Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or any characters associated with the series. This is a purely recreational work.
Note: Things do get a bit more serious in this chapter.
By the time all of the legendaries had assembled, the Dragonite squadron seemed to have figured amongst themselves a reasonable presentation. However, the Dragonites did take up the much of the left side of the onyx slab, having spread themselves out- ergo, Arceus chose instead to stand in the center of the right hand side of the slab to face them, and the others likewise situated themselves.
"What news from the world these days?" Arceus spoke calmly, but seriously. Generally, the mood so far had been a good one, one of excitement and hope, but the Alpha Pokémon anticipated grim news, judging by the looks on the squadron leader's face.
"Much of the Earth is in disarray- four continents, for sure, besides a number of islands. None of us could have anticipated what we would see. We saw many of the legendaries who had not come here and around them flocked Pokémon by the thousands! They have built what looked to us like armies and many cities have been captured or wasted."
"That is…" Arceus tried to fish for the appropriate words, "unusual. What else can you tell me about the armies?"
"There are five major armies championed by Dialga, Palkia, Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza, and nine smaller divisions headed by the Regis, the Beasts, and the other Birds. Also- we have only seen one of each kind…" The Dragonite paused for a moment and then continued, "Of the armies, I know for a fact that Zapdos is aligned to Rayquaza, that Registeel is aligned to Dialga, and that Suicune is with Regice; this we know because we have seen them marching alongside one another. I suspect that other alliances have been made, but cannot prove it so."
"Is there a motive?"
"We could not find one- nor guess one, because there was too much risk in trying to converse with the armies or their leaders."
"Have you seen any Latias, Latios, Manaphy, or Phione?"
"Or any more Shaymin?" At once everybody looked at Shaymin, who was sitting on the edge of the onyx tablet. Had it been there before? Shaymin just sort of blushed under its fur and curled up a little.
The lead Dragonite collected himself, however. "I'm sorry to say, no; we have not seen any of them- I suspect that they are in hiding during this time."
"Does there seem to be any resistances forming against the armies?" Deoxys inquired.
"Yes. We have seen a few attempts by handfuls of humans and Pokémon to resist these armies, but most are small and struggle to hold their own. The most successful movement is in Kanto, as I recall- Moltres and Articuno have gained control of the north and south, respectively, and are more concerned with fighting each other than suppressing obstinate refugees."
"Thank you for the report," Arceus addressed all the Dragonites, "You are dismissed." After the dragons had left, the legendaries moved around the onyx tablet to make space. "Now then- we have new orders of business. First of all- Shaymin, when did you get here?"
"Just before the squadron came in, I think. Let's just say my old hiding place wasn't working for me," Shaymin replied with a squeak.
Arceus did not seem wholly convinced, but then, Shaymin did have a knack for appearing and disappearing right under one's nose. Tilting its head to the side, Arceus nodded, "Well, you have at any rate arrived at a crucial hour- which brings me to my next point," Arceus looked around the room, "the squadron's report, coupled with Mewtwo's, tells us that what is happening on Earth could be called a worldwide event- or at least, it will be very soon. Now then, what can we do to right this?"
"It would help," Cresselia began, "If we knew why exactly they're fighting in the first place. Right now…I cannot understand what reasoning would drive even Rayquaza and Suicune, who are not even so war-like as the others by nature, to go into red alert."
"Furthermore," Lugia added, "I think it would be wise to assume that we will be treated with hostility on all sides- from our fellow legends as well as from any who may be in opposition to them."
"Between the two, I think it would be better to reconcile with the refugees," Mesprit stated calmly, "Consider: if we throw our support behind this or that faction, then it will only serve to produce more animosity behind those that oppose it. If we help the resistance, it will also attract less attention to us than if we were to side with one of the type-based armies." There were some nods and whispers around the table.
Darkrai shook its head. "If I may play the devil's advocate here-"
"And you always do," Cresselia huffed.
"Yes, well, can I continue?" Darkrai spoke slowly and patiently, "Our presence will not long go unnoticed no matter whether we come in peace or arms, and regardless of whom we choose to support. Nevertheless, if we help the refugees, we will start at a huge disadvantage: limited numbers, even more limited supplies, to say nothing of the relative strength of our opponents."
"However," Celebi countered, "We would have greater mobility and stealth."
"Also," Azelf put in, "if we could just subdue and recruit an enemy faction, even if it was just one, which would show our intentions true enough, don't you think?"
"What of the Pokémon that live here? Will they not help us?" Mewtwo asked. This question, however, brought about a sort of awkward silence.
Mew was the first to break it. "Umm, Mewtwo, the Pokémon and humans that are here are…guests, you might say. It would be rude to ask them to fight."
"Even if they are ready and willing to fight?" Mewtwo shot back.
"We could only accept them if they are ready and willing to fight," Arceus solemnly remarked as it turned to Mewtwo, "However, under the emphasis that we neither demand nor recommend service to our cause, I will ask it of them." Now Arceus stood up and addressed the group, "Whatever we plan to do, we must do quickly. We stand the best chance in first heading to Kanto. Moltres and Articuno are strong birds, but they cannot face all of us, even if they by themselves teamed up against us, which they won't, by the looks of it. Given the opportunity, I'd rather reason with them, if it's possible- I'd rather understand why they are already fighting than just come out swinging."
"More than likely," Darkrai sighed, "that won't be easily won information. What then?"
"Then we must subdue them by any means necessary- short of killing them, if that is at all an option. If it comes to fighting, and it probably will, we should try to get in with whoever is leading the resistance in Kanto."
"That's assuming they have a leader," Darkrai pointed out.
"For now, this is the best we can do. We need information, above all- which will be, as you said, difficult to come by, but it's the only thing that will really make or break our efforts," Mew concluded.
"Then it's decided," Arceus raised its "voice" a half of a decibel, "We head for Kanto, garner as much information from the natives as possible, and if it by that point it is apparent that we must act in force against Articuno and Moltres, so be it. What we now need is work." Arceus turned its head to the right, "Jirachi, Celebi, find a way to pack any supplies we might need, enough for a few days. Mew, Mewtwo, you know Kanto better than most of us, I think, so find us a good launch point, and when you both have agreed on one, tell it to Regigigas, Heatran, Heatran, and Deoxys- they will be the ones in charge of strategizing how to best attack the type-based armies. Let's see…Yes, Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf- you best understand human nature, so help us in our interactions with them. Lugia, Ho-oh, you know Articuno and Moltres better than any of us, so if there's a way you know to approach them peacefully, tell us or find it. Darkrai, you come with me…Am I missing anyone?"
"Umm…" Shaymin's thoughts echoed like tiny ripples in a churning sea.
"Hmm? Oh yes, Shaymin, sorry about that. You come with me, too." That seemed to make Shaymin nervous, but then to most Pokémon, Shaymin always seemed nervous, especially without its Gracidea flowers. In all reality, Shaymin was afraid that Arceus might ask some prying questions about where it had been, and with Darkrai around…well, it would have been a bit awkward.
As it happened, though, preparations went on without a hitch, and by the time all was ready, Arceus had enlisted the aid of twenty Pokémon from the Hall. Now all there was only to pull together…Within a matter of what seemed to Mewtwo like hours, all was in place. In the foyer of the Hall of Origin, thirty-five Pokémon watched as the world appeared to dim…
Jirachi had been right. It wasn't bright in there, it was dark out here. Mewtwo's eyes struggled for a while to adjust, and focused on the glass under it for a while. The only Pokémon without issue here, actually, were Darkrai, Giratina, and those of like type among them. When the rest had blinked out the haze from their vision, the area was surveyed. Before them was virgin forest just off of Route 16. Here, the trees were not so thick that the glass stairs could not manage to maneuver through them- it may have been an unpleasant way down, but certainly was better than falling.
The goal for today was to make it as close as possible to the southern edge of Mount Moon, hopefully without getting noticed by unwanted eyes. As it happened, that was not as much of a problem as Mewtwo thought it would be- it was around three o'clock in the evening, and there was nothing to be heard, and nor could Mewtwo feel out any minds nearby, besides its companions'. Three miles into the trek, and not so much as a leaf had crunched without the troop knowing it. Far from being peaceful, the silence was eerie…
By sunset, the silence of the forest had not broken for being so barren; however, a scent rose up into the air that was distinctly not of leaves or bark. It was…metallic, and sharp, and horribly familiar. Blood? Yes, blood, and something else. Maybe some unlucky Pokémon that had become someone's dinner. More likely not. There was an Arcanine among them who said that it could easily pick up on the trail, but the air among the troop was one of caution, so Mew was sent with the dog, just in case.
Everyone in the troop had been on their feet since landing, so at first, there were no complaints or concerns as they watched Mew and the Arcanine go on ahead. When a half of an hour passed, however, the tone had changed dramatically. Had something happened? Were they alright?
Arceus encouraged everyone to remain calm, yet inside, it too felt uneasy. A Pokémon of great power, fear seemed to ill become the Golden-Hoofed one, but such unpleasant silence coupled with knowledge that somewhere all the Pokémon who were missing were out there and unfriendly was quite frankly more than most anyone could bear.
Even Mewtwo felt concern with Mew's fate at this point. "Mew, what's going on?"
"I left the Arcanine behind- I'm close now, I can tell. The smell, though…the smell is rather pungent. Hold on, I'm getting closer, I'll show you." Mewtwo closed its eyes and the world through Mew's eyes developed…The bush here was rather dense and difficult, but Mew knew how to navigate. Then, as if out of nowhere, there was a clearing- not a meadow, so much, as what looked like a miniature disaster zone. For about fifty yards in every direction, there were Pokémon and humans steeped in ash- or was this an ash heap covered in Pokémon and humans? Some of the trees here still smoldered red in parts. "Oh no…no."
Mewtwo turned and addressed the troop. "Mew may be in danger. Let's go." With as much speed as the trees would allow them, the troop caught up with the Arcanine scout and doubled its pace. By the time they had reached the place Mew was at, the pink cat seemed to have vanished. "Mew, where are you?" Before long, Mewtwo felt a slap in the back of the head followed by an angry hiss.
"Idiot! You blew my cover!" Mew screamed into Mewtwo's head, "Now look what you've done!" Sure enough, figures marched from across the clearing, carefully stepping around the fainted and fallen on the ground, but marching all the same. Now the air was full of sound, but none of it pleasant. The harsh discord of squawking birds and growling beasts filled the air, all following the lead of one dust-laden human.
The human in question was female, of medium tan skin, black hair, and having fire red eyes and a Stantler-skin suit; she was, perhaps, about twenty at most. Now, the human came walking within feet of the troop, pulled out a polished red Absol horn, and pointed it directly at each and every Pokémon in front of her. "If you think you can just come and pick up the scraps, you've got another thing comin'." For a moment everyone in front of the human looked utterly stupefied- it was not every day one finds a human who speaks Pokémon- with a Zubat accent, at that. "If you're gonna hang your mouths open like that, may as well have some answers coming out of them."
What gall! Who did this woman think she was, anyway? Of all of them, Uxie had best kept its temper and shock in check. "What is your name?"
"Give me your names and I shall give you mine," the young woman replied icily.
"Hmm…how about this: our names and purpose for your station and name. Sound fair?"
"You first."
So, begrudgingly, each and every of the thirty-five Pokémon gave its name. Mewtwo reached out as lightly as possible to the woman's mind,"We know that Articuno, Moltres, and many other powerful Pokémon have gone either to war or into hiding, but we do not know why. We were hoping perhaps there were some still that had not joined one of the armies, that we could learn more from them of the situation here."
"Please. Thirty-five Pokémon, almost half of whom are probably legendary, and the rest of who look very well-trained, have come here just for curiosity's sake? Give me a break- and by the way, your attempts at courtesy are somewhat lost on me. If you have working vocal chords, please use them, if not, then my apologies, talk through someone who does."
Mewtwo, feeling a little insulted, cleared its throat. "You need not hold up your end of the bargain- I can guess what you are. The fact that you have both humans and Pokémon behind you speaks much of your character, but so do your lack of attempts at courtesy. I should think that you lead the resistance in these parts."
"Mm, clever," the girl taunted as she examined her nails, "and chatty too- that's new for a war-monger."
Darkrai was finished with this charade, and floated within inches of the woman, who didn't bat an eye, but seemed considerably less collected than before- especially when Darkrai seized her wrists before she could reach for the Absol horn dagger. "Child," Darkrai's rough voice did not lend itself to the smoothness of the words, "we are not here for you, quite frankly. We are here because there are things much, much worse than you in the world, and we must stop them from destroying all you hold dear- even if it is only your short life- and we will do this by means fair or foul. Now then, because we are not here for your harm or, honestly, for help from you except in this matter, I would stop horsing around and tell us what we want to know, if I were you. Just saying." Darkrai slipped into shadow and pulled back into the troop.
"To put it a bit more nicely," Cresselia said, scowling at Darkrai, "we're here to put a stop to this madness, somehow, and restore peace to the world. We don't want to fight you, and we're not asking you to join us…actually we'd like to know if we can help you." Even Cresselia had to admit, though, that this was an odd position for a legendary to be in. Somehow, the bird had thought that they would be received as heroes, not villains.
The young woman put her hands on her hips. "So, do all of you really want to help us refugees out?"
"We have a similar goal," Arceus noted, "it only makes sense that we would help one another, wouldn't you agree?"
"I do at that," the girl conceded, "Now, if you'd really like to be helpful, you can help us clean up. Oh, and by the way," she turned around to the crowd behind her, "back to work everyone, I can handle it from here." She repeated this again to the humans. For a moment, the crowd hesitated, but she shouted for them to get moving, and before long the tension was dissolving- slowly but surely, and everyone moved to the other side of the ashen clearing. "Do you see this? Do you see how burnt the earth is here? Moltres sent a detachment of flyers- a mix of Charizards, Gligars, and even a few Salamence, just to scout the area. They managed to spot us, so it turned ugly…very ugly. It's the ash though, that got most of us- made it impossible to breath. So now we've got a dilemma: the fires are all put out, but now the smoke is sending a red alert to anything within a mile of here. We need to clean out our dead, salvage what we can from the bodies, and do it quickly."
"Bodies?" Shaymin squeaked, "What do you mean, you kill Pokémon? They kill Pokémon?"
"Yes, runt, we kill around here because what would faint a Pokémon can kill a human, and fainted Pokémon are finished off here- such is this chaos. Don't even bother chiding me about it- my comrades are dead, and does the enemy care? Not at all, or they wouldn't have done this to us. They set the terms of engagement, not us." The young woman began picking her way through the ash heaps, and picked up a dead Pidgeotto, and sighed, "Given half a chance, he would've just fainted, he would've recovered..." The young woman shook her head, "If you can find any that are fainted, but still alive, then take them over there," she pointed to the far end of the clearing, where a handful of humans and a couple of Chanseys scrambled to clean wounds, "If they're dead, though, skin them, take anything that might be edible off of them, and take the sturdier bones- they might be useful." The young woman turned around, but then turned back for a moment. "Name's Lee Dragonheart, by the way."
It was dismal, grueling work. True, Mewtwo had seen Pokémon killed for food, but this was very different. In a normal Pokémon battle, the fight ended when one party had fainted. To the winner, there was no need, usually not even the feeling of needing to end the life of their opponent- if they were fainted, then what could they do to you? This was different, though. The silence and efficiency with which the whole of the refugees turned Pokémon into scattered bones gave the impression that Mewtwo was not among individuals, but instead one great animal that was feeding, or a hive of ants that was taking away food bit by bit. "How could a day change the nature of all?" Mewtwo asked Mew.
"What do you mean?" Mew, who was examining a downed Charizard, turned to look at its counterpart.
"Since the attack by Groudon, it has only been a day, and the world has turned upside-down."
"A day? A literal day, you mean?" Mewtwo nodded slowly, puzzled,"Oh no, Mewtwo, I thought you knew. Time does not pass in the traditional sense in the Hall of Origin. It's going on three months that you were there. It only felt like a day…Put it this way- when there's no real way to tell time, because there is no time, then how do you know how long something's been happening? Theoretically it's possible to land a thousand years in the future, or a thousand years in the past, or more, even."
Mewtwo seemed to be struggling to accept that so much time had passed- Mew owed it three months of its life! "How then can it be controlled, that is, how do you know when you're going to be somewhere."
"I'd say much in the same way that you entered through Mount Coronet, and wound up here. There's no difference, really. Maybe you can ask Dialga and Palkia for specifics, when they're in the mood, that is."
"When they're in the mood…now that's the thing, isn't it?" Mewtwo looked around the clearing. The last sunlight was slipping away from the sky, being replaced by stars. Every Pokémon and human that could draw breath had been taken in, and those that could not were stripped of everything- clothing, skin, flesh, and even bones. Only that Charizard by Mew was left. Somehow, the pink psychic had managed to coax the last spark of life into remaining. The Charizard coughed and wheezed, and Mew's psychokinetic hold pulled the creature's head off the ground.
The Charizard saw Mew and its eyes widened. "Mercy," he coughed, "please have mercy on me."
Lee, who had been watching from a distance, walked up, and drew her dagger, holding it to his throat. "Mercy? Where you would not have shown it to us?"
"We thought that," the Charizard wheezed, "that you were evil, that you were trying to do something terrible. Moltres said…" there was a great deal of coughing; the Charizard looked like it was about to faint again. "Moltres said that…something had happened, that something terrible was going to happen. It said to join it so that we could survive."
"Did Moltres also give you clearance to raze cities and attack civilians?" Lee's voice burned with restrained rage, and she moved the Absol horn closer to the lower throat, so that she could reach his heart with it. Before she could kill the Flame Pokémon, however, Mewtwo put its paw over her hand.
"Spare him," the psychic panther commanded.
"Spare him!" Lee parroted, "Spare him? And why should I?"
Mewtwo limited the range of its telepathic voice to only Lee and Mew, "Because we can learn from him. Bind him, if you can, and if you feel so inclined, but spare him. We cannot afford to pass up such an opportunity."
"Alright, fine," Lee sighed, withdrawing her dagger, "today is your lucky day, Charizard." Lee took the Charizard's tail in hand and began to drag the creature, but upon seeing the rather surprised looks of Mew and Mewtwo, designated Mewtwo to psychically lift the pseudo-dragon. With their cargo in hand, Lee brought up the rear as the rest of the refugees pressed on- a few carrying the loads of what was had been reaped today.