Fourth Move
Mindset
Beneath Nesting Hold castle
Checkmates’ location
The Diamond Dogs were still all over the ground alongside their once leader, Terrowin, as Checkmate looked at their next challenge: finding a way to get Simon down.
“I could levitate him down, but my current energy levels wouldn’t allow it…” explained Xavier with a tired tone.
All of the members were tired at the moment, though it wasn’t like they hadn’t faced similar challenges before. The problem was that once the adrenaline was replaced with endorphin, the mercenaries soon found out that they were more tired that they should be, probably a side effect of whatever brought them to this new world.
Whatever the case they were all exhausted, especially the hot-blooded Excadrill, who was now laying on his belly at the edge of the hole he had just made in the roof of the auditorium a few minutes ago, looking down on his team as they tried to figure out how to help him.
“You know guys…” started Simon with a burned-out voice. “I could just jump off and drill into the ground as I hit it…” this was actually a good suggestion, but there was only one problem: He didn’t have the energy needed to accomplish it.
The only good idea they really had right now was to just lie down and rest until their strength returned. Of course, it wasn’t that great of an idea, since that meant they would be sharing the room with dozens of creatures they had just finished beating up and thus would very likely be holding a grudge against them. Not to mention how they were pretty much sitting ducks at the moment due to how tired they were.
In short, they were running out of options and time.
However, the choice was quickly taken out of their hands when they heard voices coming from the room Simon was in.
“Hey look… more flying-types like our fancy friend,” the burned out mole reported, before adding, “Although they do look strong, and surprised, and angry, and now they just spotted me. HI!”
“Do they seem friendly?” asked Weiss, not in the mood to get serious all of a sudden.
“Well, they are wearing armor and carrying spears. Now they’re aiming said spears at me.” A tense silence lasted for a few seconds, followed by one more lazy line from the Excadrill. “Boss, I think I’m about to be put under arrest.”
“Well, we did invade their castle,” Weiss pointed out.
“Not to mention we broke through their vault,” added Rouge with as much style her tiredness allowed.
“And there is also the charges regarding invasion, damage to private property and conspiracy if they think we are part of Terrowin forces,” finished Xavier, his whole body lying on the ground as his legs couldn’t keep him up for the time being.
“That doesn’t look promising,” observed their leader.
The rest of the team agreed, the rest being Xavier and Rouge, since Pancha was already sleeping, Greninja was silent as always, Simon was being questioned on the other floor, Shredder was somewhere else and Daring was thinking over what just happened.
In all of her years of adventures, the writer had never seen so much violence and chaos before. Granted, the adventure with her crazy fan could have counted as close, but as chaotic as that was, it was not even as close in terms of the amount of fighting that this one had. She was still trying to remember how she was able to fly through the dust and Dogs while delivering perfect blows at each step. However what shocked her the most was the sensation of being moved by something else, as if her body wasn’t her own.
She had let herself go with the flow in the heat of the moment, but now that she thought about it, it was terrifying. These creatures were capable of such impressive things with such ease, they make use of incredible magic and possessed unbelievable strength, not to mention how they completely threw off Newtrot’s laws of gravity through the window with that last move. If these creatures wished to, they could easily take over the world as they know it.
“… uhg…” groaned a still unconscious Dog somewhere around the pile, closely followed by another, and another, and another. Soon the place was filled with the pain filled whimpers from the Dogs.
This made Daring even more confused. They were violent creatures who claimed to be mercenaries, and as far as she knew, they had no problems with the idea of taking a life, yet they didn’t. All the Diamond Dogs would most likely end up imprisoned after a long time on the hospital, but they will live. They respected her wish despite the fact that it made the job harder, not to mention they just stopped what could have ended in a realm sized crisis all by themselves.
Despite her reasoning telling her that Pokemon were dangerous beings, she couldn’t bring herself to fear the group that lied in exhaustion alongside her. Finally she said one single line to herself. “This next book is going to be awesome!”
As Daring continued her thoughts, Simon’s voice come back from the ceiling. “Hey boss…!” he started, confusion evident in his voice. “I don’t know why, but these guys don’t seem to understand a word I’m saying.”
Weiss turned to Xavier who simply replied, “I’m far too exhausted to keep up the mind-link.”
“The translator is down Simon,” was all explanation the leader gave his friend.
“Oh… what about Shredder?” ventured Simon.
Weiss turned to see his second in command, who had just returned from Arceus knew where, despite being completely depleted of energy a moment ago. She was now wearing a piece of red cloth around her hips like some brutish skirt as she let herself fall to the ground once she had what she was looking for.
“Where did she get that from…?” wondered Weiss to himself as he replied to Simon, “I’m afraid she can’t be of much help either”
“Oh, that’s bad.” All the constant communication between the Pokemon caused the griffon guards to finally look down and get quite the shock from the scene below. “And now they seem to be calling for reinforcements... Think we can make a run for it guys?” the tired digger asked again, though his own voice made it clear that that was impossible.
As Weiss tried to figure out what to do, one of the griffons flew down and landed before them, mostly because they were the only ones awake. “Mhm… we surrendered?” offered Weiss to the armored griffin, although he already knew he wouldn’t understand a word.
Weiss was running out of ideas and he could see his team breaking out of a prison in a few days when suddenly he heard a voice he was just getting used to hearing. “You guys may want to get these guys some warm beds,” said Daring Do as she slowly walked toward the guard. “And get yourself a nice spot to sit, because this story is a bit messy.”
To Weiss’ surprise the yellow Ponyta, Daring Do, explained the situation to the guards, a short version at least, and though they didn’t fully understand it, they proceeded to arrest the Dogs, but not before bringing a whole medical team to look and treat them first.
Daring approached Weiss, who had just finished being inspected by a griffon doctor, who asked him if he needed a medical check up, to which he gave her a negative response, not that they knew what to do anyway, and looked at her with inquiring eyes. The explorer seemed to understand what he wanted to ask as she replied “It was the right thing to do,” she started gently, but soon added, “But don’t think you’ll get off that easily,” she said, pointing at the now busted artifact in the middle if the room, remnants of what used to be the relic she come to look for spread over it. “I now have a big debt on my hooves because of you guys.”
The Bisharp look at the pieces and could only smile and bow to Daring, as a thanks for what she did.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Daring replied “I may been able to keep the guards at bay for now, but I doubt my name is enough to keep the Empress for doing something brash. Not that anyone could blame her though”
And so she again give a glance to the wreck they had caused. Weiss simply waved a hand, as if he were saying that wasn’t something that big, at least for them.
“We will see. Just try not to cause a national incident okay?” asked the adventurer with friendly sarcasm. Weiss just nodded, though his expression seemed to say ‘I make no promises’, to which Daring just nodded and left to give more explanations to a new arrival, apparently a higher up by the looks of its armor.
Weiss lay his head against the ruble he was resting in, now giving himself a moment to properly think about what just happen, even though most of the team was still to be found. “I hope everyone is okay…” the Bisharp thought, “They have to be…” slowly feeling his consciousness leave him, “Or they will be so disappointed with them…” and with a final thought he fell asleep “Specially...”
Johto Region
Alto Mare’s Museum
Years ago.
Weiss had been facing the smiling girl for almost a minute now as he waited for her to do or say something, yet she simply stays there, with her calm smile and her brownish eyes looking directly at his.
The human decided to get this over with and break the silence “So, are you after this information as well?” ventured the mercenary.
“No,” replied the girl with calm and surprisingly gentle voice, especially considering she just eavesdropped on their conversation AND snuck up on Weiss. “I only want to know what you plan to do with it?”
The short answer confused Weiss, but he didn’t let that show through as he replied, “I’m afraid that depends on the higher bidder,” and now it was his turn to ask a question. “Why do you want to know?”
The girl made a thinking expression while slowly approaching Weiss, the mercenary keep a defensive stance but let her get close. “I made a promise,” she said once she got close enough and placed her face just short of Weiss’ by a few millimeters and smiled as gently as before.
Weiss noticed something strange that caught his attention, besides the violation of his personal space: the girl didn’t breath “… so you are -?”
His question was literally held by the girl’s hand against his lips as she said with a playful tone, “Ah-ah-ah! I ask and then you ask, okay?” a playful tone and an innocent gaze accompanying her words.
For Weiss this was quite a weird circumstance, however he couldn’t tell why but he didn’t feel threatened by the girl, even when all of his experience, logic and Xavier via the mind-link told him otherwise, “You have to run now!” said the Psychic-type again and again, yet Weiss ignored him.
“… then ask” the mercenary replied dryly, much to the girl’s joy.
“Well, let’s see” the girl eyed Weiss from various angles while listening. “Why haven’t you attacked me?”
Once again Weiss was confused by her words. Certainly, attack was the first thing to come to his mind, however he hadn’t. “…” It took a few seconds for the human to come up with a proper answer, although he knew the real reason why from the start. The problem was it was just too unbelievable. “Because you didn’t attack me either.”
The girl erupted in laugh at the answer, causing the mercenary to blush. He wasn’t sure of what was happening anymore, but for some reason, he seemed to enjoy it.
“So-sorry…!” finally replied the girl while cleaning her eyes. “You are the first person I’ve met who’s replied so honestly and directly. The others either attack me on sight or tried to persuade me...”
“Others?” asked Weiss intrigued.
“Yeah,” replied the girl with the same happy demeanor. “Those trying to find out what happened here, about that thing…” these last word was the first the girl say without her gentle tone, in fact it sound like hatred. “But I promised him I would look after this city, even if it included that thing,” she glared the DMA again.
Weiss was about to ask again but remembered the ‘rule’ before the girl did it for him, and with a frown said, “Your turn…”
The girl seemed happy to hear that he seemed willing to keep the ‘game’ going. “Okay then… you say you want to sell the information so... why are you after it if you aren’t going to use it?” she asked while placing her hand over her chin in a thinking expression.
“We are mercenaries,” he answered nonchalantly. “Getting information to sell is part of what we do… although you can make an offer if you want.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have much to give, unless you count friendship”
“… does she think friendship is magic or something?” asked Xavier from his side of the mind link, causing Weiss to chuckle.
“As tempting as that sounds, we don’t live off of love,” shrugged the merc, much to the girl’s disappointment “So I’m afraid that’s that,” taking advantage of her momentary distraction, Weiss dashed toward the door, only to slam against some sort of invisible wall. “What…!?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go with that information,” the girl’s eyes shine blue as she created a psychic construct around the room, leaving Weiss trapped, meanwhile her tone sounded apologetic, almost sad.
“Well…” the mercenary quickly took something off his pocket: porcelain needles. “I’m almost sorry for this!” and throws them right at the girl.
The ceramic projectiles bounce over another barrier surrounding her, something he expected as it gave him enough time to start running toward the DMA while using a smoke bomb to cover his tracks... not that he could go all that far though, whilst dropping a couple of micro speakers all over the floor.
“Please don’t fight,” says the girl with her gentle voice. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then what will you do?” Weiss’ voice echoed all over the room, thanks to the speakers. “I doubt you will just let me go just like that.” He had little places to hide beside the old machine, and even if he dashed toward a window or door, she would simply stop him with another psychic wall of hers. Taking her down was the only option.
“I can make you forget what you just saw,” replied the girl with her sweet tone. “That way you won’t get hurt.”
“Well, that sounds fair,” Says Weiss as he thought about Xavier. “So you erase my memories and it’s all done.”
“And your companions as well,” added the girl calmly, making Weiss remember how easily she broke through their mind-link.
‘Shit!’ thought Weiss, ‘If she gets a hold of me for even a second with her mind, we’re all done for, and I can’t hide forever. If I get close to her she would just use her barrier again, but what if I get close without giving her a reason to raise her barrier…!?’ the situation helped Weiss come with a plan, even if he wasn’t too fond of this sort of plan. “Xavier, you there?” he proceeded to explain his idea to the tactician as he carefully kept an eye on the girl as she merely seemed to walk around the machine.
“It’s possible,” came Xavier’s reply. “But you have to act with exact precision in order for this to work.”
“Its either that or losing all the intel… although we don’t lose anything but time, I have to admit she is quite gentle,” Weiss pointed out as he removed his coat and threw it where she could see it, while saying to himself “It’s a shame we’re about to take advantage of that.”
The girl noticed the clothing and turned to where it came. “So you give up?” she asked.
“Yes, we surrender,” says Weiss as he came out of his hiding spot with his hands on the air. “The money isn’t worthy all of this,” slowly approaching her.
“It’s okay,” says the girl with a motherly tone. “Its very wise on your part to take reason over wealth,” the cold hearted mercenary felt guilty when he heard her words, yet he didn’t stop. Once they were close enough the girl put her hands at the sides of Weiss’ head and said, “Relax your mind and don’t fight me,” then she placed her forehead on Weiss’. “This will only take a second.”
Ironically, seconds were exactly what Weiss was counting on, as he awaited for the moment to act. ‘First I will surrender to her, this will let me get close to her without the barrier,’ he could clearly feel her consciousness slipping into his mind. ‘Then we need to break her concentration, this is where you enter little guy,’ just when she began to take hold of his mind, Weiss exclaimed “Now!”
The whole sequence lasted less than 10 seconds, but for each of the ones involved, it felt like an hour.
First a Joltik jumped from Weiss’ hair onto the girl’s face, startling her. ‘Then I immobilize her before she establishes her mind link,’ while she was distracted, Weiss proceeded to tackle her into the ground. ‘Finally as she is disorientated, Xavier jumps into her mind from our link and takes her out!’
“… huh?”
So far, all was going along just as planned. However he soon discovered something strange: They weren’t falling, in fact the moment he tackle the girl, she started to float. They were now standing some feet over the floor.
“Darn it!” exclaimed Weiss as he looked down. ‘Didn’t expect her to be this strong,’ he acknowledged as he turned to face her as she was still trying to get Ganger off her but that wouldn’t last. If she regained control of her thoughts, all would be over in a second. They still have to make her stop thinking for a moment in order for Xavier to enter her mind with no resistance. And so Checkmate’s leader decided to do the unthinkable in order completed this mission.
He pulled himself up, faced the girl, just as Ganger let go, and brought his lips to her lips as softly as the situation allowed it and gently sucked on them, in simpler words: he kissed her.
This was more than enough to freeze the girl’s thoughts on the spot, and give the mercenaries enough time to act “XAVIER!” Weiss mentally exclaimed as he felt the Metagross push his mind into the girl’s.
Last time they did this was the same: in order to keep the intrusive connection stable, Weiss’ had to become a bridge for the link using his own mind. This of course left him at the mercy of the host’s mind, but the situation was desperate enough for him enduring being a cute psychic girl for a few days.
However that when something unexpected happened. The girl’s mind was like nothing they had ever encountered before. It was way more refined and vast in comparison, a miscalculation that Weiss would pay dearly for as the girl quickly sent Xavier’s supercomputer-level mind back out of hers. However, she focused too much on pushing Xavier out that she completely ignored Weiss, who was soon engulfed by her mind and fell into her subconsciousness.
Like a body lost in the rapids of a river, Weiss hit the fortified barriers of her mind again and again while the stream of thoughts mercilessly moved him around, before the girl finally seemed to take noticed of the ‘intruder’ as something grabbed hold of Weiss’ damaged consciousness and carefully delivered it back into his body.
The mental damage Weiss’ had been trough was comparable to falling down a large cliff in the real world. There was no way his mind could endure something like that. Nonetheless, the girl wasn’t done yet. She quickly entered the damaged mind and proceeded to heal it as fast and as carefully as she could.
It was a gamble. The chances of it working were about equal to the chances of reducing Weiss’ mind to that of a vegetable, but as she soon found out, ‘Gambles’ were part of the job.
It took Weiss hours to regain his consciousness. There was no longer any light coming from the windows. He then looked around to find a Froakie, a Ditto and a shiny Metagross before him. He...knew them... didn’t he?
“You guys…” Weiss started, trying to remember their names, but the memories were scattered. It took him a while to gather his thoughts. “Fro-Froakie…” he doubted himself for a second and continued. “Ditto… no!” he quickly corrected himself “No… Ganger… right?” he ventured as he looked at their confused faces.
“His speech…” said Ganger in its own language, before pointing out, “It’s different!”
“You… are my… poke-…no… my partners… right?” Weiss was still confused, but the memories were slowly coming back.
“Relax Weiss,” started Xavier as gently as his tired mind allowed him. “You were just smashed into another person’s mind. Your thoughts will be scattered for a while.”
Weiss looked scared for a second, as if he didn’t know the Metagross. However, once he seemed to remember who was he talking with, he started to calm down. “Xavier… it’s you…” started the human. “So what happened? Did we win?”
“That’s an understatement,” started Ganger. “Boss; we thought you were a goner.” Pointed out the Ditto.
“No need to worry Ganger,” Xavier said as he tried to calm him down. “Weiss’ former self will return with time, although…” Xavier was about to say something else what there was another mumbling sound besides them.
Weiss turned to find the girl of before, although she now looked dead tired but glad about his recovery “Welcome back Weiss.”
“…hi…” was all the disorientated human could say until he finally noticed. “How did you know my name?”
“…”
Followed by a general silence.
“Does this have to do with how you saved him?” finally asked Xavier.
“There was no other way…” started the girl with a regretful tone. “Your mind was so damaged that I had to know exactly what part of your mind I was handling to bring the pieces together, but...” the girl’s eyes started to water at these words. “There was so much damage I had to… I-I...” here her voice broke between sobbing.
She was truly lamenting the damage she had done, even though it was entirely in self-defense and it was Weiss who started it. The crying however, didn’t bring any answers, so Xavier let her be and finished the explanation.
“She had to look into each piece of your scattered mind in order to heal your mind,” Weiss didn’t seemed to understand his version either. “See it like this; as of now, this girl here knows you better than you do.”
The girl cried some more as Weiss processed Xavier’s words “So, she just saw all of my memories?”
“Probably secrets, dreams and personality as well,” replied the shiny pokemon, the girl’s crying intensified at this.
“…” Weiss didn’t say a word, yet he did stand up weakly, Ganger help him by transforming into himself, giving him a shoulder to lay on as he approached the girl, “You know absolutely everything about me then…” said the mercenary more as a fact than as a question.
The girl brought her teary eyes up and looked at him, there Xavier noticed she wasn’t crying only because of what she did, but because of what she saw.
“I-!” started the girl, but this time was stopped by Weiss’ hand.
The human smiled and says, “You don’t have to apologize, it was us who drove you to do what you did. Besides, you didn’t have any reason to help me. You could have just left me brain dead, and that would have guaranteed your secret stayed safe,” he said, before moving his hand from her lips to her shoulder. “I owe you my life, so you don’t’ have to worry about us saying anything about this.”
Xavier seemed to be about to reply, but Weiss cut him before he had the chance. “We may be mercenaries, but we still have a bit of honor, don’t we Xavier?” the Iron Leg Pokemon stayed silent in response.
“So you won’t tell anyone?” asked the girl, her joyful self returning as she dried her tears.
“We won’t,” replied Weiss. “In fact, would you mind putting that back to its original position?” asked the leader to the tactician; Xavier didn’t say a word and using both his strength and his mind, he repositioned the DMA as the pictures and flyers promote it to be.
“There,” added Weiss as the job was done. “Now you don’t have to worry about someone else finding out about this.”
Then Ganger, still looking like Weiss, asked “Soooooo… we worked for free this time then?” to which Froakie nodded.
“A mercenary’s life guys,” joked Weiss, though it was obvious any other mercenary would continue the fight. “Now we have to go pack up our things annnndddd….~” then the human suddenly fell down.
Ganger and Froakie managed to help Weiss before he hit the ground while Xavier pointed out, “You won’t be in any shape to travel for some time. What do we do?” asked the shiny to the other pokemon.
“I could help him register into a hotel, but I doubt the employee would like to lend a room to someone who talks through the mind.”
Froakie pointed at the room they were in. “Negative, Ganger has distracted the guards too many times already. Sooner or later they will find out.”
Eventually the Pokemon would have to come up with a possible solution, but that was when the girl gave them another option. “Why don’t you come to my place?”
“…”
It wasn’t that they didn’t consider that idea...rather that it was an option that had no logic behind it for them to follow.
“Ehm, no offence lady,” started Ganger, “But we don’t have any reasons to trust you, not to mention you wanted to erase our memories, and there is the part when we attacked you, and-“
“Okay, we’ll take up your offer,” cut in Weiss, much for the whole team’s shock.
“… please ignore him, he doesn’t know what he’s saying right now,” deadpanned Xavier, yet Weiss insisted.
“I am aware of the danger guys, but we are running out of options and worse: of time. She is offering us a place to stay, I say ‘let’s take it,’ or do you have a better idea?”
The three mercenaries didn’t like the idea, but it was a decision their leader made, and thus they would have to follow it through. “The sooner the better,” said Xavier as he lifted Weiss’ body with his psychic powers and deposited him over his head. Ganger followed and turned into a Tangela to keep the human secured. “Lead the way.”
“Thank you,” replied the girl with a shine in her eyes, as she opened a window. “This way.”
“Will you be okay?” asked Weiss from within the tangle of vines which surround him, “Xavier would take the ‘highway’ to avoid suspicious eyes.”
“He is worried about you enduring the cold of high altitudes,” clarified Xavier.
“You don’t need to worry,” assured the girl as her body started to glow, slowly disintegrating before them and replacing her with another creature. The new body baring red down feathers on the lower part of her body while white ones covered the upper half; two jet-like wings resting on her back while two fin-like appendages (presumably her feet) lied on her lower body, two small retractable arms adorning her torso as a long neck rested beneath them, a triangular fin-shaped face porting a small patch of red and two golden and friendly eyes made the face.
“Oh… that explains a lot,” replied the Metagross as the team looked upon Latias, a Legendary Pokemon and one of the Eon Duo.
“Hehe…” laughed Ganger, “You stole a kiss from a celebrity boss, nice!”
It was a stroke of luck that Weiss had his face covered by vines, as his face was quite red at the moment. Latias too, blushed slightly at the memory, although she didn’t stop smiling gently as she started to guide them over the city’s night sky, although Froakie decided to travel by water.
“I will fly slowly so you can follow, okay?” pointed Latias as she kept close to the group.
“Thanks,” says Weiss calmly as they gain some altitude. “And sorry for all of this. You really don’t have to,” apologized the human.
“You are kindhearted,” was all the legendary gave as an explanation, much for the perplexity of the team.
They knew their boss was kind with them, no doubt about it, but they also knew he could be cold and even cruel if the moment called for it.
“How can you say that?” replied the mercenary, after all she did see his entire life, “You know what I have done.”
“I know that a person is defined by his/her actions,” answered Latias with a philosophical tone, “And I have indeed seen what you have done,” her eyes again shone with sadness, “But I know why you ended up doing it, as well of how much you tried to avoid doing some of those things. You always look for the best solution for things without resorting to bloodshed or sacrificing any of your teammates,” she patted Ganger at this point, “So I am pretty sure ‘he’ would be very proud of you.”
This part surprised Weiss, he knew she knew his whole self, which despite how much that left him ‘naked’ to her eyes, he found it reassuring somehow, “You… you really think ‘he’ would be proud?”
“I know he is.”
As the Legendary and the human continued to talk, Ganger took a moment to mentally whisper, “Don’t you think these too suddenly became too close?”
Xavier was aware of this as well, and though he had a worry or two, he calmly replied, “She saw everything our boss is, and still treated him kindly. I presume that is enough for Weiss to accept her as a friend. Huh... who would have thought he would take her friendship in the end?” noticed the telepath as they flew over the starry night, “Not to mention at this point his mind is almost a blank slate for her to easily imprint on.”
A few minutes later, as each pair continued to chat, they reached a certain point in the city, a lonely alley with a dead end, which Latias shortly proved to be a hidden passage to the Eon Duo’s favorite place on the city: the Secret Garden.
The name ‘garden’ fell short in comparison to the little forest that lay unseen for by local populace. Dozens of trees and bushes of many sizes laid as far as the eye could see, multiple windmills of various forms decorated the place alongside many fountains and puddles where some Poliwag and Wooper slept.
Ganger was appreciating the view from his spot when he noticed Froakie coming out of one of the many waterways and quickly reuniting with them.
“A hidden paradise,” acknowledged the Iron Leg pokemon as he landed. “This place will do for the night.” meanwhile ganger helped Weiss land as well, again taking his form to keep him standing.
“You can sleep whenever you want,” the female Eon Pokemon offered again. “I will introduce you to Bianca and her grandfather in the morning, they will look distant at first but don’t worry, I will talk to them.”
As Latias gave the quick instructions, Ganger noticed something and asked, “I have heard legends of you and your brother, yet you haven’t mentioned him so far. Is he somewhere else?”
Latias’ joyful eyes vanished the instant Ganger asked the question, and were replaced by those filled with sadness, that made the Ditto wish he could use ‘Dig’ right now. “He is far, far away…” the legendary started as she flew over one of the many fountains. “Somewhere no one can follow, nor hurt him,”
The team followed her to the fountain, which was divided in three concentric ponds; the center one was no bigger than a simple well and was enclosed like a gazebo in simple but elegant ironwork. Inside it lied a metal pedestal on which rested a blue jewel-like crystal.
Upon seeing it, Xavier felt an impulse to grab and analyze the gem, yet his reasoning told him that would be rude, impolite, and would more likely get them kicked out of the garden. However what really stopped him the most were the tears the legendary pokemon was shedding at the mere sight of it.
“Everyone” she say as gentle as he tears allow her, “I would like you to know my older brother; the legendary Latios, the best big brother someone could ever ask for.”
The mercenaries didn’t know what to say, it wasn’t like they thought she was just insane, okay, maybe Ganger thought so, but the rest could feel a great presence coming from the sphere, it was something similar to some ghost-types, but at the same time was completely different. The presence that emanated from it was warm and benevolent.
“But… how?” was all Weiss could ask, the team making respectful silence.
“Is a long story, but…” Latias thought of how she had seen all of Weiss existence, even if it was for his own good, and thought they deserved to know as compensation, even when it was their entire fault, “I guess it can’t hurt for you to know”
Before they could ask ‘know what?’ Latias’ eyes shine blue again and in the minds a story was shown, they could see quick fragments of how was the life of the Eon duo before, how they used to always be together before, then she show them how they arrived to the city of Alto Mare, how they spent some decades there, how they enjoyed having a home for a change, but it all ended when a couple of thieves appeared in town. Their greed ended up sending the DMA into a frenzy and thus dooming the entire city, and then she showed them how his brother sacrificed himself in order to protect the city and the final images he shared with her before turning into the jewel they had before them.
The whole ‘story’ lasted a bit more than an hour, needless to say Xavier didn’t have any further interest in analyzing the Soul Dew, the physical manifestation of Latios’ very soul.
Weiss on his part could felt the tears flowing from his eyes, before them were the remnants of someone brave and courageous enough to make the ultimate sacrifice without even a second of doubt: a hero. He knew he would never be like this, he didn’t mind though, he liked been a mercenary, but he wouldn’t deny he was now in the presence of a hero, and he deserved respect.
“Ma-may I?” asked Weiss doubtingly, Latias simply smiled and nodded while joining the ritual.
Before the surprised presence of Froakie, Ganger and Xavier, Weiss brought his hands together and started to pray for the hero’s soul to properly rest, Latias besides him in silent oration.
The rest, as confused as they were, keep a respectful silence and distance, however Ganger couldn’t help but ask a single question. “Since when is the boss the religious type?”
To which Froakie replied, “I guess he is now.”
Nesting Hold Castle
Guest’ chambers
Present time.
Weiss woke up in a comfortable bed and found he had been crying. “This again…” he didn’t mind it though, it was something that normally occurred to him whenever he had one of her memories. “~sigh~ now how are we going to have the anniversary?” wondered the former human as he looked at the room he was in, the walls were made of clean cut and polished rock with tapestries hanging over them, fine-looking furniture was also decorating the place, although Weiss doubt they had any actual use.
~knock~knock~
Before he could continue admiring the place, someone enter the room. “Coming through,” was all Daring Do said as she entered into his chambers. “I take you had one interesting dream,” pointed the Pegasus as she looked at his teary eyes.
“It was okay,” he dismissed as he noticed she understood him, meaning Xavier was back in shape, then asked, “I take it we are in the flying-types’ castle. How are the rest of the guys doing?”
“Griffins,” correct him Daring, “And they are all fine. I don’t know what you guys run with but you sure recover quickly. It’s only been an hour since we get here and most of them are already causing a lot of commotion on the dining hall.”
Weiss looked at the overly draped window and noticed the sun was still out, although it didn’t seem like it would last for long. “Well, I guess it’s a good time to join them then,” replied the Bisharp with little rush and a rumbling stomach. He and his team were used to getting little rest, but in return they needed to eat more, and right now Weiss’ stomach was ordering him to get some food.
Daring smiled at the noise and guided Weiss around as she explained to him what happened once he fell asleep: the Diamond Dogs were treated and then taken prisoner, though most of them would be shipped back to their country due to “political affairs and that stuff” pointed Daring. As for them, the Griffins had taken those who couldn’t walk into the castle as carefully as possible, which in turn made Weiss wonder how they managed to do so with Xavier.
“It seems you managed to get us a decent treatment ma’am, so I’m afraid I will have to pay my part of the deal then,” mentioned Weiss as they reached the dinner hall, but before they enter, Daring told him on a serious tone.
“I told you, you can thank me once we ‘truly’ are through this. I haven’t talked with Empress Victoria yet, and she would more likely want to hear the story with all of you here, as well as ask you some questions. You understand that part don’t you?”
Weiss nodded, this wasn’t his first time having to report to the leader of a nation, although this would be the first time he had to report to the leader of a nation they just saved. However he then remembered something a bit more important. “By the way, I haven’t heard your name yet?”
Daring seemed surprised by this revelation as she too replied, “Same here, I thought you were called Ganger-or-something, but I think that isn’t your real name”
“Yeah, that reminds me I have to talk with my second in command and infiltrator once I have a chance too. I am Weiss,” he offered her a hand.
“Daring. Daring Do. Explorer, adventurer and writer,” introduced Do as well.
“A pleasure Miss Do, mind if I ask you a few things?”
“Ask away, but only if I can ask back” added the explorer, which caused a little laugh from the Bisharp.
“I don’t mind, just don’t erase my memory once this is over okay?” joked Weiss at expenses of Daring ignorance and then started to ask.
They shared general information, where they were, what the world was called, the Empire’s name, the other inhabitants of the world, the other kingdoms and their respective governing systems. Daring then asked him things that would at least serve to allow him to move around without accidentally breaking any laws.
Daring Do on her part asked him what his world was called, whether or not they were all this stupidly powerful, what exactly was a Pokemon and how come they weren’t related to one another, how types worked and what a human was.
“So you used to be this naked monkey that wore clothes all the time? That’s just odd,” exclaimed Do once the last question was done.
‘Says the pastel colored flying Ponyta,’ Weiss thought with humor. “I have one last question regarding the Empress. Any advice of how should I deal with her?”
“Just one,” says Do sheepishly as they enter the hall. “Don’t make her angry.”
Then they entered a huge room, almost as big as the abandoned auditorium from the ruins, lines of tables and chairs crossing over the floor and chandeliers hanging on the ceiling. ‘Nothing too impressive besides the size,’ Weiss thought.
It didn’t take him long to find his team, since the shiny Metagross was hard to miss. However they didn’t seem to be as bustling as Daring made it sound. It was then that he noticed the guards wearing armor and holding spears and swords all over the walls as they carefully kept an eye on the Pokemon.
Following the line of guards, Weiss found one of the Griffins resting on a higher seat at the other side of the room with its own personal table. Silvery gray fur covered her lion half, while a royal white plumage covered her front eagle self, with a silver regalia placed upon her chest supported by what seemed to be red fabric in a tunic fashion, and a matching silver crown atop her head. All of her attire was simple looking with little jewelry and details, choosing functionality over elegance. Definitely a military outfit.
Empress Victoria opened her wings widely, showing her blood red colored wings. She then waved a claw at the sight of the leader of the mercenaries, indicating him to get close to her.
Weiss nodded and slowly walked toward the ruler, Daring close behind, passing before lines after lines of her guards. Finally he kneeled before Victoria and noticed she had surprisingly icy blue eyes traced by the same red feathers, her gaze seemed to carefully watch his every move.
‘That is some intimidation alright,’ thought the mercenary as he waited for his turn to talk.
“So…” started the ruler with a firm voice, “Tell me your story, creature of metal!”