Interlude – Strength of the Mind

Interlude – Strength of the Mind

INTERLUDE - STRENGTH OF THE MIND

Upon a rock flanking Mount Coronet sat Gardevoir, and she was bored out of her mind. What was the point of travel, if it was without Mira? It was like living in a world where no sunrise would ever come, and yet Alakazam had convinced her to accompany him. Mira had pushed as well, of course, and Gardevoir had always been awful at saying no to her since her old days as Ralts. Life without Mira was boring, but it was also empty. For months, Gardevoir's mind had been latched to Mira's own, listening in on everything that went on in that fascinating yet terrifying brain of hers. Sometimes it was five minds, sometimes three, but never more than ten. Truly, her trainer was like a star that Gardevoir could only hope to orbit. To stay within her influence was more than she deserved.

Minds flickered like candles around her, so, so much duller than Mira's. A simple flick of her wrist would be enough to extinguish them, should they get close. Dull. Just so dull. They never approached what Alakazam had designated as their 'camp', a thing humans liked so much. Pokemon had a way to avoid trouble and sense when beings were far stronger than they could handle. Really, this place wasn't a camp, it was more of a set of rocks they'd found along with a nice, flat set of land. Her fellow World Weaver thought more like a human than he let on, which was why he called the mastery over the strings that lay beyond the world's veil psychic. A human term, one in use by more and more Pokemon due to the dominance of their others. Gardevoir had never met her mother, but she had left something in her egg. Memories of tradition, culture, of what their role in the world was as half fae and half weaver.

Closing her eyes, she inhaled. This did not take focus to do, not anymore. A split second later, they opened, revealing to her countless strings that constituted the world. All the exact same length, so many of them they filled her entire vision. In the air, they undulated and flowed freely with the wind. On the ground, they were completely still and harder to make budge, which was why raising an earthen barrier by weaving was incredibly difficult and beyond her and Alakazam's means. Liquid was far easier to move, but air was always the easiest. Concentrating, the strings grew transparent other than the ones she was specifically targeting. She tugged at them with her mind, pulling the strings together near Alakazam. Rubbing them until the air around grew hot and bothered him enough for him to turn her way with an annoyed glare.

Why?

The half-man is coming back. Are you rested enough for another jump? she sent.

I'm close to a breakthrough. Soon.

Gardevoir sent a series of mental jabs to express her displeasure and told him she should have set him on fire. The entire exchange had taken place in less than a second, and could have been faster if she could keep up with Alakazam. He could process things far faster than she could, even if it pained her to admit. Still working with his little toy he called Type Energy, as always. It was an obsession at times, where no one was able to wrest him from his musings until he was done.

The world returned to normal once more as Gardevoir blinked. Sometimes, she wondered if there was something beyond the strings she could weave. She wondered what would happen if she could stretch them enough to tear a hole through reality, or bunch them together until they came dense enough to be seen with the naked eye, or even if delving deeper was possible. When she'd asked Alakazam, he had told her not to try unless she wanted to go mad. It was irritating, how he kept his knowledge so close to his chest even with his closest companions.

Two minutes later, the half-man arrived. Carlos, Mira called him. He was an annoyance that would be better off further crippled than he was if that meant he did not follow them again. Half of his face was missing, having been burned and torn until only flesh remained, and a ghost perpetually clung around him with a foul presence even worse than Gengar. He walked up the hill, reaching the flat, stony plane with a tired grunt, having returned from whatever he had been doing. She was not interested enough to care.

"No fire? It's dark," the trainer grunted to no one in particular. Having been gone since before the sun had set, he had expected one to have been lit.

The ground was solid and rigid, but the insides of a human was mostly gooey liquid. Ready to explore with a single tug of her mind, without protection, which the ACE had none. How strange, that he trusted her so much. She did not bother answering him, instead turning away and resting her hands on her lap. The flesh was soft— or at least that is what Mira said whenever she rested her head on there. Gardevoir's hands were not exactly equipped to feel what was soft and what was not. The half-man did not get an answer from Alakazam either, with how engrossed he was in his research. He had imbued a receptacle of glass and stone with void and was trying to stimulate human conditions, though he would be hard-pressed to do so without testing this on actual living beings. Stone and glass could not act like the confines of flesh, no matter how much he wished that to be the case. That void-touched boy would keep his condition for longer, it seemed.

"ˋSuppose I'll do it myself, then," the half-man grunted. Flames appeared around him, coming from the Mismagius perpetually by his side, and they divided and hovered around the entire camp in a circle until the entire area was illuminated. They were cold, seemingly sapping the area of its heat, but they were only using it for light. Again, he turned Gardevoir's way. "When can we do the jump over Coronet?"

She took a while to answer to express her displeasure. Tomorrow at the soonest, she said. For all she disliked Carlos, he had a mind she could respect. There was a certain fortitude about it Gardevoir couldn't help but admire.

"We're wasting time. By the time we're in Hearthome, we'll have arrived in the number of days it takes to fly there," Carlos complained. He found a rock to sit at with a sigh, near one of Mismagius' cold flames. "The return trip will need to be quicker than this."

That, I can agree with, half-man, Gardevoir said.

Eventually, she drifted off to sleep, and when she woke up, both Carlos and Alakazam were still up. The latter was unsurprising, with how Alakazam only needed to sleep around once per week, just like his need to eat, but for the ACE Trainer? It was easy to tell how tired a human was, when one was experienced enough. Their thoughts slowed, attention spans lapsed, and they became far less fascinating to latch onto. Oh, she never attached her own mind to the half-man. The last time she tried, she had blinked, and been placed into a mental prison of Mismagius' making. It had lasted twelve hours for her. Twelve hours of horrors beyond description, shapes that moved in shadows just beyond what she could see but that terrified her even so.

In the real world, she'd been convulsing on the ground for five seconds.

Never would she mess with the half-man again. Gardevoir did not understand these worries of 'privacy' people liked to tell her about. The mind was meant to be linked with another, and life without that was incomplete. Of course, Mira would forever be hers, but that did not stop her from sometimes delving into others. Grace, she had tried a while ago in Pastoria, before she had visited that Lake. She was violence, compromise and sadism all in one and bottled up. Lesser than she could be due to the fear of being judged, and desperate to lock herself away beyond more and more doors of her own making. So vulnerable, too, with the least amount of fortitude by far, though perhaps there was something admirable of being broken and mended so many times. Chase Karlson, for all Gardevoir hated him for stealing Mira's attention (that role had now been relegated to Lauren), was the flame of ambition personified. A bright mind impossible to extinguish, boisterous and like the brightest stars among the night sky, but fire could burn, if one got too close for too long. Cecilia was ambition as well, but gentler. A stream gently carving its way through the earth until it became a river large enough to flood a forest. She looked beyond what most could see, and it did not matter what twists and turns she would have to make, what obstacles she would meet, because eventually, a river had to reach the ocean. She was also care, gentle and steady. A rock the less fortunate could hold onto in times of strife. A harbor found in the midst of a storm.

All of course paled compared to Mira. Gardevoir was never allowed to delve too deep, lest their minds be locked away in that impossibly complicated shield. Alakazam and she had spent long nights analyzing their trainer's, layers upon layers so deep they were like a fractal. Impossible to comprehend no matter how long they looked.

Finally ready? Gardevoir asked her companion.

Alakazam sighed, one of his spoons twisting in displeasure as he twirled his mustache. That breakthrough had never come, it seemed, as she had predicted. Smart as he was, Alakazam could be so blind, sometimes.

Yes, he gruffed. My apologies for the delay, I really believed I was close. Expunging the energy left the vessel broken. At least now I'm confident I would be able to pull it out of Justin, which is contrary to what I thought in Veilstone. It would leave him in a worse state than the current. Dark Type Energy has always been a weakness of mine.

No need to mess with the void, she chided. Let forces beyond our control lie.

It's for the boy.

It is not for the boy, she said. If her face could keep up with the speed of the conversation, she would have smiled. You simply hate it when you cannot solve one of your projects. The boy stopped mattering long ago.

Alakazam slowed down, brushing her off with a dismissing wave. Let's just go. Where are we jumping? Can we handle reaching the bottom of Mount Coronet from here?

Shall we try reaching Hearthome? Gardevoir asked. Before he could rebuke her, she continued. No improvements come without risks, Alakazam.

Had we been alone, I would have said yes, but let's not get Carlos killed. We go to the bottom of Mount Coronet. Focus.

Carlos recalled his ghost, and sat close to both weavers as he had done multiple times before. Gardevoir closed her eyes, and found memory. She remembered the flattened grounds she had traveled as a Kirlia to get to Hearthome on the way down from Mount Coronet with Maeve and Louis, shortly after having met them. She remembered the layout of the terrain with perfect accuracy as if she could see it with her mind's eye, because she could.

Remember that area we camped at, a day after leaving the Ranger outpost? Alakazam whispered within her mind.

Yes.

It was crystal clear, now. There was a little creek they'd used to wash their dirty clothing and boil water. No trees to be seen in miles. A perfect area to Teleport. Gardevoir linked her mind with Alakazam's and found the exact area he was targeting.

Less than one second had passed.

Strings were weaved together into a line. They stretched and bent, for they were not meant to be exerted this much, but were a constant of the world. Alakazam had spoken many times, about the rules their apparent creator had put in place. It had been that knowledge, that had forced him into evolution. The revelation that they all lived at the whims of a God, which was why the rules sometimes did not make any sense or could be treated so. They could not be broken, but they could be bypassed in numerous ways. The strings tied into knots the sheer amount of control needed for the process being enough to give Gardevoir a mild headache. The link met somewhere above the slopes of Mount Coronet and tied itself together. They only had a moment to tie the structure around Carlos and themselves, because it was unraveling, little by little. In the next two seconds, it would have snapped.

Snapping was what they wanted, but only when they were ready. Forces beyond their understanding rent the knot.

Then, they were somewhere else. In the spot they had visualized in their heads, exhausted, but all in one piece. Long-distance Teleportation was extremely tiring to the mind, and Gardevoir could feel her hold on her weaving abilities slipping by the second.

"It's not meant to work, I think," Alakazam had told her when he'd been a Kadabra and first working on the Teleporting. Back then, he could only do so within his line of sight. "We trick the world into thinking we're somewhere else, and it brings us there because it doesn't know where else to put us. Like a glitch in a computer."

Because that was what weaving was, to her companion. An opportunity to control and understand a world that was not meant to be tamed. Mira had called it fascinating, and Gardevoir had said that his trivialization of the beauty of the Earth they inhabited made her sick.

"Good. The next jump should bring us to Hearthome and we can be done with this," the half-man sighed.

Many trainers with weak minds passed through this place and were of course flabbergasted at an ACE Trainer being here.

—

Let me do the talking, Alakazam said.

They were walking the streets of Hearthome, now, old and adorned with countless brown bricks. Carlos had gone out of view, using Mismagius to mask himself from passersby and them included, but she knew he would be there for the revelation of the danger the world was in. He would want to see and hear what was said, after all. Emilia and Pauline were supposedly staying at a hotel near the Coordinator's Walk, a street that led to the Hearthome Contest Hall. They turned countless eyes, for seeing two Pokemon walking without their trainers was an uncommon sight, even if it wasn't unheard of. One thousand, three-hundred and fifty-six minds were within her range, at the moment, though that number fluctuated wildly with every step. They were unworthy of her inserting herself into their minds. So weak they were barely noticeable. If she'd wanted to, she could latch onto one and Trace it. That was how she'd tracked Abel in Veilstone, after all.

Sometimes I wonder if this is truly necessary, Gardevoir asked. Mira doing this is... not something I approve of.

The logic is sound. Do this now so that they don't kill themselves later, he chided with an exasperated mental sigh. It won't take too long, I assume.

Gardevoir wanted to ask why they should care if two girls got themselves killed by their own means and decisions, but she didn't bother. The debate it would have brought would not have been great to have before such an important moment, and it would not have been the first time it would have happened.

They'll crumble under the pressure, Gardevoir said.

Alakazam's yellow skin glimmered under a street light. If they do, that's good. That means they won't endanger themselves or get in the way.

Mira has too many people to care about, Gardevoir said. She would be happier, with just her Pokemon and the other Shards. Perhaps Maeve. Her mind stands out among the rest, and she has killed before. Fought to the death.

Alakazam didn't answer her, and the remainder of the walk was spent in silence until they realized they were lost. Finding an address was more difficult than it seemed, and it absolutely embarrassed Alakazam. They usually never had to do this, but he was a quick learner and figured out the location within the next two minutes. That lightened the mood a bit, with Gardevoir smiling as they entered the hotel. Humans would call this place 'grand', or perhaps 'beautiful', but it was a waste of space. Towering columns were adorned with intricate gold leaf designs and reached towards the lofty ceiling, creating an air of ostentatious grandeur that seemed to serve no practical purpose. White couches had been strewn about in the entrance area and were large enough to fit a Pokemon battle. Gardevoir's feet slid across the white tiles, and she was nearly too tall for the elevators, which infuriated her. How dare they waste so much space but make it so she had to bend down in the elevators?

Alakazam's eyes shone pink, and the button to the eleventh floor pressed down on its own. The elevator stopped on the fifth floor, but people just flinched when they saw them and opted to wait for the next one, which pleased her greatly. The hallways leading to the room were carpeted and soft to the touch, though they stretched on for what seemed to be endless. Alakazam did not have to tell Gardevoir which room they stayed in, because she could already sense the mind of another world weaver nearby. Gothitelle. She was not one Gardevoir had interacted with much, but she could at least respect the close bond between her and Pauline. They both passed by a couple who practically clung to the wall to leave them space before reaching the door. Gardevoir's eyes flickered, and she pulled and stretched at a string repeatedly, letting it snap back into place to knock on the door. Muffled voices could be heard, worried and wondering who was at their door, but it was only a matter of time until the weaker mind peeked through the peephole and opened the door with a confused frown. Her red hair was well-combed, cut shorter than the last time Gardevoir had seen her and only reaching down to her neck. The fae supposed people would have called the clothes she wore fancy, if she had any good sense of what looked good or not. Pauline broadened her shoulders and made herself tall until her eyes flickered to the half-man who had somehow appeared from the opposite side of the hallway until he joined them, his ghost coiled around his skin, hidden from view and a hole in the world to her senses. A spirit who did not belong to this plane.

There was a reason he'd been able to keep track of Mira so well in Veilstone.

"What's up?" Pauline said, her voice low.

"Damn it."

She still felt nauseous, her heart was beating like she'd just run a marathon, and her body was full of adrenaline but she knew Pauline needed help. Emilia had had no choice in retreating to the bathroom to get herself situated, but she'd left her alone long enough. The door cracked, and Emilia was surprised to find Pauline no longer hugging her knees on the bed. Instead, she was sitting cross-legged, taking breaths so deep Emilia figured she must have had an extra set of lungs. She was still crying, though utterly silently. It was a little disturbing, though she didn't dwell on it, considering there was a lot more at stake, now.

She is meditating, Gothitelle said. Learned it from the Primeape.

"I... I've never seen her do that. Can I— can I interrupt?"

She only answered with a nod, and Emilia tip-toed toward Pauline. They'd been through so much together, hadn't day? Even if it seemed small, in the grand scheme of things, even if it didn't matter, they'd known each other since they were toddlers, and she had to admit, there was no one else she'd rather be learning of this catastrophe with. Emilia placed a hand on Pauline's shoulder, and she slowly opened her hazel eyes.

"Pauline." Her throat was tight, but she forced out the words. "Are you— I mean, are you well enough to function?"

"I think." Pauline's voice was so... vulnerable. Raw. Something Emi had heard so infrequently she'd almost forgotten it existed. "I think I can hold myself together for a little bit. I might be wrong."

Emilia sat next to her, placing a hand on hers. "Can we call the others? We should call Mira, shouldn't we? And I guess Grace, since they're together. They were the ones to deliver the news."

It was easy to see now, why they'd all kept it a secret for so long. Why Denzel had said it was for their own good. She did not agree, but she at least understood. No one wanted to just tell someone else the world might end, and the way Alakazam had described it was even more terrifying than the ways Emilia had thought about Legendary Pokemon. With the birds, it would be untold destruction wrought for days and weeks until society collapsed and humanity was reduced to a few roving bands in a world scorched by fire, ice or electricity while it recovered. With Dialga and Palkia, it was... instantaneous. The power of space and time brought to life, if they could even be considered alive. Emilia wasn't really well enough to talk philosophy, at the moment.

"Yeah," Pauline deflated. "Let's... talk to them before we decide what to do."

Emilia knew already, that she would tell her Pokemon and the others who were involved and in danger. Beyond the plot to end the world, people deserved to know that their lives were at stake through Team Galactic's plans to use Pauline— and maybe them as hostages. And their friends having powers? It explained everything about their closeness to the League. So many pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together. She texted Grace, more out of habit than anything else, telling her that they needed to talk, and then they both jumped a little when she called.

Instantly, she put it on speaker. "Hello? Grace?"

"Hey Emi," she answered. Her voice seemed tired, but most of all, expectant. As if she'd known this call had been coming. "I have Mira with me, and you're on speaker. Let's talk."

"You know," Emilia noted. "I guess Mira told you."

"I did," a higher-pitched voice chimed in. "You guys are up to speed?"

Up to speed? Why was she talking about this like they were just being updated on plans to hang out for an afternoon and not like they'd learned the world could end?

Emilia clenched her forehead. "What the hell, guys? What is all of this?"

"We thought you'd be better off knowing given the fact that you would have gotten yourself killed if you kept playing detective," Mira said.

Grace spoke up. "Mira—"

"Sorry— sorry, that was ruder than it needed to be. How're you guys feeling?"

"Awful," Pauline forced out. For a moment, Emi thought she'd cry again, but she closed her eyes and breathed. "We know everything, now, but it's... it's just so fucking heavy."

"You wanted this," Mira said. Emilia could almost visualize her shrugging. "Don't complain about the weight."

"Well, sorry for not expecting this entire thing to be the literal worst-case scenario!" Pauline yelled. "I'm pretty sure no one would have thought this to be possible, so kindly fuck off."

"It's a lot," Grace said. "It was a lot for us too, at first. You have to let it settle, and it'll get better after a few days. You learn to live with it."

"I think that's just you, Grace," Pauline sighed. "I'll try, but... yeah. Okay."

"I'll try to see about getting you guys a therapist," she added. "They're a lot of help, and they're really good."

There was a beat of silence Emi took advantage of. "I want to thank you for telling us, Mira. I appreciate your honesty."

"No prob'" she drawled. "I mean, it was the best course of action. Again, I had it on good authority that you'd get yourself killed. So, what's the plan now?"

"What do you mean the plan?" Pauline asked.

"What're you guys going to do?"

Not even five minutes since they'd learned the world might end, and they were already being asked that? Not that Emilia had no answer, but... had her friends always been this distant? No, no, that was just her not thinking straight. Of course they needed to know what they'd do.

"We tell the others."

"Expected," Mira said. "Who exactly?"

"I mean, everyone? It wouldn't be right to hide this from some and tell others, it would just splinter us." Splinter them more than they already had, she omitted. "I assume you're okay with us doing that?"

"Sure," Grace said. "Uh, don't tell Lauren, though. She's not involved in this and isn't under threat."

"Wasn't going to," Emilia agreed.

"Okay, so are you guys going to be all like 'let us help you' when everything goes down?" Mira asked. "Because if I'm being honest, I think it's a bad idea."

Emilia glanced at Pauline, expecting a retort about her Pokemon being just as good as Mira, but none of that came. Instead, she stared at her feet and gripped Emilia's hand tight.

"Why, exactly?" Emilia asked. "Beyond the usual... 'we can't protect you' or 'you'll just get in the way' thing."

"Wow, that was exactly what I was going to say," Mira snorted.

"Seriously, I know you're a good trainer, Pauline. Ingenious, even if at first glance all you do is beat things up until they stop moving. Emilia, I've seen your contest. I know you're good enough with TE manipulation to be as good as I am in that regard, but fights like what's coming are... different than the rest."

"We've been in those before, Grace. In Eterna Forest and in Mount Coronet," Emilia protested.

"I mean what I said. It's one thing seeing a Pokemon attacking you because you encroached on their territory or wandered too close to a nest or something, but hearing and seeing another human want to kill you is different, and none of you have enough experience for it."

Emilia groaned. "How can we help, then?"

"Why do you want to get in harm's way this badly?" Mira said with an exasperated sigh.

She clenched her teeth. "Is it that difficult to think that I might want to help my friends? The people who helped me discover myself, who pushed me to realize my dreams of being a coordinator? Who stuck by me when I was deadweight? The people I love?!"

She was tired of being powerless. Of watching her friends become more and more broken for reasons she hadn't understood at the time, but that she now fully knew. If the world would end, she did not want to just whimper in a corner and hope for the best. She wanted to rage against that fate, to fight. To do something.

Grace sighed. "You're right, Emi, I'm sorry. I'd be— I'd be doing the same thing in your situation, I think. Trying to find a way to help."

"So what can we do?"

"Well, that entirely depends on how Team Galactic goes about things," Mira said after a pause. "But maybe we can find something. I'll talk to my guys, since Grace... yeah, I'll talk to my guys. See if they can get back to the League. Don't expect much, but I think they'll do it to keep us happy."

"Thank you," Emilia sighed in relief.

She was terrified, still, but there was no putting the genie back in the bottle. No going back. She had wanted this, and so she would suffer the consequences with open arms despite the hardships it would bring. Carlos and Mira's psychics came back while Grace had been telling them about an underground city where she'd almost died in the spirit of coming clean, and Emilia knew the night was only beginning.

She didn't think she would be able to sleep, anyway. Busy work like this would keep her head above water, and it would keep her from breaking down again.

Hopefully.