Author's Notes: Thank you all for reviewing. Sorry, VulpixTrainer, I can't really answer your questions at this point. If I told you the answer now, it would sort of ruin the plot. Don't worry, though, you ought to be finding out about those things soon...
There was a rather large problem with the initial upload of Chapter 19. This is the fixed version.
Chapter 19: The Rebellion
The sun had risen by the time the full assembly of Pokemon had arrived in the meadow. In ones and twos they appeared, heads down and bodies prepared to dash away at the slightest sign of danger. They did their best to blend in with the wildflowers, which were bobbing and rocking as they were jarred by the creatures brushing past them. A great many Pokemon had come once they had heard the impassioned speeches of Seth and Trevor. They burned with anger at the thought of what their Mistress had done to innocent Pokemon who, much like they themselves, had somehow been seen to stand in her way.
The Pokemon shifted uneasily as they stood in the field, pressed close together in order to fit within its small boundaries. It was this very fact that worried them, for they were certain that the meadow had been larger the previous day. Indeed, some two feet of earth around its perimeter was now filled with wilted, dying wildflowers and the shade of the trees that were slowly stretching their grasping branches over it.
When it became apparent that no more Pokemon would be arriving, Trevor deemed that it was time to begin his speech. The Ekans coiled his sinuous body around the trunk of a short birch tree that grew near the field's center so that the assembly could see him. Seth was perched in one of its upper branches, awaiting his turn to speak.
"My friends!" Trevor called out to the waiting Pokemon, "I have called all of you together to speak to you about a matter of great importance. I thank you all for heeding my call, and I commend you for seeing the grave nature of the situation. For you see, we have convened to discuss a great undertaking. Revolt! We must rise up to take back our lives from the machinations of the Mistress, or see them forfeited."
"As you know, my friend and I have made a sickening discovery. It would seem that our Pokemon, and indeed all Pokemon taken from the cursed trainers now trapped on this isle, have been callously slaughtered to who knows what end."
The crowd hissed and tittered, its members turning to one another and discussing the matter in low, angry tones. Trevor waited for the wave of sound to break and continued.
"Yes, it was a terrible deed, the whim of a cruel, terrible mind. But I say that we must not allow it to be pushed to the back of our minds. No! The days for ignoring our position and the cruelty of the Mistress have come to an end. For it is now apparent that she seeks not only to control our lives, but our deaths as well."
The crowd murmured again, louder this time. Voices of every timbre growled or grumbled in the slowly warming morning air. Trevor watched this, pleased. He was clearly getting through to his audience.
"And now I say that we must take our lives back into our own hands and throw off the shackles of our subservience. No longer shall we cower before the might of one Ninetales as individuals, but tower over her as a single group. Together, and only together, may we finally know what it is to be free once more."
The crowd roared its approval, the sound carrying on the crisp morning air. Trevor winced at it, thinking that the Mistress must surely hear and come to investigate. He reprimanded himself for foolish thinking shortly thereafter; let her come! These Pokemon were no longer wont to turn a blind eye to her cruelty. They would be able to overcome her together. Still, a few dissenters remained in the crowd.
"How do we know that you're telling us the truth?" one skeptical Pidgey piped up from near the back of the crowd. He got a few glares from his comrades, but Trevor received the question without flinching.
"See the evidence for yourself," he suggested, looking up to Seth in the boughs above him. The Spearow reached down and plucked one of the perpetually open Pokeballs from where he had set them nearby, up against the trunk of the tree. He flicked it out into the crowd, where it slowly made its way back to the Pidgey.
The grisly object created an outraged reaction. Pokemon and human alike were shocked and horrified by it, and no further requests for proof were voiced. Another unconvinced voice spoke up, however.
"So we're going to be doing all of the fighting while you do the commanding from a safe distance, eh, human?" a haughty Persian called.
This question rankled Trevor considerably. He was sorely tempted to respond with a equally venomous reply, but he held his forked tongue and worded his answer carefully. "Of course not, friend. I will gladly fight alongside any of you Pokemon, and I am sure that my other human friends will do the same." The Persian didn't look entirely pleased with the notion, but he subsided under the avalanche of reprimanding glares and jostles that he received from his neighbors. Trevor continued to answer questions, his answers never missing a beat.
The guy could've been a damn politician, Seth thought to himself in a mixture of awe and derision. Figures that the Mistress would turn him into a snake.
At last, the Houndoom, Erkaizor, spoke, his low, growling voice hushing the excited conversations that had been springing up amongst the crowd. "Enough of this talk," he growled. "What is it that you want us to do? Is there any sort of plan to go with all of these brave words?"
"Seth is in charge of the plan of action," Trevor explained. "He'll be happy to go over it with you."
All eyes turned to the Spearow, who ruffled his scraggly feathers, pleased by the attention. "Well, I don't claim to be as good with words as Trevor," he admitted, "But I think I can answer your question, Erkaizor. Now, the key thing here to remember is surprise. We need to catch the Mistress," he spoke the word as though it was the vilest that had ever passed his beak, "when she is off guard. The best course of action would be to make our move as soon as possible, before she is aware of our resolve. Now, with the aid of surprise--"
"Oh, I'm surprised, I assure you," a cold, silky voice cut him off. The crowd hushed, a nervous shiver running through its members. A proud Ninetales stepped from where she had been waiting in the shadow of the outer trees, taking in the whole conversation. "Surprised that you all are such great fools," she finished, her burning red eyes sweeping over the assembled islanders, somehow seeming to root out every last one of them and glare at them accusingly.
She trotted over to stand near the base of the tree about which Trevor was coiled, holding her head up proudly. "I should have expected this of two humans," she announced, glaring up at the Ekans and Spearow. If Seth had uttered her title with loathing, the tone of her voice expressed at least twice as much. "You two have broken into my mansion, my home, and had the gall to make off with my property," she accused, eyes narrowing. "You then stage an ultimately doomed rebellion with the intent of usurping my rule. Grave charges indeed."
"You can't control us any longer, Ninetales," Trevor hissed in response, eyes flashing angrily. Sasoliar's ears twitched irritably when he purposefully set aside her title but remained silent, glaring coolly at him, waiting for him to finish. "We have united now. No longer can you oppress us. The native Pokemon will take back their rights to the island, and we humans will be free of your curse. You cannot control our lives any longer."
There were titterings out in the hushed crowd, and a few of the assembled Pokemon nodded their approval. "Is that it, then?" Sasoliar asked the crowd, her voice deadly soft. "You think that I have treated you unfairly, even infringed upon your rights? I, who have only ever acted in your interests?" her voice rose as she continued, eyes flashing angrily. "It is I who have protected you for all of these years from the insidious influence of the humans! Were it not for me, you would have soon found your little island encroached upon, the heavy tread of the humans crushing the life from it. You and your children would be hunted down like mere animals, captured and forced to serve them until the day that you die!"
"Protect them?!" Seth shrieked, glaring down at the Ninetales from his perch. "I'll tell you what they need protection from! Murdering bitches like you, that's who!"
"You're one to talk," Sasoliar snarled. "You humans poison the land, the water, and the air. You kill each other and all manner of creatures without need, for sport! I would never take a life in cold blood like you malicious killers!"
The audience was captivated by the heated exchange between the two enraged parties. They weren't sure what to think or what to believe. Trevor realized that whoever won the debate would win their support as well. They could not afford to use.
"Then how do you explain this?" Seth snarled, throwing Trevor's open Pokeball to the ground before the Ninetales. She regarded it with interest, then kicked it away contemptuously.
"What more explanation do I need than that the poor creature that was enslaved by that device has been made free once more?" she asked.
"Oh, yeah, you're big on "liberation,"" Seth cried, losing his temper. "You honestly think that you're doing the right thing, don't you? You think death is preferable to life in a Pokeball?"
"Of course not," Sasoliar replied, pleased at seeing the Spearow lose control. "I revere life far more than you humans ever could. But that is not the matter which I came here to discuss." She turned back to the crowd. Her red eyes radiated a strange light, and those who looked into them felt oddly compelled to do as she bade them, hypnotized by the flames that they saw dancing within. "I have come to put an end to your misguided "revolt." Comrades, I ask that you put aside the nonsensical rantings of these two rabble-rousing humans and see reason. I have no intention of punishing you for your transgression. Indeed, all that I ask is that you disperse peacefully and allow me to deal with these vagabonds."
Trevor could see the advantage slipping away from them and made a last desperate bid for the crowd's support. "Do not be so easily dissuaded," he called. "Remember that we are many and that there is only one of her. Who will stand with me against her evil?"
"I will, Trevor," chirped a bright voice from somewhere in the middle of the crowd. Jess the Togepi slowly trundled forward, endeavoring not to trip on her way to the front.
"As will I," came a quiet voice from nearby. A small Nincada scuttled out of the mass of Pokemon, his eyes focused on the Ekans. One by one, most of the Pokemon pledged their support for the two humans, agreeing to stand against the Ninetales, who looked on with growing ire.
"Fools, the lot of you!" she screeched when the final group seemed to have arrayed themselves before her, looking back at her defiantly. "You will pay for this!"
"Now is the time, friends!" Trevor yelled, slithering to the ground. "We must put an end to her rule of hate once and for all. Remember, there is only one of her."
"Not entirely true," an eerie voice replied. Most of the Pokemon in the meadow looked around them, confused. The voice sounded hollow and flat, resonating from all directions at once. It threw the bold revolutionaries off balance, made their righteous charge stumble to a halt.
The shadows took on life, flowing out from the encroaching wood. They drew themselves together in the shape of a Gengar, cunning eyes glowing red and perpetually smiling mouth set in an eerie grin. He flinched as a breeze temporarily blew aside the bough that had been blocking the sunlight from his body, but quickly recovered his composure. Keeping to the sparse shadows, he flitted across the meadow, moving in bounds from one place to another, seeming to pop out of reality and back in at his desired location. Trevor's heart sank as he saw what the Pokemon was carrying in his arms.
"I will stand by your Mistress," he announced. "I, unlike most of you, apparently, am not blind to the world. I know of the evils of humanity. Only Pokemon are pure. We do not carry the taint of insatiable violence and greed, the taint that mars the human soul."
"You're one to talk," Trevor snarled. "Considering what you're about to do."
"Ah, but while I do indeed take undesirable action, I do so only out of greatest need and in order to protect my comrades. I grieve that I am forced to resort to such measures, but you humans have forced me to do so. You see, I have with me one of your little friends..."
"Let him go!" Seth snarled.
"I'm afraid that I can't do that," the Gengar replied silkily, the grin on his spectral face genuine. "Why, you might be so rash as to attack myself and your Mistress after I let him go. Now, we couldn't have that, could we? Why don't we discuss your surrendering yourselves and ending your little tantrum, hmm?"
"Never!" Trevor and Seth shouted in unison.
"Oh, my, I do believe that he's coming 'round," Grottlis announced, almost as though speaking to himself. Indeed, the Rattata in his arms was beginning to stir and groan. Grottlis seized him by his curly purple tail and held him high. Jeremy squealed with pain and shock, eyes popping open. His legs flailed instinctively as he dangled, turning about slowly in response to his thrashing. "You wouldn't want anything...unpleasant...to happen to him, would you?"
"Bastard!" Seth snarled, seeing their dilemma. Could they attempt an attack on the Ninetales and her ghostly friend when Jeremy's life might well be forfeit as a result? "Any ideas, Trevor?" he hissed to the Ekans, who was staring at the struggling Rattata with impotent fury plain in his reptilian face.
"Best we can do is see if we can get that Gengar's slimy paws off him and maybe attack when he lets his guard down," Trevor replied. "All right, Gengar, what is it that you want of us?" he asked.
"Just what I asked before," the Grottlis replied. "Put aside your foolish little rebellion and I'll be happy to put this rat down unharmed."
Trevor's response to this was cut short by a piercing shriek. Once again, the Pokemon in the field were caught by surprise, but this time Sasoliar and Grottlis shared their consternation. The Pokemon craned their heads this way and that, looking for the source of the noise.
The cry repeated itself, "Piiidgeeooottt!" and was accompanied by a rushing sound and a shadow that slid over the flowered meadow. A powerful Pidgeot was descending from on high, his creamy stomach silhouetted against the brilliant sky. There was a trainer on his back.
Jeremy breathed an enormous sigh and went limp with relief in Grottlis' grip. Sasoliar looked up at the circling raptor with a mixture of satisfaction and annoyance. As she had predicted, the human had come rushing to the aid of her friend, but she had chosen a decidedly inopportune time to do so.
"Let Jeremy go, Gengar!" the girl riding the Pidgeot called down, her Pokemon circling reluctantly closer.
"And who have we here?" Grottlis asked, more to himself than to Katherine. The trainer heard and understood him, however. Ghosts, like Psychics, have the ability to affect their target's feelings as well as simply expressing themselves through subtle tone changes and body language. As a result, Katherine was easily able to guess what the Pokemon was saying. She heard his muttered comment and a ripple of consternation and surprise, and knew his question.
"You know me," Katherine replied, jumping from Pidgeot's back to the flower-covered meadow below, landing nimbly. The bird was apparently refusing to land, as she removed a Pokeball from her belt and bade him return. "You've been chasing me and Jeremy since we managed to get away from this accursed island."
Trevor's heart jerked as he looked at her haughtily standing there in the field, her stance confident and unflinching. She's just like we used to be, he thought regretfully, noting the belt of well-used Pokeballs strapped around her waist and the collection of badges displayed thereon. We were invincible, undertaking the greatest of our lives with our friends at our sides and our destinies within our grasp. And then one day we decided to explore a mysterious little island...
"Ah, yes, you," Grottlis observed, displeased with his slip. "The human scum who was attempting to aid the Rattata in overthrowing the Mistress. Yes, you humans are all alike."
"Stow it, you. I asked you to put Jeremy down, and I mean it. Otherwise, I might just have to--"
"Have to what?" Grottlis replied with delight. "What threat can you possibly bring to bear against me?"
"This!" Katherine replied, whipping something out of the front pocket of her sweatshirt and pointing it at him confidently.
Grottlis instinctively recoiled, cursing himself. Of course, that meddling Ailrianor had given her some sort of magical artifact to ward him off with. How typical of the manipulating old fool.
He was surprised when he didn't find himself rent asunder by some arcane force and forced himself to calm down and inspect the object. He turned his lamplike eyes upon it and noticed that the human was at least as surprised as himself that the deadly device didn't seem to be doing anything at all.
He squinted a bit, trying to bring the object, which was gleaming in the intense sunlight, into focus. Finally, he was able to see it clearly, recognize what it was.
And then he burst out laughing.