PARAGON
Remnants of the Great War Arc [43]
Chapter 52 : The Head of Paragon
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Sinnoh Region, twenty-two years ago
The tall grass brushed against her face as she ran, but her platinum blonde hair was nearly as long, so she was used to it. She spared a glance back but kept running as fast as her short legs could carry her. Sweat matted her hair to her temples and she was getting mud all over her clothes, but neither discomfort impeded her in the slightest.
“Gotcha!”
Her older cousin tackling her from the side certainly did, however.
Cynthia Shirona, aged nine, fell onto her side into a muddy puddle, and though she braced herself with her arm, dirt water splashed up into her mouth, and she recoiled.
“Eggghhhh!” she whined, sticking her tongue out and trying to drool the stuff back out.
“That’s what you get for running away.”
Sylvester Shirona, aged twelve, stood over her, his arms crossed, wearing a proud grin. Somehow, he’d run through this marsh and caught up to her while somehow keeping his white clothes mostly clean—a sharp contrast to Cynthia’s disheveled appearance.
“I don’t wanna!” Cynthia pouted, slamming her tiny fist down into the puddle.
Sylvester moved his leg out of the way before it could splash him, then knelt. “Let’s go,” he said with authority. “Grandmother will get upset.”
“Why do I haftaaaa?” she complained. “I don’t care about pokémon breeding at all. I want to be a trainer!”
“Oh, did you? I’d almost forgotten.” Sylvester stood back up and offered his hand. “Come on. We may be close to home, but there are still wild pokémon around.” He looked away and his eyes narrowed. “I’m not going to lose you too.”
Cynthia noticed her cousin’s seriousness and took his hand, standing back up. She was over a head shorter. His head poked out above the tall grass. No wonder he’d found her so quickly.
Hand in hand, they walked back through the grass back to town, Cynthia grumbling every step of the way. As the density of the grass started to thin, Cynthia could smell the pungent scent of incense burning ahead. As they emerged from the swamp, the quaint Celestic Town came into view, nestled among rock and fog in the shadows of Mount Coronet.
Her home.
Sylvester didn’t let go of her even once they’d arrived. If anything, he’d tightened his grip as they walked down the beaten paths toward their house. Elderly folk smiled at and greeted him along the way, and though they tried to extend the courtesy to Cynthia, she trained her eyes on the ground, determined to ignore them.
Eventually, they made it back to their small cottage. A pen of thin wire fence sat beside the house, and within, a pair of Eevee ran around, chasing each other's tails. Cynthia scowled when she saw it, but Sylvester led her past them inside.
The smell of incense burned even stronger once he opened the door, and Cynthia wrinkled her nose. Her grandmother sat at the kitchen table, waiting for them, and Cynthia pursed her lips.
“Thank you, Sylvester,” she said.
Sylvester nodded and finally let go, then swiftly exited to another room.
Cynthia scowled at his back. Clearly, he didn’t want to stick around to watch her get chewed out.
“Cynthia…” her grandmother began.
“I don’t! Wanna!” Cynthia stomped her foot.
Her grandmother sighed. “When are you going to stop this nonsense? Pokémon breeding is your family’s trade. Even if Sylvester enjoys it more, it was your parents' business. It’s only right that their daughter takes over. It’s what they wanted for you.”
“I don’t care!” Cynthia pouted. “Back in the old days, girls weren’t even allowed to run stuff! Why can’t we just go back to that!”
“Oh, come on Cynthia.” Her grandmother stifled an amused smile. “Your parents were trainers too, alongside being breeders. Don’t you think learning about breeding would help you become a better trainer?”
“No! It’s soooooo boring!”
Her grandmother shook her head. “Cynthia…I don’t disapprove of you becoming a trainer. But…I just don’t want the same thing to happen to you as what happened to your parents. I’d like you to know as much as you can about pokémon before you leave this town if that’s what you truly want.”
Cynthia glared at the floor, refusing to make eye contact. Well, when she put it like that.
“I’ll tell you what, Cynthia. Go and study with your cousin until dinner. I’m going to ask him to give me a report later. If he says you were good, you can take the day off tomorrow.”
Cynthia’s eyes sparkled and she perked up. “Really?”
“Only if he gives me a good report. If I hear you snuck out again, I’ll make you study three days in a row.”
“Okay!” Cynthia exclaimed. Before she had a chance to change her mind, Cynthia rushed out of the main room after Sylvester.
Her grandmother shook her head as she went, a smile curling on her lips.
Cynthia burst into Sylvester’s bedroom, startling him from where he lay on the ground.
“Okay, let’s get studying!” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
“Watch out!” Sylvester yelled angrily, wrapping his arms protectively around something in front of him.
A Togepi sat before him, staring at Cynthia curiously.
“You could’ve broken his shell,” Sylvester murmured.
“Sorry…” Cynthia closed the door gently and sat down beside them. “I want a pokémon,” she said glumly.
“Any pokémon of yours would probably die in a week, let’s be honest.”
“Would not!”
Sylvester sat up and recalled his pokémon. “So? What’re you doing in here?”
“Grandma said if I study with you till dinner I get tomorrow off.”
Sylvester smirked. “Of course. I knew you’d never ask to study with me without some strings attached.”
“Hey! You better watch out! I’m gonna run the family business when I get older! I’ll know way more than you!”
Sylvester snorted. “No way. I’m taking over your family’s business no matter what you want.”
“Wait, really?” Cynthia’s jaw dropped. “Then why does Grandma keep saying I have to.”
“It’d be better if you ran it,” he said. “But if you took over, it wouldn’t exist in a week. I won’t let your parents’ hard work disappear just like that.”
He’d just insulted her, basically, but Cynthia didn’t care. She wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her head on them. “Breeding is so boring though. I can’t believe you have a pokémon and you didn’t become a trainer.”
Sylvester eyed her and smiled. “Even if you could get a pokémon right now, do you know which one you’d pick yet?”
Sinnoh’s starter program was run by a man called Professor Rowan, and though his laboratory was way down south in a town called Sandgem, representatives of his spread out across the region just before the start of every conference season to every city and town to distribute pokémon. The names Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup were known to every young boy and girl in Sinnoh who dreamed of being a trainer, and it would be unthinkable that anyone Cynthia’s age hadn’t given the question any thought, or even decided on their pick already.
“Hmmmmmmm, I still don’t know,” Cynthia said, sticking her lower lip out. “I hafta meet them first.”
“Sounds like a recipe for disaster. If you knew who you were going to pick, I could at least help you prepare the proper food for them.”
“All pokémon eat pokémon food.”
“Ahhh.” Sylvester’s head fell into his palm. “I feel bad for your future pokémon.” He glanced up at her. “And by the way, there’s nothing boring about breeding. It’s interesting. Like, did you know that a pokémon egg has a small chance of appearing if you breed a Skitty and a Wailord? Crazy, right?” His eyes sparkled with excitement.
“No way that’s true,” Cynthia muttered.
“It is. You see, they’re in the same, what’s called an egg group, so despite their massive difference in size—“
“Uuuuugh,” Cynthia collapsed back onto the floor, defeated by utter disinterest.
“The lesson has already begun,” Sylvester said, sounding like a teacher.
Cynthia pulled herself up and slouched over. Determined to earn a good report, and she forced herself to keep her eyes open as he continued.
“For a simple example, Pidgey are docile. Starly are very collectivist. Spearow are fierce but can’t fly long distances. All of these pokémon are slightly different, but they all belong to the Flying egg group. That means…”
Although they were cousins, they really got along more like brother and sister. Cynthia had lived together with him under this roof for almost as long as she could remember. All four of their parents had been trainers, and when she was little, they’d gone together with some others on a research expedition into Mount Coronet. None had returned. Soon after, their grandparents took both of them in.
The lessons continued for several hours. At one point, they’d gone outside to work with the Eevee that Sylvester was currently trying to breed. That at least was a bit more stimulating, and Cynthia couldn’t help but enjoy feeding them, brushing their fur, and running around with them.
Before she knew it, dinnertime had come, and she almost felt bad about leaving them behind to go inside. She insisted on helping Sylvester pour out their food before heading inside to wash her hands. It was definitely just because she wanted him to give as good of a report as possible to her grandmother. Definitely.
Luckily, her efforts paid off, and Sylvester delivered a stellar report, making their grandmother very happy. Sylvester excused himself early to go tend to something else, and thankfully, her grandmother didn’t quiz her on anything she’d learned, because honestly, most of it had gone in one ear and out the other.
Nevertheless, one year later, at age ten, Cynthia stood outside their house proudly, dressed in loose trainer gear, standard attire, her hands on her hips proudly. Empty pokéballs lined her trainer belt, and the smile she wore was nearly as radiant as the sun above.
“Is there any chance I can get you to change your mind?” her grandmother said, standing behind her just outside the house.
“Nope!”
The old woman smiled. “I didn’t think so.”
Cynthia’s whole body trembled where she stood, but she seemed to be adamant about not moving from where she was.
“The Professor’s trainer will be here soon, calm down, Cynthia,” her grandmother drawled. “If you need to use the ladies’ room, you can.”
“I might miss them!”
“I highly doubt that.” She glanced around. “I’m surprised your cousin isn’t here to see you off.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” a voice came from down the path. Sylvester walked up to Cynthia and put his hand on her head to still her, but she didn’t. “So, the day’s finally come, then.”
“Mm-hm!” Cynthia said, her eyes never leaving the path back toward the town center where she expected Rowan’s representative to come from.
“Ahem,” Sylvester cleared his throat.
Taking the hint, Cynthia glanced his way.
“I wanted to give you something before you left. But, if you don’t want it, that’s fine I guess.”
“What what what what what what what?” Cynthia chittered, bouncing up and down like she was on a sugar high.
Sylvester reached around and unhooked a pokéball from his belt. “More than anyone else, I know just how unreliable you can be when it comes to caring for pokémon. I happen to have a pokémon here that eats dirt and rocks. I think it’d be the perfect starter pokémon for you.”
Cynthia scowled at him. “Who would want a lame pokémon like that?” But when Sylvester tossed the pokéball at her, she snatched it out of the air and stared at it like it was gold. She glanced back up at him, and he nodded. Taking a deep breath, she thumbed the release and expelled the pokémon onto the ground between them.
The energy warbled on the ground before coalescing into a creature nearly half Cynthia’s size, with deep grayish-blue skin and a mouth lined with fangs that could easily take a bite out of a car.
Cynthia’s jaw dropped and their grandmother’s eyes widened.
“Like I said. It eats dirt and rocks. Surely even you can’t find a way to mess that up.” Sylvester swiped a finger across his nose.
“A Gible!” Cynthia exclaimed, instantly crouching down.
“Sylvester! How in the world did you…?” Their grandmother ambled closer, clearly torn between getting her grandchildren away from the creature and not wanting to get any closer herself.
“Gible live in Mount Coronet, and we happen to live right next to Mount Coronet,” Sylvester said nonchalantly. “I can’t have my little cousin thinking I’m not using my trainer license for anything just because I didn’t challenge the gym circuit.”
Cynthia’s eyes beamed with excitement and disbelief. “I-Is he really for me?”
“Well, he’s a dragon, so really it’s up to him.”
Cynthia looked back down at Gible, and the land shark’s beady eyes stared back up at her. Saliva dripped from its mouth and a low growl rumbled out from its throat. But Cynthia wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. She never broke eye contact. She was far too dazzled at the prospect of finally getting her first pokémon to feel any such nonsense as fear.
Finally, Gible barked in approval and padded closer to her on its stubby legs. Cynthia giggled and wrapped her arms around it.
“Thank you so much, Sylvester! I’ll never forget about this!” Bolting to her feet, she dashed forward and spun around. “Okay! Let’s go!”
Gible growled and stomped after her.
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“Wait, you don’t even want to see the other starters?” Sylvester asked.
Once Gible caught up, Cynthia continued to bound ahead. “No need!”
“Don’t forget to visit home, even if there isn’t a gym here!” Her grandmother called after her.
However this time, Cynthia didn’t respond. It wasn’t long before she and Gible had run completely out of sight.
“Do you think she heard me?” their grandmother sighed.
“Probably not,” Sylvester replied.
She shook her head and turned back to the house. “Does that girl even know where she’s going first?”
“Well, the closest gym is in Oreburgh. But knowing her, she probably wouldn’t want to dip into a cave first thing on her journey, so she’ll probably head east toward Veilstone or Solaceon.”
As his grandmother opened the door, she turned back to eye Sylvester. “That’s some pokémon you’ve started her off with.”
Faith glimmered in Sylvester’s eyes. “She can handle it.”
His grandmother’s eyes narrowed, and she rapped him softly on the stomach. “I was talking about you. I know breeders double your age who still aren’t comfortable breeding dragons. And to think you did it all behind my back too.”
Sylvester smirked and shrugged, following her inside. “I guess I have you to thank for the great genes, then.”
She grunted in deadpan amusement.
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Sometime later
“Congratulations on your victory! You’ve earned this—the Cobble Badge!”
The male gym leader, a tall and rugged man named Tyson, handed her a velvet tray with a small piece of metal on top, which looked tiny in his giant hand.
Cynthia’s eyes glimmered as she accepted the badge, a metallic diamond etched in the shape of a cobblestone tile.
“That was a very impressive match,” Tyson said. “No doubt some will say your dragon-type easily carried you to an inevitable victory, but it’s clear just how strong the bond is between you. Even if they had your Gabite, I doubt there are very many trainers out there who could’ve replicated your results.”
Gabite stomped up behind her and growled. Bruises covered his skin and he was breathing heavily, but he hadn’t fallen. Cynthia glanced back at him and smiled proudly. She hadn’t exactly intended on earning her first gym badge today, since she still only had one pokémon against the gym leader’s three, but Gible had evolved recently, so she figured she’d try him out.
Although Tyson’s Machop and Meditite had proved worthy opponents, Gabite eventually overcame both of them. It was against Tyson’s ace, his Riolu, that Gabite spent the most time. Already damaged and winded from his previous two fights, he’d been forced to play more defensively and take a more cerebral approach. And in the end, he’d defeated the deceptively strong Aura pokémon.
But seeing Riolu dance and weave through Gabite’s many harrowing attacks… Cynthia was beginning to think she knew who she wanted to add to her roster next.
“Thank you, sir!” Cynthia bowed. She herself was covered in sweat and she could feel her hair clinging to her temples. Adrenaline still coursed through her veins, and she found herself shaking even though the battle had concluded several minutes prior.
Despite all the mischief she’d gotten into back home, her journey was giving her a new appreciation for showers and a warm bed. She hadn’t even realized how dirty she felt after finally arriving at Veilstone until she’d cleaned herself for the first time in weeks. She was eager to get back to the pokémon center. It was the perfect time-killer while Gabite healed back to full health.
Recalling Gabite, she waved goodbye to the gym leader and departed the gym.
Even though she’d already spent several days here, the towering sight of all the buildings in Veilstone still made her stomach turn. Before this, Celestic was all she’d known, with its stout houses and huts. Veilstone was an obtrusive reminder that she had seen next to nothing of the world yet.
“Hello, Cynthia.”
Cynthia stopped in her tracks and turned around.
A woman who seemed nearly as tall as the skyscrapers around her paced toward Cynthia slowly. She wore a stark white sundress and a wide-brimmed hat, and her face looked like it was carved from marble. Pitch-black hair tumbled down her back like a silent waterfall.
Cynthia simply stared up in disbelief as she approached. Obviously, she wasn’t as tall as the buildings, but she was certainly tall. She was the tallest woman Cynthia had ever seen. And her eyes seemed to catch and hold Cynthia in place.
“How do you know my name?” Cynthia eventually asked.
The woman’s thin smile lengthened. “I was watching your battle against the gym leader. That was very impressive.”
Cynthia felt her face heating up and she looked away. “Thanks,” she mumbled.
“My name is Zelda Leora. I’d like us to become friends. What do you think of that, Cynthia?”
“Umm, I don’t know…”
Zelda smiled and raised her arm. She held a small handled box between her fingers. “I have some sweets here that I couldn’t possibly finish myself. Do you think you could help me, Cynthia?”
“O-Ok!”
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Alola Region, present day
Spearow chirped, then flew away, up into the blazing blue skies.
Cynthia’s eyes narrowed, and she turned on her heel, before stepping forward through a pair of glass doors that slid open for her. Immediately, the air conditioning blew the fatigue from her body, and the temperature plummeted to comfortable levels as she walked inside.
The sandstone fountains and emerald lily pads adorned with pink lotuses that filled the lofty lobby relaxed her instantly, and her heartbeat was surprisingly slow. Nevertheless, she moved briskly through the open chamber to the halls beyond.
“Lady Cynthia! Lady Leora has been expecting you. She awaits—“
“I know,” Cynthia growled, sweeping past the uniformed attendant. Her heels clicked against the marble floor of the Hano Grand Resort. Ignoring Zelda’s servants, she stalked through the grandiose halls of the resort’s most private residence until she arrived at the elevator that would take her up to the penthouse.
One minute later, the doors to the elevator slid open, and Cynthia stepped onto the top floor of the resort.
As expected, Zelda was waiting for her at their usual table in the very center of the room. She was staring out at the beach beyond nursing some dark drink.
With her profile facing Cynthia, the Sinnoh Champion couldn’t help but marvel at how beautiful she was.
Zelda turned at Cynthia’s arrival and smiled. “My, dear.” She put her glass down. “It’s been too long.”
“Sorry,” Cynthia muttered, pulling her chair out and taking her seat. The table was barren save for Zelda’s drink.
“I wasn’t sure I’d even see you again. It isn’t like you to ignore my messages.” Her bottom lip stuck out in a slight pout, though on Zelda’s face, it made her look endearing.
“I’ve been busy.” She had yet to meet Zelda’s gaze.
“Well, tell Miss Leora about it all, then. You know I’m all ears. I’m not surprised this fiasco with AZ and Guardians had you so…preoccupied. There were a number of elements that shocked even me.”
Now Cynthia glanced up to meet Zelda’s gaze. Her eyes looked just as they always did, and she seemed genuinely interested in sharing Cynthia’s mental burden. “Is that why you asked me to pull Paragon out of Rota?”
Zelda nodded innocently. “Oh, yes. That battle between Aaron Albrecht and AZ should have stayed between them. I could tell that Paragon wouldn’t be ready to contend with that level of power.”
Cynthia studied her face, but she wore her perfection like a mask. “I tried to impress that upon them.”
Zelda nodded sympathetically. “I knew you would. Though truthfully, I expected you to be able to rein them in. You put them all in terrible danger by allowing them to mutiny.”
Cynthia bit her lip. “I know.”
“And then when the attack began, you joined them… That was an interesting choice.”
Cynthia inhaled slowly, then exhaled. “There was no pulling out at that point. The best I could do was help the Guardians against AZ and his forces.”
“Do you think that was the right decision?”
Cynthia’s eyes met Zelda’s. “We saved countless Guardian lives. If we hadn’t been there, it wouldn’t have just been Rota that was destroyed. Hundreds of Guardians would be dead along with it.”
Zelda glanced away. “I see.” She nodded and smiled. “As always, your intentions are pure and heroic. I’ve always loved that about you, Cynthia.”
Cynthia’s heart throbbed, and her fingers tightened around the armrests on her chair. “Since we’re on the topic, I’d like to ask something of you.”
Zelda’s eyes heightened and she drummed her fingertips together, smiling. “Ooh, I’m not sure you’ve ever asked me for anything. I’m intrigued!”
Despite how cool it was inside, Cynthia could feel a film of sweat coalescing on her forehead. “I’d like to take Paragon in my own direction, henceforth.”
Zelda frowned but let her continue.
“Up until now, you’ve steered Paragon by providing the intelligence for certain assignments. This experience with Sir Aaron and AZ has been…rather eye-opening. I’ve come to see just how dangerous the true powers in this world are…” Cynthia exhaled and locked eyes with Zelda, who appeared to be listening attentively. “I don’t know how you learned the location of the Electric Plate a few months ago…but after what just happened, I can’t, in good faith, continue to operate with your guidance. I think you can understand.”
Zelda didn’t move for a while. Then, she tilted her head. “Hm. This is…no, I suppose this isn’t unexpected at all.” She tipped her head back and drained the rest of her drink down her throat, then placed her glass back on the table. “To think you don’t trust me, after all this time…” She shook her head. “That island was worth a small fortune, and I gifted it to you for free.”
“Golden handcuffs, if its key is my unquestioning obedience. You can have it back if you want.”
Zelda smiled and shook her head. “Oh, no, I wouldn’t do that. It was a gift.”
Cynthia rubbed her fingers. “You told Director Rhys not to interfere in Rota either, didn’t you? That’s why Interpol wasn’t there to help until after the dust cleared.”
Zelda turned her body toward Cynthia. “Do you think I’m your enemy, Cynthia? Why do you think I told you to pull out of Rota?
“Actually, I was wondering why you didn’t tell me why?” Cynthia said. “All of Paragon was working on the AZ assignment. Don’t you think it would’ve been prudent to tell us about the true power of the Plates beforehand? Or even back when you first provided the intel for the Electric Plate? Clearly, you know how important they are.” Cynthia raised her brows. “You’ve known.”
Zelda sighed, a wistful smile gracing her doll-like face. “We’ve known each other a long time, Cynthia. So I’m sure you have more to say. Come, then. What else is there?”
“Have we known each other a long time?” Her eyes narrowed. “How old are you, Zelda?”
Zelda grinned and laughed. She fanned herself with her hand. “Whew! Come now, Cynthia, that’s no question to ask a woman.” She met Cynthia’s gaze, and her eyes gleamed like jagged jewels.
“After I learned a bit more about the Plates, it didn’t take me long to connect the dots,” Cynthia continued. Her gaze bore into Zelda. “The Five Founders. The Paragon War. Queenpin. I never heard about any of that from you. Taking everything together, I think I have more than enough reasons to distance myself now.”
Amusement curled into amazement on Zelda’s face. “Impressive,” she muttered.
Cynthia raised three fingers. “The Fighting Plate…the Bug Plate…the Ice Plate. Those are the ones I’ve figured out for now. But I assume you bear more.”
The grin slowly melted off Zelda’s face. “How did you learn that?” she said icily.
Cynthia shrugged, never breaking eye contact. “I’m sorry. But that’s all I came here to say. From now on, Paragon will be led by us, and us alone.”
Zelda’s face was stoic. Cynthia hadn’t stood yet, and a silence descended between them.
Eventually, Zelda spoke. “All these years, I’ve considered you a friend, Cynthia. A true friend. Did you ever see me the same way?”
The question took Cynthia slightly by surprise. Have I ever thought of her as a friend? Is she really asking that after all this time? Miss Leora, who she’d known since she was ten years old. Who showered her with sweets every time they met. Who lent an ear to all her troubles. Who laid the groundwork for her dream. Isn’t the answer obvious?
Cynthia pursed her lips.
“No,” she said. “Since the very first day we met, I’ve always feared you.”
Again, Zelda didn’t react. She looked on Cynthia sympathetically, her eyebrows raised. Eventually, she raised a hand to her mouth. “Goodness. I had no idea. You should have told me, Cynthia. That was never my intention.”
Cynthia looked at her flatly. “That’s difficult to believe coming from a Platebearer.”
Zelda’s eyes glazed over, her substitute for an eye roll. She drummed her fingers on the table, and her nails clattered noisily. “It sounds like this tea party is over. Anything else to say to Miss Leora?”
Cynthia inhaled slowly. Well, I think I know what comes next. The rest is up to you all. She sat up in her chair and exhaled. “When they come for you, and they will, can you tell them ‘thank you’ on my behalf?”
Blood flooded the vessels in Zelda’s eyes and her face twisted into a grotesque sneer.
Something impossibly heavy hit Cynthia, and the next thing she knew, she found herself against the wall. Darkness limned her vision, and a trail of red led from what must have been her chair to where she now sat. Her eyes flickered involuntarily and she coughed, liquid spraying out.
What hit me?
Through the muted veil of her sight, Cynthia could see Zelda pacing around the table toward her. Bright red blood soaked her white dress and had splashed up across her face. Her long black hair dragged behind her as she walked along the red carpet.
Cynthia pawed at her own body. What hit me? She coughed again, but something didn’t feel right. She urged her neck down so she could see her torso. It was getting so dark. But, she was able to move enough to see the gaping hole in her stomach. Her guts were a grisly mess, burst apart like water balloons and spilling into her lap. That explained why she hadn’t taken a breath yet. She no longer had lungs to fill.
What hit me?
“Show some gratitude. It’s not often I dispose of nuisances personally.”
Zelda’s voice echoed into her consciousness, but she could no longer perceive it. Her eyes glazed over. Twenty-one long years it’d been. But now, she was finally out of that woman’s clutches. In the end, it was her own blood she’d needed to taste in order to finally arrive at the truth. It was so laughable she wanted to cry.
“Ah, that’s right! Your family was into breeding, weren’t they? How fitting! You’ve bred me a pen full of little piggies!” She clapped her hands gleefully.
What hit me? The question echoed in Cynthia’s mind but remained unanswered. As of now, its only purpose was to keep her tethered to her rapidly fading life.
Zelda knelt in front of her, but she could no longer see.
I’m sorry, Sylvester.
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Zelda’s eyes narrowed, blood dripping from her chin. She stood and glanced around at the mess around her. “Ahh, how did I let her get me worked up like that?” Wrinkling her nose, she shook her hands off and wiped them on the clean parts of her dress. She raised her hand, and two neon blue pokéballs trimmed in gold warbled into existence within. She tossed them both onto the ground.
A plump Musharna coalesced into the air. Noxious black smoke pumped into the room from the hole on its head, and its skin was gray and withered, like rotten fruit.
Beside it, a Porygon-Z flashed into existence. Only the dull outline of its body could be seen, though even that sparked and flickered violently. It glitched throughout the room as if fighting to stay in existence.
“We don’t have much time since she’s already dead. Get to work. I want to know everything.”
Remnants of the Great War Arc — [END]
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First, I wanted to quickly note that it’s a shame Legends: Z-A didn’t come out in time for this arc. I look forward to when that game comes out and it ends up making the lore of this arc obsolete in new and exciting ways. Of course, I’m half kidding since most of AZ’s backstory was totally rewritten. And that being said, I hope no one thinks I think my version is better than the original or anything. I’m really just using his character for my own purposes since he was always fascinating to me. Though it is too bad I won’t get to include anything cool they might introduce in that game in this AZ-centric arc.
So I should say at the outset that basically none of this arc was planned or outlined in any way. I had a short list of certain plot points I knew I wanted to include in this arc, but everything else was made up as I went along. Unfortunately, I think that may have been obvious at certain points throughout the arc.
In my head, this arc was going to be 20-25 chapters long, with 30 at the most. The fact that it reached 43 isn’t necessarily a good thing, I think. About half of that is just the events of a single day: the big battle against AZ’s forces. That part I don’t think is necessarily longer than it needed to be. Perhaps there was a bit I could’ve shaved, but I’m mostly satisfied with how it turned out, again, especially because none of it was really mapped out beforehand. I do think, however, I could’ve trimmed down the first half of the arc. Two chapters that stick out are Chapter 14: Fairy Forest and Chapter 18: Warpath. Those two almost certainly didn’t need to take up a whole chapter, but I got a bit self-indulgent.
That being said, I don’t think self-indulgence is necessarily a bad thing. It’s probably a big reason why I was able to update weekly on a pretty consistent basis. However, that is something I’d like to rein in a bit for the future.
Aside from the biggest issue with the story so far, which I’ll address later, I have a few other points to hit, in no particular order.
First, I think the conflict between AZ and Aaron could have been fleshed out more clearly. I think the catalyst for the breakdown in their relationship was rather weak, and though I tried to patch it up as I went along, I do think it was sloppy overall. That was one of those things that I knew I wanted to have happen, but didn’t plan in advance, so I definitely should’ve pondered on that a bit more, to say the least.
Anabel losing her arm was another scenario that could have been done better. You may be catching onto a theme here— that was something I knew I wanted to have happen, but her sudden arrival during that battle was pretty awkward, and I think it may have made her injury a bit comical. Also, her mending the newspaper left behind in AZ’s cell in order to deduce that Albrecht aka Sir Aaron was the motive behind AZ’s escape was also done poorly, in my opinion. It’s kind of a convoluted series of deductions from start to finish when you really think about it and certainly should have been tidied up.
The third issue is sort of a general point about what I said earlier about just having a list of plot points that I wanted to have happen. Because that list was my starting point, the connective tissue between said plot points was rather flimsy, and events sort of just tumbled into each other with little rhyme or reason. The most egregious example I can think of is Ash just happening to discover AZ after meeting Albrecht. I knew I wanted Ash and AZ to have a sort of “first encounter” that Ash would lose, and I knew I wanted Ash to attend some sort of high-end party (kind of already crossed that off the list with Chapter 2 though lol). Beginning there, I decided to have Ash and Cynthia meet with Albrecht and intentionally located the party in Saffron City so it would place Ash close(ish) to Rota. Given the other plot points I had in my head, I figured his encounter with AZ would have to happen soon after the party, but I never ended up coming up with a better way for them to meet, so Ash just sort of awkwardly ended up “sensing” him in the end, and then that led into that. For the next arc, I would like to tighten things up a little more so that all the plot points logically flow into one another.
Oh yeah. I’m not thrilled with the nicknames for Anabel’s Espeon or Latias. I like the other ones, but “Magic” and “Sakura” are very uncreative, I feel lol.
So the elephant in the room is that I have unintentionally made Cynthia pretty unlikeable. From the start, it was probably a bad idea to have her basically tell the main character that his big win wasn’t really a win and that actually she herself had gone humiliatingly easy on him. There was a better way, I’m sure, to let Ash know that the peak he’d just reached wasn’t actually the top, without destroying her image in the eyes of the readers. Compounded on that were her actions throughout the arc, which I really should have realized could only have frustrated the reader, and they kept on happening again and again :( Most egregious has to be her out-of-nowhere command that Paragon return to Paragon Island without actually explaining why. That was another thing that I knew I wanted to have happen but did not come up with a good enough reason for why it should have. Her reasons for withholding certain information seemed comically nonexistent at times, up until the end, and even if she had her “reasons,” in the end, I should have considered the readers’ perspective more when it came to her. At this point, what’s done is done, but I may try to salvage and sanitize her image as best I can. You have been warned :P
And so, that’s that! This retrospective was mainly for my sake so I don’t really expect that anyone read all that. Either way, thanks for the continued support, and I’ll see you next week for the first chapter of the Hisui Incursion Arc! One of the reasons I’m writing this fic is so that I could mix together all the coolest (in my opinion) aspects of Pokémon, and the Legends: Arceus game certainly introduced several things that I’m excited to explore in this fic!
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