they are gone. Plus, nine years ago, Cipher's first major rival, Wes, blew up this place. If they didn't disband, then they obviously have no intention of coming back.” The pair came to a large hole in a wall, leading to a sparsely decorated room. “This is where we will sleep.” Eldes announced. He thought that he had heard the faint roar of motorcycle engines in the distance, but quickly dismissed the sound as a trick of the mind as it faded away.
***
“Ardos, I sincerely hope you realize how much trouble you are in. You, too, Terra.” Andrea spat.
“I'm sorry I have to break this to you, Andrea, but you are not Maxie. You have no control over me.” Terra scoffed.
“Oh, but I do. I run Team Magma now. Remember that mission that brought you here? Just a ploy to get you to come here. Maxie already has the information you came here for.” Andrea stated matter- of- factly.
Terra's eyes began to water. “Why? Why did Maxie send me?” she whimpered.
Andrea smirked. “Because the information is too important to give away for free. The price was the head of Team Magma's Intelligence Department, and a partnership between Team Magma and Cipher.” Andrea paused, glaring into Terra's watering eyes briefly before continuing, “Bringing your friend into this only made things worse for both of you. Once we catch her, she's dead. If you would have left her in Hoenn, everything would be fine. You and I wouldn't be having this talk, your friend wouldn't be running around Orre with Cipher looking for her, and Eldes would be in his cell where he belongs.”
Terra sat in silence, thinking about Andrea's words. After a few moments, she began crying softly.
“Terra, I'm telling you the truth. It hurts, I know.” Andrea sneered.
“On topic,” Ardos began, “We should probably begin searching for Eldes and Ashley.”
“We already have. Four search parties have been sent out.” Andrea bragged slightly. Upon hearing this, Terra's crying grew slightly louder.
“What? You already knew about this?” Ardos continued, ignoring Terra's crying.
“Yes,” Andrea announced. “Gorigan sent a search party to Mt. Battle, Dakim's party went to Elco Canyon, Venus' party went to Phenac, and Lovrina's party went to Gateon.” Terra's crying grew to a sob upon hearing those words. “Terra, if you need to go cry, please do so elsewhere. Preferably outside of my office.” Andrea said coldly. Terra nodded and rushed out of the ornate office, sobbing.
“How did they find out before me?” Ardos asked, shocked and worried.
“Well, Dakim and Gorigan went to administer their punishment and saw that Eldes' cell was empty, so they told me. Both of them told Lovrina and Venus, too.”
“And why the hell wasn't I involved in this!?” Ardos snapped.
“Ardos, you need to stay on top of these things. It's not anyone's job to tell you if Eldes has escaped. If he has, then you get right down to how he escaped. However, Eldes... he's become kind of a drain on Cipher's resources, mainly Gorigan and Dakim. Taking a break three or four times a day to go beat up a traitor is hardly practical, especially if those breaks are sometimes more than two hours in length. Either you shorten the beatings, or Eldes dies. That's it.” Andrea paused, a grin forming on her face. “If you choose to kill him, you can do the honors. I could make it a public execution, even. I could kill Terra's friend beforehand. Think about it. Two public executions on the same day! A truly grand ceremony- A celebration of Cipher's triumph over the resistance!”
Ardos smiled. “That sounds wonderful. When can we do this?”
“We need to catch Eldes and Terra's friend first. Then you continue to do what you did to Eldes before all of this happened while I work on crushing Terra's spirits. Once Terra is sufficiently broken, that’s when we hold the ceremony. We'll give Terra front row seats to watch her friend die. Then she should be malleable enough to bend her to my will. That girl will forget that Team Magma even exists by the time I'm done with her.” Andrea smirked.
“What will Terra be doing for Cipher, exactly?” Ardos inquired.
“She will be assisting you.”
“Then why do you need to break her? She'll pretty much be doing a scaled down version of her work for Team Magma.”
“Terra won't work for Cipher. So, I break her to get her to agree with Cipher's ideals. Plus, it's entertaining. For me, anyways.” Andrea laughed, making Ardos slightly nervous.
“Mistress? I think I should take my leave. It's getting late. Do you want me to do anything with Terra?”
“Yes. Send her in. I'll tell her what we decided. She'll sleep in my chambers tonight.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Ardos stood up and bowed respectfully.
***
“Okay, if they are not here, we leave.” A male voice said with authority, waking Ashley. Immediately, she turned to Eldes. Then, Ashley heard the sound of footsteps coming in the general direction of the room that she and Eldes were in. Then, a beam of light shone through the hole that Eldes led her through to get here, landing straight on Ashley.