-5- Penetrating the Veil, As Told By Maggie.



I ran my bathwater almost scalding hot. Steam billowed and circulated my shampoo's fragrance. Soon, I was as clean as I could get myself, but I felt like I couldn't quite reach one hundred per cent. Anton contaminated my imagination. As I rubbed more soap into my fur, the contact was stimulating enough to make me remember other times I'd been touched all over my body. Instead of being inspired and planning things to do with my man after getting out of the tub, I only thought of what Anton did to me. His illusion had poisoned my mind. I couldn't think of Manny without thinking of Anton behind his image. Even though I knew it wasn't possible, remembering every time Manny and I made love in the past, I wondered if maybe it was Anton somehow.

I sank low in the water that now filled the tub up to the overflow drain and tried to relax. Low vibrations drumming through the door let me know that they were home, that Paul went back to bed to catch a few hours before work, and that Manny was in a foul mood. I couldn't stay in here forever, even though I wanted to.

I emerged from the bathroom a mienshao in Manny's eyes, to my surprise. And, according to the expression written across his face, one that needed a stern talking-to about popping into her previous home for the purposes of sex with her zoroark boyfriend disguised as her owner. He took that ball and ran with it. I sat at the dinner table in silence as he drew up wild theories, most notably and absurd that I was jealous of Lilith becoming close to him and displacing me, causing me to want to mate with Anton disguised as him as some sort of symbolic revenge. Growing bored, I ignored most of what he was actually saying until I heard him say something I wasn't expecting. He ordered me to leave. It wasn't hateful, but he said that he was so disappointed in me that he felt it would be better if I went back to being on my own that night, since he had nothing more he wanted to say that he wouldn't regret, and didn't care to watch me arrange cards into excuses.

I knew he wasn't aware that he was telling me that he didn't care to know the truth of what Anton did to me, and even if I physically overpowered him and forced him to read my cards, I couldn't explain without admitting that I'd been doing the same horrible thing to him for weeks. So, I left.

Contrary to Manny's belief, I really had not spent any time truly on my own and did not care to. My appetite was faint but starting to return to me. I went to Carthamus Pokecenter; it may be commodity-grade scrap meat from a slimy tin, but they will provide a pokemon with a growling tummy a meal for the cost of helping with any light housekeeping chores that need to be done, or free otherwise. They had me tidy up the lobby seating and put away scattered magazines. It was a fair deal.

Night fell while I was inside the center. A half-hour passed as I wandered around the rural streets and tree lined paths. I stopped and stood beneath a yellowish-orange sodium lamp and stared up at it. My right eye watered so I covered it with a paw, leaving my left eye open and exposed. I had to prove to myself that I could do it. It wasn't until I gave up and turned away that I did do it. I saw. A faint, golden ghost of a blur darting across the coast of an eternally dark sea. I immediately shut my eyelids and covered my face to catch the last glimpse of its persistence as it vanished as though it never actually was. It was all that my left eye could give me anymore, but it was proof that even it wasn't completely blind.

I became resolute. I needed his love and comfort right now, and he needed me to make him realize that. I needed him to see the light.

I went home.

The door was locked when I got there, but he did answer when I rang the bell.

"Lilith? Oh, hey, come on in. You'll have to forgive me. I've had a shit day."

I re-entered his home a human in Manny's eyes. I guessed that was a clue about which of me he wanted to see. Lilith was supposedly taking language lessons somehow, so I exploited that. "Had shit day?" Really, if you think yours was something, wait until you hear about mine, Immanuel.

He blushed a little, hearing his mildly profane words coming back at him. He looked at me, and his expression lightened. "Hey, do you think you can make my evening better?"

I approached him with a forced fake smile. "Lilif make better. Easy."

He took my hands in his own, negotiating what he thought were sleeves with a twist, and kissed me. He recoiled.

I realized why. "Bad taste me?"

He confirmed with a slight nod.

At least he didn't recognize it as pokemon-grade food residue, although instead he may have thought I recently dined on road kill. I darted to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. As I did, I stared at my reflection and scowled at the invisible human woman wearing my fur and getting his caring attention just for showing up at his door, when only a few hours ago I got thrown out after being taken advantage of. With Lilith's breath as fresh and clean as her robe, we flirted and made out a little off-and-on all evening long. It wasn't too bad once I convinced myself that no, what really happened when I got out of the bathroom was he asked me why I seemed upset, I showed him my cards, he understood, held his mienshao close, whispered into her ear that he loved her, and made the pain go away. Why not? I forced him to live one of my lies, why shouldn't I treat myself the same way?

Lying in bed alongside Manny late into the night, the T.V.'s premium programming changed on schedule. Usually he and Lilith were either soundly asleep or getting busy by this time, so the T.V. was used to being off at this point, but tonight we were both too restless to sleep. As for the other option, he was somewhat distracted and I wasn't exactly eager. So, we watched it together, wordlessly agreeing that we both hoped it would help us get into the mood to take each other's cares away for the night. Soon he seemed more interested in watching my reaction to what was on his T.V. than anything else. The forbidden footage was now flickering before my eye, and what I saw was, well, weird. Confusing. The programming consisted of elaborate and highly unlikely scenarios leading up to passionless intercourse. This was worth an extra charge on his video service invoice? I'll admit, a few of their postures did seem like they might be interesting to try, but only for the sake of a new experience. Posed like that, neither one could really embrace the other. I turned it off and pressed my body up against Manny as I soon lost interest in the smut. He slowly began to fondle me gently, and kissed what he saw as my forehead.

"Since you've learned a few words, can you tell me exactly what it means: vono-kono-alley-eyes?"

"Von-o-kono a-le ies, make: you, me, together."

He leaned close and whispered, "I think we should get together right now."

That wasn't the "together" I was meaning, but I did not mind. Risking a pokemon-like behavior, I sniffed and tasted his neck. I had to do something to make sure it wasn't Anton to put my mind at ease. Striking him hard enough would be a better way to make sure, but a real Manny would be taken out of the mood by that.

Having experienced both, I couldn't help but compare Manny's methods to Anton's. Differences, similarities; what stuck in my thoughts was that while both showed enthusiasm to be with me, only Anton had been enthusiastic about being with Magdalene. Like what I saw on the television, I experienced a passionless intercourse. I think he felt the same way. Tonight we were doing it hoping for a quick high, not for each other.

After our union, he drew me close to his body again and whispered my babble into my ear. It sounded foreign this time. I returned the translation of what I meant when I said it, with a few extra words. "Any trouble, you, me, together, always, promise?"

He sounded half asleep, but his response was unmistakable. "Together always, I promise you."

"You," and "you" only, not "you, Lilith." He made his promise to me. I fell asleep satisfied.



Things were as normal as they could be for a while after that night. From what I overheard during one of Manny's telephone calls, Anton decided it was time for a change, and had been traded to some gal who lived on the other side of Fenchone. Good riddance. I survived a few awkward situations that arose, like when Manny decided to buy me something of a wardrobe. What he thought looked like a perfect fit was really a disaster, since my shape didn't actually complement women's wear at all. I then owned two real robes, a pair of strange shoes I could barely get my paws into, and some sort of lingerie that desperately needed a tail hole.

Despite occasional bumps in the road, our love life returned to what it was before the incident. He gave Lilith his love and I accepted it for her, or should I say, through her. Sometimes I wondered if that was enough, or if that was the limit.

One night, we fooled around, re-enacting a scene from a film we had just watched while lying in bed together. It was before the programming change, but would've fit right in. He got the easy role, lying on the bed and watching. And, since he didn't have to maintain any content rating standards, he got to ad-lib a little with lewd remarks and gestures extrapolated from his character's portrayal. I stuck to the script with substitute props, like a scarf instead of a feather boa. I stuck to the script as well as I remembered it, with a strut, a twirl, an immediately covered peek for him, followed by a coy turn to hide my insubstantial bosom, a blown kiss, a smile, a wink.

He froze.

I froze.

Manny was the first to move again. "I'm sorry, I just remembered back to that day I came home and found you and Maggie together."

I remained immobilized, staring at him. That made him nervous.

"Don't be mad, Lil', but I was getting a little uncomfortable around you because I was thinking silly things about how we met, and I wanted a second opinion I could trust before we, you know, went even further at being together. Anyway, you were the first girl she's ever approved of for me, giving me a wink before she darted out into the wilderness again. I'm glad she did. I've been thankful every day since she gave me that wink."

I kinda smiled a little. I was happy to have made him happy. Usually when I smiled, as Magdalene or Lilith, he did too. He didn't this time. His eyebrows lowered and he frowned a little.

"Wait a—no, that was a left-eyed wink. Maggie wouldn't do that, she couldn't. The way she was facing, she couldn't even see me. Oh, I know, that had to have been Anton, sniffing around for Maggie. You were here and she wasn't, so he disguised himself as her. That's why 'she' was struggling with those flash cards..."

I still had a little flame of hope burning inside me that he would somehow get away from this thought. He might second-guess Us knowing it was Anton who approved his relationship with me, with Lilith. Manny continued talking through it to himself, letting speculation run wild.

"...no, after he left, any illusion he applied should've faded. You had to have been you; you couldn't have been anyone else, right?"

"Me!" I nervously interjected. "You, me, always."

He got up from the bed, hiked back up his boxers, and took me in his arms. He hugged me and I hugged him, almost burying my face into his torso. Out of habit dating to well before my accident, I turned my head to my left when I did so. Our moment was ruined when I felt his right hand leave my shoulder, his left rest on my head to hold it still against him, and he asked me a terrible question. One that his mienshao couldn't answer under the circumstances.

"Lilith, how many fingers am I holding up?"

The only reply I had for him was a choke and a whimper.

He gripped my shoulders and shoved me away.

"Magdalene?"

I looked at him, or at least tried to as tears started distorting my vision.

"Maggie...how? How did you?" He sat on his bed. "You couldn't, there's no way."

He stormed out of the room, and as I followed, out of the house. "Anton! If you're here, you better show yourself!"

He stormed back inside and started looking some more. "Of course, you've been letting him in so you can fuck him, too. Probably gave him a spare key. Anton!"

"Manny!" I shouted. He was so pissed he looked ready to go searching in Paul's room. "Sapa tlan sekniluj Anton!"

Manny lost his angry energy and walked up to me. "How did this happen, Maggie? Who helped you do this?"

I felt like a rat. "Franz." I held up my right arm and waved its tassel like a pendulum.

He sat on the couch and thought for a very long time.

I took a couple juice boxes from the refrigerator. I offered one to him, but he was not interested. I sat across the room in a chair no one ever really used.

"Yes or no answers, you can handle that without speaking gibberish, right?"

He asked a series of questions, and I answered "yes" to all of them:

"You had Franz hypnotize me to make me see a human instead of you?"
"You were role-playing her this whole time?"
"The night you ran away, that was to set me up for this?"
"The man who hit me, that was Anton, disguised?"
"You all kept this a secret from Shelia, too?"
"You brought Anton back into your scheme when you needed to be a human and a mienshao at the same time?"
"You thought you could get away with doing this to me?"

My last yes sounded quite shameful. Because it was.

"What about Anton? Was that the price of his assistance? Letting him rip a part out of my car so he could fuck you on my bed all day?"

"No."

"No, that wasn't a pay-off? Or, no, you just wanted to screw us both and compare to see which one you liked better?"

"No!"

"Then why were you fucking him when you went to all this trouble to get me to make love to you—oh...God. He made himself look like me to trick you into it."

We both started to cry a little at that moment, Manny covering his face and hanging his head. I sniffed with congestion and walked across the living room. I sat beside him, and we slipped into each others arms. I fought my way through every word, as I had to be sure he understood me.

"When we meet, I see you, see love. You see me, see friend, see pokemon. I sad, see you friend woman, she make you sad. Again, again, again. I want you happy, see me, see love. Manny, you, me, always. Dese-se-konf yolkobol cel Mahni!"

Leaning against each other for support, we sat on the couch together for a moment. How long I don't remember; until a great and mostly decorative clock chimed. I never liked that damned thing. We pulled ourselves apart, slowly because our awkward pose had planted aches inside our strained muscles.

"Von lepo nalka," I suggested.

"Maggie, I..."

"We go, bed."

He agreed. I followed him inside his bedroom, which seemed to surprise him slightly; perhaps he expected I would sleep on the couch, being a mienshao again. I didn't let him argue.

"Von-o-kons mulage Lilif, mulabo Maggi."

"Maggie, I'm not sure if—"

I leapt up onto him, forcing him to catch me or be pulled off balance. It was a lot easier to repeat his words than to compose my own, and he couldn't argue with himself. "Thankful every day since she give me wink. Mahni, make lie?"

He mulled it over for a moment, trapped between the strain of his own admission and the weight of a well-fed mienshao clutching his body as though for dear life. Soon, he collapsed.

"No, I didn't lie to you. Let's go to bed."

I stared at him.

"Together, Magdalene."

For the first time since the evening of the day I evolved had we truly held each other in mutual comfort like we did that night.

Finally, I felt fulfilled.

Finally, we were one.

Finally.







We ate breakfast as a true couple for the first time. Food tasted better. I was happy to eat in peace and quiet, but Manny wanted to ask serious questions, like if I wanted him to try to do something about Anton. Manny seemed surprised when I said, "no," but I couldn't imagine trying to punish him. I would be a hypocrite since all he did was make the same gamble I did. I won against the odds; he lost. He lost his home, his team, and his very best friend.

After breakfast we went on a trip to Linalool and returned all the clothing he bought for me, except for one of the robes. Lilith worked hard, and deserved to be remembered in a small way. Manny didn't admit it, but the refund was a relief, as he was already committed to a number of extra shifts to help pay off that little spending spree.

Those extra shifts wore him down that week, but it was okay, because eventually it was time to punch out and go home to his loving soul-mate. There was still a little resistance, though. It was the robe, my robe, my fur, still coming between us. But, only a little. Each day he got more comfortable with seeing my body do exactly the same things it had done to his countless times, but no longer disguised as Lilith wearing her robe that looked like me, smelled like me, felt like me. I could tell, and he told me outright, that he needed to take this transition slowly. I didn't mind; he never pushed me away when I expressed my feelings for him with my arms, my lips, or my tongue, and that's what I truly desired. Lilith's libido was an avatar of my desire to have him. Now that he was mine, I no longer felt that drive.

Actually, I did. But it wasn't selfish like Lilith's drive was; Magdalene needed to get him over that last hurdle for his benefit. She needed to seduce him. He deserved no less than a complete, total release of everything that held him back.

The calendar was marked, supposedly a day off to go to the gym and make up for lost time. I wasn't really interested in that idea. The extra inch on my waistline would have to wait, because the time had come to wear him out. I was going to get him in bed and keep him there, awake all night and asleep all the next day to recover. Oh, after seducing him first according to my original plan, of course, but Lilith wanted to enjoy my pleasure as I had enjoyed hers, and that seemed fair. Despite her human appearance, Lilith was really the animal inside me, and now the complete me wanted the best of both worlds.

Maybe that's why I chose to keep one of the robes?



Manny's shift ended late, but he napped during the day beforehand, so I knew he would still have some energy left. I re-arranged our bedroom so the foot of the bed was near the sweep of the door. When he opened it, there I was, clad in my fine—okay, faux, but very nice—silk robe, illuminated from behind by his little lamp, standing tall upon his bed, posed with authority.

"Lil—iuhm, M—Maggie?"

I strutted toward him halfway, running my paws across my shoulder, letting the robe slide down and away from my body. "Lilif, Maggi, now same," I said as my belt loosened and fell away. I tossed the robe against his face. He quickly swept it away but not quickly enough to stand a chance of evading as I knelt on the foot of the bed and trapped him with a kiss. Our tongues fought for a second, mine won, and then they agreed to co-operate toward greater ends. I broke away for a moment, "von kono a-ke, gœn, you, me...now."

My heart stopped for a second, or however long it was until he reacted. He leaned into me, pressed his face into the fur along the right side of my neck, and breathed deep a mixture of esters that came within a bottle featuring pictures of plant parts, like peaches and almonds.

"Get my belt off," he whispered as he drew himself away and took off his shirt. I wanted him to have me the way Anton did; the instant he was disrobed of all but his socks, I grabbed him and yanked him onto the bed, and as I fell back, onto myself.

Manny chuckled twice. "I should've known it was you from the moment you lifted me up off of the grass."

"Lekt komp tatslo, miwagi'i inte oku nedi." I couldn't say it for him, so I re-worded it. "Then, you blind. I help you up, help you see. See me now." We kissed again, and let our bodies act freely of their own volition. I felt his desire brush against me as it began to rise. There was only one thing holding him back.

He needed Maggie's approval before going ahead with this relationship.

I pushed him off of my body a little, just enough to get his attention. I stared into him, holding him transfixed while I positioned my legs just right. I adjusted his hips and my own until they were perfectly aligned.

"Von prak tœksko'o. Im-pe unil kekbouou," with a devious smirk across my face, I gave him the most confident right-eyed wink I could and shouted, "ies!"

I shouted again not a second later, and gasped, and soon panted. Something was different, it was better than the first time. Lilith's first time. This was Maggie's first time.



Everything, and I mean everything, that happened leading up to this one perfect evening: it was all worth it.







I was sleeping in. Manny woke me up when he got up, but let me go back to sleep. My plan backfired, feeling about as sturdy as warm dough, I was the one who was too exhausted to get out of bed. At first. When I woke up a second time, I saw Paul standing in the doorway. Usually he was already asleep by this time, and he looked a little exhausted himself. He must have had a hard night at work.

"You will rise, Magdalene, bathe quickly, and come in my auto. It is important."

Quickly was a relative concept when you have a whole body of fur to blow dry, but Paul was accommodating. I wondered where Manny went. Did he go somewhere and have an accident, and Paul's taking me to see him at the hospital? He was insistent, but not urgent. I didn't want to worry like that, so I let the sound of the dryer obliterate my thoughts.

Paul put me in the rear seat, beside Manny, who must have been sitting there waiting the whole time. He wouldn't talk to me, or even look at me. Our trip would turn out to be short, and Paul explained the situation to me on the way.

"I told your master this morning, but you do not know. I am officer with Carthamus Police Department. I work undercover, that's why I do night shifts and like to lay low, you see. There has been some trouble recently in Mupiro Falls involving pokemon center workers releasing pokemon to known abusers for money; I work on that case. I know what you two do are your choices, not abuse, plus what that magician dog I found you with did was abuse, but that is not your problem right now. Like Yurido and some other places, Carthamus did not ratify any personhood laws for pokemon. It is criminal here, and I must do my duty."

We pulled up to the police station and walked inside. Officer Dorin "Paul Wite" Mijloc spoke with one of his brothers in blue before leading Manny away and ordering me to follow the other. I was taken into a small room with a thick clear plastic partition that had two layers of bright, shiny silver mesh weave embedded through the center of its breadth. Tiny crystals bridged the two together along the edges of the panel. I sat on a small stool and waited as instructed. Eventually, an alakazam came inside through a different door on the other side of the partition. He sat and stared at me for a moment, withdrew his spoons from the bracers around his wrists, and rubbed them together.

He was inside my head. At least he was very gentle—

"Thank you. I'm sorry for the behaviors of my less-considerate comrades, I sense they have treated you coarsely sometimes," he said in my mind as I thought that. Strangely, hearing him confirm my suspicion and apologize for the doings of others put me at ease.

—as he scanned my mind. I was a little worried about what he might find. There were laws against forcing accused persons to convict themselves, but I'd just learned that in Carthamus, I didn't count as a person in any way, or that other place for that matter. I tried to focus on the good things I could remember. My ability to remember things was suddenly disabled somehow.

"Relax, Magdalene. I am your council in this case, so to speak. If you interfere with me, you may become more hurt than if you don't."

He continued for a while, during which I became very exhausted for some reason. I rested my head on the narrow shelf-like bench that the partition between us divided and I lost track of time until I felt a jolt that set me upright instantly.

"You will remain here for now, but not beyond this afternoon. I will state the facts of your involvement for you impartially."

He was still feeling my mind as I laid my head down again.

"Magdalene," he spoke aloud with a gravely tone, "it will be okay. Likely, not good; just okay."



Officer Mijloc visited a while later, escorting me to use a washroom and bringing me something to eat after returning me to the somewhat pokemon-proofed interrogation room. He told me that the justice of the peace was taking lunch himself at the moment. He already heard my representative's testimony, since the alakazam needed to return home to Rennin before school let out and discharged his ward, and Paul felt that the magistrate seemed to take the information, as that pokemon delivered it, "favorably, relatively speaking." I didn't know what that meant, and wished I understood more about legal proceedings than half-hour small claims game shows demonstrate. I learned that Manny would be heard in his own words in a few hours, and then, "we would go from there."

I was removed from Interrogation and allowed to sit slightly more comfortably in the offices, supervised by a female typhlosion officer. In our natural tongues, we fell into a conversation about our histories with our trainers. In fact, we got some strange looks from one of the more perceptive men in the room, as I, the detainee mostly sat and watched her while she struggled to maintain her composure. She was aware of my situation, and admitted to me that my story bore some similarities to her own, but that mine would not suffer as terrible an ending as hers did, that ending being the part where she stopped talking and started to falter. She intended to cheer me up, I suppose, since she got through it and started a new life, and one she was proud of, but despite being as far from a psychic as one can get, I could still sense that she never truly got over it. Understandable, though; she was a fire-type. Their flames can't stop burning until they are finally snuffed out forever.

We got off of that topic and into some general conversation for a little bit, but soon we simply sat in silence. She had stopped carrying the conversation along with me, only replying to me like I were some sort of prompt. I felt bad for her.

Another hour of watching her fill out digital paperwork passed before I was summoned again, to the magistrate's chambers. He sat in his fine vestment in a fine chair behind a fine desk. I intended to sit in a plain chair on the other side, but was warned off by the typhlosion beside me.

"Pokemon Magdalene, species and form mienshao, property of Mr. Immanuel Gortzig, current Pokemon League registration I.D.# EU-08735/K. Under oath, do you swear this is your identity?"

"Yes," I spoke aloud.

"The information relevant to your status is as follows: your master, Mr. Gortzig, has admitted under oath that he has engaged in congress with you, as identified, in a manner violating the laws of this enclave. Evidence supplied through trusted testimony extracted from the minds of both you and Mr. Gortzig indicates that his behavior was, however, with clean conscious. While ignorance of the law is no excuse, I recognize that Mr. Gortzig was unable to discern the situation he was in, and once he became alert to it, he did not continue to commit abusive acts, despite opportunity, if not invitation, you, Pokemon Magdalene, provided in the days between that time and now. I have thus declared Mr. Gortzig not culpable, by reason of psychic manipulation, of willfully committing the crimes he admitted to today, and have reduced his sentence to a somewhat substantial fine, a period of community service, and registration of a Class 1 abuse on his league record."

I could hardly follow what he was saying, but I felt something was not quite right. I began to mumble to myself. I didn't know what that mumble was, but the officer took a guess, and spoke in our tongue to me.

"That's a slap on the wrist; only these tight-assed towns even recognize Class 1 anymore."

The Magistrate continued. "That is true, Officer, but this case is being tried beneath the laws of a tight-assed town."

The typhlosion straightened up with surprise.

"Yeah, some of us old guys still remember the bits of pokemon tongue we needed to pick up back when we were youths training our own. At least, enough to get an idea of what you think you're saying behind our backs. Now, all abuse registrations that aren't swept under the rug by sympathizers and abusers, themselves in the ranks, require that the trainer in question and all owned pokemon to be evaluated for physical and mental health, and for removal and placement of said pokemon as deemed necessary. You are the only pokemon Mr. Gortzig owns, and testimony indicates that you were never harmed or distressed by the offenses Mr. Gortzig committed against you. I would be inclined to waive the evaluation process and save everyone the time and trouble, but Mr. Gortzig has taken that step for me. At 15:39 this afternoon, Mr. Gortzig accepted his option to permanently disavow ownership of all of his pokemon in lieu of the immediate evaluation process, and will not be permitted to own or possess any other pokemon again for a period no less than twelve months, after which petition may be accepted for re-evaluation of his suitability as a trainer. I hereby enact said motion."

I jumped at the clap of his gavel. Then, I felt weak and leaned against the officer for support, which she silently gave.

"This verdict carries with it the legal force of a restraining order. You, Pokemon Magdalene, will not approach, seek-out, or initialize any contact with Mr. Gortzig, nor vice-versa. Violation of these terms will result in further charges being assessed and mandatory evaluation. You are dismissed."

I turned to go but mostly I fell against the officer, feeling sick to my stomach. She helped me finish my turn and stagger away. The magistrate had one thing to add before I left.

"Off the record, he wanted me to tell you something, since he does not expect to see you ever again. He said, 'tell Maggie I didn't lie to her,' I hope that gives you some comfort."



We stopped at the lobby. The officer told me I had a few options. I could apply for placement through Carthamus Township Pokecenter; she made it sound like there was a process for finding good homes for troubled pokemon, but I remembered what Paul, Officer Mijloc, told me. Common pokemon might be treated okay, but a female exotic with a history of anthropophilic behavior and an exploitable disability too? Way to rescue me from abuse, Carthamus. Alternatively, I could be handed off to the region's rangers to be taken to any forest of my choice and be released into the wild. Central Allylidene would put me near where Caleb said he wanted to go, but would I even find him? And would he want to take care of me while I learned how to live in the wild? Other than that, she had little to offer, other than applying for the force. Ocimene's national law granted full civil rights to all members of police and domestic guard, regardless of local laws or ownership history. I declined that, knowing it wasn't a job I could handle. She returned to her work and left me to either voice my choice, or walk out through the station's front doors and wander around on my own until I found a place to go or until a flash of red laser light imprisoned me.

Manny's last words to me stated that he didn't lie to me, and I believed them. I knew instinctively what he meant by it; it was when I asked him if he had lied and he said no, that he was thankful for every day he spent with me. But, with his decision to sever our ties completely, against his promise that he would not turn me away, he also showed that his love for me was so great that he knew we could not be truly together ever again, even if we emerged from those evaluations intact.

It wasn't because of what he saw when my secret was revealed that he turned away from me, but because he recognized that my flame of hope would never fade. It would burn me alive, if not both of us, and its scintillating flickers had already mesmerized me to help it in doing so.



I stepped through the front doors of the Carthamus police station. The wind blew gently, but firmly enough to make the pelt of my arms sway in the breeze. I covered my right eye with my paw and turned toward the sun. I found just the right angle, to see a faint golden glow form along the coast of an eternally dark sea. Then, it faded, even though I hadn't turned away. I guess that was all the life my left eye had left in it. I wanted to see the light, and for a moment I did, and it would have to be enough. I wanted Manny to see the light, and for a moment he did, and it would have to be enough.



It's not like I didn't see it coming; I'm not completely blind. But, seeing it coming doesn't change the facts of the matter.

I guess the worst part of being eliminated is obvious: it hurts like Hell.