Chapter 2: Inherited Fate

Fabian’s consciousness didn’t fully return to him until he was halfway down to the lowest basement floor, and if it weren’t for the constant psychic alarms pounding against his skull, he might’ve forgotten why he was headed that way in the first place. It took a lot of effort to shake the grogginess off, but he had no choice. After all, there was a chance that Fabian would be the first Guild member on the scene. He had to be ready for anything.

From the corner of his eye, Fabian spotted a Typhlosion who was rushing her way down the stairs with even more purpose than Fabian was, wearing no Guild accessories on her person. “Hey, get back here!” he shouted. He lunged at her, tackling her down the stairs until they tumbled into the bottom floor of the Guild. She grabbed Fabian by the neck and tossed him across the room and into a wall, the resulting impact producing a loud cracking noise. Fabian wasn’t sure if that sound came from the wall or his spine.

Fabian rubbed his eyes and took in the surroundings. He had landed right next to a Cacturne who was wrapped up in so many chains that it was impossible to see anything below his neck. He looked to be a young adult, but there was something about his nearly-imperceptible smile that implied decades of maturity and experience. The Typhlosion, on the other hand, could not have looked less serene as she desperately pulled against the chains, unable to melt any of the links without burning the Cacturne.

Then Fabian noticed one more person in the cell. A female Feraligatr, standing on the sidelines as the Typhlosion did her work. “M-Mom?” Fabian asked hesitantly. There was no mistake. It was Fabian’s mom, just standing there while the Typhlosion tried to set a criminal free. “What are you doing?” Fabian shouted. “You gotta stop them!” She turned away from him.

His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of breaking glass coming from the doorway. He whipped his head in the direction of the sound to find that the door was completely gone, replaced by a slab of concrete that was identical to the walls that surrounded it. Fabian instantly recognized the arrogant Zigzagoon standing beside it as Nero Moreno, the son of the most dangerous criminal in the world. “You’re the guildmaster’s kid, yes?” he asked, wearing a smug grin. “I’m quite sorry about sealing you inside with us. If I were you, I’d get on my knees and beg for mercy. Who knows, maybe if you look pathetic enough, you’ll amuse my father so much that he’ll spare you!”

“Shut up!” Fabian yelled, charging towards him with his mouth hanging open, ready to clamp down at any moment. Nero deftly evaded him and struck at his back, reopening a wound he collected yesterday.

This would’ve been the easiest fight in the world if he wasn’t still dizzy from the blood loss. Nero’s strikes were too weak to truly hurt Fabian, even when his wounds were being reopened left and right. But Nero was way too fast for Fabian to have time to bite down on him, and throwing punches was never his specialty.

The Cacturne began speaking, distracting both Fabian and Nero. “There’s no need to look so distraught, Mai,” he said to the Typhlosion, his voice both gravelly and slightly whimsical. “Whether I die or I live, the world will move forward just the same. As long as that holds true, we will one day prevail.”

“Don’t talk like that!” Mai shouted, having resorted to trying to pull the chains apart. “You said you’ve been around for five hundred years, right? You’ve made it through worse than this, I’m sure of it!” The Cacturne chuckled with a pitying tone and, for a single moment, stared directly at Fabian. A shiver went down his spine.

Nero went in for a headbutt, and Fabian just blocked it with his arm. “Mom, do something!” he called out to no avail. “Anything! They’re gonna… they’re gonna escape?” Now that Fabian thought about it, the only exit was sealed off. Escape was impossible. He narrowed his eyes at Nero. “Wait, how are you gonna get out of here-”

The floor beneath him erupted, and he had to dive forwards to avoid falling through. The very first thing he noticed about the new arrival was the necklace they wore, more specifically, the shard of his father’s broken tusk that adorned it. Fabian’s eyes shot wide open, his heart racing as he came to understand the true scope of this catastrophe in the making. Claudius Moreno had infiltrated the Guild, and nobody could get in to stop him.

Without skipping a beat, Fabian’s mom leapt into the air into a front flip, slamming an Aqua Tail into the Krookodile’s snout as she landed. He skidded backwards upon impact, but didn’t lose his footing.

Claudius cocked a grin. “Hey, nice hit, Iris! Who’d have thought, the weakest link is finally good for something! Guess that means I owe Wally a thousand Poké!” He knelt to the ground and spread his claws against it. “Tell me, when you die, do you want me to tell your loving husband about your little betrayal? Or do you think he’ll be happier thinking you’re just another innocent victim of mine?”

“H-Hey, she’s not betraying us!” Fabian shouted without thinking. “She… she’s got a good reason for being here, I’m sure of it!” He tried his best to pay no attention to the ashamed look on his mother’s face.

Claudius took his hand off of the ground, stared at Fabian for a moment, and widened his grin. “Oh, now this is rich! The drama is just-”

Mai grabbed Claudius’s claw. “Leave them alone!” she growled. As soon as Claudius turned to look at her, Mai shot out a huge Fire Blast from her mouth. The whole room filled with smoke, and Fabian dared to hope that the point-blank blast was enough to finish him off.

But the smoke cleared, and he was still standing there, and the only sign that the fire even happened was a small pile of soot on his snout. As he turned back towards Fabian, he halfheartedly swatted the back of his claw at her, sending her crashing into the wall so forcefully that the impact left a crater.

He brushed some ash off of his shoulder. “Now, where were we?” he asked, approaching Fabian. Claudius was twice as tall as Fabian, and the way that Claudius looked down on him made him feel even smaller. His back was to the wall, yet he still tried to back away on instinct. “Y’know, there’s actually a pretty interesting flaw with the whole Guild setup you’ve got going here,” he said, pressing a claw against Fabian’s neck. Fabian couldn’t look down in this position, and he had too much adrenaline to feel pain anymore, but he could feel a thin trail of blood running down from his neck to his body. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but if there’s nobody left to take over as Guildmaster, then the whole guild falls apart, doesn’t it?”

Fabian’s mom tackled Claudius to the ground, and Fabian scrambled away, clutching at his neck until he bumped into someone and fell on his back. After only a second, he realized who he had bumped into, and it took everything he had to stop himself from screaming. “D-Don’t kill me!” were the only words that came to mind when he looked at the Cacturne.

The Cacturne smiled weakly at him, before looking towards the action. “It’s unfair, isn’t it?” he mused. “Your mother will fight to the best of her ability, but to no avail. In the end, she will die here.”

“Hey, you don’t know that!” Fabian snapped, averting his eyes as Claudius striked his mom’s neck.

He shook his head. “I’m afraid I do. You are aware of my status as Dialga’s Successor, correct?” He waited for Fabian to nod before continuing. “That power grants me the capacity to catch a glimpse into fate. She is destined to face death tonight, much like you and I.”

“But- but that’s stupid!” Fabian protested. “There’s gotta be something I can do!”

“As far as the laws that govern this world are concerned, every decision we make is destined to be made and every emotion we feel is a mere byproduct of fate,” he said, resting his eyes. “What is meant to be, will be. Such is the way of this world.”

Things were getting worse. Even as Fabian’s mom teamed up with Mai, they couldn’t leave so much as a scratch on Claudius. Water attacks were supposed to be his weakness, but he brushed them off just as easily as the fire. Fabian had been told countless times that Claudius Moreno was the most dangerous man in the world, but he never truly understood what that meant until that very moment. Fabian curled a fist. “No! All of this is wrong! I don’t care what the universe says, my mom’s not gonna die here! There has to be a way I can change that, there’s gotta be!”

Claudius placed a hand on the ground, and sharp spikes shot out from the ground, impaling Fabian’s mom through the chest.

The Cacturne faced Nero directly. “I wouldn’t describe that as impossible for you, per se, but in doing so, you would inadvertently become an enemy of fate.”

“I don’t even know what that means!” Fabian yelled, clutching his forehead. “What about you? Is there something you can do?”

“I’m afraid my hands are tied, as it were. Without anything short of divine intervention, your mother will die. Yet another victim of fate, doomed to be forgotten by history.”

There was no way that the Cacturne could’ve been right. Fabian was in charge of his fate. He wasn’t going to let anyone take someone he loved away from him, no matter who tried. He rose up and snarled at Claudius. “Leave my mom alone-”

Claudius flicked a claw in Fabian’s direction, sending a paper-thin gust of dark purple wind shooting towards Fabian. He had no time to blink before it cleaved through his scales and into his flesh, sending him flying back into the wall, adding yet another crater to the room. “Oy, Nero! Finish this kid off for me, will ya?”

Nero was fast approaching from the other side of the room, Fabian’s mom was on the ground, covered in wounds, Mai was completely immobilized, and there wasn’t a single glimmer of hope in the room. But Fabian had an idea. He knew it was a terrible idea, and that his life would have to end if he succeeded, but if he did it right, there was a chance that he could at least save his mom.

If fate decided that they had to die there, then all Fabian needed to do was change fate. And if he understood Dorinel’s lesson on Succession as well as he thought he did, then he knew a way that he could obtain the power to do so. He shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and brandished a sharp piece of rubble at the Cacturne, his hands trembling so much that he needed to focus on not dropping it. Mai gasped and readied a Fire Blast in their direction, but the Cacturne shook his head at her. Her eyes widened and her lower lip trembled, but she looked away.

Nero was almost there, so it was now or never. Fabian closed his eyes and plunged the rock into the Cacturne’s neck.

For a moment, everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at him. Fabian’s mom covered her mouth with her hands, Nero’s eyes widened, and even Claudius’s jaw hung open. Fabian pulled the rock out, and after a few agonizing seconds where the only sound in the world was the noise of the Cacturne choking on blood, Fabian’s vision went pure white.

“Just shut up already!” Fabian snapped. “Stop talking about the world like you’ve got it all figured out! You don’t know a single thing about it! You gave up on it years ago!”

“I… what?” Fabian didn’t speak, but his thoughts echoed without end. “Was that my voice?”

“Why are you still here?!” Nero shouted, his voice so hoarse that his pleas were nearly inaudible. “Do you have any idea how easy it was before you came along?”

Sofia didn’t think she could do it until she saw Smoke’s face one more time. But now, as the cruel monster who scarred him so deeply stared her down with a carefree smirk, she knew what she had to do. She was going to save him, whatever it took.

Iris Vanadis wore a calm, peaceful smile in her final moments. Fabian thrashed against his chains like a feral beast until the very moment that the sun arrived on the horizon, but it was for nothing. Atlas raised his arms to the sky, and golden orbs of light began to envelop her.

“Mom? What’s happening? I don’t- I just-”

Everything around him flashed pure white once again, save for the Cacturne, who stood several feet ahead of him. “That was fate, in its purest form. Our shared divine power amplified your ability to perceive it.”

“Shared?” Fabian asked. “Hold on, shouldn’t you be dead? Are you a ghost?”

“No, I’m neither dead nor alive. Currently, we exist during the exact moment in which I’ve died, not an iota of a second sooner or later. Only in this infinitesimally small window can we combine our powers and see beyond the span of a few days with such accuracy.”

Everything that the Cacturne said about fate didn’t feel real until Fabian experienced the full force of it for himself. “So that was all stuff that’s going to happen? My mom’s fated to… have whatever that was happen to her?”

“It is simply the natural flow of events. Allow me try to explain it to you: if you were to pour a bottle of water from the summit of a mountain, w0uld you describe the path it takes to the bottom as predetermined?”

“Uh… I guess so?” Fabian answered. “I mean, it’s not like the water can choose where it goes. It’s more up to the terrain, right?”

“Exactly. Try to think of the water as time and the mountain’s terrain as fate. To put it simply, time travels down the path that fate sets for it. Dialga’s power analyzes the ‘terrain’ of fate, manifests a flawless prediction of how it will affect the course of time, and as a result, gives you the opportunity to manipulate the ‘terrain’ to your advantage.”

“I… don’t really get it.” Fabian admitted. “But are you saying that I can change things before everything I saw comes true?”

“In essence, yes. As I’ve told you, you are fated to die here. If you wish to alter fate and escape this situation with your life, you must act.”

Fabian wasn’t even thinking about saving his own life. Having done what he did, he accepted that it was basically over already. His only goals were to keep his mom safe, and to make sure that Claudius didn’t get access to any Successor powers. “Got it,” he said.

“Wonderful,” the Cacturne said. “Our time together is almost up. Is there anything else you’d like to ask about?”

There were probably millions of pertinent questions that Fabian could’ve had answered at that moment, but he was completely drawing a blank. “Uh…” he stammered, as the Cacturne began to fade away. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure what the Cacturne’s name was, and now, that was the only thing he could think about. “What’s your name?” he asked.

The Cacturne paused. “If you need a name, I suppose you could call me Dell.”

Nero jumped at Fabian from behind and jammed a Silver Spike into the wound that Claudius created. Fabian roared in pain as Nero twisted the spike inward. This was the most pain he had ever experienced, and it only took moments before he passed out.

As soon as Fabian opened his eyes and couldn’t see Nero, he spun around to see Nero approaching him just as he did in the vision. He grabbed him by the neck, forcing him to drop the Silver Spike he held in his maw.

“Pay attention, runt!” Claudius yelled as he continued to brutalize Fabian’s mom. “What did I tell you about getting cocky?”

Nero swung his lower body forward and kicked at an especially gruesome gash on Fabian’s chest. He clutched onto his wound without meaning to, dropping Nero in the process. He grabbed the Silver Spike before Nero could get his paws on it again, and he felt another vision coming on.

With Fabian’s mom taken care of, Claudius had only one thing left to do. He grabbed the Silver Spike from Fabian’s corpse and, with a malicious gleam in his eye, plunged it into Mai’s chest. As soon as she stopped choking, he disappeared along with Nero, who lied unconscious on the opposite side of the room.

He had barely regained his focus when Nero went in for another strike. “I’m getting real sick of you!” Fabian shouted as he turned around, kicking the Zigzagoon back. Fabian ran further away from him, trying to buy more planning time.

“How did Claudius and Nero disappear like that?” he wondered. “If we can find a way to do that, we might make it out of here!”

Nero chased him down, and went in for another Headbutt. Fabian tried to move out of the way, but to his horror, his leg wouldn’t respond. His injuries were finally getting the better of him, and he fell to the ground. Just before Nero could commit to the attack, an intense burst of flame from somewhere behind Fabian intercepted him, forcing him to hold back.

“Kid, are you alright?” Mai asked, crawling towards Fabian. “C’mon, you can see the future now, right? How do we get you out of here? We can’t let Claudius get his claws on our powers! The whole world’s riding on this!”

Fabian tried to pull himself up, but his right leg was still completely unresponsive. “Uh, I saw Claudius killing you, and then he disappeared! Nero did too, so maybe if we can do whatever he did, we can escape!”

Mai pondered this for a moment while Nero hid behind a pile of rubble, no doubt waiting for an opening to strike. “Teleportation? If it happened right after he killed me, it might’ve been a Successor Burst.” Fabian stared at her blankly. “That’s the word for when your powers get really strong for a second right after Succeeding someone.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember something like that happening,” Fabian said, before taking a second to consider the implications of what she just said. “Wait, wouldn’t you have to die for that to work?”

She locked eyes with Fabian. “I’ll do what it takes. Promise me that you’ll take care of Dell’s power, okay?”

“I- what?” Fabian asked. “Hold on, you’re not gonna turn my mom into a Successor are you? ‘Cause I won’t let you!”

Mai shook her head. “That wouldn’t work. She already is one.”

“She- WHAT?”

“There are only two living Pokémon left in this room who aren’t Successors,” she continued. “And needless to say, Claudius is out of the question. That only leaves us with one choice.”

Fabian was just about ready to pass out a few seconds ago, but now, his heart was racing faster than ever. “You mean Nero? That’s just as bad as giving it to Claudius! He’ll just make Nero do whatever he wanted to do!”

Claudius continued pummeling Fabian’s mom. By all means, he could’ve killed her by now, but judging by the twisted smile on his face, he was having too much fun to end it. “You don’t know him very well, do you?” Mai asked with a melancholy smile. “Claude- sorry, Claudius isn’t capable of trust. He wouldn’t even think about relying on someone else to do something so important. If his son obtained my power, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’d kill him without a second thought. Nero’s all too aware of that, I’m sure.”

With the Silver Spike in his maw, Nero charged at Fabian once again. Claudius whipped his head in Nero’s direction and shouted, “Nero, stay away from her!”

Nero crashed into Fabian, sending him off-balance.

Fabian dodged to the side and grabbed Nero by the neck once again, this time holding him far enough away so that he couldn’t retaliate again. Nero’s eyes widened as Fabian pressed his body against Mai, and not wanting to see what happened next, Fabian shut his eyes. He first heard the all-too-familiar sound of breaking flesh, then a furious roar from Claudius, then at last, silence.