Love in the Time of Tribulations

Chapter 14: A Key

Here we are with another chapter! Once again I need to note that the review synching has broken down again, so if you have a long review (or think that it might get truncated) either PM me it or save a copy of it. If I don't respond to your review, it simply means I didn't get an e-mail for and must wait for the system to fix itself! But enough; time for Chapter 14!

Chapter 14

A Key

"A key." Ash looked quizzically at his father as the man held up his necklace. On it, Ash could see the flute which he had used to call Latias to his side, along with the locket from earlier. Next to it was a small fragment, like a shard of something, rusted and old. "Well, to be more accurate, they're pieces of a key."

"Why are they in pieces?" Sawyer asked. He appeared to have taken out his usual notebook and was moving closer to observe the shard on Jack's necklace.

"Because the key was to a weapon far too powerful to use," Jack answered. "In my spare time, since the war with DARC began, we've been looking for these fragments."

"Why not just look for the weapon?" Miette asked, seating herself down on the grass. Up above the cliffs and the waterfalls, the sky was beginning to lighten, signaling the coming of the sun. Ash was surprised they had managed to go all night...well, with a few naps and a break for a snack that Miette had tucked away.

"We have," Jack told her with a nod of his head. "But so has DARC. Honestly, I don't want the Weapon found. That kind of knowledge and information is far too deadly and dangerous to have. The ways it could be used is terrifying...That's why I had to convince Dalton not to use it."

"You knew Dalton?" Ash asked. That almost shocked him as much as anything else. Even Pikachu was blinking furiously at the revelation.

"Not really, but spend enough time in the 'underworld' as Travis called it, and you learn a few things. How else do you think we'd be able to secure ancient artifacts or collect those keys over the years?" Jack said with a smirk as he joined Miette on the grass, crossing his legs. "Dalton must have been told about the Weapon through DARC...they've been trying to find it for as long as we've been at war with them. It was never a surprise they disseminated information throughout the underworld to see who could find it. I'm sure that even Lysandre looked for it, at some point, considering his end goal."

"Lysandre, huh?" Ash asked. Frowning a little, he looked up at the sun rising. If DARC was the same as Lysandre, it merely reaffirmed what he felt needed to be done.

"In any case, Dalton found it. At the time, we located the second of the key fragments we have on hand and that's when I met him. I didn't learn the Weapon's location; I didn't want to. But I told him to not use it because I knew how dangerous it was," Jack expressed with a sigh. "I'm glad he was a man of honor."

"So...these keys then?" Sawyer asked breathily. He looked slightly confused over the topic of Dalton, but Ash figured that didn't matter. Jack nodded.

"Yes, there was once a man, or so the legends depict, who in his rage and anguish built a mighty weapon, appropriately named the Ultimate Weapon." Ash chose to sit, Sawyer joining him as his father began to relay the short tale to them. "The details are sketchy, but needless to say that he used it to try and destroy the world. Of course, the world was far more resilient than that, but it still broke a little; opening the rifts to the world DARC comes from. The man must have hated himself for what he did because he sealed the Weapon away and broke the key that made it work into seven pieces."

"Why seven? That seems pretty random?" Miette expressed. She sounded a little bored, but still as if she was paying attention.

"I don't know. Does it matter?" Jack asked in amusement. Miette gave a slightly sheepish expression and shrugged her shoulders. "In any case, after breaking it into seven pieces, he scattered all of those parts but one, which he was to keep on himself at all times. Makes sense when you think about it..."