The Complex Truth [Yuletide 2019]
Dec 29, 2019 22:31:38 GMT
Post by Cavespider_17 on Dec 29, 2019 22:31:38 GMT
This is a Yuletide piece for vray – A SC side story, references for parts of this came from Mentally Caged, and the Main Shattered Crests Story. Before the bulk of the events in the first SC book, a Haxorus wakes up in a crater in the ground severely injured from a fight, which they don’t remember participating in. Realising they are a part of the group known as the Red Eyes they try to figure out who she is, why she is the way she is, while struggling with the potential past they have been a part of. However, they are unaware of an even more concerning truth… The following prompts are done: as core elements: the darkness in everyone, the good in everyone and seeing the truth in its terrible form. These other prompts are the centre of certain scenes: a beautiful sunrise, perhaps I'm not as far as I was hoping and walking in the rain.
Part I – Mackie & Alphi
Prologue
A small puddle of water was starting to form on the ground. It rippled with the thunder that cracked overhead. The dust and dirt began to settle into the pool, and she peered down into the water.
“What the actual fuck?” She stumbled back, tripping over her tail and colliding with the dusty earth once more. “No! What the hell is going on? What is this? Where am I?” She squirmed desperately out of the crater, clawing at the dirt and wiggling her body until she had successfully pulled herself up. “My arm…” She touched the grass with her palm and grasped it, desperate for relief.
Her vision was shaky. Nothing made sense. A sound, a scream, a something. She closed her eyes; the ground felt like it was shaking.
She couldn’t think straight. Her mind felt like it was darting between passages in an endless intrep-id maze, in which the only escape was back the way she had come from – with one problem: the entrance was no longer there. She looked up ahead; everything, although fuzzy, looked like it was leading somewhere. With a set of wobbly footsteps, she staggered towards the dirt path. She could see shelter of some kind in the near-distance. Her feet started to drag in the cold rain. Brief flashes of light shot through her mind, like echoes of a distant past, calling out to her.
The dust settled along the pigmented battlefield as a crack in the sky being cheered on by a boom-ing crowd leered over a small-sized crater. A solemn promise made – broken; friendships which felt as old as time – ruined. The flash of light dove down and scored the tree in a glowing golden yellow, as the purple sky called out a name. A name which was masked by the roaring rain, which thundered down onto the ruined battlefield. The cold drips of water splashed against the face which lay unconscious in the centre of the pit. Tears fell down the cheeks of their face.
Her eyes slowly started to open, but everything seemed strange. The world felt dislodged some-how. The scales which coated her body ached and were burned through in places. She puffed a little air out her nostrils and slowly pushed up from her arms. “Ugh,” she grunted. She looked down at her arms and felt a small streak of horror pounce out from inside her mind. The claws of her left arm claws had been bent and broken. “D-damn it…” she uttered, shifting all of her weight onto her right arm. She spread her claws out and pressed upwards, slowly lifting herself up onto her wobbly legs. “W-what happened?” She staggered over to the corner of the crater, carefully minding her feet as she did.
A small puddle of water was starting to form on the ground. It rippled with the thunder that cracked overhead. The dust and dirt began to settle into the pool, and she peered down into the water.
“What the actual fuck?” She stumbled back, tripping over her tail and colliding with the dusty earth once more. “No! What the hell is going on? What is this? Where am I?” She squirmed desperately out of the crater, clawing at the dirt and wiggling her body until she had successfully pulled herself up. “My arm…” She touched the grass with her palm and grasped it, desperate for relief.
Her vision was shaky. Nothing made sense. A sound, a scream, a something. She closed her eyes; the ground felt like it was shaking.
She couldn’t think straight. Her mind felt like it was darting between passages in an endless intrep-id maze, in which the only escape was back the way she had come from – with one problem: the entrance was no longer there. She looked up ahead; everything, although fuzzy, looked like it was leading somewhere. With a set of wobbly footsteps, she staggered towards the dirt path. She could see shelter of some kind in the near-distance. Her feet started to drag in the cold rain. Brief flashes of light shot through her mind, like echoes of a distant past, calling out to her.
‘…Control…’
She sighed and gently rubbed her left arm, hoping to make it hurt less. She coughed a little, looked up at the sky, and opened her mouth. The water drizzled down her throat, and she took a moment to gratefully accept the gift from the clouds.
She reached out as soon as she could and touched the wall of a building. Her blood dripped onto the brick from her right claws.
“…yeah, great, bleeding…” she muttered. A flash of a nightmare seized her. She could swear she had seen something in the darkness. Her vision blurred and merged. It felt blotched in places and twisted.
She saw a light beaming into her eyes from the left. “Stay back! Stay away from me!” She dug her half-sized Haxorus claws into the ground and swung her tail violently. She rammed her blue-bladed head into the wall, slashing at it desperately. “Just stay back!” Her tail glowed a shiny white, and with force, she swiped at a beam holding up a building.
It shook and started to collapse on its side.
Before she could rip into another building, she felt a tight band being wrapped around her arms. “Let me go! You don’t understand!” A powerful electric shock shot through her body. She felt a sickness creeping through her stomach as she struggled to stay awake. The pain surged through her, like spikes stabbing into her arms, chest and legs. Her knees started to give way, and she tum-bled into the ground with a thud.
A bright light beamed down into her eyes once again. She looked up and squirmed desperately. A round Pokémon waltzed into the room. His curly tail bouncing with each of his steps. His eyes met hers for a brief second before his expression turned sterner.
“What? Who are you? Let me go!” she shouted. Her eyes darted around in a frenzied manner, hoping to find a way out.
“Who are you?” he asked back, his face almost curious.
“I cannot remember. Tell me who I am! At least tell me where the fuck I am, or else I will… do something to your fat, ugly face!” She tried to slash at him with the blade on her head; however, the inhibitor collar which had been strapped to her neck started to activate, making her unable to use her moves.
“You aren’t far from the town centre.” His eyes stayed locked on hers.
“Where?” she shouted back.
“Just… town.”
“Why can’t I remember?” She let out a roar, starting to wiggle again.
“Pleazzze… thizzz izzzn’t helping.” A Vikavolt came into view.
“Fuck you!” she shouted, roaring directly at him. An eerie feeling glossed over her, making her si-lent. She felt her heart sink, and she just stared forwards. “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I remember…?” her voice started to go quiet. She began to relax and took a few deep breaths. “Everything… feels weird…” she muttered. “Is it still raining?”
“Er, yezzz,” the Vikavolt buzzed.
“Can I go outside and watch it?”
“Right now, no.” The round Pokémon she started to recognise as a Grumpig, narrowed his eyes. “Things aren’t exactly easy right now,” he began before looking to the side. “You did just attack a building.”
“Sorry. I… I don’t understand, I feel so angry...”
“You know about…” he responded, pausing and rubbing the back of his neck. He reached over and turned off the light with his stubby little hands. “Are you going to tell me your name?”
“I don’t know it, I’ve already told you that,” she answered. “I think I’ve been in a battle though. Maybe that’s why I can’t remember anything.” She slowly dragged her feet over towards the cor-ner of the room and sank down onto the tiles on the ground. She started to rub her left arm once again, but her long claws were met by the short, stubby fingers of the Grumpig.
“You should stop that,” he said. His eyes looked to the side once again. “You are hurt.” He looked back up at her. “Ah, it’s hard… er… well, I guess we should go get food and all. You do look a little hungry.”
“No. I still don’t know you,” the Haxorus answered. Her eyes quickly narrowed in on him and the Vikavolt. “Tell me who you are… please…”
“I am Demetri, Planet Nerve,” the Grumpig introduced himself. His tail looked like it had become more twirled as he spoke. Despite his somewhat slightly chirpier voice, the Haxorus shot him a deadly glare. “This is Devon,” he added, reaching out with his other hand and pointing a soft digit at his companion, who hovered near the cell door.
“Zzzir, do you think thizzz is wizzze? Letting one of them out into thizzz town?” Devon asked Deme-tri. “Ezzzpecially after whatzzz gone down with the Red Eyezzz.”
‘He is right, maybe it is best to keep this a secret from the major authorities, for now…’ Demetri thought. ‘I don’t remember seeing this Haxorus before.’ Demetri sighed and pressed his fingers against his head. “I guess, for now, until we figure out who you are, you should stay here. We will bring you a blanket.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“No.” Demetri’s mind started to drift into deep thought.
The Haxorus watched as he opened the door with his stubby fingers. With her right hand, she ran her claws along her face, touching the blade on the right. ‘I’m a Haxorus? At least I know that is true…’ She lifted her left arm up a little. “Damn it!” Her eyes slipped down at it once more. The damage was far worse than she had first imagined, but now under a flickering emura light, the full extent of the mishap, whatever it may have been, came to light. Claws missing or damaged and a wooden pike running through her forearm. ‘What happened? Why can’t I remember anything? Who the fuck even am I?’ she thought.
Unexpectedly, the door opened once more. Demetri was holding a white blanket as he plodded into the room. He raised his arms to unroll it; however, he felt a jolt and was pulled forwards. “Huh? What was that for?” he said sternly.
The Haxorus gripped the blanket tightly. She slowly pulled it from Demetri’s grip completely hold-ing onto it just as tightly as when she had first grabbed it, rolling onto her side.
“…I guess we will have to take you to a hospital, or a bigger ranger station – once you are patched up anyway.” He looked to the side once again. “Heh, every time I look, I see more injuries than be-fore. Or worse ones. Your left side of your face, it’s…”
“It isn’t fair,” the Haxorus muffled. Raising the blanket up to cover the majority of her upper body. “It isn’t hard to figure out. The left blade on my face has been broken. My arm has been pierced, and am I safe to assume that my eyes are damaged?” she growled. “Life isn’t fair… and I’m tired of it. I don’t even remember who I am…”
“I kno-”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” she snarled. Her eyes seemed to become a more piercing red, as she started to growl.
Demetri stepped back, a little taken-back by the sudden outburst. “Hey, er… are you okay?” he asked, pressing his fingers into his forehead again.
“Leave me alone! Just leave me alone! You see it, too, right? You see it too, don’t you Demetri?”
“Er…” he stuttered, his facing seeming to show more and more confusion. “Just calm down, okay?”
She roared at him, slicing with her right claws. “Go away! Just leave me alone!” She slowly took a step back and curled up in the corner of the cell. The blanket in her hand. Slowly raising it once more, she started to cuddle it, like a toy.
A sound brushed through her little Axew ears as she stood holding a ball in the playground. The sunlight swamping the ground, which was soaking up the heat, making it feel like a sauna for the feet.
“Hey, you gonna throw that?” a voice said. “Hey, Mackie.”
“Wha? Oh, er… sure.” She tossed the ball towards the black and white Shellder.
‘Wait… is that who I am? Is that my name? Mackie?’
The ball spun as I tossed, swirling towards the Shellder’s face. “Hey, what’s the big deal? You have been acting all weird lately. Something up?”
“I…”
“I am moving away, Jay-Jay,” Mackie replied, lethargically.
“This to do with that thing?” Jay-Jay asked, but his mouth was forced shut by Mackie’s claws.
“Shut up! You can’t tell anyone about that! You know that!” she hissed. “But yes… My dad and mum both got a job in…”
‘N-no… please… don’t do this…’
“Wait, ain’t that collective country?” Jay-Jay asked.
“It’s inside the collective, yes… but I don’t want to go,” Mackie growled. “I want to stay here with you… forever.” She watched as her friend tried to flip the ball up towards her once again. He bal-anced it on his tongue, letting it wobble for a moment before licking it up towards her. It started to climb but splatted down into a pathetic roll at her feet.
“Ya know, maybe I should come with ya,” Jay-Jay said with a smile on his goofy face.
Mackie paused for a moment, looking back at him. She so desperately wanted to say yes. Her heart started to beat slower, and with a sad smile, she whispered, “You know you can’t… and so do I… Ever since… you know… they… b… it’s been a... I just hope I ne…v…e…r…”
Her eyes shot open to see Demetri with his back to her.
“M…Mackie…” Mackie stuttered. “My name… it’s Mackie… I think…” She slowly started to sit up, cuddling the blanket as she did.
“What? Did you zzzay zzzomething? Devon buzzed as he floated over to her. His demeanour seemed to have changed to a much more light-hearted approach. “Demetri bandaged your arm. You zzzhould be fine zzzoon. He gave you zzzome pain killerzzz.”
“I… I am starting to… I don’t know… maybe I am going just crazy… but… I think I remember my name. I think I’m called Mackie.” She rubbed the sliced side of her face. The smashed bone-blade was sharp and painful to touch. “Ugh,” she grunted. “That’s it… I think. I can’t remember much else. Huh?” she said, looking up at the Grumpig who bent down beside her.
“You sound like you are feeling a little better,” he said with a little smile on his face.
Mackie groaned, “What’s going to happen to me? I don’t want to go to jail… and I’m not insane — at least, no more than…” She touched her head as a blurred memory rushed forwards of two mons she had seen from a distance. Both were bigger than her, one was fierce and the other much qui-eter like a puppet.
“What?” Devon asked, seemingly only catching a little of what Mackie said.
“What?” Mackie responded, forgetting what she muttered under her breath.
“You zzzaid zzzomething.”
“I…I did?” Mackie stuttered. She looked to the side, letting a little sniffle out. “What’s wrong with me? Is it this?” She raised her right arm up and with her claws, she gestured to her eyes. “I know they aren’t right. I can’t remember why or how or what the hell is going on! I’m clearly a bad per-son in your eyes. Right?” Her ice-blue scales shone as the moonlight snuck through the window and ran its soft-dancing light across them. Reaching up and touching the bars with her right claws, she sighed. The rain was calming, like a fresh breeze on a summer’s day, or an ocean washing upon a crisp white beach. She sighed, a little relieved at the sound of the door closing.
“Because you don’t know who you are? Where you are? Where you came from?" he said, pressing his stubby fingers to his face in thought. Moving a chair towards himself to sit on.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Any particular reason why?” he pressed, leaning on the wall, letting his tail spring down.
“Take this inhibitor off, and I’ll tell ya,” she muffled. “It’s not like you’ll let me out of here. I guess first thing tomorrow, you and your buddies gonna just take me to some sort of mental house,” she sniped. However, before she could sit back down and curl up under the warm blanket, he extend-ed his hand out to her.
“I have time. Would you care for a walk?” Demetri said with a smile on his face. His smile grew as she took his hand. “Not too far — it is dark after all, and, well, those aren’t exactly…”
‘Typical. I get it. I’m a freak – but I don’t understand. What happened? How did I get here? Why am I this way?’ she thought, letting out a loud sigh. “Let’s just go, I –”
‘What now?’ she thought.
A Fraxure sat on the cold, stone steps of a small house, with a small satchel over their left shoulder. A large Haxorus left the house and crouched down beside them.
“Hey, Mackie, you okay?” he asked.
“No, sir. I don’t understand — why do we have to leave? Why do you care so much about them? What did they ever do for you? I hate them, and I hate you! I hate you, Dad, and I hate Mum! It isn’t fair! You promised… you promised we would never move again…” Mackie shouted back at him, temper boiling inside.
“Mackie, I am sorry, but we can’t keep that promise. Your mum and I agreed that we wanted a change. With the mounting tension between the two blocs and what happening with Rayqieum spreading its influence, readying itself, we won’t be protected. We don’t think we can protect you right now.” He picked her up and sat her on his lap.
“I don’t want this. I want to stay here, with Jay-Jay.” She kicked him in the leg and tried to break free from his intense grip. However, as she managed to just about squeeze free from his grasp, she felt herself being lifted up by her mum.
‘Why, if I was so adamant about hating it, am I now like this? How did I even get into this mess in the first place?’
Her mum rubbed the large Haxorus blades of her head onto Mackie’s cheek.
“I am not going. I am not going, and you can’t make me!” Mackie slashed at her mother’s face with the small blade that rested on her Fraxure’s jaw. Despite her attempts to lash out, her mother raised her chin and turned her face to the side, catching the attack on her own jaw-blade. “What is wrong with you?”
Mackie kicked back with her little legs and squirmed free quickly, tossing herself backwards and rolling before getting up and running down the street.
Her mum went to follow her but was met with a large hand, preventing her from doing so.
Mackie ran as fast as her little Fraxure legs could go in the storm. Rainwater dripped on her face as she did. Running down the street towards where Jay was staying, she felt the stones digging into her toes. “Jay! Jay!” she called out as she ran. However, as she reached the corner of the street where he lived, the area was blocked off by Rangers. “Move it!” Mackie shouted, shunting into them.
No response.
She saw a drainpipe on one of the houses up ahead and with a pounce, she dug her claws into the pipe, frantically scrambling up onto the roof. She sprinted over the tiles to the edge of the house and readied to jump to the next when suddenly she ground to a halt. She saw rubble up ahead. Three houses had collapsed in on themselves, and the rain covered the bricks that had tumbled onto the street. She climbed off the roof onto the ground and rushed to the collapsed buildings.
“Jay!” she shouted, spotting a sizeable Haxorus lashing out, with a Fraxure beside them, hiding un-der their legs. Jay was cornered by them. The Rangers rushed forwards attacking the Haxorus, kill-ing it, the Fraxure bolted through the gap and into the nearby woods.
“No!” she screamed, jolting from her unconscious state.
Demetri was already there, holding her head and broken axe. “Are you okay? What happened?” He eased her back against the wall. “Take it nice and easy there.”
“Fuck you!” Mackie snarled at him. “It was you. It had to be you. You rotten scum! I never wanted this! It’s your fault!” Her eyes started to glow an intense red. She could feel herself slipping away into a fuzzy rage.
“Calm down…” Demetri said. “Why don’t we just go out for a walk? That will make you feel better, right?”
“I am in control. I won’t lose control.” Mackie thumped her tail against the wall.
“I never said anything about control,” Demetri responded. The inhibitor struggled to keep up with their prisoner’s urgency to escape. A little beep and a flicker of light; a spark changed everything. He felt an iron tail slam into his stomach, sending in hurtling back towards Devon.
Devon prepared to attack, lowering his body down, but he was surprised when Mackie looked back up, horrified.
“W-what did I do? N-no! I didn’t lose control! I am sorry!”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me right now. Don’t do that!” She shivered as she started to back into the corner once more. Laughter filled her head. “Go away… go away… go away…” she whis-pered, holding her head.
“Don’t lose control.” Her eyes opened wide. “I remember something more… I never wanted this… my name is Mackie… I… I was fifteen,” she started. “There was… um… an accident… I think. Some non-clansmon coun-try, near the invading forces of Rayqieum … a primed mon had destroyed some houses… um…” she continued, scrunching her face up the more she spoke. She found it harder and harder to remem-ber.
“Let’s get out of here. Just sit outside on a bench. The fresh air will do you some good.” Demetri slowly took her hand once more and led them through the door.
Chapter 1 - Now
A bright light beamed down into her eyes once again. She looked up and squirmed desperately. A round Pokémon waltzed into the room. His curly tail bouncing with each of his steps. His eyes met hers for a brief second before his expression turned sterner.
“What? Who are you? Let me go!” she shouted. Her eyes darted around in a frenzied manner, hoping to find a way out.
“Who are you?” he asked back, his face almost curious.
“I cannot remember. Tell me who I am! At least tell me where the fuck I am, or else I will… do something to your fat, ugly face!” She tried to slash at him with the blade on her head; however, the inhibitor collar which had been strapped to her neck started to activate, making her unable to use her moves.
“You aren’t far from the town centre.” His eyes stayed locked on hers.
“Where?” she shouted back.
“Just… town.”
“Why can’t I remember?” She let out a roar, starting to wiggle again.
“Pleazzze… thizzz izzzn’t helping.” A Vikavolt came into view.
“Fuck you!” she shouted, roaring directly at him. An eerie feeling glossed over her, making her si-lent. She felt her heart sink, and she just stared forwards. “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I remember…?” her voice started to go quiet. She began to relax and took a few deep breaths. “Everything… feels weird…” she muttered. “Is it still raining?”
“Er, yezzz,” the Vikavolt buzzed.
“Can I go outside and watch it?”
“Right now, no.” The round Pokémon she started to recognise as a Grumpig, narrowed his eyes. “Things aren’t exactly easy right now,” he began before looking to the side. “You did just attack a building.”
“Sorry. I… I don’t understand, I feel so angry...”
“You know about…” he responded, pausing and rubbing the back of his neck. He reached over and turned off the light with his stubby little hands. “Are you going to tell me your name?”
“I don’t know it, I’ve already told you that,” she answered. “I think I’ve been in a battle though. Maybe that’s why I can’t remember anything.” She slowly dragged her feet over towards the cor-ner of the room and sank down onto the tiles on the ground. She started to rub her left arm once again, but her long claws were met by the short, stubby fingers of the Grumpig.
“You should stop that,” he said. His eyes looked to the side once again. “You are hurt.” He looked back up at her. “Ah, it’s hard… er… well, I guess we should go get food and all. You do look a little hungry.”
“No. I still don’t know you,” the Haxorus answered. Her eyes quickly narrowed in on him and the Vikavolt. “Tell me who you are… please…”
“I am Demetri, Planet Nerve,” the Grumpig introduced himself. His tail looked like it had become more twirled as he spoke. Despite his somewhat slightly chirpier voice, the Haxorus shot him a deadly glare. “This is Devon,” he added, reaching out with his other hand and pointing a soft digit at his companion, who hovered near the cell door.
“Zzzir, do you think thizzz is wizzze? Letting one of them out into thizzz town?” Devon asked Deme-tri. “Ezzzpecially after whatzzz gone down with the Red Eyezzz.”
‘He is right, maybe it is best to keep this a secret from the major authorities, for now…’ Demetri thought. ‘I don’t remember seeing this Haxorus before.’ Demetri sighed and pressed his fingers against his head. “I guess, for now, until we figure out who you are, you should stay here. We will bring you a blanket.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“No.” Demetri’s mind started to drift into deep thought.
The Haxorus watched as he opened the door with his stubby fingers. With her right hand, she ran her claws along her face, touching the blade on the right. ‘I’m a Haxorus? At least I know that is true…’ She lifted her left arm up a little. “Damn it!” Her eyes slipped down at it once more. The damage was far worse than she had first imagined, but now under a flickering emura light, the full extent of the mishap, whatever it may have been, came to light. Claws missing or damaged and a wooden pike running through her forearm. ‘What happened? Why can’t I remember anything? Who the fuck even am I?’ she thought.
Unexpectedly, the door opened once more. Demetri was holding a white blanket as he plodded into the room. He raised his arms to unroll it; however, he felt a jolt and was pulled forwards. “Huh? What was that for?” he said sternly.
The Haxorus gripped the blanket tightly. She slowly pulled it from Demetri’s grip completely hold-ing onto it just as tightly as when she had first grabbed it, rolling onto her side.
“…I guess we will have to take you to a hospital, or a bigger ranger station – once you are patched up anyway.” He looked to the side once again. “Heh, every time I look, I see more injuries than be-fore. Or worse ones. Your left side of your face, it’s…”
“What a mess you are in, and whose fault is that?”
“It isn’t fair,” the Haxorus muffled. Raising the blanket up to cover the majority of her upper body. “It isn’t hard to figure out. The left blade on my face has been broken. My arm has been pierced, and am I safe to assume that my eyes are damaged?” she growled. “Life isn’t fair… and I’m tired of it. I don’t even remember who I am…”
“I kno-”
“Oh, how unfair it is, woe is me. Pathetic.”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” she snarled. Her eyes seemed to become a more piercing red, as she started to growl.
Demetri stepped back, a little taken-back by the sudden outburst. “Hey, er… are you okay?” he asked, pressing his fingers into his forehead again.
“Leave me alone! Just leave me alone! You see it, too, right? You see it too, don’t you Demetri?”
“Er…” he stuttered, his facing seeming to show more and more confusion. “Just calm down, okay?”
She roared at him, slicing with her right claws. “Go away! Just leave me alone!” She slowly took a step back and curled up in the corner of the cell. The blanket in her hand. Slowly raising it once more, she started to cuddle it, like a toy.
Chapter 2 - Before
‘…Control…’
A sound brushed through her little Axew ears as she stood holding a ball in the playground. The sunlight swamping the ground, which was soaking up the heat, making it feel like a sauna for the feet.
“Hey, you gonna throw that?” a voice said. “Hey, Mackie.”
“Wha? Oh, er… sure.” She tossed the ball towards the black and white Shellder.
‘Wait… is that who I am? Is that my name? Mackie?’
The ball spun as I tossed, swirling towards the Shellder’s face. “Hey, what’s the big deal? You have been acting all weird lately. Something up?”
“I…”
‘Say something, please, I need to understand… what is going on with me?’
“I am moving away, Jay-Jay,” Mackie replied, lethargically.
“This to do with that thing?” Jay-Jay asked, but his mouth was forced shut by Mackie’s claws.
“Shut up! You can’t tell anyone about that! You know that!” she hissed. “But yes… My dad and mum both got a job in…”
‘N-no… please… don’t do this…’
“Wait, ain’t that collective country?” Jay-Jay asked.
“It’s inside the collective, yes… but I don’t want to go,” Mackie growled. “I want to stay here with you… forever.” She watched as her friend tried to flip the ball up towards her once again. He bal-anced it on his tongue, letting it wobble for a moment before licking it up towards her. It started to climb but splatted down into a pathetic roll at her feet.
“Ya know, maybe I should come with ya,” Jay-Jay said with a smile on his goofy face.
Mackie paused for a moment, looking back at him. She so desperately wanted to say yes. Her heart started to beat slower, and with a sad smile, she whispered, “You know you can’t… and so do I… Ever since… you know… they… b… it’s been a... I just hope I ne…v…e…r…”
‘No! Come back, please, don’t go, please that can’t be it! It can’t. It can’t be all there is!’
‘…Control…’
“M…Mackie…” Mackie stuttered. “My name… it’s Mackie… I think…” She slowly started to sit up, cuddling the blanket as she did.
“What? Did you zzzay zzzomething? Devon buzzed as he floated over to her. His demeanour seemed to have changed to a much more light-hearted approach. “Demetri bandaged your arm. You zzzhould be fine zzzoon. He gave you zzzome pain killerzzz.”
“I… I am starting to… I don’t know… maybe I am going just crazy… but… I think I remember my name. I think I’m called Mackie.” She rubbed the sliced side of her face. The smashed bone-blade was sharp and painful to touch. “Ugh,” she grunted. “That’s it… I think. I can’t remember much else. Huh?” she said, looking up at the Grumpig who bent down beside her.
“You sound like you are feeling a little better,” he said with a little smile on his face.
Mackie groaned, “What’s going to happen to me? I don’t want to go to jail… and I’m not insane — at least, no more than…” She touched her head as a blurred memory rushed forwards of two mons she had seen from a distance. Both were bigger than her, one was fierce and the other much qui-eter like a puppet.
“What?” Devon asked, seemingly only catching a little of what Mackie said.
“What?” Mackie responded, forgetting what she muttered under her breath.
“You zzzaid zzzomething.”
“I…I did?” Mackie stuttered. She looked to the side, letting a little sniffle out. “What’s wrong with me? Is it this?” She raised her right arm up and with her claws, she gestured to her eyes. “I know they aren’t right. I can’t remember why or how or what the hell is going on! I’m clearly a bad per-son in your eyes. Right?” Her ice-blue scales shone as the moonlight snuck through the window and ran its soft-dancing light across them. Reaching up and touching the bars with her right claws, she sighed. The rain was calming, like a fresh breeze on a summer’s day, or an ocean washing upon a crisp white beach. She sighed, a little relieved at the sound of the door closing.
“Because you don’t know who you are? Where you are? Where you came from?" he said, pressing his stubby fingers to his face in thought. Moving a chair towards himself to sit on.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Any particular reason why?” he pressed, leaning on the wall, letting his tail spring down.
“Take this inhibitor off, and I’ll tell ya,” she muffled. “It’s not like you’ll let me out of here. I guess first thing tomorrow, you and your buddies gonna just take me to some sort of mental house,” she sniped. However, before she could sit back down and curl up under the warm blanket, he extend-ed his hand out to her.
“I have time. Would you care for a walk?” Demetri said with a smile on his face. His smile grew as she took his hand. “Not too far — it is dark after all, and, well, those aren’t exactly…”
‘Typical. I get it. I’m a freak – but I don’t understand. What happened? How did I get here? Why am I this way?’ she thought, letting out a loud sigh. “Let’s just go, I –”
‘...Control…’
‘What now?’ she thought.
A Fraxure sat on the cold, stone steps of a small house, with a small satchel over their left shoulder. A large Haxorus left the house and crouched down beside them.
“Hey, Mackie, you okay?” he asked.
“No, sir. I don’t understand — why do we have to leave? Why do you care so much about them? What did they ever do for you? I hate them, and I hate you! I hate you, Dad, and I hate Mum! It isn’t fair! You promised… you promised we would never move again…” Mackie shouted back at him, temper boiling inside.
“Mackie, I am sorry, but we can’t keep that promise. Your mum and I agreed that we wanted a change. With the mounting tension between the two blocs and what happening with Rayqieum spreading its influence, readying itself, we won’t be protected. We don’t think we can protect you right now.” He picked her up and sat her on his lap.
“I don’t want this. I want to stay here, with Jay-Jay.” She kicked him in the leg and tried to break free from his intense grip. However, as she managed to just about squeeze free from his grasp, she felt herself being lifted up by her mum.
‘Why, if I was so adamant about hating it, am I now like this? How did I even get into this mess in the first place?’
Her mum rubbed the large Haxorus blades of her head onto Mackie’s cheek.
“I am not going. I am not going, and you can’t make me!” Mackie slashed at her mother’s face with the small blade that rested on her Fraxure’s jaw. Despite her attempts to lash out, her mother raised her chin and turned her face to the side, catching the attack on her own jaw-blade. “What is wrong with you?”
Mackie kicked back with her little legs and squirmed free quickly, tossing herself backwards and rolling before getting up and running down the street.
Her mum went to follow her but was met with a large hand, preventing her from doing so.
Mackie ran as fast as her little Fraxure legs could go in the storm. Rainwater dripped on her face as she did. Running down the street towards where Jay was staying, she felt the stones digging into her toes. “Jay! Jay!” she called out as she ran. However, as she reached the corner of the street where he lived, the area was blocked off by Rangers. “Move it!” Mackie shouted, shunting into them.
No response.
She saw a drainpipe on one of the houses up ahead and with a pounce, she dug her claws into the pipe, frantically scrambling up onto the roof. She sprinted over the tiles to the edge of the house and readied to jump to the next when suddenly she ground to a halt. She saw rubble up ahead. Three houses had collapsed in on themselves, and the rain covered the bricks that had tumbled onto the street. She climbed off the roof onto the ground and rushed to the collapsed buildings.
“Jay!” she shouted, spotting a sizeable Haxorus lashing out, with a Fraxure beside them, hiding un-der their legs. Jay was cornered by them. The Rangers rushed forwards attacking the Haxorus, kill-ing it, the Fraxure bolted through the gap and into the nearby woods.
‘…Control…’
“No!” she screamed, jolting from her unconscious state.
Demetri was already there, holding her head and broken axe. “Are you okay? What happened?” He eased her back against the wall. “Take it nice and easy there.”
“Fuck you!” Mackie snarled at him. “It was you. It had to be you. You rotten scum! I never wanted this! It’s your fault!” Her eyes started to glow an intense red. She could feel herself slipping away into a fuzzy rage.
“Calm down…” Demetri said. “Why don’t we just go out for a walk? That will make you feel better, right?”
“I am in control. I won’t lose control.” Mackie thumped her tail against the wall.
“I never said anything about control,” Demetri responded. The inhibitor struggled to keep up with their prisoner’s urgency to escape. A little beep and a flicker of light; a spark changed everything. He felt an iron tail slam into his stomach, sending in hurtling back towards Devon.
Devon prepared to attack, lowering his body down, but he was surprised when Mackie looked back up, horrified.
“W-what did I do? N-no! I didn’t lose control! I am sorry!”
“Why should I care if you are sorry? Simple — I don’t care. You can’t stay in control, and you know what that means don’t you?”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me right now. Don’t do that!” She shivered as she started to back into the corner once more. Laughter filled her head. “Go away… go away… go away…” she whis-pered, holding her head.
“Don’t lose control.” Her eyes opened wide. “I remember something more… I never wanted this… my name is Mackie… I… I was fifteen,” she started. “There was… um… an accident… I think. Some non-clansmon coun-try, near the invading forces of Rayqieum … a primed mon had destroyed some houses… um…” she continued, scrunching her face up the more she spoke. She found it harder and harder to remem-ber.
“Let’s get out of here. Just sit outside on a bench. The fresh air will do you some good.” Demetri slowly took her hand once more and led them through the door.
Chapter 3 – Vision
The walk to the park was short; the rain water’s soft cry and pattering on the back of Mackie start-ed to soothe her cuts and bruises. Her eyes ached, and her head pounded from the massive influx of noise. Her feet trudged along the path, and for every step she took, she was convinced the Grumpig was taking two or three. The little mon seemed pretty content plodding along beside her, although she did suspect he would lash out if she tried something – not that she planned to.
“Do you remember where you were born?”
“Huh?” she shot back, a little surprised by the grinning mon’s question. “Oh, er… hmm…” She started to think, closing her eyes and searching through the jumble of memories inside her head. “I was born in Yveshia, but well… we moved a lot. My mum was from Yveshia, and my dad was from Amestria. I can remember a lot of arguments between the two over the political climate… it was a big reason why we moved for the first time.”
“After that, we moved to the Sorphian capital for a bit. We did a lotta places, but well… my home… my true home was a small village. I… I don’t remember what it was called – heh, isn’t that funny?” She looked to the side as the sadness consumed her once more. “W-what about you?” she asked, hoping to change the topic.
“Oh well I am part Sorphian too,” he replied, smiling.
“Oh…” she responded. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“It’s okay,” Demetri said. “Although, we probably should head back soon – especially with what happened and all. You are welcome to stay with us, Mackie.”
“I don’t remember my name from the Red Eyes… and don’t make a fucking big deal about it. I ain’t in the mood for it, and right now I am trying to establish who I am and what the hell happened.” She took a deep breath. “Every time I get angry or frustrated… I am afraid...”
‘I remembered something else? I should have another name.’
“Of?” Demetri asked as Devon zoomed over to catch up to the two.
“That’s just it, isn’t it? I don’t remember.” Mackie went to reach up and touch her broken blade again, but Demetri led her hand away from it before she could. “Heh, you can’t just leave me be, can you? Am I a bad person?” she asked.
“You… you don’t seem to be, just confused.” Demetri took a few steps forward and plonked him-self down on the bench.
“Then… am I a good person?” Mackie asked.
“I don’t know, Mackie. I hope so,” he answered.
“Sometimes, I feel like I am in control… and then the next minute…” She lay down on the grass, looking up at the rain and the dark clouds which painted the stormy night sky. She closed her eyes and sighed.
“Nothing ever truly makes sense,” she stated. “I remember seeing my best friend’s house in rub-ble. A primed Fraxure destroyed it, and well… I-” She felt a tingle in her spine.
Her heart started to pound, a minor lapse in the watch of Demetri and Devon, she bolted away.
‘Life simply isn’t fair, or right – what the hell is wrong with me?’ she thought.
“Mackie?” a voice said, making her jump out of her skin. She swivelled where she stood and a Guil-lotine blade formed in her right hand. She went to slash at the noise.
“Come out; you fucking coward.” Mackie crouched down on her legs, turning to the side slightly to protect her broken arm. However, to her surprise, it was fine.
“Mackie, wait, it’s me… you remember me, don’t you? It’s me, Jay…” the Shellder said, a smile crept over his face, like the tingling feeling in her spine.
“So… I am completely crazy?” Mackie said, agitated. “That’s just great.”
“You wish,” a Haxorus snorted, different to the one that had been following her. His red eyes fixed on hers. “Don’t you remember me either, Alphi? Alphi, Mackie… what’s the difference?”
She looked at them both, confused, slowly shaking her head.
“Not gonna lie, Mackie, you did some pretty horrific things.” Jay’s pearly white smile started to fade. “You killed, and I mean, you killed. Incidents you helped with. Frictions, fights, small little things which to anyone else would have made no sense… but you… you and him aren’t the same.”
“No!” she shouted.
The bushes behind her started to rustle and shake, making her pivot on her back leg. Quickly, she drew her sharp like needle claws out and readied herself. The leaves on the bush started to ripple, the water on them dragged down and plopped into the puddle, which lay underneath it.
“Calm down, it’zzz juzzzt me.” Devon poked his head out from the bush.
“I could have guillotined you,” Alphi snapped. “Then what? I’d be done for murder since the bias against people like me will clearly be held here.” She turned to look at Jay for advice, but both he and the Salamence had vanished from sight. Her eyes narrowed as they flickered back and forth trying to make sense of what just happened. “Ugh,” she grunted, rubbing her head with her hand. “It’s been a weird fucking night.”
“You are telling us,” Demetri chimed in. “Besides, you look like you’ve seen a literal ghost.”
“Ha, funny you should say that…” she responded before he could finish. “I would offer to buy you a coffee, to you know, go over everything… but turns out I have no money, what are the odds of that? So… what happens now?” she added, looking down at the ground, shuffling a little, plonking herself down in the mud.
“You don’t look too well, and your injuries are enough for concern. But hey, at least if we send you to the Averian or Norfarian Capital, you’ll get to see a new city.” Demetri looked at her, waiting for her to react.
“No.” Alphi stood back up. “I am not crazy, and my injuries can wait. I guess it is still the very early hours of the morning. I would rather keep walking in the rain if that’s okay?”
“My name isn’t Mackie… not anymore. It is Alphi, and well… I don’t understand how I became Alphi… I don’t even…” she started before breaking into a sigh. “I need to start to understand what has happened to me.” The rainwater drizzled down her face and dripped down her right blade, splattering onto Demetri’s head. “Heh, sorry.”
“It could be worse,” he responded, a little agitated.
“I suppose,” she replied, continuing to walk forward, letting her feet sink into the squelchy mud-died grass. “I… I can’t place everything still, but things are starting to piece back together. The storm continued to pour down her body, making her let out a grin. “I do love the rain. Jay and I used to play in the rain all the time.”
“Jay?” Devon asked.
“He died,” she said back, a hint of ferociousness in her voice.
Devon and Demetri both shot each other a confused look. “You okay there?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I’m just a little tired, you would be too.” She sighed, touching her broken blade with her hand. “I have regrets, even if I don’t know what they are yet, heh.”
‘Despite everything, you don’t even scare me. I loathe your constant interruptions. Just like…’
Something hard slammed into the back of her head, clawing and sliding down her back. She swung around, attacking back clumsily with her long claws.
“Ugh,” a Blastoise groaned, on his stomach. “Wake up, Alph!”
Alphi swung her long claws at the Sandslash once more, hoping to knock him over. However, as her long claws reached out to slash him across the face, she felt a dull pain in her back, followed by an-other and another, getting stronger with each punch.
“What you telling me to wake up for?” She slashed at the mon, trying to knock him over once more. “Get off my back!” She used dragon claw, aiming towards the Toxicroak who had been gain-ing momentum, hitting her.
He leapt back rolling back onto his feet, bouncing a little.
She dived towards him, trying to strike him once more; however, her face collided with something sharp, some claws dug into her chin sending her flying backwards onto the ground once more. The Sandslash dived up in the air, rolling towards her.
She rolled out the way, struggling to breathe. “Fuck! Okay, okay, enough…” she said, raising her claws.
‘Er… they don’t look right…’
“Come on, Alph, you giving up to them?”
“We won’t win, besides…” she panted, holding her chest. “I need to catch my breath.” She watched on as the two walked over. The Toxicroak extended a hand to her. Uneasily, she felt her-self take it, and shake it. “Maybe next time…” she muttered.
She rolled herself back onto her feet, clicking her back as she did, forcing herself to look down at her claws once more.
She looked up, shocked she saw she was in a small storage room. Her eyes darted to the two mons from before, sitting down, talking. She felt a little anxious, watching them from a distance.
“What be on yer mind, Armád?” the Toxicroak asked.
“Nothing, Gaispir,” the Sandslash responded, taking out his coin and flipping it.
Alphi’s eyes narrowed as she listened in.
“Ya sure?” Gaispir asked, watching the coin fall back into the Sandslash’s claws.
Alphi leaned in against the wall, pressing her face-blade against the wall. She expanded her claws, closing her eyes, allowing the sound to surround her. She swished her tail, excitedly.
The Sandslash got up from the seat. “It is fine, why don’t we ge-”
Clank.
Alphi shot a glance to her behind. An inhibitor lay on the floor as the table wobbled a little. “Shit… I… I wasn’t listening, I was just passing through…” she lied, feeling her body burn up. The two looked back at her, the stares made her feel sick inside. “Look, er… how about food, on me?” she asked, smiling. “Saves you some time…”
Alphi’s eyes opened suddenly. Her lungs filling with air, pushing out her chest, before empty-ing. “The longer I am out in the rain, walking, talking, thinking, the more I seem to remember,” she said, smiling. “Yet out of all of us here, I don’t think I’m the biggest monster; the ‘evillest’ amongst us, if you will – yes, I’ve killed, or at least I think I have, but there are far worse crimes.” She sighed in thought, rubbing her neck this time as she stretched up. “It’s er… well, a little late. I guess we should get some rest… can I stay with you guys? I will sleep outside, and out the way, I just… don’t really want to stick around much if…” she paused; her heart sank as she pondered how to end the sentence. “Prejudice,” she finally said, pointing to her eyes. “Heh, you know what? I’ll just set up my own little space.” She turned around with a heavy swivel, swinging her tail as she did.
Devon quickly dodged the hefty tail to avoid being toppled over.
“Oops, heh, sorry,” she laughed.
Later that night, Alphi lay tucked under a little sheet she had set up over two upright boxes to cre-ate a tent, refusing to return to the cell where she had been initially stuffed. Her mind rapidly flick-ering between thoughts. Unable to sleep, she sat up and started to stare into the rain.
Demetri muttered under his breath, came over; his legs plodding as his tail sprung. His eyes nar-rowed for a moment before he let out a sigh.
“Something wrong?” Alphi said with a little smile on her face. “I mean, you could just stand out there in the rain, or you could come to sit under my little tent. Up to you.” She shrugged at him, getting his attention.
He looked to the side for a moment before starting to come over. His plodding legs slowly reached a standstill as he sat beside her. He raised his hand up to take the little cloth Alphi lifted up and of-fered to him.
“How does it feel to be a monster?” she said, keeping her face as straight as possible.
“Huh?” he replied.
“I may be a Red Eyes, but well, I am not the only monster here. Am I?” She smirked a little at him. Slowly she released the cloth from her grip, and let it flop down into Demetri’s hand. She rested her head back down on the ground and curled up as best as she could.
‘I wonder…’ she thought.
As the water dripped down onto the ground in front of them both, she sighed. “Ever wondered what would happen if you had made a different choice at a certain moment in your life?” She raised her head a little to speak before resting it back down again. “I know that moment exists for me. I still can’t remember when or where or why… but I am not a bad person. Everyone has that choice inside of them, to be a good person or a bad person. So, what about you? You ever done something so bad you regretted it for… well forever?” She looked up at him, one eye open, locked on his eyes.
“Yes, but I don’t really want to talk about it,” Demetri replied, crossing his legs and closing his eyes to meditate.
“Oh, keep it inside your head – no matter. Not being able to save my best friend from a savage and primed Fraxure…” She closed her eyes. “I am a mess; I know that now. There is but one request I ask of you, and in return, once I am done, I will hand myself over to your Norfarian authorities.
Demetri looked at her.
“I want to find out who I am, what I am, where I am going… what my purpose is. To do that I need to go on my own way. I doubt you will say okay.”
“It’s for the best if you stay put.”
“That’s just it, isn’t it? I guess we differ in opinion. So…” She raised her tail, letting it glow a metallic grey. “I have no choice but to fight you.”
She spread her claws on her hand, making them glow.
Quickly, Demetri swung his arm up, creating a reflect barrier, while it shimmered for a moment in place, the powerful claws from the Haxorus came crashing down into it. Running down it like wa-ter, leaving a dent. As her claws stuck into the reflect, she felt herself being pushed back as the psychic put his hands behind his back, seemingly unpanicked.
“Grr,” she growled. The extrasensory started to infiltrate her mind, she could feel the barriers be-ing broken inside. With an aggressive rush, she spun around, catching the Grumpig off-guard. She roared loudly as he fell back, catching himself before he fell completely.
He jumped up onto his feet, a large bruise was drawn across his chest, “That hurt, what is with this mon? Fine one minute, then the ne-” he rolled to the side, avoiding another swing by the Haxo-rus’s vibrant, glowing tail.
“Get back!” she growled, showing her teeth. Her blade on her head started to look hot, as she swung towards him with her head, aiming for his. The sharpened swing cut through the air, like an air slash.
The Grumpig bounced back, moving inches out of range from the guillotine. He watched as the mon collided her attack with a tree, slicing through the log, making it wobble and fall towards him. He pressed his finger to his head, slowing the falling tree and moving it safely to the side, all while watching the aggressive Haxorus growl and roar at him once more. He levitated a branch and flung it towards her, knocking her back, forcing her to guillotine through the wooden weapon.
Alphi took in a deep breath and roared at the sky, the rainwater dripped down her face as her feet started to sink into the mud. “Just get out of the way!” she growled, her voice a little indiscernible from that of a roar. “I am more powerful than you ever could be! I am in control here!” She turned, running into the nearby shrubbery, her eyes were wary of the psychic following her. Her eyes flickered back to see if he was. She swung her tail knocking down branches as she went to attempt to slow him down if he tried to follow.
The candlelight flickered softly in the darkness. The dimly lit area of the room became shrouded in the shadows of two mons who had approached it tenderly. The first, wider than the second picked up the little candle and carried it towards the stairs. Followed by the clanking sound of the second.
“If it is true, it is deeply concerning.” He stopped to stare out the patterned window on the tower, the second stopped behind him, keenly listening. “For all involved.” A sad expression was cast over his face.
“The situation needs to be dealt with before it escalates. They lack discipline and control. if they are who they are described as we need to investigate immediately.” He paused, resting his talons steady on the steps. “Pathos?”
“Yes?” the Aggron replied, pulling his hood down, looking back at the Archeops. His eyes then turned back to the window, deep in thought as a cold, sad expression poured back onto his face. “Who did they kill?”
“I don’t know,” the mon replied.
“Baphomet, please inform me once you know.” Pathos turned to walk back down the stairs, leav-ing him by the window.
“You are right,” he said, looking at the window Pathos had been looking through. ‘The way it works isn’t fair. Whoever this mon is, they are a threat…’ Darkness surrounded him as the light from the candle faded from view, leaving just his eyes to glow a little. With careful steps, he walked back out of the tower, spreading his wings in the dark of the night and took off.
The crazed thoughts of mons rushing around, desperately hunting a phantom figure, who disap-peared into the dead of night did give Alphi a thrill, even though she was the one being hunted. The rain was slowing down a little, putting her more on edge than before. Naturally, she assumed that she would be automatically accused of being guilty of committing a brutal attack on the mons; even if they did assume correctly. However, the thought did creep up on her that, for one, she didn’t know where to find either mon from her memory, be it blurred and jarring. Armád or Gaispir – assuming they were still alive, and actually could give her answers. All Alphi knew were their names and species, in some form or another. With a silent grunt, she stood up. She felt a chill in-side her bones, rocketing up her spine, as she contemplated her next move.
‘Neither had the marks, the crests… therefore, logically… well… they have to be from non-clansmon territory, and consequently are likely to be found near the collective.
“What you doing?” a voice said, as it came from behind her. She instantly swivelled and raised a dragon claw up, letting her right claws glow a soft white. “Wait… are you the Red-Eyes that at-tacked that town? News spreads fast an-” She covered his mouth as he continued to try and speak.
A few moments passed, and it had appeared he had shut up. “No. I am not. I just want to get out of here and… I guess go home.” Alphi looked at the mon she had just released. “Typical, a pre-volved.” The Tepig’s tail bounced around, curiously. “Look er… kid, go home to your ‘mummy’ or something, I don’t have time for this,” she hissed.
“Nope.” He grinned at her with the largest, most irritating smile she had ever seen.
She picked him up by his tail and looked him in the eyes. “I said, go home, brat.”
“I said, ‘nope’. My name is Noah, what is yours?” he asked, leading her to let out a little groan
“Oh, really?” Alphi said, dragging her words out as long as she could. “What if I was to tell you, Red Eyes like me eat Tepig for breakfast?”
“That’s stupid; I don’t think it is legal for mons to eat other mons, and I don’t think the Red Eyes could sink much lower than they already have.”
“Do us a favour, kid. Fuck off.” As she dropped Noah, her eyes locked onto Demetri and Devon, who were now blocking her path. “Ugh, for fuck’s sake.”
To her annoyance Noah gently head-butted her leg. His big blue eyes stared back at her as she shot him a cold look. “Miss Haxorus? I don’t actually, well, I don’t live here. I ran away from home and now… I want to go back. Can you take me? Please? I don’t think anyone here will understand an-”
“Will it make you shut up indefinitely if I agree?” she snarled.
“Yes, yes, oh, definitely!” Noah shouted, making her grab his mouth with her tail this time.
She clenched her fist as she picked up Noah by the tail and looked around for a place to call a tem-porary hide-out. “Look… kid, let’s make one fucking thing clear, ‘right? I’m the boss, and right now, I’m not in a good mood. We need to find somewhere to stay until the morning, and then and only then will it be possible to leave town. Got it?” she snarled, shaking him a little. She plodded over to a fallen tree and, using her right blade on her face she pushed it up and swivelled it against another tree. Slowly, a protective shield wrapped around the two logs in an umbrella shape, shielding her from the remaining drips of water.
Opening a single eye, she looked back Noah. He appeared to be nervous as he lifted his little legs up and walked over towards her, constantly looking behind him. “Something wrong?” she asked.
“N-no, heh, just trying to be… well strong and brave an-” he started.
“Well, you look stupid. Nothing to be scared of, kid, you are with the scariest mon alive in this town,” she said. She watched as his nervous frown turned back into a smile. “Now, come on, be-fore neither of us get any sleep.”
“W-what if the authorities find us? I mean you. What if they f-find you?” he replied nervously.
Placing her claws against her eyes, and slowly dragging her face down, she answered, “Then I’ll stay up all night; if any of those fuckers come for us, I’ll shred them up. Okay?” Her firm one-eyed stare made him nod.
He trotted over to her and dived down beside her neck, slowly pushing up her left sided blade as he wiggled his rounded head under it. His clumsiness made her squint a little in pain. After a few more wiggles he had buried his head into Alphi’s neck, letting the blade gently rest against his body.
She looked up at the sky, her eyes fixed on the stars as they glared down at her through the dark-ened clouds. The sparkling light made her feel uneasy, as if a thousand eyes were sitting there, watching her, judging her for every action she will make; they were judging her for every action she had already made, regardless of whether she remembered it or not. Her head started to pound as her heart raced.
With a few gentle puffs of air, she looked down at the ground, blowing the leaves away from them both; several leaves crackled and crisped as they were pushed back, others simply pealed up a lit-tle from the ground before flopping back down
against the wet ground. The creeping thoughts of the sounds from the Haxorus that appeared to be staring back at her in the puddles, smiling its own smile creepily back at her. Unafraid of it, Alphi accepted she had seen something; a cold, call-ing figure. However, she felt a torturous nagging feeling of fear.
A grinding curse, a cold glimmer under the shivering moonlight, she considered herself to be. Rais-ing her claws up to the side, ready to kill the Tepig as he slept, she stopped. Despite everything, all the anger, the hate, the pure confusion, toxic rage, she couldn’t quite bring herself to kill him.
“Fuck this,” she muttered under her breath. “Too tired to even think straight anymore.”
“H-h-hey, miss?” Noah stuttered, his back muscles seemed to stick up a little, and his ears drooped. “I can’t sleep. T-to scared.”
“Heh, I’m not a good mon, kid,” Alphi answered. “One minute I’m fine, and the next… I feel rage inside. Kid, where do I have to take you to ditch you from my life?” Alphi asked, picking up Noah with her right claws.
“Um… well, I wanted to go to Sorphia,” he answered.
Alphi let out an almighty groan at hearing how far he was planning on going. “Come on? Really? How, in the name of Arceus’s right leg did you get here?” Her question seemed to shock Noah a little, making his ears drop, slipping out of her grip he backed away a little. “Damn it, okay, okay, fine. I’ll take you to Sorphia, I expect you mean the stupid capital. Ugh, if we want to make any progress to that shit hole…” She placed Noah on her shoulder and started to slowly walk towards the town’s exit.
The leaves of the trees fell onto the forest floor as Baphomet made his way towards the clearing. Rather than flying through the lush trees, or blasting them to smithereens, he walked along the floor. His talons clanked as they touched the tree roots which scattered the ground. He stopped at the clearing, looking upon the face of the one he had intended to meet.
The Granbull looked back up at him. “Master?” she asked.
“There has been… an incident. A traitor, perhaps.”
“Perhaps?” Her question was met by a silent nod. “Where?” she asked. The moonlight shone down, lighting up both of their eyes as they stood together. “What kind of incident?”
He looked back at her, his helmet covering his face leaving only his eyes to see as the clouds cov-ered over what light they had. “Drawing unneeded attention.” He moved his wings to being be-hind his back as he stood upright. “We should deal with it at once, Aditi.”
The two exchanged looks before walking along the same path.
Early morning moonlight glimmered down onto the metal frame of the broken-down transit, forced into an emergency landing. Outside the craft, a Noivern stood, waving his wings around, grumbling. His claws gritted into the ground as he slammed them back down. He kicked the small transit, as the angry ex-passengers chatted amongst themselves.
Ya lot be goin’ to the next town, I be here ‘nd fixin’ this here craft,” he said, irritated. “Feckin’ wasters,” he muttered under his breath as the crowd departed into the town. “As for ya, ya crack-potted load-a-crap, why won’t ya get goin’?” He hit the transit with an air cutter attack, denting the side of it. “Agh, ya pot-a junk, let’s be seein’ if we can be fixin’ ya.” He ducked his head down and clambered through the door, entering the old Transit’s small maintenance area. As he assessed the damage, he grumbled, “Ya be a fine mess.”
Meanwhile, Alphi, carrying Noah on her head, started to feel the exhaustion creeping up on her. His gentle snores and drooping tail made her feel more and more irritable. Struggling to stay awake, she forced herself to continue onwards along the path. The glimmer of the metal from the crashed transit caught her eyes; at first, she didn’t know what to make of the flicker, it could have been anything. However, slowly she focused more on the object, noticing its damaged and crum-bling body she sighed.
‘It’s out of the way, I guess… I mean, I need sleep. A metal abandoned transit is better than noth-ing.’
She closed her eyes and exhaled the deepest breath she could, before stepping out onto the field. Alphi opened her eyes, and with her arm, she waded through the field’s overgrown grass; her large strides helped propel her forwards far more easily than she had initially expected. The metal-lic body was soon upon them. Drawing a dragon claw, she knocked against the side of it, making the metallic booming noise echo inside of it. “Hello?” she asked, but no answer came. “Well, kiddo, I guess this is it; it is dry, warm and unoccupied. Besides, it may still work so…” she said, however, the snoring continued much to her irritation. “Great, I’m talking to myself…”
‘Nah, I’d rather not be. Besides, I am not a bad mon, so if you are some sort of Haxorus who enjoys stalking others… well, I have nothing to fear. You are weak, I am strong. I survived whatever hap-pened to me.’
“Is that so?”
The city was far from any other, a small country on the outskirts of the continent. Mud huts cov-ered the view. Simplicity sat at the heart of all else. The sound of rustling came from the bushes.
“Damn you, I remember what you did,” Alphi growled. “I chased you here, now come out and fight me!” A focused mind led to a rush of blood to the head. Alphi pounced into the bush, grabbing the Fraxure from before. The songs of the ancient dragons before echoed in the town. Drawing claws, the two slashed at each other.
Alphi went for a kill strike, shooting a glance at the much smaller and weaker Fraxure. “For Jay!” The drawn claws dug into the Fraxure’s stomach. “Tha-”
A hardened iron tail slammed across her face. Her claws jolted up as she stumbled back, digging the long claws on her feet into the ground. She shook her head, feeling her rage burning. She watched as the little mon started to scurry away, its blade tilted.
She growled at it, making it stop in its tracks. “That’s right, I am the Alpha.” She stepped forward slowly spreading her claws once more. The little mon watched as she did, starting to growl back. “Time to die, primed scu-”
Alphi grunted, her breathing was heavy, and her claws dug into something soft. Her eyes slid to the side slightly. She felt a surge of fear and an uncanny sickening feeling boiling in her blood. Her eyes caught a glimpse of blood, dripping down her claws. Impaled slightly on one of them was Noah.
“Miss?” he whispered, crying in pain.
“Shit!” she shouted, pulling her claws out of his leg. Quickly, she picked him up and looked around for something to cover the wound with. Desperate, she sliced her sling free and reached down, wrapping the stretched material around the wound. “I…” she stuttered, before backing away. She bulldozed her way through the empty doorway and dived headfirst into the cockpit, crawling along the floor, uncaring for her injury and slid under a shelf filled with manuals. She turned to face her stalker. “Shut up! Don’t you fucking say anything to me! I am a bad mon, I am… I am…” her voice started to slip into a quiet, repetitive muttering as she pressed her claws against her head.
A creaking noise caught her attention as she sobbed, making her kick herself forward into a roll, before getting back onto her feet. She wiped her tears from her face with her right arm, before preparing to iron tail the incoming threat. To her surprise, a Noivern came into the cockpit; to his surprise, a Haxorus was in his cockpit.
“What ya be doin’ in here ya trespassin’…” he roared, spreading his wings and prepared to attack Alphi with an air cutter shot.
“Fuck you! Mextrien scumbag!” Alphi roared back, raising her tail.
He sighed as he lowered his wings, waiting for Alphi to react. To let out a sigh of relief as she low-ered her tail and sat back down, curling up under the shelf. “Why ya be cryin’ anyway? Some eejit gone ‘nd done somethin’ to ya?” he asked, coming closer.
“Stay back, p-please. I… I am not safe to be around and I –” Alphi started, raising her hand up to tell him to stop.
“What? Ya don’t think a big bruiser like me could take ya on? I might be an old one but I still got it. If ya worried about ya friend, ya shouldn’t be. He be fine; he need be goin’ to a healer though, but he will live. So, is that’s what be botherin ya?” He crouched down next to Alphi, watching her curl her tail around her legs, scraping it along the wooden floor, rather than lifting it up to avoid getting splinters stuck in her scales. “Ya worry I be judgin’ ya for them eyes?” he asked.
“I… I am just awful. What did I do? Why? What did I do? What…” she sobbed, anger creeping into her voice. “I am a bad mon, I should just go to Averia or Norfair, I should… I am sick… sick in the head, right? I almost killed a little Tepig and lost control of myself… I am just such an awful mon. They would find a way to heal me, or at least make me less of a mess.” She started to sniffle and bury her face into her arm.
“Hey, kid, it be okay. We all been ‘nd done stupid things. Bad things. I gone ‘nd done time. Killed me ma and pap when I be only seventeen. Before ya be callin’ me an outright murderer, ya gotta understand. Amestria and Yveshia be kickin’ off their petty bickerin’ again. Me ma and pa be from Yveshia, so I be able to speak Yveshian good-like ‘nd so, we be livin’ in Mextrien. I be practicing me Yveshian, but well, we be in Amestria. They be on an important trip ‘nd I went ‘nd started spoutin’ Yveshian, didn’t I?” he said, softly, as if his heart had sunk. “Didn’t know what it’d do, but I said somethin’ stupid; I be sayin’ somethin’ like… „Wer hat die explosiven Kracher?” – Who be havin’ them fire crackers? – the sound of the word explosive in Yveshian caused panic in the inn and well a fight be breakin’ out.”
He looked to Alphi, who had lowered her claws from her face, still sobbing, but less uptight. “Well, me parents be caught in cross fire ‘nd all. After all the brawlin’ calmed down I be arrested for bein’ a spy; when they be unable to convict me on that I be thrown in jail for murder, triple. I be lucky that was the worst that be happening to me.” He pulled her head against his shoulder, making her sigh, her breathing was much calmer than before. “What I be sayin’ kid is, it don’t matter what you gone ‘nd done – you, not a bad mon based on what you done before, if what ya do now is good.”
Alphi’s eyes snapped on him. “I guess, but how do… how do you stop yourself from wanting to hurt mons? Especially if you can’t stay focused an-” she started but was met with an interruption.
“I think I be gettin’ the pieces I be needin’ to fix this heap-a-junk. Now, you be goin’ grabbin’ ya friend. Okay?”
“You didn’t answer,” she snapped, feeling a dizzying awkwardness rushing through her veins.
“It be different to all. I be called Dietrich, call me if ya need anythin’.” He steadied his old legs, and walked over to the steering set.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. “I am in control,” she muttered under her breath. Slowly, she stood up and started to walk over to the door and through into the storage area, where Noah had been tucked into a small wooden box. She looked around at the crumbling layer, which left the chassis vulnerable in places. Gently reaching down, she picked him up with and pulled him against her chest. “It’s gonna be okay. I… I am so sorry…” She walked back over, along the wooden, creaking floor towards the Noivern.
“Ya dawdle a lot, don’t ya? I ain’t gonna be gettin’ any younger,” Dietrich said with a little smirk on his face.
“Watch out old mon, I might just challenge you,” Alphi said, smiling back. “Ugh.” She grimaced as she knocked her broken arm against the shelf.
“Ah, that be why ya be all screwy sittin’ there. Don’t worry, ol’ Dietrich gonna fix ya up too.” Die-trich opened his arms up, showing his claws, preparing to take the Tepig from her hand. As she handed Noah over, he looked back at her. “You should rest, there are a few beds in the crew’s quarters. Since I am the only one on this ship, you are welcome to all but the bed with the red blanket. Heh, just the best spot, no other reason.”
Alphi nodded, letting her broken arm hang down. She turned to walk towards the airlock style metal door which lead to the crew’s quarters. Upon opening the metallic door, she was greeted by several beds, each inside their own tiny rooms. “Five beds…” She looked at the far bed, which was a large nest shape. On the top of it lay a red blanket, her eyes then shifted to each of the other rooms, where the blankets had remained folded up on the side. She walked into the second room and looked up; a small glass window was shining moonlight onto the bed. “Heh,” she said, smiling, picking up the blanket with her hand and curling up in the nest bed. Alphi tucked her legs in, letting her arms cuddle the blanket.
“Oi,” Dietrich said, holding Noah in his arms. “The kid be wantin’ to stay with ya.”
Alphi lifted her head up to see Noah, who still looked a little shaken by everything. However, he jumped down and waddled over to her, his leg bandaged up, making him look a little silly. He pushed himself under her head and tucked himself under her right arm as best as he could.
“Now, you be holdin’ still just a minute.” Dietrich took the bandages he had retrieved and started to re-bandage her broken arm. After a few minutes of him wrapping the soft cloth around her wound, he turned his attention to her broken blade. “Ya be gettin’ some sleep ya hear me? What be ya names anywho?” He turned his head to the side a little.
“I’m Alphi this… this is Noah.” Alphi flopped her head down into the bedding yawning.
“Do you remember where you were born?”
“Huh?” she shot back, a little surprised by the grinning mon’s question. “Oh, er… hmm…” She started to think, closing her eyes and searching through the jumble of memories inside her head. “I was born in Yveshia, but well… we moved a lot. My mum was from Yveshia, and my dad was from Amestria. I can remember a lot of arguments between the two over the political climate… it was a big reason why we moved for the first time.”
‘Wait. I remembered… something?’
“After that, we moved to the Sorphian capital for a bit. We did a lotta places, but well… my home… my true home was a small village. I… I don’t remember what it was called – heh, isn’t that funny?” She looked to the side as the sadness consumed her once more. “W-what about you?” she asked, hoping to change the topic.
“Oh well I am part Sorphian too,” he replied, smiling.
“Oh…” she responded. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“It’s okay,” Demetri said. “Although, we probably should head back soon – especially with what happened and all. You are welcome to stay with us, Mackie.”
“I don’t remember my name from the Red Eyes… and don’t make a fucking big deal about it. I ain’t in the mood for it, and right now I am trying to establish who I am and what the hell happened.” She took a deep breath. “Every time I get angry or frustrated… I am afraid...”
‘I remembered something else? I should have another name.’
“Of?” Demetri asked as Devon zoomed over to catch up to the two.
“That’s just it, isn’t it? I don’t remember.” Mackie went to reach up and touch her broken blade again, but Demetri led her hand away from it before she could. “Heh, you can’t just leave me be, can you? Am I a bad person?” she asked.
“You… you don’t seem to be, just confused.” Demetri took a few steps forward and plonked him-self down on the bench.
“Then… am I a good person?” Mackie asked.
“I don’t know, Mackie. I hope so,” he answered.
“Sometimes, I feel like I am in control… and then the next minute…” She lay down on the grass, looking up at the rain and the dark clouds which painted the stormy night sky. She closed her eyes and sighed.
‘Everything and nothing – alone but together.’
“Nothing ever truly makes sense,” she stated. “I remember seeing my best friend’s house in rub-ble. A primed Fraxure destroyed it, and well… I-” She felt a tingle in her spine.
Her heart started to pound, a minor lapse in the watch of Demetri and Devon, she bolted away.
‘Life simply isn’t fair, or right – what the hell is wrong with me?’ she thought.
‘…C-control…’
“Mackie?” a voice said, making her jump out of her skin. She swivelled where she stood and a Guil-lotine blade formed in her right hand. She went to slash at the noise.
“Come out; you fucking coward.” Mackie crouched down on her legs, turning to the side slightly to protect her broken arm. However, to her surprise, it was fine.
“Mackie, wait, it’s me… you remember me, don’t you? It’s me, Jay…” the Shellder said, a smile crept over his face, like the tingling feeling in her spine.
‘What is happening?’
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Don’t you get it yet? You aren’t just a Red-Eyes. You are something that shouldn’t exist, a freak.” Jay smiled at her once more, making her feel uneasy. “So… I am completely crazy?” Mackie said, agitated. “That’s just great.”
“You wish,” a Haxorus snorted, different to the one that had been following her. His red eyes fixed on hers. “Don’t you remember me either, Alphi? Alphi, Mackie… what’s the difference?”
She looked at them both, confused, slowly shaking her head.
‘Which am I? Mackie or Alphi?’
“What do you mean? Wha… did I d…? Who a…?”
‘…Control…’
The bushes behind her started to rustle and shake, making her pivot on her back leg. Quickly, she drew her sharp like needle claws out and readied herself. The leaves on the bush started to ripple, the water on them dragged down and plopped into the puddle, which lay underneath it.
“Calm down, it’zzz juzzzt me.” Devon poked his head out from the bush.
“I could have guillotined you,” Alphi snapped. “Then what? I’d be done for murder since the bias against people like me will clearly be held here.” She turned to look at Jay for advice, but both he and the Salamence had vanished from sight. Her eyes narrowed as they flickered back and forth trying to make sense of what just happened. “Ugh,” she grunted, rubbing her head with her hand. “It’s been a weird fucking night.”
“You are telling us,” Demetri chimed in. “Besides, you look like you’ve seen a literal ghost.”
“Ha, funny you should say that…” she responded before he could finish. “I would offer to buy you a coffee, to you know, go over everything… but turns out I have no money, what are the odds of that? So… what happens now?” she added, looking down at the ground, shuffling a little, plonking herself down in the mud.
“You don’t look too well, and your injuries are enough for concern. But hey, at least if we send you to the Averian or Norfarian Capital, you’ll get to see a new city.” Demetri looked at her, waiting for her to react.
“No.” Alphi stood back up. “I am not crazy, and my injuries can wait. I guess it is still the very early hours of the morning. I would rather keep walking in the rain if that’s okay?”
Chapter 4 – Decision
The rain had gotten heavier throughout the last hour. The drops now felt like pellets slamming against her back as she trekked forwards. It was just gone early hours of the morning, but her need for sleep seemed not existent; the nagging thought of being a primal monster through no control or fault of her own was driving her crazy. Her eyes flickered to Demetri, who seemed to be floating alongside her on a concrete slab to keep up with her large strides.“My name isn’t Mackie… not anymore. It is Alphi, and well… I don’t understand how I became Alphi… I don’t even…” she started before breaking into a sigh. “I need to start to understand what has happened to me.” The rainwater drizzled down her face and dripped down her right blade, splattering onto Demetri’s head. “Heh, sorry.”
“It could be worse,” he responded, a little agitated.
“I suppose,” she replied, continuing to walk forward, letting her feet sink into the squelchy mud-died grass. “I… I can’t place everything still, but things are starting to piece back together. The storm continued to pour down her body, making her let out a grin. “I do love the rain. Jay and I used to play in the rain all the time.”
“Jay?” Devon asked.
“He died,” she said back, a hint of ferociousness in her voice.
“Don’t lose control," she heard Jay's voice say.
‘I won’t, I know that. I can stay in control – now.’
“Sorry,” she added. “It’s still a nerve to me, I guess.” The moonlight shone down on them, as it peered through the soaked clouds. “Maybe I was over it, once, if it’s even real…” she whispered. She took a deep breath. “I am in control; I won’t lose control.” She stepped forward again, this time into a puddle. “Ever lost someone you loved? Of course, everyone has. Imagine that sinking feeling driving you forwards. I could never forget him – could I? How did I forget him even for a moment? It makes sense now.”Devon and Demetri both shot each other a confused look. “You okay there?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I’m just a little tired, you would be too.” She sighed, touching her broken blade with her hand. “I have regrets, even if I don’t know what they are yet, heh.”
‘Despite everything, you don’t even scare me. I loathe your constant interruptions. Just like…’
“Ugh,” a Blastoise groaned, on his stomach. “Wake up, Alph!”
Alphi swung her long claws at the Sandslash once more, hoping to knock him over. However, as her long claws reached out to slash him across the face, she felt a dull pain in her back, followed by an-other and another, getting stronger with each punch.
“What you telling me to wake up for?” She slashed at the mon, trying to knock him over once more. “Get off my back!” She used dragon claw, aiming towards the Toxicroak who had been gain-ing momentum, hitting her.
He leapt back rolling back onto his feet, bouncing a little.
She dived towards him, trying to strike him once more; however, her face collided with something sharp, some claws dug into her chin sending her flying backwards onto the ground once more. The Sandslash dived up in the air, rolling towards her.
She rolled out the way, struggling to breathe. “Fuck! Okay, okay, enough…” she said, raising her claws.
‘Er… they don’t look right…’
“Come on, Alph, you giving up to them?”
“We won’t win, besides…” she panted, holding her chest. “I need to catch my breath.” She watched on as the two walked over. The Toxicroak extended a hand to her. Uneasily, she felt her-self take it, and shake it. “Maybe next time…” she muttered.
She rolled herself back onto her feet, clicking her back as she did, forcing herself to look down at her claws once more.
‘Blue, maybe I was just…’
She looked up, shocked she saw she was in a small storage room. Her eyes darted to the two mons from before, sitting down, talking. She felt a little anxious, watching them from a distance.
“What be on yer mind, Armád?” the Toxicroak asked.
“Nothing, Gaispir,” the Sandslash responded, taking out his coin and flipping it.
Alphi’s eyes narrowed as she listened in.
“Ya sure?” Gaispir asked, watching the coin fall back into the Sandslash’s claws.
Alphi leaned in against the wall, pressing her face-blade against the wall. She expanded her claws, closing her eyes, allowing the sound to surround her. She swished her tail, excitedly.
The Sandslash got up from the seat. “It is fine, why don’t we ge-”
Clank.
Alphi shot a glance to her behind. An inhibitor lay on the floor as the table wobbled a little. “Shit… I… I wasn’t listening, I was just passing through…” she lied, feeling her body burn up. The two looked back at her, the stares made her feel sick inside. “Look, er… how about food, on me?” she asked, smiling. “Saves you some time…”
Devon quickly dodged the hefty tail to avoid being toppled over.
“Oops, heh, sorry,” she laughed.
Later that night, Alphi lay tucked under a little sheet she had set up over two upright boxes to cre-ate a tent, refusing to return to the cell where she had been initially stuffed. Her mind rapidly flick-ering between thoughts. Unable to sleep, she sat up and started to stare into the rain.
Demetri muttered under his breath, came over; his legs plodding as his tail sprung. His eyes nar-rowed for a moment before he let out a sigh.
“Something wrong?” Alphi said with a little smile on her face. “I mean, you could just stand out there in the rain, or you could come to sit under my little tent. Up to you.” She shrugged at him, getting his attention.
He looked to the side for a moment before starting to come over. His plodding legs slowly reached a standstill as he sat beside her. He raised his hand up to take the little cloth Alphi lifted up and of-fered to him.
“How does it feel to be a monster?” she said, keeping her face as straight as possible.
“Huh?” he replied.
“I may be a Red Eyes, but well, I am not the only monster here. Am I?” She smirked a little at him. Slowly she released the cloth from her grip, and let it flop down into Demetri’s hand. She rested her head back down on the ground and curled up as best as she could.
‘I wonder…’ she thought.
As the water dripped down onto the ground in front of them both, she sighed. “Ever wondered what would happen if you had made a different choice at a certain moment in your life?” She raised her head a little to speak before resting it back down again. “I know that moment exists for me. I still can’t remember when or where or why… but I am not a bad person. Everyone has that choice inside of them, to be a good person or a bad person. So, what about you? You ever done something so bad you regretted it for… well forever?” She looked up at him, one eye open, locked on his eyes.
“Yes, but I don’t really want to talk about it,” Demetri replied, crossing his legs and closing his eyes to meditate.
“Oh, keep it inside your head – no matter. Not being able to save my best friend from a savage and primed Fraxure…” She closed her eyes. “I am a mess; I know that now. There is but one request I ask of you, and in return, once I am done, I will hand myself over to your Norfarian authorities.
Demetri looked at her.
“I want to find out who I am, what I am, where I am going… what my purpose is. To do that I need to go on my own way. I doubt you will say okay.”
“It’s for the best if you stay put.”
“That’s just it, isn’t it? I guess we differ in opinion. So…” She raised her tail, letting it glow a metallic grey. “I have no choice but to fight you.”
She spread her claws on her hand, making them glow.
Quickly, Demetri swung his arm up, creating a reflect barrier, while it shimmered for a moment in place, the powerful claws from the Haxorus came crashing down into it. Running down it like wa-ter, leaving a dent. As her claws stuck into the reflect, she felt herself being pushed back as the psychic put his hands behind his back, seemingly unpanicked.
“Grr,” she growled. The extrasensory started to infiltrate her mind, she could feel the barriers be-ing broken inside. With an aggressive rush, she spun around, catching the Grumpig off-guard. She roared loudly as he fell back, catching himself before he fell completely.
He jumped up onto his feet, a large bruise was drawn across his chest, “That hurt, what is with this mon? Fine one minute, then the ne-” he rolled to the side, avoiding another swing by the Haxo-rus’s vibrant, glowing tail.
“Get back!” she growled, showing her teeth. Her blade on her head started to look hot, as she swung towards him with her head, aiming for his. The sharpened swing cut through the air, like an air slash.
The Grumpig bounced back, moving inches out of range from the guillotine. He watched as the mon collided her attack with a tree, slicing through the log, making it wobble and fall towards him. He pressed his finger to his head, slowing the falling tree and moving it safely to the side, all while watching the aggressive Haxorus growl and roar at him once more. He levitated a branch and flung it towards her, knocking her back, forcing her to guillotine through the wooden weapon.
Alphi took in a deep breath and roared at the sky, the rainwater dripped down her face as her feet started to sink into the mud. “Just get out of the way!” she growled, her voice a little indiscernible from that of a roar. “I am more powerful than you ever could be! I am in control here!” She turned, running into the nearby shrubbery, her eyes were wary of the psychic following her. Her eyes flickered back to see if he was. She swung her tail knocking down branches as she went to attempt to slow him down if he tried to follow.
The candlelight flickered softly in the darkness. The dimly lit area of the room became shrouded in the shadows of two mons who had approached it tenderly. The first, wider than the second picked up the little candle and carried it towards the stairs. Followed by the clanking sound of the second.
“If it is true, it is deeply concerning.” He stopped to stare out the patterned window on the tower, the second stopped behind him, keenly listening. “For all involved.” A sad expression was cast over his face.
“The situation needs to be dealt with before it escalates. They lack discipline and control. if they are who they are described as we need to investigate immediately.” He paused, resting his talons steady on the steps. “Pathos?”
“Yes?” the Aggron replied, pulling his hood down, looking back at the Archeops. His eyes then turned back to the window, deep in thought as a cold, sad expression poured back onto his face. “Who did they kill?”
“I don’t know,” the mon replied.
“Baphomet, please inform me once you know.” Pathos turned to walk back down the stairs, leav-ing him by the window.
“You are right,” he said, looking at the window Pathos had been looking through. ‘The way it works isn’t fair. Whoever this mon is, they are a threat…’ Darkness surrounded him as the light from the candle faded from view, leaving just his eyes to glow a little. With careful steps, he walked back out of the tower, spreading his wings in the dark of the night and took off.
Part II – Seeking Answers
Chapter 5 – Heading Out
The crazed thoughts of mons rushing around, desperately hunting a phantom figure, who disap-peared into the dead of night did give Alphi a thrill, even though she was the one being hunted. The rain was slowing down a little, putting her more on edge than before. Naturally, she assumed that she would be automatically accused of being guilty of committing a brutal attack on the mons; even if they did assume correctly. However, the thought did creep up on her that, for one, she didn’t know where to find either mon from her memory, be it blurred and jarring. Armád or Gaispir – assuming they were still alive, and actually could give her answers. All Alphi knew were their names and species, in some form or another. With a silent grunt, she stood up. She felt a chill in-side her bones, rocketing up her spine, as she contemplated her next move.
‘Neither had the marks, the crests… therefore, logically… well… they have to be from non-clansmon territory, and consequently are likely to be found near the collective.
“What you doing?” a voice said, as it came from behind her. She instantly swivelled and raised a dragon claw up, letting her right claws glow a soft white. “Wait… are you the Red-Eyes that at-tacked that town? News spreads fast an-” She covered his mouth as he continued to try and speak.
A few moments passed, and it had appeared he had shut up. “No. I am not. I just want to get out of here and… I guess go home.” Alphi looked at the mon she had just released. “Typical, a pre-volved.” The Tepig’s tail bounced around, curiously. “Look er… kid, go home to your ‘mummy’ or something, I don’t have time for this,” she hissed.
“Nope.” He grinned at her with the largest, most irritating smile she had ever seen.
She picked him up by his tail and looked him in the eyes. “I said, go home, brat.”
“I said, ‘nope’. My name is Noah, what is yours?” he asked, leading her to let out a little groan
“Oh, really?” Alphi said, dragging her words out as long as she could. “What if I was to tell you, Red Eyes like me eat Tepig for breakfast?”
“That’s stupid; I don’t think it is legal for mons to eat other mons, and I don’t think the Red Eyes could sink much lower than they already have.”
‘Great, he is a smart Alek too.’
“Do us a favour, kid. Fuck off.” As she dropped Noah, her eyes locked onto Demetri and Devon, who were now blocking her path. “Ugh, for fuck’s sake.”
To her annoyance Noah gently head-butted her leg. His big blue eyes stared back at her as she shot him a cold look. “Miss Haxorus? I don’t actually, well, I don’t live here. I ran away from home and now… I want to go back. Can you take me? Please? I don’t think anyone here will understand an-”
“Will it make you shut up indefinitely if I agree?” she snarled.
“Yes, yes, oh, definitely!” Noah shouted, making her grab his mouth with her tail this time.
She clenched her fist as she picked up Noah by the tail and looked around for a place to call a tem-porary hide-out. “Look… kid, let’s make one fucking thing clear, ‘right? I’m the boss, and right now, I’m not in a good mood. We need to find somewhere to stay until the morning, and then and only then will it be possible to leave town. Got it?” she snarled, shaking him a little. She plodded over to a fallen tree and, using her right blade on her face she pushed it up and swivelled it against another tree. Slowly, a protective shield wrapped around the two logs in an umbrella shape, shielding her from the remaining drips of water.
Opening a single eye, she looked back Noah. He appeared to be nervous as he lifted his little legs up and walked over towards her, constantly looking behind him. “Something wrong?” she asked.
“N-no, heh, just trying to be… well strong and brave an-” he started.
“Well, you look stupid. Nothing to be scared of, kid, you are with the scariest mon alive in this town,” she said. She watched as his nervous frown turned back into a smile. “Now, come on, be-fore neither of us get any sleep.”
“W-what if the authorities find us? I mean you. What if they f-find you?” he replied nervously.
Placing her claws against her eyes, and slowly dragging her face down, she answered, “Then I’ll stay up all night; if any of those fuckers come for us, I’ll shred them up. Okay?” Her firm one-eyed stare made him nod.
He trotted over to her and dived down beside her neck, slowly pushing up her left sided blade as he wiggled his rounded head under it. His clumsiness made her squint a little in pain. After a few more wiggles he had buried his head into Alphi’s neck, letting the blade gently rest against his body.
‘Thank Arceus, he has finally stopped being a pain. What do I do here? Damn it. The kid is scared. No, stick to the plan, get rid of the kid in the morning – body bag or not. He will just get in the way.’
With a few gentle puffs of air, she looked down at the ground, blowing the leaves away from them both; several leaves crackled and crisped as they were pushed back, others simply pealed up a lit-tle from the ground before flopping back down
against the wet ground. The creeping thoughts of the sounds from the Haxorus that appeared to be staring back at her in the puddles, smiling its own smile creepily back at her. Unafraid of it, Alphi accepted she had seen something; a cold, call-ing figure. However, she felt a torturous nagging feeling of fear.
A grinding curse, a cold glimmer under the shivering moonlight, she considered herself to be. Rais-ing her claws up to the side, ready to kill the Tepig as he slept, she stopped. Despite everything, all the anger, the hate, the pure confusion, toxic rage, she couldn’t quite bring herself to kill him.
“Fuck this,” she muttered under her breath. “Too tired to even think straight anymore.”
“H-h-hey, miss?” Noah stuttered, his back muscles seemed to stick up a little, and his ears drooped. “I can’t sleep. T-to scared.”
“Heh, I’m not a good mon, kid,” Alphi answered. “One minute I’m fine, and the next… I feel rage inside. Kid, where do I have to take you to ditch you from my life?” Alphi asked, picking up Noah with her right claws.
“Um… well, I wanted to go to Sorphia,” he answered.
Alphi let out an almighty groan at hearing how far he was planning on going. “Come on? Really? How, in the name of Arceus’s right leg did you get here?” Her question seemed to shock Noah a little, making his ears drop, slipping out of her grip he backed away a little. “Damn it, okay, okay, fine. I’ll take you to Sorphia, I expect you mean the stupid capital. Ugh, if we want to make any progress to that shit hole…” She placed Noah on her shoulder and started to slowly walk towards the town’s exit.
The leaves of the trees fell onto the forest floor as Baphomet made his way towards the clearing. Rather than flying through the lush trees, or blasting them to smithereens, he walked along the floor. His talons clanked as they touched the tree roots which scattered the ground. He stopped at the clearing, looking upon the face of the one he had intended to meet.
The Granbull looked back up at him. “Master?” she asked.
“There has been… an incident. A traitor, perhaps.”
“Perhaps?” Her question was met by a silent nod. “Where?” she asked. The moonlight shone down, lighting up both of their eyes as they stood together. “What kind of incident?”
He looked back at her, his helmet covering his face leaving only his eyes to see as the clouds cov-ered over what light they had. “Drawing unneeded attention.” He moved his wings to being be-hind his back as he stood upright. “We should deal with it at once, Aditi.”
The two exchanged looks before walking along the same path.
Chapter 6 – Junkyard Gold
Early morning moonlight glimmered down onto the metal frame of the broken-down transit, forced into an emergency landing. Outside the craft, a Noivern stood, waving his wings around, grumbling. His claws gritted into the ground as he slammed them back down. He kicked the small transit, as the angry ex-passengers chatted amongst themselves.
Ya lot be goin’ to the next town, I be here ‘nd fixin’ this here craft,” he said, irritated. “Feckin’ wasters,” he muttered under his breath as the crowd departed into the town. “As for ya, ya crack-potted load-a-crap, why won’t ya get goin’?” He hit the transit with an air cutter attack, denting the side of it. “Agh, ya pot-a junk, let’s be seein’ if we can be fixin’ ya.” He ducked his head down and clambered through the door, entering the old Transit’s small maintenance area. As he assessed the damage, he grumbled, “Ya be a fine mess.”
Meanwhile, Alphi, carrying Noah on her head, started to feel the exhaustion creeping up on her. His gentle snores and drooping tail made her feel more and more irritable. Struggling to stay awake, she forced herself to continue onwards along the path. The glimmer of the metal from the crashed transit caught her eyes; at first, she didn’t know what to make of the flicker, it could have been anything. However, slowly she focused more on the object, noticing its damaged and crum-bling body she sighed.
‘It’s out of the way, I guess… I mean, I need sleep. A metal abandoned transit is better than noth-ing.’
She closed her eyes and exhaled the deepest breath she could, before stepping out onto the field. Alphi opened her eyes, and with her arm, she waded through the field’s overgrown grass; her large strides helped propel her forwards far more easily than she had initially expected. The metal-lic body was soon upon them. Drawing a dragon claw, she knocked against the side of it, making the metallic booming noise echo inside of it. “Hello?” she asked, but no answer came. “Well, kiddo, I guess this is it; it is dry, warm and unoccupied. Besides, it may still work so…” she said, however, the snoring continued much to her irritation. “Great, I’m talking to myself…”
‘Control.’
“Ha, ha, you have been for a while now.”
‘Shut up, go away, or go fuck yourself. Or even better, do it in that order.’
“‘Go fuck yourself’, ‘go fuck yourself,’ how big of you.”
‘Are you actually going to come out of wherever you are hiding? I mean, you don’t exactly frighten me, … who in Arceus’s name would stalk some random Haxorus all the way through town.’
“Stalk? My, my, aren’t we paranoid.”
‘I did say, I am not afraid of you…’
“Maybe you should be.”
“Is that so?”
‘…Control?’
“Damn you, I remember what you did,” Alphi growled. “I chased you here, now come out and fight me!” A focused mind led to a rush of blood to the head. Alphi pounced into the bush, grabbing the Fraxure from before. The songs of the ancient dragons before echoed in the town. Drawing claws, the two slashed at each other.
Alphi went for a kill strike, shooting a glance at the much smaller and weaker Fraxure. “For Jay!” The drawn claws dug into the Fraxure’s stomach. “Tha-”
A hardened iron tail slammed across her face. Her claws jolted up as she stumbled back, digging the long claws on her feet into the ground. She shook her head, feeling her rage burning. She watched as the little mon started to scurry away, its blade tilted.
She growled at it, making it stop in its tracks. “That’s right, I am the Alpha.” She stepped forward slowly spreading her claws once more. The little mon watched as she did, starting to growl back. “Time to die, primed scu-”
‘…C-control…?’
“Miss?” he whispered, crying in pain.
“Shit!” she shouted, pulling her claws out of his leg. Quickly, she picked him up and looked around for something to cover the wound with. Desperate, she sliced her sling free and reached down, wrapping the stretched material around the wound. “I…” she stuttered, before backing away. She bulldozed her way through the empty doorway and dived headfirst into the cockpit, crawling along the floor, uncaring for her injury and slid under a shelf filled with manuals. She turned to face her stalker. “Shut up! Don’t you fucking say anything to me! I am a bad mon, I am… I am…” her voice started to slip into a quiet, repetitive muttering as she pressed her claws against her head.
A creaking noise caught her attention as she sobbed, making her kick herself forward into a roll, before getting back onto her feet. She wiped her tears from her face with her right arm, before preparing to iron tail the incoming threat. To her surprise, a Noivern came into the cockpit; to his surprise, a Haxorus was in his cockpit.
“What ya be doin’ in here ya trespassin’…” he roared, spreading his wings and prepared to attack Alphi with an air cutter shot.
“Fuck you! Mextrien scumbag!” Alphi roared back, raising her tail.
He sighed as he lowered his wings, waiting for Alphi to react. To let out a sigh of relief as she low-ered her tail and sat back down, curling up under the shelf. “Why ya be cryin’ anyway? Some eejit gone ‘nd done somethin’ to ya?” he asked, coming closer.
“Stay back, p-please. I… I am not safe to be around and I –” Alphi started, raising her hand up to tell him to stop.
“What? Ya don’t think a big bruiser like me could take ya on? I might be an old one but I still got it. If ya worried about ya friend, ya shouldn’t be. He be fine; he need be goin’ to a healer though, but he will live. So, is that’s what be botherin ya?” He crouched down next to Alphi, watching her curl her tail around her legs, scraping it along the wooden floor, rather than lifting it up to avoid getting splinters stuck in her scales. “Ya worry I be judgin’ ya for them eyes?” he asked.
“I… I am just awful. What did I do? Why? What did I do? What…” she sobbed, anger creeping into her voice. “I am a bad mon, I should just go to Averia or Norfair, I should… I am sick… sick in the head, right? I almost killed a little Tepig and lost control of myself… I am just such an awful mon. They would find a way to heal me, or at least make me less of a mess.” She started to sniffle and bury her face into her arm.
“Hey, kid, it be okay. We all been ‘nd done stupid things. Bad things. I gone ‘nd done time. Killed me ma and pap when I be only seventeen. Before ya be callin’ me an outright murderer, ya gotta understand. Amestria and Yveshia be kickin’ off their petty bickerin’ again. Me ma and pa be from Yveshia, so I be able to speak Yveshian good-like ‘nd so, we be livin’ in Mextrien. I be practicing me Yveshian, but well, we be in Amestria. They be on an important trip ‘nd I went ‘nd started spoutin’ Yveshian, didn’t I?” he said, softly, as if his heart had sunk. “Didn’t know what it’d do, but I said somethin’ stupid; I be sayin’ somethin’ like… „Wer hat die explosiven Kracher?” – Who be havin’ them fire crackers? – the sound of the word explosive in Yveshian caused panic in the inn and well a fight be breakin’ out.”
He looked to Alphi, who had lowered her claws from her face, still sobbing, but less uptight. “Well, me parents be caught in cross fire ‘nd all. After all the brawlin’ calmed down I be arrested for bein’ a spy; when they be unable to convict me on that I be thrown in jail for murder, triple. I be lucky that was the worst that be happening to me.” He pulled her head against his shoulder, making her sigh, her breathing was much calmer than before. “What I be sayin’ kid is, it don’t matter what you gone ‘nd done – you, not a bad mon based on what you done before, if what ya do now is good.”
Alphi’s eyes snapped on him. “I guess, but how do… how do you stop yourself from wanting to hurt mons? Especially if you can’t stay focused an-” she started but was met with an interruption.
“I think I be gettin’ the pieces I be needin’ to fix this heap-a-junk. Now, you be goin’ grabbin’ ya friend. Okay?”
“You didn’t answer,” she snapped, feeling a dizzying awkwardness rushing through her veins.
“It be different to all. I be called Dietrich, call me if ya need anythin’.” He steadied his old legs, and walked over to the steering set.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. “I am in control,” she muttered under her breath. Slowly, she stood up and started to walk over to the door and through into the storage area, where Noah had been tucked into a small wooden box. She looked around at the crumbling layer, which left the chassis vulnerable in places. Gently reaching down, she picked him up with and pulled him against her chest. “It’s gonna be okay. I… I am so sorry…” She walked back over, along the wooden, creaking floor towards the Noivern.
“Ya dawdle a lot, don’t ya? I ain’t gonna be gettin’ any younger,” Dietrich said with a little smirk on his face.
“Watch out old mon, I might just challenge you,” Alphi said, smiling back. “Ugh.” She grimaced as she knocked her broken arm against the shelf.
“Ah, that be why ya be all screwy sittin’ there. Don’t worry, ol’ Dietrich gonna fix ya up too.” Die-trich opened his arms up, showing his claws, preparing to take the Tepig from her hand. As she handed Noah over, he looked back at her. “You should rest, there are a few beds in the crew’s quarters. Since I am the only one on this ship, you are welcome to all but the bed with the red blanket. Heh, just the best spot, no other reason.”
Alphi nodded, letting her broken arm hang down. She turned to walk towards the airlock style metal door which lead to the crew’s quarters. Upon opening the metallic door, she was greeted by several beds, each inside their own tiny rooms. “Five beds…” She looked at the far bed, which was a large nest shape. On the top of it lay a red blanket, her eyes then shifted to each of the other rooms, where the blankets had remained folded up on the side. She walked into the second room and looked up; a small glass window was shining moonlight onto the bed. “Heh,” she said, smiling, picking up the blanket with her hand and curling up in the nest bed. Alphi tucked her legs in, letting her arms cuddle the blanket.
“Oi,” Dietrich said, holding Noah in his arms. “The kid be wantin’ to stay with ya.”
Alphi lifted her head up to see Noah, who still looked a little shaken by everything. However, he jumped down and waddled over to her, his leg bandaged up, making him look a little silly. He pushed himself under her head and tucked himself under her right arm as best as he could.
“Now, you be holdin’ still just a minute.” Dietrich took the bandages he had retrieved and started to re-bandage her broken arm. After a few minutes of him wrapping the soft cloth around her wound, he turned his attention to her broken blade. “Ya be gettin’ some sleep ya hear me? What be ya names anywho?” He turned his head to the side a little.
“I’m Alphi this… this is Noah.” Alphi flopped her head down into the bedding yawning.
‘Control.’
Chapter 7 – Flight of Dreams
Garon rubbed the back of his head as he came through the door. “Yeah, I saw. Damn, this isn’t the first incident, but it really makes you wonder if they are up to something. I suppose we should start to get going, we have a long day ahead of us.”
Swift nodded back, looking towards the window. The dusk was starting to fade into the burning orange of day. Grabbing what little he needed, he headed outside of the inn, which rested on the hillside. He sat down on the grass as the sun started to rise up, peaking its orange face out of the ground.
Garon slowly sat beside him. “Thinking about what happened with Gathor and Freya?”
“Terrible incident.” Swift’s eyes didn’t leave the horizon. The sun reared its face up just enough to allow the nearby weir to reflect the golden yellow back up at the sky. The water rippled in the light wind as the clouds softly started to cover part of the sun. “I just hope this incident isn’t a similar one… the culprit got away anyway, but they will be caught soon.” Swift’s serious expression was painted into a grin, which he shot back at his companion.
“I hope you are right,” Garon replied, looking at the trees which were soaking up the new day’s rays. The dew which sat on the grass glittered, as the wind’s song blew through the air between the two. The wet grass touched Garon’s toes, running down them as they brushed against the grass. “I suppose we should get going, we have a lot to do. Try not to think about it, I am sure the authorities there will deal with it.” Garon offered one of his large Garchomp claws to the little Heli-olisk, who took it.
“…Control…” she muttered as she moved her head to ignore him. Her head sunk down a little, as she let out a little cough.
Noah looked up at her again. “Alphi?” he repeated, head-butting her.
She opened her eyes and let out a large, loud yawn. “What?” she grunted; her eyes slowly looked at him. She pressed her hand on his head. “Let me guess… you just had a nightmare about some sort of big scary monster thing and blah, blah, you want to be hugged.” Her eyes started to droop again. “Ugh, fine,” she scoffed, picking him up. “I am not your babysitter, kid.”
Noah sighed a little. “You know, I am not really from Sorphia… I am from Averia… I just… I wanted to stay with you.”
“Why?” Alphi’s eyes narrowed in on him. “Why the hell would you want to be with a monster like me? More to the point, what the fuck are we doing on a transit heading to fucking Sorphia?”
Noah looked away, letting the words slip out of his mouth. “I’ve never seen a Red Eyes before… I… I wanted to know if you were… you know… not a freak.”
Alphi’s heart sank a little as the words left his mouth. He started to rub his nose against her chin to try get her to lift her head up again, however, she effortlessly pushed him back.
The bedroom door rattled a little as Dietrich opened it, surprised by all the noise that had arisen from the two of them. His large ears, despite his age, appeared to be able to pick up the sound of a pin dropping against the ground from a mile away. He bent down and picked Noah up with his needle like claws, his attention then turned to Alphi. He stretched his right arm out, showing the neon green scales which grew on the inner side of his wings, and gently pulled the blanket back over her. “Sleep, ya be still exhausted. If ya be lucky, ya sleep through ‘til tomorrow’s dawn.”
Alphi closed her eyes once more, snuggling her head down against the soft nest. As she did, some of the straw stuck against her scales, but her dulled senses consumed her. Her bandaged up bro-ken arm rested beside her, the damage to it had grown due to the lack of healer attention. How-ever, she knew she wouldn’t be able to get that anytime soon. Instead she drifted off into a deep sleep. She could feel a tingling sensation within her skin, something felt off.
She sat back up, agitated and wide awake once more. It was as if she had slept for hours but hadn’t slept at all. The rumbling sound of the engine was enough to make her feel a little easier, however, before she could settle, she felt a coldness drift over her, rubbing against her scales heading to-wards the door.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” they respond.
Alphi tilted her head, trying to look at the figure, trying to determine what they looked like. Their face was covered and painful to look at. “Who are you really?”
Silence fell between the two.
Alphi sighed, looking around walked over to the figure. “Can I get you anything?”
“Can I get you anything?” it mimicked.
Alphi’s eyes narrowed, “Did I do something to offend you? Did you break in here or something?”
“Do you remember who you are?”
“Alphi… Mackie, obviously.”
The figure’s grin darkened a little, placing their claws on the table. “Do you remember how you got these?” He pointed to his eyes, making her shudder a little.
“No.” Alphi touched her face, the blade crooked still. “Where are the others?”
“Not here.”
“Obviously,” Alphi answered, dragging each syllable out as long as she could. “How did I get these?”
“How did I get these?” the figure mimicked.
“Stop copying me, arsehole,” Alphi growled back.
“Stop copying me,” it mocked again. It turned to face the glass windows, showing its reflection.
“You…” Alphi said, scowling. “You are…”
The warship’s engine rumbled as it flew above the clouds. The fluffy white monstrosities that ex-isted as a result of chemistry was being cut apart by the large structure of the ship’s hull. An old beast of the sky, but a beast none the less. A stall could lead to the ship falling from grace into a fiery abyss, as has happened in several ways prior.
“Master?” Aditi asked, her hands resting behind her back.
“We have secured a ride. There is a training room aboard this ship, we shall spar there.”
Aditi nodded back at him, turning back towards the door leaving just her Master in the worn room with the Admiral.
“Do not betray me, Red-Eye, I will kill you,” the Admiral sneered, his teeth clicked as his poisonous body let the venom ooze down his fangs.
Silence fell in the room for a moment, before an air slash was held in a spinning motion before his neck. “I control my power; I do not abuse it or use it to threaten others meaninglessly,” the Arche-ops responded, lowering the slash until it faded once more in his wings.
“Whatever you say,” the Admiral replied, a little taken back. “Onwards we go!” he called out.
She shot open her eyes as the cabin shook a little. A storm was brewing over the transit. With a large yawn she sat up and scratched her blades with her right claws. “Heh, just a bad dream… I’m not a bad mon… I am not a bad mon…” A second yawn and a couple of uneasy footsteps led her to the cockpit.
The light flickered in the room as it hung down, swinging over the table like a clock pendulum. The news flickered on the holocaster which rested on the edge of the table, slowly starting to slide off onto the floor.
As it started its tumbled, a little hand caught it with a quick move. Swift yawned, stretching, looking at the news. The reports of a potentially primed Haxorus attacking parts of a town flickered into view for a few moments before the next news story was displayed. Intrigued by the story, he flicked it back up. He wiggled his tail a little as he read on. “How unusual… hey Garon, did you hear what happened last night?” he asked, calling through the door to the large darker scaled Gar-chomp.
Garon rubbed the back of his head as he came through the door. “Yeah, I saw. Damn, this isn’t the first incident, but it really makes you wonder if they are up to something. I suppose we should start to get going, we have a long day ahead of us.”
Swift nodded back, looking towards the window. The dusk was starting to fade into the burning orange of day. Grabbing what little he needed, he headed outside of the inn, which rested on the hillside. He sat down on the grass as the sun started to rise up, peaking its orange face out of the ground.
Garon slowly sat beside him. “Thinking about what happened with Gathor and Freya?”
“Terrible incident.” Swift’s eyes didn’t leave the horizon. The sun reared its face up just enough to allow the nearby weir to reflect the golden yellow back up at the sky. The water rippled in the light wind as the clouds softly started to cover part of the sun. “I just hope this incident isn’t a similar one… the culprit got away anyway, but they will be caught soon.” Swift’s serious expression was painted into a grin, which he shot back at his companion.
“I hope you are right,” Garon replied, looking at the trees which were soaking up the new day’s rays. The dew which sat on the grass glittered, as the wind’s song blew through the air between the two. The wet grass touched Garon’s toes, running down them as they brushed against the grass. “I suppose we should get going, we have a lot to do. Try not to think about it, I am sure the authorities there will deal with it.” Garon offered one of his large Garchomp claws to the little Heli-olisk, who took it.
The engine of the transit rattled violently, creating a shockwave through the vehicle, however, as loud as it was, Alphi’s mind delved deeper into her dreams. The blanket was wrapped carefully around her and Noah, who had rolled onto his back, so his little belly pressed against Alphi’s arm. His small Tepig ears rubbed against her chin as he snorted.
Noah started to roll a little, starting to shiver he let his eyes shoot open. “A-Alphi?” he asked, nudg-ing her.
“…Control…” she muttered as she moved her head to ignore him. Her head sunk down a little, as she let out a little cough.
Noah looked up at her again. “Alphi?” he repeated, head-butting her.
She opened her eyes and let out a large, loud yawn. “What?” she grunted; her eyes slowly looked at him. She pressed her hand on his head. “Let me guess… you just had a nightmare about some sort of big scary monster thing and blah, blah, you want to be hugged.” Her eyes started to droop again. “Ugh, fine,” she scoffed, picking him up. “I am not your babysitter, kid.”
Noah sighed a little. “You know, I am not really from Sorphia… I am from Averia… I just… I wanted to stay with you.”
“Why?” Alphi’s eyes narrowed in on him. “Why the hell would you want to be with a monster like me? More to the point, what the fuck are we doing on a transit heading to fucking Sorphia?”
Noah looked away, letting the words slip out of his mouth. “I’ve never seen a Red Eyes before… I… I wanted to know if you were… you know… not a freak.”
Alphi’s heart sank a little as the words left his mouth. He started to rub his nose against her chin to try get her to lift her head up again, however, she effortlessly pushed him back.
The bedroom door rattled a little as Dietrich opened it, surprised by all the noise that had arisen from the two of them. His large ears, despite his age, appeared to be able to pick up the sound of a pin dropping against the ground from a mile away. He bent down and picked Noah up with his needle like claws, his attention then turned to Alphi. He stretched his right arm out, showing the neon green scales which grew on the inner side of his wings, and gently pulled the blanket back over her. “Sleep, ya be still exhausted. If ya be lucky, ya sleep through ‘til tomorrow’s dawn.”
Alphi closed her eyes once more, snuggling her head down against the soft nest. As she did, some of the straw stuck against her scales, but her dulled senses consumed her. Her bandaged up bro-ken arm rested beside her, the damage to it had grown due to the lack of healer attention. How-ever, she knew she wouldn’t be able to get that anytime soon. Instead she drifted off into a deep sleep. She could feel a tingling sensation within her skin, something felt off.
‘Control.’
She sat back up, agitated and wide awake once more. It was as if she had slept for hours but hadn’t slept at all. The rumbling sound of the engine was enough to make her feel a little easier, however, before she could settle, she felt a coldness drift over her, rubbing against her scales heading to-wards the door.
“Dietrich?” she asked. “Noah?” She looked around, getting up. Her heartbeat started to race. She opened the door and headed into the main room. She felt a chill sneak down her spine as she looked at the Haxorus who was sitting in the chair. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” they respond.
Alphi tilted her head, trying to look at the figure, trying to determine what they looked like. Their face was covered and painful to look at. “Who are you really?”
Silence fell between the two.
Alphi sighed, looking around walked over to the figure. “Can I get you anything?”
“Can I get you anything?” it mimicked.
Alphi’s eyes narrowed, “Did I do something to offend you? Did you break in here or something?”
“Yes.” The figure smiled darkly back at Alphi from what she could make out of his face. “Let me ask you something.”
“Okay…” Alphi replied, sitting opposite the dark figure, unsure what to expect.
“Do you remember who you are?”
“Alphi… Mackie, obviously.”
The figure’s grin darkened a little, placing their claws on the table. “Do you remember how you got these?” He pointed to his eyes, making her shudder a little.
“No.” Alphi touched her face, the blade crooked still. “Where are the others?”
“Not here.”
“Obviously,” Alphi answered, dragging each syllable out as long as she could. “How did I get these?”
“How did I get these?” the figure mimicked.
“Stop copying me, arsehole,” Alphi growled back.
“Stop copying me,” it mocked again. It turned to face the glass windows, showing its reflection.
“You…” Alphi said, scowling. “You are…”
The warship’s engine rumbled as it flew above the clouds. The fluffy white monstrosities that ex-isted as a result of chemistry was being cut apart by the large structure of the ship’s hull. An old beast of the sky, but a beast none the less. A stall could lead to the ship falling from grace into a fiery abyss, as has happened in several ways prior.
Each deck was lined individually with important and necessary war travel items, beds, and cells. Baphomet moved his feathers over the ship’s blueprints; absorbing the information about the temporary means of travel, he looked up at the Admiral, who scratched his chin intrigued by the request.
“But of course,” he replied. “Even if you are… what you are it doesn’t matter to me. Just pull your weight, both of you, and it will all work out.” He sat back down in his chair, watching a recording of some kind.
Baphomet gazed upon him, then back at the blueprints; his intention to pry was non-existent. His mind focused on the mission at hand.
“Master?” Aditi asked, her hands resting behind her back.
“We have secured a ride. There is a training room aboard this ship, we shall spar there.”
Aditi nodded back at him, turning back towards the door leaving just her Master in the worn room with the Admiral.
“Do not betray me, Red-Eye, I will kill you,” the Admiral sneered, his teeth clicked as his poisonous body let the venom ooze down his fangs.
Silence fell in the room for a moment, before an air slash was held in a spinning motion before his neck. “I control my power; I do not abuse it or use it to threaten others meaninglessly,” the Arche-ops responded, lowering the slash until it faded once more in his wings.
“Whatever you say,” the Admiral replied, a little taken back. “Onwards we go!” he called out.
She shot open her eyes as the cabin shook a little. A storm was brewing over the transit. With a large yawn she sat up and scratched her blades with her right claws. “Heh, just a bad dream… I’m not a bad mon… I am not a bad mon…” A second yawn and a couple of uneasy footsteps led her to the cockpit.
“We be in a bad storm,” Dietrich called out, holding desperately onto the wheel.
“Another fucking storm,” Alphi muttered. A gentle patting came from behind her, making her swivel on her heels. She saw Noah struggling to keep his footing as the transit swayed from side to side. Without a thought, Alphi rushed forwards and with her long claws on her right hand, she scooped him up and plopped him on her head. “Hold tight, wouldn’t want to lose you in the storm,” she said, her stomach ached as the feeling of her betrayal punched her. “So, where are we heading, sir?” Alphi asked Dietrich.
The Noivern huffed a little before letting out a grumble, “Dunno. We be goin’ where the storm be wantin’ us to go at the moment. Ya sound like ya be hungry. Ya be havin’ a long feckin’ kip, lastin’ almost a week on-off, it be like ya be in a coma or somethin’; we be takin’ ya to a healer to be get-tin’ ya checked out.” He tilted his head slightly to check on Alphi, whose stomach growled once again and swallowed, smacking her lips a little. “Ya probably be thirsty,” he added. “Ya be welcome to some water. It be in the hold.”
Emptiness filled the air as a low light filled the area. A small emura light beckoned the three figures forwards. The stone floor was cold, nothing too unusual, but there was an uneasiness about every-thing. Pathos looked down upon the two mons, who stood there waiting for his insight.
“It has come to our attention that an incident happened including the Haxorus called Alphi. I won-der if you two remember them?” he asked, rubbing his chin.
“Aye, I remember him,” Gaispir responded, looking at Armád who flipped his coin, nodding in agreement.
“Si,” he added. “He was an interesting mon, we didn’t know him well though.”
Pathos looked up; a sad expression crossed his neutral face. “Alphi is a potential trouble for us, alt-hough Lord Baphomet and his apprentice are investigating, I have reason to believe that he may try and contact you, seeing as he knew you.”
“Si,” Armád responded once more. “If we have contact with him, we will tell you Lord Pathos.”
“Aye,” Gaispir agreed, stretching his fingers.
The large Aggron nodded back at them, turning to walk away as his cloak draped over his back, showing only the tip of his tail. He undid his helmet as he began his return to Valendorine.
The transit shook violently as it chugged its way back down to the ground, dark smoke leaking from the engine. Noah and Alphi were being tossed side to side; Noah felt increasingly queasy, his stomach ached and he could taste the vomit crawling up his throat. Alphi on the other hand was suffering with a different problem all together. Her broken arm was being slammed into the walls as the transit struggled to move. Without warning silence fell.
“Aw, feck,” Dietrich said.
“What do you mean, ‘aw feck’?” Alphi asked, almost shouting. A gentle rumble clouded her voice; a little clatter could be heard from the maintenance cupboard; an uneasy creak came through the floor; a light flickered before deciding to go off. “Oh fu-”
She felt a coarse rush pierce through her body, as blood rapidly shot to her head. The transit dropped horizontally through the air, however, the weight from the internal layout started to force it to tilt to the left. Alphi could feel her tongue waving in the air as she desperately tried to grab hold of something solid to bring her back down.
“Mummy!” Noah shouted out, horrified, as the transit broke into a fully-fledged roll mid-air.
“Fuck!” Alphi shouted, frustrated she started to look around.
“Grab onto a bed!” A sharp jolt stopped the fall. Her view turned to the side of the transit, which had a large claw shaped mechanical piece opened, wedged in the side. A loud trundling sound could be heard from above. “Dietrich, where are we?”
Dietrich looked over, slowly at her. “We be in… well, a no-fly zone.” His words made Alphi feel an-gry. “Look, kid, it be the quickest way to Sorphia, ‘nd I be thinkin’.” He looked at her, and she glared back, full of rage. The chain pulling up the transit created a grating noise, which slowly was making her scowl more and more at him.
“Dietrich, I asked ‘where are we?’”
“Ya not gonna like it.” He walked away, slowly.
The cranking stopped as the transit was hauled up onto the warship’s deck. The heaving roll made Alphi gasp out an irritated groan, wishing she had never gotten out of bed in the first place, quickly she stepped back into the sleeping quarters and held her breath. Before she could ready herself, the doors were breached open by mons.
“Freeze! Raise your claws slowly, where we can see them!” a voice shouted. “You are in contested airspace; I have no choice but to arrest you.” The Heliolisk removed his loose helmet and glared at them. His eyes looked at Dietrich first, although, he immediately couldn’t bring himself to think much of the old mon’s initial frail appearance; his wrinkles appeared to be screwed up a little, par-ticularly surrounding his nose. “Take him in.” The Heliolisk thrust his claws forwards, pointing at Dietrich. A few of the guards marched in, seizing him.
“Ya be lettin’ go! Ya hear! I ain’t gonna go back to the clink!” Dietrich shouted as they dragged him towards the door.
The Heliolisk turned to face Noah next. “I said raise your paws! Else I’ll shock you!” His booming voice made Noah sniffle, stepping back. He kneeled down, looking down at the little mon who was shaking. “What’s your name, kid?”
“N-noah,” he whispered, his eyes started to fill with tears. “Don’t put me in jail, please… I want to go home!” He slid back onto his back legs and sat down, raising his legs and covering his eyes with his stubby trotters.
The Heliolisk gentle picked him up, rubbing his head in between his ears. “Kiddo, you’ll be fine,” he said, handing Noah over to one of the guards. “Take him to the cells, but keep someone with him.” His command made Noah shudder, and start to wail.
Alphi felt rage building inside her and extended her right claws. Slowly, she stepped out from her hiding place, letting her eyes glow. “You wanna fight you scummy little lizard‽” Alphi lunged at the Heliolisk, her claws coming with in inches of his face. Her claws were caught by a fist as the purple mon started to push back on her. Alphi started to growl, lashing out desperately to knock the Granbull back. “Go to hell!”
The Haxorus felt herself being pushed over by the Granbull’s pure strength, she staggered back, feeling the purple mon’s fists collide with her ribs. A little blood escaped her mouth. However, she wasn’t out of the fight, she knew she had to keep going. Her blade started to heat up on her face, swinging her head towards the mon to cut her up.
Aditi jumped back, raising her fists, going for a second play rough. As Alphi glided forwards, swing-ing her head back up, her stomach collided with Aditi’s punch once more. She felt herself land on her back as the Granbull hit her against the ground.
“Fuck you!” Alphi kicked at her, swinging an iron tail towards her. Her tail collided with the wall, chipping part of the bone. Over extended she was toppled back over by the Granbull.
Alphi growled at her, lashing out with her tail once more. She dashed forward; rage filled her body. The floor was taken out from under her feet by a hefty explosion, sending wooden shards up in the air. She grabbed her side the scales peeled a little. A little blood came out from the scratch.
She slashed upwards to try and kill her attacker, however, her claws were entangled with the sharp metal talons of the Archeops; pinned down, unable to move, she growled, swinging at him desperately with her tail. “Fuck you, shit.”
Baphomet raised a talon to her throat, ready to end her.
“Master…” Aditi whispered, hoping he would stop.
“You lack discipline.”
Alphi growled at his words, attempting to lash out at him once more.
“You aren’t feral; learn to control your power. I will not decide your fate.” He pressed a little harder on the Haxorus, pinning her further to the ground.
Dreckar watched from a distance, snapping his teeth in praise at the capture of the violent mon. “Congratulations, Lord Baphomet.” He crawled over, seizing Alphi’s tail. “Cell blocks I think will cool you off.”
The Archeops looked down at Alphi, his red eyes collided with hers as she panted a little, exhaust-ed. ‘Interesting,’ he thought, watching Alphi close her eyes and relax on the destroyed wooden floorboards.
As the bells chimed from the grandfather clock, the ship’s exterior lights flickered a golden yellow. A warship of its magnitude acted more as an enforcer than an inflammatory power. Each hallway being lit up from the main engine room upwards. The games room being one of the last to receive the blessed light, as the darkness had swallowed the room. The velvet coated tables started to show their light green colour once more, as the four-mons sitting at each side of the table re-mained focused on their cards.
The Captain scratched his neck as he looked at his cards. His mind darting in doubt over whether or not to pull another card. His hand showed an Ace and a four. Reluctantly, the Heliolisk raised his hand, and the mon to his right smirked a little at him.
“What’s wrong Rummy? Can’t keep that face straight,” the Raichu said, letting his grin get wider and wider as the Captain looked as if he wanted to pummel his face in. “Oh, did I say something?” he added, raising his paw to his chest. “My, my, aren’t you a little… hot headed for this game. Lost your spark?”
“Hurry up and draw a damn card, prick!” the Captain shouted.
“Maybe,” he answered, dragging out each letting for a good few seconds before eventually finish-ing the word.
“Why the hell was this guy invited anyway?” the Captain shouted, throwing his cards down on the table and storming out.
Tyr laughed a little at the mon’s agitation and mini temper tantrum, before drawing the next card. His smile widened a little more. “Well, I guess I win.” He grinned, flipping his cards over to show 21, much to the annoyance of the Flygon and Seismitoed that sat opposite him. “Well, I goodnight, ladies…” he added, scooping up the few notes that had been left on the table, and throwing them over the floor.
“I wish you would show some decorum,” Baphomet said to Tyr, as the Raichu bounced past. A little confused to how Tyr had ended up on the warship with him and Aditi.
“I wish the ‘mission’ would end already, so we can get back to less weird things,” Tyr responded, looking seemingly at the wall. “I am surprised anyone has survived this crazy trip so far.”
Aditi shot Baphomet a glace as Tyr wandered off down the corridor. “What was that about?” she asked.
Baphomet looked back at her as his eyes shone through his helmet. “No idea.”
A few decks below, Alphi curled herself up tightly in her bed. Her arm was now bandaged up in a soft cotton before being in cased in a much harder sticky set of bandages. A little shudder creeped down her spine as she remembered the ship’s healer ripping the broken claws on her left side out of the skin. The one thing she enjoyed about the cell was the warm heated floors. Her bed was resting against the ground, allowing the heat to transfer up and into the blankets on the base of the bed.
She remembered the healer slicing parts of her left blade off, making it a flat severing rather than a jagged one – making it look more like a birth defect rather than something that had been ripped off. The sound of an irritating whistle echoed through the corridor. Begrudgingly she sat up once more as the door swung open.
“Hey kid,” the voice said. The Admiral came in, holding a hot drink in between his pincers. “Came to check up on you. You doing okay?” His long red coat draped over his shoulders, as his roughed-up fedora hat, coated in holes sat loosely on his head.
Alphi looked at him, slowly nodding her head. “Yes sir, I am fine, just a little unable to get comfort-able.”
“Ah, well, I guess we should do something about that.”
“Why do you care so much?” Alphi growled. “Just stop caring, okay? I am a bad mon.”
Admiral Dreckar reached out, putting the warm drink beside her. “We all do bad things kid, doesn’t define us – not really. Heh, what you do that was so bad anyway?”
“Don’t know…” Alphi grumbled. “I can’t remember much still; everything is such a blur most of the time.” She tried to grasp the drink with her claws, but as they closed, she pushed the cup away, knocking it over; the liquid inside rushed out, creating a dark brown puddle on the floor. “Fuck it!” she shouted, however, the Drapion placed a pincer on her shoulder. “Huh?”
“It is fine, we will clean that up.” He smiled at her, making her exhale a deep breath.
“Hey!” a voice said from the door, making Dreckar and Alphi look up. “Alphi!” the Tepig called, charging in to see her. “Alphi! I was so scared!” Noah brushed past Dreckar, and with his stubby legs, he jumped up into her hand. “I want to stay in here with you!”
“Y-yes, sir,” Noah said, shivering a little. He slipped back past Dreckar towards his room.
“What do you want now?” Alphi snapped, snarling at him. “Aren’t you happy enough?” She rested her back against the cell wall. He looked back at her, quietly. “Why keep me alive?” she asked, her eyes droopy.
“That isn’t my decision right now, it is the council’s.” He folded his arms behind his back, watching her glare at him, eyes locked on his pacing talons. “Were you primed?” he asked.
“No. When?”
“When you attacked the town.”
“No. I was threatened.”
Silence fell between the two. She stared at his feathers, his talons, trying to figure out what she could of his mannerisms, her memories failed to recognise him. In the corner of her eye she saw Dreckar wiggle a pincer at him. She scowled at Baphomet, waiting for him to react. “Who are you anyway?”
“Lord Baphomet, my apprentice you have fought, Aditi. Excuse me.”
Alphi growled at that, watching him walk over to Drecker.
‘What the hell is with this guy? He seems weirded out by something.’
“What do you think it is?”
Pathos waited, watching Baphomet walk towards him. “What did you discover?” His voice echoed in the chamber.
Baphomet paused. “Alphi is female, has no control over her power.”
Pathos looked back at him, letting his shiny metal dim in the tiny light left over. “…Alphi is…” he pondered. “Bring them to Lord Mephiles,” he sighed. “Maybe he can make sense of this more than I.”
Admiral Dreckar looked out through his window, he could see a little bit of the morning dew on the reinforced glass. His bruises, and bloodied chin were clear enough for him to feel a little sick inside. “Damn quarantine, stopping us from leaving this damn port – getting to…” he started.
“Sir, are you okay?” the Captain asked, letting his tongue slither out.
“Yes, yes, not like we have been stuck in this port for an Arceus damn twenty-four days,” he snapped.
“At least you have managed to…” the Captain began, but the glare of the Drapion shut him up. “Sir,” he responded, and slipped out the room.
Dreckar paced towards his desk and with a sigh of disbelief he sat down on the worn chair. Reach-ing over with his pincer he raised a communication orb up. “Admiral Dreckar. Yes. Yes. I cannot get out of here much faster. Yes, I understand that. Yes, yes, I will compile a report for you. Yes, ye-, no it hasn’t done that yet. No. Yes. Okay, yes, I understand. Keep your hat on, yes, I will get around to it. What do you mean you -, yes, I understand; okay that’s fine. When? Seven more days? What do you mean you can’t get us moved out faster? Oh, I understand. Yes, I will wait for the package. That’s fine. Good, thank you.” With a groan he let his scaly back rest against the chair, and he sunk down, sliding as far down as he could. After all this time, who would have thought…” he whis-pered. He reached into his drawers, pushing his papers out of the way and taking out a small black orb. “Playback reports.”
Log III:
The Haxorus’s long claws dug into the Granbull’s side before being thrown off into the wall. Alphi quickly rolled back up and tried to slash at the Granbull’s face. The attempt was quickly caught by the talons of Baphomet.
“No moves. This is a spar,” he let go of her claws, stepping back to watch once more.
Alphi growled at him, feeling her aggression rise up through her toes and into her body, reaching her head at boiling point. She lunged at Aditi with her broken arm, before swinging her other one at her with the full force of her body weight. She stepped forward to carry through with the blow. Her stomach collided with Aditi’s fist. Alphi jumped back a little, annoyed.
“Fuck this,” she growled, walking over to the wall and headbutting it. “I am in control, I am in con-trol…” she muttered to herself.
“You are not.”
Alphi glared back at both of them, letting out a low growl. She sprung towards them, claws ex-tended. She slashed at Baphomet’s face with her glowing claws.
He caught her once again, pushing her back over onto the hard-wooden floor, placing his feathers behind his back.
Tyr laughed from the side of the room as Alphi lay on the ground.
“Fuck you,” she shouted at him, making him laugh harder.
Dreckar paused, deep in thought. ‘That kid really has no idea…’ he muttered in his thoughts, reach-ing over and pressing the skip key twice. ‘Let’s see if anything changes without him being there. His pure purpose was to clearly agitate the weirdo.’
The room was silent, as Aditi and Alphi sat opposing one another, a draughts board sat between the two of them. Alphi picked up one of her counters, moving it to the side a little onto the black square diagonal to where it was, before looking up to Aditi for approval.
Aditi reached forwards and mimicked Alphi’s move on her side, with her white wooden counters.
“This game is simple,” Alphi said, looking at the pieces. She exhaled a deep breath, calmly moving another piece forward. “I don’t understand much about myself, but this…” she paused as she watched Aditi move her piece forward. “This is something I can do, not feel angry or confused. Sor-ry that I tried to cut your head off…” Alphi added, awkwardly.
“You lack control,” Aditi responded, as Alphi moved her piece forward, jumping over one of Aditi’s. “Power is only useful if it can be controlled.” She took Alphi’s piece with her own.
“You sound like him,” Alphi said, moving another piece forward to attack Aditi’s pieces.
“He is my master; we do have our differences. I won’t kill, taking a life is…”
“Have I taken lives?” Alphi asked, bringing the conversation to a dead standstill.
Dreckar paused the recording. His long pincers snipped a little as he thought on the question. “Yes, you clearly have. A sane and good mon never needs to even consider that as a question.” He fast forwarded the recording a little, as the two were now standing.
Log IXX:
The room light was dim, and the camera slightly obscured. Alphi was watching Baphomet’s moves carefully, waiting for him to strike as she suppressed the need to rush forward and try to initiate the spar. She let out a little growl as the urge to fight started to grow inside her, taking a deep breath to try and contain it, she spread her stance, digging her claws into the floor, lowering her body to defend against the potential attack.
Nothing came.
She started to twitch a little, desperate to engage.
‘Must control this urge to fight. Why do I even have it?’
“Don’t you remember?”
‘…No. Obviously not.’
A growl escaped her mouth, agitated by the nagging thoughts, she lunged forwards at him. Her body narrowed and tensed, she dove full body into an iron tail, swinging around to strike the expe-rienced mon in the face. Her tail was met by the feathers of the mon.
The steel coated wings slashed at her iron tail and the fight stalled.
“Damn it!” Alphi shouted, lowering her tail. ‘Why… why can’t I stop this urge? I felt so calm… almost normal. Maybe I am not good enough, maybe I am just a mess.’ She sat down, scowling.
“Try again,” the older mon said, taking his position across the other side of the room.
The footage fuzzed making Dreckar scowl. Getting up to leave his office he saw Dietrich standing by the door. “Who let you in?” he hissed a little.
“I be lettin’ myself in.” Dietrich clawed himself into the room, letting himself rest every few steps. “I be old, so I be not as strong as I used to be. I not gonna be fightin’ ya.” As he came further into the room, Dreckar pulled out his chair, extending his arm. “I be thankin’ ya,” Dietrich said smiling. He settled himself down in the dilapidating chair, closing his big blue eyes as he did. “So, what be them recordin’s?” Dietrich let his large Noivern ears droop a little as he asked, however, his ques-tion was met with silence. “I guess it be somethin’ ya best not want to be lettin’ out…” Raising his left arm, pointing his sharp and twisted claws up, he stuck his hand into his mouth, scraping the skin of the berries he had eaten for breakfast out of the cracks in between his teeth.
“That… is disgusting…” Dreckar interjected. “Alphi is… one of a kind for sure.”
“What be wrong with Alphi?”
“That’s just it,” Dreckar said, scratching the top of his head. “Alphi was a he.”
“What ya be sayin’?” Dietrich asked, his jaw dropping.
Dreckar looked to the side a little conflicted. “I don’t know.”
“How ya be knowin’ this all be true?” Dietrich scowled. He shuffled himself up on the seat, making himself taller than his large boned dragon body already led him to be.
“Because… ugh, it is hard to describe. Alphi isn’t normal – when she roars, well… doesn’t it sound odd to you? A little… strong? Doesn’t she act strange around certain things? She has no recollection of anything, but she does.”
Silence fell in the room, with the exception of the drip, drip, drip coming from the sink in the cor-ner; the cold glares being passed between the two was enough to freeze Averia twice over.
Dreckar could feel a boiling hot sensation in his belly, it started to rise up through is blood and into his head. “I have no choice but to arrest you, lock you up, and wait for the authorities to deal with you. The same goes for your friend, the little Tepig… as for the Haxorus… I did try, but she is more of a threat to the wellbeing of all others than she is an aid to society. That’s the decision a proper citizen… a good citizen… would make. They have come to take her back and figure out what has happened. I don’t care whether they are Red Eyes, or primed nutcases. They keep her out of the way of the citizens.”
“Ya be one fucked up mon. Alphi ain’t a bad mon, that be ya.” Dietrich scowled.
Chapter 11 – Darkness in the mist
The stairs down to the cells were long, twisted and tiresome for the aged Noivern. The Heliolisk gently sat him down in his cell, letting him lie down on the nest. Dietrich’s heart ached a little, as did his head. The pounding feeling was enough to make him feel sick inside.
“Hey, old guy, if you need anything, just ask,” the Captain said. “Don’t worry, I doubt they will put you inside for a long time, since what happened could be blamed on a mechanical issue.”
Dietrich tilted his head slightly, looking at him with tired eyes. A little yawn seemed to escape his clasped mouth as his heart sank deeper into his chest. “I be suspecting this is as good as it be get-tin’ for me.” He tugged on his ears a little as he muttered a few words in Yveshian.
“It will be fine; I’m going to go check up on the kid, but if you need something… anything, just ask.”
A knock on the door made Noah uncurl from his nap. With his little snout he pushed his blanket down and looked up towards the door. His grey walled cell became lit up a little by the light which seeped through from the opened door, lighting up the damp areas on the walls. His little black and orange stripes, which made him look far smaller than he was, started to show more under the flickering lamp.
“Hey little dude, you okay?” the Captain said, coming over, grabbing Noah’s attention.
“Yes sir, I am tired and cold and scared, but okay.” Noah let his ears hang down. “Can I stay with Mister Dietrich please?” He wiggled his little spring like tail, allowing the little red ball to swing from side to side.
“Sorry little one, he is not well right now. I would say you can stay with your Haxorus friend but… well there are things going on with her too.
Noah squirmed backwards, shuffling his little legs. He felt his tail being squashed against the wall. “Huh?” he squeaked.
“Do you have parents, kid?”
“No.” Noah swiped at the hand with his front legs. “… Just no…I want to stay with them, please, I want to stay with Alphi! She… she understands me!”
“You don’t even know her, do you Noah?” The Heliolisk squinted at him, crouching closer. “She has to go to Lunis; a transit will be around to take her there in a day or so. “The Haxorus is really messed up, well… the Haxorus who everyone was looking for is er… not…”
Noah chomped down on the Heliolisk’s arm.
“Really kiddo?” he said, raising his arm up. “You don’t exactly have teeth, let alone the balls to do real damage to me.” He flicked his arm, sending Noah flying back down onto the bed. “My office is always open if you ask… knock for a guard if you want to talk.” The Captain walked off, his legs stretched out as he did.
Noah sniffled, he raised his left leg up and wiped his snout. Tearful, he rubbed his eyes with his right leg. “You don’t get it, you just don’t. I can’t stop thinking about everything… about her and how she… she must know something. I can’t forget.”
The chamber echoed a little as the footsteps came closer to the middle. Pathos looked on at the two mons who had come to speak to him. “What have you discovered?” he asked, curiously. His eyes looked up a little.
“Alphi isn’t Alphi,” Baphomet answered. “If Alphi was a male, then who is this Alphi I wonder? They seem to know things the original Alphi would have, if indeed what the two said before was true.”
“It is obvious someone is playing a dangerous game,” the Banette interrupted. “Acting as an im-poster could be traitorous.” A dark smile darted across his already creepy grin.
“What shall we do?”
“Mephiles, can you find out what happened?” Pathos asked.
The Banette gave out an annoyed grunt, waving his long sleeves around. “Fine, fine, I will do that too.”
Noah rushed over to the door, banging it furiously. “I want to see him, please! I want to see Die-trich! If he is sick, I want to see him!”
Dreckar came to the door, swinging it wide open. “Come on, kid, calm down.”
“No! If he is sick, I want to see him, he is nice and kind, I can’t take it being alone anymore!” Noah cried out as loud as his snuffled voice could.
“The stress and headache picking up your transit has caused me…” Dreckar responded with a snarl. “If you don’t calm down, you’ll find yourself in the medical bay.” Dreckar slammed the door turning his attention back to Dietrich.
“Ya be goin’ away, I not be wantin’ to see ya,” Dietrich stuttered, his sickly black scales started to peel a little. He buried his face in the nest bed, wrapping himself up in a blanket. Water from a pipe hanging and running through his cell had a small drip falling down from it, making him look up.
“Now, now,” Dreckar said, coming over. “Soon you’ll be able to get some rest, go to a healer, I know you are very old.” Dreckar sat down beside Dietrich, letting his scaly legs fold as he did. “How long have you been ill, Dietrich?”
Dietrich rolled over; his eyes drifted to the ceiling. “I be bein’ ill for the last few years, since the crash though it be much worse.” He stretched his claws a little. “But to hell with ya if you be doin’ wrong on them kids.”
A few weeks had passed since the ship had come to take Alphi away, to take Noah away, and to take Dietrich to a healer. Her spots of consciousness remained vague at best, as she lay on the floor of a cell once more. The smell of cleanliness purged her nostrils, making a queasy jolt inside of her stomach every time she took in a breath. Everything was but a blur, a stream of nonsense to her. She gazed upon her reflection as she sat up, seeing her eyes glow and stare back at her. Locked in place, she couldn’t look away anymore. Yet to see the one who summoned her back, she squirmed a little uncomfortably before standing up.
She looked at the reflection, which seemingly answered her thoughts. “H-hello? Who’s there?”
She punched the mirror as hard as she could, letting the shards of glass stick into her claws as she screamed out a little in pain. The splinters from the glass, covered in her blood were crumpled and cracked, digging in deeper than she first thought. The blood, a dull red, dripped down onto her foot. A murmur caught her ear, she turned to the door where she heard the voice coming from. She raised her tail quickly and as the door was swung open she slashed at the figure.
However, her tail was caught mid swing.
“Let the fuck go of my tail,” she snarled.
“Oh shut up you ingrate,” the Banette answered.
“Look who’s talking,” Alphi snapped back, however, before she could say anymore her mouth was covered.
“Why the fucking, fuck did you break a mirror? You complete and utter waste of breath. Why do I even bother?” he muttered to himself, brushing away the broken glass.
Alphi went to bite down on his grip over her mouth, but was met with a foul taste in her mouth. She desperately wiggled and shook her head.
“Sit.” The Banette’s cold voice echoed in Alphi’s head, making her back away into the corner of the room, slowly sitting down; her eyes looking now firmly back at his, waiting for instruction. “You claim to be Alphi, but that’s a lie. Do you know how I know?”
Alphi went to snarl back, but fearfully shook her head.
“Alphi was green; Alphi was male; Alphi was killed in action by you.” A darkness seemed to be emitted from the Banette, making her feel more uncomfortable.
“Impossible. I am Alphi! I remember it! I remember it!” she shouted back. “I am a bad mon, I killed so many others. I am awful, like you!”
“Calm down. My, my, your memories are a complete mess. What constitutes awful or bad? You have no right, or ability to judge right now. Whoever constructed you, really, tsk, tsk, such a mess.” His eyes glared back at her, as she snarled at him. “No matter, I am here to listen to your rants, so when you are ready. I do have other things to do.”
“Who the fuck are you? Go fuck yourself!” Alphi screamed.
“Stop shouting,” he responded, rubbing his head with his sleeves. “My name is Lord Mephiles, for the third time this week.” He pulled out something from his sack, looking at her as she curled up a little. “Now, are we going to actually talk about this, or are you going to just sit there like a buffoon?”
“What’s going on?” Alphi sniffled. “Who am I? What’s going on? What is this place? Where is Noah?”
The Banette narrowed his eyes, “Who is Noah?”
Alphi felt a tingling sensation course through her stomach. “N-no one. Shut up! Go away! Fuck off!” Alphi snarled, suspicion crawling through her bones. “I will rip you apart!” She shot forward to lunge at him. A strike landed on her cheek; she stumbled back a little, raising her claws to where the sharp stinging was coming from.
“That is enough. You primed ingrate.”
“W-what do you mean… primed? I am sane, I am fine!” Alphi shouted back, letting herself growl deeper than before. “I am not primed!”
A figured, darkened appeared to her side. Alphi jumped out of her skin and lashed out, drawing her right claws and slashing at it. It lowered its eyes and she met her own. “What the fuck? N-no! What is this? Who are you? Who?” Alphi squirmed and slashed and tried to bite at it. However, as she went to swing at it once more, she found herself being restricted, her arms bound and legs too. The binds dug into her scales.
“If you cannot sit still, you will be made to sit still. Who is Noah?” Mephiles asked, his voice squeaked a little as he did.
“Don’t know,” Alphi replied.
“Well, let’s start with the basics, you aren’t Alphi, you are going to be called ‘Subject X’.” The Banette glided across the room. “Now, since you haven’t been helpful or useful, you can go back to sleep now. Sedate her, or whatever you other mons do.” Sliding out the room he glided down the corridor. “Why couldn’t it have been that useless mon, not this mess? So, let’s see.” His reached for his coffee, eyes locked on his notes. “Is it possible? Subject X shows signs of memory fusion… which isn’t usual – if at all possible. The memories are messed up and out of order… hmm, well there are a few explanations for it all.” He started to stir the coffee with a long metal spoon. He started to flick through records, his eyes skimming through until he paused.
The night had flown through the small window beamed light onto Alphi’s back, leaving the morning sun to glow onto her back. A yawn escaped her mouth as she looked up to see herself on a wide metal table. The dusty white walls made her feel a creepy nauseous feeling inside her belly. She went to sit up, but found herself to be bound to the table. The tight grip of the binds made her start to panic; she squirmed and flapped desperately to escape, but couldn’t. The cold table clunking as she rocked and tried to escape. She slammed her blade on the right side into the table.
Clunk.
She roared, swinging to the blade on the left side down onto the table, but her cheek collided with the table instead. The blade had been removed. A chilling feeling ran down her spine, making her feel even sicker to the stomach. She looked at her broken arm, now replaced by a false mechanical one. She roared out again, trying to use iron tail, but the inhibitor strapped tightly to her neck blocked all attempts to get the move to work.
“Please, thrashing around like a Magikarp won’t help you.” Mephiles glided towards her. “You gave us no choice but to bind you up like this… seeing as you lack the ability to… control yourself.”
The warm room, and healing of her injuries left a stinging inside. Alphi opened her eyes and looked around.
“Are you done not listening to me?” the Banette snarled, floating over to her.
“Yes, sir,” Alphi whispered, scared, lost. “I am sorry, sir.” She relaxed, letting her uptight muscles flop down and looked at him. With a level of respect, pinned down to her pure fear of what would come next, fear of the unknown, she rested her head back down. Her red eyes glowed as she listened to what he had to say.
“I had your blade amputated, it was too damaged to be repaired and had since gained an infection.” His eyes rolled a little as he grabbed his notes. “Your arm was also infected. You are clearly incompetent, since you clearly can’t take care of yourself.”
“Sorry, sir,” Alphi muttered back.
“…” the Banette glared at her, making her silence her mutters. “How interesting, you can be out-alpha’d so easily. Who is Noah?” he asked again. The white room seemingly narrowed in on them, making him seem more demented than Alphi wanted to see him.
“Noah was a Tepig who I travelled with, sir…” Alphi whispered, feeling a little a little squirmier. The room felt like it was shrinking ever more around her. “Sir, who am I… really… you said I wasn’t Alphi… Who are you?”
“As I said before, I am Mephiles, for the fourth time this week,” his voice became higher as his irritation with her grew. “You want to know who you are?”
The light in the room flickered a little, as the Banette scooted closer, making Alphi growl a little. “The mon called Alphi was a member of the Red-Eyes sent to Mextrien a few years ago.” He reached over and drank from his coffee mug. “However, he made some friends with others who he grew close to – for whatever reason. On a mission he hunted down a Fraxure that had killed someone from his past, almost an attempt at pretty revenge. Obviously, it was once a normal mon, but it had been subjected to high levels of primal energy. With its mother, a large Haxorus and father, a Beartic it tried to take him down – I guess you were so pathetic and stupid to try and take down a Haxorus, but then again… a primed mon like you were. While you were unconscious, I discovered a large amount of emura energy was dormant in your blood. Therefore, concluding at one point you had been subjected to the high intake, forcing you to panic and reach a primal state. From that it can conclude further that you were fighting the real Alphi. Somehow you two must have connected, either through a soul link or another method.”
“I… I was primed?” she asked, stuttering a little.
“Yes, yes, I just said that.” The Banette scowled at her, waiting for her reaction. However, Alphi just stared back at him, lost and horrified. “You must have killed him as you disconnected from the link, and by some chemical mirac-”
“I am that much of a monster…”
“Yes, yes, now shut up. I am talking.” Mephiles drank once more from his mug, before going on. “Possibly a catalyst of some kind led to your minds being combined, or perhaps the sheer shock of becoming a Red Eyes member forced you to adopt his personality and memories, maybe you saw them in his soul link. I don’t know. You see, ‘Alphi’ all your past is a li-”
“Lie,” Alphi finished for him. She squeezed the binds a little with her claws, stressed, the cold blood in her body started to slide through her veins slower, or at least this is what she thought. “My memories… are a lie. Everything about me…” she whispered, each word fading more into the realm of deafening silence than the last. “How did I…” she started, raising her claws up to her face.
“I don’t fucking know. Ask someone who does.” Banette stepped back a little, however, Alphi just lay still.
“Who am I?” Alphi asked, hoping for an answer.
“I… just… told you. I don’t know,” Mephiles replied, squeezing his mug tighter.
Looking around the room once more, Alphi closed her eyes, accepting of her current situation. Nothing was going to change for her, not now, or anymore. Her fate had been sealed. “What now?” she asked.
“We will make use of you, don’t worry about that…” He glided out of the room, leaving Alphi alone.
Alphi looked around, tied up still, uncomfortable and frightened. The uncertainty made her feel stressed, and tired. She yawned a little, but couldn’t move further. A twitch, a sneeze, a cough and dribble, all of which made her feel worse about herself. Every breath in the white room seemed to last for an eternity.
She closed her eyes.
She opened her eyes, tired. She skimmed her view of the room. There were no windows, just the door. She rolled up onto her legs and wobbled forward. An orb rested on the table which she picked up gingerly. A small slot rested on the door for it. She pressed it into the door; to her surprise it opened.
The corridors seemed quiet. The rooms were aligned in an awkward zig-zag of doors. She peered to the left, then to the right. Stepping out towards the hallways, she felt sick inside.
“Hey! Stop! Stop!” the Banette shouted, seizing her again. “No, no, no.” The grumbles filled the room. “You took too long to figure it out.”
“Er…” Alphi responded. “Look Lord… er…” she paused, confused.
“Mephiles…” he responded, teeth gritted, spelling it out to her.
“Right…” she answered. She felt herself being hauled off by the little mon’s shadow sneak grip towards a holding room as he muttered to himself.
She hit the floor hard as he threw her down. The door slammed loudly, making her jump.
‘Damn it. So I have his memories? Am I him? I don’t understand, what do I do? I was feral, primed, but now I’m not? I am not Alphi, I am not Mackie… I am Subject X… heh, well if I am not either of the above… I choose Xera.’
‘Tough shit, it is now. I am Xera, and I am getting out of her. I am not a bad mon, despite everything. I am fucked up, but I am not a bad mon.’
Xera looked up, then to the side.
‘I will get out of here, Noah, I am coming for you. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.’
Above is a picture of Xera.
Part III – The Fated
Chapter 8 – Shadows under the sun
Emptiness filled the air as a low light filled the area. A small emura light beckoned the three figures forwards. The stone floor was cold, nothing too unusual, but there was an uneasiness about every-thing. Pathos looked down upon the two mons, who stood there waiting for his insight.
“It has come to our attention that an incident happened including the Haxorus called Alphi. I won-der if you two remember them?” he asked, rubbing his chin.
“Aye, I remember him,” Gaispir responded, looking at Armád who flipped his coin, nodding in agreement.
“Si,” he added. “He was an interesting mon, we didn’t know him well though.”
Pathos looked up; a sad expression crossed his neutral face. “Alphi is a potential trouble for us, alt-hough Lord Baphomet and his apprentice are investigating, I have reason to believe that he may try and contact you, seeing as he knew you.”
“Si,” Armád responded once more. “If we have contact with him, we will tell you Lord Pathos.”
“Aye,” Gaispir agreed, stretching his fingers.
The large Aggron nodded back at them, turning to walk away as his cloak draped over his back, showing only the tip of his tail. He undid his helmet as he began his return to Valendorine.
The transit shook violently as it chugged its way back down to the ground, dark smoke leaking from the engine. Noah and Alphi were being tossed side to side; Noah felt increasingly queasy, his stomach ached and he could taste the vomit crawling up his throat. Alphi on the other hand was suffering with a different problem all together. Her broken arm was being slammed into the walls as the transit struggled to move. Without warning silence fell.
“Aw, feck,” Dietrich said.
“What do you mean, ‘aw feck’?” Alphi asked, almost shouting. A gentle rumble clouded her voice; a little clatter could be heard from the maintenance cupboard; an uneasy creak came through the floor; a light flickered before deciding to go off. “Oh fu-”
She felt a coarse rush pierce through her body, as blood rapidly shot to her head. The transit dropped horizontally through the air, however, the weight from the internal layout started to force it to tilt to the left. Alphi could feel her tongue waving in the air as she desperately tried to grab hold of something solid to bring her back down.
“Mummy!” Noah shouted out, horrified, as the transit broke into a fully-fledged roll mid-air.
“Fuck!” Alphi shouted, frustrated she started to look around.
‘In a few minutes we will be dead.’
“Use your brain, or don’t you have control of that?”
The dark Haxorus smirked at Alphi from the corner of the room, seemingly, calmly standing on the ground.“Grab onto a bed!” A sharp jolt stopped the fall. Her view turned to the side of the transit, which had a large claw shaped mechanical piece opened, wedged in the side. A loud trundling sound could be heard from above. “Dietrich, where are we?”
Dietrich looked over, slowly at her. “We be in… well, a no-fly zone.” His words made Alphi feel an-gry. “Look, kid, it be the quickest way to Sorphia, ‘nd I be thinkin’.” He looked at her, and she glared back, full of rage. The chain pulling up the transit created a grating noise, which slowly was making her scowl more and more at him.
“Dietrich, I asked ‘where are we?’”
“Ya not gonna like it.” He walked away, slowly.
The cranking stopped as the transit was hauled up onto the warship’s deck. The heaving roll made Alphi gasp out an irritated groan, wishing she had never gotten out of bed in the first place, quickly she stepped back into the sleeping quarters and held her breath. Before she could ready herself, the doors were breached open by mons.
“Freeze! Raise your claws slowly, where we can see them!” a voice shouted. “You are in contested airspace; I have no choice but to arrest you.” The Heliolisk removed his loose helmet and glared at them. His eyes looked at Dietrich first, although, he immediately couldn’t bring himself to think much of the old mon’s initial frail appearance; his wrinkles appeared to be screwed up a little, par-ticularly surrounding his nose. “Take him in.” The Heliolisk thrust his claws forwards, pointing at Dietrich. A few of the guards marched in, seizing him.
“Ya be lettin’ go! Ya hear! I ain’t gonna go back to the clink!” Dietrich shouted as they dragged him towards the door.
The Heliolisk turned to face Noah next. “I said raise your paws! Else I’ll shock you!” His booming voice made Noah sniffle, stepping back. He kneeled down, looking down at the little mon who was shaking. “What’s your name, kid?”
“N-noah,” he whispered, his eyes started to fill with tears. “Don’t put me in jail, please… I want to go home!” He slid back onto his back legs and sat down, raising his legs and covering his eyes with his stubby trotters.
The Heliolisk gentle picked him up, rubbing his head in between his ears. “Kiddo, you’ll be fine,” he said, handing Noah over to one of the guards. “Take him to the cells, but keep someone with him.” His command made Noah shudder, and start to wail.
Alphi felt rage building inside her and extended her right claws. Slowly, she stepped out from her hiding place, letting her eyes glow. “You wanna fight you scummy little lizard‽” Alphi lunged at the Heliolisk, her claws coming with in inches of his face. Her claws were caught by a fist as the purple mon started to push back on her. Alphi started to growl, lashing out desperately to knock the Granbull back. “Go to hell!”
The Haxorus felt herself being pushed over by the Granbull’s pure strength, she staggered back, feeling the purple mon’s fists collide with her ribs. A little blood escaped her mouth. However, she wasn’t out of the fight, she knew she had to keep going. Her blade started to heat up on her face, swinging her head towards the mon to cut her up.
Aditi jumped back, raising her fists, going for a second play rough. As Alphi glided forwards, swing-ing her head back up, her stomach collided with Aditi’s punch once more. She felt herself land on her back as the Granbull hit her against the ground.
“Fuck you!” Alphi kicked at her, swinging an iron tail towards her. Her tail collided with the wall, chipping part of the bone. Over extended she was toppled back over by the Granbull.
Alphi growled at her, lashing out with her tail once more. She dashed forward; rage filled her body. The floor was taken out from under her feet by a hefty explosion, sending wooden shards up in the air. She grabbed her side the scales peeled a little. A little blood came out from the scratch.
She slashed upwards to try and kill her attacker, however, her claws were entangled with the sharp metal talons of the Archeops; pinned down, unable to move, she growled, swinging at him desperately with her tail. “Fuck you, shit.”
Baphomet raised a talon to her throat, ready to end her.
“Master…” Aditi whispered, hoping he would stop.
“You lack discipline.”
Alphi growled at his words, attempting to lash out at him once more.
“You aren’t feral; learn to control your power. I will not decide your fate.” He pressed a little harder on the Haxorus, pinning her further to the ground.
Dreckar watched from a distance, snapping his teeth in praise at the capture of the violent mon. “Congratulations, Lord Baphomet.” He crawled over, seizing Alphi’s tail. “Cell blocks I think will cool you off.”
The Archeops looked down at Alphi, his red eyes collided with hers as she panted a little, exhaust-ed. ‘Interesting,’ he thought, watching Alphi close her eyes and relax on the destroyed wooden floorboards.
Chapter 9 – Twist of fate
As the bells chimed from the grandfather clock, the ship’s exterior lights flickered a golden yellow. A warship of its magnitude acted more as an enforcer than an inflammatory power. Each hallway being lit up from the main engine room upwards. The games room being one of the last to receive the blessed light, as the darkness had swallowed the room. The velvet coated tables started to show their light green colour once more, as the four-mons sitting at each side of the table re-mained focused on their cards.
The Captain scratched his neck as he looked at his cards. His mind darting in doubt over whether or not to pull another card. His hand showed an Ace and a four. Reluctantly, the Heliolisk raised his hand, and the mon to his right smirked a little at him.
“What’s wrong Rummy? Can’t keep that face straight,” the Raichu said, letting his grin get wider and wider as the Captain looked as if he wanted to pummel his face in. “Oh, did I say something?” he added, raising his paw to his chest. “My, my, aren’t you a little… hot headed for this game. Lost your spark?”
“Hurry up and draw a damn card, prick!” the Captain shouted.
“Maybe,” he answered, dragging out each letting for a good few seconds before eventually finish-ing the word.
“Why the hell was this guy invited anyway?” the Captain shouted, throwing his cards down on the table and storming out.
Tyr laughed a little at the mon’s agitation and mini temper tantrum, before drawing the next card. His smile widened a little more. “Well, I guess I win.” He grinned, flipping his cards over to show 21, much to the annoyance of the Flygon and Seismitoed that sat opposite him. “Well, I goodnight, ladies…” he added, scooping up the few notes that had been left on the table, and throwing them over the floor.
“I wish you would show some decorum,” Baphomet said to Tyr, as the Raichu bounced past. A little confused to how Tyr had ended up on the warship with him and Aditi.
“I wish the ‘mission’ would end already, so we can get back to less weird things,” Tyr responded, looking seemingly at the wall. “I am surprised anyone has survived this crazy trip so far.”
Aditi shot Baphomet a glace as Tyr wandered off down the corridor. “What was that about?” she asked.
Baphomet looked back at her as his eyes shone through his helmet. “No idea.”
She remembered the healer slicing parts of her left blade off, making it a flat severing rather than a jagged one – making it look more like a birth defect rather than something that had been ripped off. The sound of an irritating whistle echoed through the corridor. Begrudgingly she sat up once more as the door swung open.
“Hey kid,” the voice said. The Admiral came in, holding a hot drink in between his pincers. “Came to check up on you. You doing okay?” His long red coat draped over his shoulders, as his roughed-up fedora hat, coated in holes sat loosely on his head.
Alphi looked at him, slowly nodding her head. “Yes sir, I am fine, just a little unable to get comfort-able.”
“Ah, well, I guess we should do something about that.”
“Why do you care so much?” Alphi growled. “Just stop caring, okay? I am a bad mon.”
Admiral Dreckar reached out, putting the warm drink beside her. “We all do bad things kid, doesn’t define us – not really. Heh, what you do that was so bad anyway?”
“Don’t know…” Alphi grumbled. “I can’t remember much still; everything is such a blur most of the time.” She tried to grasp the drink with her claws, but as they closed, she pushed the cup away, knocking it over; the liquid inside rushed out, creating a dark brown puddle on the floor. “Fuck it!” she shouted, however, the Drapion placed a pincer on her shoulder. “Huh?”
“It is fine, we will clean that up.” He smiled at her, making her exhale a deep breath.
“Hey!” a voice said from the door, making Dreckar and Alphi look up. “Alphi!” the Tepig called, charging in to see her. “Alphi! I was so scared!” Noah brushed past Dreckar, and with his stubby legs, he jumped up into her hand. “I want to stay in here with you!”
‘What is your problem?’
Noah was grabbed by the talons of Baphomet, who stared into his terrified eyes. “Go and rest,” he commanded, making Noah’s little legs shake.“Y-yes, sir,” Noah said, shivering a little. He slipped back past Dreckar towards his room.
“What do you want now?” Alphi snapped, snarling at him. “Aren’t you happy enough?” She rested her back against the cell wall. He looked back at her, quietly. “Why keep me alive?” she asked, her eyes droopy.
“That isn’t my decision right now, it is the council’s.” He folded his arms behind his back, watching her glare at him, eyes locked on his pacing talons. “Were you primed?” he asked.
“No. When?”
“When you attacked the town.”
“No. I was threatened.”
Silence fell between the two. She stared at his feathers, his talons, trying to figure out what she could of his mannerisms, her memories failed to recognise him. In the corner of her eye she saw Dreckar wiggle a pincer at him. She scowled at Baphomet, waiting for him to react. “Who are you anyway?”
“Lord Baphomet, my apprentice you have fought, Aditi. Excuse me.”
Alphi growled at that, watching him walk over to Drecker.
‘What the hell is with this guy? He seems weirded out by something.’
“What do you think it is?”
Baphomet paused. “Alphi is female, has no control over her power.”
Pathos looked back at him, letting his shiny metal dim in the tiny light left over. “…Alphi is…” he pondered. “Bring them to Lord Mephiles,” he sighed. “Maybe he can make sense of this more than I.”
Chapter 10 – It’s All Fun and Games…
Admiral Dreckar looked out through his window, he could see a little bit of the morning dew on the reinforced glass. His bruises, and bloodied chin were clear enough for him to feel a little sick inside. “Damn quarantine, stopping us from leaving this damn port – getting to…” he started.
“Sir, are you okay?” the Captain asked, letting his tongue slither out.
“Yes, yes, not like we have been stuck in this port for an Arceus damn twenty-four days,” he snapped.
“At least you have managed to…” the Captain began, but the glare of the Drapion shut him up. “Sir,” he responded, and slipped out the room.
Dreckar paced towards his desk and with a sigh of disbelief he sat down on the worn chair. Reach-ing over with his pincer he raised a communication orb up. “Admiral Dreckar. Yes. Yes. I cannot get out of here much faster. Yes, I understand that. Yes, yes, I will compile a report for you. Yes, ye-, no it hasn’t done that yet. No. Yes. Okay, yes, I understand. Keep your hat on, yes, I will get around to it. What do you mean you -, yes, I understand; okay that’s fine. When? Seven more days? What do you mean you can’t get us moved out faster? Oh, I understand. Yes, I will wait for the package. That’s fine. Good, thank you.” With a groan he let his scaly back rest against the chair, and he sunk down, sliding as far down as he could. After all this time, who would have thought…” he whis-pered. He reached into his drawers, pushing his papers out of the way and taking out a small black orb. “Playback reports.”
Log III:
The Haxorus’s long claws dug into the Granbull’s side before being thrown off into the wall. Alphi quickly rolled back up and tried to slash at the Granbull’s face. The attempt was quickly caught by the talons of Baphomet.
“No moves. This is a spar,” he let go of her claws, stepping back to watch once more.
Alphi growled at him, feeling her aggression rise up through her toes and into her body, reaching her head at boiling point. She lunged at Aditi with her broken arm, before swinging her other one at her with the full force of her body weight. She stepped forward to carry through with the blow. Her stomach collided with Aditi’s fist. Alphi jumped back a little, annoyed.
“Fuck this,” she growled, walking over to the wall and headbutting it. “I am in control, I am in con-trol…” she muttered to herself.
“You are not.”
Alphi glared back at both of them, letting out a low growl. She sprung towards them, claws ex-tended. She slashed at Baphomet’s face with her glowing claws.
He caught her once again, pushing her back over onto the hard-wooden floor, placing his feathers behind his back.
Tyr laughed from the side of the room as Alphi lay on the ground.
“Fuck you,” she shouted at him, making him laugh harder.
Log VI:
The room was silent, as Aditi and Alphi sat opposing one another, a draughts board sat between the two of them. Alphi picked up one of her counters, moving it to the side a little onto the black square diagonal to where it was, before looking up to Aditi for approval.
Aditi reached forwards and mimicked Alphi’s move on her side, with her white wooden counters.
“This game is simple,” Alphi said, looking at the pieces. She exhaled a deep breath, calmly moving another piece forward. “I don’t understand much about myself, but this…” she paused as she watched Aditi move her piece forward. “This is something I can do, not feel angry or confused. Sor-ry that I tried to cut your head off…” Alphi added, awkwardly.
“You lack control,” Aditi responded, as Alphi moved her piece forward, jumping over one of Aditi’s. “Power is only useful if it can be controlled.” She took Alphi’s piece with her own.
“You sound like him,” Alphi said, moving another piece forward to attack Aditi’s pieces.
“He is my master; we do have our differences. I won’t kill, taking a life is…”
“Have I taken lives?” Alphi asked, bringing the conversation to a dead standstill.
Dreckar paused the recording. His long pincers snipped a little as he thought on the question. “Yes, you clearly have. A sane and good mon never needs to even consider that as a question.” He fast forwarded the recording a little, as the two were now standing.
Log IXX:
The room light was dim, and the camera slightly obscured. Alphi was watching Baphomet’s moves carefully, waiting for him to strike as she suppressed the need to rush forward and try to initiate the spar. She let out a little growl as the urge to fight started to grow inside her, taking a deep breath to try and contain it, she spread her stance, digging her claws into the floor, lowering her body to defend against the potential attack.
Nothing came.
She started to twitch a little, desperate to engage.
‘Must control this urge to fight. Why do I even have it?’
“Don’t you remember?”
‘…No. Obviously not.’
A growl escaped her mouth, agitated by the nagging thoughts, she lunged forwards at him. Her body narrowed and tensed, she dove full body into an iron tail, swinging around to strike the expe-rienced mon in the face. Her tail was met by the feathers of the mon.
The steel coated wings slashed at her iron tail and the fight stalled.
“Damn it!” Alphi shouted, lowering her tail. ‘Why… why can’t I stop this urge? I felt so calm… almost normal. Maybe I am not good enough, maybe I am just a mess.’ She sat down, scowling.
“Try again,” the older mon said, taking his position across the other side of the room.
The footage fuzzed making Dreckar scowl. Getting up to leave his office he saw Dietrich standing by the door. “Who let you in?” he hissed a little.
“I be lettin’ myself in.” Dietrich clawed himself into the room, letting himself rest every few steps. “I be old, so I be not as strong as I used to be. I not gonna be fightin’ ya.” As he came further into the room, Dreckar pulled out his chair, extending his arm. “I be thankin’ ya,” Dietrich said smiling. He settled himself down in the dilapidating chair, closing his big blue eyes as he did. “So, what be them recordin’s?” Dietrich let his large Noivern ears droop a little as he asked, however, his ques-tion was met with silence. “I guess it be somethin’ ya best not want to be lettin’ out…” Raising his left arm, pointing his sharp and twisted claws up, he stuck his hand into his mouth, scraping the skin of the berries he had eaten for breakfast out of the cracks in between his teeth.
“That… is disgusting…” Dreckar interjected. “Alphi is… one of a kind for sure.”
“What be wrong with Alphi?”
“That’s just it,” Dreckar said, scratching the top of his head. “Alphi was a he.”
“What ya be sayin’?” Dietrich asked, his jaw dropping.
Dreckar looked to the side a little conflicted. “I don’t know.”
“How ya be knowin’ this all be true?” Dietrich scowled. He shuffled himself up on the seat, making himself taller than his large boned dragon body already led him to be.
“Because… ugh, it is hard to describe. Alphi isn’t normal – when she roars, well… doesn’t it sound odd to you? A little… strong? Doesn’t she act strange around certain things? She has no recollection of anything, but she does.”
Silence fell in the room, with the exception of the drip, drip, drip coming from the sink in the cor-ner; the cold glares being passed between the two was enough to freeze Averia twice over.
Dreckar could feel a boiling hot sensation in his belly, it started to rise up through is blood and into his head. “I have no choice but to arrest you, lock you up, and wait for the authorities to deal with you. The same goes for your friend, the little Tepig… as for the Haxorus… I did try, but she is more of a threat to the wellbeing of all others than she is an aid to society. That’s the decision a proper citizen… a good citizen… would make. They have come to take her back and figure out what has happened. I don’t care whether they are Red Eyes, or primed nutcases. They keep her out of the way of the citizens.”
“Ya be one fucked up mon. Alphi ain’t a bad mon, that be ya.” Dietrich scowled.
Chapter 11 – Darkness in the mist
The stairs down to the cells were long, twisted and tiresome for the aged Noivern. The Heliolisk gently sat him down in his cell, letting him lie down on the nest. Dietrich’s heart ached a little, as did his head. The pounding feeling was enough to make him feel sick inside.
“Hey, old guy, if you need anything, just ask,” the Captain said. “Don’t worry, I doubt they will put you inside for a long time, since what happened could be blamed on a mechanical issue.”
Dietrich tilted his head slightly, looking at him with tired eyes. A little yawn seemed to escape his clasped mouth as his heart sank deeper into his chest. “I be suspecting this is as good as it be get-tin’ for me.” He tugged on his ears a little as he muttered a few words in Yveshian.
“It will be fine; I’m going to go check up on the kid, but if you need something… anything, just ask.”
A knock on the door made Noah uncurl from his nap. With his little snout he pushed his blanket down and looked up towards the door. His grey walled cell became lit up a little by the light which seeped through from the opened door, lighting up the damp areas on the walls. His little black and orange stripes, which made him look far smaller than he was, started to show more under the flickering lamp.
“Hey little dude, you okay?” the Captain said, coming over, grabbing Noah’s attention.
“Yes sir, I am tired and cold and scared, but okay.” Noah let his ears hang down. “Can I stay with Mister Dietrich please?” He wiggled his little spring like tail, allowing the little red ball to swing from side to side.
“Sorry little one, he is not well right now. I would say you can stay with your Haxorus friend but… well there are things going on with her too.
Noah squirmed backwards, shuffling his little legs. He felt his tail being squashed against the wall. “Huh?” he squeaked.
“Do you have parents, kid?”
“No.” Noah swiped at the hand with his front legs. “… Just no…I want to stay with them, please, I want to stay with Alphi! She… she understands me!”
“You don’t even know her, do you Noah?” The Heliolisk squinted at him, crouching closer. “She has to go to Lunis; a transit will be around to take her there in a day or so. “The Haxorus is really messed up, well… the Haxorus who everyone was looking for is er… not…”
Noah chomped down on the Heliolisk’s arm.
“Really kiddo?” he said, raising his arm up. “You don’t exactly have teeth, let alone the balls to do real damage to me.” He flicked his arm, sending Noah flying back down onto the bed. “My office is always open if you ask… knock for a guard if you want to talk.” The Captain walked off, his legs stretched out as he did.
Noah sniffled, he raised his left leg up and wiped his snout. Tearful, he rubbed his eyes with his right leg. “You don’t get it, you just don’t. I can’t stop thinking about everything… about her and how she… she must know something. I can’t forget.”
The chamber echoed a little as the footsteps came closer to the middle. Pathos looked on at the two mons who had come to speak to him. “What have you discovered?” he asked, curiously. His eyes looked up a little.
“Alphi isn’t Alphi,” Baphomet answered. “If Alphi was a male, then who is this Alphi I wonder? They seem to know things the original Alphi would have, if indeed what the two said before was true.”
“It is obvious someone is playing a dangerous game,” the Banette interrupted. “Acting as an im-poster could be traitorous.” A dark smile darted across his already creepy grin.
“What shall we do?”
“Mephiles, can you find out what happened?” Pathos asked.
The Banette gave out an annoyed grunt, waving his long sleeves around. “Fine, fine, I will do that too.”
Dreckar came to the door, swinging it wide open. “Come on, kid, calm down.”
“No! If he is sick, I want to see him, he is nice and kind, I can’t take it being alone anymore!” Noah cried out as loud as his snuffled voice could.
“The stress and headache picking up your transit has caused me…” Dreckar responded with a snarl. “If you don’t calm down, you’ll find yourself in the medical bay.” Dreckar slammed the door turning his attention back to Dietrich.
“Ya be goin’ away, I not be wantin’ to see ya,” Dietrich stuttered, his sickly black scales started to peel a little. He buried his face in the nest bed, wrapping himself up in a blanket. Water from a pipe hanging and running through his cell had a small drip falling down from it, making him look up.
“Now, now,” Dreckar said, coming over. “Soon you’ll be able to get some rest, go to a healer, I know you are very old.” Dreckar sat down beside Dietrich, letting his scaly legs fold as he did. “How long have you been ill, Dietrich?”
Dietrich rolled over; his eyes drifted to the ceiling. “I be bein’ ill for the last few years, since the crash though it be much worse.” He stretched his claws a little. “But to hell with ya if you be doin’ wrong on them kids.”
Part IV – Truth
Chapter 12 – Informing
A few weeks had passed since the ship had come to take Alphi away, to take Noah away, and to take Dietrich to a healer. Her spots of consciousness remained vague at best, as she lay on the floor of a cell once more. The smell of cleanliness purged her nostrils, making a queasy jolt inside of her stomach every time she took in a breath. Everything was but a blur, a stream of nonsense to her. She gazed upon her reflection as she sat up, seeing her eyes glow and stare back at her. Locked in place, she couldn’t look away anymore. Yet to see the one who summoned her back, she squirmed a little uncomfortably before standing up.
‘Today. Today I ... I need to figure…’
“And then what?”
She looked at the reflection, which seemingly answered her thoughts. “H-hello? Who’s there?”
“No one, just us.”
She punched the mirror as hard as she could, letting the shards of glass stick into her claws as she screamed out a little in pain. The splinters from the glass, covered in her blood were crumpled and cracked, digging in deeper than she first thought. The blood, a dull red, dripped down onto her foot. A murmur caught her ear, she turned to the door where she heard the voice coming from. She raised her tail quickly and as the door was swung open she slashed at the figure.
However, her tail was caught mid swing.
“Let the fuck go of my tail,” she snarled.
“Oh shut up you ingrate,” the Banette answered.
“Look who’s talking,” Alphi snapped back, however, before she could say anymore her mouth was covered.
“Why the fucking, fuck did you break a mirror? You complete and utter waste of breath. Why do I even bother?” he muttered to himself, brushing away the broken glass.
Alphi went to bite down on his grip over her mouth, but was met with a foul taste in her mouth. She desperately wiggled and shook her head.
“Sit.” The Banette’s cold voice echoed in Alphi’s head, making her back away into the corner of the room, slowly sitting down; her eyes looking now firmly back at his, waiting for instruction. “You claim to be Alphi, but that’s a lie. Do you know how I know?”
Alphi went to snarl back, but fearfully shook her head.
“Alphi was green; Alphi was male; Alphi was killed in action by you.” A darkness seemed to be emitted from the Banette, making her feel more uncomfortable.
“Impossible. I am Alphi! I remember it! I remember it!” she shouted back. “I am a bad mon, I killed so many others. I am awful, like you!”
“Calm down. My, my, your memories are a complete mess. What constitutes awful or bad? You have no right, or ability to judge right now. Whoever constructed you, really, tsk, tsk, such a mess.” His eyes glared back at her, as she snarled at him. “No matter, I am here to listen to your rants, so when you are ready. I do have other things to do.”
“Who the fuck are you? Go fuck yourself!” Alphi screamed.
“Stop shouting,” he responded, rubbing his head with his sleeves. “My name is Lord Mephiles, for the third time this week.” He pulled out something from his sack, looking at her as she curled up a little. “Now, are we going to actually talk about this, or are you going to just sit there like a buffoon?”
“What’s going on?” Alphi sniffled. “Who am I? What’s going on? What is this place? Where is Noah?”
The Banette narrowed his eyes, “Who is Noah?”
Alphi felt a tingling sensation course through her stomach. “N-no one. Shut up! Go away! Fuck off!” Alphi snarled, suspicion crawling through her bones. “I will rip you apart!” She shot forward to lunge at him. A strike landed on her cheek; she stumbled back a little, raising her claws to where the sharp stinging was coming from.
“That is enough. You primed ingrate.”
“W-what do you mean… primed? I am sane, I am fine!” Alphi shouted back, letting herself growl deeper than before. “I am not primed!”
‘What the fuck is this?’
A figured, darkened appeared to her side. Alphi jumped out of her skin and lashed out, drawing her right claws and slashing at it. It lowered its eyes and she met her own. “What the fuck? N-no! What is this? Who are you? Who?” Alphi squirmed and slashed and tried to bite at it. However, as she went to swing at it once more, she found herself being restricted, her arms bound and legs too. The binds dug into her scales.
“If you cannot sit still, you will be made to sit still. Who is Noah?” Mephiles asked, his voice squeaked a little as he did.
“Don’t know,” Alphi replied.
“Well, let’s start with the basics, you aren’t Alphi, you are going to be called ‘Subject X’.” The Banette glided across the room. “Now, since you haven’t been helpful or useful, you can go back to sleep now. Sedate her, or whatever you other mons do.” Sliding out the room he glided down the corridor. “Why couldn’t it have been that useless mon, not this mess? So, let’s see.” His reached for his coffee, eyes locked on his notes. “Is it possible? Subject X shows signs of memory fusion… which isn’t usual – if at all possible. The memories are messed up and out of order… hmm, well there are a few explanations for it all.” He started to stir the coffee with a long metal spoon. He started to flick through records, his eyes skimming through until he paused.
The night had flown through the small window beamed light onto Alphi’s back, leaving the morning sun to glow onto her back. A yawn escaped her mouth as she looked up to see herself on a wide metal table. The dusty white walls made her feel a creepy nauseous feeling inside her belly. She went to sit up, but found herself to be bound to the table. The tight grip of the binds made her start to panic; she squirmed and flapped desperately to escape, but couldn’t. The cold table clunking as she rocked and tried to escape. She slammed her blade on the right side into the table.
Clunk.
She roared, swinging to the blade on the left side down onto the table, but her cheek collided with the table instead. The blade had been removed. A chilling feeling ran down her spine, making her feel even sicker to the stomach. She looked at her broken arm, now replaced by a false mechanical one. She roared out again, trying to use iron tail, but the inhibitor strapped tightly to her neck blocked all attempts to get the move to work.
“Please, thrashing around like a Magikarp won’t help you.” Mephiles glided towards her. “You gave us no choice but to bind you up like this… seeing as you lack the ability to… control yourself.”
‘Control…’
‘What is this?’
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Alphi looked around, nothingness surrounded her; she felt nothing. The dusty dark eerie feeling became all she could see.‘What is going on?’
“You are unconscious.”
‘Then how am I thinking? Also… I have been wondering for a while now… but who the hell are you?’
“That’s just it isn’t it? We would wonder that. We would make up answers.”
‘Control.’
“Are you done not listening to me?” the Banette snarled, floating over to her.
“Yes, sir,” Alphi whispered, scared, lost. “I am sorry, sir.” She relaxed, letting her uptight muscles flop down and looked at him. With a level of respect, pinned down to her pure fear of what would come next, fear of the unknown, she rested her head back down. Her red eyes glowed as she listened to what he had to say.
“I had your blade amputated, it was too damaged to be repaired and had since gained an infection.” His eyes rolled a little as he grabbed his notes. “Your arm was also infected. You are clearly incompetent, since you clearly can’t take care of yourself.”
“Sorry, sir,” Alphi muttered back.
“…” the Banette glared at her, making her silence her mutters. “How interesting, you can be out-alpha’d so easily. Who is Noah?” he asked again. The white room seemingly narrowed in on them, making him seem more demented than Alphi wanted to see him.
“Noah was a Tepig who I travelled with, sir…” Alphi whispered, feeling a little a little squirmier. The room felt like it was shrinking ever more around her. “Sir, who am I… really… you said I wasn’t Alphi… Who are you?”
“As I said before, I am Mephiles, for the fourth time this week,” his voice became higher as his irritation with her grew. “You want to know who you are?”
Chapter 13 – Escape
The light in the room flickered a little, as the Banette scooted closer, making Alphi growl a little. “The mon called Alphi was a member of the Red-Eyes sent to Mextrien a few years ago.” He reached over and drank from his coffee mug. “However, he made some friends with others who he grew close to – for whatever reason. On a mission he hunted down a Fraxure that had killed someone from his past, almost an attempt at pretty revenge. Obviously, it was once a normal mon, but it had been subjected to high levels of primal energy. With its mother, a large Haxorus and father, a Beartic it tried to take him down – I guess you were so pathetic and stupid to try and take down a Haxorus, but then again… a primed mon like you were. While you were unconscious, I discovered a large amount of emura energy was dormant in your blood. Therefore, concluding at one point you had been subjected to the high intake, forcing you to panic and reach a primal state. From that it can conclude further that you were fighting the real Alphi. Somehow you two must have connected, either through a soul link or another method.”
“I… I was primed?” she asked, stuttering a little.
“Yes, yes, I just said that.” The Banette scowled at her, waiting for her reaction. However, Alphi just stared back at him, lost and horrified. “You must have killed him as you disconnected from the link, and by some chemical mirac-”
“I am that much of a monster…”
“Yes, yes, now shut up. I am talking.” Mephiles drank once more from his mug, before going on. “Possibly a catalyst of some kind led to your minds being combined, or perhaps the sheer shock of becoming a Red Eyes member forced you to adopt his personality and memories, maybe you saw them in his soul link. I don’t know. You see, ‘Alphi’ all your past is a li-”
“Lie,” Alphi finished for him. She squeezed the binds a little with her claws, stressed, the cold blood in her body started to slide through her veins slower, or at least this is what she thought. “My memories… are a lie. Everything about me…” she whispered, each word fading more into the realm of deafening silence than the last. “How did I…” she started, raising her claws up to her face.
“I don’t fucking know. Ask someone who does.” Banette stepped back a little, however, Alphi just lay still.
“Who am I?” Alphi asked, hoping for an answer.
“I… just… told you. I don’t know,” Mephiles replied, squeezing his mug tighter.
Looking around the room once more, Alphi closed her eyes, accepting of her current situation. Nothing was going to change for her, not now, or anymore. Her fate had been sealed. “What now?” she asked.
“We will make use of you, don’t worry about that…” He glided out of the room, leaving Alphi alone.
Alphi looked around, tied up still, uncomfortable and frightened. The uncertainty made her feel stressed, and tired. She yawned a little, but couldn’t move further. A twitch, a sneeze, a cough and dribble, all of which made her feel worse about herself. Every breath in the white room seemed to last for an eternity.
‘No. I am not yours; I am mine. I am getting out of here.’
She closed her eyes.
‘Control.’
She opened her eyes, tired. She skimmed her view of the room. There were no windows, just the door. She rolled up onto her legs and wobbled forward. An orb rested on the table which she picked up gingerly. A small slot rested on the door for it. She pressed it into the door; to her surprise it opened.
‘That was easy… too easy…’
The corridors seemed quiet. The rooms were aligned in an awkward zig-zag of doors. She peered to the left, then to the right. Stepping out towards the hallways, she felt sick inside.
“Hey! Stop! Stop!” the Banette shouted, seizing her again. “No, no, no.” The grumbles filled the room. “You took too long to figure it out.”
“Er…” Alphi responded. “Look Lord… er…” she paused, confused.
“Mephiles…” he responded, teeth gritted, spelling it out to her.
“Right…” she answered. She felt herself being hauled off by the little mon’s shadow sneak grip towards a holding room as he muttered to himself.
She hit the floor hard as he threw her down. The door slammed loudly, making her jump.
‘Damn it. So I have his memories? Am I him? I don’t understand, what do I do? I was feral, primed, but now I’m not? I am not Alphi, I am not Mackie… I am Subject X… heh, well if I am not either of the above… I choose Xera.’
“I don’t think that’s your choice.”
‘Tough shit, it is now. I am Xera, and I am getting out of her. I am not a bad mon, despite everything. I am fucked up, but I am not a bad mon.’
Xera looked up, then to the side.
‘I will get out of here, Noah, I am coming for you. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.’
Above is a picture of Xera.
