Chapter Text
Okay, so fleeing to Lumiose City after your big breakup fight with your ex might not have been the wisest of ideas—after all, you had to your name your Pokemon, the clothes on your back, the usual phone, laptop, etc., and the money you’d squirreled away knowing that the relationship was heading in an atomic-level direction of bad. That’s it. That was all you had.
You’d been lucky for circumstances to lead your poor tourist self—homeless self—to staying at Hotel Z, as well as meeting Urbain, Lida, and Naveen. You’d also been lucky to be promoted to Rank F so quickly; getting through the majority of the rankings in the space of a day had been pretty cool. Sure, you’d had to fight some seriously-scary Mega-Evolved Pokemon to get there, but with all the other good fortune coming your way, complaining about that seemed a little nitpicky in the grand scheme of things.
Until you found out Urbain, your benefactor in this whole mess, was involved with the literal mafia, and that he’d decided to be a no-show to a meeting about his one million pokedollars of debt.
“And you’re saying Urbain never gave a single hint of this, I don’t know, life-ruining contract? I’m no lawyer, but this wording couldn’t be any sleazier if it tried. The interest rate alone…” You held up the basically untouched copy of the contract you and Lida had accidentally found while cleaning Urbain’s room for him and shook it demonstratively.
“How would I know?” Naveen mumbled into a croissant decidedly lacking in curry, eyes glued to his phone.
That was a good question. Naveen determinedly wanted nothing to do with the day to day of Team MZ’s workings. You’d be better off asking—
“I didn’t know either,” Lida said. stepping up to you, making a calming gesture with her hands. You weren’t doing a great job of hiding your frustration. “But seriously, it’s going to be okay. We just have to go talk to Corbeau tomorrow. I’m sure we can work something out.”
“With a mob boss,” you enunciated. Why wasn’t anybody as upset about this as you were? “We’re going to ‘work things out’ with a mob boss.”
“I-I’m sure he’s not all bad,” Lida hedged. “The Rust Syndicate does do good things for Lumiose City. Maybe their tactics aren’t the greatest, but you can’t completely write them off.”
“Don’t tell me who and who I can’t write off,” you grumbled, but Lida gave you a warm smile and that was all it took to make you reluctantly smile back. “Okay, okay, jeez, turn it down, mega-watt.”
“I am a little worried about Urbain, though,” she said. “He hasn’t responded to any of my texts today. Him skipping a meeting is one thing, but that was yesterday, and I haven’t heard from him since.”
“I haven’t heard from him either,” Naveen volunteered as he stood up and pushed his plate away, not taking it to the sink like he’d been asked to before. Boys. “G’night.”
Lida turned to you. “I’ve got nothing from him either, but that’s not anything new. I think he talks to you the most out of all of us.”
Her cheeks lightly pinkened, and you wanted to coo at how cute she was. Her little crush was adorable. With her being a few years younger than you, everything she did was cute. In fact, from the moment you met her, she’d given you little sister vibes and you hadn’t fought them off.
“Do you think he’s okay?” she asked.
“Mm, probably? Urbain can take care of himself. My guess is he got distracted and is off helping somebody.”
“For a day and a half?”
You shrugged. “It’s Urbain. I wouldn’t worry too much, Lida. If he was really in any trouble, don’t you think we’d have heard something by now?”
“You’re right,” she replied with a sigh. “I’m sure he’s fine. He’s just not one to just stop responding for no reason.”
With that in mind—after all, you barely knew the guy, considering—yeah, that could be a little worrisome.
“Well, we can just ask our friendly neighborhood mob boss tomorrow. Maybe he knows something.”
“He’s been gone less than forty-eight hours. I’m sorry that he missed a payment, but this isn’t on us.”
This was clearly not what your ‘friendly’ neighborhood mob boss wanted to hear.
“My dear,” Corbeau said, the corner of his lips curled into something between annoyed and amused, “it’s in the contract.”
“Uh-huh,” you replied confidently. “That’s great and all, but do you see Lida’s signature on it? Naveen’s? I know you sure as hell don’t have mine.”
Lida was giving you a very nervous look right now. You were, after all, being quite snarky and irreverent to a mob boss.
Somewhere on the way from Hotel Z and the Rust Syndicate HQ, your fear had turned into irritation. For one, Urbain still hadn’t gotten back to Team MZ in any capacity, which was really worrying Lida—and you didn’t like anyone messing with her, intentionally or not. Two, traffic had made you late, so you were off to a bad start with Corbeau regardless of intention. And three…
Well, three was his swanky condescension, right off the bat.
You had never taken to that kind of rich man hoity-toity bullshit very well.
“You seem to be mistaken on Kalos law,” he said with a raised eyebrow, and now that smile was pure disdain. “He signed for Team MZ as a whole, with his signature as the binding name. As you and Miss Lida are both members of Team MZ, you are both beholden to his debt.”
Your jaw almost dropped, but you kept it closed through sheer dislike of this man. “Surely, it has to be backdated. I wasn’t around when…”
But then your eyes found Lida, who was staring at her knees with tears in her eyes. To claim that you held no responsibility because you hadn’t been around was totally fair, especially with this kind of debt hanging over Team MZ’s head, but you weren’t so selfish as to leave her and Naveen in the dust. You knew the main reason your team was making a splash right now was because you happened to be a really good trainer, not because they’d been doing anything different recently.
This is such a bad idea, you thought to yourself. This could ruin your life, depending on how cutthroat Corbeau wanted to be about things. You had no doubt that he would have it out for you in particular after the disrespect you’d shown him, but this wasn’t just about you. It was about your new friends and roommates, and how Hotel Z had started to become something like home, and how you hadn’t felt anything like ‘home’ for a long time.
For all that you could be a sarcastic bitch, you knew what was important in life.
You took a deep breath and composed yourself. Okay.
You’d never particularly liked the taste of humble pie.
“…Alright, so I was… mistaken. About that part specifically. May I see the contract myself, please?”
Seeing the glow of superiority in Corbeau’s eyes made you, irrationally, want to spit at him. You weren’t certain why you hated this man quite so much, but it was probably because he reminded you of all the worst parts of your ex, and of pretty much any guy you’d ever been romantically involved with. You didn’t have the greatest history with men, short though it was, and Corbeau seemed to radiate all the highlights of what you had hated the most.
Still, he handed you the contract. You wondered what would happen if you just… ripped it up. He probably had a backup, and would likely dislike you even more. Maybe not the best move your hamster brain could come up with, so instead you took it grimly and began to give it another look-over.
“Uh, sir,” your friend spoke up as you were picking over the contract.
“Yes, Miss Lida?”
“What exactly is it that you’re asking us to do, here?”
“A good question,” he replied. You noticed he was much politer to Lida than he had been with you—no surprise there, as Lida was cute and sweet, and you were… well, you weren’t worried about whether you were attractive or not, but you didn’t necessarily come off as ‘sweet,’ at least not after opening your mouth for more than a few seconds.
You probably should have been listening, but you tuned him out as you looked for even the slightest loophole. This had been a lot easier to do last night, when you had the silence of your bedroom and the determination of someone who didn’t know what they were looking at. Now, though, you were finding it difficult to find the same arguments. And, just as Corbeau had said, Urbain had indeed signed as the leader of Team MZ. This wasn’t a personal loan as you had been led to believe.
“…as determined by myself or, occasionally, Philippe,” Corbeau finished, just as you were surfacing from nearly drowning in legalese.
You wanted to ask, what did I miss? But Lida was looking crestfallen and you figured that called for a little less snarky pep.
You also hadn’t really wanted the focus to come back on you, but it was almost as if Corbeau had been waiting for you to finish up specifically.
“So?” he inquired with a skeptical brow raise.
Was there any way to stop eating humble pie?
“I just want to preface that I’m originally from Galar,” you said, ignoring how your cheeks were heating. “But uh, yeah. Looks… good, I guess.”
“I’m glad you think so,” Corbeau said dryly, holding out a hand for you to return the contract. You did, making sure your fingers didn’t touch. He turned back to Lida. “Manageable, yes?”
“Um, yeah.” Lida hesitated. “It’s just… it’s only us. Our other member isn’t able to help with stuff like this, and we still haven’t heard from Urbain, so it seems like a lot…”
“I understand,” Corbeau said. You were both looking at Lida as she spoke, but for some reason, the both of you looked at each other in the same second before turning back to her. His eyes said something you didn’t catch, and you weren’t sure what your eyes had said, but it was unlikely to be anything friendly.
It seemed your unfriendly look hadn’t improved your circumstances, nor Corbeau’s mood. “However, one million pokedollars is quite the sum. Without Urbain to talk terms himself, I cannot alter the contract as it is. That is something only he can do.”
“There has to be another way,” Lida pleaded, and suddenly you felt like you had missed something big. Important.
It was probably in that really long paragraph near the end that your eyes had gotten too tired to read. It wasn’t a short contract.
“The best I can do for you, at this moment in time, is let you choose between yourselves who will fulfill the terms. Once Urbain… resurfaces, I will resume working with him directly.”
Okay, yeah. From Lida’s look of shock, you’d missed something big.
“Can we have a moment to talk about it privately?” you interrupted. Mostly so you didn’t have to ask him to repeat what you hadn’t heard and make yourself look like an idiot, and also because you were pretty sure this wasn’t meant to be discussed in front of others.
“Of course,” he said smoothly. “Philippe will take you to a conference room down the hall.”
The huge man led you out of the office and pointed to a door for you and Lida to go to. Once you stepped inside the dark room, you flicked on the lights and immediately put your finger to your mouth. “Shh.”
Confused, Lida obeyed, and you started a quick scan for bugs or cameras. You didn’t believe a single thing you said here would be private, and you’d prefer to not be spied on.
However, despite your best efforts, you couldn’t find a single thing out of place, and you knew you and Lida had limited time. After checking the leftmost corner of the ceiling one last time, you turned back to her.
“So what exactly is going on? Other than bad stuff, ‘cause your face is saying bad stuff.”
Lida shook her head and wiped what appeared to be tears from her eyes, attempting a smile instead. “Nothing… all that bad. I guess. It’s just… it’s going to be difficult to keep Team MZ going with me gone and Urbain missing. Not that having just you and Naveen is bad! It’s just that Naveen doesn’t really participate, and you, well you’re…”
“New, I think is the word you’re looking for. But why wouldn’t you be there?”
“Well, basically, if Urbain starts defaulting on payments—which he has, this isn’t the first one!—then someone on his team has to make up the money with work for the Syndicate. I’ll be able to come home every night, I won’t be a slave or anything like that! But it means you and Naveen will essentially be alone, since I’ll be with Corbeau or whoever I’m working for that day. I know you and Naveen can take care of yourselves, it just… it’s going to be rough, is all.”
You paused for a moment, bewildered as you took in her words and processed them.
“Okay, so you won’t be a slave… just an indentured servant?!” you exploded. “What’s the rate on this repayment agreement, exactly? However many hours of work—how much does an hour, or day, whatever, pay back? How long? Is it indefinite, or is there a limit? There’d better be a fucking limit, I swear to god, this is not the Dark Ages—”
“Please, calm down! Those are questions I still need to ask. But it’s only until Urbain comes back, okay? Then he’ll figure things out with Corbeau and things can go back to normal!”
You took a deep breath or four. You did need to calm down, but this was outrageous. Genuinely—what was Urbain thinking, signing away his team for a loan that, to your knowledge, none of the team had actually seen?
“Okay, I’m cool. I’m chill.” You took another demonstratively deep breath. “We’re all good.” Slowing down had you catching some words you’d initially missed. “‘Someone’ on the team has to work for the Syndicate? Why did you just automatically think it would be you?”
Lida hesitated. “I mean… it only makes sense, right? Naveen barely participates anyway, and you just joined last week. It doesn’t make sense for anyone else to do it.”
For a moment, you just really looked at her. Sweet Lida, who you already saw as something of a little sister. She was by no means naïve, but there was a certain… innocence about her. She was always smiling, always positive and had a kind thing to say. You thought about what working in the mafia—because no matter how you looked at it, the Rust Syndicate was a mafia—would do to someone like her.
You? You’d seen some shit. You weren’t innocent or naïve, and you knew enough that you knew you weren’t prepared for the things you might see or have to do working for the Syndicate. You cursed Urbain for his foolishness. You’d love to know whose idea it was to make Team MZ itself collateral—sike, you already knew.
Corbeau.
Wasn’t this how they got people? Sure, there were probably plenty who joined of their own accord. This was obviously what your tired eyes had skimmed over, and you were sure that Urbain’s own tired eyes had skimmed over that same paragraph. One thing you did know is that Urbain didn’t know what he was signing when he did.
The fact of the matter was that Lida would be crushed working for the Syndicate. She’d change and not for the better.
But you wouldn’t. Or at least, you’d survive it. You didn’t want to see Lida’s bright smile fade, day after day, as she learned what the worst of humanity was like.
Truth be told? You didn’t either. But you were more prepared.
You sighed and pinched the bridge of your nose.
Why were you like this?
“Don’t worry about it, Lida. I’m gonna do it.”
Lida’s response was along the lines of a Squawkabilly’s.
“No, you can’t!”
“Don’t argue about this with me, okay?” You gave her a tired smile. “It’s going to be fine. While you track down Urbain, I’ll take care of this. Besides, you know Urbain better than any of us, and you’ll have a better idea about where he’d go, things he might do. Stuff like that.”
“A… are you sure? Really, you shouldn’t have to—”
“Trust me, it’s fine. I’m a big girl, you know.”
Lida stared at you, and for a second there you saw someone inside her who probably could manage all the shit she’d have to endure working for the mob.
And then she blinked, and she was just Lida, a girl who would have been in over her head if not for you.
“Alright,” she said with a small smile. “…Thanks.”
“Any time,” you reassured. “Now, let’s go see how screwed I am.”