o
Chapter 96
Part 2
"To begin with, you should know the number of Pokémon who were present to see the face of Arceus, when he appeared in his beatific majesty, to grant us our power and immortality. On that day, there were six Pokémon, and one human. Though I know not where they are now, they are surely still within the borders of Ambera, for our god-given powers are also burdens, preventing us from leaving the continent.
"First there was Lifeblood, the Venusaur. He was the human's very first Pokémon, given to him by his fellow humans when he began to pursue the vocation of 'Pokémon trainer.' Lifeblood was given, not only immortality, but dominion over all of Ambera's flora. He would often create his own designs of leaf and vine and leave them strewn throughout Ambera's jungles and forests. But, poor Lifeblood, in the end he could not carry the burden of an eternal existence, and grew disgusted with the world. So, he dug himself a hole and covered himself with soil, and out of that soil there grew a magnificent tree. It still stands today in the center of the Master's courtyard: the Lifeblood Tree is the name by which it is known, its trunk nine meters in diameter and its canopy visible upon the distant horizon, rising so high above the castle walls. What happened to Lifeblood's body, we cannot know, as the tree's roots will not allow us to explore what lies beneath. I can only fathom that Lifeblood became the tree, both in body and soul, for it seems to possess the same traits of immortality which were given to him. Also, it is said that faint traces of Lifeblood's mind still linger, at times, in its proximity. It continues to grow as the years pass. Perhaps, if given enough time, it will swallow all of Ambera.
"The second Pokémon was a Scyther named Adrel. When he was granted immortality, he was also granted the gift of limitless valor and stamina, never needing even a blink of rest. He became the human's knight, his personal protector and advisor, the enforcer of his will and the blade of his wrath. Adrel trained the legions of Pokémon who wished to join the human in his glory and conquest. Adrel's spirit can be seen shining in the eyes of the strong, disciplined forces we find ourselves fighting to this very day, and it is only because of his pure, strict regimen and his perfect strategic mind that so many of our enemies seem honed to their greatest potentials. Adrel was the general by which all others were measured. Unfortunately, there came a day when he vanished from his post, never to be seen again. Rumor has it that he disappeared willingly, perhaps something to do with his unwillingness to wear the red armor of a Scizor, and forever hid himself in the tall grass to live out the life of a wild Pokémon. Although, knowing him, I suspect he may have turned against his human and started a rogue clan of his own to defy his former master's ideals, the same clan which eventually birthed your friend Adron and your foe Adiel.
"The third immortal Pokémon is Centauri. My, what a monstrosity he was, and I say this as a monstrosity myself. He was a Nidoking, fierce and clever, who stood eye-to-eye with me. Along with immortality, he was granted a measure of Groudon's power, and was able to terraform the ground and the minerals which lay within. Raising his claws, he would call up mountains and mesas and fantastic formations from the muddy abyss below, turning Ambera into a proud, varied landscape from the humble wasteland it was before. When he was bored of simply moving dirt and clay from place to place, he learned a sense of ingenuity, and began to decorate the land with castles, towers, walls, and structures that even the humans could not match. He designed the human's capital palace, and the pristine, pearly city which surrounded it, and every Pokémon in Ambera marveled at his handiwork. But unfortunately for poor Centauri, he became mad. A ravenous insanity infected his brain, something even his immortality could not purge and purify, and he grew enraged and terrible… You see, his favorite work of art, the great palace and capital city, decided one day to sink a mile beneath the earth's crust, burying itself from view. There remained nothing but a filthy trench of blisters and scabs where there had once been the grandest castle in all of eternity. Centauri became so infuriated, for as much as he tried, he could not recover his grandest work and pull it back from the mantle of the planet… and thus he became so consumed in his bitterness that he was the most dangerous enemy ever known to Ambera's people. They finally subdued him by putting him to sleep and burying him in a stone tomb. Some say he still lies sleeping deep beneath the earth's surface, within the very throne room he created for his human so many centuries ago. Though he is now gone, his name lives through history; he was the father of the Starborn line, a family of prominently Nidoking who obsess themselves with human works and culture, who still try to emulate and broaden a culture they pretend to keep close to their hearts, when in reality they have lost all connection with. The result is a very backward, pathetic people who do not embrace their own Pokémon nature and cling to arbitrary rules which they somehow find sacred… it is a shame, indeed, to see such a fall from glory.
"And the fourth, the slyest of them, Aster. She was an Espeon, small and weakly, but with great ambitions. She knew just what to demand of Arceus that day he touched our souls. She demanded, along with immortality, the ultimate freedom. She wanted to be anywhere, everywhere, wherever her heart would desire. Arceus gave her the power of warping, to revisit places she had come from in the blink of an eye, from only the desire of her heart. It was all she ever needed or desired. With the power of shifting from place to place, she could know every thought, every secret, every word spoken by every Pokémon throughout all the land. She learned, then, every deep secret of the people, and telepathically communicated them to her human at regular intervals. In this way, the human was able to prevent civil unrest, punish crimes, and mold the minds of the many to his will through her devious deceit. She loved her life, but eternity is, tragically, a very long time… She grew bored of her duties, and went away to somewhere which none could find. Where she is today, I do not know, and perhaps I am not meant to know. Wherever she is now, she likely resents her only limitation: the inability to leave Ambera itself. Until then, it is likely she is still exploring the same old land and eavesdropping upon the same old Pokémon until her heart is content, and knowing her, it will never be content…
"The fifth, then… well, that would be me. I, Downfall, was named such after my dominion over Ambera's weather. I borrowed from the soul of Lugia; the storms, the draughts, the snowfalls… the tornadoes and hurricanes, the winds and currents, and any spectacle of the sky you might dream… it will appear at my call. Or it would, if I chose to command it. For at least two centuries now, I have not graced the sky with my storms, nor have I conjured even the smallest puff of vapor to accompany the sun on a spring day. Perhaps it is because I have not seen the sun in years, and I have forgotten even the pure and peaceful beauty of a sunny day… No, as I dwell here in this haven of perpetual night, I have let nature take its course upon the outer world, as I instead channel my power into this dark-star. For the sky I once played with now belongs to the loathsome ghosts at night. Perhaps I hate them because they have stolen that which belongs to me, and powering this dark-star is the only way of which I know to fight them. For though I am immortal, I know not what they'll do to me; seeing the fate of Centauri and the rest at the vicious hands of madness, has struck me with the deepest fear. I pride myself as the only immortal of the six who has clung to sanity for so long; I have learned to keep myself occupied, keep a goal in sight at all times, so that the endless abyss of days left to endure will not frighten me, though I continue to fall, fall, fall through it, and every Pokémon I ever come to know will pass away in due time. To shelter myself, and those who valiantly fight the wars Pokémon were born and meant to fight, is the goal I keep for now, and I am satisfied that I am contributing to the happiness of the Black Division's members. Do not worry about my happiness, little one; worry for your own, and for those whom you love. Fight for them. For I am but one of the six eternal truths, and my time is of no value to me. But every minute you spend in this world is infinitely precious.
"And the sixth… perhaps you know of her. There are many who know her name, but do not understand her significance. You see… she is the only one who remains, the one who will never leave. Though five of original six have abandoned the human whether through their boredom or their disagreements, she stays, and will always stay steadfastly at his side, forever aligning to his will. She will always remain with him. She is the Mismagius known as Enigma, the one who has taken the role Adrel once held in organizing and commanding the armies. Many would call her 'Mother'; hers was the gift of comfort and nurturing, a gift which touches the souls of the living and the dead alike. With her immense psychic strength, she communicates with spirits who drift through the land aimlessly, and those who still inhabit living flesh, renewing their strength, their purpose, and their perspective. She feeds them the emotions and convictions they need, and comforts them when they are hurt; her influence is so great, the ghosts of the night sky bow to her, and the warriors who serve under her are so enraptured by her comforts that they sometimes forget they even fight a war, rather than a child's game. Some have likened it to brainwashing. Some say she is only removing a Pokémon's free will by molding the mind to her ideals. Yet, others say that her company is perfect, and center their lives around pleasing her. Her eternal truth is simple: she will never bend, break, or budge from her stubborn notions; she belongs to her human, now and forever, and her convictions sometimes drive her to madness. She has made herself into a truly dangerous foe."
The Charmeleon grasped his forehead, letting the stories digest. Vivid images ran behind his eyelids, visions of a Nidoking raising the mountains, and a Suicune drawing a hurricane from the ocean.
Char didn't know whether to admit the truth that he knew – that the Master was no longer really there. Downfall seemed to be operating under the assumption that Char didn't know, so… Char decided it was best that he played along for now.
"So, wait…" Char said, clenching his eyes closed, "You don't attack the Master directly, because… your enemy is Enigma, who is also an immortal?"
"In part, you might say so," the Suicune explained. "There is only one way to defeat an immortal, and that is the way Centauri was defeated: they must be trapped somewhere they cannot escape. With time they might eventually reemerge, but it is the only viable way; to defeat an immortal, there must be a strategy to bind them."
"Alright, so, why don't you trap Enigma?" Char demanded, growing exasperated. "I don't see why you told me all that. It doesn't change the fact that we could defeat her if we wanted. With your power, and my Call, we could ride into the castle and trap them somehow. Maybe in a Master Ball, since apparently there are some of those floating around in this world. What's stopping us, exactly?"
The eternally young Suicune shook his head, humming another chuckle at the Charmander's naïveté. Char could feel his tail flaring, feeling as though he was getting no dependable answers from the enigmatic leader of the Black Division.
"What prevents us? You might say… the nature of power itself prevents us," he explained sadly.
The storm god blew a plume of icy breath from his nostrils, a sparkling swirl of snow which flowed through the air. Instead of dissipating, it took shape; the individual snowflakes lined themselves into the form of a pine tree.
"When you slice a log from the trunk of a tree, what will happen?" the Suicune inquired, amused at the Charmander's surprise.
"Well… the tree falls?" Char replied oddly, mesmerized at the moving image before his eyes.
"Yes, one would think," the Suicune replied, commanding the snowflakes to demonstrate the principle. A giant slice appeared in the tree's trunk, and the tree tumbled onto an invisible forest floor. "But if, instead of a tree, we are speaking of a balance of power… something different happens."
For a moment, the snow spun and tumbled into a ball, reforming into the whole tree. Again, a slab of wood was cut from the trunk… but this time, as the log fell away, the tree remained standing, suspended in air.
"Power is not a tree, and does not behave like one," the Suicune said. "Rather, it is a vacuum; when it is severed, it will want to reform itself, so that the top of the tree will remain unchanged."
The tree seemed to sprout a pair of bending limbs, which took the form of hands. The hands reached around the base of the tree for something. Finding a sizable rock, the hands grasped the rock and stuffed it into the whole which the log had left.
"The branches; they represent the people," Downfall explained. "They are happy, comfortable people. And the trunk represents the Master and his empire, Enigma and all. So if that is disrupted…"
The rock, which the tree had successfully installed into its own gap, was blown to pieces by another gust from the Suicune's nostrils. The tree scrambled with its jointy limbs and found a brick, and it stuffed the brick into the gaping hole.
"The people will do what they can to replace the empire, over and over again, so that they might continue to live comfortably, the same way they always had," the Suicune said. "This is the nature of power, and the burden which our kings and rulers take upon themselves when they choose to rule. They are expendable, always expendable. In truth, they are ruled by the people, who will replace them only when they collectively find themselves in extreme discomfort. For what is a king without a people to rule? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The sad truth is, the people of Ambera, though they despise the Master's practices, find comfort in his ways. They are not yet upheaved enough to demand that he be dethroned… save for those who have joined the Great Resistance, of course."
"Ah, yes, I've heard this argument before," Char sighed with understanding as the snowy tree dissipated. "You're saying if we dethrone the Master, or kill him, or whatever…"
"Another will rise in his place, and take his role," the Suicune said. "And nothing would change."
Char found himself at a loss for words. He'd had this dilemma, kept in the back of his mind, since Eva – or rather, Aster, as he should have been calling her – had revealed the Master's dark secret.
The Master wasn't there. And for the lifetime of all the Pokémon of Ambera, save for a few legendaries and a few immortals – he was never there.
Hearing it from the mouth of this storm god… it seemed to pull the dilemma back to the forefront, demanding an answer.
He could tell the great god of storms spoke from wisdom, and was likely not wrong. But it didn't make sense… The resistance defied the Master. Always, always the Master. The Master was the one who would fall, so that Ambera could live in peace… without the Master, who would they direct vengeance onto? Enigma? And once Enigma is defeated, trapped in a Master Ball, who else after that?
Did someone always need to be the Master?
Did the Master really and truly need to be there, for the sake of Ambera's peace? Did Ambera need someone to hate?
And what of the few Pokémon who knew the truth, what were they supposed to do? Just lie to everyone? Perpetuate the myth? Was that for the best?
This was one of those difficult truths that Virizion had warned him about, wasn't it? One of the questions with no answers…
Such a simple, yet baffling question. Char bit his tongue and clenched his forehead even tighter as the thoughts asked questions and led to other thoughts…
"You are wondering, now, what we are really doing here in the resistance force," the Suicune said plainly. "If not to dethrone the Master, then what?"
"Yeah… what are we supposed to do?" Char replied meekly.
"Hmm-hmm-hmm, isn't it obvious?" the sapphire beast said with a laugh and a nod of his head. "What do you accomplish in the resistance?"
"Well, let's see… we rescue Pokémon in need trapped in dungeons, donate money, retrieve items, buy and sell items…" Char rambled, having gone over these thoughts plenty of times before in recent memories. "And uh… well, there are all kinds of missions! We help people in so many ways… And the upper-level teams, they do some intense things, like, rebuilding homes for Pokémon when they were destroyed by the Master, defeating his armies when they try to attack and kill innocent Pokémon, and just… defend Ambera from all the bad things the Master is doing."
"Yes," the Suicune hummed. "It is almost as if… you are performing all the ideal functions of Ambera's government. Isn't it?"
Yeah… that's exactly what Aster said, Char remembered. Yeah… I see.
"The purpose of the resistance, Char, is not, and was never to stage a coup," Downfall said with a gleaming grin, knowing that things were at last coming together for the little Charmeleon before him. "The purpose of the Resistance is to take control away from the Master, little by little. We build the towns. We supply the food and control the farms. We supply the armies to keep the Pokémon alive. We take all the money and hoard it in banks, leaving the Master in debt. Slowly, bit by bit, year after year, we remove bricks from the Master's castle, and build our own. Before long, we will collectively find ourselves with more money, power, and influence than the Empire does… and we are the new empire, and the Master is the new resistance."
"…And we don't just change the leaders… but the followers… we're changing the followers," Char realized, looking at his hands. "We're changing Ambera itself… not just the Master, but the people itself… and the land, and the buildings, and everything... We're taking it and changing it… with every mission, we're taking a little bit of Ambera back, so that we rule it instead of the Master… And… we're serving the people the way we think they're supposed to be treated, and not the way the Master treats it."
"So," the Suicune said with a grin, "…Is the true nature of this war finally clear to you?"