Destiny Village ~ Sundae Park

[Namohysip]

"...Tsk." Soda sighed, like he hadn't meant to let that one slip. He glared at the beer, but then seemed to figure that wasn't why. "Well, you need a big load of power to do what I want to do," he said. "And, well, the final step of the plan is to borrow that power from a world for a little bit. It's not like they'll notice, or remember, or anything. Just, harness the latent power of a whole world for a while, then recreate it as-it-was. I learned about that one from Arceus, actually. It's not too hard compared to other feats. Think of it like... putting a world on pause for a battery reserve."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave felt his hackles rising, another shudder down his spine. "Borrow, huh." He took a breath, his gut clenching. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but that sounds an awful lot like a euphemism for just fucking nuking everything, and then maybe creating something that looks like it in its place. You know, if you aren't dead before you can even get it done." He turned back toward Soda, inhaling sharply through his nose. "Look. Ionys. You just said you got this idea from your shitty Arceus. The one who's an evil motherfucker. Is this not ringing any goddamn alarm bells for you?"

His heart thumped, every muscle tense as he stared at him, wishing, wishing Soda would just come to his fucking senses, right now, and they could just have a fucking drink and forget this ever happened.

 

[Namohysip]

"...Cibus will be fine," Soda said darkly, looking off. "If I die, the whole world will return back to normal, and I'll just... drift again. This is just my last shot, alright? You won't even realize it happened, it'll be like you, I dunno, passed out for a blink and then you'll still be doing what you're doing like nothing changed. Because nothing will change for Cibus. Okay?" Soda's fur seemed to bristle. "It's not like I'm killing you guys. It's more like... I dunno, like shoving the whole world into a metaphorical Pokeball for a little while."

 

[Dragonfree]

Not encouraging. Dave took another breath, tense. “Thing is, it does sound a whole lot like you’ll be killing everyone, and then creating some new people instead with convenient memories of being us and being perfectly happy with what you did. If... look, you’ve just been talking about souls. If you went and did this now, would the guy sitting here have the same soul? Can you fucking guarantee that every single actual soul of anyone in Cibus is preserved, as is, and goes right back into the new bodies? And not based on the word of your lunatic fucking god-mentor.”

 

[Namohysip]

Soda nodded, looking like he knew this was coming. "Yeah, don't worry about that," he said. "No creation, no seals, I'll just put it all back. Otherwise there's not really any point, y'know? I'm not a monster." Soda rolled his eyes. "It's as I said. I take Cibus, then I put it back when I'm done. I know what I'm doing. I did all this, didn't I?" Soda paused, then glanced at Dave. "...After all, I already put your soul back once."

 

[Dragonfree]

The confirmation only carved out a hollow pit in his stomach. Soda's defensiveness about it in the infirmary made a lot more sense, didn't it. So sure he was accusing him of being the spy. Adamant that he hadn't saved his life, because that'd take an Arceus.

"You kill S'more?" he asked in a quiet growl. "Because that guy wasn't exactly thrilled with how he was 'put back'."

 

[Namohysip]

"Didn't," Soda replied, shaking his head. "There was a Zeraora I had to fend away before she got all corrupted and crap, but I don't think I ran into S'more over there... No clue where the real S'more is. You'd think he'd be drifting in the Astral Plane by now..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave took a deep breath through his nose. It was hard to fault any of Soda's plans as he presented them. Maintaining he wouldn't hurt anyone that didn't deserve it. Full soul continuity for everyone, everything just as it was. Everything'd pop back to normal if something went wrong, too. How convenient.

"Here's where my problem is," he said. "Let's say you're telling the truth about all this. Your intentions are golden, it's just like putting Cibus on pause, nobody's going to be harmed other than Bastard Arceus, everything magically poofs back the way it was if you die and nothing'll be permanently fucked up by it."

Not that they could actually assume that. Soda'd lied time and time again, about what was possible, about his own capabilities and intentions. Even if he was truthful now, even if he really had everyone's best interests at heart, they still couldn't trust him anymore. His throat burned, his gut twisted, paws gripping the edge of the bench.

"Even if all of that's true, there's still too much that can go really fucking wrong. You know why I don't like gods? Nobody should get to wipe out an entire fucking world because they made a miscalculation somewhere. You want to stake Cibus and everyone in it on you, full of five different types of fucking brain-eating corruption, having everything so thoroughly figured out that nothing can possibly throw a wrench in your plan between wiping out the world and recreating it? When you already don't even know half of what's going on? You just said you don't even know who killed S'more." He fought to keep his voice steady. "If you actually give a shit about Cibus," about me, "then it's too much to risk."

 

[Namohysip]

Soda listened, his eyes impassive but attentive, until Dave's final words. Then, the wind seemed to take over. Kids playing several meters away, their parents calling for them to leave the two of them--Soda probably looked normal in their eyes--alone.

"Yeah," Soda said, "there's some risk. But that's what you guys are for. Minimizing that risk. Finding out the other people who might be getting in the way, like Maple or whatever things Giovanni set up." His eyes narrowed a little. "...But if you saw a chance to get someone important to you back... someone you thought was lost forever... you can't tell me you wouldn't take it."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave's heart took a sickening lurch. "Not when it might destroy an entire fucking planet I'm not. Jesus, you think your partner is going to want anything to do with you anymore if you got her back by genociding a planet's worth of people? She's going to wish you'd stayed locked out."

(Mia wouldn't care. She'd be happy to see him if he'd personally murdered every last person in the universe to get her back. But Soda's partner wasn't Mia.)

"Look, we already work fucking miracles on a regular basis as Team Spectrum. We can help you get back to your universe without the bit where you blow up Cibus. I'm not a fan of the odds of this plan no matter how much we minimize the risk. Everything in Cibus is a fucking pretzel of contrived bullshit where it regularly turns out two people were actually bodyswapped all along or whatever the fuck. As a member of Team Spectrum, there's no fucking way we're going to just tie everything up with a tidy bow where nothing unexpected can happen anymore and your plan is foolproof."

That's what you guys are for. Dave fought the nausea crawling up his throat.

 

[Namohysip]

Soda looked off, tapping his claws on his drink. "Maple couldn't do it. I'm the last chance," Soda replied. "That's all that it boils down to. She's imprisoned. I'm the only one who can save her. Nobody else has the guts or the power to do it." Soda looked down, running his claws along the edges.

"...Tell you what," Soda said after what seemed like a defeated sigh. "I'm going to keep doing my thing, but... I'll give you guys some time to find another way to make it work. I've never been able to get an answer from Maple on why she didn't get her out of there. On why she, who saved so many worlds, never saved mine. If I can just get an answer..." He trailed off, then rubbed his forehead. "Sorry. Whatever. Getting worked up over it."

He stood up from the bench, crushing the empty paper-wax can before shoving it in his mane to toss later. "I'm not giving up on this, Dave. It's my best shot. I know it'll work because I've seen it in practice before and I have firsthand divine experience. I'm not an idiot. I wouldn't have gotten this far if I was an idiot. But... who knows?" Soda shrugged. "I'm willing to wait. Maybe there's something I'm missing or some other way to make it work." He glanced at Dave.

"Speaking about Maple, though... I have something I'll let you know, if you'll trust me with it. Don't worry, whether I go through with my plan or not, early or late or whenever, you'll want to know this to keep Cibus safe. I wasn't gonna say anything because of the whole... why-do-you-know-that line of questioning, but since I already laid it all out to you, fuck it, right?"

 

[Dragonfree]

His heart thumped in his chest. He was giving them time. That was something. "What?"

 

[Namohysip]

Soda nodded. "Xerneas is dead. ...Figure that's not much of a surprise. His replacement is that twisted... thing that's got Diyem around his hoof. I think it's some kind of Shade, or something close to it. As for where the real Xerneas is, chances are he's in the same place the real S'more is.

"In the Tree, I'm going to be going in the opposite direction of where Eien is sealed. I'm going to set up a false energy there to lure Maple there, and I'll set it off once I set my part of the plan in motion. Reason being, I have a feeling that when Eien and Maple meet, something's gonna trigger the same way it did when we first came to Cibus. Maple might lose it. If that happens, you will not be able to stop her. She's way too fucking strong.

"You think she's strong as a Smeargle? In that unleashed form of hers, she's at least four times that strength, and that's just in terms of raw power. I've never seen her be defeated. Gods have fallen to her. ...So I'm going to try making the Tree a place to seal her inside, maybe with Eien, so they can both tire each other out. Buy time for a plan. Because if I'm gonna wait on my plan, you guys gotta tie that loose end up instead.

"Something tells me Diyem will figure out what to do, if you snap him out of it. Call it a hunch... but I think he might know more once Maple loses it. Feels like a similar energy. But, gonna be honest, it's just a hunch."

 

[Dragonfree]

Goddamn it. Had nobody actually gone and snapped Diyem out of his nonsense?

Dave shuddered at the thought of trying to fight Maple, in fucked-up even more ludicrous insect dragon form, out of her mind on corruption. Something 'triggering' with Eien...? Everything continued to be a pretzel of random shit.

"You think Eien's going to be able to handle her for however long?" he asked, wary. "What do you mean, a similar energy?"

And... He looked away for a moment. "One more thing. Friend of mine was doing some due diligence, went to chat with Flesh. She bumped into a letter in your quarters, talking about the Tree of Life...?"

 

[Namohysip]

Soda looked genuinely offended at that. "They didn't take any, did they?" he growled. "Those're expensive around here..." He glanced off. "...Whatever, right. I made those. Replaced a page and used some trickery to put hidden messages in there for Cola to read. Been lending him some of the lighter mags since he was interested in romantic culture and stuff. Don't worry, I didn't give him anything weird." Soda waved his hands dismissively. "...But the guy's been worried about Pop. I've been giving him an out to hang out with me, which would've been nice as part of my plan and all that, too. Tch... guess I'm gonna be putting that one down the drain if I'm gonna be waiting anyway." he shrugged.

"You goodie-goodies helped Cola and Pop work something out anyway, last I checked. I'm gonna be there to make sure Pop doesn't try anything funny. And maybe... help set Cola straight, I guess." He glanced off. "I might've fed into his paranoia. Maybe we fed into each other's.

"...And a similar energy, I dunno. I feel like they both have Shadows going on. That's all. Again, it's just a hunch, but those aren't usually wrong with me. Zoro's instincts, I guess."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave squinted at Soda. Was he implying he'd hidden a letter for this weeks-old child god who mirrored everything he saw in some kind of softcore porno magazine? That sure was a detail Luz had tactfully elided from her report. "...Right. Well, sounds like that one's resolved, I guess." The note on paranoia made something twinge in his chest, that old sense of Soda as someone who cared.

Goddamn it.

He turned Soda's words on Maple over in his head, wary. Diyem and Maple both had 'Shadows going on', sure, but one wouldn't have thought that meant he'd magically know anything. All of Team Spectrum had Shadow going on. Unless...

...Fuck. "...You think Maple is a Dark Matter?"

 

[Namohysip]

"...Maybe," Soda said. "...Telum gets destroyed... Maple somehow lives... despite being its Voice? Either Telum is alive, or she's... what happens when a Dark Matter wins. But something about that doesn't seem right, either." He sighed. "That's a dead end for me, too. It's possible, but I dunno how she'd mask all that darkness from everyone unless it's deeeeeep in her core." Soda glanced at Dave. "I think seeing Eien might draw it out, if it is. So, be careful. And get ready to run out if that happens--you're not gonna beat her."

It looked like Soda was about to leave. "Right. Good talk, I guess... Try not to tell anyone about this for now. Tell the wrong people and they'll blab to Maple or something, and who the fuck knows what'll happen then. Good luck, alright?"

 

[Dragonfree]

This was it. He was leaving.

Soda'd told him a deluge of information, but was still set on his insane fucking world-destruction plan unless they worked something out, fished out of Maple why she hadn't helped him and found a better way. An ultimatum.

Did he give a shit about Cibus? Apparently, at least not enough of one to not want to risk vaporizing it and everyone in it so he could ascend to godhood.

Dave took a sharp breath. "Soda, I'm... Please just think about what the fuck you're doing. Don't be like your Arceus."

 

[Namohysip]

That, despite everything, gave Soda pause. He sighed. "Yeah, I know," he said. "I really know. I gotta go. I'll keep it in mind, I really will, alright?" He waved dismissively. "See you. No hard feelings."

He faded away, and all was normal.

 

[Dragonfree]

And he was gone.

Dave exhaled slowly and realized he was shaking. Fuck.

Brisa? he thought. Just talked with Soda. I'm all right. Coming home.

Something bumped against him, and he jumped, but it was only Shadow. He'd fucked off when he went to meet with Soda; on the one hand, thank God, but on the other, learning Shadows could go away if it was important really only made every other time more infuriating.

He expected Shadow to start saying some shit, but the spectral Mightyena only pressed up against his side, leaning into him.

Dave stayed there, on the bench, for a few more minutes, until he'd stopped shaking.

<><><><><>​