Chapter Twenty-Five: The Plan

Past

The area between the ruins of the original Praeclara and New Praeclara were some of the flattest, easiest lands in all of Fournaria. There was a lot of open farmland here, as well as hills here, but no mountains; as a result, it was rather warm. Especially considering it was the end of August and Boreas and Aqua were locked up in a wooden box on wheels all day long. There wasn't much to do all day, and Boreas played up the claustrophobia he grudgingly had to admit he might have caught a touch of. Whenever he felt himself starting to get uncomfortable and edgy about the small cell, he would overact his fear until he was let out. Part of the reason was that it allowed him to go outside, feel the wind on his face, and stretch his legs. But more importantly, he was lulling his captors into a false sense of security by behaving like the perfect prisoner and not even making the slightest attempt at escape, even when he honestly believed he stood a chance. It also allowed him to talk to Stewart from time to time. The Bisharp clearly agreed with him on some points, yet would insist Tacito had legitimate reasons for all his tyrannical behaviour and was just handling the emergency as well as he could. Nor would he ever agree about taking action. Boreas found it difficult to keep his patience sometimes, but kept doing his best to stay calm and make the colonel see sense either way.

"He's not setting us free," Boreas whispered to Aqua on the seventh evening in their cage. They were lying close together, ready to sleep, so they could whisper softly enough not to risk being overheard. The only sound that came from outside was the nearby river's rapid flow as it broke on rocks and fells down many a small waterfall.

"I didn't expect he would," Aqua whispered back. "Still, worth a try."

"He would've been very useful to have on our side, but we don't have any more time to convince him; we'll be in New Praeclara tomorrow. So, time to get out. I'll have a panic attack in the morning and set you free. I think they trust me not to escape fairly well by this point, especially when I overdo it a bit."

"It's going to be as easy as that, is it?" Aqua sounded sceptical.

Boreas shrugged. "I'll think of a way to get you out, don't worry."

"Maybe you should escape alone."

"What? And leave you behind?"

"They'll need to pursue you, right? So they won't go to New Praeclara; they'll follow you and take me along, and we can figure out how I get out later."

Boreas shook his head. "We're only a day away from New Praeclara. I'll bet Stewart would just split them up and have some of his men take you to the city while the rest pursues me."

Aqua sighed. "Yeah, I guess. But look: I'm a tough girl. I can handle Diego, and I can probably escape his clutches myself. No sense in getting both of us captured when you've got a perfectly good opportunity to escape alone."

"You're right," Boreas smiled. "I'm still not leaving you behind, though."

"I'm not afraid of Diego," Aqua defiantly said.

Boreas chuckled. "I know that. But I'd rather you meet him on your terms, not his."

"Yes, but if that's impossible-"

"Then I'm still going to try. I'll escape alone if I really can't think of anything, but you know me; I'll figure something out. Probably something stupid, but something at least. Anyway, I'm not sure I could subject you to prison food after the really quite fantastic cooking we've had the past week."

"Well, you never know," Aqua smirked. "Maybe all prisoners in Fournaria get delicious gourmet meals, not just those lucky enough to get captured by a unit with an excellent cook who doesn't want to bother making separate dishes for his colleagues and prisoners."

Boreas smirked. "Even worse; you'd get too heavy to move."

"You jerk," Aqua laughed and gave him a shove, then pounced on top of him. "I'll get you for that!"

They began to play-fight, but Boreas hit his head on the wooden wall almost immediately in the tight quarters. "Oof!"

Aqua laughed. "Maybe not enough space for that."

"No..." Boreas groaned, rubbing the bump on his head.

–

"Help! Help! Let me out! Let me out! The walls are going to crush me! Please, help!"

"Already?" said the slightly bored voice of a Virini, the Vigoroth who usually guarded them. "Alright, you can come on out if you don't get in the way."

"Thank you, thank you!" Boreas rushed outside, panting rapidly as the door was briefly opened. He played out a heavy panic attack while cautiously taking in the situation. The camp was busy being broken up, and, as he expected, no-one was paying him too much attention while he was hamming up the panic. He could probably escape, but he'd meant what he'd told Aqua. He already knew no part of their cell would snap-freeze easily, and Virini, who had the key, had gone, so stealing it wouldn't work either. Freezing the lock's inside to create a key of ice tended to work less well than you'd expect, as a thin sliver of ice was barely ever strong enough to turn a lock. Boreas looked around him, squinting against the low morning Sun reflecting off the rapidly flowing river. He grinned.

Cautious no-one was watching, he very quickly took the breaks off the cell's wheels and whipped up a mighty stormwind that pushed against the cell. It slowly began to roll towards the river, accelerating as it hit the sloped riverbank. A tent was torn off the ground by the wind and flew off. Hail crystallised in the air and pelted the camp. Someone shouted, and Boreas knew he had been noticed. He ran after the cell rolling downhill, jumped, giving himself a bit of a boost with a powerful updraught, and scrambled onto its roof. "Hang on, love, it's going to get a little bumpy!"

"Stop it!" Aqua protested. "You'll get us both killed!"

Boreas blew several chasing constables off their feet. "I'm getting us out of here!"

"Not like this! You'll drown and I'll be smashed to bits!"

"That's a problem for future us!" Boreas said, "Hold on tight!"

The cell crashed into the wild river with a mighty splash, and Boreas had to dig his nails into the wood to avoid being thrown off. A great wall of water rose up on the one side and quickly began pushing it over. The roar of small waterfalls and the river breaking on rocks was deafening. As Aqua's wooden cage fell over, into the river onto its long side, Boreas scrambled to stay on top, as he was sure to be crushed against a rock in his current position. The only way he was able to hold on against the mighty force of rushing water was by freezing his paws to the wood one by one. He couldn't breathe and could barely see as the river flowed right into his face.

A great shock almost threw him off as the cell hit a rock at high speed and made a quick half-rotation in passing. Suddenly, Boreas was above the surface, and greedily drank in precious air. They had already floated pretty far downstream and were going through rough terrain as the river meandered through a rocky forest, but their pursuers weren't giving up.

Boreas was weightless for a moment as they fell off a small waterfall and hit the deep water underneath with the cell's short end. The cell precariously balanced, up straight for a moment as it already began to shoot up under its own floatatiousness. Unfortunately, Boreas was still frozen to one end, and, as the cell shot up, it fell in his direction. He took a deep breath before his back hit the water with an ear-popping impact as the cell above him pressed him deep down. The current pulled hard on him, now this way then the other, and he had no choice but to let go if he didn't want to either drown or be crushed. The current swept him away from Aqua's cell in an instant.

He tried to swim up, to the air his lungs begged for, through the dark, muddy chaos of water. A severe, dull pain went through him as he hit a rock sideways, his hips aching as he swam up, getting nauseous as the current spun him around and around. He had a quick bite of air, then he was dragged under once more, scraped over the rough, sharp stones of the riverbed. He tried to push himself up, but couldn't get to the surface. He was the river's plaything, powerless against its mighty currents as he was swept away; he didn't even know what side was up any more, and he was about to give in to his breathing reflex. The water was moving too fast to freeze, even if that would have solved anything.

Suddenly, he was grabbed by strong paws and a kiss found his lips, pushing much-needed air into his burning lungs. Aqua held him and swam through the wild river with him, taking him to the surface at last. She dragged him through the powerful current and deposited him on the rocky riverbank, where he spat out the water he'd taken in and gasped for air.

"You idiot," Aqua snapped. "You could've killed us both!"

"Sorry," Boreas coughed. "I didn't think it'd be quite that dangerous. Good thing you got out."

"Only because I was lucky enough the door broke down when it hit a rock hard. Anyway, if you were hoping to get away with that stunt, we didn't. We need to go right now; they'll be right after us."

Boreas got up, still panting. "Perfect!"

"Not perfect, we have to run!"

"I know! And they'll be right behind us. They'll follow us right to Praeclara!"

As they ran, Aqua looked at him. "You're hoping to convince Stewart with whatever we find there."

"I don't think we can beat Diego on our own. He's too powerful. We need allies if we're going to do anything about him."

–

Present

As Sofia walked off, tears still in her eyes, she left Boreas confused. He had no idea why he'd blacked out for a while, but at least seeing his memories had clearly helped Sofia. In any case, he had no time to dwell on it. Right now, Stewart probably didn't have a plan yet. He had a narrow window of opportunity to influence him. The constables were busy imprisoning their many captives into the same building those very captives had used to house their slaves. "I don't think you should imprison that Krokorok, colonel," Boreas said with a grin. "He's the one who led us here in the first place."

"Took you long enough," Obnard snapped, pulling his arm free from the Charmeleon holding it with an ugly look. "When I have directions for you put on posters, I mean now, not in a week or five."

"A defector?" the colonel asked.

"Yes, he is," said Aqua. "If you look at some of the posters with my rather cute mug on them, you'll see a little message scrawled for me."

"Yeah" Obnard complained, "a message I had some guys put on them six weeks ago, lady. Did you take a vacation or something?"

"Yeah, I took a vacation to your old workplace, where I rescued Boreas. No thanks to you, by the way, who never bothered to tell me a thing about his whereabouts."

"I was busy," Obnard snapped. "Plus, everyone said he was dead."

Boreas scraped his throat. "Anyway, what are you going to do next, colonel?"

The Bisharp frowned in thought.

"I do hope," Boreas continued, "you're not about to say something stupid like 'take the captives back to New Praeclara to be put on trial and press charges against the prime minister'. You know that won't work, right?"

Stewart sighed. "And why, pray tell, won't it?"

"Because Tacito is a tyrant and won't allow you. Or he'll rig the trial. Either way, you won't accomplish anything."

"You are so sure of yourself."

"Not at all," Boreas said. "I'm sure of him, though. I've fought that Zoroark several times before, and still I made the mistake of underestimating him. But not this time. I've got a plan."

Others had joined the conversation and were listening in. Several constables and captives, as well as Sofia, her eyes still a bit red, and her cousins. "What would you do, then?" Virini asked.

"Well," Boreas smiled, "that's up to you, ultimately. All of you Fournarians, I mean."

"Us?" Sofia asked.

"Yes, all of you. When we beat Diego, Aqua and I will just leave. You lot will have to live with whatever solution to the problem we use."

"Get to the suggestion, love," Aqua said.

"Alright. My suggestion is revolution."

"I beg your pardon?" asked Stewart. "You expect us to take up arms against the legitima- well, the government?"

"Arms?" Boreas said. "Not at all. In fact, I'd advice you to avoid as much violence as you can. You don't get rid of people like Diego using violence and fear; those are his weapons. Sure, you can use them too, but that's attacking him on his strong points. You probably can't do it better than him, so you'll fail. And if you do manage to get rid of him like that, it'll require overwhelming force. Which not only means a giant waste of effort on your end, but also a giant waste of life on everyone's end, as things don't get pretty that way. And even if you succeed... Do you really want your reborn Fournaria to be built on foundations of blood? That's a poor way to start off."

"How would you do it, then?"

Boreas shrugged. "Well, that's the question. If anyone has any suggestions..."

"There's no limit to what a clever and creative mind can do," Sofia piped up. "If we outsmart the Shadow, infiltrate his side, show people the facts so they can make up their own minds, he won't have a shoe to stand on!"

"That's pretty good," Catarina said, "but I think we can do better. We should focus on rallying everyone, inspiring them, unite them all against Tacito. If everyone wants him gone, removing him is only a formality."

"Pokémon like Diego are their own worst enemy," Aqua said. "There would be a revolution sooner or later, whether we start it or not. So I say: let's use his own greed against him. Find the pokémon he's hurt and help them, get them to join us."

"We should show everyone Tacito's losing," Pedro said, "organise strikes, demonstrations, disobey him in every way we possibly can. Let all Fournaria feel he's on his way out, get the revolutionary spirit going!"

"You're all thinking way too soft," Obnard said. "He's too powerful; you won't get rid of him without taking some actual action. I say we find out who he really needs, the ones he depends on most, and we ensure they have a tragic accident."

Aqua rolled her eyes. "What part of bloodless revolution didn't you get?"

"Lady, you're fooling yourself if you think you can beat the Shadow by holding hands and singing songs. I'm not saying we should start massacres, but the fact is that just because you don't take proper action, doesn't mean your revolution will be bloodless. In fact, I think quite a lot of blood will be spilled as it's crushed into the ground. All I'm saying is: remove a few key players. Make sure the Shadow doesn't have his most reliable lackeys any more. If he has to rely on a bunch of inept weaklings with no taste for blood, you're already halfway there. It'll make a world of difference."

"It certainly will make a world of difference," Aqua snapped, "it'll lead us down the same self-destructive path Diego is on."

"No-one shall kill anyone on my watch," colonel Stewart stated firmly.

"It's gonna send the wrong message," Catarina said, "it'll tell people we're a bunch of murderers. Plus, you'll achieve much more, without bloodshed, if you inspire a lot of people and make a stand together."

"I don't think it's such a b-bad idea, actually..." A small voice said. All looked at Sofia in surprise. She blushed and seemed shocked that she said it, herself. "J-just as a last resort! I really don't want anyone to b-be killed, it's the last thing I want, andand we should only use it if there's absolutely no other way, but I think we'd be foolish not to use... M-murder as a tool if it's all we can do to stop the Shadow..."

Aqua frowned. "There is such a thing as having principles, you know. It's very important we do this the right way."

Sofia spoke up a bit, putting her hands on her hips with a frown. "Well, I think it's important we do this at all. We must b-be sensible and logical about it. If it really is the best way to go about it, we shouldn't shy away from awful means to liberate Fournaria. There's too much at stake."

"Tell me," Aqua said darkly, "what's the road to Hell paved with again?"

"Clichés?" Sofia bit back.

"Please," Boreas intervened. "I think all your ideas have great merit, and if we're going to dethrone Diego, we'll have to approach the problem from all sides. Even," he said with emphasis, over Aqua's beginning protest, "Obnard's suggestion has some merit, although like Sofia said, we should stay away from it unless we have no other choice."

"Thanks," Obnard said. "I got more ideas, y'know. We should team up with Desiderio's remaining troops in our old hide-out. From what I can tell, Desiderio's been sending them out every now and then to attack something and spook everyone so the Shadow can claim more power to protect them from it. But they've been having a lot of desertion and changes of heart. They don't even think they're working for the Shadow any more, yet they're still being used as a scapegoat. That's gotta hurt morale. I think we could convince a lot of them to join us instead."

"Murderers and traitors," Stewart sniffed. "You would have us ally with those who willingly aided the Shadow in the past, and even now continue to do so?"

Boreas shrugged. "It'd turn an enemy into an ally. I don't think we can afford to be picky about our allies."

"Necessity is the grandfather of strange bedfellows, I guess..." Sofia said.

"You said it," Obnard said, "I'll leave tomorrow morning to go get them."

"Now wait just one minute!" Stewart protested. "I still do not agree with this course of action!"

"Aww, muffin," Obnard sneered. "Things not going your way?"

"Shut up," Aqua said. "Look, colonel, I'm not entirely happy with it myself, but you're not in charge here. I don't think anyone is. Obnard, rotten though he is, is as much a part of this as you. That said," she said to Obnard, "I want you to make it very clear to your colleagues, and to yourself as well, that there's to be no violence. Even if we're going to consider it in necessary situations, you won't be the ones who determine what's necessary. Understood?"

"Make it clear to myself?" Obnard said.

"Shut up," Aqua said flustered. "Just remember that, alright?"

"Fine."

"I think we should talk more in the morning," Boreas said. "Get some more ideas in. Everyone's tired right now, so we could all use a good rest."

Sofia yawned. "Good idea. I hadn't even thought of it, but I'm knackered. Anyway, follow me; there's this hardware store I used as my workshop, where I sleep..."

Catarina chuckled. "No need. We gave those jerks our sleeping quarters; we can take theirs."

"Good one!" Sofia piped. "Much easier than walking through the ruins in the dark... Still, I was hoping I'd get to go back there again, maybe even rebuild my ornithopter. I guess we'll have to leave soon, though..."

The colonel sighed. "Indeed. It's good to be back here, even if it's for a brief time."

"Why was the city abandoned?" Sofia asked. "Why didn't anyone try to rebuild?"

Stewart sighed. "Conditions were considerably harsher after the catastrophe. Fires were still raging, several fissures were oozing lava, and the dust made it almost impossible to breathe. We had to leave. The worst part is, we probably left a lot of wounded survivors behind..."

"Nothing you could've done," Boreas said, "if things were that bad."

"And now they're among the dead lying around, rotting, dishonoured. How did it come to this? We didn't even go back to bury the bodies... Left this great city worse than a graveyard..."

Aqua smiled. "You know it doesn't have to stay like that, right? A start has already been made rebuilding it. I think this would make a good headquarters for our revolution, and while it serves as such, more of it can be rebuilt, more of the dead disposed of."

"Hmm. That's not a bad idea. Rebuild Praeclara as we rebuild Fournaria? Mind you, it's a monumental task, but we hardly need restore the entire city at once."

"Small steps," Boreas said. "That's the general approach we'll have to take anyway. I've made the mistake of rushing in too fast and unprepared a little too often, and usually I'm smart and lucky enough to get away with it. But not always."

The Bisharp nodded. "In any case: I'll discuss things with my men."

There was a murmur of support. "I think everyone'll be behind you, sir," Virini said.

"Well," Stewart said, "that may be so, but I will give anyone who disagrees with me leave to go. For obvious reasons, I can't order any of you to fight minister Tacito, tyrant or not."

"Good," Boreas said, "we can hardly expect pokémon who don't want to help out to join us."

The colonel frowned in thought. "Good... I'm still not sure I truly want to help your revolution myself... But, I know it's the only way to truly help Fournaria at this point."

"Took you long enough..." Boreas muttered a bit too loudly. "Er, sorry."

The Bisharp frowned sharply. "This choice would be considered treason by many. Only a fool would take it lightly. And, I can assure you, I will prevent Fournaria from falling into anarchy at your hands."

"My hands?" Boreas blurted out. "My hands?! My hands?! What makes you think I have any intention of making Fournaria fall into anarchy, or into anything at all, for that matter? All I'm interested in is getting rid of Diego. I'm not going to hold your hand and force you to do things in any kind of way; when Diego is done for, you, and everyone else who lives here, can figure out what you want to do yourselves."

"Look," Aqua said, "it's really getting too late for this. It's time for us all to sleep."

"Quite right, quite right," said the colonel as the group began to disperse.

As Boreas started thinking of finding a place to sleep for himself, he had another idea. "Wait! Everyone, come back, there's something we haven't discussed yet."

There were a lot of sighs and groans as they turned back. Boreas figured he'd better be quick about it. "Remember the letter Sofia found? Diego is going to 'take total control' in October, and he'll need help with it. Help we prevented from coming."

"Almost forgot that," Aqua said. "What do you think 'take total control' means?"

"Well, I can't be certain," Boreas said, "but consider the direction he's been moving Fournaria. With every passing day, he's becoming more and more of a dictator, but he still pretends his government is a democracy. But he can't keep postponing elections forever and keep grabbing emergency powers. He'll have to drop the pretence eventually. And that is what I think he'll do in early October."

One of Stewart's men sniffed. "He'll never get away with it."

Boreas smirked. "Not without help, certainly. That's why he ordered the pokémon here to come to his aid. He'd probably use them both to beat down protests, as well as to pretend they're rebels, painting our side as dangerous, violent lunatics. Sow some fear, pretend he's the reasonable one. Hence the gunpowder."

"Despicable," Stewart muttered.

"Well, it's not going to happen the way he thinks. He's expecting reinforcements from Fournaria, but he's going to get enemies instead. That's why we play along until that time."

Aqua raised an eyebrow quizzically. "What do you mean, love? Pretend we haven't taken over the city?"

"Precisely! We send him a reply to his letter, saying he can expect our help and asking for further orders. When his messengers come to deliver more letters, we act like we're his lackeys. We don't start riling people up quite yet. Make him think he's won. And then, when the big day comes and he openly takes absolute power, he won't get support, but a revolution! Maybe we can get rid of him that very day, but even if we can't, it should finally expose him as a power-mad tyrant at least. After that, we should have little trouble convincing pokémon he's an evil nutter."

"There is but one problem," colonel Stewart said, "Tacito expects us to catch you and your wife at some point. It's already taken us weeks to do so. He will most definitely get suspicious by October."

Boreas frowned. "Hmm. That's a problem, but it does give me an idea. Colonel, send him a message explaining we fled into the southern mountains or something, and that you're still in pursuit. Keep sending him messages every few days. That should buy you time. And then, when the time comes, tell him you've arrested us."

"Arrested you?"

"Yes. Colonel, you're going to take the wifey and me back to New Praeclara, just in time for Diego's self-coup. We're arriving there the very same day. And when he starts his plan, we start ours and all spring into action. It'll give all of us a legitimate reason to be in the city, which could've been a bit of a problem otherwise."

"Yes," the colonel said pensively, "yes, that might work. Hmm, we'll have to work out the precise route you escaped to, to keep it as convincing as possible. If we do it properly, he shouldn't get too suspicious by the time I send him the news of your capture."

Boreas grinned. For the first time since he'd been buried alive, he had an idea of how he was going to beat Diego.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: In my planning, this entire chapter was part of chapter 24. That would have been one long chapter. This is also why I took so long over such a short chapter; it's difficult to turn part of a chapter into something that stands on its own as a chapter.