DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokémon. All characters herein belong to Nintendo. I'm just a fan having a bit of non-profit fun and exercising my lazy imagination...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Paths are about to cross. Well, almost. I'm back at university now so things are a little busier, but the next chapter is already underway.
SIX
Commander Jupiter may have wished her 'sweet dreams', but dream sweetly Dawn did not. In spite of her exhaustion, the surreal experience of being swept into an unfamiliar room and given a quick haircut was deeply unsettling, not to mention the strange things that Jupiter had said. With all of this whirling around in her mind, it took Dawn a long time to fall asleep. And if yesterday had been traumatic, today promised to be even worse. She could just tell by the aggressive wail of the seven o'clock alarm. At least the bed was comfy, she thought in the middle of her yawn.
She was half-tempted to sleep in and let the 'commander' be damned when she came to 'collect' her in an hour's time, but it sounded as though the whole building was coming to life. Dawn could not have gone back to sleep if she'd tried. Instead, she dragged herself out of bed and into the shower. Afterwards, she noticed that there was even a bathrobe on the back of the door. Maybe this place won't be so bad after all, she thought as she put it on. It wouldn't have been bad at all, had it not been for that little voice telling her that something wasn't right.
Her clothes from yesterday were still damp. She'd thrown them over the back of the chair last night, so not only were they damp, but they were also littered with bits of her own hair. But she had conveniently been given something to wear, hadn't she? Dawn glanced at the closet. Moments later, she was staring at a uniform, identical to the ones that the people in the mountains had been wearing. And they expect me to wear this, do they? What's in the box? Dawn opened the box that Jupiter had brought and groaned aloud at the sight of a pair of white boots and a wig. She sank to the floor with her head in her hands.
Suddenly the room was not so much Heaven as a prison cell. There was only one window in the bedroom. It was set high in the wall, much too high for Dawn to reach. She might have been able to touch it if she stood on the chair, but it was small and looked as though it wasn't designed to open. Beginning to panic now, Dawn ran to the door and yanked at the handle, ignoring the sound of footsteps from the corridor outside; she wasn't expecting to just walk out of there, but she would damn well put up a fight. As for the fact that she was wearing nothing but a thin bathrobe, she couldn't care less. She just wanted to escape.
But the door was locked. With a growl that was almost a scream, Dawn gave it one last hammer with both fists before retreating into the room. She sat down upon the bed and tried to think calmly. Why did she feel so threatened? There was something about this place and its endless corridors and its lack of individuality – yes, that was it. If she put on that uniform, she would look just the same as the people whom she'd seen at the lake. Then again, was that necessarily a bad thing? Ever since Commander Jupiter had asked for her name, she had felt a burning urge to find an identity. Maybe this is it.
*****
For once, Barry was following someone rather than rushing on ahead. He had no choice: he didn't know his way around town. The last time he'd been in Veilstone City, he'd made a clean sweep at the Gym before becoming enchanted with the idea of training under Crasher Wake in Pastoria City. Now, he wasn't sure if that was still his aim. Dealing with Team Galactic had to come first, of course, but even after they were defeated, would things ever be the same again? Would Dawn ever be the same again?
"I hope you know where you're going," he muttered, partly to distract himself from his own thoughts and partly in alarm: Lucas was leading them down a dangerous-looking backstreet. Even though it was broad daylight, Barry felt nervous and began to walk faster as a result.
"Sure, I do. It was just at the end of this alleyway where I got attacked last time."
"What!?" Barry asked, not at the top of his voice but in a fearful whisper.
"I told you," Lucas replied. "A couple of those Galactic creeps knocked me down and grabbed my Pokédex."
"So...why are we going this way again?"
"Their base is around here somewhere. I'm sure we'll spot some of them when we get – "
Lucas was cut off by a loud yell from Barry who had decided to walk ahead, presumably trying to get through the alleyway as quickly as possible. He had walked into somebody at the other end. Although Lucas imagined that Barry had a habit of doing this, he quickly ran to catch up with him, just in case he was in trouble. He found Barry rubbing his nose, and a shocked-looking man in a faded brown leather trench-coat steadying himself against the wall. He looked familiar.
Lucas reached under the back of his cap to scratch his head. "Hey..."
"So, it is you again," the man said in a strangely hushed voice when he had composed himself.
"Weren't you here last time – " Lucas began.
"Didn't we see you in – " Barry said, almost at the same time. The two boys looked at each other and an awkward silence followed.
"Yes, the both of you have encountered me before," the man said at last, "but I was not aware that you knew each other."
Barry and Lucas exchanged glances again, the former raising an eyebrow at the man's convoluted way of talking. "Aren't you a cop or something?"
"I am one of the International Police, yes, with the codename of Looker."
"I knew it was you! Hey, I'm sorry about running into you just now." Barry grabbed Lucas's shoulder without warning and shook him lightly. "But it's lucky I did, huh?" he said to Lucas with a grin. "We can ask him to help us!"
"Not today, my friends," Looker said with a solemn frown. "Something is happening at the base of the Team Galactic today. I am here to discover what it is."
"Then you can help us!" Barry insisted, sounding more desperate this time. "Please, let us come with you! They've got the Pokémon from the lakes and – "
"If you wish to help, follow me." With a dramatic flick of his coat, Looker continued along his way with Barry and Lucas following closely, walking quickly to keep up with the detective's fast, determined pace.
"Gee, he doesn't take much persuading, does he?" Barry muttered behind his back.
"To enter the Team Galactic building directly is very dangerous," Looker said, either not hearing or ignoring Barry's remark. "So, we will use a secret way that I found. But we must be careful still."
Lucas soon realised where he was leading them. He recognised the heavy iron gate, behind which lay a number of nondescript buildings with a few trucks parked outside. This was Team Galactic's warehouse. Surprisingly, there was nobody there now, no Grunts standing on sentry duty as there had been last time. Looker took a card key out of his coat pocket and used it to open the gate. It slid open without protest and the three intruders walked straight onto enemy territory. Barry and Lucas were tense, both poised to defend themselves if any of Team Galactic's goons did show up. But it was as though the entire complex had been deserted.
"This is just weird," Lucas said as they walked into one of the warehouse buildings. "Why would they leave it all unguarded like this?"
They waited as Looker tapped a code into a number pad next to a blue metal door. A beep, and it was open. "Come, we must hurry now," the detective whispered, holding the door open for his two companions.
Barry and Lucas followed, both of them feeling nervous – afraid, if they would admit it. The average member of Team Galactic might not have been the brightest Chinchou in the pack, but there had to be a security presence somewhere. Maybe they were all hiding in wait, watching the intruders on camera and preparing to strike. The idea of being surrounded and cornered, even if it was only by a bunch of mindless imbeciles, didn't sound very appealing. On the other hand, Looker seemed to know his way around this Diglett-warren of corridors; hopefully it wasn't just false confidence.
"Where exactly are we going?" Lucas asked eventually.
"You will see."
How he managed to navigate through the building was anybody's guess; everything was the same, with blue doors and stark white-washed walls which bore strange 'motivational' plaques at regular intervals. Lucas glanced at some of them as they rushed past. They made him shudder. Everything belongs to Team Galactic! Look beyond the world — space will become Team Galactic's!
"If they read that a hundred times a day, no wonder they think it's okay to steal things from other people," Lucas murmured to himself.
His comment went unnoticed; Looker had stopped outside one of the many doors. There was a panel beside this one which read Upper Auditorium: Viewing Balcony. Authorised personnel only. The detective put a hand to the door but hesitated, turning to his two companions, "When we enter," he whispered, "we must not make noise. Anything we say or do, they may pick it up. This room was designed for things to be heard. Also, we must stay low, or else they may see us. Do you understand?"
In truth, Barry and Lucas didn't understand. They became tight-lipped with fear, treading quietly and hardly even daring to breathe as they followed Looker through the door. They noticed that he bent down until he was almost crawling, and they did the same. The reason, they saw, was that they were on a small balcony, with a wall that came only to around waist height. The urge to look down into the room below was irresistible, but the worry of being caught was enough to make Lucas and Barry pay heed to Looker's instructions. Unable to bear the mystery of the situation, Barry tapped Looker on the shoulder.
"Where...are...we?" he mouthed silently.
Looker shook his head and pointed to his ear, then at the wall. Barry understood that he was being told to listen – but to what? Everything was quiet. Just as both he and Lucas were beginning to think that Looker might not know what he was doing after all, they heard something. It was the sound of a door being opened, followed by countless footsteps and voices mingling in conversation. This went on for what seemed like an eternity, and Barry could only guess at the size of the crowd – and of the room, for that matter, if it was going to hold them all.
"Line up! Come on, make use of the space!"
Barry gritted his teeth as he recognised the powerful female voice that carried over the top of the mêlée. It was that of the commander who'd beaten him at Lake Acuity. He was sure of it. Even just the sound of her voice made his skin crawl now. If it hadn't sounded as though she was surrounded by other people down there, Barry might even have sprung up and challenged her to a rematch. I'll get her later, he told himself. If it's the last thing I do.
The conversations slowly began to die away and were finally silenced by the shotgun-like sound of a door being slammed shut. It was enough to make Lucas flinch. His heart was hammering against his ribs so loudly that he was sure everyone would be able to hear it. He now understood why Looker had told them to keep quiet: the auditorium's acoustics were very good. Even the slightest cough was amplified. Leaning against the short wall in front of them, Barry and Lucas looked at each other, each of them wondering what was happening but unable to say anything.
At the back of the auditorium, Commander Jupiter was sitting in the shadows. She wasn't supposed to be there; she was supposed to be preparing for the trip to Mount Coronet. Instead, she was keeping a close eye on her latest recruit. Standing right in the centre of the back row, under Jupiter's watchful gaze, Dawn looked just the same as all the other Grunts, with only a slight difference: she looked lost and dejected. Jupiter didn't need to see her face to know that. It was obvious from the girl's body language, so at odds with the tense excitement coming from everyone else in the room.
Nevertheless, Dawn raised her head along with everyone else as someone walked onto the grand balcony at the front of the room, although she didn't take part in the deafening cheer that followed. Meanwhile, from their hiding place, Barry and Lucas looked at each other again, this time in a mixture of wonder and dread: what was everyone cheering about all of a sudden? Barry pressed his forehead against the wall in front of him, wishing that he could see through it. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine the scene that he was missing out on. Then a calm but utterly compelling voice began to speak.
"Fellow members of Team Galactic! Hear me!" The crowd fell into an eerie silence at once, in complete unison, as though someone had simply turned down a volume switch somewhere. "My name, as I appear to you today, is Cyrus."
Barry's eyes flew open in surprise and he gasped aloud, earning him a sharp nudge from Lucas and a glare from Looker. But Barry didn't notice either, nor did he even realise that he'd made a sound. He had been transported back, flashback-like, to a day at Lake Verity. It was sometime towards the beginning of Spring when the snow had almost melted away completely. He had rushed through the trees, Dawn closely behind him. Someone had been standing at the lakeside, gazing down into the tranquil waters and muttering something. After the incident, Barry had laughed it off, but he still remembered everything that the stranger had said. The flowing time, the expanding space...I will make it all mine one day. Cyrus is my name. Remember it.
Dawn no longer held that memory which she had shared with Barry, but she was already intrigued by Cyrus and his sheer presence, as she had been on that day. Like everyone else in the room, she was spellbound. Despite the hush from the audience and the way that the room carried every sound, Cyrus was using a microphone. Maybe this was so that he didn't have to raise his voice at all. It was probably his calmness that made him so mesmerising.
"This world of ours is a crude one. In a word, it is incomplete. It has been, and always will be, a struggle to survive in this world. We humans and Pokémon are likewise incomplete. Because we are all so lacking, we fight, we maim..." Cyrus paused to shake his head bitterly. "It is ugly. I hate the incompleteness. That we are all incomplete, I hate it with my entire body and being."
Dawn found herself nodding slowly. His words made sense. She was incomplete, and she knew it. She felt incomplete. Silently admitting it to herself was like letting go of a huge burden: although she suddenly felt helpless, she also felt weightless and relaxed. Still watching her closely, Jupiter noticed her arms unfolding and her shoulders dropping. Perhaps it was only a small gesture, but it was a very readable one. The commander smiled.
"The world should be complete. The world must change." Cyrus paused again, scanning the audience with his cold gaze as if waiting for a reaction. "Then, who will change it?" Another pause. This time, he smiled a little, although it was barely noticeable. "Me," he said quietly, answering his own question. "Cyrus."
The crowd came to life again with a wild roar. Dawn still didn't join them, but she blinked away a few tears that had come from nowhere. She would have said that her eyes were just watering, but there was a lump in her throat and she was fighting the urge to sob. She didn't understand her own reaction, but she guessed that it was something to do with letting go and admitting to her own incompleteness.
"And Team Galactic. Yes, all of you." The cheers intensified and Cyrus waited patiently. When there was a hush, he continued. "Together we pored over myths and exposed their secrets. Together we captured legendary Pokémon. And now, Team Galactic has obtained the energy to change the world!" The audience began to cheer again, but Cyrus merely spoke over them this time, his voice cutting through the din like a blade. "The power of dreams is within our grasp!"
Barry and Lucas gazed at each other gravely. They didn't need to say anything for both of them to realise that Cyrus must have been talking about whatever power he had gained from the capture of the three lake guardians. The atmosphere was electric, but they weren't feeling any excitement.
"Understand it, fellow members! My long-held dreamworld is on the verge of becoming reality. All those headed to Mt. Coronet, and those who remain here...though our missions may differ, our hearts beat as one. Let there be glory for Team Galactic!"
The auditorium was still filled with noise, even as Cyrus left the stage. The door was unlocked and the Grunts began to file out of the room, most of them in a semi-trance. Dawn lingered behind with Commander Jupiter, as she had been instructed. As the other members of Team Galactic walked past, she noticed that she wasn't the only one in tears, but those who obviously were were trying to hide it, so Dawn did the same. She quickly wiped her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat. Jupiter laid a hand upon her shoulder.
"I think things are starting to make sense for you now," she said. "Am I right?"
Dawn could only nod. Satisfied with this answer, Jupiter led her out of the room. Above their heads, Barry had plucked up the courage to peer over the edge of the balcony now that everyone was gone. Thanks to the acoustics, he heard what Jupiter said and squinted suspiciously at the Grunt to whom she was talking. Could it be...? He didn't have much time to wonder. Looker was on the move again and Lucas was beckoning him to follow. Barry took one last glance over the balcony. The auditorium was completely deserted now. It couldn't have been her, anyway. Memory or not, Dawn would never fall in with Team Galactic.