Dreams

[Ambyssin]

Nova practically curled around her with his larger frame. Was this ocean of dark matter accentuating her thoughts? Could he even shield those with just his body? "We have to believe we can get that charmeleon back. Or we’ll just affirm a tragic fate for him."

 

[Butterfree]

Okay, what the fuck. Dave blinked at the dark ocean, at his teammates sitting on an endless nondescript beach. Listened to the ocean speak. What the fuck was 'Cipher' and why did half the group seem to know what that was? Was nobody interested in keeping people vaguely up-to-date around here? Jesus Christ.

"Hold on, can we back up a bit?" he said when there was a gap in the conversation. "What the hell is 'Cipher'? And... what's all this about 'Alex and Xander'? Wasn't that the name of this Zweilous guy some people met up in Blaguarro?"

 

[Shadow Serenity]

Kimiko couldn't help but feel a little lost. Between the demonstration of Radiance and now the revelation of this... this Dark Matter, it called itself? The shadow... corruption that they'd so far been seeing as their enemy was now inside them all somehow? And they were no longer dealing with just some shady organization, but the very essence of the world's souls or something?

She couldn't help feeling that suddenly, they were in over their heads. The situation had gone from about a 20 to a 100 in the span of a half-night's sleep. (Because this had to be a dream, right? There was no way this was like... actually happening.)

As far as she could tell, this... oceanic... shadow voice... relented enough to ask them to eliminate the group creating shadows, and then return home. Lucky for it, then, that as far as she knew, that had been the Wayfarer's plan all along, albeit not knowing exactly what it was they were here to deal with at the start. But now they did. And once that was done, they could go home, and the... 'integrity of the cosmos' or whatever would be fine. Right...?

Neither did I summon Jesse Stranger, or Starr Sakari.

Among the flood of information, one statement did stick out to her. Frankly, she may have just missed it, or perhaps forgotten in the chaos, but she figured she may as well ask anyway.

"If not you, then who did summon them? This Auriga? And why? Were they also summoned to deal with this... this Cipher?"

Exactly how long had Cipher been on Forlas, anyway? Jesse Stranger had been here for quite some time, at the very least...

 

[Magyk]

Grace had been training hard. Practicing techniques, running around, taking blows. She'd pushed herself until she passed out.

So when she awoke on a strange beach with everyone else, she was confused for a while.

Oh, so this wasn't just a weird dream. Everyone in the group was having it at the same time?? Stars, this was chaotic.

She wasn't sure what a Dark Matter was, just that this guy clearly didn't want them here. Well? Too bad, Grace knew she was staying, and it looked like everyone else had the same feeling about that one.

Charmander Owen is not a certain lost cause.

A charmander... wreathed in Shadows. Yes, this lined up with what Dave had told her. This Owen was definitely the one and the same as her assailer, and the treeko thought death might be the only option?

Grace was a foolish mortal. She took pride in that.

"We'll save him," she said earnestly. "Owen and anyone else wreathed in Shadows... I want to save all of them."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Everyone kept hurling a whirlwind of questions at Powehi, and even though Jade knew it was important, knew it was things they needed to know, in that moment her brain wouldn't let her think about anything other that her best friend was here, on Forlas.

And that, based on everything they knew, she was probably in danger.

"The previous hero--Starr..."—Jade felt stupid expecting Powehi to know or care about the answer, but—"is she alright? I—I think she's the one that Betel was trying to help by bringing up all here, so..." Her words died as her voice broke.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Positive intentions and warm feelings were hard to hold onto in this place. The Wayfarers were surely not physically, actually in this realm of darkness, but something of it touched their souls nonetheless. It brought uncomfortable feelings, malicious thoughts, and a kind of spiritual pain to the surface, tamping down everything else. The sand felt cold beneath their paws.

Yet, Powehi – Dark Matter – sounded sane. Controlled. For all that he had few reservations about discussing the killing of others and the self, he'd sounded genuine when he spoke of his moral obligations, and empathetic towards Shadow pokémon. And, of course, he stressed over and over again the importance of protecting and repairing the world itself...

Discuss trivial details when you wake. Our time here is limited.

Auriga is this world's Voice of Life. She is...
​

The gestalt will of all this world's souls.

The protector of Forlas; the avatar of its will to live; the embodiment of Radiance.
​

The one who summons angels.​

My... counterpart.

She and I have worked together and separately to protect Forlas since time immemorial.

We are not presently on speaking terms.
​

The sand shifted on the shore, the tiny grains moving in an orbit around a central point. The shore was not a boundary between land and sea – it was but a tiny island in the black ocean. A platform for dark matter to speak with the living.

The ocean shivered, and lapped at the shore. Perhaps talking of Auriga was taxing for the Shadow entity.

I am not concerned with one, a dozen, or even a hundred Shadowed souls for my own sake. It is true that Shadow must find its way to me in time, but I am eternal and there are billions of pokémon alive who sustain me. My priority is the integrity of the world, and the fate of its inhabitants collectively. If the good of the many can be met by ending the suffering of Shadow pokémon, then so much the better.

This is a matter of right and wrong.

Furthermore, though I am determined to destroy Cipher before the situation worsens, they are only a single organisation and not yet an existential threat to Forlas. They are not why Starr Sakari was summoned. They are simply an aberration nearby to your location that you are already concerned with. You may as well remove them.

If you must fight them, know this: if you fail, you risk becoming Shadows, making Cipher stronger, and suffering greatly as you inflict still more suffering. Contingencies exist for this eventuality, but I promise you that you would not welcome them.

Do not lose.

​

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova was still curled around Mhynt. His ears tried to swivel in Jade's direction, but the mask held them rigidly in place. Something about her tone. This was another situation like Mhynt's right? Why else would she react that way?

"Summoned... for a different reason?" He tried keeping his tone steady. "Like that Covenant group, perhaps? Or are these mystery dungeons themselves a greater threat, like that entropic crisis that brought Jesse to this world?"

 

[Namohysip]

"It seems we have more to discover that you don't know, or are refusing to tell us for one reason or another," Mhynt said, eased by Nova's presence. "We will do what we can. Hopefully, we will not get in each other's way..."

 

[Shadow Serenity]

A partial answer. Or maybe they were meant to read between the lines. Kimiko wasn't sure. But she noticed Powehi's reply didn't mention Stranger at all, nor did it mention Starr's current location or well-being, which... seemed to bother Jade, for some reason. It made some sense, she supposed, if this Starr was the one who sent Betel to summon them all, which meant they should probably be trying to find this Starr as well as Brisa.

But their oh-so-gracious shadow host apparently thought that was 'trivial'. They did get some information on Auriga, though. Powehi's counterpart. The embodiment of Radiance, the counterpart to Powehi's Shadow. One who summons angels. Humans.

We are not presently on speaking terms.

"Why not?" she pushed back. "I assume because you're against the whole 'summoning off-worlders' while Auriga isn't, right?"

And then something else occurred to her. "You could contact her if you wish, though. You know how. ...Could we?"

 

[Weazel]

As the contours of the dream distorted and took new shapes, and the scenery of it revealed itself to Archie for the first time, he was surprised to find himself on a beach, not unlike the ones around Treasure Town back home. But, there was something… Undeniably wrong, about this place. An inky black sky, devoid of stars. A sea of glass, with not a hint of a wave. A stillness to the air, infused with the faint scents of salt and rust. It struck him suddenly; this was a dead place. The kind of place no mortal was ever meant to tread.

The kind of place he’d left behind.

The Oshawott clutched at his chest, his breathing hitching in his throat. The others were here, but they seemed so far away, their voices distant and muffled. Why had they been brought here? Why had he been brought back to this place? Could he never truly escape? He fell to his knees, only half listening to the voices around him. The voices of his comrades, conversing with the dead ocean. Eventually, though, something was said that did stir him from his dazed state, if only a little.

“Then, what is the existential threat we were summoned for?” Archie asked, his voice barely more than a harsh whisper. “If not Cipher?”

They were here in answer to a call for help, after all... Weren't they?

 

[JFought]

Isidora sat on the beach, curled up and shivering from the cold. His words pounded in the sneasel's head, but most of them made no sense to her. Her eyes were locked on the ocean of shadow. And the longer she sat there, the longer she stared at it, the harder it was getting to think.

"I didn't come here to lose..." she muttered. "I'm not some angel... I'm just the one who said yes... But I don't lose..."

 

[Cresselia92]

Do not lose.​

Silver… lose? Ah! Such a preposterous notion! Not even in his most terrifying nightmares he was going to back down! He wasn’t like his old man!

An overconfident smirk flashed across his face just as he crossed his arms and puffed up his chest. “Tch! Way ahead of you, Mr. Dark Lord! Nobody’s planning to lose or bite the dust anytime soon, and we’re gonna get to the end of this mess!”

Despite near-shouting his bold claim, there were a few matters that troubled the now-Sneasel. Matters that made his blood boil and his skin prickle in disgust, and his disdain motivated him to shed some light for the teammates that were still in the dark (metaphorically speaking, of course). They needed to know what kinda scumbags they were dealing with.

“…About Cipher. Back home, that was an organization that only focused on producing Shadow Pokémon, while other organizations brought them Pokémon to shadowify. Outsourcing, basically. And by that, I mean that those teams mostly stole and kidnapped Pokémon from innocent and defenseless parties.”

The pieces were finally clicking together. Missing ‘mons; Shadow Pokémon; Cipher. History might not repeat itself, but it sure as heck rhymed, even in other worlds. So what if they were in for an encore?

“D’you know if this Cipher is acting by itself or if they’re affiliated with other organizations? Maybe the supremacists? Some other alien syndicate?”

 

[Tetra]

"On that we can agree," Koa growled. "I'll be happy to help destroy Cipher."

Finally. Something he could turn his attention on, sink his teeth into. One group he could tear apart and stop. Something he could do.

And something to think about that wasn't... everything else.

 

[Butterfree]

Jade sounded oddly emotional about the previous hero all of a sudden. Had Brisa told her more than she'd let on? He gave her a suspicious glance but didn't comment.

“Then, what is the existential threat we were summoned for?” Archie asked, his voice barely more than a harsh whisper. “If not Cipher?”

"It's got to be the fucking Covenant, right?" Dave said. "Bunch of racial supremacists who think they should appoint themselves keepers of the ignorant native population and justify it with pseudoscience?"

It'd fucking better be, anyway. It sounded like this Auriga was the one who'd summoned Jesse Stranger, and if the bit about stopping the Escarpa from doing anything about people being hanged by Ignatius Voclain was at her behest, she might have dodgy ideas about what was a crisis worth addressing.

“…About Cipher. Back home, that was an organization that only focused on producing Shadow Pokémon, while other organizations brought them Pokémon to shadowify. Outsourcing, basically. And by that, I mean that those teams mostly stole and kidnapped Pokémon from innocent and defenseless parties.”

...Oh. Oh. It was the fucking criminal organization from the fucking TV show, wasn't it. He'd thought it was just fucking Wes coming from that world, but no, this fictional gang of mad scientists was some kind of fixed point across multiple universes that had invented interdimensional travel. He really was fucking dreaming.

Powehi's whole speech about being the embodiment of Pokémon's suffering was pretty wild, too. And yet, at the same time, standing in this place, cold sand draining the warmth from his body through his paws, ink-black ocean waves lapping at the shore, something heavy and suffocating in the air, it inexplicably seemed to check out.

The ominous warning that opposing Cipher could get them zombified too was just stating the fucking obvious, but in this place the thought was sticky, uncomfortable. Somewhere in his brain a Poochyena instinct told him to get out of here. Leave. Powehi was guaranteeing that if they died in Forlas they'd go back home, wasn't he? So why stay, if he was so concerned their presence would rip holes in the fabric of reality? Why not leave this godforsaken place behind, if everyone sent to deal with this crisis failed, and the invincible interdimensional criminal organization might give them all a fate worse than death, and the omniscient embodiment of suffering thought they were just making everything fucking worse?

He gritted his teeth, paws digging into the sand. Sometimes he really couldn't fucking stand being a goddamn Poochyena.

 

[HelloYellow17]

Way to dodge my first question, asshole, Wes thought, but he found himself thinking about that less and less as Powehi spoke. Maybe he’d just picked up on Wes’s fears because that’s what he…did? To be honest, Wes couldn’t quite get his head around it.

And then there was more, something about an Auriga and a Voice of Life, whatever that was, and Wes’s head started to spin. Two things stood out to him, though:

One, was Powehi’s warning about Cipher: Do not lose. It sent chills of foreboding up his spine. If even this…this force of darkness warned them about Cipher, then it had to be serious. Even more so than he had originally thought. He felt his heart sink.

How can I possibly beat something that powerful in my own world?

The second thing that stood out to him was a name: Starr. Wes perked up at that, but before he could respond, he saw Jade move in the corner of his eye; Jade, eyes wide, stumbling over her words, clutching her paws together like a bombshell had been dropped on her while she asked after Starr.

Jade, who without out a doubt, seemed to personally know who Starr was.

“Where is she?” he blurted to Powehi. “Where is Starr?”

 

[Jackie Cat]

The silver sand shifted, particles dancing as if from a tremor. Time was short, Powehi had said. Anything that the Wayfarers could discuss amongst themselves, they should probably keep to the waking world.

Starr Sakari is not my champion; I have no connection with her. Find her yourself.

And find Auriga yourself, if you must speak with her. I will not break a silence lasting mortal generations to ask her to speak with you. You have no right or need to know our history. Do not ask again.

I had nothing to do with the summoning of either Jesse Stranger or Starr Sakari, and even Auriga had nothing to do with summoning you. Something else summoned you, some poor substitute for a Voice of Life that brought dozens of souls into this world at once without even knowing what it is that they were summoned for. You could be an accident. You were certainly a mistake.

It is entirely possible that you were summoned to do something about the Covenant. Their scholars meddle with forces that are better left alone, and they would gladly see yet more offworlders brought here, not understanding the risks. But that is not the reason to fight them that you were thinking of... I perceive every dark thought and feeling in you.

I see that it pleases some of you to imagine that the members of that society are all bad people, with ideologies and beliefs familiar to you from your own worlds. Go, then, and find these bad people, who think themselves heroes – not slavemasters, but knights and aristocracy in all but name – and slay them, if you believe that to be your calling. If you make all the most heroic choices, perhaps the net suffering in the world will decrease when you defeat them.
​

Was the primordial entity of spiritual darkness... being sarcastic? It was certainly a dry, deadpan delivery if so.

---

Laura clutched her upper arms, hugging herself tightly, ears pinned back. She'd had nightmares not dissimilar to this before, hadn't she? She couldn't quite remember, but... Drowning in a sea of ink, yes, that had been one. Choking on blackness. Alone.

But she wasn't alone, here. The rest of the offworlders were here, asking questions, demanding answers about everything from this 'Powehi', this 'Dark Matter'. She tried to dig her claws into her skin to keep focused, to help bear the pressure of anxiety and despair that permeated this place, but her body wasn't real. This was just like the Nexus. She was only a soul, here...

...yet still she felt cold, and heavy, and sad.

 

[MintyMimix]

Everything about this place — from its dour atmosphere to its tense questions to the 'politely rude' beach of negativity — was absolutely killing Ghaspius's vibe. Perhaps he could let his lips be loose for just a smidgen.

"'I know better than you and always will', and 'everything you do is an affront and wrong', and 'if you aren't gonna off yourself than make yourself useful'. Please, go on 'bout how much ya love us." It was a remark with no substance, but defiance-to-cope was an addictive drug. It was better than hearing it from his parents, anyways. "We'll see what Auriga thinks 'bout all this. Then y'all can kiss and make up."

He shook his head as he realized what he was doing; trying to get the last word in wasn't going to accomplish anything. Think nice thoughts. Like kittens. Like his sister. Like his sister as a kitten.

"One last question before ya give us the boot: Powehi. That somethin' ya collectively named yourself, or did someone give it to ya?"

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt was growing impatient, tapping her fingers on her arms now the more this person spoke. They'd gotten the information they needed and now it was just berating them. "Do you have something useful from that tirade?" she grunted. "Lecture us all you want. I don't care. Give us knowledge and expert opinions. There's no need for sarcasm if your time is so short."

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

So that settled it. Powehi wasn't interested in helping them at all. Why had they brought the Wayfarers to this realm, then? To prove a point? To berate the group and call them all mistakes and failures? To flaunt their very existence as a deterrent in the face of the group's efforts?

Steven scowled at the sand, at the way the inky water lapped hungrily at the shore of their tiny, temporary sanctuary. Something crept up inside him, different than the twining chill of fear. No, this was a cold frustration, burning sharp and bright. He hated not knowing, being told he wouldn't find an answer, couldn't work his way to a solution. His claw clenched tight, and for a moment he swore the tide crept higher up the beach towards him.

His eye narrowed and he stared out towards the dark horizon. Fine, if Powehi was so starved from Cipher's interloping, he could feed the shadow entity this once. Bleed these emotions out here, and maybe when he woke, he'll have gotten it out of his system...

Steven's claw squeezed tighter to the sound of grating metal.

 

[Jackie Cat]

The sand was sinking – or the ocean rising, one could hardly say which was true – and the darkness deepened yet further. No dream lasted forever, nor any nightmare.

I neither need nor want you to suffer. I feel your frustration, your resentment, but I am made of countless billions of souls' negative emotions. Do not think that I wish to scold or punish you. I am trying to teach you something – something better learned by realising it for yourselves rather than being told outright like a preacher might explain a moral fable to a child.

Do you think I asked you to destroy Cipher because every member of that organisation is a sinner?

No. Of course not.
​

Weightlessness. A pulling, yearning sensation. The feeling of falling into wakefulness, just barely there on the edge of consciousness.

You asked about my name. I have existed for so long I cannot recall my own creation, or my own naming. My name... it describes a singularity of darkness, adorned, a source of creation... Whoever named me did not despise me, at least. So then, I expect I did not name myself.

Enough. I have given you information, warnings, and advice. I will give you one last thing for however long as you remain on Forlas...

My protection from becoming true Shadow pokémon.

I cannot stop you from Shadowing so deeply that you turn on yourselves and your allies, if you are careless. Your Shadow is your own. But I can prevent your hearts closing entirely, so that if the worst comes to pass... you will not be beyond saving.
​

Laura screwed her eyes shut, bracing against the dizzying sensation of being pulled away from this realm.

"Wait! First, just tell us... Have we helped the world at all so far...??"

...Helped...?​

The dark entity sounded... confused.

"Have we done good? Have we made things better?"

There was a long pause. A pressure in the soul.

...Yes.

You have done good, and made things better.​