Conquering the Dark
Chapter 1: A Dark New World
"So… how are things fairing along? The prisoner, what is of him?"
Those were the words that World Leader Cyrus had to ask. He sat on his remarkable throne of shining white, with the colors of the throne contrasting greatly with his black cape ever since he had quite literally become the King of the World. He smiled a bit to himself, something he rarely ever did as he reminisced of how the world came to be his. Only a few fleeting thoughts were generated in his head before he quickly brought himself back to reality.
"Well, Commander?" he asked again, before a large, and rather intimidating Lucario. Of course, he was not intimidated in the slightest. But he had no reason to be. After all, the Lucario served him, not vice versa.
"Of course, master." the Lucario nodded. "An update. We have detained the prisoner and he is currently in his jail cell. We have tried interrogating him upon the whereabouts of the Resistance, but he is adamant about refusing to confess."
"The Resistance…" the King thought to himself. They were the only thing left standing in his way. Sure, he already had every nation bow to him. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos… but what did it mean if some simply refused to bow? And worse yet, some of those that refused to bow formed their own resistance, aiming to take down Cyrus. Cyrus himself knew it was impossible for him to be overthrown, but the discovery of the Resistance bugged him. Since then, he vowed to find them, and make absolute certain of two things. The first would be to have them submit and acknowledge him as their lord. The second would be to kill those that refused. But that would be a matter of when, not if, he would find them.
"You've tried torture, haven't you?" Cyrus said aloud.
"Tried it." a disappointed Palkia sighed, coming in from the hallway. "He screams, but nothing else comes out of his mouth."
Cyrus glared at Palkia. "Did I say you could come in? I called in the Commander, not you. Do you not remember the rules?"
Palkia shook a bit, quite nervous of the power Cyrus commanded. "I apologize, master. In my haste to inform you, I neglected to request permission to enter. Forgive me, my master."
Cyrus rolled his eyes, unamused. "You're forgiven. Just go ahead and come in here now. We'll discuss this further."
Palkia nodded. He walked from the entrance of the hallway to the step of Cyrus' throne, which was quite the long distance. Similar to Cyrus, he reminisced about everything he had done to get into this position of power.
Power. It was all he wanted, really. Money and riches never meant much to him. Power was what he craved. It was his love, his passion, and his addictive drug. He thought back to what he had done to attain all of this power. He betrayed his mother, the powerful deity Arceus. His betrayal helped stir Cyrus' own plans of power into motion. He had gathered the material necessary to create the Red Chain, the only thing that could enslave Arceus, all in exchange for more power, more say, and more dominance than his mother. He was relatively happy with the position he was in right now. As the official 'punishment deliverer' (or simply the top torturer), he had more power than Arceus would have ever agreed to give him. He held his power and dominance over every disobedient and rebellious slave. He had just come back from torturing the prisoner, disappointed that he hadn't spilled any information regarding the Resistance.
"So… both of you say that the prisoner have refused to reveal any information, correct?" Cyrus inquired. "Not even after torture?"
"That would be correct, master." the Commander nodded.
"…Then I believe you know what to do. The prisoner shall have the same fate as that of Zekrom. Go to it immediately, Commander Aaron." the King ordered.
"Yes, master." the Lucario bowed again, leaving to do as he was told. He smirked as he walked down the grand hallway outside of the throne room. The name 'Aaron' brought back many memories, noting that was what he had decided to call himself. As he traversed to the dungeons of the castle, he recalled the situation of how everything came to be between him and Cyrus.
Flashback
"Mommy…Daddy…where are you?"
He was lost. Lost in the fire that flooded the valley. He ran through the valley looking for them.
"Mommy! Daddy!" he cried to them. "What's happening?"
There was no answer.
"Where are you?"
Silence. Throughout the entire valley.
"Help me!"
After an eternity of searching, he came across their two lifeless bodies. Burnt to death by the fire…
Shortly after the deaths of his parents, he was kidnapped by Team Galactic, the same people who burnt down the Green Valley, where the large Lucario community used to live. The location was long forgotten now. Team Galactic did many cruel things to him as a Riolu, and even as a Lucario after a forced evolution. But all of this torture stopped when Cyrus made him an offer. Join Team Galactic, or continue to suffer. At first, he wanted to refuse and have nothing to do with the evil man. But upon being offered power… power beyond his wildest dreams… and the promise to help him conquer the world… he seized the chance. Since the fateful day where Aaron had accepted the offer to join, he had been treated with much less cruelty. His evil ambitions were propelled further when Palkia joined up with Team Galactic, with the power of Arceus in his, Palkia's, and Cyrus' hands. He hadn't regretted the decision to join Team Galactic at all, satisfied with his position as the Commander of Cyrus' army. Getting to torture uncooperative prisoners was just a nice bonus.
Finally, he reached the cell of the prisoner that his army managed to capture. He smirked an evil grin, seeing the formerly powerful and magnificent green serpent Rayquaza bound up in chains, completely helpless.
"What are you here for?" Rayquaza asked, still clearly uncooperative. "You can torture me as much as you want, but I still refuse to say anything to heartless bastards like you."
Commander Aaron smiled. "Aw, I'm a heartless bastard? Why, thank you. That's the best compliment I've received all day."
"You're sick."
The Commander laughed again. "You can keep the compliments coming, but it won't save you from your fate. You have one final chance." He walked up closer to Rayquaza, just barely out of Rayquaza's reaching distance. "Tell me where your little Resistance is hiding. Or you will be suffering from the consequences."
Rayquaza, mustering up one final act of hatred and disobedience towards the vile Lucario, spit in the face of the Commander. "What does that tell you?" he stated, not going down without personally insulting the evil Commander himself.
Commander Aaron wiped the saliva off of his face. "Very well. Then I have no choice but to alter your allegiance." The Commander stepped closer to Rayquaza, with the Legendary unable to do anything to propel or force him back. He placed his paw on the Legendary's head, sending psychic waves of energy into his mind, and altering everything that Rayquaza believed in. Rayquaza jerked around as he tried to force the thoughts out of his mind, but to no avail.
"You don't belong to the Resistance anymore." Lucario stated as a fact. "You obey our Empire. You obey me. You obey your lord, Cyrus. You are my soldier, and will do as I say."
Rayquaza jerked around even more violently underneath the chains, trying his hardest to break them, and trying to eject the manipulative thoughts and powerful suggestions out of his head.
"I am your master, and Cyrus is your lord." Commander Aaron stated again, harshly re-enforcing those thoughts back into Rayquaza. "You are my obedient soldier, and you worship and obey the Empire."
"N…No." he whimpered, with his will weakening. His heart and soul truly did not want to give it to this manipulative and evil brainwashing, but the psychic powers altered the heart and soul themselves. His mind was slowly starting to give in, as tears formed in Rayquaza's eyes.
"That's it." Commander Aaron smiled, caressing his head as the brainwashing completed as the tears in Rayquaza's eyes dried out. "You are my soldier, my slave, and… you belong to me."
"Yes… master."
Pokémon © Nintendo / Game Freak
Cover art of story (c) barrena (on deviantArt)
Yep, this is definitely a short chapter, but I really wanted to introduce you guys to the alternate world of 'Conquering the Dark'. This is a sequel/AU fic to 'Breaking the Chains'. To elaborate a little and clear up confusion, this is an alternate universe where Aaron decided to submit to Team Galactic and forever alter history. I have not covered every detail about the alternate world in this chapter, just to let you know. Don't worry, though. The original characters from 'Breaking the Chains' will appear after a while, but I really want you guys to see this dark, what-if world first. There are some alterations compared to the info I gave in 'Breaking the Chains' Chapter 19. Oh, and for those of you who haven't read 'Breaking the Chains', I will try to make this as easy to follow along as I possibly can. As always, read and review.