TEEN: The Devil You Know

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

(hi this takes place after volume 5 of Diamond and Pearl Adventure! but if you haven't read that, you'll be ok with this first chapter if you know the events of the DPPt games. Later chapters will refer to characters like Mitsumi and Hareta so read up on them for better understanding)





The first thing Saturn had heard was that Cyrus hadn't put up a fight. This information stood on its own for over an hour, leaving Saturn at the mercy of his imagination. The frustrating vagueness of the message curdled in his stomach and sat there in a sickening lump because what it failed to convey was if Cyrus's surrender had left him alive, but Saturn had been ordered to remain where he was until further notice, so he could only sit at his desk in a freshly painted office and wonder what was happening in the wider world past his walls.

It was nearly midnight when his phone rang again, the heavy conference style land line that seemed out of place in a high tech organization, and the ID was only "01". The way Team Galactic used to be constructed, there had been no 01, not after Mitsumi left, and she had been gone long enough that the number was considered unused. 00 had been Cyrus, something Saturn had figured represented the sun itself, around which everything else revolved. But in the reborn Galactic, 01 referred to the former 09, Charon.

It was a moment before Saturn answered it, but the ring started to take on an almost bitterly sarcastic tone to it, as if Charon himself was taunting through the line already. Finally he grabbed the receiver. "Saturn here".

"Good, good." Charon's voice was as sickeningly cloying as Saturn had predicted. "Come to the west hallway on the second floor."

That spoke better for Cyrus's chances, at least. "Is he here?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, commander." And the call ended.

If they had killed their former leader, Charon would have almost certainly sounded far happier than he had. The scientist had always made his dislike of Cyrus very clear, but so long as he kept to his lab and did as he was assigned, Cyrus was content to keep him on the payroll. There had been no question that Charon had been kept in the dark of what Cyrus's true plans had been, but he seemed to have figured it out on his own simply given the nature of the team's studies.

And he seemed to take it in relative stride as well. Charon's recent actions, how prepared he was for everything, told Saturn that this was something Charon had planned well in advance, as if he knew Cyrus's failure as surely as any other element of the plan.

Saturn was there before he knew it, the distraction of his thoughts being almost a time distortion itself. Charon was waiting there, and seemed to be alone, reading something on an electronic tablet. "Sir."

Charon tucked the tablet under his arm. "Heh, commander. I think you'll have a special interest in seeing our guest."

So Cyrus was alive in there after all. Which meant that Saturn would be expected to speak to him, something he hadn't considered until that moment. The man had tried to kill them all, and the thought that anybody would see him again so soon was...difficult. Saturn only nodded.

"Now, hush-hush, of course. Can't let this get out."

"Of course not, sir."

Charon fumbled with a key for a moment before opening a nondescript door. In the layout of the former base, this had been supply closet, so when the entire building was rebuilt it would stand to reason that it would be the same, but now the supply closet was on on the other wall. It was a bit baffling, and Saturn had wondered why such a place would exist, but he couldn't question Charon's intentions without feeling threatened.

Inside, the room was utterly dark, the only light streaming into it from the hallway, but Saturn could make out a dim figure within. As he got closer to the doorway, he could see that the figure was slumped over and tied to a chair, and closer still could finally make out Cyrus's distinctive hair. "Boss!" he gasped instinctively, but felt Charon's glower even with his back to the man.

"Not any more." Charon's voice was more upbeat than Saturn would have thought. "He's just 'Cyrus' now. Some pathetic little wretch who thought he could play god. Really, anybody could have told you how it would turn out."

Saturn wanted to deck Charon full in the face, but found himself taking a fumbling step towards Cyrus. "...Is he all right?"

"Eh, he'll wake up in a few hours."

The commander tried to reach out, though he wasn't close enough to make contact. "W...what will happen when he wakes up?"

Charon tapped the door with the back of his hand. "Sound-proof walls! Hundreds of people can pass him all day long and won't know he's here!" he grinned.

"I was thinking more about a framework of events. What will we do with him?"

"I figure we can let him stew for a while; think about what he's done. Everyone he's wronged. How he's in a building full of people he tried to murder. Not like he'll know exactly where he is at first, but he did try to kill everyone in the universe, so he could be on another planet for all the difference it would make." Charon's voice was so gleeful that Saturn felt that odd rot in his stomach again.

But at the same time, he couldn't argue that Cyrus didn't deserve it. He closed the door behind himself, hearing it lock automatically, and when he turned around, Charon was dangling a key in front of him.

"There you go. I figure you'll be wanting to lay into him once he comes to, but try to just go in there when I tell you to. I'll come up with something close to a schedule in the next few days."

The key was as light as any other but for some reason, Saturn felt a weight to it that went beyond the thin metal. "Yes sir."

Charon's beaming expression shifted to a scowl. "Don't let me catch you taking it easy on him. He wanted you dead. All of us. Everything and everyone you've ever known." Just as quickly, he was smiling again, a deceptively kindly expression that an unknowing observer would describe as grandfatherly. "Ah well. Sleep on it. And when you come back to handle things later, just keep it in mind. Don't let him manipulate you." He yawned, accompanying it with a dramatic stretch. "Ah, I'm sure you can handle it. You've always been forthcoming, haven't you? Well, I'll see you in the morning."

Even with Charon's departure, the key in Saturn's hand carried the same disquieting presence. It was a few minutes of silence before he let himself leave the hallway, feeling as though both men were watching him the entire time.

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Hello there! I remember your name from various places in the fandom throughout the years, haha. I see that you’ve returned to Bulbagarden and have prepared a new story here for us to enjoy. I had no idea what to expect from the title, but reading the first few sentences mentioning endgame Team Galactic stuff caught my attention, as that’s a very interesting and precarious time in the history of that particular evil team; one that’s ripe for juicy storytelling on so many levels. I went ahead and gave the whole thing a shot, and so with that said, I’ll go ahead and give you my thoughts on this first chapter here below!

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve steeped myself in DPPt-era lore, I’ll admit, including DPA. But I do distinctly remember Charon being a real bastard of a leader, which colored a lot of my expectations of what to expect from him here, and by extension the tension I felt as I placed myself, as the reader, in the shoes of Saturn, our POV character here. While not much appears to happen here, I suspect that’s the point; the real purpose of this first chapter here seems to be to introduce what appears to be the main subject of the plot here: the aftermath of the events of DPPt and what it and its consequences — including, above all, the ascension of Charon to leader status — mean for Team Galactic. Which this first chapter does well, I think, with its biggest strength probably being how well it makes us understand Saturn’s feelings and perspective as someone both worried for Cyrus who they clearly greatly respect, and about Charon who they most certainly don’t. The reasons shown for the latter are vague in their detail but are clear through Charon’s mannerisms, past and present, as well as their obvious deep contempt for Cyrus that seems to go beyond simply the fact of their insane end goal (which, out of context and with almost any other person, would seem completely reasonable). Even as someone who knows what’s going to happen with Team Galactic after this, we don’t quite know exactly what’s going to happen, step by step, which I think is due in no small part to the more micro view we get of the organization here versus what we see as the player character in the games. It makes us wonder what’s going to happen, not which helps gives us that sense of tension that allows us to relate to Saturn while keeping us wondering what kinds of developments the next chapter will bring.

That said, the story doesn’t really seem to try to hide how much of a bastard Charon is, I find, which I wonder is intentional with your stated prerequisite for readers to know DPPt lore. This didn’t really bother me as someone who is at least vaguely familiar for said lore, but I wonder, in a theoretical version of your story that doesn’t have this prerequisite but is otherwise the same, if perhaps the story telegraphs Charon’s bastard nature just a tad too hard, maybe? There’s one sentence near the end — one that I liked, by the way — that says that an unknowing observer would describe Charon’s mannerisms as “grandfatherly”. Perhaps there’s an opportunity there to lure an unknowing reader — one unfamiliar with DPPt lore — into a false sense of security with this seemingly far more stable man than the former leader who, you know, tried to wipe out the entire universe, and indeed all of Team Galactic as Charon himself so slickly points out. Although perhaps that narrative direction might be difficult to pull off given that Charon clearly isn’t one to hide what he thinks about things, hmm. And then there’s how to reconcile that with the tension that Saturn feels, as he clearly knows things about Charon that give him good reason to fear him as leader. Heh, forgive my brainstorming on your fic in the middle of a review, haha…

Anyways, I’m glad that I gave this fic a shot, and it definitely lives up to the spirit of its title, haha. I anticipate seeing how well you can keep up the suspense in future chapters, as I think that it’s the greatest asset that you have in a story like this. I’ll be on the lookout for the next!

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Saturn awoke to seventeen text messages. One was, somehow, an advertisement that had gotten past the security levels applied to Galactic field communication. The other sixteen were from Charon, outlining exactly what Saturn's duties were for the day.

He opened the advertisement first, not really reading it but letting his eyes gloss over the paragraph of unimportant words before finally deleting it. Then he got up and got a drink of water, swallowing it in a single go before finally sitting on the foot of his bed and finally checking Charon's messages.

They went into great detail of how Saturn was to comport himself, spending a full half of the messages on what he was not to say in Cyrus's presence. The rest of it was broken up into to-dos and how to properly keep the former boss compliant. His pokémon had been taken and were restrained in the lab, which would be a big first step in keeping Cyrus in check.

There was a sizable chance, though it wasn't addressed, that Charon had bugged the room, and Saturn wasn't about to take any chances even if his behavior wasn't so instructed.

He wouldn't bother with breakfast or anything else, not with the tension leaving long disruptive trails through him. He put his uniform on and ran a hand through his hair, noting it was likely drooping out of its usual crescent, but not caring for presentation. He would go handle Cyrus and that would be all he would be ordered to do for the rest of the day.

On his way to the hidden room, Saturn didn't pay much attention to anything around him. The presence of grunts was one thing, the position of security cameras another, but any greetings or other words went unawares.

There was nobody in the hallway. The out of the way location was ideal for keeping a captive, even from the rest of the team, and Saturn surmised that the entire reconstruction of the base had been done with the central idea of this very specific prized captive, the honored guest, meant to be said with Charon's particular overdramatic and slightly sticky emphasis.

Key into lock, and the door came open easily. A bit too easily; Saturn wondered how firm the lock really was. Before he turned the light on, he pocketed the key again and shut the door behind him. Finally the lights, and they were oppressively bright. If they were too bright for Saturn, he wondered what it must be like to Cyrus, who had spent the night in complete dark.

Though Cyrus was still slumped in the chair, wincing slightly at the light but seeming to be very much unconscious.

He wasn't supposed to be. Saturn had orders to rouse him if this was still the case. But he could take that moment to look around the room. The only furnishing was the chair, and along one wall was a large screen, entirely shut off without even a light to confirm that it was plugged in. The bigness of the room in comparison made its sole inhabitant seem small.

Some strange coldness swept through Saturn. The thought you are alone with the man who tried to murder you crept through his mind. The man who treated you like shit under his heel followed behind. The man you devoted your probably literally damned life to tingled up his spine, and the man who was going to wipe out the entire universe and all he cared about was fighting that damn kid one more time and by that point Saturn was utterly sick with it, grateful that he hadn't eaten anything yet.

Cyrus cared nothing for him. He was apathetic, uncaring, obsessed with his bizarre ideas of perfection that nobody else managed to meet, entirely unhuman, entirely wrong. And he was also completely helpless before Saturn.

He could do anything he wanted. Anything that came to mind, anything at all, and Cyrus would deserve every last bit of it. He was shivering, the cold gripping around his heart, and the tremor tightened his breath and trembled his fingers. His impulse was to strike Cyrus immediately, force him awake with relentless revenge, but before he could even raise his hand, something even more terrifying occurred to him.

What would Charon do to you if you did this?

And Saturn froze in place, an utter sickness seeping through him at the double punch of realizations. All he could do was follow orders, and nothing else. That was his sole role in things, with no way out.

He winced tightly before bringing his hand down on Cyrus's shoulder. The plain, loose shirt was something far removed from Cyrus's usual uniform, the only thing Saturn had ever seen him in. Indeed, the nondescript nature of these new garments seemed to take on a symbolic nature in Saturn's mind. The would-be god, stripped of his adornments.

But he had a job to do. Cautiously, he gave Cyrus's shoulder a little shake. "Sir. Sir, you're to wake up now."

"Ugh..." Cyrus sighed and ever so slightly pulled away from the touch. "Who's there..." Slowly, he opened his eyes, the usually sharp blue now dull and tired in a way that even the most work-addled hours had never done. "Sa--Saturn?"

"It's me, sir." Saturn took a step back and stood with his hands behind his back. "Do you remember where you are?"

"Turn off the lights." Even in Cyrus's subdued state, it carried the tension of an order.

And Saturn wasn't taking orders from him any more. "Answer my question," he said flatly.

Raising his head, Cyrus took in a fuller view of the commander before him, seeming to pay special attention to Saturn's expression. "...So that's how it is." He held back a yawn before continuing. "This must be the Galactic base, or what passes for it now."

"Do you remember how you got here?"

Cyrus thought for a moment, pushing through the clouds in his mind. "I was...surrounded. Neo Galactic, they called themselves. Yes..." He nodded, seemingly more to himself. "Yes, that sounds about right. That's what happened. They threatened me...that's it, they took my pokémon."

Saturn shifted a bit uncomfortably. Weavile and Gyarados were being contained in the lab, and though that was all he knew, it was more than enough.

But Cyrus didn't continue down that line, instead asking "what was I sedated with?"

"I don't know. I can have that information gathered later."

"Hnngh..." It was an atypical sound to hear from the man, and Saturn took it as a sign that Cyrus was still utterly out of it. "What does he...what does Charon want?"

Saturn wasn't certain if Cyrus's captors had mentioned Charon at all or if he had just been able to figure it out through what he knew of his followers. He also wasn't sure if he had the clearance to confirm the statement. "Everything will be revealed in time."

Cyrus's gaze hitched on him for just a moment before falling once more. "You don't know either."

"Everything will be revealed in time." Saturn let the words hang in the air before trying to change the subject. "Now then, the plan is that I come in twice a day and keep you fed and hydrated. You are to be confined to this room and tied to the chair until such time as I receive orders to the contrary. That said I will attempt to keep you as comfortable as the situation can afford." He was amazed at how rehearsed and scripted his words came across, considering he hadn't put any prior thought into them. "No one can hear you outside this room, as the walls have been soundproofed. That said, even if they could..." He found that his hands had tightened behind his back. "...you would find it nearly impossible to find anybody who would still obey you."

Cyrus nodded slowly. "I understand."

"Somehow I doubt that." As much as Saturn wanted to hear what Cyrus could possibly have to say, he had the creeping suspicion that he could develop sympathy for the man who had tried to kill him and everyone else. Cyrus had manipulated all of them for years and there was no way, Saturn figured, that he was about to leave all that behind, especially not when that silver tongue would be most needed. "But you've been told enough." He retrieved a bottle of water from his deep uniform pockets. "I'll give this to you slowly. Instructing me how to best drink it will be the only orders I'll accept from you."

Another nod, and the captive would-be god seemed to almost smile. Surely he was planning something, but with the bottle to his lips, he kept it to himself, and Saturn was grateful for it.





After leaving Cyrus's cell, for there was no other word for it, Saturn headed back to his quarters, intent on sleeping again. Along the way he texted Charon a rough outline of what had happened. The advertisement he had received earlier was gone as if it had never happened, so he felt at least a little better about the security of the line.

He was midway through a protein bar that he figured was the only thing he could stomach when his phone buzzed.

"Tell me exactly what he said."

"Well, this was a mistake," Saturn muttered with some disgust as he tossed the protein bar to his desk and texted back "I don't remember exactly. He tried to order me to turn the lights off and I told him I wasn't going to obey."

Hitting send was difficult, but still came easier than he had expected, and so did checking the inevitable answer. "You did good. Don't fall for anything he says to you. He'll only lie, like always."

"I know. He was already acting regretful but I wouldn't believe it."

"Good, good. Don't take any guff from him either."

"Guff?" Saturn repeated aloud, almost as a snort. Charon was the oldest Galactic member by a wide margin and it came out in the strangest ways sometime. "I won't."

"I trust you. Don't forget to handle him in the evening as well. Other than that you have the rest of the day off. C out."

Saturn realized he had forgotten to ask if he had clearance to reveal who was behind all this, but he also didn't especially care. He was just relieved for the conversation to be over.




"What time is it?"

Saturn was preparing a spoonful of the strange packaged goo that passed as a nutritional staple in the team. All remainders of it should have been destroyed in the explosion that claimed the previous base, but some crates of it had been found in the warehouse, and as loathe as the grunts were to eat it, Charon considered it good enough for Cyrus. "About seven pm."

"Mm. So it was seven am when you woke me."

The deduction was correct, but Saturn wasn't going to verify. "Open up."

Cyrus accepted the pungent delivery with no resistance. It was rumored that he was the only person in the entire team that would willingly consume it anyway. Attempts to popularize it among the grunts yielded only dares and a discolored break room sink as everyone had cast it down the drain. And even then, a further rumor said that Cyrus would be seen to wince every time.

Saturn wasn't usually one for rumors, but he was a bit surprised that Cyrus was taking everything so calmly. The last he had seen of the man had been a staggering series of events playing out in a deceptively short period of time.

Well, it would have been much shorter indeed if Cyrus had gotten started earlier instead of waiting around to see if Hareta would show up to try and stop him. It was ultimately for the best that he had, given that if Hareta hadn't been there, there was a pretty sizable chance that the entire universe would have been destroyed in Dialga and Palkia's rampage, but at the time, it didn't make any sense. Sentimentality was useless, Cyrus had always preached, and yet he stayed his actions in order to have a final battle with a boy he planned on unmaking anyway. None of it made any sense, to Saturn or the other commanders, but they could only wait at a distance and watch their leader stand at the dais and mutter to himself about lost possibility.

So when Cyrus asked "Where are the other commanders?", Saturn slightly jumped. Their former leader was many things, but he was not clairvoyant.

"I'm to deal with you," was all he could really say.

"I know Charon is here. I know that he's the one who ordered my capture."

Saturn rarely thought of Charon as a commander. He wasn't involved in field missions and had been the last of them promoted, shortly before Mitsumi had quit. He even though of her as a commander before he thought of Charon, and she had abandoned the entire team. None were elevated to replace her, but they were nearing the last phases of their plan anyway. "I'm to deal--"

"I know that. That is not what I asked."

Saturn set the empty package aside. "That's the only answer I can give."

"What is he planning?" Cyrus's sharp blue eyes had regained their usual intensity, and Saturn found he had to avoid their direct gaze.

"I don't have to answer to you any more."

"Commander." How Cyrus managed to be as imposing as he was when tied to a chair was perhaps some special ability of his. Perhaps humans possessed that trait as well. "You will tell me. Perhaps not today, but you will."

It was a feeling of being both on fire and frozen all at once, as if the intensity of Cyrus's presence was eroding Saturn's very nature. But he had to remain steadfast. Think of what he did to you. Think of Lake Valor, when he fired you for losing a battle, even though you had just captured Azelf. Think of Spear Pillar, how he cast you aside and would have wiped out everything... "Cyrus, once you try to kill someone, you lose any right to boss them around. And you tried to kill the entire universe. Nobody will obey you ever again. You gave that up with your...mad god shit." He stood as upright as he could and tried as hard as he could to face the crushing aura of that glare, not looking at Cyrus directly but as close as he could manage. "Thinking that everyone was as miserable as you were, and that meant it all had to die, just because you couldn't deal with your own emotions. Either you'd be a god, or the universe would end, and you'd never have to deal with anything. But instead, you're here. Everything you did has consequences, and that's exactly what I'm here to deliver."

Cyrus stared back, blunt and straightforward, scowling intently with his piercing gaze leveled firmly at Saturn, before letting his eyes slowly close and his head droop with a languid exhale. "...You're right."

For a moment, Saturn was loathe to believe he could possibly have heard it correctly. "No," he dismissed. "No, you don't understand a thing. Don't you sit here and act like you can tell me anything you want. I'm not the naive kid who believed everything you ever said. You can't--"

"Saturn!" The address was short, sharp, commanding. "Listen to me."

Saturn jumped at the bark of his name. "C-Cyrus!" It was meant as a response, and he was mostly grateful that he hadn't called the man "boss" or "master" like usual.

Cyrus sighed heavily. "Saturn, listen to me." The repeated words were softer this time, with a greater weight to them. "I know I've made mistakes. Horrific ones. Ones I can never atone for." He looked back up at Saturn, head still tilted down. "I've fallen from grace, so far from what I desired to be. And I realized, there on the Spear Pillar, with the universe falling apart around me, that I can never truly become the god I wanted. Even if I did truly ascend, even if I managed, somehow, to create a new universe..." He trailed off and drew in a long breath. Though his gaze kept on Saturn, it avoided his eyes. "Even if I did all that, I could still never be a perfect being. I still possess emotion, and thus am inherently flawed. Emotions only..." His eyes darted away for a moment, entirely away from Saturn. "...cause pain. I said as much on the summit, but I failed to realize how flawed that truly made me. A god riddled with emotion cannot create a world free from strife. And I..."

Saturn gritted his teeth, glaring down at Cyrus as he was. All of this was a ploy; it had to be. Cyrus never regretted anything, or he never expressed regret at least. Saturn had to fight it, against the fluttering of his heart, against the bile churning up from his stomach, against every impulse he had to mindlessly believe everything his leader told him.

"...I understand if you don't forgive me."

The words cut through the air like a sacrificial blade. Without another word, Saturn turned off the lights and left the room, wishing the sound of the lock was louder.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

And yet he still had to return twelve hours later. "Don't say a word," he cautioned.

Cyrus nodded. Though it was early morning, he had already been awake when Saturn came in.

Saturn drew another water bottle from his pockets. It was a regular sort from a supermarket, bought in bulk, and close enough to being measured rations. Though he knew that Cyrus would be repelled by the notion of drinking from something so lacking in precautions, something that oozed chemicals from the bottle into the water itself, and suspected that was exactly why Charon had selected it. Or perhaps it was simply for convenience's sake. Either way would make sense. "Drink," he demanded as he shoved the bottle against Cyrus's mouth, feeling like he was feeding a caged Morpeko rather than a grown human.

To his credit, Cyrus was silent the entire time. By the time he had finished up, Saturn was able to shove back anything else he had to say on the matter. Eventually he would let his former master continue, but it wouldn't be that day.

Or the next. Or the next. He knew Cyrus was talking. The man frequently talked to himself, planning out his next move, and he was no doubt continuing to do so in confinement. But just so long as he wasn't talking to Saturn, it was fine.

On the fourth day, however, something horrific happened.




That morning, on his way back from tending to the captive, Saturn was drawn into a commotion in the main hall. A sea of grunts, with Charon standing on the reception counter, selecting the most stalwart and devoted among them for some sort of special mission. Saturn wondered why he hadn't been selected, being the highest ranked officer still remaining. Surely he was visible, as he took a place near the locked doors. He was visually distinct from the nearly identical grunts so there was no way that Charon didn't see him.

Anything to get him away from the base. Away from Cyrus. It didn't matter what the mission was.

"Sir," he asked as the crowd dissipated and he was able to approach. "Can I ask you something?"

Charon hopped down from the desk in an unusually spritely motion for his age and build. "You weren't pulled for this mission because it needs no commanders. This mission is basically just advertising."

"Advertising? Is that really the best idea?"

"Oh come on," Charon snipped, swatting lightly at Saturn's side with a clipboard. Saturn suspected it was supposed to be a casual dismissive gesture, but it still slightly stung. "All of Veilstone knows we're here. It's not like we're clandestine. We're at the highest point in the city and we just rebuilt the entire works in less than a month. If anybody was going to come after us, they already would have."

"I guess," Saturn admitted, "but it seems like advertising right now isn't the right time. We pulled our TV ads and we haven't fully rebranded as an energy company yet. We're still working on trying to--"

"Oh, are you still on that? You know very well we're going down another route. None of that silly 'your peace for our world' business again." The odd line from their old commercials always stuck out among the commanders, and knowing Cyrus's true goal made it make only a little more sense. "Regardless, you'll know where I'm going with this in just a few hours."

"As a commander, I should know what we're working towards."

Charon chuckled. "I don't think you'll be able to miss it. Are you going to watch the League tournament later? I think that traitor Mitsumi is competing."

What an odd thing to change the subject to. "She left us with Cyrus's full permission. I wouldn't consider her a traitor." A deserter, certainly, but she had been content to act as Rowan's aid and keep her nose out of Galactic business until Hareta roped her into it. Not to hear Jupiter tell it. "Besides, she helped a lot on the Spear Pillar. Without her help, I think we may have been--"

"Whatever. Are you watching the tournament?"

Internally, Saturn was rather grateful to have been cut off like that, because the rest of the sentence would have had to address the utter gravity of the situation. Without Mitsumi's intervention, all the universe may have been lost, and the longer Saturn could go without having to think about that, the better. But Charon's blunt, selfish nature was irritating just the same. "I wasn't planning on it. Is that where our advertising is going to be?"

"Naturally. All eyes will be on the tournament. Even the Champion is going to be there! And at least one member of the Elite Four."

The Champion? "But Cynthia wouldn't dare let us run an ad during an event like that. She was on the Spear Pillar too, you know."

"We're going over her head with it. It's going to be a hell of a blowout." Charon's prior chuckle was raspier, and seemed to settle deeper in his stocky chest. "So I suggest everyone in the team watch it. I think our agents will make quite a blast in the tournament."

Oh, they were competing? "I didn't know we had anyone on hand who was on that level. Well, Cyrus, of course, but besides him."

"My boy, you know I'm full of surprises." Charon tapped the clipboard against his off hand for a beat before walking off.





It wasn't difficult to watch the tournament. The League was huge and far reaching, moreso than in many other regions, so the tournament was broadcast on just about every possible format.

Saturn didn't care about most of it, but he had to admit, seeing his old collegue Mitsumi go head to head with the Champion, blow for blow, was a wild sight. Such raw power, such force, that the lower levels of the stadium had to be evacuated! If only Mitsumi hadn't renounced her position as commander, this would have been the most effective advertisement possible. The idea that anybody in Galactic could be so strong... Saturn hated to admit it, but she was likely stronger than Cyrus.

And yet she withdrew, forfeiting the match while still on even ground with the Champion herself. Cynthia was visibly frustrated, the match cut off far too quickly, and Saturn found himself exclaiming in dismay as well.

The rest of the matches weren't as exciting, and he found his attention waning. At one point he left his quarters to fetch a drink from the break room and found that the grunts watching in the entertainment room had left some popcorn behind. A rare treat, to be certain.

But the rest of the time, he spent in his own quarters, occasionally nodding off between matches and even through them. He woke up at the sound of a commotion coming from his phone, but was disappointed to find that it was that brat Hareta again. Hareta had fought earlier, defeating the Elite Four member Flint, but Saturn had only learned that later, having turned it off when he saw that disgraceful boy.

This time he had sent out Regigigas, the legendary titan said to have hauled continents with a sacred rope. Saturn passively wondered if the rope was a reference to the Red Chain, the legendary artifact that Cyrus had used to summon and bind Dialga, but in truth he knew nothing of the subject. The legends they had studied focused on the creation of the universe, and Regigigas and its ilk had come far afterwards, so Galactic had overlooked them as useless to their goal.

But still, it was vastly impressive to the majority of the audience, enough to rouse Saturn through the distance. So he grabbed some leftover popcorn and watched despite himself, cheering internally for whoever this yellow haired kid was that Hareta was facing.

It did Saturn's heart proud to see the other kid one-shot Regigigas. The fight suddenly had his rapt attention, and by the time it came down to each trainer having only one pokémon left, Saturn was on the edge of his seat. The newcomer's Absol had the advantage over Hareta's Empoleon, who was still winded from an earlier round, but Saturn knew better than to underestimate anything Hareta did.

So when the newcomer stopped in his tracks to, Saturn guessed, take a call on his Pokétch, it brought the action to a screeching halt. "Ugh, really?" Saturn groaned as the trainer's Absol took an easily avoidable hit.

On screen, the trainer seemed to be shouting at someone in the audience, and a few people were getting up from their seats. Probably as mystified by this as Saturn was, he figured.

And then something exploded.

The first explosion, or a series of them, seemed centered around where Hareta had been standing, and a thick plume of smoke rose up over the audience as several Torkal were released in the stands. "What the hell..." Saturn tapped the side of his laptop as if one distant viewer's input could possibly clarify anything happening there.

More pokémon were sent out, a hoarde of Aggron, firing hyper beams as the audience finally took to their feet and ran. And finally Saturn could make out the few who remained.

Galactic grunts.

"Is this--" he started, but the words dried up in his throat and he could only sit there, powerless once again, and watch the scene unfold.

The broadcast continued, but the audio crackled out, replacing the stadium announcer mid-sentence with a voice that sounded familiar but Saturn's brain was too jumbled to assemble the puzzle. "Listen up, you ignorant fools! Neo Team Galactic is going to..."

The speaker paused ever so slightly, and in the brief break Saturn dared to think that perhaps someone had overpowered whoever was talking, but no such fortune.

"...Take over the world by force, leaving destruction in our wake...We repeat, we are Neo Team Galactic."

By force? Destruction? Saturn felt utterly boneless, to the point where he only barely noticed that Hareta was still in the arena. From the corners of his consciousness he could see that the boy was yelling about something, but nothing was clear.

The audio had been entirely cut, but still the cameras rolled, ever onward. There was some commotion in the audience, and with so very few people remaining in the stadium, it was easier to make out individuals. He could make out both Cynthia's distinctive figure and Mitsumi's long green ponytail. Well, they were both immensely powerful, so they could...

No! he thought, and brought a fist down on his leg to disrupt himself. Are you rooting against your own teammates?

But this would only make them a target, open them up to retaliation. This couldn't possibly be the advertisement that Charon talked about. That's right, he would call Charon and find out exactly what was--

There was a bomb. A massive bomb, almost as big as Hareta, who was standing next to it.

Charon's exact words echoed in Saturn's mind. "It's going to be a hell of a blowout" "Our agents will make quite a blast in the tournament"

"He wou--" Saturn was fairly certain that he was trying to object to the very idea, but the notion that this was somehow outside of anything he would put past his own organization choked in his throat.

Saturn was also fairly certain that he blacked out for a few seconds because he was suddenly on the floor, the tablet fallen next to him. By the time he regained awareness of his surroundings enough to grab for it, the bomb was being held aloft by Empoleon's water. But it wouldn't be enough, not nearly. That may have worked in Celestic Town, but Saturn could tell just how much more powerful this would be.

And yet, as much as he wanted to vomit at the thought of the inevitable destruction, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the screen.

The other trainer, the yellow-haired boy that had been fighting Hareta, gave some instruction to his Metagross, and a light screen shimmered into shape around the bomb.

But it wouldn't be enough. Saturn beat his fist on the floor, trying in vain to steady his raggedy breath, and worked his way to his knees as if in prayer, the tablet in his shaking hands.

The countdown was nearly complete. Saturn could only hope enough people had gotten away, but Mitsumi was sure to be lost. And Hareta...Saturn wanted to make Hareta live to regret his arrogance, to break him and discard him in ruin. Dying like this would be, Saturn hated to admit it, unsatisfying.

"Run, you idiots..." he murmured.

It seemed as though the light screen was growing. More and more trainers who remained in the stadium were adding the strength of their own pokémon to it. But Saturn didn't dare lift his dread. Even with the most powerful trainers from Sinnoh and the surrounding regions on hand, he didn't for a moment let himself believe that they could possibly succeed in containing the bomb.

Until they did. Until the bomb finally exploded, contained entirely by the collective light screen, and it seemed like the entire flow of time came to the head of a pin at that moment.

Saturn hadn't realized he had held his breath, his own deep sigh pushing out the last air in his lungs, and his attempts to inhale were as ragged as before.

The broadcast continued, and he was dimly aware that the Galactic grunts present were being rounded up by event security. There was some scramble as someone lept onto the field, but he only handed Hareta something that appeared to be an egg. It seemed like everything was over, and after about ten minutes, the stadium announcers regained control of the audio and announced that the tournament was postponed.

All the world seemed contained in that little tablet, and the rest of the building, even the rest of the room may as well not exist in those moments.

But for Saturn, he knew he had to say something. Anything. In a single motion, before he could regret it, he stood and grabbed for the doorknob.

The entire way to his destination, he was utterly unaware of anything around him. Even the dizziness he logically knew he must have felt from standing up so quickly bypassed his awareness, before he knew it, he was at Charon's office and pounding on the door, and that was all he knew of the world.

"--said he's not in there." Oh, the passing grunt must have been talking, and Saturn's crammed-tiny world expanded ever so slightly to permit the grunt to exist at the edges. "Commander, did you hear me?"

"Uh...now I did..." Saturn wasn't aware if he had said it aloud or not.

The grunt shook her head. "Sir, you shouldn't talk to him right now anyway. Not after what just happened."

"'s why I have to. This...there's no words for it.."

She frowned. "If you really have to, he's in the lab. But I didn't tell you that." After a moment without a reply, she kept going, swallowed up by tunnel vision once again.

He was aware of the hallway, of the doors, of the dim reminder that the teleport pad in the office no longer led to the lab and that he would have to find another way there, and how could he do that when the world only existed in small slices at a time? He put a hand on the wall and tried to steady himself.

It was just down the hall, wasn't it? The hallway had never been that long, but that was because the building had been rebuilt and on some level he knew that. It didn't stop him from finding it needlessly intimidating. Moreso than usual, and it was already extremely intimidating. It seemed to wobble about like a carnival attraction, and the bare walls seemed to close in around him.

Saturn cursed his awareness, longing for how he seemed to have simply arrived at the office door, as he continued to stagger to his goal. But it was better to focus on that than think about anything that had taken place at the tournament.

And yet his mind wandered anyway, to and fro as if it was being yanked around, Cyrus on one end, Charon on the other, and Saturn being torn apart in the middle. He would have given up in the midst of it all if he could do anything else in the world, but he had nothing other than Galactic within him.

When he finally reached the door of the lab, the automatic door unlocked, beckoning him in. Hesitantly, he gave the door a push.

Charon was in the observation room, a place Saturn had never been in the new base. He had never been in the new lab at all, he thought cautiously. In the old building, the observation room had a few computers and monitors in it, but this had an entire wall lined with monitors. Even with the lights off, Charon's position in front of them was illuminated.

"Come in, Saturn." Charon hadn't taken his gaze away from the broadcast. "I assume you're here about the tournament."

"Um. Yeah." The commander was about ready to kick himself for his utter weakness.

Charon scowled, visible in the reflection of a monitor. "I'd think you'd have more to say. Impressive, isn't it?"

Yeah I'm impressed how I keep working for complete-- Saturn couldn't quite focus enough to so much as finish the thought. "'s one word for it," he murmured as he tried to assemble his spine. Figuratively speaking, as he was certain that the lab had more than enough to replace anything within him, including his willpower. "You really call that 'advertising'?"

"It got the word out about us, didn't it? To think, people were about ready to write us off as nothing. There was even an International Policeman in the audience and he was more concerned about following some vagabond than rounding up the people who just threatened the event." Charon's voice was frustratingly casual, acting simply minorly annoyed and dismissing the full savagery of the orders.

"Our grunts didn't have time to get out."

Charon had paused to take a drink. It looked like he was celebrating, though Saturn was fairly certain that it was just ice water. "Of course not. They were instructed to ensure the bomb went off. Next time I'll have to design a much more powerful one."

So he knew. He knew and had given the order for the grunts to die.

"...They got arrested, you know."

"Yes, by some local cops." Charon sounded just a tad bit irritated, but continued. "I tell you, they just don't make International Police officers like they used to. So's the better, I say. You get a better grade of villainy that way. But it does lend itself to anticlimaxes like that." He sighed. "Saturn, my boy, do you know what makes the world turn?"

Was he really asking a science question under these circumstances? Saturn stammered for a moment before realizing that he didn't know, and hazarding a guess instead. "Uh...gravity, right?"

Charon tilted his head at that. "Ah, how overly literal of you. I should have guessed you'd be so pedantic. I was speaking figuratively. Now, what makes the world turn?"

Figuratively...? "Sir, I can't--"

"No, of course you can't. I would hope you of all people would see the bigger picture here." For the first time since Saturn had entered the room, Charon turned his chair to face him, casting his face in shadow but filling his glasses with a threatening gleam. "The world runs on money, Saturn. Whoever controls the most money; not just having it, hoarding it like some sort of dragon, but truly controlling it, likewise controls more of the world than anyone else. And that, Saturn, is what I'm here to do."

"Money..." Saturn mumbled. Something in him seemed to click into place, and he stood straighter. "You almost killed thousands of people, including our own followers, for something as stupid as money?!" His voice was sharp, peaking much higher than his regular voice. He could feel raw determination finally start to seep through him, like rain to a land beset by drought. "Are you serious? You're going to sit here and tell me that you're doing this for--" The words seemed to jumble together. "You sent all those people to their deaths--don't try to tell me they survived as if that changes anything, because you fully intended for them to die--so you could line your pockets?"

All the while, Charon had started to smile, a little at first, but breaking into a toothy grin as Saturn's furious rant continued. "Commander, let me ask you something."

Saturn didn't want to let him get a single word in, but there wasn't much he could do. "One. One question."

"Oh, one's all I need." Charon sat back a little further in the high-backed chair, the light glinting off his glasses again. "What is it that you believe in?"

"Don't try to make this about me, you arrogant little--"

Charon cut him off with a huff. "Ah, height comments? I thought you came in here to talk to me about important issues, but I guess not." He folded his hands expectantly. "Now, are you going to answer the question or are you just going to waste my time?"

That interjection had thrown off Saturn's train of thought, and he fumbled to regain stability. "What I believe is in something better than this." The words spilled out before he could fully think them through, and he was half aware that he had heard them all before. "Something better than you. Somewhere where everyone can live smiling. Where we'll never know suffering or strife. A better world; a world that won't have anybody wicked in it!"

Charon's grin returned, an unbridled glee to it. "So you believe in Cyrus's world still. Everything you've said was recycled from one of his speeches or another. All you've done, Commander, is demonstrate your inability to think for yourself. And until you can learn to believe in something real and tangible, not some emotionally stunted self-loathing egotist's power fantasy, then you're always going to be a second rate lackey under your betters." He shook his head, drinking in Saturn's shaking rage. "It's painfully dull, isn't it? I would think you'd appreciate what I'm doing."

Saturn could only sputter for a moment. "Where would you ever think that I could possibly support you?"

"I mean..." Charon smirked, gesturing a bit at nothing in particular. "You'll never have to wonder what, exactly, you're fighting for. I would think that would make all the difference. I believe in something firm, something countable, something very, very real. Not some prospective isolationist daydream thought up by some lunatic because mommy didn't love him enough, or whatever claptrap he's deluded himself into." He trailed his hand in a circle as if halfheartedly conducting an orchestra. "Something you need to remember here, Saturn, is that you're not exactly an innocent man. You talk a big game, but you're not the paragon you're trying to pass yourself off as. Or should I remind you of what happened at Lake Valor?"

The lake Saturn had blown up in his search for Azelf. Of course Charon would throw that back at him. He felt that prior determination drain away alongside the blood from his face. "That...that was..."

"Hilarious? The funniest thing I've heard in a long time?" Charon snorted. "You got defeated by a bunch of Magikarp. In all my years I never...Haha, ah, you get the picture. But I'm not just keeping you around for entertainment." The old man leaned forward, expression now flat and serious. "Other than that 'incident', you, Saturn, did a lot of excellent work for Cyrus, and as you just demonstrated, it was mostly out of a belief in accomplishing something great. Well...mostly." He tipped his hand back and forth with a slight scoff. "I've seen the way you and the girls look at him. You know he's never going to give you that romantic smooch under the moonlight that I know you dream about, right?" The amusement passed as quickly as it had come. "Anyway, you're useful. People like you are good to have around, and that's why I intend to keep you here."

"But..." Saturn felt like a deflated balloon. "I don't want to be here." It was rough, but far more honest than he had thought he could manage to be.

"Yeah, about that." Charon leaned back again and folded his hands. "Where, exactly, do you think you would go? I doubt your family would want to harbor someone who was party to both the near destruction of the League and the near destruction of the entire universe." Though he had obscured his face again, Saturn could hear the sneer in Charon's voice. "And if you were to strike out on your own, well..." The man shook his head. "Invading a base like ours takes paperwork, clearance, all of that, but arresting a criminal out on the street...why, that takes nothing at all. You'd be entirely unprotected out there in the wild world. What would await you at that point? Either prison or a life spent constantly looking over your shoulder, jumping at every noise, never knowing who you can trust..."

"I can't trust you," Saturn blurted.

"And we already got that out of the way! There's no need to wonder, is there?" The idea was far from comforting, but it made a strange sort of sense. Charon was smiling broadly. He took a sip of his drink again and continued. "Listen, my boy, you and I can come to an understanding. I provide security, you provide doing what I tell you. You don't have to trust me farther than it takes to do a job. You'll take your time and do your work and keep your head down, and nothing will happen to you. But you leave, well..." He shrugged. "What will happen to you? And what will happen to Cyrus?"

Saturn winced. "You're leaving him alive for a reason. I know you are."

"For now. But you don't know what that reason is, now do you? So you'd better stay close just...in...case..."

The way Charon had drawn out the words sent an icy shiver down Saturn's spine. "I...understand."

"Yes, I knew you would. You're dismissed."

Dismissed? It felt to Saturn like they hadn't discussed anything he had come there to say, but he also knew that was his own fault for being unable to summon the words. "...Yes sir."

As he turned to go, Charon cleared his throat. "By the way, Saturn. Earlier when I asked you what made the world turn, you surmised it was gravity. Heh, putting aside the fact that members of a space-themed organization should know better, the real reason that celestial bodies turn is that once they got going..." He trailed off in such a way that Saturn knew he would continue, "no force in the universe is strong enough to stop them."

Saturn shivered again as he left the lab, feeling that piercing reflective light all around him.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

That evening, he returned to Cyrus's cell without having registered the passage of time. There was a sense that some time had passed, but he had spent it staring off into space in his own room, uncertain of much of anything.

He closed the door behind him and turned on the light. Cyrus winced, but said nothing. Saturn sighed heavily, feeling some unsettling weight within him. "Cyrus...there's something I have to tell you."

The man gestured with his chin, an awkward motion but one indicating that Saturn continue.

"It's Charon. He...he tried to blow up the League tournament today. Had a bunch of grunts go out there. Uh..." Saturn shifted uncomfortably under Cyrus's piercing blue gaze, as if the man was judging him for his weakness. "...they weren't supposed to come back. Charon planned on them dying there."

Cyrus pondered this for a moment before shaking his head and looking more expectantly at Saturn for the rest.

"Some trainers, including Hareta, stopped the bomb. It still blew up but they managed to surround it in a light shield. So the grunts got arrested."

"Mmm." The sound wasn't permitted, but it was all right.

Saturn tried to pull himself up to full height and authority. "...you can talk."

Cyrus nodded. "I'd heard commotion from outside." His voice was atypically raspy. "You'll keep me informed of his further actions."

"Of course." After a moment, he brought out another water bottle from his baggy pockets. "Don't think that I forgive you. I just agree that you have a right to know about what's happening to your team."

"I understand. Better the devil you know."






An alliance with Cyrus felt odd, distorted, unbidden, but at the same time comforting. He would have to keep everything close to the chest. No one else could know about it. Maybe if Mars or Jupiter returned, but then only maybe. They may have gone off in search for Cyrus, but there was no guarantee that they would be so kind as that would lead him to believe. They had their own purposes that only they knew.

But like everything else, like everything in Saturn's own life, it was difficult to fathom them having anything that didn't revolve around Cyrus in some way. That was the real issue, wasn't it? They didn't believe in Team Galactic so much as they believed in Cyrus himself.

But Cyrus was Team Galactic. What Charon had claimed dominion of was Galactic in name only. It shared none of the same ideals, none of the same purposes. Everything Saturn had known was gone, and only images remained.

He sighed heavily. Just once he wanted to do something perfectly normal, emulating the behavior of the people of Veilstone, but after the events of the day, he didn't dare leave the base. He wasn't sure when the next time he could would be.

Saturn went to bed early that night, but could only lie awake staring at the ceiling for several hours, thoughts too jumbled to focus on a single one.





"...how are you?"

Cyrus looked at him in confusion. "You are asking me this knowing my situation."

"Yeah, I guess I am. But I couldn't think of anything else to say," Saturn confessed.

"You can guess, but not well. My arms are very sore from being restrained in such a way and I would like to be released if just to adjust myself."

"Yeah, you understand why I can't do that." Though he thought about it for a second. "I can do one arm at a time. I'll untie one and then tie you back up before doing the other."

Cyrus agreed.

He had been tied up with a relatively light touch. The knots were firm but not tight enough to hinder circulation. Saturn had to take things slowly to untie them, to learn their patterns and commit them to memory in order to re-tie them when needed. "All right, try that."

The former leader rolled his shoulder for a moment before slowly pumping his loosened arm a few times with a satisfactory sound. "Hnnngh, I needed that."

Saturn remained silent and waited for Cyrus to set his arm back in place. Finally he was able to restrain the man's arm once again, making sure to copy the prior positions of the ropes before setting on the other arm's bindings.

As Cyrus adjusted his other arm, working out the invisible kinks in it, he asked "What is Charon's current move?"

"I don't know yet." Charon had mentioned Heatran a few days prior, but Saturn thought it unnecessary to mention something that was purely speculative. Or that speculation, at least; on a smaller scale it felt fine. "I feel like he's going to try and talk to me later today, but I don't know for sure."

Cyrus nodded. "Understood. Saturn." He moved his head from side to side as he put his other arm back where it had started. "There is a chance that he will assign you elsewhere."

Though the idea of being assigned to Cyrus had at first been one of frustration and fear, Saturn shivered at the notion of being removed from that duty. "I'll try to avoid that. I'll appeal to his notions of you being punished."

Securely bound once again, Cyrus turned as much as he could against the restraints to face Saturn. "Do you believe that I should not be?"

Saturn rested a hand on the back of the chair, fingers brushing against the light garment on Cyrus's back but trying to avoid it as much as he could. "...I just don't think it's Charon's place to do so. You need to be held to better standards than this."

Cyrus smiled, which was unusual itself, but it was alienating and foreign due to bearing real emotion in it. Whenever Cyrus would smile, it would be something modeled and practiced, almost a rote expression that had nothing behind it, but this was a world apart. Moreover, it was a sad smile, one that would be seen on someone who had nearly given up. "I see. Do you believe I will stand in judgement before Arceus for what I've done?"

To mention the Original One, the one Cyrus had sought to usurp power from without invoking the creator of the universe itself and instead pursuing its children, chilled Saturn immensely. "...I don't know. I've never heard you talk about it before. I was talking more about the International Police or even the domestic ones. Not like..." He shuddered "...that."

"I suppose the laws of man take the forefront." Cyrus pondered. "The justice of an absent deity...almost all perception of it is from the imaginations of humans anyway. We crave some sort of order, so we invent laws to rule us, and decide that unjust laws must remain or else there is no law at all. We crave order, but create chaos."

Saturn didn't quite understand what Cyrus was talking about, but he took a guess. "Uh, like how people will gravitate towards corrupt leaders like Charon?"

The smile was bizarre enough, but for it to be followed by a laugh nearly knocked Saturn over from surprise. "I was speaking of a bigger picture, but that, I suppose, is a microcosm of the same matter."

The commander finally walked in front of Cyrus rather than continuing to hang back, and was surprised to see the man's full expression. That smile now showed some mirth to it. "Sir. It's dinnertime."

Averting the subject back to his original purpose was the only way Saturn could find to grab any sort of control. Cyrus's expression dulled, back to the regular intimidating glare. "Very well. I assume you wish me to be silent again."

"If you could."

The man nodded.






"I'll be expecting you to attend to some duties outside the base," Charon told him, casual as if he was making small talk.

Saturn froze up ever so slightly. He knew it was a possibility when he was called to the new boss's office, but could he really have found out so soon after that Saturn was relaying information to Cyrus? Would he really be removing him from tending to the former leader?

But Charon continued. "You can just take care of Cyrus whenever you get back." He chuckled. "Of course, you'll probably be gone for more than a day sometimes, but that's just more time for him to think about what he's done."

Saturn saluted without thinking about it. "Yes sir." What he really wanted to do was to bring up everything Charon had done, but that would only result in having what he had done, especially Lake Valor, being thrown back.

"Yes well, your first mission will be six pm tonight. You'll be tracking the location of a man named Kaisei."

Before the next chance to see Cyrus or tell him anything. Naturally. Saturn only nodded. "Who is Kaisei, sir?"

"A ruin maniac, that annoying sort. He's being hunted by the International Police for something or another." Charon swirled his hand in place. "I believe he has information relevant to our research."

"Such as?"

"Such as never you mind!" Charon was smiling, but there was a snap to his voice that jolted down Saturn's back. "It's none of your concern. You're just to find his location, after all. Try not to interact. But then, he's not very bright, so you'll probably able to evade his detection."

"If he's a ruin maniac, wouldn't he be pretty good at noticing details?"

Charon shrugged. "He seems to more...luck into everything. It never seems to be an issue of skill." He waved his hand again and sat back. "Whatever it is the International Police think he did, it's certain to be a result of stupidity than any actual malice, so I doubt that he's going to be any threat to you. Just find him and report his location."

Saturn saluted again. "Yes sir. You won't regret it."

"Excellent. You'll be given a mission briefing before you leave to narrow down where he could be. For now, you're dismissed."

In the hallway, finally away from the old man's unsettling gaze, Saturn weighed his options. He could tell Cyrus what was going on and why he wouldn't be there that evening. But doing so would tip his hand too much. If he was spotted so much as going near Cyrus's cell, even going down the hallway, it would be reason to suspect him of something. Maybe it wouldn't give away the entire matter of acting as Cyrus's eyes during this time, but it would be atypical behavior, and Saturn had to remain as above suspicion as he could.

It would mean that Cyrus wouldn't be fed that night, and likely not the morning either. And he was already receiving the bare minimum. But...

Saturn inhaled deeply in an attempt to focus himself. "Remember what he did to you," he murmured. "Remember how he threw you aside. He threw everyone aside. Everyone and everything."

It wasn't as dominating a terror as it had once been, but it was enough to quell his more urgent thoughts.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Hello there! I remember your name from various places in the fandom throughout the years, haha. I see that you’ve returned to Bulbagarden and have prepared a new story here for us to enjoy. I had no idea what to expect from the title, but reading the first few sentences mentioning endgame Team Galactic stuff caught my attention, as that’s a very interesting and precarious time in the history of that particular evil team; one that’s ripe for juicy storytelling on so many levels. I went ahead and gave the whole thing a shot, and so with that said, I’ll go ahead and give you my thoughts on this first chapter here below!

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve steeped myself in DPPt-era lore, I’ll admit, including DPA. But I do distinctly remember Charon being a real bastard of a leader, which colored a lot of my expectations of what to expect from him here, and by extension the tension I felt as I placed myself, as the reader, in the shoes of Saturn, our POV character here. While not much appears to happen here, I suspect that’s the point; the real purpose of this first chapter here seems to be to introduce what appears to be the main subject of the plot here: the aftermath of the events of DPPt and what it and its consequences — including, above all, the ascension of Charon to leader status — mean for Team Galactic. Which this first chapter does well, I think, with its biggest strength probably being how well it makes us understand Saturn’s feelings and perspective as someone both worried for Cyrus who they clearly greatly respect, and about Charon who they most certainly don’t. The reasons shown for the latter are vague in their detail but are clear through Charon’s mannerisms, past and present, as well as their obvious deep contempt for Cyrus that seems to go beyond simply the fact of their insane end goal (which, out of context and with almost any other person, would seem completely reasonable). Even as someone who knows what’s going to happen with Team Galactic after this, we don’t quite know exactly what’s going to happen, step by step, which I think is due in no small part to the more micro view we get of the organization here versus what we see as the player character in the games. It makes us wonder what’s going to happen, not which helps gives us that sense of tension that allows us to relate to Saturn while keeping us wondering what kinds of developments the next chapter will bring.

That said, the story doesn’t really seem to try to hide how much of a bastard Charon is, I find, which I wonder is intentional with your stated prerequisite for readers to know DPPt lore. This didn’t really bother me as someone who is at least vaguely familiar for said lore, but I wonder, in a theoretical version of your story that doesn’t have this prerequisite but is otherwise the same, if perhaps the story telegraphs Charon’s bastard nature just a tad too hard, maybe? There’s one sentence near the end — one that I liked, by the way — that says that an unknowing observer would describe Charon’s mannerisms as “grandfatherly”. Perhaps there’s an opportunity there to lure an unknowing reader — one unfamiliar with DPPt lore — into a false sense of security with this seemingly far more stable man than the former leader who, you know, tried to wipe out the entire universe, and indeed all of Team Galactic as Charon himself so slickly points out. Although perhaps that narrative direction might be difficult to pull off given that Charon clearly isn’t one to hide what he thinks about things, hmm. And then there’s how to reconcile that with the tension that Saturn feels, as he clearly knows things about Charon that give him good reason to fear him as leader. Heh, forgive my brainstorming on your fic in the middle of a review, haha…

Anyways, I’m glad that I gave this fic a shot, and it definitely lives up to the spirit of its title, haha. I anticipate seeing how well you can keep up the suspense in future chapters, as I think that it’s the greatest asset that you have in a story like this. I’ll be on the lookout for the next!

Ah hi I'm sorry I didn't mean to ignore this review!

Saturn is kinda out of the frying pan and into the fire here, isn't he?

I didn't really feel the need to hide what a bastard Charon is because Saturn already knows that. He's been working with the man for a while now. Remember, Mitsumi froze up when a grunt said Charon was in charge. She seemed to not even consider that he could have taken over until that was said, but once she heard it, everything sort of fell into place for her. So he's both feared and underestimated and that's an odd situation to be in, especially for what's essentially an apocalypse cult.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

The strangest part was that all the data on Kaisei suggested that Charon had been absolutely right about him, that anything he was suspected of was likely something he had stumbled into. Saturn had thought that Charon had only told him that to either keep information to himself or to divert some suspicion. The ultimate plan was to bring Kaisei in before the International Police could find him, but Saturn couldn't figure what Neo Galactic--he realized his stomach hurt when he thought of their new name--would want with a guy who by all accounts was a complete idiot. What information could he possibly have that would benefit them?

Maybe Kaisei had been a witness to something, but Saturn couldn't think of anything that he could possibly have seen that would have him on the lists for multiple organizations. The target was a complete enigma.

Even his face was a puzzle, because Saturn had sworn he had seen the man before, or someone who looked like him, but couldn't pin down just who exactly it had been. The reports said that Kaisei hadn't been in Sinnoh for more than a few days for the past ten years and he had done nothing of note, only spoken to Professor Rowan.

Mitsumi would likely know of him, at least, working for Rowan as she did, but there was no way that Saturn could possibly contact her. Especially not now that he was working for Charon.

His thoughts wandered to Mars and Jupiter. They had gone off to find Cyrus, and they never would. Would they eventually give up, or would they keep looking forever?

What information they had on Cyrus was also sparse. They knew he was much younger than he appeared, only in his late twenties, and that he was from Sunyshore, on Sinnoh's east coast. When Galactic had been researching the myths of the region, a few photographs from the late Hisui era of a century and a half ago had shown a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Cyrus, and he had confirmed that she was his ancestor, but that was all the family he had ever admitted to. Clearly he had to have family, everyone did at some point, but he never spoke of anybody else in his life. Attempts to look in the Sunyshore records seemed sealed up. Cyrus had thought ahead and removed them from public record.

The gym leader there was around that age and also scientifically minded. Mars had once wondered if the two had gone to school together, and giggled imagining how frazzled any teacher who had both at once in their class must have been. But Saturn couldn't just call up a public figure and ask if he had gone to school with a wanted criminal who had tried to unmake the universe. Rather, he could, but he figured he would only get hung up on. Besides, gym leaders probably didn't answer their own phones.

Well, Maylene, the gym leader of Veilstone City, probably did, but she was in an infamously complicated situation. Saturn remembered some of the grunts expressing concern for her on a few occasions, some of them wanting to offer her a position in the team. One of them had wanted to hack into the Game Corner's machines to give her gambling addict father a payout to pay their bills, but reasoned that would only encourage him.

It was always odd when the grunts would show sympathy, because it often came from people who demonstrated great cruelty as well. The same grunts who expressed concern for Maylene were among some who were so eager to join the mission to blow up Lake Valor, who gloated at the pathetic Magikarp flopping helplessly on the dry lakebed.

"Even Team Galactic has no use for something this worthless" he had heard one of them say. And yet Cyrus himself showed up soon after on a Gyarados. He saw value in what the grunts dismissed. It was the grunts themselves he saw as worthless, along with everyone else.

Poetic, in a way. Saturn scoffed to himself. "Don't start romanticizing the past" he said to no one in particular, uncertain if that was really what he was doing or not.



Saturn finally returned to the base nearly twenty four hours later, and the first thing he did when he went to present Charon with his report was ask if anybody had seen to Cyrus.

Charon chuckled as he slid the file closer, having to fully stand to lean over the desk enough to reach it. "Why would they? That's your job, after all."

"He's been alone this whole time?"

"Well yes, unless there's been some sort of massive security breach. So I can say pretty confidently that yes, he has."

Saturn nodded, trying to ignore the sick feeling in his gut. "Yes, sir."

"Speaking of which, it's almost seven, isn't it? Seems you should get your things together. I'd imagine he's hungry, but don't give him any more than usual."

Perhaps it was Saturn's imagination, but Charon seemed to be examining his reaction. "Wouldn't dream of it," he said as casually as he could.

"Haha, of course you wouldn't." The old man leaned back, examining the file. "So you narrowed down his location? Kaisei, that is." He chuckled. "We know where Cyrus is, of course."

Saturn shivered, trying to brush it off as a casual rub at his arm. "Yes sir. We believe he may be trying to make his way back to Sandgem Town. As the report said, he's an associate of Professor Rowan, and they're reported to have spoken a few days ago. Although...I wanted to ask you about something in the report."

"By all means."

The longer Saturn could keep on the subject of Kaisei, the longer they could talk about something other than Cyrus. "He was spotted at the tournament, it says. Did you know he was there, sir?"

Charon looked very amused by the question and tented his fingers before him. "If I'd known beforehand, I would have tried to remove him from the premises before starting the bombing operation. But he made everyone very aware of his presence during the broadcast, sticking around and hollering like he did."

Saturn looked away for a second as he tried to think of what this could be referring to. 'Sticking around' would mean after that operation had started, and everyone was 'hollering' at that point. He could only think of one thing, but it didn't seem right. "I remember before the sound cut out, one of the trainers on the field was yelling at someone in the audience. Was that him?"

Just as fast as it had shown, Charon's amusement dropped from his face. "No, Saturn. That was beforehand anyway. Pay attention."

"Yes sir." Saturn wasn't certain why he felt the need to apologize.

"Anyway, it's only natural that he would show up at the stadium. I'd probably have set a trap for him there if he'd bothered to show his face in Sinnoh for the past several years. Instead he walked into a mine field." A slight snicker. "Such a bold move, making his presence known for that brat."

"Brat?"

Charon opened the file and spun it around to face Saturn before tapping the enclosed photo. It was a few years old but clear. "He doesn't look familiar to you? He's related to someone you know far too well."

Saturn leaned over the massive desk to get a closer view. Kaisei could best be described as "rugged", every bit the typical Ruin Maniac, with a large forelock of hair and a jutting nose and a smile that would be almost sarcastically large if it wasn't for the sense that he genuinely enjoyed himself that much in the everyday. Looking further, there was a sense of admitted familiarity, but Saturn couldn't figure what Charon could mean. "Sir, I don't understand what you mean."

Charon yanked the folder back. "No, I didn't think you would. Do you remember near the end of the broadcast where someone ran onto the field and gave that little upstart Hareta an egg?"

"Uh...yes sir, I do." Before Charon could start up again, it clicked in Saturn's mind. "Wait, that was him? So is Hareta his son?"

Charon shrugged. "It's hard to imagine a woman foolish enough to hook up with an idiot like that, but then, if human stupidity was a power source, the world would outshine the sun. The resemblance is hard to ignore though."

"Mmm." Looking at the photo again, upside down though it was, Saturn could make out what Charon had meant. "Yeah I guess they do look similar. So that egg he gave him... do we know what it contains?"

"Not yet. And if he's avoided Hareta all this time, I do wonder if he'll continue to stay away." Charon tucked the folder away in a drawer. "We need to avoid Hareta, of course. That brat has fouled up too many of our operations. As you well know, of course."

The utter humiliation Saturn had suffered at the hands of that young trainer brought a clench to his fists, but he remained professional. "He has a way of finding us."

"Yes well, eventually we can make a move against him. I heard there's some cult in Unova that practically worships someone just like him. Maybe we could capture him and sell him off somewhere. Get him out of our hair once and for all."

The utterly dismissive way Charon said it was something Saturn would have to push through and ignore for the time being. "Yes sir."

"Regardless, I think your report helped narrow it down. We should be able to get him in no time!" Charon gestured for Saturn to come a little closer. "You probably have a lot of questions, don't you? One in particular?"

Just one? Saturn thought deeply about the implications of that. Charon was likely to be leading him towards a specific question, but what was it? He had to think carefully, but he had to do it quickly. Making it about Kaisei was a safe bet. "What makes Kaisei so valuable to us?"

It wasn't easy to tell what Charon's smile could mean until he started to laugh. "Heehee, I suppose I should let you in on that. You see, he knows the location of the ultimate prize. A pokémon known to very few, one of immense power, heehee." He leaned back and brought his feet up to clunk onto the desk. "Saturn, my boy, have you ever heard of Giratina?"

"Giratina?" Saturn mulled it over. "I've heard the name before...oh! When we were studying the legends of Sinnoh, there were a few references to it. There was an entry for it in the Laventon dex, but since there's so little information about it, it didn't seem worth it to pursue. Cyrus said it was just a myth that people made up to balance the idea of Dialga and Palkia."

"'Cyrus said', 'Cyrus said'..." Charon's voice was harsh and dismissive. "Cyrus also said he could be a god and look how that turned out. He's a delusional nitwit who got everyone else to buy into his madness."

Saturn felt like he should have anticipated such a bitter reaction. "Of course, sir. So Giratina truly exists?"

The mirth filled Charon's face again. "Not only does it truly exist, there's people out there looking to pay the GNP of a medium country for it! Of course, that's if I decide to sell it. They say Giratina controls antimatter, and imagine what a creature like that could do to any opposing force! Why, nothing could possibly stand a chance against anyone who wielded that. I could rule the world in no time!"

"...Of course, sir." Saturn hoped the pause where his thoughts stuck in place wouldn't make him come off as sarcastic, but he had truly had to push to speak. Charon planned on something that was so much smaller than Cyrus's goal of universal rebirth, but felt so much more looming and present. World domination seemed more achievable somehow, even though no one in history had ever accomplished it. Then again, no one in history had ever come as close as Cyrus had to godhood, even though he had lost control of the warring deities before he could take the necessary power.

"Yes, so there you go. I think that about wraps things up. By the way." Charon brought himself around to an upright posture again, all casual manner gone. "There's not really anything Cyrus can do to stop me, so you can go ahead and tell him too. I don't really care. You're dismissed."

Did he know? Did he know that Saturn was giving Cyrus information or was Charon just gloating and it was all a coincidence? Regardless of the answer, Saturn had to keep a cool demeanor, and saluted before exiting. The second he had closed the door behind him, he leaned against the wall and thought things over, trying to maintain a neutral expression against the raging tide of stomach acid threatening his gut. Deep breaths failed to calm him, and he shook his head to himself.

Seeing Cyrus would calm him, a paradoxical revelation considering his relationship with the former leader, but one he knew to be true just the same.

Seven PM would take forever to arrive.



He fumbled with the lock that night, the metal feeling especially slippery in his fingers. It had been more than thirty six hours since Cyrus had been attended to, and he knew the man would be upset in some way or another, however he manifested this. Emotional expression seemed to be something Cyrus used for his own gain. Though he had laughed before, and would have had nothing to gain from it. Right? Saturn couldn't think of anything at least, since he had been the only witness to it and it had unsettled him to no end. Even thinking about that laugh later on was at least somewhat disturbing, but it still didn't feel manipulative, not in the way that Cyrus usually manipulated others.

The light on Cyrus's face furrowed his brow as he fought against sleep to rouse himself. "Mmph...Saturn?"

"It's me, sir. I'm going to turn the light on."

"Go ahead."

Saturn did so in silence, turning away from Cyrus to activate the switch and remaining there for a moment longer than necessary. "I was called away on a field mission. I'm sorry for not tending to you earlier."

Cyrus shook his head. "You tend to lose track of time in here. Or I do anyway. I wonder if holding the power of Dialga affects that. It would be worth investigating, should I ever leave this place."

Prospective tense, not a certainty. "Cyrus..."

The man turned towards Saturn, staring up at him with a strangely neutral expression. "If I ordered you to get me out of here, would you listen?"

Saturn averted his gaze. "No, I wouldn't. It's far too dangerous for you to leave right now."

"When it's safe, then."

"...I already told you that I think you deserve punishment."

"Yes. But in the same breath also told me that you were opposed to this punishment."

Despite the room being at a constant temperature, Saturn felt suddenly cold. "Cyrus, what do you know about..." He was going to ask what Cyrus knew of Giratina but decided against it. Charon wanted him to tell Cyrus, so he would talk about something else. "...a man named Kaisei?"

"I've never heard that name." There wasn't enough information in his tone for Saturn to determine if the statement was the truth or not.

"I see. I was tasked with tracking him down, but I know very little about him. He's wanted by the International Police but my information doesn't tell me what he did. Charon wants him before they can get to him. He's a ruin maniac so I assume he's got some sort of mythic knowledge or something."

"Is Charon after mythic knowledge, do you believe? Something that we didn't uncover in our quest to unearth the myths and history of the Sinnoh region?"

The notion that Cyrus could know something about Giratina, even though he had dismissed the idea of it during their research, stuck in Saturn's head, and something in him had to ask, but he knew he couldn't be as direct as Charon wanted. "There were a lot of loose ends we saw in those days. Stories that didn't make sense or match with anything else." There was plenty to buffer the subject with, at least. "What happened to the original Sinnohians, for one. They just kind of dropped out of history. What's the truth about the idea that humans and pokémon used to be considered the same thing--who considered them that? Did they really used to marry? And Giratina, why it would show up in the early pokédex if it wasn't real. Or something like the life force energy of aura, why some people seem to be able to use it. Does that tie in with the earlier idea of int--"

"Saturn." Cyrus had remained quiet as Saturn fumbled his way through the memories of half-finished and abandoned research, but finally spoke.

Saturn nearly jumped at the sudden mention of his name. "Yes?"

"You've come to ask me about Giratina. Just be direct with it."

He realized he probably shouldn't have been surprised that Cyrus would see through him that easily, even if he had no idea how the man could have done so. "...Huh?" It was a rough and indistinguished answer but the only one he could really manage.

"You gave the least amount of detail about it. That drew my attention to it by omission."

Ah, so that was it. "Most people wouldn't pick up on that."

"Yes, but I am not most people."

"Yeah, that much is obvious."

Cyrus smirked, much to Saturn's shock, and resumed. "Giratina, to answer your query, is in the early dex because the researchers at the time drew from folklore, and while this led to information on Dialga and Palkia through further scientific study, there is no evidence that Giratina was anything but a story. There is often a kernel of truth to many myths, in Sinnoh and elsewhere, but the truth here is simply that people would invent stories to explain what they could not. Some third god in the vein of those known to exist would explain much to them."

It took Saturn a moment to figure out what felt off about that assertion. "We focused all our research on Dialga. It wasn't until it showed up at the Spear Pillar that any of us knew that Palkia even existed. Except Cynthia and the professor, anyway."

What levity had existed to bring a smile to Cyrus's face seemed to ebb away, and Saturn was reminded of how Charon's earlier smile had faded as they spoke as well. "The earliest people to bother writing their legends down used the same word, 'Sinnoh', to refer to both Dialga and Palkia. Additionally, the statue in Eterna is of Dialga and identified as such."

"It seems an oversight to have missed an entire god of space."

"It does, in hindsight," Cyrus admitted. "But that is the fault of those who do not record their history or beliefs. Most of human history has been lost to us because of that. Even those civilizations who possessed writing systems often failed to explain themselves, as there was no point in describing the everyday to those who lived it." He scowled, something else rather off-putting on his usually expressionless face. "To think, someone who would have been seen by their contemporaries as a tremendous bore by recording every aspect of their life would have, to us, been the greatest boon of their civilization."

Saturn nodded, though the concept was bizarre.

"Regardless, the usefulness of such a person is at odds with societal expectations. One would have to think exclusively of the future, only using the past and present as a carcass to pick apart in painstaking detail."

An even stranger concept, Saturn thought. But that was frequently how Cyrus spoke of the world, as some sort of foreign thing that defied description. And he supposed that to Cyrus it was probably like that. He wish he understood why that was.

Cyrus had taught Mitsumi much of the same, and from what little he had seen of her after she had fled from the team, it had left her ill prepared to face the reality of the world. She was incapable of dealing with her past, to the point where, when she had been confronted with it in a way she couldn't run from, she had insisted on remaining in the old headquarters as it exploded. Saturn wasn't sure how she survived, much less without a mark on her, but figured one of her friends must have saved her. Which of course was a luxury that Cyrus had never possessed, as near as Saturn could figure.

Friends, anyway.

"I will have to test this," Cyrus continued. "To return to the earlier subject of being able to gage the passage of time. Although that will be put aside for now. For now, I believe you came here for a purpose. Other than to ask me about the stories humans tell themselves."

Saturn fumbled for the packaged nutritional goo, passing a brief memory of a group of grunts gathered in the break room daring each other to chug an entire pouch of it; the only time he had ever witnessed anybody willingly consuming the stuff. "Heh. Did you really design this stuff for the team to subside on?"

"Naturally."

He considered bringing up how it smelled like swamp water but decided against it. "You really had some strange ideas for what the new world would be like if you thought we were gonna eat this crap."

"And yet you think nothing of giving it to me now."

Saturn drew a spoon out as well and filled it. "Blame Charon for that. He considers it good enough for you, and frankly that may be one of the few things he's said that I agree with."

Cyrus swallowed the strange substance before shaking his head slightly. "You know...I've had time to think in here. A lot of it. Even if I can't tell how much has passed, I know it's been a truly regrettable amount."

Another spoonfull. "And what have you been thinking about?"

"Myself, mostly." Was it Saturn's imagination or was Cyrus's voice softer than usual? "I've been thinking about...well, about what happened. What I did."

Saturn could believe that Cyrus had thought about it, but he couldn't believe any claims of change because of those thoughts. He braced himself and asked "What, specifically?", wanting Cyrus to say it himself.

"Well..." Cyrus sighed slightly, and averted his eyes to the floor. "I nearly destroyed the universe in my zeal to be something greater than any human could ever be. There was very nearly nothing left." His voice seemed to shake.

Saturn frowned. Best to stop this game right away. "Yes, exactly. Which is why putting all this forced emotion in your voice isn't going to work. You would do the same thing in your speeches and we know better now because of what you did.

Cyrus looked up with an almost pained expression, another thing Saturn chalked up to his manipulative nature, before letting his eyes close and his head droop. "Heh. As I said before, I understand if you don't forgive me. I'm having difficulty with the idea of forgiving myself, and I don't think I can." He opened his eyes again and locked them with Saturn's. "But I don't have to have forgiveness to keep going in the world. In this world."

"In this world," Saturn repeated. A cold chill settled on the base of his neck. "You say that so casually. It's really like you forgot what you did, even when you're telling me that you regret it."

"I'm...heh." Cyrus shook his head again. "No matter. All I can do is tell you the truth of the matter, and you can do with it what you will. I wanted a new world, but this world is better than the void that would have taken hold if that power hadn't been stopped. This world, though it is fatally and inherently flawed, still has a future, one that can be shaped and molded. A new one simply would have been easier. I would have changed fundamental things about sentient life, our ability to interact with the world and each other. And..." He sighed deeply. "...though we will still possess emotion in this world, and thus always have the capacity for great evil...it is better than non-existence. A wicked world can still be changed, though it will suffer greatly for it."

Saturn simply filled the spoon again and shoved it at his former leader, finally speaking after a contemplative-seeming pause where he thought of nothing in particular. "'Emotions only cause pain', isn't that what you said?"

Cyrus licked away a stray bit of the nutrient goo that had fallen on his thin lips. "You've experienced it yourself. What joy do you get from this world? Bound to this gang, to a leader who would only discard you..."

"Leaders. Plural." Saturn hoped the ice from the back of his neck would manifest its way into his voice. "You did it twice. Charon's only made it clear that he would, but he hasn't yet."

Another nod. "I did. And he will. Driven by greed and self-aggrandizement..."

"Him or you?"

Cyrus seemed to be taken off guard by that. "Is it greed to want the betterment of humanity? An end to suffering?"

"If you're going to declare yourself a god and treat the universe like your own personal computer to system wipe and reprogram as you want, then yeah. Yeah it's greed, selfishness...You're a selfish bastard, Cyrus."

"Of course." His tone was defeated, his posture slumped. "And yet you feel the need to remain where you are."

There was nowhere else for Saturn to go, he thought as he remembered the conversation he'd had with Charon on that subject. But rather than admit to it, he found himself saying "Who else would tend to you like this?"

For the first time in a while, Cyrus seemed at a loss for words.



A few days had passed. For all his bluster about not caring what Cyrus knew, Charon had kept to his usual vagueries when speaking to Saturn. His manner remained unchanged, alternating between joking and hostility, often in the same sentence. The issue of the grunts he had sent to the League came up once, and he seemed unconcerned that they could possibly betray him even though he had sent them off to die, dismissing them as not knowing anything the police could benefit from knowing.

Saturn relayed to Cyrus what he felt necessary, but when he thought about it, it wasn't much after all.

Then, during another meeting, Charon received some news.

"Oh, we've located Kaisei. We're bringing him in."

Saturn glanced up from the report he'd been handed, something about the beast of Newmoon Island. "Oh? That's great!"

"It is! And I'd like you to get things set up for him. He's asking for..." Charon glanced down at his phone, checking the text report from the field, "...hm. Was hoping I'd misread that."

Putting the paper aside, Saturn leaned over to take a look, only to be met with Charon yanking the phone closer. "Oh, sorry. What's he after?"

"...Kaisei's asking for, and I quote, a 'six foot party sub'." For all of Charon's evil, the sight of him gingerly setting the phone down and rubbing at his temples was a comical one even to Saturn. "Saturn, my boy, if I may speak frankly, what the HELL."

Saturn let himself chuckle a little. "It's a sandwich, sir. A gigantic one."

Charon glared at him through parted fingers. "I know what it is. I went to college," he moaned dispassionately. "We're dealing with an idiot. Moreso than most of the grunts." He grunted slightly before checking for another report, continuing to rub at his head with his other hand. "Ugh, we've got to play this fellow up. Appeal to his empty-headed good nature and, apparently, his bottomless appetite." He set the phone back, face down. "I'm putting you in charge of that. Get whoever you want to delegate it to. That idiot with the swollen posterior should suffice. He's around somewhere. Not exactly hard to find."

Saturn nodded. "Yes sir. Although I don't exactly trust B-2 with any sort of funding, even if it's to order food."

"You're right, it would be like trusting Cyrus with his own keys." Charon peeked back through his fingers again before dropping his hands to the desk and resuming a demeanor more befitting of the boss he insisted he was. "Speaking of, how is our favorite emotionally constipated manchild?"

Cyrus hadn't said much over the past few days, not since the conversation about Giratina and the rest. "He's been quiet. I think he's mulling over the reality of his situation."

"Mm. Well, that sounds like he's starting to crack. Hard to tell with him, given how he's usually got that, you know." Charon scowled and narrowed his eyes, imitating Cyrus's usual stony glare. "Like that."

Saturn debated telling Charon that Cyrus had smiled on several occasions, and it wasn't his usual fake, passionless smile. But he didn't. "Yes sir. I'll keep watch of any other change."

"See that you do. By the way, with Kaisei in our hands, we may be able to find the way to more Legendary pokémon, so hold off on the Newmoon thing for now. We'll see what he can tell us."

"Absolutely, sir. I assume you're going to meet with him soon."

"Not at first. I'm going to let the lot of you butter him up first. Even if it takes real butter. You're dismissed."

Saturn saluted and was almost to the door when Charon called out again.

"Oh, hold that thought, another message. Another group spotted Jupiter! How about that; is this my lucky day or what? I should buy a lottery ticket!"

Saturn's hand tightened at his side. Jupiter and Mars were being hunted for treason, because not returning to the team constituted treachery. "...What...?"

"Haha, well it's not like extra wealth could hurt. Though you're right, probably best not to involve the tax man. Keep everything under the table, as they say."

"N-no, I meant about Jupiter. Where is she?" The sheer casual tone to Charon's voice kept Saturn's back turned. He knew he didn't want to see that gloating expression, especially not when his own hands were shaking.

"Ah, damn, seems she got away. But it's narrowed down her location. Well, we'll get her soon enough." A slight clunk as he set the phone down again. "Those little brats that don't know what's good for them will get what's coming to them. It's just a matter of time--eh?"

Saturn had wrenched the door open and practically flung himself into the hallway. He had made a fool of himself but it was better than punching Charon in his smug face. Or passing out. Either of those.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

This time, he didn't keep the relevant information to himself. "He found Jupiter," were the first words out of his mouth that evening, the door to Cyrus's cell closed firmly behind him. "She got away but if his forces catch her, he basically told me that they're going to kill her."

Cyrus tilted his head back, eyes closed. "I see. What did he say, exactly? As close as you can remember."

"That she'll get what's coming to her. Mars was implied as well."

"...hm. Yes, that does sound like a threat. Neither of them would be vital to keep as a prisoner like I am. I believe you were correct in your assessment."

Saturn had had to choke it back all day and go about his business, but the ability to be so open with someone was setting him trembling, and he could hear the sloshing water bottle in his pocket. He grabbed the offending bottle and pried it open. "Here." A bit came off the top as he held it out. "Dammit...I couldn't say a word about this to anybody all day..."

Cyrus took a drink from the offered bottle before asking "what did you do in the meantime?"

"Haha!" The laugh was mirthless. "You won't believe this. That Kaisei guy?" Saturn started to pace, the bottle still in his hand, tipping water every few steps. "He's on his way. Probably here by now. They're keeping things tight lipped with him and they're trying to wine and dine him into giving up information, by which I mean 'they offered him food and the first thing he wanted was a goddamn party sub which I had to order'."

"...He wants to have a party on a submarine?" It wasn't often that Cyrus expressed confusion. If he had felt it before, it was covered by his usual stone face and clarified with an order to elaborate. This was something perhaps even stranger than a smile.

Saturn stopped. "...Oh god don't do this to me now. Just take a drink." He looked down at the bottle in his hand. "Oh. Uh...sorry." He did his best to stay in one spot as Cyrus drank more. "Yeah, he wanted a giant sandwich. Submarine style, you know."

After a long draught, Cyrus nodded. "Ah, yes. I assume the way to get this Kaisei to loosen his lips is to shove food through them."

"Ah, yeah, probably. Reports say he's not especially bright so I think Charon is banking on him somehow not noticing he's in a literal terrorist den if we keep him distracted enough."

"We are terrorists, aren't we?" From the slowness of his voice and the odd aversion of his eyes, it almost seemed like Cyrus had never considered that before. "And...it wasn't anything Charon turned us into."

"I don't know, sir."

"What we did to get information..." Despite the drink he had just taken, Cyrus's voice was dry. "We destroyed a lake. A sacred one."

"We couldn't have gotten to Azelf if we hadn't."

Cyrus nodded, very slowly. "...yes, for the creation of the Red Chain. The artifact made from the gems the lake spirits bear... We could not have summoned Dialga without it. If I had foreseen to create two chains, we could have bound Palkia as well."

Saturn wasn't so certain. "The lake spirits destroyed Dialga's chain."

"I should have--" But whatever Cyrus was about to say dried up in his throat. "...To kill a legendary pokémon is an egregious sin, isn't it? And yet I would have wiped out all creation without a thought."

Saturn shifted uncomfortably. "...I wouldn't say without a thought. But yes, you would have wiped out all creation. Nothing would have remained."

"Reset everything to zero. Wipe it clean, purify it, and begin again at the creation of the universe. There would have been no fighting and no strife. Nobody would have ever had reason to want or fear..." All talking points Cyrus had said before. He had told his commanders, all his followers, that he was to become the god of a new world, and yet somehow none of them had ever clued into that he wasn't being metaphorical. It wasn't a new world order, a new reign of a new leader, that he meant. Everything he had said was very literal and yet it was so audacious that none could possibly believe it to be real.

In a way, it felt like a lie, though he had said nothing but the truth.

"Saturn, what do you believe my punishment should be? You only said 'not this'."

It didn't take Saturn nearly as off guard as he would have thought. "I don't know. I mean, you're not right in the head, but you also still know right from wrong. You have a sense of morals and justice, and you're mostly dangerous because you can get everyone to do what you want." As he spoke, he let Cyrus take another drink. "I'm not sure if the International Police can really account for something like that. Solitary would drive you mad. I don't think the guards there even talk to you, so you wouldn't even get moments like we have right now. But you can't be left to just talk to whoever you want either. I think you'd have to be monitored closely. Because you use people."

Cyrus pulled his head back from the bottle. "Am I using you right now?"

"Not right now. But you did. You have. And I'm not confident that you wouldn't do so again. You know you did it, too, so don't play stupid on me.

"I did what I had to do. That was all there was to it. If it's any comfort, it was never anything personal."

Saturn was tempted to storm out of the room, and would have done so if it wasn't for the need to complete his duty. "You really think anybody would take comfort in that?"

"I suppose not. I apologize."

"For what? What are you apologizing for?"

"...I don't know. It seemed appropriate to say. And I do feel deep regret..." Cyrus took another drink, but Saturn didn't say anything during that time. "...I'm not sure what, specifically, the regret is for, however. I only know that I feel it and it seems to be genuine."

"Seems to be?"

"After a decade of suppressing my emotions, letting them rule me again comes with difficulties."

Saturn sighed, but he wanted to somewhat avert the current subject. May as well segue into something else. As long as he maintained the knowledge that Cyrus was dangerous and could manipulate sympathy into a weapon, he felt confident in asking. "Why did you start doing that, anyway? Suppressing your emotions."

Cyrus looked up at him, the sudden interest seeming to catch him off guard. "My emotions had begun to control me. I had...lashed out."

"You were already with the team by then, right?"

"Yes, they were putting me through university. It was a much different organization at the time, and I wouldn't take control for a few more years."

Saturn didn't know much about Galactic's early years, only that it had started small enough that most people believed that Cyrus had founded it, but Mitsumi's existence in the organization, brought in when she was a small child, had thrown the time frame into question for the few who thought about it. But she was out of the picture and he wouldn't ask about her. He wouldn't ask about anything. He would let Cyrus continue talking.

Which he did, but not in a way Saturn wanted. "I was able to influence their beliefs to align with my own. It was after that point that you signed up. I recall that you expressed a desire to be a part of something greater than yourself. That you believed in the notion of the 'big picture'. Do you still?"

"Uh..." Saturn didn't like this question one bit. "Not at the cost it's taken."

"You were curious as to what I had planned."

"Yeah. And curiosity almost killed me. And everyone else."

"Perhaps you're every bit the cat Mars would call you." But the mention of Mars seemed to settle uncomfortably even with Cyrus as he said it. "...she hasn't been found yet, has she?"

"Not as far as I know." Saturn's voice was softer than he wanted.

"Did he reveal where Jupiter had been seen?"

"No sir."

Cyrus drew in a breath. "And you couldn't ask without showing too much of your hand. I won't have you risk yourself to save her. I would tell her the same if the situation was reversed."

Evenly applied nihilistic caution was at least understandable, even if Saturn had been somewhat hoping that Cyrus would have a solution. Cyrus was covering his own eventualities, of course. Ensuring his own security, no matter who was guarding him. And that Saturn had found himself hoping that the man who saw them all as disposable would still be able to save them...he didn't want to consider what that meant, for either of them. "I want to ensure your safety, but I must be honest. I will prioritize myself over you if it comes to it. Should any emergency situation arise, I will try to save you. I will try my hardest." He brought a hand to his heart in a nervous pledge. "...but I cannot lie."

"I understand." Cyrus's tone was firm and even, but seemed different from his usual flat delivery. "I believe you have earned that much."

"Earned?"

"The right to make such a decision. After all, I had made it about you."

"You made it about everyone else too."

Cyrus nodded. "I wouldn't expect anybody else to try and save me at all. Hareta, perhaps. But nobody else outside you three commanders. It wouldn't even cross my mind."

Oh yeah, Hareta was still a factor. The boy's proximity to Mitsumi may lead him away from investigating further, but on the other hand, he may convince the former commander to join in. By saying 'three', Cyrus had excluded her, but Saturn wasn't entirely certain. "I don't know where he is. Last I saw, he was at the tournament, so he may be intent on fighting Charon, but I wouldn't know."

"Hareta doesn't plan ahead. If he intended to confront anybody, he would have done so by now." There seemed to be something odd in Cyrus's tone, but Saturn couldn't put his finger on it.

If he had to guess, it would be regret. But he wasn't sure.

"Do you think Mitsumi will try?"

"Not at all." Cyrus's tone had shifted back to resolute. "She would be right to never concern herself with us again. I don't expect to see her again."

Saturn straightened up a little at that, adopting a more authoritative pose. "Do you believe she would have obeyed you if you hadn't threatened her Eevee?"

Cyrus let his eyes close. "If I'd had more time to convince her, yes. But time was very short then, or so I thought. We were headed to the summit, to the Spear Pillar, as soon as the Red Chain was extracted. I couldn't let us linger around."

And yet Cyrus had delayed the summoning by several hours in the hopes that Hareta would arrive. Saturn didn't remind him of that. But the musing on that fateful night was unnerving. "Wow, you really would have done it. It still scares me. But you really were planning all that time to kill us."

Cyrus cocked his head. "Yes. We have been over this."

"Heh. It's a funny thing to think of." Saturn tilted his head back with a hollow smirk. "All that time when you were giving speeches, giving orders, any interaction with anybody, you'd be thinking 'ah yes I'm going to murder this person', and you just continued on like nothing was happening." He looked back at Cyrus. "I guess that image is always going to be there, no matter how far we move away from it. No matter how much you say you've changed. I'm always going to know what was going through your mind back then."

"So you doubt my sincerity."

"Part of me always will. And you need to understand why, and I don't know if you're capable of that."

The man drew in a long breath. "I do understand why. Betrayal on a cosmic scale isn't easily forgiven. And I did...I did betray you." He wasn't looking towards Saturn at all, but away to the side. "You also don't possess psychic abilities, ergo you cannot know my thoughts." He had been certain to never hire anybody who demonstrated such power. "Thus you cannot be privy to what degree of change I've undergone. You can only hear my words and believe me, something I've misused in the past." He shook his head. "Saturn. You can believe what you want, based on the evidence provided. But in this place, held as I am, I have had time to think."

It was a conversation they had had before. "You're not worthy of being a god."

"Exactly. I understand that now."

Saturn only watched him for a moment before fumbling in his pockets for the rest of the delivery. "You'll need to explain that to Mars and Jupiter when this is over."

"When this is over." It was said with the slightest of smiles. "Yes. I will do that when this is over. But it needs to be over first."





"I'm taking a cadre to Stark Mountain," Charon announced the moment Saturn entered his office. "Heatran is a powerful beast, but we're more than capable of subduing it. Especially when we can control it with the Magma Stone."

Saturn blinked a few times before continuing in. "Heatran?"

"Yes, Heatran, it's the embodiment of the volcano. Specifically this one is the embodiment of Stark Mountain, or that's how the legends go anyway. But," Charon chuckled, "you know how legends are. Assigning meaning to things that just exist."

Saturn wondered if Charon would be so flippant about the nature of legendary pokémon if he had been present for Dialga and Palkia's fight, the two deities of creation nearly ripping the universe apart in their bitter savagery. Though Heatran was on a much smaller level than those two, anyway. Even the power of a volcano, as catastrophic as it could be, was a speck of dust compared to all creation.

"Anyway, we should be able to net it fairly easily. I'm taking along some insurance in case anybody tries to interfere, of course."

"Some weapon?" Another bomb was all Saturn could think, and he hoped he was incorrect.

"Oh, even better. We managed to catch a very wiggly little creature and she'll be enough to stay the hand of anyone who tries anything." With a casual wave of his hand, Charon tossed another file on the desk. "Utterly powerless by herself, of course. But as a shield, she should finally serve a purpose."

Saturn froze up, for just a second. Had they found Jupiter? He had to push past that sick feeling and maintain his composure. He swallowed heavily, hoping it was blocked from view by his high collar, before picking up the file. It contained only a single image, of a young woman with her arms bound behind her back.

Not Jupiter, but Mars.

Anything Saturn could have said was forced back into a noncommittal "Mm," and likewise he forced the hand holding the file not to shake, pushing that fear into his other hand and into his pocket. "When was she captured?"

"Early this morning. Some grunts found her asleep in a ditch." Charon grinned. "Poor thing thought she was being clandestine, but that hair of hers always did stand out. And, of course, she was always the weakest battler among any of us."

Saturn kept a flat expression while considering if he had ever known Charon to have even a single pokémon, much less use any in battle. Anything he'd ever heard of in conjunction with the old man was a test subject, not a battler. "Yes, sir."

Though Charon seemed to see through Saturn's maintained neutrality. "You can't help but wear your heart on your sleeve." That grin slid into a sly smirk. "Admit it, Saturn. Mars has always been our weakest link. Well, in practical terms anyway, elevating an untested kid like her to commandership. In more direct terms, Cyrus himself was the instrument of his own downfall. The boy knows nothing about human nature and still saw himself as a leader. As a god, no less!" He chuckled. "But I understand human nature very well. I know what people want more than anything else, and what they'll do to achieve it."

Despite being confronted, Saturn kept his composure. "And you intend to use that to your advantage."

"Absolutely! You see, people say they want things like love or justice or, to use a pressing example, to get rid of all emotion. But what they really want is the power to make things happen. No matter what it is, people crave the power to influence others." Charon swirled a finger around as he talked. "And the surest way to achieve that, the surest way to achieve power, is--" Though he stopped and drew in a breath instead. "Tell you what, Saturn. Do you know what it is?"

"I--" Saturn felt as if a spotlight had been focused on him. "Well if it's not power itself then..." He went through the possible ways people could gain power, thinking of anything he had learned in history class. It couldn't be being born into it, since that wouldn't be anything Charon could manipulate. Even if the old man could change someone's DNA, it would be too late to do anything. It couldn't be through policy, since one would need power to begin with to have any sway. And he wasn't looking to imbue people with pokémon abilities either, as wild a thought as that was. Of course, there was the fact that Charon had earlier praised money as what made the world go around. That seemed to be the surest path to follow. "Money, sir?"

Charon pursed his lips in a strange pout as he glared up at Saturn. "Technically correct, but I suspect you only reached that conclusion through guessing."

Saturn tried to play it off with a casual laugh. "Haha, you know me, sir. I can't lie to you." Which he absolutely could and he suspected they both knew it.

"Ugh. Anyway, yes, money! With money you can do anything you want!" Charon rose up and spread his arms out as if gesturing to something grand. "Even someone like Cyrus, who puts no value in such a thing, still needed considerable amounts to accomplish anything. If he'd been born nothing, he never could have achieved any of this, and yet he's still too dim to even consider money a factor in anything he did. Not that he could become a god with this fortune, but someone could, I'm sure."

Did he mean that for himself? Or was he planning to enable the people who sought the world and universe beyond? Saturn nodded. "Yes, sir. And Heatran is a part of that?"

"A legendary pokémon like that, the sheer power of the volcano...Heehee, think of how much someone would be willing to pay for that!" Charon picked up a photograph that had been at the side of his desk, depicting Heatran's sleeping form within the volcano. The image was distorted from the sheer heat around it. "The power of volcanic eruption, imagine it! Any number of criminal organizations around the world would seek that sort of power, and that puts us at a prime position to profit from their..." He paused for a moment, and Saturn wondered if it wasn't to continue the alliteration, but instead he only laughed again. "Hahaha...Something like that will put us in a pretty profit!"

Saturn wasn't sure if he should be disturbed by how his alliteration notion had panned out, especially since the overall idea of selling legendaries to terrorist groups was skin crawling already. "And you seek Cresselia too. Are you going to sell that?"

"Eh, Cresselia isn't a high priority. It could be a weapon, sure, but it would most likely catch the eye of high-end collectors. And while their pockets are deep, they're not bottomless like certain organizations are. Aah, it's a shame Rocket went underground. They would have loved Heatran. And most importantly, they would have paid through the nose for it." He waved a hand in front of his face. "What could have been, Saturn my boy! What could have been."

The tone was almost wistful, but Saturn took it mockingly. Surely Charon was genuine in bemoaning the loss of a potential client, but the subject was so beyond the pale that it was a mockery of anything decent. "And Giratina, sir?"

Charon's expression shifted suddenly and disturbingly, eyes bulging and smile full of teeth, and he rose from his seat again to lean over the desk towards Saturn. "Giratina is the best of all! Not only is it absurdly powerful, it inhabits another dimension, and finding it means we open that gateway to everything beyond! Imagine, an entire dimension full of pokémon ripe for the plucking! We'll have everything we could ever want--power, glory, money, everything in the world at our fingertips! Ahahaha!"

Saturn took a step back. "You're so confident you can control it. Even Cyrus couldn't control a god."

The older man sat back, more casual than his demonstration a moment ago should have permitted. "Yes but we've gone over this. Cyrus is an idiot. He may be book smart, but he has no notion of how to properly apply any of that. Besides, if Giratina was linked to the other two, it would have shown itself on the Spear Pillar. The fact that it didn't shows that they won't show up now. Though I do have plans for Dialga and Palkia both, believe you me, heeheehee."

"Sir..." Saturn straightened up, "does it really mean nothing to you that, even if your plan goes perfectly, these people you sell the pokémon to are going to use them for mass destruction?"

That horrific expression flashed again for just a moment as Charon let out an abrupt laugh. "Ha! Saturn, are you telling me you actually care? One of the key figures behind the planned destruction of the entire universe, caring about the very world he engineered this plot from? I hate to take a page from that emotionally constipated lunatic's book, but that strikes me as needless sentimentality coming from you. Haha, to say nothing of utter hypocricy." He wiped away a tear of mirth. "Aah, Saturn, you never do learn. Either you don't care what happens to the world or you do. You can't just suddenly gain morals when it's convenient for you, turning it off and on like a light switch. Next you're going to tell me Cyrus cares what happens. To anyone but himself, that is."

Saturn wanted to tell Charon that it was due to people like him, people who cared nothing for the consequences, whose greed and hate dominated the world, that had driven Cyrus to such an extreme in the first place, but Charon knew that. He had heard the same speeches as anyone else, had nodded along and pretended to obey. He knew everything that Cyrus had to say on the subject, and would condemn him regardless.

But still, it was right. Cyrus would have wiped out everything, and Saturn had aided him in getting as far as he did. And he still wasn't entirely certain that Cyrus had really changed.

He was still better than the alternative, though, and Saturn wasn't one hundred percent certain why. He only knew it was true.

"Going to say anything, my boy? Or just stand there stewing?"

Saturn blinked slowly and raised his head, albeit with gaze averted to the side. "Sorry, sir. I was just thinking."

"Take it to heart. You really have no room to condemn anything I'm doing, and you need to stop pretending to have some sort of moral high ground. Face it, my boy, you're as rotten as I am." He smiled, deceptively gently, in that odd grandfatherly way. "Embrace it! Have fun with it! Life's too short to waste it with anything as foolish as any of that. Grab what you can out of life and make everyone else deal with the consequences."

Life's too short when dealing with biological weapons you mean Saturn wanted to say, but didn't. Instead he just nodded. "...what do you plan on doing with Mars?"

"Eh, she'll make a great human shield if things go south for us on the mountain. Do you think Heatran would take a virgin sacrifice? We all know she's saving herself for Cyrus, the delusional twit." It wasn't evident if the insult was directed at Mars or Cyrus. "It's useful to have a hostage anyway in case any heroic sorts come around."

"I can imagine." If he was referring to Hareta, the boy always found the most unexpected way to do things. And if Hareta was there, Mitsumi almost certainly would be as well, and her power would be no issue against even a legion of grunts. Although if anybody else showed up...he wasn't so confident for Mars's safety any more.

"Anyway, we ship out in the morning. Before even you get up. Don't bother saying anything to Cyrus though. I'll tell him myself."

Saturn averted his eyes again, to the floor this time. "I understand, sir."

"Should make for interesting conversation tomorrow morning. Can't imagine what you must talk about now. 'Remember when you tried to kill everyone?'" Charon had brought a hand up to mime talking, and his approximation of Saturn's voice made the younger man flinch. "'Ah yes I remember.'" His parody of Cyrus's flat tone was aggravating. "'Do you regret it?' 'No, not at all.' 'Oh. That's upsetting. I'm going to do nothing about it though.'"

Saturn tried to shut out the mock conversation, but his awareness of just how hard his fists were clenched distracted him enough to loosen his hands before Charon noticed, which helped him lose a few lines.

"'-Ah, then take care.'" Finally, the perverse parody was over, and Charon returned his hands to his side and cleared his throat for his normal voice. "You, my boy, won't amount to much until you free yourself from that emotionless shackle and embrace your inner villain. You'd do so much better at it once you stop trying to convince yourself that you're doing any good for the world. You're dismissed."

The younger man knew what good he could do. Even if it took everything he had, he could do whatever was in his power to stop Charon.

Whatever that meant.