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Frontier Town Nocwell's General Goods

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Powehi – for this could only be Dark Matter himself – nodded with cold approval.

"That is wise. Suppressed emotion can feed your Shadow further, but a choice to acknowledge the fear and reject it... can be a means of keeping control of your inner darkness. You may yet do well."

The Soja' sun shone on Powehi's mortal form as if it were overcast, though there was hardly a cloud in the sky, as ever there was in the west. The body was less-real somehow, existing by force of will more than biological ontology. One could imagine it lit by the moon and stars, even as the desert sun beat down on every other living thing.

Dark Matter smiled, his face joyless save for the faintest glimmer of dramatic satisfaction.

"I told you we would speak again, Nova. Go ahead. Ask me what you will."
 
Nova exhaled. A few more stray black vapors evaporated into the desert heat as he focused the shadows away. He nodded respectfully at the lucario. "Not the form I'd have guessed, but well met all the same."

Though he doubted that little snark would land with Powehi the way it would with the Dark Matter he knew. Ah well.

"Maybe you've, uh, gotten a sense of it through some of my negative thinking," Nova conceded. "But, well, I've had these nagging thoughts festering since we went after Cipher in Blaguarro." He sighed, shoulders drooping. "Has Forlas always been this way? Granting this... immense potential to any soul that ends up here from another world?"
 
Powehi snorted with thin amusement. "It is not so remarkable. Human souls catalyse pokémon auras, accelerating their growth, akin to how faecal matter fertilises crops." He paused, brow furrowing. "Do not mistake my choice of metaphor for a show of disdain. We could just as well say, akin to how a nutritious diet will make a young creature grow up healthy."

He made a complicated gesture with one paw, then frowned again, frustrated. Communication was hard for this being. That gesture could belong to any culture dating back to the dawn of time. He spoke with deliberation, every word a conscious choice.

"It is no more remarkable than gravity, electromagnetic radiation, thermodynamics. It is what is."
 
And yet that not-so-remarkable situation had let Cipher flourish. Gave Alexander a foothold when his wasn't even a world with humans in it, as far as Nova was aware. Not to mention the Wayfarers' presence supposedly destabilizing Forlas.

"But what if it could be changed?" The words came out without him realizing. And once Nova put them out there, a connection sprang to mind. He had no idea how accurate it was, but he decided to toss it out anyway.

"That 'destabilizing' you mentioned," Nova said, cheek bolts slowly turning. "Is that meant to be taken in a 'messing with space-time' way... or is it a reflection of how the team's collective will could greatly imprint on Forlas?"

Because if a team like theirs were to bring about some sort of grand, sweeping change to Forlas, that would come with a lack of stability... so to speak. After all, Cipher's activities seemed to have made a big splash with far too many ripples.
 
Powehi's eyes narrowed. The air could feel deathly still with Dark Matter's gaze upon you...

"Watch yourself, Nova... An ambition like that would put the integrity of all creation at risk. The interpretations you speak of are one and the same – to strike out what is and substitute what if is to carve your will into the flesh of the world. This is not without consequence. It could be done, but what of the damage done to achieve it? What of the possibility of destructive failure? What of the chance that the will of others twists the world as much as your own will? What if you are wrong, and your beliefs should not be?"

He glanced up to the sun, unblinking.

"It has been done before; it should not have been done; it must not be done again."
 
Nova's crest tightened slightly. "I have been wrong before. Dreadfully wrong. And got shadowed for it.

"But it still doesn't sit right with me," he said. "That a group like Cipher can stumble upon this place by complete accident and start handily rounding up pokémon left and right. Or that this world has these Saints who claim to have great power, but when things like the Entropic Crisis happen, it takes offworlders to fix them. And what you end up seeing and hearing of the Saints you do find... is concerning, to say the least."

He sighed and shook his head. "Maybe it's too personal for me. The one who controls me back home believes that, no matter how hard you fight, worlds are doomed to collapse under the weight of their suffering people. And I... refuse to accept that. So, when I see these bad situations that he'd point to as proof he's right... my instinct is to try and change them. Because I have that freedom here."

Nova gave a dry laugh. "I guess you're right, though. This isn't the brightest move. Wasn't exactly built to be smart. I was built to win with force, not strategy."
 
"Hrrm..."

Powehi nodded in acknowledgement, then his mouth slowly parted to speak.

"...Cipher would not have been able to enter this world to begin with if it were not for previous meddling. Countless instances across history, all weakening the world's skin... leaving an opening for them to come through. They are not here by complete accident, as you tell it."

The Lucario controlled his face and emotions perfectly. Dark Matter certainly could be inscrutable... Yet, some gut-level instinct might tell that he was telling the truth.

"Still, they are here now. They must be evicted as soon as possible. As for the matter of requiring offworlders to fix Crises... The proliferation of rifts is a symptom of having invited too many souls from other worlds to begin with. Better that the old Crises had been left to play out, for nature and time to repair the material damage. But not now. No longer. They grow worse each time... The ancient pantheon could have dealt with any Crisis – not that there were such things in the beginning of history. Those times are gone."

Bitterness and resentment leaked out between Powehi's teeth.

"Divine pokémon have their own aspects and responsibilities," he said, snapping back to himself somewhat, though still with a hard edge to his voice. "They are not interchangeable, perfect defenders of the world. They are meant to comprise a cohesive whole, as complex and as subtle as an ecosystem – just as nature depends on decay to maintain life, infinitely connected and not always palatable to thinking, feeling mortals. The gods are not expendable in times of Crisis, nor do they have the remit to simply banish all earthly problems."

Powehi picked up his walking pace somewhat, seeming to grow restless as he spoke – faster and with a jagged tone. Underneath his exquisite control were the tides of a boundless ocean of Shadow, as thick and black as tar...

"Can you understand?" he muttered, more to himself than Nova. "Are the words enough? Ha, as if they ever could be..."

The mind of Dark Matter seemed a dark place, and the idea he sought to convey too vast for words and sentences in a mortal voice. How rarely did Powehi take this form? And how rarely did he hold conversation with others – to persuade, and charm, and reason? In a way, it was a wonder that he was coherent to begin with...
 
"But that whole isn't anymore, is it?" Nova walked after him. "Otherwise Divine Dungeons wouldn't be around. That little... escapade of ours in Timeless Oasis was done to keep a relic out of Cipher's hands." His red feathers crinkled on his crest. "They may go after others. Assuming they're not already trying to do that. Or maybe your connection to the darkness has already given you knowledge of what they're up to."

He looked to the sky. "Nature might decay, but I... don't believe those ashes stay ashes. For better or worse... I'm proof of that."
 
Nova earned himself a more measured, even look from the eerie Lucario. His previous composure returning, Powehi ran the back of his paw roughly across his lip, the metal spike tugging briefly at his muzzle and rustling his whiskers. A strange motion...

"I have what you might call a long-term view of things," he growled, softly. "When I look at this planet and the life it carries, I see millennia stretching out behind it, and millennia faintly in view before it. Nature – that is, life – can recover even from an extinction event. The kind of Crisis that brings death to continents is not the end of the world... not to me. Still, I do my part to avoid such tragedies. What I fear more than any passing apocalypse is the irreparable ruin of the world's fabric itself, the skin and flesh and tendons of reality... or 'spacetime' if you prefer."

Powehi palmed the steel at his sternum, pensively.

"Tell me... Do you have Dark Matter in your world, chimera?"

Why the change of topic? The Lucario's face was unreadable...
 
Powehi nodded, holding Nova's gaze a little longer. Whatever he wanted to say, there was some difficulty in saying it. Eventually, he sighed, and put a paw to his chest.

"You must have suffered," he said, at last. "He surely must suffer also."

There was a kind of dull pain in the Lucario's eyes. A drop in the ocean, perhaps, but the ripples could be seen on his face. Maybe this was his strange way of empathising, somehow. He took a somewhat ragged breath, and pricked a digit of his paw on his ventral spike.

"I grieve for you," he added, quietly. "I am sure your Dark Matter will exert himself to undo what has been done to you."

Apparently more satisfied with this addition, the Lucario resumed walking without waiting for a reply.

"I asked, because the Dark Matter of all worlds is not always the same. I intuit this. I sense it. I am certain that across the planar gulf, there are others very like me, and others like me save for that they bring ruin on their worlds. Perhaps you will more easily understand, given your own experience, what I am."

He shot another glance at Nova, this one less stony than his usual grimace. There was something in his expression – something intense and primal – and then it was gone.

"I am, and always will be, this world's last line of defence. My curse is that the more I exert my power, the more I damage the world in doing so. The obvious metaphor could not be more apt – I am the immune system of this planar reality. I am that which quells sickness, at the cost of suffering. I am a fever, Nova. I am the world-fever."
 
"You're a force of nature," Nova said, red eyes flickering. "An... instinct for the world. Driven to act when nature deems it necessary." He clicked his tongue. "But an immune system... can attack even when it isn't warranted."

He bowed his head slightly. "'It's been done before; it should not have been done.' What did you mean by that?"
 
Powehi snorted, and pawed at his scarred eye.

"I am as sapient as any thinking pokémon, Nova. Do not mistake me for a mindless lymphocyte. But yes, I am that, in a manner of speaking... and I am excruciatingly aware of the consueqences to overreaching myself, or acting when unnecessary. Have I not been advocating caution this long while? I know what it is to regret the use of excessive force."

He tilted his head, glancing again up at the sun. There was a smacking noise, as if he'd clicked his tongue.

"The world spirit once summoned a human hero, intending that – partnered with a mighty Forlasan – together they should save the world entire. Rules were changed. Limits were broken. The world spirit could not bear to witness the ordinary suffering of living beings, and so wished a champion into existence who could spare every creature from pain. He did what he could, but at too dear a cost."
 
Nova looked skyward, blinking. "H-How? Like, just, poof... or the legend that embodied it died and its flames went with them? Maybe something else?"

His fur had bristled without him even realizing, like there was some primal instinct churning inside of him.
 
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"No, nothing like that..."

Powehi shook his head, sighing. No dry twitch of the mouth in a quasi-smile this time.

"Five millennia ago, that human and his partner brought about a calamity by using their vast power unrestrained. The consequence of their careless might was the single greatest volcanic event ever witnessed by Forlasan 'mon. For days and nights, the earth shook and trembled, belching a roiling mass of ash and smoke into the sky until the sun could no longer touch the earth. What little light remained was thin and bloody, and it shone cold and grim upon the fields. The air grew thick with dust. Crops withered. 'Mon despaired. Dawn did not come."

Powehi hawked, and spat something black and foaming on the ground at his paws, then swallowed heavily.

"It was a decade before the last of the ash fell. This continent did not see another true dawn for years."
 
"And so... you fear that our numbers alone... and the way we were summoned... are laying the foundations for history to repeat itself?"

Nova's cheek bolts turned one. Then again in the opposite direction.

"You're right to be skeptical of it," he said. "Most of the team are humans. This kind of strength is new to them. And growing leaps and bounds beyond what the pokémon they train would be capable of back home." His triangular ears folded slightly at their tips. It was all they could manage. "And I don't want this power. I've done too much harm with this stuff already. It's... better that I'm a shield here."

His red eyes glowed a bit brighter. "But at the same time... this degree of summoning hasn't happened before. Who's to say that the opposite can't be true? If we're a team and not just a pair, maybe we can keep ourselves grounded better."
 
Powehi considered this, his gaze weighing up Nova once again.

"Perhaps... Be sure that you give your comrades wise counsel, then.

"For my own part, I am less concerned that the Wayfarers will repeat the events of five thousand years ago than I am with forestalling the inevitable inflection point for the pressure offworlder souls place on Forlas. If you are able to evict Alexander – to evict Cipher in particular – and leave in a timely fashion yourself, that inflection point will move further off. Otherwise, I may be forced to do what fevers must, in order to spare the integrity of this reality."

Do your job, he meant. Or it'll get done the hard way.

"As I said before – I want you to succeed. In fact, I demand it."

The ancient Lucario glanced up at the sun again. Maybe when he looked up there, he saw black smoke and billowing ash.

"As for what little I told you of the sunless years..."

Powehi's next words did not come easily. The pause before he continued stretched out torturously, his face as tense as steel.

"Just know that I saw it coming," he spat. "I warned her not to summon him. I knew that escalation would only bring worse suffering. I begged her not to risk worse outcomes, just because she couldn't accept that all problems could not be solved just by fighting harder...

"And she went and broke the rules anyway."
 
"Her meaning... Auriga?" Nova wondered. The mysterious entity that they'd yet to actually meet. Assuming she was truly still around. "Is that what put you two off speaking terms?"
 
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