Puppeteer
Skeleton King often stated that they were only pawns in a much bigger game, but the monkeys had never paid his words any heed. After all, they were making a difference in the universe; they were keeping his evil at bay! He had no right to call them pawns. None at all. He was the one being used by a darker, greater force after all.
But now Sprx believed him.
He understood; they were really only puppets, vessels for something larger. Especially the Kid. Sure, they had free will... they could choose to walk away from it all at any point... but what kind of monkeys would that make them? What kind of monkeys would they be if they abandoned Shuggazoom – the Universe – in its hour of need?
They couldn't do it. They had better morals, a stronger sense of justice than that.
But they were marionettes, to be held in place by the Power Primate. He could sometimes feel the force influencing his decisions, and it made him shudder. Who knew what it decided for him when he couldn't feel it pushing at his consciousness? How did Antauri do it? How did he constantly live with knowing that he was a pawn?
How did he deal with knowing that Chiro, even, was just a piece of a larger game? Chiro was the vessel through which the Power Primate channeled itself. The spiritual energy flowed through the boy, guiding him through everything.
Sprx, who prized freedom and flight, could not understand how anyone could be happy with that kind of a life. He was a free spirit. Left to his own devices, he would be a wanderer, drifting from planet to planet, hitting the stops, flirting with girls, and moving on. Maybe doing some aerial shows and some shipping work to get by in life. He could be happy with that kind of life. No rules, no chains. Just endless freedom.
As it was, he had loved the kind of freedom he had on Galaxia. He had responsibilities, sure. That was okay – he could deal with that. But he had made all of his own choices. He had trained an army, he had finally gotten together with Nova, he was happy there. But then Chiro had come around, speaking of duty and Skeleton King... He didn't hold it against the kid, of course. It was not his fault that the Power Primate had pushed him into agreeing; had pushed Nova into agreeing. He was sure it had pushed them all, actually. Chiro, Otto, Hal...
He despised being influenced by something he couldn't control; despised feeling as if he didn't have near as much free will as he thought he did. He hated it. But he put up with it for the Universe. He put up with it for the Alchemist. He put up with it for Nova. He put up with it for those he cared about.
And he waited for the day it would all be over.
The day when he would no longer – hopefully – have to deal with the Puppeteer anymore.
Tauria: Um... so... This is kind of a side story to Divided We Fall, after Sprx agrees to help Chiro get the monkey team together again. I did a little bit on it in the story, but then I decided to kind of expand on the concept a little bit.
I chose to do it from Sprx's point of view because I see him as being more affected by this than the others due to his pilot nature. Not to mention his conspiracy theories. The others might shrug it off or see it as not something to worry about, but somehow, I can't see Sprx doing that.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a new chapter to type up... and I need to start working on it instead of procrastinating.
~Ciao!