Tobias sighed in frustration. Never in his life had he trusted anyone with anything. How could he trust even Aiden with Raichu, when it could mean Raichu's life?
Midori had forced Tobias to clean up. He showered and dried and brushed his hair until it was silky, pulling it back in a ponytail. He re-dressed in a large pair of khaki colored cargo pants and a close fitting but modest white shirt. He sat on Midori's couch there, hugging his knees and looking at the faded scars on his arms. There were at least seven long ones among smaller scars, each one telling a story about his adolescence. One day, he thought, I might write them down.
"I would swallow my doubt, turn it inside out, find nothing but faith in nothing..." Tobias murmured the old song to himself. He had known the song forever, it seemed. It didn't comfort him, it didn't change his feelings about anything. The song was just... his mantra. His mantra, the eerie incantation that was his alone. Or was it? Midori always told him about trust, but did anyone truly have faith in Jade City? Perhaps it was the entire city's mantra. Maybe no one had faith, and that was why the sun went out.
Even before the sun stopped shining, Jade City had always been a terrible place, hopeless and full of despair. Was it possible that one city, so small within the entire world, could radiate so much despair that it made the sun hide in fear?
"Toby, what are you thinking about?" Midori came back into the livingroom from making sandwiches.
"The sun." He glanced up at her with those pale December eyes.
Midori drew in a quick breath, flinching as if the sun were a dirty thing to be kept in an oubliette. Tobias knew that Midori had never felt the sun's warmth either, and that she wanted it, too. But Midori believed that it would never be back, and for that reason she did what everyone else did- out of mind is out of life (adapted by Jade City from "out of sight is out of mind"), after all. He watched with cold fascination as she groped for an excuse to change the subject.
"Tobias, let's call your dad now."
It was his turn to flinch. Tobias hated his father, for all he could. Midori had told him that she couldn't understand why Jade City was so dark when its mayor was an iron-black-oppressive Catholic priest. Tobias could understand. His father wasn't religious, he was corrupted by his own high moral ground. Only one reason why he was so fearful for Raichu.
"Come on, Tobias. We have to know what we're dealing with. So do it. Not for me; do it for your pokémon. Please..." Midori touched his arm lightly, still standing. She made a gesture at the phone. "If we don't call, we won't know what to do."
Tobias nodded slowly, full of feelings no one could ever know. The most poetic phrases wouldn't approach the despair, the cynicism, the disgust that he was experiencing. Nonetheless, for the sake of his dearest friend, he would do it. He had to- even if he couldn't trust a soul, Raichu had to be able to trust him.
Tobias went to the phone numbly, and dialed.
He wasn't sure if there was a ring, because his mind had gone blank the moment he punched in the numbers. But as clear as the darkness of his eyes, that voice answered: "This is He," that voice like the harsh and foul breath of a man-of-God condemned, poured on the rocks for the devil to drink in.
"What have you done with Raichu?" Tobias managed in an equal voice. Not a voice of condemned righteousness but a voice of lost hope fallen into sin.
"Oh. It's you." The quality of the voice did not change. Tobias wasn't sure if it should bother him or not.
"WELL?!" Tobias clenched his free hand into a fist, grit his teeth, trying not to feel as helpless as he was. What would father say, if he saw him like that? Probably nothing; probably just beat him...
"If you want your minion, Tobias, come and get him." Still without change, and Tobias slammed the receiver down without a word. No words were going to change anything.
Everything was already done.