Chapter 47: Meeting Minutes

Entry 486
I hate meditation. It’s so boring. I’ve never wanted to do anything less in my life. This “rehabilitation” they prattle on about is stupid. But I’m afraid of what will happen if I don’t play along.

At least I still have you, journal. You don’t talk back to me like these damn Overseers. How could a group that claims to know so much ask so many stupid questions? As far as I’m concerned, they’re a bunch of idiots.

But maybe if I keep playing along, they’ll give me the means to destroy Eternatus for good.

Yuna wasn’t sure whether to call the circular room Koraidon’s rift led her to an office, a bedroom, a den, or something else entirely. She floated in place, eyes darting from one multicolored tapestry to another. Some covered big squares and rectangles. Others were thrown over spherical objects. Koraidon glided toward the only uncovered things in the room: a worn leather chair in front of a bookcase stuffed to the point of pages spilling out onto the floor.

“Forgive the mess.” Koraidon waved his right hand. Though he sat on the chair, he again balanced himself on his tail. “It’s not often we have visitors.”

“In fact, it was never until today,” Alder quipped.

The drakloak’s attempt at a polite laugh sounded forced. When she realized Leo was looking right at her, she scrambled to find something to say. “So, um, what is this place, then? I doubt this is what you intended your monastery to look like.”

“An astute observation.” Alder nodded approvingly. Yuna thought he was a bit too complimentary. “This is not our tribe’s original home. It’s served that purpose for many generations, though.”

“Indeed.” Koraidon crossed his legs. “Our clan’s ancestors once wandered the stars. Nomads, if you would. But a terrible feud broke out amongst the tribe and their starships fired upon one another.” He bowed his head solemnly. “Ashamed by their actions, the survivors landed on this planet and disassembled their technology, seeking to repent through simple lives of prayer and meditation.”

“Until they found this abandoned outpost.” Alder hopped along the metal floor, gesturing with a wing toward a dark corner of the room.

Leo hopped after him. “Oooh, what’s that big metal rod thingy? Is it a slide?” He vibrated in place. “Please say it’s a slide. Slides are fun!”

“Afraid not. This is a telescope.” Alder’s pink feathers glowed. A few orbs filled with light, allowing Yuna to see the telescope jutting through the wall. “You can look out into space with it.”

“Why would I need to do that?” Leo tilted his head so much the cosmic arceus almost flopped onto his side. “I can just go to space right now!”

Yuna’s eyes widened. “Leeeeeet’s not do that!” The drakloak shot toward Leo and gripped the sides of his gold wheel. “It’s rude to leave when the hosts haven’t dismissed us.”

“Oh.” Leo dimmed. “Sorry, Mr. Alder!”

The braviary pet Leo’s head. His starcloud tail wagged slightly, tickling Yuna’s belly and forcing her to let go. She didn’t think ghosts were meant to be ticklish. Maybe its his, uh, cosmic texture?

“I think we’re digressing a bit,” Koraidon said, chuckling. “That’s okay, though. Diversions are simply speed bumps on the path to knowledge.”

“That… sounds like something Bahamut might’ve said in a sermon. But cornier.”

Yuna blinked, not wanting to freak Alder or Koraidon out by acknowledging Reshiram. At least he wasn’t giving her the silent treatment anymore.

“What’s this outpost from, then?” Yuna wondered. Though tempted to pull up one of the quilts and see what it hid, she managed to restrain herself.

“It belonged to the Overseers,” Alder responded. He pulled a book from his forehead. Probably the same book from when they met in the anomaly.

“Oh, I remember that!” Leo hopped up and down again. “They’re like the space police, right?”

Yuna wasn’t sure where he got that comparison from. “But they left this place behind?”

“Indeed.” Alder opened the book. “They left quite hastily though, hence all the abandoned equipment and important materials.”

“Like that book?”

“One part of the Dimensional Archive.” Koraidon spread his arms out. Yuna had to admit, it was an impressive bookcase behind him. “Some sort of… compendium of information the Overseers must have gathered from observing the many dimensions.”

Leo approached the bookcase. He didn’t even reach the top of the first shelf. “How many dimensions are there, Mr. Koraidon? A hundred?”

Koraidon shook his head.

“Ten hundred?”

Another shake.

Leo kept naming increasingly large numbers and getting bemused headshakes from Koraidon. The cosmic arceus’ eyes widened. “What about… a squijillion?“

Yuna was pretty sure that wasn’t a real number.

Koraidon smiled sweetly. “The truth is… I don’t actually know.”

Leo fell over in disbelief. He hopped back up, puffing out his cheeks. “You played a prank on me, didn’t you?”

“Guilty,” Koraidon said, raising his hand.

“The truth is that the answer is probably in the Dimensional Map,” Alder cut in, walking toward Yuna’s side. “But we… don’t actually know how to turn it on.”

“The Dimensional Map?” Yuna blinked. “You can map dimensions?” The drakloak doubted you could draw a map like you would of a mountain range.

“The Overseers must have,” Koraidon replied. “And judging by what’s written in the Archives, it’s an important piece of equipment. One that absolutely cannot fall into the wrong hands.”

Then why did they leave it here? Yuna’s face scrunched up in thought. No specific reasons came to mind and that bothered her. She floated up to a large, quilted orb and leaned against it. “Do you think it relates to what you told us about, Alder? A dimensional crisis?”

“I’m afraid so.” Alder telekinetically flipped through his book, his talons clicking against the metal floor. “Some of the scattered papers we found said the Overseers planned to seal this dimension to contain a serious threat. Meaning nothing from outside our universe would ever be able to get in… and nothing inside, out.”

Yuna’s tail crinkled. The drakloak stared at the quilt’s overlapping diamond patterns, filling in gaps from Alder’s explanation. The threat had to be Eternatus. Maybe Bahamut, but he was dead.

Nothing getting in or out, though… was another story. She gulped. “Then the dimensional anomaly we found…”

“Is a sign that the seal has failed,” Koraidon sharply declared. “And, perhaps as a consequence of that failure, space and time are breaking down. Hence, these anomalies.”

“That sounds bad,” Leo said, shuddering.

“The truth is that there are some who were not born into our tribe,” Koraidon admitted, running his webbed fingers through his feathery crest. “Rather, we found them on Chakran, with no memories of how they got here. Only their names.”

Yuna’s ectoplasm quivered. That sounded quite scary. She noticed Leo turning to Alder with a curious glint in his eyes. Wait, does he think—

The braviary nodded. “I’m one of those people.” He raised his right wing. “Archie and Maxie are others. I have… vague recollections of a place where humans and pokémon worked side by side. But it’s too fuzzy.”

“I see.” Yuna braced herself against a covered block to stay steady in the air. Talk about a lot to take in. “And now you’re the lorekeeper here.”

“All of the monks study dimensionality based on the teachings in these Archives.” Koraidon pointed behind him with his tail. “But Alder took to it faster than any acolyte. I thought him a good choice.” He scratched his cheek. “Perhaps I also hoped it would jog his memories.”

“Can’t win ’em all.” The braviary shrugged innocently.

“Dimensionality.” Yuna tapped the center of one of the diamond patterns. “You opened a rift.”

“Correct. We keep the Archives hidden away, just as a precaution,” Koraidon replied. He floated off the chair and balanced on his tail. “This outpost is brimming with lustrous ore. A strange mineral that interacts with space itself. Through our training, we attune ourselves to the ore, allowing us to make portals.”

The drakloak heard enough. Yuna took a breath to steady herself. She had to rip the bandage off now and end this conversation. “Where do we fit into this, then?”

“It’s more about Leo.” Alder gestured to the cosmic arceus with a wing. “We need him to repair the larger anomalies before they eat away at our universe.”

Yuna bit her lip. She already had a mission with unsealing the Needles. She couldn’t afford to turn away from that to escort Leo across the universe. “How can we possibly do that? We barely got to this planet.”

“Well, it looked to me like all the rifts are coming from your home planet,” Alder said, laughing nervously. “Probably because of Eternatus.”

Of course it came back to Eternatus. At this point, why wouldn’t it? “Great. So can you make a map of these anomalies for us?”

Alder looked at Koraidon. Both of them shook their head.

“Seriously?!” Yuna rubbed her temples, sorely tempted to drop some dirty language. If only Nikki was here to do it for her. “Okay, but you’ll help us some other way, right?”

“As best as we can,” Koraidon assured her. He stood up, his feathery coils unfurling into wings. “Now, come, we ought to get you back to your friends so you can rest up.”

Yuna doubted she would get much rest after learning all of this. Fortunately, Leo yawning and stretching like a cat eased a bit of her nerves.

“Okay.” The drakloak hovered over to Leo. “Lead the way.”

Seifer didn’t like to be kept waiting. He barely managed to hold his tongue when Gene returned to Outpost R3X, only to disappear through another rift without telling any of the others. Instead, he sat atop the main metal platform, looking at the bubbling tar pit and willing the mewtwo to return so he could give him a piece of his mind.

“I don’t think you’re going to win a staring contest against tar. It doesn’t have eyes.”

The keldeo looked over his shoulder. Jade squatted beside him, her wings curled into makeshift goggles over her eyes. “Peekaboo!”

“I’m not a colt,” Seifer scoffed.

“Aww, c’mon, lighten up.” The salugia stuck her tongue out. “Nobody likes a stick in the mud. Or stick in the tar, in this case.” Jade winked at him.

The sudden appearance of a jagged purple rift stopped Seifer from retorting. “Finally!” He pushed past Jade. “About time you showed u—”

Seifer almost walked right into Cyril. The zoroark was back to his usual, white-furred appearance. “Aww, were you waiting for me?” Cyril batted his lashes. “How thoughtful. Maybe send some flowers next time.”

“I— that— you—” Seifer shuffled back.

“Aww, he’s blushing!” Jade pressed her wings to her cheeks. “Kelly’s a cute blusher.” She whirled on Cyril. “And look at you! Such a fluffy zoro!” Without warning, she flung herself at a yelping Cyril.

“Gah! H-Hey! Personal space!” Cyril shoved Jade’s wings to no avail.

“Not as fluffy as my Cece, but still so much fluff!” Jade purred, brushing her cheek against Cyril’s red chest fuzz.

“All right, party’s over.” Gene popped in next to Cyril and telekinetically peeled Jade off with a flick of his wrist. He dropped the salugia on her back.

“Still sore I didn’t reach out to you sooner, huh?” Cyril rubbed his shoulder. To his and Seifer’s surprise, however, the mewtwo quickly embraced Cyril. “Wha?”

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Gene said, breaking the hug as quick as he started it. Recognition flickered in Cyril’s eyes moments later. He turned to Seifer, smirking.

“Lemme guess, he gave you the ‘my boyfriend died after we professed our love to each other’ bit?”

Seifer quirked a brow. “You already knew?”

Cyril put his hands on his hips. “How do you think he roped me into his ragtag resistance operation in the first place, complimenting my dashing looks?” He ran his claws through his wild mane while Seifer rolled his eyes.

“Oh, right, and we brought a special guest.” Gene motioned behind him, then stepped out of the way to let a familiar orbeetle hover beside him.

“Cid!” Seifer gasped.

“Ah. Hello, Commander.” Cid awkwardly waved, his attention still drawn toward the giant tar processing plant.

“I heard about what happened.”

The orbeetle’s shoulders sagged. “Yes, well, I could say the same to you.”

Seifer narrowed his eyes. “It has to be Vortex. He put poisoned thoughts in Her Eminence’s head.”

“You needn’t worry about Vortex anymore.” Cid tapped his fingers together nervously. “Parliament subpoenaed him over the Venish fiasco. Her Eminence had him arrested for high treason.”

The keldeo whinnied in surprise. “You’re kidding!”

“Nope.” Cyril stepped between them, lazily twirling his right hand around. “Ether is actually Malice. Starlene was brainwashing Radiance’s citizens. Yadda yadda.” He clapped his hands. “Okay, everyone’s up to speed. Time to get down to business. Boss Kitty?”

Seifer did not feel brought up to speed. Though silent, he frowned in disapproval at the ghostly zoroark, who was too busy fiddling with a small metal cube to notice. Cyril tapped one side with his claw. The cube hovered beside Gene and displayed a holographic screen.

“Huh, neat trick.” Jade sat down. “Does it do children’s parties?”

“Har, har.” Cyril rolled his eyes. “Just stay quiet and listen, okay?”

Jade mimed zipping her beak and tossing the key into the tar pit behind them. Artemis slithered over and coiled up beside the salugia, quirking a brow.

Gene flicked his right index finger. The screen displayed a mewtwo doodle with a spotlight shining on it. “I call it… Operation Follow Me.”

“Like the move that attracts attacks in your direction?” Artemis wondered.

With a neutral expression, Gene swiped to an image of a question mark with a big red X flashing over it. “Please hold your questions until the end of the presentation.”

The milotic tapped his tail impatiently against the metal platform.

“We have to get the word out to Eterna City about these rifts,” Gene explained, showing an image of rift doodles opening and closing with only two frames of animation. Seifer wondered how Cyril or Gene had time to put this together.

“So, here’s the plan.” Gene transition to a screen showing his doodle and one of Jade running around a crudely drawn rooftop. “Me and Loogi are gonna create a diversion by attacking the Paradox Day Spa in the middle of Eterna Heights.” He glanced at Jade.

The salugia bounced in place. Seifer wasn’t sure if she was happy or upset about this development.

“The place is swarming with Troopers.” Gene showed doodles of Eternatus Troopers firing on him and Jade. “Which we’ll have to put up with… because it’s also home to this!” He swiped the screen over to show a digital photo of… some giant sphere?

Seifer looked between the picture and Gene.

“It’s one of the emperor’s propaganda blimps,” Cyril explained. “He broadcasts messages from it to Eterna City. The Paradox Day Spa hides one of its refueling stations. We’re going to hack the blimp to give the city an important message.”

The keldeo couldn’t keep quiet. “We?”

“You and me, of course.” Cyril winked at Seifer.

“What?!”

“Well, I need some protection. Can’t use attacks, remember?” Cyril shrugged. “Who better than an ex-soldier?”

Seifer didn’t have a retort. His gaze fell to the metal ground. He’s doing this on purpose, isn’t he? To mess with me!

“Anyway, while that’s happening, Pool Noodle here will deploy this little joltik drone.” Gene stuck his hand into a yelping Cyril’s mane and produced a small mechanical joltik. “It’s programmed to fly to the most likely spots where the emperor will send the captives for processing.”

Artemis wasn’t impressed. “That’s it? I could squash that thing without even knowing it.”

“Don’t underestimate her.” Gene smirked. “She’ll provide perfect footage without getting detected.”

Seifer didn’t share the mewtwo’s confidence. This wasn’t an organized battleplan. Where were the contingencies? “And what if this blimp isn’t where you think it is?” the keldeo asked.

“It will be.” Gene lazily swished his tail. “The good thing about the resistance making zero headway against Paradox is that it’s making him overconfident.”

“I still don’t like it.” Seifer’s gaze drifted toward the tar factory and the huge pipes with bits of steam trickling out of them. “Too many things can go wrong. What if one of us gets captured?”

“Relax.” Gene waved the keldeo off. “Loogi and I are the ones sticking our necks out. And I can warp us away through a rift if we get too much heat.” He walked over to Cid. “Plus, this egghead will be helping, too. As a sort of mission control and stuff.”

“E-Excuse me?” Cid’s spots flickered asynchronously. “I’m not qualified for that.”

“Sure you are. All you gotta do is look at a screen and tell us what you see.” Gene clapped the orbeetle’s tiny back. “Any couch potato can do it!”

Cid turned a horrified look on Seifer. The keldeo tried to say something, but Gene stepped between them.

“All right, enough talking.” The mewtwo rubbed his dark gray hands together. “Time to get to work!”

This was bad. Very, very bad.

Igneous wanted to hang tight until Kyoko was ready to give him the boot. Instead, she walked in on him sitting silently beside Scarlett and tossed cloaks at the two of them.

Sakaki was here. And he had a very important guest.

As the grovlazzle followed his stepsister through Scale City’s dingy, dirt-filled streets, he tried to think who it could be. Though Igneous never saw it himself, his mother had mentioned the Ryujin were involved with the Aeon royals in some capacity. That was why he got information about Yuna before meeting her, after all.

Still, there was no way one of them would come to Scale City, right?

Yet when Kyoko led them into an onyx building at the center of the city, his leafy tails curled up in trepidation. The salazzle hurried him and Scarlett into an elevator that blended into the building’s brown walls.

“Why am I here, again?” Scarlett asked. “I don’t even know a thing about this place.”

“Because you’re involved in this now, whether you like it or not,” Kyoko responded. The elevator lurched to a stop and the doors opened. Igneous’ breath hitched.

Sakaki stood at the head of a large oak conference table… beside a dragapult garbed in sleek black armor.

Kyoko took one step out of the elevator and froze. “What is this?”

Placing a hand atop his leather office chair, Sakaki said, “May I introduce Queen Dragapult Yiazmat of the Aeon Kingdom. She’s here to see your stepbrother. I trust you brought him?”

Igneous whirled on Kyoko. “What the hell? You ratted me out?!”

The salazzle smacked Igneous’ left leg with her tail. “Of course I did. You fled Ministry of Justice custody.”

His outburst drew Sakaki’s attention toward him. Igneous froze.

How many months had it been since he’d even spoken to his father? And now he was standing right in front of him. Igneous couldn’t let the nidoking see what had become of him. All the grovlazzle could manage was eyeing the framed map of Radiance hanging on the wall behind his father.

Kyoko once again intervened. Her taller stature let her easily yank Igneous’ cloak off and shove him forward. Igneous snarled at her, only to freeze up. He could practically feel his father’s eyes on him.

“I see,” was all Sakaki said. “You’ve been through quite the ordeal, haven’t you?”

Igneous clenched his fists. As usual, he couldn’t make heads or tails of Sakaki’s neutral tone. Was the nidoking offering sympathy? Dismissing him? Belittling him? It pissed Igneous off to no end.

“What do you care?” Igneous growled. “I did what I had to do to survive. Just like you taught me.”

Sakaki’s professional mask slipped for a second. Igneous saw the hurt in his eye, but the grovlazzle didn’t buy it. Sakaki couldn’t run the Ryujin without having deceptive tricks up his black sleeves.

The silence lasted until Kyoko cleared her throat. “We also brought the Radiant Diva.”

Igneous glanced at Scarlett. He hadn’t told the dragonair of his ties to the Ryujin, but the understanding was clear as day in her eyes.

“Y… yo…” Her eyes darted between Igneous and Kyoko. Scarlett tensed up. “Please don’t hurt me! I never wanted things to end up like this. I was only trying to make a better life for myself!”

Yiazmat drifted over the conference table. “Your music made my daughter pass out.”

Eyes widening, Igneous recalled the Crowne Cup inaugural ball and Starlene’s concert. Yes, Yuna did react badly to Starlene’s music.

Scarlett must have known about this, too, because she shrank toward the carpeted floor. “I’m sorry!” she squeaked. “I had no idea she was a princess! Vortex told me someone had too much wine!”

The dragapult sighed. “Calm yourself, Dragonair. I’m not here to hold your tail to the fire over this.” She hovered down to sit atop the table. Her tail and feet phased through the dark brown oak. “I’m here as a concerned mother.” Yiazmat looked at Igneous. “Where is Yuna? How is she?”

Igneous blinked. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since we were back in Horizon Gardens. She was supposed to go to Venish with the rest of the class.”

Yiazmat visibly tensed. Her horns flickered with blue-violet light. Igneous stiffened. Had he said something wrong?

“Venish.” The dragapult tapped a claw on the table. “Where the Horizon students were captured by an armored assailant. The only student recovered being Radiance’s crown prince.”

“What?” Igneous’ chest tightened. Could it have been someone from Eternatus?

“No,” Scarlett whispered. “I— did my music do that?” The dragonair looked at Igneous. “Because of the concert? Because of us?“

“I need to find my daughter,” Yiazmat said. She trained her horns on Igneous and Scarlett. “And you two are going to help.”

Igneous wanted to protest, but since Kyoko intended to kick him to the curb, anyway, the grovlazzle had no leverage. Especially not against the Aeon queen.

“Me?” Scarlett uncoiled herself slightly to get closer to eye level with the conference table. “I’m not a fighter.”

“No, but your music is clearly powerful.” Sakaki walked toward them. He stopped beside another leather chair and braced his left hand against its back. “Both you and my son are responsible in some capacity for this latest predicament. You need to take responsibility and work to fix this.”

“Us?” Scarlett uncoiled a little more. “What about Radiance’s government?”

“They’re already making moves that I am… skeptical of,” Sakaki said, brow furrowing. “We need to take steps to look out for own, because I doubt Queen Isola will be doing so.”

Yiazmat pinched her brow. “I approve of arresting that stuffy charizard, however that’s not good enough. Someone has to take direct steps to stop World Ender’s awakening.”

Igneous remained still. There was no way he’d tell Yiazmat that her daughter was going around pulling the Needles keeping Eternatus sealed. The dragapult would blast him without hesitation for sure!

Instead, he focused on his father. “I’m a fugitive, though.” His gaze fell to his bright orange belly. “Even looking like this, the Reaper might figure out who I am. You can’t really think it smart for me to gallivant around the kingdom? That’s not ‘looking out for our own.'”

“I can’t speak to the Reaper’s ability to look beyond basic outward appearances,” Sakaki conceded, sticking his hands into his blazer’s pockets. “However, my sources tell me that, after your escape, he’s facing pressure from the high inquisitor to ‘redeem’ himself by tending to Vortex, Tesla, and other high-profile individuals Isola had arrested. So, now is the time for you to act.”

“To act.” Igneous’ frown deepened. “In what way?” He glanced at Yiazmat. “I get you want to find Yuna, but how do we even begin approaching something like that?” The grovlazzle wanted to believe Yuna was fine. However, even if she was, that didn’t guarantee they’d find her. She could have been inside Eternatus dealing with Needle-related business.

“As I understand it, many in Venish evacuated to the city of Vellguarde.” Yiazmat crossed her arms. “That’s where we’ll start our search.”

Scarlett shot Igneous a nervous look. He figured she feared showing her face in public. If Scale City’s residents were upset at her, Igneous could only imagine what people on the surface were thinking now that they knew the truth about Starlene.

“We’ll, uh, find a way to keep you hidden?” Igneous rubbed the back of his head. Saying that was one thing. Actually doing it was another.

“You don’t sound convinced,” Scarlett huffed, her tiny wings drooping.

“As I said before, your music is clearly powerful.” Sakaki stared the dragonair down. “If you are remorseful, then you will aim to rectify this situation by using what Polaris gave you to aid us instead.”

Igneous did his best not to call his father a hypocrite, still conflicted about his own role in dragging the truth about Starlene to light. And there was the new power he had as well. Could using that power on his own terms let him avoid Xeromus and Ahsen? He certainly hoped so.

Dull thumps of plastic on wood drew Chiaki’s attention behind Yiazmat. Three plastic cards sat beside the dragapult’s left hip. The bottom part of her tail appeared and pushed two of the cards to the end of the table.

Igneous frowned. The cards were blank. “What’s the deal?”

“Your ID cards,” Sakaki replied. “Or they will be once we take your photos and print them onto these.”

“ID card?” Scarlett looked hesitantly at the plastic. “For what?”

“The Radiant Beacon’s newly-established Bureau of Eternatus Investigators.” Sakaki turned toward the door in the far corner of the room. “Your assignment starts now. Best of luck.”