Satori in Kalos
Chapter 18
Psychic 3
They know.
That thought perpetuated throughout Satori's entire ride. She was never knocked unconscious, which meant she had to stay awake for it. With a bag over her head and everything. At some point they switched vehicles, but Satori wasn't in a position to escape, and she had a hard time figuring out what was going on.
She couldn't even read his thoughts. And that's what truly scared her.
The reasonable guess was that Lysandre himself kidnapped her. To the best of her memory, that was the only other person she'd met on her journey whose thoughts she could not read.
The ride lasted several hours though. Long enough where Satori—as strange as it sounded—got bored. The driver of the vehicle didn't say a word the entire time, and except for the thoughts of the occasional passerby Satori had nothing to entertain herself with but her own thoughts.
Satori tried speaking to her captor on numerous occasions, but they didn't say a word. Eventually she gave up. The car ride did eventually end, and she was led by chains with her head still covered for quite a distance on foot. All she could figure out was she was walking down.
She started to pick up faint thoughts, but it was hard to get a grip on the situation from them. She didn't get more than a few words before they left her radius. She did figure they were Team Flare, but that was about all she could deduce.
The descent flattened out, and Satori could hear the sound of electronic doors opening and closing. She was quickly forced to sit down in a chair, her restraints undone, but then redone so her hands were tied to the armrests. The bag was finally pulled off her head.
The room she was in was dim. It looked to be like a missile silo or something, with steel walls stretching up at least a hundred feet in the air. Standing before her was Lysandre, his orange hair as crazy as the day they met.
But what was behind him was far more impressive. It looked to be a massive flower bud made out of crystal. It stretched up for at least fifty feet, and at the base were hundreds of thick wires.
"Impressive, no?" Lysandre said and stretched his arms. "The ultimate weapon."
Satori was still trying to get her bearings and didn't respond immediately. She was still perturbed she couldn't read his thoughts. "What..." Satori shook her head. "What do you want with me?"
Lysandre reached into his coat and pulled out a single ultra ball. Satori knew what it was.
"He won't listen to you." Satori tried to be as intimidating as possible. "He's mine."
"I know," Lysandre said. "When you took it from me, I cut my losses and moved onto the alternative. I'm just making sure this can't be used against me, now."
"The alternative being Flandre Scarlet."
"Yes." Lysandre stepped aside, and gestured behind him. Satori hadn't seen it before, but at the base of the ultimate weapon was a small bed-like pod. Inside was a small girl with yellow hair and tree branch wings. Satori could see the resemblance to Remilia. "She'll be used to power the ultimate weapon, wiping everyone off the face of the planet."
"Why?" Satori asked. Lysandre tilted his head in response, so Satori repeated herself. "Why are you trying to kill everyone?"
Lysandre sighed. "Oh, something about beauty?"
"Excuse me?" Satori asked. "What kind of answer is that?"
"You'll find out eventually. I'd rather that be after my plan works."
"Your plan working involves our deaths."
Lysandre shook his head. "No no, there's about a half-mile radius around the ultimate weapon which isn't effected. Team Flare will survive, or at least the ones competent enough to make it here. There's still work to do though, so if you'll excuse me."
Satori shouted for Lysandre not to leave, but he ignored her and walked out of the room. The sliding door shut behind him, leaving Satori alone.
But not for long. Satori heard the thoughts before her next visitor actually entered. Hinanai Tenshi, dragging a chair with her. She set it up across from Satori, but spun it around backwards so she could rest her arms on the top of the backrest.
"So you're a mind-reader. No wonder you're so slippery." Tenshi said.
Satori glared. "And you're also not what you seem."
Tenshi smiled. "I have transcended my humanity, yes. Earthquake manipulator, as you've no doubt figured out, mind-reader."
"I guess the power plant suited you."
"Well, I was mostly suppressing them there. Put a few keystones around the power plant." Her look soured. "Not that it did any good when you shot it up."
"You're welcome."
Despite the banter, Satori was trying to think of a way she could use Tenshi. Every second that Satori kept her in the room she learned a bit more about her. Her traumas, her thoughts, what made her tick. Satori couldn't directly control people like puppets, but she could manipulate them in more subtle ways. Fear would always drive people.
"Why are you here? To guard me?" Satori asked, pulling against the ropes around the armrest.
Tenshi shook her head. "Not as such, no. Lysandre doesn't really want me in here, but he hasn't been on his game of late. Thought I'd poke in and say hi to the girl who beat me."
Tenshi's fears were, for the most part, typical. She wanted to do something impressive, be somebody important, and was afraid she wouldn't live up to that potential. Satori resisted laughing when she uncovered Tenshi's fear of disappointing her parents.
"So where are we?" Satori asked.
"Like I would—"
"Under Geosenge, then."
"Dammit." Tenshi frowned. "Should have thought this visit through more."
In retrospect, it wasn't actually that much of a leap. Yveltal emerged from Geosenge, which implies the ultimate weapon was in the same place.
"Didn't the KPD check this place out after Yveltal?" Satori asked. "How'd you keep this thing secret?"
Tenshi rolled her eyes. "Is there any point in me talking to—"
"Oh, that's interesting." Satori said, cutting her off. "You covered it up during the Yveltal attack." Satori caught some glimpses of Tenshi using her earthquake powers to disrupt the ground around Geosenge to mask the presence of the facility. It was rather clever.
"Any more information you want to steal from me?" Tenshi asked. She did not look very amused, and Satori shrugged. Maybe best to back off a little.
Trauma came in many different flavors. The most simple type to work with were singular events, a single day or series of days where someone was tortured and pushed to their limits. Yveltal's attack, for instance, was a major traumatic event for a lot of people. It came up time and time again as Satori read people.
But there were other types. Some trauma happened over the course of years. Slowly, subtly. Satori couldn't read people's entire histories, only their traumas. So when Satori was privy to a lot of memories it was a clue they went through a depressing and traumatic period.
And Satori could read nearly all of Hinanai Tenshi's childhood. A bad sign for Tenshi. But going through it all would take time, time Satori probably didn't have much of.
"Okay, I'm dying to know," Tenshi said. "For the life of me I can't figure out how you pulled off that escape back in the power plant."
Satori tried to ignore the theories that were making their way to the forefront of Tenshi's mind, and continue shifting through her traumas. "Why don't you ask the guys you left me with?"
"Dead. Or captured. I dunno." Tenshi adjusted her hat.
It was a story Satori had read a million times over: bad childhood. Tenshi's parents neglected her, focused on other things. She always tried to impress them but they never gave her the time of day. Ignored.
"I'll give you a hint then," Satori said. She would take a gamble here, but she couldn't think of another play. "My abilities go farther than just reading surface thoughts."
"Oh?"
"I manipulate trauma."
Tenshi furled her brow. Satori kept sifting through the events of her childhood, the traumatic events. None individually were particularly bad, but all together it painted a sorry picture. "What does that mean, exactly? Are you saying you scared them?"
"I am capable of that, yes. People's traumatic memories are my playthings. I can dig them out of the recesses of your mind and throw them back in your face. I've been told it's a...traumatic experience in its own right."
"So, you distracted them with fear, went for the gun and ran off? That's boring." Tenshi sighed.
"No." Satori gripped the edge of the armrests. "I did the opposite." Tenshi turned her head questioningly. "I erased their trauma."
"I don't under—"
"Amnesia," Satori interrupted. "The brain stores memories through connections—every memory is connected to many others. I can manipulate and erase the 'traumatic' memories, but there's a cascading effect that comes with doing that. A lot of innocent memories can get wiped in the process. Those two couldn't even remember what 'Team Flare' meant."
"Sounds like a bluff to me."
"Your parents don't love you," Satori countered. Tenshi glared. "Mommy and daddy never paid any attention, nothing you did ever satisfied them. Ah~ah..." Satori mocked. "Poor little girl, alone and neglected, maybe you can impress them with this plan to use the ultimate—"
Tenshi shot up from her chair. "We are not having this conversation."
"I can ease your suffering."
"Not—" Tenshi reached over and poked Satori in her chest. "—Interested."
Satori didn't respond at first. She leveled her gaze to meet Tenshi's eyes. It was clear Satori had broached a painful subject, she could see Tenshi's attempts to push away her memories to the back of her mind. But even if she didn't want to think of them, she didn't wish to forget them. Not completely.
Which means Satori still had an edge.
"It's not your decision."
Tenshi froze. "Wh...What..?"
"It doesn't matter that you're not interested," Satori said. She smiled faintly. "I don't need your consent to erase your trauma."
The air was completely still. Tenshi didn't move a muscle, but her thoughts were running wild. Satori saw them all, of course, and the implications started to pour into Tenshi's mind. Slowly Tenshi started to realize just who had the upper hand in this conversation.
And she realized that Satori was not the only prisoner in this room. Not anymore.
"Maybe you should sit back down." Satori said. Commanded.
Tenshi stepped back away from Satori. She slowly spun her chair around so she could sit in it properly. But before she sat in it the metal doors of the room slid open with a whoosh.
Lysandre strode in.
"Enough," he said loudly. "Tenshi, leave."
"Don't you dare," growled Satori.
Caught between the two of them, Tenshi simply opted to stand still and do nothing. Her hands started to tremble until Lysandre drew a pistol—a real one—and pointed it at Satori.
"Whatever you're threatening her with, it ends now." He said. "If you do anything you will die. Tenshi, leave."
Satori stayed silent, and Tenshi took that as her cue to flee the room. After the doors shut, Lysandre stepped to where Tenshi had been standing and holstered his weapon.
"You were always smart, but I don't remember you being so... cunning." He said.
"How do you know about me?"
Lysandre didn't respond. For Satori, the silence was eerie.
"How do you know about me?" Satori asked again.
"Just because you're asking again doesn't mean I'll answer," Lysandre said. "My plan will be more likely to succeed with you in the dark."
Satori didn't respond to that. How could she? She had questions, tons of questions, but Tenshi didn't know the answer to any of them and Lysandre wasn't going to be any help. She was trapped, bound to a chair and could do absolutely nothing.
And the silence lingered, Lysandre and Satori not saying a word.
There wasn't a single tool Satori had at her disposal anymore. Her Pokemon were god knows where, except for Yveltal who was in Lysandre's pocket, but that doesn't really matter because she can't move her own hands.
But now that she thought about it, Lysandre didn't even really move either. It was strange. Most people made a lot of small, subtle movements while standing. Twitching their hands, stretching their arms, adjusting their feet. Lysandre made none of those. And he never gestured with his hands while speaking either.
Strange.
But Satori had no idea how she could use that information. She had no idea how to use any of it.
"It's time," Lysandre said.
The entire room vibrated as the ultimate weapon started to shake. Lights on the side started to brighten and a low hum filled the room.
Satori couldn't do anything but watch. The ultimate weapon slowly began to ascend up the shaft of the silo, cables and cords hanging down from it onto the pod that held Flandre. The rumbling slowly grew in intensity until Satori's chair started to shake.
Then the ground suddenly shook violently, enough to knock Satori and her chair over onto its side. Lysandre also lost his footing as the floor beneath his feet cracked. The sound of screeching metal echoed throughout the chamber.
As always Satori heard the thoughts first, but that only gave her a few seconds of warning. Through her skewed view, Satori saw Tenshi run past her and Lysandre towards the ultimate weapon.
"What are you doing, Tenshi?" Lysandre yelled.
Tenshi stuck her sword into the ground, and another earthquake rocked the room. The pod holding Flandre lurched upwards, and then split in two. The ascending ultimate weapon groaned to a stop and the limp body of Flandre Scarlet toppled onto the ground.
"Changing my mind."
"WHAT?"
Tenshi changed her grip on the hilt of her sword and drew it from the ground.
"Why the hell do you think I want the world destroyed?" She slashed the ground again, causing another earthquake. Cracks appeared in the floor and several tiles shattered. "I live here too you know."
"You idiot, you don't realize what you're doing." Lysandre shouted. He glared at Satori. "You had—"
"I know exactly what I'm doing." Tenshi brought her sword above her head to deliver another quake.
MAke tHe bAD pEoPLe gO AwAY
Tenshi dropped her sword, clutching her chest. Satori watched Tenshi's eyes go wide and her entire body trembled.
Then she disintegrated.
Tenshi's body turned into a fine scarlet dust, and behind it was the form of a young girl. A young girl with two treebranch-like wings from which crystals dangled. A young girl with red, glowing eyes.
MAke tHe bAD pEoPLe—
Flandre turned her gaze towards Lysandre and outstretched her arm, spreading her fingers. Instead of turning and fleeing, Lysandre simply stood there. The gaze on his face completely and utterly neutral.
Flandre clenched her fist.
—gO AwAY
Lysandre fell apart.
That was the only way Satori could describe it. It was as if the forces holding his body together just stopped working. His skin shed, his organs fell out and blood poured across the floor, the human being that used to be Lysandre simply... falling apart. Destroyed.
Satori's eyes darted between Flandre and the pool of blood spreading from Lysandre's corpse. Flandre lowered her hand and surveyed the room. Her eyes fell on Satori laying on the ground, tied to the fallen chair.
She outstretched her hand yet again.
MAke—
"Wait please stop!" Satori shouted. "I'm not a bad person, I'm not a bad person!"
Flandre hesitated. Satori desperately tried to escape her restraints, but only managed to scrape her skin on the rope.
"Please," Satori pleaded. "I'm not a bad person, I'm...I'm, they captured me too, see?"
yoU'rE All tiED uP...
Flandre walked towards Satori. She struggled to free herself to no avail until Flandre walked close enough Satori couldn't see any more than her legs. Her heart was racing.
Satori's hands trembled as Flandre touched her shoulder. She ran her hands over Satori's arms until she found the ropes binding her. Satori couldn't see what was going on, but she heard a tearing sound and then her hands were free. In Flandre's palms were the remains of the rope.
The raw strength required to tear the ropes the way she had, long-ways, was staggering. Satori hoped Flandre would just leave, but instead she knelt down next to Satori.
"Here, let me help you up," she said cheerfully.
Satori took her arm only because not doing so would be bad. Flandre helped her up. She smiled a cheerful smile and outstretched her hand. But not like before, this time she simply held it out to shake.
"I'm Flan."
Satori had to take a deep breath and calm her trembling limbs before she could return the shake. "I-I'm Satori..."
She had shaken a lot of hands in the past few months, but Flandre's grip was by far the strongest. Satori was afraid her hand would simply be crushed, and didn't doubt that Flandre could if she wanted to.
"So those bad people took you too, huh?" Flandre asked.
Satori tried to formulate an answer but couldn't. She was in shock. The word for what she had just done to Lysandre and Tenshi didn't come. "Kill" didn't do it justice.
But what really shocked Satori were the thoughts. The thoughts Flandre had.
They were innocent. They were so powerful, so frightening, but so innocent. And Satori hesitated to make even a single move. The thoughts were innocent, but Satori had seen what she did. Dare she read into the trauma? Satori had never been afraid to use her ability in her entire life. She was never afraid of learning the dark secrets people held in their minds.
But this girl. Flandre Scarlet.
Satori hesitated.
"Are you okay?" Flandre clenched her fists. "Did those bad people do something bad to you?"
"Nnn..." Satori realized she had been silent while Flandre waited for an answer. "N-No, I just...I'm sorry, I'm..."
"Don't worry," Flandre said. She put her hand on Satori's shoulder, causing her to freeze up again. "I'll keep you safe."
"T-Thank you..."
Satori felt her ability being tested to its absolute limit. Conversing with Flandre was like navigating a minefield. If she said the wrong thing, just once, it could set Flandre off. All it would take is one squeeze and Satori would be erased. Erased like Tenshi and Lysandre.
And Satori was blundering around that minefield like she was drunk.
Flandre took Satori by her wrist and started to lead her away. Too afraid to stop her, Satori had to let herself go along and keep Flandre happy. She was navigating a minefield.
Gotta find Remi. Where's Remi. Satori watched Flandre turn her head from side to side. Remi should be coming for me, right? Remi wouldn't abandon me, no, she wouldn't, no...
Satori was worried about Flandre's mental stability. She had to do something.
"H-Hey, Flan, what are we..." Satori cut herself off when Flandre turned her head. "I, er, what are we going to do...?" She didn't have to fake acting meek and afraid. She really was meek and afraid.
Satori just prayed Flandre didn't pick up that she was afraid of her.
"My sister should come for us," Flandre answered. "Remi always comes when I'm alone." She'll come, right? My sister is so great, she'll definitely come.
"Your sister sounds like she loves you a lot," Satori said.
Flandre smiled. "Yeah! Remi is the best."
Anything that Satori could do to solidify her role as "friend" rather than "bad guy."
"Hey, what's that thing?" Flandre asked. Satori followed Flandre's outstretched finger. She was pointing to the massive flower-bud ultimate weapon suspended in the silo. Satori could make out tracks on the wall it would ride up when it was powered.
"Team Fl...I mean, the bad guys were going to use it."
"So it's a bad thing," Flandre said. Gotta make the bAD thINgs go away.
Flandre outstretched both her hands towards the ultimate weapon and clenched them into fists. Satori tried to get better footing to prepare for it to come crashing down, but her trembling legs made that difficult.
Instead, the lights on the weapon turned on. Flandre looked confused, and clenched her fists again.
With a loud hum, the ultimate weapon started ascending.
"What are you doing?" Satori asked frantically.
"I dunno," Flandre exclaimed. "It's supposed to go away when I squeeze it."
Flandre opened and shut her hands over and over again, each time she did the ultimate weapon rose faster.
"Stop, it's not working."
"But I have to make the bad things go away!"
Satori had no idea how the weapon worked, but obviously Flandre should not be anywhere near the thing. She tried to think of what to do, but every second that passed the weapon rose higher into the silo. She didn't want to know what would happen if it reached the surface.
But there wasn't anything Satori could do. She had no idea where her Pokemon were, or any of her belongings.
No, that wasn't quite true. She knew where one was. Satori looked back towards Lysandre's corpse, a pile of flesh and bone. Yveltal's ultra ball was in that pile. Then she turned to Flandre, still trying to stop the ultimate weapon.
"Wait, Flan, let me help." Satori said. "I can stop the bad thing."
"Eh? But—"
"You helped me, so I want to help you." Satori was almost hyperventilating. "T-That's fair, right?"
It took a few seconds for Flandre to nod her head. As soon as she did, Satori bolted towards Lysandre's body. When she reached it, she knelt down and tried to find Yveltal.
This wasn't the time to stay clean. Satori dug her hands into Lysandre's remains trying to find the ultra ball. Blood splattered all along her arms and her legs as she knelt in the pool of blood. She had to toss bones out of her way and shovel internal organs to the side to find it. She tried not to think about what she was doing.
When Satori stood up, her hands were completely soaked with blood and Yveltal's pokeball was entirely scarlet. She threw the pokeball out into the silo. In a flash of light, the large form of Yveltal appeared as tendrils of darkness sunk into every corner.
This place. Why have you brought me back here, little Sa—
Yveltal cut himself off as his gaze landed on Flandre.
Then he took a step back.
What the hell is that. What the HELL IS THAT? Get me away, get me away, recall me immediately!
Flandre tilted her head as Yveltal backed away. That thing looks like a bad thing, did Satori make another bad thing appear? Is Satori a bad person?
"Wait, it's not a bad thing!" Satori shouted. Flandre looked over. "Yveltal isn't a bad thing, he'll help us." Before Flandre could react, Satori shouted at Yveltal and pointed towards the ultimate weapon. "Yveltal, that's the thing that Team Flare wanted to use you for. Go destroy it! Physically!"
Fine, just keep that thing away from me.
Yveltal spread its wings and flew into the air towards the rising ultimate weapon. There was a loud crash as Yveltal smashed head-on into it, knocking it off center. It still rose, but slower. The sounds of screeching metal echoed throughout the chamber with each strike Yveltal took at the machinery.
"See, Flan?" Satori pleaded and ran back to her. "He's not a bad thing."
"B-But he looks like a bad thing." Flandre said softly, staring at the devastation that Yveltal was causing.
"I know, but he's helping, right? J-Just because he looks bad doesn't mean he is."
"Are you sure?" Flandre looked back to Yveltal, and back to Satori, and back to Yveltal. He launched another attack at the ultimate weapon, and a large portion of it fell off and slammed into the ground. He seems scary though...but he's making it dark...I like the dark...
Satori hesitated to reach out and hold Flandre's hand. Flandre didn't mind, so Satori took her hand in both her own. "Yeah. Yveltal will help you destroy the bad thing, and then we can go find your sister, alright?"
In response Flandre held out her other hand towards Yveltal.
"No, wait, please don't!" Satori shouted. "He's my friend, please don't kill my friend."
"...friend?" Flandre tilted her head. Remi told me that friends look out for each other. Friends protect each other. "Satori, are we friends?"
"Yes." Satori said quickly. "I, I mean, of course. We're all friends, right? We're helping each other out."
"Yeah..." Flandre lowered her arm and smiled a wide smile. "We're friends! I made a friend."
Satori smiled weakly in response to that, desperately wondering how much being friends with Flandre Scarlet would lower her life expectancy.
Half a minute later, Yveltal rammed into the ultimate weapon one last time sending it into the ground, shattering it into oblivion. The pieces were all still there, but they were so mangled and destroyed Satori doubted they could ever be recovered.
"Hey!" A voice shouted from behind them. Satori and Flandre turned to see a man in Team Flare attire standing in the doorway. "What the hell is—"
Flandre squeezed him out of existence. He fell apart in much the same way Lysandre did.
"More bad people..."
Satori didn't dare get in Flandre's way as she walked through the doorway. The sound of gunfire and screams echoed throughout the entire facility. Satori was thankful she was too far away to hear their thoughts, but she could still hear their screams.
Recall me, recall me now.
Satori did what Yveltal asked, and tried to wipe the blood off of the pokeball. It didn't really work since her hands were just as dirty.
It was less than sixty seconds before Flandre walked back into the room. She was covered with blood and her clothing was a little ripped, but she was smiling.
"I made the bad people go away." She said.
"G-Good job."
"Wanna see?"
Flandre didn't really let Satori respond before grabbing her arm and leading her out of the silo. They had to step over the remains of the Team Flare grunt's corpse in the doorway to get into the hall. It was a short hallway that led to a large control room.
The control room had numerous computer terminals and screens, but Satori couldn't focus on them. What hit her the hardest was the smell. The corpses of about twenty or so men and women in orange jumpsuits stole her attention. It was hard to identify most of them as corpses at all, to Satori they started to just look like sludge.
Satori knelt down and threw up.
"Are you really okay?" Flandre asked. Satori tried to wave her off as she wiped her mouth.
It took her more than one try to stand up, with Flandre's help.
"Are you sick or something?" Flandre asked. "Remi says people need to rest when they're sick."
Flandre helped Satori over to a chair. Like a puppet, Satori sat down at Flandre's direction. The computer terminal in front of her was busted up and riddled with bullet holes. However, to the left of her seat she saw a holo caster.
It was bloodstained, but it looked functional.
"Hey, Flan," Satori said. "M-Maybe we can use that to contact your sister."
"Hmm?" Flandre looked over to where Satori gestured. "What's that?"
"It's like a telephone."
"Oh, Remi told me about those. She even had me memorize a number to call if I ever got lost."
Satori was extremely grateful for Remilia's foresight. Flandre trotted over to the holocaster and picked it up, fiddling with the buttons for a bit. She seemed to figure out how it worked, although Satori was worried that she would accidentally crush it in her hands.
The other end didn't ring more than once.
"Flan? Is that you?"