Chapter 13 - Navigating the Iceberg, Part 2
Chapter 13: Navigating the Iceberg, Part 2
CW: Strong language, talk of suicide, mention of forced breeding
This chapter literally took months, and I don't even know if it's good LOL. It's a big ol' info dump so please feel free to tear me a new one, cuz idek anymore. Thanks!
Florent Lambourne.
Odette quirked a brow. She exchanged looks with Noel, who shrugged as soon as their eyes met.
“No,” she replied. “Is that name supposed to mean something regarding the shinies? He the person who started all of this?”
Valentin scoffed. “He’s the reason Virtue Corp exists in the first place. The rightful leader of Team Enigma.”
Blinking, Odette settled back into her spot on the couch. She heard Noel exhale sharply and felt him lean against her shoulder. “So there’s a name,” he said. “Crazy shit we’re finding out today.”
“Let me reiterate that I’m just getting started,” Valentin warned.
“But how is that supposed to answer my question? Did he create those Pokemon?” Odette pressed. Artificial Pokemon weren’t necessarily an out-there concept, especially if the fucker was running a ring like he was. Surely he was rolling in money, and money could buy anything, including artificial monster 'mon.
Shaking his head, Valentin huffed. “No. Those ‘mon you saw at the gala have been around for a long time, believe it or not.”
“Okay, but why haven’t we ever heard of them? Are they a new type?”
“Same reason the shiny trade still exists; the wealthy decided on it,” Valentin answered.
“Is that why we had such a hard time finding shit on them?” Noel queried incredulously. Valentin sent him an approving point.
“Bingo was his name-o.”
“But how would something like that even work? How do you wipe the existence of these ‘mon from everything?” Noel said.
“You’d be surprised at what gets done when really powerful people pool their money together,” Valentin chided. “Gradual but eventual elimination of all information.”
"Even from the internet?"
"Even from the internet. Team Enigma is much bigger and much more powerful than you think it is."
Crossing his arms, Noel grunted. “Guess my threshold for being surprised just expanded.”
Valentin stood up from his desk and paced over to them. “And, to answer your second question, Miss Cinq-Mars…we’ve learned that they’re referred to as ‘blood types.’ For the way their powers are summoned, as you’ve seen.”
“With blood, yeah,” Odette said. That was one thing that lined up with the overheard conversation. Check. “How does that even work? Is it reactionary? Are they like…ingesting it? Is there something in blood that makes them…go nuts like that?”
“I’d say it’s reactionary. You’re familiar with dynamaxing and mega evolutions, right?”
Odette nodded and saw Noel do the same in her peripheral vision.
“Blood types are kind of in the same vein.” He smirked at his own joke. “They function alright on their own, but the real power they gain is from blood. It acts like a mega stone to mega evolutions or a dynamxing band to dynamaxing. You understand?”
“Sounds a little twisted,” Noel said.
“A very macabre power-up, yes,” Valentin said. “But blood types, unfortunately—or not, depending on how you want to look at it—are ridiculously powerful when given blood. You saw firsthand how nasty those two were at the gala. I can tell you that was only at minimal power. They certainly get far worse.”
Something about the statement caused one of Odette's earlier hypotheses' to click within her mind. Her eyes lit up as she nodded with a sense of finite revelation.
“That’s why the wealthy hoard and hide them from the general public. They want these crazy powerful Pokemon for themselves.”
"Wow. That's as topical as topical gets," Noel scoffed.
Valentin's loose frown gave way to a subtle smirk. “And I’m blessed that the two of you aren’t braindead.” He turned on his heels and moved toward his filing cabinets.
Odette swallowed hard to keep herself from blushing. Noel nudging her caused that to fall out the window, and she resisted the urge to smack him.
“But,” Noel spoke up, “what do these blood types have to do with the shiny trade? Or this Florent guy? Or even sacrilege? I assume it’s all somehow connected, or we wouldn’t be talking now.”
Valentin was now rummaging through one of the topmost drawers. “Of course it is,” he said. “There’s a path here, don’t worry.”
He withdrew several manilla folders of varying thickness from the drawer and pushed it shut with his shoulder as he briefly thumbed through them. He grabbed hold of one, pulled it to the top of the pile, and flipped it open. He didn’t move his eyes off whatever he was looking at even as he trudged back to the sitting area.
“Years and years ago…probably around the ‘80s,” he spoke, “my father, Jean-Louis Ménétries and Florent Lambourne were colleagues. Professors. They both came from money, both went to good schools. Of course, they crossed paths, realized they were like-minded, and became friendly. Florent, however, had a couple of family heirlooms he decided to inform my father of.”
He sat on the arm of the couch directly across from the one Odette, Noel, Isaur, and Elton occupied, then closed the folder and tossed it down in front of them.
“That is a written ‘dex of every non-legendary blood type we’ve managed to uncover. Take a look at that, but hold out for what I have next.”
“Non-legendary?” Noel inquired in disbelief. “The ones we saw weren’t legends?”
“No, I’d say hiruition and lophious are rather mid-tier. Desmocula, probably the same.”
Odette scrambled for it and pulled it into her lap. Noel reached over and pulled it open himself, evidently just as eager as her to see what was inside. It was a pretty thick file, and she could see why.
Alphabetized names, blurbs, and even photographs of these Pokemon. As Odette flipped through them, she did manage to locate the summaries for hiruition, lophious, and desmocula, among hundreds of others.
“Are there even legendaries with this type?” Odette said, eyes unmoving off the pages she was flipping through.
“There are indeed seven blood-type legendaries. You think the regular ones are powerful, but these? On a whole different level. And these are the beings that Team Enigma has been built around, as well as where all other blood types descend from.”
"Built around," Odette repeated.
"Yes. Like, worship. Spawn these hellish 'mon in their honor, use sacrilege in their honor, the whole nine yards," Valentin elaborated.
She fell silent for a moment and pushed her bangs out of her face in exasperation. “It’s not even sounding like a criminal ring anymore, we’re teetering into straight-up cult territory.”
“Very much a cult,” Valentin confirmed.
He dug out a thinner folder, pulled it open, then took one piece of paper from the corner and slid it down onto the table. On it was a drawing of what Odette supposed was meant to be a Pokemon, but it didn’t look like one she’d ever seen. Maybe it vaguely resembled a dusknoir in shape but was certainly not one. If anything, it looked like a lantern, plated in gold, with a head that looked reminiscent of a candelabra.
“There’s Avareed, the Pokemon of Greed,” Valentin said as Odette picked up the image to get a better look at it. She felt Noel and Isaur lean against her shoulders as they also took a look while Elton perched up behind her. She was barely done taking in all the details before Valentin slid over another image.
“Then Lexuria, the Pokemon of Lust,” he said. The new drawing depicted a headless humanoid form draped in purple tendrils. It appeared to have wings, but the wings looked like…hands?
“If I had to personify Lust, this would not be my first image,” Noel snorted as he picked the picture up. “Still, she looks like a wild good time.”
“I'm not so sure I agree,” Elton said.
“Then, we have Hubrias, the Pokemon of Pride,” Valentin went on. The picture he handed them depicted another humanoid, but this one had four arms. Each wrist was shackled to what looked to be a bloody mirror, which protruded from its back.
The next image showed a mammoth-like creature. It had tusks while…also having antlers. Both of which were coated in ice. The most striking features, however, were its skeleton-like legs and skull face. Its entire body looked frostbitten.
“Tristace is the Pokemon of Sloth.”
He removed another picture from the folder, showing another humanoid, but this one appeared to have horns. Its body looked like a green, sun-eroded statue, but its head and limbs seemed coated in melting wax. It held a staff of candles. “Inviderus, the Pokemon of Envy,” he declared.
Another image. “Gulattive, the Pokemon of Gluttony.” A hooded figure that seemed to have no legs. Where there should have been a head was a single, wide, bloodshot eye. A mouth of serrated teeth was open on its abdomen area.
“Gross,” Odette muttered.
“That's gluttony? I'm disappointed,” Isaur said scornfully.
“Yeah, you would be disappointed; you’re pretty gluttonous yourself,” Odette smirked.
“And lastly, we have Venira. Pokemon of Wrath.”
Odette took the picture as she was handed it and held it close to her nose. She was met with the sight of a dragon made of brambles. Its teeth were bared maliciously, and the spikes along its back were on fire.
She stared at the drawing far longer than she had at any of the other ones. Her eyebrows scrunched in concentration as what felt like…familiarity overcame her. She wasn’t sure why she empathized with it so much. Perhaps it was because she succumbed to the feeling of anger at least once a day.
“Wrath, huh?” she said under her breath.
As she handed Valentin back the picture, she was taken aback to find him staring at her. Hard. The look only lasted for a second once they made eye contact, but he had for sure been staring at her.
Her head recoiled despite herself. “You good?”
Valentin shrugged as he took the picture back. That stern stare was as good as gone. “I wouldn’t say that, but I’m alive, and that’s what matters.”
He’s drunk, she told herself. Maybe his sober facade was falling off. She couldn’t find another way to explain the behavior.
He shuffled the photos back into the one folder and set it down on the coffee table before he continued on. “Anyway. You’d have never heard of these seven specifically because the Lambourne family has had them captive for the past…thousand or so years, I’d say. Passing them down from heir to heir to heir.”
“And now, they’re with Florent,” Noel said.
“We don’t even have real photos of them because we never had access. These images are just renditions of sketches my father took of them.”
“Florent really let him get that close to them?”
“He did. He confided in my father about them, which started his obsession with these blood types. He’d never heard of them before meeting Florent, and anybody would have a cow at even the implication of a new typing like this one.” Valentin sounded like he was quickly getting disgruntled and soon caught himself on a breath. He shook his head once and looked back up at them.
“Things went well for a while, but as you could probably guess, that didn’t last.”
“They had a falling out when your dad realized Florent wanted to start a fucking cult,” Odette said.
“Eh, close,” Valentin said as he wiggled his hand. “More like my father tried to stop Florent from starting a fucking cult, and Florent didn’t want to hear it. Even went as far as trying to take the legendaries from him.”
“And how did that end up?” Odette snickered.
“Thirty years later, we’re having a Team Enigma crisis, so you tell me.”
“Right,” she sighed.
“So these legends…” Noel spoke. “Do they all cater to him because he gives them his blood? Or something?”
“Not exactly. Florent only has one actually tethered to and using him as a vessel. All of them are stuck to someone else, so to speak.”
“Who does he have?” Odette probed.
“Gulattive. Gluttony. Last we know.”
“Of course, he has the weirdest-looking one out of all of them,” she said.
“What do you mean 'weirdest looking one out of all of them,' did you even see Hubrias?” Noel said.
She opened her mouth to argue, but there was no time for it. “Do you know who has the rest of them? Has he bestowed them upon others himself?”
Valentin nodded and tossed down another folder. A printed label with the name Armel Lambourne was taped to the folder’s tab.
“He has a son named Armel who holds Greed. No clear photo, unfortunately. The guy might as well not exist. We only know what we know from other operatives and what I’ve managed to finagle out of Dorien.”
Odette grabbed the folder and pulled it open, only to be met with an official-looking document, notarized by a raised Virtue Corp logo, listing off information.
Name: Armel [MIDDLE NAME UNKNOWN] Lambourne
Age: 28 [CONFIRMED]
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Height: 6’2 - 6’5
Hair: Black [CONFIRMED]
Eye Color: [UNKNOWN]
Vessel For: Avareed [CONFIRMED]
The sparse page was also met with blurry and haphazardly caught photos of a man wearing sunglasses. Very clearly tall, and very clearly had black hair. Not much more to be discerned.
“He’s giving cryptid,” Noel said as Odette handed the folder to him.
“And, speaking of that fucking nit Dorien,” Valentin said. He slapped down another, much thicker folder with the name Dorien Bonhomme taped to the tab. Odette was hesitant to pick it up, but curiosity always killed the delcatty.
Name: Dorien Arnaud Ignace Bonhomme [CONFIRMED]
Age: 22 [CONFIRMED]
Ethnicity: Caucasian [CONFIRMED]
Height: 5’11 [CONFIRMED]
Hair: Brown [CONFIRMED]
Eye Color: Green [CONFIRMED]
Vessel For: Inviderus [CONFIRMED]
Odette felt her hackles go up. "Dorien has one?" she gasped, bringing the page up to her nose. "Are you fucking kidding me?"
She was met with a detailed report after detailed report of several of Dorien’s day-to-day doings, ranging from his participation in shiny trade matters to dealing sacrilege to talking with gods knew who. Accounts of him being tailed, attempting to find where he goes to converse with other Team Enigma operatives, and ending off inconclusive. How the hell did that happen?
"How do you spend so much time tailing a person and not know where he goes?" she asked.
Valentin shot her a look, one that teetered on the line between unamused and exhausted. "Well, it's all there. But, to put it in layman's terms, he disappears. Not figuratively; literally. Gone with the wind. Which leads us to believe Enigma operatives have means to access their point of operations from wherever they may be, even if it's kilometers away."
"Like...teleportation," Noel declared.
"That's the hypothesis we have, yes. Or, much less probable, there's just Team Enigma bases everywhere that we don't see. We've lost him in a multitude of locations, though, and swept the areas after. Unless they're pulling a fast one on us, we're assuming some sort of remote access point."
"Keeps you lot from finding their base. Thorough," Odette murmured.
"Frustrating is more like it. And this isn't just knowledge coming out of tailing Dorien," he explained, "this is from multiple instances of following suspects. Trying to find where the drugs are coming from, where they go to meet up if need be. All leads to the same wall. So we've focused a lot more energy on undercover shticks at the moment, because that's proving at least somewhat more effective."
Odette found one report from the night before that detailed Dorien's distribution of several strains of sacrilege to high-profile buyers, including Valentin, and…strippers? She wasn’t going to ask.
“Oh. So you buy off of him yourself as a way to get in.”
“Right. Really sell the act that I’m truly just there to be part of their idiocy. But I’ll get to that,” he answered. "Also, for testing reasons. Side-effect combatant research and the like."
A question occurred to her, and she momentarily hesitated before asking. “…have you taken it?”
He didn’t seem ready to answer, as indicated by the deep breath he inhaled. “…unfortunately. Can't convince the Romans you're Roman unless you do as the Romans do, you know?” he said. “But that’s not important now. Stick a pin in that.”
“Alright,” she said after a moment, deciding to let it go. He had a point; that was not the big bad issue. A relatively significant detail, but not the most pressing one. He was undercover, and that was that for now. At least by 'sticking a pin in it,' he was agreeing to discuss it later. She'd remember that. "Guess I'm more caught up on this Dorien bombshell anyway."
“I did mention he was deep in Enigma, didn’t I?”
“So I’ve just been fucking around with someone who’s been possessed by one of these things this entire time?” she asked, a small drop of panic resonating in her tone. “How long has he had it? Was he going through secondary school with this thing just casually in his pocket?”
As Noel and Isaur patted her back, Valentin held up a reassuring hand. “You’d have never known unless he explicitly told you or showed you. If they’re away in their balls, you’d never know any of them were nearby. For the most part. As for how long, he had it for a few years before we met, and I met him just after he graduated secondary school.”
Odette briefly sunk into a thought, venturing back to the day she and Dorien battled. The strange vibes she’d gotten from him and how fearful he made her feel. She tried to think further back to their time in school together and if she’d ever had moments where she genuinely felt scared around him. She was perplexed to find herself drawing blanks.
She really had put much of that time out of her head. It was starting to freak her out.
“Could being possessed by one of these things make someone seem…scarier? Like, make-your-hair-stand-up-on-end scary?”
Valentin raised a brow but seemed to consider the question as he rubbed his lower lip. “I’d say maybe? We have reports of them being able to twist emotions. I’d imagine meeting one of these things would be an ominous moment, so if he was trying to make it clear he had one on hand, I don’t see why not…” he mused.
She rubbed the side of her head tiredly. "That's lovely," she groaned.
“But, in Dorien’s case, he’s also just like that. He’s an obnoxious yet eerie little asshole. If he’s committed homicide by his own free will, I wouldn’t be shocked in the slightest,” Valentin continued.
“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse,” Odette said. However, her smile did indicate some appreciation. And the way he smiled back at her almost made her melt.
Noel cleared his throat, thus snapping her out of her crush-fueled trance. “I’d say it's a given Dorien’s kind of a creep, and being possessed by a personification of a deadly sin would definitely exacerbate that,” he chuckled. "Though, I feel like all you need to do now is douse him with holy water. Or, maybe, shove him in a closet of Arcean relics. That should solve at least part of that problem."
Valentin suppressed a full-blown laugh. "Solid ideas, but it doesn't work like that."
"What, blood types aren't affected?"
To that, Valentin wiggled his hand. "They are. They can be, rather, in short bursts. We've observed blood types being averse to Arcean-blessed items and water, and those who have harbored them have even grown ill when in the presence of them as well. Dorien won't go near an Arcean church; he gets visibly aggravated at the idea. But, while debilitating at the moment, this type is quite sturdy. Not enough of a deterrent to make a huge difference."
Odette caught herself on that explanation. While the fact that Dorien didn't like going to Arcean churches didn't shock her one bit--as he was the last person she'd ever expect to have that kind of devotion--it only struck her because she also became aggravated at the idea of visiting Arcean churches. She could never get through a Unitas service without breaking into a fit of nausea. Of course, that had to be a terrible coincidence or something in the building her family had gone to for services. She'd never thought too hard about it until now.
"Why didn't he like it? Did he ever tell you?" she asked.
It looked like Valentin had to think about it for a moment. "Something about him always getting a stomach ache," he said.
The answer struck her like an ampharos' bolt.
“Probably the inner demons making his stomach turn in the presence of holiness," Noel jeered.
"Not the most scientific way I'd describe it, but that's correct," Valentin said.
Dorien won't go near an Arcean church; he gets visibly aggravated at the idea. Something about him always getting a stomach ache.
No way. No way, no way, no way. There is no fucking way. How the hell is that even possible? Is there some sort of sickness surrounding that type of thing? That doesn't even--
"Are you alright, Miss Cinq-Mars?"
Valentin's voice made her flinch. It was such a violent jolt that it even made Noel, Isaur, and Elton jump back. "Uh..." she managed. Her mouth formed around an apology, but she couldn't get it out.
"Hey, you good?" Noel cooed. He clamped his hand around her shoulder and started to rub it as if he were trying to generate some heat on her skin.
"You look like you saw a ghost," Isaur said. Her eyes briefly cut back to Elton and Noel as they looked at her with matching deadpan expressions. "Shut up," she groused.
Odette scratched at her cheek and adjusted her sitting position. "No, no, I'm fine," she said. She had to put her brave face back on. It was too early for the conversation to collapse on itself; there was still too much to go over. "Just started thinking."
"You sure?" Noel said. Giving her another opportunity to admit her psyche had just suffered another crack. She didn't take it. She couldn't right now.
"For sure. Let's keep it going." Her words came out a little more forceful than she intended them to, but nobody argued with her. Noel exhaled deeply and turned his attention back to Valentin.
"Okay, so, lets summarize for a second," he said. "We have this Florent dude, these blood types, these blood type legendaries, some select important individuals have them, the rich are hoarding the type, not too bothered by holy relics…where do the shinies themselves come into play?”
“Have you ever been taught why shiny Pokemon are shiny Pokemon?” Valentin asked in response.
“Uh-huh,” Noel said. “Odette’s mum actually taught us.”
Odette didn't hear her own name. She'd sunk back into herself and was too busy trying to sort through her understanding of what Valentin just told her.
I got stomach aches in church, Dorien gets stomach aches in church. He's possessed by the Envy 'mon. Do Arcean plates give him headaches? They give me headaches; could I test that theory? What are the fucking odds we went to the same church, and it's all just lining up strangely? How the fuck--
"And what did she tell you?" Valentin said,
“It’s a mutation,” Odette interjected, trying to remain as present as she could.
I know the first thing about mutations, she thought. Focus on that. It's just a bad coincidence. Has to be.
Focus.
“Something in their genes gets screwed and causes abnormal coloration. But it doesn’t make a difference in their abilities," she explained.
Valentin nodded along with her words. “Mostly right. That’s the cover-up reason.”
“Of fucking course it is,” Noel scoffed while Odette slumped against the backrest. “And why ‘mostly’?”
“The real reason is the blood types,” Valentin said. “They're very rare, and they’re only known to spawn in, you guessed it, blood. Entirely random, there’s no pattern, and sometimes it simply happens. But when it does, it causes a change in a Pokemon’s coat color, creating what you know as a shiny. Hence, Kalos’s lovely shiny trade still exists despite nobody really wanting it to.”
Odette exhaled slowly, taking a moment to re-aim her brain onto that. It was a simple explanation, yet there was so much to unpack.
“As for why your explanation is mostly right, no it doesn’t affect their abilities, but it can affect their health. A shiny unable to manage the blood type within them might experience some health issues related to their blood. Fatigue, drops or spikes in blood pressure, blood loss, bad immune system,” he listed.
That alarmed her. Not just because that sounded eerily close to the issues she suffered with but because something else had occurred to her.
Isaur chirped frantically before she had a chance to finish categorizing her thoughts. “Wait, Enora!”
“Oh my gods, yes, Enora,” Noel inhaled gravely.
“Enora is possessed by a blood type,” Odette speculated. “And has been this whole time?”
Valentin sighed. “Correct. Though--and I'm not sure how much this helps ease your mind--she might be unaware that that's the case. Shinies left unbothered often live their whole lives without any idea of what's within them."
Her frown deepened. “Enora might not even know it’s there?”
“Sometimes, depending on the species, blood types prefer to remain docile. They occasionally won’t even present themselves unless their host is in severe danger. If that never happens, a host could live a full life completely unaware they’re possessed but be susceptible to those aforementioned health issues. They’d just be completely unaware of why it was happening,” Valentin explained, shrugging.
Odette was staring down at her lap now, running over his words again. “I found Enora in a dumpster, and she was fucked up. I don’t know where she came from, but I imagine she was at least in some pretty bad shit…would that warrant it speaking up?”
“That would be between her and the Pokemon living in her. If she’s never mentioned it to you, then chances are even when she was in peril, it didn’t present itself.”
She supposed that might have been a good thing. She couldn’t imagine Enora not telling her something like that…though, in some world, she could understand the struggle of trying to word it. How would any Pokemon tell their trainer that they have some undisclosed ‘mon living in their bloodstream?
But if she did know, was that why she didn't want anything to do with getting involved?
"I don't know about that," she said under her breath.
“Has Enora ever had any issues with her health?” Valentin inquired.
“No,” Odette said dejectedly. “Nothing that I ever thought was concerning, at least.”
Valentin’s expression didn’t help ease her head whatsoever. In fact, it only felt like the whirlwind of revelations had picked up.
Enora had never exhibited any symptoms of being in anything less than tip-top shape. Odette would have noticed otherwise. Unless she was somehow really good at hiding any symptoms despite being an awful liar. But why would she if she didn’t know what was actually going on?
Maybe she was scared. Maybe she didn’t know how Odette would react. But, they’d been through so much together, and surely Enora knew she could say anything if she needed to…
The tea party, though. The voice she heard. Valentin and Bernard being concerned about where Enora was when she was attacked by desmocula…
Could it have been Enora’s friend somehow? If Enora did know it was in there and had come to terms with it?
Valentin must have noticed the look she was now making because he leaned toward her. “I did want to ask you about it. Due to the events of our recent tea party, I was concerned it might have had something to do with her.”
“All that happened there was hypotension spell. I used to get them a lot, it was just bad timing. Maybe that thing sensed I didn’t have anything for it,” Odette said half-jokingly. Mostly to hide the fact she was lying by omission and skirting around the inevitable observation that was starting to brew up a panic attack in the pit of her soul.
Keep it together. Stay focused. Keep your game face on. You're letting your mind wander because you're stupid.
But was this a case of her overthinking or actually being on the right track?
Her throat was starting to feel tight.
“I am sorry to hear that,” Valentin said. Though, he looked ever so slightly wary of saying it. Like he was suspicious of her. As he probably should be. She was suspicious of herself right now, too.
“I don’t mean to pry, but did you have other issues with your health in the past?”
Did he know she wasn't telling the whole truth?
Since she was thinking about it, she realized he must have known about her health issues while he was heckling her about hosting bids on Enora. The conversation she overheard sounded like Bernard had mentioned it to him even before then. Perhaps that was helping fuel his suspicion. Fueling his attempt at prodding now.
“Yeah,” she said flatly. “Hypotension, anemia, compromised immune system, all of it. But I’ve been extensively tested and told more than once. It's a hormone problem. I was a preemie. That crap didn’t develop well enough in the womb, and ta-da."
Also, you have also gotten stomach aches in church. Like Dorien.
She hated how defensive she felt. What was there to defend? It had to be a coincidence. Many medical issues caused those problems, as so graciously showcased by all the tests she was subjected to as a kid. And people got stomach aches all the time in weird places.
But he’d listed the same symptoms. And her eye color was indeed considered a mutation, and Dorien…
No way. No way. That can't be; no fucking way. I'm going zubatshit fucking bonkers right now.
Or was she?
“So, yeah, you were grilling me about Enora because you assumed I was trying to get a blood type out of her,” she said, hoping to keep the conversation moving forward. “But rest assured, this is the first I’m hearing about any of this. Didn’t know jack all about blood types until I read your files.”
Valentin suddenly looked sheepish. That was better than suspicious. “I’ll admit that I was out of line, Miss Cinq-Mars. And I apologized to you. But there were layers to it. You having a shiny in your…” he pressed his lips into a thin line, hesitating. Odette rolled her eyes.
“Just say I’m poor and get it over with.”
He burst into a fit of giggles. It was adorable and caught her completely off guard. She’d take another round of a lovestruck haze over the tornado of crippling anxiety her brain was trying to launch itself into.
“No, no. I was going to say ‘socioeconomic class.’ Which…doesn’t sound much better. But the point stands. You don’t exactly come from the demographic that normally has shiny Pokemon on their teams and paired Dorien’s thing for you, and how convincing you were in your act, I was very wary.”
“His thing for me,” she repeated in disgust, exchanging a pained look with Isaur.
Valentin tilted his head. “I mean, you know he’s absolutely enthralled with you, right? That might be an understatement.”
She couldn’t tell if she was picking up an edge to his tone. It was barely there, but it might have just been her imagination. No, was it? She decided to ignore it. She couldn't be getting excited about that at a time like this.
“Let’s put a pin in that, too. I’m still trying to get straight on this shiny thing.” She slapped Dorien’s file closed for good measure and threw it back on the coffee table. She also moved the blood type file off her lap as well.
“Of course.”
“So people find shinies in the wild. Non-shiny hunters, I mean. Like me,” she said quickly. “What happens to them? Am I in deep shit because I have Enora on my team? As a non-cult member?”
A dark look crossed his eyes, and Odette suddenly wanted to gulp.
“You found her in a dumpster?”
“Next to my nana and grandpa’s townhouse in Lumiose, yes,” she confirmed.
Valentin suddenly became pensive. “Have either of you ever been out hunting in the wild?”
“Yep. Elton and I met in the wild,” Noel said. Elton flapped his wings in agreement.
“The only member of my team I found in the actual wild was Isaur. On Mt. Coronet. But I’ve gone on expeditions here in Kalos with my maman’s research team, and they caught wounded Pokemon while out there.” Odette paused to think. “I guess I found Ange out and about too, but he was fucking around an abandoned shopping mall. Not sure that counts.”
“In the wild areas, specifically, do you remember going through any checkpoints when you returned to town? To authorize the ‘mon that were caught?”
She blinked. “Are those controlled by Team Enigma?”
“The ones in Kalos are heavily manned by them,” he said. “Other regions vary.”
Odette was surprised at how much that didn’t shock her.
“What, Enigma’s not big enough to span outside Kalos?” Noel said.
“Oh, they most definitely are. Their levels of activity depend. You know the shiny hunting laws in other regions, right?” Valentin replied.
“Something, something, Kalosians visiting out-of-region can’t leave wild areas with shiny ‘mon,” Odette said. “To keep them from coming back here and selling them into the trade.”
Kalos was the only region in the world with an active public shiny trade. All other regions had theirs abolished years ago and had been pressuring Kalos to do the same. Even the Kalosian citizens were for it, but the termination never came to fruition. So, other regions took it upon themselves to enact anti-Kalosian shiny trade laws instead.
“That’s pretty spot on. Those laws might keep Kalosians from bringing new 'mon back from overseas to sell into the Kalosian trade, but they don't stop trades from happening within those specific regions. Operatives exist and plant themselves at checkpoints in other regions, and shiny trading rings still occur."
“It’s just gone underground because it's illegal,” Noel said.
“Precisely.”
“But then how does it work? How do they manage non-shiny hunters leaving a wild area with a shiny Pokemon? Why did I manage to slip under the radar until now?” Odette said.
“Some poor sap comes back with a shiny. They mark the sap and the shiny. Convince them to join their cause, or at the very least, give up the shiny. You might have gotten away with it in general because you never went through a physical checkpoint with Enora, but–-”
“--I still had to report her as a member of my team once she actually decided to stay with me. Do they have access to those records?”
“Correct. And yes.”
Her panic was rising faster and faster with every passing second. She was at the point where masking her discomfort wasn't second nature, but an excruciating chore.
“So, I don’t have a straight answer for you there. I’d imagine it’s hard for even a group like this to keep track of everything, especially secretly, so maybe you just got lucky.”
“I was also ten at the time,” she offered, trying to rationalize her situation further and prevent her dread meter from maxing out. That earned her an unsure glance from him.
“Do you really think a cult centered around worshipping sin legendaries is above messing with children?”
She had to refrain from grunting outright. “No, I don’t.”
It had to be the latter, then. She had to have just managed to go twelve years without being tracked by a group of sin-obsessed psychos. It wouldn’t be very in line with her luck, but it was the only thing that would make sense given what she had just been told.
She felt some anger coming on. More out of frustration and brewing mental turmoil than anything. “Let's keep the conversation going. More pins. We’ll get back to that,” she snapped. Her volume made Valentin recoil, and some regret slithered up to meet her frustration.
"Of course," he said, almost too quietly for her comfort. "As many pins as you need right now."
“Okay. What would happen if someone, not Enigma aligned, found a shiny and the blood type revealed itself?” Noel questioned, obliging her subject change.
“They’d still report to the checkpoints, and it would be the same process,” Valentin replied. “We have undercover operatives that have intercepted a lot of them once they picked up on what was happening. Some went as far as posting conspiracy theories online, ranting and raving about it. Usually gets written off as 'tin foil hat' theories and whatnot, though. We've gotten to them before Enigma could and hid them. Most of the time it goes off without a hitch,” Valentin said.
“But?” Noel said.
“Nobody’s perfect, so we’ve missed some as well. Some have gone missing, probably absorbed into the cult, or worse. And others…don’t recall anything.”
Odette pursed her lips. “What, do they like to drug all memories of it out of them? Use ‘mon?”
“Let me backtrack a bit to explain. You’ll need to know this before I can go that far.”
“Have at it,” Noel said.
“Because blood types are so rare, the greedy rich will naturally want more, and the shiny trade can only do so much. That’s where sacrilege comes into play,” Valentin explained.
“Yeah, but how?” Odette said.
“Think about it. All of the strains have effects in line with a certain sin. The blood legendaries are the birthplace of all blood types…”
“Sacrilege comes from the sin legendaries and creates more blood types?” Noel finished.
"You're right on the money."
He inched forward in his seat. “That’s why it’s going around the shiny trade. That’s why it’s going around the one percent. They’re trying to spawn more blood types in their Pokemon and themselves.”
"Gold star for you."
Noel shimmied to himself in a brief celebration.
“Can they even spawn in a non-shiny? Or...human?” Odette asked. She'd have found humor in Noel's little dance if she wasn't using most of her energy toward not slipping into a mental breakdown.
“They can form in anything that has blood in it. The shiny distinction is just because shiny Pokemon were born with one. But, a regular ‘mon could spawn one," Valentin explained. "A shiny could have its original blood 'mon removed and be forced to help create another. A human could make one, too, but we've found it's a little more difficult. They basically have to use sacrilege to a point of sheer, brain-has-melted-and-you-might-as-well-be-dead overdose even to get close to forming one within them.”
Odette clenched her jaw. "Has a human been known to be born with one?"
"So far, we've found that only the legendaries have spawned in humans. We're still trying to determine if non-legends have naturally shown up in them, but the findings point to 'no.'"
"Was Florent born with his?" Noel queried.
"Indeed. Armel most likely was, too, being that he is a biological descendant of Florent. Florent made it clear to my father that they pass naturally between Lambourne blood--provided that they are available to do so, as in, not already with another vessel--though he never really explained how that happened."
"So...how did Dorien get one? Is he a Lambourne?"
Valentin paused to chew on his words. "Florent told my father that, as overseer of them, he also has the power to bestow them upon whoever he picked. If he never ended up having children, which is evidently a different story. Dorien is, from our understanding, not related to Florent whatsoever."
So many questions. Odette didn't even know which one to throw out, but she decided she wanted to keep the topic on sacrilege and its effects.
"Okay, noted," she said slowly. "That aside, a lot of people overdosing and dying are just trying to spawn a powerful blood type?"
"Sometimes. It seems the general consensus is to leave that up to the Pokemon since it's 'easier on them,' but there are enough crazies out there that still try it at their own expense. Really committed to the cause," Valentin said. "But it happens unintentionally, too. Sacrilege gives stronger effects with each subsequent usage, so it's not unheard of for it to happen by accident as they try to chase the ultimate high."
“You think the malamar and scizor were forced to try to respawn some?” Odette said.
A shrug. “They were exhausted, so I’d bet on it.”
“Good gods,” Noel breathed. “It’s like forced breeding.”
“Exactly,” Valentin said.
“But wait. Normal people are getting sacrilege to use just for battling reasons. Or as a party drug. On themselves and their regular non-shinies. What happens if they unwittingly bring about a blood type? I'm sure they’re not aware that that’s a side effect,” Odette said.
“Enigma distributes, Enigma decides who gets it, and they go from there. Chances are if you're using it, you're at least somewhat aware. They're very...particular about when and where it's passed out. And to whom. It was a long while before I was able to purchase for myself. At most deals, if they don't trust you, they won't let you leave with it. You had to do it, a certain amount, with others around, and you could take nothing with you. They'd search you. They're thorough," he said. “Of course, that’s never stopped anyone. People slip, it gets out.”
He rubbed his face tiredly. Something told Odette he was regretting his decision to down so much whiskey before having this conversation. “But, most of the time, if you're seeing it in any given place, there's an Enigma operative nearby, or you’re looking at someone who was considered trustworthy enough to walk off without supervision. And just because it's mainly going around the wealthy class doesn't mean they're also not passing it out to those in lower social classes. The majority is the elite, but if they can find some trustworthy folks in lower classes, they'll jump on them too."
“Of course. More fuel for the cult," Noel said.
Odette was nodding along in understanding. "So, what strains are there?” Odette spoke. “All seven of them, right?”
“We’ve managed to deduce that there’s Sloth, Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Lust, and Greed,” Valentin explained, holding up a finger for each listed name. "There's one for every legendary, being that sacrilege, at its base, again, comes from them."
“Okay, but that’s six,” Noel said with a forced chuckle. “That leaves…”
“Wrath,” Valentin finished.
Something about that felt…foreboding. And it wasn’t just the look on Valentin’s face that said that.
“Do you think it’s just one you haven’t found?” Odette questioned.
“We’ve only accounted for six different versions. Never a Wrath, at any point.”
“Has he ever mentioned anything about it to you?”
“I’ve asked, yes,” Valentin said. “Didn’t get much more than some elusive bullshit answer each and every time.”
“So that means they might be sitting on it,” Noel hypothesized. “These other strains are doing a number on the general public, and maybe Wrath is the ace up their sleeve. I don't even think I want to know what a drug called ‘Wrath’ would do to people.”
Odette knew firsthand what it felt like to succumb to feelings of Wrath. It happened to her daily. She couldn’t imagine people taking a drug that might induce it to conjure up some powerful demonic Pokemon.
However, as the thought occurred to her, something spilled out of her mouth before she could think about it.
“Or maybe they don’t have access to it,” she said blindly.
She watched as every head in the room collectively turned in her direction. Valentin’s brow quirked. He leaned forward a little too quickly for comfort.
“What makes you say that?” he asked. He sounded a little more forceful than he did a few seconds ago. She instinctively recoiled back toward the couch but spoke nonetheless.
“Well, let's look at the facts,” she began, forcing another deep breath into her lungs. Her throat was still so tight that she didn't quite feel like she'd gotten enough air, but she decided she'd have to deal with it. “Every other strain is fucking up the overdosers. I’ve read enough public case files on them to know that it doesn’t seem like one is worse than the other; they’re all bad in excess,” she said. “So I couldn’t imagine, even if it is considered the scariest one of the seven, that Wrath could be any more or less worse. So, why hold off on it? Unless it’s a strain that they’ve found might subsequently wipe us all out, I can’t see a reason other than they don’t have it.”
She watched as some tension deflated from Valentin’s shoulders, and Noel averted his gaze toward his lap in thought.
“Right. That’s something we considered as well,” Valentin agreed stiffly. The slight disappointment in his tone was not lost on her, but everything was moving far too fast for her to focus on it. “Nothing in any tested samples has indicated any mixing with it, or even a tell if it’s coming. So we’re entirely in the dark on that front. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little concerning. If they are sitting on it, the question is, why? And if they don’t actually have Wrath on hand…”
“...then where exactly is it?” Noel finished. Valentin nodded at him, looking grim.
“Where exactly is it, indeed.”
All was quiet for a beat, as it seemed everyone in the room was trying to settle into the information being thrown about. Though, Odette couldn't quite enjoy the silence. The sound of her own heartbeat beating on her eardrums had become borderline deafening.
“So you purchase sacrilege from Dorien to test the strains, but you also said something about side-effect combatants? Does that somehow play into what happens to unsuspecting shiny catchers who don’t join their cult?” Odette questioned.
“Sacrilege, as you probably know, can leave anybody who ingests it in excess in pretty…bad shape. The price paid to summon a monstrous Pokemon within yourself. We mainly test it for antidotes to revert overdosers to their former selves.”
“For both humans and Pokemon,” Noel said.
“Correct,” Valentin said. “We’ve also had to develop combatants to an Enigma-only weapon they’ve started using against those they believe are our operatives or those, like people who get ahold of sacrilege unauthorized and perhaps those who passed it out unauthorized, who might blow their cover.”
“Like…bombs and shit? Sin guns? How do you weaponize this crap outside of an illicit drug?” Noel breathed.
Valentin proceeded to slide over the last folder he had in his arms. “They call it ‘Vice Dust.’ It's essentially just overprocess sacrilege. However they're making it, they seem to make a few erroneous batches that result in a substance that functions a little more pointedly than sacrilege. And they've started putting it to use."
“That's not to be confused with pixie dust,” Odette said drily while Noel grabbed the folder. That got a spiteful laugh out of Valentin before he went on.
“Can’t guarantee you’re going to understand everything in that folder, but what you’re seeing there are the tests we ran on subjects exposed to it. Like sacrilege, there are six strains, but the effects are a little different.”
“Amnesia?” Noel said. Odette turned her head to see he was holding a page from the folder. “So this is what they’re using on the trainers who refuse them?”
Odette hated how fast she snatched the paper from him. Her eyes roved past the graphs and numbers until she found a written paragraph to better explain what exactly she was looking at.
Subject 12A had been experiencing symptoms of amnesia, including an inability to recall recent past events regarding their investigation. After treatment from antidote series 1602B, their memories began to recover. As a result of the treatment, we have deduced that they had been exposed to 3rd Degree Greed Vice Dust.
“What the actual fuck does Greed have to do with someone’s memory?” Odette said under her breath.
“We believe it has something to do with Avareed’s passive effects. According to my father’s notes, Avareed was, as Florent described, a mind eater. ‘Greed for knowledge,’ so to speak,” Valentin said. “From our understanding, they’re using the same essence they’ve used to create sacrilege to also come up with this substance capable of this kind of nonsense.”
“Oh, that’s sick,” Noel said bitterly. “Any average suspicious Team Enigma member can just walk right up to my dumbass and sprinkle me with Greed amnesia dust, and boom, I’m fucked?”
“We’ve had our own ops see it happen,” Valentin said, holding his arms out to his sides. "And the treatment notes there don't lie. Actual victims."
Odette couldn’t take her eyes off the page. Once more, her brain was rolling, trying to get its own thoughts in a row.
Dorien’s job, old secondary school shit, stupid fucking Denis, she thought. Was I ever questioned about Enora?
Dorien gets sick in church. I get sick in church. My eyes are a color mutation. I have the same symptoms.
Wrath...
“Odette?”
She jolted from her haze and felt Isaur drive a chilly finger into her side. She gave the froslass a weak yet reassuring nod, before dropping the page back into the folder.
“Can…hypothetically speaking…memories be jogged by other means other than your antidote?” she asked tentatively.
“Sure. The lower the degree, the easier to jog naturally. There are only three tiers we’ve discovered of the Greed strain specifically. First-degree exposees were much easier to deal with, while third-degree required an antidote every time. Stronger stuff. Jogs can also happen in waves. Somebody might remember some things naturally but need help with the rest. Honestly, it varies from person to person how well they take it."
Had her memories been jogged at any point? Yes, when Dorien mentioned something about selling Enora, back when they’d reconnected, she remembered his occupation. And her dislike for him came on pretty instantly. But talking about secondary school, specifically stuff related to her time with Dorien, didn’t jog her memories of it. Noel mentioning Denis didn’t make her remember him asking her out.
She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take. The continued revelations were starting to force an unbearable weight into her stomach, one that was leaving her wanting to gag and maybe lose the protein bar she'd eaten that morning all over the floor.
But they needed to keep going.
“So they’re just full-on Men-In-Black’ing these poor guys?” Noel said.
“Cleaner than killing them, I suppose,” Valentin commented flatly. “I figure it's much easier to steal the shiny away, wipe the trainer's memory, then modify any checkpoint records to indicate the shiny never existed than to have to deal with disposing of a body and possible missing persons cases. Not that they’re past that. Can’t imagine every soul that’s managed to evade our help somehow is still alive.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t take Team Enigma as being a group to leave bodies out and about with the possibility of being found,” Odette grumbled. Saying something to take her mind off of where it was. Of course, it didn't work.
Noel was still busy flipping through the pages in the file he had in his lap, evidently trying to make sense of what exactly he was looking at. At some point, he slammed it closed and threw it down on the table, along with the others he had yet to put down.
“Okay, that aside for now, I need you to backtrack again and explain the whole Clovis versus Valentin thing because that’s still got me kind of fucked up,” he insisted. “You said the real Clovis LeClair was dead? So how and why the fuck did you, Valentin Ménétries, end up with a dead man’s identity?"
Valentin sighed gruffly, then averted his eyes up to the ceiling and settled back into his spot on the desk. “I suppose there is no real way to lay this on you easily,” he said, “so I’ll just be frank and hope you don’t think I’m busting your chops.”
“We might be past that,” Odette said. Her own voice sounded distant to her now. She felt like she was slowly losing herself in her thoughts.
That got a slight chuckle out of him, which was enough to tug her back into reality for at least a second. “Virtue Corp exists to combat Team Enigma, first and foremost. We also function as the leading opponent against the shiny trade and the leading sanctuary for Pokemon--and, to a certain extent, humans--that have been affected by it. Rehabilitation, if you will. That’s how we’ve gotten so much intel on the non-legendary blood types as well.”
That explained why he got so mad at the gala. Odette nodded tiredly. “Noble. Tracks with your oddly minimalist website.”
"Gods, I forgot we even had that," Valentin said, shaking his head. "We put that up as a front for our efforts. A darling little non-profit trying to take down a shitty institution while we do...that and more, underground."
"You're far bigger than just that scope," Noel said.
"Oh yeah," Valentin said, nodding heavily. "My family, the Ménétries family, couldn't even do this alone. We’ve partnered with seven other pretty powerful families in Kalos to make Virtue Corp and its goals what it is now. The De Guignes’s, the Giradot’s, the Subercaseux’s, the Toussaint’s, the Aliker’s, the Delsarte’s,” Odette watched as he lightly cringed over that name, “and the LeClair’s.”
Odette’s brows raised for more reasons than one, and she perked up out of her slump. “So the LeClair's are a family working with you, you’ve just taken on their name?”
“I’ve been a researcher of blood types for most of my life. I was actually in school to become a certified Pokemon Professor while competing as a figure skater. But, as the head of Virtue Corp, my father got deeper into his…desire to combat Team Enigma, and blood type research took over everything. Soon I had to drop figure skating and focus primarily on my research and the cause. This started to include…going into the field to collect evidence."
“Your undercover work,” Noel said.
He nodded. “But, I couldn’t do that as Valentin Ménétries. Florent and possibly any close confidants of his would know the surname. We also needed to ensure I took on an identity that would allow me to get access to things a normal civilian wouldn’t. That ended up coming down to the name of the LeClair’s late son, Clovis.”
“So what actually happened to him, if you don't mind me asking?” Odette asked, masking the internal relief that was flooding her core. If he was telling the truth here, then that meant his chances of being some sick fuck were being pushed further out the window, and he was most likely not lying about being a predator.
Thank gods. Thank fucking gods. At least something decent was coming out of this conversation.
“Clovis LeClair, the real Clovis LeClair, was a depressed, socially anxious shut-in. He was credited with developing the business solutions that made Claire De Lune what it is today. He committed suicide about six years ago. His parents never made that information public.”
Once more, looks were exchanged, far more incredulous than the first share.
“So to get in with these rich blood type trainers safely, they made you take on the dead Clovis LeClair’s identity?” Noel said.
“The real Clovis LeClair was dedicated to stopping Enigma and the trade and finding out more about these blood types. His parents felt it would be ‘carrying on his legacy’ or whatever the fuck that meant. We were quite similar in many senses—family brains, numbers people, dedicated to the cause. The council felt it made sense and that I could somehow make it work.”
“Looks like you did,” Odette said.
“Yeah,” Valentin said, “a little too well.”
“Too well?”
“Research and evidence collecting quickly turned into rubbing elbows with potential high-ranking Enigma members. I somehow managed to get 'friendly' with Dorien, got further into Enigma’s sacrilege crap, actually got ahold of sacrilege samples, and learned more about Enigma in general. So, my little undercover mission gained a little more importance. We’d already started partnering with the police forces all over Kalos, but they felt there was no point in pulling me out and having another cop do what I was doing—I was already in.”
“Wait, you’re not just working with the LCPD?” Odette blurted.
“This is a region-wide cause; it’s not just concentrated on Lumiose. The most active area happens to be Lumiose. So, unfortunately, the chief of the LCPD—your grandfather—is the busiest.”
“What luck,” Noel scoffed.
“Do you guys speak a lot?” Odette shot back without thinking.
A brief rush of panic flooded Valentin’s perfect gaze, and he cleared his throat. “...semi-regularly,” he said sheepishly. “We’ve gotten to know each other rather well if I’m being honest.”
That was fucking rich. Bernard was getting more date time with Valentin than Odette figured she ever would. She exhaled evenly to keep herself from making a face that would make her envy obvious.
“Small world.”
“Small world,” Valentin echoed.
“So,” she said, “you’re a figure skater turned professor turned undercover researcher with the name of a dead shut-in turned undercover spy. All because of the way things fell into place?”
“When you put it like that, it sounds absurd,” Noel jeered.
“It is absurd,” Valentin said. “But it’s all true. I couldn’t make this crap up even if I tried; fiction writing was never my forte.”
It all felt way too elaborate and oddly specific for it to be a fib.
“Gods, the more you talk, the more tired I get,” Odette said. She sounded like she was in pain, and truthfully, she felt no different. It was amazing how mental angst could hurt so much more than physical ailments sometimes.
She pinched the bridge of her nose and rested her elbows on her knees. She then felt a cold hand begin to pat her shoulder again and sent a silent nod of thanks toward Isaur.
“I don’t blame you,” Valentin said. “This is a lot to take in, and that’s a horrible understatement.”
“I didn’t come here expecting a whole-ass conspiracy theory to fall into my lap. I’d have brought something to take notes,” Noel said.
“Rest assured that I have plenty of other notes on hand.”
“And you're not whistleblowing the shit out this because,” Odette suddenly said, raising her head as another thought occurred to her, "that would let Enigma know what you're up to. It would basically blow your cover."
“Checkmate, Miss Cinq-Mars. You're very good at this," he complimented. The sudden spike of crush-induced adrenaline nearly sent her over the vomiting edge.
"Not to mention, there's a very wealthy man heading this apparently very large criminal cult who has access to seven—maybe six—very deadly-sounding legendaries that only he and his cult know about. And said cult members are farming these legendaries' descendants in their honor. That's pretty simple, scary math, too," Noel said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"You too, Mr. Masse."
“But while I do understand the need for your cover," Noel went on, "I can’t imagine what the reaction is gonna be when the general public finds out the cops and a bunch of rich people were fudging public case records and warding off the press to keep all of this from them in the first place."
Valentin narrowed his eyes slightly. “Do I want to know how you know about that?"
"Gals in different locales, honey," Noel declared.
Sighing in what sounded to be defeat, Valentin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Believe me, we are stuck between a wall of knives and a loaded assault rifle in that regard. But, we collectively decided it would be better to break the news to the public after Florent had been apprehended, Enigma disbanded, and these legendaries and type more adequately researched."
Noel was nodding in agreement at that point. "It lessens the blow if it's all been solved and dealt with," he said.
"That's the end goal," Valentin said.
“But why even tell us this?" Odette spoke up again. "Why not just tell us we’re way too over our heads and to fuck off? You’ve clearly got the authority for it.”
That got a deep breath out of Valentin, and he slowly crossed his arms over his chest. “Simply put, you’re both ins now.”
He gestured to Odette. “To take one of your pins out, Dorien Bonhomme is obsessed with you. He mentioned that you two had a thing while you were in school, so I'd have to say it stems from that," he said in a borderline grumble. "I’ve been playing friendly with him for the past five years, yet I seem to have hit a wall trying to get to Florent. They trust me with the sacrilege, they trust me enough to tell me about Enigma-related things, but I’m stuck there. You, on the other hand, have a very different in with him that I could never obtain, which might prove useful in getting ahead. And Mr. Masse is very good at socializing, and it's always better to have more charismatic teammates on hand."
Odette palmed her cheek in exasperation. “So basically, you want us to join your undercover squad?”
He held his hands out to his sides. “I’m not asking you to do anything different. Let’s be real here; you were already doing it alone. Now I’m just simply offering Virtue Corp’s backing and protection.”
Another good point. There were enough unsolicited parallels from that phone call that she’d overheard that she was beginning to believe he was in their court. That wasn’t part of her overwhelming anxiety anymore.
All nervous thoughts now centered on the bits of information she’d just found out about. The true origin of shinies, these legendaries, the fact that the very person she was trying to shmooze had one within him and was quote on quote “obsessed with her.” She didn’t like that wording.
If she didn’t feel like she was getting in over her head at first, she definitely did now. She didn't think she'd ever been this nervous about anything in her entire life. And yet, she somehow still wanted to hear more. Valentin had to have somehow read her mind because he spoke again.
“And there’s…another reason. Admittedly, my primary reason for drilling you at all. I’ve wavered on disclosing it, so forgive me for its late arrival. It’s just a tad less…concrete.”
Odette raised her brows at him. She was momentarily alarmed that he was ready to keep stuff from them, but then she remembered what she was actively refraining from disclosing to him. She supposed she could let it slide.
“Go on,” she urged. She didn’t think he could say anything that would make her more uneasy than she already was.
He scrunched his nose in contemplation as if he were still wavering to say what was on his mind. He was so fucking adorable when he was thinking.
Gods, she was a mess.
Just when it seemed like he wasn’t going to speak, he managed something. "It's largely observational and largely me trying to make sense of things,” he said slowly, “but to be completely and totally blunt with you, Miss Cinq-Mars, you bear a striking resemblance to Florent.”
Another checkmark from the phone conversation. One that sent her soul into a spin and made her feel lightheaded. Uncanny resemblance, he had said, hadn’t he?
Of course, that was the last thing she’d have assumed he was talking about.
“I–?” she tried to speak but found that her mouth had started to fill with cotton. I'm going to throw up, she thought dazedly. I'm absolutely going to throw up all over his office floor.
“Resemblance? How the hell would you know that for sure?” Isaur squeaked in alarm. Odette had retreated so far back into her own head that she almost couldn't hear her.
“You have a picture of this guy or something?” Noel sputtered.
Valentin was raising his hands defensively before Noel began to speak. “We have a single photo of him, courtesy of my father, but it’s years old. He certainly wouldn’t look that way now. Even so, the likeness is very much there, but it’s just a hunch. There are billions of people on this earth; it’s easy to see similarities between completely unrelated people.”
“So then, why is that even on your mind?”
Odette was very thankful Noel was with her. Having him do the talking while she sat there trying to conjure words and keep herself from having a psychotic episode made things easier for her.
“Well…” Valentin said cautiously. “I hope I don’t end up crossing a line, but I’m going to go there anyway. I’m aware from my conversations with Chief Cinq-Mars that you, Miss Cinq-Mars, were born without a legal father figure. Is that right?”
She regained lung function and managed to exhale sharply. “Y-yes. Maman fucked around a lot when she was younger and went a little too far with some guy…almost twice her age…from what she’s told me…” she trailed off as she clawed her hands up through her bangs and settling them on the crown of her head.
Now she was actually thinking about it. If she were doing her math correctly, if Florent were in school to be a professor in the ‘80s, that would put him in his early twenties. In 1997, that should have had him in his early thirties.
Roughly twice her mother’s age at the time.
“Did your maman tell you anything else about who her fling was?” Valentin prodded.
Her tongue felt swollen. It felt dry. It felt just as numb as she did. And yet, she still found her words. “Didn’t talk much about him. I never bothered asking; never thought it was worth my time. All she told me was that I must have gotten this eye color mutation from him because it didn’t run in her side of the family.”
The face Valentin made didn’t help ease her nerves whatsoever. How his beautiful eyes became so solemn only caused her heartbeat to pick up. And not for a good reason.
“I can confirm via my father’s personal stories that Florent indeed had a similar eye color to yours, Miss Cinq-Mars.”
Such a simple response hit so much harder than she ever thought possible. Learning that Dorien had a powerful legendary in his possession, that Enora might have one herself, that she happened to slip under the radar for Enigma’s gatekeeping, the weird parallels about her poor health and the health of shinies, that Enigma has ways to wipe people’s memories, and now something even more fucked?
I'm going to throw up.
“Do you have his picture with you?”
“Unfortunately, no. I only have the files I’ve shown you because I knew we’d discuss them. I was under the impression I would have a lot more to run by you, so I didn’t think we’d be getting this far today, if at all,” he admitted. “I don’t keep anything Virtue Corp-related here otherwise. For safety reasons.”
“So where is it?” she pressed.
He shifted uncomfortably. “My apartment. I’d be more than happy to schedule another meeting with you two at a later date to show–”
“So let’s go to your apartment,” Odette said, once again not thinking before speaking. Noel darted his head in her direction, looking slightly more incredulous than the last time he’d done so. Even Isaur looked taken aback.
“Holluh-holluh-holluh-holluh-hollup,” he faltered, waving his arms. “Are you for real right now? That is like textbook bait,” he said in a half-whisper.
“I’d be offended in some capacity, but I’m inclined to agree with Mr. Masse here.” He paused to reevaluate what he was trying to say, clearing his throat again. “Hypothetically.”
With a gruff exhale, he shook his head. “The point of meeting in a public place like this was to prove I wasn’t up to anything, and I feel like returning to my house defeats that purpose. I do not want to give you any reason to distrust me, and it’s my fault for not being properly prepared.”
Yes, she’d been so worried on the drive over that they were riding into a mugging. Or something worse. But she was sticking to her guns on this. She needed to see more, even if it meant she never left the mental tailspin she was stuck in. But, she did find some room to make note of his cautiousness and appreciated it in spite of everything.
“If I’m asking you to take us there, I don’t think it counts.”
“Right, it just makes you sound reckless,” he shot back, his expression deadpan.
“Sound?” Odette repeated, tilting her head questioningly. Her boiling panic started to bubble up behind her words. “I think it’s all but been said that that’s what I am. And if you have information on this criminal ass man who is in a scarily coincidental position to be the fling that got my maman pregnant with me, I would like to see it all.”
She exhaled deeply to level herself out, but the franticness wasn’t going away. It only continued to build, like water behind a cracking dam.
“Pardon if I sound a little forceful, but I’m getting a little stressed out here. I’m trying to defend my illnesses and insisting I don’t know shit about these Pokemon, but now I’m finding out one of my team members has one, and that I’m displaying symptoms of a shiny that has one, and that Dorien has gotten ill in the presence of Arcean things, and I think I have too, and now you’re telling me the head of fucking Team Enigma looks like me, and I can’t—“
“Eeeeeeasy, O,” Noel tried to ease her, massaging the back of her neck with his hand. Isaur nuzzled close to her, as if trying to cool her down. Somewhere, deep in her shrieking mind, she felt appreciation for the gesture.
Still, she felt a sense of regret starting to build. Fuck. Fuck. I said too much. I really--
“It’s alright, Miss Cinq-Mars,” Valentin said sympathetically. “You've made your point.”
All was quiet again as Valentin began to think about how he would respond to the request. Odette was fully expecting him to drill her about her drop about the Arcean relics, but no such interrogation came. It wasn’t long before he sighed dejectedly.
“I suppose if you’re insisting, there’s nothing to call seedy. And I want you to see these things sooner rather than later, now,” he relented.
“Provided you actually have things worth looking at,” Noel interjected pointedly.
“I did tell you I had notes aplenty. Hopefully, enough to answer any lasting questions you might still have.”
Noel gave Odette a light yet reassuring squeeze on the back of her neck. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Valentin rolled up his sleeve to check his watch, flexing his lips at the time he read. “I guess I can go home for the day at this point. I cleared my schedule for this meeting.”
“What, did you think this was going to take hours?” Odette said.
“As I said, I greatly underestimated how on top of things you two were.”
His eyes roved back to the covered window, and he sucked his teeth. “If we are going to go, it’s best we go now. The forecast says a storm will be hitting later in the evening, and I have no intent to be driving in that.”
“Considering we came here on a motorcycle, I think I concur,” Noel said. He sat up again and peered back at Odette, who’d yet to take her eyes off Valentin.
“You feel okay-ish enough to drive?”
So much information to dissect. So many questions and so many answers to file through. She didn't know what she felt, but it was nothing airing on the side of coherent, she guessed. But, she wasn't down and out enough to stall her from trying to puzzle everything she’d just learned together. There was still more to learn. There was still more she had to know. More to further confirm what she might have already concluded.
At the very least, getting to see where Valentin lived was definitely a light at the end of the very, very dark tunnel she seemed to be stuck in.
She sighed deeply and stood up. She felt wobbly but willed herself to stay upright, and Isaur hovered up next to her to keep her upright. Odette firmly grasped her hand to assure her she was okay.
"You ready?" she asked.
Odette nodded. “Let’s bounce.”
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You teeaaaseeeee. I can't believe they don't meet for so long! [Says this when their fic's human-legend pairing doesn't happen until chapter thirty-freaking-six.]
