Era Chapter XXIII: Her Home

CHAPTER XXIII Her Home

465 Days A.A.D.

6:15 pm

    Rusbold redoubt, an abandoned structure that once belonged to Quera's Special Forces, located at the Wasteland's Southeast.

    Its construction had been halted due Era's events, but doesn't stop Beatrix being around this desolated place.

    The exhausted Zoroark reaches the five floors fort after another routine day with the Próceres. It's built with massive cream colored bricks and has a single gigantic steel gate at a side which remains sealed at all times. It also has towers at the sides with smaller cannons than the one at the center of the building.

    "Something is wrong..." thinks Beatrix as she notices that main gate has damage that hasn’t been there previously. After seeing this, Beatrix climbs up the fort up to the second floor to a open hidden trapdoor.

    "No, I don't ever leave this entrance like this" thinks the Zoroark, feeling fear rise up as she rushes inside the redoubt.

    Beatrix quickly and sneakily gets through the halls, heading to a specific area on the first floor. Once down there, she reaches the entrance of a huge room.

    She takes a quick glance inside to check a peculiar rock table that has some kind of nest on top. The nest contains several Poke eggs as well as a couple of Elixir pots in front of them. Beatrix feels relieved at first, until she notices someone is standing next to her.

   "It's you." says the voice of the figure, who proceeds to walk into the room.

Beatrix can’t reply or move from her fear, however now she could see that the intruder is that one member of the Miserables that went missing; Turret the Sceptile. She feels somewhat relieved to recognize him but still feels uncomfortable.

    "It's been a while, right?" says Turret, while walking around the room. He move to and checks the egg nest. "These eggs... There are almost five different species on here, and they look strangely sane... What are they doing in here? Do you kn-"

    Before Turret is able to finish his sentence, Beatrix approaches him with dark matter emanating from her arms, aiming to protect the eggs from the Sceptile.

    "Hey!" Turret jumps backwards, distancing himself from the protective Zoroark and the nest. "Oh, now I understand..."

    Beatrix refuses to reply, she just stares at him intently, ready to defend the nest.

    "I'm sorry, I should have guessed these belong to you. I was not planning to destroy them like most would have." Turret says as he places his hands behind his neck. "Maybe you will trust me better like this."

    The Zoroark watches him carefully, this moment was so unexpected that terrified her, but then she sees what Turret is actually doing; he is taking off his mask.

    "I am more than a murderer, you know?" Turret says as now has that piece of leather in his hands, he looks at it for a bit before turning to Beatrix, revealing his face. “and I do also have a name.”

    Beatrix recoils a bit at finally seeing him maskless; she sees a Sceptile that has his whole head is charred to a darker tone, like a plant after catching a fire. She notices he has several marks of deep wounds across his facial area as well.

    “Good to see you again, Beatrix. My name is Cory. I dedicated my life to be a nomad adventurer, with hopes of one day train enough and become part of the Pokécop’s Special Forces. Until one day, that Serperior managed to frame me of his crimes” Cory looks up to the roof, having faith in that Beatrix wouldn’t attack him and listen to his story. “Due the disaster of Era happening in the world, I didn’t get judged properly and I was imprisoned immediately because my case was rushed.”

       Beatrix lets the dark matter fade away from her arms but stays close to the nest while watching Cory silently.

    “Criminals that do the things Jackie did are frowned among even prisoners; murdering children… What happened to my face is the torture I received because of that. Buried on the ground with just my head peeking outside, and then everyone taking turns to attack me. I would be dead now...” Cory crosses his arms and looks back to Beatrix. “if I hadn’t killed them first.”

    Beatrix away to the side for a second then back to him, not sure on how to respond.

    "I took my chance when one of them turned into an Enervemon on us, something within me gave me the strength to free myself and execute everyone in sight with my Enermove. That was the first time I managed to use that move." Cory takes a look at his tail and waves it for a second. "I managed to escape, it was easy because the situation got worse, yet I murdered anyone that got on my way."

    Beatrix feels like his last words were a sign he was going to attack but he continues talking.

    "I made this mask from the bag I carried on my trips. Now I use it for the identity the witnesses of my acts gave to me; Turret." Cory puts his mask on again and looks at Beatrix, with a menacing look in his eyes. "Jackie is dead now, my only purpose in life was to get revenge against him, but now he is gone... Now after looking at these eggs, they made me think of what’s truly important to me."

    Beatrix moves to get ready to fight, but he keeps talking.

    "Finding them after wandering around gave a new light to my life, I see they are not going to hatch into Enerves. Maybe you found a cure to let Pokemon reproduce normally again in this world? I'm afraid I can't be loyal to Geo anymore as I joined him for the wrong reasons. But, here you are with the key to truly save existence." Cory extends a hand towards Beatrix. "Please, allow me to help you with what you have here. You are good, unlike me... "

    Beatrix looks at his hand and approaches. The Sceptile is unsure if she would even shake his hand, but in the end he receives a hug.

    "T-thank you for not hurting my babies, your help will be really appreciated, don't worry about your past, I understand. You already know I have murdered someone." Beatrix whispers quietly to him. Cory now goes speechless, just responding by hugging her back.

465 Days A.A.D.

7:20 pm

    About a hour later, Beatrix and Cory are just sitting on the ground in front of each other, talking more about themselves, right now Beatrix is speaking about her past and those eggs of hers.

    "I'm not as good like you think, Cory. Back then, getting a job at Liston Town was almost impossible, my lover and I got forced to abuse our ability steal and... I’m unsure if you wanna hear this..."

    "I don't care, I have a feeling I know where this goes."

    "Well, we often framed others for our crimes, but don't worry! The Special Forces eventually figured out that the robberies were caused by a Zoroark; our methods gave it away."

    "I believe in my brief time in prison I heard about your case, you guys keep robbing when Era began?"

    "We planned to stop as soon we had our own egg, but things turned out horribly when everyone started turning into those Enervemon. People hadn’t figured out just yet how to stop that from happening! It was still two weeks after Arceus exploded!"

    "By not running out of power, yeah. Things would be so different if we had known earlier, yet no one could help to use self-defense against the Enerves."

    "Exactly, then that fucking night... " Beatrix's voice tone becomes a tad more gloomy. “Those things wouldn’t stop attacking the little house we managed to afford at Linston; it was just a couple of nights after I finally had my egg. My lover kept attacking the Enerves, he wouldn’t let me to help him since he wanted me to rest and look after our egg. That night it hatched prematurely...”

    “Oh no Beatrix, so your-”

    “Yes, my son had become an stunted Enervemon, it was painful to look at, then when I went to my lover, he had turned into one as well after wasting so much power. I had no choice but flee from the house, leaving both of them behind. A furless Zorua that barely had any limbs trying to kill me...” A tear gently runs down Beatrix’s cheek as she goes silent for several seconds, Turret looks watches in pity.

    “I’m so sorry about that, yeah, currently eggs can’t hatch properly, the Special Forces began to either destroy or seal them away. I thought our existence was a risk until I saw your nest here.”

    “Yeah, you see, after that, I tried to redeem myself and attempt to save any eggs from any different species I could find. My trip through Quera led me to discover that exposing them to Elixir can prevent them to hatch prematurely; the only problem is that they don’t hatch at all either. I had to deal with so many failed hatches until I found this place to stay where I figured this out.”

    “So this is the reason of why I heard you don’t tend to stay with the Próceres over night?”

    “Exactly, I kept this as a secret mainly for two reasons. Sarge, the Magnezone, I know he used to work with the Special Forces, he’s nice and all, but I’m sure he wouldn’t like to know I’m possessing these, maybe no one there would. Second, the Próceres might not like the use I’m giving to the Elixir. I believe it will feel like a waste to them.”

    “Damn it, you guys could get loot from the ruins of the Miserables’s building but the collapse attracted way too many Enervemon to the area and they’re not showing any sign of going away anytime soon.”

    “Don’t worry, I know how to ration the Elixir well. Speaking of which, don’t you miss anyone at the Miserables? I know you joined them for your reasons, but didn’t you make any friends or anything?”

    “Uh, well...” Cory looks down, crossing his arms and tapping his fingers, thinking carefully about what to say next. “There’s Shiva, I think about her every moment.”

       “Shiva!?” Beatrix snickers, Cory closes his eyes feeling a bit of shame. She notices his expression, “I’m sorry, that’s fine really, but do you know what has happened to the Miserables lately? The Cofagrigus is dead, so is that Chandelure that was in your team. She apparently took down my teammate Jester! No idea what happened to the survivors or how the building got destroyed.”

       “Oh... A lot has happened since I left, I’m so sorry about Jester, Beatrix. I don’t want to imagine how Shiva must be feeling...”

    "Hey Cory, If you wanna, you can stay here until you meet with her again. I'm not sure if I'm on good terms with her."

    "Thank you Beatrix, I'll be glad to be here with you. Hopefully, we will get those eggs to hatch, this seems to be the right way."

    Beatrix and Cory smile and shook hands, sealing the path to become housemates and take care of the eggs.

    The days pass, everyday Beatrix takes her leave to the Próceres's base, but this time relieved that she had someone to trust at her make-shift home. The Próceres noticed a bit of a change with Beatrix’s aptitude, being more cheerful and not so stressed looking.

    Sometimes Cory goes out at night the moment Beatrix is back to look for extra loot for themselves.

    This became a routine for them, the eggs still sane but wouldn't hatch yet. While they wait and try more methods to get them to hatch, they are glad that they are still alive and count on each other.

490 Days A.A.D.

10:09 am

    A month has passed since Turret, or Cory, has moved to Beatrix’s home, today she has gone to the Próceres’s base again as usual. Meanwhile Cory stays in the redoubt, sitting on the ground and resting from the last night's exploration. He looks to the eggs before starting to fall asleep.

    In that second, a loud explosion is heard from somewhere nearby, alarming Cory enough to have him on his feet in a second.

    "What is that now!? Beatrix!?" yells Cory as he runs towards the entrance of the room to find out what's going on, but not before checking the eggs one last time.

    Once Cory is out of the room, he manages to see what the issue is; there's is a huge hole at a side of the hall, the hole leading to the outside.

    However what concerned Cory the most are two figures that are standing on the same hall now, across the dust, one of them looks quite familiar to him, the other one not so much.

    "Finally, Zhulyemos, you found one!" speaks one of them, immediately making Cory go in battle pose after the voice is heard. "Get him!"

 ==

Phew, about time to post the first one for Season A! In this chapter we learn many things concerning 'Turret', Beatrix and more.

Beatrix when back to her the place she goes every night after being with the Próceres, encounters an intruder who happens to be someone believed to be missing.

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