Chapter 40: Hardly Ingenious

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The silence was almost as thick as the air above the tar pits. During Gene’s tale, he produced a scrapbook. Yuna took it and thumbed through pictures, like Nova nibbling on Gene’s cheek while the mewtwo tried to shove him off, or Nova clinking glasses with Zacian and Zamazenta.

Her headache slowly returned. Every picture of Nova made her think of Xeromus. The chains around his legs… looked like the soft anklets around Nova’s. And some of Nova’s photos showed him in a royal blue cloak, while Xeromus had a black, tattered one with a hood.

Those couldn’t be coincidences. Not with everything else Yuna had seen so far. But what was she supposed to say? That she knew where Gene’s apparent boyfriend was? That he had become some sort of Eternatus-obsessed whacko?

… No, she couldn’t jump to conclusions. Not yet. Not when Gene could rip her to tiny, ectoplasmic shreds if she pissed him off.

“Are we done, then?” Gene’s Malice Crystal flashed. The scrapbook dissolved out of Yuna’s hands, leaving her grasping at hazy air.

“That’s a pretty tall tale,” Valkyrie grunted. Squeaking, Yuna shot higher in the air. At some point, the others in the group had moved behind her. Probably to look at the scrapbook, too.

“Well, it’s the truth.” Gene turned away, snorting.

“Really?” Valkyrie narrowed her eyes. “You expect me to believe you were put in stasis for thousands of years with no issues at all?”

“Hardly,” Gene scoffed. “Until recently, time moved much slower in Eternatus than it did outside of it. My only guess is that’s related to this Needle nonsense.” The mewtwo shook his head. “But that’s all tangential.”

He turned to Yuna. “You called me callous and uncaring. And I am. Because I was never fully ‘deprogrammed.’ All those instincts are still there.” He put his right hand on his chest and looked at Yuna. “That’s what that ‘outburst’ was.”

“Yeah.” Yuna already got that. “Then all the sarcastic jokes—”

“Are how I cope.” Gene crossed his arms, scowling. “Humor’s a healthy defense mechanism. So is directing my anger toward the emperor’s flunkies.” His Malice Crystal flashed purple. “It’s called sublimation. Look it up.”

Yuna’s gaze fell. She didn’t have a retort. Mainly because the stuff about defense mechanisms was beyond her. Noctum stepped to her side, however. “What if you’re mistaken about some things?” He rubbed his right temple. “I… I can’t see Bahamut—”

“I know what I saw,” Gene growled, tail lashing at the air. He looked toward a trio of large gears turning slowly in their sockets. “No one came back from the mission to stop Matriarch but him.”

“Then this ‘Matriarch’ thing is still active?” Seifer wondered.

“No.” Gene looked down. “Paradox’s sermons and announcements mentioned Matriarch going offline many times. He clearly filled the power void left behind.” The mewtwo clenched his fists. “Nova succeeded in his goal… only for that bastard to stab him in the back.”

Noctum’s tail flame flickered. “But… his own wife and son?”

“That wasn’t the last time I fought him,” Gene responded. He lifted a clenched fist. “We’ve crossed paths several times. I’ve beaten him every time, but he keeps… pulling himself back together when he should have eroded into a Phantom. And he always fled through a checkered portal.”

Yuna stayed silent, but she believed Gene. It matched up too well with what the Sages had told her. Razim’s tale, too.

But, still, sacrificing an entire planet to Eternatus because he was upset?

Have we really been worshipping a monster? The drakloak shuddered, trying to stuff that thought into the back of her mind.

Fortunately, Nikki offered a convenient distraction. “What about Mew, then? Did you ever try and find her again?”

Any hope Yuna had for a reasonable explanation dissipated the moment Gene cringed. “Mew’s gone. They all are.”

Nikki shifted about uneasily. “Gone as in—”

“Killed, obviously,” Valkyrie snorted.

“That would’ve been a better fate,” Gene whispered, flinching again. “The emperor’s troops rounded them all up for experimentation.” He turned to Noctum and Seifer. “The people you’ve seen with all sorts of mutations are the results of Paradox’s experiments.” He approached the edge of the factory platform and looked out at the bubbling tar. “Every mew… ground up into cells and DNA for Paradox’s machinations.”

“But they were already dead, weren’t they?” Nikki scratched her head. “That’s what happens to people who end up here and junk. How can they be killed again?“

“Chompy’s being blunt.” Gene rolled his eyes. “The mew souls eroded into Phantoms.”

Seifer frowned. “But wouldn’t that have taken their bodies, too? Or maybe the mew can possess anyone who has a mutation?”

Gene’s tail flicked right. “Not if the emperor had a way to purge a soul from a body. Which he does,” he ominously declared.

An uneasy silence hung over the group, until Jade managed to say, “And you’re sure of this?”

“Cyril got some documents about all this from one of the emperor’s data servers,” Gene said, shaking his head.

“Oh.” Jade looked down guiltily. Yuna worried that the salugia thought she had received some of those mutations. She considered mentioning Jade had been asleep in the Needle the whole time, but she couldn’t prove that was completely true.

“Now are we done here?” Gene walked back toward them. The mewtwo rested his hands behind his dark gray head. “I’ve had enough sob storying to last the next year. There’s work to be done, right? Nothing’s gonna happen if we stand around staring at each other.”

The group exchanged uneasy looks. Yuna caught Leo’s attention. His eyes flickered with determination. The cosmic arceus was probably thinking about what Alder had told him.

Planet Chakran. Is that even in our dimension? Yuna wondered, since that was definitely where the drakloak needed to go. Though she shuddered at the thought of dropping the omniverse revelation on everyone’s laps after what Gene had told them.

Plus, there was still the matter of the sailors. Yuna couldn’t move on from that. It wasn’t right. They deserved some sort of closure from this.

“We should start with the sailors,” the drakloak said. Gene met her with a look that told her to try again. “I’m serious.” Yuna steeled her resolve. “Whether some of them are stuck here or not, they don’t deserve to be dumped off somewhere else inside Eternatus and left to fend for themselves.” She floated closer to Gene. “I see that ending with them eroding into Phantoms.”

“The emperor has intake stations for ‘refugees’ all over the damn empire.” Gene waved Yuna off with his left hand. “It’s easier to dump them on his lap.”

“Why, so they can get sucked into Paradox’s schemes?” Yuna countered. “I’m not leaving them like this.”

Rolling his eyes, Gene gestured to his left. “Then by all means, go back to the swamp and talk to them. No one’s saying you can’t.”

“No, but I’m asking you to join me.” Yuna tapped her right hand against the Soul Dew. “You know a lot more about all of this than I do. So, help a girl out, will you?”

Again, silence. Gene squinted. “Why do you even care about them? They’re strangers.”

Nikki snorted. “Probably her inner princess.”

“Because, even if I don’t know them, Aeons don’t leave other Aeons behind,” Yuna said, her expression sharpening. She held up her right hand. “Even if they’re not Aeons, it’s the principle. They didn’t do anything to wrong me. We shouldn’t wrong them when they’re already victims of circumstance.”

She looked at the others. Jade applauded with her wings and Leo was positively mesmerized. Noctum wore a proud grin and Yuna thought he might tear up then and there.

“… tch. Fine.” Gene floated over to Yuna’s side. “Gimme a minute or two to, uh, soften them up for you. Or something.” He drifted away, scowling, before opening a rift and disappearing into it. Yuna watched the dark gray mewtwo go with a sigh.

“Now what?” Quetzal tapped the ground with a couple of his toes. “I’d love to help with the sailors, but I think I’ll just frighten them looking like this.” He glanced at his orange and black-feathered torso.

“I can help,” Seifer offered. The keldeo approached Yuna. “Some of the unharmed sailors recognized me back on the ship.”

Yuna nodded her thanks. “Uh, I guess everyone else can… do whatever they feel like until we’re done?”

“Are you sure?” Noctum tilted his head. He might as well have offered to come with her.

“I’m sure.” Yuna looked at the Malice Crystal in his stomach, then got guilty when his violet flame shrank.

“Ah. Fair.” The black charizard stepped back, bowing his head. Valkyrie snorted. He turned a frown and slight bearing of his fangs on her. She pivoted left, wiping dried blood from her snout. Yuna wasn’t sure what she missed, but something had driven a wedge between them. She made a note to ask Noctum about it later.

In the meantime, she looked at Nikki and beckoned her over with a wave of her right hand. The toxtricity strolled across the platform, hands tucked in her leather jacket pockets. “Look, I ain’t the ‘There, there, it’ll be okay’ type. If you want help with those sailors, stick with Horned Wonder.” She jerked her head at Seifer.

“No, it’s not that.” The drakloak floated away from the others, toward a large, green metal tank. Probably full of tar. “I have a question, actually.”

“Shoot.” Nikki leaned against a wheel welded to the side of the tank.

Yuna’s shoulders sagged. “How do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Just… shrug off this kind of stuff?” Yuna wasn’t sure she phrased it right. “Like, you don’t care what’s happening all around you. You go with the flow.” She looked down at her feet nubs. “I think?”

Nikki wore an amused smirk. “You mean why do I mouth off at this shit? That’s easy.” She flicked her right hand dismissively. “When no one has expectations for you — and you don’t expect anything from them — you can do whatever without a care in the world.”

“No expectations,” Yuna repeated in a whisper.

“I mean, I’m a street bum turned musician.” The toxtricity shrugged. “You’re a freaking princess. You’ve lived your whole life by hoity-toity rules and honor and shit like that. Me? I learned pretty early on that you’re expected to look out for only yourself on the streets.” She looked up toward the green, hazy sky. “So, like, I don’t have a problem giving people shit.

“That’s harder to get away with when people are expecting you to, like, lead ’em.” Nikki shook her head. “Them’s the breaks of life, I s’pose.”

Yuna frowned. Nikki’s answer was simultaneously straightforward and confusing. She looked right and a tiny Reshiram materialized on her shoulder. “She sounds truthful to me,” he said, tapping his claws together nervously.

“Ringing endorsement,” Nikki deadpanned. Reshiram buried his face in his wings out of embarrassment. Yuna recalled him to the Soul Dew, sighing.

“Then can I, like, scream at life?” the drakloak wondered. “Is that something you ever do?”

“Screaming? Probably not.” Nikki strummed her gills. “Maybe I’ll shred a few cords over life bitching out. But, hey, you do you.” She thumped her chest. “Just speak from the heart. It’s more impactful that way.”

I don’t have a heart. It was probably figurative, though.

Yuna took a deep breath and turned left of the tar tank. “I’m so sick of this! I don’t want to save the galaxy! I just want to live my life! Why can’t this be someone else’s problem?!” Her tail undulated back and forth with every word. “Stupid treaty! Stupid Eternatus! And… and stupid, lying Bahamut!“

Yuna quickly threw her hands over her mouth, guilt showering over her.

Yes, she really said that. Out loud. In full view of someone else. And it wasn’t even Noctum.

Nikki slowly clapped. “Not bad. How do you feel?”

It took a few seconds for the drakloak to lower her hands. “Better, I think?” Sure, nothing changed about her situation, but at least Yuna let some of anger out. She looked at Nikki. “You know, you don’t have to stay after this, right? I understand if you’d rather bow out of this whole…” Her voice trailed off and she gestured out to the tar pits.

“Yeah. That would make sense.” Nikki resumed strumming her gills. “But I’m good.” She smirked at Yuna. “I ain’t some, like, superhero nerd or whatever, but a crazy Eternatus space adventure is way cooler than staying at that dumb academy and stewing over Scarlett.” The toxtricity looked down. “She’d want me to do something. Make an impact. Besides…”

Nikki held her hand out. Electricity crackled into the shape of one of her guitars. “I’m just as wrapped up in this now.”

Yuna’s waist constricted. “O-Oh. Um, that’s— is that bad?”

Nikki explained how she saw a Starlene concert on PV that was most likely sabotaged by the Eterna Empire, leading to visions of Paradox and her manifesting her lightning guitar. She dispelled the weapon with a flick of her wrist. “I think it’s dynaforce,” the toxtricity concluded. “So, I can’t sit on the sidelines and let this fester. Gotta put it to use.

“And if it just so happens my heroics put Blightsmuth back on people’s radar… then it’s an added bonus.” Nikki stretched her arms up over her head, chuckling. “Don’t care if you think my motive’s selfish, either. Perks of not being a princess.”

Yuna would’ve sank to the ground and deflated, but she managed to keep her wits about her. “Well, uh, maybe I can sell the title and job off to someone else?”

Chuckles continuing, Nikki leaned over and smacked her right knee. “Now you’re speaking my language.”

“… hey, so, if you two are done being all mushy with other, the sailors are ready.”

“Eep!” Yuna’s tail and torso shot into her rectangular head. She whirled on Gene, who floated in front of a rift with a bored expression. “H-Hey now! It’s rude to sneak up on people.”

The mewtwo looked around, shrugging. “Middle of a tar plant ain’t private.”

“Ugh, whatever.” Yuna rubbed her temples. “Lead the way.”

Gene was rather stoic through the whole explanation of the sailors’ fates. Yuna got the sense some of the soul and aura stuff went right over their heads. Sure enough, one wartortle raised his hand. “So, like, we’re dead, but we’re not dead?”

“That’s a fine way of thinking about it,” Yuna interjected before Gene could mouth off to the wartortle. “You can do all the things you used to back in Venish.”

“‘cept if we try to leave World Ender’s insides, we get turned into Phantoms!” a floatzel said, clutching her head in worry. “What am I supposed to tell my sister? How am I supposed to tell her?!”

“You!” Wartortle whirled on the garbodor in the back. “This is all your fault! You did this to us!”

A few sailors mumbled their agreement. “Whoa, whoa. Time out.” Gene Phantom Warped into the middle of them, holding his hands in a T. “Your shipmate’s as much a victim as the rest of you. It’s Polaris you ought to be mad at.” His expression fiercened. “Who was it that was running your ship?”

The sailors fell quiet. Garbodor raised his grubby hand. “Minister Tesla.”

“And who was able to get away before any of this happened?” Gene raised a brow, but this time none of the sailors answered.

Floatzel looked at Seifer. “Isn’t there anything you can do, Commander? Maybe get the Radiant Guard to pitch in?”

The keldeo looked down guiltily. “I wish I could say there was. But this is on a whole other level than the distortion rescues the Guard conducted.” With a heavy sigh, he stepped toward them. “But I am prepared to help you all get in contact with your loved ones.” Seifer slung one of his saddle bags onto the ground. It opened to show papers and pens.

Several sailors looked down at the bag like it was but a tiny scrap of meat on a dinner plate.

“What happens when we’re done with this?” A sharpedo looked at Gene, eyes full of worry.

“That’s—” Gene crossed his arms. His Malice Crystal glowed a dim purple. “It’s complicated.”

An idea popped into Yuna’s head. “You guys can work here.” She clapped her hands together. “There’s a tar factory not too far from this swamp, run by a bunch of tiny skorupi. I’ll bet they could use some extra muscle.”

Gene’s brows raised. “Huh.” He stroked his chin. “Now that you mention, that could lessen the skorps’ calling me out here for manual labor.”

“And just who’s that broad?” A kingler brandished his large pincer in Yuna’s direction. “I ain’t about to trust some dragon to offer a deal. It’s probably a trap!”

Yuna flinched. Her gaze faltered, but then she looked right back at Kingler. “That dragon happens to be princess of the Aeon Kingdom.” She floated closer. “And part of the group that saved you all from an even grizzlier fate.” Yuna crossed her arms, glimpsing the dark shadows pooling in them. “This isn’t some trap. It’s a way for you to stay close to Venish and find some semblance of normalcy in all of this.”

Smirking, Gene leaned over. “I’d go with her if I were you. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angy.”

Kingler flummoxed. “Y… you mean angry, don’t you?”

The mewtwo’s grin widened. “Nope.”

Kingler hastily skittered back toward several wartortle. They talked in a huddle, then gave thumbs up in unison. “That plan sounds… reasonable,” Kingler said, laughing nervously.

A tingle ran down Yuna’s back. Gene’s assistance or not, it was… refreshing to have people listen to her. She flipped that mental switch briefly and a tiny silhouette of Rayquaza popped up on her right shoulder.

“Jolly good performance, m’lady.” He clapped his tiny black hands. “I daresay thine evolution hast filled thou with renewed confidence.”

“Thanks,” Yuna whispered, sighing in relief while watching Seifer pass out pens and paper to the sailors. She recalled Rayquaza and hovered over to Gene. So long as she had a moment, she figured it best to loop the mewtwo into what happened with Leo and Alder, as well as the new planet she needed to find.

“Gene?” The drakloak pawed at her Soul Dew. “There’s something you need to know…”

Everyone sat around a tiny, skorupi-sized desk that Skorp had brought out for Gene to place his X-transceiver on. He set it to speaker mode, then failed to contact Cyril. Tail swishing back and forth nervously, Gene next tried calling up some lady named Guzmelda. She sounded sweet and… homely, which made it hard for Yuna to believe she was some sort of giant, tooth-filled alien known as a guzzlord.

“Well? Were you able to find anything?” Seifer asked, pointing his horn at the X-transceiver.

“She can’t see you doing that,” Nikki scoffed.

“Force of habit,” Seifer muttered.

“So’ nuff, sugar!” Guzmelda exclaimed. “There’s a Chakran in this dimension, all right. In fact, it’s the next planet over in this here galaxy.”

Yuna looked at Noctum, who shrugged. Then she glanced at Seifer, who squinted. “No one mentioned anything like that in my science classes,” he muttered.

“Well, if it’s our neighbor, then wouldn’t it have gotten sucked up by Ejerknatus?” Jade wondered, tapping her chin with a digit.

“‘Fraid not. Cyril’s notes say Eternatus skipped Chakran over and went straight to Etherium,” Guzmelda responed. “He thinks it’s about two hundred million kilometers from here.”

Jade squawked in surprise and vented purple vapors from her tail flaps. “T-two hundred million?! Th-that’s like—” she counted on her digits “—twice as much as one hundred million!”

Leo tilted his head. Yuna imagined he was trying to envision how big that really was.

“Wow, congrats, you can do basic math.” Nikki sarcastically applauded the salugia. “Doesn’t help us get there.”

“Maybe one of you three can portal over there?” Valkyrie pointed to Gene, Noctum, and Yuna.

“Wouldn’t that be nice.” Gene shook his head, smirking. “I need to have been to a place to open a rift to it. Same with these two, I imagine.” He rubbed his hands together. “No doubt about it… we’ll need to take that ship Skorp and Skorp finished up. It’ll get us there in, like, thirty or forty minutes.”

“What?!”

Rayquaza’s black, scaly head popped out of a startled Yuna’s Soul Dew. “Balderdash! Even with Dragon Ascent, I couldn’t achieve such speeds. Thou wouldst need to fly as fast as light itself to cover that distance!”

“Exactly, Chest Burster.” Gene snapped his fingers at Rayquaza. “Thanks for the help, Guzmelda.”

“My pleasure, sugar!” The line then went dead.

“Then, we’re leaving for Chakran?” Yuna tilted her head. “Can that ship even go out of Eternatus?”

“Thanks to the skorps it can.” Gene rubbed his hands together eagerly.

“Sweet! Road trip, but space-flavored.” Nikki strummed her gills. “Dibs on being the DJ.”

Gene had a retort prepared, but a loud jingle cut him off. “Hmm?”

“And now… a message from your emperor!”

The group turned toward the far corner of the room, where several skorps were gathered in front of a large screen that displayed the Eterna Empire’s sigil of a circle surrounded by five diamonds. The feed then cut to what Yuna could only assume was the deoxys that others had previously mentioned. He stood in front of a black desk with several monitors flickering behind him.

“I think it’s time we had us another chat. For the sake of dispelling lies, of course.” Paradox stepped to his right and a brightly colored drawing of the very same rifts Gene and Yuna could make showed up on a hologram next to the deoxys.

“Many of you have no doubt seen these rifts popping up around your communities,” he continued. “And there’s been considerable talk of them online.” Paradox swiped in front of him with two tentacles. The drawing transitioned to a screenshot of something called “Chatter.”

“@BirbWatcher317 says, ‘It’s the end of the world,'” Paradox growled. “@StillLivesWithHisMother adds, ‘We’re being sucked into a formless void!’ And @JodiMcGee has the gall to post an ‘I’m in danger’ GIF.”

“Psst!” Jade leaned over Yuna’s shoulder. “What’s a Jif?”

“How should I know?” Yuna hissed. The salugia had the mixed-up mind. If anything, she should’ve known already!

“It makes me think of peanut butter,” Jade said. “And now I’m hungry.”

“Well, as your emperor, I’d like to be the first to tell you… these are lies! Fiction! Tall tales!” Paradox swiped at the hologram with each of his tentacles. “And if any other keyboard doomsayers intend to share these imbeciles’ sentiments, then you’ll be joining them in assimilation to the Eternatus Troopers!”

The hologram shifted to show an animation of three humans turning into unown floating in tanks attached to metal bodies, just like what Noctum had described to Yuna back at the academy.

“These rifts are but mild turbulence… as we enter the end stages of freeing our Benefactor from His long imprisonment,” Paradox continued, switching to a new animation that showed a crudely drawn Etherium blowing up while the giant, five-headed form of Eternatus flew off with a big smiley face over its head. “I realize how patient you all have been, and I am pleased to report that patience will soon be rewarded.

“In fact… the Paradigm’s newest member just finished a successful raid on one of the prison settlements.” Paradox’s tentacles coiled into two hands and he tapped his fingers together eagerly. The hologram displayed a headshot of… some sort of suit of armor surrounded by blue frost? All Yuna saw were red, glowing eyes inside a gray, circular helmet. “Soon, our Eternatus Troopers will have the children of the prison’s pathetic rulers serving amongst their ranks.

“That’s all for now. Nos vera Natus!”

The feed abruptly shut off, returning to what looked like a talk show with two non-mutant skorupi sitting opposite one another.

Seifer reared up, whinnying. “Tell me I didn’t just hear that!”

Nikki had her mouth open, but Seifer leveled his horn at her. “Keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you,” he growled. The toxtricity closed her mouth and scowled at him. Seifer turned to Gene, eyes wide in alarm. “What was that all about?”

“It sounds like Paradox is going on the offensive,” Gene said, brow furrowed. “This changes things. Some of us definitely need to stay behind.”

“Of course we do!” Seifer’s horn flickered. “If he’s telling the truth, then…” The keldeo looked down, horror spread across his face.

Yuna bit her lip. Did this mean Paradox had Shimmer? What about her other classmates?

“Just who was that on the screen?” Valkyrie wondered. “Looked like a bad costume from a horror movie.”

Mewtwo’s expression sharpened. After a few moments, he took a sharp breath and gave his answer.

“The Paradigm’s newest lieutenant: Guile Hideout.”