Entry for The Domain's Writing Challenge: Five-Three-July-August-September '09, Baby! writing challenge, under the rules and regulations as set forth by Demoiselle Kyota (Kyotapants!).
...seriously, that's a long effin' title.
Prompt: "Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin." Roughly translated, it means "Straight ahead, one cannot go very far."
:D
I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own the Team Galactic members. That happy privilege belongs to Satoshi Tajiri, GameFreak, Nintendo and Creatures, Ltd. This is a conceptual look into a proposed and supposed relationship; I own this plot.
It got to the point sometimes where they just needed that physical contact, and in those times they'd turn to each other.
Jupiter would pass Saturn in the hallway, her blood-red eyes lingering on his deep, ocean blue eyes for a long moment, before they would turn and continue along their own missives like nothing had previously occurred. This was their unspoken signal that they needed the release. They'd meet at a predetermined place: sometimes a hotel, sometimes a Pokémon Center (both coming independently and using Trainer status); one memorable occasion they did it on their boss's desk while he was off on a research project.
It wasn't pretty; their love. It was more like a mutual agreement that the two Commanders used each other for sex. That they used each other for the times when they absolutely needed to touch someone; absolutely needed that assurance they were still human, still alive. Their boss would normally discourage this closeness. His overbearing mission was that nothing came first; nothing but his vision. Nothing was more important than the feeble and fickle fame that he was pursuing. And the unspoken rule of his vision was that they would all perish; relationships garnered would be meaningless.
Jupiter understood this in her heart when she would signal Saturn for their meetings. Saturn didn't know the true extent of the mission. But it was terrifying. And Jupiter would shudder in the night and wish she had someone to hold.
She would signal him, and they would go and do it and come back pretending nothing had happened until the cycle began again. This is how it worked. This is what she wanted. This is what he wanted.
This is what their boss wanted.
When they finally needed the release, both Commanders would relax their public personae. It was as if they only trusted the other to keep the knowledge of what they truly were. Saturn, normally so demure and poised, became aggressive. Jupiter, normally cold and distant, became passionate.
He would nip and tear at her flesh, biting, sucking, forceful. He never hit her. That would be too obvious. He left his mark on her in other ways by showing his rough caress. She was just as belligerent, but while she was forced to remain aloof and calculating, around Saturn she would scream and tear at the sheets and fling her loping limbs around, breaking her carefully built visage. Her hair would cascade around them in waves; the dark purple tresses permanently creased from her austere bun. He would nibble and chew on it as he thrust into her. When they finished, invariably they'd talk about their lives beforehand, Jupiter might smoke and lie back, contented, and Saturn would perch on the end of the bed, eyes closed and just breathe her scent, her musk.
Jupiter was a tall woman. She once modeled for a fashion institute in Johto, plump breasts and shapely legs lending well to that chosen profession. Saturn, by contrast, was thin; reedy. He had taught Pokémon Mythology at the University of Hoenn, coolly aristocratic by nature from an overly ambitious and political father. Jupiter had put on a little bit of weight since leaving the fashion institute; this only accentuated her beauty. Saturn told her often that the stick-thin models weren't true representations of humanity. She nodded and then promptly purged when she was out of his sight. Both of them shared Sinnoh's pale skin; Saturn was a bit darker from the times spent in Hoenn, but Jupiter retained her pale, otherworldly creamy skin.
One day was finally different from all the other times they had been together. The two had finished a bout of sex and were currently lounging on the hotel room's bed, Jupiter petting her hair and Saturn lying bonelessly beside her.
"So, what does this make us?" she finally asked. Her voice was soft, already back in the speech habits of her image. "We've been doing this for so long…Cyrus is getting close to his goal. I wonder sometimes."
He finally turned over to her. "I'm not sure," he replied. His voice was a bit scratchy, especially after this particular activity. "He's going to build us a new world. Perhaps then we can be more, more than what we are. It would be nice, I think."
Jupiter smiled a small sad smile. "But what are we now, Saturn? Are we fuckbuddies? Best friends? Lovers? What are we?"
Saturn frowned, the corners of his mouth twitching downwards in obvious disapproval of the terms. He would flick his eyes up and down on the ground, looking for something that would stave off the conversation.
"We're something more than that, I think. Somewhere between friends and lovers, but not fuckbuddies. That's a cruel word for a cruel term. It's more than that. We're in limbo, I think."
Jupiter sat up on her elbows. "Is it, Saturn? Limbo?"
Her voice was sultry and soft as she leaned forward, her lips inches away from his. "Limbo, limbo…"
He smiled at their private joke from the one time they'd done it on their boss's desk while he was away on a research trip, and then kissed the much taller woman sloppily.
"No, Jupiter," he replied throatily, "this is more than that. You mean more to me than that."
He finally sighed, looking back at the scratchy pillows and the TV talking softly and the sun peeking from behind the window. The hotel's wallpaper was a garish light pink with cream stripes; Saturn imagined it as a jail cell, binding him into this pointless cycle of sex and general human primacy. He murmured that he'd hate to be trapped in this place and Jupiter sighed and rolled over, splaying herself on top and around him. She sleepily muttered that was what their boss had in mind and they drifted off to sleep.
Later, Saturn stood at the window in a tall office building atop a large cliff. It faced the shelf that led to the Veilstone Cliffs, renowned for their sheer vertical drop and bracingly cold water. The window stretched around to reveal a breathtaking view of Mount Coronet; the west of Veilstone City.
It was a strange moniker to give a mountain range. It was not just one mountain, but a string of them, so tall they divided Sinnoh in half. Mount Coronet was topped, predictably, by Mt. Coronet, the tallest mountain in the chain that was exactly in the middle of the continent. Always shrouded in clouds, Mt. Coronet was rumored to contain the Spear Pillar, the gateway to another dimension housing the legendary Pokémon of Time, Space and Antimatter. That's where his boss was now, with her, and the other Commander, Mars, waiting to realize this dream.
Saturn stood calmly, hands clasped aristocratically behind his back in the room with the panoramic view. It was his boss's office-former boss's office, he corrected himself. It was his office now. Cyrus' true missive was revealed.
He heard a sound behind him, but the blue-haired man disregarded it. In front, atop Mt. Coronet, the sky was lit in a brilliant swirl of colors. He couldn't hear any sound at the end of the world; in fact, it was creepily silent. It was just as well, Saturn decided, he didn't want to think of hearing Jupiter's voice as this world was destroyed and the next world, one without spirit and emotion, was created.
"It makes it a moot point, doesn't it, Saturn?"
Saturn did not take his eyes away from the window or the kaleidoscope of colors in front of him that were steadily engulfing the sky.
"She's going to die. You're going to die. And even if the two of you had survived, it would be a lonely world without love."
Saturn flicked his eyes, regarding the stooped shoulders of the remaining Commander, Charon. The pale-haired scientist stunk of chemicals and the raspy tang of ozone. When Charon entered a room, it was immediate; Saturn's disgust welled in his throat, carefully controlled. The taller man returned his eyes to the sky.
"Heh, heh, heh," Charon laughed in a coughing manner, "you loved her, didn't you? We could all see it. That's what makes you weak. That's why he didn't take you to the Spear Pillar with him."
Saturn was silent; the words struck a nerve. His only reaction was a single bead of sweat that rolled down his forehead. He inhaled deeply, trying to rid himself mentally of Charon's smell.
"Weak…you're weak. I'm strong. I'm taking over, to give Team Galactic another option; one befitting the genius of Charon!"
Saturn rolled his eyes. "Our Boss doesn't need your kind of moral support."
Charon's eyes grew hard. "I will do what is necessary! I will lead us to take in more money, more recognition for who we truly are, and quit wasting time on this ludicrous vision! It will be a grand thing, what I bring to Team Galactic. My vision is perfect!"
Saturn remained still as Charon wheezed heavily through his teeth. The spiral swirling of colors grew larger, engulfing the entire part of the sky that they could see. Mount Coronet began to literally bend and sway under the strain of two dimensions colliding, distant rumblings echoing throughout the region and coming to rest on the ocean. Saturn felt the plush floor groan and vibrate under his feet.
"One ludicrous vision to the next," Saturn replied, crossing his arms behind his back, "and it's all just pointless, really."
"It is not!" Charon roared, banging one hand down on Saturn's desk. The desk vibrated threateningly with the mountain's strain, and Saturn almost had to brace himself against it. The building, designed by Cyrus himself, would withstand even the harshest earthquakes that Sinnoh could throw at it, but now it threatened to wobble to the ground. Whatever Cyrus did to anger the gods, to make his image of a perfect world, it was dangerous. Dangerous to assume that his vision alone could provide satisfaction, dangerous to think that his vision was correct.
Jupiter must have been attracted to the dangerous. That must be why she was at the top of the mountain, witnessing firsthand as the world perished in ruins, and Saturn was at the bottom, looking up and wondering why.
"I will grow Team Galactic to the most powerful organization in the world! My leadership alone!" Charon roared at Saturn and the otherwise empty room.
Saturn crossed his arms behind his back, primly, diplomatically, and replied, "Straight ahead, one cannot go very far. Your vision will fail. If the Boss comes to fruition, the world will perish. You will fail."
Charon shook his fist angrily at the taller man standing by the window, gazing a blaze of color. "You'll see!" he replied, biting off his words, and left the room.
Saturn felt only one tiny droplet roll down his cheek as he continued to watch the swirling mass of light and color. Utterly silent, he swiped one hand across his brow, ridding himself of the tear.