Chapter Text
It’s not the man that interests her at first.
She focuses on the blurry shape of a pokémon in the picture one of her acquaintances has brought her: it has a body similar to a boltund, svelte, four legged, with a long head shape and fur as dark as the night. The similarities end there, though; where the electric pokémon has patches of white and yellow on its body this one showcases a bright, almost toxic green color, and even without a clear picture to confirm it she knows instinctively that this is no common creature.
She reaches out to the person who took the picture, a man working the night shift in an area currently under repairs. He tells her that he saw the pokémon lurking around the past few nights, that he has taken a picture to look up which species it was as he did not recognize it and could not find a match in known pokémon in Kalos. A friend with whom he shared the story suggested forwarding this to the Looker Bureau so the mystery could be explained, hence why the picture found its way onto Emma’s desk.
She hums as he finishes his retelling. She asks a few questions to clarify some areas of his story and thanks him for his time.
She reaches out to the train station first, asking their employees if anyone has spotted a four legged pokémon with black and green fur recently, then turns to the taxi drivers when she gets negative answers back; most of them keep to Lumiose itself, but she knows that sometimes one will pick up or drop off clients slightly outside the city. None have seen such a creature, which only deepens the gut feeling she has that it is indeed a wild pokémon that has sneaked its way in instead of being owned by someone who would have used the proper channels to get into Lumiose.
A wild pokémon… A Legendary one, even, if she is right.
And, she is usually right.
Emma doesn’t know why Zygarde would show up now, at the exact point in time when rogue mega evolutions are becoming an increasingly bigger problem, but it has to be related.
So, she sends a request to her network, asking people to keep an eye out for such a creature. After five years of working as a detective in Looker’s stead she has made many bonds with the citizens of Lumiose, showing her worth and good intentions case by case until most were happy to help her whenever she was seen out and about. The city is big, too big for a single person to track down a pokémon of Zygarde’s size…at least its current form. Help is what she needs, any leads to narrow down areas to investigate; it had not come as a surprise to her when she saw no trace of the Legendary pokémon in the place the worker had first seen it, even as she spent three nights in a row hiding herself and waiting for it to appear. It probably knew it had been seen.
Still, she takes naps in the afternoon and walks around Lumiose at night in the hopes of catching a glance of the pokémon, carefully avoiding the red zones of the Z-A Royale.
A second picture finds its way onto her desk, taken on the opposite side of Lumiose this time around. It is not blurry, though slightly pixelated from a strong zoom; Emma can easily make out the shape of hind legs and sharp protrusions at their top, but the rest of the pokémon is hidden in the dark as it walks into the shadows of a building. She heads there as the sun starts to set, and cannot quite tell if the black shape she saw disappear into a bush in the middle of the night was truly it or just another pokémon spooked by her presence.
She is distracted the next two days by Urbain introducing her to a new addition to Team MZ, a girl named Harmony that shows great promise as a pokémon trainer. She only caught the end of her promotion match, but Harmony was a natural and Emma could feel she was destined for great things, so she offered her the opportunity to help out with her detective work. It was a win-win situation, as Emma could not handle all the smaller cases that kept piling up day after day when she was trying to track down an elusive pokémon such as Zygarde, and it would allow Harmony to get familiar with both the city and its citizens.
When two nights later that same girl meets the pokémon Emma has been trying her hardest to find, it only validates her feelings that she has a big role to play in whatever is currently happening in Lumiose.
Frustratingly, she doesn’t make it in time to see Zygarde herself, but now there are no more doubts about its identity, not when Harmony confirms the description of the latest picture Emma has been sent.
It’s only a few days later when a fourth picture arrives that Emma pauses when looking at it, her gaze sliding from the pokémon caught turning the corner of a building to a taller shape not far from it. She immediately digs out the other pictures and spreads them on her desk, frowning as another mystery reveals itself: three out of four of the photographs have a human in the field of view of the camera, and now that she is looking at them it is clear that it is the same person. She cannot make out any clear features but from their surroundings she estimates they are taller than most people, their clothes are dark, seemingly plain, maybe somewhat rugged. They are wearing a coat with fur lining the hood.
And they are clearly accompanying Zygarde.
Who are you? Emma thinks as she takes her time to memorize every little detail, from their build to their posture. There is a hint of facial hair in the latest picture, sharp lines that tug at a distant memory.
A small pokémon is hard to track down, but a human is much easier.
Emma pivots her strategy to finding them instead.
She has experience in finding missing persons, or just any persons; with Lumiose being as big as it is, some people are just overwhelmed and lost when they want to meet up with someone they are not familiar with, so most turn to her for help. It’s still time consuming to comb through an entire city when one has no clear area to focus on, so she goes to strategic spots in the hopes of catching a lead, listening to conversations as she nurses her coffee and strolls around the streets.
Going to a pokémon center is her latest idea: if whoever is accompanying Zygarde has pokémon of their own, it is likely they would make use of the facilities once in a while, either to heal their team or to buy some items.
She chooses the Magenta pokémon center on a hunch, even though it is not the closest to where she currently is. In fact, that’s why she chooses it: it is far away from the center of the city and is on the edge of a residential area, the canal and the electrical substation close by offering quiet places far from the prying eyes of curious neighbours.
The nurse on shift is talking to a police officer when she arrives.
Emma heads straight for them: even if it isn’t related to her current investigation, she is still Lumiose’s detective and makes sure to help anyone in need if her skills are welcomed. She catches the end of the description of a person and her focus immediately sharpens, because this is it.
“I might be mistaken,” the nurse is quietly saying, “but if I am right…”
“It could become a big issue,” the police officer nods in agreement. “You were right to report this.”
“Hello,” Emma slides close to the two, catching their attention. “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation...”
“Detective!” the police officer beams, before her expression settles back to a professional seriousness. “You’ve aware of this, too?”
“I am looking for someone,” she nods. “It sounds similar to the description you were just giving,” she looks at the nurse, who is worrying her bottom lip. “Would you mind repeating it for me?”
“Well…”
She looks at the police officer, who gives her an encouraging smile in return.
“You can trust the detective,” she says. “She helps out with police work all the time and knows to stay discreet.”
“Here,” Emma adds, pulling one of her pictures from the pocket of her jacket and offering it to the nurse. “Is this the same person?”
The nurse leans forward to get a better look and gasps softly.
“Yes,” she confirms. “That’s him!”
She looks around, but the street in front of the pokémon center is thankfully empty for the moment. Still, she leans forward again as if sharing a secret, so Emma shuffles slightly closer to listen to the full description of her target.
“He is a tall man,” she starts, “with grey hair and a beard. He is keeping his left eye closed but his right one is a light blue. His clothes are worn and mended, and he is wearing a coat with a big fur collar.”
Emma files the information away in her mind, adjusting the idea she had of her target with these new details. She thinks they are done, but the nurse’s eyes flicker between the police officer and Emma herself before adding in a quiet whisper:
“I think… I think it was Lysandre.”
Emma can feel her eyebrows shot up on her forehead.
“Lysandre?” she repeats, dumbfounded. “The Lysandre? From Team Flare?”
“I know it sounds crazy,” the nurse hugs herself. “But I swear he looked just like him. I wouldn’t - I wouldn’t forget his face, you know.”
Emma knows. She doesn’t think there is a single person in all of Kalos that had access to a holocaster five years ago that could forget. If it is true, it is pretty worrying news indeed…though she cannot quite wrap her head around how it can be true.
“It might be a lookalike,” the police officer reassures the nurse with a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You said he was older, with grey hair and worn clothes. It doesn’t sound like him, now, does it?”
She looks at Emma for support. Emma doesn’t think the police officer believes her words at all: after all, it is a serious enough accusation that the police will investigate without a single doubt, especially on the account of the attempted genocide five years ago. It is clear she is simply looking to alleviate the nurse’s worry so that she can go on with her life while in the shadows they get to the bottom of the story, so Emma smiles and nods.
“Don’t worry,” she tells the nurse. “I’ll be looking into it.”
A trainer shows up as the nurse thanks them both; she peels off to resume her duties as Emma and the police officer leave the pokémon center.
“You think it could be him?” the other asks her in a low tone of voice.
“I cannot make any affirmations until I gather more intel,” Emma replies. “When I find him, I will know. Would you leave this case with me? I believe it is tied to some…other investigations I have currently ongoing.”
The police officer thinks it over. Emma has a good relationship with the police, good enough that they have left some cases in her hands in the past, knowing she would share her findings in the end. This case is certainly proving to be more delicate than anticipated, and she would rather keep it as hushed as possible until she figures out what exactly is going on; Lysandre is a name most would prefer to never hear ever again in their lifetimes and she wants to keep it that way.
“Alright,” the police officer finally decides. “I will leave it with you. At least, if there is no trouble to be seen in the upcoming days.”
“Of course,” Emma easily agrees. “Thank you. What do you say to a coffee?”
“Is this a bribe, Detective?” the other laughs, but accepts her offer.
They go to Café Triste right around the corner and have a pleasant chat until their cups are empty and it is time to get back to work. Emma heads back to her bureau, mulling over the new information she has gathered that day, trying to make sense of it.
Lysandre. Could it be true? The general knowledge was that he died buried under the earth with the remnants of the ultimate weapon. The less general knowledge, the one she knew of through her connections to the police, was that no corpse had ever been found but that surely, surely, no one could survive this. All accounts of Team Flare members taken into custody at that time certainly spoke of their boss in past tense.
She digs out old articles and videos about the man. They aren’t hard to find: Lysandre was a very public person, between his philanthropic actions, his successful venture into the field of technology and owning a renowned café right here in Lumiose. She compares the well put man on her laptop screen to the blurry shapes of the figure in her pictures and finds that the similarities are not as far stretched as she would first have thought. Yet, her questions remain without answers.
How did he survive?
Why is he back in Lumiose, five years later?
Why is he accompanying Zygarde?
She taps the back of her pen on the paper blackened by her thoughts and musings, but no words jump out at her in a sudden, clear understanding.
“Mimi? How are you feeling today?”
The Espurr looks at her with its big, round eyes, and tilts its head slightly left and right.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to overwork you…”
Tracking Zygarde had proven to be too hard a task, even for its psychic powers, and Emma feels bad enough that she has missed the signs of exhaustion from her trusted partner as they looked for the Legendary pokémon together. Mimi disagrees, but she has sworn not to ask anything until it has completely recovered, unless it is an urgent matter.
Lysandre might not be an urgent matter, but the gamble is too risky. Mimi finds humans easier to comb through anyway: there are less of them than pokémon in Lumiose, a fact that only keeps being true as the days pass and wild zones keep appearing in every corner of the city. If they don’t put an end to their ongoing problem with Prism Tower and rogue mega evolution, Emma fears there won’t be anywhere for people to live.
She turns her laptop so that Mimi can see the recreation she has tried to do with pictures from Lysandre and the nurse’s description.
The Espurr chirps once and closes its eyes. It flicks its ears and focuses its power, holding out for a whooping ten seconds before starting to tip forwards; Emma jumps with an arm out to prevent it from falling.
“Mimi!”
Mimi plops back down the cushion with a soft cry, and cranes its neck up to look at Emma.
Sewers, a voice echoes in her head.
“In the sewers?” Emma repeats. “Are you sure?”
Mimi nods.
Emma turns the information in her head, connecting it to the other pieces in a picture that is slowly but surely coming together. It made sense that the nurse at the Magenta pokémon center would have seen him: there was a sewer entrance pretty close by. There are more dotted all around the city, of course, the whole system spreading far and wide below Lumiose in a maze of corridors and open areas; even now, people sometimes stumble into another part that has been hidden until then.
She smiles at the Espurr and scratches the top of its head.
“Thank you, Mimi! That’s a huge help. Take it easy now, alright? In fact… What do you say to a nap?”
It’s only the middle of the afternoon but Emma wants to continue her investigation at night, so resting sounds like a great idea for the two of them. Mimi is elated; they move to the couch and cuddle together in an echo of the time when they would be sleeping on the streets at night, a remnant of her youth where they huddled close to share warmth. The cushions are softer and warmer than the harsh stones of pavements and wind blown streets, but it doesn’t stop them from staying as close as possible to the other in a familiar dance they might never quite grow out of.
The sewers are about as pleasant as she remembers.
It is not an area she visits too frequently, though her cases sometimes have her drop by; there is a general humidity to the place, the temperature just this side of too cold to be comfortable. At least it is well lit, most lights revealing the path ahead and projecting shadows on the walls that stretch in scary shapes; kids love to come in and dare each other to go as far as possible in a test of courage that is as idiotic as it is endearing. She has been asked to find missing children a few times before and the majority were in this specific area, so she knows it like the back of her hand. Still, she takes the time to go round every dead end she knows of in the hopes of finding a grown man instead of a shivering child, keeping her footsteps silent and staying out of sight of the wild pokémon that have taken up residence down there.
She does not meet another human that night, nor the one that follows.
She is looking up a map highlighting the other entrances to the sewers she could try instead of the one near the Magenta pokémon center, wanting to avoid losing time finding her way back to the spot she stopped her search the previous night, when her rotom phone rings.
“Yes?”
“Emma!” Urbain smiles through the phone. “Harmony has something to share with you, are you free this afternoon?”
“I am,” she confirms. “Drop by whenever you wish.”
The call ends and she wonders what exactly is so important to come tell her all about. She knows Team MZ has been hard at work pacifying rogue mega evolutions recently, so it has to be linked… Maybe they have seen Zygarde again, even though the Legendary pokémon is still as slippery as ever for her to find.
She has been restless for a good hour thinking about all the possibilities when the two enter the bureau.
“Hi Urbain, hi Harmony,” she waves at them, before turning to look at the girl. “Urbain said you had something to share?”
“I’ve seen it again,” she immediately jumps to the point. “Zygarde!”
“Really? So it has been going around… When was this?”
“Yesterday, after we defeated one of the rogue mega evolutions. But…I actually saw it once before, too.”
“With Absol?”
“No, after that. It wanted to battle me.”
“Interesting…”
Emma brings a hand to her chin to think this through. Harmony and Zygarde are clearly linked…maybe the pokémon is expecting her to resolve this whole issue somehow?
“But that’s not all!” Urbain adds excitedly from the side.
“There is something else?”
“Someone else,” he corrects, and Emma straightens imperceptibly where she stands.
“There was a man with Zygarde,” Harmony confirms. “I have seen him twice so far, and yesterday… Yesterday, he mentioned that you were looking for him.”
“I am! I did not expect him to know that.”
It is a surprise, and slightly worrying. It means he has seen her, or that Zygarde has. Either way, it will make her investigation all the harder if they know to look out for her…
She confirms his description with Harmony, just in case. It is indeed the same man the nurse has seen, the same man featured in her pictures…potentially even the same man that should be dead but isn’t.
Harmony is happy to keep her in the loop if she ever comes across him again; Emma thanks her before the two friends take their leave and she decides to rethink her plan of attack. If her targets are aware she is on their tail, then she needs to be more unpredictable to catch them unaware… A part of her is tempted to reach out to the Rust Syndicate, which she knows deal with trouble in the sewers more often than not. As shady as that group is from an outside perspective, she is keenly aware they are making sure Lumiose is as peaceful as it can be, which is a goal not unlike her own…though she cannot in good faith agree with the methods they love using to get what they want.
She decides to keep them as a last resort, unwilling to spread the knowledge that a Legendary pokémon and the former boss of Team Flare are currently running free in the city.
She tries another entrance to the sewer that night and only stumbles upon a young couple that is more than happy for her to show them the way out.
Her plans for the next day are greatly disrupted by the sudden appearance of Ivor, the leader of the Fist of Justice, begging her to help him find his missing sister. Emma does not have the heart to turn him away with how distraught he is, though it is only once Harmony shows up to assist her that they get actual, useful information out of the man. It is clear from their chat with Canary that it is not a missing person case at all, but still she goes through the usual steps to bring him peace of mind.
Then, their search directs them to the sewer system, and her focus sharpens as she sees an opportunity to keep investigating her own private case; she guides Harmony through the process of being a detective and feels oddly proud when the girl succeeds at every turn. She would be a great assistant in the future, if she doesn’t have a goal of her own to achieve.
Emma finds herself as stumped as the others when they find themselves at a dead end even though all the clues lead to that area. Ivor taking the matter into his own hands, literally, opens her eyes to a new level of possibility: was the wall illusion made by Gwynn’s pokémon, or had she stumbled upon it by chance and had seen an opportunity? Could similar walls be erected in the rest of the sewers, keeping the corridors behind safe from prying eyes, the perfect hiding spot for people who want to keep out of sight?
Could it be the answer she was looking for in her search for Lysandre and Zygarde?
Gwynn is, of course, safe. Emma is glad she gets to witness Harmony fight once again, noting her rapid growth in the art of pokémon battles; when they part ways at last, back under the sunny sky of Lumiose, her mind is already planning for the upcoming night.
She goes back to the entrance in the Magenta sector. The first two dead ends wield no result, but in the third one her hand brushes against the stones of a wall only to have them ripple under her fingers, and she holds her breath in quiet victory. She goes through the illusion, cold washing over her in the odd caress of a ghostly waterfall, and is greeted by more corridors…exactly like in Gwynn’s case.
She is extra careful in moving around, avoiding walking into puddles and steering clear of any rocks dotting the ground. This area isn’t as well lit as the previous one, but it is enough for her to see her path; she spies a couple of Noibat sleeping on the ceiling, but thankfully the pokémon do not detect her and she proceeds further down without any trouble.
She knows she has been right when the corridor opens at last into another bigger room, a single light illuminating the space on one of the walls. She can hear the low rumble of a larger pokémon dozing, quiet but still audible amongst the silence of this part of the sewers; she holds her breath and starts climbing the steps leading to the room, all of her questions answered the moment she sees the creature.
There are no more doubts, not when a male Pyroar is laying down in one of the corners, another shape huddled close against its body, barely visible through the fiery mane.
Its eyes snap open the moment Emma reaches the top step, even though she has been as silent as ever. They lock on her, a heavy weight across her frame, but the pokémon stays otherwise still.
She takes one step forwards and its eyes narrow in a silent warning. Another one and its tail whips in the air, the motion stiff as it hits the ground in a soft noise like the Pyroar is trying to control its reactions instead of letting its annoyance be fully seen.
She knows why: it doesn’t want to rouse its master.
She apologizes internally at the pokémon; she understands fully what this body language is screaming, but Lysandre is the one she came to see and she is not going to leave until they have a chat.
She keeps moving forwards. Pyroar sighs first, still trying to keep quiet, but as she gets closer it lets out a low growl, its mane flashing in what Emma supposes is her last warning. She brushes her fingers against one of her pokéballs, ready to send her partner out if a fight breaks out, and takes another step.
Pyroar jerks its head up, uncomfortable with the diminishing space between them. Its motion jolts the man sleeping against its flank awake; Emma stops where she is as she sights him moving, as he turns where he sits and at last she gets to see him with her own eyes.
“Ah,” he says, his single eye falling on her. “The detective.”
She can feel her heart beating wildly through her ribcage.
She watches in silence as the man, as Lysandre, slowly pushes himself up to his feet, as the Pyroar rises in a smooth motion alongside its master and stays wrapped around him in physical support, anticipating the way Lysandre reaches out against its shoulder to steady himself before he finds his balance.
The eye locking onto her is the same icy blue as the broadcasts she has been watching of his past self, still as piercing and clever. His features are still severe, his expression still forever molded by an air of seriousness that makes him seem inapproachable; the cuts of his beard are still as sharp as ever. There are differences too, of course: he has aged, though now that she stands in front of him she has the feeling the loss of color of his hair is not related to the passage of time. He is somewhat slouching, a clear departure from the crisp, perfect posture he had favoured before, yet he still radiates a commanding presence, no matter the more subdued hairstyle, the visibly worn clothes, the missing eye.
She takes the time to commit him to her mind and feels him doing the same.
“Lysandre,” Emma greets him at last.
He frowns.
“Lysandre,” he repeats, and somehow the name sounds strange when coming from his own voice, the syllables almost foreign as they ring in the air. “A name people seem to believe refers to me.”
Emma pauses, the following sentence she had prepared dying on her tongue in favor of confusion.
“Because it does,” she replies instead with a tilt of her head. “It is your name.”
Isn’t it?
“It may have been so before, yes,” he concedes. “But no longer. I do not…remember that time.”
It is her time to frown, now.
“What does that even mean? You don’t remember? You’ve lost your memories?”
“Yes,” is his simple answer.
She doesn’t know what to feel. There is confusion, anger, a hint of curiosity, but mostly it’s the feeling of being utterly lost, because it doesn’t make sense.
“That’s it?” she bites, oddly annoyed by this turn of events. “You don’t remember? None of it? You don’t know what you did - what you almost did?”
“I know what I did,” he corrects her, still calm and collected when she feels like burning. “People talk. They write news articles to let others know what happens in the country.” When Emma stays quiet, processing this information, he continues: “I remember some things - fleeting flashes of emotions, the shapes of people, pieces of scenery. Shredded threads in the void of my past.”
It is Lysandre, yet at the same time, it isn’t. Emma isn’t quite sure what to do about this, where the line is drawn in such a unique case; she would have never guessed that of all things, amnesia would have been the fate bestowed upon Kalos’ worst criminal.
“Why are you here?” she asks next, because her puzzle pieces still refuse to fit together and she needs to know more. “Why come back to Lumiose of all places? Why throw away your freedom, if you know what you did? You can’t expect us to forget or forgive you, whether you remember or not.”
“Because Zygarde wished it so.”
Zygarde.
“So you are working with it. Why?”
“A question you will need to ask Zygarde directly,” Lysandre deflects. “I am only here to do as it commands.”
“Surely you must have a goal of your own.”
Lysandre smiles, then, a soft upturn of his lips.
“Anything to make a better world,” he answers, “a more beautiful world.”
Emma cannot help but react to that word; his smile sharpens for a second and she knows he did it intentionally, before his features smooth back to his usual, neutral expression.
“My presence here only stems from a wish to help,” he tells her next. “I have no intention to harm anyone, Detective.”
His words ring true; Emma wants to believe him, but she knows how clever he is with words, how easily he can ensnare his audience. He is too dangerous to let run free, no matter how much of a change of heart he claims to have, no matter if his memories are truly gone.
“It is too late for that,” she finally settles on.
He owes the country a few years of constant nightmares. He owes it a thousand apologies and a lifetime of amends; if the rest of Team Flare has been punished and properly convicted for their crimes, he deserves nothing less but the same fate.
She curls her fingers over the pokéball housing Ampharos, and takes a steady step forwards.
A shadow of grief and acceptance passes over Lysandre’s face. His Pyroar shifts its weight where it stands, baring its fangs as a growl slips from its throat, anticipating the upcoming fight.
Emma isn’t part of the police force so she doesn’t have the exact authorizations to apprehend a criminal like this per say, but there is no other option - she hopes it won’t be held against her.
She opens her mouth to let Lysandre know that she will be placing him under custody, when another voice echoes through the sewers:
“ZEH!”
She whirls on her feet, only to discover Zygarde in its ten percent form standing at the top of the stairs; it moves, walking between her and Lysandre and ultimately turning to face her, its bright, white eyes piercing in a different way than the man at its back. It’s the first time Emma has found herself in the presence of a Legendary pokémon, and even if Zygarde isn’t in its complete form right at this moment there is still a heavy pressure following its every step, the deep, instinctual knowledge that this is a being born from immemorial times.
“Zygarde,” she acknowledges.
The pokémon tilts its head at her.
“You had a question for it, did you not, Detective?”
Emma flicks her eyes to Lysandre, who is gesturing towards the Legendary pokémon; he is right, she has a question for it. She lets her arm fall back down along her body, even though she keeps the pokéball in her grip.
“Why are you here?” she turns her gaze down to talk to it directly.
There is a beat where Zygarde does not move and Emma wonders if it heard her - if it could even understand human speech in the first place. Then, it turns its head slightly back.
“It wants to bring back the proper order in Lumiose,” Lysandre answers instead. “This rogue mega energy that Prism Tower is emitting is a threat to the city - to the country as a whole, even.”
Zygarde shifts to look at Emma once again. She doesn’t know how to feel about the fact that Lysandre of all people is apparently translating for it, but the pokémon seems content with the reply given in its name.
“Why him?” she asks next, nodding towards the man further back. “You know who he is. You know what he did.”
“Zygarde needed human hands in order to collect all of its cells back. I just happened to be…available.”
“Why him?” she repeats, looking directly at the pokémon, unhappy with that answer.
Zygarde huffs. One of its ears flicks slightly.
“It chose me because of what I did,” Lysandre finally says. “Because I lost myself both ways - giving too much, taking too much, unable to find any kind of balance in the life I led. It wants to rectify that, to correct my path so I can move forward again, without falling this time around.”
She straightens back up to look at the man.
“A noble sentiment,” Emma acknowledges, “but one I cannot agree with. People died because of what you did, Lysandre. Many more would have, if you had had your way. At least in prison, you can do no more harm.”
“I would be able to do no more good either,” the man counters. “What amends do you expect a prisoner to achieve, but empty words in the hopes of setting themselves free?”
“That’s for this country to decide,” she claims, tightening her grip on her pokéball once more.
She goes to sidestep Zygarde only to find the pokémon mimicking her motions, standing in her way and preventing her from getting any closer to Lysandre. Left or right it doesn’t matter: it stays stubbornly in front of her, head held high, eyes unblinking in a disconcerting manner.
If anything else, it is that protectiveness that makes Emma falter. Doubts grow in the back of her mind, because her gut feeling is that what Zygarde is doing is right: she can easily believe that it is there to help the city, that its role in the ecosystem has brought it to this specific place at this specific time for a reason. It has chosen Lysandre to aid it in its cause - who is Emma to disagree with that choice?
She looks at the pokéball in her palm, coming to a decision; she straightens up where she stands and looks at Lysandre once more.
“Battle me,” she demands. “If you have really changed, if you are really here to help protect Lumiose…then I will see it as we fight.”
Lysandre was not expecting such a request. She sees the surprise flash in his eye, and wonders if he was intending to go with her without fighting back, even when his pokémon was standing up for him.
Zygarde stays still for another handful of seconds before it seems to approve of her desire; it walks to the side of the room and stays there, standing at equal distance from each of them, like a referee overseeing that the proceedings are in good order.
Emma nods at it in silent thanks and throws her pokéball in the air. Ampharos appears in a flash and lets out a confident cry, standing tall as it waits for its opponent to take place on the field. She isn’t surprised when Lysandre brushes a hand against the body of his Pyroar in a wordless command, the pokémon finally leaving its trainer’s side to face Ampharos, letting out a roar as its mane flashes bright in anticipation of the fight.
Emma has Ampharos set up a light screen first before going for a power gem, while Pyroar immediately starts with a flamethrower that does more damage than expected; she tries to finish it with a dragon pulse but her opponent is quicker than her and Ampharos hits the ground first. She sends out Lopunny next, who manages to dodge the upcoming solar beam and gets a power-up punch in to defeat Pyroar, receiving an attack boost in the process. Emma is intending to keep boosting it up to deal major damage but her plan is unfortunately foiled as Lysandre sends a Sableye next, its ghost typing negating her fighting moves. A burn is another handicap she is not prepared for, and it is not a surprise when Lopunny goes down.
She weighs her options and decides on Mawile next; she takes advantage of the fact that will-o-wisp won’t be available to Lysandre so soon to rush Sableye and defeat it before it can put her in another precarious position.
The next pokémon that Lysandre sends out makes her pause: it’s a Garbodor, big and tanky, and so oddly out of place in the team of a man that was known for having very fixed ideas about beauty.
It hits hard, but her Mawile gives as good as it gets. It resists most of the moves from the poison pokémon, which allows it to clench that victory, if by only a hair.
Noivern is next, and Emma frowns. She knows which pokémon Lysandre used five years ago and with only two other remaining pokémon, it isn’t enough for all of them to show up here. She wonders what made him change his team, if it was by choice…or by necessity.
Mawile goes down, which isn’t a surprise. She sends Abomasnow and easily overpowers Noivern with a few ice punches, though not without suffering a pretty nasty hurricane in-between her attacks. Florges comes out, confirming her suspicions on Lysandre’s new team; it manages to defeat Abomasnow and Emma counts herself lucky that her two remaining pokémon are physical attackers, as she knows Florges has a great special defense that would be difficult to handle without using proper type effectiveness.
As it is, she sends Lucario to finish it, its steel move deadly. Florges somehow tanks it, but an extreme speed is all that is left for it to finally faint.
Emma has an inkling about Lysandre’s last pokémon.
She is right.
Gyarados stretches out in the air with a roar, dwarfing Lucario with its size. Emma expects a flying type move and is surprised by an earthquake that Lucario cannot dodge in time instead, forcing her to also reveal her last pokémon.
She keeps her eyes on Lysandre’s face as she does so, wanting to catch any sign of recognition as Malamar coalesces on the field, and is forced to accept that the man’s claim of forgotten memories is the truth after all. She has no doubt that Lysandre knew of Xerosic’s trusted partner, and yet there is no reaction at all from the man as the pokémon appears.
She decides to mull over it later, focusing on the battle in front of her; she brings her hands to her chest and triggers Malamar’s mega evolution, the light blinding for a few seconds as her pokémon undergoes the transformation. It evades a crunch as the battle resumes and looks back at Emma as she fails to indicate a move for it to use.
“Well?” she calls out to Lysandre instead, feeling put out that her opponent isn’t using the same strategy as she is. “Aren’t you going to mega evolve your Gyarados?”
She knows he can. The water pokémon had been his ace five years ago, its mega evolution a force to be reckoned with; she doesn’t believe that Lysandre would have parted with his key stone nor Gyarados’ mega stone, and yet…now that she is looking for it, she cannot get a glimpse of a ring on his hand.
Her eyes flick to his face, only for him to evade her gaze. She wants to call the expression he is wearing shame, but it seems more complicated than that, sadness and fear found in the creases of his mouth and the furrowing of his brow, until he closes his eye and makes them all disappear.
“I see,” she says softly to herself.
She breaks the link with Malamar, the pokémon shaking itself as it reverts to its original form, and calls it back inside its pokéball. Lysandre looks at her with a question in his eye.
“I have seen enough,” she declares. “I will be keeping an eye on you…but I am going to trust you. And you, Zygarde,” she lets the Legendary pokémon know.
It simply watches her quietly and shows no reaction, whether positive or negative, to what she just announced.
“Detective…”
“My name is Emma,” she cuts him off with a smile.
She knows that he knows who she is, but she hasn’t introduced herself yet, and this way the favor can be returned.
“A pleasure to meet you, Emma,” the man tilts his head, understanding her aim there. “Please, call me L.”
“L,” she repeats, the single letter more meaningful on her tongue now than it has ever been before.
She thinks of AZ and of times so ancient they don’t mean anything to her. She thinks of Legendary pokémon deciding to take a stance and make a change, and hopes it is indeed for the greater good. She thinks about what it means to be reborn, and whether second chances can truly be granted.
She nods and folds her hands at her back.
“Let’s do our best to save Lumiose.”