And now what you’ve all been waiting for.
Just be warned, this chapter gets pretty intense. People don’t all make it out okay.
-:-
CHAPTER 19: The Weight of the World (Part 1)
-:-
Isolated deep within the Sinjoh Ruins, a single chamber of the cave had been turned into a relatively furnished room. Though it still had the general appearance of a cave, the occupant had made a sort of home there. The floor was covered with a blue-and-white rug and a bed, table and bookcase had been set against the walls. A bowl of fruit on the table and two posters hung above the bed’s headboard contributed further character. One poster depicted a Heatran on a volcanic landscape, while the other had a full-length picture of a silver-haired woman in a ruffled red-and-white dress and matching bonnet, over which the words “My Sweet, Sweet Lady” were printed.
For the Prophet, this room had been her home for some time, and would continue to be for the foreseeable future. It didn’t bother her much; even in her peoples’ ruined holy land, the room was like a retreat from reality, one that she would withdraw to for long hours of reading when not leading the group or caring for her child.
Her child. His cries snapped the Prophet back into reality, after she had spent several minutes standing and reflecting on the comfort the room provided. She glanced over to the posters for a brief moment, then left and descended a short, narrow staircase.
The next chamber at the end of the stairs was a small prison with a single cell. Sylpha was sitting in front of the bars, while Looker and Jacob were jailed behind them. As soon as the Prophet entered the room, Looker jumped up.
“Please, be telling me why we are imprisoned like those who have committed…”
Looker was cut off when the Prophet’s son cried out once again. She glared at the detective from under her cloak, then started to approach Sylpha.
“Not too good with kids, eh, Detective?” Jacob quietly joked from the back of the cell.
“But, but, I…”
“Sylpha, there is something I need you to do,” said the Prophet. “I ask that you remain here with the others and watch these two along with my son. I know you would like to be out there on the front lines with the rest of us, but you’re only a child yourself. I can’t ask you to throw away your life like I can do myself.”
The younger Tenganist’s face sank slightly, but she still carefully took the Prophet’s son into her arms. She gently rocked the infant, soothing him. “I don’t understand, though,” she said to her leader. “What are you planning to do? What’s happening?”
“We are going to war with Polaris and Ghetsis,” the Prophet explained, her voice flat. “There aren’t any guarantees in war. Ideally I will return here having killed Ghetsis and put an end to his cause. If things go wrong, though… I can’t let kids like you get wrapped up in this. I want you to protect my son, because no matter where he came from, he’s still mine and I can’t deny my mother the right to see her grandson after all that’s happened.”
“Your mother?” Jacob piped up, sitting with his arms crossed.
“You know her, most likely. She’s far away from here battling in that big tournament all the Champions were invited to. I’d like to see her again, but… I don’t think she could forgive me for what I’ve become.” The Prophet stepped closer to the bars and grasped them before continuing. “And please, Looker, Jacob, I want you to forgive me for locking you up. I just can’t take any risks right now, so I need to wait and verify whose side you’re on. Please understand…”
“I am having a lot of questions for you someday,” Looker growled.
“I completely understand. One more thing, though… if the worst happens, if we all die and Polaris somehow finds this place, escape. Please, escape with Sylpha, the others and my son… flee to Emeraude Island. It’s where the last completely isolated community of Tenganists in the world is hidden away in the Sevii Islands. Keep the memory of our people alive.”
Leaving behind her awestruck prisoners and equally-stunned follower, the Prophet snapped her fingers. On cue, a gray, horned Pokémon materialized in the air next to her. Its body was doll-like, and golden rings were hung around its horns as well as around the bottom of its shape. It had huge, golden eyes and a mouth twisted into a sneaky grin.
“Hoopa, come,” the Prophet said to the Pokémon. “We must be leaving now.”
-:-
“He wants me, but only part of the time, he wants me, if he can keep me in line…”
The muffled sound of music accompanied by a vibration somewhere beneath her roused Nekou from sleep. She groggily glanced at the clock next to her bed, then groaned.
“fuck… I hate when people send me shit this early in the morning…”
Nekou fumbled around in the impossible tangle of sheets she was wrapped up in. Two beer cans fell out and crashed to the floor before she could finally locate her still-ringing phone. When she finally managed to rub the sleep from her eyes and take in what was on the screen, she blinked several times in confusion.
“This early in the morning, Maman? You know I like to sleep… this better be important.”
After pulling herself from the bed, Nekou collected her coat and quietly left the room.
-:-
The air in the room where Ghetsis had been holding his prisoners was as cold as it was outside of the temple. He hadn’t provided them with cushions, blankets or any other items for comfort, so they had all been shivering as they snatched what little sleep they could on the hard wooden floor. Elm had attempted to turn his coat into a makeshift pillow, but when he saw how cold Anthea and Concordia were, he gave it to them instead.
“It’s been quiet…” the professor said to his cellmates, though he couldn’t tell if they were listening. “Too quiet… neither Ghetsis nor those ninjas he’s with have been in here for a while.”
Elm waited for a response, but none came. He held back for as long as he could before speaking again, and when he did, it was a whisper through gritted teeth.
“We should try to escape.”
“Escape is impossible.” Anthea instantly, automatically responded, her voice cold and flat.
“Lord Ghetsis will find us no matter where we go…” Concordia added in a similar tone.
“You can’t talk like that!” Elm snapped. Realizing too late that his tone was far too harsh, he softened it as quickly as he could. “I’m sorry. What I mean is… Ghetsis has done so much to us all. We should fight back, no? He’s just one old man. How can he handle three people attacking him at once?”
“You underestimate him,” Concordia said, finally turning her dead eyes to Elm. “He possesses more strength than you would think. And he has only gotten more powerful as time goes by… I’ve known it ever since we fell back into his hands, he can…”
When Concordia trailed off and stopped speaking, Anthea immediately picked up the slack. “And even if we did overwhelm Lord Ghetsis, the Shadow Triad would kill all of us.”
“I refuse to believe that there’s no hope. There must be some way to…”
Elm was cut off by the sound of a door creaking open. He turned his head, and when he saw Ghetsis entering the room with the Shadow Triad behind him, stumbled backward several feet. His determination to escape had been immediately replaced by an overwhelming fear that Ghetsis had heard everything he’d said. Anthea and Concordia, for their part, barely reacted to Ghetsis’s appearance.
Ghetsis approached them with heavy, deliberate steps, slamming his cane against the floor to further intimidate his captives. When he stopped, he stood still and did not speak for several tense moments.
“It’s time for you three to do your jobs,” he finally said, glaring down on them.
Elm relaxed slightly, thinking that Ghetsis had not heard of his escape plan after all. That relief was short-lived, though. Ghetsis started walking toward the three prisoners again, and Elm’s fear returned.
“I don’t think I need to explain any further what will happen to you three if you don’t do as you’re told,” he continued. “You three have very specific roles to play in what is about to happen. Refuse them at your own risk.”
Elm felt words welling up in his throat, and before he could check himself, he blurted out, “And then you’ll let us out? Let me see my family again?”
Almost instantly, Ghetsis laughed. He continued to walk toward the three, and Anthea and Concordia slowly turned to stare at Elm as he began to fear what Ghetsis would do to him. When Ghetsis stopped right in front of him, the professor looked up at him with wide, trembling eyes.
Instead of flying into a rage as Elm feared he would, though, Ghetsis remained calm. Balancing carefully on his cane, he reached down and gripped the top of Elm’s head, eliciting a shocked yelp from the man.
Ghetsis lifted Elm until they were eye-level with each other, then said through a wide grin, “Be a good boy and I’ll think about it.” Looking back over his shoulder, Ghetsis then directed the Shadow Triad, “These other two… string them up.”
-:-
Some time later, Matt, Olivia and Bunny were searching the Pokémon Center’s lobby for Nekou. She had disappeared sometime before they had woken up, and with no immediate evidence of her whereabouts, they had no other choice but to look for her.
“At least there’s not too many people around…” Matt thought to himself, noting what was going right. That was only so much of a blessing, though, since Nekou was still nowhere to be found.
When Olivia saw the nurse returning to her desk, she immediately went over to it. “Excuse me?”
“Welcome to the Pokémon Center,” the nurse recited in a mechanical manner. “How can I help you?”
“I’m looking for my friend,” Olivia explained. “She has long black hair and wears a coat with silver buttons.”
“Is her name Nekou?”
“Yes!” Olivia exclaimed, her eyes brightening at the nurse saying Nekou’s name. “Do you know where she went?”
“She went out some time ago, but she left a message.” The nurse maintained a steady gaze into the eyes of the girl before her, nonchalantly flipping a pen around her fingers as she continued speaking in her flat voice. “I assume you’re Olivia?”
“That’s…” The robotic manner the nurse was carrying herself in made Olivia shift uncomfortably where she stood. “That’s me.”
“Your friend said that she had to go out for a while, and that she wants you to meet her at the Dance Hall.”
“Did you guys hear that?” Olivia called out over her shoulder.
“Yeah,” Matt answered. A slight sigh of relief filtered through his words; after their conversation the night before, he had found himself wanting to talk to Nekou more.
“I didn’t,” Bunny replied.
“Bunny, the nurse just told me that Nekou wants us to meet her at the Dance Hall.”
Once she had heard Olivia’s information, Bunny relaxed slightly. “Alright, that sounds good. Should we get going?”
A round of nods met Bunny’s suggestion, so the group started to walk for the exit doors. On their way, they passed a large television, around which a number of people had gathered.
“As you can see behind me,” the male reporter on the screen said, gesturing behind himself, “quite a crowd is developing in Ecruteak City’s Central Square. They’re all here in anticipation of the speech to be given by Ghetsis, the spokesman of the Polaris organization. With the current level of discussion regarding social issues, there is quite an energy in the air here.”
“How many people would you estimate are gathered in Central Square right now?” the voice of an unseen anchorman asked.
“We don’t have a clear number yet, but estimates put it in the hundreds.”
-:-
One individual within the crowd, if she heard the reporter’s estimate of there being hundreds assembled in the square, would have agreed in a heartbeat.
“It’s funny,” Rowena thought to herself, “Usually when there’s so many people around you get warm just from how closely packed in you are. I don’t think I was in the mood to freeze and be crowded to death today.”
Sighing, Rowena tightened the scarf around her head as much as she could while still leaving an opening for her headset camera to film.
-:-
With so many people gathered in the square, the rest of the streets were largely empty. Even if there had been a thousand people around her, though, Nekou never would have noticed them. She was standing rigidly still near the entrance of the Dance Hall, staring straight ahead into thin air and clutching a beer can so tightly she was nearly crushing it.
“How could you…” In her head, she was sobbing, even though she was mostly stoic on the outside. The only sign of the storm going on inside her mind were her glassy, watered-over eyes. “No, not you! Me! How could I have failed you after all you’ve done for me? I know I could have saved you if…”
“Do you understand now just how powerless you are?”
Even though the voice was hers, Nekou knew instinctively that the thoughts she heard weren’t her own. The sudden presence of the other entity inside her head brought on a wave of anger that caused her to fully crush the can in her hand.
“I’m not fucking dealing with you now,” Nekou said out loud. “fuck off.”
“But you know I’m right,” the voice cooed, carefully measuring its words. “Did you really think you could cure her? Do what no real doctor could do?”
“But I had Rosalie…”
“When it’s your time, it’s your time. You know that, I know that. We know that.” Nekou could feel the foreign presence invading herself, melting into every corner of her body like hot butter. “Look at yourself. Look at your… our hands. Look at them.”
Before she even knew what she was doing, Nekou let go of the now-crushed can and raised her hands in front of her face. It was an instinctual motion, and when she realized what she was doing, she drew in a deep, distressed breath.
“You know what you have to do with them. Take everything that’s yours or before you know it, it’ll be you in the ground.”
“Nekou, there you are!”
Nekou had opened her mouth to say something back to her other self, but when she suddenly heard Olivia calling out to her, she snapped out of her daze. It was then that she finally noticed blood dripping from where the can had cut her hand, but as she turned to look toward where she heard Olivia’s voice, she saw the cuts healing right before her eyes. Her eyes widened at this, and she felt her body suddenly become weak.
“Nekou?”
When Nekou was finally aware of her surroundings again, she realized that Olivia, Matt and Bunny were standing right in front of her. Olivia was tilting her head, while her older companions stared at Nekou with worried looks on their faces.
“Did you take care of what you had to do?” Olivia asked.
Nekou didn’t answer. The words registered in her brain, but no response would come out, as if her throat was completely locked. She could only stare down at Olivia, and eventually, she managed to weakly nod her head.
Matt and Bunny looked from the corner of their eyes at each other. They didn’t say anything, but even without words, they knew what the other was thinking.
Perceiving that Bunny was hesitant to speak and wishing to interact with Nekou himself, Matt questioned, “Are you alright?”
The stare that met his question was one that Matt instantly knew he’d never forget. While he hadn’t known Nekou for that long, they had been around each other long enough that he had picked up some clues into her moods. What he saw in her glazed-over gaze was unlike anything he’d seen from her before.
“Let’s just go inside and get this shit done,” Nekou finally said. Her voice was barely above a whisper, and she spoke far more quickly than she usually did.
Nekou suddenly pushed Matt and Bunny aside, storming past them and toward the entrance of the Dance Hall. They could only follow her with Olivia at their sides, dumbfounded by her erratic behavior.
By the time they caught up with her, they were already well into the hall’s bright interior. Bill, his two sisters and Nando were all already present.
“And so you have finally arrived, my friends,” Nando greeted them in his usual sing-song manner. “Just in time. I have been eager to get started.”
“He’s not kidding, you know,” Mako remarked, grinning. “He’s been telling us stories all morning to keep us up for this.”
“I can believe it,” Olivia said. “I can really believe it.”
While many of her older friends shared a laugh, Audrey got up from where she was sitting and approached Olivia. “Is your friend okay?” she asked, gesturing at Nekou with slight motions of her head.
“I think she’s just stressed out,” Olivia whispered in response while running her hand nervously through her hair. “It does seem weird though…”
Matt stepped forward and slightly raised his arm toward Bill, then said, “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Well, our mother used to be a Kimono Girl years ago,” Bill explained, a proud glimmer in his eyes, “so this is our history too. What kind of a brother would I be if I didn’t try to teach my little sister about our past?”
“A bookworm like you would say that,” Mako remarked from behind Bill’s head.
Bill’s face flushed, and he started to turn around to express his frustration with Mako’s snark. Before he could speak, however, Kuni emerged from the back of the hall. Her sandals crashed loudly on the wooden stage with each step she took, and the sounds attracted the attention of her guests as she approached.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Bunny thought to herself. She didn’t realize it, but she was rocking slightly back and forth where she stood.
“We’ve been waiting,” the blue-clad Kimono Girl coldly addressed them, standing right on the edge of the stage. She extended her hand in their direction and said, “Come. Join me here.”
Bill and his sisters were the first to scale the stairs, followed by Nando, Bunny, Matt and Olivia. Nekou dragged herself behind the others, still barely alert of her surroundings.
While they came up onto the stage, the other Kimono Girls emerged from the wings. Two of them, dressed respectively in black and purple, were carrying several implements each that they began working with as soon as they sat down. The yellow and red Kimono Girls stepped past them and sat down on both sides of Kuni, then set out the large scroll they had held on the floor before her.
Seeing the wide, curious eyes most of her audience were regarding the scroll with, Kuni gestured for them to sit as well and explained, “We spent the previous day preparing it… it’s an illustration of the tale you came to hear. But first…” Kuni looked over her shoulder to her colleagues in black and purple, who were mixing herbs in a container filled with hot water. “Would any of you like some tea? It is one of our customs to offer it to guests.”
A smattering of affirmations met Kuni’s question, prompting her to say to the two Kimono Girls behind her, “Naoko, Zuki, please distribute the tea as requested.” She then turned forward again and said, “Thank you, we always appreciate when guests partake in our customs.”
Naoko and Zuki nodded respectfully to Kuni, then carefully poured the tea out into smooth, cylindrical cups. Zuki, the Kimono Girl dressed in black, brought cups to Nando, Olivia, and Bunny, while the purple-clad Naoko distributed them to Matt, Bill and Audrey.
Even through his gloves, Matt could feel the heat from the tea radiating into his hands and up into his arms. Though it was far too hot to drink, he still enjoyed the feeling, especially with how chilly the air was that day. While he waited for it to cool slightly, he glanced over to the side and noticed that Nekou was not holding her own cup.
“That’s not like you to turn down tea,” he blurted out without thought.
“I don’t want any,” Nekou flatly replied, her eyes firmly planted on the ground just in front of her. “Just start the story…”
“Very well… Miki, Sayo, if you would.”
The Kimono Girls dressed in red and yellow nodded in silent agreement to Kuni’s request, then slowly opened the scroll and returned it to its place in front of her. The first portion of it depicted a tall man dressed in regal clothing, standing among a vast sea of flowers. All around him were strange, unfamiliar Pokémon, many of which held flowers somewhere on their bodies.
“This story begins three thousand years ago,” Kuni began explaining, to the rapt attention of most of her audience. “In those ancient times, there was an eighteenth type of Pokémon, one beyond the seventeen most know of today.”
“Is that not impossible?” Nando immediately questioned.
“He’s right,” Bunny said in agreement. “Where did they go?”
“That is what this story will tell you. These Pokémon… they were considered creatures of myth. Those of more contemporary generations know these creatures as fairies. The king of the Kalos region at that time, the man known as AZ, was regarded as the king of these Pokémon. He was most close to a particular flower Pokémon that was gifted to him by his mother.”
Kuni gestured to one of the Pokémon in the image; it had a tiny, white-and-blue body and clutched a flower with a black bulb on the end. None of the other Pokémon held flowers similar to it.
“AZ was seen as the king of the fairy Pokémon because of the large numbers of them that gathered in his palace’s garden. They were drawn there by the power of a great treasure AZ possessed. It was a Life Plate given to humanity by Arceus itself, one from which the power of the fairies flowed.”
“That makes sense,” Olivia said, “if they really were a type we’ve never heard about before.”
“Right,” Audrey added, scratching her chin with one finger. “One Life Plate for every type except Normal, there’d have to be one for this fairy type.”
“You catch on to this stuff quickly,” Mako gently joked to her sister, prompting Audrey to flush.
“With the power of the Life Plate and AZ’s care for them,” Kuni continued, “the fairy Pokémon lived in a paradise. However, that would not last. The king had a younger brother adopted from a tribe not of royal blood. This brother coveted what AZ had, and one day, he betrayed the family that took him in and returned to those whose blood flowed through his body.”
When Kuni nodded to them, Miki and Sayo worked the scroll to move it onto another image. This one depicted many humans and Pokémon locked in combat, with fires burning around them. Even Nando couldn’t stop his eyes from widening, albeit less than most of the other onlookers. Nekou was the only one who didn’t react, instead remaining rigidly fixed on staring at the scroll.
“The people who rebelled against the kingdom sought any advantage they could obtain to win the war they began. Recognizing that the fairy Pokémon represented a great asset to the king, they stole AZ’s great treasure.” Kuni brought her eyes up from the scroll, but her voice remained stoic. “When the rebelling army damaged the Life Plate, the powers of the fairy Pokémon disappeared. No longer could they use any of their special techniques, and their unique traits gave way to normal, nondescript attributes.”
Before continuing her story, Kuni paused for a sip of her own tea. Matt, Bunny and Bill all took the chance to take some of their own as well, though they continued looking at the scroll with rapt attention.
“The war was a horrific tragedy. Both sides fought viciously, with terrible losses for both. Eventually, AZ’s beloved flower Pokémon was forced to join his kingdom’s military. They were separated for several years, until one day…” Kuni closed her eyes and lowered her head, and Olivia thought she noticed a tear glinting in the corner of the Kimono Girl’s eye. “A small box was delivered to AZ. Inside was the body of his beloved Pokémon.”
“No…” Audrey gasped in dismay. Next to her, Mako looked away but remained silent.
At that point, Miki and Sayo brought the scroll to its next section. The tall man from the first image was in this one as well. His clothing and hair were far more unkempt than they had been before, and he was holding out an orb toward a giant, flower-like structure. The body of his deceased Pokémon was suspended over the opening at the structure’s top.
“What’s that?” Matt wondered.
“Overcome with grief, AZ built a machine to restore his Pokémon to life.” Kuni’s tone remained flat, even when most of her audience gasped in shock at her words. “Besides being the king, AZ mastered the sciences of the Tenganist people and was able to create a Jewel of Life from the Life Plates, something no man had been able to do before. With that Jewel of Life, he built a device to tap into the life energy of the planet and harness it, thus bringing his Pokémon back to life. Not only that, he succeeded.”
“Wait, this is the same story Jacob told us,” Matt realized. “But when he told us it, he said that AZ powered the device using the life energy of other Pokémon.”
“There is much contradictory information in records of these events,” Kuni clarified, “but our job is to preserve the truth. Now, I shall continue…”
Miki and Sayo rolled the scroll forward once more. Now even more ragged than ever, the tall man was standing on a cliff overlooking his flower-like device, tightly clutching the orb as his cape blew in the wind around him.
Matt shrank back slightly, working within his mind to reconcile the different versions of the story he’d heard. The idea that Jacob’s story might have been even a partial answer all along made his heart sink.
“AZ managed to restore his Pokémon to life, but the influence of the overwhelming energy caused his mind to deteriorate. Unable to cope with his overwhelming despair and anger, he decided to seek revenge on those who had taken his beloved Pokémon from him. AZ modified the device, powering it up further by allowing it to draw energy from Pokémon through special stones, thus transforming it into an ultimate weapon. With the weapon combining the powers of the Jewel of Life, the planet’s energy and the life energy of the Pokémon, AZ became a harbinger of destruction that wiped out both sides of the war in an instant. Both AZ and his Pokémon faded into history after these events. Modern works based on this tale gave them the names ‘Oberon’ and ‘Titania’ respectively, in an effort by the writers of later eras trying to create a clearer fictional narrative. They mean ‘king and queen of the fairies.’”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Nekou grumbled toward the floor, barely loud enough for all the others to hear her. She was careful to measure how she spoke in order to avoid tipping them off that she knew more than she’d let on. “I thought Oberon was an object based on what I’d heard. But you’re telling me it’s definitely a person?”
“Wait, don’t get so far ahead of yourself,” Bunny quickly said. “I think I might have an idea of what’s going on here.” She put her hand on her chin, then continued, “The story said that AZ was given that name in reference to how he was the king of the fairies. But why was he the king of the fairy Pokémon? Well, they said that it was because of his bond with and influence over them. And what enabled him to have that power?”
Matt, Olivia and Nando, all realizing what Bunny was suggesting, slowly widened their eyes.
“It’s the Life Plate he had, wasn’t it?” she gave as an answer to her own question. “And the story also said that the Life Plate was damaged, not destroyed. In other words…”
“It still exists,” Bill said, finishing Bunny’s sentence for her. He turned to Kuni, who had been sitting quietly by, and asked, “Is that possible?”
“Certainly,” the Kimono Girl quietly replied. “The whereabouts of the king’s treasure are not clearly documented over time. It is very possible that it still exists in this day and age.”
Nekou stared down at the floor, considering what she had just heard. “If it’s the missing Life Plate and Polaris has it, we’re fucked,” she thought, tightening her fists. “And with Maman in the shape she’s in, how am I supposed to…”
“He wants me, but only part of the time…” The sound of song lyrics rose from within Nekou’s coat, accompanied by the buzz of her phone vibrating. “He wants me, if he can keep me in line…”
While Nekou fumbled to get her phone out, Olivia asked her, “What is it?”
“Let me read it…” Nekou quickly scanned the message she’d been sent, then put the phone away and said to the others, “Ghetsis’s speech is going to start soon. I think we should be heading back to the Pokémon Center.”
“If that is what you are going to do,” Nando said, “I hope we will meet again soon. I shall be staying here a bit longer.”
Olivia couldn’t immediately manage any sort of response to her friend’s words. She was too disoriented by Nekou’s continuing strange behavior, and by the time she snapped out of her daze, all she could do was nod silently to him.
-:-
Jacob and Looker watched quietly from their cell as Sylpha gave attention to the Prophet’s son in his nearby cradle. He had started crying a few minutes earlier, so she went over to cradle him in his sky-blue blanket. That act of affection calmed him considerably.
Eventually, Sylpha carried him over to her chair outside the cell and sat down, still cradling him in his arms. Once he had completely relaxed, Looker decided to speak up.
“Good at that, you are,” the detective said, his face bearing a weary smile. “Surprising is it for one who is as young of age as you.”
“I think that’s why he likes me,” Sylpha responded, not lifting her eyes from the child in her arms.
“You shouldn’t even be mixed up in all of this,” Jacob grumbled while staring down at his crossed arms. “You’re still a child. People your age should still get to live your lives.”
“I wouldn’t have any life to live at all without her. Helping her in our cause, and in what life she has… it’s all I have left.”
“You shouldn’t talk like that. There has to be something else out there…”
As Jacob spoke, Sylpha hung her head. Once he had finished, she sadly said, “You don’t understand. I don’t have anything to go back to. It’s still fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday…” As memories flooded over her, Sylpha tilted her head back to face the ceiling and took a deep, tense breath. “I lived in a village in the borderlands between Sinnoh and Johto with my parents. It was a small place, very quiet… everything was peaceful until the day when Ghetsis and his three servants appeared.”
Looker and Jacob shared a dire glance between each other before Sylpha continued.
“In an instant my peaceful village turned into a hell on earth. Ghetsis and his men did not hesitate to use their Pokémon to tear everything apart. Buildings, people, Pokémon, it didn’t matter…” Sylpha felt her hands starting to tighten, and had to take another breath to ease them. “A Hydreigon, an Accelgor and two Liepard. As they laid waste to our town, I became separated from my parents. I searched through the chaos for them, but when I finally found them again… it…. it was too late.”
A tear rolled down Sylpha’s face, forcing her to stop talking briefly.
“I found them cornered by the Liepard, and before I could stop them… I watched them kill my parents without any mercy.”
“But clearly you managed to accomplish the feat of escape,” Looker said. A chill ran over his skin and he raised his eyebrows as far as they could go, but neither of these registered to him consciously. “I have failing in my understanding. How were you able to…?”
“When I saw those Pokémon kill my parents, I turned and ran. I knew they were chasing me…” As Sylpha spoke, each image she described played over in her head like a recording. “I ran as much as I could, but I knew the Liepard and their trainers were right behind me. I don’t know how long it was that I fled through the streets, but I was crying and tired. Before I even realized what was going on, a thick fog had rolled in. It was so thick that I quickly became lost. That was when she appeared from out of the fog, extending a hand to me even though we had just met… I didn’t know what to do, so I accepted it. The Prophet took me through the fog to a place far away from my village, and I’ve been with her ever since.”
Words failed both Looker and Jacob. They slowly brought themselves to gaze at each other, and Looker thought he saw tears welling up in Jacob’s eyes. That suspicion was confirmed when the old man fell forward off his seat, collapsing to his hands and knees as water rolled down his face from his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice breathy and shaking. “I’m so sorry… I could have done something… it’s my fault…”
“I don’t understand why you’re blaming yourself,” Sylpha said back, raising her eyebrow at his words.
“Your people could have hidden here in this land from Ghetsis, but since it no longer has any life, the time you can spend here is finite. This place just cannot provide for survival forever anymore.”
Sylpha brought her finger up to her mouth and bit down on the nail, then asked, “How is that your fault?”
“You… you might be too young to really know about this.” Jacob was struggling to speak without choking on the overwhelming emotions that were now flowing freely from deep within his heart. “What do you know about Saeko Oryo?”
Sylpha’s mouth slowly fell open as her body became rigid. “We aren’t supposed to talk about her…”
“If Saeko Oryo didn’t swallow that Jewel of Life and cause this land to lose all of its life energy,” Jacob continued to explain, seemingly unaware of Sylpha’s reaction, “your people could hide here from Ghetsis forever, sustaining yourselves with ease. But… but you can’t, not anymore. And I could have stopped it. I knew what Sutter was doing with her, I could have stopped it… but I was too blinded by the excitement of our discovery, and he was too blinded by his passion for it... “
While remaining silent, Sylpha pushed her hands into her forehead. Jacob was a trembling mess on the floor in front of her, and she was just as profoundly disturbed by that as much as she was by his actual claims. She had picked up on the wording of what he told her, but even if what she thought he meant was actually true, she struggled to believe that it was the whole story.
“When she comes back here… I’m going to have to find out the truth.”
-:-
The stage prepared for Ghetsis’s speech separated where he was standing with his followers from the crowd that had assembled to hear him speak. They could not directly see the crowd, and likewise could not be seen.
“You hear them out there?” Ghetsis said out loud. Zinzolin and the Shadow Triad all knew that despite him acting like he was asking a question he was actually being purely rhetorical to stroke his own ego, and accordingly, they did not answer. “I haven’t even said a word to them yet and they’re wrapped around my little finger.”
“Yes, of course, Lord Ghetsis,” Zinzolin promptly said back, his words accompanied by a slight bow. “Everything’s just as you expected it would be.”
“As if there was any doubt.” Raising his head so he could look down his nose upon Zinzolin, Ghetsis ordered, “Go to Bellchime Trail and meet up with Archer so you two can prepare for my arrival. And Zinzolin? Don’t lay a finger on him until my plan has reached its final phase. I’m not taking any risks.”
“As you wish.”
Zinzolin straightened up, forcing a slight cracking sound from his back. He cringed, but quickly suppressed his discomfort and flashed a pained smile at Ghetsis, hoping it would fool his leader, before walking off to the northeast.
“Now, as for you three…” Ghetsis said, turning his attention to the Shadow Triad. “You will remain back here and wait for my signal to do what we planned.”
“Yes, Lord Ghetsis!” all three members of the Shadow Triad instantly responded.
“Very good. Now…” A wry smile worked its way onto Ghetsis’s gnarled visage. “I have a date with my adoring public.”
Ghetsis’s cape billowed around him when he pivoted on his cane and started walking. He stopped briefly at the stairs to take in the crowd’s noise again, then slowly began to ascend them. As soon as he came into the crowd’s range of sight, they broke into a roaring cheer. He closed his eyes and grinned broadly beneath the high collar of his cape. This was his moment, the time when all his years of work would finally pay off.
When he reached the center of the stage, Ghetsis slammed his cane decisively into the floor and glared eagerly over the crowd, his fiery passion burning in his eyes. He allowed the crowd a moment more to cheer, then gestured for quiet.
“You all warm my heart, you really do.” Ghetsis had to actively push down his more self-aggrandizing urges to continue portraying himself as supportive of the people spread before him. Just for a little longer, he thought. “If you don’t let me talk, though, I can never get to what I’ve come here to discuss with you today.”
Ghetsis took several steps to the right before continuing. “As you know, my name is Ghetsis Harmonia, and I’ve come to speak to you on behalf of the Polaris organization.” Just saying the name ‘Polaris’ instead of his own name or that of Team Plasma caused acid to rise in Ghetsis’s throat. “If you’ve heard any of my speeches on television, or if you listened to my assistant when he spoke in Goldenrod City, you have some idea of what I’ve come before you to talk about.” Ghetsis started shaking his fist to accentuate his words. “You’ve come today because deep down in your hearts, you know the corruption of the Pokémon League. You know the corruption that keeps you under the thumb of the rich and the privileged!”
The crowd erupted in response to Ghetsis’s words once more. From within the mass of people, Rowena cringed from the ear-splitting noise she was surrounded by, but something else was bothering her. She felt as if Ghetsis was inside her head, somehow speaking directly into her mind instead of her hearing him through her ears.
“Cinccino?” she whispered, prompting her Pokémon to pop up next to her head. “Scratch my neck, would you?”
“Cin,” Cinccino said in agreement, before gently running her claws over the back of her trainer’s neck as requested. The sensation helped Rowena clear her head so she could focus on continuing to film Ghetsis.
“Now let us begin with a quick overview of the beginnings of the Pokémon League, so that we may identify the roots of the evil gripping this world.” Ghetsis was wearing the same holographic prompter Zinzolin had used earlier, and reached to his cape’s collar to activate it. “The origins of the Pokémon League can be traced back thousands of years to the ancient Kalos region. In those times, warriors would ally themselves with wild Pokémon and compete in vicious matches at places such as the Battle Chateau. This system, originated by the Tenganists of the era, evolved over time. The number of facilities at which battles could be fought expanded, and they came to be in every town and city throughout the Tenganists’ lands. Eventually, as the years passed, Pokémon battling went from being a blood sport fought by hardened warriors to something the public became encouraged to take part in, as you know it today. One thing that has always remained consistent is that these battles are fought for the entertainment of the rich and powerful.”
Ghetsis paused his speech momentarily, allowing a murmur of intrigue to pass through the crowd. He could tell, not only from just the sounds but from their enthusiastic expressions, that they were already in the palm of his hand. He clenched his fist as if to tighten his grip on them and smiled, then continued speaking.
“Maybe some of you are wondering just how these things could be true. After all, does society not provide health care through the Pokémon Centers? What about supplies via Poké Marts? Food? Housing? The middle-class son of public workers, the daughter whose family lives paycheck to paycheck, the wealthy siblings who have never wanted for a thing in their lives… as those pulling the levers of society would tell you, all of them would have the same opportunity to indulge in the dream of Pokémon training, a dream glorified and given the image of national heroism by those very same people who tout its supposed equality. When you consider how your own lives have gone, ask yourselves, have you gotten a piece of that pie? Have you?”
Some of the audience members began turning to each other, talking quietly to themselves about Ghetsis’s question. The vast majority, however, responded with forceful affirmations that their answer was no.
“As I thought, as I thought!” Ghetsis beamed, rocking against his cane to keep his enthusiasm in check. “Now, we have a brave volunteer who has come forward to share her story with you. Welcome her to your stage!”
-:-
As the figure stepped onto the stage and approached Ghetsis, Rosalie found her mouth reflexively tightening around her pipe. She was watching the speech on her wheelchair computer’s holographic screen, and she recognized the young woman entering the scene. Ghetsis’s ‘guest’ was wrapped in a plain, heavy green coat, her shoulder-length brown hair peeking out from under her hood.
“Looks like our theories were right,” Rosalie said into her communicator, addressing the other members of Team Rocket who were assembled elsewhere. “There’s that Lucky girl, right on schedule.”
-:-
