FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Lux shivered as he stared at the building in front of him, despite the pleasant weather, a chill rode the Absol's spine like lightning. The long road up from the town brought him through stunning wrought iron gates, and well-kept garden grounds. The place looked like a cross between a hotel and a castle, but to Lux it felt more like a dungeon. His claws flexed against the stone pavers, he grimaced and shook his head to clear the fog of thoughts that clouded his mind. The ability to detect disaster wasn't very helpful when the place he faced was itself a never-ending one. Disaster eternal, and against every fiber in his body's protest he walked towards the doors. Each step sent waves of numbing panic through his body, constantly he felt the impending doom of the oppressive place. He couldn't tell what the disaster was, where it would be, or what the cause was, but it permeated every strand of fur, and made his horn buzz like . This place, simply put, was his own personal nightmare.

"The House of Eros" was a gaudy name, and it matched the decor, brilliant pinks and reds adorned the walls and every inch of the entryway of the brothel. Silks and fabrics bunched in swirling patterns covered the railing of the staircases, and the upper floor. Patrons milled around the bars and seating area, and their 'entertainers' hung from their arms, chatted, or poured them strong drinks swirling with glitter. In another life this place could have been mistaken for any other club, but those who came here knew better. The haunting smell of incense only barely covered the myriad of scents beneath it. Sex, booze, drugs, desperation, panic... fear. This brothel had a reputation, and a simple motto "Anything goes, nothing leaves" There was no such thing as too much indulgence in the House. Secrets came here to die among the lustful and the egregious. Humans and Pokemon alike dotted both sides of that thin veil, only circumstance alone separated the guests from the staff. If only that thin veil was not an impassable gulf to those in the House.

It had been a very long time since Lux had last set foot inside the House. Three years ago he thought he had left this place for the final time, practically dragged out by the adventurers guild when they claimed him as payment. He bit back the rising bile of memories in his throat and crossed the entryway. In a sea of costumed performers and well dressed guests he stood out just a little too much for his comfort. The iconic winged badge of an adventurer was proudly displayed on his chest and the gold gleamed in the sensual lighting of the lobby. The click of his claws against the marble floors was muted by the shuffling of his bag, noting the guild he was from, and his status within. The shimmering gold of his badge caught the eye of several occupants as he approached the front desk, it was a statement in and of itself, gold was not common, and especially here, no guild member would display their allegiances so proudly in a place like this. But Lux was not here to enjoy himself. He approached the main desk, and the Delphox seated at it narrowed her eyes as he did. Recognition burned on her face, and her muzzle turned to a scowl for the briefest of moments, replaced quickly by the mask of greeting a new customer.

"Oh we're always happy to see a returning customer, you however I never expected to come back. Why are you here R-"

"It's Lux. The name is Lux... You requested an experienced guild tracker. I'm here to receive the details on your request" He never gave her a chance to finish, not to let her bring him the reminder that his name was not his first. He was terse, and short with her, he knew she didn't deserve it, but the look on her muzzle was one of pain and betrayal. The fact that he came back after all this time was not going to be working on his side.

"There's to be an investigation into the disappearance of one of our staff. We thought it best to seek the Guild's most capable tracker. It seems there must have been a mistake in our order." Her eyes held the smallest spark of joy in how Lux's claws gripped the marble just a little tighter. It was only through seemingly herculean effort his tail wasn't tucked between his legs to hide the tremors he was sure it had. "I'll simply let them know we rescind our request until a more experienced member of the guild is available." Her eyes glanced at his badge, clearly she knew what it meant, as her eyes widened for a split second and her teeth bared. "In the interests of a timely investigation, i'm sure you'll have to do... after all you will have the home turf advantage." Her laughter was measured and mirthful, but to Lux it sounded like gravel on glass. He gathered his voice, for a moment fearing that nothing would come out when he tried to speak.

"You'll need to give me more information. Who went missing, when were they last seen, details about their... disappearance." He resisted the urge to grind his teeth.

"You'll get all of that and more, I'm sure. I'll let the Mistress know you're coming, so she can...free up her schedule. Without you around it seems she is always in another meeting" The Delphox puffed a heart of smoke towards Lux. "Things had to change a lot after your big send-off you know. Better keep that head of yours high hun'... You left a lot of people behind, waiting and waiting for even a glimpse of you. Pain like that isnt easily forgiven"

"I didn't le-"

"Maybe I should find the twins for you? I'm sure they might love to hear whatever excuses you're going to give me" The Delphox hadn't wasted any time going for the sore spots. Lux winced and let out a slow sigh, he knew that this would get any better, The people who he knew would have changed just as much as he did in the years he was away.

"No... I- I owe a lot of explanations to people, but that's not why I'm here. You know as well as I do that the Mistress is going to make this as hard as possible. Please... just the name, for old time's sake" Lux felt the bite of her words sinking in even as he responded. Somehow she had accurately guessed that there were still people here he didn't know how to face.

"Willow." She all but spat the name, and he felt sorry for wagering his past against her feelings about him leaving. He knew it wasn't fair, but he also knew he would have been stuck in a deadlock with Delphox forever if he didn't.

"Thank you Cinder." He said, and a sigh of relief left his body as he turned to leave.

"I hope you have a better explanation for those two, you owe them more than anyone else here. For what it's worth, i'm happy to see you, even if it hurts, I hope you can say the same... because the Mistress is going to be over the moon." He froze as she continued, and he hated that he fully believed her. He had left plenty of friends here, the friendship and family they formed as the House's staff was the only thing many of them had, and he had left that behind when the guild took him. He gave the Delphox one last nod, and turned towards the lobby once more, angled towards the bar and its lounges. He had always enjoyed the bar the most during his time here, it felt the closest to a normal job, the most casual, it was the one place that guests would talk with you like you were more than an item on the menu.

Lux waded through patrons and entertainers to get to the bar. Perfume and Cologne mixed with incense and booze to fill the air with a heady fog, as if a salazzle had taken the stage. He knew that the overbearing mistress of the house would never let someone who could challenge her authority into her House, so the incense was what they had. He scanned each and every person he saw carefully, noting the pink wristbands, collars, or other items adorning each entertainer, both a show and a statement. Always a collar or wristbands, not for the fashion but a reminder to those of the house that they were not guests, they had shackles. He climbed into a bar seat, and the bartender from the other side spotted him. A cinderace with a welcoming grin and a pink band snugly around his neck leaned over the bar and winked

"What can I get for you handsome? Drinks or something on the House?" Lux felt conflicted, it was the same tone he himself put on for guests, the same way to ask whether a patron wanted you to fill their glass or their bed. Lux's advantage was that he already knew the script.

"Im good on the drink. Just need to know who's on laundry this week" The cinderace's eyes widened in shock for a split second, replaced once again by a bright smile as he leaned in, as if to give the Absol a kiss

"S-sorry didn't quite hear you, can you run your order past me again?"

"Who's on laundry this week?" He repeated again, slow and simply. To anyone who wasn't one of the House's employees the phrase was innocuous, a clever way of asking who was on the shit list. Laundry at the house was not a simple chore, it was a punishment, to be locked in the small laundry rooms below the building, sorting through the aftermath of each night without breaks. Lux's eyes probably betrayed the knowledge he held, it wasn't hard to spot another member of the House, there was a look they all wore.

"S-Selten. Day three." The Cinderace said, before he stepped back nervously, and his eyes widened. "Oh... Oh! You're R-"

"No- that guy never made it out those doors. I'm Lux. And i'm here to find out what happened to Willow" He was quick to shut things down, he needed some anonymity to get the questions he needed answered.

"Wi-Oh shit. I don't know what you mean they-" The nervousness showed through the Cinderace's mask, the subtle signs of panic in the face of punishment. The bartender stepped back, and glanced at his reflection in the mirror, Lux could see that his eyes were zeroed in on his own collar. Lux figured the male must have been new, any season member of the House had a mask so thick it was nearly impossible to break.

"I don't work for her. I work for the guild, how about this, lets go somewhere quiet" Lux pulled a sack of coins from his bag and nodded towards the server's card, something they put up if the guest requested them rather than a drink. He turned and hopped down from the stool without waiting for his new date. He walked over to and around a thin bamboo divider at the edge of the room. A hall stretched to the side, several cushioned areas curtained off by heavy silks and sliding doors. It wasn't enough to stop the occasional moan from permeating the air, but then again it was designed to entice not to hide. He suppressed the roiling butterflies in his stomach as he walked down the hall, he'd been here too many times already, and something about leading someone else down this hall filled him with dread and uneasy disgust. Instead of continuing to a room, he stopped and waited beside where he knew the cinderace would step out of the bar.

Within a short time the cinderace was there, he held a small glass in his hand, not seeing the Absol he reached up to knock it back, only to be interrupted by Lux

"Don't worry. You won't need it... dump it in the plant" He said, glad he was fast enough to keep the Cinderace in the right headspace. The house special was more drug than drink. It was a potent aphrodisiac to ensure that entertainers were in the mood, but it muddled their heads as well, making them much more willing to accept commands from a client. Lux could see the confusion and trepidation in the cinderace's smile, but he did as Lux requested and followed him to a room.

"The House thanks you for your patronage, and I'm happy to tell you you've made a wonderful choi-" his voice was sultry, but too measured as he reached for the buttons on his vest, a wry grin spread across the bunny's snout.Lux knew the voice all too well, sultry and teasing to draw a client in.

"No need, i'll be quick. You're paid for the thirty, but I need you to answer questions" He once again saw shock and confusion on the bartender's face, now with a healthy dose of uncertainty.

"Oh of course, we offer plenty of other services" He began, reciting the lines so perfectly that lux knew what he would say next... Until Lux put a paw against the rabbit, and a spark jumped from his horn to the rabbit's collar, the pink silk becoming a muted grey in an instant.

"W...what the fuck? W..what did you do she's going to-" Lux cut the rabbit off, and tried to head off his panic before it grew any deeper.

"She isn't here. I am. If you're touching me, and me in particular she won't hear you. This isn't a test... you already know who I am. I want to know why" Lux had a few ideas why his name might be known around the House, but none of them were good, and all of them would make getting information harder.

"W...we all know who you are. I didn't know what you looked like but not a single person here hasn't heard the whispers about you. You're the only person who walked out those doors without the mistress wanting you to. Even bringing you up is enough to get someone on the shit list." There was trepidation and restraint to what the cinderace said, but there was an underlying excitement to it. "Mistress blew a gasket when you left, from what some of the staff heads say she's still not gotten over it. None of us ever expected you to come back, I mean why- why are you here?" Suspicion dotted his complexion as he shifted away from Lux just a little, keeping in contact as he looked in the room's mirror, eyes on his greyscale collar. Lux sighed and wrinkled his nose at the thick curtain closing them off from the world.

"The House sent a contract to request someone, a tracker to find someone named Willow, and... I'm the best one they had. Some of the tricks you learn in the House make you very good at finding people. When I saw the job, I don't know why but I had to take it" Lux fought the urge to shiver, the idea that he had never quite escaped the part of him that wanted to come back plagued him, but he pushed the thoughts down. "The Guild is different, I still owe them, but listen, they had other options. I chose to take the job. I don't entirely know why, but I did. Maybe I needed to prove to myself that I could" Lux hadn't expected to feel the truth slip through his lips, but it was too late now, he set his jaw and made it seem intentional.

"So you're... tracking her down?" The Cinderace's smile had long since faded, and the soft downturn of his eyes told Lux more than the question itself.

"They haven't told me anything, but I can make some assumptions. I don't know who Willow is, what they look like, anything. I'm going to find her because that's what the contract is for." Lux knew that once he found the missing person there would be the expectation for him to drag them back to this place, a thought he currently was keeping squashed down in the back of his mind. "I just need to know... did she run?" It was quiet for several minutes, only the faint sounds of other booths and the hum of the music from the bar filled the air. The cinderace didn't answer Lux at all directly, he only nodded, refusing to look at the Absol once he spoke.

"She was newer. Only a few months. The mistress was showing her off to everyone the entire time, she's special, like the Mistress, she's a shiny. O-Once She found out that Willow was gone she told all of us where she got her, she was sold off by her own trainer... The mistress only complained that she hadn't managed to trap the trainer too. You- You're here to bring her back even though she-"

"I don't know. I just cant leave her out there." Lux hated the fact that he couldn't answer such a simple question. He didn't want to bring her back, but part of him knew it was a forgone conclusion as soon as he accepted that he was finding a missing person... if he found them alive at all.

"She was a battler, the mistress said so, badges and everything she can-"

"Not out there... there's no rules for fighting there, people will play dirty and there's only one of her."

"The Mistress was obsessed though- if she never comes back its-"

"I understand I was-" Lux paused, unsure how to phrase what he wanted to say. "Close, with the mistress. I cant keep this trick up forever without her noticing your collar is off, so before then I need to know which way Willow ran, and what I'm looking for."

"North, towards the hills, she knew there wasn't anything that way, but she thought it meant nobody would follow her." Lux swore, and he could feel the rabbit's heartbeat rising higher and higher under his paw. "You... you're really going after her to bring her back here?" He could feel the heat from the fire type growing, and see the panic in his eyes

"I don't know. What I do know is that she is going to need help or she will die out here. North is nothing but hills for days of traveling, and then it's a human city. Neither are safe for her." The Absol flinched with the exertion of fighting to suppress the collar the rabbit wore on him already, the Mistress was more dedicated than she had been last time, and he was out of practice. "I can't hold this much longer. You need to concentrate on acting like nothing happened. Stick to the script."

"I-"

"Shh, you can do this. Focus, you have no idea how much you've helped, you might have saved her life too. Now, take a deep breath, and on three..." Lux said as the strain grew stronger, he finally pulled his paw back from the rabbit's chest.

"-Services we offer, in fact we offer whatever you desire" The collar snapped back to a pink color as soon as Lux stopped interfering, and to the credit of the bartending bunny, he snapped into character almost instantly. Lux knew that asking questions too bluntly would tip off the one person in the building he wanted to talk to the least. He couldn't hold it at bay forever, but the more information he had going into that conversation the better chance that he would leave it.

"Why don't you make me a drink sweetheart, and we see where things go~" Lux said, his voice dripping the same fakeness as the rabbit. A falsely lusty grin spread across his muzzle. As the cinderace turned to comply, his focus switched to the small table of liquors in the room. Lux slipped towards the curtain with near silent steps. He was out into the hall before the sound of liquid hitting the glass could even reach him. His own heart raced in his chest, it was an unpleasant uneasiness that filled his gut, the feeling of fighting against the collar made it feel like he had never quite left.

Lux crossed out of the bar, noting that Cinder was absent from the front desk and instead a human had taken their place, a tall woman with golden hair and pink cuffs on her sleeves smiled at him with a gaze that seemed like she could see right through him. He figured he stood a better shot at questioning people who weren't invested in watching him screw this up

"Hello, I have a meeting wit-"

"Yes, she knows. Cinder went on ahead to let her know you were waiting. I'm happy to see you've enjoyed our bar" The human paused in a somewhat uncomfortable manner, her head tilted like she was listening for something. "She is ready for you. One might even describe her as quite excited." The woman leaned over the counter, winking as she tucked a plastic keycard into the rim of Lux's bandana. So much for his hopes that the other attendant would be a source of information. "Please, enjoy your stay." The woman said and gestured towards the two staircases that led upstairs, and the single golden elevator nestled between them. The stairs he knew led to the building's numerous rooms, laid out like a hotel, organized by themes and other needs. To any of the House's workers, they all looked the same on the inside after a while.

The elevator was a different story. It went straight up to the fourth floor, where there were only a few rooms, the private residence of the Mistress and usually her assistants. For a long time, this door signaled the end of a hard day, and the beginning of a long night. Lux gripped the card in his teeth, afraid he would leave marks in it with how hard he was biting down. Panic started to boil inside his gut, wondering if he would see even more people he left behind. His thoughts raced to the two people he dreamed of near constantly, the only two in the building he had ever felt close to. He hadn't seen them yet and in a way he didn't want to, hoping he never had to face the fact that he left them behind. He touched the card to the elevator panel and it let out a pleasant chime, which only caused his stomach to do a backflip. He stared at the doors while he waited, the engraving on them dripped with irony to him. A royal flush, with the queen of hearts just slightly raised above the others. It said more about the House's ruler than anything else. The doors opened and he let out his breath when it was empty. He stepped inside and tapped the card again. He took deep breaths as the box moved, trying not to compare it to a coffin in his head. He was walking through these doors because he wanted to, not because he was ordered to and that was the important part.

The doors slid open and Lux stepped out. Marble split into white and ebony ringed the room in a wavy checkerboard, lines of crisscrossing gold lined the floor and climbed up the walls like vines. The silks here were mauve, and deep red interspersed with pops of pink and gold. They hung from the corners and crisscrossed the hall, blanketing the ceiling. Almost on reflex he looked at the door to the left, the one that used to be his. It was closed, no light shone from under the crack. The door beside it was similarly dark, though open, it meant the two were somewhere out in the building, and not here. He felt conflicted, both relieved not to have to face them here in the mistress's office, yet he ached to see them again.

He shifted his attention back to the middle of the room, it felt like he had already stood there for an eternity in just the brief seconds it took him to cross the threshold of the elevator doors. The imposing wooden desk in the middle of the room had nobody sitting in it. The room was empty, or so he thought. The staccato thuds of a bed against the wall and loud moans echoed down the short hall behind the desk. The lights were not on that far back, and even with his ability to see in the dark he couldn't cut through the veil at the end of the hall where the sounds originated. He sat there and waited, breathing deeply to force down the panic ever-growing inside of him. He knew this was a scare tactic of some sort, she knew he was coming, she had to plan this out. She rarely did anything without a reason.

He tried to settle by looking around the room, stepping close to the imposing desk. His curiosity was rewarded with thundering panic and dread. There was the mistress's ledger on the desk, a collection of each and every person under her control. Her army of entertainers, past and present. He knew she eventually let some go, when she felt they were no longer useful to her, usually kicked to the nearby city and left to fend for themselves. Some only left in other ways, marked through with lines. It was rare and the Mistress ensured that guests never crossed that line, but she wasn't perfect. Every person was categorized by their skills, in or out of bed, what made them desirable for customers, and how she could sell them best. The book itself isn't what made Lux's breath hitch... it was the fact that the page open on the desk was him, and him alone. He knew most pages had a few entries, his was singular, his picture at the top, and a long list below. Her uses for him, what she believed he could sell for in the right circumstances and to who.

The fact that he hadn't been crossed out, only updated, following his progress at the guild, chilled him to the bone. She had been keeping tabs on him even after he left the walls of her palace. There was little information, he assumed she only watched what adventurers were available, and that's how she knew... still it sent him spiraling, quickly backing away towards the elevator again, his heart no longer at the point where slow breaths would calm it. His eyes stung and he felt like he was going to vomit. His claws sank into the marble so hard he felt it scratch the surface. He struggled to regain his composure as the noises in the other room grew louder, he knew she could not read his thoughts like she could with the others, but somehow she knew and she relished it. Anger slowly replaced panic, and it somehow helped calm his heart, stayed his breath, and brought him back from the brink.

He didn't know how long he waited there, the moans rose and lowered in pitch, occasionally another voice tried to rise up, overshadowed by the sounds of passion. Eventually they faded, not that Lux noticed, at this point the ringing in his ears was so loud he could have mistaken it for real sound. His heart hammered in his chest and he only barely stopped himself from visibly shaking as the darkness at the end of the hall was lit with two dimly glowing pink eyes. The same panic from before dared to well up again, leaving him feeling queasy. He cursed himself for once again submitting to his fear so quickly after he had calmed from it. But this time was different, simply being here was only one level of the complex layers of emotions he felt. She was a completely different layer, and one nearest to the core.

A flare brightened the hall, flame sprang forth from nothing as the Mistress lifted a blue fingertip to her lips, lighting the cigarette in her mouth. The flame cast the Gardevoir in a fittingly devilish glow as she strode slowly down the hall. The flame vanished, leaving the glowing eyes and a single ember from the cigarette until she stepped into the light. She cared little for decency it seemed. She left a trail as she walked shamelessly, her eyes fixated on Lux in twisted glee. She approached the desk, looming over it and him for a moment, before she sat, and propped her feet up.

"I'm glad you've finally had your fill of playtime with the guild.I can't tell you how pleased I am to see you come home to join us, to come back to me. My house has oh-so dearly missed you my dear Rook."

Lux flinched, and he flinched hard. A grin spread across her face and a part of his brain screamed that he was in danger, telling him that he was being hunted by something. "Such a silly name you've taken, I think I much prefer your real one. You are my best piece after all, my unyielding tower... A shame I didn't put you back in the box when we finished our game" Every word she spoke was like a shot of adrenaline to him. Each pause spoke danger and he found it harder and harder to hold what composure he could. He had been in this spot in his nightmares, and now he faced them down without the comfort of waking up at the end.

"Erinyes." Using her name was a calculated measure, a reminder that he was not hers to command. He saw her smile twist as he did, and she put the cigarette out halfway, tossed it into the ashtray, and a pink glow surrounded it as it imploded to a point of glimmering light. "You requested a guild representative. One has arrived." He felt shaky even as he said the words. All the courage he could muster was keeping him from running away... or worse.

"You know- That guildmaster of yours is stubborn. I made plenty of requests for you over the past few years. After all, I needed my strong tower back at my side. None of my persuasions seemed to tip his hands though. Yet here you are, back in my house, back in your home." Her tone seemed like she was recounting a crush to a friend, dripping with honeyed words, and he knew behind each of them was a hammer blow to his willpower. She had once been the focus of every single day of his life, he was hers to command, and he had enjoyed it.

"The request you posted is to find someone. A person named Willow. I'll need information, and access to question the staff of your... establishment about their disappearance." He kept himself steady, reminding himself that he was not the same person that he was when he left. The gardevoir pouted when she saw he wasn't going to play along, and slowly she took her legs off the desk, instead leaning forward on her elbows.

"You always were straight to business, I do miss that about you, things just haven't been the same. You know you kept me running this place so smoothly... Now there's so many mistakes while I'm tied up in these meetings, trying to fill the void~ its such a shame when the staff have to clean up after them" Alarm bells rang in his mind as his mind raced. Mistakes was a carefully chosen word, and it was a subtle threat. His biggest worry was that others had taken her warth once he had been gone and here she all but confirmed it. She either didn't notice his worry, or she ignored it as she reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a folded paper

"I-" He started, interrupted as she held the paper up.

"We found a note when we cleaned her room, maybe the guild's upcoming star tracker can make some sense of it?" She set it down directly in front of herself and paused, her head cocked to one side. "Mmm, maybe I should finally put my favorite decoration back in celebration. Every queen needs her castle" From the same drawer she pulled an intricately carved marble chess piece. An absol sat atop a tower, carved in painstaking detail. His gaze was pulled to it so strongly that he couldn't look away as she placed it front and center on her desk, beside a shattered pokeball. For as long as he could remember she had kept that piece on her desk, he had lost himself in it every single day as he and the others gave their reports.

"No-" He felt the words strangled in his throat as she spoke over him so casually.

"Willow was such a sweet girl, it's a shame, I'm afraid a guest with a crush seems to have spirited her away, and I just can't have that, I do dearly miss my employees. I need to know she is safe." As she spoke, the paper unfolded itself and floated towards Lux with thin wisps of pinkish light surrounding it. The paper was stained with alcohol and faded, and in a delicate handwritten script a note warned that a guest was taking Willow away to be their wife, and she would not return from her happy marriage.

"This is fa-"

"Such a shame, I know. Misguided young thing stole away our Willow, I just want to see her returned to me. You do understand my dear, I know you of all people care much for our little family here in the House." Lux couldn't help but flinch again. Her voice dripped with a false kindness in a way that used to comfort him. He used to let his pain fall away under her honeyed words, let her convince him that things were going to be okay... Always drawn back into the spikes beneath. It was like hugging a rose bush, over and over again, his refuge from the pain relished in causing more.

"Full access. I need the House to cooperate if you want her back, I can find her, I'm confident in that, but I need the information." He hated how eager he sounded, betrayed by his own voice. He didn't like admitting that he needed something to her of all people

"But of course~ You belong here with us, nobody would hesitate to answer your questions. My house is going to be happy to have you back, of course many here remember their fond days with you at my side. I'll let you play detective dear, but to be clear I want you back before the weekend, it will be oh-so busy here and our little case might just end up lost under the paperwork without a certain assistant to keep my mind straight." Lux couldn't even get a word in, each time he thought to speak she was there already beating him to the punch, and reveling in the way he shifted uncomfortably.

"I'll begin immediately" He stood and turned to face the elevator once again, trying his hardest not to show any emotion, no hints she could further exploit. Even though he knew his haste to leave her office told her more than he wanted to, it was the one failing he dared show. She cleared her throat, and he tilted his head, he fully intended to ignore her attempt to get him to turn back around, but it seemed she wasn't interested in waiting.

"I wonder, my Rook, if I ordered you to my bed here and now, could that fragile little mask of yours keep you from obeying me? Does that shiny bauble on your chest let you ignore the truth?" He froze. Suddenly his body had turned traitor. His legs refused to move forwards, paralyzed by a question that seemed to reach into every corner of his mind.

"No thank you, I am on official Guild business." He knew the words were hollow when they left his mouth, but the fact that he said them at all was enough to make his legs work once more. In truth he didn't know the answer, he knew that she could very well order him, and his body might obey before his mind did. It was what bothered him the most. With the others he knew she wormed her power into their heads, pressed the right buttons, twisted the right dials until they wanted to serve her, wanted to make her happy. Her power had no such purchase on him and the other dark types. She couldn't simply tug his heartstrings like a marionette... so she had worked her way into his mind. He couldn't resist her power, because there was no power, no effect, nothing but himself to fight against. When he finally found the strength to step forwards again, he strode to the elevator, letting the silence stifle him. He turned around in the elevator, once again met with the ominous pink glow of her eyes.

"So stoic it makes my heart flutter. I can't wait to bring you home again, to hear you tell me how much you missed this. Now go be a good boy and find me my missing Luxray quickly~ My bed's getting colder every moment you're gone."

The elevator doors closed and he all but screamed. Panic and disgust had boiled down into rage, and as the elevator carried him down to the entrance it fizzled out into bitterness. Every word she spoke was a reminder of the hopelessness of this place. It wasn't the cruelty of the occasional customer that crushed spirits here. It was the steady and unending reminder that you belonged to her in one way or another, and that her envious love would never leave you no matter how far you ran.

The lobby was busy when the doors opened again, divulging the tortured Absol back into the House he knew too well. He could feel the eyes on him as he stepped out, in the past they would be awaiting his orders, passed down from high. Today they were analyzing him, wondering if he had broken, or if the show would go on. Guests had begun to arrive for the night, and Lux knew he had limited time. He would never catch the Luxray before dark, the thought of spending the night under this roof was a repulsive one, but it was beginning to become a necessary one.

"Your room is ready for you R-" A voice called, and he answered in reflex to interrupt them. The human from before was standing beside the elevator, her clothes different from when he had gone upstairs. He lamented that time had lost all meaning, he didn't know how long he had been in that office. She was dressed in a frilled dress, well fitted, showing off the things the Mistress deemed most valuable.

"Room?" He asked, glad to have cut them short, the less mouths that said his name the better he would feel.

"A suite to be exact, for our treasured administrator, the Mistress believed you may wish to enjoy your stay while you so diligently worked to solve the House's problems." Her voice was too cheery, the subtle glow around her wrists letting Lux know he was being watched.

"Thank you." He said tersely, and she swapped his keycard for another, from memory alone he knew where the room was based on the number. She had given him one of the most expensive rooms in the House, and he knew that cost would be paid somehow. Lux turned and tucked the keycard into his bandana, before he blissfully got farther away from the elevators. He turned and walked towards the hall across from the bar, knowing it split into a restaurant, as well as his goal, the hall that led to where all the occupants of the House lived.

While it seemed that Erinyes' closest and chosen knew he was here, the news was not widespread, or if it was the other staff chose not to act on it, flirting with him as they would any other guest. A part of Lux's heart ached as he walked past a group, pokemon and humans alike fluttering their eyes and wiggling their hips, he didn't want to admit to the fact that the feeling of being wanted was something he used to crave intensely. Something he was sure rang true with the others around him. He Ignored them as best as he could, and acted as if he would walk past the staff hall, instead he turned down it sharply, and passed through the double-doors. The hall was not as lavishly decorated, but it still bore the fine silks, red and pink hues painted and seemingly impressed into the building itself. At the end were a number of changing rooms, entrances to the kitchens, and a series of showers. Beyond that was the stars that led down to the living area of the House.

It was not a dungeon, as much as his imagination considered it one. Lux stepped down onto soft plush carpets, couches and other furniture dotted the large anteroom that made up the bulk of the basement. House staff rested here and there, most paid no mind to him at first, after all a guest would never come down here. He tried to keep it that way as he walked straight for the hall, back towards the bedrooms. He didn't know which one was Willow's but he could figure it out eventually. He ducked into the side hall, weary of the eyes that had found him, the less questions he had to answer the better. Walking with a purpose, and like he knew where he was going, he never saw the fact that a door cracked open as he approached.

A massive clawed hand grabbed him by the scruff and fully lifted him off his feet. He was dragged into the room before he could so much as open his mouth to speak. On reflex he charged an attack, sickly black energy crackling around his horn

"Rook. Stop!" The hand released him and he spun to face his assailant and within moments the crackling energy dissipated, fizzling out around his body as in front of him stood one of the very few people in this place he called a friend. In front of him was a Tyranitar, and the sort of mother figure of most of the house. Her caring and careful demeanor was what kept most of the staff from drinking themselves into a stupor.

"Tasia? Wh-"

"Shh. Paw now." The tyranitar ordered, and he lifted his hand up, unsure of what she was doing. She grasped his paw in her claws and darkness crackled around them, the pink banded cuffs around her wrists dimmed and eventually became a dull grey.

"You can suppress them too?" Lux asked almost incredulously, trying to keep his voice low.

"You weren't the only one with tricks up your sleeve. Emmet told me you visited him at the bar, when he said that he had a long and quiet conversation with someone he couldn't talk about, I knew you had come back. Rook... why are you here? Why did you come back." The tyranitar had an almost pleading tone to her voice, a hint of fear colored the way she asked, like she did not want the response.

"I- My name is Lux. The Guild sent me to fulfill a request to find a missing person. I'm the best tracker they had available." For the first time since he stepped through the doors, Lux felt like he was not looking over his shoulder. The effect that Tasia had on most of the people here. She was quiet for a moment before she responded.

"Lux..." She rolled the name around in her mouth, testing it out. She understood the meaning behind abandoning the name he once had. "You came for Willow then. She's sent for help to bring her back."

"I did."

"Listen Ro- Lux... You need to get out of here again Erinyes wont let you leave so easily again."

"The guild wont let he-"

"I sincerely doubt she's going to ask." there was a terse silence between the two, only filled with the crackle of energy dampening the pink fabric.

"I won't let her. I came here to do a duty and I will, but every single way I can I will fight to try and get Willow out of here. I can't let her die out there. I won't." Lux's voice wavered, but his determination held true. "She deserves better, a chance to be happy. You all do." He continued, fighting against the urge to curl into a ball, his pride wouldnt let him, but there was always that voice in the back of one's mind that told them to give up and let the trouble wash over them.

"We." Tasia said, just a single word, it left Lux confused until he opened his mouth to speak and she stopped him.

"We all do. You are still one of us Lux. Whether you made it out or not, the House has a family in it, not a good one, but it is still family. I look at you now and I don't recognize the absol that left these halls. You are out from under the thumb of this place, but I can see the cloud you find yourself under instead. I can see the pride you hold in yourself, the care to repair your bag rather than get a new one, the way that badge shines. Don't you for a second pretend that you do not deserve these things." Tasia plucked him off the ground like he was no more than a child, the energy snapping between them as Lux fed into it, suppressing the bands around the tyranitar's wrists. She pulled him into a tight hug, and while he felt like she would crush him if she squeezed harder, the pressure was a comfort he had not felt in a long time.

"I left you. I left all of you..." He said, regret and guilt tearing at him as he did.

"No Lux. You saved yourself, whether you expected to or not."

"I didn't! I- I saved... I saved her." Lux cried out, and somewhere deep within him a dam burst. His guilt riled up and it all came out at once "I saved her, not me. When... I saw that the guest had charged an attack up. I knew it would be bad, I could just tell, he had the look of someone strong to him, and he was just so dead set on his anger. Everything I had in me I put into that attack. When they dragged him away I thought I had killed him. She was so happy, she didn't care that his solar beam had ripped a hole in the door, she could do nothing but praise me, and I felt sick every time she did." He didn't let himself have the luxury of crying, he would hold onto that until it was time. "When the guildmaster came the next day to see who had knocked his lieutenant out in a single hit, she lied. Told him it was another guest, and I told the truth. Again, it wasn't for me. I don't know what made the guildmaster choose to take me, I don't know why, but he did. He never spoke to me about this place, never once asked about her, or what it was like. He simply told me that my missions would help me pay off my debt to him. After the first year I found out he had lied, somehow he knew I wouldn't be right unless I had something to work towards, he had just been storing it all for me, waiting for me to realize. Still he never asked. It's still there, everything I earned just sits in the guild coffers, I don't know what to do with it, I don't know where to go. Then... the request here. I had to. I had signed my name before I even realized what I was doing... I- I think he was going to stop me. To tell me not to come, but I was already gone." Lux's words slowed to a crawl, and for the first time in years he felt a wave of somber but clear relief. The guilt he held alone for so long was finally out, and it was like breathing after holding his breath for the past three years.

"You aren't here to save us hun. No one person can take that on themselves, and so many of us are here because we were already saved once. Life here is tough, it isn't what most of us expected, and sometimes it can be very very hard. But life here is not bad. We're not frozen in the cold, or thirsty in the desert. A caged pidgey still sings its tunes Lux." Tasia had years on him, he knew that. She had been here as long as he could remember, as long as anyone could. "Most of the House simply woke up one day, the only memories we have are of her, and her promise. She took away our pain, and we give ourselves to her, each and every one of us. Sometimes, we figure out how each other arrived, sometimes sold, sometimes found, sometimes we arrived begging to have our pasts erased. We all made mistakes to get here we-"

"No. That's not true. Some of us did. I'm sure, but the others she took. We're here for her greed. And somehow I'll find a way to stop it." Resolve was something Lux always had felt he lacked, it was how Erinyes had tugged his strings so easily but now he felt his resolve harden in the face of his friends. The family he had before he left this place. He finally knew what had compelled him to come back and it was not the woman in the penthouse suite. "I'm going to find Willow, I promise you and I'll figure something out."

"Be careful, and don't try to be our hero, you did that enough when you were her right hand. She took everything out on you, you saved a lot of us from her wrath. You already saved us, time and time again. People don't forget that...Have you gone to see them yet?"

"Who do-"

"You know who I mean. The two of them have missed you more than anyone else here has. They're strong about it, but I know how badly they want you back. You shouldn't let them hear by happenstance." Lux's breath hitched and he knew that the Tyranitar was right.

"I- I can't... I cant face them after I left them-"

"No. Not left, they know you better than that." Lux sighed as Tasia looked down at him, it made him feel small, but not belittled. "Take your time, when you're ready, but don't keep yourself from them because you think you don't deserve it... Now, we both know we cant keep the suppression up forever. So as soon as it ends why don't you take a look around Willow's room, I happen to know there's a hint under her bed frame that the Mistress didn't care to look for."

The hug lasted a while longer, before Lux asked where Willow's room was, and he made the walk there alone. He felt lighter now, his friends were still okay, even if they were still here. The family that filled his memories and he only dreamed of were all around him. The panic and the fear had finally drained away and now he could focus on doing what he came here for. It didn't take long, he searched the room with renewed vigor, and the note was well hidden, but not for someone who knew all the tricks of this House. He was potentially the only person who knew it better than Erinyes herself.

"Wainwright logging. Don't speak it out loud." The handwriting was rough, someone like himself with paws could only do so much, though he had careful tutelage, and Willow had not. The intertwined stories finally gave him what he needed to know. And now he knew when she left, and how far she was likely to make it. A human-trained battler was a formidable pokemon, but months at the House were not training. She had no supplies. There were too many places she could go, and he needed to figure out more about how she left. He worked the room over again, the newcomers had the smallest rooms, little more than a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand. He could hardly remember his, eventually he was given a larger room, before Erinyes took notice of him. The fact that he couldn't remember all of his time here bothered him, it might have been five years, or eight, he was sure it was less than ten. Then again, he realized he didn't know how long the House had been here, the manipulation of every facet of life inside made it feel timeless and never ending. The Luxray would have been clever, but not trained to see the solutions to problems.

Lux stopped where he was, that was it, sight. Luxray could see through objects, he turned his attention to the other things in the room, simple hiding places were not needed when you could see through whatever you wished. He found the solution under the bed, the carpet was just barely torn up, like Tasia said. it was difficult to notice, it had melted back to the floor like the original glue. His claws carefully caught the edge so he could peel the layer back, and his next clue greeted him. Business cards, dozens of them, not a surprise there, most of the House staff collected them from their guests, it was sort of a game, see who found the most interesting ones, sometimes they traded them. Tradition to them would not be recognizable to others, but tradition had rules, even if they were made up. The cards were not organized the way they should have been, and he noticed the scratches, little ones on every card. Lux wished he had thumbs like humans, or at least hands like other pokemon, nudging the cards into place with his claws took time, and it took a lot. At the end he had found that cards had certain words marked, Water from an engineer's card, food from the owner of a chain of restaurants. The way he laid them out there was only one missing, a single business card that would sit at the center. He puzzled over the missing one until again he remembered that the Luxray could see what he couldn't. Carefully he picked up the next tile of carpet, and the next, until he realized that he had spread them on the bed, not the floor, in the center of the room was a wooden beam that ran the length of the concrete on either side. There, pressed into the beam was a logging company, and an address, stamped into it.

Lux labored to put the room back the way it had been, pulling a seed from his pack he took a deep breath and crunched the tough exterior. Flames roiled in his mouth and he exhaled slowly, and steadily, warming the glue and melting the carpet back to the floor. For good measure he made sure the marked business cards ended up under the carpet as well. He had three stories, and none of them were the full truth, but two believed it was. By the time he stepped outside the room, there were less people wandering the halls. The daytime staff had likely fallen asleep, and the nighttime entertainers were all above. He tried to continue to think like someone who could see everything he couldn't, he might know the building better but she could have seen all its secrets. He paced the empty hall a few times, before an idea struck and he turned to jog down the hall and through the door at the end. Here there were no decorations, the carpet was replaced with linoleum, old and yellowing. There were four doors in the hall, one led to the heaters, and the guts of the House itself, one to the laundry, and two were for storage. He ignored the storage and went straight for the boiler room.

It was rare anyone form the house stepped foot in here, a select few that the mistress found had the mechanical talent kept things working, and kept their value for her as a result. There were no horrors in the boiler room, just a simple, clean concrete room with industrial water heaters spaced around its length. The large pipes twirling into a mass and vanishing into the ceiling to supply the building. At this point Lux knew that the boredom and lifelessness of this room was its calling, the place with nothing to see for him would have something for the Luxray, it might have only been a hunch, but it was something he needed to follow. He crept through the area carefully and quietly, he doubted that anyone would be here for any reason, but he had other ideas in play. If one person got out and nobody saw how, then more could do the same. He felt like he was staring holes in the walls, desperate for any tuft of blue or black fur he could find. Just as he began to question his decision, the light caught a glint of gold on the floor, and recognition spun him around again. He got sloppy, and he looked for normal fur, not the golden of his quarry.

Now with his mistake rectified, Lux found the subtleties of the room changed. It hadn't been cleaned recently, there was dust, but importantly there were golden strands of fur, few and far between against the floor. He followed the strands and was met with a wall, poorly painted cinder block, no room for seams. He jumped up, paws against the wall to press his ear to it, clicking to see if it was somehow hollow, the answer wasn't what he expected, as the floor beneath him wobbled. He jumped off the wall and on closer inspection he found that the linoleum tile moved ever so slightly. He wedged the edge of his horn under it and tossed his head, popping the tile free, and showing that underneath it was a small access tunnel, golden fur dotted the inside of the tunnel, and finally he had a concrete lead. He knew she was going north, and he knew where she got out... the issue was he had no idea how she got the tile back over the hole when she got in. He would not have the time to consider the ways she did it, so he slipped into the small tunnel. It was too small to turn around in, and he thanked the fact that he was still flexible from his training at the guild, ignoring the years he spent here. He popped his head back, angling his horn to grab the edge of the tile, and slowly and carefully dragged it back over himself. It would pass close inspection, but all he had to do was make sure nobody would look.

Crawling through the tunnel almost reminded him of the caves he explored with the guild. Though no territorial pokemon lurked around the corners, and in caves he did not snag his horn on cables. He had to be careful not to cut any, lest he shock himself, or worse make someone investigate the tunnel. It was slow and uncomfortable, but eventually he came to a small junction, just enough room to turn around in, and a ladder that led up, even he could not see in the pitch darkness, so he couldn't tell how far up it went. He stepped forwards and something made a metallic rattle, startling him so badly that energy crackled around him in preparation for a fight. Quickly he realized he had stepped on a padlock, melted and slagged from high heat, and he was betting it was electrical. He shifted his bag on his back and brought his paws up to the rungs of the ladder, these things were built for humans, and the climb was an unpleasant one.

At the top he could feel coolness seeping in, and the scent of air was stronger here, not musty like the tunnel. His horn tapped against an object, and he slowly tilted his head to push it up. Through the crack he could see outside, he must have been in some sort of junction box, the lights of the House weren't far, but far enough that a Luxray could slip into the night. He pushed a little more, looking up at the sky until he could orient himself, the moon was hidden by the House, and the constellations in front of him were southern ones. Which meant that she left from here, and would have run straight for the hills, giving him a trail to follow. Finally, hope began to overtake the questions and the dread. This was his job, and it was one he had worked hard for. To track someone and bring them home safely... that's why the golden badge on his chest meant something to him at all.

The climb back through the tunnel was equally unpleasant, but he had managed to hide the entrance once again and slip out of the boiler room without anyone seeing him. Everything had eaten away at the precious time he had to find the Luxray. He could leave now, but if he lost their sparse trail in the darkness it would cost him more time later. If he hadn't been exhausted he knew that not even the dark would stop him, but it would be foolish to rush. Town was a two hour walk in the opposite direction he needed to go, this place had the necessity of isolation for its lascivious purpose, and it had all the isolation it needed. He disliked the idea of using the room Erinyes wanted him to, but in reality he had few better ideas. He needed to come up with a plan, and figure out what of his supplies would make it happen. He made his way back through the lobby and upstairs, avoiding the central lounge and its small bar. He knew the room he was looking for was up another floor, following the next set of sweeping staircases, the suites were the most expensive rooms offered, and he didn't want to imagine why he had been given one. The entire walk to the room he tried to fight the creeping thought that he had only come up with an excuse to stay the night rather than leave, a thought that made him want to sprint out the front doors again, tail tucked between his legs.

The room was larger than he remembered them being. He couldn't tell if it was time, or the fact that he didn't have a potent cocktail of booze and chemicals distorting how he saw the world. The bed could've fit him and half a dozen others easily enough, and he knew it could probably handle more if creativity was involved. At this point he didn't care, he finally slipped his bag off, leaving it on the bed. Today had been a test of resolve in every sense. He could feel the pull of exhaustion begging him to collapse into the sheets, but there was still work to be done. He gingerly lifted his bag strap, looking at the gleaming golden badge on it and nodded silently to himself. He had crawled through ducts, and torn up a carpet today, he could continue planning after a shower. The bathroom connected to the suite was just as over the top, and the shower was built to be its main attraction, the controls were universal to humans and pokemon, and thankfully he still remembered how to work them. The day began to pour away under the rush of hot water. He had to admit, the guild's showers were nothing compared to these, and he had no qualms about enjoying the luxury where he could.

Thankful for the built-in dryer, Lux didn't have to wait nearly as long as usual, taking the time to straighten his fur out. He caught himself halfway through, using a brush from the counter, and realized he didn't know why he was even trying to get this clean. For a brief moment his anxiety tried to win, and he thought that he was falling back into old habits. But he didn't let that voice gain any purchase, calmly continuing to brush his fur, he would let himself enjoy something, he had earned it.

Feeling the best he had since he arrived, Lux stepped out of the bathroom, and several things hit him at once. The bed was no longer empty, his bag was no longer where he left it, and there was a shimmering note, just inches from his face as he opened the door.

"In case you've forgotten where you came from" It said, a caricature of a heart was drawn around it, each half the heart a different tail, matching those of the two pokemon in the bed. His heart did flips as he realized that Erinyes intended to use the only two people he had developed feelings for against him. The two on the bed were an Umbreon and an Espeon, Alto and Bari, and they were the only two people in the entirety of the House he didn't want to see. With the two of them he didn't fear that he would be reminded of his past, he feared that he would never be able to walk away from them again. The pair were facing away from him, both of their rear's in the air, their tails twined together to form a heart

"Welcome master, prepare for trouble, and make it double" Alto's voice was always the more energetic of the two, the umbreon held true to his name, always upbeat.

"Us twins are here to take care of everything our master might need!" Bari was the calmer of them, even the subtle slurred tone of their voice was well hidden by the Espeon. He knew the two weren't twins, Bari was older by three years, and the two were completely unrelated. The pair were inseparable, and as a trio, they had been the same.

"You can start with me!" Alto exclaimed,

"Or maybe me!" Bari responded. Lux felt a tornado of emotions rumble through him, surprise and panic tore through him, and it robbed him of any response he could have formed. When no response to their teasing came, the pair peeked between their legs in unison, and the mood of the room changed quite drastically.

"R-Rook?" Alto asked, his voice hitched in surprise and both of them stumbled over themselves as they tried to turn around. Their tails swished back and forth rapidly, and Lux's did the same, betraying his attempt to remain stoic.

"We thought you were-" Bari started, only to be interrupted by Alto.

"Look who finally remembered us!"

"I- its nice to see you both... but I- I need you to leave...please." Lux finally found his voice.

"What, not even going to tell us you were back?!" Alto yelled, the dark-type swayed slightly, and Lux could tell both of them had probably just taken aphrodisiac doses as soon as his shower ended... if their displays of arousal hadn't been enough of a hint.

"Are you sure? Come on I can see you remember us just as much as we remember you" Alto said, and the umbreon hopped down from the bed, he walked alongside Lux and leaned into the slightly larger male. He rubbed against Lux as he walked past, knowing full well that the scents of arousal in the room suddenly were no longer just his and Bari's. Lux couldn't ignore their past, the times they all met, exhausted from the day to simply have someone to be close to. Erinyes had demanded more and more of him to keep him from the pair, but they had always found ways to see one another. "It hasn't been that long since you ran off to have fun with the guild. Who out there could be better than-"

"It wasn't that simple I-" Lux wished there had been conviction behind his voice, wished he could've shouted it, what actually came out sounded tired and weak, and in many ways it matched how he felt seeing his friends sent here to him. "I didn't want to catch up like this. Youknow I wouldn't forget about you but-" Lux searched for the words to explain how he felt but everything got caught in his throat, and no words came out.

"But what? You leave for the big wide world and we're not good enough anymore?" Alto stepped away, the hurt clear on the umbreon's face.

"Alto I don't think that he-"

"No Bari, what are we supposed to think here? He shows up after he's been gone for years, years in which his name is enough to get you tossed on the worst of the cleaning lists. And then here he is on the order list. You were... more than a friend to us and you never bothered to let us know you were okay?" Lux could hear the umbreon struggling to hold his emotions together, even through the slightly slurred speech, he knew the two had probably downed cocktails before they came in, regardless of who they thought was in the room.

"You two are still my friends I-"

"Friends? Come on, you haven't spoken to us in three years. Do you even know what's happened here in that time, what we've been doing, what we do now that you aren't here anymore? Without you its-"

"Alto you should let him-" Bari tried to interject again, but there was no stopping the Umbreon's emotions from pouring out. Alto walked back towards the bed and looked between the Espeon and the Absol.

"No. You didn't so much as say goodbye to a single one of us, you walked out the front door and every single day we had to sit there and wonder if you would come back. Come the fuck on Ro-"

"Alto! Stop. P-please, just stop." Lux couldn't hide the way his voice cracked and he hated the fact that he knew Erinyes would be listening. He hated the fact that she sent these two to him knowing full well he couldn't bear to look either of them in the eye.

"Stop?! Sure just as soon as you stop pretending you ever lov-" Bari reached towards the Umbreon as if to stop him, but at this point Lux couldn't stop himself anymore He took a shaky step forwards, between the two of them.

"I never stopped loving either of you! I didn't walk out of here, the guild took me... I never would have left you behind but I couldn't come back here, I couldn't bear the idea that I would waste the chance to find out how to get you out of here." Lux yelled, it felt so loud to him that he couldn't hear himself think, and a wave of dim light erupted from his chest, forming a sphere that rocked through the room. The pink collars that both the eeveelutions wore fizzled and crackled, their fabric turning grey as Lux struggled to fight against the tears that welled in his eyes. He hadnt let himself cry, not since he left the House. Dozens of times he came close, but he always bit back the urge, seeing the two people he missed more than anything else was enough to break that dam. Tears rolled down the blue of his cheeks and hit the carpet below. Bari spoke before either of them did. She looked like she had just been scared straight, and Lux winced, knowing the pulse had likely been unpleasant for the psychic type

"We're... not in our right mind, we downed two when you turned the shower off. The Mistress said it was important that we did. She told us it was you but we didn't know if- well we both took it." The Espeon looked away, trying not to meet his tearful gaze, she didn't need to look him in the eye, he could tell from her voice that she was barely holding tears back.

"We didn't know what happened to you. She wouldn't tell us, or anyone. She made us watch out the windows after you walked out the door, and then you were gone. They took you away from us. We- it wasn't just us, the whole house." Alto's voice had long since cracked as well, and there were tears in the umbreon's eyes, the blush to his cheeks brought on by the cocktail made it that much more obvious. "For three years we had to think we lost you. When we saw your name on the list for the room..."

"We thought she was mad at us. Toying with our hopes only for it to be someone else, its why we took both." Bari finished where Alto left off, and Lux could tell the two were fighting the effects of their cocktails as effectively as anyone could. Two was usually reserved for a night you needed not to remember.

"I- I would never, two doses makes sure you forget..."

"We know. Its just too late, we wont-" Bari's voice hitched in the middle of her sentence. The realization that they had been tricked into doubling their doses washed over them. "We won't even know it happened tomorrow. You'll just be gone again." The Espeon leaned to one side, slightly towards Lux and he jumped onto the bed beside her, Alto quick to follow him on the other side. Emotions ran rampant through the three.

" Wait! I-I can... Bari, my bag, where did you two put it?" Lux asked, barely pulling through the haze of his own tears to frantically look for the worn brown shell.

"Under the bed, left side" She replied, choking back a sob now that tears had run their course. It was hard to cry on a double dose, it only seemed to make the cocktail work faster, something about it helped the drugs rob someone of their mind faster. The two eeveelutions sat beside one another, swaying slightly as they slowly but surely lost the fight with the drugs in their systems. Lux nearly dove under the bed, whacking his horn on the frame, he swore and turned his head to reach farther. He could hear the breathing of the two starting to normalize, and then deepen, and he knew he was working on borrowed time, once they gave in fully they wouldn't remember a thing. He grabbed the strap of his bag and pulled, sending it sprawling across the floor, out- rolled a number of items, seeds, and importantly a few glass orbs. He grabbed one in his maw and bit down as hard as he could.

Instead of shattered glass the orb exploded into shimmering light, and a soft glow swept through the room around them. Slowly he saw the fuzzy look in their eyes recede, and they blinked away the confusion of coming around.

"W- wh- How did you?"

"I feel... better, like I didn't even take a single dose" Lux almost collapsed in relief, letting his head rest on the floor for a moment as he gave a loud and shaky exhale.

"Cure orb. Expensive but important part of every rescue bag. I didn't know if it would work. But I couldn't stand to see you two reduced to that." Lux said, keeping his head against the floor, he didn't dare look up at the pair again, afraid that he would never pull himself from the tears. He didn't need to, and to his surprise he didn't flinch as they brushed against him. All his anxiety and fear melted away in that moment, and the deluge of tears once again threatened to break through and drown him in sorrow for the friends he lost, but the same tears washed away his pain with the joy of seeing the ones he cared for again.

It was a long night, which worked in their favor, Erinyes expected them to keep him busy, and the pair did. They asked about every adventure he had been on, every detail of his life outside the House, and Lux was happy to tell them. In return he asked what had happened since he left, and grit his teeth against the anger brewing within. It seems Tasia had been kind when she said things changed once he was gone. Erinyes' obsession had been held at bay by the sheer fact that nobody left unless she wanted them to. For her to have someone taken from her, and for it to be her favorite toy, it had consumed her. Some of the staff spent more time helping the mistress 'focus' than they spent with guests now, and her outbursts could be felt by anyone with a collar now. She would not stop until she had a new bauble to replace that which she had lost, and for a brief respite, that bauble had been Willow, her brand new shiny. The pair had taken the worst of it at first, Erinyes knew that they had a relationship with Lux, something more substantial than even the mistress's hold on him. When he vanished her obsession turned to jealousy and the two had ended up doing the worst jobs in the House for months. Erinyes made it clear to them that she would never again suffer the act of sharing her toys. Throughout it all, Lux poured himself into keeping their collars inert, a sort of determined desperation drove his strength, and no matter how tired he felt he kept up the interference. All of them knew it would be noticed, but in the face of their reunion, not even the wrath of the mistress could sour the moment.

For the first time since he had left the House, Lux fell asleep beside someone else, and that fact alone kept his nightmares at bay, even here in the source of his twisted dreams, they could not torment him any longer.

Lux woke up before Alto or Bari did, the brief moment of bliss before the fog cleared his mind was something he wished he could stretch on for an eternity. He looked down at the two others curled against him, surprised but relieved to see that their collars were both a dull grey still. A pang of guilt struck him that they would likely face punishment for his tampering with their collars, but he knew that they wouldn't have had it any other way. He gently slid out of the bed, the cure orb he had used could only counteract the effects of the cocktails to an extent, he was doubtful either of them would wake easily, or without a headache today. Leaving them like this felt wrong, even as he nestled three cure orbs onto the bed beside them, his last supply of the expensive items. Carefully he left them a note, and slipped out of the room, leaving his key inside with them.

"No need for goodbyes this time."

The lobby was sparse in the mornings, the House did not often open early, giving the staff time to clean and prepare for the next nights visitors, and for the previous nights occupants to find their way out, satisfied with their debauchery they filtered back out into the world with their sins left here in these halls. Lux did not count himself among them today, he reached the bottom of the stairs and to his surprise Erinyes stood in the center of the room, waiting for him. Her eyes smoldered in the golden light that filtered through the front windows.

"You look refreshed my dear Rook, of course you know that I know what's best to get rid of those pesky worries of yours my dear. Though I do have to say I wish you would stop interfering with our staff's fashion, to be out of uniform is quite rude in my House." She narrowed her eyes at him, and for once he felt no anxiety, only defiance.

"Oh you know me so well don't you~ I guess i'm just too much for your little collars to handle" He knew it wasn't what he said so much as the singsongy way he said it. Nothing would bother her more than to see that for once he didn't shrink under her gaze. His bravado faltered as a low rumble in her throat became laughter. It got to the point where she threw her head back, cackling into the empty lobby, the lack of anyone else now unnerved him, too late he realized he had sprung some sort of trap.

"You're right my darling little Rook. I do know you well. So very very well." She said, reaching out towards him. He shied away, though not fast enough as her finger glided down the length of his horn. He shuddered from the sensation. "I know that you would do anything to make your mistress- your one absolute love happy. Because when you don't, I start to get jealous of the other playthings you keep company with." She leaned in close to his face, the smell of her perfume suddenly oppressive around him. "It would be such a shame if I felt you loved them more than me, I couldn't keep anyone in my house who would dare take my Rook from me"

"Leave them out-" Lux started, feeling a new fear called to the surface.

"Don't you dare to give your mistress an order!" He could feel the wave of her influence extend past him, the air itself shimmering with pink hues as her eyes burned like flame. "You are mine. Even if you cling to that guild, you have a job to do darling and you will do it because I command you to or I will leave those two with less brains than a fried magikarp." Her words dripped with vitriol as she physically stood over him. He fought the urge to bare his teeth, clenching his jaw tightly as he looked her in the eye.

"Fine." He all but growled it, fighting the growing urge to shrink under that wrathful gaze.

"Wonderful!" She emphasized, her posture changing as she took a step back again. "I'm glad you understand so clearly. It's what I've always loved about you. Now~ Find my kitty and come home quickly dear, you never know when I might start to feel jealous without you around." she stepped past him, towards the empty front desk and the elevator behind. "I might just have to make those two adorable Eevees love me more than they think they love you." She added, and the words dug into Lux like pointed stones. The soft chime of the elevator door shutting behind him was what convinced him to finally breathe again. He wasn't going to let her push him like this, not with the others at stake.

Lux stepped outside the House, hearing the doors close behind him did not have the relief he imagined it would. When he stepped inside he had been scared of Erinyes, but in the end he was more afraid of himself. His worry was that as soon as he stepped inside he would give up, and let go of the shred of hope that he could ever go back for the people he cared about. Each step away from the door was one less step he had to come up with a plan. He had left this place broken, and Erinyes clearly intended for him to return in the same state. And he would refuse.

The pavers of the House's decorated drive took him down and outside the intricate wrought iron fences. There was plenty of space around the House bristling with trees, benches, and outdoor attractions for the guests to keep busy with. Beyond the fence on all sides were thickets of trees, planted to give this place the privacy it demanded from the outside world. Of course the area around the House simply wished it didn't exist, or pretended to ignore what they could not remove. Many times someone had told the house to leave, and many times that person was convinced otherwise, Lux had no idea how long it had been here, or how it started, only that the House would never cease while Erinyes had it in her grasp.

When he reached the open gates Lux was surprised to see a uniformed human walking through them. The guildmaster's head was down as if in thought, and he had paused just across the threshold of the gates.

"Guildmaster Valthurn, what are you doing here?" Lux called, and the Human's head snapped up at him quickly. Surprise, and then anguish washed over the human's face before he settled on the neutral and stoic expression he was known for. The guildmaster was silent for long enough that Lux caught on that something was wrong.

"I came here to try and bring you back. I did not think that you were ready to return to this place" The man gave a long-winded sigh "I am relieved to see that you survived the night."

"What do you mean? You didn't think I would come back?" Lux couldn't help but feel mildly offended, despite the fact that he himself wondered the same thing when he had walked inside yesterday.

"It's not as simple as that, but yes, I was worried you would be able to leave. I felt it was my fault so I came here to give you something, in the hopes that it might help you. But here you are, walking away" the guildmaster's face was weathered and his habit of neutral expressions made him hard to read for the Absol.

"I'm not done yet I- have more work to do here."

"Lux you don't have to finish this contra-"

"I do. I fell for the traps, I need to be the one to get out of them."

"Be careful Lux. There's so much I haven't told you, and I wish I had the courage to when it mattered. But it's far too late now. Erinyes is dangerous in ways I cannot even imagine. Your resolve is going to be your greatest weapon against her '' The guildmaster sat down on the curb and gestured Lux over. "I promise to tell you the truth, but I need you to promise me that you come back to the guild. Don't fall for her schemes." Once again a terse silence sat between the two. Lux had never heard the Guildmaster act this way, he had always been distant and Lux assumed it was simply the way the man was.

"I'm coming back, and I won't be alone." Lux said, feeling warmth in his chest as he said it. It was a promise to himself as much as it was to the guildmaster. He wasn't sure what he said, but the weathered man closed his eyes and sighed, looking up to the morning sky.

"If only I had not heard so many guild members say those words to me before. Lux take this with you, I can't think of any danger more deserving than this." He said, setting the small wooden box on the ground, he opened it and pulled out a single seed, multicolored bands ran around its length. "If you need the strength to overcome anything, this will let you achieve it." He placed the seed into Lux's pack gingerly, as if it were something fragile.

"Guildmaster Valthurn, empowerment seeds cost a fortune, why-"

"You don't need to understand it. I owe you a debt, I failed you when I brought you to the guild, I let cowardice and fear cloud my judgment and this is my repayment. If- When you come back to us, I owe you an explanation. But until then I hope this is enough to balance the scale, if only for a while." Lux only nodded, wracking his brain to figure out what the guildmaster meant, but it was clear the man was being cryptic on purpose.

"They called for a tracker, and they need me to find someone, I- know it's not right to bring them back, but I have something in mind. Trust me.'' The guildmaster stood and turned away from Lux, walking back towards town, a walk that Lux knew took more than two hours on foot.

"I always have." He said, and began the walk down the twisting path that led to the mesa the House was built on.

Lux waited until the guildmaster had vanished from his sight and he was puzzled over the interaction they just had. He had questions that only made for more questions. As much as he would have loved to chase the weathered human for answers, he knew each hour he was gone was a higher risk. He turned and made a wide berth around the fences of the house, turning to the north and setting out into the thickets of trees surrounding the house. Beyond them lay a slow and steady decline down to the rocky and barren hills of the north.

The trail was sparse, but it wasn't hard to follow. Willow was running, not trying to evade a follower. A scratch in the dirt here, golden fur caught by a plant, blown in the wind. Scent was unreliable, every so often hints of something passed him in the wind leading Lux to the next hint. Lux found it funny that the farther he got from the House the more his thoughts wandered to the people in it. It started with Alto and Bari, Tasia, and slowly encompassed the other faces and names he had left behind. He had seen them in the crowds, out of the corner of his eye, noticed the people he used to spend every day with, and he had ignored all of them to try and ignore how much he missed them. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that so much of the pain he felt when he thought of the House was not because of Erinyes, it was because he longed for the only family he could remember. His first memory in the house was waking up, the mistress's promise rattling in his head. He was confused, lost, and Erinyes was there, she calmed him down, told him who he was, and where. He knew she had taken something painful from him... something he wanted gone, but that was all. After that it quickly became life in the House. The older members taught the newer ones, and made sure they got the easy jobs at first. They held the newcomers together when they had their first nights of terror, the first guests who were here because they could cause pain. They swapped business cards, laughed and lived together. Together the staff carved happiness out of their little slice of hell.

As the sun finally started to wane, and the late afternoon haze of the heated rock filled the air, Lux stopped to take a break. Water and adventuring rations were not a real meal, but he realized he hadn't eaten since he got to the House yesterday, and doubled up, making sure he would still have enough to support a second person on the trek back. Willow had a 2 day head start on him, and he was following a trail that would run cold eventually. He kept his break short, and forged on. He reached the edge of the mesa, a gentle slope down to forest, all the way to the mountains in the distance. He knew there was a city there, but Willow would never make it that far. He skidded down the mountain and his luck finally turned. Willow's trail wove back on itself several times here, she had wandered in circles, searching for something. He found her target, a now-empty berry bush, a tuft of golden fir barely clinging to its roots, but more importantly a scent.

It wasn't long after catching her trail again that the trail became obvious, and not the way he wished. Pawprints joined in on the trail, first two sets, then three. If he had to guess it was Herdier, and it looked like they were tracking Willow just as he was. After an hour he found the site of the first fight. Scorch marks arced in lines across the ground and trees. The dirt was torn up from impacts, and it looked like the brush had been flattened by small pokemon. That was good, it meant she won. Her trail started to get harder to follow, but he figured she was heading in a particular direction. Willow's pawprints suggested she was running, and he followed them until a small stream, more good news, she had food and water at some point, 2 days wasn't enough to starve, but someone who wasn't used to it would be weak.

Two more hours and the site of a small scuffle later and the scent of pokemon was strong, too strong. If he hadn't been able to save time by ignoring the times Willow doubled back he likely would have caught this. It was nearing midnight when he tracked the scent to its source and the site of a larger fight. This time he could smell blood, and he instantly looked for any sign of threat, but there was nothing here. Drag marks of small pokemon, nothing from a large one other than the burn marks and a felled tree, fire had broken out here from the fight. Lux hopped onto the scorched fallen tree, noting that the ash was disturbed by only two sets of tracks, one down two to go.

Lux took off at a run, the fire had time to cool, only smolders remained and he knew he was still catching up to Willow's timeline. He pushed himself hard through the forest, the trail was too easy to follow now, the Herdier had been angry, running hard, breaking the brush and leaving a clear indication of where they were going. It was a wide arc, headed back towards the mesa far from where he had entered. He figured Willow went for higher ground, and trusting his gut he left the trail, tearing off towards the mesa itself he needed every advantage he could get. His thoughts wandered as he moved through the brush, his movement was fluid, the guild had drilled that into him, not being followed was almost as important as knowing how to follow someone. Adventurers and rescue teams primarily reduced people and pokemon lost in the wilderness that Humans couldn't find, the human cities tended to look for their own, but the smaller villages would hire guilds if the locals couldn't handle the job. He had run through forests like this before, desperate to find his quarry before their clock ran out. The familiarity of his work only set his determination, adrenaline kept him moving through the moonlit woods, and the speed he kept up deterred anyone from getting in his way.

Lux skidded to a stop at the crest of a steep hill. His breath came in ragged pants as he scanned the area below, looking at where the mesa met the forest. Rolling hills and brambles met the treeline and he knew that they would have come this way. Less than twenty minutes ago he had crossed the trail again, his gamble had paid off. The moon was low in the sky now, though the sunrise had not yet caught up to him. He could feel the effects of a hard run, he would need to stop soon, and it would waste precious time. The trail continued on but he had deviated to use the lookout, hoping to catch any glimpse of a hint.

His hint came in the form of a blinding flash of light, and the rumble of thunder following it. He tried to blink away the afterimage burned into his eyes, focusing on where it had come from. Halfway up the gradual incline there was a small collection of trees, now glowing with embers in the night. Lux tore off into the forest again, pushing himself as fast as he could run. Trees whistled past him as he almost blurred through the early morning darkness.

As he got close to where the scorched trees had been, he could see several sets of pawprints leading away, the telltale sign of someone being dragged behind them was evident, someone larger than a Herdier. He pivoted to follow their trail and within a few minutes he could see them. Two Herdier and a Stoutland dragging a limp golden Luxray, even at this distance he could hear them celebrating their tough battle. Three versus one wasn't a good look, but they were tired from fighting and he only had been running. He quickly made a plan and ducked into the brush, keeping his momentum from the hill.

The Stoutland was the first to go, darkness crackled and tore through the air as Lux's horn slammed into their side, sending the larger dog sprawling end over end. The surprise was enough to make the two Herdier drop the Luxray, and the brief moment of indecision was enough for Lux to make sure she was still breathing. One Herdier reacted faster than the other, launching towards him. If he hadn't been running all day he probably would have been able to sidestep the hit, but instead it sent him sprawling as the Herdier's head connected with his ribs. Lux corrected his roll, trying to halt his momentum, as he knew the other Herdier was already running for him. Lux's eyes glowed with a deep pinkish light and he jumped to the side as the Herdier sailed past. He was already moving towards the second one, another Night slash sent the already tired Herdier back and they shakily collapsed to a heap on the ground. Lux used his momentum to move past the fallen Herdier and towards the Stoutland that had finally gotten itself off the ground. His body shimmered as a dark glow spread across his legs. He jumped and slammed into the Stoutland, back legs first, he caught the unprepared normal type under the chin, snapping their head back and sending them flying once more. Using the kick to readjust he looked at the remaining Herdier charging him. His eyes glowed a soft pink as future sight showed him exactly where the incoming threat would be. A ghostly afterimage of Lux joined him as psychic power slammed into the Herdier, hurling them into the brush.

He didn't waste any time, instead he dropped to the ground next to the unconscious Luxray, getting his bag open as fast as he could. He pulled a seed out and pressed it into her mouth, pushing her jaw shut on the tough exterior until he heard a crack. Lines of greenish white light burst from her mouth and raced across her body, and only moments later her eyes fluttered open.

"Questions later, run now." Lux panted out as he helped the confused Luxray to their feet, the snapping of twigs turned their heads as an incredibly angry looking stoutland charged through the brush. Lux pushed his way in front of Willow, knowing he wouldn't have time to ready a counterattack he braced for the impact, however a flash of light and a crack echoed through the forest. The Stoutland collapsed to the ground with wisps of smoke and the crackle of static from their body.

"Answers later then." Willow said, and as Lux ran towards the mesa she followed.

By the time they stopped Lux was sure he had nothing left. His body was ready to give up on him. He found them a suitably flat area with hills on either side, hopefully enough to hide them from easy view. He dropped his bag and dug around inside of it, he greedily drank from his water, before offering the remainder to Willow.

"I- I'm Lux, a guild tracker I got sent to find you." He said, his voice ragged from panting as he collapsed more than sat.

"Find me? The only one who- No. I'm not going back to be her fucking pet- you don't understand what that place is like-" Willow's muzzle twisted in anger and she stood up again, ignoring exhaustion to back away

"I do know what its like. Because before you were the mistress's obsession it was me." Lux said flatly, not even looking at Willow as he caught his breath. "I know what you're running from, and I know you don't want to go back. But the truth is that I need your help."

"What could you possibly need from me? How do you even know who I am?" she asked, still defensive, but thankfully she no longer looked like she would run.

"The House sometimes figures out how some of us got there. I know you can't remember it, but people see things, pass information down. There's a rule, you never tell someone unless they ask, it turns out that She ran her mouth after you arrived. In an awful way I might know more about you than you do. Which is why I'm here to help you."

"I-" She paused, processing what he had said. "Tell me why first, I'll decide if I want my past once you tell me why you want my help, why you bothered to come out here for me."

The sunrise crested their hill as Lux told yet another stranger how he felt. Told her how he got here, and told her the stakes he faced back home. He didn't hide this time, didn't pretend he was always some guild adventurer, he knew the position she faced when she returned, it was much the same for him. The looming threat of being a trophy for an egomaniacal Gardevoir wasn't the best way to bond, but it was a start. Exhaustion claimed Lux before he finished his story, it was unexpected. One moment he was telling Willow how he was going to try his hardest to fix this situation, and the next he woke up to the afternoon sun. He scrambled to his feet, looking around for the Luxray, already opening his mouth to call for her

"Behind you. Don't worry, I didn't run away again." She called, and he settled back to sitting, nursing aching muscles as he did.

"You stayed, knowing that I still need you to come back with me?"

"If you were doing this for yourself, I might not have. I think you tried to convince me you were in this to make yourself feel better, but I don't think you are. I never heard much about you to be honest, whispers about me replacing the mistress's last trophy, something that bothered everyone. Now I think I understand why" She walked back over to their impromptu campsite which included the small blanket he had in his bag which he had given her as a pillow.

"You actually inspired me to think of something. Maybe a way to get people out. Your tunnel was clever"

"How did you fin-"

"I realized you can see what I can't, and went from there. You're clever too, the uh... well the House would have been lucky to have someone like you replace me. But I think I might be able to find out how to prevent that."

"Seriously? You've got something that won't immediately be seen by the mistress?" Willow asked, waiting for his grand explanation of a plan.

"Sort of. It's- well, I'm going to keep her attention in one spot. I need you to get as many people out of the building as possible through your tunnel. Runaways are rare, it's hard to want to leave even if you hate it there. If enough of you leave at once and go north, you can rely on one another, carry food, one person would never make it, but if enough of you go-"

"That's going to have to be a very long distraction. Lux- what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to force her to make a choice" He said, looking up at the late afternoon sky.

"That idea is terrible. Seriously? Noble sacrifice is not the way to go here"

"Sac- Who said I was going to" Lux said, backpedaling in the conversation

"Come on, you expect me to believe you would make her choose anything other than you? I know you're full of it, because you're here, in the middle of nowhere telling me how you want to get us all out of this. If you keep putting yourself in front to take the brunt of every hit she's going to win." Willow's voice was low, but steady, like many she had learned some lessons faster than others in the house.

"I owe this to them. All of them"

"No. You don't. You don't even know me, you had nothing to do with me" Willow sighed in exasperation. "Listen Lux, I- I don't know why I have this feeling but I can tell you pretty clearly that if you sit there and try to soak up everyone's problems then the littlest drops of your own are going to drown you. If your plan is seriously to try to keep her happy while everyone magically escapes... it wont work. You said it yourself, it's not easy to want to leave, it- it was really hard to even accept that it was okay to feel hurt, okay to feel like I didn't belong in the House." The golden-furred Luxray was slightly larger than Lux, and the way she sat up on the hill made her literally glow in the light.

"Im sorry, I just- I have to try this"

"No, you want to. There's got to be a better way, a safer plan, something else other than this. When you walk me back through the doors chances are I'll end up in laundry for a few weeks, and who knows what else while she tells me how much I'll enjoy working for her. Nobody can take that forever, eventually they'll start to believe her. The fact that you're doing this for other people is noble enough, trying to keep them out of harm's way, but if you give yourself up to her, do you honestly think she would leave them alone? Once she has you back they're her only sure way to make sure you never leave her again." Lux knew she was right, and the stinging feeling went deeper than his pride. His plan to distract Erinyes with promises of how he would never leave again was a shallow one.

"I wish it were as simple as a fight. But the way she's linked to everyone, hurting her might hurt them too, I can't think of a way to make her give her power up, she would never let go of any of us, you and I are proof enough of that. The guildmaster himself said there is no greater danger he could imagine than her, and then gave me one of the guilds most prized items... I don't understand why he would send everyone, surely we could take her down if we tried." Lux mused, forcing himself to discard his original plan.

"I think you might be right. A fight is only going to work if she's alone, she could use the others to protect her, anyone trying to get to her would have to go through us... we're her shield. Your story of how the guild got you is the perfect example. Someone caught her off guard and you took them down without even thinking about it.. You're not the only one who would do it either. Honestly I think I would have too. It's just... hard to think when you're in the House."

"You aren't immune to her the way I am, the way the other dark-types are. But, she has to work harder on us, it's different knowing that she isn't using her powers on us. We have to live with the fact that she makes us want to serve without ever being able to pry into our heads. In some ways it makes me feel like its worse." Lux shook his head, and looked back at Willow. "You're right, if I run at her I'm going to step into trap after trap. She's already only used everything I've seen to torment me, she doesnt need her powers and she knows it. I thought that the years away would make it easier, that the nightmares would stop if I could just come back and do this job, but I was lying to myself. I didn't come back for me at all, I came back because I missed the family I made here, they're all I ever had. The guild isn't the same, people are distant to me, like I don't belong. In a weird way the House is really where I belong. She's right when she says that, but I don't want to believe it in the way she means it."

"Even in the short time I've been here I've started to see what you mean. The house takes care of each other, Tasia helped me almost every single day... The job's fun at first, like a party that doesn't stop, but then you see what's happening to the people around you, and you know they made sure you got the easy clients, the nice ones. You see how they look at you with hope that you'll be stronger than them. I feel like I failed them when I ran, but I just kept running." The two shared a moment of silence together, both miring in the thoughts of the people that still walked the halls of the House without them.

"To think she sent one trophy to find another-" Lux started, but a thought blindsided him. Something so painfully simple but he hadn't ever considered the thought. "Trophies. That's it."

"What? What does that mean?"

"Us, we're trophies right? Something she shows off, she needs us to be visible. She told everyone how she got you, but only after you left. We're not trophies, we're examples. I... I kept people in line because I cared for them, and they saw what happened to me when they failed. I'm so stupid to think I was protecting them... I was enforcing her rules without ever knowing it. You're proof she can have anyone she wants, exotic or not. Both of us simply by existing enforce her control, we make people think she's impossible to escape from. But twice now her trophies have run away, it explains why she's so angry, her shining examples make her look bad, we're showing the cracks in her control."

"So how does that help us? I really doubt anyone at the House is looking up to me for any sort of guidance here." Willow said, moving down next to Lux, curiosity winning her over.

"We don't need them to look up to you, we just need them to know that you're her trophy right? If you tell them she wants them to do something, they might believe it because she's using it as a chance to show you off. The idea I have is that you get back inside the same way you came out, and I tell her I failed to find you. She'll be enraged, or at least she'll act like it. She lied when I asked what happened to you, and I think she never intended for me to find you. The deadlines and her lies, I'm betting on the fact that she wants me to fail so she can use that failure against me."

"How do you stop her from feeling or hearing that we're sneaking out?" Willow asked, and Lux grimaced. This was not going to be as easy as he hoped. There were too many options in place for Erinyes to keep control over her collection of staff.

"Well, it kind of goes back to the first idea, and truthfully I don't entirely know if I can pull it off at all. If... I can go through with it."

"You giving up only would help her in the long run"

"Not giving up... but fighting her directly. She might be a master at screwing with people's heads but I've never seen her fight, not even once. You could hold your own out here, and I've had a few years training with the guild."

"Yeah and what happens when someone else steps up to protect her?"

"Well, that's where the first part comes up. The best way to get her guard down is to let her think that she won. She'll only stop once she thinks that you've been broken... and with you she could read your every thought, it has to be me. I can only hope she's blinded by the idea of getting me back. If she thinks that using my failure to find you will break me, then she'll try it" Lux let out a shaky exhale, even the situation he imagined in his head would be dangerous, and not only for him.

"Wh- What if she wins?" Willow asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. Lux stared at the ground as he considered the consequences.

"If she wins I end up back where I started. Maybe next time I'll be better at protecting the other people in the House than I was last time... Maybe I won't. I doubt that if she takes me again that I'll ever escape her grasp. I just have to accept that losing isn't an option this time."

Willow's laughter brought him out of it, and he cocked his head at her, wondering what could possibly be funny about the situation. The two of them were discussing whether or not they thought it possible to trick their psychic dominatrix into thinking she had everything she wanted.

"Lux, I can see why you were their favorite, and why she used you to keep them in line." She sighed, and he could see that she blinked away tears as she did. "We're going back to a terrible situation. I don't know if I fully understand it, but the stakes for me aren't the same. Laundry is nothing compared to being forced to watch those you care about suffer, but you just can't get it through your head that the people you care about have to watch you suffer. I know what you mean when you say losing isnt an option this time, and all I can say is fuck it, i'm in. What's there to lose? Wandering in the woods until I die, sounds pretty boring compared to the idea that maybe... just maybe... we stand a chance at helping the House. She can make examples of us all that she wants, but at the end of the day everyone is going to know that someone was willing to stand up to her, no matter how badly they feared being broken." Willow's voice swelled as she spoke and Lux wasn't sure how but he knew he had reached a nerve. "When I ran away it was because I felt like I couldn't stand it anymore. I wanted to fight so badly, wanted to explode every single time something happened. It made me afraid of what my past was, and no... I don't want you to tell me. I want something to fight for, and you pointed out that I already had something to fight for. Even while running I haven't stopped thinking of the people who helped me and showed me they cared. Leaving them behind was the hardest part of all this, and I don't want to run away anymore. I thought I'd just die out here, and that would be it, but you gave me a second chance, whether I wanted one or not. I already know the alternative, so this time I'm going all-in."

It was long-winded and Lux hung on every word, her experience had so many parallels to what he had felt for the past few years that he almost felt guilty that she came around to the idea so much faster than he had. He understood why Erinyes had wanted her, that spark of hers was bright, and it was infectious. The two had brought each other up and lifted their spirits over their shared experience, and while it wasn't much, it was enough to give them the strength they needed to begin the walk back up the mesa, knowing that at the other end was the House in all of its sinful glory.

The trek back had been much faster, there was no need to follow a trail, and they knew exactly where they were going. They passed the time swapping plans back and forth, potential ideas that might help them withstand the storm they were walking headlong into. They all tended to loop back around to the simple fact that Obsession was going to drive Erinyes no matter what they did, and they would need to work fast to have any hope of breaking her vice-grip on the House. As they crested the last of the hills and saw the expanse of trees planted around the House, it was almost nightfall, a full day and half of travel culminating in an uneasy look shared between the two. They nodded to one another, and Lux made his way to the front door, as Willow made her way to the tunnel.

Lux's Horn burned like fire as he walked towards the doors, disaster was in the very air here, and he could feel it. He almost laughed at the fact that all it took was a few days, all it took was seeing the right faces again. The front doors may have held a sense of unease to him, but there wasn't fear this time. He stepped through the doors again, and the low din of the lobby surrounded him. He didn't fight the sense of comfort it brought him to smell the incense. He wasn't afraid to admit this was his home, and this time he was willing to fight for it. He stepped past guests and pink-clad entertainers, and he ignored the eyes following him as he walked past the front desk, straight for the elevator, The human working the front desk stepped up to him a few moments later and tapped a card against the elevator call button

"She cleared her meetings almost every day waiting for you to get back. I certainly hope you can improve her mood" The human said, and Lux hardly acknowledged them. He focused on the flame of determination pushing him past the nervous tension building in his body. Telling himself he would be afraid only went so far, it was time for him to make good on it. Lux felt bad for the human staff, they were the least likely ones for him to save, with no defense against Erinyes, they were often the ones she had the most control over. The elevator chimed and the doors opened slowly.

"I do too." He said as the doors closed. The soft feeling of being moved upwards made his stomach do yet another flip. He was glad she couldn't read his mind, the chaotic swirl of emotions and worries would let her pick him apart. All he had to do was occupy her attention for as long as he possibly could, to let her think she was winning at each and every step. He just had to stick to his plan. The only problem with plans was that they so very rarely survived first contact with their opposition.

When the doors opened again, he was facing Erinyes, seated at her desk, hands folded together under her chin as she glared a hole through his forehead. The dim glow of her eyes seemed to have a magnetic pull for his gaze.

"Er-"

"I notice that there is not a particularly golden-furred Luxray in my elevator. Do you care to explain why my lovely little Rook?" Her voice was terse, the involuntary flinch that left him would hopefully work to his advantage here, he could just barely pick up the hint of excitement in her tone, and he hoped it meant his gamble once again would pay out.

"She's gone. I found a trail and tracked it off the edge of the mesa, but there was nothing after that. I sear-" Lux purposefully avoided looking her in the eyes, though admittedly he would have wanted to.

"The rising star of the guild, and a gold-tier accomplished tracker can't find my missing employee? My dear Rook, you surely understand how this looks, don't you?" The excitement was bubbling through her voice, mixed with an anger that he couldn't tell whether or not it was false. "You lost my most valuable employee Rook, what good is this precious guild of yours if you can't even find someone when they go missing? It hurts me so to see your talents wasted with these games you play, why do you insist on throwing yourself at a job that you obviously can't handle?" Her words dug into him like knives, he knew she was trying to manipulate him, knew she wanted to break him. It didn't stop the comments from hurting him.

"There wasn't enough to track her"

"You expect me to accept that?" She said, before a giggle escaped her, and Erinyes stood from her desk. Lux kept his gaze locked on her as she walked over to one of the large bookshelves that flanked the entrance to the room. She picked up an ornate wooden box and brought it over to her desk. "You know I had prepared such an extravagant reward for you. Something fitting of the amazing task you took on for me. I just love to reward your loyalty, it always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. But now with such an expensive loss, someone is going to need to pay for it." She had an ear to ear grin, and it always sent shivers down his spine when she did, that smile was only for when she was winning.

"I have savings from the guild and we will reimbu-"

"Of my dear dear Rook, you know better. A shiny Luxray is more than just money to me, I need someone to fill the ragged hole that losing her is going to leave behind. Someone who can take everything that the House has to give. I need a tower to hold me up again."

"I- The guild-"

"You failed them Rook, do you honestly think that they're going to want you back? Sure they gave you a shiny bauble to wear on your chest, but look at what you're missing!" She all but shouted, and she swept her arm to the side, towards the door that used to be his. He couldn't help but notice it was open and the light was on already. "Maybe you just don't understand me yet, that's always been my struggle. That pesky nature of you dark types, I can't get as close to you as I know you want me to." She hummed to herself before she waved a hand, and heavy footsteps echoed from his room.

Tasia stepped out of the room, ducking through the doorway and walking towards them. Something screamed danger about the way she walked, it was stiff, unnatural, and unnerving. Lux looked back to Erinyes and the splitting toothy grin on her face.

"W-what is this?"

"I made a purchase a long time ago, and thought it would be a fitting reward when you came back with my prize. But since you failed to do that, I think I might just have to honor the same system the guild did, I'm going to take my payment." She said, and with a thud, Tasia reached the desk. Terror and anger welled up in Lux in equal parts, Tasia's pupils had been replaced with softly glowing hearts, tears streamed from both her eyes, and her draconic muzzle was twisted into an unnatural smile. Erinyes stood and gently caressed the Tyranitar's arm.

"T-tasia?"

"Shhh, Rook~ She's not going to answer you unless I tell her to. You see, I heard whispers that they found something wonderful in Paldea. A local chef there had turned the shards that dotted their countryside into a dish that can change your very nature. You see, being a dark type means you're resistant to my love, and I just couldn't bear to be so far away from you..." She said, twirling as she stepped back to her desk and opened the small wooden box. She set a swirling bottle on the desk. "I made a few little changes, and just look, the expense is all worth it. No dark typing... No problems." She said, and Lux inadvertently stepped back. This was an entirely new level for her.

"That's insane. She's... that's impossible!"

"Oh my my~ Rook, I love the impossible. Tasia's entirely under my love now, she would do anything for her mistress, just like you always did. Come back to me Rook, I'm taking my payment back, all you need to do is drink." She pushed the bottle across the desk, the swirling orange liquid inside shimmered in the light.

"No! I'm not going to-"

"You ARE going to drink it, Rook. Because if you dared to deny me my payment, I'll simply have to take it somewhere else." She said, waving Tasia to the side, the Tyranitar walked away back towards his old room. "I do have options, you know." She said, and a moment later Lux's heart sank further, Tasia held an Espeon in one claw and an Umbreon in the other. Both had pink silk ropes artfully tied around their bodies, leaving them unable to do much more than wriggle against their captor. The two went wide eyed as they saw him, their calls muffled by silken gags.

"Erinyes this is too far!" Lux shouted, stepping back again, he looked towards the elevator, though he didn't intend to run. As he looked, the two bookshelves glimmered with pink light and slammed together with a crash, blocking the elevator entirely.

"It's just one little sip, I'll even let you keep this silly name you've chosen. Just drink it." She shouted, her eyes blazed now, pink light seeming to evaporate off of them like smoke from a fire. Lux had not expected things to be this bad, and his plan had not accounted for this, he was rapidly running low on options. He took a shaky breath and let energy crackle through him. He slashed his head, aiming at the bottle and letting loose a chaotic slice of energy, sending it sailing through the air towards the bottle, intending to shatter it on the spot. Instead Erinyes screamed, and he could swear he felt it in his bones. The bottle flew to her hand, and the night slash collided with Tasia as the Tyranitar threw herself in front of the attack. Lux swore as dust swirled around the Tyranitar

"T-Tasia! Are you okay?" He called, and only unsettlingly bright pink hearts greeted him.

"Make. Him. Drink. It." Erinyes screeched, and Lux ducked as Tasia's clawed hands swung for him. He moved to the side too slowly, too sloppily, a claw collided with his side and fully lifted him off of the ground. He sailed through the office and slammed against the bookshelves that hid the elevator, splinters snapping and twirling through the air as he shattered a shelf, sending books in every direction. " I gave you EVERYTHING and you still ran away to play with that guildmaster. Can't you see how ungrateful you're being?! One little drop is all it takes for your dark typing to be gone and you can be mine forever" Her needling continued as Lux picked himself up, orbs and seeds clattered to the ground from his bag as he did, the fabric shell had taken the brunt of the hit, leaving a gaping hole in it.

"You're a monster." Lux coughed and got to his feet, stood defiantly against the Tyranitar in front of him, every sense of the friend he knew was gone, and behind them stood Erinyes, eyes ablaze in fury. Lux could see Alto and Bari squirming off to the side where they had been discarded, trying to break free of their ropes.

"A monster?" She asked, breaking into laughter that sounded like nails on glass. "You don't even know the kind of monster I can be little Luxy. You so badly want to deny your true love for me? Then maybe you need a reminder of where you belong." She said, and the glow in her eyes focused to a single point before a brilliant beam of light struck Lux. He expected it to hurt, but there was no impact, just a sense of warmth before it was like a fog inside his head cleared.

Lux stood beside a human, confidence swirled in his chest and mind as he faced the guildmaster. He insisted they were strong enough, that they were ready to put an end to the disappearances. The guildmaster warned them again and again, but they ignored him. They set off at midnight, up the winding road to the House of Eros, Lux and his partner Leon. The front door had shattered under his attack, rent from its frame as the two walked in, the panicked eyes of guests and slaves stared them down. A single gardevoir waited at the front desk, a grin on her face.

"Wh-what is this?" Lux called, swaying as he fought against an intense wave of nausea, finding himself unable to move, every muscle in his body felt like it was on fire.

"Your first failure." Was Erinyes' reply, her voice dripped with cruel joy as the scene continued to play out in his head.

Leon never stood a chance under her assault, the human crumpled to the floor with ease as Lux was thrown into the wall so hard that his horn chipped the marble away. He struggled to stand as the Garveoir waved a hand and lifted the human off the ground and stared into his eyes. He struggled against her, fighting her invisible grasp as she blew him a kiss, and he suddenly went slack. She let him fall to the floor in a heap as she stalked towards where he lay.

"This- this isn't real, I don't know how you're doing this"

"Don't you remember dear? I can't pry into that lovely dark-type head of yours, I could never fill in the memories with what I wanted, I can only give you back what you begged me to take."

The lobby melted away, replaced with the basement, Leon was tied to the wall beside him, the human cackled with laughter, tearing at the pink ropes that held him down. His violent movements gave way to jitters as his chest heaved. He could feel himself calling out to Leon, begging him to stop before he hurt himself, blood already ran down the human's head from where he had thrown himself into the wall. Lux felt like he was tearing at ropes, desperate to get free to save his friend as he watched the human seize on the floor.

"No. No! You're lying!" Lux yelled, struggling to his feet against the wave of nausea that had forced him to the ground. You're nothing but manipulation, it's all you are, its-"

"Shhhh, your story isn't over yet" Erinyes said, and her hand touched his forehead, he was tied up, someone lay motionless across from him, the smell of blood tinged the air. His throat was numb from screaming their name. There was no response, only idle blinking and the occasional giggle. "You lasted so much longer than your little human did. I had expected more from adventurers, you were the first who ever had the courage to face me. It's such a shame it ruined that human's mind before I could make anything useful out of him. But you. You were perfect. It took weeks before you finally broke. Sobbing, begging, pleading for me to take your pain away from you." Erinyes's face was only inches from the edge of his muzzle, and he tried to pull away, only to feel Tasia drag him forwards from the wreckage of the bookcases, pushing him into the mess of spilled items from his bag and holding him there.

"Y...you tortured him."

"I simply showed him how much he could love me. In the end it was simple, he just couldn't let go of his name, something you were all too ready to do for me. It was so entertaining to send him back to the guild so they could see what happens when their members become thorns in my side" Erinyes said, and from where he was shoved to the floor Lux saw the small bottle in her hands.

"N-name?"

"Oh but of course. Rook is mine after all, all of you are. Each and every one of you is a piece of my collection. Your names are my little keepsakes" She giggled as she stalked towards him and kneeled to his level. She stared lovingly into the orange bottle. "You were so strong, so willing to defend the whole town. I thought you deserved the name of a castle, but I settled for a single tower. You two were my example to the guild to never again meddle in my business. I suppose it only worked for so long. Ha! I always knew the guildmaster was too much of a coward to even tell you. He even offered himself up, he thought he could trade his life for the two of you, but all I had to do was show him how much you loved your new job. You put on such a wonderful display for him, you were with your first client, I made sure he watched through the end. You got such glowing reviews too. My only regret is that I didn't keep your friend too, a duo-act would be worth just as much as the twins." Lux struggled against the Tyranitar, his claws slid against the marble and battered books out of the way as he desperately tried to move against the massive bulk of the Dark-Rock dinosaur.

"When did you get so freaking strong?" Lux growled, wrenching his body to try and get free.

"Oh dear Rook, you didn't pay very close attention did you? How uncharacteristic of my favorite toy. She's a fighting type now, it doesn't take her much effort to put that to use in holding you down. It leaves her completely open to me, every single thought is mine. It's even easier than the humans once you drink. So go on, don't you think it's time to let this temper tantrum of yours finish?" She inhaled deeply as she reached out to caress the side of his face, he tried to jerk away, but she grabbed his horn, holding him still. "Mmm~ you used to love when I held you by the horn. I'm going to enjoy having you back so very thoroughly. Open wide for me Rook~ it's time to come back to where you belong."

Lux grit his teeth as he struggled against the combined might of the Tyranitar and the Gardevoir's grip on his chin. She let go of his face and reached for the stopper... and the world exploded into blinding pain for a moment. Erinyes' desk had slammed into Tasia, sending her head over tail towards the other end of the room, splinters dug into Lux's fur and he could feel a painful scratch where she had been holding him down before she was ripped away. Bari stood by where the desk had been, the Espeon's eyes glowing a bright blue as her gem shone. Lux scrambled to his feet only for another blast of multicolored light to send him scrambling across the marble. Erinyes lay on the floor, seething with pink light as the books around her whipped into a violent frenzy, a hailfire of novels battered the Espeon, some being deflected, but her power was hardly a match compared to the Gardevoir. A blur of black and yellow slammed into her gut, and the Gardevoir went sprawling, the tinkling of glass bouncing across the floor caught his ears as Lux scrambled towards the bottle, intending to smash it.

"Enough" The word seemed to hold weight itself as the room seemed to explode. A shockwave emanated from Erinyes as she stood, the ropes from before coiled to life like snakes and pulled Bari off the ground, wrapping around a decorative pillar, they held the Umbreon by the throat. Alto tried to call for him, only to be subject to the same fate. Paper and splinters swirled around Erinyes as the blazing fury of her hatred turned her eyes into miniature suns.

"You played this game once Rook lets see if you're any better at it the second time around. You will come back to me, you will love me, or you'll watch me do to these two what happened to your poor old guild partner." Lux frantically looked to the two pokemon strung up to the pillars, the heap of a Tyranitar at the end of the room, and the tornado of hatred that stared him down. The bottle lay between them, surrounded by debris and the remnants of his bag. Beside the bottle was a multicolored seed. It rocked back and forth in the whipping wind of Gardevoir's psychic storm. There wasn't any time to make a different decision. Rook stepped forwards towards the bottle, lowered his head towards the glass- and snapped his teeth closed on the seed instead.

The feeling of energy pouring through every single part of his body caught Lux off guard. His feet left the floor as it seemed like all the air around him was sucked towards him in a single instant. An itching spread across his body, soon replaced by a burning flowing through his body in time with his panicked heartbeat. In an explosive outpouring of light, wings sprouted from his back and he felt every part of his body humming with newfound power. The process felt like it lasted an eternity, but it had hardly taken a single second. Erinyes stared at him, mouth agape as her trophy mega-evolved in front of her, gone was the Absol on his last legs, trapped in a decision with no way out.

Lux rushed Erinyes, and it was strange to him that he reached her much faster than he intended. The sound of wingbeats were muffled by the speed at which he crossed the room, books flew past as Erinyes tried to pelt him, and in an instant he was upon her. He slammed the Gardevoir to the ground, pinning her by her shoulders as all the anger, fear, and raw emotion of his newfound memory, and the years that followed, poured out of him at once. He didn't even feel the roar leaving his throat as a sphere of influence exploded outwards from him, suppressing everything around him. The rest of that unbound energy he funneled directly into Erinyes. The blazing pink of her eyes snapped out like a lightbulb, leaving only the dull hazy glow she normally had. Every object in the air clattered to the ground, followed by two eeveelutions, the ropes holding them suddenly lifeless.

"Rook!" Bari's voice was hoarse and strained as she called to him. The Espeon was laying on her side, and her eyes glowed weakly as the bottle of Erinyes's creation sprang through the air towards the Absol. It all seemed like it moved in slow motion for him, and he caught it as it sailed past. His teeth dug into the glass uncomfortably, but he didn't stop to consider the thought. Erinyes' surprise only knocked the powerful gardevoir off-kilter for a short time. She screamed as once again her eyes lit ablaze, despite all the focus Lux poured into suppressing her, it wasn't enough to stop the power she had. Lux could feel a pressure building between them as wisps of moonlight began to sparkle in the air. She was going to blast him, and it was now or never, there was no time to try to work the stopper. Lux once again bit down with all the strength he had, and he felt the bottle in his mouth shatter into glimmering shards.

The type-changing liquid splashed directly into Erinyes's mouth, still wide as she screamed her rage to the room, sealing her fate. Her eyes widened in horror as time seemed to hang in the air for just a split second. With Lux's interference there was nothing she could do to prevent it. Seeing it had worked, Lux shifted his paw to Erinyes's face, holding her mouth shut and smothering her, forcing her to swallow. Blood dripped from his jaw, splattering the blue of the Gardevoir's face as she struggled against him. Books slammed into his body and he only grit his teeth, holding her mouth shut. The change worked quickly, as the books started to hit him with less force, and suddenly her eyes flared the brightest he had ever seen. It looked like the room suddenly filled with strings, pink lines filtered through the glimmering light, tying her to every bit of silk in the room, dozens and dozens of lines passed through the floors and the walls. Lux followed two in the room to the collars on Alto and Bari, both shakily getting to their feet.

The lines of light glowed angrily, before they seemed to flow backwards all at once, points of light shot through the room like a hailstorm, all retracing their paths into Erinyes's body. She shuddered and seized as they returned, until finally it seemed her eyes could hold no more of the psychic light. Lux's horn felt like it was full of pure fire, and the next instant, the world exploded into pink light. Feelings washed over him and through him, panic, fear, loss and longing. The emotions of dozens of people, the staff of the house poured through his body like a river. A swirling mass of pink light lifted him off his feet, channeling out of Erinyes's eyes and through him before it blossomed into an aurora against the ceiling. Motes of light streaked out of Erinyes and through him, the brilliant points of light fed him hope from a dozen minds. Dreams of a better future burrowed into him and he finally understood that they barely grasped the depth to which Erinyes had deceived them all, drinking even the most potent of their hope for herself. The world glowed like it was on fire for but a single moment, and then the light vanished as quickly as it had come.

Lux slammed to the ground, and a sputtered cough left his mouth as he spat blood onto the marble floors, a small piece of glass dislodged from his tongue and he panted, trying not to swallow. He felt the fiery strength of the mega form burning harder than before, and he could almost feel the encroaching effect of the potion. The burning grew more intense, and slowly the feeling started to recede, whether he had not gotten enough in his mouth, or if the mega evolution had stopped it, he wasn't sure. Aches and pains set in instantly, and his head hit the cold marble with a dull thud, across from him on the floor Erinyes's eyes were locked to him as the last vestiges of psychic glow left them, the pink of her irises replaced with a dull orange. Her eyes were unfocused, but he could see she was still breathing, her chest heaving just the same as his.

Alto and Bari were at his side moments later, and he weakly tried to smile, before realizing all he managed was to show them bloody teeth and a weak grin. Both scrambled to look him over, and he knew he wasn't exactly in great shape. Splinters and bruises dotted his body, and he felt that Tasia had left a large scratch across his back between his brand new wings.

"Lux... we... I felt you. The collars... I don't know how to explain it, but everything came through all at once, your feelings and hers in a chaotic mess." Alto said, and the Umbreon all but collapsed against Lux's side as he hugged him tightly.

"Is...she-" Lux started, and Bari's voice answered

"She's still alive, and breathing, but I think she's unconscious. All I can feel from her is the same thing I could get from any fighting type, she's not even dreaming... It's creepy how easily I can look into her head, its like there's no walls to it anymore." The Espeon sounded hollow, almost confused as she looked at the collar around her neck, and around Alto's. Both were a dull, lifeless grey, nobody was listening on the other end. Lux struggled to his feet, leaning against the Umbreon as he did, He looked over to Tasia, where she still laid in a heap at the end of the room. He quickly searched the mess on the floor for a reviver seed, batting debris aside as he stumbled, both the eeveelutions joined him and eventually they rushed the last remaining seed to Tasia. Despite the wash of green energy passing over her body, the Tyranitar didn't stir, though her breathing returned to a slow and even pace. The sudden silence that filled the office was deafening, overshadowing the moments before in its depth. The control that Erinyes had exercised on them all was gone, and in the void left behind there only remained uncertainty.

Lux looked around the demolished room, the splintered bookcases covered the floor in a wash of scattered papers and baubles. His eyes settled on a single decoration off to the side. A white marble tower laid on the black checkermarked floor, shattered at the base. Beside it was an exquisitely carved marble Absol, finally free of the perch it had rested on for as long as he could remember. Lux couldn't contain the laugh that bubbled out of him, and he wiped away the last the thin trail of blood from his muzzle. Alto and Bari stared at him with concern, and he shook his head in response.

"The funny thing is that she never even liked chess..." He said, and as light once again surrounded him, and his wings faded away, returning him to his normal body once again. He was exhausted, bloodied, bruised, berift of any more energy, but Lux felt more confident than he ever had before...

He was going to share that confidence with the entire House, with the two eeveelutions at his side, nothing could make that feeling go away.

---

Eight weeks later

The lobby of the house was abuzz with conversation. Clients and entertainers alike filled the bar, the tables, and the rooms beyond, just barely hidden from view. Though the night was winding down, and guests no longer streamed in through the doors, those who chose to stay at the House for the night sought out the pleasures it offered. Humans and pokemon alike strutted through the halls with their guests, they wore a dizzying array of colors, each picking what best suited their personality and whims, attracting clients of all kinds with sultry stares and flirty grins. Each of them wore a single wristband, a dual tone black and lavender, no longer a reminder that they were owned by someone, now they were a constant reminder that they were free in their own home, a place where each and every entertainer had the full force of the House behind them.

Lux walked through the crowd with his head held high. He may have missed the golden sheen of his guild badge against his chest, but there was a familiar comfort in the lavender bow-tie that had replaced it. Gone was his bag of items, and the need to be prepared for every situation, his job no longer took him to dungeons or the remote wilds the world had yet to tame. He made his way towards the hall that led downstairs, into the lively common area that the House staff called home. The couches and chairs were filled with a family, one that he felt lucky to be a part of. He made his way past them and down the halls before he stopped at a door no different than the rest. He knocked twice and it opened, the massive form of Tasia greeted him with a smile, and gently ushered him in.

The room itself was spartan, almost no decorations adorned its walls, the furniture had been removed long ago as its occupant had no use of it. A Gardevoir lay on the bed, breathing deeply, as she had each day since she had fallen from the top of her tower. The once-queen of the house now slumbered in its depths, safeguarded by those she once counted as her toys. Tasia and Lux spoke for a time, and despite his continued asking, Tasia reminded him that despite the fact she was no longer a dark type, she was no less the Tyranitar she used to be. And reinforced that she would keep her careful watch of Erinyes, for all the suffering and pain she had caused, she was still as much a part of the house as any of them. Bari's careful exploration of the Gardevoir's mind had again and again revealed a blank canvas, any and all memory obliterated by the force of her own power rebounding into a body that could no longer use it. Lux failed to escape Tasia's grasp without a crushing hug, and he said his farewells, once again he wandered the comfortable halls back to the lobby.

Lux hopped into the chair of the Lobby's front desk, and shortly after a grin spread across his muzzle as familiar faces stepped through the door. A golden-furred Luxray, beamed with pride as she walked in with a stoic human by her side, and a bronze badge gleamed upon her chest. The human locked eyes with Lux, and nodded as he stepped up to the front desk, as Willow vanished into the crowd, seeking friends to catch up with.

The Guildmaster didn't speak, and Lux didn't expect him to, everything had been said between the two in the days following the fall of the House. The human placed a large wooden box on the desk, and opened it, revealing intricately carved silver within. Lux nodded in glee, and the two turned to walk towards a familiar set of elevator doors, marred by their decorative plating missing in the center. Guildmaster Valthurn did the honors of slipping the last two plates into place, completing the image on the doors, before he stepped back to stand beside Lux. Both of them took a moment to look over the new inscription. Twin tails, one forked, and one ringed, curved to form a heart on the door, proudly displaying their dedication to this house.

The guildmaster parted with a rare smile, he knew Willow was in good hands here among her family, surrounded by those who cared for her. He also knew she would be back to the guild the next day, as eager as she always was for her next assignment. Lux bid him farewell, before he once again faced the elevator doors, and as they opened his heart raced. The elevator brought him up, and excitement brewed in his stomach, the end of his day was no longer something he dreaded, and he had the impression it never would be again. The elevator doors opened with a soft chime, and revealed a meticulously kept office, two small desks had been pushed together to create a larger workspace, and decorative silks zig-zagged above them, filling the room with hues of lavender and steely grey.

Lux noted that the occupants of the desks were missing, and a wry grin crossed his muzzle as he realized the two had likely stopped the night early, assuredly with some sort of mischief on their mind. He crossed the room and paused for a moment in the middle, where the two desks met there was a small stand, atop it was an intricately carved Absol, a guild badge imposed just behind it, the wings that ringed the golden badge had been carefully attached to the absol's back, bringing together the past in a way that spoke for the future. Lux felt the warmth in his chest begin to spread as he made his way down the hallway, headed towards the entryway of his room beyond. The bed was rarely empty when he arrived, and tonight little was different, a heart made of two tails greeted him as he stepped through the door, swaying back and forth in unison. Laughter escaped the room as he pushed the door closed, and once again eagerly moved to join them.

With a trio of lovestruck pokemon at its helm, The House of Eros had finally earned its name. Alto's energy and Bari's careful attention drove them in a direction none of them had dreamed to go, balanced by Lux's guardianship of the family within, the House had finally fulfilled the promise its queen had once spread. It was a place for those with nothing, where the pain of the past could be traded for a fresh start among a family that understood each other in a way that transcended whatever past someone arrived with.

Here, what brought them together was the beauty in the broken things, and the love they built for one another.

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Authors Note: This whirlwind of a story has been something almost indescribable to me. I finished writing this on April 8th, nearly 7 entire months ago. I did most of the editing, and then it sat. I don't know how to begin to explain the strange connection I had while writing this. Unlike any other story ive ever written, I can confidently say this had power and sway over me. The entire premise came from a dream I had, and I spent a feverish 5 days writing nearly 5k words a day to get it out of my head and onto a document.

For all of you readers out there, never forget there's a family for all the broken things, and that family is out there waiting.

Special thanks to Coldstone for proofreading