Changing the Filter

At some point, you had to ask yourself how much of what you were doing was for the reasons you told yourself they were for. All those delicate, elaborate reasons you came up with to convince yourself and others that you were right.

Were any of them true?

Surely some of them were. No one tries to change the world unless they truly believe in their cause. You don't just get out of bed one morning and become an eco-terrorist, as Maxie had been called. There were a lifetime of reasons that led up to him believing that humanity would be better off if it had the space to expand. All he'd ever asked was for people to believe his words and let him get on with doing what was best for them.

Yet people were not very good at doing what they were told. There'd always someone there to oppose you, sometimes just for the sake of standing at the other side of the fence. They come up with all sorts of arguments and, even though you're right and they're wrong, you're forced to explain yourself in ways that you hadn't even prepared for.

This was the point where the lines became blurred. When suddenly it wasn't only being done for the cause, but also to prove to Archie that he was right. Then as time went on it became more and more about proving that fact and, if he was honest, less and less about doing the right thing. It was only now, after everything and in the privacy of his own mind, that Maxie could admit that.

When you were staring down Kyogre it generally made you question a lot of matters in a short space of time.

He was going to die. That was all there was to it. Whatever his reasons had been for doing what he did or even if he was, in fact, right... it suddenly didn't matter. Nor did it matter what he thought to himself in his last moments before death.

As he turned his head to look at Archie, he saw that his enemy's face was contorted into the wide-eyed horror of realisation. That he'd done this. Archie had set Kyogre onto the world. It was with some sick satisfaction that Maxie took in this sight. The last sight he would see.

Well then, might as well go out memorably.

Maxie smiled at Archie, a small smile that was filled with malice, and raised his hand to wave at him. Whether Archie waved back or not, Maxie never knew. That was the moment when Kyogre's Hydro Pump hit him.

It was over.