Interlude – Character Study

Interlude – Character Study

INTERLUDE - CHARACTER STUDY

Huh.

When was the last time she'd gotten her nails done, anyway?

The question had popped up in Jupiter's mind when she'd looked at her fingers. They were a mix of blue and purple due to the number that ACE Trainer had done on her and now she couldn't even put her hands into a fist, let alone move them, and keeping them close to a fire type's warmth had only alleviated the frostbite. The pain was also bad, she supposed. It was a weird, numb sort of pain that was okay, but also annoying as hell? Not as bothersome as the ugly state of her nails, ugh. She was forced to look at them too, with how her hands were stretched next to some grunt's Camerupt.

They were all huddled up in a camp, this time off-route next to route 210, where all the fog kept them hidden well and they were close enough to Mount Coronet to access it when they needed to. The fog was so thick here she couldn't see ten feet in front of her, which made organizing this mess a whole lot of work that Saturn had to contend with, the poor guy, especially when he'd just lost his Crobat. A fun way to look at it was that he finally stopped being such a hard ass. So exigent that he reminded her of her old boss sometimes, except younger and louder, and he wasn't actually her superior no matter what he believed. Adrianna was honestly overqualified for her position, anyway. She should be above... well, maybe not above Charon, but above Mars and Saturn. No one had noticed her barely putting effort in, and even Cyrus had praised her for her 'usefulness'. If only he knew how useful she could be when she actually tried at anything. Too bad that had been way too much work, though.

Right now, the best Saturn had come up with was using their remaining psychics to link together to point them in the right direction whenever grunts needed to get somewhere else, because the fog never dissipated no matter what move they used. Not even Defog! It was little annoyances like that, that'd make someone go crazy. They'd sent a few scouting parties out east toward Mount Coronet, but those had apparently been shot out of the sky by a Salamence. There had been only one survivor, and they didn't exactly have men to spare. The goal had been to probe which entry would be the best to enter Coronet, but it looked like they'd have to go blind.

But hey, they had the power of Gods on their side, so that equalized the playing field a little.

"I think this isn't working anymore," Jupiter said before coughing. This fog was making it hard to breathe. "Thanks anyway, buddy."

"Anything to serve the cause, Commander Jupiter!" the grunt said. Her Camerupt neighed and flared up, happy to have aided in any way it could.

How predictable. At this point, you'd think all these grunts were the same person. It was like, get some new material, right?

"You hang tight, alright?" she smiled. Fake, of course, but she was well-practiced.

It was about time she visited Mars anyway, given that the kid wasn't doing great at the moment, and Cyrus had asked her to check up on her the last time he'd been doing rounds. Well, her and the rest of the Commanders. It was, after all, part of her job to keep them in line, and now that things had kind of gone to shit it was up to her to crawl down into the sewers that was her colleagues' brains and to unclog them as best she could.

It was still insane to her, that Cyrus' mere presence could raise morale to such an extent that no one here minded that there were only six hundred of them left. Way more Pokemon, of course, but the psychological effect of going from thousands of grunts to that meager number ought to have shaken them up a little more, right? Jupiter knew it'd be bad for their goals, but she kind of wanted to see the cracks form around the structure, just to figure out how they'd all have to fix it for the final battle. People were so fascinating when they were under pressure, but breaking them was boring. It was observing how they picked themselves up again, how they justified themselves to keep going even though the situation was a disaster, that was interesting. Not that the current situation was a disaster, it was more of a hiccup due to Mars' current mental state.

There was nothing like the human condition to get her going.

Jupiter stretched with a long groan, and she got going toward the south, where the fog was a little less dense. Occasionally she'd have the occasional psychic ping her mind to redirect her where she wanted to go, but she had Girafarig for that. They were one of the few psychics that couldn't speak. The most they could do was express emotions or feelings at her, but that didn't mean they were lesser, even if they hadn't evolved.

There was no yet at the end of that sentence. Girafarig simply shared the opinion that growing up into a Farigiraf would be inconvenient, given that they wouldn't be able to fit in an office or an apartment. She'd spent long looking up these luxurious condos out of Hearthome or Jubilife just in case they ever changed their minds, but being pet-sized was what Girafarig wanted, so it was what they'd stay at. Not that she'd ever be able to afford those condos or even live in them if she had the money, but it was fun to dream, right? Married with two kids, living in an expensive condo. Kissing the husband or the wife goodbye, driving the kids to school every morning, then going to work at a business she owned, where she could set her own schedule...

That'd be fun for a few months, at least. Maybe subtly abuse them, too. Make them feel worthless, like they could never meet her impossibly high expectations. Then she'd divorce her significant other when her children were twelve or so, just to see how it affected their development during puberty. How the fighting, the legal proceedings and the final separation would scar them in combination with that abuse, and how they'd grow up as a consequence of that. The way every single little flaw would be able to be traced to an event she'd begun. That wasn't why she was helping Cyrus, but hey, if she was getting an entirely new playground to build herself a sandcastle, why not?

Adrianna smiled. It wasn't going to happen, was it? But again, it was nice to dream.

Suddenly, Girafarig pulled her out of her fantasy with notions of interest. She placed her hand on the normal type's neck, and they— both the neck and the tail— pointed to her right toward a group of grunts huddled next to each other, sitting either on the ground, on ripped up bits of wooden logs, rocks or their Pokemon.

"What is it?" she whispered.

Girafarig's head nudged her arm and pushed her forward, so she decided to entertain them for the time being. The only good thing about this fog was that grunts rarely saw who was coming up to them, so they kept talking as she approached.

"Why are we waiting, still?" one said. A woman, with one of those sultry voices Adrianna liked. "The longer we wait, the more the League has time to recuperate and bar up Mount Coronet."

Was that why they'd nudged her? To stamp down this treasonous talk? Honestly, calling it treasonous was exaggerating, but she had to channel her inner Saturn. This was the kind of festering doubt she would have liked to see spread throughout the ranks, but if Cyrus got a hold that she wasn't doing what he'd asked, he would kill her. Literally. And he might still do it anyway, so she wouldn't be doing herself any favors. She hadn't gotten front-row seats to this whole deal to die before seeing if he was going to succeed or not.

A man spoke up, this time. "We have Mesprit and Azelf. They can't stand against our firepower, and the Commanders know what they are doing."

And that was the end of that. Maybe if she'd been born earlier she would have gone down to Kanto-Johto and joined Team Rocket instead of this bunch, honestly.

Hm, no, that was a bit over the line. None of Team Rocket's goals were as lofty as this. The people might have been a lot more fun, but their ambitions had been small.

"Are you accusing me of thinking the opposite, Devyn? Of going against our great leader Cyrus?"

Someone else spoke up, "He's just saying, you should watch your words. Doubt is the enemy."

"I haven't doubted!" she responded. Should Jupiter ask to sleep with her? Not like she'd say no... ah, never mind, they hadn't washed in a while, had they? Damn it, this job was getting on her nerves. "In fact, I hope I'm selected for the task force that storms Acuity, even if I won't make it back. I must serve the cause."

Noooo, come on, you sounded too pretty to just die like that.

"We should just rest up," a little voice said. Oh, oh, she recognized this one! They all turned toward her, their faces shadows within the fog. "Um... you know, it'd be best if we could perform at our highest level is what I mean."

"How's everyone doing?" Jupiter cut in, stepping behind Clara. The teenager jumped, shrieking like someone had just murdered her entire family in front of her, that drama queen.

"C—Commander!" The woman she'd set her eyes on stammered. She was as pretty as she sounded. "We're just waiting for the next step, ready as always!"

The rest echoed her words, each trying to outdo themselves with higher and higher fervor. Clara, or Grace Pastel the fourth just answered with a meager nod. Jupiter made small talk for a few minutes, mostly letting them boast of how loyal they were and how they hoped Cyrus knew how committed everyone was to the cause, but it wasn't them she was here for. It was Clara. She dragged her away to the side so they could talk in private. The fog had a way of swallowing and muffling sound.

Jupiter sized the girl up and down, patting her on the shoulders as best she could with her frostbitten hands. "Well look at you, alive and well!" she cheered. "I can't believe you survived Acuity, with Lucario eliminating so many of us. That Musharna of yours must be tough."

"She— she is," Clara whispered. "We've been together a long time, so..."

"Oh, that doesn't mean anything. I mean, you have people who've been with their Pokemon for over a decade, and they still die all the same. It was mostly luck, I was just being nice."

"Oh."

"I was on the way to see your boss, you know?" The girl froze within her hands. "But Girafarig here pointed me toward you, so I figured I'd check up."

"Is she— is she okay? There are rumors..."

"Oh, she'll be fine, she's a tough girl," Jupiter said, letting her go. "Rumors, though, huh. What do they say?"

Clara glanced to the side and fidgeted. "I'm not in trouble, right?"

"Speak your mind. It's the part about you I find interesting."

She smiled. Smiled! It was fascinating, how a mistreated individual would recalibrate their being enough to start enjoying backhanded compliments like this. Jupiter supposed that she was the only person who'd shown her an ounce of kindness, if she could even call it that. Positive attention was a better word, maybe. Clara looked around to check if they were being listened to, and then continued.

"Rumors are that she was horribly injured and that she's on the brink of death," the girl whispered. "And that she won't be able to hold onto Azelf and Mesprit for much longer."

"Must make you happy, huh?"

"Why do you... say that?"

Adrianna rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. Imagine your abuser, lying dead in one of our medical tents—"

"She's actually going to die?!"

"Well, no, but I did say imagine it. Now you ruined it," the Commander sighed. "But she's out of commission for a bit, and in this fog... you could escape, you know? Run away and get yourself out of here."

"No, I can't."

Damn. There hadn't even been a sliver of doubt in her when she'd answered. It was curious, how cults got you. Even she, who had been mistreated so much had been wrapped around Galactic's little finger, at the end of the day. Not because Clara actually believed in what they were doing, or because she was devoted to the cause, but because she thought that she was better off here than anywhere else. Maybe she believed that the government would extract her memories and kill her, which was... possible, but so long as she avoided cities, she could get pretty far with her Musharna. Hitch a ride on a ship, or something. Start a new life in another region. It wasn't like she was a Commander or Abel. Her face hadn't been plastered everywhere for people to see.

But at the end of the day, Clara wanted into this new world— this promise that had everyone looking up to Cyrus like he was their messiah. It worked so well as something to keep the organization together, moreso now that they had actual Legendaries to show for it, because it could be whatever you wanted! That was what was magical about it. To Jupiter, it was her being a business owner who permanently scarred her kids and family, but to someone else? It could be anything and everything. And who knew if she'd be let in, if she suddenly went missing in their most important hour? And given that Mars was wounded, maybe things were looking up for her and she'd never have to see her again until the world ended!

Yeah. That ought to be what she was thinking. And so, here she was, looking to defend those who had wronged her.

"When you imagine yourself in our new world, what do you see?" Adrianna asked her.

Clara smiled, as if she'd thought about this a million times before. Her only lifeline to comfort her when all she'd known had been torture, both mental and physical. "It's a little stupid."

"We don't judge here!"

"Well, the world doesn't change... that much. I'm just rich and I can send money to my parents so they can buy themselves a huge mansion, and I can travel the world without worrying about them." She giggled to herself, letting the smile linger. "Me and Musharna, staying at luxury hotels, eating good food, and seeing what other countries are like? Isn't that the dream?"

So you decide to help end the world instead of becoming a bank robber or something? Jupiter said, nearly guffawing to herself. Way to rationalize. She'd think they were alike, but there was a higher goal she was striving for, beyond the married life and all of that jazz.

"We also have this idea. Um, helping people through dreams. They kind of already study dreams in Unova, but not to help people, so I think we won't get sued. Our thing would kind of be like dream therapy. It was how I stayed sane when Mars hurt me. I would have given up, had Musharna not been here."

"Sounds like a grand old time," Jupiter said. What else to say, in situations like these? "I'm glad you've found something you want to do."

There. That was some nice filler. Arceus, she could go for a glass of red wine right now. Sinnohan wines were honestly all trash, especially compared to the Paldean or Kalosian ones, but she'd even take those. Their stock in their base had run out months ago.

"You know, Commander Jupiter, I have to thank you for always checking up on me."

Always? Twice meant always, now? This girl was so starved for normal human interactions that she couldn't even think straight. This was a well-studied phenomenon in human minds, though. People tended to start liking their kidnappers if they started showing them the tiniest bit of kindness, or their abusers every time they promised that they would totally change, this time, shortly after being the worst they'd ever been.

"Musharna's resting up right now, but she thinks the same. We won't fail you when the time comes."

"Well, it's part of the job," she smiled. "I've got to let you go for now, though, duty calls."

Dangling her dream in front of her seemed to have 'worked', though honestly Jupiter hadn't come here with that goal in mind. Her priority was Commanders, given Cyrus' orders. Morale from them would trickle down to the troops in time, and it wasn't like they were moving out of here until Mars got any better. Her emotions were all over the place right now, and she wasn't sure of her own existence any longer, so her link with Mesprit was weaker than ever. That meant that their barrier would easily be breached, if they Teleported into Acuity right away, and that was if the damn thing even got them there without killing them by Teleporting them in the ground or only half of their body. Anyway, the point was, dealing with grunts was Saturn's job. Jupiter wasn't one to enjoy crawling in the mud of low-level managing, she'd already done enough of that for a lifetime.

It took another ten minutes to reach a relatively flat stretch of ground where stone gave way to a thin layer of dirt. Places where they'd set up food stations, bathrooms with toilet paper alongside a river that went far up north, for good measure, but she would die before going to one of those makeshift stalls with no plumbing. Yeah, they never told you about how ending the world would stop you from accessing proper bathrooms. What she was looking for, however, were the medical tents, AKA, the tents where people were left to die slowly and painfully. They hung there like little islands of light between the darkness of the fog, with how each one had a lantern set up on the inside. It wasn't like they had any medical supplies to actually get them back on their feet, and even then, it'd take too long. The real number of grunts they had left was seven hundred and sixty-one, but a hundred and fifty of those were so hurt that they could barely move. They had to at least show that they cared for the grunts a little bit, and helping the wounded die slowly instead of instantly helped a little bit with that.

Honestly, if it was up to her she would have put them down already. What was the point of hurting with no hope of recovery?

Normally you'd see a higher ratio of wounded, but the League had helped them in that regard, with how lethal they'd been. Arceus knew they didn't have enough space to house any more, and they already had to cram the tents with people. Legendaries, she had this song stuck in her head... this weird jazzy tune because she'd thought about jazz earlier. Hearthome had the best music industry in Sinnoh, she had to admit.

The tent she was looking for was isolated from the rest and was set up far away from the river, which was good, because her reflection in the water might show how her make up was ruined and she couldn't ruin her day like that when she'd already complained about her nails. You'd think the fog would stop her from seeing it, but nope. The tent was by a cliff— or maybe calling it a cliff was too much. A hill with somewhat of a steep drop-off would be more accurate. Mars' Wigglytuff and Ninetales stood guard at the tent's entrance, whispering to each other about some nonsense. Probably worried for their trainer, if she had to guess. There were also two grunts who were part of Cyrus' personal guard, but they weren't allowed close to the tent without being burned alive. Mars' team could get very overprotective, but honestly Jupiter wouldn't allow those numbskulls anywhere near her either. They were the most like Cyrus, purged of all emotion. One of them had even blasted himself with dark type energy in hopes of emulating their dear leader. They saluted as they let her through, but she still had to talk to Mars' Pokemon.

"Hi there. I'm here to see Mars, talk to her a little bit. See how she's faring."

Wigglytuff swelled up a little, sucking in air while Ninetales just stared, her tails swaying from side to side.

"Come on, dude. It's me," she groaned, putting her hands up. "I won't make her any worse than she is now, I'm not that good."

She felt very warm all of a sudden, sweat bearing down her face and arms, and Legendaries, sweating in this uniform was uncomfortable.

"Okay, Ninetales, maybe good wasn't the right word to use here, but you get me, right? You aren't stupid. She needs support right now, and I'm willing to give it to her." Adrianna took a few steps forward, making herself as unthreatening as possible. Damn her and her overprotective team! Her Slaking would let an assassin through if it meant he could get an extra five minutes of sleep. "So, can I come in or not?" she said, looking at Ninetales. "These are orders from Cyrus."

Ah, that seemed to have done the trick. Warmth bled away from her, but she didn't miss the fact that this asshole of a Pokemon made her colder instead, not enough to be a health hazard, but just enough to make her uncomfortable.

"Tell you what," Adrianna whispered as she passed the two. "You'd make a good office worker, Nines. I'd applaud, but my hands are hurt."

The Commander asked Girafarig to stay out, stepped within the tent and looked at her colleague. Mars was in a sorry state. Her body itself was covered by a tarp, but constant, shadowy smoke leaked from under there as her limbs and other body parts grew back. Adrianna made note that her Pokeballs were sitting next to her head, but Mars didn't really have arms yet to release her team without help. Cyrus had asked her to watch for Dusknoir, and since she wasn't dead yet, well, she had to assume the thing was still in its ball. Would have been an anti-climatic way to go, she had to admit. Mars continuously shivered as she cried in silence, but she stopped when she noticed Jupiter had stepped into the tent. Adrianna had to stop for a moment.

It was the first time she'd ever seen that girl cry. How peculiar.

She crouched next to her. "How are you doing, Mars?"

The girl moved her nubby little arms, but they hadn't regenerated enough to wipe her eyes and snot. Jupiter did it for her, ignoring the pain shooting up her hands and how disgusting it was, to touch someone else's snot. Mars tried to formulate words, but she couldn't. Oh, her vocal cords were fine now, but she was sobbing so uncontrollably it came out like another language.

"Shhh, shhh," Jupiter said, stroking her head. Really, it was a way to discreetly wipe her snot off her hands masked as a gesture of affection. "You're fine, okay? I'm here for you."

"L—liar," Mars said.

"Well, it's the gesture that counts right? Don't be ungrateful."

"Shut... shut up."

"Sheesh, no threats of murder? You're getting worse." Jupiter settled next to her, sitting on the soft floor of the tent. "What happened? Any new visions?"

"Jupiter... what am I?"

"You're Mars, Commander of Team Galactic," she answered.

The redhead took a deep breath. Her hair dye was a little faded, now, revealing her true hair color at its roots, which was just a less vibrant and more natural red. Jupiter's was a dark brown, which was a little boring, but hey, she had to stand out as a Commander, and purple had always been her favorite.

"My time in Mesprit's world is trickling down to my memories, but it's fuzzy like a dream," she explained. "It gets clearer and clearer the longer I wait, and you know what Mesprit called me? They called me a shell, and Grace joined in and said I wasn't human."

"Well, that much is evident," Jupiter said, lifting up the tarp. Yeesh, that was disgusting, better not look at bones and flesh slowly reforming itself. Her nose wrinkled at that, and Mars broke down again. "Oh, come on now, I'm just saying! Isn't it great? You literally got sawn in half and you're still kicking! You can basically do whatever you want, right? I feel like it synergizes well with your other murderous activities."

"You— don't get it," she cried. "I don't know what I am, and it hurts. It's like something is wrong with me, I've never felt like this before, I—" she stopped. "Can— can you blow my nose?"

Jupiter acquiesced, using her cover to do so. Her hands needed a good wash when this was over. Good thing they were close to a river and she could get soap around here. Tarp was harder to blow a nose in than you'd think. It didn't bend well around a small nose like Mars' and it was a pretty nose, cute as a button. Jupiter was jealous of it, sometimes, and jealous of how the girl never gained any weight.

"Thank you. Imagine if your entire life was a lie? That you just weren't a person?"

"Sounds like a win to me."

"You wouldn't get it... plus, Dusky's at fault! He knows why this is happening. Where I come from. And he's been hiding it from me all along. He stabbed me in the back!"

Wasn't that obvious? He'd been the only one who remembered the past and who Mars used to be, after all. Sometimes it was just easier to pull wool over your eyes and convince yourself that the person you loved and trusted the most would never betray you. Jupiter should have brought a notebook for this. Keeping track of everyone and their quirks sounded like a fun hobby to pass the time.

"Well, he has," Jupiter shrugged. "What are you going to do about it? Talk to him?"

"Talk? Right now?" the girl bit her lip. "No, I can't! I can't, I can't, I can't! I'm scared, Juju, what if he can somehow scramble my memories or something?"

"So you think he's behind the memory issues?"

"It has to be him! He remembers," she hissed, squirming in place. Heh, Jupiter was talking to a torso and a head right now, like those models they had in high school. You know, I wonder how everyone's doing? She hadn't gone to any of her school reunions. Those had never struck her fancy. "...Juju, are you listening?"

"Yes."

Mars scowled, suddenly pushing herself up as best she could. "Liar! You fucking liar!" She wasn't very successful.

We pay you in exposure, Jupiter thought, shutting down the joke before it could come out of her mouth. There was no use in pretending to care, with him, but she still couldn't be completely tone deaf.

"What's wrong, Charon? We've been successful enough to nab two Legendaries out of their lakes, and you're having a little pity party?"

His jaw clenched, or at least she thought it did. It was hard to tell, even from up close. "I am thinking."

"Thinking of what? Besides your sister, I mean, because we've treaded that path a thousand times before." And I'm tired of hearing about it. "Cyrus asked me to tell you to check up on Mars. You know, to figure out what exactly she is."

"That should be obvious to anyone with a brain by now," he gruffed. Another coughing fit, and he took a deep, raspy breath full of phlegm. "I've suspected this for a while, but she is the... remnant of a soul, or a piece of a soul." He placed his hands behind his back, all professor-like. "As for what that means, well, it apparently means she cannot die easily."

"But she can still die? Won't she just come back like a ghost type Pokemon?"

Keep him talking. Keep him engaged in conversation, because explaining things was something Charon loved, until she could pivot and get what she wanted.

"Oh, you misunderstand, Jupiter, she's no Pokemon. She is still a person, and only ghost type Pokemon can come back from the dead," he sagely spoke. Then, he waved a finger. "No, she can die, but it would take a lot to put her down. The real question is, how the hell did Dusknoir come up with this, and why?"

Jupiter was curious, for once, but she knew Cyrus already had the answers. "I don't know much about him. He's a recluse."

"It is a monster, a horrible one," Charon muttered. "But you know what piques my interest, Jupiter? What really interests me?"

"Tell me, O wise one."

Yikes. That didn't go over well, she should have shut up. Still, Charon continued. "When one thinks of a Dusknoir, what do they picture?"

"There are stories about it. An endless hunger for souls, reapers that commit murder on a massive scale until they're chased away, and that only care about growing their own power, everything else be damned. Way to overgeneralize, by the way."

"Mars' Dusknoir... does eat as many souls as he can, but why would a Dusknoir keep that pest alive? Why would he keep her, knowing how much of a liability she is? Stay here knowing that he would have to eat fewer souls that he would have if he was not a part of Team Galactic?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"I've pondered this for a few weeks. Looked at it from every different angle, parsed through mad theories and common sense." He looked at her, a gleam in his eye, shining through the fog. "What would drive a ghost, who, for all intent and purposes, has not weaned his hunger for souls, to pause its own growth. The answer to that is—" he coughed again. "—love."

Jupiter snorted. "How cliche. Also, please cover your mouth when you cough."

"Mars is not a human. We both know this, by now," he said. "But she is real. An echo of a person who once was, or a fragment of her. Facets of her personality, but not a whole. Not yet. And maybe she never will be."

Adrianna hummed. "Ah. I see it now. The shape of it."

"It is similar to my own. There was, at some point, a terrible loss of Mars and her Pokemon. Maybe she struck at the wrong person or Pokemon, and they were more powerful than they expected," he theorized. "After all, this is a portion of her, meaning that she would share similarities with the whole and have parts of her personality. It would not surprise if she'd been a murderer in her past, just simply more nuanced about things and not so crazed."

"An actual person."

"Now, Dusknoir remains— or maybe at this point in time, he is still a Dusclops," Charon said. "The first souls he ever imbibes are the ones of his own team, and he is careful. He preserves them as best he could, but it is not enough. He cannot preserve them like this, and they are fading, ever so slowly."

"So he eats more."

The scientist nodded. "He gorges himself on as many souls he can until he evolves, and he finds his control to be so much greater now, and he vomits out... whatever Mars and her Pokemon are." He smiled, as if agreeing with himself. "Now, most of this is probably wrong, but like you said, there's a shape to this that is correct. A shape not unlike what I am doing."

"For a while, he probably tried to bring them back the natural way," Adrianna said, thinking. "A few years, maybe, but it doesn't work. They aren't the same. Never the same."

"The question remains, how did Dusknoir and Cyrus meet?"

It made sense now. Why Cyrus had been worried about Dusknoir.

Their goal was not aligned. It simply was not. Charon only wanted to bring his sister back from the dead, but years of working under Cyrus had bought him loyalty and trust, and so he was content to let him take the reigns. To let him create his new world, so long that his sister was in it, a girl he had raised himself and considered his own daughter, given the wide age gap between the two. She'd been an accident.

Dusknoir had no such loyalties. He did not need the world to be turned to ash and molded to Cyrus' liking, only to bring his teammates back.

Adrianna smiled.

How interesting.

"When Cyrus found Mars, she told him that she'd woken up in a dumpster without any memories of who she was or what she'd been doing here," Charon said. "Both he and Dusknoir raised her together into what she is today, groomed her to their liking, but... I have to wonder." He paused, grabbing onto another flat stone to throw into the lake. "Was that the first time Mars had been born, or not?"

"You'd have to know how old Dusknoir is, and even then, maybe that wouldn't help. And you know, there's still the question of why he's holding onto her memories this way. Can he even give them back? Is he not good enough, is the soul too damaged?"

The older man sniffed. "I suppose I could go and take a look at her. See if I can get any answers."

Boom, baby! Hot damn, she was so good at her job it was incredible. Igniting his passion for the unknown, his need to have his answers had worked.

"I think that'd be best, yeah."

His eyes swept the river. "You know, I was thinking to myself, when I was alone here, about the cost of all of this. The horrors we've wrought."

"Don't get second thoughts now, at the final hour."

"These aren't second thoughts. I am as committed to the cause as I've always been, but dying does something to a man. It changes the way he thinks," Charon said, throwing the stone against the water. Jupiter heard it skip maybe five or six times. Mediocre, all things considered. "I've come too far to balk now, but... would Marie forgive me, for everything I've done? Would she thank me, for bringing us back together? The answer to that is no."

"Well, she won't have to know."

"I think I will tell her, when she's born again," he whispered. "That I will come clean about the billions of lives it took to bring her back. It will kill her, it will, but we will have an eternity to heal, and she'll have her family with her again to help. Joshua and Mira."

Joshua must be the husband, then. The one who had been driving during the accident. Not that it was his fault, given that they'd been killed by a drunk driver.

"Yup. Immortality's fun."

She didn't really believe that. Sure, an early, anticlimactic ending sucked, but the fact that their lives had an end at all was what gave everything meaning.

And they'd all end very soon. The end to everything that had ever lived, and everything that ever would live. Tragic, in every sense of the word, especially when none of it would come back, them included.

"Well, I'll let you go and check up on Mars, then," Adrianna smiled. "Oh, and also, Saturn needs some company, if you have any time after that. Let Cyrus know everything you discover, okay?"

When she reached flattened ground with Girafarig, Jupiter stretched and prepared herself for the coming meeting with her boss.

Once upon a time, she would have been nervous about meeting a superior. Were her numbers correct? Maybe she should run them one more time, just to be sure. Did she look presentable, was she making eye contact for too long, not long enough, would the bad news set him off, would she be fired, how would she pay her bills, would she be able to make rent on time this month—

The usual spiel when working a job you hated at a black company.

Today, it was more like... would she be able to survive through this? And honestly, she preferred it this way.

"Cyrus."

He stood there, hands behind his back as always like a little schoolboy, with Mesprit and Azelf by his side. The two were pretty incredible to look at, even if they were asleep and in a dream-like state. So much power radiated out of them that it was difficult to even be in their presence or look at them for more than a few seconds at a time, and that was when they were asleep. Of course, they were still under Mars' control, though they would have to be given to someone else soon. To be honest, Jupiter reckoned that Azelf would fit mighty well with Cyrus, but the man despised Legendaries so much he did not want to link his own self to what he considered putrid.

Well, maybe despised was the wrong word, for an unfeeling man. He simply thought these concepts that held themselves above him to be unworthy of himself, and so he would not take control of them until the last possible moment. It would be faster, this time. Less convincing, and more of a passing of the torch. Even if that torch would burn out faster, when in his hand, it would be enough to summon Dialga and Palkia to appear and craft a new world after ending this one.

"Adrianna," he responded as she recalled Girafarig. Again, this would need to be private. They were alone, in an isolated part of camp that Cyrus had claimed as his own.

Always Adrianna, when they were alone. Their connection went beyond her name as a Team Galactic Commander. They had met long ago, in Snowpoint, when he had come to visit the outside of the temple that apparently housed a terrible horror he had read about, but the government hadn't let him in. Before he could leave town, he had wrapped her around his finger and had her eating out of the palm of his hand, so much so that she'd thrown caution to the wind and asked to travel with him.

Back then, Skitty had not finished altering her fully, and she'd been young. Naive. And there was something about an unfeeling man that made someone desperate to become the key that would unlock his heart. It had not been love, or even close to it. They'd never even been friends. It was more of a fascination with the man's behavior and quirks that she'd never been able to shake, even now.

"How's it hanging?" she asked. "I visited each Commander—"

"You know, Adrianna," he interrupted, turning toward her. Empty eyes and a face unmoving. "When we first caught Mesprit and Mars brought back our remaining forces, before she went to Lake Valor, I had her order the thing to make me feel something."

Jupiter's eyes widened. "How... was it?"

"It worked well enough," he mused. "I was given a wide range of emotions and tried experiencing what that meant, but at the end of it all, do you know what I thought?"

"That it was awesome? Did you shed a tear for the first time?"

"No, it was not 'awesome', as you call it. I thought, 'is that it?'"

"Huh. That was unexpected."

"I did cry. I did laugh, even. Feel a thousand things that had forever been beyond my reach. However... it was disappointingly, not earth-shaking as I believed it would be, in my youth. I cannot believe I wasted years chasing this, when it ended up being mediocre at best."

Yes. Back when Cyrus had been obsessed with fixing himself and learning why he was like this, when he'd wanted to find a cure to his woes instead of deciding it was the world, that was wrong, and not himself.

"At the very least, I now know that this path I tread is the correct one. That there is something fundamentally broken about this world that must be addressed." Cyrus gazed upon Mesprit and shook his head. "There have been so many disappointments, lately. Even besides the obvious, the failure to stand up to the League without the help of these so-called Gods, my Commanders only follow me for selfish measures. Saturn is the closest to getting it, but even he is not enough. His is a shallow understanding."

This was leading to dangerous territory, but better get this out of the way now than delay the innevitable.

"Charon knows about Dusknoir, or I guess he knows part of it. Most of what he said was new to me, too," she explained. "Mars distrusts him and something tells me that doubt isn't going anywhere unless you do something about it."

"I will not."

"Oh. Yeah, I figured."

"The situation being like this is in my favor, given that Dusknoir was planning on betraying me," Cyrus said, tone as smooth as polished stone. "I had told him that Mars would gain access to all three guardians, and he was never going to allow me to turn the final page upon this world."

"So he's going to stay in his Pokeball forever?"

"No. I'll let Mars release him. He will still be needed in the coming fights, but it will have to be after we begin our ascent up Coronet, when he will cut his losses and follow me regardless. The League will be high on our tail and attempting to wrestle control away from Saturn and Charon will risk too much."

"Makes sense. I guess that means Uxie's going to Charon and Azelf's going to Saturn, then."

"Correct."

Then, there was the pivot.

She noticed his Crobat, hiding at the edges of the fog, barely out of view. The beat of her wings was so silent, the air around her undisturbed despite how quick she was, and how quick she could be. The poison type loved him more than anything, but that feeling was not mutual.

"You know, Adrianna, once upon a time, you told me that the reason you were following me was to kill that co-worker of yours. She is now dead," Cyrus said. "The rest of the Commanders, they all have their reason. I know how to push their buttons, make them do what I want them to do, but you... you are a liability, now, and I know you have figured me out."

Oh, that last bit had been unexpected.

"You need me for Coronet," she shrugged, not feeling particularly panicked.

"If I have Mesprit and Mars at full capacity, I do not need you for anything. You would be insurance, but insurance I would be willing to part with."

"Fair enough."

"You know my true goal, don't you?"

Adrianna rolled her eyes. "I suspected it," she started. "I mean, it's you, Cyrus. I can't imagine you suddenly growing a heart and giving all of these people what they want with the power of two Gods at your fingertips. You're too selfish for that. You don't give a crap about any of them or their dreams."

"Crobat."

Suddenly, she could not breathe any longer. The inside of her mouth, her throat and her lungs felt like they were itchy, at first, then like they were on fire, and one did not have to be a medical professional to know that was bad news.

"I did— did it all like you asked. Made sure Mars wasn't getting any second thoughts and that Charon and Saturn were still motivated enough for what's coming." She coughed, poison seeping through her lungs as she collapsed on the floor. Her head bumped a rock and felt hot. Blood. Ow. "I—" she rasped. "I'm—"

He loomed over her, his eyes never changing. "Tell me why you follow me. Why you have not run away, or betrayed me. Why you do not care the new world will be mine and mine alone, and that you will die as the rest of them will."

"I—I'll tell you." Her muscles twitched uncontrollably, and her vision blurred at its edges. "Let me... talk."

Crobat screeched, and the poison left her lungs immediately, as if it had never been there. The pain was still present, though, and it hurt like a bitch. It was a thin, torture-friendly version of Toxic that Adrianna had watched Cyrus use multiple times over the last decade. It took a minute for her to get her bearings and to remember how to move. That and her body stopped convulsing at random intervals. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to move after nearly being poisoned to death, but thank Arceus Cyrus' Crobat was a master of poison. A silent assassin. She could harm, but she could also heal from poison in turn.

She wiped the dust off her uniform and wiped the blood off her forehead. She'd need to get first-aid for that. "Did you have to lead with that? You're such a drama queen." She was still short of breath and struggling to stand upright. "Frostbite, and then this? You're working me to the bone."

"Tell me, Adrianna."

The Commander looked into his eyes.

He looked in her eye's direction, but not really at her.

"It's simple, Cyrus. I want to see if we can hurt God enough for him to do something about it," Adrianna said with a mad grin. "It's the ultimate character study, don't you think? I honestly think it would make a good thesis, but hey, I never went to university."

Cyrus frowned. "I see."

"Hm, yes, I see," she mimicked his voice in a mocking tone before crouching. Her finger tapped against the solid stone they were standing on, still numb. "Is He going to stand by and watch, or is he finally going to do something?" she muttered. "I think changing someone's usual behavior is interesting, but what really gets me going? It's seeing what their limit is. How many times they can get back up in the face of what amounts to torture."

Her limit, she'd known very well. It had almost killed her.

She paused and stared at her boss.

"Do you think God can be hurt emotionally if we destroy everything He's ever made, Cyrus? Is He even capable of things like love or pain— because you have to love something to be emotionally invested in it— or is He above those?" She tried snapping her fingers (and failed) before he answered, if he even was going to answer. "Here's the thing, right, we won't ever know, or at least I don't think we will, but trying it as a last hurrah? I think that's what makes it all worthwhile. I think it's what being a person means."

Cyrus sighed. "I suppose that is good enough. A lofty goal, but aligned with my own beliefs about Gods standing above the rest of us on their thrones, always hidden away from view."

"You were about to rob me of my front-row seat, by the way," she grumbled, her hand massaging her throat as best it could. "You're lucky we don't have an H.R. department."

Yes.

She would hurt God if it was the last thing she did.

And it would be.