//------------------------------// // Penultimate Chapter: Sacrifice Part 1 // Story: Pokémon: Knight of Order // by Darkevony //------------------------------// Tick. His heart began to beat along with the sounds of a small mallet striking at a wooden surface. Tock. There it was again. That unnerving feeling. Compounded by the noise, yes. But aided and abetted by time itself having come to a complete stop. This was no illusion. It wasn't something he'd dreamt up. Nothing caused by irregularities in his mind either. He could physically feel the stones, dust, and dirt kicked up into the air by the Trevenant's massive wood hammer that had missed him. The ground all around where it had landed had been uprooted and the shockwave of that incredible energy was still passing through the ground evident by the distortion in the earth. All of the ponies and Pokemon present still held onto the expression that they had, had at that moment. A mix of shock, terror, and urgency. All of them frozen in place unable to move even an inch. Tick. Tock. Emile turned to look at the small blue figure again, still stuck in the stupor and daze of all that had transpired before. He couldn't quite get a good image of it no matter how hard he tried focusing his eyes on it. No amount of squinting or opening his eyelids as far as they would go did anything. But he didn't need an accurate picture of it to know what it was. It was obvious. And he was now more than a hundred percent positive that this was a joke. A truly distasteful joke at his expense. Tick... Tock... The noise had stopped all together now. From the direction of the blue figure, reality began to shift and bend. Like pages being torn out of a notebook, the very world was ripped into shreds until everything both around him and the blue figure was nothing but nebulous cosmos. No ponies or baby dragon. No Hilda. No Eve. Just him and the blue figure. Emile couldn't tell if it was just a simple illusion or not. It felt like he still had ground beneath him. His shadow still lay sprawled on some surface even with nothing below his feet. Emile could do nothing but hold his silence. He was waiting for something. But what? Awaiting someone. But who? It was a waiting game that was driving him insane with each second that passed by in the silence of this surreal experience. Finally, above the blue figure, a light radiated out in a bright pink light. From it spawned an equally pink ball. "What are you?!" Emile tried to yell out to it with all his might, with his words finding nowhere to go in the emptiness of space. It took moments more before the pink ball began to shift and move. It did so sporadically, like a muscle in motion. A heartbeat, almost. Then, it uncurled to show the sleeping body of a cat-like creature with a long tail. It opened its sleeping eyes slowly, shifting its gaze every which way until fixating on him at last. Emile immediately thought back on Arceus' words, and a single word repeated in his head at the sight of it. Demon. He gulped in the anticipation of the moment. The blues of its irises were deeper and more vibrant than all the cosmos that surrounded them. But there was nothing in them. It didn't even feel like it was directly looking at him. He half expected, due to the sheer presentation of its entrance, that it would hold some level of animosity or intensity towards him. If this really was the demon that Arceus was so concerned over, enough to take even It for a fool, then Emile imagined that this thing was also responsible for his transportation to Equestria. Was it punishing him by doing so? Did it have bigger plans for Arceus, him, and the world of Equestria? Its enduring silence was only making him more fearful of its intentions. This thing was the massive question mark in this impossible equation. The mystery of his entire life. Then... It opened its tiny mouth all the way it could and gave out one cute little yawn, in the distinct cry of a Pokemon. It proceeded to bring both of its small arms up to its mouth and motion out a chuckle while looking gleefully at Emile's distressed expressions. It started swaying back in forth in a small dance, twirling and twisting in the absolute nothingness of space, amused to no end. All while repeating its cry over and over like if it was trying to speak with him. "Mew!" It repeated, over and over and over. A lock was undone in Emile's head at the sound of that cry. A memory of his encounters with Mewtwo. Yes... the creature that had been there to stop Mewtwo's Pokemon clone army. Mew... the Pokemon whose DNA was used to make Mewtwo. Just a shadow of the original creation, and yet Mewtwo was by far one of the most powerful psychic Pokemon in all of existence. A shudder ran through him at the thought as he watched the pink cat continue trying to talk to him with no hint of malice within its tone. It then floated back down towards the blue figure and its pink body began to morph into something else entirely. Revelations. One after another. A lock was undone at the sight of Mew's new form. A similar body shape to the one beside it, standing taller and more imposing. Both images of those two figures finally focused into eyesight for him at this point, and he could clearly make out what they were now. A small little Riolu whose deeply red eyes were fixated on him, scanning for something intently in his visage. And Mew, who had become a Lucario... But not just any Lucario. It was mimicking Luca down to even her tiny mannerisms. He began to remember his harrowing adventures at the Tree of Beginning. The place where he'd first met Luca and the second time he had come across Mew... and how he had to transfer almost all of his life energy to the tree in order to save it from destruction via Mew itself. Something wasn't sitting right about this memory, however. His memories were saying that he and Luca's energies had not been enough to restore the tree, and so one of them would have had to sacrifice their life for it. When Luca had demanded that it be her to do it, Emile had forced the role onto himself to spare her of that fate in not wanting to see her die for his sake. But after that, all he could remember was blacking out and waking up beside all of his Pokemon outside of the tree itself. No sacrifice had been made. Mew never appeared before him again either. But there in his hand at that time lay a distinct Pokeball unlike any other. A pink ball with purple swirls that he had never seen in his life. A dream ball. The very same that had worked on Arceus in the last moments of their confrontation. Mew could clearly read his mind to some extent, as in that moment of realization, using its powers it proceeded to spawn that very same Pokeball from thin air in front of him, slowly lowering it down to his hands so he could take hold of it once more. "So this was your doing?" He asked in absolute bewilderment as he took hold of the Pokeball and saw the cracks that Arceus had made on it. "Us being here in this world... or perhaps something more? Arceus' prophecy?" Mew quickly shifted out of Luca's form and back to its original self, and laughed in its usual airy way. It swirled side to side with glee while repeating its cry again. "I don't understand what you're saying..." Emile commented to himself since none of his words were being met with an audible sound in the deadness of space. Mew had been using its powers of telepathy to both speak and read into his mind the entire time and became visibly irritated at having not been understood. It then gave a quick jerk of an expression akin to having come up with an idea, and proceeded to put one small paw on top of the Riolu's head. "Master... Red. Emile. Human. Hello." The Riolu spoke to him in form of its unique aura telepathy, going initially from emotional to deadly monotonic in its tone with each word. The voice was delicate and feminine, and it belonged to the young Riolu so it sounded like that of a small girl. Emile froze in shock. He felt himself choke up with the tears that were beginning to form on his eyes. His heart began to beat heavily in his chest, and he could feel his hands ball up into a fist with powerful intensity. That Riolu... How had he missed this obvious sign? He had known it inside his heart of hearts too. This was no normal Riolu. This was...Luca herself, having been rewinded just like everyone else. She was still alive. But how? Perhaps he hadn't connected the dots yet because of the advent of Mew appearing in the way that it did, and still riding the emotional high of the kind of threat it posed after everything that had happened. But now, more than relieved to see her alive or confused as to why she was with them like this, Emile was angry. Mew had taken control of her mind, and her eyes were dulled to indicate this. This told Emile everything he needed to know about the way Mew was seeing them without so much as word having been spoken... They were all pawns in some form of game for it. "What did you do to her..." He thought inside of himself in a low growl, knowing Mew would read it. "Human can't speak. Have use for it ability. Tell human things! Human speak back. Conversation with human." Mew's tail swished back and forth. If it had anything in common with other cat Pokemon, then this was a dangerous sign indeed. Emile forcedly controlled his temper with the understanding that he should remain calm to hear this. Being needlessly emotional now could spell disaster for all of them. But it was proving harder than he thought, as he could do nothing but stare directly at Luca. He was desperately trying to hold back all of the many thoughts racing through his head. "Human Emile curious. Why here now? No answer, want to find answer. Typical of human." Mew chuckled. "Only answer. Here because I want. Amusing. Useful. Fight Father and win! Mostly." "Your father...? Arceus, I'm guessing. Why are you at odds with him?" The Mew proceeded to create a bubble for which to rest on, and drooped its head backward in an attempt to think. Then it went back to controlling Riolu with the tip of its tail. "Simple way to describe. Creator, as father." Mew was becoming more concise in its inhuman capacity to learn language now that their conversation had gone on only a bit. "Mad because I took tablets." "You...! It was you?! But why...?" "Why?" It closed its eyes and began to shine in a bright pink light. Emile felt his body constrict. No longer could he move even a single muscle. This showed the absolute power that Mew had over him in this realm. His breath became more erratic and he tried breathing in deeper and harder in his panic. "Why do we live?" Luca's voice in his head had been replaced with a deep and alien one, something horrifyingly dark and mechanical in nature. "To persevere. To procreate. To enjoy our waking moments and rest when we sleep." This was the moment he noticed Mew's tail had disconnected from Luca and was swishing more violently and erratically than before, whipping to the sounds of its anger rising. "Why do we love? To connect. To build a future together. So that we are not alone. It then got close to him and placed its tail onto his forehead, connecting their minds together. "Why do we hurt? To learn lessons and grow. To give meaning to why we live, and to why we love. That is why I'm doing this." Mew had said this using Emile's own voice, forcing him to speak. "Eons and I have only ever been met with dull characters. But you, flawed human, show limitless potential. You have proven it time and again. That's why I chose you, your pokemon, your friends, and their companions. Anything to do with you, is amusing. You are to be my Father's foil, and the King in this chess game." Interconnected with its mind, Emile was able to find the answers to many of his questions. Like myth and legend told, Mew carries the blueprint for all of Pokemon kind in its body, as it was Arceus' first creation. Using Mew's genetic makeup, it created the Lake Trio, the Creation Trio, and all of Pokemon kind. This ultimately gave Mew the keys to Pokemon as a whole. Using its powers of trickery and deception, it incited the human's avarice and gave Pokemon the power to help them usurp Arceus' throne and his tablets. And it did so all on a whim. No reason in particular. It just figured it would have fun with the tablet's powers in order to aid in its games. Over time, it became bored with their usefulness and recklessly scattered many of them across the Pokemon world while keeping a few for itself. Arceus' feud with Mew had turned deadly ever since, but Mew's pranks only increased in intensity to match, almost killing It a number of times due to Its weakened state. Emile didn't know what to think... What was worse? Knowing there was a sinister god-like entity wanting your destruction and total erasure or leaving the world's fate to a trickster who just took its jokes too far? The fact of the matter was, Arceus never even intended to end his world... The prophecy had been Mew's own contrivance, in one of its many machinations to lead a weary somebody of its choosing into this world in another one of its games... All for what? Some fun? Risk the lives of everyone just for that? But then, why hadn't Arceus made it clearer to him when he spoke to It? What use was all the cryptisicm at the end of the day? If he could've just spoken clearly to It when he met Arceus atop Spear Spillar, all of this could've been avoided. But Arceus had refused. Rightly so in anger due to human's involvement in Mew's plans all that time ago. But after centuries? Could Arceus have held a grudge that long? Then he remembered the Red Chain which should've only ever seen a single creation due to the rare one-of-a-kind jewels needed to make it from the Lake Trio's body. There should have been no way that they could've been replicated for the use of so many Guardian legendary Pokemon... Unless Mew had been involved with that too, having used its power of transformation and genetics to create more jewels... It had purposely spurred on an apocalyptic scenario to get Arceus' attention for its ends. So maybe the fact that he hadn't heard reason either of the two times he met Arceus wasn't all a coincidence either, considering the blocks in his mind. Just like everything that had happened so far since the moment he had obtained the dream ball, it all felt... strange. The red chains, Equestria, Eevee's evolutions and powers, the wormholes, animals turning into Pokemon... It all felt unnatural, like if none of it was supposed to be happening. Like if he shouldn't have been alive to see any of it, either. His sacrificial nature should've gotten him killed back in the Tree of Beginning. But he was saved. With Arceus' own powers and tablets when Mew had used them to substitute the Tree's energy. All so he could be Mew's plaything. Tick. Tock. That noise again. But he now knew what it was. One of Mew's favorite abilities, transformed to have more dire consequences. A dice roll for a reality-bending board game of its own design. Metronome. "The dice do not fall in my favor this time, Emile. I hope to talk to you again in the future. In the meantime, I'll be hoping you put on a good show. Boredom can be... killer." It took its tail off of Emile and teleported far backward into the cosmic void, only to be attacked by a powerful Hyper Beam when it reappeared for a split second. The range and sheer strength of that Hyper Beam had alighted the cosmos around him, ripping holes into the cloudy formations that Emile could only imagine to be lightyears away. This was a fight amongst gods... Sure enough, all around him was indescribable anger and pressure, but thankfully, Arceus had no time or patience to even pay him any mind while it tried chasing after Mew in a fury. Trailing behind Arceus was a massive swarm of unown. It looked almost like a giant school of fish courting danger as some would almost get blasted by Arceus' attacks while it spitted Hyper Beams this way and that with Mew teleporting away every time effortlessly, likely using Arceus' own tablets against him. In retaliation, he could see Mew creating an innumerable amount of pink balls of pure psychic energy, only to string them all together into one massive attack toward Arceus. Not knowing what kind of attack this was, Emile took to calling it "Genesis Supernova" due to the sheer power of it and the fact that it was being used in this kind of battleground and by Mew. In control of his own body again, Emile slapped his face with both of his hands to regain his senses. It was no time to be lost in the spectacle of that battle, or in the thoughts about trying to figure out Mew's ultimate goal. Something was telling him that there was more to it than all of that, since he couldn't trust that everything that he saw in Mew's mind was the truth. There was no doubt that everything he'd been met with so far, like the battles and events of his coming to Equestria, was all of Mew's own design. But there was still a larger mystery he wasn't seeing. A mystery surrounding the fate of both worlds... Only a real talk with Arceus would give him those answers, but now was definitely not the time for that. Evident by the ensuing battle of cosmic proportions. Emile narrowly avoided a Hyper Beam that had been thrust his way by the chaotic confrontation. He had been stumbling forward into the void to reach Luca, who still lay where Mew had left her last with her eyes closed, recovering from the mind control. Before he could reach her however, a disembodied hand took a hold of his wrist. It was coming from a strange ripple in the void, as if from nowhere. It was desperately trying to pull him into the ripple, but Emile was refuting its pull with all of his might. He needed to reach Luca at all costs, even with Arceus and Mew's battle becoming more dangerous by the second. He took hold of Luca in his one free arm just as another Genesis Supernova had begun its explosion near him, pushing them both violently through that ripple where the hand had been trying to pull him through. "Girls, help me! I can't pull him through!" Hilda yelled over to the ponies who were on their wit's end. First because of Emile's sudden disappearance into the chaotic, twisted wormhole where he had been standing last, and now because of the danger having increased exponentially due to the inclusion of another massive Pokemon in the way of an Alpha Chandelure who had been powered up by the wormhole's energy from the fallen Litwick. And due to the wormhole's strength and intensity being several times of that seen in the courtyard against the Unova's starter trio, it had even rejuvenated the Trevenant's energies and increased its violent temperament, sending both of them into a frenzy and fighting each other. All of the ponies peeled off the battle to help Hilda pull Emile through where she had reached in hoping to feel around for him and finding success. Yet even their strength combined did not match his desperate attempt to save Luca, and he had managed to grab onto her right in the nick of it. The explosion of Mew's attack had sent him flying through the wormhole, bowling everyone over into a heap. He was positively shell-shocked, hurt in several places, and riding a really emotionally high, but after several minutes and a few hardy slaps from Hilda, he managed to come to his senses now that his cheeks had a hand imprinted onto them. "Emile! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Hilda yelled into his face when his eyes fluttered into normalcy. "Yes! Yes, I think I can. No need to shout so loud." He said, regaining himself. At that moment, a shockwave on the ground sent everyone sprawling to the floor again. Another missed Wood Hammer from Trevenant. But now the forest was a ghastly sight, with Chandelure's flame having ignited the surrounding flora. "What's going on?!" He shouted, now fully aware of the dire circumstances. From the kettle to the frying pan. "No time to explain! We need to do something, and fast!" Hilda got back onto her feet and helped him up. She would've questioned the Riolu resting in his arms still unconscious, but there were more pressing things at hand. "Eve! Use Rain Dance!" Emile shouted at the Umbreon that had been focused on protecting everyone that entire time while he had disappeared, worried out of its mind but trying to get its priorities straight, trusting that Emile would be okay from intuition alone. Rain started to pour strongly when it did as it commanded after turning into a Vaporeon. "Osha! Fire control, you know what to do!" He said as he took out the little otter, making him immediately run over to the winding fires. He side glanced the battle between the two titans wanting to be a part of it, but the little Otter understood the more pressing concerns and did as it was commanded. Unfortunately, there was not much else he could do to bring this battle to a halt, since the wormhole was still very much present and showed no signs of ending, feeding infinite power into the alpha pokemon. Arceus' and Mew's battle was likely adding to the chaos of the situation, forcing the portal to stay open due to their energies making their way to the portal. None of his Pokemon were powerful enough to make this battle come to a conclusion either. Things became increasingly dire when the Trevanant used Energy Ball to stop a Will'O'Wisp from Chandelure, causing the collision of attacks to spread a ghostly fire in all directions. The kind that could burn even through the rain. Tick. Tock. Even knowing what this sound meant, it did not help his concerns at all. Mew was trying to pull another wild card on all of them. Emile could only desperately wish for some solution to come out of this random power... But no. Instead, a bunch of small marbles fell from the sky in front of them, along with a thin black band and a green jewel in the middle of it. Tick. Tock. Adding fuel to the fire, this next metronome only enshrouded the two titans in the brilliant light of Ancient Power, raising all of their stats and making them more powerful in turn. Tick. Tock. Finally, something that had brought a positive change to the battlefield. At the sound of this last Metronome, the wormhole disappeared. Presumably due to a positive effect that Mew had managed to pull in its own battle against Arceus. Now all they had to do was wait for the two Titans to tire out and contain their damage. But since they'd been powered up by Ancient Power, defeating the straggler would be no easy feat, and waiting for them to tire out could be a while still. He was already imagining the damage they'd ultimately end up causing to be devastating. Already the surrounding area was full of trees burnt to cinders and tons others uprooted to be used as Wood Hammers. And the ghostly flames showed no sign of stopping either. That was only something defeating the Chandelure could accomplish. Emile tightened his grip on Luca, overwhelmed by everything that had happened in such a short time. He set her down on the ground near where the marbles had fallen. For once in his life, he had no idea what to do. There was nothing clever or spectacular he could do to help. There's only so much a single person can do before it all catches up to them. Maybe his tolerance had been much higher than other people's, but he still had his limits. And he just about reached his. He slumped to his knees and proceeded to stare blankly at all the craziness. His mind empty. His heart hollow. Luca was alive. No sacrifices had been made. Just like the time when he'd made out of the Tree of Beginning alive... He didn't know the right way to feel. About anything. Though Emile wonders if Mew ever plans anything in advance, or if it's all just a random luck of the draw. For what happened next was something he had never seen before, let alone think was possible. But as Hilda would be sure to tell him afterward when all the craziness had died down, a phenomenon only ever seen in the Kalos region was beginning to happen to Luca. She was glowing in a bright white light. But this was no typical evolution. Stranger yet, this phenomenon was skipping a few steps in the process too. From this bright light, strings of beautiful rainbow streaks were encircling Luca. She was being filled with a tremendous amount of power. A power that far surpassed anything Luca had ever been able to achieve in his memory, and a power that far surpassed the two Titans in front of him, buffed up by Ancient Power as they were. When the light had given way, Luca stayed standing with her eyes closed. She looked a world different. She didn't look like any Lucario he'd ever seen. Black stripes now adorned her body more numerously than before, especially around her eyes. She had more spikes around her body, and the tips of her paws and hair were tipped red. Her tail had now been covered by her yellow coat. She looked incredibly majestic. And incredibly powerful. When her eyes finally opened at that moment, Emile felt himself stop breathing altogether. There was an intensity about them. A cold-hearted, cruel, merciless intensity. Something he never knew Luca was capable of. Emile took out his Pokedex to check on what kind of new evolution or form this was, hoping the dex would have something to say about her. Sure enough, it did. But strangely, it spoke of something he'd never even heard of before. Mega evolution? "Black streaks all over its body show where its auras and the energy of Mega Evolution intermingled and raced through it. Its aura is far greater in this form. Governed only by its combative instincts, it strikes enemies without mercy. It readies itself to face its enemies by focusing its mental energies. Its fighting style can be summed up in a single word: heartless." What kind of entry was this? He'd never seen such a dire entry before... But he could feel it to be the truth. The way in which Luca just stared on at the sight of the two Titans battling was soul-wrenching. "Luca?" She didn't respond. "Please... say something. Please tell me it's you in there." Still, nothing. Nothing Emile said to her was getting through to her. If anything, Emile could feel her bloodlust increase. Then, without warning, she struck. Having locked on to their ghost typing using Foresight on both of the Pokemon, she used Extreme Speed to close the gap on them both in an instant, kicking up a large dust cloud in her path. She started with Bone Rush, creating mallets of earth from what she'd ripped from the ground and brought them down on Chandelure. She followed up her assault by countering Trevenant's Wood Hammer with a Meteor Smash, splitting its log in two as her hardened fist ran through it to connect with Trevenant, sending it sprawling backward several feet. A red glow surrounded Luca for a moment, indicating that Meteor Smash had increased her attacking power. She immediately used Detect, sensing that the Chandelure was readying an attack behind her back, causing its Flamethrower to completely miss her thanks to Detect's increase of her reactionary speed. In a brutal move, she proceeded to Crunch down on the Chandelure to keep it from retreating, and Stone Edge'd it with her free limbs into an absolute KO. The Trevenant was now fully aware that it could only stand to lose this battle, and began to back away slowly. It started the beginnings of its Phantom Force only to be pinned out of its shadow by a Mach Fist faster than it could slip away, with an Ice Punch in the other fist for a subsequent attack to keep it from escaping afterward. It then proceeded to KO it with the pure violence of Close Combat, pummeling it into submission until its log vessel was dotted with indentations of her furious attacks. Luca let out a deafening roar having reveled in the brutality, her muscles contracting as she extended her limbs up to the sky. Her chest heaved with ferocious breath, still unsatisfied with the battle she had just been a part of. In the veil of night now that the smoke had died down, her red amber eyes were glowing with the thrill of battle and overwhelming bloodlust. Then, her cold gaze fell on all of them. The ponies. The small dragon. The humans. And their Pokemon.