Stars of Change Pt. IV

Tamara couldn't--and almost didn't--want to believe what she had just heard.

"Why would you do that...?" she asked weakly, but he placed a hand on her lips to silence her.

"You remind me of the family that I was taken from, and I want to help you, Tamara.  I want to join your Resistance and fight against Death-bringer... if your comrades will take me." Aleksandr said, frowning slightly as he assessed how much time he had left.  Thirty seconds.  He would have to do a condensed information dump right now.

"Listen," he said, "as we are of the same primary type, we'll be housed together.  I know every tunnel in and out of the compound, and I know of one that will put you in the last place that she would think to look for her new pets: high up on Star Mount, where the great legends are rumored to live.  From there, we will go to my hometown."

"But wouldn't she suspect that of you?" Tamara asked.

"Not anymore.  You will be her main pet now, and she'll hardly care about me.  I think she means to make us mate and have children to make an army for her... which I will not do.  I will not be made a breeding mill to feed her freak project." Aleksandr said, quickly exiting the room as Orion Lotus walked in.  She laughed as she saw the Dawn- and Everstone pendant that she had given to Aleksandr, shaking her head as she looked at the Gardevoir before snapping her fingers and summoning a series of restraints.

"You're quite the strong Gardevoir, General Mironov.  I was quite impressed while I watched you fight before I sent Kirlour after you.  He is also quite taken with you, but when I took him, he was defending a whole slew of female Pokémon from your Ralts family.  He is about your age and seeking a mate, as is customary for your species." Lotus spat, pulling out vials of DNA and examining them.

"Let's see here... Froslass, Froslass... ah, there's the Froslass vial..." she said, and Tamara felt herself seize up as she heard this.  Lotus took a syringe and injected it into the Gardevoir's arm before she left the room quickly, calling out everything else over her shoulder.

"What a delight to have the Resistance's best and most famous general as one of my own fighters... this is a wondrous day indeed for us all.  You may feel some slight pain as the fusion begins to embed itself in you, but the pain will not last for very long.  I am certain that your powers will put the Resistance in their places."  Even as Tamara heard this and she tried her best to spit at the High Commander, she felt a searing pain rack her body.  She screamed out with agony, and not even the soothing, assuring voice that was reaching her through telepathy.

Calm, Tamara; calm.  The fusion will not last all that much longer.  It will all be over soon... and then, I can further explain to you the details of our escape.  It will not be easy, for I have just been informed that her guard on our sector has been tripled, and that teleporting will be useless, she heard Aleksandr say, and she allowed allowed herself to still ever so slightly.  However, the pain that she was feeling was rather intense nonetheless.

Let it come...don't fight it; you'll regret it. Aleksandr said quietly.

A-are you certain? the Gardevoir asked, her eyes screwed shut as she tried to fight the chilling sensation that was taking her body.

Yes.  She is fusing you with a high-level Froslass that knows powerful moves.  She did the same with me, except with a Houndour.  It will be over in a few seconds...

Even as Aleksandr said this, Tamara could feel the pain subsiding in her, but she could not get rid of the chilling feeling that was now running through her body.  It was becoming consistently colder, it seemed, but at the same time, she did not mind it all that much.  Her senses were a little bit frazzled when she heard Orion Lotus speak.

"And there she is--Gardelass.  Psychic, Ghost, and Ice all fused together--a perfect partner for Kirlour; Psychic, Dark, and Fire.  Normally, she would be at a disadvantage, but working together... a perfect combination.  Now... Gardelass!" Lotus said, and Tamara looked up slightly.  The name sounded foreign, but that was not what caused her to scream.

It was the sleeves on her arms and the red bow-like thing that was around her waist.

"What the hell did you do to me, Lotus?!"

"I made you more powerful, Gardelass.  Now, go with Kirlour--he will show you to your new home while you are here.  You will begin training tomorrow morning, so get rested up."

Gardelass had to resist the temptation to launch a powerful Blizzard on the observation window.

As a general, she knew that launching an attack at her commander would be a fruitless waste of energy and time.  It would likely only result in her being placed in solitary confinement, and she did not like to be in solitary, even though that was how she was normally.  No... not after meeting that Aleksandr.  She smiled to herself as she uneasily walked out of the room, her new sleeves looking the slightest bit odd to both her and her new companion.

"General Mironov?"

Tamara looked down at the Kirlour, her eyes sympathetic as she shook her head.

"Tamara.  Call me Tamara," she said.  "Without my cloak and insignia, I cannot prove that I am General Mironov anymore.  No, I am the same as you; a freak of nature that should not exist, and yet we do.  Even my own commander would not recognize me.  I cannot go back there now; at least, not yet.  I do hope you know of a place where we could go, Aleksandr."

"Yes," he said, "but we can first go to our sector of the facility to better discuss it."

~**~

It took them a few minutes to get to their sector of the compound, mostly because Tamara kept falling to the ground because she was not used to Froslass' liking for subzero temperatures, but also because their sector was at the other end of the three-acre compound.  When they did get there, though, Tamara could not help but notice that there was a section set aside with two beds and plush carpet, while the rest was like the rest of the compound: cold and unfeeling.

"She must really want us to like her," she said in a low voice.

"She does," Aleksandr said.  "She knows that we can destroy her."

Tamara frowned as Aleksandr held out her pendant.  Both stones were still intact, much to her relief.  An uncomfortable silence settled over them, though, until Aleksandr spoke again.

"In my home... one female Gardevoir was chosen as our queen and protector.  She was given two pendants; one an Everstone, the other a Dawn Stone.  However, when she was just a Ralts, she was kidnapped.  Soon thereafter, her mother went searching after her, and she never returned.  It was ages before anyone heard anything about the whereabouts of Katya Sokolov or her missing daughter." Here, Aleksandr paused as he looked down at the pendants again.

"How did you come by those?"

"My ad--my father gave them to me--" she began to say, but he cut her off.

"Adopted father.  You were adopted?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Aye.  I was kidnapped, but the Commander of the Resistance at the time took me in.  He gave me the name I have now, and said that... that my mother had left these pendants for me.  He also said that I would know what to do with them... should the situation arise." Tamara said quietly.  "I only knew about my mother's disappearance because she was able to link with me as it was happening.  She told me what I needed to know then, and that is that my name is not Mironov, like I was raised."

"You mean...!"

Aleksandr could barely believe what he was hearing.  So... Katya was the Gardevoir that had been fused with the Suicune, which could only mean...

"...you're... you're Katya's daughter... you are the Queen of Darolia... the rightful queen," he said, suddenly standing up.  "Tamara Sokolov... Darolia thought you to be dead."

"Rightful queen?" Tamara asked, watching Aleksandr's face.

"Yes," he said.  "Your father took another mate after Katya's disappearance and they had a daughter, who thinks that she should be Queen, even if you and Katya are alive."