LoRD V: A Legacy's Denouement Chapter 12

Open

With the meeting ending between Louis and Lucas, there was another matter that needed to be attended to back at home base.

Veruka found herself in one of the abandoned rooms of the underground facility. There were old tools everywhere, with cabinets opened everywhere you look, but they were all empty. There were old posters on the wall that were yellowing, showing the insides of the human body. It was most likely an emergency room before it was abandoned after the civil war in Sinnoh. The only colorful part of the room was literally the color: a bright red tint painted around the entire perimeter of the wall, surrounding Veruka everywhere she looked in the room.

She sat down on the bench in the room, and just looked around. She just starred blankly at the wall, and shook her head, which lead her to laying her head in between  her legs. She started to cry after being alone for a few seconds, and wept silently as she laid down on the slab she sat on. She couldn't help everything that was going on at the moment. She couldn't help but think about her father, and how he just fell off the face of the Earth- in an instant.

"What's wrong?"

Veruka looked toward the door, and saw a woman standing in the threshold. It was the new woman that she saw earlier, Jacqueline. "Oh..." Veruka said, sitting upright. "Sorry if I distracted you-"

"No, no!" Jacqueline shook her hands back and forth. "I'm sorry I disturbed you! I just saw you walking down the halls, seeing you were a bit too quiet... I guess I got a little carried away." She admitted.

Veruka just sighed. "It's alright," she said, "I mean, if you wanted to talk to me, it's fine. I'm sorry... I still don't think I ever caught your name!" Veruka said, trying to bring herself back to reality.

"Jacqueline Deandre," the woman said, walking through the doors as her blue clothing shook as she walked, "you can call me Jacqueline, or Jackie... that's what Kerry has been calling me anyway. He has been ever since we met."

Veruka looked up toward the woman. "You know Kerry?"

"Not before all of this happened," she said, "I was working up at my father's mill up until this rebellion broke out. I was forced out of my mill because of some 'secret project' they were doing with the block. Then I found out there was no project. Jeremiah just claimed the entire block to himself, and he drove about three-hundred people out of a job."

"Is that why you're against them?"

"That... and I really just don't like them!" She giggled a little. "I met Kerry while he was running away front he SUI. Apparently the building was being torn apart due to the mass division of the agency, and Kerry just happened to be one of the good guys."

Veruka just started to laugh, as Jackie glanced over to wonder what was so funny. "I'm sorry," Veruka said, "I just thought that you too were together."

Jacqueline made a gagging noise. "Hell no," she replied, "just friends."

The two then started to laugh, up until their laugh began to die down.

"Why are you walking by yourself anyway?" Jackie asked, looking toward the infernape.

Veruka shrugged her shoulder. "I just wanted to walk around, that's all."

"I don't think that's true." Jackie replied, as Veruka looked toward her showing that she was probably right. "If you have a secret, or something you need to talk about, I'm all ears. I won't tell a soul." She raised her right hand to the roof.

Veruka looked back to the ground, and immediately back at her. "I couldn't even tell my husband," Veruka said, "I don't know if I can tell anyone!"

"Test me." Jacqueline replied, crossing hear ms together and kicking her feet against the slab.

Veruka decided to get this off her chest. She just fell down to the pressure. "Alright..."

Jacqueline sat upright, as did Veruka. She then began to talk about what was on her mind.

"When we were escaping from the ranch, we already lost friends... really good friends," Veruka started, "one of them being a close friend of mine. The rest of us hightailed it out as fast as we could before David, while Lucas stayed to try and confront him. We... ended up getting separated when Jeremiah and his guys came in, and we were forced to run into the woods. We had no idea what happened to everyone else until we arrived here!"

"You just wish that those you lost could have came as well?" Jacqueline asked.

Veruka slightly shook her head, then began to try to rebuttal the gesture she made. "Well, of course! It's just that my master and my dad went back for him." She looked to the roof. "Our master, Elisa, felt it was wrong to leave Lucas to David alone. She and my dad went to get him. They did... just without my dad coming back."

Jacqueline laid her hand on Veruka's back, as they both looked down to the ground. "It must be horrible to think about it," Jackie started, "and you have every right to be upset. But why can't you tell Vincent?"

Veruka looked back up to Jacqueline. "Because it was dad in a way as well!" She said. "Even though he tries to open the talk up to me, I just turn it down. I don't want any of us to be upset anymore! I happy that we finally got to come back to everyone else, that Vincent, Alex, and Valance are all still safe. I kinda just don't want to dread on the dead anymore. I see myself and my family moving on, just wanting to forget the past, you know? The ranch is gone, dad is dead... but the rest of us are still here! As long as I can keep that in my head, I can an still move on. Yeah... I think I get it now."

Jacqueline did listen to every word the infernape spoke Jacqueline the. Decided that it was her time to speak.

"My father was quite the business man. We moved from Unova to Sinnoh so he could continue his business internationally, and it was a success!" She said, as Veruka glanced up to her as she talked on. "We were so happy, having our family so close together living so peacefully. Then came a day, about four years ago, when he suddenly passed on. It was a health condition he was suffering for some time, only we didn't expect it to strike so soon. We were all devastated! I kept to myself for weeks without speaking to anyone."

"And how did it work out for you?" The infernape asked.

Jacqueline turned her attention back to Veruka. "It didn't." She added. "I was alone. There was nothing that I did to support myself. That is, until I opened up..."

Jacqueline stood up, and began walking around the room.

"My family, even my pokemon, they supported me every step of my recovery from the sudden downfall. Sure, my father passed on, but as you said, there were still other that were around me." She smiled, as did Veruka. "Sometimes you have to show your weaknesses, because you need to show others that you're just like them- normal! Everything that lives on this planet feels something! And in order for anything to feel anything, we need to all be open to others! Otherwise, what is the point?"

Veruka nodded along, and also stood up besides Jacqueline. The woman stood slightly taller than the infernape, as they both gave a friendly expression toward each other.

"So, from what you're telling me, I should just stay open?"

Jacqueline pointed toward Veruka. "That's it- open!"

Veruka nodded, as their friendly expressions turned to somber faces. "Maybe both of our fathers did teach us something." Veruka said.

As Jackie was about to reply, there was a knock on the door. A lucario walked in, as he looked with concern to Veruka. "I've been looking for you!" Vincent said, as his eyes glimmered in the dim lighting. "Are you alright?"

Veruka looked to Jacqueline, and then back to Vincent, proceeding to nod to him. "I'm fine," she assured, "there's just something we need to talk about."

---

At the same time, another lucario was making his way up a staircase toward the top floor overlooking the facility. Standing over the table were two people, looking down at a map.

"Is this where Jacqueline's dad's place is?" Elisa asked, pointing to a spot on the map, of what appears to be Jubilife. "It's two sections down on the opposite side of the street! It might be a bit too far away from Worthington's in order to make a swift and quiet move!"

Kerry disagreed. "Naw!" He said, pointing to the same spot. "If these Red Hand guys are the big experts that their reputation holds, then they should have the materials we can use to observe them from a distance. This could still work!" He slammed his finger against the map.

"Are we really considering this?" John's voice arose from the lucario's body. "Ant we take down Jeremiah without force? We are not killers!"

Once again, Kerry disagreed. "Really?" Kerry asked, licking his lips. "You certainty had to fight them back at your little ranch!"

"We had no choice!" John resisted.

"Then imagine we have no choice again, which in this case, we really don't!" Kerry said, pushing the map down the table. "We do this one last job, and Lucas says that it's over! If we want these guys off our backs for good, Jeremiah has to go!"

John then rubbed his scarf where the bullet hole was located, while running away from some firing on him during the ranch escape. "We have numbers now," John said, "we can take him down without lethal force!"

"We can't," Elisa's small voice arose following his, "his uncle, Jerold, was responsible for Ina's death. Jeremiah pairing up with David was responsible for the death of more of my pokemon, as well as my ranch becoming nothing but ruins! We don't have any other choice!"

John began quieter after Elisa was seen becoming furious in front of him. It was rare to see Elisa so angry, but the thought of taking down Jeremiah was disturbingly appealing to her. She sat down in one of the chairs.

"Jadis's trainer?" John asked, making sure she knew what she was talking about. "Jadis told me her... she sounded like a nice woman."

Elisa made no gesture to back it up, she just spoke the first couple of words that came to her mind: "She was."

"I'm sorry," John said, "but this still isn't right! I can't do this!"

"Then don't!" Kerry said, looking back at the map while walking behind Elisa. "You can stay here if you choose. We do need someone to watch the little kiddies whole we are gone."

John just looked down in disappointment. He wasn't always with this group, but he could tell that they were a good group. He saw how they became broken by the piece with David looking over their shoulder for so long.

He looked over to Kerry, asking, "Are you sure we are doing this plan?"

Kerry looked back up to the lucario. "We will know for sure once. Lucas and the gang get back after their meeting!" He said, looking back to the map. "But anyways, back to business..." He said, shaking his head.

As John began to make his way back down the stairs, he, as well as the two humans, heard a noise coming from the elevator shaft. "I guess they're back." Elisa said, standing up.

Kerry looked toward the shaft, and laughed. "Here, John! You'll get your answer right now!"

Kerry stood along with her, as he walked toward the elevator. The shaft can be heard making its way down, the noise as loud as it could possibly be. John listened to Kerry, and just waited for the shaft to open, to see what was the plan.

There was a dinging noise, and the elevator opened up. "Welcome back!" Kerry said.

"Huh?" An unknown voice sounded, as the doors swung open.

Neither of the faces in the shaft were familiar. They were two guys, each of them becoming alarmed to find some people waiting in the room where they were heading.

The man on the right pulled out a gun and prepared to fire it. John fired off a quick aura sphere, as the man's body was thrown into the wall of the elevator, which was followed by a loud thud, and the gun falling onto the floor. The man was knocked unconscious.

The other man raised his hands up, as Kerry unlocked his gun, and pulled it out, aimed at the man in questioning. "Whoa, whoa... what!?" The man shouted, getting on his knees, as Kerry aimed his gun and John formed another aura sphere. "He said there was no one down here! He said this place was all open! I was just following order, I swear! I swear!"

The three began to walk closer to the brown-haired man, who looked to be in his late twenties. He was shaking in nervousness all over his body. As they inched closer, Elisa spoke up.

"I know this guy!"

Kerry looked toward her as if she was making it up. "You know this guy? You real?"

"This one, yeah. The other one, I have no clue." She said taking one last step toward the man, as he looked up at Elisa.

Elisa looked more closely at the man, as he began to show high signs of anxiety.

"Yep, I know him..." she said, punching him in the face, as the man fell to the ground. "He was one of the people that attacked my ranch.