Poppin' Arms Guild ~ Main Lobby

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa looked between the numerous assembled crestfallen, angry, confused, anxious faces. Between Vix and Mellow, and Dave and Koa. She couldn't handle it all. She couldn't handle every damn thing at once all the fuckin' time.

She made the call. Focus on those who'd had to deal with this shit as she had. People who trusted her.

She gripped Koa's shoulder, gave Dave a meaningful glance, and held her tongue.

Diyem was speaking...

 

[Namohysip]

It seemed that everything was going awry, one way or another. So many people bickering and yelling and as much as it energized Diyem, this was not the time. Buzzing was getting louder; protests and shouts and accusations, just as the haze had warned would happen. Just what would strengthen the Blacklight it used even further.

Diyem wondered if the Blacklight could somehow have influenced this as its own supernatural force.

"ENOUGH!" A shadowy pillar of fire erupted around Diyem, scorching the ground and the ceiling for the umpteenth time. His eyes blazed with shadowfire; the pillar of darkness had drowned out all other sound and put all discussions to a sudden halt. A dark barrier blocked the way out, no matter what they tried, and Diyem looked ready to exhaust everyone into silence should they not listen.

"No matter what happened," Owen said softly, "we need to stay on the same page from here on out. Okay?"

"We are not here to place blame on anyone. We can only work with what we have. What happened, happened. There is no longer any need--perceived or otherwise--to keep things hidden from one another. And, related to that, I believe we can not get a full picture of what happened." He sighed, turning his attention to Joule. "To the best of your knowledge, explain what happened in Soda's world."

Joule still seemed to be in shock, but he nodded when Diyem ordered him directly. "Y-yes," he said. "...Soda... world, he..." His lights flickered and he took a breath. Long pause. "...Sorry. One moment." Another pause. Owen decided to avert his gaze to take some pressure off of Joule, however miniscule it might have been.

"We caught a hint of conflict in Soda's universe. By the time we had gotten there, it was already over. Soda had lost. That world's god had won. From what I understand, it was some kind of... divine conflict, where a usurper group was trying to overthrow Arceus, with Soda as their main leader, or at least their spearhead. Soda is a former human, and as you know, that makes him very powerful. It was very possible that he could have done it.

"He also had a mate... an Empoleon. A very kind, soft-spoken Pokemon, truly. But apparently they had disagreements... near the end of their lives. They were both getting older, and Soda wanted to keep living, as many mortals do. Unfortunately, Empoleon was not interested in... such matters. So, there was tension over Soda ascending, and his mate not. They'd fought quite a bit over that... I'm not sure how Soda felt about it. Remorseful after the fact, but at the time? I cannot be sure. All I know is that... Empoleon felt that the Zoroark she'd bonded with, and the Zoroark that had been killed, were two different Zoroark. They'd become estranged, yet things ended in a way that she would have preferred against. She wanted to pass on as a mortal should, while he wished to ascend and continue life in that world as a god. And in the end, he got neither... Truly, an awful situation all around...

"But we would not have recruited Soda onto our team had been been someone at-risk! I simply do not understand! He'd truly moved on!"

"Mm." Diyem sighed, his Shadows settling. "Regardless of his reasoning for all of this, we now know some context and possibilities for Soda's behavior. I would like to now move on to... you." Diyem turned, facing one of the video feeds. Lunala.

"Oh?" asked Giovanni. "What about me?"

"Tell me," Diyem said. "For a while, you believed that the Tree of Life of Cibus was the very same Tree of Life on Telum. Is that true?"

Giovanni smirked a little, like he was impressed. "You are correct. Everything was very similar. The prismatic leaves, the tropical island..."

"...And the Eternatus within."

Giovanni's smirk grew only a millimeter longer. "Yes. And the Eternatus within. I suppose it was a case of mistaken identity."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Gods, Brisa was out of her depth. She was running out of words. Out of room in her heart.

Beside her, Astrid was still out-cold, too run-through from her latest recordbreaking onslaught of light and power. Brisa felt like she had no idea what state Astrid would be in, after weeks of no contact, after resuming her explosive conduct... but she was another friend, wasn't she?

At least, Brisa was hers.

She put a paw to Astrid's flank, let it glow gold with a suppressed whiplash.

I could use a friend right now, Astrid. Wake up, won't ya?...

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave listened to Joule's account, shifting. "Soda said he wanted Arceus to offer his partner immortality too. And that Arceus said he only would if Soda defected against the organization. Made his partner a hostage."

What the fuck did they mean by it being the same Tree of Life.

 

[Fusion]

So... it would seem that Diyem wanted everyone to stay here. Vix immediately thought about simply phasing through the walls, but honestly the last thing she wanted was Diyem himself going after her. Dense as she was, there was this faint feeling that maybe Diyem would totally wipe the floor, walls, and ceiling with Vix, and buff everything afterward with a tattered rag to spruce up the place.

She went back to her Familiar and Shadow, silent, and listened to the others. Obviously, she was more inclined to believe was Dave was saying about Soda's situation, but left that as it was. It's not like she knew anything about it. "...I'm guessing the most important part about the two trees is the Eternatus trapped inside them? Otherwise, why bring up the similarity?"

 

[Ambyssin]

"Because he was one of the souls Maple swallowed up with the entirety of Telum," Bahamut said. "The same could be said of the others out of place. Sword, Shield, Red. I don't know why they were freed, but they're here." He flicked an upper wing dismissively. Anyone who looked at him could tell he wished he could reach through Chip's weird device and strangle Giovanni. How dare that bastard use such a form. Her form. "My best guess is that first eternatus was the power that drew that imbecile to Telum in the first place. And then he woke up here, intending to resume his operation when he found an energy source just as potent in blacklight power."

 

[Namohysip]

Diyem nodded. "Bahamut is correct... or at least, my theory is the same."

He faced the others.

"Maple... is a Voice of Life. Her life is tied to the world. When the world is destroyed, so, too, is she, meant to pass on with the last lives she was meant to protect. And yet, Telum was destroyed, but she lives. You searched for them on the astral plane, but they could not be found. The natural assumption would be that they are lost, somewhere far away that the Overseers themselves would struggle to find quickly. So, she lost hope in the Overseers' efforts to find Telum... and went rogue, saving worlds on her own. Is that correct?" He looked at Joule, who nodded solemnly.

"Yet the reason they could not find Maple was because the unbelievable was the case: Telum was not destroyed in any particular way. It was taken... by Maple herself. The Voice of Life claimed the very world she lived in, and took it with her, becoming a free-roaming entity of great power. That, Joule, is why I suspect you found her floating in the aether--that was all that remained once she took in her whole reality, and instead became it.

"Therefore, within Maple... is not only her powers as a Voice, and not just Joule's light... but all of Telum. For centuries, she wandered with you, saving other worlds to make up for the one she did not realize was within herself the whole time. Shield, Sword, Red, Giovanni, Silver... Perhaps by chance, or by their proximity to the Tree when it triggered all of this, or perhaps by their own strength of spirit, they had escaped Maple when she came to Cibus. But everyone else, every single soul of Telum, is still within Maple.

"That includes the Eternatus that Giovanni was chasing for his own gains... no doubt the reason he'd ended up on Telum to begin with..."

"You are not wrong," Giovanni said idly.

"...and the Dark Matter that was in the midst of its own plans."

"Wait..." Owen gasped. "So you mean... the reason this whole Blacklight thing started at all, is because--"

"Two great beings finally meeting," Diyem stated. "In a place as vast as the Overworld, two things of this nature ever colliding are infinitesimally likely. And yet, Maple and Eien are both ageless beings, both great wanderers, and ultimately, by chance--which, for ones like them, are more like inevitabilities--they met. The Eternatus within Telum was corrupted by Dark Matter. Eien herself has my essence within. They resonated. Maple's power briefly awakened... and it corrupted Joule, and then Eien.

"And that..." Diyem raised his head, looking at all their faces, "is why we are all here today."

 

[Ambyssin]

Bahamut scoffed. "In other words, this is all a goddamn freak accident."

A loud squelch and the shade had once again freed itself. "Not at all. Did you not hear him? The two lesser eternatus drawn together. It was a gesture of love crossing the omniverse." Yellow and orange ripples spread through its eyes. "Poetry in motion. To think someone as worthless as me would get to bear witness to something so remarkable."

"The only thing remarkable is how I haven't hurtled you into the sun yet."

 

[Namohysip]

Diyem nodded. "An accident that had to happen eventually," he stated. "When something has the tiniest chance of happening... but an unlimited amount of time... it is never a matter of if, but when." Diyem hummed, arms and wings crossed. "The answer, for us, was a few months ago."

 

[Fusion]

"The only thing remarkable is how I haven't hurtled you into the sun yet."

"If you don't, I'd be more than happy to," Vix groaned.

"So... if all this is because of Maple and Eien meetin'... how the hell do we fix it?" Scrafty asked. "Call me crazy, but this doesn't feel like a 'hit somethin' 'till it's dead' kinda problem."

 

[Ambyssin]

Diyem nodded. "An accident that had to happen eventually," he stated. "When something has the tiniest chance of happening... but an unlimited amount of time... it is never a matter of if, but when." Diyem hummed, arms and wings crossed. "The answer, for us, was a few months ago."

"Inevitability? Please." Bahamut snorted. "I don't care what sort of cosmic factors are at play. Nothing is truly inevitable. Otherwise, there would be no point to any of this, because this planet would inevitably be destroyed by something." Purple and red expanded in his eyes. "There's the tiniest chance it could happen... an an unlimited amount of time."

"You're wrong. Eternatus' love is inevitable," the shade chirped. "Be it Cibus, Telum, Etherium, or any of the countless worlds your allies hail from."

"So... if all this is because of Maple and Eien meetin'... how the hell do we fix it?"

"We don't," Bahamut flatly replied, ignoring the shade once again. "Not immediately, anyway. She needs to be stabilized before anyone can even think of trying anything."

 

[Fusion]

"To be fair, pessimist, everything comes to an end sooner or later. We're just not letting the blacklight do it now," Vix shrugged. "That way, the planet can explode or whatever naturally a few billion lifetimes down the line."

Puddle shrank, whimpering. "And you called him a pessimist..."

Scrafty rolled his eyes. "Obviously we ain't gonna get shit done right this second. I ain't delusional enough to think that. But if we're gonna get rid of this blacklight shit at all, how the hell are we gonna do it?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Inevitability? Please." Bahamut snorted. "I don't care what sort of cosmic factors are at play. Nothing is truly inevitable. . . . "

Owen tilted his head, glancing at Bahamut. "That's... oddly hopeful of you," he remarked, smiling a little. "But I think Bahamut is right. We could still find ways to prevent even that smallest chance, and make it zero. Then it can't happen."

Diyem rolled his eyes, not entertaining it. "The point is, that chance was never turned to zero. Enough time passed for it to eventually happen, and now we must deal with the aftermath. Normally, planets are destroyed by nearby stars. Bahamut has a lot of experience with that sort of thing. Granted, a god could relocate their planet, should its time not be favorable..." He hummed, brow furrowed. "Mrm... but for Maple. She is a unique case... but it is that very uniqueness that will help us."

"Oh? you have a plan?" Silver said, idly stroking Typhlosion's fur. "And here I thought you were about to say to pack it in and leave them sealed forever."

"After my talk of inevitabilities?" Diyem snorted. "No. They will break out. Perhaps in a matter of years, even if we diligently maintained the Tree. No. We have to stabilize Maple and Eien to truly stop this crisis from happening again."

"Stabilize," Joule said. "Yes. Stabilize. That does not mean... kill, yes?"

"...It will not be the first course of action," Diyem replied. "Joule, we are in the same situation. These are our mates we are talking about. And this is Team Spectrum we are cooperating with. I highly doubt killing is on their minds as the first thing to try."

"Mostly because they're both pretty hard to kill," Cal quipped.

"Not helping, Cal," Owen mumbled.

 

[Negrek]

"Okay, okay. Back it up a second," Nate said. "So supposedly Maple has an entire fucking universe stuck inside her, including, like, another fucking Tree of Life, another Dark Matter, whatever. Let's go back to how in the fuck nobody managed to fucking notice, over, what, like thousands of fucking years? Yeah, whatever, she never met another Eternatus in a tree, but how was all that shit locked down so tight that nobody realized there was all that nonsense going on in her? Including her? That's the part I ain't getting. And I mean, like, people definitely scanned her shit, ain't like nobody checked."

 

[Fusion]

"Basically we're gonna have to get the corruption out of them, one way or another... which probably means we're going to fight them both," Vix sighed. That was pretty much exactly what she signed up for it seemed. One fight after the next, and honestly, they were getting tiresome. Whoever lied and said being a hero wasn't all fighting, deserved a swift quick in the everything. "Wonder how we're gonna handle fighting a world with anger issues and Diyem's one true love."

"All I wanna know is why and how the fuck Joule and Diyem, short as they are, managed to date literal fuckin' giants..." Scrafty wondered, louder than he thought he was. He didn't seem to care if anyone heard, however.

 

[Ambyssin]

“The eternatus she swallowed likely took care of that,” Bahamut growled at Nate. “No one aside from Diyem could sense its aura. It neutralized everything inside Maple.”

 

[Negrek]

"That shoulda had other effects people'd have noticed, though, right? Like people not being able to read her mind and shit, same's happened with Shield and them when they had Gio, uh, Mewtwo's distortion devices on them."

 

[Ambyssin]

"The only being I know that can absorb entire planets is mindless, so I do not have a proper answer for that," Bahamut responded. "But I imagine the fact that she literally took in the planet rather than carrying some sort of device on her person factored in." He paused. "Not that it matters. This line of questioning isn't going to change anything. But if you want to berate a grief-stricken mate for not doing anything about someone he didn't know about, go right ahead." Bahamut gestured to Joule.

If nothing else, he could at least see how far a mudkip could fly when swatted by a necrozma tail.

 

[Negrek]

"Nah, that sounds more like your bag. I'm asking because this shit seems fishy to me, and if there's even more wild shit going on here, I'd kind of like to know about it."

 

[Fusion]

"And being bitchy and short tempered about it is definitely gonna bring you the answers you want, lil guy," Vix sighed, rolling her eyes. "We all heard you the first time, but with your stature I'm not surprised you thought we didn't."

Puddle was about to go off on Vix about the height shaming, but decided to be the bigger 'mon and simply punched her in the back. It was like a wet napkin splatting against glass, but it was something.