K_S
Unrepentent Giovanni and Rocket fan
- Partners
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Chapter 2, the visit
Edited 6.18.2021
TW: for discussed child abuse and torture and an unsupportive environment. Green's parents have issues and denail was their maladaptive solution and there's fall out from that.
While not graphic the child death/abuse is very candid so if you're easily triggered drop me a line and I can PM you a chapter with the trigger sections edited out or summarized, just let me know what you'd prefer. There's some profanity, but then Gio's power play gets to Green, and Green's hardly a saint.
I also did some tonal twings to Green to make her sound younger, because she's still a pretty young kid and under pressure, she reverts a bit to a younger mindest...
It was a regular night, not quite sundown, a bit after dinner. And because dinner wasn’t takeout there were things to do after dinner. Mum was cleaning the dishes, Green drying them besides her, perched on a step stool because she wasn’t quite tall enough to reach everything yet. Though Green only needed the first step, not the second, which she’d so proudly scampered up a mere two days before her capture. Upon that second step, she’d stood tiptoe, so proud, crowing, look, she was an adult and could do adult things now. She was tall enough…
But then two days had passed, and then a few years after that.
And she needed only the first step now and likely wouldn’t need it much longer.
Still, Mama’s arm around her shoulder, an idle hug, leaving wet behind, was welcome, as were all the small things that reaffirmed Green was home.
The main sounds of the moment were water running, the soft scrape of soapy fabric over plastic and silverware, interspaced by the click of things being set in their place. There came a different click, and the soft muted babble after confirmed that it was the TV that Daddy’d turned on. Static, and clicks, and flickers from the corner of her eye confirmed he was hunting up a news station for them to enjoy. Watching the news was a family thing, where they talked about what was being said, thoughts and feelings and worries were things to be openly bantered bout, and since it was election season politicians were to be made fun of too.
Especially if they were scandalous.
“Feet, young lady.” Mum huffed and Green, smiled, settling herself more center on her perch to get the last plater up just right, but did so safely because Mum liked it like that.
So Green’d do so to make her happy.
There were a lot of clicks and grumbles from the living room, as being on the edge of two Regions did allow the perk of twice as many stations if one had the right set of skills to catch them. Her father worked in electronics and computers; he was more than good to do so, even if it were mildly illegal to do so without paying premiums.
Not that Green cared. Mum’d complain about it, sure, but she would stop when Dad found her a new Johotian soap for her to while the late hours when she had insomnia or nightmares.
Immersed in the comfortingly familiar, the rap on the front door near made Green hop. Though hopping was stupid. She should have expected it. He said he was coming…
But she hopped and Mum braced her, coaxing her down and giving the door and its knocker a withering look, never mind it’d never be seen
Green didn’t need Mum’s assurances; this visitor was more than expected. Fear on the decline, because he’d promised to behave civilized and she wasn’t stupid enough to trust that, so Green’d promised herself she’d make sure he kept his promise. And had Nido’s pokeball in her pocket, the ‘mon with orders to sit on him pointy sides down, to encourage that good behavior.
With that assurance, because she trusted Nido’, almost more than anything, Green tipped Mum a smile and shrug.
“I’m alright.” Then louder, just to make sure Da heard, and if their guest did, all the better. “It’s proba’ly a ‘marketer Da!’” Green hollered, knowing he’d hear it. The walls weren’t paper-thin, but the kitchen was close to the entrance, so it was likely he did, Green didn’t really need to holler, but she did anyway. Because he seemed the type not to like loudness, he’d called Blue a brat for yelling at him about the hostages and…
And while petty, he wasn’t very nice, so Green didn’t need to be either.
Sort of like how she didn’t have to contribute to the house's defenses by bugging the house's doorbell to shock anyone who rung it. And shame he hadn’t rung it. It likely wouldn’t have mattered if he’d been shocked anyway, Red’s ‘chu probably numbed him to shocks and stuff.
The door swung open, enough to make the lock chain rattle, and she could hear him speaking to Da'.
“I understand this is a delicate time for you and your family, and that this is a deeply personal matter but… your child and mine have a commonality that we need to discuss… A shared history linked in Viridian…” And never mind she’d known he’d lead with the abduction. Shock was the fastest way to get the door open, and playing on old traumas, he’d said he would, but it made hearing even the allusions… no easier. Even with Mum wrapping her arm around her, and glaring balefully at the figure who was standing on the threshold. “I believe, Mr. Azule, that it would be best if the rest of this conversation occur inside.”
He was talking to Da’ in smooth, soft, slightly accented words. Silver’d never spoken odd like that. Idly Green wondered why Silver never sounded like his father. Even as she nudged out of her mother’s hold and went closer.
Bristling, never mind Da' didn’t have a ‘mon to his name, and wasn’t meant for fighting, Da’ glared at him expression stony.
“I’m sorry sir, but I think you’ve at the wrong house.”
“Really?” And forget every promise he made, of no armies, no mob, no danger, Giovanni Sakaki’s voice dropped to lethal levels. “This isn’t the home of Green Azule and her family? You might want to update your mailbox outside then.” Lips curling into a Persian’s grin, all edges, and cruelty, the Rocket bared his teeth at Da’, dark eyes thinning. “This isn’t the home of the child who rescued mine from the Mask of Ice-“
“-That… You are not…” Da sputtered. Paling, because he hadn’t believed. Not him, or Mum, and part of their news watching was to show her about how things could look one way and be another. To help her critical thinking along enough so that she could tell them what really happened.
It’d been a smothering sort of love, and she’d been so hungry for any type of love she’d forgiven them their unwillingness to listen. Accepted the domestic tranquility built about a lie, because for her, what was one more lie but another mark on the scoreboard?
Silver hadn’t agreed. He had argued and fussed in his quiet way, and finally, when they’d only responded to him with softness and evasions the redhead had snapped. One too many “the Mask is a delusion” talks and he’d stormed out, taking Murkrow and Sneasel, and not looking back.
He'd called her, the first night he was off of Sevvi, to tell her he was alright, just not coming back. Or talking to her parents ever again. She was trying to wear Silver down, her birthday was in a few months after all, but maybe, Giovanni might be faster.
Which was the only reason she’d let him come here.
And though petty it was gratifying to see someone talk about the Mask of Ice and not get shut down, and shushed, and patted on the head, and told to think, really think, because such fanciful things happened in stories, dear heart, not to real people, not in the real world.
And Giovanni was still talking, in those clipped, accent marred, words. “I assure you, Mr. Azule, I am not some actor paid off to reinforce whatever delusions you think your daughter is harboring. She doesn’t have that type of money and I don’t have time to waste. Not while my son is missing. My son, who was, in your custody for several months.” Taking a deep breath, Giovanni’s posture eased, from the looming he’d partaken to bully Red, to a more sedate stance. “And the rest of this talk needs to happen inside.’
And seeing Da', so pale and shaken, but trying for bravery, trying so hard, Green softened. Da’ probably thought this was the Mask of Ice, even though she’d told Mum and Da’ who Mask was, a foreign gym leader, old and icy cold, sometimes made of ice, sometimes not. They just hadn’t listened well enough.
Still, Daddy was trying. So she set aside her anger and frustration, to chime in.
“He means Silver, Daddy. This is Silver’s Dad.” And full truth hovered on her lips; she swallowed it with a bitter smile, adding another mark. “He’s Viridian’s gym leader.”
“Despite Blue’s and Red’s deafening complaints to the contrary, I still am.”
And to that confession, Daddy stepped back, and Giovanni swept in. It was his trench coat that let him sweep, Green decided. Shame they’d just swept and mopped the day before or it’d really be “sweeping”. Slipping off his fedora Giovanni turned about, looking for a place to put his hat perhaps. They didn’t have a hat rack or anything. Hats were stored in your room, and Green had two hanging from her bedroom wall. So, when Green padded forward and offered her hand, rather imperiously mind, and he passed his hat down to her it was probably for the best that he didn’t know that the hall closet she was going to pop it into had the dust brooms and mops.
A screech from outside, the shadow of wings ghosting over the windows, and Green didn’t startle. Not openly. She had Sabrina to thank for that she supposed. Never mind she wanted to set Nido on the old Psychic witch and tell Nido to roll over the woman twice for trapping her in her own mind and reliving her abduction by the Mask’s bird over and over again...
And Giovanni was studying her expression as it happened. That tap of his foot on the floorboards as he entered hadn’t been a gesture to kick off some dirt before he got in. It was likely a signal and. And Green decided the dust mop bin was too good for Giovanni’s hat. She’d nip into the bathroom and flush the damned thing to teach him better manners.
A shame Mum caught her making a wrong turn and called her out on it. And if Green hadn’t known Silver as well as she did. Well, Silver had a funny way of letting his eyes crinkle right before he laughed, and Giovanni’s were doing that as he saw, and was perhaps amused by, her vindictive streak.
He didn’t laugh though. Only watched as she hung his hat on the bathroom’s doorknob (Green meant the place as a threat, she could nip in and accidentally drop it somewhere unpleasant at any time) and Giovanni nodded, understanding where exactly he stood with her.
“I’m gunna get my phone off the charger. Silver called and left a message last night and some of the background noises were weird.”
It was curious to see a man she thought of in terms of “looming”, and “sneering”, a coagulation of stationary and cruel, perk up at words. And the customary venom, the mocking drawl when he talked down to her was- not gone- but dimmed. He considered her. Seeming to weigh her words for truth with obvious interest, and he made some sort of decision or other she supposed.
“I’d appreciate it.”
“And I’m getting my team.”
A snort, as he shifted his coat just so so she could see the flash of yellow and black on his belt. Great balls, likely his Gym Leader Team then. Wonderful. She’d stolen his badge, not earned it, if it got to the level of nasty where ‘mon were drawn it’d be bad. Taking the stairs two at a time she tried to remember if any Oak’s goodie goodie squad had earned the Earth badge honestly.
Maybe Red.
But Red was sulking on some mountain top, and had blocked her number almost as fast as she’d told Blue and Gold where they could shove their “new alliance”. Because while Giovanni wasn’t a litter of newborn meowth he was a hell of a lot better than a man who abducted kids out of their homes and shoved them into freezers for giggles.
And fuck apologies. Because Pryce had had the guts to try to do that, seeing both his favorite pawns wince back from him, eyes wide, denials to his offer obvious.
“I’m sorry” didn’t give her back her parents, or take away their fear, or her fear, or undo the ice damage to her hands, or bring back the kids the Mask had killed. Because there was one freezer in the back, one with a kettle of water kept steaming and he’d dipped one of the kids into it as an example and pulled him out when the masked “failed” kid had started really screaming. Then, as the boy was almost cooked to death, Pryce’d had his piloswine pull the boy out, and dropped him. Boiling water freezing as it hit the freezer floor, and the boy’d begged and screamed and they’d had to watch until the screaming stopped.
And then the body’d been left and whoever failed, however they failed, were locked in the freezer with that poor dead kid that no one knew the name of.
Will’d called him Brown because even frozen the blood eventually had darkened to a reddish-brown and it’d been the easiest thing to pick out once the ice had really started to build on the body.
“You ever clean out Brown’s freezer cell, Master, ever tell his parent what happened to him? What’d he do, that was so bad that you left him to freeze and rot for five years?”
That'd been Green's last words to Pryce. Silver's had been more direct. A snarled "hail" and they'd both booked it under Sneasel's malice-born snowstorm. Both of them just done with everyone and everything.
Green’d known what Brown had done. Silver had too. The older kids whispered it among themselves. Brown had snapped, taking mission after mission in the same place had made him complacent. Hopeful. And he’d approached a police officer and been believed (hard to dispute a mask frozen to your face) and he’d been building trust and trying to get help.
And there’d been a bit on the news, something about missing children and it’d reached Mahogany and the Master had personally seen to recapturing Brown and… killing him… like that.
And Green was in her room, not really sure how she got there for a moment. Alone, and shaking, because remembering Brown always made her shake. She stared blankly at her bed for who knows how long. When she was done crying she took her phone off the nightstand, and her team too. It was a simple thing to pick it up and pop it into her pocket, to swing her trainer’s belt and its holsters so it looked slightly off-center, fashionably so. Looing a bit more put together Green stole a moment to dab her face, purloining a pillow with a too-long case, then flipping it over so no one would know.
She took the stairs slowly, still, a bit spooked. More here than remembering she was able to see that Giovanni had moved the coffee table and laid paper, some photos, some maps, on the purloined furniture. Mum and Da’ were sitting across from him, on the couch, looking sick and shocked, holding hands.
Mum saw her first and with a furtive glance at Giovanni, that the man ignored, pipped in. “Sweaty, let me get your phone and I’ll play the message to Mr. Sakaki, shall I? Then you can go back to your room, and we’ll talk in the morning.”
Ignoring Mum, Green looked at the pictures. One of them, on the corner, with its familiar blotch of red-brown made her smile. Awful as it was, it was familiar, and she shook her head. Making the rest of the way down without a wobble.
“You found Brown’s room?”
“Mr. Henderson’s remains were discovered along with the other cells under Mahogany’s Gym last month. As I understand it Pryce is under investigation.”
There’d been a way out leading straight to Pryce’s gym. She could have... if they’d gone out that way they could have alerted Mahogany’s police, brought him down. Because missing children, claiming to be from the gym. Someone would have to look into that… But the vents had seemed safer and Green hadn’t wanted to take the time to find another route.
Because Silver’d gotten sick and when you got sick you got locked into Brown’s room until you got better... or not.
“His name was Henderson?”
Green was at the couch, settling in on the space between Da’ and the couches plush arm. Looking at the pictures, diagrams of the Mask of Ice’s main lair, with open interest, Green could actually trace out her escape path. She followed it with her eyes, once, twice, blinking sharply.
Green didn’t see how Giovanni’s face softened, just a little bit. “Brian Henderson, twelve years old, his family resided in Kalos, he was missing for eight years, his father was a cop, his mother deceased.”
Which explained why Bro- Brian had gone to the cops.
“Did you know him?”
“He was the first one that tried to run away,” Green whispered, picking up a picture. It wasn’t her cell, or Silver’s, the scorch marks meant it was likely Karen’s. She was the only one with a fire type after all. “They’d lock us up with him when we got sick or were bad. So no one’d ask “or else” when the Mask got really nasty because Brian was “or else”. Dying like he did. We told ourselves stories, when the Mask wasn’t about, about how brave he was because even though he didn’t get it right, he tried. And if we were brave like him… maybe we could try but not die like him and make his dying worth it.”
Da’ had slung an arm about her shoulder, drawn her close and she was shaking and hated herself for it. Hated Giovanni got to see it, though he was considering the photos as if looking for some answers on their glossy colored fronts. It was almost like privacy, almost.
“Silver was sick,” Giovanni’s head jerked up at that. “Not when he called me.” She promised. “Right before I got us out, he was catching something nasty. And the Mask was going to lock him in Brown- Brian’s room, and not let him out. Mask promised to do that to us, a lot.”
Silence, outside wings cast shadows into the room and she looked at the Rocket bitterly, almost hating Giovanni as much as Mask at that moment. Almost as much as Silver hated Oak, for maybe the same reason.
And for seeing her anger the Rocket nodded, accepting the unspoken rebuke.
“I believe we all need a moment as this isn’t going to be a simple drop off the photos and leave session that I thought it was going to be.” Giovanni offered, his tone nearly gentle.
“You’re being considerate.” Green managed a wobbly laugh, “No one’s going to believe that.”
“I’ll abstain from any obvious charity,” Giovanni promised, lips quirking, and then he was heading outside to recall his bird, making himself an utter liar. Reaching down, pulling up a few pictures, she smiled, nearly laughed. Silver had gotten Sneasel to scratch out a few swears on the walls like he promised.
Silver just hadn’t gotten Sneasel to spell the curses right. “Fock”, indeed. When Giovanni stepped back in a little later she nestled between both her parents, pointing out the swears Sneasel’d scratched into the walls to her parents. Explaining how she’d tried to get Jiggly to sing pop tunes into the vents at random times because Mask hated those. And how Silver was trying to make icicles that’d fall when someone entered through his cell’s front door because, why not?
When Giovanni came back in she looked up and dug out her phone.
“I turned off the password lock for my voicemail for five minutes.”
When the Rocket moved to listen right there she huffed at him, glaring.
“Taking phone calls in the living room is rude.” She quoted Mum and Mum huffed a nervous laugh, meaning to deflect, surely.
“I think,” Giovanni hummed. “That I’ll take five minutes to fetch my hat and listen to what needs to be listened to. But when I get back, I will have questions.”
“Timers on the corner of the screen and it’s going to auto turn off when it gets to the end. Altered Parental controls. And I set it to start when you left the room.” Green near sang up at him.
And of course, Giovanni had to look down at it and confirm, his glare up her was more heartfelt than his previous malice towards her parents. And between the shadows of wings, that he’d caused the darken her windows, and the disaster at Silph… She held her ground, smiling up at him. Because she’d be damned before she flinched at him.
Because he’d brought a bird, so whatever she did in retaliation was more than deserved because he brought a Mew blasted bird.
“I will be back in two minutes.” He warmed, all softness gone. “Then we’ll talk.”
Giving him all the attention Giovanni deserved, which was none at all, Green flipped through a few photos. Sorting them in whimsical patterns. Finding another familiar one, she pulled it up, showing it to her parents, smile tight and twisted.
"This was the mess hall."
The picture was just an empty cavern, roof crushingly close, a pair of iced-down tables, metallic and glinting under its crust of ice. An adult sitting at it would have to crunch down to get around, but then the Mask's soldiers had been children, and not too horribly tall, even now. And though they didn't ask, just looked on in shocked horror, Green carried on like her parents had asked her a question she'd wanted them to ask.
"We'd sit in groups, by height, so me and Silver sat closest because we were shortest, in the back. The biggest kids ate first and ate the most, and there were only so many plates and cups and they got passed down. Mask made them start sharing when Silver and me got sick from not eating enough. Passed out in a mission, we were both in Brian's room for half a day for that... Then Karen and Will got put in Brian's room for a week after once Mask realized what was going on..."
Edited 6.18.2021
TW: for discussed child abuse and torture and an unsupportive environment. Green's parents have issues and denail was their maladaptive solution and there's fall out from that.
While not graphic the child death/abuse is very candid so if you're easily triggered drop me a line and I can PM you a chapter with the trigger sections edited out or summarized, just let me know what you'd prefer. There's some profanity, but then Gio's power play gets to Green, and Green's hardly a saint.
I also did some tonal twings to Green to make her sound younger, because she's still a pretty young kid and under pressure, she reverts a bit to a younger mindest...
It was a regular night, not quite sundown, a bit after dinner. And because dinner wasn’t takeout there were things to do after dinner. Mum was cleaning the dishes, Green drying them besides her, perched on a step stool because she wasn’t quite tall enough to reach everything yet. Though Green only needed the first step, not the second, which she’d so proudly scampered up a mere two days before her capture. Upon that second step, she’d stood tiptoe, so proud, crowing, look, she was an adult and could do adult things now. She was tall enough…
But then two days had passed, and then a few years after that.
And she needed only the first step now and likely wouldn’t need it much longer.
Still, Mama’s arm around her shoulder, an idle hug, leaving wet behind, was welcome, as were all the small things that reaffirmed Green was home.
The main sounds of the moment were water running, the soft scrape of soapy fabric over plastic and silverware, interspaced by the click of things being set in their place. There came a different click, and the soft muted babble after confirmed that it was the TV that Daddy’d turned on. Static, and clicks, and flickers from the corner of her eye confirmed he was hunting up a news station for them to enjoy. Watching the news was a family thing, where they talked about what was being said, thoughts and feelings and worries were things to be openly bantered bout, and since it was election season politicians were to be made fun of too.
Especially if they were scandalous.
“Feet, young lady.” Mum huffed and Green, smiled, settling herself more center on her perch to get the last plater up just right, but did so safely because Mum liked it like that.
So Green’d do so to make her happy.
There were a lot of clicks and grumbles from the living room, as being on the edge of two Regions did allow the perk of twice as many stations if one had the right set of skills to catch them. Her father worked in electronics and computers; he was more than good to do so, even if it were mildly illegal to do so without paying premiums.
Not that Green cared. Mum’d complain about it, sure, but she would stop when Dad found her a new Johotian soap for her to while the late hours when she had insomnia or nightmares.
Immersed in the comfortingly familiar, the rap on the front door near made Green hop. Though hopping was stupid. She should have expected it. He said he was coming…
But she hopped and Mum braced her, coaxing her down and giving the door and its knocker a withering look, never mind it’d never be seen
Green didn’t need Mum’s assurances; this visitor was more than expected. Fear on the decline, because he’d promised to behave civilized and she wasn’t stupid enough to trust that, so Green’d promised herself she’d make sure he kept his promise. And had Nido’s pokeball in her pocket, the ‘mon with orders to sit on him pointy sides down, to encourage that good behavior.
With that assurance, because she trusted Nido’, almost more than anything, Green tipped Mum a smile and shrug.
“I’m alright.” Then louder, just to make sure Da heard, and if their guest did, all the better. “It’s proba’ly a ‘marketer Da!’” Green hollered, knowing he’d hear it. The walls weren’t paper-thin, but the kitchen was close to the entrance, so it was likely he did, Green didn’t really need to holler, but she did anyway. Because he seemed the type not to like loudness, he’d called Blue a brat for yelling at him about the hostages and…
And while petty, he wasn’t very nice, so Green didn’t need to be either.
Sort of like how she didn’t have to contribute to the house's defenses by bugging the house's doorbell to shock anyone who rung it. And shame he hadn’t rung it. It likely wouldn’t have mattered if he’d been shocked anyway, Red’s ‘chu probably numbed him to shocks and stuff.
The door swung open, enough to make the lock chain rattle, and she could hear him speaking to Da'.
“I understand this is a delicate time for you and your family, and that this is a deeply personal matter but… your child and mine have a commonality that we need to discuss… A shared history linked in Viridian…” And never mind she’d known he’d lead with the abduction. Shock was the fastest way to get the door open, and playing on old traumas, he’d said he would, but it made hearing even the allusions… no easier. Even with Mum wrapping her arm around her, and glaring balefully at the figure who was standing on the threshold. “I believe, Mr. Azule, that it would be best if the rest of this conversation occur inside.”
He was talking to Da’ in smooth, soft, slightly accented words. Silver’d never spoken odd like that. Idly Green wondered why Silver never sounded like his father. Even as she nudged out of her mother’s hold and went closer.
Bristling, never mind Da' didn’t have a ‘mon to his name, and wasn’t meant for fighting, Da’ glared at him expression stony.
“I’m sorry sir, but I think you’ve at the wrong house.”
“Really?” And forget every promise he made, of no armies, no mob, no danger, Giovanni Sakaki’s voice dropped to lethal levels. “This isn’t the home of Green Azule and her family? You might want to update your mailbox outside then.” Lips curling into a Persian’s grin, all edges, and cruelty, the Rocket bared his teeth at Da’, dark eyes thinning. “This isn’t the home of the child who rescued mine from the Mask of Ice-“
“-That… You are not…” Da sputtered. Paling, because he hadn’t believed. Not him, or Mum, and part of their news watching was to show her about how things could look one way and be another. To help her critical thinking along enough so that she could tell them what really happened.
It’d been a smothering sort of love, and she’d been so hungry for any type of love she’d forgiven them their unwillingness to listen. Accepted the domestic tranquility built about a lie, because for her, what was one more lie but another mark on the scoreboard?
Silver hadn’t agreed. He had argued and fussed in his quiet way, and finally, when they’d only responded to him with softness and evasions the redhead had snapped. One too many “the Mask is a delusion” talks and he’d stormed out, taking Murkrow and Sneasel, and not looking back.
He'd called her, the first night he was off of Sevvi, to tell her he was alright, just not coming back. Or talking to her parents ever again. She was trying to wear Silver down, her birthday was in a few months after all, but maybe, Giovanni might be faster.
Which was the only reason she’d let him come here.
And though petty it was gratifying to see someone talk about the Mask of Ice and not get shut down, and shushed, and patted on the head, and told to think, really think, because such fanciful things happened in stories, dear heart, not to real people, not in the real world.
And Giovanni was still talking, in those clipped, accent marred, words. “I assure you, Mr. Azule, I am not some actor paid off to reinforce whatever delusions you think your daughter is harboring. She doesn’t have that type of money and I don’t have time to waste. Not while my son is missing. My son, who was, in your custody for several months.” Taking a deep breath, Giovanni’s posture eased, from the looming he’d partaken to bully Red, to a more sedate stance. “And the rest of this talk needs to happen inside.’
And seeing Da', so pale and shaken, but trying for bravery, trying so hard, Green softened. Da’ probably thought this was the Mask of Ice, even though she’d told Mum and Da’ who Mask was, a foreign gym leader, old and icy cold, sometimes made of ice, sometimes not. They just hadn’t listened well enough.
Still, Daddy was trying. So she set aside her anger and frustration, to chime in.
“He means Silver, Daddy. This is Silver’s Dad.” And full truth hovered on her lips; she swallowed it with a bitter smile, adding another mark. “He’s Viridian’s gym leader.”
“Despite Blue’s and Red’s deafening complaints to the contrary, I still am.”
And to that confession, Daddy stepped back, and Giovanni swept in. It was his trench coat that let him sweep, Green decided. Shame they’d just swept and mopped the day before or it’d really be “sweeping”. Slipping off his fedora Giovanni turned about, looking for a place to put his hat perhaps. They didn’t have a hat rack or anything. Hats were stored in your room, and Green had two hanging from her bedroom wall. So, when Green padded forward and offered her hand, rather imperiously mind, and he passed his hat down to her it was probably for the best that he didn’t know that the hall closet she was going to pop it into had the dust brooms and mops.
A screech from outside, the shadow of wings ghosting over the windows, and Green didn’t startle. Not openly. She had Sabrina to thank for that she supposed. Never mind she wanted to set Nido on the old Psychic witch and tell Nido to roll over the woman twice for trapping her in her own mind and reliving her abduction by the Mask’s bird over and over again...
And Giovanni was studying her expression as it happened. That tap of his foot on the floorboards as he entered hadn’t been a gesture to kick off some dirt before he got in. It was likely a signal and. And Green decided the dust mop bin was too good for Giovanni’s hat. She’d nip into the bathroom and flush the damned thing to teach him better manners.
A shame Mum caught her making a wrong turn and called her out on it. And if Green hadn’t known Silver as well as she did. Well, Silver had a funny way of letting his eyes crinkle right before he laughed, and Giovanni’s were doing that as he saw, and was perhaps amused by, her vindictive streak.
He didn’t laugh though. Only watched as she hung his hat on the bathroom’s doorknob (Green meant the place as a threat, she could nip in and accidentally drop it somewhere unpleasant at any time) and Giovanni nodded, understanding where exactly he stood with her.
“I’m gunna get my phone off the charger. Silver called and left a message last night and some of the background noises were weird.”
It was curious to see a man she thought of in terms of “looming”, and “sneering”, a coagulation of stationary and cruel, perk up at words. And the customary venom, the mocking drawl when he talked down to her was- not gone- but dimmed. He considered her. Seeming to weigh her words for truth with obvious interest, and he made some sort of decision or other she supposed.
“I’d appreciate it.”
“And I’m getting my team.”
A snort, as he shifted his coat just so so she could see the flash of yellow and black on his belt. Great balls, likely his Gym Leader Team then. Wonderful. She’d stolen his badge, not earned it, if it got to the level of nasty where ‘mon were drawn it’d be bad. Taking the stairs two at a time she tried to remember if any Oak’s goodie goodie squad had earned the Earth badge honestly.
Maybe Red.
But Red was sulking on some mountain top, and had blocked her number almost as fast as she’d told Blue and Gold where they could shove their “new alliance”. Because while Giovanni wasn’t a litter of newborn meowth he was a hell of a lot better than a man who abducted kids out of their homes and shoved them into freezers for giggles.
And fuck apologies. Because Pryce had had the guts to try to do that, seeing both his favorite pawns wince back from him, eyes wide, denials to his offer obvious.
“I’m sorry” didn’t give her back her parents, or take away their fear, or her fear, or undo the ice damage to her hands, or bring back the kids the Mask had killed. Because there was one freezer in the back, one with a kettle of water kept steaming and he’d dipped one of the kids into it as an example and pulled him out when the masked “failed” kid had started really screaming. Then, as the boy was almost cooked to death, Pryce’d had his piloswine pull the boy out, and dropped him. Boiling water freezing as it hit the freezer floor, and the boy’d begged and screamed and they’d had to watch until the screaming stopped.
And then the body’d been left and whoever failed, however they failed, were locked in the freezer with that poor dead kid that no one knew the name of.
Will’d called him Brown because even frozen the blood eventually had darkened to a reddish-brown and it’d been the easiest thing to pick out once the ice had really started to build on the body.
“You ever clean out Brown’s freezer cell, Master, ever tell his parent what happened to him? What’d he do, that was so bad that you left him to freeze and rot for five years?”
That'd been Green's last words to Pryce. Silver's had been more direct. A snarled "hail" and they'd both booked it under Sneasel's malice-born snowstorm. Both of them just done with everyone and everything.
Green’d known what Brown had done. Silver had too. The older kids whispered it among themselves. Brown had snapped, taking mission after mission in the same place had made him complacent. Hopeful. And he’d approached a police officer and been believed (hard to dispute a mask frozen to your face) and he’d been building trust and trying to get help.
And there’d been a bit on the news, something about missing children and it’d reached Mahogany and the Master had personally seen to recapturing Brown and… killing him… like that.
And Green was in her room, not really sure how she got there for a moment. Alone, and shaking, because remembering Brown always made her shake. She stared blankly at her bed for who knows how long. When she was done crying she took her phone off the nightstand, and her team too. It was a simple thing to pick it up and pop it into her pocket, to swing her trainer’s belt and its holsters so it looked slightly off-center, fashionably so. Looing a bit more put together Green stole a moment to dab her face, purloining a pillow with a too-long case, then flipping it over so no one would know.
She took the stairs slowly, still, a bit spooked. More here than remembering she was able to see that Giovanni had moved the coffee table and laid paper, some photos, some maps, on the purloined furniture. Mum and Da’ were sitting across from him, on the couch, looking sick and shocked, holding hands.
Mum saw her first and with a furtive glance at Giovanni, that the man ignored, pipped in. “Sweaty, let me get your phone and I’ll play the message to Mr. Sakaki, shall I? Then you can go back to your room, and we’ll talk in the morning.”
Ignoring Mum, Green looked at the pictures. One of them, on the corner, with its familiar blotch of red-brown made her smile. Awful as it was, it was familiar, and she shook her head. Making the rest of the way down without a wobble.
“You found Brown’s room?”
“Mr. Henderson’s remains were discovered along with the other cells under Mahogany’s Gym last month. As I understand it Pryce is under investigation.”
There’d been a way out leading straight to Pryce’s gym. She could have... if they’d gone out that way they could have alerted Mahogany’s police, brought him down. Because missing children, claiming to be from the gym. Someone would have to look into that… But the vents had seemed safer and Green hadn’t wanted to take the time to find another route.
Because Silver’d gotten sick and when you got sick you got locked into Brown’s room until you got better... or not.
“His name was Henderson?”
Green was at the couch, settling in on the space between Da’ and the couches plush arm. Looking at the pictures, diagrams of the Mask of Ice’s main lair, with open interest, Green could actually trace out her escape path. She followed it with her eyes, once, twice, blinking sharply.
Green didn’t see how Giovanni’s face softened, just a little bit. “Brian Henderson, twelve years old, his family resided in Kalos, he was missing for eight years, his father was a cop, his mother deceased.”
Which explained why Bro- Brian had gone to the cops.
“Did you know him?”
“He was the first one that tried to run away,” Green whispered, picking up a picture. It wasn’t her cell, or Silver’s, the scorch marks meant it was likely Karen’s. She was the only one with a fire type after all. “They’d lock us up with him when we got sick or were bad. So no one’d ask “or else” when the Mask got really nasty because Brian was “or else”. Dying like he did. We told ourselves stories, when the Mask wasn’t about, about how brave he was because even though he didn’t get it right, he tried. And if we were brave like him… maybe we could try but not die like him and make his dying worth it.”
Da’ had slung an arm about her shoulder, drawn her close and she was shaking and hated herself for it. Hated Giovanni got to see it, though he was considering the photos as if looking for some answers on their glossy colored fronts. It was almost like privacy, almost.
“Silver was sick,” Giovanni’s head jerked up at that. “Not when he called me.” She promised. “Right before I got us out, he was catching something nasty. And the Mask was going to lock him in Brown- Brian’s room, and not let him out. Mask promised to do that to us, a lot.”
Silence, outside wings cast shadows into the room and she looked at the Rocket bitterly, almost hating Giovanni as much as Mask at that moment. Almost as much as Silver hated Oak, for maybe the same reason.
And for seeing her anger the Rocket nodded, accepting the unspoken rebuke.
“I believe we all need a moment as this isn’t going to be a simple drop off the photos and leave session that I thought it was going to be.” Giovanni offered, his tone nearly gentle.
“You’re being considerate.” Green managed a wobbly laugh, “No one’s going to believe that.”
“I’ll abstain from any obvious charity,” Giovanni promised, lips quirking, and then he was heading outside to recall his bird, making himself an utter liar. Reaching down, pulling up a few pictures, she smiled, nearly laughed. Silver had gotten Sneasel to scratch out a few swears on the walls like he promised.
Silver just hadn’t gotten Sneasel to spell the curses right. “Fock”, indeed. When Giovanni stepped back in a little later she nestled between both her parents, pointing out the swears Sneasel’d scratched into the walls to her parents. Explaining how she’d tried to get Jiggly to sing pop tunes into the vents at random times because Mask hated those. And how Silver was trying to make icicles that’d fall when someone entered through his cell’s front door because, why not?
When Giovanni came back in she looked up and dug out her phone.
“I turned off the password lock for my voicemail for five minutes.”
When the Rocket moved to listen right there she huffed at him, glaring.
“Taking phone calls in the living room is rude.” She quoted Mum and Mum huffed a nervous laugh, meaning to deflect, surely.
“I think,” Giovanni hummed. “That I’ll take five minutes to fetch my hat and listen to what needs to be listened to. But when I get back, I will have questions.”
“Timers on the corner of the screen and it’s going to auto turn off when it gets to the end. Altered Parental controls. And I set it to start when you left the room.” Green near sang up at him.
And of course, Giovanni had to look down at it and confirm, his glare up her was more heartfelt than his previous malice towards her parents. And between the shadows of wings, that he’d caused the darken her windows, and the disaster at Silph… She held her ground, smiling up at him. Because she’d be damned before she flinched at him.
Because he’d brought a bird, so whatever she did in retaliation was more than deserved because he brought a Mew blasted bird.
“I will be back in two minutes.” He warmed, all softness gone. “Then we’ll talk.”
Giving him all the attention Giovanni deserved, which was none at all, Green flipped through a few photos. Sorting them in whimsical patterns. Finding another familiar one, she pulled it up, showing it to her parents, smile tight and twisted.
"This was the mess hall."
The picture was just an empty cavern, roof crushingly close, a pair of iced-down tables, metallic and glinting under its crust of ice. An adult sitting at it would have to crunch down to get around, but then the Mask's soldiers had been children, and not too horribly tall, even now. And though they didn't ask, just looked on in shocked horror, Green carried on like her parents had asked her a question she'd wanted them to ask.
"We'd sit in groups, by height, so me and Silver sat closest because we were shortest, in the back. The biggest kids ate first and ate the most, and there were only so many plates and cups and they got passed down. Mask made them start sharing when Silver and me got sick from not eating enough. Passed out in a mission, we were both in Brian's room for half a day for that... Then Karen and Will got put in Brian's room for a week after once Mask realized what was going on..."
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