Book Three: Redemption, Chapter Two-
"It was difficult to accept the old man's words," Rei continued to write. "Almost as difficult as it was to finish him off." She paused. "Almost, that is, if I hadn't become such a cold killer, but that was not my concern for the moment. Knowing the things I did, soon one of them, the August Champions, came for me to take me from the accursed valley. As we sailed on the back of his four-winged mount, many times I thought of finishing the scum off right there, and many times I disgusted myself. The notion that I would bring death to someone I..." Her pen trailed off. She contemplated for a moment. "Actually, I kinda hate the guy, but that's not the point. The point is that I thought of killing a man in the middle of the flight he was giving me. Surely, I should have known better. I might have startled Yasha and sent myself for quite a fall..."
"What are you thinking about?" inquired Shade.
"Nothing," hastily replied Rei, drawing her hand away from the hidden gun to sweeping her wind-tossed hair out of her face. He was not satisfied.
"You have to be thinking of something," he insisted as her fingers uncertainly tapped on the handle of the firearm, "you haven't spoken a word all flight."
"It's just the gravity of what has happened today," she quickly spat out. "I never thought I'd feel bad about slaying that old Rocket."
"I don't see why," he coldly stated. "They were all vile wretches who deserved their fates." His grim demeanor grew more stern and darker as the words spoke as the fire of hatred was rekindled. "They and their kind should rot in the fiery bowels of the earth for all eternity. As the tone in his voice deepened, she expected flame to shoot from his eyes. "But," he said, reverting back to normal, or at least as normal as he was capable of looking, "I believe you did just that, aye, doll?"
"Surely," Rei thought, "he couldn't be in on the scheme with the others. He's too much a justice freak to do that. However, just to be safe, I should."
"You know," now out loud, she continued, "their leader did divulge something to me before his hour came upon him-"
"It was a lie," he flatly said.
"What?"
"Whatever he told you," his speech returned to the weight of before as a shadow hung over his brow, "it was a lie. He only said it to mess with your head. You ruined everything he had ever worked for in his life and then ended that itself. He wanted to slip one last deception on before he went to leave you afflicted long after he passed, like a knife that reaches from beyond the grave to forever stick in your back. Wicked tongues tell no truth." Worry once again came upon her.
"What if he wasn't wick-"
"He was a murderer," the lord broke off. "A hardhearted murderer."
"... so am I," the girl reminded.
"Oh, yeah," he softly mumbled in realization, the dim haze uplifted. Quickly aiming to rectify himself with her, he spouted, "Well, I mean, yeah, sure, but he did it for his own evil purposes," putting extra stress on evil, "while you only stopped them. It's not like you ever harmed an innocent."
"Not yet, anyway," she cunningly slipped in. With every passing moment Shade grew more uncomfortable until he could not bear the awkwardness any further.
"So," the night soldier trailed, eager for a different topic of discussion to distract his mind from the former, "what did he tell you?" Her eyebrow raised as she gave him a stare.
"I thought 'wicked tongues tell '-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he cut off her quote with a dismissing wave of his hand, "I know what I said, but I think it's important to know what type of lies he tried to poison your mind with." At the end, he murmured near inaudibly, "That, and it'd probably be a lot less disturbing."
"Well," she sarcastically put, "I'm not sure how truthful it is coming from a baneful liar, or how less disturbing it is," she mockingly added in, "but he was just telling me that, all this time, their was a bigger threat than the Rockets were-"
"The Pokemon League?" he swiftly interjected. Rei, whose mouth was still in the middle of forming her speech, promptly wrapped her finger around the trigger of her gun.
She stammered out, "W-w-what? I mean, yes, but ... what?"
"The head Elite of the Pokemon League run total control of the world through supralegal governments established in nearly every city scattered throughout the earth," the grim one ranted. Delaying, he proceeded, "That's the looming evil threat you were talking about, right? ... Rei?" Her mouth hung open, wordless and petrified. "... Rei?" Her brow dented as her mouth clamped shut.
"You knew?" she yelled. "All of this time, you knew?" He shrugged.
"Well, yeah," the defender admitted. "I am one of their subordinates, you know." She was infuriated but released her weapon.
"You've known about that all this time and haven't done a thing to fix it?" she accused while beating him on the back with closed fists. "What type of paladin are you?"
"A reasonable one," he commented, reaching back to grab her flailing arms. "Widespread pillaging and massacres tend to seek more attention than governmental dominance." The answer ceased her struggle. "That," he tagged on, "and the fact that they are the most powerful people in the world." She gave a look to the back of his head. "And don't give me that look. Besides, many people know, but no one seems to care. They aren't harming anyone."
"As far as you know," she noted. "They must have been doing something to cause the rise of a global threatening power." The knight was puzzled.
"They did what now?"
"You know," she prodded. "The Rockets." His eyes grew.
"What?" he exclaimed in disbelief. "When did that happen?" She sighed.
"Maybe I should just start from the beginning."
"That would be best."
