Chapter 3: Unmasked
Lisa walked along the Lilycove City harbor in deep thought. She had hoped that a walk outside would take her mind off Marie, but it seemed that everywhere she went in the city reminded her of her time with Marie. There was after all a reason why Lisa had not visited her home in over ten years, and that was to try and escape those memories. Though not only had trying to escape been in vain, by finally returning home they had come back in spades. Lisa started to consider getting back on the road earlier than she had planned, but just as she did she saw Andre run from around the corner with a frightened expression on his face carrying a large metal case.
“Hey Andre, what’s wrong?” Lisa called as she ran up to him.
“Oh Lisa, thank goodness!” Andre said to her as soon as he stopped. “You have to help me! This mad woman wearing a mask came out of nowhere and attacked me! She’s after me right now!”
“Okay, I’ll take care of it.” Lisa told him. “You just get out of here.”
Andre nodded and continued his mad dash while Lisa stood ready to face whoever was chasing him. From around the corner came Marie in a fast walk with Darkrai hovering close behind her. Marie stopped though when she saw Lisa in her path.
“Lisa!” Marie said with a surprised expression that soon turned to a somewhat insane smile. “Well, this day just gets better and better.”
“I should’ve known it was you Noir when Andre said he was attacked by a masked woman.” Lisa told her. “Care to tell me why Team Rocket is after Andre?”
“Oh, I’m no longer with Team Rocket.” Marie informed her. “You could say I had Darkrai give them my resignation a few minutes ago.”
“Okay, why are you after Andre then?” Lisa demanded to know. At this point Marie broke into laughter. “Damnit, what’s so funny?”
“Oh my dear Lisa.” Marie said as she gained some composure. “After all these years you still haven’t figured out who I am.”
“What’re you talking about?” Lisa impatiently demanded. With that, Marie slipped off her mask to reveal her violet eyes, eyes that looked as if they hadn’t had a goodnight’s sleep in years. In an instant Lisa went pale with recognition. “M-Marie? No… no they said… they said you were…!”
“Dead?” Marie finished for her. “I’m sure that’s what the warden at Scorch Gate told everyone when they asked. But what really happened was that Giovanni found me and asked me to join Team Rocket.”
“So… you became a thief?” Lisa asked coldly. “I never wanted to believe that you were capable of such things.... But here you are in that Team Rocket uniform, hiding behind that mask like a coward. How can you live with yourself stealing other peoples Pokemon? How the hell can you justify…?”
“I DID IT TO SURVIVE!” Marie shouted, cutting Lisa off. “…You have no idea what kind of hell I went through in that prison, the hell you and Andre made me experience…. But you will soon… you experience my hell! Darkrai, attack now with Dark Void!”
Faster than Lisa could pull out a Pokeball, Darkrai threw another ball of black energy that hit her dead on. Lisa fell to the ground asleep, already experiencing a horrible nightmare. As soon as Lisa hit the ground, Marie began laughing madly as tears started streaming down her face. Suddenly a bolt of yellow lightning hit close to Marie’s feet, while Darkrai was hit in the chest by a ball of blue light.
“That’s enough!” a voice called. Marie turned to see Ash, Pikachu, and Lucario standing near by.
“I didn’t expect to see you here Ketchum.” Marie said after she had regained some composure.
“That makes two of us!” Ash told her. “I saw everything by the way. You’ve gotten your little revenge on Lisa, so back off!”
“Oh, but I’ve just begun!” Marie said with a mad look in her eyes. “I’m going to make sure that Lisa pays for everything she’s done. Both she and Andre!”
“What does Andre have to do with all this?” Ash demanded to know.
“If you must know, my bastard of a cousin framed me for the crime I was accused of and saw to it I was sent to a living hell.” Marie explained. “All just so I’d be out of the way and he could inherit my father’s company when he died.”
“Yeah, he seemed to me like the kind of guy who’d do something like that.” Ash admitted. “But there’s a better way to handle all this.”
“There is no other way!” Marie told him. “This is the only way for me to make Andre pay for what he did!”
“No, we can figure out something else!” Ash told her. “Just give us a chance Marie!”
“…Don’t call me Marie.” Marie said coldly as she put her mask back on. “Marie Dantes died a long time ago. I’m Noir Mask now! And I’m going to make you experience my hell! Darkrai, attack with Dark Void!”
Darkrai threw another sphere of black energy. But a split second before it could hit, Ash raised his right hand and brought up a barrier of blue energy. The sphere hit the shiled and created a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared Marie and Darkrai were gone. Ash thought about going after Marie for a moment, but then decided that he needed to get Lisa out of there.
* * *
In her nightmare, Lisa was being forced through a grey desert under a blinding white sun, chained by the ankle to several other girls who all looked like the walking dead. Tattered brown rags had replaced her original outfit, and around her neck was a black metal collar. Why Lisa was being forced through this desert she did not know. But occasionally things that looked like women with indescribable animal-like faces prodded her with sticks to make her keep moving. From their outfits, Lisa assumed they were supposed to be some sort of prison guards.
Eventually the blazing heat of the white sun above became too much for Lisa and she fell to her knees. One of the beast women squealed something in its own bestial language, causing two of the other creatures to unhook Lisa from the other prisoners and drag her away by the arms. Lisa was taken in front of a small wooden shed of some sort. The door to the shed opened of its own accord to reveal a chamber filled with flames. The two animal women threw Lisa into the shed, but when she entered the scene suddenly changed.
Lisa found herself wearing her original cloths, standing in a broken-down brick walled jail cell. Right away Lisa heard the sound of crying, and she turned to see huddled in a corner of the cell a ten-year-old Marie, dirty and wearing tattered rags. Looking at Marie with a sad expression was a Pokemon that looked like a small grey fox. Lisa recognized the Pokemon as a Zorua, the pre-evolved form of Zoroark. When Lisa tried to approach the two, the room suddenly went grey and time seemed to stop.
Suddenly to Lisa’s shock, both Marie and Zorua shattered into dust. Then a shadow rose from the floor and took the form of Darkrai. Instead of hovering in the air like it normally did, Darkrai stood before Lisa on a pair of black stilt-like legs.
“I must speak with you.” Darkrai said in a deep whispery voice that sounded somewhat distorted. “Many years ago… I came to live under the prison of Scorch Gate… so that only humans who had committed crimes would suffer from my power to bring nightmares…. During that time… I never considered that one of those humans might have been falsely imprisoned… until I met Marie. I saw how she treated the Zorua she had captured by chance… she treated him with such kindness that it was clear that she was innocent of the crime she had been accused of.... I felt a tremendous guilt that someone so innocent was suffering from the effects of my powers… so I took it upon myself to try and ease her pain….
“I watched over Marie in that prison… protected her when I could… gave her extra water to consume…. Then by either accident or fate Marie had captured me…. And it was on that same day that the keeper of the prison discovered Zorua…. Zorua would have been taken away… and Marie’s hell would have become far worse… were it not for a chance encounter with the one who led Team Rocket…. He offered Marie the only chance of survival she had…. And she took it in order to escape….
“But by doing so… Marie had trapped herself in another kind of hell…. She hates the life she now lives… hates some of the actions she has had to take to survive…. I think that Marie wears her mask… so that she does not have to see herself in the mirror as a member of Team Rocket… so that she does not have to use her own name…. The only thing that has kept Marie going… is her desire for vengeance.... But now… both Zoroark and I fear that Marie is starting to lose her sanity….
“Her very desire for revenge… may end up destroying her…. But I believe… that you might be able to save Marie from herself…. So I beg of you… save Marie… before it’s too late.”
With that, both Darkrai and the prison cell vanished and Lisa began falling into a black abyss.
* * *
Lisa shot up in her bed at the mansion screaming. Her heart was pounding and her brow was dripping in cold sweat. It took Lisa a moment to notice Ash, Misty, Bolt, and Desmond standing by her bed.
“Are you okay Lisa?” Desmond asked with a very concerned expression.
“Darkrai… it spoke to me.” Lisa told them. “It, it told me that Marie was framed and asked me to save her.”
“Marie said something about that too.” Ash cut in. “She said that Andre had framed her for whatever crime she was sent to jail for so he could gain control of the family business.”
“I find that very hard to believe.” Desmond told him. “I’ve known Andre for many years, and he’s the last person who would commit such an act.”
“I gotta go with Mr. Flare on this one dude.” Bolt agreed. “I mean Andre’s a class act. I can’t picture him doing something like that either.”
“Why, because he’s so charming?” Ash retorted. “People can act like saints but still be rotten to the core. Believe me, I know.”
“I have to agree with Ash.” Misty cut in. “There’s something about this whole thing that doesn’t seem right.”
“If, if you all don’t mind… I’d like to be alone right now.” Lisa spoke up.
“Of course.” Desmond told her. “Come all of you, let’s let Lisa get some rest.”
With that, Desmond led Ash and the others out of the room. Lisa then fell back onto the bed and looked up at the ceiling. So many questions kept circling around in her mind that Lisa had no idea what to do. Lisa thought about trying to get some sleep, but she knew that she would be able to. Not because of Darkrai, but because she was too worried about Marie.
