CHAPTER 15

Date: October 30th, 110 P.A. / 2114 C.E.

"Before I tell you the truth, Arei, you must swear to me that you will not share it with anyone, do you understand?"

She laughed bitterly through her tears. "Isn't that a bit futile, considering all those who seem to know despite your wishes?"

His grip on her shoulders was harsh. "But there are many more who believe the facade. And if you spout the ideals of a heretic, there is no power I possess that will save you."

She smiled wryly. "And what if I don't care?"

His eyes narrowed. "Swear it to me!"

She chuckled bitterly. "Fine, Abaddon. Fine."

He drew away. "Then follow me."

Arei obeyed him…how could she not? She longed for reality now that the fantasy had been stolen from her. It was not that she was so much changed…she did not know who she really was but for a name, and a few nightmares or visions that reflected memories that seemed to belong to another person. It was that she knew that the moment Abaddon had not reassured her that Kaien was lying, she could not accept or return to ignorance. So, with that in mind, she followed him, leaving behind the honest heretic and the rooms whose memories were brittle and false.

They passed down the stairwell, to what Arei had thought the lowest floor—but yet again, another lie, for Abaddon lifted a block of store larger and thicker than himself, revealing a stairway that seemed to delve into the darkest of hells. It dug into the plateau, and they descended, the giant block sealing the way over them as they did. At a flick of Abaddon's wrist, fully, yellow sphere came to light, like miniature versions of the sun held within glass. Wires stretched between them, like slick ebony ivy, and she followed the Beast down the spiral staircase, which seemed to shift from stone to metal the further they went. Then, they hit bottom.

And Abaddon's secret was revealed.

As bright light shown from the ceiling, it revealed a vast chamber twice as wide and long as a football field from the previous century. The floor had steel tiles beneath their feet, and a humming droned in the background as what appeared to be a river was held under glass through the center of the chamber, providing what she would later identify as hydroelectric power for this room. Shelves filled to the brims with books were clustered about the walls, in rows upon rows, plastic containers holding disks for the machines that cluttered the place. Tables sprawled out, various scientific tools and boxed filled with unknown wares crowding their surface, along with papers spread out in a test she could not comprehend. A conveyor near the bound river inside this plateau was still, its use unknown to her. She looked at this all in confusion, and even more so when what seemed to be a vast sheet of dark glass bound in metal came to life, bright and colorful, code scrawling across its surface.

Abaddon explained. "Across the world there are many underground chambers similar to this one. Each provide various resources through the use of the so-called 'lost' technology, machines your race made during the industrial age. Many of these factories are run by computer programming, their wares delivered to cities by teleported transit. It is a similar technology to those in the Beast Centers of old, who transported pokémon in their pokéball through such machines. We, the Legendaries and I, have merely used a variation of this, though it is quite likely that I am the only one among them that truly understands the mechanics of these places."

"So, you make stuff here?"

"Yes. The largest ware is in medicine, in birth control to be quite frank. Yet we also sometimes use such places to store history texts, scientific studies…an ironic thing, for we support little of it. However, I have always found myself curious of such, even though to be so is matter of 'hearsay' according to you humans."

He stated this very casually, pointedly not looking at Arei as he said it. She did not know what he was really talking about in truth, but absorbed it for latter reference.

When he did look at her, their eyes met, both cold and scrambling.

"But is it such a surprise to you, my curiosity? After all, you humans created me…you brought me into this world to serve your selfish motivations, for knowledge, for power. I was made by your geneticists to be a perfect soldier…to main and kill with ease, with a thought. Is it any wonder I turned on your kind, with a type of birth as that?"

It was a rhetorical question. He was not hoping for justification from her, for her species or for him. And so, she gave him no answer, as she could not think of one anyhow. And so, Abaddon continued to explain.

"I was made from a fossil of a Mew eyelash. The genetic material within the petrified cells was used to form my body, though erred, as you know. They continued to modify me, to 'improve' upon the being that was reputed to be immortal, the most powerful pokémon of all time! And so, made me…along with a bulbasaur, and squirtle, and charmander, and a little girl, a human named Ai. All were clones like me, mere shadows, copies of true beings. I was the only one of that group to survive the process and mature to adulthood."

Arei would later read the texts of this place, learning precisely what Abaddon was referring to. After this, to hide anything from her would be futile and pointless. And perhaps, just perhaps, he did not wish to. He was tired of deceit, tired of lying…he wanted someone besides those who despised him to know. Why not let it be Arei? She wished for the knowledge, after all!

But might she too, come to despise him?

And so, he went on. "After I awoke, I was told that there was to be experiments done upon me. That I was a laboratory specimen who served no purpose than to sooth their curiosity. Without control of my powers, with rage, I destroying their facility…and murdered them in the process."

He smiled wryly, with dark humor, "Then, another human came for me. He offered me control, power…I took it, heedless of the fact that he was the one who ordered my creation, heedless that he sought to use me as his slave. I learned control, I fought for him…but it was an empty life. I wanted a true purpose, a destiny…and after finding that all that man had given me for a destroy was to be his servant, I rebelled and left him to find my own way.

"Suffice to say I longed for revenge for the wrongs done to me. I hated humans and their Beasts. I hated their ways, their manipulation and arrogance and naivety. They played with a power that was not their own, like a child with their father's gun. Is it any wonder that resulted in death?"

Arei was disgusted by the analogy, no matter how befitting. It was become more and more clear that the creature in front of her was not the being she had believed him to be. And she did not like what she was hearing, for in a twisted way it seemed that he was the naïve and arrogant one, and very likely manipulative.

"So, you acted as the bullet and destroyed humanity's mind?"

The phrase was very maturely worded, and it registered some surprise, though he only glanced at her. "In a manner of speaking. In my desire for vengeance I made my own facility, luring some pokémon trainers to my island and cloned their pokémon. Afterwards we fought for dominance, the naturally born and the clone, myself and Mew. Neither of us won, to answer your question. A human gave his life to cease our battling, valuing is all. The act shocked me as much as his revival which, to this day, I am not fully certain I comprehend. It…altered my heart, took away some of the anger…."

He trailed off. She pressed him for the truth.

"…Even seeing what that boy had done, I was not without my uncertainties. Giovanni was not someone I could easily forget, nor could I dismissed how one of the trainers had killed his team in an attempted to reach me. And every last one of those trainers had come for glory through violence. They were a threat. Humans were dangerous. Their machines and weapons emitted lethal toxins and power that could destroy the world countless times over. I was not quick to give up my beliefs, nor could I ignore the instinctual fear I felt for what those humans might do if they continued on their path of self-destruction, bringing down the planet with them.

"No…there needed to be a change. So, I did not stop walking down the path of genocide; I did not temper my storms, but intensified them. Since Mew is not killer, she could not force me to stop. She could only watch as I continued my work of eradication, what is better known to you humans as the Apocalypse of your world. Billions died…as a race, in those ten years you were forced to abandoned your cities to survive…leaving behind your knowledge, your technology, and most of your hope. At first the Beasts took pity on you, sheltered you…but as the decade went on, they began to pick you off as well. They needed to if they were to live, and you were like a virus whenever you settled—consuming resources without resting any of them. Eventually, the few hundred thousand humans left were but children…and naturally, they prayed.

"And naturally, their prayers eventually had to be answered. Mew, by this time, had managed to rally the other legendary pokémon to her side…they forced me into submission, though it was a long, hard battle. I know I nearly killed several of them. At any rate, those children took it as a sign…their old god had abandoned them, replaced with the new, though in fact they were such ancient figures…so, quite simply, humanity had regressed a few thousand years. Careful education and cultivation of that first surviving generation insured the loss of thousands of years of progress. After the initial chaos, the survivors created a new order…they turned us into their deities, and no one, save Mew, was particularly displeased with this. She was the only one disgusted with the deception."

"…Is there more?"

"Not much. Naturally humans had to rebuild, so they went to the graves of their cities for supplies. Naturally, some people had survived those ten years who knew the truth—those trainers escaped from my island and lived to begin a rebellion. They did, though their legacy is still present. During the Apocalypse in itself, some had clung to their ways…which is how the chimeras were made. They were meant to be scouts, to bring back resources from the hell of the storms outside…yet those creations rebelled easily. Also, as the new order was set up, the use of Beasts, the capture of them, was outlawed. At any rate, by the time I was made to cease my destructive tendencies, my will had been fulfilled. It was too late for Mew to reverse the outcome…I killed the Legendary named Celebi myself. His intervention, and that of others of his race, had not been a concern since then."

He gazed into nothingness, thinking upon all he had told her. He had told her all she had longed to know, more in fact than anyone else in this world, save Mew, would know. He did not mention that his fellow clones had gone their separate ways, many being important figures in different countries. She had not asked, nor did she need to know. Still, he watched her with interest, with curiosity. She stood stiffly, frozen, her eyes glazed with thought. Her aura emitted various upset emotions, but also the force of contemplation. Her almost maddened state of bewilderment seemed to be subsiding….

"…I have never heard you talk so much before. You've wanted to tell that to someone for a while, haven't you?"

The question surprised him…it was not what he had expected. Her had thought she might begin to snarl, to scream at him, to curse him for all the blood he had spilled. Not inquire upon a confession he may or may not have desired. A breath seemed to escape him, and he wondered vaguely if what he felt was relief. Relief that she was not shouting at him…and yet….

"Tell me, do you despite me now? Do you feel hatred for me, Arei?"

He stood a foot from her now, and his arm easily closed that distance as his paw touched her face. She shivered, but did not pull away. Slowly, she replied, "I know I should be. What you did was heinous, no less than mass murder. I feel sickened, that is true…but it does not touch me like it does the Rebels. It can't. To me, this truth is just another story, and the innocents slain just so many empty faces. It happened long before I was born…and I feel no discontent with this world you helped to fabricate."

Abaddon was astounded by her honesty, with her lack of response, for if humans were anything, they were empathic liars. Yet, his mood darkened as she pulled away from him, her own mood growing cold. "However, you…if what Kaien has said about all of this is true, then that they you did to me, stripping me of who I was, my life, must also be true. Do you deny that?"

He could not, and so she went on, "Well, now I know the world, but what about me? You raped my mind, stole from me who I was…and maybe its better that way. Considering I don't know who I was, I can't know the suffering I might have felt then. But still, you destroyed me. I will probably never know who I am because of that, and its something I want to know! I want a choice of what life I would lead…and you took that from me.

"For that crime, I cannot forgive you. And perhaps, once I fully comprehend the extent of your other sins, I won't be able to forgive you for that either."

This was not what he had expected. He thought she would try to attack him in fury. Such retaliation made sense. But not this. Not this calm acceptance, this warning. Not this mature response that many adults would not comprehend. As a result, in its own way, its coldness impressed him, and also stabbed at him in a way no knife could. Because of this, he nodded to her, an equal in this moment, and perhaps in this moment alone.

"Very well, Arei…you may use this facility to see the extent of how affects you are by my crimes. The files and pictures are open to you. Perhaps once you see the devastation, hear the voice of those who suffered, you may see fit to turn treacherous and attempt to kill me. I suppose we shall see.

"For now, however, I suggest you go enjoy the celebration. Think things through and gain some other perspectives besides my own and my enemies, I await your decision on how to move forward."

He drew her away, back to her quarters, and they went in silence. Kaien was unconscious, but he would live. And before Abaddon departed from her, he said this:

"I do not seek your forgiveness, Arei…but I do not want your hatred."

With those words, he left a conflicted girl to her thoughts, wondering how, by god, how she could come to terms with the fact that the one who made up so much of her life was a monster.