Chapter 37: Righting Wrongs and Lefting Rights

Entry 3
Still nothing but stars. They glow like me. They’re warm like me. But they don’t move. Don’t talk.

Why am I here? What’s my purpose?

Entry 11
Found a big planet today. It’s warm and dusty, but I don’t sense anyone on it. I guess I’ll rest up here for a while. There’s still plenty to explore! 🙂

Entry 20
Finally reached a planet with life. My mind’s already racing with possibilities. What do they look like? How do they talk? What sorts of things can they do? Ooh, the anticipation is killing me! This is it. I’m going to have a home! With friends! 😀

Entry 21
No no no no no no no no

Entry 22
The city. Gone. I did that. It was just one attack. One energy ball. But now it’s

Entry 48
I don’t feel as sad today. 🙂

Entry 141
Another failure. My wings still hurt from all the Dark Pulses and Shadow Balls. I was only trying to help them. I’m only ever trying to help.

Why do they all hate me? Why can’t I just find a home? What does the universe have against me? ;–;

Entry 207
I slept in a star again. It’s the closest thing I’ve got to something soothing. Luckily my body protects this thing. I’d hate for you to go up in flames, journal. You’re all I’ve got against this awful universe.

Yuna came to on a cot. The fabric was rough against her ectoplasm. Almost sandpaper-like. So was the blanket on top of her, though she appreciated how dry it was compared to the swamp’s humidity. Groaning, the drakloak rolled over and stared at the gray, metal ceiling with long, slender bulbs giving off red-orange light.

“How are you feeling, Princess?”

When Yuna sat up, she found Noctum sitting on a metal folding chair, his tail awkwardly wedged into the gap in the back. His scales were damp but no longer covered in the silver antitoxin. The black charizard must’ve discarded his apron, because the Malice Crystal was clearly visible in his stomach, bathing his corner of the room in purple.

“I’ve been better.” Yuna rubbed her eyes with her arm. “But I guess I’ve also been worse.”

Upon lowering her arm, Yuna found Leo lying at the foot of the cot. His blue-yellow eyes sparkled. “That was a fun trick!” His starcloud tail wagged. “Can you teach me to play dead, too, Mom?”

So, her tired mind wasn’t playing a trick on her. The egg hatched into… some sort of cosmic ponyta thingy with a wheel around its stomach. And, not only did he share the name of a son that Bahamut apparently had, despite Aeon scriptures mentioning nothing about him, but he thought Yuna was his mother.

It might have been cute… if there weren’t terrifying implications behind it.

“Leo…” Yuna wrung her hands together. “Why are you calling me your mom? I, um—” The drakloak wasn’t sure how to phrase it delicately. “I’ve never laid an egg or anything.”

That didn’t bother Leo. If anything, it only piqued his curiosity. “You can make eggs? Does that mean you can make eatable eggs?” He hopped to his feet. “Because I don’t know what an omelet is, but I want one!”

Not the response I was expecting. Yuna resisted the urge to facepalm. Articulate or not, Leo was a kid. Which just makes all the knowledge he does have disturbing.

The cosmic not-ponyta had climbed onto Yuna’s lap. Her Soul Dew’s silver reflected in his bright eyes. “Um, is something the matter?” Yuna asked.

“No.” Despite the lack of a mouth, Leo sounded content. He pointed a gold-tipped forehoof at the Soul Dew. “I don’t know what that is, but that’s what makes you my mom.”

Yuna looked down, then at Noctum, who silently shrugged. She also realized Jade was sitting next to him. Well, she used “sitting” loosely, as the salugia was more awkwardly propping her butt against the wall.

She brushed that aside, however, as the drakloak’s mental gears hummed to life. Yuna wanted to dismiss Exodes’ words as inane blathering, but the visions she had went against that. Especially that last one.

Chiron had once lived within Eternatus. She had Malice in her aura. The lunala hadn’t bonded with her Soul Dew, yet she kept it on her person. And Reshiram had told her Soul Dews absorbed the knowledge and energy of their wearers over time.

So, what if… her family heirloom was actually Chiron’s Soul Dew? And that was somehow tricking these daemons into thinking she was Chiron?

Yes, that was it. Yuna’s mom gave her the Soul Dew when she was young… and the drakloak spent a lot of her youth in a sickly state. It had to be the Soul Dew’s doing, right?

But I could take it off back then and I can’t now.

“Mom?”

“Eep!” The drakloak’s tail crinkled.

Leo giggled. “Ooh, your tail went all vr-r-r-r-r-r!” He vibrated in place excitedly. “Do it again!”

Yuna’s tail straightened out, but rather than crinkling, she curled it up like a seashell. That still got a delight squeal from Leo, who awkwardly sat on his rump while trying to curl himself up. His wheel got in the way.

“I… whoomph… hang on! I’ll get it for sure!” He was nothing if not determined.

It was a cute sight. Yuna raised a hand and giggled into it. Even though she had panicked in the moment — and still didn’t understand exactly where Leo’s confusion came from — she couldn’t just crush the kid’s spirit by not playing along.

That said, Eternatus was no place for a hatchling to run around. If Yuna was going to parent Leo, she needed to at least get him out of here. And though the drakloak could open up a portal back to Venish here and now, there were loose ends that needed tightening up. Starting with…

“Jade?” Yuna looked at the salugia.

“Present!” She held up her right wing, then fell over on her right side with a squawk. Fortunately, her head just missed the metal file cabinet. “I’m okay.”

“Um, did anyone talk to you while—”

“While you were off in Lala Land? Yup!” Jade awkwardly rolled onto her belly, nodding vigorously. “Your entourage filled me in on all the deets. I was Lugia. I sacrificed myself to seal away some big, scary monster thing. Yadda yadda.” The salugia lazily twirled her right wing around. “Fast forward to now where you’re the only one with the power to properly free the other Sages which should definitely probably maybe stop Eterwhatever.”

She beamed at Noctum. “How was that?”

The black charizard offered a shaky thumbs up.

Jade fist pumped. “Nailed it.”

“I see.” Yuna blinked slowly. The fact that Exodes must’ve broken Jade’s Needle meant at least part of the salugia’s explanation was false, but the drakloak wasn’t in the mood for debating that part. “And, um, do you have any questions?”

“Only one.”

“Go on.”

The salugia hopped to her feet. “When do I get to help you kick some Ejerknatus butt, huh? Whoo-cha! Hiya!” Jade chopped the air around her with her wings. “Hoo-h—”

She slapped the file cabinet on her right and yanked her throbbing wing back. “Ow!” Jade tucked her right wing against her belly, tears glistening in the corner of her eyes. “Who puts a file cabinet in a bedroom?! I demand to speak with the manager!”

Leo tapped his forehooves together, giggling. “I like her. She’s funny.”

And a terrible influence, Yuna realized. Though there was something more concerning than Jade’s… reckless enthusiasm. “Hey, shouldn’t you have been sucked into the Soul Dew when I passed out?”

“Huh?” Jade looked up from nursing her wing. “You mean like it did to Cece?” She squinted at the Soul Dew. “I dunno what that fancy neck Roomba’s deal is, but it doesn’t speak to me or anything.”

That wasn’t good. The Sages were all dead, right? Yuna needed them in the Soul Dew or else they wouldn’t be able to leave Eternatus with her. And the drakloak shuddered at the thought of leaving Jade back here with the likes of Gene.

“I’m guessing the fact that her appearance has been distorted has something to do with it,” Noctum said, nervously tracing a black claw along his cream-colored belly. “Cyril said Malice can… warp auras in ways we hardly understand. I wouldn’t be surprised if Exodes siphoning her power made her incompatible with your Soul Dew.”

It was as good a theory as any, though it made Yuna guilty she hadn’t gotten to Jade sooner. And what was she going to tell Reshiram?

Actually, wait, where is he? The drakloak didn’t sense his presence around. Or Rayquaza’s either.

But as she thought about them, a small switch showed up in her mind’s eye. When Yuna probed it, a tiny, flailing Reshiram projected onto her shoulder.

“—isn’t she listening to me? I need to—”

Yuna flicked the mental switch again and Reshiram disappeared.

“Ooh, cool trick!” Leo clapped his hooves together. “You made Mr. Fluffy poof away!”

Yuna looked down at her Soul Dew, then up at Noctum. “You saw that, right?”

“I did.” The charizard nodded.

“I did, too!” Jade hopped beside Yuna’s cot. “Cece was so adorable! I could’ve eaten him up.” The salugia smooched the air.

But Yuna had no idea how she’d done that. Or even why.

Unless… did evolving give me better control over this thing? Yuna traced her hand around the Soul Dew. She shook her head. One thing at a time. She had to take care of Jade first. “So, um, you really want to help me?” Yuna whispered.

“Absolutely!” Jade stepped up and threw her left wing over the squeaking drakloak. “You got me out of that nightmare, Yunie! We’re BFFFs, now! Or B-Triple-Fs, if you prefer.”

“BFFFs?”

“Bestest flying friends forever!” Jade chirped. “I got your back, sister! Ain’t no Ejerknatus gonna rain on our parade! Ya feel me?” She made a fist with her left wing and held it in front of Yuna, who looked at it like it was a questionable piece of broccoli. “Psst! This is the part where we fist bump,” Jade whispered.

“Oh. S-Sorry.” Yuna shakily bumped Jade’s wing with her balled up hand.

“Nice!” Jade backed away. Yuna continued staring at her hand like someone had dunked it into a goodra’s belly slime. “We’ll have to come up with a secret handshake sometime. Maybe something like…” She raised both her wings and lightly punched the air. “Bump, bump!” Jade nuzzled the air. “Sugar!”

She was about to turn around and lift her tail when Yuna decided she’d had enough. “Okay!” The drakloak shot out of the cot. “I think we get the idea.”

The salugia blinked a few times. “Oh, doy!” She facepalmed. “Can’t be a secret with Nocty and Junior in the room. Good thinking!”

“Yes, fine, whatever.” Yuna rubbed her temples. “How about you take Leo and, uh, brainstorm some more secret handshake ideas.”

Leo tilted his head in confusion. Tail crinkling slightly, Yuna looked at him. “I need to have an, uh, private conversation with Noctum. So, go hang with Jade, okay?”

“Okay!” Leo nodded vigorously. To Yuna’s complete befuddlement, he vanished in a flash of blue light. Surprised squawking turned Yuna around where she found Leo standing upside down on Jade’s left wing. “How’s this? Am I hanging good?”

He can teleport. Because of course. Yuna wanted to panic. A child was bad enough. But one that could disappear at a moment’s notice? If not for her own rift-making abilities, that would have been a huge problem!

“It’s, uh, great.” The drakloak fought to stave off nervous laughter. “Keep hanging like that. And I’ll catch up with you soon.”

Jade hesitantly shuffled toward a black door. It slid open, offering a peek at a much larger room. Somehow, Leo remained on Jade’s wing the entire time. Once the door slid closed again, Yuna collapsed back on her cot, groaning. Her ectoplasm deflated. She’d have melted into the cot’s rough fabric if Noctum wasn’t there.

“Something on your mind?” The charizard sounded hesitant. The tapping of claws rang in Yuna’s ear frills.

“Everything’s on my mind!” Yuna threw her arms up in frustration. “I’ve never wanted to scream so badly in my life.”

“I see.” Noctum’s chair scraped against the floor. “Want me to find a pillow you can scream into?”

Yuna sighed. Bless Noctum for trying to cheer her up. “No.” She lifted her head. “You wouldn’t lie to me, right?”

“N-No.” Noctum was struggling not to look offended.

“So, if I were to ask you if I’m actually adopted?”

The charizard’s tail flame sparked. “Of course you aren’t!”

Yuna stared Noctum down. “Even though dragapult always lay twin eggs?”

Noctum shifted uneasily in his chair. “You know as well I that… your mother laid a bad egg alongside yours,” he whispered.

“And that’s the truth?”

That one hurt him. “Where is this coming from?”

Yuna hoped to stall longer to figure out a good way to explain everything, but she’d run out of time. So, the drakloak looped Noctum in on everything; Reshiram’s lies, his outburst, and the visions she got from breaking Jade’s barrier.

“I see.” Noctum hunched over, tapping the Malice Crystal in his belly. “That’s definitely a lot to take in.”

“And, like, I’d have been willing to dismiss the stuff in the frozen desert as a coincidence, but now… I’m not so sure.” Yuna shook her head. “I could’ve seen there being other light dragons, but I saw Bahamut in that vision. He was… not all that warm. Or patient. It was brief… but his attitude felt closer to the monster Razim described.”

A shudder rippled from the drakloak’s head to her tail. “The Sage of Truth lied to everyone, including Bahamut. And that stuff about the greater good… doesn’t line up with our scriptures at all. The Sages taught us not to leave people behind, yet Reshiram was ready to sacrifice all those skorps without even a bit of hesitation.” Yuna gripped her head and shook it. She sat at the edge of the cot, staring at the steel floor below her.

“What if we’re wrong?” she whispered. “About the Sages. About Bahamut.” Yuna shuddered. “What if… the whole kingdom was founded on a bed of lies?”

Noctum’s initial silence spoke volumes. A rock might as well have dropped in Yuna’s stomach at that point.

“I, uh, think it’s a bit too early to jump to any rash conclusions?” Noctum rubbed the back of his head.

That didn’t convince Yuna. “None of the scriptures mention Bahamut having a wife and a child. A wife whose Soul Dew my family somehow got, which means something serious happened in the past.”

Her expression sharpened. “‘A lie by omission is still a lie.’ That’s one of Reshiram’s proverbs.”

“You got me there,” Noctum said, tail flame shrinking. He wriggled his butt until his tail was free from the back of the folding chair, then stood up. “But what does that really change?”

“Uh, everything?” Yuna couldn’t believe he’d ask that.

Noctum shook his head. “Sorry, I should’ve been clearer. What does that change about this moment?” He pointed to the steel floor. “Eternatus is still a threat to our home, right? And the way to protect it goes through the Needles.”

He was right. And Yuna hated he was right. “Uggggh.” She flopped back on the bed, kicking up her nubby feet and her tail. “I knoooooow. But I don’t want to pull any more Needles.” Yuna smooshed her hands against her eyelids. “I’m… afraid of what I’ll see.”

A scaly hand brushed Yuna’s head. She poked an eye open to find Noctum sitting on her right, holding his tail up with his right hand.

“I’m afraid for you,” he said. “Your mom and dad sent me with you to help keep you safe. But time and again, I’m letting you down. Letting them down.”

“No.” Yuna sat up and put her right hand on his left shoulder. “None of this is your fault. There’s a lot going on here that’s out of our control.” It frustrated her, but Yuna was glad to finally say it out loud. “I know pulling the Needles is the right thing to do. I just hate that it comes with personal consequences.”

Her shoulders sagged. Yuna’s hand slipped off Noctum’s shoulder and dropped to the coarse, itchy cot. “Does that make me selfish?”

“I think… it makes you a pokémon.” Soft laughter rumbled from Noctum’s belly.

Yuna relaxed a bit, adding a chuckle of her own.

“And, hey, it could be worse.” Noctum shrugged. “Pulling the Needles could make you vanish. Like the hero in Shaymin the Wanderer: Sky Explorers.” He gently elbowed Yuna’s side. “You remember how I’d read it to you, like, once or twice a year when you were cooped up in bed?”

“And somehow it never got stale.” Yuna’s mind drifted back to those simpler times. Lying on her feathery bed while Noctum sat in a carved rocking chair with the leatherbound book resting on his lap.

“Well, you certainly liked it more than its sequel.” Noctum chuckled to himself. “You’d always complain it was too boring.”

Yuna puffed her cheeks out. “You weren’t much better! Sometimes you’d fall asleep in the middle of reading it.” She shook her head. “Besides, I’ve come to appreciate Gates of Eternity. Maybe the overall narrative isn’t as gripping, but it has excellent character moments.”

“Fair enough. You must’ve grown to like it, since you got me that limited-edition Gates of Eternity stamp set.” Smiling, Noctum stuck his tongue out at Yuna.

Well, Mom did. Yuna shrugged back, grinning sheepishly.

It was a welcome reprieve, but one that sadly had to come to end.

Sighing, Yuna floated up. “Thanks, Noctum. But I need a minute alone with the Sages, okay?”

Noctum got to his feet, nodding. “Of course, Princess. I’ll wait right outside.” He headed for the door, which slid open to let him out.

Yuna flicked that mental switch again. This time, small projections of Reshiram and Rayquaza shot out onto the top of the file cabinet. The drakloak put on as firm of an expression as she could manage. Reshiram immediately withered.

“I see thou hast figured out a way to pause our connection.” Rayquaza bobbed his black head approvingly. “Smashing job, Princess.”

“Save it.” Yuna flinched at her own voice. Rayquaza wasn’t the one to be harsh with. She looked at Reshiram. “Well? Anything you want to say?”

“I’m… sorry?” Reshiram pecked at the top of the file cabinet like someone had spread birdseed on it. “That outburst was… wrong. And it won’t happen again.”

Yuna stared in disbelief. He sounded like Yuna had caught him with a wing in a cookie jar! This was way more serious! “You hurt people in a blind rage. I can’t just brush that aside.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “And you went against the very principles you used to teach.”

Reshiram flinched. “I, uh— c-c’mon, my wife was captured…” He poked his claws together nervously. “I was desperate.” He frowned at her. “What if… it was Noctum in that barrier? What would you have done, huh?”

She hadn’t expected that one, but Yuna couldn’t back down. “I wouldn’t torch a bunch of hostages!” The drakloak loomed over Reshiram’s tiny projection. “And maybe I could move on from this… but there was that cold thing you said about sacrificing for the greater good.

“We don’t talk like that in the Aeon Kingdom,” she continued. “And we built ourselves around your teachings.” Yuna dangled her hand over Reshiram, like she was going to squish him. “Clearly we have different views on who Bahamut was as a person. So, tell me what you know.”

Reshiram looked nervously at Rayquaza who, in turn, stared at the red-tipped fins on his tail. “Sir Bahamut… was a complicated individual. I believe he meant well… however he doth possessed a frightening temper. One that reared its head… more than we liketh to admit.”

Yuna’s throat tightened. That was the very thing she didn’t want to hear.

“He was always worried something was going to ruin the planet,” Reshiram whispered. “It made him… a bit of a control freak. Life around the planet needed to go exactly the way he wanted it to.” He turned away from Yuna and Rayquaza. “One time… I think I found, like, a journal of his? It had his eight-pointed star on the cover, but it also had a bunch of circles and triangles in some weird pattern.

“I took a peek. There were a lot of poems. Weird things I didn’t understand.” Reshiram wrapped himself up with his wings. “Some of his entries, though… gave me the sense he was a worryingly lonely person before Etherium. It was almost like…” He lowered his head. “Like he viewed the planet as his last chance to find a home.”

Much as Yuna didn’t want to believe Reshiram, it explained a few things. Why the scriptures described Bahamut as a traveler before he created Etherium. And Chiron mentioned Bahamut living on some planet called Earth, which he apparently disliked. Bad experiences on other, life-bearing planets could certainly make someone lonely. Lonely and bitter.

But why did this have to come up now, while the world was facing a crisis? The visions made pulling the Needles tough enough. Yuna didn’t think she had the mental fortitude to fight off constant festering doubts. Like…

Yuna squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t look the Sages in the eye for this one. “Did… did you know about Chiron? That she was part of Eternatus?”

The drakloak kept her eyes shut, silently praying they knew and were okay with it.

“I always had a hunch she was hiding something, but I never knew what,” Reshiram responded.

Yuna winced. What about Bahamut, then?

She couldn’t help but flip that mental switch in her head. When Yuna opened her eyes, both Sages were gone. She looked left, then right.

Groaning, Yuna slapped her hands against the top of the file cabinet. “Arrrrrrrrrggggh! Why did I have to get dragged into this?! Why couldn’t it have been literally any other dragon?!” She slapped the file cabinet again, then lay her head atop it. “I can’t even pray to Bahamut for guidance… because it turns out his guidance is worthless!”

There were knocks at the door. Yuna’s head shot up. “What?” she barked.

“Yeah, uh…” Artemis’ voice trailed off. “Your kid got outside the tar plant and he’s staring at this… weird pillar of distortion. No one knows how it got here, either.”

Yuna looked at the ceiling, fighting back the urge to slam her head against the cabinet. Why couldn’t Leo have hatched sickly like she did?

“Okay. I’ll just—” The drakloak didn’t even wait for the door to slide open. She phrased through and immediately veered right, ignoring Noctum’s voice, where green light from outside filtered through a much larger door. Yuna sped through it and out onto the metal platform stationed over the tar.

“Leo? Leo!” Yuna cupped her hands around her mouth. Good thing she had evolved. Her voice was several degrees louder than it used to be.

“Over here, Mom!”

Yuna turned right and rounded the corner. The platform continued following the factory, but there was a part in the middle that jutted out from under the shade of the processing plant’s roof. And it was there that Leo sat in front of a purple, flickering light pillar. There were thousands of tiny, glitchy cubes stacked up to make it. Jade looked between him and Yuna, while multiple skorp sat close to the factory, exchanging hushed whispers.

“Ooh, poor Skorp, eh!” A skorp in a hardhat skittered back and forth in a panic. “He was fixing up that ship fer Gene and just got all schwoomped up into that thing.”

“Leo, get back from there!” Yuna floated closer to him. “It looks dangerous.”

He tilted his starcloud head. “Are you sure? It’s calling to me. I can hear it.”

“Well, uh, maybe you got some broccoli in those ear frills.” Jade crossed her wings. “Because I don’t hear anything.”

Leo looked back at Yuna. “Don’t you hear it, Mom?”

The moment the drakloak reached his side, soft whispers reached her ear frills.

“Heed my words. Come and see me. Heed my words.”

“Come and see me.” Leo’s starcloud tail slowly brushed back and forth against the grated metal. “Can we see him?”

Yuna immediately grabbed Leo’s wheel to pull him away. “Has anyone else gotten close to that thing?” She looked at the skorps, who all shook their heads in unison.

“I tried,” Jade admitted, right wing obediently raised. “But it was like there was a forcefield around it or something. Check it.” The salugia waddled closer to the pillar… and bonked into something invisible. “Whoomph!” She stepped back, rubbing her snout with her left wing.

“See, Leo?” Yuna tightened her grip on his wheel. “We can’t go in it. So, how about we go back inside?”

“But it’s waving at us,” Leo whimpered. “Don’t you see it?”

Yuna followed Leo’s gaze. Some of the purple cubes moved back and forth quickly. Yuna would hardly call it a wave, but it was different.

Still, her mind was made up. The lecture on talking to strangers could wait. Yuna tugged on Leo’s wheel, hoping to pull him away from the pillar. When she did, however, familiar black shadows pooled in her hands and feet and the wheel around Leo’s torso glowed.

“Whoa, hey, what are you doing?!” Jade squawked.

Yuna couldn’t respond, because the pillar was getting closer!

It only took seconds for the purple cubes to swallow Yuna and Leo up. There were a few seconds of weightlessness, then Leo’s golden hooves tapped against a glass floor. Yuna looked around in a panic.

The inside of the pillar was… deceptively large, but just as purple. There were giant double helix projections twirling all around the glass platform. In the distance, Yuna swore there were pokémon silhouettes, however she couldn’t make them out clearly.

“Look, Mom, a braviary!” Leo chirped. “And it’s in the air without flapping its wings!” He hopped up and down excitedly.

Yuna followed his gaze and found a braviary — or, rather, a projection of one — floating several meters away from them, legs crossed and wings clasped together. Like with Jade, however, something was off beyond Braviary not flapping his wings to stay airborne. His body had gray feathers instead of blue. And his white head plume was way too big, with glowing pink feathers in front of it. Almost as if he was channeling psychic energy.

“But that can’t be right,” Yuna muttered.

Braviary opened his eyes. “Hm?” He met Yuna’s gaze. “Ah, I can see you! I can see you!” He flapped his wings excitedly. “Can you see me?”

Yuna was hesitant to respond. Leo wasn’t, however. “We sure can! I’m Leo!” He puffed his astral chest out.

The drakloak sighed. Maybe I should’ve given him the “don’t talk to strangers” lecture after all.

“Very nice to meet you, Leo.” Braviary bobbed his head politely. He landed on the glass floor and raised his right wing.

“I am unofficially known as the Lorekeeper of Dimension POV-2020. But that’s quite the mouthful, so why don’t you call me Alder?”