Old Scars, New Chances

by Arcticbrony

Chapter 7

Ethan caught up with Officer Jenny just outside Mary’s Clinic. He had ran most of the way, and was out of breath as a result.

“Here I was unsure if you would show up.” Jenny commented as she looked up at him.

“I don’t really have a choice, we are doing this!” Ethan replied. He had gotten a lot of weird looks from the ponies as he had run through the town, but he did not have the time to deal with any of them at that moment.

“So you really think that you can actually convince me?” Jenny asked with a skeptical look.

“Maybe… I know that I have to try at least. Besides, I like my chances.” Ethan said with a fake smile, he had to seem confident.

“… We’ll see.” Jenny did not think that he had a chance, he would say his story and then he would go to jail, she had ensured that by adding a witness. But she had to admit that she was interested in his story, he had not been like other criminals she had dealt with.

Ethan reached out and knocked on the door to the clinic. He liked to think that he had a good chance in convincing Officer Jenny, but Mary Care, she was still a wild card. She had been more than kind to them, but there was no way of knowing how she would react, he knew too little about her to assess her properly.

He could hear something move inside, and soon the door opened up with Mary on the other side.

“Oh, hello again! Please come in,” she smiled and welcomed them. She was wearing the same medical cloak she had when they last saw here there. “It’s only you two?” she asked as they walked in. The room that greeted them seemed like a waiting room, there was several chair around the room, with doors leading to other parts of the building.

“Yeah… Chii and Zoey wanted to rest a little bit, so they will come later.” Ethan told her.

“We had something we wanted to talk to you about.” Officer Jenny said, getting straight to the point.

“Sure, we can go into my office.” Mary led them into one of the rooms to the side. It looked like a normal office. She had a desk, which was overflowing with papers. “S-sorry about the mess… I’m just a little behind on my paperwork… so what did you want to say?” Mary asked as they sat down.

“Can you promise something first?” Ethan asked her. “Hear me out before you decide to do anything.” He could see confusion appear on Mary’s face. Mary looked over to Officer Jenny for answers, but she only got a nod.

“Ethan was going to talk to me about something, but I wanted you there too as a witness.” Jenny told her. At this point Mary Care started to get slightly nervous.

“W-what’s going on?” She asked, looking between Ethan and Jenny. The former was fidgeting in his seat.

“We are just…” Ethan paused to think on how to formulate his words. “Settling a matter from our old world.” He decided that it sounded better that way. “It will all make sense, I promise you.” Ethan said to try to calm her down.

“…Okay.” Mary agreed with a nod.

“…Well I suppose the beginning is a good a place as any to start.” Ethan began, deciding to put all the cards on the table from the start. “In our old world, I was considered a criminal.” Ethan stopped as Officer Jenny huffed besides him.

“You still are!” she glared at him.

“…That’s why we were going to have this talk.” Ethan turned back to Mary. “I want to convince her that she might be wrong… and she wanted you as a witness here in case I couldn’t.”

“So the criminal you said you were chasing during our talk this morning. Was that…?” Mary looked in between Ethan and Officer Jenny, she was still confused, but the fear had subsided a little.

“That was me, yeah…” Ethan gave her a sheepish grin. “I’m not a bad person though, I promise you.”

“Not a bad person my ass… he is a murderer.” Mary Care gasped as Officer Jenny blurted that part out. “Or are you going to claim that you did not kill that man?” Jenny asked Ethan.

“…No, I did kill him.” He felt really badly now, Mary care looked absolutely terrified. She was about to speak but Ethan held out a paw to stop her. “Just… let me tell what actually happened, and you can judge me after that. That’s what you promised me, is it not?” He returned the glare Officer Jenny had given him earlier.

“I did, yes.” She admitted. She may have gotten a bit ahead of herself. It was just that the chance of gaining Mary on her side was too sweet of an idea. “Go ahead.” She had made a promise, and she always kept her promises.

“But… I thought you said you took care of Pokémon, that you helped them.” She questioned him.

“I… I did, still do. I…” Ethan looked back to Officer Jenny. “I have a lot of respect for what you and most law officials do. It’s important work, but not even you can catch everyone or fix everything.” Everything had its flaws after all. Officer Jenny knew what he meant. She had personally seen her fair share of criminals go free due to lack of evidence. Even if they knew that the person was guilty, it meant nothing unless they could prove it.

“So I decided to take it into my own hands.” He gave them a pause to think about it for a second before continuing. “The people I targeted were ones that had hurt or abused Pokémon in any sort of way, that had managed to somehow avoid the law or, if not enough evidence could be found, to get them sent to jail. And since there was not enough evidence against them, they could safely report me to the police for rescuing the Pokémon that they were abusing.” Ethan was unable to contain the anger in his voice as he talked about it.

“…A lot of the people you targeted, we received anonymous tips on. Was that you?” Officer Jenny began to remember back to the cases she had worked that involved Ethan.

“Correct.” Ethan answered with a grin. “If you had done nothing, then I always sent a tip to you guys. A lot of the times you got the criminals too. But as I just said…”

“Someone always gets away…” Jenny finished for him. She had begun to understand Ethan more, what drove him, and what kind of person he really was.

“I never harmed anyone if I did not need to. Some bruises or broken bones in worst case… at least it was supposed to be…” Ethan looked down at his paws as he remembered that night. “I never meant to kill anyone… but that doesn’t change the fact that I did…”

---

Ethan and Vernus were making their way through the city’s back alleys. The moon was high in the sky, and most of the streets were empty, only the occasional drunk or night patrol. They had gotten tips about this underground fighting ring a while back. But this time the police had done nothing, no investigation, nothing at all. It was more than a little strange, especially when he knew how competent the police force of that city actually was.

But if they did nothing, then he had to. Ethan was no fighter though, so they had to go in after hours, there was no way he and Vernus could handle multiple trainers on their own, at least not in a straight up battle. No, his friend Brawly had managed to get some inside information for him. It was supposed to be empty when they got there.

“Leaf!” Vernus bit down on Ethan’s jacket stopping him in his tracks.

“What’s wrong?” Ethan whispered. When they had to make through a city, Vernus was always his eyes and ears. They took as few chances as possible, which meant avoiding any sort of human contact, or at least trying to. It was easier to make it through a city, during the daylight with a disguise. During the night however, everyone stood out.

Vernus did not say anything; he only nodded to the corner of the alley Ethan had almost walked around. Leaning around the corner, Ethan could see a homeless man sleeping next to a trashcan. That must have been what Vernus had warned him about.

“It looks like he is sleeping, we are good to go!” Ethan said in a low tone as the two of them walked around the corner, sneaking past the sleeping man. But when he got closer, he spotted something else. Curled up in the man’s lap was a Poochyena which was also sleeping. It was quite a common Pokémon in the Hoenn region, and one of the more liked dark types.

Vernus bit Ethan’s jacket again, and tried to drag him past the sleeping couple as Ethan kneeled down next to them. The man had definitely seen better days; his face showed signs of malnutrition but Ethan was more interested in the Poochyena in his lap. It looked like it had been taken well care of. Its fur was a little dirty, but that was to be expected. More importantly, it looked well fed.

Ethan let Vernus drag him on after he had confirmed the health of the Poochyena; it seemed like it had a good owner that took care of it to his best ability. It was not unheard of that homeless or less fortunate people took better care of their Pokémon than they did with themselves, after all.

After continuing walking for a little while, Ethan and Vernus ended up in front of a rather large warehouse. It was there that the underground fighting was supposedly taking place. There were no lights on; as far as Ethan could see, there was no activity going on at all there.

“Do you hear anyone, Vernus?” Ethan asked.

“Leafeon,” Vernus shook his head, and pointed to the entrance.

“Alright, let’s go then.” The two of them moved up to one of the entrance doors. It was strange; he had thought that there would be at least one or two persons guarding the place. But there was nothing, no guardsmen or Pokémon at all outside.

Being careful not to make too much noise, the two of them entered the warehouse and began looking around. From first glance, it would seem like it was nothing more than a normal storage place, with some containers.

“Vernus, see if you can find anything. You know what to look for.” Ethan said to his friend as the two of them took off to different parts of the warehouse, looking for anything out of place. Almost all the containers that Ethan checked were empty. But in the last one he found something. There was blood splatter on the floor of the last container. It looked like someone had attempted to clean it up, but they had clearly missed something.

Before Ethan could do anything else he heard Vernus call out to him.

“Leaf!” Hurrying over to where his friend was standing, Ethan saw what Vernus had found. It was a rather obvious metal hatch. It baffled him, it was so easy to find, and with the blood. If the police had actually checked the place out, he would have thought that it would have been an easy case. But Brawly had told him, that there had been no investigation at all.

---

Officer Jenny was moving uncomfortably in her seat before she spoke up.

“That… was not one of our proudest moments…” She said in a defeated tone. It was easy to see that she was hiding something.

“What do you mean?” Ethan asked her.

“It was not discovered until after but… the chief officer had apparently been taking bribes from several gangs, that being one of them… She was relieved of her duty immediately and was dealt with accordingly. She deserved far worse that she got…” Jenny was furious when she thought back at that incident. That one of their own had been hindering their own work and helping criminals… it was simply disgusting. “That… is probably why there was no initial investigation.”

“…I see.” Ethan could easily see how upset Jenny was about the matter; it must have been hard on her when she found out that one of their own had gone against them. “Like I said, we found a hatch. When we opened it we found a ladder that lead further down…”

---

“You know… if you would learn how to properly climb ladders, then we would not have to deal with this.” Ethan complained as he climbed down with Vernus clinging to his back.

“Leaf…” Vernus sighed sadly.

“I know that you don’t like heights that much… but still.” It had been a fear his companion never had managed to conquer completely. He had no problems climbing up ladders anymore… but down them, he required Ethan’s help.

At the end of the ladder, there was a thin long corridor in front of them. There was no sound, other than the occasional water drop hitting the floor they were standing on. After a little while, the corridor expanded, into a huge room before them. And in the middle of the room, there is was; the fighting ring.

“Leaf…” Vernus could smell the blood from the ring from where they stood. It was overwhelming.

With the size of the room and the ring itself, it looked almost like a concert hall with how big it was. This was much bigger than Ethan had anticipated. The ring itself was a drop in the middle of the room, with the spectators sitting above and around it. When they got to the edge of the ring itself, Ethan saw what Vernus had smelled.

The bottom was filled with sand, but there were several places where you could see blood, fur even scales of the former fighters. It looked like someone had died in that ring, that’s how bad it was. Unable to keep his gaze on it for any longer, Ethan tore himself away, feeling slightly nauseous.

“Y-you hear anything Vernus?” He asked his companion.

Vernus sat down and concentrated on his surroundings, sharpening his senses. He had been too focused on the smell to notice anything else. His ears rotated around as he searched for anything out of the ordinary. He picked up on something… it was off to the side, but he swore that he could hear something, or someone; it was too faint for him to be sure.

“Leafeon!” He informed Ethan of what he had heard.

“Well let’s see what it is then… hopefully it’s something better than… that.” He took a last glance back at the ring behind them.

“Leaf, Leafeon!” Vernus agreed with him.

“I know buddy… but that’s why we are here. We are going to fix this.” Ethan reassured his friend.

Vernus set off down one of the corridors to the side, with Ethan close in follow. As they got closer Ethan could also hear something, it was coming from one of the rooms to the side ahead of them, it sounded like whimpering.

Vernus took a battle ready stance, as Ethan opened the door, but quickly realized that he did not need to when he saw what was inside. There was several Pokémon bound up in chains or in cages around the room; it had been their whimpering he had heard.

The Pokémon looked up at the new arrivals, some in curiosity, some tried to be intimidating, and some looked upon Ethan in complete and utter fear. The moment Ethan took one step into the room the effect became even worse. Most of them hurried back in their cages, trying to get as far away as possible from him. One Mightyena bared its teeth at him at the same time as it backed away. It was more than obvious, they were afraid of humans.

“Vernus! Do you think you can manage to break those locks and chains?” Ethan asked him.

“Leaf!” He nodded confidently.

“Good, you take care of all of these, and lead them out.” Ethan put a hand on Vernus`s shoulder and kneeled down beside him. “If you can, see if you can tell them that I mean them no harm. I don’t think they will be easily persuaded, but it will make escaping with them easier.” Vernus nodded and readied his Leaf Blade as Ethan walked out of the room. The corridor was leading further down and he could not take any chances, if there were more Pokémon down there he had to find them too.

Ethan could hear the sound of the locks breaking as he went further down, checking the doors he passed. A lot of them had cages or other equipment in them. He even passed what looked like a medical room. It made sense, as despicable as these human beings were, they did not want what they considered to be their property, to die.

He shook his head and continued down further, he trusted Vernus to get the others out safely and wait for him outside. If he took too long he would probably come back after him to check up on him too. The two of them always had each other’s backs.

Ethan slowed down as he heard some sounds from one of the rooms up ahead. There was a sound of something hitting something; he could hear a distinct thud sound over and over again. When he got to the door he paused for a moment, when he heard a voice, a human voice.

“You useless piece of shit!” It was the voice of a man, and by the sound of it, he was out of breath and angry. “You lost again! Do you have any idea of how much money you lost me?” Ethan was getting increasingly worried, he considered running back to get Vernus since he was alone, but he decided against his inner voice and took a peek through the gap in the door.

There, in the middle of the room stood a large man with a bloodied shirt on. He was breathing heavily and was standing with what looked to be a bat in his hand. Ethan had to hold himself back when he spotted what the man had used the bat on. On the ground there laid a Zangoose, that was so badly beaten up that Ethan could barely believe it. A lot of its fur was missing, and a lot of what it had left was bloodied. He could see that it was moving slightly, but every slight movement, made it let out a whimper in pain.

“Well I have found myself a new champion now anyhow. That new Mightyena will do what you could not.” Ethan felt his blood freeze, as he saw the man turn around to the table behind him. It was filled with all sorts of knives and blades. “And a useless bitch like you, are better off dead!” Ethan reacted immediately as the man reached out for a knife.

He sprang through the door, grabbing the attention of both the man and the Injured Zangoose. Ethan was scared, he was terrified, but he acted without thinking about what he was going to do, but he had to do something.

“What the…” The man paused slightly with his hand hovering over one of the knives as Ethan busted into the room. “Who the fuck are you?” He roared as he grabbed the knife and turned around to face Ethan, but was met with something else instead.

Ethan had grabbed the closest thing he could get his hands on when he entered the room and swung it with all his might as the guy’s head, in hope of knocking him unconscious. The guy just had time to turn around before he was hit with Ethan’s desperate attack. He stumbled back a few feet, before be collapsed.

Ethan dropped the pipe he had used as an improvised weapon and let out a relieved sigh. He was unsure of exactly where his strike had hit the guy, but from what he could see, he was not moving anymore so he must have managed to knock him unconscious. Ethan tore his eyes away from the man, and down to the Zangoose instead, who were looking up at him with an uncertain gaze. He carefully kneeled down next to her, when he was this close he could see that it was a female.

“Z…Zang,” she managed to utter; her voice was hoarse and raspy.

“Don’t speak… I’ve come to save you.” Ethan gave her a comforting smile as he looked over here more closely. She was covered in both fresh and old wounds, not all which had healed properly from what he could see. One of her claws was unseated unlike the rest, and it seemed to be cracked. But more importantly, was what Ethan saw on the parts of her that was not covered in fur anymore. Her skin was sickly purple in a lot of places; he placed his palm on her skin to confirm what he thought it looked like. She was badly poisoned, as if her health weren’t bad enough. Most people think that Zangooses are immune to the effects of poison, and a lot of them are. However some of them draws strength from it instead, becoming a lot of vicious when affected. They may still be more resistant to its effects, but long exposure to them will still have severe effects… and from that was one of the most severe cases of poisoning Ethan had ever seen.

“Damn… we need to get you to Vernus as quickly as possible.” Ethan mumbled under his breath. Ethan was not carrying any antidotes with him currently, but Vernus knew how to use Heal Bell, so he could fix the poison.

“This will probably hurt a lot… but I need to pick you up, so I apologize in advance.” Ethan told her, he was about to kneel down and pick her up, but stopped as he glanced over at the guy he had knocked out earlier. Ethan felt like his whole body froze as he saw the large pool of blood around the guy’s head.

“No…” Ethan hurried over to him. He may be evil but no one deserved to die, at least not in Ethan’s mind. He quickly checked his pulse whole begging that he was still alive… and he felt it, there was a pulse. But it was weak, and the pool of blood was only getting bigger by the second.

“No don’t you die… don’t you dare die!” Ethan was hysterical at that point. He moved over so he could see where the blood was coming from, maybe he could stop it. Just below the ear was where he saw it; there was a huge gash just below where Ethan thought he had hit the guy with the pipe. Ethan pressed his hands down on the wound in a feeble attempt to stop the bleeding.

“It was only a pipe… it was supposed to knock you out,” He looked around the room for anything he could use… but there was nothing. The blood combined with how Ethan was shaking was enough to make him slip and release the pressure he had been keeping on the wound.

“Zangoose…” Another painful whimper from the Zangoose, Ethan also had to get her out of there as fast as possible. But he just could not… the man was not breathing anymore. His chest had stopped rising, he was completely still. Ethan almost felt like laughing, he had thought he would be faced with having to make a choice but it had been made for him. He was a killer.

He glanced down at his bloodied hands, desperately trying to wipe the blood off them. But it simply refused to go away.

Looking over to where he had dropped the weapon Ethan saw what had happened. What he had thought to be a normal pipe was actually shredded at the end, making several sharp metal points, one of which was covered in blood. There was no doubt about it, he was now a killer.

But he did not have the luxury of thinking anymore about it. Ethan kneeled down next to the Zangoose and carefully picked her up, but she still whimpered in pain. “Hold on tight… I’ll have you out of here soon.” Ethan told her as he held tightly onto her, only giving himself one last look at the lifeless corpse before he ran to the exit…

---

Ethan looked to both Officer Jenny and Mary Care who were both being quiet for the moment, thinking about the story he had told. He had left out the part about the scars since the Zangoose in the story was Zoey, she was ashamed about those scars, and it was not his place to tell anyone about them.

“T-that’s… that’s such a sad story…” Mary sniffed as she wiped her eyes. She had gotten more and more emotionally involved over the story.

“You actually believe him?” Jenny huffed when she spoke up. “He is a murderer, for all we know he could have made the whole thing up… can you prove any of what actually happened?” She asked him.

“You know that I can’t… all possible evidence is back on Earth. You only got my word.” He said in a slightly defeated tone. He had all possible reason to lie to her after all.

“But… I don’t think he is a liar.” Mary spoke up, taking Officer Jenny by surprise. “I want to choose to believe in him. I have only known him for a day, but he had been nothing but kind and helpful so far.” Mary Care told Jenny. She would be more wary of Ethan from now on, but she still believed that he was a good individual.

As much as Jenny hated, it she knew that she agreed with Mary on some points. She knew that Ethan was a lot of things, but a liar was not one of those… as much as she wanted it to be so.

“So what are you going to do?” Ethan asked Jenny. “I did kill him, but… I believe that it was the right thing to do in that situation.”

Jenny did not say a word at first. She knew that Ethan had won Mary Care over with his story, that much was obvious. She honestly did not know what she was supposed to do, she did not want to believe Ethan, but she did not sense any deception from his either. She honestly did not know what to think anymore. She lived for justice, it was who she was… Officer Jenny stood up and left the room without uttering a word, leaving Ethan and Mary behind. She needed time to think.

“... I don't think she agreed with me…” Mary said after a few moments.

“It was a longshot at best…” Ethan sighed out as he slumped back in his chair. He glanced over to Mary, he was surprised at how well she had taken it after she got to know that he was a killer. “What about you? Do you agree with her, that I should go to jail?” He asked her.

“...” Mary looked down for a moment as before she met Ethans look. “I… don't know,” she said softly. “Killing somepony is… wrong, no matter what the reason. But you said that you never meant to kill anypony… and I believe you. That and your god said that he only brought good and those that deserved it right? I believe that should mean something.” She gave Ethan a kind smile.

“Thank you…” Ethan felt relieved, even if he had not convinced Officer Jenny, he still had someone that believed in him.

“But.... I…” Mary was struggling with something. “You still killed somepony… I know you are a good person but… I don't know if I'm comfortable with you staying in my house… I'm sorry.” Mary told Ethan. Her eyes were misty and she struggled not to cry, she did not want to seem rude or anything, but she just could not let Ethan stay with her. At least not yet.

“I understand…” Ethan nodded solemnly, he understood her reasoning perfectly well, but that did not mean that it hurt any less. “If it’s no trouble… do you think Zoey and Chii can still stay with you if I don't find another place for us to sleep?” He asked her. There was still the deal with the mayor, but it never hurt to have a backup plan. “I dont want them to have to sleep in a cold place if its possible.” Mary gave him another kind smile and nodded.

“That is perfectly alright,” she told him. “I just think I need some time before I… trust you completely again.” She was sorry that she felt that way, but she could not control her feelings.

“I have another thing to ask of you if you don't mind…” Ethan took a deep breath to prepare himself. “If I do end up going to jail… can you take care of Chii?” the question shocked Mary. “Zoey is like a mother to her… but Chii needs a stable home… Zoey should be able to take care of herself whatever happens.”

But before Mary had the chance to say anything a pink blur ran in through the door and hopped up and into Ethans arms. Chii nuzzled herself as close to Ethan as she possible could.

“Ethan!” her voice as slightly muffled since she had it pressed against the fur on Ethan’s chest. She leaned back and looked up to him. “We… I was worried,” she sniffed. “You weren't there…” she buried her face back into Ethan’s chest.

Ethan wrapped his arms around Chii as she nuzzled against him. He had left without a word after all, he knew how sensitive Chii was about people abandoning her, so it had been a colossal mistake on his part. “I’m sorry…” he spoke softly as he patted her back.

Mary looked upon the two of them and shook her head sadly. She did not want them to have to break up what they had. It was obvious that Chii needed Ethan, and he needed her as well. She just hoped that Officer Jenny felt the same way.

Comments

[V-Oblivion]

Now this is a good way to start the year. I love it how you didn't make the dead guy overly evil (beside the obvious.) But just some random Joe, that makes this so more believable. Then again, I don't know why but I think Ethan may have reserved a truth or two... I have no proofs for such claim but I think that may be the case.

So kudos to you.

You are making me think over your story, that is an accomplishment alright.

[Arcticbrony]

5465765
Thank you^^

I like to think that everyone has some evil or at least the potential for evil inside of them.

And everyone keeps secrets, dont they?
Ethan is a relativly secretive guy, he does not tell anything if he dosent need to or see a reason to.

[V-Oblivion]

5467276 Amen to both.

[Zilverfoss]

Well, that still leaves Ethan a criminal, either in the "Unintentional manslaughter" or "Excessive violence with death to follow." Both which are cases i'm pretty sure they punish you for in Equus too.

[Raul]

Unintentional manslaughter is still manslaughter sadly.

Though once again, handled very maturly and realistically.
Definitely better than what i thought this story would be.

[Texus]

“So what are you going to do?” Ethan asked Jenny. “I did kill him, but… I believe that it was the right thing to do in that situation.”

Isn't he lying to himself?, I think he just said it was an accident.

[Nitro Indigo]

“W-what’s going on?” She asked, looking between Ethan and Jenny. The former were fidgeting in his seat.

*was

[Nitro Indigo]

I like how you explained that Zoey's ability was Toxic Boost without sounding like a tutorial. Also, the tense atmosphere and regretful protagonist gave me Fullmetal Alchemist vibes.