[FIN] Some Serious Storytime

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie's steps faltered a bit the closer he got, slowing until he stood a few chairs away from the trainee.

For Faleen. For Faleen. For Faleen…

“Izaya.” He cleared his throat and went rigid. “I'd like to talk to you, if you have a moment.”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

the Gardevoir replied to Kuroko before glancing back at Jabari. Watching Zacharie falter, she murmured,

The black-haired ex-Rocket looked up at the sound of his name. His usual, default smile sprang to his face. “Zachie-chan! What a surprise. Sit~! How can I help you?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Well this certainly wasn't the reaction he was expecting.

“Oh…” He looked to Namie in bewilderment before taking a seat next to the dark-haired man. “...Thank you.” He looked down at his lap because he didn't think he could look Izaya in the eye. Not after what he had just discovered about himself.

“I was wondering if I could ask you about Faleen.” He dug his fingers into his knees, bunching up the white material of his pants. “You went and met with her, didn't you? Could you tell me about how the interaction went, her physical condition, anything you can think of?”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Namie met Zacharie’s gaze and shook her head very slightly. She went to go stand near where Riviere and Kano sat with Mairu and Kururi playing under the table. she murmured softly. Even if her trainer couldn’t understand her, she knew he was sharp enough to notice if she were attempted to communicate too directly.

“Faleen-san?” Izaya’s smile was replaced by a look of surprise. “Ah...yes...I did,” he verified, watching Zacharie dig his fingers into the fabric of his pants. “Um...of course, Agent,” the informant agreed. “...but...do you mind if we go somewhere private to discuss that? Like...would you happen to have your own office now, perhaps?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie flinched slightly, uncomfortable with the title actually being said out loud, especially by the man beside him. “I don't have my own office...not until I become an Elite.” He tried to think of somewhere they could go. “I have my own room but perhaps the library or an unused recreation room could suffice?”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya blinked, noticing Zacharie flinch, but chose not to comment on it. “Ah...right. One moment, please?” Getting up from his seat, he took out his pokeballs from his pockets and addressed his pokemon. “Lunch time’s over, everyone,” he told them, holding up the balls. “Would mind excusing us for now? Zachie-chan and I have to talk.”

The pokemon each made noises of acknowledgment or nodded. Namie gave Zacharie one last meaningful look before disappearing into the beam of red light. Their trainer returned them to their respective balls and stuck them back in his pockets. Then he turned back to the purple-haired man with his default smile, clasping his hands together. “Well...now that that’s taken care of, care to lead the way?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

The Agent gave Namie a slight, nervous smile as he stood from his seat as well. “Right, of course.” He looked over to where his own pokemon were still contentedly eating their lunch. They'd be fine on their own and would know to go back to his room when they were done, but he still waved at Jabari as he started out of the cafeteria.

“This way.” He muttered, motioning for the other to follow. He walked rather briskly down the hallways until they eventually got to the living quarters.

“Here we are.” He pulled his RocketDex free of his pocket and flashed it over the lock, waiting until he heard a soft click to push the door open. “It's a bit messy, but make yourself comfortable.”

Plants hung haphazardly from the ceiling while books and potted plants cluttered almost every available surface. “Uhm...let me clear a chair.” He muttered, hurrying across the room to clear papers from his desk chair. “...Would you like a drink or something?” He asked awkwardly, not used to people visiting his room.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“Oh...did you need to finish your own lunch?” Izaya asked, following Zacharie’s gaze back to his own pokemon. “We can talk about this later if you like.” But the agent was already headed out of the cafeteria, so the informant followed in his stride.

He gave the room a brief look around when they entered, but otherwise kept his hands to himself. “Thank you,” he said when the chair was cleared for him. “I’m fine, though.” Izaya didn’t seem to have much intention of sitting down, especially since his superior had yet to do so himself. “First...quick question. Do you know Agent Bishop?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other before moving to sit on the edge of his bed. “Whatever you want.” He muttered, shoving the pile of blankets away so he could sit comfortably.

“Agent Bishop? I've met him, yes.” He cocked his head slightly in confusion, not entirely sure why that was relevant. “He's fairly agreeable.”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“Oh.” The black-haired man glanced back over his shoulder at the door as if expecting someone to be listening at it or someone to come in at any moment. “He...was he the one who told you I met with Faleen?” He hadn’t thought too many people knew, especially with information being compartmentalized within the organization. Izaya tried to recall if he had mentioned it to anyone else - Aulus, perhaps? - but other than him, he was pretty sure he’d kept his mouth shut.

The only other people who might have known, like Bishop, were the people who monitored him and his behavior as a traitor. Someone who was a potential threat to Team Rocket. But that was also probably why he had been grilled after his meeting with Faleen; to see if he had found out anything that they didn’t already know about her, one traitor to another.

“Just so I have an idea of where to start...how much do you already know about my meeting with her?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie tensed and tried not to look like a deer caught in headlights. What should he say? He wouldn't tell Izaya that it was his pokemon that had told him. He wouldn't toss Namie under the bus like that when she had been so helpful. But...he was so bad at lying.

“I asked around.” He said simply, idly picking at the fitted sheet beneath him. If he had known he would be inviting Izaya to his room he would have made his bed. “It's not particularly hard for me to get information.” Which wasn't a lie...per say. As long as it wasn't classified information.

“If it's alright with you, I'd like to hear everything straight from you. No detail is too insignificant and I want to be as thorough as possible. So...from the very beginning...please.”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Studying Zacharie with a vaguely puzzled look, Izaya’s smile returned and he held out his arms to gesture as he spoke. “Right...I suppose that makes sense when you have an information broker for a brother. But if he could tell you everything, you probably wouldn’t need to come to me.”

His mouth became a straight line again as he regarded the chair that had been cleared for him. Perhaps he should sit after all. This was probably going to take a while. “...Normally I’d charge for my services, but since you’re an agent, who am I to deny your request? And you asked so nicely,” he teased. “If Bishop had had your manners when he’d asked me for the same information, perhaps I’d have been able to help him.” And maybe if Agent Bishop seemed more inclined to help Faleen out rather than capture her or cause her harm, Izaya would have felt more cooperative. “Ah well; that’s irrelevant now.” At least he knew Zacharie wouldn’t be so quick to judge his former partner for her apparent recent behaviors.

He plopped himself down in the chair and crossed his legs, looking very at home as he leaned back. Izaya laced his fingers together and put them over the knee that rested atop the other. “Let’s see...it was the day after Faleen sent that message to Team Rocket. I went into Camphoreon City for a day off. I had wanted to wait until all the excitement of trying to send in people to look for her at the diner she recorded herself at died down.” He shrugged. “Honestly, though, I didn’t expect to find anything. I just went on an impulse because I thought I might at least try to find her, having been born and raised in that city.

“Riviere and I set out in the morning. I had had Riviere disguise himself as a large Growlithe and tried to get him to sniff out Faleen’s scent. Since it had already been a day and the city is full of scents, however, you can guess how successful that was. Even starting at the diner she'd shown herself to be at, we had no luck.

"So I tried a different tactic. I messaged her Rocket Dex on the chance she might have still had it with her and told her that another traitor was walking around the city and might accidentally screw with her plans if he got caught. A long while later I got a response." He paused to consider something. "I can send you the messages through our 'dexes if you like. One of hers even included a picture she sent me."  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie gave a small, anxious smile and chose not to comment. Let Izaya think that he got the information from Andre. Though he couldn't imagine how his brother would know something like that.

...He hoped Andre wasn't getting into Team Rocket's business.

The Agent sat quietly and listened patiently as Izaya recalled the day, filing away what was being said for later recollection. “Ah, excuse me.” He raised his hand as if sitting in class. “Would you mind if Virus recorded this?” He tugged his RocketDex out of his pocket before hopping off of the bed. “This won't do Faleen any good if I forget something.” He edged around the Trainee to reach his desk.

He plucked a pokeball and a small device that looked a lot like a tape recorder. “I have my own recorder that isn't connected to the database so what you say will be-” He paused, finally looked Izaya in the eye, blushed, and then looked away. “Well...they won't be getting any information from me.” He said softly, sadly, and went about transferring Virus into the recorder.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“Not at all,” Izaya replied in response to the question about Virus recording him. It interested him that Zacharie gave the reassurance that nothing he said would be added to the Rocket Database. “Thank you, Agent,” he said, a note of fondness in his tone and a look of mild amusement on his face, “but it doesn’t really matter. They have…other ways of monitoring me. Still, the sentiment is appreciated.”

Though he couldn’t be positive as to the extent of his being monitored, he knew, at the very least, that they were watching what he did through his robotic eye. If by some other method they had access to hearing what he was saying as well, though, it wasn’t as if he thought they would be able to use the information now so long after the events had actually taken place. Not unless it was someone like Zacharie who actually knew and cared about Faleen as a person.

Taking out his own dex, the black-haired informant had his porygon, Chrome, transfer the message files from that day over to his brother, Virus, on Zacharie’s dex. When that was done, he allowed the agent a few minutes to read over what he had sent before continuing with his version of the day’s events.

“The rest of the day basically involved me being sent on a scavenger hunt throughout the city. Going to the boardwalk in the first picture of her she sent me, I found a lock of her hair tied to a railing. I asked a lady working at a nearby salon if she'd seen the woman in the picture. She said she had and asked if I was Nakura. Then she told me Faleen had been in her salon a few hours ago. Faleen had evidently told the hairstylist that I would be there looking for her later and gave said stylist an envelope to hand me when I came by."

Izaya sighed. "Inside the envelope was a cheap, embossed company pen with the name 'Silverlock Finanical' on it. It had an address on it as well, but the address was all the way across town." He looked thoughtful, his brow furrowing as he tried to remember something else. “The stylist mentioned it had been the first time she had been asked to do something, so I asked what it was she had been asked to do.

“I playfully guessed that she might have been asked to shave Faleen’s head bald.” The man frowned. “The stylist had originally meant it had been the first time she had been asked to deliver a random secret envelope to a stranger, but it turned out that it had asked to be shaved bald, too. It was about that time that I got another message on my dex. I’m pretty sure it was trying to make certain I was still playing its little game.” He nodded to Zacharie’s dex to indicate the messages belonging to the second round of conversation and allowed the younger man some time to go over those as well.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Setting the recording device down beside the dark-haired man, Zacharie snatched up a notebook and pen before flopping back onto the bed. “Don't call me Agent.” He muttered, flipping through pages of doodles and notes until he found a fresh page. “I hate it.” He readied his pen and settled his RocketDex nearby so he could flip through the messages as Izaya talked.

He had to admit that they were pretty creepy. He'd talked to Faleen via messaging and this was nothing like her regular syntax. He had had the feeling that Faleen was...not really herself, but this just added to his suspicion.

“She...shaved her head?” He repeated slowly, a bit disbelieving. He just couldn't imagine Faleen without her hair. He jotted down a few notes.

Schizophrenia, postconcussive syndrome, head injury

He knew that there had been an accident in the robotics lab before Faleen had disappeared, knew that quite a few people had gotten hurt, but Faleen had left after a checkup. Seemingly with nothing worse than a few bumps and scratches. He tapped his pen against his notebook thoughtfully. “Continue, please.”