Spirits' Edge

[Namohysip]

"Eh, they like being dramatic." Soda shrugged and gestured behind him. "I'm busy gathering up my power and waiting on you guys to patch up Maple and all the other issues I kinda left for you guys. How's it going down there?" It seemed almost apologetic, like he was sorry for the mess.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave stared at Soda for a moment. He sounded jarringly normal, for somebody whose brain was a fucking glass shard spiderweb surrounded by fucking Unown on the goddamn Moon.

"We're... fine." God, what the fuck. He hesitated for a long moment. "Is it just you and the Unown up there? How'd you get them on board with you?"

 

[Namohysip]

"My overwhelming charisma," Soda replied with a toothy grin, hands on his hips. "And I guess they just listen to divine power. Probably an instinct thing. One or the other. It's probably the first more than the second."

 

[Dragonfree]

His charisma. Sure.

He tried to wet his drying mouth. "So the other day a few of us were trying to approach the moon, see what was going on. Deoxys, Vix, some familiars. They got shot down by some kind of Blacklight cannonblast. Was that you? Or the Unown? Or somebody else?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Oh, that was me. Warning shot. It shouldn't have been lethal to anybody I spotted on the way." He wiped his nose. "I mean, it might've killed a Spectrum person or two, but you know, you guys kinda spit on death and call it a bitch."

Buffet seemed to be growing uncomfortable again. But he didn't want to speak out of turn, or at all, in front of someone who could do so much damage...

"So, c'mon. Spill. How come you're here?" Soda asked, taking a seat on a couch of stars that he'd conjured from thin air. "Here to tell me to think about what I'm doing, reconsider, search my feelings, greater good, all that crap?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave's gut clenched. A fucking warning shot, indeed. "Well, Deoxys got pretty good and vaporized too. He's not dead but he's reduced to a fucking orb. Doesn't seem easy to bring him back. Unless you know a better way."

 

[Namohysip]

"Deoxys, huh?" Soda tapped his chin. "Lots of sunlight if you want to go the slow way. Or give him a host body, usually something powerful. Karat offering? I feel like he wouldn't mind sharing a body for a few years. And he's got the chops to survive the process, easy."

 

[Dragonfree]

And what, that was it? No remorse or even hesitation, just tips?

Dave kept his gaze on Soda, wary. "I came here to check on you," he said after a second. "We're pretty sure Giovanni's Mewtwo is a lot stronger than he seemed. He planted some kind of mind-control parasite in Owen that we managed to disable. Who knows what the fuck else he could have done. You know anything about that? I heard at Destiny Tower you said you knew what made him tick."

 

[Namohysip]

"Made him tick, huh..." Soda hummed and leaned back ."Aaah, that's all boring stuff. D'you really think it matters anymore? I already won. I beat that Mewtwo guy to the punch. He tried to race me by splitting himself up but I'm the Substitute master here. Sure, I'm a little weaker, but nothing compared to him."

"Mewtwo... split himself up?"

"Well, bits of his spirit, sure." Soda furrowed his brow. "Well, not quite. I don't think his spirit's in control. But that thing that took hold of him? Definitely got split up too much. No clue why. Oh well. He lost anyway."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave's ears perked. So Soda knew someone else was behind the Mewtwo, someone who wasn't Giovanni. Someone who used Substitutes too, or at least split up into multiple beings.

"See, I don't think that's fucking boring. If he's split up and has brain parasites at large in people, he's still pretty relevant, even if you beat him here. You know how fucked we would have been if Owen'd suddenly turned on us in the middle of handling Maple? He just turned fucking gigantic, too. If you want us to sort things out down on Cibus, leaving us in the dark about what's going on isn't going to help."

 

[Namohysip]

"Aww, c'mon, it would've been great," Soda said with another toothy grin. "Besides, nothing I coulda done about that, and if I told you, he probably woulda gone--hey, wait a sec, how'd you find out about that, anyway?" He leaned forward with interest. "He already snap?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave hesitated a moment. "No. He'd been acting a bit weird, then we took a psychic trip into his mind to unlock that memory block on him and help him kill the thing." He kept a wary eye on Soda, for how he reacted. Would he admit it'd been him? Should he actually press him if he didn't? "If you told us he would've gone what?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Who knows, I dunno. Just seemed like I had some excess power and slapped that onto him for safekeeping. Maybe he woulda gone big and you would've had to figure out how to take'm down. But hey, you know his fighting style inside and out, so I bet it woulda worked out alright."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave narrowed his eyes at him. "What do you mean, seemed like?" Green had mentioned his mind was fuzzy on this too, but he hadn't described slapping power onto Owen for safekeeping at all - just wiping his memory. Did Prime remember shit Green didn't, or was one of them lying?

 

[Namohysip]

"Hey, hey, what's the serious face for, eh?" Soda made an open shrug, like Dave was clearly thinking too much into things. "Sometimes I do things on a whim! It's no big deal. Hey, so what else are you here for, anyway? Wanna join up? Come with me and you can help out a little."

 

[Dragonfree]

Still didn't want to think very hard about the bits he didn't remember, huh. Dave wanted burningly to get him to confront all the glaring holes in his memory and motivations, but on the other hand Soda Prime had the power to fucking level Destiny Village with his moon cannon, and was so hopped up on corruption that he didn't even care who got hurt. Goddamn it.

He swallowed. "Help out with what?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Grabbing the world, duh!" Soda said with another toothy grin. "C'mon, once everything's all set, all I need to do is go down there and claim Cibus and boom, reality won! After that I can uhh... What was I doing again? Oh, right, my mate and my old world and stuff, yeah. That." Soda nodded. "Seems like a good plan. I can take it easy for now, at least. So, what do you say? Right-hand-man? Two humans who became Dark-types that are just sick of all this shit, c'mooon we're perfect!"

 

[Dragonfree]

Oh, right, my mate and my old world and stuff, yeah. That.

A deep chill went through Dave. This wasn't fucking Soda anymore. How would Yellow react if he were here, after he'd attacked him just for saying her name like it doesn't matter? Fuck. Fuck.

He inhaled sharply through his nose. "What exactly is it you want me to do to help you?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I dunno. You tell me. Maybe we can just hang out, stare at Cibus from far away, y'know, stuff like that. I mean, you won't have a body, since this'll just be through here, but hey! I'll make sure you can float around and watch with me. No biggie." Soda held out a hand.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave stared at him, and at his outstretched hand, a tightness in his chest. What the fuck. What the fuck.

"Soda, there's... there's another thing I wanted to ask you," he said, and couldn't keep his voice from wavering. "I talked to your Substitute, the one who's keeping an eye on Flesh. He said you'd been planning to absorb Cola for your plan before they split off you. And then you didn't. You saved him. Remember why you did that?" At this point, would he remember? Would it even stir anything at all if he did? Would he just regret it, figure oh, he should've drunk the kid up like a fucking milkshake?