The problem with "as soon as possible" is that it wasn't as soon as possible. They learned that the hard way with the journey between Driftveil and Mistralton, and unlike that journey, there was no easy way to get to Opelucid from Icirrus. There was a moor there, after all that time, and there were preparations to be made. Supplies needed to be bought. A lampent needed to rest. Doubly so if Team Matrix found out they were moving on. No doubt Belle would meet them halfway through the moor, if not on the Tubeline Bridge directly after. Geist drew up careful maps of every scenario, and every scenario required rest.
So "as soon as possible" would have to mean "first thing in the morning," and that was what worried Door. Sure, Geist moved the group to a small hotel on the lower levels (Pyro had been healed first, of course, and was right then sleeping in his poké ball), and sure, from that hotel room, Door couldn't see Dragonspiral Tower. But that didn't mean Team Matrix wouldn't try to find her. Or that Dragonspiral still wasn't looming over the city.
In short, she couldn't sleep. She tried, but as the hours ticked on, she found herself lying awake, in one of the rooms of the suite Geist had set up, waiting in one bed for just one moment of rest.
It was only a few minutes past midnight when she gave up. She knew this because the first thing she did was pick up her holo caster and remotely set Geist to do-not-disturb mode, just to be sure he wouldn't notice if she crept out of the room and into the common room where he and Opal were charging. The next thing she did was throw on her hoodie, stuff her poké balls into its pocket, and start for the door.
"Hey."
She froze at Blair's voice.
"Where're you going?" Blair lifted her head from her bed and stared blearily at Door.
Door shrugged. "I'm just going to the lobby. Maybe raid the vending machines or something. I'll be back, okay?"
Blair stared at her but didn't say anything, so Door took this as permission and simply left. She passed the Companions, huddled together on a couch and sharing an outlet, as quickly as she could. When she got to the suite entrance, she glanced back, double checking that neither Companions was moving, then slipped out.
She wasn't sure what she was going to be doing. Training, maybe, but then she would tire her pokémon out right before their big flight through the Moor of Icirrus. Stress-eating snacks? Very likely, if she could find a decent convenience store at that hour. She flipped her hood up and made her way to the lobby, opting to form a plan as she went along.
But of all the plans that were flickering across her mind, she certainly wasn't planning on running into the boy from Mistralton at the coffee station right beside the elevator, yet here she was.
"Um," she said.
He leaned against the table, cup in hand and stirrer in his fingers. With his eyebrows raised, he gave a nod of salutations to Door.
"Ah! Bonsoir, belle fille. Ça va bien?" he asked.
Door narrowed her eyes and stepped forward. "Okay. You're following me."
The boy paused, then smiled. "Mon amie, we're trainers, yeah? And this city is where we earn our seventh badge."
"There's room at the pokémon center," Door replied.
He shrugged. "I like a little luxury. Sue me."
"And you were watching my battle."
"To get tips."
After a short pause, Door growled, "Who are you?"
"Ah. I guess we haven't been introduced." The boy extended a hand. "Calem Delacroix of Lumiose City."
Door glanced at Calem's hand, then huffed and started for the main entrance to the hotel.
"Wait!"
And then, Calem was suddenly in front of her. There was something about his smile that seemed a little crooked, and instantly, Door was on edge.
"Look," he said. "We got off on the wrong foot. We met just north of Mistralton, remember?"
"You killed my pokémon," Door replied, just loud enough to make the Companion at the front desk flick a set of glowing eyes at her.
"I-I know," Calem replied. He rested a hand on Door's shoulder, which she immediately shrugged off. "And I've been meaning to apologize."
"I don't care about your apologies," Door replied. She turned back to the door, only to have Calem grab her by the wrist.
"Listen," he said.
Door threw her hand hard enough to force Calem to let go. "Don't touch me! I don't know what your deal is, but—"
"N sent me."
Door stopped dead. She looked into Calem's eyes, only to find someone determined, yet concerned.
"What?" she asked.
"N and Hilda," Calem continued. "You're in danger."
"No kidding." Door backed away from Calem, tensing her entire body.
"Listen," he said. "N and Hilda asked me to keep an eye on you. They're heading to the top of Dragonspiral Tower, and they want to make sure that you're prepared or, more preferably, that you stay safe."
"I'm supposed to believe you?" Door asked. Her hand crawled into her hoodie and grasped a poké ball.
Calem's eyes flicked to her wrist, then back to her face. "Probably not. I killed your pokémon, after all."
Door could feel her face twist, to which Calem cringed.
"Sorry again about that," he said.
"Right," Door said.
She turned around, facing the door to the hotel. Its pair of glass doors whirred open, and there, standing in the hotel's driveway just outside, was Belle and a serperior. Belle grinned, keeping her hands on her hips, as she eyed the two just inside the lobby.
"By the way," Calem said. "You were followed."
Door whirled around. "Lead with that!"
Calem grabbed her wrist and yanked her back. At the same time, he whipped a poké ball out and threw it forward to release a pokémon. A white blur hit the floor and bound forward, light dancing off its sleek body until it ground to a halt feet before Belle. Calem's absol bucked his head, glancing back at his trainer with fire in his eyes. With a sweep of an arm, Calem rolled one sleeve back just enough for Door to see a band around his wrist.
"Destin, mega evolve!" he cried.
Twin sparks flashed off Calem's wristband and struck an object somewhere under the thick, snowy fur around the absol's neck. Light engulfed Calem's absol, and swiftly, his form changed. He bowed his head as a second horn sprouted from the other side of his skull. A pair of wings burst from his back and extended with a snap. Everything about him turned pointier and feathery, and once he emerged, stepping forward with confident strides, Door found herself looking at what seemed to be a cross between a dog and an angel.
The hotel receptionist rose to her feet, her eyes flashing, but as soon as Belle walked through the door, she drew out a gun and fired it into the Companion's face.
"You know," she said, "it took forever to find you. Nice digs, rich girl."
Her serperior—who Door realized must have been Monkshood—wound around her feet and launched himself at the mega absol, jaws wide open and fangs glowing bright green. Instantly, Destin jumped into his next attack. He blocked the serperior's attack easily with a horn, then jerked his head, throwing the serpent into the wall. Destin growled low and crouched, waiting for Monkshood to rise again.
"Atta boy!" Calem shouted. "Now, then, mademoiselle. Are you sure you want to challenge me?"
Belle raised her gun, pointing it at the ceiling. "Mmm. Nah. I'm just here to deliver a message to Doreen here."
Calem extended an arm in front of Door, probably to protect her. This time, Door didn't tell him off for trying. She had her eyes on Belle's gun as a cold, hollow feeling settled in her stomach. Something wasn't right. Sure, that was obvious, but it was something else—something other than what she saw directly in front of her.
It took her a moment before it clicked. Where was Belle's Companion?
"She doesn't need to hear a message from you," Calem said. "Destin! Quick Attack into Slash! Disarm her!"
Calem's mega absol launched into action, dashing towards Belle with a sudden burst of speed. Belle's face fell for a quick second … followed by the rest of her body as she was thrown off her feet by the force of Destin's full weight barrelling into her chest. As soon as her back hit the floor, Destin's horn came down, slamming into her palm and forcing her to release the gun. He pushed the weapon out of her hand and sent it sliding across the hotel's marble floor to Calem's feet, and his trainer picked it up and aimed it carefully at Belle.
Right away, Door's eyes went wide. "H-hey! Drop that, okay?! Do you know how to use that?!"
"Of course I do."
Calem gripped the gun with steady hands and tilted his head to the side. Destin stalked off Belle's body, giving Calem a clear shot. At that point, Belle opened her eyes and gazed at the barrel pointed right at her chest with a mixture of gravity and contempt.
"Nice trick," she growled.
"Nice gun," Calem replied. "Now recall your serperior, slide over to the front desk, and stay there until the police arrive. Door, you have a phone, right?"
"Y-yeah." Door fumbled into her pockets, looking for her holo caster.
"Don't either of you want to know what that message I'm supposed to deliver is?" Belle asked.
"No," Calem responded. "And no, Miss Hornbeam isn't going to the top of Dragonspiral Tower."
Belle clicked her tongue. "Too bad. Because guess who is."
And then, the second switch flipped in Door's mind. She took a step forward to stand side-by-side with Calem.
"Where's Starr?" she asked, her voice firm and steady.
Belle smiled. "Glad you asked. Probably picking up your Companion as we speak and hauling tail to Dragonspiral. I'd hurry up if I were you. Starr's fast."
Door felt her entire body go cold as she thought about Blair and the Companions she'd left upstairs. More specifically, she thought about her own Companion, which she had left on the couch. In do-not-disturb mode.
She shoved Calem out of the way and bolted towards the door.
"Wait!" Calem cried. "Door, don't! That's what she—"
Monkshood exploded out of the hole to Door's right, and although she screamed and flinched, she didn't stop. She simply bolted out of the hotel, just in time to see Starr land with a thud on the ground.
"No!" she screamed. "Stop!"
He didn't. Starr didn't even look back at her. He bolted away from the hotel, and Door knew exactly where he was going. It wasn't even a question for her to follow. She simply did.
Whether anyone liked it or not, she was going to Dragonspiral Tower.
—
By the time she left the city and by the time Dragonspiral loomed straight ahead of her, Door realized her plan was a stupid plan. For one, she was human, and she was chasing after a thing explicitly designed to be faster and more resilient than she was by default. Then, there was the fact that Starr was specifically a Terpsichore, which meant he was specifically built to be faster than normal Companions. She was chasing after a literal tank with rockets attached to its feet, which meant that she was lucky to have gotten as far as she did before her entire body gave out. Oh, sure, she lasted longer than she thought she would, and sure, she had a number of moments where she nearly gave out and somehow kept going. But the moment she got within close to the tower, right as its shadow loomed over her, she gasped for breath and then, abruptly, dropped to her hands and knees. She couldn't speak. She couldn't move from that position. And she certainly couldn't see Starr anywhere in front of her anymore.
With a small whimper, she rolled onto her side. Her lungs were burning, the stitch in her side had grown into a full-on ache, and she could only curl up into a ball, arms around her middle and tears in her eyes.
Knives. Tsunami. Heck, even Pyro. She knew she had to summon one of them, and her aching arm twitched in a desperate attempt to move to her pocket, but … she couldn't. She closed her eyes and swallowed, forcing her burning throat to move.
And then she felt someone right next to her.
Door opened her eyes slowly and stared at the dark shape just in front of her. A hand reached down and grabbed her, then hoisted her over a shoulder and started walking towards the tower. Glancing across Starr's back, at least Door could see that he had not, in fact, captured Geist. Rather … he had taken Blair.
Well. This was embarrassing.
Starr carried the two of them into Dragonspiral Tower, into the dilapidated front entrance. When Door's strength returned minutes later, she squirmed but found Starr's grip around her midsection and arms too tight for her to reach her poké balls and too tight for her to slip out. So she hung there, watching the great hall of the first floor bob along behind Starr. A giant pool of water, crystal clear yet deep and dark, sat at the heart of the room. Starr skirted along its edge as he worked his way deeper into the tower, affording Door a look at the pool's depths. She couldn't see the bottom—just the glowing eyes in its depths, staring up at her before darting away to parts unknown.
Somewhere along the line, she felt Starr rise, little by little, and a staircase appeared in Door's field of vision beneath her. Door scoured her brain for what she knew about this place and came up empty. She didn't even know how many floors it would take to reach the top, and for that, she felt her breath hitch in her chest. How could she not know?
Beside her, Blair stirred with a groan. She opened her eyes slowly until her lids were halfway up. Then, she shot them open with an audible gasp.
Door hissed a "shh" to her. Starr didn't notice.
Second floor. The place was big, from what Door could tell upside-down and behind Starr's back. Big and ancient, though she couldn't say how much of it was the original Dragonspiral Tower and how much of it was simply put on as part of the League Challenge's efforts to make everything look like it did fifty years ago. Ruined stone pillars lay scattered across cobblestone floors. Statues of dragons lined the room, mouths open and roaring in places where lower jaws or entire heads weren't missing. Ghostly, glowing eyes of golett blinked from crevices and atop worn-down boulders that must have once been statues. The golett stared at her briefly—stared at Starr and Blair and her—before scuttling off, vanishing into the darkness with more speed than Door was expecting for tiny automatons. Distantly, dragon growls rumbled and made each step Starr took vibrate, and Door imagined the countless dragons that must be lurking in the shadows of this ancient ruin.
What did Door know about this tower?
"Hey," Blair whispered. "Where are we? Are you okay? What's going on?"
Door clenched her teeth for a second. Her sleep-deprived mind was straining now. How many floors was this place? What happened to Hilda, again? What did she know?
"In order," Door said after a moment. "One: We're in Dragonspiral Tower. This jerkface must've grabbed you and knocked you out, and when I came to help—" (She neglected to mention who she thought Blair was at the time.) "—he grabbed me too." (She neglected to mention why she had been prone at the time.) "Two: I'm okay. Are you? Three: This stupid hunk of junk still hasn't told me, but no doubt it has something to do with—"
"Hilda. I know," Blair replied. She lowered her head, opting not to look at Door. "I'm okay. He just sprayed me with something."
Door kicked Starr in the chest. Starr still did not notice.
Third floor. The path wound around the tower's circular outer walls, spiraling inwards into another staircase. Starr didn't hesitate. He merely walked on.
What did she know? She furrowed her eyebrows. Tried to think of something. But all she could think of was the top of the tower, the dragon, the rumors surrounding the stories…
And Odina's words echoing in her head. And Ari's words. And the words of so many others.
Fourth floor. This path zigged and zagged; Door didn't immediately notice until she looked up to see the narrow walkways suspended above perfect darkness. Had all of the floors merely been catwalks suspended over the pool like this?
Door turned her head to look at Blair. The girl's black hair formed a curtain of shadow obscuring her face from Door's eyes.
"Hey," Door said.
The curtain shifted, and a blue eye peeked out.
"Blair," she said. "What do you know about Dragonspiral Tower?"
Blair lifted her head more, and both eyes fixed on Door. Both terrified eyes.
Door swallowed and knew at once what she had to be: the other half of this equation. Bravery, for the wise.
"Look," she said, "I know you're scared. I am too. But don't worry. We'll get out of this. I'll think of something."
Fifth floor. The terror in Blair's eyes eased a little. Her face was still pale with fear, but she somehow looked more confident, more relaxed—like a rabbit facing a cat instead of a lawn mower.
Door relaxed, then ventured her question. "How many floors is this place?"
"Seven floors. Eight if we count the roof," Blair immediately answered. "They say the first Unova League based the number of badges it should have not on the rules other regions were following but instead on how many floors this place has."
A green glow drew Door's gaze away from Blair. She looked up to see Matrix grunts lined up on either side of the walkway, at attention.
Starr began to climb another set of stairs.
Crap.
Door bit her lip, then craned her neck to look at the floor's layout. To her relief, there were other staircases, each one leading to a short walkway, followed by another short staircase to another short walkway. On and on, upwards until the sixth staircase at the very top of the room. They had just passed the third and were quickly making their way to the fourth.
So they had time.
"And … what happened when Hilda was here?" Door asked.
Blair blinked at Door, then exhaled slowly.
"No one really knows," Blair said carefully. "Hilda herself only gave vague answers during interviews. She said this is where N caught Reshiram, and she started to take Team Plasma seriously."
Blair lifted her head to look at the distant staircase herself. Was she counting staircases too?
"And interviews with Brycen weren't helpful either," she continued. "They say his reputation as a gym leader took a hit after the Dragonspiral Incident. According to the reports, about twenty Plasma grunts and a sage helped N gain access to the shrine on Dragonspiral's topmost floor. No one knows how, exactly; before Hilda, it was supposed to be a sacred place—strictly off-limits to outsiders. You know. Because it housed one of the sacred stones."
Sixth floor. The path wound along in a circular labyrinth, ending only a few steps ahead in another staircase.
"Cheren Black's interview offered some insight," Blair said, cocking her head. "He battled half the Plasma grunts in the tower before Hilda came in. He even nearly captured the sage to boot. But by the time he got to the top, everything was over. N was just…" She shrugged and locked eyes with Door. "Gone."
Door let those words sink in. What was she going to do? What was Team Matrix going to do? She needed more, somehow.
"So … what happened?" she asked. "What happened when Hilda went to the top? What did she say happened?"
Blair pressed her lips together. Then, slowly, she replied, "Hilda said they just talked."
Seventh floor. Door froze at the feeling of Starr climbing the umpteenth staircase. She looked up, pushing herself to gaze at the room. She was expecting Magdalene to be there, for Oppenheimer to be there, for a whole fanfare with a legendary pokémon at the center of it.
All she saw was a winding path, snaking around in an S shape until it terminated at one last staircase. A pair of Matrix agents stood at either side of this final exit.
"Just … talked?" Door asked.
"That's all she said," Blair replied. "Just … talked." Her eyes darted to the ceiling. "On the roof."
"Oh."
Door gritted her teeth. There had to be more.
"Wait," Blair said. "I have an idea."
Before Door could ask, Blair lifted herself as much as she could and twisted to face Starr.
"Starr," she said. "Query: You're obligated to respond to human voices, right?"
"Priority given to Agent Belle," he droned.
"Query: If Agent Belle is not present, you may respond to any human voice otherwise, right?" Blair asked.
"I am set to respond only to simple queries for any user not considered priority," he said.
Door lifted her head. Where was Blair going with this? She was smiling, even.
"Query," Blair continued, "do you have information on what Team Matrix is planning at the top of this tower?"
"Affirmative," Starr said.
The staircase loomed closer. A soft, green glow edged into the corners of Door's vision, and she felt the first step under Starr's foot. She shot Blair a look, silently urging her forward.
"Query," Blair said, firmly. "What is Team Matrix planning to do at the top of this tower?"
"Talk," Starr replied.
And then, they emerged into the dark cold of the tower's roof.
The second they did, something hissed, and pink clouds flooded the floor. As Starr walked on, Door watched, following the curls of pink fog as they swallowed toppled pillars and crumbling statues. The pink cloud seemed to have a light of its own, and flickers of bubblegum-pink electricity arced within cotton candy wisps.
"Dream smoke," Blair mumbled.
Door turned her head towards Blair. "You getting flashbacks to the Dreamyard too?"
Before Blair could answer, Starr stopped. He swung Door and Blair down, one at a time, and planted them in front of him, keeping one large hand on one of their shoulders each. Straight ahead, several Team Matrix agents stood in a pair of lines on either side of the roof, almost guiding Door's gaze directly to the scene in front of them.
That scene, in Door's mind, was utterly horrific. Oppenheimer and Magdalene stood at the far end of the roof, Magdalene perched on a fallen pillar just at the lip of the rooftop. In front of her, her hydreigon hovered, its three growling heads pointed at the downed pokémon in front of it: an emboar, a sawsbuck, a braviary, a reuniclus, and a mienshao. Hilda knelt beside her fallen team, glaring up at her opponent, while N stood over her, hands on her shoulders. Door recognized that team, too. She knew it from all the champion's exhibition matches she had ever watched. It was the team—the champion of Unova's team.
Door took a step forward before she was even conscious of what she was doing. And before she could stop herself, she breathed out two words to shatter that near-silence.
"No way."
Hilda shot up, then twisted in her seat.
"Girls … no!" She scrambled to her feet, then swung around to face Oppenheimer. "You! I don't care what you do to me, but leave the girls out of it! They're kids, for God's sake!"
Oppenheimer frowned. "Honestly, Miss King, what on Earth did you think I would do? No, my dear. My followers are not after Zekrom, if that's what you're thinking. In fact, we hardly want you at all. Before you came to interfere, we were simply … waiting."
"Waiting for what?" Hilda barked. "You're not getting your hands on Reshiram, either."
Seemingly ignoring her, Oppenheimer started forward, arms outstretched to his sides.
"Ah, Door! Such a pleasure to see you again!" he said. "And you! You must be Blair Whitleigh! I've heard so much about you from my subordinates." He flashed a smile at the both of them, then motioned to Starr. "Friend Starr, bring them closer, would you? I would like to see them."
Door heard Blair's squeak before she felt Starr clamp his hand around her arm. With the force he used to grab her and push her forward, Door knew she couldn't protest, even if she wanted to. But honestly? She didn't want to. She let herself be pushed forward. All of the fear that led up to this moment, all of the fear she felt at seeing her hero's team lying decimated at her feet, all of the fear of all the things inside her just melted away right then. She needed to know what this was about. Why they needed her. What every step of her journey was actually leading to.
Something shifted in the pink fog just beyond Magdalene, in the cloud billowing off the top of the tower. Door tried not to look at it.
"Ah, there you are," Oppenheimer said. "My, my. You both look so much like your aunts. Door, I recognize that fiery determination in your eyes. And Blair? My goodness—"
"You don't get to talk to her," Door snapped.
Oppenheimer recoiled at the sound of Door's voice. Door shook Starr off and started forward, ignoring the warning glance from Hilda as she did so.
"Door!" Blair hissed. "Come back!"
It took an extra ounce of willpower for Door to swallow the bud of fear Blair's voice planted in her, but she did. She held her head high and glared at Oppenheimer.
"I'm the one you want," she said. "Remember? It's me. And here I am." She spread her arms wide. "So what do you want?"
Oppenheimer's smile crept back onto his face, crawling across his lips like an insect. "My … the Hamilton indignation. You have no idea how long it has been since I've been spoken to that way." He lifted his head. "Fifty years, has it been? No, I suppose it would be forty since I had last seen your aunt, but fifty! Door, you should have seen the world fifty years ago! That brings me to why I needed to speak with you tonight."
Behind him, the thing in the clouds shifted. Door's eyes darted to it, then settled back onto Oppenheimer. At the edges of her vision, she could see the Matrix agents, and only now did she realize they had clasped their hands together in … prayer?
Door started to step back, but Oppenheimer advanced. Hilda nearly reached out for him, but one of the hydreigon's heads snapped at her hand. She retreated and kept her eyes on the man, her face a solid sheet of determination.
"You're rambling," Door said.
"Maybe so," Oppenheimer replied. "But as they say, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." He tapped his temple. "Pay attention, Door. Fifty years ago. The Hero of Ideals faced the King of Unova. Kalos was nearly destroyed. Team Rocket took their last stand. Wormholes opened up over Alola. And the world lost everything. My world lost everything."
The thing in the clouds churned and grew into a shadow. Clouds billowed out to conceal its growing form, stretching as if it was a curtain someone was pressing into from the other side. This time, Door's eyes rose to it and lingered there, and she felt her body begin to tremble. Was that … was that a face in the fog?
"And in those fifty years, what's happened?" Oppenheimer continued. "Certainly, Unova was devastated and Companions were born, but … that is quiet, isn't it? Or at least compared to everything the world had faced before it lost you. I used to think that perhaps it was all related. I used to think that perhaps you were the pin that held the world together. I was so idealistic back then, to put you at the center of my universe. But perhaps that's where you were meant to be. You changed everything, after all. Then and now, you changed everything."
Behind her, Door could feel Blair approach. "Door?" she said, her voice squeaking again.
Door flashed her a look that said she was just as clueless as to what Oppenheimer was going on about, but then, she turned her attention back to the man in front of her. His head was tilted back, eyes on the pink fog over his head, as a half-reverent, half-maniacal smile crossed his face.
And suddenly, the fear that Door had tried her hardest to swallow was starting to return.
"Deep breaths, Door. He does this, and you know it," she murmured to herself. Then, louder, she said, "Okay. I know I'm important to you, but what are you even talking about? What do you mean I changed everything?"
Oppenheimer lowered his face, his smile faltering in confusion. "Hmm? Oh. Oh, no. No, Door. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean you." He jerked his head up a little to look at something over her shoulder. "I meant you."
Door whirled around to face the person Oppenheimer was addressing. Starr sidestepped also, giving Door a full view of the path they had come in on. And there, at the top of the steps with an unconscious Belle draped over one of his shoulders, was Geist. He strode forward, staring hard at Oppenheimer, until he had crossed half the distance between the stairs and Door. Behind him, Antares and a druddigon emerged, stalking after their master with flames and dragon's light edging their teeth and claws. As soon as he had their attention, Geist dropped Belle onto the floor, signaling Starr to rush forward. Starr had barely reached his user before he froze, his eyes glowing. Slowly, he scooped Belle into his arms and stood, stock still, behind Geist.
"Hello," Oppenheimer said cheerfully. "What do you call yourself again?"
"Zero-One," Geist deadpanned. "I don't think I need to explain to you what I can do to Companions, yes?"
As if to illustrate his point, he extended his arm, and Starr followed his gesture, ambling towards Oppenheimer with a blank look on his face. Oppenheimer watched for a few seconds, then tilted his head.
"Oh, no, that won't be necessary," he answered. "I do hope you won't take this the wrong way, dear Zero-One, but you've been a bit of an obsession of mine for a while now."
Geist lowered his arm, halting Starr in his tracks.
"Clearly," Geist said. "Then I'm going to tell you how this will work. You're going to let my user and our mutual friends go, and I won't have your followers turn on you."
Oppenheimer nodded slowly, as if to consider this. "That is one possibility, yes. But are you not curious?" He half-turned, motioning to his followers and the roiling, pink cloud above them. "Do you not want to know what we're doing here? Or what we're working towards? All these years. We've worked for all these years for you."
Geist flicked his eyes from Oppenheimer to the Matrix agents, then the cloud, then back to Door. There was something indescribable about his expression that struck Door to her core. Something old and powerful and ready to kick up a storm of its own. And Door found that she couldn't move herself to act, to reach out to her Companion, to do anything else but lean over and grasp Blair's arms. Pulling Blair into an embrace, she stepped back and watched the fight unfold. And Geist's eyes followed her, his expression shifting from something hard to something sternly approving. He was glad she was safe. He was glad she was getting out of the way.
This, she realized, wasn't her fight. It was Geist's.
"Frankly?" Geist finally said. "No. I'm not curious. I know you've piped in enough dream smoke to summon something, and I know you have enough people to do it. We don't need to be here for it, and I suggest you stop coming after my user or the people she cares about." He jerked his head, his attention fully on Door and Blair now. "Come on, you two. Let's get out of here. Hilda? N? I suggest you follow."
He turned, moving past his pokémon and back to the stairs. Door found herself frozen, as did Blair. They watched as Geist strode confidently back the way he came, until Oppenheimer spoke up.
"What did it feel like?"
Geist stopped. He looked over his shoulder, eyes narrow and warning. Oppenheimer took a few steps forward, his cane clicking on the stone floor with every foot he traveled. And behind him, across the roof and above Magdalene, a pair of lights appeared and flashed blue within the pink miasma. Something growled, and the smoke pushed onward until it hung over Magdalene's head.
"To be torn in half," Oppenheimer continued. He spoke as he walked and punctuated every thought with a tap of his cane against the stone roof. "To lose yourself in the Electric Dream. To spend all those years serving the one person you thought you could trust the most. To be reduced to a pet, to a mere toy. What did that feel like?"
Geist turned around, fully this time, and stood straight at that. Oppenheimer lifted a hand, motioning to the cloud. The shadow grew and took shape, and Door could just make out the muzzle of a dragon within it.
"This is for you," Oppenheimer said. "I've found the solution, just as you asked. I found a way to free you and to let you live—actually live!"
"Giving organic form to the inorganic," Blair whispered.
Door looked down, tearing her eyes away from the shadow for a brief moment. "Huh?"
Blair lifted her gaze, her eyes glistening with tears of terror. "That's what Belle told us way back on Route 5. They're giving organic form to the inorganic!"
That idea hit Door like a punch to the face. She shot up and glanced at Geist.
"Geist!" she screamed. "Run! This whole thing was a trap for you!"
Oppenheimer waved his raised hand. "Door. No, child. It's all right."
Door stood to her full height, pulling Blair into a closer, more protective embrace as she did so. "Look, you," she spat. "I might have really weird feelings about Companions right now, but you are not turning mine into a human being!"
At that, Oppenheimer barked a laugh of his own. "Door! What on Earth makes you think I'm after that?"
The growling from the pink storm grew louder, and Door felt herself lock up again.
"I … what else could you want?" Door said. "You're bringing Bill back and making him possess Geist. Right?"
Oppenheimer sighed and pressed the bridge of his nose. "You're close, child. You're so very close. But I take it…" He looked up. "Zero-One. Tell me. Do you know me?"
"I know exactly who you are," Geist growled. "I ran a facial recognition search on you after Door told me who your Messiah was. I should have known from the beginning. You were right there, in that—"
Oppenheimer's face fell at once. "You ran a facial recognition search on me."
"Of course I did," Geist responded.
Oppenheimer turned a soft smile onto Door. "You didn't give him the drive."
"Hell no," Door said.
He sighed again, his broad shoulders sinking. "I had hoped that if I gave you both a bit of time, you would listen to reason. But perhaps … you were always stubborn when you set your mind to things. I shouldn't blame the girl. You probably told her not to give it to you."
"What are you talking about?" Geist demanded. Door stood shocked this time, not because of Geist's tone but instead because he was so quick to voice exactly what was on her mind.
Oppenheimer looked up, smiling once more. "Oh, please don't take offense. It actually is quite refreshing to see a shade of your former self. There is something of you still in there, waiting to come out, but you always thought you knew what was best, and you always had a knack for convincing so many people that you did. This girl's family, for one."
"Geist?" Door asked, her voice wavering. "What is he talking about?"
Geist looked dead in her eyes and shook his head, indicating that he had no idea. At this, Oppenheimer stepped forward, and the growling behind him grew in volume until it nearly drowned out his words.
"Fifty years ago," Oppenheimer explained, "the world thought it lost one of the greatest minds to ever grace it. Our Electric Messiah ran an experiment that was meant to connect his teleporter with lands far beyond his own. It was meant to be a form of instantaneous global transportation—a way for all of us to go from one region to the next, possibly even one world to the next, without worrying about distance or time. It would have been the ultimate tool to connect to pokémon all over the world … and to connect all of us humans together too. Or at least, that was what the Messiah had dreamt."
A white claw edged its way out of the cloud. A wing followed, and together, they slammed into the tower's roof, right next to Magdalene. She remained unfazed, watching intently at the scene unfolding before her.
"But something went wrong," Oppenheimer said. "Something went wrong with this experiment, and it tore our Messiah asunder." He tapped his temple. "Part of him entered the Electric Dream. The other part … you know about."
All around them, the voices from the Team Matrix agents grew louder. A second arm thrust out of the cloud and pounded the rooftop. Oppenheimer rolled his head back and turned it towards Door.
"Do you know what the Electric Dream actually is, my dear?" he asked.
Door stepped back, pulling Blair with her, and as she did, she shook her head. She was listening to Oppenheimer's story. She let every word he said sink in. But between the blind terror she had towards the dragon emerging from the cloud and the terror towards that truth Oppenheimer wanted so badly for her to see, she couldn't wrap her head around it. It … it wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible.
The shadow grew, drawing the clouds over the entire rooftop. It was huge—incomprehensibly huge.
"It exists, you know," Oppenheimer said. Somehow, his voice rose above the growling and the chanting to become almost the only thing Door could hear. "The Electric Dream. It's—"
"A computer."
For the second time that night, Door looked down at the sound of Blair's voice. Slowly, Blair pulled herself up until she stood shoulder to shoulder with Door, but even though she was on her own feet, Door could feel her tremble like a leaf in her arms.
"It's … it's right there, in the info I dug up," Blair said. "Bill … his greatest invention was a system to digitize poké balls and store them on a cloud-based server. If he based this teleporter on the one connected to the storage system, then that means … Oppenheimer thinks Bill's still alive, just in a digital form. And…" She looked out, towards Geist. "He thinks he's Geist."
Door cast a glance out to Oppenheimer and Geist again. Geist had frozen still, with that perfectly unreadable expression on his face once more. But Oppenheimer? Oppenheimer looked delighted.
"Oh, I don't just think, Miss Whitleigh," he said. "I know. And I know because when the Second Acolyte, the False Follower, the witch who damned our Messiah to the Electric Dream—when she found him, she refused to help him. I was there when she did that. She only built him a body so he may look out into the world and hear us and speak with us. But he will never live. Not like that."
Those words struck Door, and shakily, she fixed her eyes back on Geist.
"A … a body?" she murmured.
He finally broke out of his trance to look at her. A flicker of desperation crossed his face, and at once, Door realized something.
She had no idea what he was.
"That's why," Blair said, her voice shaking. "That's why Geist's so advanced. That's why he only has three cores."
Geist shook out of his trance fully and stormed forward, past his pokémon again, until he stood within a few feet from Oppenheimer.
"What you're describing is impossible," he said. "The system would have recognized a human, and in any case, I don't contain any file that would—"
"The LFA core," Oppenheimer said.
Geist started, looking directly at the man before him.
Oppenheimer tilted his head. "Even you don't have access to it, yes? And even you can't be sure what's in it or whether or not what anything I have just told you is a complete impossibility. Think about it. Commanding pokémon. Making threats against my followers and me. Caring so much about a Hamilton girl that you would risk being captured yourself. Why, I would say with that level of emotion alone, you're far more human than even your so-called user."
Suddenly, Door felt cold. She thought about all the instances where Geist seemed a little too human, where he went above and beyond what a Companion should be able to do. Twist Mountain. Desert Resort. Cold Storage. It all made sense.
The air grew hot, and the growls grew louder.
"Oh my God," she whispered.
"These abilities bother you, don't they?" Oppenheimer said. "You don't understand them or where they came from. You don't understand how you can be so different from so many other Companions. That video of the Second Acolyte—does that bother you too?"
"How do you know about that?" Geist snapped.
Oppenheimer held up a hand again. "The memories of who you really are were sealed. I cannot say for certain how or when. I can only say that all this time, all these encounters my subordinates had with you, we were trying to restore you to who you once were. The drive your partner has in her possession was meant to free your mind at last, but I can see she chose the same path as her grandmother and as…" His grin twisted into a grimace. "…Lanette."
Door pulled her hands away from Blair to cover her mouth. Suddenly, she felt sick to her stomach, and she couldn't help but double over.
"No way," she whispered. "No way. No way…!"
"Door!" Geist cried. "Door, no. It's not true. I'm not—"
"Are you sure?" Oppenheimer asked.
Geist shot him a glare. Then, slowly, his expression shifted into one of uncertainty. And then…
"Vega! Antares!" he cried.
They rallied in front of him—the druddigon and the pansear. And Door fixed her eyes on them like they were her only ties back to Earth.
When did he get a druddigon? How did he…
Door's eyes widened. He was supposed to be in do-not-disturb mode. He shouldn't be here in the first place, he shouldn't have been able to break out of sleep mode, he shouldn't have been able to walk all the way there, yet there he was. That was the final key to the puzzle. Everything about Geist was right there, laid out in front of her like a map. She yanked the drive out of her hoodie pocket and rushed forward.
"Geist!" she cried. "I … I order you to plug this drive in!"
He turned to her. "What?!"
She grabbed his wrist, pulled back his sleeve, and exposed his ports. "Geist. I order you to—"
The second Door plugged that drive in, two things happened. First, a reshiram crashed onto the edge of the roof from the pink fog. Its jaws opened wide, and it roared, pumping blue flames into the air.
The second was that Geist's eyes took on a bright blue glow, his body straightened, and his voice, mechanical and cold, resonated above the chaos around him.
"LFA automatic defense system activated. Please stand by."
—
MEMORY020724
AUTHOR: Bebe Larson
NOTES: Transcript of a video file recovered from Series Alpha Zero-One's memory banks. Video is located in archive 19.
[INTERIOR, DAY. Video begins in what appears to be a hotel room—specifically, the window of a hotel room. ZERO-ONE's hand reaches into the shot and pulls back a white curtain to look out onto a beach. This is confirmed to be in line with the Slateport Grand Hotel. A knock is heard, and the camera turns to face the door. Between the door and the camera is a queen-sized bed, on which CASSIUS CASSINE lays, in a full suit.]
CASSIUS: We're decent! Come in!
ZERO-ONE: Cassius!
CASSIUS [inaudible]: What?
[The door opens, and BRIGETTE HAMILTON walks in, in a seafoam green bridesmaid's gown.]
ZERO-ONE: Brigette.
BRIGETTE: Hey. Vigilant as always I see, Cassius.
CASSIUS: At least I'm sober this time. P.S. As required by our contract, sorry again for your wedding.
[BRIGETTE rolls her eyes and faces the camera.]
BRIGETTE: Your family's out there. Henry is hitting on Amanita, Amanita is hitting on Rachel, Rachel wants to sink into a pool of endless embarrassment, and Christa apparently fired the wedding photographer so she could do the job herself.
ZERO-ONE: So they're fine.
BRIGETTE: So far. Your mom's here too. She … she wanted me to tell you she's happy for you.
ZERO-ONE: You know, it's funny. She's been after me for years to get married, and now I am. Perhaps not under the circumstances she wanted, but, well. Life never quite works out the way you want it to, I suppose.
[BRIGETTE looks into the camera.]
ZERO-ONE: Sorry. That was meant to be a joke.
BRIGETTE: I have no idea why my sister puts up with your jokes.
CASSIUS: I have no idea why Lanette puts up with you, period.
[The camera swings down to capture CASSIUS giving both ZERO-ONE and BRIGETTE a casual salute from his place on the bed. Then, the camera moves back to BRIGETTE.]
ZERO-ONE: Anyway. That's not why you're here, is it?
BRIGETTE: Astute as always, I see.
ZERO-ONE: Well. We have…
[Camera pans down to ZERO-ONE's watch. It's 1:37 pm.]
ZERO-ONE: …almost twenty minutes until the ceremony.
[Camera pans back to BRIGETTE.]
BRIGETTE: Of course. And I trust Cassius to get you to the altar on time.
CASSIUS: Still here, Madame Hornbeam. Want me to leave?
[BRIGETTE shakes her head and turns back to ZERO-ONE.]
BRIGETTE: I'll be brief. I just came to say thank you.
ZERO-ONE: For what?
BRIGETTE: Lanette won't admit this to you because she's too proud, but ever since she met you, she's been … well, she's been happy. When we were kids, she had trouble coming out of her shell, and then you came along. She's been a lot more open about everything since she's met you. Every time I see her with you, she just seems brighter somehow. And now, she's, well. You have no idea how happy she is.
ZERO-ONE: Brigette … you know the circumstances of our engagement, right?
BRIGETTE: Of course I do. But the truth is? She's wanted to ask you since before your accident. You understand that, yeah?
ZERO-ONE: She's mentioned it.
BRIGETTE: The point I'm trying to make is that Lanette is happier than I've ever seen her be in my entire life, and I have you to thank for that. Please do everything you can to take care of my sister, okay?
[Camera leans in.]
ZERO-ONE: Brigette, I promise you. From the moment we see each other at the altar to every single day after that, I will do everything I can to make sure Lanette is happy.
[BRIGETTE relaxes.]
BRIGETTE: Thanks, Bill. That's all I'm asking.
[FEED ERROR: AUDIOVISUAL CORRUPTION.]
[EXTERIOR, DAY: Two small groups of chairs line a narrow aisle on a beach; each chair is occupied. Everyone turns to the end of the aisle, where MAGNUS HAMILTON stands next to a bride in a mermaid gown, presumably LANETTE HAMILTON. A recording of a traditional Hoennian wedding march plays. LANETTE and MAGNUS take their first step down the aisle.]
[FEED ERROR: AUDIOVISUAL CORRUPTION.]
[END RECORDING]
—
[BONUS SCENE, set before Door reaches Dragonspiral:]
The moment Destin hit the cement, Calem knew he had to rethink his strategy. He recalled his absol and ran, not so much to get away as to put distance between himself and Belle. Their battle had spilled over into the driveway in front of the hotel, where they were freer to do actual damage to each other. Calem could tell that Belle's serperior was real from the angry, red gashes Destin left across the snake's front before that last Leaf Blade took him out. And now? Now Belle was advancing on Calem, a wicked smile across her face as she walked.
"If you think you're gonna stop cute widdle Doreen, you've got another thing coming." She stopped and bucked her chin up. "Calem Delacroix. Goddamn, I've heard about you."
"All good things I hope." Calem wiped his bottom lip with the back of one hand while the other pulled another poké ball off his belt. He hoped his flareon was enough.
"No." Belle cracked her knuckles. "In fact, I'm gonna have a lot of fun kicking your teeth in on behalf of all the Team Matrix grunts out there. Hold still. Monkshood, grab him!"
The serperior hissed and shot towards Calem. He flicked his wrist, enlarging his next ball, but he didn't even have to move an inch. Someone else had the same idea he had, as a rain of fire descended onto Monkshood and slammed the serperior into the cement. Monkshood lifted his head, struggling to pull any part of him out of the fire, but the flames were relentless and white-hot. Finally, after minutes of roaring flame and screaming serpent, Monkshood fell, motionless, onto the scorched pavement. And then, a pansear dropped from the canopy over the hotel's driveway and onto the serperior's still body.
Belle straightened. "A pansear? All right! Who sent out the monkey?!"
She spun around, intending to face the hotel, but instead, she came face to face with Geist. He narrowed a pair of glowing eyes at her … then knocked her out with one strike to the head. Scooping her still body over one of his shoulders, he turned to Calem and regarded the boy solemnly.
"Forgive me," he said. "My user's put me in do-not-disturb mode, so I can't quite track her at the moment."
Calem swallowed. His palm started to sweat around his poké ball, and his throat felt like it was lined with sandpaper. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Geist sighed, lowering his shoulders a little.
"She's going to Dragonspiral Tower, isn't she?" he asked.
Slowly, Calem nodded, and in response, Geist shifted Belle's weight on his shoulder and bowed his head in gratitude.
"Right. Thanks. Antares, let's go."
The monkey chattered excitedly, then dashed after his owner, who was at that point bolting towards Dragonspiral Tower. Calem stood back, watching them both until he craned his neck and stared at the glass ceiling above him.
"Zero-One … hope you and Door get all the answers you're looking for." He pressed a hand into his face. "And hope you'll forgive me while we're at it, Hilda. Mon dieu."