Chapter 212 - Willpower

Breathe. Breathe. In and out.

Cecilia gasped for air as a God carefully observed her. It had been at least a full minute since it had told her to bow— maybe more, she couldn't tell. The effect of being completely impossible to disobey had passed, and now she could only feel a mix of anger and fear. This was not the benevolent being that Cynthia had told her about. This was something else entirely. She inhaled sharply and slowly stood, almost falling in the process because of how shaky her legs were.

"Did I permit you to stand?"

Again, each word felt like someone had been beating her head with a stick, but she bore with it as best she could.

"No," she whispered with a half hiss.

"And yet, you did so anyway. Champion by happenstance you may be, but you truly are a Shard."

After the pain passed, her eyes widened, and she began to realize what an opportunity this was. A Legend stood in front of her, and she would be a fool not to take advantage of it. Questions! Ask questions! She internally screamed. Making her mouth move to push out to words took every ounce of her will.

"I have questions," she said. "If I am your Champion as you say, then you will answer. The stories say we must stop a calamity, and you must want it stopped as well if I'm here."

"If I deem it appropriate. Ask away, Shard of meager Will."

The girl clenched a fist. Anything to ground herself here.

"You say we are Champion by happenstance. I was not chosen, then? Neither was Chase or any of the others?"

The Legend stayed silent for a few seconds, and then it began to laugh. Laugh. Like some kind of maniacal child. Cecilia did not dare to glance at it for more than a second at a time, but she could see it bounce up and down in the air and clench at its stomach in the corner of her vision.

"Humans!" It cackled. "Thousands of years come and go in a flash, but you never change. One taste of Will, and you became self-centered, egotistical, and gained delusions of grandeur despite your weakness. Chosen? You are worth less than a speck of dust to me. Once this is over, I will blink and five generations will have passed away. You are nothing."

"And yet, here we are," Cecilia hissed as she clenched at her head.

"Eons ago, I gave your people a will," it said. "But you never did fully realize your potential. Worthless, every single one of you. No human would be worthy of being chosen."

"But it couldn't have been completely random. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been contained to my group—"

"I grow tired of this question. My gift was given to you, but you were not chosen. Move on."

"This is important—"

"Important? Nothing about you, nor any thought you could muster would ever be important. You are not special. I told you to move on, and you will."

Like when the Legend had told her to kneel, something changed in Cecilia's brain. She would listen, and any thoughts of not listening vanished in an instant. She opened her mouth to speak, desperate to attempt to break the spell, but she couldn't speak. Its voice had been so nonchalant, and yet it carried the weight of an indescribable magnitude. Champion or not, there was no way a pale imitation could stand up to Willpower itself.

Azelf's will would be done.

"If I must," she said through clenched teeth. Now she knew what she would have tasted had Malamar gotten her hands on her, but she contained her anger as best she could. She would be a fool to be rude here. "Where is Chase?"

"Nowhere. Everywhere."

"What does that mean?"

"Will you really spend your time here worrying about other humans? Think for yourself. Seize the desire that lies within your heart and soul, Shard."

"Very well, then," she exhaled. "Why are there two Champions of Willpower and how do I win?"

"Well done. You were the original gift-bearer, but your actions were not appropriate for a Shard of Willpower. Instead of fighting, you ran from every problem, as minuscule and irrelevant as they were. Even though you had my gift's backing and your Voice could potentially carry you far. There was a modicum of potential within you both. You represent the calm, focused facet of Willpower, the long-term thinking to reach a goal while the other human embraces the rash and raw desire to seize whatever it wants right now. I went against my siblings and decided to split it in two."

Against its siblings… that meant Uxie and Mesprit.

"And you still need time to decide?" Cecilia asked. "Why this doubt?"

"Time to decide? Doubt?" The small Legendary giggled. "I am Willpower, girl. I do what I desire whenever I want to. I adhere to no rules. I break them and make my own."

"So? Are we stuck like this, then?"

"Unless you want to fight to the death and claim his Shard for your own. Be my guest. It would certainly make things interesting for a speck of time."

Cecilia's shaking legs froze. She started at the God despite the horrible weight pressing down her chest. Ever since Cynthia had revealed this story to her, she'd wanted to seize Willpower for herself and defeat Chase. She did not let it come in between them. She was not a jealous person, and she had assured herself she would win.

But to kill a friend?

"I will never."

Her voice came out ragged and barely coherent. She witnessed the Pokemon tilt his head with a look that could only be described as confusion.

"You did not even consider it? You'd keep it your entire life. With that amount of power, you could seize control of the entire world. Make people do your bidding with a thought and create a dynasty that would last generations. That would make your life actually matter. What a waste. I will never understand mortals."

"You don't need to," she hissed. "And I will not stoop to brainwashing. Ever."

"You have come close to it multiple times, but If that is your Will, Shard, then so be it."

"When you call me Shard, what does it mean?"

"Your gift. It is a Shard of the concept of Willpower, transferred from me to you. Small, no doubt, but enough to stand atop your species."

"Enough. I have no dreams of conquest."

"Lies. You wish to sit on Unova's throne and to reform it in your image. That is conquest, even though you believe it would be bloodless."

The girl flinched.

"I see it all. Your deepest desires, all in one. Large, and yet so mundane. Freedom stands on top of the pile, but it is surrounded by many more. Strength, change, a lasting relationship, safety for you and your loved ones… you are laid bare before me. I could pluck them out of you if I so wished. You'd be left an empty shell, unable to even move. Like a puppet without strings—"

"Enough!" Cecilia yelled.

Her voice was amplified. Powerful like never before. She had spoken without worry about what the repercussions would be. All she had wanted was for the being in front of her to stop talking.

"You had it in you after all, Shard. Beware of using it too many times outside of this realm. More than one time in a day will exhaust you enough to make you lose consciousness, and since you only have half a Shard, the Voice will not carry your orders for a long time. Team Galactic is coming, and you will need this power to save Creation from its clutches."

"They want a calamity," Cecilia nodded. "Cynthia told us that they had a way to control you somehow."

"It is not just a calamity they want. My siblings and I could render Palkia and Dialgia completely subservient. The fate of Creation hangs in the balance."

—

"Why the hell don't you do it yourself?" Chase demanded. "You're just being a lazy ass!"

"I am Willpower, but there is only one entity I listen to. The Creator. I am not allowed to go beyond this Lake even if I awoke. This is where I belong and where I always will be until His Creation ends."

"Then fucking contact the creator or whatever and tell him to let you leave," he hissed. "Hell, even if they do somehow make it through the League and get to you, just kill them!"

He'd been terrified, and he still was, but Chase was hitting his stride. The idea of an all-powerful being sitting on their asses and asking for help made him fume, especially when they'd clearly be able to wipe Team Galactic in an afternoon.

"The Red Chain's mere presence will be enough to stop me and my siblings. Things are not as simple as you think them to be, Shard."

"Damn it," Chase cursed under his breath. "So what? You goad me into doing that weird ass voice so I know how to do it against Team Galactic, and then what?"

"Humans are an unreliable sort, so I do not expect this so-called League to hold out. As a Shard, you stand slightly above them. When we are under their control, you will need to enter our minds and pull us away from the influence of the Red Chain. It will be an environment not unlike this one."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Any fucking secret code to snap you out of it?"

"No. It will be a long and arduous process."

Chase scoffed. "Funny how you're telling me that everything is going to go to shit and you're not going to do anything about it. You know, I haven't known about Legends for long, but you seem like a fucking awful sort. Sitting high and mighty on your throne, calling humanity useless while you ask us who go in the fucking sewers to do your dirty work—"

"Silence."

It was not a scream. Hell, it didn't even raise its voice, but Chase's mouth screwed shut against his will, and his teeth began to chatter. In his hubris, he had forgotten what it was he was speaking to.

Azelf's will would be done.

He was so small.

"Okay," he exhaled. "Tell me more about this Red Chain thing, then. How the hell does it work?"

"It is made of the gems atop our foreheads. Emotion beckons to me and Knowledge. Team Galactic got a hold of their Gem. They can feel it. It is not complete yet, but it is being built."

Emotion? Chase knew that was Verity, so Mesprit. "You talk to each other, even when asleep?"

"I am talking to you right now, am I not? We are not asleep. Simply dormant. We speak, we observe, we feel the world around us."

"Okay. You said you split Willpower into two, right? What's going to happen? Is this some kind of fucked up competition?"

"I did. You will be weaker than you would be if you were one. You could kill the girl and claim the remainder of the Shard as your own. Do you not see? Your desire to save the Iron Islands could be done by your Will in an instant. You could rule this Region, or simply tell your so-called Champion to do so herself."

His anger overtook his fear, and Chase flipped the Legend off. "Fuck you."

"How peculiar. Tell me, Shard. What is Willpower?"

"I don't have a poetic ass answer for you. Willpower is whatever pushes me to finish my last rep. Whatever makes me wake up in the morning. Whatever makes me work hard and keep pushing forward. It depends on what I want that day."

The Legend paused.

"Adequately said."

—

Cecilia could barely stand up straight. Revelations of Palkia and Dialga shook her to her core. Space and Time. This was no calamity. The world could end. Had Cynthia known this? Her mind raced, but she did not let panic take a hold of her. She would be okay. With a clenched fist and renewed determination, she spoke up again.

"Here is what I would like to know," Cecilia said. "You hate humans—"

"It is not hate. Hate would imply you matter enough to elicit a strong feeling out of me. Shard or not, you do not matter."

Cecilia bit her lip. She did not care if she stepped on an ant when she walked, did she? But she wouldn't care what happened to the ants as a whole either. It was indifference, then.

"If you feel that way about humanity, then why? Why even care about Dialga and Palkia? Is it to save your own life?"

"My life has no value when compared to Creation. Every human could die tomorrow and I would not care, but He would. Every living being is His child, and you are among the oldest. The mountains, the waters, the forests, firmament, more than you could ever imagine. Losing it all would be a tragedy."

"So it is duty, then?"

"Duty? One does not need to be forced to see the beauty of Creation needs to be protected. Alone, you are worthless. Together, you form a mosaic that shapes the world in every era. Creation is an ever-shifting painting, and it must be preserved."

"The stories… the stories don't depict you like this. In them, you are a benevolent Pokemon that gifted humans with the ability to want. I think it is a shame," Cecilia sighed. "I thought you would be more."

"You cannot even begin to fathom what more is. I did gift humans a will. It was my purpose. Willpower is not a benevolent concept, girl, it just is. I am no mere Pokemon. I am Willpower, the good, and the bad. The other Shards will find my siblings to be the same, even if one of them is more soft-hearted than I am while the other is more ruthless. When we are done, send the other Shards to visit their respective Lakes."

More ruthless than this? She couldn't even imagine it.

"That was already the plan."

"Good. I have a question for you, Shard. What is Willpower?"

The question Cecilia had mulled over for so long. It had kept her up at night, tossing and turning, but she had never come up with an answer. Not until she saw what Azelf was like. Now, she knew the answer. There was no doubt in her mind as she opened her mouth.

"Willpower is whatever I want it to be."

"Adequately said. We are done here, then."

The change in topic was so abrupt that Cecilia had to do a double-take. "Wait! I have so much more to ask! How does this power even work, what about the layers of mental barriers—"

She blinked, and she was no longer in the dark. Her entire arm was wet after a few seconds, she realized she was back at the shores of the lakes, and Chase was having the same realization. Slowking tapped her on the shoulder while Jellicent rumbled and she took a deep breath.

"How much time has passed?" She asked.

Time? You just put your hand in the water, my lady, Slowking spoke into her mind. Compared to the thousand choirs of Azelf, his was soothing in comparison.

Cecilia frowned and clenched a fist around the hot water. No time had passed then.

"Did you see it?" Chase asked.

Cecilia looked into his eyes.

Remnants of yellow particles swam in his eyes. Fading slowly, but they would still be there for a few minutes.

"I did. We spoke for… I don't even remember how long."

"Me too. Oh, and by the way, what the fuck happened to your eyes?"

Cecilia didn't answer, for she did not know. She stared at the lake and realized the pull she'd felt before plunging her hand was gone. She tried again, for good measure, but there was nothing besides the warmth of the water. Azelf did not want to be disturbed any further.

Legends were not benevolent, nor malevolent.

They worked beyond human concepts.

They just were.

—

I'd been pacing around the bedroom for the last ten minutes, and the last thing I'd expected was for them to be back so soon. I heard the door gently open and they were still speaking when they entered the house flanked by Jellicent and Slowking.

"...Red Chain, it's this entire thing to control them. Cynthia was right on that front, there is a way for Team Galactic to— ah, Grace," Chase stopped as he stared at me.

"What happened?" I asked. "Did you see anything?"

"We did," Chase said. "Let's go wake up Mira."

After we scanned every corner of the house for cameras or microphones, with Porygon's help, we recalled all of our Pokemon (we would tell them about everything later), what followed was an incredible amount of information that mostly terrified me. Very little of what Azelf had actually said was good news, but what disturbed me the most was the fact that Dialga and Palkia were real and the Lake Trio was a way to control them. Not only that, but Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit seemed to be a lot more powerful than the League and we originally believed. These weren't like the Legendary Bird's avatars. These were beyond that, and there was the possibility of Team Galactic being able to use them to fight.

But that was the least of our problems.

"Dialga represents time and Palkia space. There's a— a statue of them in Eterna City that I never visited, but I always thought they were fiction. I mean, they're definitely represented wrong, but that's besides the point," Mira rambled with a frown. "This is bad."

"No shit," Chase snapped. "This is fucking terrible!"

"Calm down. First, we need to warn the League about the Red Chain, and that the world is in danger," Cecilia said. "Then, the plan doesn't change. The League isn't asleep at the wheel. This will be contained."

"I hope so," I muttered. "This is… I mean, yeah. Fuck. This is basically the worst-case scenario."

Could I focus on my journey with this knowledge? This hanging axe around my neck? All of our necks?

"We'll be okay," Cecilia assured, placing a hand on mine.

Chase clenched at his forehead. "Looking at it objectively… Team Galactic can't afford another failure. Even if the League doesn't sniff out their base in time, the odds are still in our favor. They'd have to break through all of this. The walls, the League Trainers—"

"And the Elite Four and Gym Leaders, probably," Mira added.

I sighed. "I hope so. We need to go see Ariel to tell her about all of this."

"But this does confirm what I said," Mira raised a finger. "The League kept us in the dark about this. They knew that this was no mere calamity. That's why they had their Porygon keep the stories away from us. I was right."

"You think they knew?" Chase frowned.

"Of course they knew," she said. "But controlling information is how they do things. And we're supposed to tell them everything? Fuck them."

Cece scoffed. "I hope you aren't suggesting staying silent, because that would be horribly foolish."

"No, I'm not. I'm just saying I fucking hate the fact that they're hiding things from us while we have to scramble in the dark for information."

"It's not fair, but it has to be done," I firmly said. "When this is all over, we can give them the finger and stop working for them."

"Working for them?" Chase asked. "I sure as hell am not."

"Stop talking for a second and listen to me," I hissed. "Az— the Legendary said that we'd keep the… Shards until we died. That means that we'll still be able to have these powers when Team Galactic is dealt with."

I omitted the fact that we might fail to stop them in order to keep our spirits up.

"Chase and Cece, you have this Voice thing now that you can use once per day. You can essentially make someone do whatever you want—"

"We haven't tested that yet," Mira said. "There must be limits."

"I will not test it," Cecilia crossed her arms. "Absolutely not."

"We can figure all of that later. We're military assets. We're willing right now, but we might get pressured into joining."

"They won't force us," Cecilia shook her head. "This isn't Kanto-Johto. Even if democracy has backslid slightly, we still have rights."

"That's… fair," I said. "I just can't help but feel paranoid, especially for Chase and Mira. If everything goes according to plan, we're leaving this summer for Unova, but they're staying here. I don't think we should tell Ariel we're keeping the powers."

"They'll figure it out eventually anyway," Mira shook her head. "I agree in principle, but it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things."

"I don't like it, but fine. For now, we don't have to tell them, though. We can just omit it. It wouldn't be a lie. There's also something else. The last thing we want is for them to know that one dying would strengthen their Shard."

"Think they'd assassinate one of 'em?" Mira asked. "Did the blue guy tell you that you needed to kill each other or that dying was enough?"

"It said kill," Chase firmly said.

"Whatever, better safe than sorry, so I'm okay with omitting that and the fact," she said, snapping her fingers. "But I still think we should test this Voice thing. How long it works, how far you can go with it… it'd be harmless. Just tell me to stand up for five seconds or something."

"Look, push comes to shove, I'll do it," Chase said. "Cecilia obviously has some qualms about mind control—"

"Which shouldn't matter when the world might end. With you, we get one try per day. With her, we get two. That's double, and we need more data."

"I won't budge on my morals," Cecilia said. "Against Team Galactic, it's another story, but I will not subject people to mind control, even as a test."

They glared at each other for a few seconds until Mira huffed and averted her eyes.

"Next topic," I said. "You said we weren't chosen. We can scratch that off the list."

I'd never been a supporter of the theory anyway, and I was glad to have that pressure off. I was not special, and that was fine. But Azelf had still picked Cecilia; and Chase after being disappointed in her.

"But it was not random either," Cecilia added. "I don't know how that makes any sense."

"And yet it does," I said. "Somehow."

"Think the old grouch lied?" Mira asked.

"Absolutely not," Cece instantly said.

"It wouldn't lie," Chase added. "It doesn't care enough to lie."

"Okay, well hopefully the other two will be more amenable," Mira sighed. "We need more information, and we'll probably come out of the Lake with a little boost like you two."

"They said that one sibling was more ruthless while the other was more kind-hearted," Cece explained. "I wasn't sure which was which."

Mira clicked her tongue. "Fuck."

"Knowledge is most likely worse," I nodded. "But we'll still get our questions answered. Our plan doesn't change. Let's just… tell Ariel"

We walked to Headquarters, which was easy to find. Even at night, it was shone brightly in the sky, and it was the tallest building here. Ariel greeted us outside, and after telling her that Chase and Cecilia saw Azelf, we were immediately let in. They were questioned and no doubt told them almost everything, and they stayed so long that Mira and I ended up sleeping on a bench. The next morning, they still weren't there after we ate breakfast, and I was starting to grow anxious, but they were finally let go right before noon. They both looked exhausted, but fine. As soon as we reached the makeshift home again, they spoke.

"They just went in a lot of detail," Cecilia explained. "Asked for every question under the sun. They even asked me if I could convince the Legend to wake up and fight, so you can probably guess some of the questions were really stupid."

"They probably had to cover their bases," I said. "Everything went well, though?"

"Oh, yes, they were very pleased with the development. Apparently some of the higher-ups worried that the Lake Trio would be a lot more… well, evil wouldn't really fit, but I can't find a better word. Less cooperative?"

Chase yawned and leaned against a wall. "Same thing happened to me. Damn, this ruined my sleep schedule."

"We could stay one more day," Mira said.

"No. We leave," Chase said. "I'm done with this concrete hell. Walking will wake me up, and I'll use the opportunity to jog."

We agreed to leave after that, and soon, we were walking through one of the fortress' gates. Ariel accompanied us back to the route and flew off, and we were on our way toward the Grand Hotel Lake. It would take us a day to reach it from here.

Despite the looming danger, I could only keep looking forward. Cecilia told me I shouldn't let this get in the way of my goals. There was nothing I could do except hope the League would save the day, so there was no use worrying about what I couldn't affect. Still, this knowledge would become a permanent knot in my stomach. It wasn't only us that was in danger. The entire world was.

But for now? I would do my best to focus on the Circuit, at least until I flew to Lake Verity.