EMPIRE, Balthazar Ackerman

Balthazar Ackerman

I USED TO TRUST THE MEDIA TO TELL ME THE TRUTH

Balthazar was born to two parents who couldn’t have wanted him less. A product of sexual assault and violence, he would always be a reminder to his mother of what she had to go through. His father, seemingly incapable of paternal feelings, didn’t readily notice that he existed. He was not in the hospital room when Balthazar was born, in fact, he never even signed the birth certificate. For all he knew, his girlfriend just seemed to come home with a squalling baby one day. Why she kept Balthazar, why she took him into that environment, why she even stayed are questions that only she can answer. She had family willing to take both of them in, and yet she insisted on staying in that situation. Perhaps it was out of fear, perhaps she loved her abuser. Maybe it was a little of both. Maybe she even thought Balthazar would make things better, maybe she thought his father would love him and mellow out a bit. No matter what she thought, she was wrong. If anything, the new baby only made it harder on everyone involved.

As babies and even toddlers tend to be, Balthazar was ignorant of his surroundings. Sure, there was a lot of violence and screaming, but there had been since day one. To him, these things had already become normalcy. Being alone was normal, going hungry was normal. His mother took care of him when she could, but his needs never superseded those of his father. He always came second, or his mother always paid for it. Affection, love, and tenderness were not things he would ever know under his parents’ care. Half the time his mother could barely stand to look at him, and he was already terrified of his father, whom he saw as a loud man who made Mummy cry. Because even though she was hardly a good mother to him, Balthazar loved her. She was the kindest thing in his life, and the barrier between himself and his terrifying father.

This wouldn’t last, however. He was five, it was the summer before he was set to start primary school, when she left. She finally decided she could no longer live with his father, finally decided the man would never love her and she could do better. Initially, when she came into his room to tell him she was leaving, he thought he would be leaving with her. When he sat up in bed, though, she pushed him back down gently. “You’ll be staying with Daddy.” She told him. Her voice seemed sad, but it was nothing compared to the fissure that those words tore through his small world. He was too shocked to move, too shocked to protest, too shocked to even ask why. She kissed his forehead, and disappeared that night.

His father kept saying she would come back, but until then he had to keep the house clean. He didn’t know how to clean, really, and it was a dangerous job for a five year old anyway. His father was very particular about how he wanted the house, and Balthazar had to use substances to clean that were supposed to be kept away from children his age. It was several months before his father seemed to realize that his mother was not coming back. That was when the screaming began. Things had been relatively calm up until that point, but when the realization hit him, he seemed to snap. Suddenly, nothing Balthazar did was right. Nothing he did could please his father and keep the screaming at bay.

The physical abuse started out as spankings for things like missing a spot when he was cleaning or eating too much food. By the time he was eight, however, he was being beaten daily. Most of the time his father didn’t even try to come up with an excuse. He simply took his frustrations out on a son who was too young and weak to defend himself. Questions were posed by his teachers, but he always lied. They couldn’t help him, they were all like his father and mother. Adults couldn’t be trusted, not ever. And sadly, in the part of town where he lived, abusive parents weren’t exactly uncommon. Several of his classmates had unexplained bruises and knots as well, and they all lied, just like he did. One might think that Balthazar would have befriended them, found kinship with them, but he hated them too. He hated everything. His frustrations about his daily life were taken out on inanimate objects first, and then any classmate that he considered weaker than himself.

Trouble at school, shockingly, didn’t seem to translate to more trouble at home. No matter how many times his father was contacted, Balthazar wasn’t reprimanded for his actions by the man. And even if he had been, he wouldn’t have been able to distinguish the wordless beatings and punishments from one another. For all he knew he was being punished for it. His life seemed to settle into some kind of cyclical hell. Nothing he did could stop the pain. He tried staying away from home, but only got beaten harder when he eventually had to return (or was returned forcibly). He continued acting out in school, his attacks on his classmates getting more and more brutal.

By the time he was fourteen, Balthazar had landed himself in hot water. Acting out in school and public could only go unnoticed for so long, especially when the acts had become as violent as they had. He seemed to accept his arrest with a certain numbness. His father didn’t show up to bail him out, but he didn’t really see that as a surprise. In fact, his time spent in jail was more peaceful than his time at home – when he could ignore the crippling anxiety of thoughts of what would happen to him when he finally did get to go home, that was. He seemed to have to stay in his cell for a very long time before he was approached. A trial wasn’t really an issue. He admitted to his crimes readily. Rather than be sent off to prison, or some other punishment, a different offer was issued to him: join the army when he came of age, and keep his nose clean until then.

The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. He would be at a school, away from his father, and he would be given the opportunity to rise up out of the poverty he had been born into. Agreeing that he would stay out of trouble, he was released. The thought of eventually getting out was the only thing that kept him going in the two years that separated him from ‘freedom’. He learned impulse control, stopping his bullying ways – at least where he could be caught. He stayed out of trouble, and kept his grades rather high all things considered. At sixteen he enlisted, and rather unlike the other recruits, he had no problem following the orders he was given. Subdue a civilian? Kill them? Clean the dorms? The order didn’t seem to matter to him, he always followed without blinking an eye. He listened to who he was supposed to, but refused to take shit from anyone else. He was a loner, making friends with no one during his stay at the academy. Even the Vulpix he’d been given to train with was kept at an arm’s length. He wouldn’t be keeping the thing anyway.

His bloodthirsty nature, athletic build, and willingness to obey orders got him noticed even before he graduated. Despite his more ‘loner’ nature, he seemed to be able to make friends when and where it mattered. Balthazar chose his comrades and friends with extreme care, never seeming to waste his time on those that he deemed to be ‘weak’, 'useless', or 'boring'. At eighteen, he graduated from the academy toward the top of his class. He was given a Poochyena, whom he named Tenebris. He and the Pokemon didn’t exactly bond quickly, but he soon learned that they shared a love of battling and winning. It would be in this way, after he was deployed to Valedge, that he and Tenebris would form a shaky bond. Neither seemed to be too emotionally attached, but Tenebris grew to trust and respect Balthazar.

Even after his graduation, Balthazar continued to attract attention to himself. He went above and beyond what was expected of him, never resting until he was quite certain that every order he’d been given was carried out perfectly. More important than his willingness to follow, however, was his ability to think independently. His temper threw a wrench in his plans more often than anyone liked, but no one could deny that he was a strong strategist. He was also willing to go there. Nothing was too dirty, nothing was too much. He was more than willing to “lay down with the dogs”, so to speak, but he wasn’t willing to stay there. It would be during this time that he would meet a certain female by the name of Remy. She was fresh out of the academy, but she attracted his interest. Why, even he can’t say. But something about her drew him in, and though their relationship was nothing more than surface at first, he would end up keeping her around and bonding with her in a way that he’d bonded with no one else. By the time he was twenty-one, Tenebris had evolved and together they were a force to be reckoned with. With friends in most of the right places, Balthazar would receive his first promotion.

Along with this promotion came his second Pokemon. Different from any he’d worked with before in every way, he and Lucida got off to a bit of a rough start. He found her to be… weak. She didn’t have the willingness for brutality that Tenebris had started with, and seemed to want to be coddled more. Tenebris would have little to nothing to do with her, however, and Balthazar often found himself to be annoyed by her. Either way, he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He knew he could make Lucida into something useful, which is exactly what he did. He offered her the coddling she seemed to desire, and in return, she started listening to him and trusting him. While she never carried out his crueler orders with the eagerness that Tenebris did, she soon became a rather strong asset to the team. She bonded with him readily enough, and evolved even faster than Tenebris had – which was more than pleasing to him, really.

Of course, more came with his promotion than a new Pokemon. He was given soldiers to command, and did a surprisingly good job of it. Fear kept them in line more than anything. Mistakes were not tolerated, squeamishness was not tolerated. Balthazar had worked hard to get into the position he now commanded, and he wasn’t about to have it thrown away because some little wimp couldn’t do what needed to be done. His soldiers, therefore, were as bloodthirsty and cruel as he was more often than not. He found that he saw more of Remy after his promotion, and he rather appreciated the fact that she did what he said without question. And of course… certain other things kept him interested in her as well.

He found that he rather liked the taste of power he had been given, and started to put his sharp mind toward ways to get more power. Having friends in the right places wasn’t exactly enough anymore, especially since his eyes had been set on a position that was normally passed down through families. He knew the noble family in Valedge well enough. They seemed to have bad luck. The patriarch had passed away shortly after his one and only son’s birth, and his wife was serving as noble until the boy came of age. Balthazar started to put a lot of time into getting to know her. He made excuses to see her, and did whatever he could do to get on her good side. She wasn’t a stupid woman, but her health had always been frail. Eventually she began relying on him to do things in her stead when she didn’t feel like leaving the manor. Some argued that their relationship exceeded the bounds of professionalism, but these rumors were never proven.

It, of course, took him years to gain her trust fully. It was when she gifted him Impetus that he decided he could make his move. While simply killing her would have been the easiest route, it wasn’t the correct one. Her son was fifteen, and Balthazar knew that her death would only give that brat what he wanted. The boy would fall terribly ill, and while some looked toward Balthazar questioningly, Ariane refused to believe that he would do such a thing. The woman was lonely, having lost her husband and then her son. Balthazar was all she had, which was exactly how he wanted it, of course. It wouldn’t be long before he was named as her heir, and though he was eager to get what he’d been waiting for for so long, no ‘accidents’ would befall Ariane.

He kept Remy close during these years, letting her in on his plans perhaps more than he should have. He bided his time well, more or less already lord even before Ariane passed. He trained Impetus, and found that he liked the houndour’s energy. It was hard to get him to focus at times, but a difficult Pokemon to train was simply the distraction that he needed at the moment. The riots in Newhaven also caught his attention, but he remained in Valedge. He was too close to getting what he’d worked for to leave, and Ariane would have none of it anyway. She was getting annoyingly clingy, and two or three times unexplained bruises and injuries would appear on the woman. She seemed to grow meeker, and eventually just gave up all together. An illness that she likely could have fought off if she’d had the willpower took her, and left Valedge in Balthazar’s hands.

This was but six months ago, and not much has changed in that time. Well, why would it? Balthazar had been ruling Valedge well before Ariane passed. He was gifted Omega by a lower, but still well off, family. They had a daughter “around his age.” He knew what that meant, and while he accepted the gift, he showed no further interest in them. Remy would be named his heir. For some, this likely seemed to come out of nowhere. While their relationship had grown over the years, Balthazar had kept her more hidden to avoid problems with Ariane. Ah well, he didn’t really care what anyone thought anymore. He had what he wanted.



Name Tenebris
Species Mightyena
Gender Male
Ability Intimidate
Moveset Crunch | Dark Pulse | Toxic | Sucker Punch
Origin Assigned to him upon his graduation.
Personality Tenebris is a very independent and cold Pokemon. Taking after his master in his aloof nature, he tends to only watch out for himself. He doesn't bond with people or other Pokemon, and makes no effort to do so. He is ruthless in battle, following Balthazar's commands with what one could only assume is glee.


Name Lucida
Species Manectric
Gender Female
Ability Static
Moveset Tackle | Thunder Fang | Quick Attack | Protect
Origin Gifted to him after his first promotion.
Personality As her name suggests, Lucida has a much brighter personality than one might expect given her master and teammates. She is extremely nurturing, and will even try to take care of Balthazar himself to a certain extent. She has a friendly nature, but despite this she is loyal and follows commands.


Name Impetus
Species Houndoom
Gender Male
Ability Early Bird
Moveset Bite | Fire Fang | Feint Attack | Flame Charge
Origin A gift from Ariane.
Personality Full of seemingly boundless energy, Impetus can rather easily drive someone up the wall. He doesn't like to sit still, and he is extremely prideful. He tends to get offended if one of his teammates can do something better than him, and he seems to be rather aggressive toward everyone.


Name Omega
Species Growlithe
Gender Male
Ability Flash Fire
Moveset Ember | Double Team | Take Down | Bite
Origin A suckup gift that he received after becoming the lord of Valedge.
Personality One of the more recent additions to the team, Omega doesn't seem to quite understand how things work yet. He's rather naive, and perhaps a bit slow. All he seems to want, really, is Balthazar's attention. He might be slightly lazy as well.

[b]PSYCHO PASS, shinya kogami[/b] as [i]balthazar ackerman[/i]