POV: Cyrus / LOCATION: [classified]
Sharp, astringent antiseptic. Stale, green-washed walls. People dressed in white, masks obscuring their humanity—
Am I in the hospital? What day is it? Why am I strapped to a gurney? Why can't I move?
"I've never seen a human almost bite another's arm off…"
And the Pokemon. The Chanseys and Arcanines stationed to detain escapees. They're whispering amongst each other. Leering at me. Judging me. Why can't anyone else hear them? Someone make them shut up!
"You need to calm down," says the Chansey. "My human needs to take your vitals—"
"SHUT UP! STAY AWAY FROM ME!"
With my body as useful as a candle in a burning house, I can only lie there, grinding my teeth into raw stumps as I drift in and out of these intrusive thoughts. Fear. Fear that they'll cut open my chest to extract the malfunctioning component. Rage. Rage that my struggle will be televised to all of Sinnoh.
You think I'm that crazy to let myself waste away in this desolate hellhole?! I'll break out of here if it's the last thing I do! Then I'll hunt down that wretched Pokemon, and I'll crush its skull! I'll make it pay for whatever it did to me!
Then the needle penetrates my neck.
And the next thing I know, I am back in my cell. Staring listlessly at the ceiling. A salty breeze reeking of moisture descends upon my burning skin, chilling the cold beads of perspiration on my forehead.
Then the scenery changes, and I'm being led down a hallway with iron bars on my left and right. My wrists dangle before me, held together by a pair of… no, these aren't the usual handcuffs. Not metal. A softer material… padded.
A slight panic swells within me.
Inside the interrogation room, the guards strap me down to the chair. As I fight against the lingering effects of the sedative drug, I notice something untoward.
That distortion in front of me. Glass. A glass wall separates me from the outside world.
How dare they treat me like an animal?! After I kill Mesprit, I'm coming for them next! Mark my words—
"Oh, how low you have fallen."
My murderous intent immediately evaporates for a new emotion to rush into its place. At that voice, I am filled with an intense, overwhelming sense of joy.
"You came!" I cry. "Jupiter, you—"
Wait. No, what hell am I prattling on about?! It's these damned emotions! They're poisoning my rationale!
"Why did you come?" I snap. "I specifically banned you from visiting!"
Jupiter merely chooses to observe me in callous silence. I feel my will weakening. Never in my life have I felt so small, so helpless and afraid—
That's a lie. I have felt this way before, but it was a long, long time ago. I've grown past that phase of my life.
Have I?
"Please don't go!" I blurt before she can start her sentence—and I cringe. "N-No, go away! I don't care what you do!"
"You need help."
"I'M FINE! DON'T TALK LIKE YOU KNOW ME!"
"You started screaming to dead space!" she barks. "Thrashing around like a rabid Pokemon, scratching and kicking like something crawled into your brain!
"But you're right about one thing: I don't know you. Despite my looking over you for the past 10 years, I still don't know what schemes are festering under that thick skull of yours! It's not like you to trust your own fucking team!"
Her words sting like a slap to the face.
"You're wrong!" I yelp. "I do trust you! I do want to tell you everything! But I can't—"
"Then tell me! I have all the fucking time in the world!"
"No… You'll leave if you see the real me—"
And I catch myself in time. Ah, these pesky, irrational bursts of sentimentality think they can get the better of me? Please, I've been controlling these bestial urges like I did the minions of my company!
I'm better than this. I don't need anyone!
"You won't understand," I hiss. "Because I know you won't. I have better things to do than confide in fools who are uniformly useless and incomplete."
Her mask remains unchanged. "So it was all a lie? We were just tools to aid in your crusade of madness?"
"Madness? Commander Jupiter, you speak such harsh words. For the wisest cog in the machine, you are the most ignorant. But I suppose ignorance is bliss, in your case."
She ignores me. "So the perfect world you promise us."
That, and my blood boils. "Do truly believe I had any intention of dragging you along? Burdensome, deadweight baggage? From the very beginning, I was in it for myself! The world can never be fixed with you three in the picture! This lowly, despicable, incomplete world will never be purged from its suffering if I allowed others to mar my perfect vision!"
Someone is telling me to stop. A voice somewhere in the deep recesses of my heart. But it's too late. Blinded by pride, I have already crossed the Rubicon.
And when my voice finally gives out, I slump back into the chair, my shoulders quaking from my labored panting.
Wait. What did I just… Oh no.
Jupiter merely crosses her arms, unsurprised. "You hear that? Straight from the traitor's mouth."
And blood leaks to my mouth when Mars and Saturn slowly peek in from the opened door.
"So Charon was telling the truth?" Saturn murmurs. In his hands is a familiar black device, which he pressed play—
"STOP!" I lunge for the voice recorder, only to be yanked back by the binding over my waist and the glass partition of my cage. "Saturn, don't press that! Charon is lying! I would never—"
"Claims the three-faced backstabber!" Mars growls. "At least we knew that Charon was up to no good! He doesn't try to hide it!"
She then rams her fists into the glass. That dreadful paralysis strikes again, rendering me into a pathetic, shivering lump of flesh while my world flashes between black and white.
"I trusted you!" Mars says from somewhere in the present. "But now, I know the truth. You're not longer my boss, just as you're no longer anyone I respect! You're just like him! A lying, neglectful scoundrel who cares about no one but himself! Vermin like you should just roll over and DIE!"
Saturn wordlessly dumps out a box of documents. Papers filled to the brim with ink. Speeches I had sealed away.
"Charon gave us this," he says softly. "He said he found it in your secret drawer. I-I didn't believe him at first. I thought he wanted to frame you again…"
At first.
"S-Saturn, please, let me explain—"
"These speeches were written far in advance, detailing how you planned to disband Galactic." He crushes the paper in a shaky fist. "You kept pushing back the date. How long were you going to toy with our emotions?! You monster!"
I flinch. "N-No. It's not… I can explain…"
But what else is there to explain? I had plotted Galactic's end since the company first began. But that was a decade ago! I'm not the fool from back then, the one who obsessively prepared for the day when history would repeat itself!
And now, I'm finally facing the consequences of my actions. Mars, Saturn, Jupiter… the only three people in the world who understood are now glaring at me from behind a glass barrier. Oh, I don't need eyes to know that they're extremely disappointed in me. I've let them down… I've betrayed their trust, and like a shattered plate, I can never fully regain what I once had.
Why does it hurt so much, though? Why is this fleeting, capricious, vacuous sentimentality ache like real, physical pain? It hurts so much that I can't breathe.
"We're done here," says Jupiter. "Mars, Saturn, do you have your umbrellas? We've wasted too much time here, and now it's starting to rain."
Am I going to let things end like this?
Of course not. I'm not losing my family ever again!
Guided my adrenaline and desperation, I dive for the glass barrier, taking my chair with me. The guards are there in an instant.
"WAIT!" I scream. "Don't leave! Please, give me another chance!"
Saturn is the first to turn, the first to betray that glimmer of hope. Mars is more resistant, but she swallows her protests.
But Jupiter still has her back to me. Only her head is turned, sparing me a marginal glance of shielded eyes.
"Nothing you do will fix my opinion of you," she says flatly. "You can apologize all you want, but—"
"I'M SORRY! JUPITER, PLEASE DON'T GO! PLEASE DON'T ABANDON ME HERE!"
After I've ruined my wrists by pounding on the glass does Jupiter finally spare me her attention. Cracks mar her stoic mask. A sliver of hope blossoms in my bosom. Maybe things will be all right—
"Shut up," she says. "Don't ever call me that again."
The metaphoric door slams in my face. And for a brief, horrifying moment, I feel… nothing.
Click, click goes the flickering light. The rumbling ventilation rattles through the walls. Far beyond the confines of this windowless room, the sun rises and sets. Closer to home, the guards have peeled me from the glass, their gloved hands on my head.
Nothing sounds when I open my mouth. With my ebbing strength, I try to call their names. I try to tell that I'm sorry. The least I can do is offer them a tissue to hide their tears…
But I can longer speak. I can no longer scream or laugh or beg.
"What's wrong with him?" Mars spits. "There's blood coming out of his eyes!"
Saturn pulls her away. "Don't look at him! You'll catch whatever he has!"
"Let's go," Jupiter says, grabbing their hands. "I promise that we'll never return here."
With those parting words, they walk out of my world, taking the last remnants of sunlight with them.
I did it. I let the three people who had changed my life slip from my fingers. And all I can do is hang my head and let these cursed red tears fall on the spotless white floor.