Charizard explored the empty Lumiose streets in a slow, heavy race that echoed through tall buildings. I looked around – An apocalyptical air lurked the city like thick fog in winter mornings. If I didn't watch myself, I'd let in a dreadful feeling of being the only person alive in the world; and though I knew that such apprehension was uncalled for, that the weapon had not yet been fired, still I wondered if I was the only one roaming that city. Wherever people were hiding, they were hiding well... not a sign of life ventured out to prove me I wasn't caught up in sick dreaming.
I thought Calem and the rest must know where the ancient weapon was being held, and regretted not having collected the information when I had the chance. My hands moved automatically to the space usually occupied by my bag... but to no use, I reminded myself with disappointment: I didn't have the chance to bring it with me as I escaped with Charizard. Even his Pokéball got left behind, along with the rest of my Pokémon and any means of fast communication I could use to contact my friends.
...How would I even be able to protect Charizard if I had to, without a pokéball to retrieve him into? ...That fear made me sort of glad I'd left the rest of my Pokémon behind – at least they'd have a shot at surviving, if...
Charizard huffed, his pace progressively slowing down as he got tired. He flapped his wings in a single vigorous and broad movement, swiftly pulling his feet from the ground. Smoothly, then, he hovered with me on his back, keeping a small distance from the asphalt with my indecision weighing him down. I got hooked back to the reality of how hard he was trying – of how hard all of them were working right now… probably. Maybe… Maybe not: maybe they'd been caught up, too: locked somewhere they couldn't interfere, or even worse..! I shook my head: When this far from Calem's dumb determination, it was easy to let Sycamore's logical pessimism sink into me... but I wouldn't allow it! I wouldn't need to protect Charizard, because we would destroy the weapon! I needed not worry about my friends, cause they were fighting somewhere… and I'd find them!
We reached Lumiose's deserted gate number 5 through roaming alone. Charizard stopped, awaiting new instructions. I jumped from his back, deciding he had carried me long enough, and gazed through the gate's opening, wondering which way I should go. It was while we waited that Charizard's body tensed.
"What is it?!" I inquired, noticing he stared directly into the gate.
He grimaced and bent forward, expecting someone. I looked ahead and narrowed my eyes: a shadow approached through the invading light of the bright, open flower fields beyond Lumiose.
Before I had time to worry about a battle with only Charizard by my side, the shadow revealed itself too short for any of the Team Flare members... It was also too familiar, too close to my own... Charizard's expression lightened up, recognizing a friend. I ran forward.
"Calem!!!" I sighed in relief, stopping right before him.
He looked at me funny again – the distance was there, as if it had never been forgiven: too careful, too undecided upon my trustworthiness... Of course he was: I had disappeared again!
"Thought I might find you here..." he put his hands inside his pocket, uncomfortably hoping for a good-enough explanation to sooth his passive anger. I smiled with a curious mix of relief and joy because this time I had one.
"Those Team Flare assholes got me good, but we've escaped and it's okay now..." I petted Charizard's neck, acknowledging his role.
"You... what?!" Calem gasped, widening his eyes.
"What went on in that factory?"
"We got to the president without too much trouble... but I was worried about you!" he lowered his eyes, hiding some distant trace of sorrow: possibly the memory of how many times I had let them down before.
"Well, I'm right here now..." I reminded with a faint smile.
Somehow, I felt his reassurance grow like a dim, warm light. It was comforting for me to see that his heart could be so easily won back. That we could all go back to just being friends when this was all over.
"So..." He sighed, suddenly pulled back by the gravity of the situation.
My eyes grew darker, too:
"What's the plan?!" I inquired.
"We couldn't get much from the few grunts we cornered in the Pokeball factory... except for something about the ancient weapon being built some thousands of years ago..."
"Sounds like something too big to be easily hidden?!" I speculated.
"We don't know." Calem shrugged "Shauna is betting it's something located in Shalour city. A weapon that powerful probably needs a tall tower to give it reach? So she has gone there..."
"If we're talking tall, why aren't we on Prism Tower right now?!"
Calem's eyes wandered to said tower, examining its peek against the dull sky with a sweaty forehead.
"I don't know, Anne... I don't see any strange movements here, and I don't think anything like a weapon would escape Clemont's curious eye. I also don't think the tower's been around for that long..."
"What else have we got?!" I rushed him, feeling the heaviness of Lumiose's sky as it descended into dusk.
"I'm guessing Geoseng Town: it has some of the oldest things around in Kalos – maybe those ancient stones have something to do with this weapon?!"
"I'm with you..." I quickly reasoned "And what about the rest?"
"Our guesses end there! Trevor and Tierno split up just to increase our chances: One has gone to Anistar and the other to the beach."
"Let's hope one of those is the right location, I don't think we have enough time to look for it!"
"Me neither. I'd say we do the same as them and split, but..." He looked at me with his broken eyes again.
"I'm afraid we can't afford that..." I turned to my Pokémon, half-apologizing for my incapability "It's just him and me."
"Right... Well, in that case, stick with me, neighbor! Let's go to Geoseng Town together..." And he seized my hand without waiting for my answer, running ahead through the gate and dragging me with him.
Though I was hardly that girl still – the one to be pulled about for pride's sake by Calem; the one to follow his lead and depend upon his bravery to consort with my own... It felt good: His warm childish fingers softly pressed against my wrist. Locked inside Sycamore's cold kingdom, I had missed warm innocence the most!
*******
"Got 'em..." Calem announced, looking down through his Altaria's thick wings.
I narrowed my eyes – the air was cold and heavy, and a bright sunset helped with blurring my view. "Charizard..." I hinted, and he flew lower, allowing me to spot a small reunion of carmine suits happening just west of Geoseng Town, near a large boulder.
"Is that Team Flare?"
"Definitely..." Calem clarified, Altaria immediately taking a dive in that direction.
We jumped to the ground and the two Pokémon landed by our sides – three Team Flare grunts occupied themselves facing the boulder, barely noticing our arrival.
"Hey!" Calem called, angrily closing his fist, and they turned around to greet us.
Somehow, the grunts only looked half-surprised, as if they had been told to expect us. A startled gaze was followed by a smart grin, and they started their usual strangely-motivated speeches.
"Well, aren't those the kids from the Power plant?" They talked to each other.
"Apparently they are! Maybe they came to join Team Flare this time? I don't think there is any space in our bunker, kids... unless you're willing to beg the boss..." they laughed.
"We are here to stop you!!" Calem bravely announced.
"I think you said the same thing last time..." one of them let out, and the trio enjoyed the laugh without stress. Or hurry...
"Huh!" Calem smiled "Don't you know that pissing me off only makes me more determined to kick your pitiful asses?!" he boasted.
"Well, this time you won't be defeating the magnificent Team Flare, kid! Do you wanna know why?!"
As they subtly moved to the sides, surrounding us, I noticed an elevator door framed by the boulder. Calem's voice asking 'why' could be heard in the back of my mind, as I examined the situation. Team Flare was always cheesy and taunting... but this time they were particularly more so.
"Calem, they're just buying time!" I stepped forward, Charizard following my lead and getting between me and a grunt. "This is their hideout, and it's probably where they're keeping the ultimate weapon!"
My urgency effectively passed on to Calem, he threw out his Absol to help in the fight. The Team Flare grunts shrugged to each other, then sent out their own Pokémon. Absol, Altaria and Charizard took them out with ease, but not before a bunch of defensive and pointless moves were directed our way… That battle was clearly meant to hold us back much more than defeat us, and not knowing why made me sweat.
"Huh… so you have improved… slightly!" One of them stroke a pose and began soliloquizing.
"They're stalling us! Let's run for it!" I screamed, calling my Charizard to stand behind me. Calem nodded, and together we raced ahead.
"Not so fast, kid!" Two grunts stepped in our way. Just as I'd suspected.
"I'll stop them!" Calem announced, swerving to their left – as they moved to follow him, I took the opening and managed to run around the single grunt that was in charge of stopping me.
"Shit!" I heard him curse, I ran ahead and pushed the elevator switch.
"She's going in!" He screamed, letting his friends know and jumping to grab me. He held me by the arm, but I fought and struggled my way to freedom, escaping his grip just in time to hear the elevator's bell as it reached the platform, the doors beginning to open and me jumping in...
In my struggle, I landed head-first on to something large and hard, bouncing back and falling to the ground. Initially I thought I must have miscalculated and jumped in before the doors had fully opened... but it couldn't be: Lifting my eyes, I saw Lysandre's imposing figure standing, statue-like, inside the elevator, staring down at me from above with a hard, paralyzing glare!
I quickly picked myself up and jumped back in an exaggerated, unconscious fear that he would stomp me. The fearsome man walked out, much taller and much stronger than I remembered him to be, and I tried to control the thumping of my heart as, behind him, a troupe of admins followed out.
I didn't have to look back to know Calem's fight with the grunts had stopped – that everyone had their eyes on Lysandre, all equally intimidated.
And lucky me!! His eyes wouldn't move away...
"So you managed to escape, and yet you come here!" he let out, stopping before me. The small Flare army spread behind him, composing a wall.
"We have come to stop this madness of a weapon!" I blurted with as much rage as I could muster through my trembling voice.
His red eyebrows tensed, as did my muscles, expecting a furious speech with almost painful anticipation.
"I see..." he merely sighed, little surprised, and little giving away in emotion. His voice sounded composed and professional-like... nothing like the beast I was used to seeing when he was next to Sycamore.
Another sigh followed and he observed us quietly. It was funny how neither Calem nor I said anything – how the urgency died in those first seconds beholding him. Was it all fear? ...No, I suppose we both tried to understand – to see the intent of destroying the world behind what we only knew as a successful entrepreneur. I had to say that, despite thinking of Lysandre as a brute of a man, there I saw no sign of this savagery.
"I thought you, of all people, should be able to understand my quest, and the motives behind it" he calmly pronounced.
I got caught by mixed feelings of flattery and confusion – what on earth could make Lysandre esteem me enough to care about my understanding, and why would he think I would understand it?!
"Why would I?" I asked.
"Because I have seen you..." He replied, lifting his large, leather-covered hand "I have seen how much you stress about, how much you struggle with yourself and others, in search of that one distant goal..."
"Goal...?" I repeated, confused.
"Perfection!" Lysandre elucidated.
"What the hell..." Calem snorted, just as lost as I was.
"I don't think I ever sought any perfection..." I carefully corrected. His seriousness prevented too much agitation on my part.
"But you have! Without even believing in its existence, you have!" His voice trembled like a lion's roar, and his eyes shone with vigorous passion. I focused on his words, trying to follow "I read every report on Sycamore's pupils, and none of your friends was as dismayed as you! Such bright youth, and yet... nothing seems good enough! You are never good enough! Self-doubt, dissatisfaction, restlessness... You are looking for something that currently can never be found!"
Calem looked at me – I felt his eyes growing heavy, searching for a reaction in my face that confirmed Lysandre. I couldn't show him one that didn't.
"However hard you work on improving yourself, the world around you shall never shift to meet it – all your expectations are in vain. Satisfaction will never come, for they are not ready - And the higher you achieve, the more you shall perceive it."
Lysandre clenched his fist, tensing up the muscles under the tight glove. His eyes were pierced firmly into mine, transmitting that strange form of what he might call sympathy. I could feel it, too - The emotions he suggested were indeed mine, my inner string echoing the trembling screech of his... But I had never given them such meaning, and never could have.
A sort of mad despair hid deep behind his cobalt eyes – that despair secretly begged for a kindred... It felt so cold and so lonely without the little shard of hope he had somehow found in thinking I would understand him, that it almost made me wish I did.
"Even if that is true..." I started "Even if I did feel that way... What does any of this have to do with destroying the world?! Do you think that's what you seek?!"
"Destroy it?" He grimaced, almost foreign to the idea "No... not at all! I intend to cleanse it – History is more than marked by such little sacrifices... Such little tragedies that come to bring humankind to a higher level: to purge the disease and elate the virtue! The world is being consumed by greed, hate, selfishness! Where do you think it all will end, if no one steps in to do something about it?"
"That's why we're here!" Calem passionately replied "To go against them! Fight them back! And that's all it takes!"
Lysandre was not troubled by the angry reply – on the contrary, a faint trail of a smiled curled up his lips, and his eyes went distant for a second. Perhaps he, too, felt what I thought to have felt in Calem's voice: that he pleaded to the villain's soul.
"Nobility is but a rare flower in a stone garden, children..." He sighed in a sad, conformed way "Regardless of how hard I try to nourish and protect it, it requires the freshness of the valley to thrive, the river's gushing current to drink from – when fed with polluted water, it will either grow as dirty, or wither away. I have grown tired of watching them wither..." And with that scarred conclusion, he was recomposed into the professional, serious and distant Lysandre, and his eyes turned back to me "Unlike my friend would have me do, I won't force you, Miss Anne.... But I do wish you would understand..." he emphasized, taking a broad step towards me. He had spoken enough for me to no longer flinch at his proximity: the threat he represented grown strangely mild, strangely tragic... "Join me with Team Flare and you'll know a world deserving of your efforts. You'll known respect, appreciation, all of which you could ever ask for."
I looked at Calem, consulting his eyes. And what did I look for in them? The same feeling I felt. The same strangled pity - that Lysandre would turn out to be a sad, lonely man no one could reach by now. That awareness instantly turned the battle to come into a much tougher one.
"Though I have done little in the form of proving its worth, you have my word on that! Now..." Lysandre resumed "Do I have your hand?"
And he stretched his arm, offering me his palm. I merely observed the gesture, short of adequate words to deny him so mad a dream, and yet such an ardent one.
"It is a no then?!" he sighed, his voice giving away a very composed, very rational disappointment. "Well, it can't be helped!" and he turned around, walking back and stopping amidst his employees, ready to face us.
Calem immediately chose a pokeball.
"I will proceed to stopping you both, for I won't allow any interference..." He spoke like it was nearly an apology.