o
"Overseer"
He suspects me.
He suspects I know something.
She followed a dark stony corridor in silence. She hung her head contemplatively, keeping her wings folded close to her.
She had always kept her mind well-guarded.
Even those whom she trusted would peer into her mind at times.
She would always show them what they expected to see, keeping hidden the secrets which she held.
She tried to ignore the darkness; it was always something which distracted her.
She focused on her innermost thoughts.
What has caused him to suspect me?
She took every step slowly and deliberately, each followed by a thought.
What mistake have I made?
What has he inferred?
Her memories returned to an earlier moment that day. She reexamined it carefully, keeping watch for the moment when she might have lost control.
Alakazam hummed, casting a troubled gaze onto the war-room table and the great map of Ambera which covered its surface.
"I understand that it will be difficult to accept," he said sternly, "but we must be prepared for the possibility that Basin Canyon is a lost cause. If the calculations of Metagross are correct, there are forces in place which we have not accounted for. Our foes have outsmarted us. If I am to be honest, I will say that I fear for the lives of Team Remorse, and the lives of all those who now assist them."
At the opposite end of the table, a green bird shook her head, standing resolute.
"In every battle, there are always factors which we cannot account for," Xatu replied, narrowing her eyes. "Our knights on the field are the first to learn about them. Need I remind you how many times our teams have proven that victory is possible, even when Metagross would leave them for dead? Need I remind you of Wraith Falls? Or of the Hercules project?"
Alakazam sighed, hunching over the table and staring his teammate in the eye. "It is not our purpose to rely on chance, or to foresee the ironic curvatures of fate," he grumbled. "It is not our purpose to admit we know nothing. It is our purpose to use our resources to determine the statistical best course of victory, and then to follow that course. As of now, our resources are telling us that the enemy is three steps ahead, and that Team Remorse and all of the Pokémon whom they hired as assistance are in danger."
"He does have a point there, miss," Slowking quipped, leaning onto the tabletop. "Team Remorse only just now found out they were up against Cepheus the whole time, not Adiel. To me, that says mountains about what sort of effort Enigma is making just to keep the feral-shards out of our hands. I apologize, but I'm siding with Alakazam here. If you ask me, it looks like they're in over their heads."
Xatu stood silent. Though she felt a great many things in just one moment, from resentment to acceptance to blind faith, she showed no emotion in her gaze. She only remained stoic and still, gazing into the ghostly blue firelight which hung suspended by a silver bowl over the planning table.
"Still, we should not underestimate their chances of survival," Xatu finally said. "They have worked at this endeavor far longer than Cepheus has. Scythe has kept close contact with the Sandslash in preparation ever since the canyon was lost in the first place, and their plan is very solid."
"Yes, but where's your evidence that Cepheus hasn't been at it for just as long, hmm?" the doctor returned. "For all we know, Cepheus was behind the scenes since the canyon fell. For all we know, he could be ripping Scythe limb from limb right now and we wouldn't have even seen it coming."
Xatu fell silent again, contemplating an answer.
"As I said, I am not here to insult or undermine the ingenuity of Team Remorse in adapting to new challenges," Akalazam continued, standing up straight. "We must only begin to consider the possibility that we should pull out of the canyon before irreversible damage comes to this entire resistance division. I understand that we have been starved of feral-shards for too long; our newcomers and trainees are especially feeling the sting of weakness. But if worse truly does come to worse, we might import a shipment or two from the Black Division. As I hear, the Kecleon brothers are already in negotiation to acquire some of their own."
"Oh! And might I also mention, how long has it been since we gave Team Remorse orders to take Red Haven?" the Slowking added. "It was at least five years, and they've not done nearly a thing! If we remove the distraction of Basin Canyon, maybe they'll finish the job."
"No," said Xatu in the same calm and steady voice. "We shouldn't attempt to import so many feral-shards. Any attempt to transport that many at once would lure an attack, or in the case it safely arrives, it would give away our position. We need to take the canyon, and we need to take it soon, or we will enter into a war of attrition which we might not survive. While I understand the need to consider a losing scenario, let it not distract us to the point that we gravitate toward it and disregard our chance of victory."
Alakazam grinned. "I disagree with you wholeheartedly," he spoke with a hint of lightheartedness. "But I also know that you are never wrong when you become so stubborn. What do you suppose we should do about Cepheus, then?"
"Nothing," Xatu said simply. "We do nothing. We let our teams do the work for us. They are quite capable."
There.
It must have been there. The smile on his face… he tempted me.
He caught me in a moment of weakness.
There was a sudden sound of shuffling feet.
She knew that she had been too absorbed in her thoughts.
She had not sensed the mind of another, carefully following her.
A voice broke her concentration.
"Xatu?"
She stopped walking.
She stood still, betraying no emotion on her face.
"Doctor," she replied.
The Slowking then spoke awkwardly, expressing his concern.
"There was something I wanted to ask you," he said. "Miss Xatu… is perhaps there something bothering you? I mean to say, you have not seemed quite yourself for some time."
She stood quietly, staring away.
She could not look him in the eyes.
"Who told you that I was not myself?" she questioned plainly. "Is it something Alakazam told you?"
"Well, yes, but… But I agree with him."
She quietly sighed.
The Slowking could not see the scowl which formed on her face.
"Listen, miss. If you should need a day of rest, I am sure there would be no issue, none at all—"
"At this moment, rest is the very opposite of what I need," the Xatu said coldly. "I need to be alone with my thoughts. There are many issues I must meditate about, and time is growing short to find the answers I need…"
"Is this about the canyon?" the doctor nearly blurted out. "Miss Xatu, I'm certain that Alakazam is willing to side with you on the matter… He is never one to ignore you when you put your foot down!"
She closed her eyes.
Ever-so-slightly, she bowed her head in exhaustion.
"Oh, how I wish that were true," she said somberly. "I wish you a good night, Doctor."
She took another step.
When she opened her eyes, she found the Slowking standing in front of her.
She paused without a start, and looked into his eyes.
He returned her gaze. His eyes were filled with genuine concern.
"Miss, I guess what I wish to say, is… If you feel you need someone to share your thoughts with… I know Alakazam and Metagross are always willing to listen as long as it's something related to work, but if there are other things on your mind, I am always available. And if it so happens that I'm not someone you find agreeable, I will find somebody else… Mew knows I don't nearly do enough around here to help."
She stared at him oddly.
"You save a dozen lives each day, and yet you still say that you are not doing enough to help?"
He replied, "And yet, you save more. Today, the Master didn't break down our doors and raid our halls. And the day before that. Meaning, you've saved the lives of everyone in this Division every passing day. I suppose the only true difference is that the lives I save are those which lay in front of me on the slab, whereas yours are often never around to say 'thank you.'"
He paused for a moment, as if to gauge her reaction.
She gave him none.
"I cannot claim to imagine the burden that rests on you, miss Xatu," he continued, "but all I can tell you is, if… if your thoughts are too burdensome, there is no reason you should ever need to be truly alone with them."
She looked at him in silence.
She smiled.
"I wish you a good night, Doctor," she said again, walking past him.
"And one to you as well, m'lady," the Slowking returned with a bow.
She entered into her own private room, the place she knew that no one else in the base would bother her.
She called it the "sun chamber."
The crank turned a reel of chain, and the heavy wooden door fell shut, sealing her inside with the purest kind of darkness.
She paced half the length of the room, knowing the way by heart. She glanced at the air into the heart of the shadows.
She spread her wings.
There was a spark, and a tiny flame was brought to life.
The flame multiplied, spreading upward upon a round surface. From the bottom, it consumed a great sphere of stone fifty times her own size which hung suspended in the center of the chamber.
The fire was immune to the effects of the color-changing spell. Instead, it burned every color at once, casting a dazzling radiance as white-hot as the sun.
She watched as the flame engulfed the great sphere. When the flames met at the top and closed upon the final piece of the sol-rock's surface, she smiled to herself.
Much better.
Perhaps now I can focus.
She approached her personal workspace, a tiny station of shelves and surfaces littered with papers and loose feathers.
With a gesture of her wing, a force of wind blew the papers away. They drifted together and formed a tidy stack upon a nearby shelf.
A small, hard-bound book dropped from a pile near the ceiling. It fell onto the desk before her, opened to a blank page.
A quill fell loose from her wing. It drifted on a current of air into the mouth of a nearby inkwell. It then rose again and settled on the blank page, where it began to write words.
Alakazam has become a greater threat than I had expected.
Time grows short, and I know not how much longer remains before he might interfere with the Basin Canyon mission.
He is beginning to believe I am withholding secrets from him. He hungers for information which will guide his commands, he suspects I hold information he does not. He tried to enter my mind today. I blocked him, but I have reason to believe he glimpsed at something. He must have tempted me into a moment of weakness, then seized the moment. I sensed his reaction. I felt his condescension. The seeds of distrust have been conceived in him.
The objectives are very close to completion, yet so many mysteries and riddles still remain. Perhaps I need to intervene again. I must find a way to intervene with fate in a way which Alakazam will accept, something which furthers his cause as well as mine.
I must think quickly. By the end of tonight, I must know my next action.
But it is uncomfortable to me. Metagross and Alakazam think quickly. I do not. I think slowly. The greatest of the answers can only come to me in peaceful reflection.
But my meditation is no longer peaceful. How can it be, when so many burdens weigh on me and the decisions I make? How am I expected to reliably contribute to causes which started hundreds of years ago and transcend my understanding and comprehension?
With each passing day, I feel my wings growing weaker. They can no longer support the weight of my burdens. I no longer feel peace from solitude. Instead, I have returned to a state which is more unsettling and distracting than even darkness.
It is loneliness.
She stopped writing.
She glared into the miniature sun at the center of the room, watching the rainbow shimmer of the white flames as they danced across the surface of the sphere.
She let the patterns of the fire mesmerize her. She let them decode her thoughts, speaking their answers to her.
A thought came to her.
It was not a thought she had been looking for. It was not one which answered any of her questions. Yet, she could not let it out of her mind. She could not stop considering it.
With a gentle sigh, she smiled.
The Slowking had reached the end of the long hallway outside High Intelligence's chamber doors. He thought fondly of resting for the night in his own room. He began to climb the long staircase which would lead him back to the hospital wing.
Doctor.
Startled at the voice, the Slowking yelped and tumbled backward from the two stairs he had climbed.
He glanced back to find the Xatu standing over him. He scrambled to his feet.
Miss! Oh, my poor nerves. What are you doing, scaring me like that?
She bowed her head.
I've changed my mind, she replied.
Before he could respond, he stepped closer to him and spoke with quiet telepathy.
Before I tell anything to you, I need to know something: how skilled are you at keeping Alakazam from prying into your mind?
The Slowking was baffled for a moment. Oh, you mean to say, there really is something on your mind? Ah, I knew it. I wasn't crowned yesterday, after all!
Answer the question, she said with a glare.
It's nothing I've ever had to worry about, Doctor Orde said smugly. He tapped the Shellder on his head. He can try all he wants, but if he wants to get into my mind without my permission, he's be needing to get through the crown first.
She nodded, as though to acknowledge the Shellder's presence.
And if he wants to try, I wish him all the luck in the world. Try it yourself if you don't believe me, the doctor said, crossing his arms and closing his eyes. I bet you I won't even feel a raindrop.
She was quiet for a moment.
She stared at him, judging him. She appraised her trust in him.
Follow me, she said finally, quickly walking away.
She had soon led the doctor back to the sun chamber, closing the door behind the two of them.
The Doctor was overcome with awkwardness and awe, never having been invited into the personal chambers of either of his colleagues before.
"Ayeh, how do you focus with something so bright?!" he yelped, shielding his eyes from the miniature sun.
"Don't look directly at it, then," she said plainly, leading him toward her desk in the corner of the room. "It is not only for light. This sol-rock sphere powers a machine at its center. As long as the sphere is ignited, this whole room is soundproof, teleport-proof, and most importantly, mind wave-proof."
"Oh, so it's like a miniature version of the one at the Black Division, hmm?" the Doctor said, averting his eyes and stumbling along behind the Xatu. "The one that Downfall keeps up?"
"Yes, it was based on that same spell," she said, quickly closing her diary and returning it to the shelf.
She turned to him. Her smile faded, and she folded her wings somberly.
She looked him in the eyes.
"I suppose I must begin somewhere," she said. "Sixty-one years ago, I was contacted by a human."
"A… human," the doctor repeated, touching his chin. "Thought Ambera was human-proof. Did you travel across the sea?"
"No. The human contacted me in a dream," Xatu explained. "I found myself trapped in a trance-like state from which I could not willfully escape. The human appeared to me, saying that he was enacting a plan to change fate, and that he needed Pokémon to help him. He said nothing about the plan, only that it would be beneficial to all the inhabitants of Ambera. He asked me for assistance in carrying out his plan. He gave me no promise or incentive except that I would temporarily acquire a great power which was needed for carrying out my assigned role. I agreed to comply."
She stepped closer to her desk.
"He then gave me a litany of orders to complete. In following these orders, I was able to assume this position of command here in this very resistance division, which I assume is the power he promised to me. Once I assumed this power, I was to wait and observe for actors and events which have been foretold by the human's plans, and to provide assistance to them."
"Whoa, miss… this sounds crazy, if I am to be honest," the Slowking said nervously. "How did you know that the dream was real? Anyone could have given you that dream! A ghost, another psychic, or… maybe even a bad headache."
"For a time, I questioned the validity of the dream and the human's words," Xatu continued. "That was, until I was given the scriptures."
"…Scriptures?" the Doctor echoed.
Rather than answering, Xatu turned her attention to her bookshelf. She gave a tiny nod, and the bookshelf erupted in a burst of papers, scrolls and tablets, all which came falling and floating down onto the surface of her table, lining themselves neatly in a row upon its surface.
The Slowking gazed upon the mess of notes and literature. There were paragraphs of verse, each written in what looked to be a different kind of handwriting. There were scrolls filled with runes, some crossed out, others written hastily in the margins.
"As it happens, I am the third in a line of overseers of the human's plan," she explained. "Two Pokémon came before me, each of which who served on the High Intelligence team of this division. The second of which was Galahad, the Gallade who assisted Alakazam's predecessor. He gave these writings to me before he died. In turn, he received them from Katrina, the Smeargle who served as a scribe for High Intelligence when the Gold Division was first founded. In fact, these writings are hers; she recorded nearly everything the human said to her so that she might pass them to future overseers. They have accurately predicted many events which happened in the past, as well as events which came to pass during my service to Metagross. They were all the proof I required to conclude that the human's plan was not something I only imagined."
The Slowking nudged one of the papers with his paw. He squinted to read the text.
"What do they say?" he wondered. "Whatever could be so important to know that it would take all of this to write it?"
"That is part of the problem," Xatu explained. "Most of them are riddles. They are cryptic and symbolic, most likely to prevent anyone but a highly intelligent Pokémon from knowing their secrets. For instance, here is one I have puzzled upon for months. Tell me what you make of it."
A tattered sheet of paper flipped itself upright on the table in front of the Doctor's eyes. He read the words it contained.
Beyond the fall
once all is lost
and no hope remains
Only six eternal truths
remain eternal
First, a tree
which will eternally grow
Second, a blade
which will eternally clash
Third, a thorn
which will eternally sleep
Fourth, a flower
which will eternally drift
Fifth, a storm
which will eternally rage
Sixth, a mystery
which will eternally remain
Beyond the fall
Once all is lost
and no memories remain
Only six eternal truths
remain eternal
until the end
of eternity
"Hmm, this is quite puzzling, indeed," the Slowking said, touching his chin. "Hmn, it seems apparent to me that each of these so-called 'eternal truths' represents something. Perhaps they represent legendary weapons? Or perhaps even Pokémon who are destined to change history? Perhaps they are Pokémon who will survive an upcoming massacre of some sort."
"I have pondered long about that," Xatu said, gazing into the sunlight. "My greatest guess is that the eternal truths are Pokémon. But what could make them eternal, I wonder? What traits should I look for if I wish to pick them out from present-day Ambera? Additionally, I suspect that the first truth refers to the Lifeblood Tree, which isn't a Pokémon, and so my entire hypothesis is cast into doubt."
"Curious," the Doctor said. "These riddles seem even worse than elixir recipes, and even those often are enough to separate my mind into tatters."
"Here is another," Xatu said as a scroll suspended itself in the air and unraveled itself before the Slowking. "It is something you may recognize."
Freedom, peace, and war,
Our fathers lived through once before,
Freedom, peace of mind,
One dream to live for all mankind.
Our lives sing the song, destiny goes on,
Light for the ones astray,
Those who have lost the way.
Our lives come to be, truth and mystery,
Fools that we now believe,
And lies we were meant to see…
The doctor clutched the scroll in his own claws, marveling in disbelief. "This! This is the creed, obviously!" he cried.
"Yes, and the original manuscript of the creed," Xatu said. "The stone tablets were carved based on the text in this scroll. With this, I can safely assume that the Resistance Creed was indeed written by the human himself."
"Marvelous! And I thought all these years this script was nonsense!" the Slowking cried, his eyes tracing the many verses of runes on the scroll. "What do you suppose it means, then? Surely, this is something important! What is the meaning?"
"It is very important," she explained, shuffling the papers. "However, another note has made something very clear to me regarding the creed: it is not something which I am meant to understand. I am only to protect the creed and to keep it secret until the time it is to be made useful by someone else."
"Well, you've done a splendid job of keeping it a secret, m'lady!" he cried bluntly. "The whole base knows about it! In fact, we've all got it memorized from top to bottom!"
"Yes. This was by design," Xatu said. "Katrina was instructed by the human to teach the creed to every member of the Gold Division. She accomplished this by inventing the password system. As a password, nobody will suspect its true purpose. Only the human will understand its meaning."
The Slowking stuttered as he read the scroll, already knowing every word written upon it.
His gaze returned to the Xatu. His mouth hung in disbelief.
"This is inconceivable." the doctor said, dropping the scroll back onto the table. "So you mean to tell me, miss, all this time you were involved with some manner of… supernatural conspiracy which spans all of the Gold Division's history? And you're managing all of this… alone?!"
"Not entirely alone," she replied. "Even besides the overseers, there exist several other Pokémon who have been contacted by the human through various stages of history and were assigned roles. I know not how many there are, but I have learned of the existence of at least two others."
The Slowking was presented with a small tablet of stone. Etched on its surface were three symbols. First, there was the symbol of a guillotine. Below it was a pronged circle of some sort, almost resembling a gear. Beside the two of them, there was an unsettling eye.
"There is one who is known as 'The Redeemer,' and another as 'The Executioner,'" she explained. "The latter of which, I have already located and met in person. They play roles both within and without the resistance force. The scriptures collectively refer to us, those who were contacted directly by the human, as the 'guardians' of the plan. I cannot presume to understand the roles of the other guardians, but I am ready to assist them should they reveal themselves to me."
The Slowking stuttered again, trying to force out his words.
"M-miss, I…" he tried to say. "I suppose, there is just one question I have about all of this…"
"Yes?"
"Why not tell Alakazam?" he inquired, spreading the papers around nervously. "This is exactly the type of puzzle he loves. He and Metagross could solve these puzzles so easily… why do you keep this hidden?"
She sighed.
"Alakazam cares about nothing but the effectiveness of this Division," she replied solemnly. "He is a militant leader. His goal is set on the destruction of the empire and nothing more. If he were to find that I have been distracted by matters unrelated to the success of the resistance force, he would consider it a betrayal of his trust. I know him more closely than any other Pokémon in this division knows him; I have seen the way his mind works. It would pain him, but he would erase most of my memories and banish me from the Gold Division if he were to ever find that I was a guardian of the human's plan."
"Are you sure about that?" the Slowking replied. "Maybe he would understand! Maybe…?"
"There is another reason why I cannot tell him," she said, her gaze downcast. "For the past five months, I have been… how to say… mind-controlling him. Indirectly."
"What?!" the doctor shouted, jumping backwards. "You… how?! Why would you do something like this?! And even besides that, how do would you even get past his defenses?!"
"As I said, it was more of an indirect control, than it was a brainwashing," Xatu said. "I discovered his weakness: it is Metagross. He trusts Metagross unconditionally. He believes the answers Metagross gives can never be wrong, because they represent the statistical most likely answers to his questions. Unfortunately for him, Metagross itself is easily influenced if you understand how to decode its thoughts, and which parts of its mind are purely mechanical and lacking in sentience. I have been planting various thoughts into Metagross's mind, and those thoughts have become accepted by Alakazam as undeniable truth, and he has made many decisions based upon them."
Orde found he could do nothing but tremble as he stared in disbelief at his colleague.
"Xatu, I… don't know what to tell you," he finally said. "To deceive Alakazam like this… you are setting yourself up for tragedy. You know this, right? You… you know he will discover. He's going to realize what you're up to."
"Yes, I know," she replied, nodding.
"In fact, I'd hate to say this to you, but I'm sorry I even asked if I could help you…" the doctor said, eyeing the door. "I don't feel as though I'll be safe with this information… I won't be able to look Alakazam in the eye. Because you know that's why he started suspecting you. He didn't look in your mind. It was something he saw in your eyes."
"Ah, I suppose… that makes the most sense," Xatu said, as the papers shuffled themselves away. "I should have known he didn't see anything in my mind. I was anxious. He intimidated me, and I wasn't thinking straight."
"Xatu, you know this will only get worse from here!" he shouted. "What is your end-game? How long do you plan to keep this up? You don't even know what this human's plans truly are, yet you're following along with it?"
She eyed him suspiciously.
"There is… one last element to this story I which haven't told you yet," she said calmly. "Perhaps this might make a few more things clear to you."
A very long, thin scroll unrolled itself before the Slowking. It was a list written in very tiny runes. Many of the entries were crossed out.
"As the overseer, I was given the task of ensuring every item on this list came to pass," she said. "There were twenty-nine commandments on this list. Katrina accomplished many of the items on this list before she passed away, as did Galahad. And now it is my responsibility to ensure that the remaining items on this list are completed. You might notice there are only two remaining."
The Slowking searched the list for the items which hadn't been crossed out, straining his eyes to read the very tiny text. He soon found the two entries: they were both near the bottom of the list.
XXVI. I shall become fluent in the written language of your people.
XXVIII. My followers and I shall surpass the newcomers in rank.
"This… this doesn't make sense to me," Orde muttered. "'Rank'? What could this human mean by 'rank'? Is the human a follower of the Master?! Unless… Unless… unless this means to imply… the human is here? In this very base?"
Xatu smiled.
A sketched picture drifted over top the list of instructions. It was a messy drawing covered in green and orange colors.
"This is my one and only contribution to the scriptures of the overseers," she said. "This drawing is my own work. Tell me, do you recognize this?"
The Slowking examined the drawing for a few moments. He began to notice the shapes which they depicted. A pair of figures stood side-by-side.
The drawing depicted a Charmander and a Bulbasaur.
"It's Char," Orde gasped. "Char… I cared for him in the hospital just recently. He had come back from the northern lands badly poisoned…"
"The scriptures have spoken of the early appearance of the Call, the reemergence of Adiel, the fight for the canyon, and many other things which have taken place recently. Using everything I have garnered from the scriptures, I can conclude with near-absolute certainty that the Charmander who leads Team Ember is the same human who contacted me sixty-one years ago, as well as the same human who contacted the other guardians, and the original author of the creed. This brings me also to understand why he requires guardians to assist in his plan; he no longer has direct control over the plan, for he has been transformed from a human into a Charmander, and the memories of his plan have been taken from him. In this state, he has left all of the responsibility upon me, as well as upon the other guardians. He has nothing but us, and his own nature, to guide him."
"So this… this is why you were pressuring me to heal him so quickly," the Slowking said, breathless. "We knew that he was a transformed human after what happened to him up north, but you never told us any of this…"
"Yes, and I was lucky that I was able to persuade Alakazam to assist me in some of the endeavors," she said. "Using Metagross as my tool to manipulate him, I succeeded in convincing him that Char was the ultimate weapon with which we could destroy the empire. The revelations at Temporal Tower and his contact with Dialga and Celebi further reinforced this. It is how I convinced him to dedicate so much time and attention to Char, because I knew there were some things which I could not accomplish under my own power. But I am still not entirely sure what Char is doing here; I have come to suspect that the ultimate goal of his plan is not to destroy the empire. He might be here to do something else entirely, which is a scenario Alakazam would certainly not accept. And this leads me to the endgame…"
A quill drifted from elsewhere on the tabletop and pointed at a single line of text, one which was separate from the lengthy list of instructions. It was written sideways near the end of the paper:
Succeed, and the Sandslash will return home safely.
"W… what…? It's… it refers to Basin Canyon…" he muttered. "On top of everything else, you also have to make sure the Basin Canyon effort succeeds?"
"No. Quite the opposite, actually," Xatu said, taking the paper and the quill away. "Victory at the canyon is not one of the instructions. It is a sign. According to the scriptures, the success of the Basin Canyon effort is the indicator that I, and the other overseers, have accomplished our roles properly. If any one of these twenty-nine conditions are not met, or if perhaps one or more of them were crossed out in error, then the canyon will be lost to Cepheus, and we will lose dozens of our most skilled warriors to the massacre. If instead the canyon is won, it will mean that my role as the overseer is finished, and that I play no more part in Char's plan. The rest will be left up to the other guardians, and to him."
"So that's why you're so stubborn about the canyon mission going through!" the Slowking realized. "If we order Scythe to back out…"
"…I will never know whether or not I accomplished my goal," Xatu said. "That is correct."
"And in the meantime, the clock is running. You need to finish these last two instructions on the list somehow, before the fight breaks out at the canyon."
"That is right. Would you have any advice to offer me?"
"Hmm," the Slowking said, pacing in front of the table and staring at the cobblestones in the floor. "Char still doesn't know how to read runes… he only knows the human's written language, correct?"
"Correct."
"That will be difficult. Aside from a painful psychological infusion, there's no way to quickly teach someone the whole language," he said, scratching his chin. "It's a brutally complex language. And there doesn't exist a TM which contains the knowledge. There can't be one. It would need to be four times the size of a standard TM disc. I don't see how this is going to happen… what about the other objective? The one which states he will rise in rank?"
"Yes, I have taken this to mean that he will accomplish tasks of one-star rank or more," Xatu said. "Teams who are not able to reliably complete one-star tasks are often thought of as newcomers."
"Seems simple enough," the doctor said. "Merely assign him a one-star rank mission, right?"
"I cannot, not without Alakazam's approval," Xatu said. "Alakazam has already determined that Char cannot operate independently from Team Remorse, due to the emergence of Cepheus. They are required now to be supervised by a member of Team Remorse every day. He would certainly not allow them a mission of such responsibility and risk. And it is all thanks to Alakazam's obsession over Char and his supposed destiny to destroy the empire. He does not want to risk losing Char. Which, in hindsight, I suppose is my own fault. So I do not know how I will accomplish it."
"So?" the doctor retorted. "Give them the job anyway. Team Remorse will help them, right? So then go behind Alakazam's back and tell Team Remorse not to help them."
Xatu blinked.
"This might work," she said, surprised. "I would need to choose a proper job for them. One which will not truly risk their lives, but something which will prove their worth. I will look through our records and find something suitable for them."
"Ah, but what about that other one?" Orde said worriedly. "The conflict at the canyon could be sparked any day now! How are you going to make sure Char learns footprints… and fluently at that? You would need to force him to take a training course… every day… for fourteen hours a day… for the forty-eight days!"
"Perhaps… the final objective is one I must simply leave up to fate," she said, sighing. "That is something the human said to me in the dream: fate can surprise you. It can surprise anyone…"
Xatu cleared off her desk and turned to address her colleague.
She bowed to him.
"Thank you," she said to him. "Thank you most dearly, Doctor. I have appreciated our talk. Merely having somebody else to speak with has cleared my mind in a way that silence and sunlight could not. My thoughts are in order, and you've helped me to form a plan for now. I believe I know how I will continue from here."
"It is an honor to have assisted you, lady Xatu," the Slowking said, bowing in return. "I will admit, I was not ready for everything you have said to me. But if you have garnered some help from my company, that is good enough for me. I wish you the best of luck in your responsibilities. If you have anything else you wish to tell me, let me know…"
She smiled sadly.
"Unfortunately, doctor, I will not be speaking to you of these matters anymore," she said plainly. "In fact, before you leave… I will need to erase your memories of this conversation, while they are still malleable and new."
"W-what?" the doctor said, balking. "But—I could… You just… I'm sure I can find more ways to help you, Xatu! Honest! Now that I know all of this… I'm certain I will be an asset to you!"
"You could do nothing more to help me," she said. "And I cannot risk Alakazam learning my secrets any sooner than he already will. I thank you for your assistance… but now… I hope you understand. I wish you a good night, doctor."
The Slowking stood in front of her in the dark hallway.
His eyes glimmered with genuine concern.
"Miss, I guess what I wish to say, is… If you feel you need someone to share your thoughts with… I am always available. I know that Alakazam and Metagross only ever want to hear about work, but… if there are other things bothering you … if your thoughts are too burdensome, there is no reason you should ever need to be truly alone with them."
She looked at him in silence.
She smiled.
"I wish you a good night, Doctor," she said again, walking past him.
"And one to you as well, m'lady," the Slowking returned with a bow.
They parted ways. He approached the staircase at the far end of the hall which would lead back to the public floors of the base, and to the hospital wing where he would spend his night. She returned to her chamber just as the white flames were peeling from the orb of stone, and the blinding sunlight was dying down.
It is good that he voluntarily let me destroy his memories.
He understood me. He is a good Pokémon.
Perhaps I will regret not letting him continue to help me.
It was good not to be alone, even for only one moment.
Of course, I am never truly alone.
The human is counting on me.
As are the other guardians, whoever they are.
I cannot give in to despair.
I cannot break focus.
I am the Overseer. I will stay the course until the bitter end.
The door slammed shut behind her, sealing her in with the darkness.
End of Season IV