Chapter 43
Scarred Crags
On the morning of the twentieth day of the journey, the sky was black.
But the time was of little consequence anymore. Since the start of the party's aggressive northward excursion, "day" and "night" had begun to lose their meaning: the sun would linger in the sky for much longer than a day, and disappear for much longer than a night. Only Prince seemed sure of the true timeframe of the days as he would rouse his companions from their sleep and hurry them towards their destination, whether through a glaring white landscape or a chilling sea of shadows.
And as they ventured further into Zerferia's depths, it became clear why no Pokémon lived there: it had nothing. It was all a vast, featureless tundra with no discerning landmarks but the all-encompassing barrier between the ground and the sky, a ground so frozen it might as well have been coated in metal. There were rarely any land formations to be seen, much less any that a Pokémon in their right mind would want to make their habitat. Memories of a day's travels blurred together as one, defined by nothing but the feelings of numbed nerves and burning muscles, a burning which sadly did nothing to help keep the cold at bay. And even when the occasional mountains or crag-land passages would appear, the terrain would be so random and treacherous that it seemed specifically crafted by nature to be a death trap.
Later, the barren fields became coated in a layer of snow which grew thicker and deeper with every passing mile. Char quickly took a particular dislike to snow in his new Charmander body. He hated how it would stick to him and melt into water whenever he would touch it. But to the amusement of his friends, especially Nameless, it gave him great satisfaction to blast the snow with fire, seeing it curl away and evaporate instantaneously. It amused him for hours.
Indeed, It seemed that Zerferia was only suited as one Pokémon's paradise, the kind goddess which continually graced their company and offered them guidance from above as she danced through her playground of feathered clouds and wind currents – for her home was not upon the earth, but in the sky.
In all, the team kept an excellent pace, miles reeled past, spirits were very high, and the destination drew near. So far, it was a very successful and fortunate mission.
Even Scythe, in his mental anguish, found a measure of peace on that twentieth day. He yearned for the day, every once in a while, where his body would simply run dry of all possible stamina, leaving him no choice but to pass out. That night, to his relief, sleep overtook him, and he woke many hours later with a refreshed mind and newfound strength.
At the beginning of that sunless day, Scythe's eyes drifted open. It took him a moment to understand he was sprawled face-down upon the ground, and to realize his body had finally given into the exhaustion.
At once, he stifled his thoughts and laid motionless for a few moments, reveling in the comfort which the sleep had given him, rejoicing at how the long night's rest had washed away so much of his stress and disconcertion. Then, he performed his self-orientation and renewed his resolve.
He remembered where he was. The rest stop this time had been in one of Zerferia's brutal mountain ranges, which Prince had called the Scarred Crags. Like many of Zerferia's shelters, it was characterized by poised avalanches, sudden pitfalls, and sharpened rocks which rivaled his own blades. A misstep could prove fatal, and without even the Mystery Dungeon curse to activate the Reviver Seeds should a freak accident happen. Though it was an unnerving place to stay, Scythe felt comfortable; Prince was, admittedly, an excellent guide who knew these grounds like a home, and Nameless was always poised in the sky to lend her assistance at a moment's notice. Plus, although it served no purpose other than to block out the sun (since not even a stray snowflake fell from the sky so long as Nameless was around), sleeping beneath the cover of a shelter brought Scythe a certain peace-of-mind, perhaps from calming those reliable instincts of his which demanded he hide from the Watchers each night.
Feeling much like a newborn hatchling (or as much as he could be expected to feel at his age), Scythe began to stir, ready to rise and take on the challenges of a new day.
There was just one thing he immediately found odd: Prince hadn't gotten him up according to schedule. Was this day a late start? Maybe Char had intervened and told Prince to let him sleep as long as he needed. Whatever the case, he was thankful it happened.
…Or so he thought.
As he climbed to his knees and checked his surroundings, he found that something was missing from them. Something important. A particular little flame he could always count on being close by.
Char. Char, and all of his friends, were nowhere to be found.
Prince was there, though, eyeing him indifferently as he rose to self-awareness, his flame like a campfire among the darkness. But he was the only one. The two were alone together in the cramped little dent they used as the night's rest shelter. It was an empty dead-end, the rock walls coming to a sharp corner, the floor covered in snow and gravel, and the ceiling opening up vaguely to the black sky. Char, his sworn payload, was absent, his little flame missing from its rightful place at the corner of his eye.
"Sleep well?" Prince greeted him.
"Prince," he gasped. "The children. Where are the children?"
"Couldn't tell you," he said with a shrug.
Scythe was on his feet in an instant. He practically jumped at Prince's face, all the while Prince sat calm and unresponsive.
"I close my eyes for one moment and you lose them?" he growled, using his newfound strength to keep himself from overreacting. "In this place? At night?"
"Char has a light," Prince said, shrugging again. "He should be fine."
"Well, if you aren't going to go find them, I leave you alone," Scythe grumbled, wasting no time in marching off farther into the crags. "I don't know how you expect to keep them alive if you let them wander out of sight…"
As Scythe was about to disappear around the corner, Prince called to him.
"I don't think you want to do that, Scythe," he said, a knowing ring clear in his warning.
Scythe heeded the warning and stopped to think it over, but he couldn't read Prince's trick. Prince stayed still, obviously not planning to make any move to keep him from leaving. After a few seconds of hesitation, he shook his head and disregarded Prince's words, ready to scour the nearby crags for any sign of his precious Charmander.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"
A wild Pokémon cry rang out from far above, so authoritative it shook him to the very core. Scythe stopped in his tracks instantly, casting a fearful glance upward.
Nameless was perched at the top of a rock, like a night-owl watching from a tree. She flared her wings threateningly.
"Do not pass me, green blade," Nameless squawked down to him. "Return to Prince."
"I beg your pardon, great bird," Scythe said, showing as much humility in his voice as he could manage. "Have you seen the children?"
"Yes," Nameless replied angrily. "They are far away from here. You will not be. You will stay here, and they will return here."
"You're… guarding them from me?" Scythe laughed, realizing the truth of the matter. "Why would you do this?"
"The fire child asked, to speak to the others in secret," Nameless answered proudly. "To watch you, so you stay here, not to hear what they say."
"You're doing what Char asks?" Scythe replied, releasing a nervous laugh. "What compels you to do Char a favor?"
"He asked nicely," Nameless sneered.
"What about what I asked of you‽" Scythe hissed. "Did I not ask nicely enough?"
"I serve, who I want to serve," Nameless cawed, lowering her head to give Scythe an intimidating stare. "Now, take no more step, green blade, return to Prince."
Sending a disgruntled hiss up to the Articuno, Scythe turned to comply with her orders. He plodded back into the cramped corner and sat in the warmth of Prince's fire, muttering curses to himself.
"She stopped me, as well," Prince admitted. "Children…"
Scythe said nothing. Instead, his eyes began to scan the rim of the ceiling and the darkened sky which lay beyond.
"Do not fly either, green blade!" the discerning legendary shouted from afar. "If you fly, a storm will come, to fill the rocks with hail. And you will be buried."
"She's not exaggerating, either," Prince noted.
Sighing, Scythe let his body go limp and rested his back against the rock wall.
"I like Char," Prince chuckled. "He's starting to think like you."
… … …
A ways away in another secluded little dent in the rocks, four Pokémon eagerly huddled together as though to start a secret ceremony. Char held out his tail, and the faces of the other Pokémon flickered in its light.
"Are you sure we can talk here?" Saura asked. "If Scythe's listening in…"
"Scythe won't bother us," Char assured him. "Trust me. I took care of it. Now, listen… I don't know how long we should stay here, but we have some pretty important things to talk about."
Char took a deep breath, anticipating the difficult issues he would have to discuss. Seeing that Ray and Lily were at full attention, he nodded to Saura to begin.
"Alright, first…" Saura sighed, "I guess I should start with the easy stuff. First… Ray, Lily… this entire trip, I didn't actually have my memories erased. I was faking it."
While Lily only looked mildly happy to hear the news, Ray was beaming.
"Wow, really?" Ray gasped. "Hah! You had me convinced! Wha—! That's awesome! I was really starting to miss you! But how come you were faking?"
"Well, I was mostly trying to trick Scythe, because he ordered me to do it, and I didn't want to do it," Saura explained. "Well, Scythe knows now, so there's really no point in keeping the secret from you two… so yeah. I'm the same old Saura. Kinda."
"What about the nightmare?" Lily wondered concernedly. "Does it still hurt?"
"Yeah, it's still there," Saura said dejectedly. "But I'm working with it. I'm taking things one day at a time. Gardevoir said there's a small chance it may go away over time. But uh… sorry if I'm not the most friendly Pokémon anymore… I really don't mean to be mean, honest! But I have this headache now, and sometimes when it gets bad, it's really easy to slip and say something… or snap a vine at you… So if I get angry at anyone from now on… I really, really don't mean it. I'm sorry."
Saura sighed again, relieved that at least one of the issues had been lifted from his back. Ray and Lily looked happy for him. He cracked a little smile himself.
"You know, Ray, I really have you to thank for this," Saura told him. "You caught me when I was afraid to talk to Char. You're the one who motivated me to tell him."
"Heh, heh! Glad I could help!" Ray laughed evilly. "Don't you know? I can motivate anyone to do anything, heh heh heh! Wow, Saura. I'm really glad to have you back! I guess Team Ember won't be getting very much sleep from now on, huh?"
Char winced. He hadn't thought of that, and to be honest, he didn't really want to. Saura seemed shocked at the idea, too.
"Oh, no! No!" Saura said, shaking his head from the realization of what he meant. "Ray, you don't—you don't have to! You really don't! I mean, this nightmare is going to keep me up at night so much… You really don't have to stay awake with me every night! Honest!"
"Oh, we can! And we will!" Ray cheered heartily. "No excuses! We wouldn't be Team Ember if we didn't hold our traditions! Not after all the times you held onto it yourself, Saura! Now we've got to repay you! I'll even have our name changed to Team Sleepless if I have to! Oh, and don't you even think about not suffering with me, Char! I see that look in your eyes. If you fall asleep just once, I'm going to zap you so hard that you'll evolve into an electric-type!"
"Gee, I think Ray's happy for you, don't you think?" Char said blankly.
Saura wanted to laugh. He couldn't tell if Ray was joking or not, but either way, he felt touched. A sincere smile shined on his face.
"Thanks," he said warmly. "It means a lot."
But he couldn't feel too comfortable; he knew that wasn't the only thing he needed to say. As Ray was still laughing, Saura let his smile fade away…
"There's something else," he said, sounding dead serious. "Something… worse. Get ready for this, this is… really heavy."
Ray settled down, Lily gave an attentive nod, and once more they were silent, ready to hear whatever further news had to be spoken. Saura, though, didn't know if he was ready to say it.
"This is serious." Saura stressed, looking at the ground. "I mean… you have no idea. If I were to say that… Scythe just died, or I'm actually a spy for the Master, it would almost be as serious as this. Just to give you an idea."
When Saura raised his eyes back up to meet with his friends, he saw their gazes were glued fast to him, Ray had his front paws locked together in nervousness, and Lily looked puzzled.
"And this has to be a big secret!" Saura said further. "You can't tell anyone. I'm going to tell Scythe myself after this whole mission is done, I mean, if we get back safely. Maybe I'll even tell him at the top of Temporal Tower if… if things happen just right. But… you've got to promise. You can't tell anyone. Not even you, Lily. You can't tell Prince this. Do you promise?"
"Promise," the Raichu and the Bayleef said in unison, their breaths already taken away at the thought.
Saura whipped his head back and forth to clear his mind, then began to muster his courage. The words hung on the edge of his tongue, and every time his eyes locked with his friends' wide gazes, he hesitated again…
"Saura, it's alright," Char reminded him. "You told me. You can tell them. Just spit it out, and it'll all be okay."
"You're right," Saura grumbled, drawing a deep breath. "Alright, here it goes…"
He leapt in place and dug his paws into the gravel.
"Ray!" he suddenly shouted. "Do you have the Call?"
"Uh… n—no?" Ray guessed. "I mean, uh… I don't think so. I've never been tested for it, but I mean… what? Do you… do you really think I might have it?"
"Well, if you don't," Saura said, pawing at the ground and letting his voice descend into a quiet mumble. "It means… that… you're… the only one standing here… who… doesn't."
With a blink, Saura's eyes returned to his friends, fearfully anticipating their reactions. He had to be patient, though; both Ray and Lily seemed to turn into silent, motionless corpses before his eyes, their rational thought simply snapping in half as he watched.
"Of course!" Ray exclaimed, bursting from his stupor into sudden excitement. "I should have known! It all makes so much sense now! Char! Saura! You… you… you have a psychic connection with each other!"
"Uh… what?" Char said blankly.
"No, really!" Ray laughed. "You know how you understand each other so well? Why you're just such good friends? That's why! It's the Call! I bet you're Calling to one another all the time! You have this psychic bond that you just barely don't know is there, but really I bet it's bending dimensions just so your minds can merge together and understand one another! I knew it! I knew it all along! There was something else going on between you two that I couldn't figure out. Now I know! Oh, and congratulations, Saura! You're a legend now, too!"
Char and Saura glanced blankly at one another for a moment, wondering if it could be true. Were they… were they really in one another's minds? Char told himself he honestly wouldn't be surprised it if were true; it'd explain a lot about their friendship. Either way, he was glad to see Ray taking it so well.
"You have the Call," Lily said, finally snapping out of her own daze. "That's impossible. That's… that's against the rules. There's only one Call every thirty years or whatever Lucario changed his rule to now. But you… both have it at the same time? I'm sorry, I just… have a hard time accepting that! How did you find this out?"
"Gardevoir," Saura said. "When you all thought he was erasing my memory, he was looking for the Call. And he found it. And I think… I think I've felt myself use it before. In my dreams. It's… really deep down in my mind."
"Oh, isn't it?" Lily gasped. "Did you ever hear that humming? That's how you can tell it's going to happen. So you can get ready."
"Ready to quiet it down!" Saura said suddenly, completing her thought. "Just like you're biting your tongue! That's right! You… told me that! I… I can't believe I knew that… but you said that in one of my dreams! You can quiet the Call so it doesn't disturb everyone as much… Didn't… didn't you call me Char, too?"
"How was I supposed to know it wasn't Char?" Lily snapped back. "I wasn't even… I mean… I almost had no control over what I was… Oh Shaymin, this is real, isn't it? This is so real. There are really, right now, three of us… just standing here, talking…"
There was a moment of quiet as the reality sank in to all four of them, with blank, disbelieving looks plastered on their faces. Ray was the first to say what the rest of them had been thinking:
"What do you think would happen if all of you called at the same time?"
Char's stomach turned over several times just trying to imagine it. A call that could summon the entire Gold Division… times two… plus Lily as well…?
"You could beckon all of the legendary dragons at once!" Ray guessed, beginning to panic at the very idea. "You could… you could beckon Arceus! You could get Arceus to do whatever you want! You could take the Master down! You could rule the world! You could create your own Pokémon species! You could live forever! You—"
"Ray, jeeze! Settle down!" Saura laughed. "I doubt it!"
"Maybe… we should try it?"
Ray's suggestion took everyone off guard. They looked at him oddly, but he was dead serious.
"I mean… we have three Pokémon with the Call all in the same place," he considered. "That hasn't happened before, ever! In the history of the whole world, I bet! Do you think we should try experimenting with it while we have the chance?"
The three Call-laden Pokémon were at a loss for words to respond to this idea.
"Ray…" Lily tried to say, "I, we don't even… know how… there's no… It doesn't happen on purpose. I mean, we don't think it does. There's no way to tell."
"Of course," Ray said. "But… It's a subconscious call, right? So maybe, if you dug into your subconscious… maybe you could find it, and bring it out?"
"You know, all the times the Call has happened, you and I were sleeping," Char noted. "Maybe… Ray's right. Dreams are the way the subconscious mind speaks. Maybe our dreams can tap into the Call?"
"You know, that's true!" Lily said thoughtfully. "It's happened to me before when I was wide awake. But most of the time? In my sleep! Maybe sleep helps it to happen!"
"So… maybe you should try falling asleep!" Ray said excitedly. "Fall asleep, and just keep saying to yourself, 'I'm going to use the Call, I'm going to use the Call!' Or even better, pray! Fall asleep praying to Arceus and see if it really happens! Wow, imagine if this actually works!"
"Um, but I don't think we should just take a nap here…" Char said. "We have to get back to Scythe eventually."
"Well then… close your eyes and mediate, or something," Ray insisted. "There's got to be something about the Call we can figure out! We have a whole three of you here in one place! Whatever the Call does to the mind, it must be really strong right now! So maybe you could look and find it! Ooh, Just imagine, if we could get this to work, all our problems would be solved… No more Master… No more having to go through mystery dungeons… Scythe would be all back to normal… it would all end right here. C'mon, guys. At least try it. Don't make me have to motivate you…"
Begrudgingly, Ray's friends gave into his request. They all set themselves down on the floor and closed their eyes, trying to focus and delve into their subconscious minds.
Char began flipping through his own memories and feelings, wondering if the Call could be found among them. He realized that, even if the Call was staring him in the face, he just wouldn't know it, because his own thoughts and feelings were just too normal to him. And he didn't feel the least bit drowsy because he had just gotten up. But he let himself go limp and began inspecting his thoughts closely, even though he thought he knew his thoughts like the back of his hand, seeing that they were his thoughts and he was rarely ever separated from them. But he decided to humor Ray, searching his mental impulses for anything suspicious at all, echoes of psychic communication or whatever form the Call might take…
"Remember that night you two were using the Call to talk," Ray reminded. "Remember talking. If you felt anything weird, try to copy that feeling."
And so they stayed perfectly still.
And they waited.
Char was used to reflecting upon his ideas often, so he just went through the motions this time, though a little unenthusiastically.
He thought about how this little exercise was wholly unnecessary, but he figured he'd go ahead and do what Ray said, even though Dialga waited at the top of the tower and would give them all the answers they sought anyway. Or so he hoped. There was always the possibility Dialga would just kick him back out again… such as, in the case that he actually was a horrible human being cursed with having his humanity taken away, and Dialga wouldn't stand the sight of him. He remembered how that wouldn't actually be a bad thing. He'd just get to forget about all his troubles, then! The mystery of his transformation would no longer bother him. The mystery of that Poké Ball, that recurring dream, could be safely ignored. The Call would still puzzle him, but with a whole two companions who shared his condition, he knew he was far from alone. He would just have to figure out the Call along with them, and take advantage of this impossible, groundbreaking coincidence.
Don't see the Call anywhere…
He thought about Saura, and what kind of an incredible friend he was. How he chose to keep that tragic nightmare, that nightmare that he for saw himself, too… how he chose to bear the pain, so that he could continue being the same Saura… and how they both had more in common now than he ever thought possible…
Wonder if the Call transferred that dream? I just thought it was because we were touching at the time, but seems like anything's possible now…
He thought about how Zerferia wasn't as painful as everyone warned him it would be. And he thought about how awesome Nameless was, and how he almost wished she would join him on the road back after the mission was done, and not stay in Zerferia as he knew she would. Really, he wanted Nameless on his team. He seriously thought about asking her. It was worth a try.
We're so lucky Saura used the Call to wake Nameless up… I don't even know how we would have made it one day without her controlling the weather… It makes my mind explode trying to imagine standing in these flatlands, no shelter, nothing to hold onto to keep the wind from blowing me away… Ughghgh! My spine, it tingles…
He thought about Scythe, and his well-kept secret plan. He wondered how it was coming along. He wondered how he would help. Had Scythe learned to adjust his plan since all these Pokémon were here now? Saura and Ray would do whatever he asked, but Prince was another matter… Char knew, deep in his heart, that Prince was Scythe's biggest problem. Even bigger than Nameless, at this point. Even though Nameless could probably gobble Scythe up in one peck if he tried to do something dangerous. But no… it wasn't Nameless he was worried about. It was Prince! But… what could he do about that? Nameless protected Prince, and Prince… well, not even Scythe could beat him in a battle. Was Prince going to ruin everything?
I've always trusted him, but now I'm afraid of what Scythe is going to do…
Char snapped to attention, almost throwing himself to his feet. He would have, too, if it hadn't been for a protruding rock directly above his head.
*Thump*
"Oww… stupid stupid… oww ughh…" Char hissed, stumbling and gripping his bruise.
Saura and Lily both opened their eyes and looked at him. Ray looked surprised.
"What was that?" Char demanded suddenly, ignoring his injury as soon as he could.
"Nobody said anything," Saura answered him. "Maybe you're hearing things? Are you sure you didn't… I don't know, bump your head?"
"No, I'm serious," Char insisted, disregarding the silly joke. "I heard something. I thought… it might have been the humming. But I don't know, maybe not. It was suspicious, though."
"I heard something, too, actually," Lily said, blinking. "Just for a moment. I thought it was nothing, but… maybe… Heh, hopefully we're not just imagining things."
"No, we're doing it! We're getting somewhere!" Ray cried in amazement. "See? We're doing it! We're going to call Arceus right here, right now! Now, go back and think of exactly what you were thinking a moment ago! And think it as hard as you can! Uh… what were you thinking, anyway?"
"I was thinking about Scythe, actually," Char admitted. "I was worried about him…"
"Hmm…" Lily said hesitantly, picking her head back up off the ground. "You know… while we're here, telling secrets and everything… maybe there's something I have to say, too."
"Oh?" Saura said interestedly, blinking his eyes back to attention. "What is it? We're all ears."
"It's… about Scythe, actually," Lily sighed, bowing her head slightly. "Something happened a few days ago. Prince told me about it. He said not to tell anyone else, heh, but here I am, telling you… I'm usually not this bad with secrets, and I won't tell yours, but I really trust you guys…"
"We understand," Saura said.
"But yeah, Prince gave me a warning," Lily admitted hesitantly. "He said to watch out for Scythe, because… Apparently, Scythe tried to trick Nameless into doing something bad."
"You're kidding," Char replied, feeling his heart sink a little. "Do you know what he tried to do?"
"After the temporal tower mission, he wanted Nameless to knock out Prince."
Char gritted his teeth. It was just as he feared. Scythe was resorting to desperate measures to get Prince out of the way. All he could think, now, was "really?" Had he really reached his wit's end, and tried to manipulate the Articuno to do his bidding? Had he really tried to get her to betray the one Pokémon closest to her? Really?
But deep down, Char wasn't that surprised. His heart sank lower than ever, feeling so sorry for Scythe and his fateful intentions, whatever they were… He wanted now, more than ever, to just call down Dialga or Arceus or whomever would listen, and just make Scythe's plans work for him, and take all his pain away. He was tired of seeing the old warrior suffering all the time, driven to the point where sanity was so hard to hold onto…
"So yeah, take from that what you will," Lily continued. "I know he's a smart Pokémon and all, and you guys must have a lot of respect for him. But I'm actually starting to be afraid a little bit. He won't tell Prince anything about his bad attitude and… well… I'm afraid of what Scythe is going to do when we get back from the tower… he obviously has something he's— what? Char? What's wrong with your face?"
Char had to shake himself out of a sudden trance.
"Say that again," he requested.
"Say what again?"
"Everything that you just said."
"Uh…" Lily hesitated, blinking and trying to recollect her thoughts. "I was just saying… I think I'm actually starting to be afraid of Scythe, even though I know he's always been trustworthy and all… but if something's going to happen after the tower, and he's not telling us what it is…"
"You're afraid of what he's going to do!" Char completed for her, as though it was some sort of epiphany.
"Yeah," Lily sighed. "I know it's probably just silly of me… I'm just getting paranoid again, but…"
"No, Lily! You don't understand!" Char cried, almost breathless. "Lily, that's—"
*Rrrrumble….*
The group froze as the thunderous sound of a rockslide reverberated from deeper in the crags. A few pebbles crumbled down the cliff walls and around their feet. They waited, still as stones, with perked ears and widened eyes pointed in every direction, until the disturbance settled.
"Uh… that wasn't a good noise…" Lily muttered nervously. "I hope that was just an avalanche or something…"
It was then that the reality of the situation really began to dawn on them. They were four relatively weak Pokémon gathered together in the middle of the night, and they had wandered at least twenty minutes away from the three Pokémon who could actually defend them from danger…
"Yeah, let's start heading back," Char suggested. "We shouldn't keep them waiting much longer. Prince wants to be out of this mountain range in time for—"
*Rrrrrumble…* *Rrrumble…*
Again, the noise came from somewhere beyond the cracks in the walls, louder and more persistent than last time. Genuine fear was quickly pooling in Char's heart, and he watched as the shadows around him retreated and his light source became much bigger. Admittedly, it didn't bring him very much courage this time—the disturbance sounded unmistakably big.
"Seconded," Lily offered, a quiver in her voice. "And how about we run?"
But they never had the chance.
*CRASH!*
There was a ground-shaking explosion as a rock became dislodged from the wall and crashed into several pieces upon the ground. There, through a previously small crack in the cliff, a creature stirred.
Char felt his heart stop. That crack had been their escape route. It was the way they came. They squeezed through it into this little chamber, thinking it was a place of safety…
Now… they were cornered.
"No," Saura whispered. "No, no, no…"
"It's… only a rock Pokémon," Lily said, trying to sound confident. "We can beat it. Saura and I can take it."
"What do you think it is?" Char asked, eyeing the moving shadows. "It looks big…"
"Probably just an Onix," Lily reassured everyone. "That's the only thing I can think of that could even survive up here. We can take an Onix. They're big and stupid."
The four small Pokémon backed up as far as they could against the corner, as the rocks stirred in the shadows.
"What if it's not?" Char wondered, his voice wavering with worry.
Then, from the shadows… something protruded from the crack in the stone wall. Something made of rock. A gravelly roar filled the air as it scraped against the surrounding walls.
It was a thick, blunt, fingerless arm, winding and coiling around like a miniature Onix. But it was no mere Onix. It moved with strength and purpose, as though attached to an even bigger entity, as it forced itself into the chamber where the small Pokémon had gathered. Char thought to take another step back, but he was already flat against the wall. His battle instinct mounted.
A second arm, much like the first, was jammed into the crack, worming its way in Char's direction like a floating, living rock, faceless and featureless, its polished gray surfaces shining in Char's light…
With both arms in place, the creature heaved.
*RRRRRRRRRIP!*
Rock and gravel spewed everywhere as the creature threw both arms apart and simply shoved the stone walls out of its way as if they were mere curtains, causing the chamber's structure to collapse. Char yelped and covered his head as a boulder smashed down next to him, his breaths turning into short whimpers.
The being emerged from the shadows and stood for a moment in Char's flaring light, revealed for what it was. Char beheld it, and felt his body flooded in dread.
It was a Pokémon which Char had never seen or heard of before. It stood like a living mountain of rocks upon two legs, towering over him by at least three times his height. Its body was almost indistinguishable from the surrounding terrain, as if a pile of boulders had been possessed by black magic and assembled themselves into a human-like form. It stood still, emitting a freakish murmur as it watched its victims with a weird assortment of tiny orange eyes embedded into its blank face.
Like the rest of Zerferia, the face betrayed nothing. No heart or soul, no emotion, no reason… nothing but danger and malice. It held itself almost like a robot, a guardian of this deserted fortress of crags, come to smash these strange moving intruders until they would lay shattered and silent among the rest of the gravel…
"New idea," Lily choked out, barely able to stay standing in fear. "We scream for Nameless at the top of our lungs."
And so they did.
The combined screech of their voices seemed to stun the rock monster for a moment. The thing backed away a few inches, watching in confusion and surprise as Char and his companions combined their cries and sent them into the heavens, an extended wail that lasted for half a minute until their chests collapsed.
In the ensuing silence, the little group of Pokémon could only cower beneath the beast with held breaths, watching what it would decide to do next, hoping to Arceus it wouldn't barrel forward and embed them into the surrounding rocks…
But, within just a few seconds, their call was answered. The sky returned a call of its own. It was a caw from the distance, clear and beautiful, the voice of a legendary Pokémon heeding their plea. The rock beast visibly shuddered at the sound of the cry, as if remembering it from a fateful encounter. It was like a beacon; upon hearing it, the hearts of the trapped Pokémon were filled with hope that they might survive the dark day.
But would Nameless arrive in time?
"I'll make a smoke screen," Char decided. "I can make it big. It won't be able to track us."
"Char, no!" Lily gasped. "Then Nameless won't be able to see us!"
"Nameless has good hearing!" Ray said. "She said so! I asked!"
The beast took a curious step nearer. The gravel upon the ground jumped an inch, and more rattled down from the cliff-sides.
"Just do something!" Saura gasped. "It's coming!"
"Alright… it's a Rock Pokémon, right?" Char guessed. "It has to be. Alright. Lily, Saura, I know it's dark out, but use the strongest plant attacks you can. Ray… Lightning. Might as well. We have to lure it away from the exit. If it comes to get us, we can slip past, and maybe—"
Thump. The beast took another step closer, almost as if it were toying with them.
"Alright, go!" Char urged. "Go, go! Attack!"
Char's inner fire needed no persuasion; it was already there for him. He drew a long breath and prepared to release a curtain of smoke to shroud their tiny forms and make it more difficult for the beast to connect a hit. Saura and Lily focused energy into themselves, gathering powerful projectile attacks. Ray held his breath and began an intense cringe, trying to call a bolt of lightning from the night sky which was just barely visible far above their heads and past the cliff tops…
Char jumped forward and released his fire, cutting it short at the last second to convert it to a thick, concentrated cloud of soot. It was a very good smoke screen, his best yet, even, and it made the light of his fire all but meaningless as it expanded to fill the dark ditch. Saura yelped as his energy ball snapped away from his bulb and was hurled into the dark cloud.
"I can't do it!" Ray cried. "There aren't any charges answering me! No clouds!"
"I can't see anything!" Lily added.
From Lily's neck, there sprouted half a dozen thin, sharp blades of grass. They grew in many directions, twisting and coiling around themselves like a giant knotted net, until it resembled a makeshift spider's web. When it was large and confusing enough, she slung the whole thing through the smoke cloud and into the foe.
"RRRR-rrrrrRRRAAAA!"
The beast's hallow, twisted voice sounded from the other end of the chamber. Its message was clear: it was angry now.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
"It's coming!" Lily shrieked. "Dodge! DODGE!"
Char tensed, focusing on the smoke cloud, watching closely for the monstrous silhouette which would soon emerge… Waiting to know just which directions would be safe…
"Never remain on your hind legs. Always drop to all fours. You must be able to dodge in any direction at a moment's notice…"
Char fell to the ground, joining his friends upon all fours, poised to pounce.
It came so quickly, he barely was able to see it. That monstrous shadow appeared, running at them, its massive body whipping the smoke around as it moved…
And just as quickly, it swung around one of its stump arms, attempting to bludgeon Char square in the head.
"EVADE!"
In a slow, slow heartbeat, the trapped Pokémon leapt past the monster through any opening they could find—around its feet, under its arms, against the wall… And Char, seeing that arm about to club him in the face, dove straight between the thing's legs, ducking his head and picking up his legs as he sailed through the gap like a missile. It was such a small passage, such a desperate attempt… but the creature had poised its left leg in front of the other to balance itself in its reckless attack, letting just enough room for Char to scrape by…
And the creature's arm, it came so close to hitting him… he felt the whoosh of wind blow past his face, and thought for sure he would be out cold before he could touch the ground again…
But, thanks to the smoke screen, the monster had barely miscalculated the path of its arm. It sailed clumsily past, missing by a few hairs and failing to cut off Char's escape route. Char touched the ground on the other side of the monster, to his utter relief, and joined his friends in their rush toward the opening in the wall.
*SMASH!*
Just as quickly as it had appeared, the massive gap in the chamber wall was gone.
It took Char a moment to realize that, where there had been a safe and clear passage just a moment before, there now rested a giant boulder. No—a monolith. A tall, gargantuan stone sealed off their escape route. With the icy, gravelly floor offering not the slightest bit of traction, Char couldn't stop himself in time—and his head smacked into the barrier.
"Ahhhh!" Saura shouted in panic, pivoting his body to hit the great stone sideways. "What the—?"
Char shook off the injury and re-oriented himself. By instinct, he turned to glance back at the monstrous being, gazing at its shadow through the quickly-clearing smoke cloud.
When he saw what had happened, he could not believe his eyes.
The monster had thrown the monolith to block their escape. It had done so by plucking it straight out of the wall and hurling it effortlessly over their heads.
He shook his head. That was… impossible. It simply couldn't have happened. But, yes, there was now a gaping dent in the cliff face, the place where the being had torn the huge granite slab from the wall as if it were made of sandstone.
That's when it dawned on him: this monster, this Pokémon which he did not recognize, could only be a legendary.
They were fighting some ancient, million-year-old being. Some spirit which embodied the strength of rocks. Some being which mountains fell upon, which tectonic plates shifted across, which earthquakes crushed… yet it survived through the millennia, only to have some foolish little children searching for privacy happen to wake it from its slumber.
Their attacks would not defeat it. Their attacks would not phase it.
"CHAR!"
Hearing Saura's sudden plead, Char snapped out of his stupor. But it was too late—the creature had jammed its hand-less arms into the solid rock face a second time, tearing another pointed slab from the wall…
"Impossible…" Char could only whisper, watching the beast's god-like strength as it worked.
"CHAR! WATCH OUT! CHAR!"
"RRRR-rrrrrAAAARRRRRaaaa!"
The beast heaved, tossing its behemoth weapon at the spot where Char stood. This time, he didn't miss.
A sort of awe washed over Char as he beheld the two-ton rock flying at his face. It was just too large… and it came too fast… Char knew there was no point in running. He only anticipated the inevitable collision… wondering if it would indeed cost him his life.
At the last moment, he held his breath and closed his eyes.
Then he felt it.
*SMASH!*
The first thing he made out, after the sound of the projectile exploding into many boulder-sized chunks, was the sound of Saura's voice. It mixed with those of Lily and Ray, screaming his name in sorrow for his loss…
The second thing he realized was that he could hear anything at all.
He was alive.
He opened his eyes. He found that his body had not moved an inch from where he had cowered. In fact, nothing had really changed, except there now sat about a dozen new chunks of rock obscuring his vision, all spinning with kinetic energy.
He blinked. He had felt it. He had felt its weight, its pressure, colliding with his tiny body…
Yet, he had felt no pain.
In fact… he was utterly unharmed.
He stood up and appraised his body. No scrapes. No injuries. Nothing.
"What?" Char had to spit, this realization dawning on him.
"Char! What just happened?" Saura called to him. "How… are you still alive?"
"I don't… know," Char admitted.
"Maybe it was an illusion," Lily guessed. "Maybe that rock didn't even exist. Come on! We have to find a way out of here! Saura, have you ever made a vine rope before?"
"No…"
"Alright, here… let's wind our vines together, like this. They'll be stronger that way. Then maybe we can climb to safety without having them snap…"
Char saw that the golem was just as baffled as he was. He could see the gears turning in its alien head—Enemy is still moving. Doesn't make sense.
Intent on correcting its mistake, it wasted no time in yanking yet another hunk of rock and taking aim at Char. This time, though, Char was curious.
He continued standing on two legs, staring proudly and defiantly at the legendary rock monster as it wielded its next projectile. Grunting in its incomprehensible voice, it swung its arms and released its burden onto the standing Charmander.
This time, Char made sure not to blink.
*CRASH!*
He watched, in utter bewilderment, as the two-ton slab of solid rock shattered against his frail little body, as if it had been tossed upon a diamond cutter.
Again, he felt nothing. No pain. No shock. It hadn't even knocked him off his feet. He had only felt its touch against his skin, as though the deadly gravel were mere raindrops upon him. His stance remained unchanged as the remnants of the explosion rolled off harmlessly behind him.
Char held his breath as he glanced down at his body once more, wondering… how?
Is… Arceus blessing me…? Char wondered, his mind buzzing for some kind of answer. Am… am I a legendary Pokémon now?
"aaaRRRRRRRRR-raaa?"
Warily, Char took a few steps toward the confused beast. He wanted to test this newfound invulnerability.
"Char, what are you doing?" Saura shrieked. "Char, no! Get back here!"
"Char, what if it's a trap?" Ray cried.
Char had a feeling this was no trap. Those rocks were very real. They were no illusions. And the golem was real, too. But… was he real?
Enraged, the monster thrashed its arms and stomped across the chamber to meet Char. It hesitated for a brief moment before winding back its left arm and swinging it around, bludgeoning Char in the side of his head.
It slid off him as if he were made of ice. Unbreakable ice.
"RAAaaaa-aaAAA!" the legendary Pokémon moaned, its head and arms convulsing in some sort of agony.
"Join the club," Char muttered. "I haven't the slightest what's going on, either…"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"
*SMACK.*
From the sky, a blue blur shot down. It struck the rock beast square in the face, causing it to topple onto its back. There was a minor earthquake as it hit the ground, where it thrashed and moaned in pain.
Char soon felt himself being lifted very quickly and sickeningly into the air, his body halfway encaged in a muscular talon.
Before he knew it, the claw opened and shook him free, dropping him a few feet onto a hard platform far above most of the surrounding crags. He landed on his back, where the grand, starry sky of Zerferia opened up to him. But he had little time to appreciate it; he realized soon enough that Scythe was standing over him, scowling.
Expecting Scythe to immediately begin scolding him, Char cringed… but when he didn't, he realized that Scythe didn't look angry. In fact, he looked very frightened.
"I'm sorry," Char muttered.
"Char, this is why I eavesdrop on you!" Scythe cried. "Otherwise, you run off and get killed. Do you understand now?"
"Yes," Char sighed. "It won't happen again."
"By the gods, if you want to speak privately, all you need to do is ask!" Scythe hissed. "You don't have to commission a feral Articuno to keep me in my place! Next time, at least let me know where you are."
*Thump.*
Nameless made another pass, dropping Lily at his side. She scrambled to her feet and shook her head.
"What was that thing?" she growled. "What just happened?"
"And how did I survive?" Char added, picking himself off the ground as well. "Those rocks should have killed me… but when they hit me, they just broke apart like glass!"
"Actually… I think… I may know the answer to that one," Lily said thoughtfully. "It's Prince."
*Thump.* *Thump.* Saura and Ray joined them, still panting intensely from the assault.
Nameless glided overhead, gracefully dropping and landing to rest on the stone platform. Prince dismounted her back.
"I am surprised," Nameless said. "I never seen that thing before. Unless my memory is bad."
"Char, what is it with you and waking up legendary Pokémon from their sleep?" Prince laughed, coming to Char's side. "The Call is getting out of hand, wouldn't you say? I'm not mad at any of you. Scythe can be the one to be mad, if he wants. Me, I'm just glad you all made it out unharmed! Thank Arceus."
"What was that thing?" Char asked, peering over the cliff and down into the pit of darkness where the rock monster still stirred. "I knew it had to be a legendary… "
"That is a Regirock," Prince explained. "Indeed, a legendary. I know little about it. I did not even know a Regirock lived in the Scarred Crags. All I know about them is that they are literally piles of living rocks; if you break them open, you will find no internal organs. We are unsure of what sort of force animates them; it might be pure aura. And, yes, for a fire-type such as yourself to combat one is particularly suicidal."
"But… Prince?" Char asked. "When I was down there, it attacked me… but… it was like I was invulnerable. Nothing it did could hurt me!"
"Ah, yes," Prince hummed. "They were all rock-based attacks, correct?"
"Yes," Char answered.
"Well, then… you should be thankful I arrived when I did," Prince said, a clever smirk upon his face.
But Prince said no more. Char frowned; he really wanted to press the issue, as it baffled him to no end, but he felt he was not quite in a position to do so. Instead, he took one last look downward, squinting to see the Regirock in the starlight as it patrolled the little chamber it had trapped itself in. It grunted as it turned in circles, looking for any sign if its disappeared victims. It didn't seem smart enough to think of looking up.
"Just… do us all a favor," Scythe implored, staring at the golem. "Please, please, do not speak of this back in the Gold Division… I do not want Domo catching wind of yet another legendary Pokémon he will have to chase…"
At that, Nameless helped the team descend from the cliff and back to ground level, and they began with their daily trek northward.
Zerferia Plains
The night sky was clear and beautiful, painted with many blue and white sparkles.
Today, as he trudged through the snow, Char kept his neck craned and this gaze fixed at the enormous display of lights far above.
Even in Zerferia, an unobscured view of the sky was rare; many towering clouds hung there, poised to drop intense blizzards the moment Nameless would stop containing them. But tonight, all of the clouds had shifted away, and for possibly the first time, Char beheld the raw beauty of space from the eyes of a Charmander.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Seeing the starry sky had always stirred something deep within Char, but he had never seen them like this. Never without clouds, never without the horrible swarm of Watchers hanging in the sky, and never without the impending sunrise poised just behind the earth, slowly but surely snuffing out the soul of every last star, one by one… No, today, he saw the rivers of stars for what they truly were: omnipresent, uncountable, humbling… Only the shadowy form of a magnificent bird would sometimes glaze across his vision…
His heart raced at their visage; it was as though he knew their beauty intrinsically, by instinct… It was as though his spirit belonged up there somewhere, among the stars… That maybe, just maybe, they held one of the answers to his past…
"Ambera is very beautiful. Even as the darkness of the storm threatens to choke the sun, it shines ever brighter."
It reminded him of the gorgeous sunset he and Scythe had watched together, that night they stayed in the desert with the Dragonite team. Like evening sun, the darkness of night, too, contained legendary treasures for the eye. The stars were enough to add an ethereal glow to the landscape and the snow which coated it.
"It always captures me, the kinds of pictures the storms can paint in the sky. Sometimes, in the summer, if the air currents are just right, marvelous things happen in the sky above Basin Canyon. I can't count the times my team and I have simply stopped to watch the ebb and flow of the thunderclouds…"
"By itself, the sunset has no beauty. It is just a sunset. A natural phenomenon. It is… a rare combination of colors in an unlikely place. It only has beauty because you have eyes to gaze upon it, and it means something to you. It has a story to tell your heart … If the day comes when the sunset is just a sunset… Ambera's voice will have been silenced. And I will have failed."
It dawned on Char that, here, outside of the boundary lines of Ambera, the glory of the night sky was a beauty that had not been silenced yet. Within the reign of the Master, though, it was gone… drowned out by the dominion of the night Watchers, never to be witnessed or enjoyed by another Pokémon. It was a beauty that only the strongest and most confident of Pokémon could glimpse at, but a beauty that children would never know…
Indeed, neither the Master, nor the Watchers, were able to stop the stars from coming out at night. But together, they were able to hide, to censor its beauty from the eyes and hearts of the Pokémon who lived across the land…
That, he told himself, was what Scythe fought for. So that Pokémon everywhere could see for themselves the beauty of the world they lived upon. And it was a good thing to fight for.
Char turned his attention back to the ground for a moment. Still nothing; just a blanket of snow stretched out before him. But he squinted, trying to just barely make out something as far away as the eye could see. Prince reported that they were mere days away from Temporal Tower. Days. He promised they would see their destination on the horizon before the sun fully rose again, possibly in the early hours of dawn.
Though he knew how soon he would have all the answers to his mysteries, there was one feeling Char couldn't immediately shake.
The Call. Before the Regirock attacked, had he really heard what the thought he had heard?
"Scythe," he said, turning to his guardian who kept a constant watch on him from behind. "Can I talk privately with Lily? You said I could ask if I wanted to."
Scythe did not respond at first. He looked irritated.
"You must promise me something in return. That, for the duration of this trip, you will stop bringing up this subject. Haven't I made it clear that I despise the act of keeping a secret? Every time you confront me, it hurts, like a blade to the chest … Even if I were to try, I cannot make you trust me."
"We aren't talking about you, we promise," Char insisted. "I just want to talk to her about the Call."
"Very well," Scythe grunted. "Run ahead, but not out of sight. Whisper, and I won't listen."
"It's alright. Nameless will keep an eye on you," Prince said. "Go."
Char nodded to his friends, then ran far ahead of the party as instructed. Lily followed.
… … …
"So… you were saying?" Lily whispered, once they were a good distance away. "Before that thing attacked… what were you trying to say?"
"I think we found one of the properties of the Call," Char speculated. "Empathy."
"Empathy? You mean, we share feelings?"
"Maybe. I don't know," Char said. "But I mean… when you said, 'I'm afraid of what Scythe is going to do', that was exactly what I was thinking…"
"I'm an old Pokémon. Every day, much is expected from me. Some days, when I open my eyes in the morning, I can't tell if my body is filled with energy, or just the determination to bear exhaustion. You will find, as you grow old, that you experience many different kinds of emotions. And you will learn to cope with them. You will learn to relish the pleasant emotions and harden yourself against the unpleasant emotions… And the more you harden yourself, the more you will know stress. "
"I think it was... well, an understandable thing to be thinking, if you were thinking about him when Ray asked us to meditate," Lily said. "Scythe is starting to scare me a little bit. More than I'd like to say, actually. I don't know what he's even doing here."
"No, I mean, that was exactly what I was thinking," Char insisted. "Those were the same words that I said to myself in my own head. I think maybe… I read your mind. Or you read mine. I think something suspicious happened there."
"Hmm… it could just be a coincidence though," Lily said.
"But I thought I heard the humming for a moment when it happened," Char said. "Didn't you say you heard it, too?"
"Well, I thought I did. Power of suggestion and all," Lily admitted. "Maybe we were just hearing that Regirock start to wake up. ... wait, no, maybe you're right. Maybe we're getting somewhere? Could be. Iono."
Char looked up to the Bayleef, trying to figure out how to phrase his thoughts properly. Lily returned a warm smile.
"I just can't shake the feeling that something happened back there," Char said. "Or maybe that something's been happening this entire time and nobody realized it. Maybe Ray's right. Maybe Saura and I communicate mentally without knowing it. It would explain a lot. Maybe we just, every now and then, we take one of our own thoughts, and there's a pulse of some kind, and we send it over to the other person… Hey, Lily, you've been with Prince a long time. Hasn't this ever happened to you? Haven't you just… suddenly started understanding one another? Thinking the same thoughts? Just… out of nowhere?"
"Well, yeah, sometimes," Lily said. "But I think all friends do that, if they've been friends for long enough. You don't need the Call to do that…"
"Hasn't he changed a lot?" Char questioned. "Do you think… over the years you've been with him… do you think he's started to turn into someone different?"
Lily hesitated before answering. The question certainly tugged at a heart string.
"Yeah," she said. "He has. When I first met him, he was… well, I guess I should just say that… it was hard to trust him at first. Not all of it was his fault, mind you. My Call kept going off at the worst times, and so many Pokémon were trying to catch me… then Prince came along, and at first I thought he was just going to kidnap me and use me, just like everyone else was trying to. But when he first found me, he was pretty violent. He was… heh… he wasn't the friendliest Pokémon. He really scared me at first. But he looked at me, and he asked me to trust him. And I thought… you know, Lily, you have nothing else going for you at this point… You have to put your trust somewhere… so I went with him. And he protected me."
"And now?" Char questioned. "How is he now?"
"Now, he's more like a father to me," Lily said. "When I first met him, I never would have imagined this was really the way he was. But he's… he's made so many sacrifices for me, I can't… I can't remember them all. But he kept his promise to me, that he would protect me from any Pokémon who would try to use my power just for its own sake, and he's always treated me like I'm a Pokémon, not just some time bomb. But yeah, he's changed. Now, he's so forgiving and generous. He has… a big heart."
"A big heart… like you?"
Lily twisted her head and gave Char and odd look.
"Do you think he has ever started… well… acquiring your own personality traits?" Char asked. "If you say he's been getting more sympathetic to you over the years… would you say that a piece of your personality has become part of him?"
"That's a really weird question," Lily laughed. "But uh… maybe? When he's happy, he acts a little bit like me. We have the same sense of humor now. But I mean, that doesn't have to be the Call, either. Normal friendship can do that, too."
"Did he help you get over being away from your family?"
Lily stopped in her tracks, surprised by the question.
"Are we going to go through this again? I told you already, there's nothing I can say that will make you trust me."
"That night… after Legend's story, and before the Watchers attacked… when you came to talk to me, you told me that you came from overseas, and you were really starting to miss your family," Char pressed, stopping with her. "Especially after the old Emerald Division fell. You said you had nowhere to go. You were lonely, and you didn't know where to go because of the Call. And Prince was an outcast, too. He was banished from his family. I'm saying… Did you help one another get over that?"
"Yeah," Lily uttered. "A lot…"
"Would you say that… maybe… part of that could have come from empathy?"
"Yeah…" Lily said, wide-eyed. "You know… when you put it that way, maybe… it did."
The answer was so close now. Char could feel it dangling in front of him, but he just couldn't grasp it. But it was the last missing piece of the puzzle. The last connection, before everything would make total sense.
He didn't even know what it was, he just felt it. It burned with significance, an answer that just needed to be found, hiding just out of his sight.
All he needed, now, was to ask the right questions so that it might be revealed.
"It wouldn't surprise me, if that were true," Lily said, beginning to walk again. "If the Call really is active all the time… Prince says it is, in some form. He can feel me when I'm around because he got used to the pulses my Call sends, or something… but yeah. Maybe you're right. I don't think it outright changes you… unless you're having one of those episodes. Then yeah, all the Pokémon in sight will start to think like you. But yeah… maybe it just changes things, just a little bit at a time… so that… so that you learn to understand one another."
"Do you think…" Char breathed, trying to find just the right expression for his complicated thought, "that maybe the Call… has a mind of its own?"
"Hah, tell me about it…" Lily scoffed. "I have never been able to figure out what causes it to start. And it's gone off at least a dozen times since I evolved. And… other than being asleep for most of the times, as you pointed out before… there isn't a single thing in common any of the times it happened. Not one. It… really baffles me, to be honest."
"Fine, then! No, I am not afraid that my plan will fail. My plan involves… doing something I will not enjoy. And yes… it involves you."
"No, no… that's… not quite what I meant," Char said. "Do you think, maybe, the Call… has a will? Like… like it's a spirit of its own? And it has a purpose… like, it has its own plan. It wants something to happen. So it manipulates your life, and goes off at just the right times, to change the world and get what it wants? So maybe… you can't control it? Maybe… it controls you?"
"That's… a thought," Lily considered. "Wow… that's… wow. That's intense. But… but wait. I don't think that's true."
"Why not?"
"Because… if the Call is trying to like… push me in a certain direction, it's not doing a very good job of it," Lily said. "I mean… you know. On one vine, it goes off just in time to make a bunch of evil Pokémon soldiers tear down the Emerald Division. On the other… You know, if it really wanted to kill Pokémon, there were so many better Pokémon it could have chosen, and so many better times it could have gone off… but it didn't. Or even just all these years I've been on Team Flamewheel, where it's just left me alone on the whole, or let me figure out how to muffle it... plus, if it does like you say and makes an empathic link between me and Prince, so we become better friends… In that case, I don't really get what it's trying to prove. Alright… maybe. I don't know what the threads of fate look like. But… if there's really a spirit in control of the Call, I think it's a really stupid spirit. Or it has no idea what it's even trying to even accomplish."
"Would you say the Call made your life better, or worse?"
"Pfft. Worse. Much worse," Lily coughed. "No surprise there. But… if what you say is true, and it really did start to affect the way Prince was acting all this time… Heh, if… little pieces of me started to grow into him…"
"Another thing... You want to know why there is blood behind my eyes?"
"In that case, it really helped me to get over the problems it caused, too," Lily said. "Because… like I keep saying, if it hadn't been for Prince… I would not have made it this far. Somewhere along the line, I would have just… lost hope, and ran off, and probably gotten myself killed along the way."
"You want to know where it comes from?"
"Because he was always there for me. He always kept his promise, to protect me from the Master, or anyone else who would try to come after the Call… and after everything got torn down, he's the one who helped me find purpose in my life again, in being on Team Flamewheel, and working for the resistance…
"But yeah… I really have a lot to think about now. It's so weird to think that maybe… all the kindness he's been showing, all this time…"
"It comes from you."
"…has been coming from me…"
…
And there it was, spread out before him as clear as the stars in the sky.
He had his answer.
This time, it was Char's turn to stop walking. Everything, all at once, made so much sense.
"It comes from me," Char whispered. "I did this… And Saura, too, I guess…"
"Are you alright?" Lily asked concernedly.
"We did this to him," Char said, gaping. "Me, Saura, now you… We're the ones hurting him."
"Char… what do you mean?"
"Back… back in the Gold Division, when Alakazam issued us to come on this trip…" Char explained, "I saw Scythe break down and cry in the hallway. That was when it started. That's when I started to think that maybe he wasn't as trustworthy as I hoped. It was such a small doubt. Subconscious, maybe. But I still trusted him. I saw him as a friend, I wanted everything to be okay for him. But there was that nagging little doubt inside me…
"And that doubt grew, and grew, and it kept growing, because I saw Scythe starting to get really stressed out, losing his temper, and his eyes started to turn red… And I started to really pity him… And it got so much worse when we got into Rayquaza's Clutch. That's when he really started to lose it. And every time he lost his temper or he did something that made me worry, It… really challenged my trust, and I had to keep saying to myself, 'trust him, trust him, no matter what, trust him…', and it got harder each time, because it was like, now I was lying to myself, and I didn't really trust him, but I still had to act like I did…
"But now I know… if the call makes an empathic bond like we think it does… then… all his stress… all his anger and his loss of control… is coming from me. And you. And Saura. I think he's feeling all our doubts, and they're becoming part of him… it's like a vicious cycle."
Lily blinked in confusion. "Wait… you mean… you think Scythe is absorbing all your feelings?" she said. "Even so, it doesn't happen that fast! With Prince and I, it happened over a few decades…"
"Scythe is super-sensitive to the Call," Char explained. "He can hear it. He can listen to that voice that talks. That's because a Watcher cursed him, and messed his mind up so that his subconscious isn't hidden from him anymore. But sometimes, maybe the Call doesn't talk with a voice. Maybe it talks with a hum. With feelings. Like the way Prince hears you. And maybe Scythe doesn't know that yet. After all, him and I only go back about a month and a half.
"And no, I don't think he's absorbing all my feelings. I'm not mind-controlling him or anything. Like you said, that doesn't happen unless there's a full-blown episode. I know for sure he has his own feelings. But the Call… it just changes things, little by little. Like the sun rising at the very brink of dawn, how it turns off some of the stars but leaving all the rest on. So… the more distrustful we grow of him, the more pain he feels, the harder this all becomes on him… Just picture it, Lily. Just... imagine that you've got these little doubts humming in the back of your head all the time. You don't know why they're there. They don't make any sense... but they're there... That's… what we've been doing to Scythe all this time.
"I can't speak for Saura. As much as we share thoughts, I don't know what's going on in his mind all the time. He could really distrust Scythe. Either way, I've always trusted Scythe in the back of my mind, no matter what he's done, even if just a little bit. I've always held onto that trust. And when I look into his eyes now, no matter how red and tired they are, I still see something like hope… and now I know, that comes from me, too."
"What are you saying?" Lily questioned.
"I'm saying," Char said with conviction, "Now we know… we need to trust him. Unconditionally."
Lily made an uncertain face at the statement.
"Scythe's planning something," Char said. "Now… I don't know what that is. All I know are two things: it involves me, and it's very, very, very important that his plan works the way he needs it to. Otherwise, things could come crashing down. Big things. So when the time comes for him to do whatever he's going to do, he needs to be in full control. He can't doubt himself. So… we can't doubt him either. Lily… you and I have got to trust him. With everything we've got."
"Char…" Lily choked out. "I'm sorry, I understand your reasoning and everything, it's just… If he wants to knock out Prince, I'm not totally sure… I could trust him either way."
"We need to trust him unconditionally… Even if he wants to knock out Prince," Char whispered, fire behind his eyes now. "If that's what he wants, then we'll help him do it. We've got to. Because, all I know is that we can't afford for Scythe to fail. It will be bad if he fails. For all of us."
Lily did not respond. She couldn't find the words. But now, very slightly, she felt her opinion of Char starting to change.
"Lily, do you understand?" Char hissed, casting a side glance to the rest of the team who were slowly approaching. "I know this is hard for you. I know you trust Prince a lot. But you've got to see this."
"Char, I can't just blindly trust Scythe," Lily hissed back. "I'm sorry… I can't."
"But you blindly trust Prince, right?" Char begged. "You know what that's like! You said so yourself, you weren't so sure about Prince when you first met him, but you just had to choose to trust him. That's what you said! Now I know you're not so sure about Scythe right now… but it's kinda like that! Come on, Lily… do you understand?"
"I understand," she said. "But… I just want to make one thing clear to you, Char."
"What?"
"I'm not going to betray Prince,"
"Lily…"
"I don't care what happens," Lily growled. "If Scythe is doing something harmless, I'll support him, sure. But if Scythe… turns against Prince… I am not fighting on his side. In fact… I'm not even going to stand around while Prince gets beaten. I'm going to defend him."
There was a mighty crack of air overhead, causing Char and Lily to jump in place. Nameless swooped down, landing beside them, a pleasant coo sounding from her throat.
"Have you seen, little ones?" she called to them. "The fire in the sky."
"Huh?" Char responded, his interest piqued.
"Yes… green fire. And white!" Nameless announced. "Not is it true fire, I know. But it is beautiful! Look!"
She waved her right wing, pointing to the far distance, and Char followed with his eyes.
There, inches above the horizon, a god-like glow hung in the night sky. The "aurora borealis", as humans called it. "Articuno's breath", as the Pokémon did. It was a stunning sight, like a silken curtain, changing exotic shades of sapphire and emerald. Char felt touched at witnessing the light on such a clear, beautiful evening, as he was sure he'd never seen it before, even in his human days. Immediately, he felt drawn to it, wanting to rush ahead and get a closer look before it would inevitably fade away.
"You call me beautiful, and you name the fire after me," the Articuno commented, "but it has much more beautiful than I, forever. Would you say?"
"Yes…" Lily said, her face beaming at the sight. "It is… really pretty…"
And then, something caught Char's eye.
Upon the backdrop of the aurora, he spotted the tiny silhouette of a strange shape protruding from the horizon.
Special thanks to Gorsecloud for practically being a cornerstone for this chapter.