Knox was there as quick as lightning could strike. The moment she saw him, stumbling toward the door after being pushed closer to it, she knew that whatever was happening was escalating quickly.

Reaching onto her belt, she released Loki and Frigg. The THEIVUL and the ABSOL were accustomed to messes such as these, though Loki not as much. Still, they stood on either side like statues, staring forward and waiting for their trainer's command.

"How kind of you to join us, Blue. Perhaps the most timely you've been in your life," Summer spoke, her voice unwavering as she leaned against the back of the sticky chair.

Everything was clumping together and sticking to her. She desperately wanted to leave, to cleanse herself of everything.

She waved her hand in front of her, hoping that her façade wasn't dropped or faltered in front of their father.

"Your ex-boyfriend... he left quite a mess."

Deep down, Summer hoped and prayed to Arceus that Knox would understand what she was doing. That she was playing a game to get out of this fucked up situation.

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉

she is cruel. he stares at her, blue eyes growing hard. unlike summer, he has never worked hard to hide behind a mask. she waves her arms and he doesn't want to look, knows that the cloying, copper smell is coming from the mess underneath him. around him. 

but still, he has to make sure it's -

ollie. he drops, legs leaden. any bit of courage, any hope of vengeance he'd had when he walked out on sam is gone. his hands splay on the ground to steady himself, sliding in blood. nausea crawls its way back up his throat again, but he forces it back down. refuses to do that to ollie. 

fuck. 

he doesn't reach for the pokeballs he'd snatched back from the bruiser on his way in. slippery fingers, this one. summer liked to say it was all he was ever good for. only reason she'd bring him on nicking jobs. 

"don't be so cruel, darling. can't you see he's mourning?" his father's chair screeches as he stands up. knox leans back and looks down at his stained hands. drops them in his lap. loki and frigg peer down at him and he half-closes his eyes. 

gives up right then and there.

but then his father is at his side, yanking him up by his shoulder and shoving him into the chair. 

merrick takes another sip from his whiskey and then sets it down on the table. "so what are we dealing with today, hm? i don't see track marks this time around. speed again? or more of your 'party drugs?'" he sneers down at knox, but knox isn't looking at him. he's fixed on summer. 

"how could you do this? how could you kill him?"

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉

Summer felt her stomach churn and knot when she saw her brother collapse. There was guilt building, biting in her chest, as she saw him grieving. Even though she knew that Ollie was nothing more than an asshole to him, perhaps one of the worst boyfriends he ever had...

To see him grieve over someone he clearly loved hurt her. If she hadn't built up this farce to appease her father and attempt to get Knox and herself out of here alive, she would pull him into her arms and be the big sister that he needed.

Not this monster.

"Of course, Father," she said stiffly, regarding Knox with a glance out of the side of her eye.

Merrick was unkind in handling him, and Summer watched as he was forced into the chair beside the remains of his past lover. Loki came to the side, standing on the open space to the side of Knox and keeping an eye on him with unreadable eyes. Frigg stood to her side, near Merrick, calm and collected.

And then it made sense.

"He set me up."

Summer's eyes tracked to the back of her father's head, who had been gazing at her sibling. There was a twinge of fire, of anger, that showed in her eyes, but it was extinguished as quickly as it appeared.

"A man who doesn't answer truthfully doesn't deserve to live," she answered.

"And it got you to where we needed you."

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉

my respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs,

his nostrils flare. that anger returns to him like a winter's gale, knifing through his skin, waking him up. he bares his teeth in an anguished grimace, palm coming down on the table. his father's ice rattles in his whiskey glass. 

he shakes with anger. with horror. with rage. with revulsion. 

"you think i care? you think i give two fucks what happens now?" he laughs, cruelly and awfully. "i already tried to fucking off myself once, red. i'm on borrowed time." he stands up, shoves his chair back, and gets right into his father's face, eyes ablaze. 

"do it, asshole."

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉

how could you do this? how could you leave me again?

well i won’t let you leave me again. i will not be idle any longer. if a monster is what is required to keep you, then a monster i will become.

the howl, familiar perhaps to those with houndooms, looms through the air in an eerie cry. one on each side of the compound, echoing through the ducts. it is the howl of victory and slowly behind it, a screech resounds shortly after and there is a chill in the air. be it the chill of death or of something else altogether more eerie is for one to decide.

radios fizz with static. a message comes through, cutting in and out. screams cause the radio to whine while jumbled and panicked words are gut off, the familiar sound of cracking eyes and chomping of ice echoes through the radio before it cuts off.

sam stands with two houndooms circling around him, snarling at anything around him and snapping at all who approach. human or pokémon, they are cut throat in how they approach. the mega glalie devours body after body, a never ending pit. worse, a gengar follows in the glalie’s lead, picking up limbs and laughing hysterically when he makes them wave at the pair of gardevoirs that are using their telepathy and psychic energies to distort the cameras.

he remains unseen. like a ghost, a shadow; the reaper coming to collect what is his. while it is death he gives, it is knox’s life he plans to take this even. not to return it with death. a shot resounds and it is frozen in the air before him, his gardevoir pulsing the shot back at the one who fired it, through the gun, causing it to explode as his houndooms tag team and take the pangoro down that had tried to fight for its trainer.

one takes it by the arm, pulling it down with fangs laced with a poison that was burning through fur, flesh, blood, and then bone. the pained cry is cut short when it is frozen solid and then shattered with a pulse of psychic energy from aether.

he infiltrated, caught the attention of every guard he could, and took them all out one, by, one. the massacre left behind is nothing to the cause. he has been the reaper time and time again in kanto and he is the reaper even still.

not a beast, not a rocket, not a member of the league; he is neutral in every color, gray in soul, and unwavering in his goal.

he takes eos’ hand and closes his eyes, a tap to knox’ mind is given by eos, trying to connect he and sam’s minds together, to which sam tries to share his thoughts.

knox? i’m here, knox.

knox prescott

Summer saw Knox riling up. Anger, sadness, all those emotions bottled up and ready to explode. He was a ticking time bomb, and he was about to go off.

And she didn't have much time left.

Knox may hate her. He may think she was a terrible person for the rest of his life. But, she'd do anything to protect him. She came to realize that over the years. She loved him. Cared for him. Cherished him.

She didn't want her little brother to throw his life away, and she didn't want her father to end it either.

Summer stood, calm and collected as Merrick laughed in his son's face. He was forced back in the chair, and she wasn't sure what he would do next. Torture him? Get what he always wanted and erase him from the face of the earth?

"Skade hender," she ordered her Pokemon.

And with her command, Frigg and Loki lunged, teeth snapping into Merricks hands. Before he hand a chance to think about kicking either, Summer threw her leg under him, attempting to throw him off balance and land onto the bloodied floor below. The dog-like Pokemon pulled his arms out as she stomped on his legs.

She reached for his gun, holding the pistol in hand as she examined it thoughtfully.

"Stay back, Knox. I can handle it."

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉

knox took a line of coke from the fucking grim reaper himself. if he can do that, then he can face his father. he can stare this man down and he can accept that it's come to this, that everything's finally catching up to him. and he can do so with a shit-eating grin because fuck if he's going to have it any other way. 

merrick does not respond kindly to knox's open defiance. his lip curls, nostrils flaring, anger getting the better of him, but that only makes knox's lips quirk even more. nothing quite like being the only one who can get under merrick's skin. 

he cocks the barrel back on the pistol and raises it and knox sucks in a breath. 

summer speaks witchcraft and knox flinches, but no bullet comes his way. merrick topples over and knox stumbles back, slipping on the slick floor. there's a sick crack as one of summer's kicks splinters merrick's leg. 

knox flinches, but stands all the same, reaching for the pokeballs hidden under his jacket. but then his hand flies away from him, slamming hard against the glass. he winces, tries to yank it back down, but the other one comes up, pinning him to the wall. 

summer's pokemon are next. they're thrown away from merrick. the man, arms flayed and bleeding, gets to his feet, favoring his right side. he snaps his fingers and the gun is wrenched free from summer's hands. 

"insolent girl. you really think you can turn your back on me? for him?" he snarls. 

knox? i'm here, knox. 

he grits his teeth, closes his eyes, begs hypatia to wake up. give him enough strength to send back - 

alakazam. 

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉

alakazam.

at first, sam is perplexed. he didn’t bring his— ah, it takes half a second for him to realize.

in a flash, sam is standing there with a hand on both of his hounds in front of knox. aether is between summer and her father before splitting herself into dozens of copies in the room. it is a room filled with copies, the two houndooms split, protecting the brother and sister from the alakazams by combating those psychic powers with dark pulses of their own, even a flamethrower.

but from the wall comes alecto, mouth agape as he shoots a shadow ball at one of the alakazams.

from within the shadows of the room, hidden by eos’ shadow sneak. but he isn’t the only one. tartarus comes out of the wall, mouth clicking open to fit an entire alakazam within, a crunch grinding the pokémon within it’s maw.

sam catches knox once the psychic powers fall, knowing summer isn’t incompetent, and his legion of pokémon can keep the alakazam’s busy at least.

all it takes is one look at the body splayed for sam to realize that merrick had obviously destroyed somebody knox cared about. but who, he does not spend the energy trying to figure out.

instead, he looks to summer, to await orders.

knox prescott

Summer's heart felt like it stopped as her Pokemon were flung across the room, their shocked cries loud in her ears as the gun was wrenched from her hand.

"Fuck!"

How could she forget. She had been so occupied with this plan and the entire shit show that had happened that she forgot to take her father's ALAKAZAMS into account. She couldn't spare Knox a look as her father managed to rise, spitting insults at her.

"Looks like I didn't stomp on your other leg hard enough," she said, eyes burning in defiance.

"What have you ever done for me? Take away a normal girl's life? Trained me to deceive and lie? Become this monster? Lie to my brother? Pin a murder on me?"

She was stalling for time, to attempt for her Pokemon to have a chance to recover and attack. So Knox could at least escape.

Because she wasn't.

But suddenly, samuel carter appeared. A small wave of relief overcame her as his Pokemon began to attack, overwhelming the ALAKAZAMS and destroying them in the process. The gun that was ripped from her dropped to the floor, and her brother was dropped into his lover's arms. Frigg and Loki stood, slipping in the mess as they regained their senses and approached slowly.

Merrick was cornered now.

"Gun," Summer ordered, opening her palm to take it from Sam or a Pokemon. Whoever offered first.

She turned the barrel to Merrick, holding one arm forward as she stared him down.

"You ruined me. Look at me. Look at me! You made me do this. You brought him here, and you killed him! He was innocent, and you made me do it!"

She looked insane, dress, hair, skin, everything dotted and painted in blood. Summer's eyes burned with fire, red as the nickname her brother called her by.

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉

merrick is not one to be beaten. despite his bloodied limbs, the bone protruding from his leg, he manages to stand tall, intimidating. red eyes, of summer's ilk, swim with a hatred that knows no depths. but even he cannot smother the fear that's trickling his way through him as the tides turn. 

his gaze flicks from summer to the tattooed man cradling knox in his arms. and this is when he realizes that he's lost. 

"everything i've done has been for you," he says quickly. "this empire i've built. yours. and you, my protege, my greatest gift. i taught you how to survive." and as he's talking, he's inching closer, ignoring frigg and loki's warning growls. 

"summer." knox steadies himself, arms wrapped tightly around sam's waist for support. holds him there in all this carnage. 

"end it. please."

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉

”tartarus,” sam speaks to the glalie who stops munching on her alakazam, limbs hanging from her gaping jaw as she looks to her trainer who doesn’t look away from the target; merrick. ”immobilize him.”

wider the mouth opens, spilling from it pieces of her last victim. sheer cold freezes the man to the ground, from his thighs down, holds him there.

”the last words of a man bring forth a spoken reflection of their soul. choose yours wisely, merrick prescott.”

it is the end. that is sam’s goal. he gives him a chance at redemption, to say something that isn’t as vile as sam knows his soul to be. because humans, flawed as they are, deserve at least a chance. it is proof there, in that room, as knox holds his waist, that no matter what knox does against him, or to him, there will always be a part of him willing to forgive and extend mercy.

tartarus, job finished, turns back to alecto who tosses a limp alakazam into her mouth and then cackles, eerie feelings moving through the room at the joy his pokémon are having. they haven’t been able to let loose like this in so long.

but his houndooms stay alert and ready, with summer’s pokémon, protecting them now that the alakazams are taken care of, the gardevoirs standing on high alert ready to teleport away at the first chance. aether stays in the light while eos hides in the shadows, awaiting commands.

knox prescott

"For me?" Summer echoed, disbelief coloring her tone.

"For me? How am I supposed to believe that when my whole life has been a fucking lie? You took away my childhood. You trained me to become a killer and a liar. I never got to live how I wanted to live because I lived in fear of your wrath. I always had to please you, or else you'd take away something I held dear.

"This isn't for me. This was all for you and your sick, twisted game. You're done playing with my mind, Father. You're done toying with everyone."

She didn't hear Knox's plea, nor did she hear Sam's comment. Summer was engulfed in her own power surge, laughing maniacally as she waved the gun in his face.

"You've lost! You're falling from your throne. Liars don't get to live, right? But, there's one thing I want you to know before you go to your grave, Daddy."

Flashing her gaze to Sam, she smiled almost sweetly, like she wasn't threatening to end a life.

**tw: mention of child abduction/trafficking, please proceed with caution**

SPOILER: Click to show

"I want you to send any Pokemon you have that's able to unlock doors to release the captive children. Clothe them, give them things they need, and free them. Let them go. And find a list of anyone who's bought a child from Merrick Prescott, whether it was with money, Pokemon, information. Anything."

She looked at her father, grinning widely.

"I want them all dead. They don't get to live."

Her own OBSTAGOON and TOXTRICITY were released, exiting the door to find the rooms as ordered. Summer pushed forward, the barrel pressed against Merrick's jaw as she backed him to the wall.

"Goodbye, Daddy."

BANG. BANG.

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉

and as she orders her dog to fulfill her wishes, merrick realizes that his empire will die with him. he snaps his fingers, swears under his breath, cold gaze flicking to an alakazam hanging from a gengar's mouth. and then he looks at his son, at the monster he's holding, and he doesn't understand. 

but he knows this is the end and his daughter's fury stings. he raises a hand as though to touch her cheek, as though to calm her from her rage, three little words falling from his lips as she shoves the gun under his jaw and pulls twice. 

knox does not flinch. he does not give merrick the satisfaction. he watches his body slide, limp, down the wall. 

everything is quiet.

knox shrugs out of sam's arms, legs trembling. he kneels back on the ground and crawls towards ollie, frozen face finally thawing, twisting as ugly sobs rip through him. that evil twisting around in his insides, infecting his brain, stuck looping in flashing images everything they've endured the past few hours. 

and all he can do is wail and sink his fingers in the dead boy's shoulder. 

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉