A Phone. A Memory. And a Rock.
Mark took a step back from the group of friends. He felt like he was intruding...they didn't know him at all. He walked back over to Clair who was speaking to Tony about something. They all exchanged nervous glances. The Black Ones. They each had had an encounter with them, and now, it was time to share. It was Mark who went first. He told them about Dust and the crazy things he had been through.
"She could sense aura. But..then something strange happened." Mark's voice faltered. He had realized something just now. Back in the woods near the AAPM base...he had amplified her power of reading aura. He could do it, but just in the area around him. He could feel Dust..and him, but there was someone else. Someone had been watching them as they scurried through the woods. It wasn't the Lucario. It couldn't have been. He looked at them after telling them. "Oh, and one more thing. Regis isn't my dad."
Tony turned his head, "Then who?"
"All I know is that my last name is Oak. That's it." Mark looked at them with hurt eyes, "Your turn, Clair."
"Wait...we aren't done. What's that in your pocket?" Clair spoke up.
"It's my dad-er- Regis' phone. That's how I knew about his plane and train plan. Wait..."
"Check." Clair's voice echoed in his mind.
Confused, Tony simply watched as Mark scrolled down the list of contacts. Not much help with the AAPM itself, but that wasn't what he was looking for. He found it near the bottom of the list. SO. That's all it said. It was the only contact with an "O" as a final innitial.
"Are you going to call?" Tony asked. But, Mark just shook his head. He looked back over at Clair.
"It was your turn."
"Right. Well, my grandmother..." Clair told them about the escape. The Air base. How she had seen the fox-like tattoo on her right shoulder. But it hadn't seemed new. She must have had it for a while. "Which begs the question. How old are the Black Ones?" Clair continued her story. Then, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small stone. "I found this in my pocket a few minutes ago. I never put it in there."
"It doesn't have a fox on it, so it doesn't belong to the Black Ones." Mark said without haste. Clair looked at him with that, no dip, sherlock, look. They both turned to Tony, who told them about the dream. About the prophecy thing. Mark stopped him.
"Wait...describe where you were." Mark had an idea, but it seemed nobody would understand. If this was right...then he had a plan of action. something to confront his father about. His father. How starnge it was that that statement would no longer lead to Regis.
"Well, I was in a factory of some sort." Tony tried to remember more.
"No, I mean, what did you see outside a window. Were there windows?" Mark looked increasingly serious.
"Yeah! A beach!" Tony smiled at his newfound memory.
"How many windows were there?"
"Three. One in the front, the right, and the left. Why are you asking?"
"An island..."
"Or a peninsula." Clair darted into the conversation. "So, what?"
"Nothing. It was just... remember when you were on your way to get me from the RDM base, back in Indonesia. Well, I read something on Shauntal's phone. It was about a base far away from P."
"You never mentioned this before." Clair turned to look at him. Clair was slightly angry with him, but after all the three of them had gone through, she would hold it in for now.
"Well...I was too hurt about...being betrayed. About being taken from place to place." he paused. His face drooped down, but he swallowed and continued," But, what if P stood for Pangaea?"
"The only land in the world is in Pangaea, dummy." Tony looked at him, smiling as if he had just said something that could pass for intelligent.
"What if there is land somewhere far away somewhere? Someplace we could never go? A place..."
"We could never reach..." Tony finished the sentence for Mark.
"The Forever Ocean." the three voices resounded. They each stared at a puddle in front of them. On one side there was a clump of mud, but on the other there was nothing but a speck.
"Oh my..." Tony's voice faded, "Clair, lemme see that rock!"
"Stone, and ok..." Clair took it out of her pocket and placed it in his hands.
"I saw this rock. Out the window, on the beach. This rock must be from the Forever Ocean. That's why it's important. Your grandmother must have known we would stumble upon this."
"So...we have to get to the other side of the Earth? Then what?" Clair poured on the negativity again, clasping mark's optimism."
"Then...I don't know. I have no idea what's over that ocean." Mark realized why he could sense the aura so vividly in the woods. Was Shanutal watching?