Alex Kyriake @undeserving-hero - Tumblr Blog

….I can’t get over the fact that MY ACTUAL NEMESIS is one of my moots.

#//not canon to her story #//but I thought it would be funny to mention it

..try getting therapy from an alternate version of the man who traumatized you for trauma he caused.

You two seem…more normal than the other people I’ve seen. I have a question. If you had a Pokemon you took care of unwillingly due to a traumatic situation but now were out of that situation, how would you..deal with the Pokemon that reminds you of it? - @undeserving-hero

"We are by no means normal. As for what I'd do with that Pokémon, I don't know. Considering I'm not great at handling my own trauma. I feel like there are others on here more qualified to answer that question."

Really? Huh.

My apologies…I shouldn’t have asked you

alani-holmes

….Alex!? Is that you!?

You can’t be her! She had a different account!

…you’re Alani I assume?

Yeah, I’m Alex, but I’m not the one you know. Multiversal nonsense.

Really? Huh.

My apologies…I shouldn’t have asked you

"Therapy's annoying, no, I don't wanna talk about my dad or how he makes me feel. I wanna talk about the brick I take on walkies."

Exactly, you get it!

"Exactly. Therapy exhausting."

And not helpful!

"Therapy's annoying, no, I don't wanna talk about my dad or how he makes me feel. I wanna talk about the brick I take on walkies."

Exactly, you get it!

#pokeblog #pokeblog rp #pokeblogging #pokeblr #divergent alex ekdikio's blog #pokemon rp #rotomblr #rotumblr #pokemon insurgence

....My friends insited I should get therapy.

How do I tell them I don't think that will work? Or at least, it'll probably wind me up in prison.

#you really don't

....My friends insited I should get therapy.

How do I tell them I don't think that will work? Or at least, it'll probably wind me up in prison.

(A Hoopa ring opens up, a girl falls down, and the ring closes]

"Owwww," she looks around, "Where am I.." - @undeserving-hero

“Rabsca, Gravity.”

(The intruder felt a heavy weight press down against her, forcing her to the ground.)

(A teenager with short brown hair and glowing pink eyes approached, looking down at the woman with interest.)

“I already ordered…wait I haven’t fed any of my Pokemon, Quartz give me a minute.”

(Alex opened five more pokeballs to reveal Marshmallow, a delta Charizard, a Togekiss, a Rotom Wash, a Aegislash, and a Donphan. It took a while, but Alex ordered for the rest of her Pokemon.)

(The two carried their sandwiches as they walked back to the city’s limits to find a place to sit down and eat.)

(They sat down at a bench while Alex’s Pokemon sat on the floor.)

“This sandwich is pretty good. And this city is huge!…which reminds me, where am I again?”

“Levincia. Home to the Levincia Docks, the streamer Iono, and (she points to the cluster of three tall buildings) that.”

"Okay, what region then? Since you know, we aren't in my region."

“Oh! Right!”

(Idiot, how could you forget to tell her…?!)

“Welcome to Paldea. Sorry your first experience here was…traumatic, to say the least.”

"Paldea? Like the region with the academy? My sister goes there! At least in my world she does."

(She pauses for a moment.)

"And it's fine, I already told you I've experienced more traumatizing things have I?"

“But it’s not fine…I can’t believe I…”

"Look, all that happened was that I got my mind probed unwillingly. I'm fine, I'm not hurt!...you better not be trying to blame yourself."

“…at least you haven’t suffered any permanent damage.”

"Nah, it only reinforced any existing trau–...wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN PERMANENT DAMAGE!? I THOUGHT IT ONLY MADE YOU DISORIENTED?!"

“Your Marshadow burst into the lab and removed the helmet. The Director—I mean—Spinel—about flipped his lid. That could’ve fried your brain.”

“So yes—normal usage of the helmet causes disorientation…but removing it could cause permanent damage.”

"...Marshmallow tried to save me back then?"

(She completely ignores the fact she could've died or worse.)

"It's fine, nothing bad happened! I'm more concerned about you though."

“Your Pokemon just about—never mind.”

"Okay....You said those Explorers people work around here right? I'm suprised they haven't found us! That or they aren't looking for us, which I would prefer the latter."

“Keep it down…we’re risking it enough by being in this city.”

"Ahh sorry!"

(She finished eating her sandwich.)

(Quartz…tools hers with her. For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry—even though it was her favorite type of sandwich.)

“Ready?”

"Yup!"

(Alex returned her pokemon, minus Glacire, to their Pokeballs.)

"Let's get moving!"

“Right.”

(They began to leave the city of Levincia..)

"....So where are you from? Are you from here?"

“…no, not really. My home’s in Kalos, but I’m originally from Kanto—Celadon City, to be exact.”

"Oh? What's it like in Kalos?"

“I…unfortunately don’t remember much of it. But I had friends…Lumiose was beautiful, especially at night…I’d climb up to the roof of the tower and just..look at the stars.”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that…..you know, in my world the Kalosian Champion is actually my older sister! She’s told about how she helped save the world at one point!”

(She smiled as some memories came back to her) “Saved the world, huh…?”

”Yup! She’s so cool!…..I wish I could be more like her though.”

“…she sounds pretty cool.”

“Yup, though she can be scary at times, she means well!….a little too well sometimes..”

(Quartz nodded) “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any siblings…

"Dang...what about friends?"

(She nodded.) “Two—in Kalos, at least. They’re siblings. One’s my age, and the other one is thirteen or fourteen.”

"Ooo, what are they like?"

“…They’re the best. Closest thing I have to family in that region. One’s spunky and rebellious to the point of driving her brother mad sometimes…her brother is really good with tech. He’s an inventor of a sorts, makes all sorts of really neat things. We’d keep in contact—back when I wasn’t an Explorer against my will.”

“We were…I guess kind of a team of our own.”

"They sound pretty cool!"

(They continued to walk for a bit.)

"Just a question, where are we going?"

“Who knows? I’m on the run now, and so are you.”

(Something could faintly be heard behind them.)

"Quartz.....did you hear that?"

(She sparked)

“Act cool. I think we’re being watched.”

(Glacire did NOT understand the assignment and started to growl.0

"psst, Glacire, keep quiet–"

“Shut up already, popsicle!”

"Hey! Be nice–"

(Glacire gets really upset and jumps inbetween Alex and Quartz. He starts to bark loudly a Quartz.)

"GLACIRE! BE QUIET!"

“Quiet down, drama king! We’re trying not to draw attention!”

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Alex starts to look for Glacire's pokeball, but it looks like she was too late. Someone found them.)

(Quartz sparked) “Who’s there?!”

(Something was shot right at them, just missing Alex.)

"What is that–"

(Something else was shot...hiting Quartz in her organic arm.)

“Ah.”

…

“AAAAAAGH!!!!!”

"QUARTZ ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

(Alex looks and sees the dastardly duo with their signature tranq darts.)

"YOU! GLACIRE! SIC EM!"

(Glacire jumped at Indy and started to attack him head on.)

(Glacire latched onto Indy’s leg and did not let go, growling.)

“AUGH!!! Get it off! Get it off GET IT OFF—!”

(Indy shook his leg around in an attempt to free himself from the Glaceon—Quartz took this as her chance to potentially escape the two.)

"Quartz! Go hide before you pass out! I'll go find you!"

(She turned back to Glacire who was still latched onto his body.)

"Glacire! Freeze his legs to the ground with Freeze Dry!"

(Indy continued fighting against the large Glaceon—wait, only Indy? I thought there were two…where’d Rubina go..?)

(Quartz ran and hid, shaking—about to pass out…)

——

(Back at the battle, Indy managed to free his leg from Glaceon and was able to throw a Pokeball. He dodged the Freeze-Dry)

“Electrode! Explosion, now!”

"Glacire! Ice Beam it out of the way!"

(Glacire fired a powerful ice beam that pushed the Electrode away before it could explode, causing it to faint.)

"Great!....wait, where is Red Highlighter Hair?.....Quartz!"

(Alex let out her Togekiss.)

"Tadpole! Can you go find Quartz and make sure she's alright!"

(Tadpole coed in agreement and flew off to find Quartz.)

(Quartz lost consciousness due to the tranquilizer.)

(Rubina approached, having watched Quartz fall asleep and hoisted her off the ground)

“The Director wants you back, and unlike you, I’m not one to defy orders,” she said quietly, even though Quartz couldn’t hear her.

(Tadpole had just spotted them shouted to tell Alex that she had found Quartz. Alex returned Glacire to his ball.)

(Rubina was about to take Quartz back with her when she was unexpectedly aura boosted right hooked by Alex.)

(She kept a secure hold on Quartz though, and threw out her Darmanitan.)

“Use Fire Punch!”

"Fly above! Then Moonblast!"

(The Jubilee Pokemon dodged the fire punch by flying into the sky before flying down and hiting a point blank Moonblast. This sent the Darmanitan flying and knocked it out.)

"Nice job Tadpole! Now give Quartz back before I–"

(In that moment, Alex felt something sharp hit her back. She turned around to see Indy pointing a tranq dart gun at her.)

(He smirked.) “You could stand to have a little more awareness during your battles.”

"Tch......Damn you....Tadpole...."

(The Togekiss immediately went to protect her trainer who was on the verge of collapsing.)

(A net was thrown over the Togekiss by a grunt as a group of three Explorers grunts joined Indy and Rubina.)

"Tadpole!......you guys really don't know how to play fair...."

(Nobody noticed but Alex motioned for Marshmallow to hide in Tadpole's shadow. Alex herself later collapsed.)

(Indy took the Pokeball from Alex and recalled Tadpole.)

(A grunt bent down and picked up Alex, carrying her over her shoulder.)

(The group of five Explorers made their way towards a dark-blue van.)

“Get them situated in the back,” Rubina commanded the grunts, carefully handing Quartz over to one before going to call the Director alongside Indy.

“Director Spinel? We found them…yes, both of them are safe.”

(The grunts opened the back of the van and shoved them inside. They equiped the restraint-cuffs on their wrists and ankles.)

"Wait, one more thing."

(Indy approched one of the grunts and handed them a silencer.)

"The one with the white hair has a tendency to start screaming when she wakes up. Put this on her so that we don't have to deal with that."

(The grunt nodded and covered Alex's mouth with the silencer before getting into the van with the other grunt and closing the door. The van drove off.)

(Unfortunately for them, in the midst of the chaos…Indy and Rubina forgot one tiny little thing.)

….

(In the back of the van, Quartz began to regain consciousness. She moved over to Alex to wake her up.)

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!”

(Alex wouldn't wake up. Instead she rolled onto Quartz's shoulder and continued to sleep.)

(Quartz sighed—her plan wouldn’t work if Alex was unconscious…)

(She continued to try and wake Alex up)

(Nope, still out cold. However, her expersion while sleeping contorts to one of worry; though, it is difficult for Quartz to tell if it's because she is waking up or if she is having a nightmare.)

(She gave up, realizing that she had to wait…maybe she’d wake up before the van arrived back at base.)

(Soon, around an hour later, they were 5 minutes from the base. However...)

[there is a body, a Manaphy and three other people crying out for him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,–]

(Alex screamed as she woke up. Well, she tried to. The moment she realized that she couldn't hear her voice she started panicking bad.)

“About time…hey! Hey! Calm down, I’m trying to remove your restraints…”

(Quartz was kicked in the face by a paranoid Alex)

(As Quartz yelled in pain, the van stopped moving. Indy and Rubina opened the back doors of the van to see Quartz clutching her face, and Alex hyperventilating.)

(Quartz, noticing that the doors were open, lunged for the exit—a subconscious habit of hers.)

(Quartz is stopped by Beheyeem that suddenly teleports infront of her and freezes her with Psychic. He pulls Quartz out of the van while Alex crawls to the wall of the van, still hyperventilating.)

(Beheeyem holds Quartz in “air jail” while Indy and Rubina look at each other, not sure how to deal with the situation.)

"Are you going to drag her out–"

"Arceus no, I don't want her to hit me again! You do it!"

(Indy sighed, went in the back of the van, and somehow despite everything, Indy was able to drag Alex out without getting hit, though she was still panicking.)

"Let's go."

(Beheeyem was still holding Quartz in air jail—all the while she’s kicking and screaming and crying because her nose is most likely broken.)

(Rubina looks at Beheeyem)

"That means you too."

(Rubina walked into the base first while Indy and Beheeyem followed behind with the two girls.)

(Quartz is putting up a FIGHT. Her “Quartzness” has returned to her.)

(Beheyeem made his Psychic stronger to keep Quartz from moving.)

"Great. You're coming back," Rubina sighed, "I assume that we need to take Quartz to the lab while we put the other one in a cell?"

(At her statement, Quartz attempted to kick her, struggling wildly at this point.)

”I say we bring both for now and ask the Director once we get there.”

“Alright.”

(All of them soon made it to the lab much to the girl’s dismay.)

“We’re back,” Rubina stated as she opened the doors to the lab.

(Quartz continued to struggle)

(Alex finally realizes what is happening and also starts trying to get out of Indy's grasp.)

(Spinel smiles, walking over with his Umbreon beside him.)

“Set them down. They look tired.”

(Quartz and Alex are let down. Alex immediately tries to punch him.)

(Indy prevented her from doing so. Rubina held her in a headlock.)

(Spinel began to guide Quartz to the very back of the lab, gesturing for the agents to follow with Alex.)

“You should consider yourself lucky, Alex. This room is kept secret only to those with high enough clearance.”

(A reinforced steel door was located down a short corridor at the back of the lab, slightly hidden from view.)

(What Alex would do in this situation would be to start asking a lot of questions about what they were going to do to Quartz (and the occasional insult). But seeing how she was unable to speak at the moment, she just gave a death glare instead.)

(As soon as Quartz saw the door, it seemed to jog a memory of hers)

“No no no No No NO NO NO NO!”

(She attempted to wiggle out of Spinel’s grasp)

(Alex realizes what that means for Quartz and tries to get out of the headlock to get to her.)

(Spinel kept a firm hold on Quartz)

“It won’t hurt at all,” he reassured her. “You’ll be back to your normal, obedient self in no time…”

(He scanned his badge against the scanner next to the wall and the door slid open with a loud CLANG!)

(Alex started to panic. She needed to do something or all the work she put into getting Quartz bact to normal would be all for naught. She didn't have her pokemon, and she had no way of knowing where Marshmallow is. Alex keeps on trying to wiggle out of Rubina's hold.)

(The room was pitch black inside until Spinel flicked a switch on the wall.)

(The room was bathed in eerie blue light from the various monitors around the chamber flickering to life. A counter lined the wall—on it were various medical tools. In front of the back wall was a strange, eerily comfortable-looking black chair, which looked like a combination of a dentist’s chair and a gurney. A surgical lamp was positioned above the chair.)

(If Alex could speak, the words that would come out of her mouth would be "What the fuck".)

(Quartz continued to try and squirm out of Spinel’s grip, struggling and pulling with all her might—she was desperate at this point.)

(Alex threw Rubina onto the ground in attempt to escape.)

(Indy was distracted by the scene, but Spinel remained calm, leading Quartz over to the chair.)

“Sit down.”

(Alex managed to get out of the headlock and is currently fighting both Rubina and Indy with her hands in an attempt to get to Quartz.)

“This kid can fight!” Indy exclaimed, doing his absolute best to keep her from reaching Quartz.

“I’m not letting you take my memories away from me again!” Quartz yelled at Spinel as he pushed her head against the headrest of the chair.

(Alex managed to punch Indy in the face and ran over to Quartz to protect her.)

(He had managed to strap Quartz’s head down to the headrest before Alex confronted him.)

“Hm? Keep acting like this and your turn will come after hers.”

(Umbreon did what Umbreon does best and attacked Alex directly)

“BREEON!”

(Alex ignored what he said and positioned her hands so that when Umbreon attacked, it removed her cuffs. She took the opportunity and grabbed the Umbreon and threw it at him.)

(Quartz cheered, having been on the losing side of an Umbreon fight way too many times.)

(Alex took this opportunity to take off the silencer.)

"FINALLY!" she yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!"

(Alex scarmbled to get Quartz out of the chair.)

"Hang on, I'll get you out off here."

(Rubina took this opportunity to punch Alex in the face. HARD.)

“Alex!!” Quartz yelled.

(Alex clutched her face but soon regained her balance. She concentrared on her right hand and manafisted a small but deadly dagger that she attacked Rubina with.)

"Get out of my way!"

“Wha—?! Woah, calm down!”

(Rubina stood down)

(Spinel was too busy restraining Quartz to the chair to notice that Alex had literally created an object out of thin air)

(Alex turned back to where Quartz was and silently head over there. She didn't notice at the time that Indy and now Rubina had gone missing. Alex walked until she was right behind Spinel and.–)

"Get those restraints off her or else."

(Pointed the dagger right at his throat.)

“Where on earth did you—never mind. She’s not going to be hurt, I assure you—“

(She pressed the dagger at his throat, but not enough to cut. yet.)

"Erasing someones memories and making them work for is hurting someone though. Take those restraints off Quartz now, or I slit your throat."

“Alright, alright—you’ve made your point. Very clearly, I might add,” he muttered under his breath.

(He began to unfasten Quartz’s restraints)

“…did…did you break your nose?”

(He then noticed that his two agents were gone)

“…”

(Although Quartz was now free, Alex didn't let go.)

"Quartz! Are– wait what happened to your nose?"

“…you happened to my nose.”

“…can you let him go? That dagger’s making me nervous.”

(Alex stepped away in shock.)

"....I did that?"

“Yes. You kicked me in the face!”

(Spinel continued undoing the restraints, knowing full well she’d be back in this chair by the end of the week.)

"I.....I'm..."

(Alex was too stunned to speak.)

(Spinel is still undoing the restraints, occasionally looking around for Indy and Rubina, not knowing where on earth they went.)

(Alex turns around, still and shock, and sees Marshmallow standing next to Rubina and Indy. Both of whom are beaten up and knocked out cold.)

"MARSHMALLOW! YOUR ALRIGHT!"

(Spinel helped Quartz up and then walked over to his two agents to check on them, relieved that they still had a pulse.)

(Alex walks behind–)

"I'm not done with you yet."

(–and slashes his back)

(Quartz gasped.)

“…A-Alex?”

(Alex turns back to Quartz. Her face a mix between laughing and having a mental breakdown.)

"..ha...ha....finally, he's dead..."

(Quartz practically scrambled over to his side, shoving Alex out of the way to check for a pulse.)

(…there wasn’t one.)

…

“….what did you do.”

"...you knew what he was going to do to you! What he has done to you! And everything else!....he was just going to do it again! I had to stop him–"

“What he did to me—YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME?!”

(Quartz stood up, shaking, her sparks beginning to go out of control)

“…he saved my life. While we were cutthroat enemies, he saved my life. I don’t CARE whether someone’s a villain or a hero—EVERYONE’S the same in my eyes and everyone deserves a second chance!”

(She starts laughing) “You want to know why?! BECAUSE I WAS JUST LIKE HIM.”

(Claws of Infinity Energy begin to form on her hands as she continues.)

“Yeah, you heard me—I WAS JUST LIKE THAT MAN. Actually no—WORSE!”

(She cackled) “YOU EVER HEAR OF TEAM FLARE?!”

"I have. But I know you were not."

(Alex starts crying.)

"NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. THERE ARE SOME ACTIONS THAT ARE JUST IRREDEMABLE!"

(...)

"But go ahead. Tell me what did you do that was so bad..."

“…I almost destroyed the world and everyone in it. Willingly. I wasn’t one of those oblivious little nobodies along for the ride—I was FULLY onboard with Lysandre’s plan.”

“Lysandre…hah…I failed to save him too…just like Spinel, I failed to save him too...”

“ARCEUS WHY! WHY AM I UNABLE TO SAVE ANYONE?!”

(Her eyes glowed brighter and the energy began to stabilize into a semi-solid form…two sparking antennae on the sides of her head, those claws, and a whip-like tail.)

"...hahaha...so I was wrong.."

"You deserve to die too...."

(Alex paused for a moment)

".....you think that's being unable to save anyone..?"

"YOU THINK THAT'S NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE ANYONE!?"

(The dagger in her hand started to change its form radicaally.)

"TRY ACTUALLY KILLING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS! TRY KILLING ONE OF THE ONLY PARENTAL FIGURES YOU HAD! TRY BEING COMPLICIT IN THE NEAR DESTRUCTION OF REALITY!"

"...neither you, nor them, nor him, nor I deserve any second chance."

(Quartz saw the dagger, and tried to flee, scrambling for the door.)

(The dagger turned into a spear.)

"How can't you understand! Some people don't deserve second chances!"

"My sins are to grave."

["You do know this is all your fault?"]

"If we can't be cleansed of our sins.."

(Alex blocked the way to the door.)

"..Then neither of us deserve to live!"

*THUD*

*CLANG!*

(The door is busted down by a large Pokemon. It looks at Quartz with determined eyes.)

(The Pokemon seems familiar somehow to Quartz…but she has no time to think about that, she’s about to get murdered!)

(She makes a break for the Pokemon, jumping onto its back)

(Why did this feel so familiar…?)

(Her heart is pounding in her chest as she glances back at the lifeless body on the floor, tears in her eyes…)

"MARSHADOW!"

(Marshmallow looks at Alex with worry before going and attacking the large Pokemon and Quartz, knocking her off. They also hands Alex her Pokeballs that they snagged from Indy.)

(Alex points the blue(red?) spear at Quartz's throat.)

"...I thought you of all people would understand. You were the first person I could talk too without them pitying me in a long time...no matter.."

“Please…please don’t do this…”

"...."

(Alex is about to swing her spear right through Quartz's neck when–"

"GLACEE!"

(Glacire had came out of his pokeball. He realize what is going on and started to pull Alex by her cargo pants, knowing what she's trying to do to Quartz. What she wants to do to herself.)

"Glaceon! What are you– Let me go–"

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Quartz takes this opportunity to scramble back onto Miraidon)

“GO!”

(Miraidon takes off—Quartz holds on as tight as she can as they make their way through this maze of a base.)

(She’s shaking, trembling having just escaped from near death…and watching somebody very close to her fall to his own.)

(She hugs the large Pokemon tightly, feeling a sense of familiarity…)

(Alex sees that Quartz was able to escape, and that she has no chance of catching her.)

(Alex lets out a mixture of screaming and crying that can be heard through out the base as she falls to her knees on the floor. Her spear disappers. Glacire can only watch her as she falls apart. And Marshmallow...wait...where is Marshmallow?)

(Meanwhiile)

(Quartz and the pokemon are about to escape when a portal appears infront of them and a Pokemon comes out.)

(..the portal closes and a Hoopa stops the two dead in their tracks.)

“MOVE!” She cry-yelled at the Pokemon. “Just MOVE!!”

"ALE HOOPA RING!"

(Hoopa opened a Hyperspace hole under Quartz and the Pokemon..)

(..and then they were back in the room with Alex. Who, was still screaming and crying on the floor.)/

(Quartz attempts to sneak out again, as she’s not good at this whole “comforting” thing.)

(Hoopa appeared infront of her. Looks like they're so fed up with everything. Hoopa poked Quartz's forehead causing her to feel a weird sensation in her head.)

"Look, try your best to help her out. I can't let herself be a danger to everyone and herself. Try to do that and I'll fix everything."

(Looks like Hoopa's using telepathy.)

“You’re the one who brought her here in the first place—”

(she sighed)

“Fine. I’ll try…but I expect you to help if things go south.”

(She slowly approached Alex as to not startle her (and get speared in the neck)

(Alex did not notice that Quartz was approching her; however, Glacire did and stepped aside knowing that Alex needs any help she can get.)

(Quartz carefully reached out and set her right hand on Alex’s shoulder. (Just in case she broke it. Or cut it off. Or stabbed it.)

(Alex was startled and turned around. She looked less murderous and more....afraid...)

"...what...what do you want..."

“I..I wan to talk. Put down the spear, please.”

(She looked at where her spear was back before it faded away.)

"....it went away awhile ago..."

“Oh thank Arceus.”

“Uh…”

“Why am I so bad at this…c’mon, Quartz…”

"...if you're to say that I'm a shitty person, I already know...."

“We both are. We’ve both done horrible things in the past…but you can’t change the past, you know?”

"But I should've been able to prevent it! I could've stopped it, but I was too stupid to realize what was happening! And even then I still keeping making mistakes now!"

“All of us make mistakes. But once those mistakes are made, you can’t change them…all you can do is look to the future and strive to be better than who you were.”

"...but my mistakes almost caused the end of everything...I don't deserve another chance...not that I can even look to the future when every second reminds me of the past.."

(she lets out a little airy chuckle.) “Arceus you’re making this difficult.”

“…but they didn’t, did they? And through that experience, now you know that doing something like that again is a bad idea!”

“…only because my sister saved me….and I knew it was a bad idea but I still….”

“But it didn’t happen. And it can’t happen now, since the actual result already happened. The past can’t be changed. Only the future can be if you let it.”

(Alex couldn’t see them, but Hoopa was laughing to themself, knowing how they were going to fix things.)

“…it’s how I keep going. I can never be the same person I was before all of that happened…but I can do my best to be a better person because of it. Everyone I try to save…even if I can’t save them…I’ll just try to save another.”

”….haha…that’s what I tried to do with you..”

(Hoopa spoke directly into Quartz’s head)

“You ready to go?”

“Go—what? No, you’re supposed to be taking Alex—“

”Oh, so you don’t want him back alive? Alright-“

“…what?”

”What I was going to do was call my friend Celebi and see if they can turn back time to before Alex got a weapon, but seeing how you don’t want it, I guess me and Alex will be on our way-“

“Hey—no no no no—Hoopa…HOOPA—!”

“Soooooooo, is that a yes?”

(She nods)

“…if it can be done.”

”Alright!”

(Hoopa open’s a portal and a Celebi comes out)

“Heyyyyy Celebi-“

(Celebi makes an angry noise that no one except Hoopa can understand)

“I know your upset, but I’ll explain everything later. For now, can you turn back time here by like, an hour? At least so that she,” They motioned to Quartz, “ can save someone?”

(Celebi grunted before creating a bright light that encompassed everything as Hoopa disappeared. The next second everything was back how it was before Alex got out of the headlock. Quartz remembered everything from before.)

(Spinel helped Quartz into the chair and pushed her head against the headrest in order to strap it down. He begins to strap down the rest of her limbs as well.)

(All the while, she’s shaking—out of anger, out of fear?—who knows.)

(A gloved hand rests on her head in an attempt to be reassuring—surprisingly, it works to some degree.)

“Breathe….breathe….it won’t hurt.”

(He attaches a small cuff around her wrist and places a strange headpiece around her forehead, before beginning to attach a few sensors above it.)

(Alex tries to get to Quartz, but Rubina pushes her to the ground.)

"Stay down, don't interfere."

(The screens around them flicker to life, switching to various readings and diagrams that Indy and Rubina are certain only Spinel can understand.)

(He begins to connect a few wires to the ports on the headpiece as the system is warming up.)

(Beheeyem floats over and rubs the top of Quartz’s head before turning to his trainer, ready to do his thing.)

(Spinel places a similiar headpiece onto Beheeyem and attaches the wires of it to Quartz’s headpiece.)

(Alex flips Rubina over, finds a way to take off the silencer, and is so close to getting to Quartz but is stopped by Indy when she is literally 4 feet away from her.)

"NO, DON'T DO THIS!"

(Beheeyem flashes its lights, beginning to make Quartz drowsy. Spinel finishes the job by attaching an IV, and once Quartz is fully under, Beheeyem floats up and sits on top of the surgical lamp, waiting to begin.)

(Spinel then turns to Alex, a serious look on his face.)

“Once I begin, do not try and take the headpiece off. She’s strapped down and asleep for a reason. If you even attempt to interfere, Rubina and Indy have my permission to knock you out and remove you from the room.”

(He continues, dead serious) “If that helmet is taken off before the process is done, you could kill her instantly. Do I make myself clear?”

(Alex nods knowing she can't save her.)

"..fuck you."

(He scowled.) “Language. A simple “I understand” would’ve sufficed.”

“Beheeyem, we’re all set. Commence.”

(Beheeyem’s eyes glow as it uses its psychic powers—Quartz falls completely limp.)

(Spinel keeps a close eye on her.)

"What the hell are you going to do to her. Make her your subservient guard dog again?"

“She’s not a “subservient guard dog—“

“I’m doubtful she’d be able to guard anything, let alone the Director,” Rubina scoffed.

Spinel sighed, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. “She’s a loyal agent of the Explorers. And stop yelling, it’s making it very difficult to concentrate.”

(The device connected to Quartz’s headpiece began to whirr louder…more devices began to make ominous buzzing noises.)

"Oh yeah because loyal definitely means having to be reprogrammed every other moment so that she doesn't run away," Alex spoke sarcastically, "And no I'm not going to stop talking, if it annoys you, too bad. I'm not actively trying to stop you anyway. Though it would be great if I could."

(He sighs.) “Rubina, Indy, if you would please.”

(Rubina holds Alex’s head in place while Indy tries to put the silencer back on her.)

(Alex manages to free her head from Rubina's grasp and manages to damage, although not fully break, the silencer by hitting it with her head.)

"Ha! Take that you piece of shit– OW!"

(Rubina pressed down on the pressure point on the back of Alex’s neck, causing her to fall limp—though not pass out.)

(The reprogramming tech was whirring and flashing so much that it looked less like monitors and computer screens and more like Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.)

"...cowards."

(Alex looked at all the tech in a mixture of awe and fear. She needed to do something but couldn't!)

(A few hours passed)

(The process was almost complete)

(Alex had been given a new silencer in order for her to not yell to Quartz once she woke up.)

“Indy. Rubina. Take her outside the room, I don’t want her to interfere when she regains consciousness.”

(Alex looked...demoralized to say the least. She had been crying the entire time because once again, she failed to save someone. She didn't even fight back as she was taken out of the room.)

Indy whispered to Rubina. “…did we break her?”

Rubina responded. “I’m not sure…”

(The two led her over to a small couch in the corner. Indy shooed Umbreon off of it, much to the cat’s dismay.)

(Alex sits down for a couple of minutes until Quartz finally came out. Alex couldn't bare to look at her, but she did anyway.)

(She was sitting in a wheelchair, as it would’ve been very unwise to have her walk directly after a reprogramming.)

(She was a bit…out of it. Most likely very disoriented.)

(Alex gets up to go to Quartz, she is very concerned.)

(Spinel blocks her off)

“Ah ah ah— Don’t interfere.”

(Indy and Rubina grab her by the wrists and lead her back to the couch.)

“She’s perfectly fine, the process was a complete success. She just needs a bit of rest and she’ll be good as new,” Spinel said, somewhat boasting about his ability to preform such a…unique procedure.

(Alex tried to get to her, but was forced onto the couch. She continued to try to get to her. She was screaming and crying, but due to the silencer, only her crying could be seen.)

(Spinel slightly rolled his eyes)

“Take her back to her cell. You’ll see Quartz again in the morning.”

(He began to wheel Quartz out of the lab, most likely to her quarters.)

(Alex tried one last time to get to Quartz but got knocked out by a agitated Rubina who was done with her crap. Both Indy and RUbina carried Alex back to her cell for the night.)

(Spinel continued down the hallway with Quartz, who had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly.)

….

(The next morning, Quartz was guarding Alex’s cell once again, having recovered well.)

(Alex wakes up, still with the silencer. She noticed that Quartz was outside and rushed over to her. She moved her hands to ask if she was okay.)

(Quartz stared at her with apathy.)

“Silence, prisoner.”

(She looked around, seeing if anyone was nearby…seeing if the coast was clear.)

(Alex looked at her in annoyance and pointed to the silencer that she still had on. She sighed and started to try to break the force field to see if she could escape.)

“Quit it, you’ll draw attention.”

(She continued to look around)

(Alex looked at Quartz in confusion and stopped. She tilted her head a bit.)

(Once she saw that the coast was clear, she slowly made her way towards the control panel of Alex’s cell.)

(Alex is still very confused. She goes over to Quartz to see what she’s doing.)

(She’s attempting to disable the forcefield of the cell—with varying success.)

(Alex realizes what she is doing and is trying to suggest breaking the control panel with her hands.)

“It could alert them,” she said quietly. “…almost…aha!”

(The forcefield was disabled)

(She leads Alex out of the cell)

“Now, it’s important that you play along if any grunts happen to walk by.”

(Alex looked around and nodded.)

(Quartz began to lead her down the hallway, a stern look on her face to play the role of “obedient little Explorers agent.”)

(Alex followed along with the look of a “scared prisoner”.)

(…and everything was going smoothly.)

(Until…)

"Quartz! Where do you think you're taking her?"

(Indy walks up to her alongside Rubina.)

"She's supposed to be in her cell, and you're supposed to be guarding it."

(Alex looked at Quartz, uncertain of what she'll do.)

(Quartz let go of Alex’s wrist and quickly tossed a Pokeball to her)

“RUN! Go! Hoopa’s going to take you home. Use Inkay to teleport out of the base. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine! JUST GO!”

(Quartz holds the two off with her Infinity Energy)

(She catches' Tadpole's ball and was about to ask were her other Pokemon are when Marshadow appears and gives her the rest of her Pokemon. She bolts to the exit....at least tries to. She doesn't know where she is going.)

“It’s a straight shot down the hallway!” Quartz yells. “Through that door and you’re good to—MMPH!!”

(Indy was in the process of getting a silencer strapped around her head as Rubina held her still.)

“What about the prisoner—“

“Let her go,” Rubina responded, restraining Quartz. “The Director already got the data he wanted—he’d be much more upset if this one escaped instead.”

(Quartz waved bye to Alex, mentally wishing her save travels back to her own world)

#//damn #//530 reblogs #//great rp #//Also #//Alex is definitetly afraid of trafic lights now!#//and her paranoia of not being able to speak has increase tenfold #//..lol this would be a great fic plot.#//you get a random excerpt I randomly decided to make for the funsies.

(Alex took off the silencer before leaving.)

"You better one day escape or I swear to Arceus I WILL save you!"

(Hoopa appeared infront of her and created a portal allowing her to escape.)

EPILOGUE (Alex's side):

Alex came out of the portal with Hoopa back to her bedroom where she once was before the whole world shenanigans. After a good hour or two of just crying after everything that had occured, her father found her.

"Alex! Where have you been!? You've been gone for days!" Adam ylled as he rushed to his daughter's side, sitting down right next to her on her bed. He looked at Alex, seeing how upset she was and the bandages on her forehead, the indent marks on the sides of her mouth, and the cuffs that were still on her wrists.

He turned to Hoopa, was at the corner of the room trying to hide. Adam glared at the Pokemon before returning his attention to Alex, who had sat up.

"...What happened to you..?"

Alex looked at her father in tears, "....I...I couldn't save her.."

...

Alex started to ugly cry again, and Adam hugged her in attempt to console her.

(A Hoopa ring opens up, a girl falls down, and the ring closes]

"Owwww," she looks around, "Where am I.." - @undeserving-hero

“Rabsca, Gravity.”

(The intruder felt a heavy weight press down against her, forcing her to the ground.)

(A teenager with short brown hair and glowing pink eyes approached, looking down at the woman with interest.)

“I already ordered…wait I haven’t fed any of my Pokemon, Quartz give me a minute.”

(Alex opened five more pokeballs to reveal Marshmallow, a delta Charizard, a Togekiss, a Rotom Wash, a Aegislash, and a Donphan. It took a while, but Alex ordered for the rest of her Pokemon.)

(The two carried their sandwiches as they walked back to the city’s limits to find a place to sit down and eat.)

(They sat down at a bench while Alex’s Pokemon sat on the floor.)

“This sandwich is pretty good. And this city is huge!…which reminds me, where am I again?”

“Levincia. Home to the Levincia Docks, the streamer Iono, and (she points to the cluster of three tall buildings) that.”

"Okay, what region then? Since you know, we aren't in my region."

“Oh! Right!”

(Idiot, how could you forget to tell her…?!)

“Welcome to Paldea. Sorry your first experience here was…traumatic, to say the least.”

"Paldea? Like the region with the academy? My sister goes there! At least in my world she does."

(She pauses for a moment.)

"And it's fine, I already told you I've experienced more traumatizing things have I?"

“But it’s not fine…I can’t believe I…”

"Look, all that happened was that I got my mind probed unwillingly. I'm fine, I'm not hurt!...you better not be trying to blame yourself."

“…at least you haven’t suffered any permanent damage.”

"Nah, it only reinforced any existing trau–...wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN PERMANENT DAMAGE!? I THOUGHT IT ONLY MADE YOU DISORIENTED?!"

“Your Marshadow burst into the lab and removed the helmet. The Director—I mean—Spinel—about flipped his lid. That could’ve fried your brain.”

“So yes—normal usage of the helmet causes disorientation…but removing it could cause permanent damage.”

"...Marshmallow tried to save me back then?"

(She completely ignores the fact she could've died or worse.)

"It's fine, nothing bad happened! I'm more concerned about you though."

“Your Pokemon just about—never mind.”

"Okay....You said those Explorers people work around here right? I'm suprised they haven't found us! That or they aren't looking for us, which I would prefer the latter."

“Keep it down…we’re risking it enough by being in this city.”

"Ahh sorry!"

(She finished eating her sandwich.)

(Quartz…tools hers with her. For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry—even though it was her favorite type of sandwich.)

“Ready?”

"Yup!"

(Alex returned her pokemon, minus Glacire, to their Pokeballs.)

"Let's get moving!"

“Right.”

(They began to leave the city of Levincia..)

"....So where are you from? Are you from here?"

“…no, not really. My home’s in Kalos, but I’m originally from Kanto—Celadon City, to be exact.”

"Oh? What's it like in Kalos?"

“I…unfortunately don’t remember much of it. But I had friends…Lumiose was beautiful, especially at night…I’d climb up to the roof of the tower and just..look at the stars.”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that…..you know, in my world the Kalosian Champion is actually my older sister! She’s told about how she helped save the world at one point!”

(She smiled as some memories came back to her) “Saved the world, huh…?”

”Yup! She’s so cool!…..I wish I could be more like her though.”

“…she sounds pretty cool.”

“Yup, though she can be scary at times, she means well!….a little too well sometimes..”

(Quartz nodded) “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any siblings…

"Dang...what about friends?"

(She nodded.) “Two—in Kalos, at least. They’re siblings. One’s my age, and the other one is thirteen or fourteen.”

"Ooo, what are they like?"

“We were…I guess kind of a team of our own.”

"They sound pretty cool!"

(They continued to walk for a bit.)

"Just a question, where are we going?"

“Who knows? I’m on the run now, and so are you.”

(Something could faintly be heard behind them.)

"Quartz.....did you hear that?"

(She sparked)

“Act cool. I think we’re being watched.”

(Glacire did NOT understand the assignment and started to growl.0

"psst, Glacire, keep quiet–"

“Shut up already, popsicle!”

"Hey! Be nice–"

(Glacire gets really upset and jumps inbetween Alex and Quartz. He starts to bark loudly a Quartz.)

"GLACIRE! BE QUIET!"

“Quiet down, drama king! We’re trying not to draw attention!”

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Alex starts to look for Glacire's pokeball, but it looks like she was too late. Someone found them.)

(Quartz sparked) “Who’s there?!”

(Something was shot right at them, just missing Alex.)

"What is that–"

(Something else was shot...hiting Quartz in her organic arm.)

“Ah.”

…

“AAAAAAGH!!!!!”

"QUARTZ ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

(Alex looks and sees the dastardly duo with their signature tranq darts.)

"YOU! GLACIRE! SIC EM!"

(Glacire jumped at Indy and started to attack him head on.)

(Glacire latched onto Indy’s leg and did not let go, growling.)

“AUGH!!! Get it off! Get it off GET IT OFF—!”

(Indy shook his leg around in an attempt to free himself from the Glaceon—Quartz took this as her chance to potentially escape the two.)

"Quartz! Go hide before you pass out! I'll go find you!"

(She turned back to Glacire who was still latched onto his body.)

"Glacire! Freeze his legs to the ground with Freeze Dry!"

(Indy continued fighting against the large Glaceon—wait, only Indy? I thought there were two…where’d Rubina go..?)

(Quartz ran and hid, shaking—about to pass out…)

——

(Back at the battle, Indy managed to free his leg from Glaceon and was able to throw a Pokeball. He dodged the Freeze-Dry)

“Electrode! Explosion, now!”

"Glacire! Ice Beam it out of the way!"

(Glacire fired a powerful ice beam that pushed the Electrode away before it could explode, causing it to faint.)

"Great!....wait, where is Red Highlighter Hair?.....Quartz!"

(Alex let out her Togekiss.)

"Tadpole! Can you go find Quartz and make sure she's alright!"

(Tadpole coed in agreement and flew off to find Quartz.)

(Quartz lost consciousness due to the tranquilizer.)

(Rubina approached, having watched Quartz fall asleep and hoisted her off the ground)

“The Director wants you back, and unlike you, I’m not one to defy orders,” she said quietly, even though Quartz couldn’t hear her.

(Tadpole had just spotted them shouted to tell Alex that she had found Quartz. Alex returned Glacire to his ball.)

(Rubina was about to take Quartz back with her when she was unexpectedly aura boosted right hooked by Alex.)

(She kept a secure hold on Quartz though, and threw out her Darmanitan.)

“Use Fire Punch!”

"Fly above! Then Moonblast!"

(The Jubilee Pokemon dodged the fire punch by flying into the sky before flying down and hiting a point blank Moonblast. This sent the Darmanitan flying and knocked it out.)

"Nice job Tadpole! Now give Quartz back before I–"

(In that moment, Alex felt something sharp hit her back. She turned around to see Indy pointing a tranq dart gun at her.)

(He smirked.) “You could stand to have a little more awareness during your battles.”

"Tch......Damn you....Tadpole...."

(The Togekiss immediately went to protect her trainer who was on the verge of collapsing.)

(A net was thrown over the Togekiss by a grunt as a group of three Explorers grunts joined Indy and Rubina.)

"Tadpole!......you guys really don't know how to play fair...."

(Nobody noticed but Alex motioned for Marshmallow to hide in Tadpole's shadow. Alex herself later collapsed.)

(Indy took the Pokeball from Alex and recalled Tadpole.)

(A grunt bent down and picked up Alex, carrying her over her shoulder.)

(The group of five Explorers made their way towards a dark-blue van.)

“Get them situated in the back,” Rubina commanded the grunts, carefully handing Quartz over to one before going to call the Director alongside Indy.

“Director Spinel? We found them…yes, both of them are safe.”

(The grunts opened the back of the van and shoved them inside. They equiped the restraint-cuffs on their wrists and ankles.)

"Wait, one more thing."

(Indy approched one of the grunts and handed them a silencer.)

"The one with the white hair has a tendency to start screaming when she wakes up. Put this on her so that we don't have to deal with that."

(The grunt nodded and covered Alex's mouth with the silencer before getting into the van with the other grunt and closing the door. The van drove off.)

(Unfortunately for them, in the midst of the chaos…Indy and Rubina forgot one tiny little thing.)

….

(In the back of the van, Quartz began to regain consciousness. She moved over to Alex to wake her up.)

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!”

(Alex wouldn't wake up. Instead she rolled onto Quartz's shoulder and continued to sleep.)

(Quartz sighed—her plan wouldn’t work if Alex was unconscious…)

(She continued to try and wake Alex up)

(Nope, still out cold. However, her expersion while sleeping contorts to one of worry; though, it is difficult for Quartz to tell if it's because she is waking up or if she is having a nightmare.)

(She gave up, realizing that she had to wait…maybe she’d wake up before the van arrived back at base.)

(Soon, around an hour later, they were 5 minutes from the base. However...)

[there is a body, a Manaphy and three other people crying out for him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,–]

(Alex screamed as she woke up. Well, she tried to. The moment she realized that she couldn't hear her voice she started panicking bad.)

“About time…hey! Hey! Calm down, I’m trying to remove your restraints…”

(Quartz was kicked in the face by a paranoid Alex)

(As Quartz yelled in pain, the van stopped moving. Indy and Rubina opened the back doors of the van to see Quartz clutching her face, and Alex hyperventilating.)

(Quartz, noticing that the doors were open, lunged for the exit—a subconscious habit of hers.)

(Quartz is stopped by Beheyeem that suddenly teleports infront of her and freezes her with Psychic. He pulls Quartz out of the van while Alex crawls to the wall of the van, still hyperventilating.)

(Beheeyem holds Quartz in “air jail” while Indy and Rubina look at each other, not sure how to deal with the situation.)

"Are you going to drag her out–"

"Arceus no, I don't want her to hit me again! You do it!"

(Indy sighed, went in the back of the van, and somehow despite everything, Indy was able to drag Alex out without getting hit, though she was still panicking.)

"Let's go."

(Beheeyem was still holding Quartz in air jail—all the while she’s kicking and screaming and crying because her nose is most likely broken.)

(Rubina looks at Beheeyem)

"That means you too."

(Rubina walked into the base first while Indy and Beheeyem followed behind with the two girls.)

(Quartz is putting up a FIGHT. Her “Quartzness” has returned to her.)

(Beheyeem made his Psychic stronger to keep Quartz from moving.)

"Great. You're coming back," Rubina sighed, "I assume that we need to take Quartz to the lab while we put the other one in a cell?"

(At her statement, Quartz attempted to kick her, struggling wildly at this point.)

”I say we bring both for now and ask the Director once we get there.”

“Alright.”

(All of them soon made it to the lab much to the girl’s dismay.)

“We’re back,” Rubina stated as she opened the doors to the lab.

(Quartz continued to struggle)

(Alex finally realizes what is happening and also starts trying to get out of Indy's grasp.)

(Spinel smiles, walking over with his Umbreon beside him.)

“Set them down. They look tired.”

(Quartz and Alex are let down. Alex immediately tries to punch him.)

(Indy prevented her from doing so. Rubina held her in a headlock.)

(Spinel began to guide Quartz to the very back of the lab, gesturing for the agents to follow with Alex.)

“You should consider yourself lucky, Alex. This room is kept secret only to those with high enough clearance.”

(A reinforced steel door was located down a short corridor at the back of the lab, slightly hidden from view.)

(As soon as Quartz saw the door, it seemed to jog a memory of hers)

“No no no No No NO NO NO NO!”

(She attempted to wiggle out of Spinel’s grasp)

(Alex realizes what that means for Quartz and tries to get out of the headlock to get to her.)

(Spinel kept a firm hold on Quartz)

“It won’t hurt at all,” he reassured her. “You’ll be back to your normal, obedient self in no time…”

(He scanned his badge against the scanner next to the wall and the door slid open with a loud CLANG!)

(The room was pitch black inside until Spinel flicked a switch on the wall.)

(If Alex could speak, the words that would come out of her mouth would be "What the fuck".)

(Quartz continued to try and squirm out of Spinel’s grip, struggling and pulling with all her might—she was desperate at this point.)

(Alex threw Rubina onto the ground in attempt to escape.)

(Indy was distracted by the scene, but Spinel remained calm, leading Quartz over to the chair.)

“Sit down.”

(Alex managed to get out of the headlock and is currently fighting both Rubina and Indy with her hands in an attempt to get to Quartz.)

“This kid can fight!” Indy exclaimed, doing his absolute best to keep her from reaching Quartz.

“I’m not letting you take my memories away from me again!” Quartz yelled at Spinel as he pushed her head against the headrest of the chair.

(Alex managed to punch Indy in the face and ran over to Quartz to protect her.)

(He had managed to strap Quartz’s head down to the headrest before Alex confronted him.)

“Hm? Keep acting like this and your turn will come after hers.”

(Umbreon did what Umbreon does best and attacked Alex directly)

“BREEON!”

(Alex ignored what he said and positioned her hands so that when Umbreon attacked, it removed her cuffs. She took the opportunity and grabbed the Umbreon and threw it at him.)

(Quartz cheered, having been on the losing side of an Umbreon fight way too many times.)

(Alex took this opportunity to take off the silencer.)

"FINALLY!" she yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!"

(Alex scarmbled to get Quartz out of the chair.)

"Hang on, I'll get you out off here."

(Rubina took this opportunity to punch Alex in the face. HARD.)

“Alex!!” Quartz yelled.

(Alex clutched her face but soon regained her balance. She concentrared on her right hand and manafisted a small but deadly dagger that she attacked Rubina with.)

"Get out of my way!"

“Wha—?! Woah, calm down!”

(Rubina stood down)

(Spinel was too busy restraining Quartz to the chair to notice that Alex had literally created an object out of thin air)

(Alex turned back to where Quartz was and silently head over there. She didn't notice at the time that Indy and now Rubina had gone missing. Alex walked until she was right behind Spinel and.–)

"Get those restraints off her or else."

(Pointed the dagger right at his throat.)

“Where on earth did you—never mind. She’s not going to be hurt, I assure you—“

(She pressed the dagger at his throat, but not enough to cut. yet.)

"Erasing someones memories and making them work for is hurting someone though. Take those restraints off Quartz now, or I slit your throat."

“Alright, alright—you’ve made your point. Very clearly, I might add,” he muttered under his breath.

(He began to unfasten Quartz’s restraints)

“…did…did you break your nose?”

(He then noticed that his two agents were gone)

“…”

(Although Quartz was now free, Alex didn't let go.)

"Quartz! Are– wait what happened to your nose?"

“…you happened to my nose.”

“…can you let him go? That dagger’s making me nervous.”

(Alex stepped away in shock.)

"....I did that?"

“Yes. You kicked me in the face!”

(Spinel continued undoing the restraints, knowing full well she’d be back in this chair by the end of the week.)

"I.....I'm..."

(Alex was too stunned to speak.)

(Spinel is still undoing the restraints, occasionally looking around for Indy and Rubina, not knowing where on earth they went.)

(Alex turns around, still and shock, and sees Marshmallow standing next to Rubina and Indy. Both of whom are beaten up and knocked out cold.)

"MARSHMALLOW! YOUR ALRIGHT!"

(Spinel helped Quartz up and then walked over to his two agents to check on them, relieved that they still had a pulse.)

(Alex walks behind–)

"I'm not done with you yet."

(–and slashes his back)

(Quartz gasped.)

“…A-Alex?”

(Alex turns back to Quartz. Her face a mix between laughing and having a mental breakdown.)

"..ha...ha....finally, he's dead..."

(Quartz practically scrambled over to his side, shoving Alex out of the way to check for a pulse.)

(…there wasn’t one.)

…

“….what did you do.”

"...you knew what he was going to do to you! What he has done to you! And everything else!....he was just going to do it again! I had to stop him–"

“What he did to me—YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME?!”

(Quartz stood up, shaking, her sparks beginning to go out of control)

(She starts laughing) “You want to know why?! BECAUSE I WAS JUST LIKE HIM.”

(Claws of Infinity Energy begin to form on her hands as she continues.)

“Yeah, you heard me—I WAS JUST LIKE THAT MAN. Actually no—WORSE!”

(She cackled) “YOU EVER HEAR OF TEAM FLARE?!”

"I have. But I know you were not."

(Alex starts crying.)

"NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. THERE ARE SOME ACTIONS THAT ARE JUST IRREDEMABLE!"

(...)

"But go ahead. Tell me what did you do that was so bad..."

“…I almost destroyed the world and everyone in it. Willingly. I wasn’t one of those oblivious little nobodies along for the ride—I was FULLY onboard with Lysandre’s plan.”

“Lysandre…hah…I failed to save him too…just like Spinel, I failed to save him too...”

“ARCEUS WHY! WHY AM I UNABLE TO SAVE ANYONE?!”

(Her eyes glowed brighter and the energy began to stabilize into a semi-solid form…two sparking antennae on the sides of her head, those claws, and a whip-like tail.)

"...hahaha...so I was wrong.."

"You deserve to die too...."

(Alex paused for a moment)

".....you think that's being unable to save anyone..?"

"YOU THINK THAT'S NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE ANYONE!?"

(The dagger in her hand started to change its form radicaally.)

"TRY ACTUALLY KILLING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS! TRY KILLING ONE OF THE ONLY PARENTAL FIGURES YOU HAD! TRY BEING COMPLICIT IN THE NEAR DESTRUCTION OF REALITY!"

"...neither you, nor them, nor him, nor I deserve any second chance."

(Quartz saw the dagger, and tried to flee, scrambling for the door.)

(The dagger turned into a spear.)

"How can't you understand! Some people don't deserve second chances!"

"My sins are to grave."

["You do know this is all your fault?"]

"If we can't be cleansed of our sins.."

(Alex blocked the way to the door.)

"..Then neither of us deserve to live!"

*THUD*

*CLANG!*

(The door is busted down by a large Pokemon. It looks at Quartz with determined eyes.)

(The Pokemon seems familiar somehow to Quartz…but she has no time to think about that, she’s about to get murdered!)

(She makes a break for the Pokemon, jumping onto its back)

(Why did this feel so familiar…?)

(Her heart is pounding in her chest as she glances back at the lifeless body on the floor, tears in her eyes…)

"MARSHADOW!"

(Marshmallow looks at Alex with worry before going and attacking the large Pokemon and Quartz, knocking her off. They also hands Alex her Pokeballs that they snagged from Indy.)

(Alex points the blue(red?) spear at Quartz's throat.)

"...I thought you of all people would understand. You were the first person I could talk too without them pitying me in a long time...no matter.."

“Please…please don’t do this…”

"...."

(Alex is about to swing her spear right through Quartz's neck when–"

"GLACEE!"

(Glacire had came out of his pokeball. He realize what is going on and started to pull Alex by her cargo pants, knowing what she's trying to do to Quartz. What she wants to do to herself.)

"Glaceon! What are you– Let me go–"

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Quartz takes this opportunity to scramble back onto Miraidon)

“GO!”

(Miraidon takes off—Quartz holds on as tight as she can as they make their way through this maze of a base.)

(She’s shaking, trembling having just escaped from near death…and watching somebody very close to her fall to his own.)

(She hugs the large Pokemon tightly, feeling a sense of familiarity…)

(Alex sees that Quartz was able to escape, and that she has no chance of catching her.)

(Meanwhiile)

(Quartz and the pokemon are about to escape when a portal appears infront of them and a Pokemon comes out.)

(..the portal closes and a Hoopa stops the two dead in their tracks.)

“MOVE!” She cry-yelled at the Pokemon. “Just MOVE!!”

"ALE HOOPA RING!"

(Hoopa opened a Hyperspace hole under Quartz and the Pokemon..)

(..and then they were back in the room with Alex. Who, was still screaming and crying on the floor.)/

(Quartz attempts to sneak out again, as she’s not good at this whole “comforting” thing.)

(Hoopa appeared infront of her. Looks like they're so fed up with everything. Hoopa poked Quartz's forehead causing her to feel a weird sensation in her head.)

"Look, try your best to help her out. I can't let herself be a danger to everyone and herself. Try to do that and I'll fix everything."

(Looks like Hoopa's using telepathy.)

“You’re the one who brought her here in the first place—”

(she sighed)

“Fine. I’ll try…but I expect you to help if things go south.”

(She slowly approached Alex as to not startle her (and get speared in the neck)

(Alex did not notice that Quartz was approching her; however, Glacire did and stepped aside knowing that Alex needs any help she can get.)

(Quartz carefully reached out and set her right hand on Alex’s shoulder. (Just in case she broke it. Or cut it off. Or stabbed it.)

(Alex was startled and turned around. She looked less murderous and more....afraid...)

"...what...what do you want..."

“I..I wan to talk. Put down the spear, please.”

(She looked at where her spear was back before it faded away.)

"....it went away awhile ago..."

“Oh thank Arceus.”

“Uh…”

“Why am I so bad at this…c’mon, Quartz…”

"...if you're to say that I'm a shitty person, I already know...."

“We both are. We’ve both done horrible things in the past…but you can’t change the past, you know?”

"But I should've been able to prevent it! I could've stopped it, but I was too stupid to realize what was happening! And even then I still keeping making mistakes now!"

“All of us make mistakes. But once those mistakes are made, you can’t change them…all you can do is look to the future and strive to be better than who you were.”

"...but my mistakes almost caused the end of everything...I don't deserve another chance...not that I can even look to the future when every second reminds me of the past.."

(she lets out a little airy chuckle.) “Arceus you’re making this difficult.”

“…but they didn’t, did they? And through that experience, now you know that doing something like that again is a bad idea!”

“…only because my sister saved me….and I knew it was a bad idea but I still….”

“But it didn’t happen. And it can’t happen now, since the actual result already happened. The past can’t be changed. Only the future can be if you let it.”

(Alex couldn’t see them, but Hoopa was laughing to themself, knowing how they were going to fix things.)

”….haha…that’s what I tried to do with you..”

(Hoopa spoke directly into Quartz’s head)

“You ready to go?”

“Go—what? No, you’re supposed to be taking Alex—“

”Oh, so you don’t want him back alive? Alright-“

“…what?”

”What I was going to do was call my friend Celebi and see if they can turn back time to before Alex got a weapon, but seeing how you don’t want it, I guess me and Alex will be on our way-“

“Hey—no no no no—Hoopa…HOOPA—!”

“Soooooooo, is that a yes?”

(She nods)

“…if it can be done.”

”Alright!”

(Hoopa open’s a portal and a Celebi comes out)

“Heyyyyy Celebi-“

(Celebi makes an angry noise that no one except Hoopa can understand)

“I know your upset, but I’ll explain everything later. For now, can you turn back time here by like, an hour? At least so that she,” They motioned to Quartz, “ can save someone?”

(Spinel helped Quartz into the chair and pushed her head against the headrest in order to strap it down. He begins to strap down the rest of her limbs as well.)

(All the while, she’s shaking—out of anger, out of fear?—who knows.)

(A gloved hand rests on her head in an attempt to be reassuring—surprisingly, it works to some degree.)

“Breathe….breathe….it won’t hurt.”

(He attaches a small cuff around her wrist and places a strange headpiece around her forehead, before beginning to attach a few sensors above it.)

(Alex tries to get to Quartz, but Rubina pushes her to the ground.)

"Stay down, don't interfere."

(The screens around them flicker to life, switching to various readings and diagrams that Indy and Rubina are certain only Spinel can understand.)

(He begins to connect a few wires to the ports on the headpiece as the system is warming up.)

(Beheeyem floats over and rubs the top of Quartz’s head before turning to his trainer, ready to do his thing.)

(Spinel places a similiar headpiece onto Beheeyem and attaches the wires of it to Quartz’s headpiece.)

(Alex flips Rubina over, finds a way to take off the silencer, and is so close to getting to Quartz but is stopped by Indy when she is literally 4 feet away from her.)

"NO, DON'T DO THIS!"

(Spinel then turns to Alex, a serious look on his face.)

(He continues, dead serious) “If that helmet is taken off before the process is done, you could kill her instantly. Do I make myself clear?”

(Alex nods knowing she can't save her.)

"..fuck you."

(He scowled.) “Language. A simple “I understand” would’ve sufficed.”

“Beheeyem, we’re all set. Commence.”

(Beheeyem’s eyes glow as it uses its psychic powers—Quartz falls completely limp.)

(Spinel keeps a close eye on her.)

"What the hell are you going to do to her. Make her your subservient guard dog again?"

“She’s not a “subservient guard dog—“

“I’m doubtful she’d be able to guard anything, let alone the Director,” Rubina scoffed.

Spinel sighed, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. “She’s a loyal agent of the Explorers. And stop yelling, it’s making it very difficult to concentrate.”

(The device connected to Quartz’s headpiece began to whirr louder…more devices began to make ominous buzzing noises.)

(He sighs.) “Rubina, Indy, if you would please.”

(Rubina holds Alex’s head in place while Indy tries to put the silencer back on her.)

(Alex manages to free her head from Rubina's grasp and manages to damage, although not fully break, the silencer by hitting it with her head.)

"Ha! Take that you piece of shit– OW!"

(Rubina pressed down on the pressure point on the back of Alex’s neck, causing her to fall limp—though not pass out.)

(The reprogramming tech was whirring and flashing so much that it looked less like monitors and computer screens and more like Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.)

"...cowards."

(Alex looked at all the tech in a mixture of awe and fear. She needed to do something but couldn't!)

(A few hours passed)

(The process was almost complete)

(Alex had been given a new silencer in order for her to not yell to Quartz once she woke up.)

“Indy. Rubina. Take her outside the room, I don’t want her to interfere when she regains consciousness.”

(Alex looked...demoralized to say the least. She had been crying the entire time because once again, she failed to save someone. She didn't even fight back as she was taken out of the room.)

Indy whispered to Rubina. “…did we break her?”

Rubina responded. “I’m not sure…”

(The two led her over to a small couch in the corner. Indy shooed Umbreon off of it, much to the cat’s dismay.)

(Alex sits down for a couple of minutes until Quartz finally came out. Alex couldn't bare to look at her, but she did anyway.)

(She was sitting in a wheelchair, as it would’ve been very unwise to have her walk directly after a reprogramming.)

(She was a bit…out of it. Most likely very disoriented.)

(Alex gets up to go to Quartz, she is very concerned.)

(Spinel blocks her off)

“Ah ah ah— Don’t interfere.”

(Indy and Rubina grab her by the wrists and lead her back to the couch.)

(Alex tried to get to her, but was forced onto the couch. She continued to try to get to her. She was screaming and crying, but due to the silencer, only her crying could be seen.)

(Spinel slightly rolled his eyes)

“Take her back to her cell. You’ll see Quartz again in the morning.”

(He began to wheel Quartz out of the lab, most likely to her quarters.)

(Alex tried one last time to get to Quartz but got knocked out by a agitated Rubina who was done with her crap. Both Indy and RUbina carried Alex back to her cell for the night.)

(Spinel continued down the hallway with Quartz, who had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly.)

….

(The next morning, Quartz was guarding Alex’s cell once again, having recovered well.)

(Alex wakes up, still with the silencer. She noticed that Quartz was outside and rushed over to her. She moved her hands to ask if she was okay.)

(Quartz stared at her with apathy.)

“Silence, prisoner.”

(She looked around, seeing if anyone was nearby…seeing if the coast was clear.)

(Alex looked at her in annoyance and pointed to the silencer that she still had on. She sighed and started to try to break the force field to see if she could escape.)

“Quit it, you’ll draw attention.”

(She continued to look around)

(Alex looked at Quartz in confusion and stopped. She tilted her head a bit.)

(Once she saw that the coast was clear, she slowly made her way towards the control panel of Alex’s cell.)

(Alex is still very confused. She goes over to Quartz to see what she’s doing.)

(She’s attempting to disable the forcefield of the cell—with varying success.)

(Alex realizes what she is doing and is trying to suggest breaking the control panel with her hands.)

“It could alert them,” she said quietly. “…almost…aha!”

(The forcefield was disabled)

(She leads Alex out of the cell)

“Now, it’s important that you play along if any grunts happen to walk by.”

(Alex looked around and nodded.)

(Quartz began to lead her down the hallway, a stern look on her face to play the role of “obedient little Explorers agent.”)

(Alex followed along with the look of a “scared prisoner”.)

(…and everything was going smoothly.)

(Until…)

"Quartz! Where do you think you're taking her?"

(Indy walks up to her alongside Rubina.)

"She's supposed to be in her cell, and you're supposed to be guarding it."

(Alex looked at Quartz, uncertain of what she'll do.)

(Quartz let go of Alex’s wrist and quickly tossed a Pokeball to her)

“RUN! Go! Hoopa’s going to take you home. Use Inkay to teleport out of the base. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine! JUST GO!”

(Quartz holds the two off with her Infinity Energy)

(A Hoopa ring opens up, a girl falls down, and the ring closes]

"Owwww," she looks around, "Where am I.." - @undeserving-hero

“Rabsca, Gravity.”

(The intruder felt a heavy weight press down against her, forcing her to the ground.)

(A teenager with short brown hair and glowing pink eyes approached, looking down at the woman with interest.)

“I already ordered…wait I haven’t fed any of my Pokemon, Quartz give me a minute.”

(Alex opened five more pokeballs to reveal Marshmallow, a delta Charizard, a Togekiss, a Rotom Wash, a Aegislash, and a Donphan. It took a while, but Alex ordered for the rest of her Pokemon.)

(The two carried their sandwiches as they walked back to the city’s limits to find a place to sit down and eat.)

(They sat down at a bench while Alex’s Pokemon sat on the floor.)

“This sandwich is pretty good. And this city is huge!…which reminds me, where am I again?”

“Levincia. Home to the Levincia Docks, the streamer Iono, and (she points to the cluster of three tall buildings) that.”

"Okay, what region then? Since you know, we aren't in my region."

“Oh! Right!”

(Idiot, how could you forget to tell her…?!)

“Welcome to Paldea. Sorry your first experience here was…traumatic, to say the least.”

"Paldea? Like the region with the academy? My sister goes there! At least in my world she does."

(She pauses for a moment.)

"And it's fine, I already told you I've experienced more traumatizing things have I?"

“But it’s not fine…I can’t believe I…”

"Look, all that happened was that I got my mind probed unwillingly. I'm fine, I'm not hurt!...you better not be trying to blame yourself."

“…at least you haven’t suffered any permanent damage.”

"Nah, it only reinforced any existing trau–...wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN PERMANENT DAMAGE!? I THOUGHT IT ONLY MADE YOU DISORIENTED?!"

“Your Marshadow burst into the lab and removed the helmet. The Director—I mean—Spinel—about flipped his lid. That could’ve fried your brain.”

“So yes—normal usage of the helmet causes disorientation…but removing it could cause permanent damage.”

"...Marshmallow tried to save me back then?"

(She completely ignores the fact she could've died or worse.)

"It's fine, nothing bad happened! I'm more concerned about you though."

“Your Pokemon just about—never mind.”

"Okay....You said those Explorers people work around here right? I'm suprised they haven't found us! That or they aren't looking for us, which I would prefer the latter."

“Keep it down…we’re risking it enough by being in this city.”

"Ahh sorry!"

(She finished eating her sandwich.)

(Quartz…tools hers with her. For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry—even though it was her favorite type of sandwich.)

“Ready?”

"Yup!"

(Alex returned her pokemon, minus Glacire, to their Pokeballs.)

"Let's get moving!"

“Right.”

(They began to leave the city of Levincia..)

"....So where are you from? Are you from here?"

“…no, not really. My home’s in Kalos, but I’m originally from Kanto—Celadon City, to be exact.”

"Oh? What's it like in Kalos?"

“I…unfortunately don’t remember much of it. But I had friends…Lumiose was beautiful, especially at night…I’d climb up to the roof of the tower and just..look at the stars.”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that…..you know, in my world the Kalosian Champion is actually my older sister! She’s told about how she helped save the world at one point!”

(She smiled as some memories came back to her) “Saved the world, huh…?”

”Yup! She’s so cool!…..I wish I could be more like her though.”

“…she sounds pretty cool.”

“Yup, though she can be scary at times, she means well!….a little too well sometimes..”

(Quartz nodded) “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any siblings…

"Dang...what about friends?"

(She nodded.) “Two—in Kalos, at least. They’re siblings. One’s my age, and the other one is thirteen or fourteen.”

"Ooo, what are they like?"

“We were…I guess kind of a team of our own.”

"They sound pretty cool!"

(They continued to walk for a bit.)

"Just a question, where are we going?"

“Who knows? I’m on the run now, and so are you.”

(Something could faintly be heard behind them.)

"Quartz.....did you hear that?"

(She sparked)

“Act cool. I think we’re being watched.”

(Glacire did NOT understand the assignment and started to growl.0

"psst, Glacire, keep quiet–"

“Shut up already, popsicle!”

"Hey! Be nice–"

(Glacire gets really upset and jumps inbetween Alex and Quartz. He starts to bark loudly a Quartz.)

"GLACIRE! BE QUIET!"

“Quiet down, drama king! We’re trying not to draw attention!”

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Alex starts to look for Glacire's pokeball, but it looks like she was too late. Someone found them.)

(Quartz sparked) “Who’s there?!”

(Something was shot right at them, just missing Alex.)

"What is that–"

(Something else was shot...hiting Quartz in her organic arm.)

“Ah.”

…

“AAAAAAGH!!!!!”

"QUARTZ ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

(Alex looks and sees the dastardly duo with their signature tranq darts.)

"YOU! GLACIRE! SIC EM!"

(Glacire jumped at Indy and started to attack him head on.)

(Glacire latched onto Indy’s leg and did not let go, growling.)

“AUGH!!! Get it off! Get it off GET IT OFF—!”

(Indy shook his leg around in an attempt to free himself from the Glaceon—Quartz took this as her chance to potentially escape the two.)

"Quartz! Go hide before you pass out! I'll go find you!"

(She turned back to Glacire who was still latched onto his body.)

"Glacire! Freeze his legs to the ground with Freeze Dry!"

(Indy continued fighting against the large Glaceon—wait, only Indy? I thought there were two…where’d Rubina go..?)

(Quartz ran and hid, shaking—about to pass out…)

——

(Back at the battle, Indy managed to free his leg from Glaceon and was able to throw a Pokeball. He dodged the Freeze-Dry)

“Electrode! Explosion, now!”

"Glacire! Ice Beam it out of the way!"

(Glacire fired a powerful ice beam that pushed the Electrode away before it could explode, causing it to faint.)

"Great!....wait, where is Red Highlighter Hair?.....Quartz!"

(Alex let out her Togekiss.)

"Tadpole! Can you go find Quartz and make sure she's alright!"

(Tadpole coed in agreement and flew off to find Quartz.)

(Quartz lost consciousness due to the tranquilizer.)

(Rubina approached, having watched Quartz fall asleep and hoisted her off the ground)

“The Director wants you back, and unlike you, I’m not one to defy orders,” she said quietly, even though Quartz couldn’t hear her.

(Tadpole had just spotted them shouted to tell Alex that she had found Quartz. Alex returned Glacire to his ball.)

(Rubina was about to take Quartz back with her when she was unexpectedly aura boosted right hooked by Alex.)

(She kept a secure hold on Quartz though, and threw out her Darmanitan.)

“Use Fire Punch!”

"Fly above! Then Moonblast!"

(The Jubilee Pokemon dodged the fire punch by flying into the sky before flying down and hiting a point blank Moonblast. This sent the Darmanitan flying and knocked it out.)

"Nice job Tadpole! Now give Quartz back before I–"

(In that moment, Alex felt something sharp hit her back. She turned around to see Indy pointing a tranq dart gun at her.)

(He smirked.) “You could stand to have a little more awareness during your battles.”

"Tch......Damn you....Tadpole...."

(The Togekiss immediately went to protect her trainer who was on the verge of collapsing.)

(A net was thrown over the Togekiss by a grunt as a group of three Explorers grunts joined Indy and Rubina.)

"Tadpole!......you guys really don't know how to play fair...."

(Nobody noticed but Alex motioned for Marshmallow to hide in Tadpole's shadow. Alex herself later collapsed.)

(Indy took the Pokeball from Alex and recalled Tadpole.)

(A grunt bent down and picked up Alex, carrying her over her shoulder.)

(The group of five Explorers made their way towards a dark-blue van.)

“Get them situated in the back,” Rubina commanded the grunts, carefully handing Quartz over to one before going to call the Director alongside Indy.

“Director Spinel? We found them…yes, both of them are safe.”

(The grunts opened the back of the van and shoved them inside. They equiped the restraint-cuffs on their wrists and ankles.)

"Wait, one more thing."

(Indy approched one of the grunts and handed them a silencer.)

"The one with the white hair has a tendency to start screaming when she wakes up. Put this on her so that we don't have to deal with that."

(The grunt nodded and covered Alex's mouth with the silencer before getting into the van with the other grunt and closing the door. The van drove off.)

(Unfortunately for them, in the midst of the chaos…Indy and Rubina forgot one tiny little thing.)

….

(In the back of the van, Quartz began to regain consciousness. She moved over to Alex to wake her up.)

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!”

(Alex wouldn't wake up. Instead she rolled onto Quartz's shoulder and continued to sleep.)

(Quartz sighed—her plan wouldn’t work if Alex was unconscious…)

(She continued to try and wake Alex up)

(Nope, still out cold. However, her expersion while sleeping contorts to one of worry; though, it is difficult for Quartz to tell if it's because she is waking up or if she is having a nightmare.)

(She gave up, realizing that she had to wait…maybe she’d wake up before the van arrived back at base.)

(Soon, around an hour later, they were 5 minutes from the base. However...)

[there is a body, a Manaphy and three other people crying out for him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,–]

(Alex screamed as she woke up. Well, she tried to. The moment she realized that she couldn't hear her voice she started panicking bad.)

“About time…hey! Hey! Calm down, I’m trying to remove your restraints…”

(Quartz was kicked in the face by a paranoid Alex)

(As Quartz yelled in pain, the van stopped moving. Indy and Rubina opened the back doors of the van to see Quartz clutching her face, and Alex hyperventilating.)

(Quartz, noticing that the doors were open, lunged for the exit—a subconscious habit of hers.)

(Quartz is stopped by Beheyeem that suddenly teleports infront of her and freezes her with Psychic. He pulls Quartz out of the van while Alex crawls to the wall of the van, still hyperventilating.)

(Beheeyem holds Quartz in “air jail” while Indy and Rubina look at each other, not sure how to deal with the situation.)

"Are you going to drag her out–"

"Arceus no, I don't want her to hit me again! You do it!"

(Indy sighed, went in the back of the van, and somehow despite everything, Indy was able to drag Alex out without getting hit, though she was still panicking.)

"Let's go."

(Beheeyem was still holding Quartz in air jail—all the while she’s kicking and screaming and crying because her nose is most likely broken.)

(Rubina looks at Beheeyem)

"That means you too."

(Rubina walked into the base first while Indy and Beheeyem followed behind with the two girls.)

(Quartz is putting up a FIGHT. Her “Quartzness” has returned to her.)

(Beheyeem made his Psychic stronger to keep Quartz from moving.)

"Great. You're coming back," Rubina sighed, "I assume that we need to take Quartz to the lab while we put the other one in a cell?"

(At her statement, Quartz attempted to kick her, struggling wildly at this point.)

”I say we bring both for now and ask the Director once we get there.”

“Alright.”

(All of them soon made it to the lab much to the girl’s dismay.)

“We’re back,” Rubina stated as she opened the doors to the lab.

(Quartz continued to struggle)

(Alex finally realizes what is happening and also starts trying to get out of Indy's grasp.)

(Spinel smiles, walking over with his Umbreon beside him.)

“Set them down. They look tired.”

(Quartz and Alex are let down. Alex immediately tries to punch him.)

(Indy prevented her from doing so. Rubina held her in a headlock.)

(Spinel began to guide Quartz to the very back of the lab, gesturing for the agents to follow with Alex.)

“You should consider yourself lucky, Alex. This room is kept secret only to those with high enough clearance.”

(A reinforced steel door was located down a short corridor at the back of the lab, slightly hidden from view.)

(As soon as Quartz saw the door, it seemed to jog a memory of hers)

“No no no No No NO NO NO NO!”

(She attempted to wiggle out of Spinel’s grasp)

(Alex realizes what that means for Quartz and tries to get out of the headlock to get to her.)

(Spinel kept a firm hold on Quartz)

“It won’t hurt at all,” he reassured her. “You’ll be back to your normal, obedient self in no time…”

(He scanned his badge against the scanner next to the wall and the door slid open with a loud CLANG!)

(The room was pitch black inside until Spinel flicked a switch on the wall.)

(If Alex could speak, the words that would come out of her mouth would be "What the fuck".)

(Quartz continued to try and squirm out of Spinel’s grip, struggling and pulling with all her might—she was desperate at this point.)

(Alex threw Rubina onto the ground in attempt to escape.)

(Indy was distracted by the scene, but Spinel remained calm, leading Quartz over to the chair.)

“Sit down.”

(Alex managed to get out of the headlock and is currently fighting both Rubina and Indy with her hands in an attempt to get to Quartz.)

“This kid can fight!” Indy exclaimed, doing his absolute best to keep her from reaching Quartz.

“I’m not letting you take my memories away from me again!” Quartz yelled at Spinel as he pushed her head against the headrest of the chair.

(Alex managed to punch Indy in the face and ran over to Quartz to protect her.)

(He had managed to strap Quartz’s head down to the headrest before Alex confronted him.)

“Hm? Keep acting like this and your turn will come after hers.”

(Umbreon did what Umbreon does best and attacked Alex directly)

“BREEON!”

(Alex ignored what he said and positioned her hands so that when Umbreon attacked, it removed her cuffs. She took the opportunity and grabbed the Umbreon and threw it at him.)

(Quartz cheered, having been on the losing side of an Umbreon fight way too many times.)

(Alex took this opportunity to take off the silencer.)

"FINALLY!" she yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!"

(Alex scarmbled to get Quartz out of the chair.)

"Hang on, I'll get you out off here."

(Rubina took this opportunity to punch Alex in the face. HARD.)

“Alex!!” Quartz yelled.

(Alex clutched her face but soon regained her balance. She concentrared on her right hand and manafisted a small but deadly dagger that she attacked Rubina with.)

"Get out of my way!"

“Wha—?! Woah, calm down!”

(Rubina stood down)

(Spinel was too busy restraining Quartz to the chair to notice that Alex had literally created an object out of thin air)

(Alex turned back to where Quartz was and silently head over there. She didn't notice at the time that Indy and now Rubina had gone missing. Alex walked until she was right behind Spinel and.–)

"Get those restraints off her or else."

(Pointed the dagger right at his throat.)

“Where on earth did you—never mind. She’s not going to be hurt, I assure you—“

(She pressed the dagger at his throat, but not enough to cut. yet.)

"Erasing someones memories and making them work for is hurting someone though. Take those restraints off Quartz now, or I slit your throat."

“Alright, alright—you’ve made your point. Very clearly, I might add,” he muttered under his breath.

(He began to unfasten Quartz’s restraints)

“…did…did you break your nose?”

(He then noticed that his two agents were gone)

“…”

(Although Quartz was now free, Alex didn't let go.)

"Quartz! Are– wait what happened to your nose?"

“…you happened to my nose.”

“…can you let him go? That dagger’s making me nervous.”

(Alex stepped away in shock.)

"....I did that?"

“Yes. You kicked me in the face!”

(Spinel continued undoing the restraints, knowing full well she’d be back in this chair by the end of the week.)

"I.....I'm..."

(Alex was too stunned to speak.)

(Spinel is still undoing the restraints, occasionally looking around for Indy and Rubina, not knowing where on earth they went.)

(Alex turns around, still and shock, and sees Marshmallow standing next to Rubina and Indy. Both of whom are beaten up and knocked out cold.)

"MARSHMALLOW! YOUR ALRIGHT!"

(Spinel helped Quartz up and then walked over to his two agents to check on them, relieved that they still had a pulse.)

(Alex walks behind–)

"I'm not done with you yet."

(–and slashes his back)

(Quartz gasped.)

“…A-Alex?”

(Alex turns back to Quartz. Her face a mix between laughing and having a mental breakdown.)

"..ha...ha....finally, he's dead..."

(Quartz practically scrambled over to his side, shoving Alex out of the way to check for a pulse.)

(…there wasn’t one.)

…

“….what did you do.”

"...you knew what he was going to do to you! What he has done to you! And everything else!....he was just going to do it again! I had to stop him–"

“What he did to me—YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME?!”

(Quartz stood up, shaking, her sparks beginning to go out of control)

(She starts laughing) “You want to know why?! BECAUSE I WAS JUST LIKE HIM.”

(Claws of Infinity Energy begin to form on her hands as she continues.)

“Yeah, you heard me—I WAS JUST LIKE THAT MAN. Actually no—WORSE!”

(She cackled) “YOU EVER HEAR OF TEAM FLARE?!”

"I have. But I know you were not."

(Alex starts crying.)

"NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. THERE ARE SOME ACTIONS THAT ARE JUST IRREDEMABLE!"

(...)

"But go ahead. Tell me what did you do that was so bad..."

“…I almost destroyed the world and everyone in it. Willingly. I wasn’t one of those oblivious little nobodies along for the ride—I was FULLY onboard with Lysandre’s plan.”

“Lysandre…hah…I failed to save him too…just like Spinel, I failed to save him too...”

“ARCEUS WHY! WHY AM I UNABLE TO SAVE ANYONE?!”

(Her eyes glowed brighter and the energy began to stabilize into a semi-solid form…two sparking antennae on the sides of her head, those claws, and a whip-like tail.)

"...hahaha...so I was wrong.."

"You deserve to die too...."

(Alex paused for a moment)

".....you think that's being unable to save anyone..?"

"YOU THINK THAT'S NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE ANYONE!?"

(The dagger in her hand started to change its form radicaally.)

"TRY ACTUALLY KILLING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS! TRY KILLING ONE OF THE ONLY PARENTAL FIGURES YOU HAD! TRY BEING COMPLICIT IN THE NEAR DESTRUCTION OF REALITY!"

"...neither you, nor them, nor him, nor I deserve any second chance."

(Quartz saw the dagger, and tried to flee, scrambling for the door.)

(The dagger turned into a spear.)

"How can't you understand! Some people don't deserve second chances!"

"My sins are to grave."

["You do know this is all your fault?"]

"If we can't be cleansed of our sins.."

(Alex blocked the way to the door.)

"..Then neither of us deserve to live!"

*THUD*

*CLANG!*

(The door is busted down by a large Pokemon. It looks at Quartz with determined eyes.)

(The Pokemon seems familiar somehow to Quartz…but she has no time to think about that, she’s about to get murdered!)

(She makes a break for the Pokemon, jumping onto its back)

(Why did this feel so familiar…?)

(Her heart is pounding in her chest as she glances back at the lifeless body on the floor, tears in her eyes…)

"MARSHADOW!"

(Marshmallow looks at Alex with worry before going and attacking the large Pokemon and Quartz, knocking her off. They also hands Alex her Pokeballs that they snagged from Indy.)

(Alex points the blue(red?) spear at Quartz's throat.)

"...I thought you of all people would understand. You were the first person I could talk too without them pitying me in a long time...no matter.."

“Please…please don’t do this…”

"...."

(Alex is about to swing her spear right through Quartz's neck when–"

"GLACEE!"

(Glacire had came out of his pokeball. He realize what is going on and started to pull Alex by her cargo pants, knowing what she's trying to do to Quartz. What she wants to do to herself.)

"Glaceon! What are you– Let me go–"

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Quartz takes this opportunity to scramble back onto Miraidon)

“GO!”

(Miraidon takes off—Quartz holds on as tight as she can as they make their way through this maze of a base.)

(She’s shaking, trembling having just escaped from near death…and watching somebody very close to her fall to his own.)

(She hugs the large Pokemon tightly, feeling a sense of familiarity…)

(Alex sees that Quartz was able to escape, and that she has no chance of catching her.)

(Meanwhiile)

(Quartz and the pokemon are about to escape when a portal appears infront of them and a Pokemon comes out.)

(..the portal closes and a Hoopa stops the two dead in their tracks.)

“MOVE!” She cry-yelled at the Pokemon. “Just MOVE!!”

"ALE HOOPA RING!"

(Hoopa opened a Hyperspace hole under Quartz and the Pokemon..)

(..and then they were back in the room with Alex. Who, was still screaming and crying on the floor.)/

(Quartz attempts to sneak out again, as she’s not good at this whole “comforting” thing.)

(Hoopa appeared infront of her. Looks like they're so fed up with everything. Hoopa poked Quartz's forehead causing her to feel a weird sensation in her head.)

"Look, try your best to help her out. I can't let herself be a danger to everyone and herself. Try to do that and I'll fix everything."

(Looks like Hoopa's using telepathy.)

“You’re the one who brought her here in the first place—”

(she sighed)

“Fine. I’ll try…but I expect you to help if things go south.”

(She slowly approached Alex as to not startle her (and get speared in the neck)

(Alex did not notice that Quartz was approching her; however, Glacire did and stepped aside knowing that Alex needs any help she can get.)

(Quartz carefully reached out and set her right hand on Alex’s shoulder. (Just in case she broke it. Or cut it off. Or stabbed it.)

(Alex was startled and turned around. She looked less murderous and more....afraid...)

"...what...what do you want..."

“I..I wan to talk. Put down the spear, please.”

(She looked at where her spear was back before it faded away.)

"....it went away awhile ago..."

“Oh thank Arceus.”

“Uh…”

“Why am I so bad at this…c’mon, Quartz…”

"...if you're to say that I'm a shitty person, I already know...."

“We both are. We’ve both done horrible things in the past…but you can’t change the past, you know?”

"But I should've been able to prevent it! I could've stopped it, but I was too stupid to realize what was happening! And even then I still keeping making mistakes now!"

“All of us make mistakes. But once those mistakes are made, you can’t change them…all you can do is look to the future and strive to be better than who you were.”

"...but my mistakes almost caused the end of everything...I don't deserve another chance...not that I can even look to the future when every second reminds me of the past.."

(she lets out a little airy chuckle.) “Arceus you’re making this difficult.”

“…but they didn’t, did they? And through that experience, now you know that doing something like that again is a bad idea!”

“…only because my sister saved me….and I knew it was a bad idea but I still….”

“But it didn’t happen. And it can’t happen now, since the actual result already happened. The past can’t be changed. Only the future can be if you let it.”

(Alex couldn’t see them, but Hoopa was laughing to themself, knowing how they were going to fix things.)

”….haha…that’s what I tried to do with you..”

(Hoopa spoke directly into Quartz’s head)

“You ready to go?”

“Go—what? No, you’re supposed to be taking Alex—“

”Oh, so you don’t want him back alive? Alright-“

“…what?”

”What I was going to do was call my friend Celebi and see if they can turn back time to before Alex got a weapon, but seeing how you don’t want it, I guess me and Alex will be on our way-“

“Hey—no no no no—Hoopa…HOOPA—!”

“Soooooooo, is that a yes?”

(She nods)

“…if it can be done.”

”Alright!”

(Hoopa open’s a portal and a Celebi comes out)

“Heyyyyy Celebi-“

(Celebi makes an angry noise that no one except Hoopa can understand)

“I know your upset, but I’ll explain everything later. For now, can you turn back time here by like, an hour? At least so that she,” They motioned to Quartz, “ can save someone?”

(Spinel helped Quartz into the chair and pushed her head against the headrest in order to strap it down. He begins to strap down the rest of her limbs as well.)

(All the while, she’s shaking—out of anger, out of fear?—who knows.)

(A gloved hand rests on her head in an attempt to be reassuring—surprisingly, it works to some degree.)

“Breathe….breathe….it won’t hurt.”

(He attaches a small cuff around her wrist and places a strange headpiece around her forehead, before beginning to attach a few sensors above it.)

(Alex tries to get to Quartz, but Rubina pushes her to the ground.)

"Stay down, don't interfere."

(The screens around them flicker to life, switching to various readings and diagrams that Indy and Rubina are certain only Spinel can understand.)

(He begins to connect a few wires to the ports on the headpiece as the system is warming up.)

(Beheeyem floats over and rubs the top of Quartz’s head before turning to his trainer, ready to do his thing.)

(Spinel places a similiar headpiece onto Beheeyem and attaches the wires of it to Quartz’s headpiece.)

(Alex flips Rubina over, finds a way to take off the silencer, and is so close to getting to Quartz but is stopped by Indy when she is literally 4 feet away from her.)

"NO, DON'T DO THIS!"

(Spinel then turns to Alex, a serious look on his face.)

(He continues, dead serious) “If that helmet is taken off before the process is done, you could kill her instantly. Do I make myself clear?”

(Alex nods knowing she can't save her.)

"..fuck you."

(He scowled.) “Language. A simple “I understand” would’ve sufficed.”

“Beheeyem, we’re all set. Commence.”

(Beheeyem’s eyes glow as it uses its psychic powers—Quartz falls completely limp.)

(Spinel keeps a close eye on her.)

"What the hell are you going to do to her. Make her your subservient guard dog again?"

“She’s not a “subservient guard dog—“

“I’m doubtful she’d be able to guard anything, let alone the Director,” Rubina scoffed.

Spinel sighed, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. “She’s a loyal agent of the Explorers. And stop yelling, it’s making it very difficult to concentrate.”

(The device connected to Quartz’s headpiece began to whirr louder…more devices began to make ominous buzzing noises.)

(He sighs.) “Rubina, Indy, if you would please.”

(Rubina holds Alex’s head in place while Indy tries to put the silencer back on her.)

(Alex manages to free her head from Rubina's grasp and manages to damage, although not fully break, the silencer by hitting it with her head.)

"Ha! Take that you piece of shit– OW!"

(Rubina pressed down on the pressure point on the back of Alex’s neck, causing her to fall limp—though not pass out.)

(The reprogramming tech was whirring and flashing so much that it looked less like monitors and computer screens and more like Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.)

"...cowards."

(Alex looked at all the tech in a mixture of awe and fear. She needed to do something but couldn't!)

(A few hours passed)

(The process was almost complete)

(Alex had been given a new silencer in order for her to not yell to Quartz once she woke up.)

“Indy. Rubina. Take her outside the room, I don’t want her to interfere when she regains consciousness.”

(Alex looked...demoralized to say the least. She had been crying the entire time because once again, she failed to save someone. She didn't even fight back as she was taken out of the room.)

Indy whispered to Rubina. “…did we break her?”

Rubina responded. “I’m not sure…”

(The two led her over to a small couch in the corner. Indy shooed Umbreon off of it, much to the cat’s dismay.)

(Alex sits down for a couple of minutes until Quartz finally came out. Alex couldn't bare to look at her, but she did anyway.)

(She was sitting in a wheelchair, as it would’ve been very unwise to have her walk directly after a reprogramming.)

(She was a bit…out of it. Most likely very disoriented.)

(Alex gets up to go to Quartz, she is very concerned.)

(Spinel blocks her off)

“Ah ah ah— Don’t interfere.”

(Indy and Rubina grab her by the wrists and lead her back to the couch.)

(Alex tried to get to her, but was forced onto the couch. She continued to try to get to her. She was screaming and crying, but due to the silencer, only her crying could be seen.)

(Spinel slightly rolled his eyes)

“Take her back to her cell. You’ll see Quartz again in the morning.”

(He began to wheel Quartz out of the lab, most likely to her quarters.)

(Alex tried one last time to get to Quartz but got knocked out by a agitated Rubina who was done with her crap. Both Indy and RUbina carried Alex back to her cell for the night.)

(Spinel continued down the hallway with Quartz, who had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly.)

….

(The next morning, Quartz was guarding Alex’s cell once again, having recovered well.)

(Alex wakes up, still with the silencer. She noticed that Quartz was outside and rushed over to her. She moved her hands to ask if she was okay.)

(Quartz stared at her with apathy.)

“Silence, prisoner.”

(She looked around, seeing if anyone was nearby…seeing if the coast was clear.)

(Alex looked at her in annoyance and pointed to the silencer that she still had on. She sighed and started to try to break the force field to see if she could escape.)

“Quit it, you’ll draw attention.”

(She continued to look around)

(Alex looked at Quartz in confusion and stopped. She tilted her head a bit.)

(Once she saw that the coast was clear, she slowly made her way towards the control panel of Alex’s cell.)

(Alex is still very confused. She goes over to Quartz to see what she’s doing.)

(She’s attempting to disable the forcefield of the cell—with varying success.)

(Alex realizes what she is doing and is trying to suggest breaking the control panel with her hands.)

“It could alert them,” she said quietly. “…almost…aha!”

(The forcefield was disabled)

(She leads Alex out of the cell)

“Now, it’s important that you play along if any grunts happen to walk by.”

(Alex looked around and nodded.)

(Quartz began to lead her down the hallway, a stern look on her face to play the role of “obedient little Explorers agent.”)

(Alex followed along with the look of a “scared prisoner”.)

(…and everything was going smoothly.)

(Until…)

"Quartz! Where do you think you're taking her?"

(Indy walks up to her alongside Rubina.)

"She's supposed to be in her cell, and you're supposed to be guarding it."

(Alex looked at Quartz, uncertain of what she'll do.)

(A Hoopa ring opens up, a girl falls down, and the ring closes]

"Owwww," she looks around, "Where am I.." - @undeserving-hero

“Rabsca, Gravity.”

(The intruder felt a heavy weight press down against her, forcing her to the ground.)

(A teenager with short brown hair and glowing pink eyes approached, looking down at the woman with interest.)

“I already ordered…wait I haven’t fed any of my Pokemon, Quartz give me a minute.”

(Alex opened five more pokeballs to reveal Marshmallow, a delta Charizard, a Togekiss, a Rotom Wash, a Aegislash, and a Donphan. It took a while, but Alex ordered for the rest of her Pokemon.)

(The two carried their sandwiches as they walked back to the city’s limits to find a place to sit down and eat.)

(They sat down at a bench while Alex’s Pokemon sat on the floor.)

“This sandwich is pretty good. And this city is huge!…which reminds me, where am I again?”

“Levincia. Home to the Levincia Docks, the streamer Iono, and (she points to the cluster of three tall buildings) that.”

"Okay, what region then? Since you know, we aren't in my region."

“Oh! Right!”

(Idiot, how could you forget to tell her…?!)

“Welcome to Paldea. Sorry your first experience here was…traumatic, to say the least.”

"Paldea? Like the region with the academy? My sister goes there! At least in my world she does."

(She pauses for a moment.)

"And it's fine, I already told you I've experienced more traumatizing things have I?"

“But it’s not fine…I can’t believe I…”

"Look, all that happened was that I got my mind probed unwillingly. I'm fine, I'm not hurt!...you better not be trying to blame yourself."

“…at least you haven’t suffered any permanent damage.”

"Nah, it only reinforced any existing trau–...wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN PERMANENT DAMAGE!? I THOUGHT IT ONLY MADE YOU DISORIENTED?!"

“Your Marshadow burst into the lab and removed the helmet. The Director—I mean—Spinel—about flipped his lid. That could’ve fried your brain.”

“So yes—normal usage of the helmet causes disorientation…but removing it could cause permanent damage.”

"...Marshmallow tried to save me back then?"

(She completely ignores the fact she could've died or worse.)

"It's fine, nothing bad happened! I'm more concerned about you though."

“Your Pokemon just about—never mind.”

"Okay....You said those Explorers people work around here right? I'm suprised they haven't found us! That or they aren't looking for us, which I would prefer the latter."

“Keep it down…we’re risking it enough by being in this city.”

"Ahh sorry!"

(She finished eating her sandwich.)

(Quartz…tools hers with her. For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry—even though it was her favorite type of sandwich.)

“Ready?”

"Yup!"

(Alex returned her pokemon, minus Glacire, to their Pokeballs.)

"Let's get moving!"

“Right.”

(They began to leave the city of Levincia..)

"....So where are you from? Are you from here?"

“…no, not really. My home’s in Kalos, but I’m originally from Kanto—Celadon City, to be exact.”

"Oh? What's it like in Kalos?"

“I…unfortunately don’t remember much of it. But I had friends…Lumiose was beautiful, especially at night…I’d climb up to the roof of the tower and just..look at the stars.”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that…..you know, in my world the Kalosian Champion is actually my older sister! She’s told about how she helped save the world at one point!”

(She smiled as some memories came back to her) “Saved the world, huh…?”

”Yup! She’s so cool!…..I wish I could be more like her though.”

“…she sounds pretty cool.”

“Yup, though she can be scary at times, she means well!….a little too well sometimes..”

(Quartz nodded) “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any siblings…

"Dang...what about friends?"

(She nodded.) “Two—in Kalos, at least. They’re siblings. One’s my age, and the other one is thirteen or fourteen.”

"Ooo, what are they like?"

“We were…I guess kind of a team of our own.”

"They sound pretty cool!"

(They continued to walk for a bit.)

"Just a question, where are we going?"

“Who knows? I’m on the run now, and so are you.”

(Something could faintly be heard behind them.)

"Quartz.....did you hear that?"

(She sparked)

“Act cool. I think we’re being watched.”

(Glacire did NOT understand the assignment and started to growl.0

"psst, Glacire, keep quiet–"

“Shut up already, popsicle!”

"Hey! Be nice–"

(Glacire gets really upset and jumps inbetween Alex and Quartz. He starts to bark loudly a Quartz.)

"GLACIRE! BE QUIET!"

“Quiet down, drama king! We’re trying not to draw attention!”

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Alex starts to look for Glacire's pokeball, but it looks like she was too late. Someone found them.)

(Quartz sparked) “Who’s there?!”

(Something was shot right at them, just missing Alex.)

"What is that–"

(Something else was shot...hiting Quartz in her organic arm.)

“Ah.”

…

“AAAAAAGH!!!!!”

"QUARTZ ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

(Alex looks and sees the dastardly duo with their signature tranq darts.)

"YOU! GLACIRE! SIC EM!"

(Glacire jumped at Indy and started to attack him head on.)

(Glacire latched onto Indy’s leg and did not let go, growling.)

“AUGH!!! Get it off! Get it off GET IT OFF—!”

(Indy shook his leg around in an attempt to free himself from the Glaceon—Quartz took this as her chance to potentially escape the two.)

"Quartz! Go hide before you pass out! I'll go find you!"

(She turned back to Glacire who was still latched onto his body.)

"Glacire! Freeze his legs to the ground with Freeze Dry!"

(Indy continued fighting against the large Glaceon—wait, only Indy? I thought there were two…where’d Rubina go..?)

(Quartz ran and hid, shaking—about to pass out…)

——

(Back at the battle, Indy managed to free his leg from Glaceon and was able to throw a Pokeball. He dodged the Freeze-Dry)

“Electrode! Explosion, now!”

"Glacire! Ice Beam it out of the way!"

(Glacire fired a powerful ice beam that pushed the Electrode away before it could explode, causing it to faint.)

"Great!....wait, where is Red Highlighter Hair?.....Quartz!"

(Alex let out her Togekiss.)

"Tadpole! Can you go find Quartz and make sure she's alright!"

(Tadpole coed in agreement and flew off to find Quartz.)

(Quartz lost consciousness due to the tranquilizer.)

(Rubina approached, having watched Quartz fall asleep and hoisted her off the ground)

“The Director wants you back, and unlike you, I’m not one to defy orders,” she said quietly, even though Quartz couldn’t hear her.

(Tadpole had just spotted them shouted to tell Alex that she had found Quartz. Alex returned Glacire to his ball.)

(Rubina was about to take Quartz back with her when she was unexpectedly aura boosted right hooked by Alex.)

(She kept a secure hold on Quartz though, and threw out her Darmanitan.)

“Use Fire Punch!”

"Fly above! Then Moonblast!"

(The Jubilee Pokemon dodged the fire punch by flying into the sky before flying down and hiting a point blank Moonblast. This sent the Darmanitan flying and knocked it out.)

"Nice job Tadpole! Now give Quartz back before I–"

(In that moment, Alex felt something sharp hit her back. She turned around to see Indy pointing a tranq dart gun at her.)

(He smirked.) “You could stand to have a little more awareness during your battles.”

"Tch......Damn you....Tadpole...."

(The Togekiss immediately went to protect her trainer who was on the verge of collapsing.)

(A net was thrown over the Togekiss by a grunt as a group of three Explorers grunts joined Indy and Rubina.)

"Tadpole!......you guys really don't know how to play fair...."

(Nobody noticed but Alex motioned for Marshmallow to hide in Tadpole's shadow. Alex herself later collapsed.)

(Indy took the Pokeball from Alex and recalled Tadpole.)

(A grunt bent down and picked up Alex, carrying her over her shoulder.)

(The group of five Explorers made their way towards a dark-blue van.)

“Get them situated in the back,” Rubina commanded the grunts, carefully handing Quartz over to one before going to call the Director alongside Indy.

“Director Spinel? We found them…yes, both of them are safe.”

(The grunts opened the back of the van and shoved them inside. They equiped the restraint-cuffs on their wrists and ankles.)

"Wait, one more thing."

(Indy approched one of the grunts and handed them a silencer.)

"The one with the white hair has a tendency to start screaming when she wakes up. Put this on her so that we don't have to deal with that."

(The grunt nodded and covered Alex's mouth with the silencer before getting into the van with the other grunt and closing the door. The van drove off.)

(Unfortunately for them, in the midst of the chaos…Indy and Rubina forgot one tiny little thing.)

….

(In the back of the van, Quartz began to regain consciousness. She moved over to Alex to wake her up.)

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!”

(Alex wouldn't wake up. Instead she rolled onto Quartz's shoulder and continued to sleep.)

(Quartz sighed—her plan wouldn’t work if Alex was unconscious…)

(She continued to try and wake Alex up)

(Nope, still out cold. However, her expersion while sleeping contorts to one of worry; though, it is difficult for Quartz to tell if it's because she is waking up or if she is having a nightmare.)

(She gave up, realizing that she had to wait…maybe she’d wake up before the van arrived back at base.)

(Soon, around an hour later, they were 5 minutes from the base. However...)

[there is a body, a Manaphy and three other people crying out for him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,–]

(Alex screamed as she woke up. Well, she tried to. The moment she realized that she couldn't hear her voice she started panicking bad.)

“About time…hey! Hey! Calm down, I’m trying to remove your restraints…”

(Quartz was kicked in the face by a paranoid Alex)

(As Quartz yelled in pain, the van stopped moving. Indy and Rubina opened the back doors of the van to see Quartz clutching her face, and Alex hyperventilating.)

(Quartz, noticing that the doors were open, lunged for the exit—a subconscious habit of hers.)

(Quartz is stopped by Beheyeem that suddenly teleports infront of her and freezes her with Psychic. He pulls Quartz out of the van while Alex crawls to the wall of the van, still hyperventilating.)

(Beheeyem holds Quartz in “air jail” while Indy and Rubina look at each other, not sure how to deal with the situation.)

"Are you going to drag her out–"

"Arceus no, I don't want her to hit me again! You do it!"

(Indy sighed, went in the back of the van, and somehow despite everything, Indy was able to drag Alex out without getting hit, though she was still panicking.)

"Let's go."

(Beheeyem was still holding Quartz in air jail—all the while she’s kicking and screaming and crying because her nose is most likely broken.)

(Rubina looks at Beheeyem)

"That means you too."

(Rubina walked into the base first while Indy and Beheeyem followed behind with the two girls.)

(Quartz is putting up a FIGHT. Her “Quartzness” has returned to her.)

(Beheyeem made his Psychic stronger to keep Quartz from moving.)

"Great. You're coming back," Rubina sighed, "I assume that we need to take Quartz to the lab while we put the other one in a cell?"

(At her statement, Quartz attempted to kick her, struggling wildly at this point.)

”I say we bring both for now and ask the Director once we get there.”

“Alright.”

(All of them soon made it to the lab much to the girl’s dismay.)

“We’re back,” Rubina stated as she opened the doors to the lab.

(Quartz continued to struggle)

(Alex finally realizes what is happening and also starts trying to get out of Indy's grasp.)

(Spinel smiles, walking over with his Umbreon beside him.)

“Set them down. They look tired.”

(Quartz and Alex are let down. Alex immediately tries to punch him.)

(Indy prevented her from doing so. Rubina held her in a headlock.)

(Spinel began to guide Quartz to the very back of the lab, gesturing for the agents to follow with Alex.)

“You should consider yourself lucky, Alex. This room is kept secret only to those with high enough clearance.”

(A reinforced steel door was located down a short corridor at the back of the lab, slightly hidden from view.)

(As soon as Quartz saw the door, it seemed to jog a memory of hers)

“No no no No No NO NO NO NO!”

(She attempted to wiggle out of Spinel’s grasp)

(Alex realizes what that means for Quartz and tries to get out of the headlock to get to her.)

(Spinel kept a firm hold on Quartz)

“It won’t hurt at all,” he reassured her. “You’ll be back to your normal, obedient self in no time…”

(He scanned his badge against the scanner next to the wall and the door slid open with a loud CLANG!)

(The room was pitch black inside until Spinel flicked a switch on the wall.)

(If Alex could speak, the words that would come out of her mouth would be "What the fuck".)

(Quartz continued to try and squirm out of Spinel’s grip, struggling and pulling with all her might—she was desperate at this point.)

(Alex threw Rubina onto the ground in attempt to escape.)

(Indy was distracted by the scene, but Spinel remained calm, leading Quartz over to the chair.)

“Sit down.”

(Alex managed to get out of the headlock and is currently fighting both Rubina and Indy with her hands in an attempt to get to Quartz.)

“This kid can fight!” Indy exclaimed, doing his absolute best to keep her from reaching Quartz.

“I’m not letting you take my memories away from me again!” Quartz yelled at Spinel as he pushed her head against the headrest of the chair.

(Alex managed to punch Indy in the face and ran over to Quartz to protect her.)

(He had managed to strap Quartz’s head down to the headrest before Alex confronted him.)

“Hm? Keep acting like this and your turn will come after hers.”

(Umbreon did what Umbreon does best and attacked Alex directly)

“BREEON!”

(Alex ignored what he said and positioned her hands so that when Umbreon attacked, it removed her cuffs. She took the opportunity and grabbed the Umbreon and threw it at him.)

(Quartz cheered, having been on the losing side of an Umbreon fight way too many times.)

(Alex took this opportunity to take off the silencer.)

"FINALLY!" she yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!"

(Alex scarmbled to get Quartz out of the chair.)

"Hang on, I'll get you out off here."

(Rubina took this opportunity to punch Alex in the face. HARD.)

“Alex!!” Quartz yelled.

(Alex clutched her face but soon regained her balance. She concentrared on her right hand and manafisted a small but deadly dagger that she attacked Rubina with.)

"Get out of my way!"

“Wha—?! Woah, calm down!”

(Rubina stood down)

(Spinel was too busy restraining Quartz to the chair to notice that Alex had literally created an object out of thin air)

(Alex turned back to where Quartz was and silently head over there. She didn't notice at the time that Indy and now Rubina had gone missing. Alex walked until she was right behind Spinel and.–)

"Get those restraints off her or else."

(Pointed the dagger right at his throat.)

“Where on earth did you—never mind. She’s not going to be hurt, I assure you—“

(She pressed the dagger at his throat, but not enough to cut. yet.)

"Erasing someones memories and making them work for is hurting someone though. Take those restraints off Quartz now, or I slit your throat."

“Alright, alright—you’ve made your point. Very clearly, I might add,” he muttered under his breath.

(He began to unfasten Quartz’s restraints)

“…did…did you break your nose?”

(He then noticed that his two agents were gone)

“…”

(Although Quartz was now free, Alex didn't let go.)

"Quartz! Are– wait what happened to your nose?"

“…you happened to my nose.”

“…can you let him go? That dagger’s making me nervous.”

(Alex stepped away in shock.)

"....I did that?"

“Yes. You kicked me in the face!”

(Spinel continued undoing the restraints, knowing full well she’d be back in this chair by the end of the week.)

"I.....I'm..."

(Alex was too stunned to speak.)

(Spinel is still undoing the restraints, occasionally looking around for Indy and Rubina, not knowing where on earth they went.)

(Alex turns around, still and shock, and sees Marshmallow standing next to Rubina and Indy. Both of whom are beaten up and knocked out cold.)

"MARSHMALLOW! YOUR ALRIGHT!"

(Spinel helped Quartz up and then walked over to his two agents to check on them, relieved that they still had a pulse.)

(Alex walks behind–)

"I'm not done with you yet."

(–and slashes his back)

(Quartz gasped.)

“…A-Alex?”

(Alex turns back to Quartz. Her face a mix between laughing and having a mental breakdown.)

"..ha...ha....finally, he's dead..."

(Quartz practically scrambled over to his side, shoving Alex out of the way to check for a pulse.)

(…there wasn’t one.)

…

“….what did you do.”

"...you knew what he was going to do to you! What he has done to you! And everything else!....he was just going to do it again! I had to stop him–"

“What he did to me—YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME?!”

(Quartz stood up, shaking, her sparks beginning to go out of control)

(She starts laughing) “You want to know why?! BECAUSE I WAS JUST LIKE HIM.”

(Claws of Infinity Energy begin to form on her hands as she continues.)

“Yeah, you heard me—I WAS JUST LIKE THAT MAN. Actually no—WORSE!”

(She cackled) “YOU EVER HEAR OF TEAM FLARE?!”

"I have. But I know you were not."

(Alex starts crying.)

"NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. THERE ARE SOME ACTIONS THAT ARE JUST IRREDEMABLE!"

(...)

"But go ahead. Tell me what did you do that was so bad..."

“…I almost destroyed the world and everyone in it. Willingly. I wasn’t one of those oblivious little nobodies along for the ride—I was FULLY onboard with Lysandre’s plan.”

“Lysandre…hah…I failed to save him too…just like Spinel, I failed to save him too...”

“ARCEUS WHY! WHY AM I UNABLE TO SAVE ANYONE?!”

(Her eyes glowed brighter and the energy began to stabilize into a semi-solid form…two sparking antennae on the sides of her head, those claws, and a whip-like tail.)

"...hahaha...so I was wrong.."

"You deserve to die too...."

(Alex paused for a moment)

".....you think that's being unable to save anyone..?"

"YOU THINK THAT'S NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE ANYONE!?"

(The dagger in her hand started to change its form radicaally.)

"TRY ACTUALLY KILLING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS! TRY KILLING ONE OF THE ONLY PARENTAL FIGURES YOU HAD! TRY BEING COMPLICIT IN THE NEAR DESTRUCTION OF REALITY!"

"...neither you, nor them, nor him, nor I deserve any second chance."

(Quartz saw the dagger, and tried to flee, scrambling for the door.)

(The dagger turned into a spear.)

"How can't you understand! Some people don't deserve second chances!"

"My sins are to grave."

["You do know this is all your fault?"]

"If we can't be cleansed of our sins.."

(Alex blocked the way to the door.)

"..Then neither of us deserve to live!"

*THUD*

*CLANG!*

(The door is busted down by a large Pokemon. It looks at Quartz with determined eyes.)

(The Pokemon seems familiar somehow to Quartz…but she has no time to think about that, she’s about to get murdered!)

(She makes a break for the Pokemon, jumping onto its back)

(Why did this feel so familiar…?)

(Her heart is pounding in her chest as she glances back at the lifeless body on the floor, tears in her eyes…)

"MARSHADOW!"

(Marshmallow looks at Alex with worry before going and attacking the large Pokemon and Quartz, knocking her off. They also hands Alex her Pokeballs that they snagged from Indy.)

(Alex points the blue(red?) spear at Quartz's throat.)

"...I thought you of all people would understand. You were the first person I could talk too without them pitying me in a long time...no matter.."

“Please…please don’t do this…”

"...."

(Alex is about to swing her spear right through Quartz's neck when–"

"GLACEE!"

(Glacire had came out of his pokeball. He realize what is going on and started to pull Alex by her cargo pants, knowing what she's trying to do to Quartz. What she wants to do to herself.)

"Glaceon! What are you– Let me go–"

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Quartz takes this opportunity to scramble back onto Miraidon)

“GO!”

(Miraidon takes off—Quartz holds on as tight as she can as they make their way through this maze of a base.)

(She’s shaking, trembling having just escaped from near death…and watching somebody very close to her fall to his own.)

(She hugs the large Pokemon tightly, feeling a sense of familiarity…)

(Alex sees that Quartz was able to escape, and that she has no chance of catching her.)

(Meanwhiile)

(Quartz and the pokemon are about to escape when a portal appears infront of them and a Pokemon comes out.)

(..the portal closes and a Hoopa stops the two dead in their tracks.)

“MOVE!” She cry-yelled at the Pokemon. “Just MOVE!!”

"ALE HOOPA RING!"

(Hoopa opened a Hyperspace hole under Quartz and the Pokemon..)

(..and then they were back in the room with Alex. Who, was still screaming and crying on the floor.)/

(Quartz attempts to sneak out again, as she’s not good at this whole “comforting” thing.)

(Hoopa appeared infront of her. Looks like they're so fed up with everything. Hoopa poked Quartz's forehead causing her to feel a weird sensation in her head.)

"Look, try your best to help her out. I can't let herself be a danger to everyone and herself. Try to do that and I'll fix everything."

(Looks like Hoopa's using telepathy.)

“You’re the one who brought her here in the first place—”

(she sighed)

“Fine. I’ll try…but I expect you to help if things go south.”

(She slowly approached Alex as to not startle her (and get speared in the neck)

(Alex did not notice that Quartz was approching her; however, Glacire did and stepped aside knowing that Alex needs any help she can get.)

(Quartz carefully reached out and set her right hand on Alex’s shoulder. (Just in case she broke it. Or cut it off. Or stabbed it.)

(Alex was startled and turned around. She looked less murderous and more....afraid...)

"...what...what do you want..."

“I..I wan to talk. Put down the spear, please.”

(She looked at where her spear was back before it faded away.)

"....it went away awhile ago..."

“Oh thank Arceus.”

“Uh…”

“Why am I so bad at this…c’mon, Quartz…”

"...if you're to say that I'm a shitty person, I already know...."

“We both are. We’ve both done horrible things in the past…but you can’t change the past, you know?”

"But I should've been able to prevent it! I could've stopped it, but I was too stupid to realize what was happening! And even then I still keeping making mistakes now!"

“All of us make mistakes. But once those mistakes are made, you can’t change them…all you can do is look to the future and strive to be better than who you were.”

"...but my mistakes almost caused the end of everything...I don't deserve another chance...not that I can even look to the future when every second reminds me of the past.."

(she lets out a little airy chuckle.) “Arceus you’re making this difficult.”

“…but they didn’t, did they? And through that experience, now you know that doing something like that again is a bad idea!”

“…only because my sister saved me….and I knew it was a bad idea but I still….”

“But it didn’t happen. And it can’t happen now, since the actual result already happened. The past can’t be changed. Only the future can be if you let it.”

(Alex couldn’t see them, but Hoopa was laughing to themself, knowing how they were going to fix things.)

”….haha…that’s what I tried to do with you..”

(Hoopa spoke directly into Quartz’s head)

“You ready to go?”

“Go—what? No, you’re supposed to be taking Alex—“

”Oh, so you don’t want him back alive? Alright-“

“…what?”

”What I was going to do was call my friend Celebi and see if they can turn back time to before Alex got a weapon, but seeing how you don’t want it, I guess me and Alex will be on our way-“

“Hey—no no no no—Hoopa…HOOPA—!”

“Soooooooo, is that a yes?”

(She nods)

“…if it can be done.”

”Alright!”

(Hoopa open’s a portal and a Celebi comes out)

“Heyyyyy Celebi-“

(Celebi makes an angry noise that no one except Hoopa can understand)

“I know your upset, but I’ll explain everything later. For now, can you turn back time here by like, an hour? At least so that she,” They motioned to Quartz, “ can save someone?”

(Spinel helped Quartz into the chair and pushed her head against the headrest in order to strap it down. He begins to strap down the rest of her limbs as well.)

(All the while, she’s shaking—out of anger, out of fear?—who knows.)

(A gloved hand rests on her head in an attempt to be reassuring—surprisingly, it works to some degree.)

“Breathe….breathe….it won’t hurt.”

(He attaches a small cuff around her wrist and places a strange headpiece around her forehead, before beginning to attach a few sensors above it.)

(Alex tries to get to Quartz, but Rubina pushes her to the ground.)

"Stay down, don't interfere."

(The screens around them flicker to life, switching to various readings and diagrams that Indy and Rubina are certain only Spinel can understand.)

(He begins to connect a few wires to the ports on the headpiece as the system is warming up.)

(Beheeyem floats over and rubs the top of Quartz’s head before turning to his trainer, ready to do his thing.)

(Spinel places a similiar headpiece onto Beheeyem and attaches the wires of it to Quartz’s headpiece.)

(Alex flips Rubina over, finds a way to take off the silencer, and is so close to getting to Quartz but is stopped by Indy when she is literally 4 feet away from her.)

"NO, DON'T DO THIS!"

(Spinel then turns to Alex, a serious look on his face.)

(He continues, dead serious) “If that helmet is taken off before the process is done, you could kill her instantly. Do I make myself clear?”

(Alex nods knowing she can't save her.)

"..fuck you."

(He scowled.) “Language. A simple “I understand” would’ve sufficed.”

“Beheeyem, we’re all set. Commence.”

(Beheeyem’s eyes glow as it uses its psychic powers—Quartz falls completely limp.)

(Spinel keeps a close eye on her.)

"What the hell are you going to do to her. Make her your subservient guard dog again?"

“She’s not a “subservient guard dog—“

“I’m doubtful she’d be able to guard anything, let alone the Director,” Rubina scoffed.

Spinel sighed, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. “She’s a loyal agent of the Explorers. And stop yelling, it’s making it very difficult to concentrate.”

(The device connected to Quartz’s headpiece began to whirr louder…more devices began to make ominous buzzing noises.)

(He sighs.) “Rubina, Indy, if you would please.”

(Rubina holds Alex’s head in place while Indy tries to put the silencer back on her.)

(Alex manages to free her head from Rubina's grasp and manages to damage, although not fully break, the silencer by hitting it with her head.)

"Ha! Take that you piece of shit– OW!"

(Rubina pressed down on the pressure point on the back of Alex’s neck, causing her to fall limp—though not pass out.)

(The reprogramming tech was whirring and flashing so much that it looked less like monitors and computer screens and more like Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.)

"...cowards."

(Alex looked at all the tech in a mixture of awe and fear. She needed to do something but couldn't!)

(A few hours passed)

(The process was almost complete)

(Alex had been given a new silencer in order for her to not yell to Quartz once she woke up.)

“Indy. Rubina. Take her outside the room, I don’t want her to interfere when she regains consciousness.”

(Alex looked...demoralized to say the least. She had been crying the entire time because once again, she failed to save someone. She didn't even fight back as she was taken out of the room.)

Indy whispered to Rubina. “…did we break her?”

Rubina responded. “I’m not sure…”

(The two led her over to a small couch in the corner. Indy shooed Umbreon off of it, much to the cat’s dismay.)

(Alex sits down for a couple of minutes until Quartz finally came out. Alex couldn't bare to look at her, but she did anyway.)

(She was sitting in a wheelchair, as it would’ve been very unwise to have her walk directly after a reprogramming.)

(She was a bit…out of it. Most likely very disoriented.)

(Alex gets up to go to Quartz, she is very concerned.)

(Spinel blocks her off)

“Ah ah ah— Don’t interfere.”

(Indy and Rubina grab her by the wrists and lead her back to the couch.)

(Alex tried to get to her, but was forced onto the couch. She continued to try to get to her. She was screaming and crying, but due to the silencer, only her crying could be seen.)

(Spinel slightly rolled his eyes)

“Take her back to her cell. You’ll see Quartz again in the morning.”

(He began to wheel Quartz out of the lab, most likely to her quarters.)

(Alex tried one last time to get to Quartz but got knocked out by a agitated Rubina who was done with her crap. Both Indy and RUbina carried Alex back to her cell for the night.)

(Spinel continued down the hallway with Quartz, who had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly.)

….

(The next morning, Quartz was guarding Alex’s cell once again, having recovered well.)

(Alex wakes up, still with the silencer. She noticed that Quartz was outside and rushed over to her. She moved her hands to ask if she was okay.)

(Quartz stared at her with apathy.)

“Silence, prisoner.”

(She looked around, seeing if anyone was nearby…seeing if the coast was clear.)

(Alex looked at her in annoyance and pointed to the silencer that she still had on. She sighed and started to try to break the force field to see if she could escape.)

“Quit it, you’ll draw attention.”

(She continued to look around)

(Alex looked at Quartz in confusion and stopped. She tilted her head a bit.)

(Once she saw that the coast was clear, she slowly made her way towards the control panel of Alex’s cell.)

(Alex is still very confused. She goes over to Quartz to see what she’s doing.)

(She’s attempting to disable the forcefield of the cell—with varying success.)

(Alex realizes what she is doing and is trying to suggest breaking the control panel with her hands.)

“It could alert them,” she said quietly. “…almost…aha!”

(The forcefield was disabled)

(She leads Alex out of the cell)

“Now, it’s important that you play along if any grunts happen to walk by.”

(Alex looked around and nodded.)

(Quartz began to lead her down the hallway, a stern look on her face to play the role of “obedient little Explorers agent.”)

(Alex followed along with the look of a “scared prisoner”.)

(A Hoopa ring opens up, a girl falls down, and the ring closes]

"Owwww," she looks around, "Where am I.." - @undeserving-hero

“Rabsca, Gravity.”

(The intruder felt a heavy weight press down against her, forcing her to the ground.)

(A teenager with short brown hair and glowing pink eyes approached, looking down at the woman with interest.)

“I already ordered…wait I haven’t fed any of my Pokemon, Quartz give me a minute.”

(Alex opened five more pokeballs to reveal Marshmallow, a delta Charizard, a Togekiss, a Rotom Wash, a Aegislash, and a Donphan. It took a while, but Alex ordered for the rest of her Pokemon.)

(The two carried their sandwiches as they walked back to the city’s limits to find a place to sit down and eat.)

(They sat down at a bench while Alex’s Pokemon sat on the floor.)

“This sandwich is pretty good. And this city is huge!…which reminds me, where am I again?”

“Levincia. Home to the Levincia Docks, the streamer Iono, and (she points to the cluster of three tall buildings) that.”

"Okay, what region then? Since you know, we aren't in my region."

“Oh! Right!”

(Idiot, how could you forget to tell her…?!)

“Welcome to Paldea. Sorry your first experience here was…traumatic, to say the least.”

"Paldea? Like the region with the academy? My sister goes there! At least in my world she does."

(She pauses for a moment.)

"And it's fine, I already told you I've experienced more traumatizing things have I?"

“But it’s not fine…I can’t believe I…”

"Look, all that happened was that I got my mind probed unwillingly. I'm fine, I'm not hurt!...you better not be trying to blame yourself."

“…at least you haven’t suffered any permanent damage.”

"Nah, it only reinforced any existing trau–...wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN PERMANENT DAMAGE!? I THOUGHT IT ONLY MADE YOU DISORIENTED?!"

“Your Marshadow burst into the lab and removed the helmet. The Director—I mean—Spinel—about flipped his lid. That could’ve fried your brain.”

“So yes—normal usage of the helmet causes disorientation…but removing it could cause permanent damage.”

"...Marshmallow tried to save me back then?"

(She completely ignores the fact she could've died or worse.)

"It's fine, nothing bad happened! I'm more concerned about you though."

“Your Pokemon just about—never mind.”

"Okay....You said those Explorers people work around here right? I'm suprised they haven't found us! That or they aren't looking for us, which I would prefer the latter."

“Keep it down…we’re risking it enough by being in this city.”

"Ahh sorry!"

(She finished eating her sandwich.)

(Quartz…tools hers with her. For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry—even though it was her favorite type of sandwich.)

“Ready?”

"Yup!"

(Alex returned her pokemon, minus Glacire, to their Pokeballs.)

"Let's get moving!"

“Right.”

(They began to leave the city of Levincia..)

"....So where are you from? Are you from here?"

“…no, not really. My home’s in Kalos, but I’m originally from Kanto—Celadon City, to be exact.”

"Oh? What's it like in Kalos?"

“I…unfortunately don’t remember much of it. But I had friends…Lumiose was beautiful, especially at night…I’d climb up to the roof of the tower and just..look at the stars.”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that…..you know, in my world the Kalosian Champion is actually my older sister! She’s told about how she helped save the world at one point!”

(She smiled as some memories came back to her) “Saved the world, huh…?”

”Yup! She’s so cool!…..I wish I could be more like her though.”

“…she sounds pretty cool.”

“Yup, though she can be scary at times, she means well!….a little too well sometimes..”

(Quartz nodded) “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any siblings…

"Dang...what about friends?"

(She nodded.) “Two—in Kalos, at least. They’re siblings. One’s my age, and the other one is thirteen or fourteen.”

"Ooo, what are they like?"

“We were…I guess kind of a team of our own.”

"They sound pretty cool!"

(They continued to walk for a bit.)

"Just a question, where are we going?"

“Who knows? I’m on the run now, and so are you.”

(Something could faintly be heard behind them.)

"Quartz.....did you hear that?"

(She sparked)

“Act cool. I think we’re being watched.”

(Glacire did NOT understand the assignment and started to growl.0

"psst, Glacire, keep quiet–"

“Shut up already, popsicle!”

"Hey! Be nice–"

(Glacire gets really upset and jumps inbetween Alex and Quartz. He starts to bark loudly a Quartz.)

"GLACIRE! BE QUIET!"

“Quiet down, drama king! We’re trying not to draw attention!”

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Alex starts to look for Glacire's pokeball, but it looks like she was too late. Someone found them.)

(Quartz sparked) “Who’s there?!”

(Something was shot right at them, just missing Alex.)

"What is that–"

(Something else was shot...hiting Quartz in her organic arm.)

“Ah.”

…

“AAAAAAGH!!!!!”

"QUARTZ ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

(Alex looks and sees the dastardly duo with their signature tranq darts.)

"YOU! GLACIRE! SIC EM!"

(Glacire jumped at Indy and started to attack him head on.)

(Glacire latched onto Indy’s leg and did not let go, growling.)

“AUGH!!! Get it off! Get it off GET IT OFF—!”

(Indy shook his leg around in an attempt to free himself from the Glaceon—Quartz took this as her chance to potentially escape the two.)

"Quartz! Go hide before you pass out! I'll go find you!"

(She turned back to Glacire who was still latched onto his body.)

"Glacire! Freeze his legs to the ground with Freeze Dry!"

(Indy continued fighting against the large Glaceon—wait, only Indy? I thought there were two…where’d Rubina go..?)

(Quartz ran and hid, shaking—about to pass out…)

——

(Back at the battle, Indy managed to free his leg from Glaceon and was able to throw a Pokeball. He dodged the Freeze-Dry)

“Electrode! Explosion, now!”

"Glacire! Ice Beam it out of the way!"

(Glacire fired a powerful ice beam that pushed the Electrode away before it could explode, causing it to faint.)

"Great!....wait, where is Red Highlighter Hair?.....Quartz!"

(Alex let out her Togekiss.)

"Tadpole! Can you go find Quartz and make sure she's alright!"

(Tadpole coed in agreement and flew off to find Quartz.)

(Quartz lost consciousness due to the tranquilizer.)

(Rubina approached, having watched Quartz fall asleep and hoisted her off the ground)

“The Director wants you back, and unlike you, I’m not one to defy orders,” she said quietly, even though Quartz couldn’t hear her.

(Tadpole had just spotted them shouted to tell Alex that she had found Quartz. Alex returned Glacire to his ball.)

(Rubina was about to take Quartz back with her when she was unexpectedly aura boosted right hooked by Alex.)

(She kept a secure hold on Quartz though, and threw out her Darmanitan.)

“Use Fire Punch!”

"Fly above! Then Moonblast!"

(The Jubilee Pokemon dodged the fire punch by flying into the sky before flying down and hiting a point blank Moonblast. This sent the Darmanitan flying and knocked it out.)

"Nice job Tadpole! Now give Quartz back before I–"

(In that moment, Alex felt something sharp hit her back. She turned around to see Indy pointing a tranq dart gun at her.)

(He smirked.) “You could stand to have a little more awareness during your battles.”

"Tch......Damn you....Tadpole...."

(The Togekiss immediately went to protect her trainer who was on the verge of collapsing.)

(A net was thrown over the Togekiss by a grunt as a group of three Explorers grunts joined Indy and Rubina.)

"Tadpole!......you guys really don't know how to play fair...."

(Nobody noticed but Alex motioned for Marshmallow to hide in Tadpole's shadow. Alex herself later collapsed.)

(Indy took the Pokeball from Alex and recalled Tadpole.)

(A grunt bent down and picked up Alex, carrying her over her shoulder.)

(The group of five Explorers made their way towards a dark-blue van.)

“Get them situated in the back,” Rubina commanded the grunts, carefully handing Quartz over to one before going to call the Director alongside Indy.

“Director Spinel? We found them…yes, both of them are safe.”

(The grunts opened the back of the van and shoved them inside. They equiped the restraint-cuffs on their wrists and ankles.)

"Wait, one more thing."

(Indy approched one of the grunts and handed them a silencer.)

"The one with the white hair has a tendency to start screaming when she wakes up. Put this on her so that we don't have to deal with that."

(The grunt nodded and covered Alex's mouth with the silencer before getting into the van with the other grunt and closing the door. The van drove off.)

(Unfortunately for them, in the midst of the chaos…Indy and Rubina forgot one tiny little thing.)

….

(In the back of the van, Quartz began to regain consciousness. She moved over to Alex to wake her up.)

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!”

(Alex wouldn't wake up. Instead she rolled onto Quartz's shoulder and continued to sleep.)

(Quartz sighed—her plan wouldn’t work if Alex was unconscious…)

(She continued to try and wake Alex up)

(Nope, still out cold. However, her expersion while sleeping contorts to one of worry; though, it is difficult for Quartz to tell if it's because she is waking up or if she is having a nightmare.)

(She gave up, realizing that she had to wait…maybe she’d wake up before the van arrived back at base.)

(Soon, around an hour later, they were 5 minutes from the base. However...)

[there is a body, a Manaphy and three other people crying out for him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,–]

(Alex screamed as she woke up. Well, she tried to. The moment she realized that she couldn't hear her voice she started panicking bad.)

“About time…hey! Hey! Calm down, I’m trying to remove your restraints…”

(Quartz was kicked in the face by a paranoid Alex)

(As Quartz yelled in pain, the van stopped moving. Indy and Rubina opened the back doors of the van to see Quartz clutching her face, and Alex hyperventilating.)

(Quartz, noticing that the doors were open, lunged for the exit—a subconscious habit of hers.)

(Quartz is stopped by Beheyeem that suddenly teleports infront of her and freezes her with Psychic. He pulls Quartz out of the van while Alex crawls to the wall of the van, still hyperventilating.)

(Beheeyem holds Quartz in “air jail” while Indy and Rubina look at each other, not sure how to deal with the situation.)

"Are you going to drag her out–"

"Arceus no, I don't want her to hit me again! You do it!"

(Indy sighed, went in the back of the van, and somehow despite everything, Indy was able to drag Alex out without getting hit, though she was still panicking.)

"Let's go."

(Beheeyem was still holding Quartz in air jail—all the while she’s kicking and screaming and crying because her nose is most likely broken.)

(Rubina looks at Beheeyem)

"That means you too."

(Rubina walked into the base first while Indy and Beheeyem followed behind with the two girls.)

(Quartz is putting up a FIGHT. Her “Quartzness” has returned to her.)

(Beheyeem made his Psychic stronger to keep Quartz from moving.)

"Great. You're coming back," Rubina sighed, "I assume that we need to take Quartz to the lab while we put the other one in a cell?"

(At her statement, Quartz attempted to kick her, struggling wildly at this point.)

”I say we bring both for now and ask the Director once we get there.”

“Alright.”

(All of them soon made it to the lab much to the girl’s dismay.)

“We’re back,” Rubina stated as she opened the doors to the lab.

(Quartz continued to struggle)

(Alex finally realizes what is happening and also starts trying to get out of Indy's grasp.)

(Spinel smiles, walking over with his Umbreon beside him.)

“Set them down. They look tired.”

(Quartz and Alex are let down. Alex immediately tries to punch him.)

(Indy prevented her from doing so. Rubina held her in a headlock.)

(Spinel began to guide Quartz to the very back of the lab, gesturing for the agents to follow with Alex.)

“You should consider yourself lucky, Alex. This room is kept secret only to those with high enough clearance.”

(A reinforced steel door was located down a short corridor at the back of the lab, slightly hidden from view.)

(As soon as Quartz saw the door, it seemed to jog a memory of hers)

“No no no No No NO NO NO NO!”

(She attempted to wiggle out of Spinel’s grasp)

(Alex realizes what that means for Quartz and tries to get out of the headlock to get to her.)

(Spinel kept a firm hold on Quartz)

“It won’t hurt at all,” he reassured her. “You’ll be back to your normal, obedient self in no time…”

(He scanned his badge against the scanner next to the wall and the door slid open with a loud CLANG!)

(The room was pitch black inside until Spinel flicked a switch on the wall.)

(If Alex could speak, the words that would come out of her mouth would be "What the fuck".)

(Quartz continued to try and squirm out of Spinel’s grip, struggling and pulling with all her might—she was desperate at this point.)

(Alex threw Rubina onto the ground in attempt to escape.)

(Indy was distracted by the scene, but Spinel remained calm, leading Quartz over to the chair.)

“Sit down.”

(Alex managed to get out of the headlock and is currently fighting both Rubina and Indy with her hands in an attempt to get to Quartz.)

“This kid can fight!” Indy exclaimed, doing his absolute best to keep her from reaching Quartz.

“I’m not letting you take my memories away from me again!” Quartz yelled at Spinel as he pushed her head against the headrest of the chair.

(Alex managed to punch Indy in the face and ran over to Quartz to protect her.)

(He had managed to strap Quartz’s head down to the headrest before Alex confronted him.)

“Hm? Keep acting like this and your turn will come after hers.”

(Umbreon did what Umbreon does best and attacked Alex directly)

“BREEON!”

(Alex ignored what he said and positioned her hands so that when Umbreon attacked, it removed her cuffs. She took the opportunity and grabbed the Umbreon and threw it at him.)

(Quartz cheered, having been on the losing side of an Umbreon fight way too many times.)

(Alex took this opportunity to take off the silencer.)

"FINALLY!" she yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!"

(Alex scarmbled to get Quartz out of the chair.)

"Hang on, I'll get you out off here."

(Rubina took this opportunity to punch Alex in the face. HARD.)

“Alex!!” Quartz yelled.

(Alex clutched her face but soon regained her balance. She concentrared on her right hand and manafisted a small but deadly dagger that she attacked Rubina with.)

"Get out of my way!"

“Wha—?! Woah, calm down!”

(Rubina stood down)

(Spinel was too busy restraining Quartz to the chair to notice that Alex had literally created an object out of thin air)

(Alex turned back to where Quartz was and silently head over there. She didn't notice at the time that Indy and now Rubina had gone missing. Alex walked until she was right behind Spinel and.–)

"Get those restraints off her or else."

(Pointed the dagger right at his throat.)

“Where on earth did you—never mind. She’s not going to be hurt, I assure you—“

(She pressed the dagger at his throat, but not enough to cut. yet.)

"Erasing someones memories and making them work for is hurting someone though. Take those restraints off Quartz now, or I slit your throat."

“Alright, alright—you’ve made your point. Very clearly, I might add,” he muttered under his breath.

(He began to unfasten Quartz’s restraints)

“…did…did you break your nose?”

(He then noticed that his two agents were gone)

“…”

(Although Quartz was now free, Alex didn't let go.)

"Quartz! Are– wait what happened to your nose?"

“…you happened to my nose.”

“…can you let him go? That dagger’s making me nervous.”

(Alex stepped away in shock.)

"....I did that?"

“Yes. You kicked me in the face!”

(Spinel continued undoing the restraints, knowing full well she’d be back in this chair by the end of the week.)

"I.....I'm..."

(Alex was too stunned to speak.)

(Spinel is still undoing the restraints, occasionally looking around for Indy and Rubina, not knowing where on earth they went.)

(Alex turns around, still and shock, and sees Marshmallow standing next to Rubina and Indy. Both of whom are beaten up and knocked out cold.)

"MARSHMALLOW! YOUR ALRIGHT!"

(Spinel helped Quartz up and then walked over to his two agents to check on them, relieved that they still had a pulse.)

(Alex walks behind–)

"I'm not done with you yet."

(–and slashes his back)

(Quartz gasped.)

“…A-Alex?”

(Alex turns back to Quartz. Her face a mix between laughing and having a mental breakdown.)

"..ha...ha....finally, he's dead..."

(Quartz practically scrambled over to his side, shoving Alex out of the way to check for a pulse.)

(…there wasn’t one.)

…

“….what did you do.”

"...you knew what he was going to do to you! What he has done to you! And everything else!....he was just going to do it again! I had to stop him–"

“What he did to me—YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME?!”

(Quartz stood up, shaking, her sparks beginning to go out of control)

(She starts laughing) “You want to know why?! BECAUSE I WAS JUST LIKE HIM.”

(Claws of Infinity Energy begin to form on her hands as she continues.)

“Yeah, you heard me—I WAS JUST LIKE THAT MAN. Actually no—WORSE!”

(She cackled) “YOU EVER HEAR OF TEAM FLARE?!”

"I have. But I know you were not."

(Alex starts crying.)

"NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. THERE ARE SOME ACTIONS THAT ARE JUST IRREDEMABLE!"

(...)

"But go ahead. Tell me what did you do that was so bad..."

“…I almost destroyed the world and everyone in it. Willingly. I wasn’t one of those oblivious little nobodies along for the ride—I was FULLY onboard with Lysandre’s plan.”

“Lysandre…hah…I failed to save him too…just like Spinel, I failed to save him too...”

“ARCEUS WHY! WHY AM I UNABLE TO SAVE ANYONE?!”

(Her eyes glowed brighter and the energy began to stabilize into a semi-solid form…two sparking antennae on the sides of her head, those claws, and a whip-like tail.)

"...hahaha...so I was wrong.."

"You deserve to die too...."

(Alex paused for a moment)

".....you think that's being unable to save anyone..?"

"YOU THINK THAT'S NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE ANYONE!?"

(The dagger in her hand started to change its form radicaally.)

"TRY ACTUALLY KILLING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS! TRY KILLING ONE OF THE ONLY PARENTAL FIGURES YOU HAD! TRY BEING COMPLICIT IN THE NEAR DESTRUCTION OF REALITY!"

"...neither you, nor them, nor him, nor I deserve any second chance."

(Quartz saw the dagger, and tried to flee, scrambling for the door.)

(The dagger turned into a spear.)

"How can't you understand! Some people don't deserve second chances!"

"My sins are to grave."

["You do know this is all your fault?"]

"If we can't be cleansed of our sins.."

(Alex blocked the way to the door.)

"..Then neither of us deserve to live!"

*THUD*

*CLANG!*

(The door is busted down by a large Pokemon. It looks at Quartz with determined eyes.)

(The Pokemon seems familiar somehow to Quartz…but she has no time to think about that, she’s about to get murdered!)

(She makes a break for the Pokemon, jumping onto its back)

(Why did this feel so familiar…?)

(Her heart is pounding in her chest as she glances back at the lifeless body on the floor, tears in her eyes…)

"MARSHADOW!"

(Marshmallow looks at Alex with worry before going and attacking the large Pokemon and Quartz, knocking her off. They also hands Alex her Pokeballs that they snagged from Indy.)

(Alex points the blue(red?) spear at Quartz's throat.)

"...I thought you of all people would understand. You were the first person I could talk too without them pitying me in a long time...no matter.."

“Please…please don’t do this…”

"...."

(Alex is about to swing her spear right through Quartz's neck when–"

"GLACEE!"

(Glacire had came out of his pokeball. He realize what is going on and started to pull Alex by her cargo pants, knowing what she's trying to do to Quartz. What she wants to do to herself.)

"Glaceon! What are you– Let me go–"

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Quartz takes this opportunity to scramble back onto Miraidon)

“GO!”

(Miraidon takes off—Quartz holds on as tight as she can as they make their way through this maze of a base.)

(She’s shaking, trembling having just escaped from near death…and watching somebody very close to her fall to his own.)

(She hugs the large Pokemon tightly, feeling a sense of familiarity…)

(Alex sees that Quartz was able to escape, and that she has no chance of catching her.)

(Meanwhiile)

(Quartz and the pokemon are about to escape when a portal appears infront of them and a Pokemon comes out.)

(..the portal closes and a Hoopa stops the two dead in their tracks.)

“MOVE!” She cry-yelled at the Pokemon. “Just MOVE!!”

"ALE HOOPA RING!"

(Hoopa opened a Hyperspace hole under Quartz and the Pokemon..)

(..and then they were back in the room with Alex. Who, was still screaming and crying on the floor.)/

(Quartz attempts to sneak out again, as she’s not good at this whole “comforting” thing.)

(Hoopa appeared infront of her. Looks like they're so fed up with everything. Hoopa poked Quartz's forehead causing her to feel a weird sensation in her head.)

"Look, try your best to help her out. I can't let herself be a danger to everyone and herself. Try to do that and I'll fix everything."

(Looks like Hoopa's using telepathy.)

“You’re the one who brought her here in the first place—”

(she sighed)

“Fine. I’ll try…but I expect you to help if things go south.”

(She slowly approached Alex as to not startle her (and get speared in the neck)

(Alex did not notice that Quartz was approching her; however, Glacire did and stepped aside knowing that Alex needs any help she can get.)

(Quartz carefully reached out and set her right hand on Alex’s shoulder. (Just in case she broke it. Or cut it off. Or stabbed it.)

(Alex was startled and turned around. She looked less murderous and more....afraid...)

"...what...what do you want..."

“I..I wan to talk. Put down the spear, please.”

(She looked at where her spear was back before it faded away.)

"....it went away awhile ago..."

“Oh thank Arceus.”

“Uh…”

“Why am I so bad at this…c’mon, Quartz…”

"...if you're to say that I'm a shitty person, I already know...."

“We both are. We’ve both done horrible things in the past…but you can’t change the past, you know?”

"But I should've been able to prevent it! I could've stopped it, but I was too stupid to realize what was happening! And even then I still keeping making mistakes now!"

“All of us make mistakes. But once those mistakes are made, you can’t change them…all you can do is look to the future and strive to be better than who you were.”

"...but my mistakes almost caused the end of everything...I don't deserve another chance...not that I can even look to the future when every second reminds me of the past.."

(she lets out a little airy chuckle.) “Arceus you’re making this difficult.”

“…but they didn’t, did they? And through that experience, now you know that doing something like that again is a bad idea!”

“…only because my sister saved me….and I knew it was a bad idea but I still….”

“But it didn’t happen. And it can’t happen now, since the actual result already happened. The past can’t be changed. Only the future can be if you let it.”

(Alex couldn’t see them, but Hoopa was laughing to themself, knowing how they were going to fix things.)

”….haha…that’s what I tried to do with you..”

(Hoopa spoke directly into Quartz’s head)

“You ready to go?”

“Go—what? No, you’re supposed to be taking Alex—“

”Oh, so you don’t want him back alive? Alright-“

“…what?”

”What I was going to do was call my friend Celebi and see if they can turn back time to before Alex got a weapon, but seeing how you don’t want it, I guess me and Alex will be on our way-“

“Hey—no no no no—Hoopa…HOOPA—!”

“Soooooooo, is that a yes?”

(She nods)

“…if it can be done.”

”Alright!”

(Hoopa open’s a portal and a Celebi comes out)

“Heyyyyy Celebi-“

(Celebi makes an angry noise that no one except Hoopa can understand)

“I know your upset, but I’ll explain everything later. For now, can you turn back time here by like, an hour? At least so that she,” They motioned to Quartz, “ can save someone?”

(Spinel helped Quartz into the chair and pushed her head against the headrest in order to strap it down. He begins to strap down the rest of her limbs as well.)

(All the while, she’s shaking—out of anger, out of fear?—who knows.)

(A gloved hand rests on her head in an attempt to be reassuring—surprisingly, it works to some degree.)

“Breathe….breathe….it won’t hurt.”

(He attaches a small cuff around her wrist and places a strange headpiece around her forehead, before beginning to attach a few sensors above it.)

(Alex tries to get to Quartz, but Rubina pushes her to the ground.)

"Stay down, don't interfere."

(The screens around them flicker to life, switching to various readings and diagrams that Indy and Rubina are certain only Spinel can understand.)

(He begins to connect a few wires to the ports on the headpiece as the system is warming up.)

(Beheeyem floats over and rubs the top of Quartz’s head before turning to his trainer, ready to do his thing.)

(Spinel places a similiar headpiece onto Beheeyem and attaches the wires of it to Quartz’s headpiece.)

(Alex flips Rubina over, finds a way to take off the silencer, and is so close to getting to Quartz but is stopped by Indy when she is literally 4 feet away from her.)

"NO, DON'T DO THIS!"

(Spinel then turns to Alex, a serious look on his face.)

(He continues, dead serious) “If that helmet is taken off before the process is done, you could kill her instantly. Do I make myself clear?”

(Alex nods knowing she can't save her.)

"..fuck you."

(He scowled.) “Language. A simple “I understand” would’ve sufficed.”

“Beheeyem, we’re all set. Commence.”

(Beheeyem’s eyes glow as it uses its psychic powers—Quartz falls completely limp.)

(Spinel keeps a close eye on her.)

"What the hell are you going to do to her. Make her your subservient guard dog again?"

“She’s not a “subservient guard dog—“

“I’m doubtful she’d be able to guard anything, let alone the Director,” Rubina scoffed.

Spinel sighed, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. “She’s a loyal agent of the Explorers. And stop yelling, it’s making it very difficult to concentrate.”

(The device connected to Quartz’s headpiece began to whirr louder…more devices began to make ominous buzzing noises.)

(He sighs.) “Rubina, Indy, if you would please.”

(Rubina holds Alex’s head in place while Indy tries to put the silencer back on her.)

(Alex manages to free her head from Rubina's grasp and manages to damage, although not fully break, the silencer by hitting it with her head.)

"Ha! Take that you piece of shit– OW!"

(Rubina pressed down on the pressure point on the back of Alex’s neck, causing her to fall limp—though not pass out.)

(The reprogramming tech was whirring and flashing so much that it looked less like monitors and computer screens and more like Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.)

"...cowards."

(Alex looked at all the tech in a mixture of awe and fear. She needed to do something but couldn't!)

(A few hours passed)

(The process was almost complete)

(Alex had been given a new silencer in order for her to not yell to Quartz once she woke up.)

“Indy. Rubina. Take her outside the room, I don’t want her to interfere when she regains consciousness.”

(Alex looked...demoralized to say the least. She had been crying the entire time because once again, she failed to save someone. She didn't even fight back as she was taken out of the room.)

Indy whispered to Rubina. “…did we break her?”

Rubina responded. “I’m not sure…”

(The two led her over to a small couch in the corner. Indy shooed Umbreon off of it, much to the cat’s dismay.)

(Alex sits down for a couple of minutes until Quartz finally came out. Alex couldn't bare to look at her, but she did anyway.)

(She was sitting in a wheelchair, as it would’ve been very unwise to have her walk directly after a reprogramming.)

(She was a bit…out of it. Most likely very disoriented.)

(Alex gets up to go to Quartz, she is very concerned.)

(Spinel blocks her off)

“Ah ah ah— Don’t interfere.”

(Indy and Rubina grab her by the wrists and lead her back to the couch.)

(Alex tried to get to her, but was forced onto the couch. She continued to try to get to her. She was screaming and crying, but due to the silencer, only her crying could be seen.)

(Spinel slightly rolled his eyes)

“Take her back to her cell. You’ll see Quartz again in the morning.”

(He began to wheel Quartz out of the lab, most likely to her quarters.)

(Alex tried one last time to get to Quartz but got knocked out by a agitated Rubina who was done with her crap. Both Indy and RUbina carried Alex back to her cell for the night.)

(Spinel continued down the hallway with Quartz, who had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly.)

….

(The next morning, Quartz was guarding Alex’s cell once again, having recovered well.)

(Alex wakes up, still with the silencer. She noticed that Quartz was outside and rushed over to her. She moved her hands to ask if she was okay.)

(Quartz stared at her with apathy.)

“Silence, prisoner.”

(She looked around, seeing if anyone was nearby…seeing if the coast was clear.)

(Alex looked at her in annoyance and pointed to the silencer that she still had on. She sighed and started to try to break the force field to see if she could escape.)

“Quit it, you’ll draw attention.”

(She continued to look around)

(Alex looked at Quartz in confusion and stopped. She tilted her head a bit.)

(Once she saw that the coast was clear, she slowly made her way towards the control panel of Alex’s cell.)

(Alex is still very confused. She goes over to Quartz to see what she’s doing.)

(She’s attempting to disable the forcefield of the cell—with varying success.)

(Alex realizes what she is doing and is trying to suggest breaking the control panel with her hands.)

“It could alert them,” she said quietly. “…almost…aha!”

(The forcefield was disabled)

(She leads Alex out of the cell)

“Now, it’s important that you play along if any grunts happen to walk by.”

(Alex looked around and nodded.)

(A Hoopa ring opens up, a girl falls down, and the ring closes]

"Owwww," she looks around, "Where am I.." - @undeserving-hero

“Rabsca, Gravity.”

(The intruder felt a heavy weight press down against her, forcing her to the ground.)

(A teenager with short brown hair and glowing pink eyes approached, looking down at the woman with interest.)

“I already ordered…wait I haven’t fed any of my Pokemon, Quartz give me a minute.”

(Alex opened five more pokeballs to reveal Marshmallow, a delta Charizard, a Togekiss, a Rotom Wash, a Aegislash, and a Donphan. It took a while, but Alex ordered for the rest of her Pokemon.)

(The two carried their sandwiches as they walked back to the city’s limits to find a place to sit down and eat.)

(They sat down at a bench while Alex’s Pokemon sat on the floor.)

“This sandwich is pretty good. And this city is huge!…which reminds me, where am I again?”

“Levincia. Home to the Levincia Docks, the streamer Iono, and (she points to the cluster of three tall buildings) that.”

"Okay, what region then? Since you know, we aren't in my region."

“Oh! Right!”

(Idiot, how could you forget to tell her…?!)

“Welcome to Paldea. Sorry your first experience here was…traumatic, to say the least.”

"Paldea? Like the region with the academy? My sister goes there! At least in my world she does."

(She pauses for a moment.)

"And it's fine, I already told you I've experienced more traumatizing things have I?"

“But it’s not fine…I can’t believe I…”

"Look, all that happened was that I got my mind probed unwillingly. I'm fine, I'm not hurt!...you better not be trying to blame yourself."

“…at least you haven’t suffered any permanent damage.”

"Nah, it only reinforced any existing trau–...wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN PERMANENT DAMAGE!? I THOUGHT IT ONLY MADE YOU DISORIENTED?!"

“Your Marshadow burst into the lab and removed the helmet. The Director—I mean—Spinel—about flipped his lid. That could’ve fried your brain.”

“So yes—normal usage of the helmet causes disorientation…but removing it could cause permanent damage.”

"...Marshmallow tried to save me back then?"

(She completely ignores the fact she could've died or worse.)

"It's fine, nothing bad happened! I'm more concerned about you though."

“Your Pokemon just about—never mind.”

"Okay....You said those Explorers people work around here right? I'm suprised they haven't found us! That or they aren't looking for us, which I would prefer the latter."

“Keep it down…we’re risking it enough by being in this city.”

"Ahh sorry!"

(She finished eating her sandwich.)

(Quartz…tools hers with her. For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry—even though it was her favorite type of sandwich.)

“Ready?”

"Yup!"

(Alex returned her pokemon, minus Glacire, to their Pokeballs.)

"Let's get moving!"

“Right.”

(They began to leave the city of Levincia..)

"....So where are you from? Are you from here?"

“…no, not really. My home’s in Kalos, but I’m originally from Kanto—Celadon City, to be exact.”

"Oh? What's it like in Kalos?"

“I…unfortunately don’t remember much of it. But I had friends…Lumiose was beautiful, especially at night…I’d climb up to the roof of the tower and just..look at the stars.”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that…..you know, in my world the Kalosian Champion is actually my older sister! She’s told about how she helped save the world at one point!”

(She smiled as some memories came back to her) “Saved the world, huh…?”

”Yup! She’s so cool!…..I wish I could be more like her though.”

“…she sounds pretty cool.”

“Yup, though she can be scary at times, she means well!….a little too well sometimes..”

(Quartz nodded) “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any siblings…

"Dang...what about friends?"

(She nodded.) “Two—in Kalos, at least. They’re siblings. One’s my age, and the other one is thirteen or fourteen.”

"Ooo, what are they like?"

“We were…I guess kind of a team of our own.”

"They sound pretty cool!"

(They continued to walk for a bit.)

"Just a question, where are we going?"

“Who knows? I’m on the run now, and so are you.”

(Something could faintly be heard behind them.)

"Quartz.....did you hear that?"

(She sparked)

“Act cool. I think we’re being watched.”

(Glacire did NOT understand the assignment and started to growl.0

"psst, Glacire, keep quiet–"

“Shut up already, popsicle!”

"Hey! Be nice–"

(Glacire gets really upset and jumps inbetween Alex and Quartz. He starts to bark loudly a Quartz.)

"GLACIRE! BE QUIET!"

“Quiet down, drama king! We’re trying not to draw attention!”

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Alex starts to look for Glacire's pokeball, but it looks like she was too late. Someone found them.)

(Quartz sparked) “Who’s there?!”

(Something was shot right at them, just missing Alex.)

"What is that–"

(Something else was shot...hiting Quartz in her organic arm.)

“Ah.”

…

“AAAAAAGH!!!!!”

"QUARTZ ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

(Alex looks and sees the dastardly duo with their signature tranq darts.)

"YOU! GLACIRE! SIC EM!"

(Glacire jumped at Indy and started to attack him head on.)

(Glacire latched onto Indy’s leg and did not let go, growling.)

“AUGH!!! Get it off! Get it off GET IT OFF—!”

(Indy shook his leg around in an attempt to free himself from the Glaceon—Quartz took this as her chance to potentially escape the two.)

"Quartz! Go hide before you pass out! I'll go find you!"

(She turned back to Glacire who was still latched onto his body.)

"Glacire! Freeze his legs to the ground with Freeze Dry!"

(Indy continued fighting against the large Glaceon—wait, only Indy? I thought there were two…where’d Rubina go..?)

(Quartz ran and hid, shaking—about to pass out…)

——

(Back at the battle, Indy managed to free his leg from Glaceon and was able to throw a Pokeball. He dodged the Freeze-Dry)

“Electrode! Explosion, now!”

"Glacire! Ice Beam it out of the way!"

(Glacire fired a powerful ice beam that pushed the Electrode away before it could explode, causing it to faint.)

"Great!....wait, where is Red Highlighter Hair?.....Quartz!"

(Alex let out her Togekiss.)

"Tadpole! Can you go find Quartz and make sure she's alright!"

(Tadpole coed in agreement and flew off to find Quartz.)

(Quartz lost consciousness due to the tranquilizer.)

(Rubina approached, having watched Quartz fall asleep and hoisted her off the ground)

“The Director wants you back, and unlike you, I’m not one to defy orders,” she said quietly, even though Quartz couldn’t hear her.

(Tadpole had just spotted them shouted to tell Alex that she had found Quartz. Alex returned Glacire to his ball.)

(Rubina was about to take Quartz back with her when she was unexpectedly aura boosted right hooked by Alex.)

(She kept a secure hold on Quartz though, and threw out her Darmanitan.)

“Use Fire Punch!”

"Fly above! Then Moonblast!"

(The Jubilee Pokemon dodged the fire punch by flying into the sky before flying down and hiting a point blank Moonblast. This sent the Darmanitan flying and knocked it out.)

"Nice job Tadpole! Now give Quartz back before I–"

(In that moment, Alex felt something sharp hit her back. She turned around to see Indy pointing a tranq dart gun at her.)

(He smirked.) “You could stand to have a little more awareness during your battles.”

"Tch......Damn you....Tadpole...."

(The Togekiss immediately went to protect her trainer who was on the verge of collapsing.)

(A net was thrown over the Togekiss by a grunt as a group of three Explorers grunts joined Indy and Rubina.)

"Tadpole!......you guys really don't know how to play fair...."

(Nobody noticed but Alex motioned for Marshmallow to hide in Tadpole's shadow. Alex herself later collapsed.)

(Indy took the Pokeball from Alex and recalled Tadpole.)

(A grunt bent down and picked up Alex, carrying her over her shoulder.)

(The group of five Explorers made their way towards a dark-blue van.)

“Get them situated in the back,” Rubina commanded the grunts, carefully handing Quartz over to one before going to call the Director alongside Indy.

“Director Spinel? We found them…yes, both of them are safe.”

(The grunts opened the back of the van and shoved them inside. They equiped the restraint-cuffs on their wrists and ankles.)

"Wait, one more thing."

(Indy approched one of the grunts and handed them a silencer.)

"The one with the white hair has a tendency to start screaming when she wakes up. Put this on her so that we don't have to deal with that."

(The grunt nodded and covered Alex's mouth with the silencer before getting into the van with the other grunt and closing the door. The van drove off.)

(Unfortunately for them, in the midst of the chaos…Indy and Rubina forgot one tiny little thing.)

….

(In the back of the van, Quartz began to regain consciousness. She moved over to Alex to wake her up.)

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!”

(Alex wouldn't wake up. Instead she rolled onto Quartz's shoulder and continued to sleep.)

(Quartz sighed—her plan wouldn’t work if Alex was unconscious…)

(She continued to try and wake Alex up)

(Nope, still out cold. However, her expersion while sleeping contorts to one of worry; though, it is difficult for Quartz to tell if it's because she is waking up or if she is having a nightmare.)

(She gave up, realizing that she had to wait…maybe she’d wake up before the van arrived back at base.)

(Soon, around an hour later, they were 5 minutes from the base. However...)

[there is a body, a Manaphy and three other people crying out for him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,–]

(Alex screamed as she woke up. Well, she tried to. The moment she realized that she couldn't hear her voice she started panicking bad.)

“About time…hey! Hey! Calm down, I’m trying to remove your restraints…”

(Quartz was kicked in the face by a paranoid Alex)

(As Quartz yelled in pain, the van stopped moving. Indy and Rubina opened the back doors of the van to see Quartz clutching her face, and Alex hyperventilating.)

(Quartz, noticing that the doors were open, lunged for the exit—a subconscious habit of hers.)

(Quartz is stopped by Beheyeem that suddenly teleports infront of her and freezes her with Psychic. He pulls Quartz out of the van while Alex crawls to the wall of the van, still hyperventilating.)

(Beheeyem holds Quartz in “air jail” while Indy and Rubina look at each other, not sure how to deal with the situation.)

"Are you going to drag her out–"

"Arceus no, I don't want her to hit me again! You do it!"

(Indy sighed, went in the back of the van, and somehow despite everything, Indy was able to drag Alex out without getting hit, though she was still panicking.)

"Let's go."

(Beheeyem was still holding Quartz in air jail—all the while she’s kicking and screaming and crying because her nose is most likely broken.)

(Rubina looks at Beheeyem)

"That means you too."

(Rubina walked into the base first while Indy and Beheeyem followed behind with the two girls.)

(Quartz is putting up a FIGHT. Her “Quartzness” has returned to her.)

(Beheyeem made his Psychic stronger to keep Quartz from moving.)

"Great. You're coming back," Rubina sighed, "I assume that we need to take Quartz to the lab while we put the other one in a cell?"

(At her statement, Quartz attempted to kick her, struggling wildly at this point.)

”I say we bring both for now and ask the Director once we get there.”

“Alright.”

(All of them soon made it to the lab much to the girl’s dismay.)

“We’re back,” Rubina stated as she opened the doors to the lab.

(Quartz continued to struggle)

(Alex finally realizes what is happening and also starts trying to get out of Indy's grasp.)

(Spinel smiles, walking over with his Umbreon beside him.)

“Set them down. They look tired.”

(Quartz and Alex are let down. Alex immediately tries to punch him.)

(Indy prevented her from doing so. Rubina held her in a headlock.)

(Spinel began to guide Quartz to the very back of the lab, gesturing for the agents to follow with Alex.)

“You should consider yourself lucky, Alex. This room is kept secret only to those with high enough clearance.”

(A reinforced steel door was located down a short corridor at the back of the lab, slightly hidden from view.)

(As soon as Quartz saw the door, it seemed to jog a memory of hers)

“No no no No No NO NO NO NO!”

(She attempted to wiggle out of Spinel’s grasp)

(Alex realizes what that means for Quartz and tries to get out of the headlock to get to her.)

(Spinel kept a firm hold on Quartz)

“It won’t hurt at all,” he reassured her. “You’ll be back to your normal, obedient self in no time…”

(He scanned his badge against the scanner next to the wall and the door slid open with a loud CLANG!)

(The room was pitch black inside until Spinel flicked a switch on the wall.)

(If Alex could speak, the words that would come out of her mouth would be "What the fuck".)

(Quartz continued to try and squirm out of Spinel’s grip, struggling and pulling with all her might—she was desperate at this point.)

(Alex threw Rubina onto the ground in attempt to escape.)

(Indy was distracted by the scene, but Spinel remained calm, leading Quartz over to the chair.)

“Sit down.”

(Alex managed to get out of the headlock and is currently fighting both Rubina and Indy with her hands in an attempt to get to Quartz.)

“This kid can fight!” Indy exclaimed, doing his absolute best to keep her from reaching Quartz.

“I’m not letting you take my memories away from me again!” Quartz yelled at Spinel as he pushed her head against the headrest of the chair.

(Alex managed to punch Indy in the face and ran over to Quartz to protect her.)

(He had managed to strap Quartz’s head down to the headrest before Alex confronted him.)

“Hm? Keep acting like this and your turn will come after hers.”

(Umbreon did what Umbreon does best and attacked Alex directly)

“BREEON!”

(Alex ignored what he said and positioned her hands so that when Umbreon attacked, it removed her cuffs. She took the opportunity and grabbed the Umbreon and threw it at him.)

(Quartz cheered, having been on the losing side of an Umbreon fight way too many times.)

(Alex took this opportunity to take off the silencer.)

"FINALLY!" she yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!"

(Alex scarmbled to get Quartz out of the chair.)

"Hang on, I'll get you out off here."

(Rubina took this opportunity to punch Alex in the face. HARD.)

“Alex!!” Quartz yelled.

(Alex clutched her face but soon regained her balance. She concentrared on her right hand and manafisted a small but deadly dagger that she attacked Rubina with.)

"Get out of my way!"

“Wha—?! Woah, calm down!”

(Rubina stood down)

(Spinel was too busy restraining Quartz to the chair to notice that Alex had literally created an object out of thin air)

(Alex turned back to where Quartz was and silently head over there. She didn't notice at the time that Indy and now Rubina had gone missing. Alex walked until she was right behind Spinel and.–)

"Get those restraints off her or else."

(Pointed the dagger right at his throat.)

“Where on earth did you—never mind. She’s not going to be hurt, I assure you—“

(She pressed the dagger at his throat, but not enough to cut. yet.)

"Erasing someones memories and making them work for is hurting someone though. Take those restraints off Quartz now, or I slit your throat."

“Alright, alright—you’ve made your point. Very clearly, I might add,” he muttered under his breath.

(He began to unfasten Quartz’s restraints)

“…did…did you break your nose?”

(He then noticed that his two agents were gone)

“…”

(Although Quartz was now free, Alex didn't let go.)

"Quartz! Are– wait what happened to your nose?"

“…you happened to my nose.”

“…can you let him go? That dagger’s making me nervous.”

(Alex stepped away in shock.)

"....I did that?"

“Yes. You kicked me in the face!”

(Spinel continued undoing the restraints, knowing full well she’d be back in this chair by the end of the week.)

"I.....I'm..."

(Alex was too stunned to speak.)

(Spinel is still undoing the restraints, occasionally looking around for Indy and Rubina, not knowing where on earth they went.)

(Alex turns around, still and shock, and sees Marshmallow standing next to Rubina and Indy. Both of whom are beaten up and knocked out cold.)

"MARSHMALLOW! YOUR ALRIGHT!"

(Spinel helped Quartz up and then walked over to his two agents to check on them, relieved that they still had a pulse.)

(Alex walks behind–)

"I'm not done with you yet."

(–and slashes his back)

(Quartz gasped.)

“…A-Alex?”

(Alex turns back to Quartz. Her face a mix between laughing and having a mental breakdown.)

"..ha...ha....finally, he's dead..."

(Quartz practically scrambled over to his side, shoving Alex out of the way to check for a pulse.)

(…there wasn’t one.)

…

“….what did you do.”

"...you knew what he was going to do to you! What he has done to you! And everything else!....he was just going to do it again! I had to stop him–"

“What he did to me—YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME?!”

(Quartz stood up, shaking, her sparks beginning to go out of control)

(She starts laughing) “You want to know why?! BECAUSE I WAS JUST LIKE HIM.”

(Claws of Infinity Energy begin to form on her hands as she continues.)

“Yeah, you heard me—I WAS JUST LIKE THAT MAN. Actually no—WORSE!”

(She cackled) “YOU EVER HEAR OF TEAM FLARE?!”

"I have. But I know you were not."

(Alex starts crying.)

"NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. THERE ARE SOME ACTIONS THAT ARE JUST IRREDEMABLE!"

(...)

"But go ahead. Tell me what did you do that was so bad..."

“…I almost destroyed the world and everyone in it. Willingly. I wasn’t one of those oblivious little nobodies along for the ride—I was FULLY onboard with Lysandre’s plan.”

“Lysandre…hah…I failed to save him too…just like Spinel, I failed to save him too...”

“ARCEUS WHY! WHY AM I UNABLE TO SAVE ANYONE?!”

(Her eyes glowed brighter and the energy began to stabilize into a semi-solid form…two sparking antennae on the sides of her head, those claws, and a whip-like tail.)

"...hahaha...so I was wrong.."

"You deserve to die too...."

(Alex paused for a moment)

".....you think that's being unable to save anyone..?"

"YOU THINK THAT'S NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE ANYONE!?"

(The dagger in her hand started to change its form radicaally.)

"TRY ACTUALLY KILLING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS! TRY KILLING ONE OF THE ONLY PARENTAL FIGURES YOU HAD! TRY BEING COMPLICIT IN THE NEAR DESTRUCTION OF REALITY!"

"...neither you, nor them, nor him, nor I deserve any second chance."

(Quartz saw the dagger, and tried to flee, scrambling for the door.)

(The dagger turned into a spear.)

"How can't you understand! Some people don't deserve second chances!"

"My sins are to grave."

["You do know this is all your fault?"]

"If we can't be cleansed of our sins.."

(Alex blocked the way to the door.)

"..Then neither of us deserve to live!"

*THUD*

*CLANG!*

(The door is busted down by a large Pokemon. It looks at Quartz with determined eyes.)

(The Pokemon seems familiar somehow to Quartz…but she has no time to think about that, she’s about to get murdered!)

(She makes a break for the Pokemon, jumping onto its back)

(Why did this feel so familiar…?)

(Her heart is pounding in her chest as she glances back at the lifeless body on the floor, tears in her eyes…)

"MARSHADOW!"

(Marshmallow looks at Alex with worry before going and attacking the large Pokemon and Quartz, knocking her off. They also hands Alex her Pokeballs that they snagged from Indy.)

(Alex points the blue(red?) spear at Quartz's throat.)

"...I thought you of all people would understand. You were the first person I could talk too without them pitying me in a long time...no matter.."

“Please…please don’t do this…”

"...."

(Alex is about to swing her spear right through Quartz's neck when–"

"GLACEE!"

(Glacire had came out of his pokeball. He realize what is going on and started to pull Alex by her cargo pants, knowing what she's trying to do to Quartz. What she wants to do to herself.)

"Glaceon! What are you– Let me go–"

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Quartz takes this opportunity to scramble back onto Miraidon)

“GO!”

(Miraidon takes off—Quartz holds on as tight as she can as they make their way through this maze of a base.)

(She’s shaking, trembling having just escaped from near death…and watching somebody very close to her fall to his own.)

(She hugs the large Pokemon tightly, feeling a sense of familiarity…)

(Alex sees that Quartz was able to escape, and that she has no chance of catching her.)

(Meanwhiile)

(Quartz and the pokemon are about to escape when a portal appears infront of them and a Pokemon comes out.)

(..the portal closes and a Hoopa stops the two dead in their tracks.)

“MOVE!” She cry-yelled at the Pokemon. “Just MOVE!!”

"ALE HOOPA RING!"

(Hoopa opened a Hyperspace hole under Quartz and the Pokemon..)

(..and then they were back in the room with Alex. Who, was still screaming and crying on the floor.)/

(Quartz attempts to sneak out again, as she’s not good at this whole “comforting” thing.)

(Hoopa appeared infront of her. Looks like they're so fed up with everything. Hoopa poked Quartz's forehead causing her to feel a weird sensation in her head.)

"Look, try your best to help her out. I can't let herself be a danger to everyone and herself. Try to do that and I'll fix everything."

(Looks like Hoopa's using telepathy.)

“You’re the one who brought her here in the first place—”

(she sighed)

“Fine. I’ll try…but I expect you to help if things go south.”

(She slowly approached Alex as to not startle her (and get speared in the neck)

(Alex did not notice that Quartz was approching her; however, Glacire did and stepped aside knowing that Alex needs any help she can get.)

(Quartz carefully reached out and set her right hand on Alex’s shoulder. (Just in case she broke it. Or cut it off. Or stabbed it.)

(Alex was startled and turned around. She looked less murderous and more....afraid...)

"...what...what do you want..."

“I..I wan to talk. Put down the spear, please.”

(She looked at where her spear was back before it faded away.)

"....it went away awhile ago..."

“Oh thank Arceus.”

“Uh…”

“Why am I so bad at this…c’mon, Quartz…”

"...if you're to say that I'm a shitty person, I already know...."

“We both are. We’ve both done horrible things in the past…but you can’t change the past, you know?”

"But I should've been able to prevent it! I could've stopped it, but I was too stupid to realize what was happening! And even then I still keeping making mistakes now!"

“All of us make mistakes. But once those mistakes are made, you can’t change them…all you can do is look to the future and strive to be better than who you were.”

"...but my mistakes almost caused the end of everything...I don't deserve another chance...not that I can even look to the future when every second reminds me of the past.."

(she lets out a little airy chuckle.) “Arceus you’re making this difficult.”

“…but they didn’t, did they? And through that experience, now you know that doing something like that again is a bad idea!”

“…only because my sister saved me….and I knew it was a bad idea but I still….”

“But it didn’t happen. And it can’t happen now, since the actual result already happened. The past can’t be changed. Only the future can be if you let it.”

(Alex couldn’t see them, but Hoopa was laughing to themself, knowing how they were going to fix things.)

”….haha…that’s what I tried to do with you..”

(Hoopa spoke directly into Quartz’s head)

“You ready to go?”

“Go—what? No, you’re supposed to be taking Alex—“

”Oh, so you don’t want him back alive? Alright-“

“…what?”

”What I was going to do was call my friend Celebi and see if they can turn back time to before Alex got a weapon, but seeing how you don’t want it, I guess me and Alex will be on our way-“

“Hey—no no no no—Hoopa…HOOPA—!”

“Soooooooo, is that a yes?”

(She nods)

“…if it can be done.”

”Alright!”

(Hoopa open’s a portal and a Celebi comes out)

“Heyyyyy Celebi-“

(Celebi makes an angry noise that no one except Hoopa can understand)

“I know your upset, but I’ll explain everything later. For now, can you turn back time here by like, an hour? At least so that she,” They motioned to Quartz, “ can save someone?”

(Spinel helped Quartz into the chair and pushed her head against the headrest in order to strap it down. He begins to strap down the rest of her limbs as well.)

(All the while, she’s shaking—out of anger, out of fear?—who knows.)

(A gloved hand rests on her head in an attempt to be reassuring—surprisingly, it works to some degree.)

“Breathe….breathe….it won’t hurt.”

(He attaches a small cuff around her wrist and places a strange headpiece around her forehead, before beginning to attach a few sensors above it.)

(Alex tries to get to Quartz, but Rubina pushes her to the ground.)

"Stay down, don't interfere."

(The screens around them flicker to life, switching to various readings and diagrams that Indy and Rubina are certain only Spinel can understand.)

(He begins to connect a few wires to the ports on the headpiece as the system is warming up.)

(Beheeyem floats over and rubs the top of Quartz’s head before turning to his trainer, ready to do his thing.)

(Spinel places a similiar headpiece onto Beheeyem and attaches the wires of it to Quartz’s headpiece.)

(Alex flips Rubina over, finds a way to take off the silencer, and is so close to getting to Quartz but is stopped by Indy when she is literally 4 feet away from her.)

"NO, DON'T DO THIS!"

(Spinel then turns to Alex, a serious look on his face.)

(He continues, dead serious) “If that helmet is taken off before the process is done, you could kill her instantly. Do I make myself clear?”

(Alex nods knowing she can't save her.)

"..fuck you."

(He scowled.) “Language. A simple “I understand” would’ve sufficed.”

“Beheeyem, we’re all set. Commence.”

(Beheeyem’s eyes glow as it uses its psychic powers—Quartz falls completely limp.)

(Spinel keeps a close eye on her.)

"What the hell are you going to do to her. Make her your subservient guard dog again?"

“She’s not a “subservient guard dog—“

“I’m doubtful she’d be able to guard anything, let alone the Director,” Rubina scoffed.

Spinel sighed, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. “She’s a loyal agent of the Explorers. And stop yelling, it’s making it very difficult to concentrate.”

(The device connected to Quartz’s headpiece began to whirr louder…more devices began to make ominous buzzing noises.)

(He sighs.) “Rubina, Indy, if you would please.”

(Rubina holds Alex’s head in place while Indy tries to put the silencer back on her.)

(Alex manages to free her head from Rubina's grasp and manages to damage, although not fully break, the silencer by hitting it with her head.)

"Ha! Take that you piece of shit– OW!"

(Rubina pressed down on the pressure point on the back of Alex’s neck, causing her to fall limp—though not pass out.)

(The reprogramming tech was whirring and flashing so much that it looked less like monitors and computer screens and more like Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.)

"...cowards."

(Alex looked at all the tech in a mixture of awe and fear. She needed to do something but couldn't!)

(A few hours passed)

(The process was almost complete)

(Alex had been given a new silencer in order for her to not yell to Quartz once she woke up.)

“Indy. Rubina. Take her outside the room, I don’t want her to interfere when she regains consciousness.”

(Alex looked...demoralized to say the least. She had been crying the entire time because once again, she failed to save someone. She didn't even fight back as she was taken out of the room.)

Indy whispered to Rubina. “…did we break her?”

Rubina responded. “I’m not sure…”

(The two led her over to a small couch in the corner. Indy shooed Umbreon off of it, much to the cat’s dismay.)

(Alex sits down for a couple of minutes until Quartz finally came out. Alex couldn't bare to look at her, but she did anyway.)

(She was sitting in a wheelchair, as it would’ve been very unwise to have her walk directly after a reprogramming.)

(She was a bit…out of it. Most likely very disoriented.)

(Alex gets up to go to Quartz, she is very concerned.)

(Spinel blocks her off)

“Ah ah ah— Don’t interfere.”

(Indy and Rubina grab her by the wrists and lead her back to the couch.)

(Alex tried to get to her, but was forced onto the couch. She continued to try to get to her. She was screaming and crying, but due to the silencer, only her crying could be seen.)

(Spinel slightly rolled his eyes)

“Take her back to her cell. You’ll see Quartz again in the morning.”

(He began to wheel Quartz out of the lab, most likely to her quarters.)

(Alex tried one last time to get to Quartz but got knocked out by a agitated Rubina who was done with her crap. Both Indy and RUbina carried Alex back to her cell for the night.)

(Spinel continued down the hallway with Quartz, who had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly.)

….

(The next morning, Quartz was guarding Alex’s cell once again, having recovered well.)

(Alex wakes up, still with the silencer. She noticed that Quartz was outside and rushed over to her. She moved her hands to ask if she was okay.)

(Quartz stared at her with apathy.)

“Silence, prisoner.”

(She looked around, seeing if anyone was nearby…seeing if the coast was clear.)

(Alex looked at her in annoyance and pointed to the silencer that she still had on. She sighed and started to try to break the force field to see if she could escape.)

“Quit it, you’ll draw attention.”

(She continued to look around)

(Alex looked at Quartz in confusion and stopped. She tilted her head a bit.)

(Once she saw that the coast was clear, she slowly made her way towards the control panel of Alex’s cell.)

(Alex is still very confused. She goes over to Quartz to see what she’s doing.)

(She’s attempting to disable the forcefield of the cell—with varying success.)

(Alex realizes what she is doing and is trying to suggest breaking the control panel with her hands.)

(A Hoopa ring opens up, a girl falls down, and the ring closes]

"Owwww," she looks around, "Where am I.." - @undeserving-hero

“Rabsca, Gravity.”

(The intruder felt a heavy weight press down against her, forcing her to the ground.)

(A teenager with short brown hair and glowing pink eyes approached, looking down at the woman with interest.)

“I already ordered…wait I haven’t fed any of my Pokemon, Quartz give me a minute.”

(Alex opened five more pokeballs to reveal Marshmallow, a delta Charizard, a Togekiss, a Rotom Wash, a Aegislash, and a Donphan. It took a while, but Alex ordered for the rest of her Pokemon.)

(The two carried their sandwiches as they walked back to the city’s limits to find a place to sit down and eat.)

(They sat down at a bench while Alex’s Pokemon sat on the floor.)

“This sandwich is pretty good. And this city is huge!…which reminds me, where am I again?”

“Levincia. Home to the Levincia Docks, the streamer Iono, and (she points to the cluster of three tall buildings) that.”

"Okay, what region then? Since you know, we aren't in my region."

“Oh! Right!”

(Idiot, how could you forget to tell her…?!)

“Welcome to Paldea. Sorry your first experience here was…traumatic, to say the least.”

"Paldea? Like the region with the academy? My sister goes there! At least in my world she does."

(She pauses for a moment.)

"And it's fine, I already told you I've experienced more traumatizing things have I?"

“But it’s not fine…I can’t believe I…”

"Look, all that happened was that I got my mind probed unwillingly. I'm fine, I'm not hurt!...you better not be trying to blame yourself."

“…at least you haven’t suffered any permanent damage.”

"Nah, it only reinforced any existing trau–...wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN PERMANENT DAMAGE!? I THOUGHT IT ONLY MADE YOU DISORIENTED?!"

“Your Marshadow burst into the lab and removed the helmet. The Director—I mean—Spinel—about flipped his lid. That could’ve fried your brain.”

“So yes—normal usage of the helmet causes disorientation…but removing it could cause permanent damage.”

"...Marshmallow tried to save me back then?"

(She completely ignores the fact she could've died or worse.)

"It's fine, nothing bad happened! I'm more concerned about you though."

“Your Pokemon just about—never mind.”

"Okay....You said those Explorers people work around here right? I'm suprised they haven't found us! That or they aren't looking for us, which I would prefer the latter."

“Keep it down…we’re risking it enough by being in this city.”

"Ahh sorry!"

(She finished eating her sandwich.)

(Quartz…tools hers with her. For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry—even though it was her favorite type of sandwich.)

“Ready?”

"Yup!"

(Alex returned her pokemon, minus Glacire, to their Pokeballs.)

"Let's get moving!"

“Right.”

(They began to leave the city of Levincia..)

"....So where are you from? Are you from here?"

“…no, not really. My home’s in Kalos, but I’m originally from Kanto—Celadon City, to be exact.”

"Oh? What's it like in Kalos?"

“I…unfortunately don’t remember much of it. But I had friends…Lumiose was beautiful, especially at night…I’d climb up to the roof of the tower and just..look at the stars.”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that…..you know, in my world the Kalosian Champion is actually my older sister! She’s told about how she helped save the world at one point!”

(She smiled as some memories came back to her) “Saved the world, huh…?”

”Yup! She’s so cool!…..I wish I could be more like her though.”

“…she sounds pretty cool.”

“Yup, though she can be scary at times, she means well!….a little too well sometimes..”

(Quartz nodded) “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any siblings…

"Dang...what about friends?"

(She nodded.) “Two—in Kalos, at least. They’re siblings. One’s my age, and the other one is thirteen or fourteen.”

"Ooo, what are they like?"

“We were…I guess kind of a team of our own.”

"They sound pretty cool!"

(They continued to walk for a bit.)

"Just a question, where are we going?"

“Who knows? I’m on the run now, and so are you.”

(Something could faintly be heard behind them.)

"Quartz.....did you hear that?"

(She sparked)

“Act cool. I think we’re being watched.”

(Glacire did NOT understand the assignment and started to growl.0

"psst, Glacire, keep quiet–"

“Shut up already, popsicle!”

"Hey! Be nice–"

(Glacire gets really upset and jumps inbetween Alex and Quartz. He starts to bark loudly a Quartz.)

"GLACIRE! BE QUIET!"

“Quiet down, drama king! We’re trying not to draw attention!”

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Alex starts to look for Glacire's pokeball, but it looks like she was too late. Someone found them.)

(Quartz sparked) “Who’s there?!”

(Something was shot right at them, just missing Alex.)

"What is that–"

(Something else was shot...hiting Quartz in her organic arm.)

“Ah.”

…

“AAAAAAGH!!!!!”

"QUARTZ ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

(Alex looks and sees the dastardly duo with their signature tranq darts.)

"YOU! GLACIRE! SIC EM!"

(Glacire jumped at Indy and started to attack him head on.)

(Glacire latched onto Indy’s leg and did not let go, growling.)

“AUGH!!! Get it off! Get it off GET IT OFF—!”

(Indy shook his leg around in an attempt to free himself from the Glaceon—Quartz took this as her chance to potentially escape the two.)

"Quartz! Go hide before you pass out! I'll go find you!"

(She turned back to Glacire who was still latched onto his body.)

"Glacire! Freeze his legs to the ground with Freeze Dry!"

(Indy continued fighting against the large Glaceon—wait, only Indy? I thought there were two…where’d Rubina go..?)

(Quartz ran and hid, shaking—about to pass out…)

——

(Back at the battle, Indy managed to free his leg from Glaceon and was able to throw a Pokeball. He dodged the Freeze-Dry)

“Electrode! Explosion, now!”

"Glacire! Ice Beam it out of the way!"

(Glacire fired a powerful ice beam that pushed the Electrode away before it could explode, causing it to faint.)

"Great!....wait, where is Red Highlighter Hair?.....Quartz!"

(Alex let out her Togekiss.)

"Tadpole! Can you go find Quartz and make sure she's alright!"

(Tadpole coed in agreement and flew off to find Quartz.)

(Quartz lost consciousness due to the tranquilizer.)

(Rubina approached, having watched Quartz fall asleep and hoisted her off the ground)

“The Director wants you back, and unlike you, I’m not one to defy orders,” she said quietly, even though Quartz couldn’t hear her.

(Tadpole had just spotted them shouted to tell Alex that she had found Quartz. Alex returned Glacire to his ball.)

(Rubina was about to take Quartz back with her when she was unexpectedly aura boosted right hooked by Alex.)

(She kept a secure hold on Quartz though, and threw out her Darmanitan.)

“Use Fire Punch!”

"Fly above! Then Moonblast!"

(The Jubilee Pokemon dodged the fire punch by flying into the sky before flying down and hiting a point blank Moonblast. This sent the Darmanitan flying and knocked it out.)

"Nice job Tadpole! Now give Quartz back before I–"

(In that moment, Alex felt something sharp hit her back. She turned around to see Indy pointing a tranq dart gun at her.)

(He smirked.) “You could stand to have a little more awareness during your battles.”

"Tch......Damn you....Tadpole...."

(The Togekiss immediately went to protect her trainer who was on the verge of collapsing.)

(A net was thrown over the Togekiss by a grunt as a group of three Explorers grunts joined Indy and Rubina.)

"Tadpole!......you guys really don't know how to play fair...."

(Nobody noticed but Alex motioned for Marshmallow to hide in Tadpole's shadow. Alex herself later collapsed.)

(Indy took the Pokeball from Alex and recalled Tadpole.)

(A grunt bent down and picked up Alex, carrying her over her shoulder.)

(The group of five Explorers made their way towards a dark-blue van.)

“Get them situated in the back,” Rubina commanded the grunts, carefully handing Quartz over to one before going to call the Director alongside Indy.

“Director Spinel? We found them…yes, both of them are safe.”

(The grunts opened the back of the van and shoved them inside. They equiped the restraint-cuffs on their wrists and ankles.)

"Wait, one more thing."

(Indy approched one of the grunts and handed them a silencer.)

"The one with the white hair has a tendency to start screaming when she wakes up. Put this on her so that we don't have to deal with that."

(The grunt nodded and covered Alex's mouth with the silencer before getting into the van with the other grunt and closing the door. The van drove off.)

(Unfortunately for them, in the midst of the chaos…Indy and Rubina forgot one tiny little thing.)

….

(In the back of the van, Quartz began to regain consciousness. She moved over to Alex to wake her up.)

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!”

(Alex wouldn't wake up. Instead she rolled onto Quartz's shoulder and continued to sleep.)

(Quartz sighed—her plan wouldn’t work if Alex was unconscious…)

(She continued to try and wake Alex up)

(Nope, still out cold. However, her expersion while sleeping contorts to one of worry; though, it is difficult for Quartz to tell if it's because she is waking up or if she is having a nightmare.)

(She gave up, realizing that she had to wait…maybe she’d wake up before the van arrived back at base.)

(Soon, around an hour later, they were 5 minutes from the base. However...)

[there is a body, a Manaphy and three other people crying out for him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,–]

(Alex screamed as she woke up. Well, she tried to. The moment she realized that she couldn't hear her voice she started panicking bad.)

“About time…hey! Hey! Calm down, I’m trying to remove your restraints…”

(Quartz was kicked in the face by a paranoid Alex)

(As Quartz yelled in pain, the van stopped moving. Indy and Rubina opened the back doors of the van to see Quartz clutching her face, and Alex hyperventilating.)

(Quartz, noticing that the doors were open, lunged for the exit—a subconscious habit of hers.)

(Quartz is stopped by Beheyeem that suddenly teleports infront of her and freezes her with Psychic. He pulls Quartz out of the van while Alex crawls to the wall of the van, still hyperventilating.)

(Beheeyem holds Quartz in “air jail” while Indy and Rubina look at each other, not sure how to deal with the situation.)

"Are you going to drag her out–"

"Arceus no, I don't want her to hit me again! You do it!"

(Indy sighed, went in the back of the van, and somehow despite everything, Indy was able to drag Alex out without getting hit, though she was still panicking.)

"Let's go."

(Beheeyem was still holding Quartz in air jail—all the while she’s kicking and screaming and crying because her nose is most likely broken.)

(Rubina looks at Beheeyem)

"That means you too."

(Rubina walked into the base first while Indy and Beheeyem followed behind with the two girls.)

(Quartz is putting up a FIGHT. Her “Quartzness” has returned to her.)

(Beheyeem made his Psychic stronger to keep Quartz from moving.)

"Great. You're coming back," Rubina sighed, "I assume that we need to take Quartz to the lab while we put the other one in a cell?"

(At her statement, Quartz attempted to kick her, struggling wildly at this point.)

”I say we bring both for now and ask the Director once we get there.”

“Alright.”

(All of them soon made it to the lab much to the girl’s dismay.)

“We’re back,” Rubina stated as she opened the doors to the lab.

(Quartz continued to struggle)

(Alex finally realizes what is happening and also starts trying to get out of Indy's grasp.)

(Spinel smiles, walking over with his Umbreon beside him.)

“Set them down. They look tired.”

(Quartz and Alex are let down. Alex immediately tries to punch him.)

(Indy prevented her from doing so. Rubina held her in a headlock.)

(Spinel began to guide Quartz to the very back of the lab, gesturing for the agents to follow with Alex.)

“You should consider yourself lucky, Alex. This room is kept secret only to those with high enough clearance.”

(A reinforced steel door was located down a short corridor at the back of the lab, slightly hidden from view.)

(As soon as Quartz saw the door, it seemed to jog a memory of hers)

“No no no No No NO NO NO NO!”

(She attempted to wiggle out of Spinel’s grasp)

(Alex realizes what that means for Quartz and tries to get out of the headlock to get to her.)

(Spinel kept a firm hold on Quartz)

“It won’t hurt at all,” he reassured her. “You’ll be back to your normal, obedient self in no time…”

(He scanned his badge against the scanner next to the wall and the door slid open with a loud CLANG!)

(The room was pitch black inside until Spinel flicked a switch on the wall.)

(If Alex could speak, the words that would come out of her mouth would be "What the fuck".)

(Quartz continued to try and squirm out of Spinel’s grip, struggling and pulling with all her might—she was desperate at this point.)

(Alex threw Rubina onto the ground in attempt to escape.)

(Indy was distracted by the scene, but Spinel remained calm, leading Quartz over to the chair.)

“Sit down.”

(Alex managed to get out of the headlock and is currently fighting both Rubina and Indy with her hands in an attempt to get to Quartz.)

“This kid can fight!” Indy exclaimed, doing his absolute best to keep her from reaching Quartz.

“I’m not letting you take my memories away from me again!” Quartz yelled at Spinel as he pushed her head against the headrest of the chair.

(Alex managed to punch Indy in the face and ran over to Quartz to protect her.)

(He had managed to strap Quartz’s head down to the headrest before Alex confronted him.)

“Hm? Keep acting like this and your turn will come after hers.”

(Umbreon did what Umbreon does best and attacked Alex directly)

“BREEON!”

(Alex ignored what he said and positioned her hands so that when Umbreon attacked, it removed her cuffs. She took the opportunity and grabbed the Umbreon and threw it at him.)

(Quartz cheered, having been on the losing side of an Umbreon fight way too many times.)

(Alex took this opportunity to take off the silencer.)

"FINALLY!" she yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!"

(Alex scarmbled to get Quartz out of the chair.)

"Hang on, I'll get you out off here."

(Rubina took this opportunity to punch Alex in the face. HARD.)

“Alex!!” Quartz yelled.

(Alex clutched her face but soon regained her balance. She concentrared on her right hand and manafisted a small but deadly dagger that she attacked Rubina with.)

"Get out of my way!"

“Wha—?! Woah, calm down!”

(Rubina stood down)

(Spinel was too busy restraining Quartz to the chair to notice that Alex had literally created an object out of thin air)

(Alex turned back to where Quartz was and silently head over there. She didn't notice at the time that Indy and now Rubina had gone missing. Alex walked until she was right behind Spinel and.–)

"Get those restraints off her or else."

(Pointed the dagger right at his throat.)

“Where on earth did you—never mind. She’s not going to be hurt, I assure you—“

(She pressed the dagger at his throat, but not enough to cut. yet.)

"Erasing someones memories and making them work for is hurting someone though. Take those restraints off Quartz now, or I slit your throat."

“Alright, alright—you’ve made your point. Very clearly, I might add,” he muttered under his breath.

(He began to unfasten Quartz’s restraints)

“…did…did you break your nose?”

(He then noticed that his two agents were gone)

“…”

(Although Quartz was now free, Alex didn't let go.)

"Quartz! Are– wait what happened to your nose?"

“…you happened to my nose.”

“…can you let him go? That dagger’s making me nervous.”

(Alex stepped away in shock.)

"....I did that?"

“Yes. You kicked me in the face!”

(Spinel continued undoing the restraints, knowing full well she’d be back in this chair by the end of the week.)

"I.....I'm..."

(Alex was too stunned to speak.)

(Spinel is still undoing the restraints, occasionally looking around for Indy and Rubina, not knowing where on earth they went.)

(Alex turns around, still and shock, and sees Marshmallow standing next to Rubina and Indy. Both of whom are beaten up and knocked out cold.)

"MARSHMALLOW! YOUR ALRIGHT!"

(Spinel helped Quartz up and then walked over to his two agents to check on them, relieved that they still had a pulse.)

(Alex walks behind–)

"I'm not done with you yet."

(–and slashes his back)

(Quartz gasped.)

“…A-Alex?”

(Alex turns back to Quartz. Her face a mix between laughing and having a mental breakdown.)

"..ha...ha....finally, he's dead..."

(Quartz practically scrambled over to his side, shoving Alex out of the way to check for a pulse.)

(…there wasn’t one.)

…

“….what did you do.”

"...you knew what he was going to do to you! What he has done to you! And everything else!....he was just going to do it again! I had to stop him–"

“What he did to me—YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME?!”

(Quartz stood up, shaking, her sparks beginning to go out of control)

(She starts laughing) “You want to know why?! BECAUSE I WAS JUST LIKE HIM.”

(Claws of Infinity Energy begin to form on her hands as she continues.)

“Yeah, you heard me—I WAS JUST LIKE THAT MAN. Actually no—WORSE!”

(She cackled) “YOU EVER HEAR OF TEAM FLARE?!”

"I have. But I know you were not."

(Alex starts crying.)

"NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. THERE ARE SOME ACTIONS THAT ARE JUST IRREDEMABLE!"

(...)

"But go ahead. Tell me what did you do that was so bad..."

“…I almost destroyed the world and everyone in it. Willingly. I wasn’t one of those oblivious little nobodies along for the ride—I was FULLY onboard with Lysandre’s plan.”

“Lysandre…hah…I failed to save him too…just like Spinel, I failed to save him too...”

“ARCEUS WHY! WHY AM I UNABLE TO SAVE ANYONE?!”

(Her eyes glowed brighter and the energy began to stabilize into a semi-solid form…two sparking antennae on the sides of her head, those claws, and a whip-like tail.)

"...hahaha...so I was wrong.."

"You deserve to die too...."

(Alex paused for a moment)

".....you think that's being unable to save anyone..?"

"YOU THINK THAT'S NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE ANYONE!?"

(The dagger in her hand started to change its form radicaally.)

"TRY ACTUALLY KILLING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS! TRY KILLING ONE OF THE ONLY PARENTAL FIGURES YOU HAD! TRY BEING COMPLICIT IN THE NEAR DESTRUCTION OF REALITY!"

"...neither you, nor them, nor him, nor I deserve any second chance."

(Quartz saw the dagger, and tried to flee, scrambling for the door.)

(The dagger turned into a spear.)

"How can't you understand! Some people don't deserve second chances!"

"My sins are to grave."

["You do know this is all your fault?"]

"If we can't be cleansed of our sins.."

(Alex blocked the way to the door.)

"..Then neither of us deserve to live!"

*THUD*

*CLANG!*

(The door is busted down by a large Pokemon. It looks at Quartz with determined eyes.)

(The Pokemon seems familiar somehow to Quartz…but she has no time to think about that, she’s about to get murdered!)

(She makes a break for the Pokemon, jumping onto its back)

(Why did this feel so familiar…?)

(Her heart is pounding in her chest as she glances back at the lifeless body on the floor, tears in her eyes…)

"MARSHADOW!"

(Marshmallow looks at Alex with worry before going and attacking the large Pokemon and Quartz, knocking her off. They also hands Alex her Pokeballs that they snagged from Indy.)

(Alex points the blue(red?) spear at Quartz's throat.)

"...I thought you of all people would understand. You were the first person I could talk too without them pitying me in a long time...no matter.."

“Please…please don’t do this…”

"...."

(Alex is about to swing her spear right through Quartz's neck when–"

"GLACEE!"

(Glacire had came out of his pokeball. He realize what is going on and started to pull Alex by her cargo pants, knowing what she's trying to do to Quartz. What she wants to do to herself.)

"Glaceon! What are you– Let me go–"

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Quartz takes this opportunity to scramble back onto Miraidon)

“GO!”

(Miraidon takes off—Quartz holds on as tight as she can as they make their way through this maze of a base.)

(She’s shaking, trembling having just escaped from near death…and watching somebody very close to her fall to his own.)

(She hugs the large Pokemon tightly, feeling a sense of familiarity…)

(Alex sees that Quartz was able to escape, and that she has no chance of catching her.)

(Meanwhiile)

(Quartz and the pokemon are about to escape when a portal appears infront of them and a Pokemon comes out.)

(..the portal closes and a Hoopa stops the two dead in their tracks.)

“MOVE!” She cry-yelled at the Pokemon. “Just MOVE!!”

"ALE HOOPA RING!"

(Hoopa opened a Hyperspace hole under Quartz and the Pokemon..)

(..and then they were back in the room with Alex. Who, was still screaming and crying on the floor.)/

(Quartz attempts to sneak out again, as she’s not good at this whole “comforting” thing.)

(Hoopa appeared infront of her. Looks like they're so fed up with everything. Hoopa poked Quartz's forehead causing her to feel a weird sensation in her head.)

"Look, try your best to help her out. I can't let herself be a danger to everyone and herself. Try to do that and I'll fix everything."

(Looks like Hoopa's using telepathy.)

“You’re the one who brought her here in the first place—”

(she sighed)

“Fine. I’ll try…but I expect you to help if things go south.”

(She slowly approached Alex as to not startle her (and get speared in the neck)

(Alex did not notice that Quartz was approching her; however, Glacire did and stepped aside knowing that Alex needs any help she can get.)

(Quartz carefully reached out and set her right hand on Alex’s shoulder. (Just in case she broke it. Or cut it off. Or stabbed it.)

(Alex was startled and turned around. She looked less murderous and more....afraid...)

"...what...what do you want..."

“I..I wan to talk. Put down the spear, please.”

(She looked at where her spear was back before it faded away.)

"....it went away awhile ago..."

“Oh thank Arceus.”

“Uh…”

“Why am I so bad at this…c’mon, Quartz…”

"...if you're to say that I'm a shitty person, I already know...."

“We both are. We’ve both done horrible things in the past…but you can’t change the past, you know?”

"But I should've been able to prevent it! I could've stopped it, but I was too stupid to realize what was happening! And even then I still keeping making mistakes now!"

“All of us make mistakes. But once those mistakes are made, you can’t change them…all you can do is look to the future and strive to be better than who you were.”

"...but my mistakes almost caused the end of everything...I don't deserve another chance...not that I can even look to the future when every second reminds me of the past.."

(she lets out a little airy chuckle.) “Arceus you’re making this difficult.”

“…but they didn’t, did they? And through that experience, now you know that doing something like that again is a bad idea!”

“…only because my sister saved me….and I knew it was a bad idea but I still….”

“But it didn’t happen. And it can’t happen now, since the actual result already happened. The past can’t be changed. Only the future can be if you let it.”

(Alex couldn’t see them, but Hoopa was laughing to themself, knowing how they were going to fix things.)

”….haha…that’s what I tried to do with you..”

(Hoopa spoke directly into Quartz’s head)

“You ready to go?”

“Go—what? No, you’re supposed to be taking Alex—“

”Oh, so you don’t want him back alive? Alright-“

“…what?”

”What I was going to do was call my friend Celebi and see if they can turn back time to before Alex got a weapon, but seeing how you don’t want it, I guess me and Alex will be on our way-“

“Hey—no no no no—Hoopa…HOOPA—!”

“Soooooooo, is that a yes?”

(She nods)

“…if it can be done.”

”Alright!”

(Hoopa open’s a portal and a Celebi comes out)

“Heyyyyy Celebi-“

(Celebi makes an angry noise that no one except Hoopa can understand)

“I know your upset, but I’ll explain everything later. For now, can you turn back time here by like, an hour? At least so that she,” They motioned to Quartz, “ can save someone?”

(Spinel helped Quartz into the chair and pushed her head against the headrest in order to strap it down. He begins to strap down the rest of her limbs as well.)

(All the while, she’s shaking—out of anger, out of fear?—who knows.)

(A gloved hand rests on her head in an attempt to be reassuring—surprisingly, it works to some degree.)

“Breathe….breathe….it won’t hurt.”

(He attaches a small cuff around her wrist and places a strange headpiece around her forehead, before beginning to attach a few sensors above it.)

(Alex tries to get to Quartz, but Rubina pushes her to the ground.)

"Stay down, don't interfere."

(The screens around them flicker to life, switching to various readings and diagrams that Indy and Rubina are certain only Spinel can understand.)

(He begins to connect a few wires to the ports on the headpiece as the system is warming up.)

(Beheeyem floats over and rubs the top of Quartz’s head before turning to his trainer, ready to do his thing.)

(Spinel places a similiar headpiece onto Beheeyem and attaches the wires of it to Quartz’s headpiece.)

(Alex flips Rubina over, finds a way to take off the silencer, and is so close to getting to Quartz but is stopped by Indy when she is literally 4 feet away from her.)

"NO, DON'T DO THIS!"

(Spinel then turns to Alex, a serious look on his face.)

(He continues, dead serious) “If that helmet is taken off before the process is done, you could kill her instantly. Do I make myself clear?”

(Alex nods knowing she can't save her.)

"..fuck you."

(He scowled.) “Language. A simple “I understand” would’ve sufficed.”

“Beheeyem, we’re all set. Commence.”

(Beheeyem’s eyes glow as it uses its psychic powers—Quartz falls completely limp.)

(Spinel keeps a close eye on her.)

"What the hell are you going to do to her. Make her your subservient guard dog again?"

“She’s not a “subservient guard dog—“

“I’m doubtful she’d be able to guard anything, let alone the Director,” Rubina scoffed.

Spinel sighed, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. “She’s a loyal agent of the Explorers. And stop yelling, it’s making it very difficult to concentrate.”

(The device connected to Quartz’s headpiece began to whirr louder…more devices began to make ominous buzzing noises.)

(He sighs.) “Rubina, Indy, if you would please.”

(Rubina holds Alex’s head in place while Indy tries to put the silencer back on her.)

(Alex manages to free her head from Rubina's grasp and manages to damage, although not fully break, the silencer by hitting it with her head.)

"Ha! Take that you piece of shit– OW!"

(Rubina pressed down on the pressure point on the back of Alex’s neck, causing her to fall limp—though not pass out.)

(The reprogramming tech was whirring and flashing so much that it looked less like monitors and computer screens and more like Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.)

"...cowards."

(Alex looked at all the tech in a mixture of awe and fear. She needed to do something but couldn't!)

(A few hours passed)

(The process was almost complete)

(Alex had been given a new silencer in order for her to not yell to Quartz once she woke up.)

“Indy. Rubina. Take her outside the room, I don’t want her to interfere when she regains consciousness.”

(Alex looked...demoralized to say the least. She had been crying the entire time because once again, she failed to save someone. She didn't even fight back as she was taken out of the room.)

Indy whispered to Rubina. “…did we break her?”

Rubina responded. “I’m not sure…”

(The two led her over to a small couch in the corner. Indy shooed Umbreon off of it, much to the cat’s dismay.)

(Alex sits down for a couple of minutes until Quartz finally came out. Alex couldn't bare to look at her, but she did anyway.)

(She was sitting in a wheelchair, as it would’ve been very unwise to have her walk directly after a reprogramming.)

(She was a bit…out of it. Most likely very disoriented.)

(Alex gets up to go to Quartz, she is very concerned.)

(Spinel blocks her off)

“Ah ah ah— Don’t interfere.”

(Indy and Rubina grab her by the wrists and lead her back to the couch.)

(Alex tried to get to her, but was forced onto the couch. She continued to try to get to her. She was screaming and crying, but due to the silencer, only her crying could be seen.)

(Spinel slightly rolled his eyes)

“Take her back to her cell. You’ll see Quartz again in the morning.”

(He began to wheel Quartz out of the lab, most likely to her quarters.)

(Alex tried one last time to get to Quartz but got knocked out by a agitated Rubina who was done with her crap. Both Indy and RUbina carried Alex back to her cell for the night.)

(Spinel continued down the hallway with Quartz, who had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly.)

….

(The next morning, Quartz was guarding Alex’s cell once again, having recovered well.)

(Alex wakes up, still with the silencer. She noticed that Quartz was outside and rushed over to her. She moved her hands to ask if she was okay.)

(Quartz stared at her with apathy.)

“Silence, prisoner.”

(She looked around, seeing if anyone was nearby…seeing if the coast was clear.)

(Alex looked at her in annoyance and pointed to the silencer that she still had on. She sighed and started to try to break the force field to see if she could escape.)

“Quit it, you’ll draw attention.”

(She continued to look around)

(Alex looked at Quartz in confusion and stopped. She tilted her head a bit.)

(Once she saw that the coast was clear, she slowly made her way towards the control panel of Alex’s cell.)

(Alex is still very confused. She goes over to Quartz to see what she’s doing.)

(A Hoopa ring opens up, a girl falls down, and the ring closes]

"Owwww," she looks around, "Where am I.." - @undeserving-hero

“Rabsca, Gravity.”

(The intruder felt a heavy weight press down against her, forcing her to the ground.)

(A teenager with short brown hair and glowing pink eyes approached, looking down at the woman with interest.)

“I already ordered…wait I haven’t fed any of my Pokemon, Quartz give me a minute.”

(Alex opened five more pokeballs to reveal Marshmallow, a delta Charizard, a Togekiss, a Rotom Wash, a Aegislash, and a Donphan. It took a while, but Alex ordered for the rest of her Pokemon.)

(The two carried their sandwiches as they walked back to the city’s limits to find a place to sit down and eat.)

(They sat down at a bench while Alex’s Pokemon sat on the floor.)

“This sandwich is pretty good. And this city is huge!…which reminds me, where am I again?”

“Levincia. Home to the Levincia Docks, the streamer Iono, and (she points to the cluster of three tall buildings) that.”

"Okay, what region then? Since you know, we aren't in my region."

“Oh! Right!”

(Idiot, how could you forget to tell her…?!)

“Welcome to Paldea. Sorry your first experience here was…traumatic, to say the least.”

"Paldea? Like the region with the academy? My sister goes there! At least in my world she does."

(She pauses for a moment.)

"And it's fine, I already told you I've experienced more traumatizing things have I?"

“But it’s not fine…I can’t believe I…”

"Look, all that happened was that I got my mind probed unwillingly. I'm fine, I'm not hurt!...you better not be trying to blame yourself."

“…at least you haven’t suffered any permanent damage.”

"Nah, it only reinforced any existing trau–...wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN PERMANENT DAMAGE!? I THOUGHT IT ONLY MADE YOU DISORIENTED?!"

“Your Marshadow burst into the lab and removed the helmet. The Director—I mean—Spinel—about flipped his lid. That could’ve fried your brain.”

“So yes—normal usage of the helmet causes disorientation…but removing it could cause permanent damage.”

"...Marshmallow tried to save me back then?"

(She completely ignores the fact she could've died or worse.)

"It's fine, nothing bad happened! I'm more concerned about you though."

“Your Pokemon just about—never mind.”

"Okay....You said those Explorers people work around here right? I'm suprised they haven't found us! That or they aren't looking for us, which I would prefer the latter."

“Keep it down…we’re risking it enough by being in this city.”

"Ahh sorry!"

(She finished eating her sandwich.)

(Quartz…tools hers with her. For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry—even though it was her favorite type of sandwich.)

“Ready?”

"Yup!"

(Alex returned her pokemon, minus Glacire, to their Pokeballs.)

"Let's get moving!"

“Right.”

(They began to leave the city of Levincia..)

"....So where are you from? Are you from here?"

“…no, not really. My home’s in Kalos, but I’m originally from Kanto—Celadon City, to be exact.”

"Oh? What's it like in Kalos?"

“I…unfortunately don’t remember much of it. But I had friends…Lumiose was beautiful, especially at night…I’d climb up to the roof of the tower and just..look at the stars.”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that…..you know, in my world the Kalosian Champion is actually my older sister! She’s told about how she helped save the world at one point!”

(She smiled as some memories came back to her) “Saved the world, huh…?”

”Yup! She’s so cool!…..I wish I could be more like her though.”

“…she sounds pretty cool.”

“Yup, though she can be scary at times, she means well!….a little too well sometimes..”

(Quartz nodded) “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any siblings…

"Dang...what about friends?"

(She nodded.) “Two—in Kalos, at least. They’re siblings. One’s my age, and the other one is thirteen or fourteen.”

"Ooo, what are they like?"

“We were…I guess kind of a team of our own.”

"They sound pretty cool!"

(They continued to walk for a bit.)

"Just a question, where are we going?"

“Who knows? I’m on the run now, and so are you.”

(Something could faintly be heard behind them.)

"Quartz.....did you hear that?"

(She sparked)

“Act cool. I think we’re being watched.”

(Glacire did NOT understand the assignment and started to growl.0

"psst, Glacire, keep quiet–"

“Shut up already, popsicle!”

"Hey! Be nice–"

(Glacire gets really upset and jumps inbetween Alex and Quartz. He starts to bark loudly a Quartz.)

"GLACIRE! BE QUIET!"

“Quiet down, drama king! We’re trying not to draw attention!”

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Alex starts to look for Glacire's pokeball, but it looks like she was too late. Someone found them.)

(Quartz sparked) “Who’s there?!”

(Something was shot right at them, just missing Alex.)

"What is that–"

(Something else was shot...hiting Quartz in her organic arm.)

“Ah.”

…

“AAAAAAGH!!!!!”

"QUARTZ ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

(Alex looks and sees the dastardly duo with their signature tranq darts.)

"YOU! GLACIRE! SIC EM!"

(Glacire jumped at Indy and started to attack him head on.)

(Glacire latched onto Indy’s leg and did not let go, growling.)

“AUGH!!! Get it off! Get it off GET IT OFF—!”

(Indy shook his leg around in an attempt to free himself from the Glaceon—Quartz took this as her chance to potentially escape the two.)

"Quartz! Go hide before you pass out! I'll go find you!"

(She turned back to Glacire who was still latched onto his body.)

"Glacire! Freeze his legs to the ground with Freeze Dry!"

(Indy continued fighting against the large Glaceon—wait, only Indy? I thought there were two…where’d Rubina go..?)

(Quartz ran and hid, shaking—about to pass out…)

——

(Back at the battle, Indy managed to free his leg from Glaceon and was able to throw a Pokeball. He dodged the Freeze-Dry)

“Electrode! Explosion, now!”

"Glacire! Ice Beam it out of the way!"

(Glacire fired a powerful ice beam that pushed the Electrode away before it could explode, causing it to faint.)

"Great!....wait, where is Red Highlighter Hair?.....Quartz!"

(Alex let out her Togekiss.)

"Tadpole! Can you go find Quartz and make sure she's alright!"

(Tadpole coed in agreement and flew off to find Quartz.)

(Quartz lost consciousness due to the tranquilizer.)

(Rubina approached, having watched Quartz fall asleep and hoisted her off the ground)

“The Director wants you back, and unlike you, I’m not one to defy orders,” she said quietly, even though Quartz couldn’t hear her.

(Tadpole had just spotted them shouted to tell Alex that she had found Quartz. Alex returned Glacire to his ball.)

(Rubina was about to take Quartz back with her when she was unexpectedly aura boosted right hooked by Alex.)

(She kept a secure hold on Quartz though, and threw out her Darmanitan.)

“Use Fire Punch!”

"Fly above! Then Moonblast!"

(The Jubilee Pokemon dodged the fire punch by flying into the sky before flying down and hiting a point blank Moonblast. This sent the Darmanitan flying and knocked it out.)

"Nice job Tadpole! Now give Quartz back before I–"

(In that moment, Alex felt something sharp hit her back. She turned around to see Indy pointing a tranq dart gun at her.)

(He smirked.) “You could stand to have a little more awareness during your battles.”

"Tch......Damn you....Tadpole...."

(The Togekiss immediately went to protect her trainer who was on the verge of collapsing.)

(A net was thrown over the Togekiss by a grunt as a group of three Explorers grunts joined Indy and Rubina.)

"Tadpole!......you guys really don't know how to play fair...."

(Nobody noticed but Alex motioned for Marshmallow to hide in Tadpole's shadow. Alex herself later collapsed.)

(Indy took the Pokeball from Alex and recalled Tadpole.)

(A grunt bent down and picked up Alex, carrying her over her shoulder.)

(The group of five Explorers made their way towards a dark-blue van.)

“Get them situated in the back,” Rubina commanded the grunts, carefully handing Quartz over to one before going to call the Director alongside Indy.

“Director Spinel? We found them…yes, both of them are safe.”

(The grunts opened the back of the van and shoved them inside. They equiped the restraint-cuffs on their wrists and ankles.)

"Wait, one more thing."

(Indy approched one of the grunts and handed them a silencer.)

"The one with the white hair has a tendency to start screaming when she wakes up. Put this on her so that we don't have to deal with that."

(The grunt nodded and covered Alex's mouth with the silencer before getting into the van with the other grunt and closing the door. The van drove off.)

(Unfortunately for them, in the midst of the chaos…Indy and Rubina forgot one tiny little thing.)

….

(In the back of the van, Quartz began to regain consciousness. She moved over to Alex to wake her up.)

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!”

(Alex wouldn't wake up. Instead she rolled onto Quartz's shoulder and continued to sleep.)

(Quartz sighed—her plan wouldn’t work if Alex was unconscious…)

(She continued to try and wake Alex up)

(Nope, still out cold. However, her expersion while sleeping contorts to one of worry; though, it is difficult for Quartz to tell if it's because she is waking up or if she is having a nightmare.)

(She gave up, realizing that she had to wait…maybe she’d wake up before the van arrived back at base.)

(Soon, around an hour later, they were 5 minutes from the base. However...)

[there is a body, a Manaphy and three other people crying out for him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,–]

(Alex screamed as she woke up. Well, she tried to. The moment she realized that she couldn't hear her voice she started panicking bad.)

“About time…hey! Hey! Calm down, I’m trying to remove your restraints…”

(Quartz was kicked in the face by a paranoid Alex)

(As Quartz yelled in pain, the van stopped moving. Indy and Rubina opened the back doors of the van to see Quartz clutching her face, and Alex hyperventilating.)

(Quartz, noticing that the doors were open, lunged for the exit—a subconscious habit of hers.)

(Quartz is stopped by Beheyeem that suddenly teleports infront of her and freezes her with Psychic. He pulls Quartz out of the van while Alex crawls to the wall of the van, still hyperventilating.)

(Beheeyem holds Quartz in “air jail” while Indy and Rubina look at each other, not sure how to deal with the situation.)

"Are you going to drag her out–"

"Arceus no, I don't want her to hit me again! You do it!"

(Indy sighed, went in the back of the van, and somehow despite everything, Indy was able to drag Alex out without getting hit, though she was still panicking.)

"Let's go."

(Beheeyem was still holding Quartz in air jail—all the while she’s kicking and screaming and crying because her nose is most likely broken.)

(Rubina looks at Beheeyem)

"That means you too."

(Rubina walked into the base first while Indy and Beheeyem followed behind with the two girls.)

(Quartz is putting up a FIGHT. Her “Quartzness” has returned to her.)

(Beheyeem made his Psychic stronger to keep Quartz from moving.)

"Great. You're coming back," Rubina sighed, "I assume that we need to take Quartz to the lab while we put the other one in a cell?"

(At her statement, Quartz attempted to kick her, struggling wildly at this point.)

”I say we bring both for now and ask the Director once we get there.”

“Alright.”

(All of them soon made it to the lab much to the girl’s dismay.)

“We’re back,” Rubina stated as she opened the doors to the lab.

(Quartz continued to struggle)

(Alex finally realizes what is happening and also starts trying to get out of Indy's grasp.)

(Spinel smiles, walking over with his Umbreon beside him.)

“Set them down. They look tired.”

(Quartz and Alex are let down. Alex immediately tries to punch him.)

(Indy prevented her from doing so. Rubina held her in a headlock.)

(Spinel began to guide Quartz to the very back of the lab, gesturing for the agents to follow with Alex.)

“You should consider yourself lucky, Alex. This room is kept secret only to those with high enough clearance.”

(A reinforced steel door was located down a short corridor at the back of the lab, slightly hidden from view.)

(As soon as Quartz saw the door, it seemed to jog a memory of hers)

“No no no No No NO NO NO NO!”

(She attempted to wiggle out of Spinel’s grasp)

(Alex realizes what that means for Quartz and tries to get out of the headlock to get to her.)

(Spinel kept a firm hold on Quartz)

“It won’t hurt at all,” he reassured her. “You’ll be back to your normal, obedient self in no time…”

(He scanned his badge against the scanner next to the wall and the door slid open with a loud CLANG!)

(The room was pitch black inside until Spinel flicked a switch on the wall.)

(If Alex could speak, the words that would come out of her mouth would be "What the fuck".)

(Quartz continued to try and squirm out of Spinel’s grip, struggling and pulling with all her might—she was desperate at this point.)

(Alex threw Rubina onto the ground in attempt to escape.)

(Indy was distracted by the scene, but Spinel remained calm, leading Quartz over to the chair.)

“Sit down.”

(Alex managed to get out of the headlock and is currently fighting both Rubina and Indy with her hands in an attempt to get to Quartz.)

“This kid can fight!” Indy exclaimed, doing his absolute best to keep her from reaching Quartz.

“I’m not letting you take my memories away from me again!” Quartz yelled at Spinel as he pushed her head against the headrest of the chair.

(Alex managed to punch Indy in the face and ran over to Quartz to protect her.)

(He had managed to strap Quartz’s head down to the headrest before Alex confronted him.)

“Hm? Keep acting like this and your turn will come after hers.”

(Umbreon did what Umbreon does best and attacked Alex directly)

“BREEON!”

(Alex ignored what he said and positioned her hands so that when Umbreon attacked, it removed her cuffs. She took the opportunity and grabbed the Umbreon and threw it at him.)

(Quartz cheered, having been on the losing side of an Umbreon fight way too many times.)

(Alex took this opportunity to take off the silencer.)

"FINALLY!" she yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!"

(Alex scarmbled to get Quartz out of the chair.)

"Hang on, I'll get you out off here."

(Rubina took this opportunity to punch Alex in the face. HARD.)

“Alex!!” Quartz yelled.

(Alex clutched her face but soon regained her balance. She concentrared on her right hand and manafisted a small but deadly dagger that she attacked Rubina with.)

"Get out of my way!"

“Wha—?! Woah, calm down!”

(Rubina stood down)

(Spinel was too busy restraining Quartz to the chair to notice that Alex had literally created an object out of thin air)

(Alex turned back to where Quartz was and silently head over there. She didn't notice at the time that Indy and now Rubina had gone missing. Alex walked until she was right behind Spinel and.–)

"Get those restraints off her or else."

(Pointed the dagger right at his throat.)

“Where on earth did you—never mind. She’s not going to be hurt, I assure you—“

(She pressed the dagger at his throat, but not enough to cut. yet.)

"Erasing someones memories and making them work for is hurting someone though. Take those restraints off Quartz now, or I slit your throat."

“Alright, alright—you’ve made your point. Very clearly, I might add,” he muttered under his breath.

(He began to unfasten Quartz’s restraints)

“…did…did you break your nose?”

(He then noticed that his two agents were gone)

“…”

(Although Quartz was now free, Alex didn't let go.)

"Quartz! Are– wait what happened to your nose?"

“…you happened to my nose.”

“…can you let him go? That dagger’s making me nervous.”

(Alex stepped away in shock.)

"....I did that?"

“Yes. You kicked me in the face!”

(Spinel continued undoing the restraints, knowing full well she’d be back in this chair by the end of the week.)

"I.....I'm..."

(Alex was too stunned to speak.)

(Spinel is still undoing the restraints, occasionally looking around for Indy and Rubina, not knowing where on earth they went.)

(Alex turns around, still and shock, and sees Marshmallow standing next to Rubina and Indy. Both of whom are beaten up and knocked out cold.)

"MARSHMALLOW! YOUR ALRIGHT!"

(Spinel helped Quartz up and then walked over to his two agents to check on them, relieved that they still had a pulse.)

(Alex walks behind–)

"I'm not done with you yet."

(–and slashes his back)

(Quartz gasped.)

“…A-Alex?”

(Alex turns back to Quartz. Her face a mix between laughing and having a mental breakdown.)

"..ha...ha....finally, he's dead..."

(Quartz practically scrambled over to his side, shoving Alex out of the way to check for a pulse.)

(…there wasn’t one.)

…

“….what did you do.”

"...you knew what he was going to do to you! What he has done to you! And everything else!....he was just going to do it again! I had to stop him–"

“What he did to me—YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME?!”

(Quartz stood up, shaking, her sparks beginning to go out of control)

(She starts laughing) “You want to know why?! BECAUSE I WAS JUST LIKE HIM.”

(Claws of Infinity Energy begin to form on her hands as she continues.)

“Yeah, you heard me—I WAS JUST LIKE THAT MAN. Actually no—WORSE!”

(She cackled) “YOU EVER HEAR OF TEAM FLARE?!”

"I have. But I know you were not."

(Alex starts crying.)

"NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. THERE ARE SOME ACTIONS THAT ARE JUST IRREDEMABLE!"

(...)

"But go ahead. Tell me what did you do that was so bad..."

“…I almost destroyed the world and everyone in it. Willingly. I wasn’t one of those oblivious little nobodies along for the ride—I was FULLY onboard with Lysandre’s plan.”

“Lysandre…hah…I failed to save him too…just like Spinel, I failed to save him too...”

“ARCEUS WHY! WHY AM I UNABLE TO SAVE ANYONE?!”

(Her eyes glowed brighter and the energy began to stabilize into a semi-solid form…two sparking antennae on the sides of her head, those claws, and a whip-like tail.)

"...hahaha...so I was wrong.."

"You deserve to die too...."

(Alex paused for a moment)

".....you think that's being unable to save anyone..?"

"YOU THINK THAT'S NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE ANYONE!?"

(The dagger in her hand started to change its form radicaally.)

"TRY ACTUALLY KILLING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS! TRY KILLING ONE OF THE ONLY PARENTAL FIGURES YOU HAD! TRY BEING COMPLICIT IN THE NEAR DESTRUCTION OF REALITY!"

"...neither you, nor them, nor him, nor I deserve any second chance."

(Quartz saw the dagger, and tried to flee, scrambling for the door.)

(The dagger turned into a spear.)

"How can't you understand! Some people don't deserve second chances!"

"My sins are to grave."

["You do know this is all your fault?"]

"If we can't be cleansed of our sins.."

(Alex blocked the way to the door.)

"..Then neither of us deserve to live!"

*THUD*

*CLANG!*

(The door is busted down by a large Pokemon. It looks at Quartz with determined eyes.)

(The Pokemon seems familiar somehow to Quartz…but she has no time to think about that, she’s about to get murdered!)

(She makes a break for the Pokemon, jumping onto its back)

(Why did this feel so familiar…?)

(Her heart is pounding in her chest as she glances back at the lifeless body on the floor, tears in her eyes…)

"MARSHADOW!"

(Marshmallow looks at Alex with worry before going and attacking the large Pokemon and Quartz, knocking her off. They also hands Alex her Pokeballs that they snagged from Indy.)

(Alex points the blue(red?) spear at Quartz's throat.)

"...I thought you of all people would understand. You were the first person I could talk too without them pitying me in a long time...no matter.."

“Please…please don’t do this…”

"...."

(Alex is about to swing her spear right through Quartz's neck when–"

"GLACEE!"

(Glacire had came out of his pokeball. He realize what is going on and started to pull Alex by her cargo pants, knowing what she's trying to do to Quartz. What she wants to do to herself.)

"Glaceon! What are you– Let me go–"

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Quartz takes this opportunity to scramble back onto Miraidon)

“GO!”

(Miraidon takes off—Quartz holds on as tight as she can as they make their way through this maze of a base.)

(She’s shaking, trembling having just escaped from near death…and watching somebody very close to her fall to his own.)

(She hugs the large Pokemon tightly, feeling a sense of familiarity…)

(Alex sees that Quartz was able to escape, and that she has no chance of catching her.)

(Meanwhiile)

(Quartz and the pokemon are about to escape when a portal appears infront of them and a Pokemon comes out.)

(..the portal closes and a Hoopa stops the two dead in their tracks.)

“MOVE!” She cry-yelled at the Pokemon. “Just MOVE!!”

"ALE HOOPA RING!"

(Hoopa opened a Hyperspace hole under Quartz and the Pokemon..)

(..and then they were back in the room with Alex. Who, was still screaming and crying on the floor.)/

(Quartz attempts to sneak out again, as she’s not good at this whole “comforting” thing.)

(Hoopa appeared infront of her. Looks like they're so fed up with everything. Hoopa poked Quartz's forehead causing her to feel a weird sensation in her head.)

"Look, try your best to help her out. I can't let herself be a danger to everyone and herself. Try to do that and I'll fix everything."

(Looks like Hoopa's using telepathy.)

“You’re the one who brought her here in the first place—”

(she sighed)

“Fine. I’ll try…but I expect you to help if things go south.”

(She slowly approached Alex as to not startle her (and get speared in the neck)

(Alex did not notice that Quartz was approching her; however, Glacire did and stepped aside knowing that Alex needs any help she can get.)

(Quartz carefully reached out and set her right hand on Alex’s shoulder. (Just in case she broke it. Or cut it off. Or stabbed it.)

(Alex was startled and turned around. She looked less murderous and more....afraid...)

"...what...what do you want..."

“I..I wan to talk. Put down the spear, please.”

(She looked at where her spear was back before it faded away.)

"....it went away awhile ago..."

“Oh thank Arceus.”

“Uh…”

“Why am I so bad at this…c’mon, Quartz…”

"...if you're to say that I'm a shitty person, I already know...."

“We both are. We’ve both done horrible things in the past…but you can’t change the past, you know?”

"But I should've been able to prevent it! I could've stopped it, but I was too stupid to realize what was happening! And even then I still keeping making mistakes now!"

“All of us make mistakes. But once those mistakes are made, you can’t change them…all you can do is look to the future and strive to be better than who you were.”

"...but my mistakes almost caused the end of everything...I don't deserve another chance...not that I can even look to the future when every second reminds me of the past.."

(she lets out a little airy chuckle.) “Arceus you’re making this difficult.”

“…but they didn’t, did they? And through that experience, now you know that doing something like that again is a bad idea!”

“…only because my sister saved me….and I knew it was a bad idea but I still….”

“But it didn’t happen. And it can’t happen now, since the actual result already happened. The past can’t be changed. Only the future can be if you let it.”

(Alex couldn’t see them, but Hoopa was laughing to themself, knowing how they were going to fix things.)

”….haha…that’s what I tried to do with you..”

(Hoopa spoke directly into Quartz’s head)

“You ready to go?”

“Go—what? No, you’re supposed to be taking Alex—“

”Oh, so you don’t want him back alive? Alright-“

“…what?”

”What I was going to do was call my friend Celebi and see if they can turn back time to before Alex got a weapon, but seeing how you don’t want it, I guess me and Alex will be on our way-“

“Hey—no no no no—Hoopa…HOOPA—!”

“Soooooooo, is that a yes?”

(She nods)

“…if it can be done.”

”Alright!”

(Hoopa open’s a portal and a Celebi comes out)

“Heyyyyy Celebi-“

(Celebi makes an angry noise that no one except Hoopa can understand)

“I know your upset, but I’ll explain everything later. For now, can you turn back time here by like, an hour? At least so that she,” They motioned to Quartz, “ can save someone?”

(Spinel helped Quartz into the chair and pushed her head against the headrest in order to strap it down. He begins to strap down the rest of her limbs as well.)

(All the while, she’s shaking—out of anger, out of fear?—who knows.)

(A gloved hand rests on her head in an attempt to be reassuring—surprisingly, it works to some degree.)

“Breathe….breathe….it won’t hurt.”

(He attaches a small cuff around her wrist and places a strange headpiece around her forehead, before beginning to attach a few sensors above it.)

(Alex tries to get to Quartz, but Rubina pushes her to the ground.)

"Stay down, don't interfere."

(The screens around them flicker to life, switching to various readings and diagrams that Indy and Rubina are certain only Spinel can understand.)

(He begins to connect a few wires to the ports on the headpiece as the system is warming up.)

(Beheeyem floats over and rubs the top of Quartz’s head before turning to his trainer, ready to do his thing.)

(Spinel places a similiar headpiece onto Beheeyem and attaches the wires of it to Quartz’s headpiece.)

(Alex flips Rubina over, finds a way to take off the silencer, and is so close to getting to Quartz but is stopped by Indy when she is literally 4 feet away from her.)

"NO, DON'T DO THIS!"

(Spinel then turns to Alex, a serious look on his face.)

(He continues, dead serious) “If that helmet is taken off before the process is done, you could kill her instantly. Do I make myself clear?”

(Alex nods knowing she can't save her.)

"..fuck you."

(He scowled.) “Language. A simple “I understand” would’ve sufficed.”

“Beheeyem, we’re all set. Commence.”

(Beheeyem’s eyes glow as it uses its psychic powers—Quartz falls completely limp.)

(Spinel keeps a close eye on her.)

"What the hell are you going to do to her. Make her your subservient guard dog again?"

“She’s not a “subservient guard dog—“

“I’m doubtful she’d be able to guard anything, let alone the Director,” Rubina scoffed.

Spinel sighed, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. “She’s a loyal agent of the Explorers. And stop yelling, it’s making it very difficult to concentrate.”

(The device connected to Quartz’s headpiece began to whirr louder…more devices began to make ominous buzzing noises.)

(He sighs.) “Rubina, Indy, if you would please.”

(Rubina holds Alex’s head in place while Indy tries to put the silencer back on her.)

(Alex manages to free her head from Rubina's grasp and manages to damage, although not fully break, the silencer by hitting it with her head.)

"Ha! Take that you piece of shit– OW!"

(Rubina pressed down on the pressure point on the back of Alex’s neck, causing her to fall limp—though not pass out.)

(The reprogramming tech was whirring and flashing so much that it looked less like monitors and computer screens and more like Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.)

"...cowards."

(Alex looked at all the tech in a mixture of awe and fear. She needed to do something but couldn't!)

(A few hours passed)

(The process was almost complete)

(Alex had been given a new silencer in order for her to not yell to Quartz once she woke up.)

“Indy. Rubina. Take her outside the room, I don’t want her to interfere when she regains consciousness.”

(Alex looked...demoralized to say the least. She had been crying the entire time because once again, she failed to save someone. She didn't even fight back as she was taken out of the room.)

Indy whispered to Rubina. “…did we break her?”

Rubina responded. “I’m not sure…”

(The two led her over to a small couch in the corner. Indy shooed Umbreon off of it, much to the cat’s dismay.)

(Alex sits down for a couple of minutes until Quartz finally came out. Alex couldn't bare to look at her, but she did anyway.)

(She was sitting in a wheelchair, as it would’ve been very unwise to have her walk directly after a reprogramming.)

(She was a bit…out of it. Most likely very disoriented.)

(Alex gets up to go to Quartz, she is very concerned.)

(Spinel blocks her off)

“Ah ah ah— Don’t interfere.”

(Indy and Rubina grab her by the wrists and lead her back to the couch.)

(Alex tried to get to her, but was forced onto the couch. She continued to try to get to her. She was screaming and crying, but due to the silencer, only her crying could be seen.)

(Spinel slightly rolled his eyes)

“Take her back to her cell. You’ll see Quartz again in the morning.”

(He began to wheel Quartz out of the lab, most likely to her quarters.)

(Alex tried one last time to get to Quartz but got knocked out by a agitated Rubina who was done with her crap. Both Indy and RUbina carried Alex back to her cell for the night.)

(Spinel continued down the hallway with Quartz, who had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly.)

….

(The next morning, Quartz was guarding Alex’s cell once again, having recovered well.)

(Alex wakes up, still with the silencer. She noticed that Quartz was outside and rushed over to her. She moved her hands to ask if she was okay.)

(Quartz stared at her with apathy.)

“Silence, prisoner.”

(She looked around, seeing if anyone was nearby…seeing if the coast was clear.)

(Alex looked at her in annoyance and pointed to the silencer that she still had on. She sighed and started to try to break the force field to see if she could escape.)

“Quit it, you’ll draw attention.”

(She continued to look around)

#//I accidentally posted it on Alissa’s blog #//i think

(Alex looked at Quartz in confusion and stopped. She tilted her head a bit.)

(A Hoopa ring opens up, a girl falls down, and the ring closes]

"Owwww," she looks around, "Where am I.." - @undeserving-hero

“Rabsca, Gravity.”

(The intruder felt a heavy weight press down against her, forcing her to the ground.)

(A teenager with short brown hair and glowing pink eyes approached, looking down at the woman with interest.)

“I already ordered…wait I haven’t fed any of my Pokemon, Quartz give me a minute.”

(Alex opened five more pokeballs to reveal Marshmallow, a delta Charizard, a Togekiss, a Rotom Wash, a Aegislash, and a Donphan. It took a while, but Alex ordered for the rest of her Pokemon.)

(The two carried their sandwiches as they walked back to the city’s limits to find a place to sit down and eat.)

(They sat down at a bench while Alex’s Pokemon sat on the floor.)

“This sandwich is pretty good. And this city is huge!…which reminds me, where am I again?”

“Levincia. Home to the Levincia Docks, the streamer Iono, and (she points to the cluster of three tall buildings) that.”

"Okay, what region then? Since you know, we aren't in my region."

“Oh! Right!”

(Idiot, how could you forget to tell her…?!)

“Welcome to Paldea. Sorry your first experience here was…traumatic, to say the least.”

"Paldea? Like the region with the academy? My sister goes there! At least in my world she does."

(She pauses for a moment.)

"And it's fine, I already told you I've experienced more traumatizing things have I?"

“But it’s not fine…I can’t believe I…”

"Look, all that happened was that I got my mind probed unwillingly. I'm fine, I'm not hurt!...you better not be trying to blame yourself."

“…at least you haven’t suffered any permanent damage.”

"Nah, it only reinforced any existing trau–...wait...WHAT DO YOU MEAN PERMANENT DAMAGE!? I THOUGHT IT ONLY MADE YOU DISORIENTED?!"

“Your Marshadow burst into the lab and removed the helmet. The Director—I mean—Spinel—about flipped his lid. That could’ve fried your brain.”

“So yes—normal usage of the helmet causes disorientation…but removing it could cause permanent damage.”

"...Marshmallow tried to save me back then?"

(She completely ignores the fact she could've died or worse.)

"It's fine, nothing bad happened! I'm more concerned about you though."

“Your Pokemon just about—never mind.”

"Okay....You said those Explorers people work around here right? I'm suprised they haven't found us! That or they aren't looking for us, which I would prefer the latter."

“Keep it down…we’re risking it enough by being in this city.”

"Ahh sorry!"

(She finished eating her sandwich.)

(Quartz…tools hers with her. For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry—even though it was her favorite type of sandwich.)

“Ready?”

"Yup!"

(Alex returned her pokemon, minus Glacire, to their Pokeballs.)

"Let's get moving!"

“Right.”

(They began to leave the city of Levincia..)

"....So where are you from? Are you from here?"

“…no, not really. My home’s in Kalos, but I’m originally from Kanto—Celadon City, to be exact.”

"Oh? What's it like in Kalos?"

“I…unfortunately don’t remember much of it. But I had friends…Lumiose was beautiful, especially at night…I’d climb up to the roof of the tower and just..look at the stars.”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that…..you know, in my world the Kalosian Champion is actually my older sister! She’s told about how she helped save the world at one point!”

(She smiled as some memories came back to her) “Saved the world, huh…?”

”Yup! She’s so cool!…..I wish I could be more like her though.”

“…she sounds pretty cool.”

“Yup, though she can be scary at times, she means well!….a little too well sometimes..”

(Quartz nodded) “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any siblings…

"Dang...what about friends?"

(She nodded.) “Two—in Kalos, at least. They’re siblings. One’s my age, and the other one is thirteen or fourteen.”

"Ooo, what are they like?"

“We were…I guess kind of a team of our own.”

"They sound pretty cool!"

(They continued to walk for a bit.)

"Just a question, where are we going?"

“Who knows? I’m on the run now, and so are you.”

(Something could faintly be heard behind them.)

"Quartz.....did you hear that?"

(She sparked)

“Act cool. I think we’re being watched.”

(Glacire did NOT understand the assignment and started to growl.0

"psst, Glacire, keep quiet–"

“Shut up already, popsicle!”

"Hey! Be nice–"

(Glacire gets really upset and jumps inbetween Alex and Quartz. He starts to bark loudly a Quartz.)

"GLACIRE! BE QUIET!"

“Quiet down, drama king! We’re trying not to draw attention!”

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Alex starts to look for Glacire's pokeball, but it looks like she was too late. Someone found them.)

(Quartz sparked) “Who’s there?!”

(Something was shot right at them, just missing Alex.)

"What is that–"

(Something else was shot...hiting Quartz in her organic arm.)

“Ah.”

…

“AAAAAAGH!!!!!”

"QUARTZ ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

(Alex looks and sees the dastardly duo with their signature tranq darts.)

"YOU! GLACIRE! SIC EM!"

(Glacire jumped at Indy and started to attack him head on.)

(Glacire latched onto Indy’s leg and did not let go, growling.)

“AUGH!!! Get it off! Get it off GET IT OFF—!”

(Indy shook his leg around in an attempt to free himself from the Glaceon—Quartz took this as her chance to potentially escape the two.)

"Quartz! Go hide before you pass out! I'll go find you!"

(She turned back to Glacire who was still latched onto his body.)

"Glacire! Freeze his legs to the ground with Freeze Dry!"

(Indy continued fighting against the large Glaceon—wait, only Indy? I thought there were two…where’d Rubina go..?)

(Quartz ran and hid, shaking—about to pass out…)

——

(Back at the battle, Indy managed to free his leg from Glaceon and was able to throw a Pokeball. He dodged the Freeze-Dry)

“Electrode! Explosion, now!”

"Glacire! Ice Beam it out of the way!"

(Glacire fired a powerful ice beam that pushed the Electrode away before it could explode, causing it to faint.)

"Great!....wait, where is Red Highlighter Hair?.....Quartz!"

(Alex let out her Togekiss.)

"Tadpole! Can you go find Quartz and make sure she's alright!"

(Tadpole coed in agreement and flew off to find Quartz.)

(Quartz lost consciousness due to the tranquilizer.)

(Rubina approached, having watched Quartz fall asleep and hoisted her off the ground)

“The Director wants you back, and unlike you, I’m not one to defy orders,” she said quietly, even though Quartz couldn’t hear her.

(Tadpole had just spotted them shouted to tell Alex that she had found Quartz. Alex returned Glacire to his ball.)

(Rubina was about to take Quartz back with her when she was unexpectedly aura boosted right hooked by Alex.)

(She kept a secure hold on Quartz though, and threw out her Darmanitan.)

“Use Fire Punch!”

"Fly above! Then Moonblast!"

(The Jubilee Pokemon dodged the fire punch by flying into the sky before flying down and hiting a point blank Moonblast. This sent the Darmanitan flying and knocked it out.)

"Nice job Tadpole! Now give Quartz back before I–"

(In that moment, Alex felt something sharp hit her back. She turned around to see Indy pointing a tranq dart gun at her.)

(He smirked.) “You could stand to have a little more awareness during your battles.”

"Tch......Damn you....Tadpole...."

(The Togekiss immediately went to protect her trainer who was on the verge of collapsing.)

(A net was thrown over the Togekiss by a grunt as a group of three Explorers grunts joined Indy and Rubina.)

"Tadpole!......you guys really don't know how to play fair...."

(Nobody noticed but Alex motioned for Marshmallow to hide in Tadpole's shadow. Alex herself later collapsed.)

(Indy took the Pokeball from Alex and recalled Tadpole.)

(A grunt bent down and picked up Alex, carrying her over her shoulder.)

(The group of five Explorers made their way towards a dark-blue van.)

“Get them situated in the back,” Rubina commanded the grunts, carefully handing Quartz over to one before going to call the Director alongside Indy.

“Director Spinel? We found them…yes, both of them are safe.”

(The grunts opened the back of the van and shoved them inside. They equiped the restraint-cuffs on their wrists and ankles.)

"Wait, one more thing."

(Indy approched one of the grunts and handed them a silencer.)

"The one with the white hair has a tendency to start screaming when she wakes up. Put this on her so that we don't have to deal with that."

(The grunt nodded and covered Alex's mouth with the silencer before getting into the van with the other grunt and closing the door. The van drove off.)

(Unfortunately for them, in the midst of the chaos…Indy and Rubina forgot one tiny little thing.)

….

(In the back of the van, Quartz began to regain consciousness. She moved over to Alex to wake her up.)

“Alex…Alex…ALEX!”

(Alex wouldn't wake up. Instead she rolled onto Quartz's shoulder and continued to sleep.)

(Quartz sighed—her plan wouldn’t work if Alex was unconscious…)

(She continued to try and wake Alex up)

(Nope, still out cold. However, her expersion while sleeping contorts to one of worry; though, it is difficult for Quartz to tell if it's because she is waking up or if she is having a nightmare.)

(She gave up, realizing that she had to wait…maybe she’d wake up before the van arrived back at base.)

(Soon, around an hour later, they were 5 minutes from the base. However...)

[there is a body, a Manaphy and three other people crying out for him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,–]

(Alex screamed as she woke up. Well, she tried to. The moment she realized that she couldn't hear her voice she started panicking bad.)

“About time…hey! Hey! Calm down, I’m trying to remove your restraints…”

(Quartz was kicked in the face by a paranoid Alex)

(As Quartz yelled in pain, the van stopped moving. Indy and Rubina opened the back doors of the van to see Quartz clutching her face, and Alex hyperventilating.)

(Quartz, noticing that the doors were open, lunged for the exit—a subconscious habit of hers.)

(Quartz is stopped by Beheyeem that suddenly teleports infront of her and freezes her with Psychic. He pulls Quartz out of the van while Alex crawls to the wall of the van, still hyperventilating.)

(Beheeyem holds Quartz in “air jail” while Indy and Rubina look at each other, not sure how to deal with the situation.)

"Are you going to drag her out–"

"Arceus no, I don't want her to hit me again! You do it!"

(Indy sighed, went in the back of the van, and somehow despite everything, Indy was able to drag Alex out without getting hit, though she was still panicking.)

"Let's go."

(Beheeyem was still holding Quartz in air jail—all the while she’s kicking and screaming and crying because her nose is most likely broken.)

(Rubina looks at Beheeyem)

"That means you too."

(Rubina walked into the base first while Indy and Beheeyem followed behind with the two girls.)

(Quartz is putting up a FIGHT. Her “Quartzness” has returned to her.)

(Beheyeem made his Psychic stronger to keep Quartz from moving.)

"Great. You're coming back," Rubina sighed, "I assume that we need to take Quartz to the lab while we put the other one in a cell?"

(At her statement, Quartz attempted to kick her, struggling wildly at this point.)

”I say we bring both for now and ask the Director once we get there.”

“Alright.”

(All of them soon made it to the lab much to the girl’s dismay.)

“We’re back,” Rubina stated as she opened the doors to the lab.

(Quartz continued to struggle)

(Alex finally realizes what is happening and also starts trying to get out of Indy's grasp.)

(Spinel smiles, walking over with his Umbreon beside him.)

“Set them down. They look tired.”

(Quartz and Alex are let down. Alex immediately tries to punch him.)

(Indy prevented her from doing so. Rubina held her in a headlock.)

(Spinel began to guide Quartz to the very back of the lab, gesturing for the agents to follow with Alex.)

“You should consider yourself lucky, Alex. This room is kept secret only to those with high enough clearance.”

(A reinforced steel door was located down a short corridor at the back of the lab, slightly hidden from view.)

(As soon as Quartz saw the door, it seemed to jog a memory of hers)

“No no no No No NO NO NO NO!”

(She attempted to wiggle out of Spinel’s grasp)

(Alex realizes what that means for Quartz and tries to get out of the headlock to get to her.)

(Spinel kept a firm hold on Quartz)

“It won’t hurt at all,” he reassured her. “You’ll be back to your normal, obedient self in no time…”

(He scanned his badge against the scanner next to the wall and the door slid open with a loud CLANG!)

(The room was pitch black inside until Spinel flicked a switch on the wall.)

(If Alex could speak, the words that would come out of her mouth would be "What the fuck".)

(Quartz continued to try and squirm out of Spinel’s grip, struggling and pulling with all her might—she was desperate at this point.)

(Alex threw Rubina onto the ground in attempt to escape.)

(Indy was distracted by the scene, but Spinel remained calm, leading Quartz over to the chair.)

“Sit down.”

(Alex managed to get out of the headlock and is currently fighting both Rubina and Indy with her hands in an attempt to get to Quartz.)

“This kid can fight!” Indy exclaimed, doing his absolute best to keep her from reaching Quartz.

“I’m not letting you take my memories away from me again!” Quartz yelled at Spinel as he pushed her head against the headrest of the chair.

(Alex managed to punch Indy in the face and ran over to Quartz to protect her.)

(He had managed to strap Quartz’s head down to the headrest before Alex confronted him.)

“Hm? Keep acting like this and your turn will come after hers.”

(Umbreon did what Umbreon does best and attacked Alex directly)

“BREEON!”

(Alex ignored what he said and positioned her hands so that when Umbreon attacked, it removed her cuffs. She took the opportunity and grabbed the Umbreon and threw it at him.)

(Quartz cheered, having been on the losing side of an Umbreon fight way too many times.)

(Alex took this opportunity to take off the silencer.)

"FINALLY!" she yelled, "NEVER AGAIN!"

(Alex scarmbled to get Quartz out of the chair.)

"Hang on, I'll get you out off here."

(Rubina took this opportunity to punch Alex in the face. HARD.)

“Alex!!” Quartz yelled.

(Alex clutched her face but soon regained her balance. She concentrared on her right hand and manafisted a small but deadly dagger that she attacked Rubina with.)

"Get out of my way!"

“Wha—?! Woah, calm down!”

(Rubina stood down)

(Spinel was too busy restraining Quartz to the chair to notice that Alex had literally created an object out of thin air)

(Alex turned back to where Quartz was and silently head over there. She didn't notice at the time that Indy and now Rubina had gone missing. Alex walked until she was right behind Spinel and.–)

"Get those restraints off her or else."

(Pointed the dagger right at his throat.)

“Where on earth did you—never mind. She’s not going to be hurt, I assure you—“

(She pressed the dagger at his throat, but not enough to cut. yet.)

"Erasing someones memories and making them work for is hurting someone though. Take those restraints off Quartz now, or I slit your throat."

“Alright, alright—you’ve made your point. Very clearly, I might add,” he muttered under his breath.

(He began to unfasten Quartz’s restraints)

“…did…did you break your nose?”

(He then noticed that his two agents were gone)

“…”

(Although Quartz was now free, Alex didn't let go.)

"Quartz! Are– wait what happened to your nose?"

“…you happened to my nose.”

“…can you let him go? That dagger’s making me nervous.”

(Alex stepped away in shock.)

"....I did that?"

“Yes. You kicked me in the face!”

(Spinel continued undoing the restraints, knowing full well she’d be back in this chair by the end of the week.)

"I.....I'm..."

(Alex was too stunned to speak.)

(Spinel is still undoing the restraints, occasionally looking around for Indy and Rubina, not knowing where on earth they went.)

(Alex turns around, still and shock, and sees Marshmallow standing next to Rubina and Indy. Both of whom are beaten up and knocked out cold.)

"MARSHMALLOW! YOUR ALRIGHT!"

(Spinel helped Quartz up and then walked over to his two agents to check on them, relieved that they still had a pulse.)

(Alex walks behind–)

"I'm not done with you yet."

(–and slashes his back)

(Quartz gasped.)

“…A-Alex?”

(Alex turns back to Quartz. Her face a mix between laughing and having a mental breakdown.)

"..ha...ha....finally, he's dead..."

(Quartz practically scrambled over to his side, shoving Alex out of the way to check for a pulse.)

(…there wasn’t one.)

…

“….what did you do.”

"...you knew what he was going to do to you! What he has done to you! And everything else!....he was just going to do it again! I had to stop him–"

“What he did to me—YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME?!”

(Quartz stood up, shaking, her sparks beginning to go out of control)

(She starts laughing) “You want to know why?! BECAUSE I WAS JUST LIKE HIM.”

(Claws of Infinity Energy begin to form on her hands as she continues.)

“Yeah, you heard me—I WAS JUST LIKE THAT MAN. Actually no—WORSE!”

(She cackled) “YOU EVER HEAR OF TEAM FLARE?!”

"I have. But I know you were not."

(Alex starts crying.)

"NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. THERE ARE SOME ACTIONS THAT ARE JUST IRREDEMABLE!"

(...)

"But go ahead. Tell me what did you do that was so bad..."

“…I almost destroyed the world and everyone in it. Willingly. I wasn’t one of those oblivious little nobodies along for the ride—I was FULLY onboard with Lysandre’s plan.”

“Lysandre…hah…I failed to save him too…just like Spinel, I failed to save him too...”

“ARCEUS WHY! WHY AM I UNABLE TO SAVE ANYONE?!”

(Her eyes glowed brighter and the energy began to stabilize into a semi-solid form…two sparking antennae on the sides of her head, those claws, and a whip-like tail.)

"...hahaha...so I was wrong.."

"You deserve to die too...."

(Alex paused for a moment)

".....you think that's being unable to save anyone..?"

"YOU THINK THAT'S NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE ANYONE!?"

(The dagger in her hand started to change its form radicaally.)

"TRY ACTUALLY KILLING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS! TRY KILLING ONE OF THE ONLY PARENTAL FIGURES YOU HAD! TRY BEING COMPLICIT IN THE NEAR DESTRUCTION OF REALITY!"

"...neither you, nor them, nor him, nor I deserve any second chance."

(Quartz saw the dagger, and tried to flee, scrambling for the door.)

(The dagger turned into a spear.)

"How can't you understand! Some people don't deserve second chances!"

"My sins are to grave."

["You do know this is all your fault?"]

"If we can't be cleansed of our sins.."

(Alex blocked the way to the door.)

"..Then neither of us deserve to live!"

*THUD*

*CLANG!*

(The door is busted down by a large Pokemon. It looks at Quartz with determined eyes.)

(The Pokemon seems familiar somehow to Quartz…but she has no time to think about that, she’s about to get murdered!)

(She makes a break for the Pokemon, jumping onto its back)

(Why did this feel so familiar…?)

(Her heart is pounding in her chest as she glances back at the lifeless body on the floor, tears in her eyes…)

"MARSHADOW!"

(Marshmallow looks at Alex with worry before going and attacking the large Pokemon and Quartz, knocking her off. They also hands Alex her Pokeballs that they snagged from Indy.)

(Alex points the blue(red?) spear at Quartz's throat.)

"...I thought you of all people would understand. You were the first person I could talk too without them pitying me in a long time...no matter.."

“Please…please don’t do this…”

"...."

(Alex is about to swing her spear right through Quartz's neck when–"

"GLACEE!"

(Glacire had came out of his pokeball. He realize what is going on and started to pull Alex by her cargo pants, knowing what she's trying to do to Quartz. What she wants to do to herself.)

"Glaceon! What are you– Let me go–"

"GLACE! GLACEON!"

(Quartz takes this opportunity to scramble back onto Miraidon)

“GO!”

(Miraidon takes off—Quartz holds on as tight as she can as they make their way through this maze of a base.)

(She’s shaking, trembling having just escaped from near death…and watching somebody very close to her fall to his own.)

(She hugs the large Pokemon tightly, feeling a sense of familiarity…)

(Alex sees that Quartz was able to escape, and that she has no chance of catching her.)

(Meanwhiile)

(Quartz and the pokemon are about to escape when a portal appears infront of them and a Pokemon comes out.)

(..the portal closes and a Hoopa stops the two dead in their tracks.)

“MOVE!” She cry-yelled at the Pokemon. “Just MOVE!!”

"ALE HOOPA RING!"

(Hoopa opened a Hyperspace hole under Quartz and the Pokemon..)

(..and then they were back in the room with Alex. Who, was still screaming and crying on the floor.)/

(Quartz attempts to sneak out again, as she’s not good at this whole “comforting” thing.)

(Hoopa appeared infront of her. Looks like they're so fed up with everything. Hoopa poked Quartz's forehead causing her to feel a weird sensation in her head.)

"Look, try your best to help her out. I can't let herself be a danger to everyone and herself. Try to do that and I'll fix everything."

(Looks like Hoopa's using telepathy.)

“You’re the one who brought her here in the first place—”

(she sighed)

“Fine. I’ll try…but I expect you to help if things go south.”

(She slowly approached Alex as to not startle her (and get speared in the neck)

(Alex did not notice that Quartz was approching her; however, Glacire did and stepped aside knowing that Alex needs any help she can get.)

(Quartz carefully reached out and set her right hand on Alex’s shoulder. (Just in case she broke it. Or cut it off. Or stabbed it.)

(Alex was startled and turned around. She looked less murderous and more....afraid...)

"...what...what do you want..."

“I..I wan to talk. Put down the spear, please.”

(She looked at where her spear was back before it faded away.)

"....it went away awhile ago..."

“Oh thank Arceus.”

“Uh…”

“Why am I so bad at this…c’mon, Quartz…”

"...if you're to say that I'm a shitty person, I already know...."

“We both are. We’ve both done horrible things in the past…but you can’t change the past, you know?”

"But I should've been able to prevent it! I could've stopped it, but I was too stupid to realize what was happening! And even then I still keeping making mistakes now!"

“All of us make mistakes. But once those mistakes are made, you can’t change them…all you can do is look to the future and strive to be better than who you were.”

"...but my mistakes almost caused the end of everything...I don't deserve another chance...not that I can even look to the future when every second reminds me of the past.."

(she lets out a little airy chuckle.) “Arceus you’re making this difficult.”

“…but they didn’t, did they? And through that experience, now you know that doing something like that again is a bad idea!”

“…only because my sister saved me….and I knew it was a bad idea but I still….”

“But it didn’t happen. And it can’t happen now, since the actual result already happened. The past can’t be changed. Only the future can be if you let it.”

(Alex couldn’t see them, but Hoopa was laughing to themself, knowing how they were going to fix things.)

”….haha…that’s what I tried to do with you..”

(Hoopa spoke directly into Quartz’s head)

“You ready to go?”

“Go—what? No, you’re supposed to be taking Alex—“

”Oh, so you don’t want him back alive? Alright-“

“…what?”

”What I was going to do was call my friend Celebi and see if they can turn back time to before Alex got a weapon, but seeing how you don’t want it, I guess me and Alex will be on our way-“

“Hey—no no no no—Hoopa…HOOPA—!”

“Soooooooo, is that a yes?”

(She nods)

“…if it can be done.”

”Alright!”

(Hoopa open’s a portal and a Celebi comes out)

“Heyyyyy Celebi-“

(Celebi makes an angry noise that no one except Hoopa can understand)

“I know your upset, but I’ll explain everything later. For now, can you turn back time here by like, an hour? At least so that she,” They motioned to Quartz, “ can save someone?”

(Spinel helped Quartz into the chair and pushed her head against the headrest in order to strap it down. He begins to strap down the rest of her limbs as well.)

(All the while, she’s shaking—out of anger, out of fear?—who knows.)

(A gloved hand rests on her head in an attempt to be reassuring—surprisingly, it works to some degree.)

“Breathe….breathe….it won’t hurt.”

(He attaches a small cuff around her wrist and places a strange headpiece around her forehead, before beginning to attach a few sensors above it.)

(Alex tries to get to Quartz, but Rubina pushes her to the ground.)

"Stay down, don't interfere."

(The screens around them flicker to life, switching to various readings and diagrams that Indy and Rubina are certain only Spinel can understand.)

(He begins to connect a few wires to the ports on the headpiece as the system is warming up.)

(Beheeyem floats over and rubs the top of Quartz’s head before turning to his trainer, ready to do his thing.)

(Spinel places a similiar headpiece onto Beheeyem and attaches the wires of it to Quartz’s headpiece.)

(Alex flips Rubina over, finds a way to take off the silencer, and is so close to getting to Quartz but is stopped by Indy when she is literally 4 feet away from her.)

"NO, DON'T DO THIS!"

(Spinel then turns to Alex, a serious look on his face.)

(He continues, dead serious) “If that helmet is taken off before the process is done, you could kill her instantly. Do I make myself clear?”

(Alex nods knowing she can't save her.)

"..fuck you."

(He scowled.) “Language. A simple “I understand” would’ve sufficed.”

“Beheeyem, we’re all set. Commence.”

(Beheeyem’s eyes glow as it uses its psychic powers—Quartz falls completely limp.)

(Spinel keeps a close eye on her.)

"What the hell are you going to do to her. Make her your subservient guard dog again?"

“She’s not a “subservient guard dog—“

“I’m doubtful she’d be able to guard anything, let alone the Director,” Rubina scoffed.

Spinel sighed, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. “She’s a loyal agent of the Explorers. And stop yelling, it’s making it very difficult to concentrate.”

(The device connected to Quartz’s headpiece began to whirr louder…more devices began to make ominous buzzing noises.)

(He sighs.) “Rubina, Indy, if you would please.”

(Rubina holds Alex’s head in place while Indy tries to put the silencer back on her.)

(Alex manages to free her head from Rubina's grasp and manages to damage, although not fully break, the silencer by hitting it with her head.)

"Ha! Take that you piece of shit– OW!"

(Rubina pressed down on the pressure point on the back of Alex’s neck, causing her to fall limp—though not pass out.)

(The reprogramming tech was whirring and flashing so much that it looked less like monitors and computer screens and more like Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.)

"...cowards."

(Alex looked at all the tech in a mixture of awe and fear. She needed to do something but couldn't!)

(A few hours passed)

(The process was almost complete)

(Alex had been given a new silencer in order for her to not yell to Quartz once she woke up.)

“Indy. Rubina. Take her outside the room, I don’t want her to interfere when she regains consciousness.”

(Alex looked...demoralized to say the least. She had been crying the entire time because once again, she failed to save someone. She didn't even fight back as she was taken out of the room.)

Indy whispered to Rubina. “…did we break her?”

Rubina responded. “I’m not sure…”

(The two led her over to a small couch in the corner. Indy shooed Umbreon off of it, much to the cat’s dismay.)

(Alex sits down for a couple of minutes until Quartz finally came out. Alex couldn't bare to look at her, but she did anyway.)

(She was sitting in a wheelchair, as it would’ve been very unwise to have her walk directly after a reprogramming.)

(She was a bit…out of it. Most likely very disoriented.)

(Alex gets up to go to Quartz, she is very concerned.)

(Spinel blocks her off)

“Ah ah ah— Don’t interfere.”

(Indy and Rubina grab her by the wrists and lead her back to the couch.)

(Alex tried to get to her, but was forced onto the couch. She continued to try to get to her. She was screaming and crying, but due to the silencer, only her crying could be seen.)

(Spinel slightly rolled his eyes)

“Take her back to her cell. You’ll see Quartz again in the morning.”

(He began to wheel Quartz out of the lab, most likely to her quarters.)

(Alex tried one last time to get to Quartz but got knocked out by a agitated Rubina who was done with her crap. Both Indy and RUbina carried Alex back to her cell for the night.)

(Spinel continued down the hallway with Quartz, who had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly.)

….

(The next morning, Quartz was guarding Alex’s cell once again, having recovered well.)

(Alex wakes up, still with the silencer. She noticed that Quartz was outside and rushed over to her. She moved her hands to ask if she was okay.)

(Quartz stared at her with apathy.)

“Silence, prisoner.”

(She looked around, seeing if anyone was nearby…seeing if the coast was clear.)