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Chapter 9: Checkmate II

Steven spluttered and stared in shock. "That can't be right!" he protested.

No matter how he looked at it, the woman in front of him couldn't be that old. Aside from the single gray streak in her hair, she looked only Carat's age, and the vice president had said it herself — she had still been in school back then. If Murasaki was really the one in the photograph from Oreburgh, that would make her easily older than even his father.

No matter how gracefully she'd aged, that was too much.

Murasaki was watching him in amusement. "It's true," she said. "I even met Joseph for the first time back then. I hadn't expected him to remember me. It was my mistake to attend the meeting with Devon in person, but I had wanted to see if I could find out what I wanted without all of this fuss. So I tried asking subtly back then..."

It hadn't worked, of course. Instead, Mr. Stone had been immediately suspicious and tried to find out the reason for her reappearance. She shrugged one shoulder as it to say, 'what can you do.'

"I keep telling you, I don't know!" Mr. Stone protested. "I don't know anything about the origins of Infinity Energy!"

"Infinity Energy?" Steven repeated. True, there had been documents about them looking into that at Sea Mauville, but... "You're still after that?"

Murasaki sighed. "You're misunderstanding again. I was never after revenge. And I don't care about Infinity Energy either. There are many forms of energy nowadays. Infinity Energy is just the watered down version of something far greater."

"It was made safe," Mr. Stone snapped. He sounded more offended than Steven would have expected. "The previous president made that horrible legend into something for the future of people and Pokemon!"

Waving her hand, Murasaki dismissed his protests with an expression of disinterest. "You've been to Kalos, so you should know it," she said to Steven instead.

"...You're talking about the legend of the Ultimate Weapon," Steven surmised.

"That's right. Before you get carried away, I don't care about the weapon," Murasaki said, smirking. "But there's another part to that legend — the fate of the king who created and used it. Do you know what that is?"

Frowning, Steven searched his memory. To be frank, he hadn't been particularly interested in local folklore, only the local rocks. "He was cursed to wander the world for eternity," he recalled finally, "ageless and immortal..."

"It looks like you're finally on the right path," Murasaki noted mockingly, as his expression shifted to disbelief again.

"You're saying you want to obtain immortality?"

"Is that so strange? Money, power, influence, all those things can be regained after being lost," Murasaki said. "I lost Mauville, yes, but I can rebuilt it. All I need is time. Time and life are the only things we can never gain more of... except in that legend. Ultimate Weapon — that's what everyone remembers, but originally, it was a machine of life. It took the lives of many Pokemon to give back life that had been lost and to bestow eternity. That's what I want."

She spread her hands, not grandiose but as if offering her logic up for examination.

"So then... you've already started down that path, is that it?" Steven guessed.

"I spent years in Kalos, trying to find out everything I could, and I've been able to recreate that machine to some extent," Murasaki explained. "But it's incomplete. The flaws are already starting to show through."

Reaching up, she ran her fingertips along the white streak in her neatly pinned back black hair.

"I don't mind having a more stately look, but any more than this, and my body will start to break down," she went on. "I need to find out what I'm missing. There must have been something I wasn't able to uncover in Kalos. But Alexander figured out the Ultimate Weapon completely, enough to strip apart and change the properties of its power."

"I keep telling you, I don't know!" Mr. Stone interrupted. "The previous president didn't share those things with me — if he even knew himself!"

"I don't believe you," she responded flatly. "At the very least, you'll tell me everything you do know. Or I'll finish this right here and now."

Instinctively, Steven took a step forward at the threat, but his father pulled him back quickly. There was nothing they could do — when he moved, her Pawniard extended their blades menacingly, ready to retaliate if either of them threatened their leader. In a match up between someone with Pokemon and someone without, the former always had the same overwhelming, nigh-insurmountable advantage.

Murasaki snorted quietly, shooting them a mocking look. Turning, she motioned to her Mawile, which obediently held up the metal case it had been holding.

Even before the case opened, Steven could guess what was inside. The shape and size were familiar to any professional trainer — just large enough for a full team's six Poke Balls. Murasaki's own Poke Balls were clipped to her shoulder harness, so these...

They were his. A cold shiver went down his spine, even as he ground his teeth in helpless anger.

"The Ultimate Weapon — the machine of life — took the lives of many Pokemon," Murasaki said conversationally, without lifting her eyes from Steven's team. Her fingertips skimmed the polished, lightly scratched curves of the Poke Balls, until she finally chose one and pulled it out of the half-circle indentation. "That was its power source."

"It was a terrible thing," Mr. Stone muttered. "That's why the previous president changed it to create Infinity Energy."

Murasaki ignored him. Turning away, she headed toward the edge of the metal platform they were on and the machine that was embedded there. For the first time, Steven took the time to study their surroundings — a massive round chamber with a high ceiling and the floor a story down from the wide catwalk that ran around the perimeter. A unknown device pointed downward from the center of the ceiling like a giant metallic bud, toward a circular platform below. There was something in the center, but Steven couldn't make it out through the platform's grating.

When she tapped a few buttons on the console, the large device on the ceiling began to hum, quietly but growing louder.

At a sharp gesture from their trainer, a trio of Magnemite descended down to the ground level, their magnets spinning anxiously.

Preparations — for what? — complete, Murasaki turned back to her prisoners. "It only makes sense that the energy to control life would come from life. It's the same in the old myths of Kalos's legendary Pokemon, Yveltal and Xerneas," she continued her previous point. "So I used the same principle when attempting to recreate that power."

Behind her, the Magnemite were slowly rising back up, the strange object that had been in the center of the lower level platform propped up and precariously balanced between them.

Steven started at it uncertainly. It looked like... a statue. A stone statue of a Manectric — an elderly one, judging by the thick, bristly fur on its chest and jaws. The level of detail was certainly impressive, but Steven couldn't help feeling a deep sense of unease at the way the Pokemon was depicted, curled out as if to protect itself from some blow, its jaws parted in a mournful howl.

The statue dropped down onto the metal platform with a dull clunk, the Magnemite withdrawing quickly.

"Did you know? One of the services the Aeon Fund provides to our eldest members is looking after their Pokemon when they pass on," Murasaki said conversationally. "Many of them don't have any immediate family, and they don't want to leave their precious companions to spend their last days forgotten in a Day Care."

"...Why are you bringing that up?" Steven asked.

"You're not very quick, are you?" she sighed.

No... he knew what she was getting at. But he didn't want to acknowledge it.

"You went that far?" Mr. Stone demanded coldly. "Pokemon are living beings too! And yet you..."

"I drained the life energy of those old Pokemon and used it to extend my life," Murasaki confirmed. Reaching out, she patted the head of the stone statue. "By the way, this was the latest one. They always end up like this. There's another legend in Kalos, about Yveltal and what happens to those who—"

"Have you lost your mind?!" Steven burst out, cutting her off. "How can you do that to Pokemon? To Pokemon who were entrusted to you! You— You have a Pokemon you love too, don't you? How can you do something like that?!"

Chittering angrily, the Pawniard guards jumped between him and their master with their blades extending at the ready. Steven didn't even react to their show of force, glaring balefully at Murasaki.

She met his glare calmly, eyebrows rising in surprise again. "A Pokemon I love?" Murasaki repeated. "Do you mean these things? Or that one?" She tilted her head toward her Mawile, which watched the exchange with its usual faint smirk. "You've got it wrong... again. It's all just business. They're my subordinates, and this one is my partner, another liar like me. In some ways, Pokemon are far more reliable than humans... Certainly far more loyal."

A dark frown passed over her features. Perhaps she was thinking of Wattson, who had chosen his ideals over the company and, indirectly, the founder — her.

"But there aren't any feelings involved," Murasaki went on, her expression smoothing out again. "Not like you. You love your Pokemon very much, don't you? I hope you love them enough to convince your father to cooperate, boy."

Turning his Poke Ball over in her hand, she tossed it into the center of the chamber. In a burst of light, it released the Pokemon inside it — a Carbink that spun around as it appeared to look at its trainer in confusion.

It was the newest of Steven's Pokemon, which he'd picked up during his visit to Kalos. It was still too new to read the situation, where any of Steven's others would have immediately understood that something wasn't right and that their trainer was in danger. It hesitated—

The machinery below hummed loudly, and a crackling force field formed around the center platform. Noticing it too late, the Carbink bumped against it. A bolt of energy arced through the Pokemon, making it squeal in pain and backpedal quickly.

"Carbink!" Steven yelled in worry.

"Well, let's begin," Murasaki said calmly, reaching out to tap a button on the console behind her.

The device in the center of the ceiling began to glow, its surface splitting into several narrow arms that opened up like a flower. The air between them rippled, thick with some unseen energy.

Underneath it, Carbink slumped suddenly, plummeting before it managed to regain its levitation. Moaning miserably, it squeezed its round eyes shut and shuddered.

"Carbink!" Steven called out again frantically. His head snapping toward Murasaki, he glared again. "Stop it! Stop!"

"That's not up to you," Murasaki said calmly. "It's up to your father. I told you, I didn't want to resort to this, but I won't stop unless he finally decides to cooperate and tell me what I want to know."

Helpless, Steven turned to his father. His face twisted in anguish, beseeching.

"I told you, I don't have anything to tell you! I don't know anything about it!" Mr. Stone protested futilely.

"That's fine, then," Murasaki said, shrugging indifferently. "At the very least, I'll gain some strong life energy — by draining each of his Pokemon, then him, then you. So... what will it be?"

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Notes: Man, Murasaki just wouldn't stop talking... And proves her villainy by killing puppies, almost literally. Anyway, this is why it's called "Zeta Episode," as a reference to XY, which plays a role in the backstory per ORAS tradition. I also considered Chi (X) Episode and Upsilon (Y) Episode, but they don't really evoke X and Y, and the names are kind of dorky, so Zeta Episode it became.

As always, please review!

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