Welcome to Gaia! ::

Shalour City

Juliet turned the key in its hole, but held the doorknob in place. She looked over her shoulder at Ben, one green eye poking through errant strands of auburn hair. "I'll make you a deal, Benedict. I'll give you three days."

Matheson's Magic Door Key sparkled in the keyhole as Juliet pushed open the door. Against all logic, it did not lead into the boutique, but to a side street in Lumiose City's North Boulevard. Across the street, at the cusp of Jaune Plaza, was Lumiose General.

She held the door open with her foot while tapping her Holocaster. "If you stay out of trouble over the Caesura, and give me your number, we may be in touch. And I will be more specific."

A blue hologram beamed from her wrist, floating between them to form a keypad for Benedict to interact with. Her eyes remained on his. Juliet was obviously trying to get a read on him, becoming harder to read herself in the process. She rose an eyebrow. "Deal?"

Zack slapped the sandwich out of Helena's hands. 'Stop being a child.'

He still didn't know what to make of Pachi but the intrigue was running its course. His adrenaline had thinned and exhaustion creeped into his bones. If the others wanted to stick around to question Pachi they could be his guest but for now Zack would return to the tower.

'Another wannabe revolutionary. We should sell T shirts,' Zack shouldered his backpack and started to move. 'Anyone needs me I'll be nearby.'

And unless something came up, Zack went to the tower with his tired out pokemon in tow.

Ben shrugged. "Maybe. It'd be a good time for it, if you did. But that's killing, and hurting can take quite a few forms." She accepted his offer, more or less, and the youth would start on his way to leave once it became clear there really wasn't much more to say.

And when her hand came forward for him to shake, he took it easily, and shook it politely. "I'd say it's been a pleasure doing it, but it's definitely a harder job than I'm used to." His tone said that was a joke, but he would walk past without saying anything more. If he was going to see her again, it would be when she wanted something.

((EDITED the third part, added some stuff))

Tower Of Mastery

Salieri watched Helena closely. The Unovan seemed to be in a state of half shock. Thinking back on earlier in the afternoon, when they met on the sandbar, Helena had been a different kind of wreck. The story she had told them all about Jean Pierre was pushed aside for the effort against Skarada, but it must have still weighed heavily on Helena. That, and everything that happened with the pirates, was enough to make Sal feel bad for the girl even if she didn't like her anymore.

And on a more important note, at least to Salieri, Helena was still their best connection to Ratio. Their best connection was currently a traumatized wreck who had been behaving erratically for days. Sal wasn't quite sure she could trust Helena to be alone right now. So she found a compromise.

With all the soldiers around, and Pachi keeping a cover, Sal decided she could leave this conversation. Helena would be safe here, and if not, she could at least say she tried. "Whatever. You do what you want," she told Helena as she walked towards the Tower as well.

Pachi waved her off with one hand. "Buh-bye." Her eyes shifted to Helena suddenly, like a lizard. "You don't have very nice friends," she said when Sal was out of earshot. "You need better friends."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sal slipped into a passing swath of acolytes and soldiers, releasing Durendal next to her. "Keep an eye on Helena." She gestured to the alleys, bushes, buildings. Anything to use for cover.

The Pawniard nodded and slipped away. He didn't want to leave his master alone after her run in with Prou. He wanted to be there for her when she inevitably let herself feel again, so he could protect her heart. But he was her humble servant, and he would do as he was told if it made her happy.

In a burst of electric super speed, Dune was gone. He dashed like a red blur off to the side, still covered by the crowd until he came upon a small storage building. He slipped in through one open window, and then stealthily watched Helena and Pachi talk through another, not sure what he was watching for.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Salieri found a hastily set up medical tent. The wait to get seen by one of the first responder nurses was a short one. It turned out most of the acolytes were uninjured, and the ones who were got away with bruises and scrapes. Sal, Zack, Helena and Ben had come off looking the worst by far.

Her treatment was short as well, because there wasn't much to do. Sal had assumed Oberon had done a shoddy job of patching her up on the fly with Heal Pulses. In truth, her Cleffa had done alright. The reality was that Prou had simply ******** up Salieri just that badly.

She was given painkillers, some stitches, many bandages, and tight wraps around one of her legs that were a step or two below a cast. It'd be tough walking around in them for a few days. Sal quietly thanked God that the Caesura was about to commence. Her Pokémon were also given a quick healing. She'd check in on them soon, once she got her other affairs in order.

When that was over, Sal wasn't sure what to do. She was still in a daze. She wanted to call Mia to let her know she was okay, and also to hear Mia's familiar voice soothe her. This was hard to do without a phone. She also wanted answers for her many questions. Something she had learned over the years, after living through events like these over and over, was that these answers could come in time. Being exhausted and getting greedy was a poor combination.

Aimlessly, the first thing she did was wander to the southern end of the island. She caught a ride back to the city on a small boat shuttling the first responders and military to and from the island. Upon reaching the shore, she made her way to the closest electronics store.

The population of Shalour was still in shock. There was a low murmur of voices wherever she went, between relief and the inability to shake an ominous feeling. Sal kept her head low, with her Pokémon all in their balls, but she still caught some glances. She was starting to think she may have been spotted fighting Skarada's pirates at some point. Attention wasn't new to her. This kind was. She wasn't sure if it was positive or negative.

She figured it out when she felt something clinging on her leg. Salieri looked down at the girl hugging her tightly, probably no more than six years old. A Pokédoll was squished between them. The girl looked up at her with watery eyes.

"I saw you with my mom, you were flying! Did you make that ship fall over?"
Sal said nothing, only nodding.
The child's mouth dropped open and she jumped up and down, still clinging onto Sal's pants. Giddy, she spoke to her Pokédoll. "Wowww a superhero." Then she regarded Salieri again. "You saved a whole town!" The girl switched from awe to puzzlement in a snap, as a young child's emotions tend to do. "How did you do that? I wanna know how to do that."
"Do what?" Sal chuckled. "Save a town?"
"No. be a superhero," the girl said, as if Sal was too slow to get it. "Super strong!"

The innocent praise clutched tight at Sal's heart. It was a perspective on things that she couldn't have seen on her own. The people of Shalour City, whose lives had been on the line, had been faceless to her this whole time. DIstant, unfamiliar death had been a statistic she knew she wanted to prevent, not something she could grasp. Now that statistic had a face. It had a feel.

This type of attention was called gratitude.

"I try really hard," Sal found herself admitting, choked up. She gulped and steeled herself. "You wanna be strong, you mean?"

The girl shrugged, then nodded. Kneeling down and placing her hands on the girl's shoulders, Sal looked her eye to eye. "If you try as hard as you can, and you stand up when it feels like you can't, that's when you'll know."
The girl didn't follow. "Know what?"
"You were always super strong."

The girl's eyes went wide, enough that Sal could practically see her own smile in them. She shied back from Sal, unable to help a gleeful laugh.

"Chloé!" came a call from down the street. A woman, the girl's mother, ran down and caught up to her daughter, pulling her away. "Sorry to bother you. Chloé, don't run off like that!"
"It's okay," Sal said, standing up. The girl wouldn't stop staring at her.
"C'mon," the mother said the Chloé. Before they left, she hesitated, and then said with earnesty, "Thank you."

Salieri nodded and walked away.

Getting to the store without anymore interruptions, Sal was pleased and impressed to find it was actually open despite the crisis. When she was hawked into paying for a phone much better than the one she wanted by an oily businessman, she could see why. She kept the receipt to her new Holocaster so she could return it once Mia scrapped together something closer to earth.

Sal wanted to call Mia, but her mind still needed to catch up to her. The errands had kept her busy and now she was slowing down. The sun was setting as well, basking this corner of Kalos in a warm sleep glow. Shalour was anything but sleepy now, and definitely not Salieri's scene. She headed back to the Tower along the low tide's sandbar with light to spare.

At this point, Absolon's squad would be gone, and so would their new prisoners. The vault room would be sealed off, a crime scene for Interpol to deal with. Salieri went to the canteen's storage room. It was unmanned at this time. She was looking for beer, and wasn't surprised to see there was none in a township full of monks. What she did find was a red wine, which was good enough for her.

She smuggled out the bottle and traipsed to the Tower, keeping an eye for Durendal on her way to find Zack.

Tower Of Mastery

Zack had just decided on how to proceed with the next step of his life when Salieri knocked at his door with the sealed wine bottle in her hand.

Outside Zack's Room

Salieri stood naked at the doorway didn't want to go as far as saying 'great minds think alike'. But she did giving a long nod of approval. "Somehow, I do. Roof?"

She pointed up to the few remaining floors of the Tower. Sal didn't want to be inside right now. She needed fresh air if she was going to relax.

Top Of The Tower

Salieri uncorked her wine and tossed her cap as well. No need to share when they had two, and today Sal felt like they could go through both. She took a swig, grimaced, and instantly thought otherwise.

"She wanted to fight." Sal leaned over the balcony, watching the place she lived in for nearly a year sink under the ocean by the last dregs of sunlight. There was something oddly poetic about watching a ship sink.

Talking about Prou made her want to fall apart, which was the last thing she wanted to do in front of Zack. But he had a right to know. Stand up when it feels like you can't. "I got her to snap out of it." Sal didn't elaborate on how, or what she said exactly. "She came back to me. And then she, uh." The bottle went up to her lips as she paused. "She left."

Sal turned to face Zack again, leaning her elbows on the balcony after taking another sip. "What happened to Ska?"