(1700 words)
Chapter 9
Xatu


"Thoooorn~ Wake uuuup~"

Thorn groans under the covers.

"Come on, I've got a special surprise for you! Two, actually."

"Ugh, what?" Thorn pokes their head out from the covers, and finds their face right in front of a plate of pie. It smells like... oranges!

"Mom and I baked an orange pie together! It's your favorite, right?"

Thorn stares at the plate. "Yeah."

"Well, go on! Try some!" Compass sets the plate down by Thorn's bed.

"Nah." Thorn gets up and rummages around for an apple in their helmet.

"But I... Thorn, this is ridiculous! Sharing resources is important on a team!"

"Yeah? I gave you an oran berry yesterday after that fight."

"But when I offered you one the day before, I had to persuade you to take it! Why won't you accept food from me?"

"I just like to know where my food comes from."

"First of all, you eat apples off the ground. Second, it came from my kitchen! You... you trust me, don't you?"

Thorn shrugs. "I trust you about as far as I can throw you."

Compass's heart breaks. "B-but we've-"

"But like, I'm pretty strong, and you're pretty light. And I've got this Power Band. Could probably throw you a few meters."

"... Oh. That's... comforting? But we're a team, we need to trust each other further than just a few meters."

"So I should start doing push-ups?"

"So we should do Trust Falls!" Compass drags Thorn to the center of the room. "I'm gonna turn around, close my eyes, and fall backward. And you're gonna catch me!"

"Or I could just let you fall and laugh at your suffering."

"Yes, you could. But I trust that you won't. Ready?"

"Sure."

"Okay. 3... 2... 1..." Compass falls backward. "Catch me!"

Thorn catches Compass.

"See? Easy!"

"What did that accomplish? Didn't you trust me already?"

"I did in my head, but sometimes the heart needs proof. Now I truly believe that if I'm in trouble, you'll be there to help me... Okay now your turn!"

"No." Thorn resumes eating their apple.

"Come on, please! We need to trust each other to work properly as a team!"

"I told you before, the day I put my safety in someone else's hands is the day the sky falls. Do you want the sky to fall?"

"No, I want YOU to fall! So I can catch you!"

"No."

Compass sighs. "Well, I at least have one more surprise for you. Check THIS out!" Compass pulls a job request from their bag and presents it to Thorn.

Thorn looks at the job, then back to Compass.

"Right, can't read, sorry. It's an item retrieval request for someone's missing necklace, and they lost it in Great Canyon!"

"Oh neat, we're finally doing that."

"You're not excited?"

"Funnily enough, no, I'm not looking forward to over 4 hours of walking. But hey, it's my only lead, so I've gotta do it at some point."



"... Are we there yet..?" Thorn asks, after 2 hours of walking.

Compass looks ahead to the entrance of a massive canyon. "Yeah... I think so..."

"Good..." Thorn drops down to sit on the ground, inhaling a deep breath... "God damn shit piss hell dick bastard!! Why haven't we invented teleporting yet!?!?"

Compass sighs, sitting down beside Thorn. "Can you please find a way besides swearing to express strong emotions?"

"I'll say whatever I god damn please! How do you even know what swear words are, no one here even says any... Hey wait, actually how DO you know what swear words are? Not even wild pokemon say them, or Team Meanies."

"I guess that's something they do better than you."

"Hey, you're dodging the question, how do you know about swear words? Do they, like, have a forbidden list of swears that they show you, and make you promise to never say?" Thorn gasps. "Does the list have swears that I don't know?!"

Compass rolls their eyes and stands up. "Let's just get moving."

"Hey! You can't hide this from me Compass!" Thorn stands and chases Compass. "I demand answers! Teach me the secret swears!"

"HALT!" A pair of voices shout from the clifftops. A honchkrow and a noctowl swoop down and block the team's path.

"We are the gatekeepers of Great Canyon," Honchkrow says.

"State your purpose, and we will decide whether to grant you entry," Noctowl says.

Compass steps forward. "Gatekeepers! We seek an audience with the one called Xatu!"

Honchkrow drops their face into their wing. "I swear to Rayquaza not this again..."

"Yeah, no," Noctowl says, "not happening. Leave."

"B-but my friend has a serious condition, and we need Xatu's knowledge to-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Honchkrow says. "Unless it's life-threatening, we don't care."

"... What if it is?"

"It's not." Noctowl says.

"No, yeah, it's not."

Honchkrow groans. "Sheesh, can't anyone have a different reason for coming here? Any other reason, just once."

"We're also looking for someone's lost necklace," Thorn says.

"Finally! I mean-" Honchkrow clears their throat. "You have come here with the goal of helping another."

"We judge you worthy of entry," Noctowl says, and the gatekeepers step aside.

"Say," Thorn says, "wouldn't you have stopped the person coming in here? How'd they lose the necklace in here?"

"Oh!" Compass pulls out the job request. "The client is a pidgey. They probably flew in."

Honchkrow groans. "Yeah, that figures; it's pretty hard to gatekeep fellow birds. Hey, does it say what they were doing in there?"

"Yeah, it says they were... um... visiting Xatu..."

... The gatekeepers sigh.

"While we're on the topic," Thorn says, "does Xatu actually see the future?"

"No," Noctowl says.

"Are you just saying that so that people stop coming?"

"Yes."

"You have no idea do you?"

"None at all."



Thorn smashes their fist into the breloom's stomach, and they stumble backward. "Had enough yet?"

"Okay, okay, fine, you can look for your stupid necklace!" The breloom and skiploom limp away to recover, letting the team pass.

"Ugh, why are there so many grass-types in a canyon!"

"That's why you have me!" Compass says.

"You'd be a lot more helpful if you'd stop holding back your fire."

"Small embers are enough to end the fight, we don't need to injure anyone."

"I might just injure someone anyway if we don't find either the necklace or that fortune teller soon."

"You shouldn't- Oh! Shiny object straight ahead!" The team runs up the hill, and finds a necklace on the ground, shining in the sunlight. "Nice! Now we just need to find Xatu and-"

"Is that Xatu?" Thorn points to a tall bird standing at the edge of a cliff, staring into the sun.

"Probably! Excuse me, Mr. Xatu!" Compass approaches the bird. "I'm sorry, would you happen to be Xatu? We heard you've very knowledgeable, and... um... hello?"

The bird stands perfectly still, their gaze not leaving the sun, their eyes unblinking.

Compass steps into the bird's field of vision. "Excuse me? Can you hear me?"

The bird doesn't react.

"Excuse me, if you can hear me, can you please-"

*BONK*

The bird doesn't react.

"T-THORN!! What are you doing?!"

"What? It's rude to ignore people. Besides, this is obviously just a statue put up as a prank, to waste people's time."

"That's... probably true. But what if it WAS an actual person? You would've really-"

"OW!" The bird suddenly clutches their head in pain.

Team Rose yelps in surprise. "I-it's alive?!" Thorn says.

"M-M-Mr. Xatu, we're so sorry, we didn't mean to-"

"Kwaaaaaaaaah!" The bird spreads their wings and shouts, still facing the cliff. "Witness it... The sinking of the sun..." They turn to face the team. "Indeed. I am Xatu." He looks to Thorn. "You attacked without fear or hesitation... And you," he looks to Compass, "discerned my true identity... You are not an ordinary sort..."

"I was just following the description Alakazam gave, we aren't that special..."

"... No. I can tell this. You there." Xatu turns to Thorn. "You are no ordinary pokemon. Your form... is not your own, yes?"

"How... How did you know that?"

"All day... I stare at the sun unblinking. It gives me sight for all things. The past and the future, too."

"So it's true!" Compass says. "You really can see the future! My friend here woke up one day with no memory of their past. Please, tell us, what happened to cause Cubone's condition? And how can they recover their body and memories?"

"...... The calamities of nature. There have been many in recent times. They occur because the world's balance is upset. And your transformation... They are tied together. Inseparably so."

"Wait, so the world's upset balance caused my transformation?" Thorn asks. "How? And how do I get my memories back?"

Xatu falls silent, standing still as a statue.

"... Answer me, damn it! You can't just drop that on me and then go silent!"

"There are bigger concerns... I am afraid... The world's balance... It must be restored. Or the unthinkable shall befall our world. Every day I see it... The same future every day. I dread it... I fear it..." Xatu shivers. "The world's destruction."

"The world's destruction!?!" Compass gasps. "But, how can the world's balance be restored? What's causing it to be upset?"

Xatu turns back to the cliff. "...... I do not know."



"Thank you so much for getting my neckalce back!" The pidgey says, putting it on and embracing Thorn with their wings.

Thorn is furious, but the hug soothes them, like smothering a fire with a blanket. "Yeah, yeah, just hand over the reward."

"R-right, sorry."

"Don't worry about Cubone," Compass says. "They can be pretty rude sometimes. We're just happy to help!"

"Oh, thank you so much!" Pidgey embraces Compass, provoking a small 'eep' in surprise. Pidgey flies off, leaving the team with the 150 coin reward.

Thorn sighs. "Today was a complete waste."

"What do you mean? We learned that your condition is-"

"Tied to 'The World's Balance™', yeah, very helpful. What even is that? For all we know, Xatu could've just read my mind like Alakazam did and made up a story to freak us out."

"I don't think that's likely... But either way, now we have a lead to ask about! If someone knows something about the world's balance, then we can find more clues! And besides, we should report this to Leader Beacon and get the word out; this is bigger than just your condition now."




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