Operation GEAR: The Gardener of Gratitude

by The Great Butler

A legendary adventurer and archeologist is murdered, leaving his grandson to inherit a puzzle box that can lead to the greatest treasure in history, a city made entirely of gold. Invited to help solve the riddle of the Golden City, he is drawn into a conflict between multiple parties for the immense power sleeping there that soon descends into all-out civil war.

3. Brothers and Sisters

A note: during the in-universe time this story takes place in, the Fairy-type doesn't exist. As a result, Togekiss is its original Normal and Flying type.

-:-

CHAPTER 2: Brothers and Sisters

-:-

Fernando didn't have to take Matt, Cassy, Eleanor and Sheena very far, as it turned out. Lingote Palace's archive was adjacent to the museum, through a door at the end of the bronze mural. It had the same marble floor as the central hallway and heavy wooden bookcases lining its stone walls. At the very end of the room, there was a fountain that created a curtain of water in the place of a window.

"As you can see, this archive isn't accessible to just anyone," Fernando said to his guests as he ushered them in, turning the archive's key over in his hand. "Normally you'd have to make special reservations to come in here, but these are exceptional circumstances. You," he said, looking to Sheena before pointing at a large, rolled-up piece of material in a nearby container, "fetch that map for me."

Sheena inhaled sharply when she realized Fernando was talking to her, but the surprise quickly wore off. She retrieved the map and brought it to the oak table in the center of the archive, where Fernando and the others had gathered.

"This is a map of the entirety of the land our kingdom once stood on," Fernando explained while he spread it out across the table. "Those tourist maps won't show you it all. If we're going to find where the trail to the Golden City begins, we'll need to see the whole picture."

"Hold on a minute before you show us that clue you have." Matt reached into his bag to get his laptop, then opened it and held its camera over the map. "I'll take a picture of it, that way we can check it while searching."

"Smart idea," Fernando complimented. "You have some of your grandfather in you after all."

Though these were words of praise, Matt still shrank back, his face reddening. Cassy, noticing this, stepped forward to take over the situation.

"We've got the map out, so let's get this show on the road," she forcefully suggested. "Let's see that clue."

"As you wish." Fernando produced a piece of aged parchment, which he laid down on the table. "If you don't mind, please read it without touching it."

Cassy was the one closest to Fernando, so she leaned over and read the text aloud. "Gifts of air and gifts of earth. Without one, the other cannot be obtained. Man presses on, searching for that which cannot be found on the surface. The riches of the earth rest where man allows himself to be swallowed up by it, possessing more than he had should he return."

"Somewhere where man allows himself to be swallowed by the earth," Matt repeated. "It certainly sounds voluntary, right?"

"I'd agree with you there," Eleanor concurred. "That means we can rule out something like quicksand. But at the same time, it clearly still sounds dangerous. Why talk about 'should he return,' otherwise?"

"You have a point," Cassy mused. "And this part, 'gifts of air and gifts of earth. Without one the other cannot be obtained.' Not only is this proverbial man going into the earth willingly, he needs a gift from the air to obtain the gifts of the earth. You know what that sounds like? Oxygen."

"So the implication is that if one goes into this place, there could be the danger of running out of oxygen," reasoned Sheena.

"Wait, I know what this sounds like!" Matt exclaimed, pounding his right fist into the palm of his left hand. "A place where people voluntarily enter the earth to gain its gifts, but face the risk of running out of oxygen if they aren't careful… that sounds like a mine to me."

Matt's proposal led to a wave of realization washing over the others. They all turned to Fernando, their stares asking him a question none of them had yet vocalized.

"I know exactly what you're thinking," he said, waving them off. "There is an abandoned mineral mine out in the desert." Fernando put his finger on a spot on the map well outside La Ciudad Dorada's present borders. "It was operational until several decades ago, but the buildings and mine remain there to this day."

"If it's that far out in the desert, how will we reach it?" Matt wondered.

"Down in the palace garage we have a number of vehicles I can loan you." Eleanor's eyes lit up the moment Fernando revealed this. "Come, let us go now."

Fernando left the table and headed for the exit, gesturing with his hand for the others to follow. While they walked, Cassy caught up to Matt and got his attention by tapping his shoulder.

"Listen," she whispered to him, "I'm going to stay behind and keep researching the books here. There might be information in this archive that could help. I'll see you off and then get right back to work here."

-:-

"Yahoo! This is exactly what I came here for!"

A bright afternoon sun hung in the sky over the desert outside La Ciudad Dorada as the group's vehicle sped across the arid landscape. Fernando had provided them with what looked very much like a small truck with a flatbed behind its cab. There was, however, one big difference - instead of wheels, it had flat discs emanating the blue light of Arcane Science as they levitated the vehicle a few inches off the ground.

Inside the vehicle's cab, Eleanor was overcome with giddiness just to have a chance at driving it.

"This is so much fun!" She couldn't help herself from practically jumping up and down in her seat, just managing to avoid pulling on the steering handles on the sides of the vehicle's glowing projection dashboard. "Matt! Sheena!" she called back to the others. "When this is over, we have got to see if Fernando's got any books about these machines in that archive!"

"I wouldn't mind reading those myself!" Matt said back to her, raising his voice over the wind.

For a while there wasn't much else in the way of conversation between the trio. Eleanor remained caught up in her delirious joy over the machine, while Matt and Sheena watched the landscape and some of its resident Pokémon go by. A group of Hippopotas clustered under the protection of two Hippowdon, and further off in the distance, a line of Camerupt could be seen traversing the desert.

"They all look so peaceful," Sheena observed. "What's going on with us and La Ciudad Dorada isn't affecting them. I hope it stays that way."

"That gives us something else to shoot for," Matt said in agreement. "The smoother our search goes, the better for everyone. Of course, Rosalita could be anywhere, so I think it's best if we prepare for our next encounter now."

"That's a good idea." Sheena moved to sit next to Matt so she could see his notes on his laptop.

"So far we know she has Heatran, Probopass, Electivire and Magmortar," he said while reviewing images on the laptop's screen. "All of them are weak to Ground-type moves, but they're trained to use tactics that allow them to be competitive."

"And they fight with great coordination," Sheena added.

"That's the part I don't totally get. Rosalita must have trained them so well that they can execute defined roles within the attack even without her presence. We have to watch out for that Probopass to show up, for one. It was clearly playing support but the way it was able to levitate its allies around will be trouble."

"Electivire certainly didn't need Probopass's help for that, though," Sheena remarked, staring at the screen. "Those Magnet Rise-powered leaps make it more of an aerial threat than you'd expect."

"You can say that again," Matt concurred. "Magmortar's fighting style was pretty straightforward, and really, Heatran's was too. What we have to watch out for with that one is just how powerful its individual strikes are."

"Not just that," Sheena corrected him. Matt had a hard time hearing her lowered voice and had to move his head closer to make out what she said. "You have to be very careful with that spiraling fire move it used. That's called Magma Storm. If your Pokémon is hit by it, it'll keep doing damage for a while afterward."

"That's just great," Matt sighed. "Between that and how easily Probopass can make it fly, Heatran's going to be the biggest danger when Rosalita sends it to attack again."

"Hey, you guys!" Eleanor interrupted. She didn't turn her head, instead just yelling loud enough for Matt and Sheena to hear. "I think we're here!"

Matt shut his laptop and joined Sheena in looking out at the small village they were approaching. A dilapidated factory stood tall above the surrounding buildings, themselves in similar states of partial ruin. Eleanor slowed the vehicle to a stop as soon as it entered the village, sending a cluster of Skorupi scattering as the three disembarked to explore the area.

"There's more to it than I even thought," Matt said to Sheena as he surveyed their surroundings. Neither of them noticed Eleanor wander off to investigate a nearby object covered by a huge tarp. "I was expecting an ordinary mining facility, not a whole community like this."

"I imagine life was tough for them here," Sheena ruminated, "but they got by. Maybe in a sense, the people who lived and worked here were the closest to living the way the original settlers of La Ciudad Dorada did."

"You guys?" Eleanor interrupted them, her voice quivering. "I think you should come here and look at this…"

When they turned around, both Matt and Sheena could see how heavily Eleanor was breathing. They ran over to join her at the tarp as she held its corner with a trembling hand.

"What is it?" Matt asked her.

"See for yourself." At that, Eleanor threw the tarp back with all her strength. It didn't lift all the way off, but it was enough to give Matt and Sheena a look at what was underneath.

An Arcane Science vehicle identical to their own greeted them.

"You see what I see, right?" Eleanor nervously wondered.

"Oh, I think do." Matt was careful to lower his voice as he examined the machine. "No way is a vehicle that was abandoned here decades ago going to look like it just came out of the garage yesterday."

"You mean it was just brought here recently…" Sheena's eyes grew wide as the realization of what this meant dawned on her. "Someone's here… right now."

The trio closed around each other and again inspected the ruined buildings surrounding them. They were searching not with curiosity, like they had been before, but with fear. Every partially standing wall, every broken beam, there was virtually nothing that couldn't be hiding a potential threat.

Aside from the gusting wind, the air was silent. Yet, that silence was more deafening than any sound could have been.

"You see anything?" Eleanor asked Matt and Sheena.

"No, but I bet whoever's here probably sees us," Matt replied.

"I was afraid you'd say that," added Sheena.

Suddenly, a loud crash in the house right next to the group pierced the silence. All three of them jumped, and they nearly fell over each other because of how close they all were.

"We should go investigate that," Eleanor suggested, recovering from the shock first.

"Yeah, you're… you're right about that." Matt slowly took one of his Poké Balls out of his bag, an act Eleanor copied for herself. "Stay close to me."

The group clustered together with Matt in the lead, warily approaching the building. Their steps went from crunching sand under their feet to making the floorboards creak as they got close to the door.

"Workers' Quarters, Section 9," Sheena quietly read from the sign next to the entrance. It was hanging lopsided by one nail, the other having rotted away long before.

With his free hand, Matt gently pushed the door open. It groaned loudly, making the trio cringe, but the dimly-lit room beyond was empty. As if on cue, another crash from further down the hall told them exactly where to go.

No words were exchanged between the three as they made their way to the source of the noise. The door to the room in question was ajar, and once near it, they could hear some sort of rustling behind it. Matt pushed himself against the wall next to the door, and while Eleanor and Sheena mimicked his action he rolled the Poké Ball in his hand so his thumb was on its button.

Finally, after a quick nod to Eleanor and Sheena to ensure they were all on the same page, Matt inhaled deeply, then burst through the door.

Inside was a Cacturne surrounded by over a dozen cans of food he'd knocked off the shelves. He had one in his hand that was torn open, and when Matt surprised him he dropped it, sending the colorful beans within it scattering everywhere.

"Oh…" Matt uttered, dumbfounded. The Cacturne backed toward the window while Eleanor and Sheena looked over Matt's shoulders at the scene. "Oh."

"Sorry about that, Cacturne…" Sheena apologized.

"I saw in the brochure that Poké Beans are grown in La Ciudad Dorada…" Eleanor said, "so I guess it's no surprise they were canned for use at the mine…"

"We better get back to our business," Matt urged. "There's still someone here wh-"

Matt's words turned into a startled scream when something seized his ankles from behind. Both Eleanor and Sheena were grabbed by the same entity seconds later and reacted similarly. Matt and Eleanor's Poké Balls both clattered to the ground, and Cacturne fled through the window with a can of Poké Beans in his hand. All three of them were then hoisted into the air and left hanging upside down when the substance restraining them - which they could now see was thick, sticky silk - was attached to the ceiling by the Pokémon that attacked them. Their attacker was an insect with a thin body covered in vivid green leaves.

"Well done, Elena," the Pokémon's trainer said as she emerged from another room. Her features were completely obscured by the black, hooded cloak she wore, leaving her voice as the only way Matt, Eleanor and Sheena could tell anything about her identity. The mysterious woman walked right up to the three as they hung by their legs, showing no fear in her forceful, deliberate steps. "Who are you? Why have you come here?"

"I should ask you the same thing!" Matt choked back at her.

"Difference is, I'm in a position to make demands. You aren't." She turned to her Leavanny, Elena, and said, "Take his bag, we're searching it."

Elena complied and started working Matt's bag off of him with her spindly hands. Matt tried to pull it back from her, only to earn a sharp rap on his wrist for his trouble. The Leavanny then took his bag and passed it to her trainer.

Almost instantly upon looking inside, the cloaked woman froze. She stared into its confines for several long, tense moments before pulling out the puzzle box and confronting Matt with it.

"Where did you get this?" she demanded. "Just who are you?"

"My grandfather was murdered by someone trying to take that, and you'll have to kill me if you want it!" he fumed.

"You're one of the people looking to steal La Ciudad Dorada's treasures, aren't you?!" Eleanor snapped at the now-confused woman.

"Where did… no, I know where you heard that. You talked to my brother, didn't you?"

"Did you just say… your brother?"

Instead of answering Sheena's question, the woman said to her Leavanny, "Elena, cut them down. They aren't enemies."

Elena daintily stepped forward and extended one of her arms, which glowed with green light and lengthened into a sharp blade. She then jumped up and cut the three lines of thread with a single graceful motion, sending Matt, Sheena and Eleanor crashing down. Eleanor recovered first and stumbled into the storage room to retrieve the Poké Balls she and Matt dropped.

The woman then put the puzzle box back in Matt's bag and pushed it toward him. "Here. I'm sorry."

"What does it matter?" Matt kept the Poké Ball in his hand once Eleanor returned it to him. "You're just going to kill us now that we found you, just like you did to your parents!"

"Now I know you definitely talked to my brother. He's lying!" She reached up and removed her hood, revealing billowing, cloud-like blonde hair and the same intense green eyes Fernando had. "I didn't kill them, he did. I've been hiding here since then, with what I could conceal from him. But you must be Sutter Chiaki's grandson… why are you here? Did Fernando send you to find me?"

"If he killed your parents, then…" Matt trailed off briefly, lost in thought. "He killed your parents, then he wrote to me… but…"

"Answer my question!" Rosalita interrupted to demand. "Why are you here and why do you have that relic?"

"My grandfather left it to me after he was killed, alright? Fernando wrote to me and asked me to bring it here so we could find the Golden City and protect La Ciudad Dorada!"

"So you could find the Golden City and protect La Ciudad Dorada…" Rosalita repeated. "I knew it. He's making his move…"

"If Fernando is the murderer, then what about Cassy?" Sheena asked.

Matt froze. He had been so caught up in what he was doing that he forgot Cassy was studying in the palace archive - under the same roof as a man who he'd just discovered very likely murdered his own parents.

"What are you talking about?" Rosalita questioned Sheena. She didn't wait for an answer before turning to Matt, who was fumbling to get his laptop. "Who is Cassy?"

"My friend who came with me on this trip," Matt answered. "She stayed behind when we came to this mine to do research in Lingote Palace's archive. And now she's there with Fernando…"

"He won't hurt her," Rosalita said, "or at least I have no reason to think he will. He gains nothing by doing it."

"Fine, I'll be the one to say it," Eleanor declared, crossing her arms. "How do we know you're not lying to frame him? Why'd you come out here instead of doing something to bring him to justice?"

"Rosalita would not lie, yes?" a tiny voice said. Matt, Eleanor and Sheena all turned to see a white-bodied, hedgehog-like Pokémon with grass and flowers growing from its back peeking out of the room Rosalita had been hiding in. "I stayed with her because she is the worthy one, yes?"

"Shaymin…" Sheena gasped in surprise.

"You're the Pokémon from the mural!" Eleanor exclaimed.

"Wait, if Shaymin's here with Rosalita, that means…" Matt trailed off as he took a moment to think about what he was hearing, though something Shaymin said quickly hit him. "The worthy one? Are you saying she's the heir?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Rosalita leaned down and ushered Shaymin into her arms, where the mythical Pokémon curled up in comfort. "Fernando framed me for the deaths of our parents. Maybe it was wrong of me to go into hiding, but I panicked and acted to take away as many of the tools he needs to seize power as I could. I'm trying to figure out how I can convince him to stop. How I can save him from himself."

"Isn't it a little late for convincing?" Matt said, a sound of disbelief breaking through his words. "How are you able to just forgive him so easily? He killed your parents, according to you!"

"I know, but…" Rosalita lowered her sad, watery eyes, causing Shaymin to look up at her in concern. "He was a good man and can be a good man again. I wouldn't be who I am without him and I'm grateful for that… his knowledge of our kingdom and drive to protect it is second to none. We need him. It's just…" Rosalita had to stop herself from sobbing. "Everything he's done, he's done it to save our kingdom. That's what he really believes… I have to just get him to see that he's gone too far. I have to save him…"

"It's not really my place to say," Sheena ventured, "but how has he convinced himself that murdering the king and queen helps the kingdom at all?"

"No, I don't blame you for asking." Rosalita breathed deeply, trying to soothe herself. "We don't really have time for the whole story now, but he told you the truth when he said the kingdom was threatened. He believes that he is the only one who can protect us and wants Regigigas's help doing so, but to do so he has to become king. That's why I have to get to the Golden City first."

"I'm still skeptical," Matt said, having just finished sending an email to Cassy warning her to be careful. "I didn't sign up for a family feud with power and immortality in the balance. I just wanted closure for my grandfather… you're asking me to choose a side in something where I can't fully agree with either side."

"What do you mean?" Rosalita asked him.

"If I believe you, and with Shaymin vouching for you I have no reason not to, Fernando is a killer who betrayed his family and his home and then lied to me to help him attain power. But if it's as you say, he did it for what he sees as a noble reason. You, on the other hand, you want me to help you stop him, but you also want to forgive him for all the crimes he's committed. I don't know if I can accept that."

"I understand…" Rosalita bitterly said. "I'm sorry you all became involved in this. It isn't fair. I can't ask you to forgive my brother for what he's done, but I still care about him and I can't just let him destroy himself."

Rosalita's words struck a chord in Matt's heart, leaving him silent. As much as he couldn't forgive Fernando for his actions, Rosalita's dedication to helping her brother moved him.

"I know that feeling, being willing to do anything to save someone you care about…" he thought. Images flooded his memory, ones that had happened years ago but still felt like yesterday to him. He saw himself riding on Anton's back - at the time the Rhyperior was an unevolved Rhyhorn - through a blizzard. With him was a blue-haired girl wearing goggles to protect her eyes.

"Matt?" Eleanor asked.

"Sorry, I got… caught up in thinking about something," he admitted. "I've decided. I'll keep going and help you find the Golden City. But I'm leading this expedition with Sheena and Eleanor's help. Rosalita, you're coming with us but we call the shots."

"That's acceptable, yes?" Despite sounding like a question for Rosalita, Shaymin's statement was actually aimed at Matt. "It will be like when I traveled to the Golden City with the professor, yes?"

"If Shaymin says so, I have no reason to disagree with your terms," Rosalita agreed.

"Then we should get goi-" Matt cut himself off when the meaning of Shaymin's words dawned on him. "When you traveled to the Golden City with the professor? What do you mean by that?"

"It was a great many years ago, yes? While I was serving at the side of Rosalita's grandfather, the professor and his apprentice came here, and together we all went on a grand adventure to the Golden City. It was a very fun time, yes?"

Matt took a step back and put his hand over his mouth. His evident shock made Shaymin stare at him with its head cocked to the side.

"What's wrong?" Sheena asked him.

"Sutter told me many stories of his adventures searching for the Golden City," he answered, his voice faint. "He never told me he found it."

"Wait, I don't understand," Eleanor intervened. She turned to Shaymin and said, "If you went to the Golden City before, you should know where it is. Why don't we just go there now?"

"None will find the Golden City without first walking the path of the Three Pillars." Shaymin's response was automatic, almost robotic, and even lacked its typical verbal tic.

"The body shaped from the mountains themselves," Rosalita added. Her recitation was less rigid than Shaymin's, sounding more like the careful recollection of a student than a reflexive response. "The body forged within the blood of the earth. The body carved from the waters of life. So stand the Three Pillars, eternally guarding and being guarded by the great protector. Whence man steps forth to commune with the protector in its shrine, the path shall only appear to those who have gathered the light of the Three Pillars."

"Regirock, Registeel and Regice?" Eleanor deduced.

"You are very wise, yes?" Shaymin said, its normal manner returning.

Rosalita couldn't help but smile. "Yes, that is correct. Even with the location of where the Golden City should be, we cannot reach it without first finding Regirock, Registeel and Regice. That's what the three clues and the puzzle box are for. Now, with all of that said, tell me why you came here."

"Fernando showed us the clue he had and we decided it referenced this mine," Matt revealed.

"That makes sense," Rosalita said, putting her finger on her chin. "I had my own suspicions about this site. That's why I came here to hide. I thought that if Fernando followed the clue himself, it would be safer to stop him out here away from the city. But since you're here, Matt, and you brought the puzzle box, we can follow the trail ourselves and get there before he does!"

"Then we best get going," Sheena suggested.

"You're right." Rosalita recalled Elena to the safety of her Poké Ball, then turned away from the three and gestured for them to follow her, much like her brother had done earlier in the museum. "The elevator to go down into the mine isn't far from here. Come on, I'll show you."

Rosalita led Matt, Eleanor and Sheena back out of the workers' building and across the village, toward a large building next to the abandoned factory. Not one of them realized that a Yanmega wearing a glowing collar was flying overhead, watching them.

-:-

The siblings who directed the attack on Lingote Palace's garden had trekked a short distance into the desert beyond La Ciudad Dorada, leaving the city behind. They were huddled under the shade of a lone palm tree while the sister monitored what their Yanmega was seeing using her wrist device and a camera on Yanmega's collar.

"Looks like they found the princess, Bro," she said to her brother, who was fanning himself. Just as she finished talking, she squinted to examine the projected image more closely and gasped in surprise. "Yo, and that Shaymin's with her!"

"Jackpot on that one, Sis!" This news so excited him that he pushed himself forward off the tree with his foot before spreading his arms and looking to the sky. "It ain't gonna be long before our fortune is ours! Ya know what we should do with it?"

"What?"

"So if we go on back home, what do ya think of gettin' our old gang back together? There's gonna be so much cash in our pockets when this job's done, ain't gonna be a problem to help 'em out, too."

The young woman stopped to ponder her brother's idea. It was true, the riches they stood to gain were far beyond what just two people would need for a more than comfortable life. Her mind wandered back to memories of their youth.

Pyrite Town in those days was an incredibly bleak place that offered its residents only three real options for supporting themselves. You could go to work in the mines of a city underneath Pyrite, appropriately known as The Under. If you preferred to stay in the sun, battling at Pyrite Colosseum was an option. The problem with both of those choices was that Pyrite Town was corrupted to its core. No matter what you did, at some point your livelihood intersected with the culture of crime that so permeated the city. It was that reason for why so many residents of Pyrite Town chose option number three: abandoning all pretense and simply becoming criminals themselves.

Those were the circumstances the pair found themselves in. For as long as they could remember, they only had each other to rely on, and with no better choices they turned to stealing food and money to survive. Other children on the streets were drawn to her decisive leadership and his surprisingly gentle, compassionate personality, and together, they created the family none of them really had. Those in their orbit grew deeply loyal to the pair they dubbed "Big Sis Noel" and "Little Bro Leon," names that stuck even after Leon grew to be much taller than his sister.

"'ey, Sis, you awake?"

Noel shook her head as Leon's questions snapped her back to the present. "Sorry, Bro, I'm here. I feel ya on that one. Wouldn't be right if we just head home and forget where we came from."

"Ain't who we are," Leon agreed. "And I gotta be honest, Sis, I miss 'em. We've been flyin' solo for way too long."

"You can say that again, Bro. C'mon, we gotta get going."

Noel shut off the projection, then joined Leon in putting on backpack-like machines they'd brought with them. The devices had buttons on their straps that caused pairs of wings to spread out from them once Noel and Leon pressed them, and the bulbs on them emitted a blue glow as the siblings lifted into the air.

-:-

On their way down into the mine using the rickety work elevator, Eleanor released a Litwick, a Pokémon that looked like a candle with a blue flame. She sat on Eleanor's shoulder, giving light to the group as they started to explore. Matt, meanwhile, had taken out his laptop in order to record their search.

There was little discussion of anything among the four while they made their way deeper underground, following the narrow tunnels.

Unable to focus on the exploration, Matt couldn't help but let his mind wander to what he'd seen and heard over the course of the day.

"Rosalita, I've been wondering about something," he finally said, breaking the uneasy quiet over the group.

"Hm? What?"

"Your brother, does he have any Pokémon?" Matt narrowed his eyes. "I have to know."

"I don't understand where that question is coming from," Rosalita answered, putting her hand on the side of the tunnel for balance while Shaymin held onto her head. "But since you asked, no, he doesn't."

"Oh…"

"What is wrong?" Sheena asked him. His lack of a significant response left her unable to tell what kind of answer he actually wanted.

"I needed to know if Fernando had a Dragonite," he admitted, though his voice remained bland and lifeless. "After Rosalita said he killed their parents I started thinking that maybe he killed my grandfather, too. His killer attacked him with a Dragonite that was wearing one of those collars."

"So that's what you meant in the garden…" Sheena murmured to herself.

"I don't know how much it means coming from someone like me," Rosalita gently said, "but I'm sorry. What happened to him was horrible."

"Yeah, I liked the professor, yes?" Shaymin added. "He helped us keep our secrets safe."

"Since he found the Golden City and never told anyone, he sure did." Matt sighed in resignation. "Not even me…" he thought, "but why?"

"Keeping them secret was the right thing to do back then," Rosalita said to Matt and Sheena while they kept walking. "Times have changed. Since Sutter was killed, I've realized more than ever that all the secrecy is causing too much harm. I hope you'll forgive me for saying this, but two families being destroyed over all of this is too many. It has to change."

"Heads up, guys," Eleanor called from the head of the group, interrupting the conversation before Matt or Sheena could press Rosalita for more details. "I found something."

Eleanor had stopped at the end of the tunnel, which appeared to open into a much larger cavern. Matt, Sheena and Rosalita joined her there, but none of them could see through the darkness to what lay beyond.

"You hear that?" Rosalita put her hand to her ear to help focus her hearing. "I think I hear water."

"I hear it too," Matt said, mimicking Rosalita's action before picking up a small rock and throwing it. It bounced off something deep in the murk and made a sound that echoed all around them.

"There's no way we can safely explore that big an area in such darkness," Sheena commented.

"Then we have to make it not be dark. Simple." Eleanor extended her arm, allowing Litwick to climb down onto her hand. "Litwick, Flash!"

The blue flame on Litwick's head flared several times greater than normal as its owner let out a cry that echoed through the cavern. She put all her energy into it, but was unable to light very far into the vast space.

"This isn't going to work…" Rosalita turned to Eleanor and saw how Litwick looked disappointed. "Oh, no, Litwick, you did a good job!" she said to the Pokémon. "I'll get you some Poké Beans when we're done here."

Rosalita's words of praise cheered Litwick up, and the candle Pokémon smiled at her.

"What's that?" Matt pointed at a box he'd spotted on the wall of the cave a few feet away when Litwick used Flash. It was made out of rusted red metal and had two unlit bulbs sticking out of it.

Eleanor approached the box and started examining it. "It might be just what we needed… a generator. If it still works we're set. Can one of you help me get it open?"

"I think so," Matt said. He took one of his Poké Balls from his bag and opened it, allowing Anton to materialize. "Anton, use Smart Strike on that generator's latch, would you?"

The Rhyperior assented to his trainer's request with a grunt, then fixed his stare on the rusted latch Matt indicated. His horn started to glow with a metallic sheen as he lowered his head, and he headbutted the latch, breaking it off in one blow.

"Well done, Anton. Thank you," Matt said, giving his Pokémon a pat on the arm.

With that task done, Litwick jumped off Eleanor's shoulder to sit on top of the generator and provide light to her. Eleanor used both hands and all of her strength to pull the cover open. It made a horrible grinding sound as it moved, but she still managed to make it give way so she could look around inside.

"How does it look?" Sheena asked her.

"Like it'll still work," replied the engineer. "Everything's still in place. I think it's time for my number one rule when it comes to trying out machines like this - give it a go and see what happens."

"Is that a good thing or not?" Matt couldn't help himself from thinking.

Eleanor pushed the generator's switch handle all the way down. Almost immediately, the two bulbs on the bottom of the box filled with the expected blue glow, and all around the cavern strings of lights flickered to life.

For the first time, the group could fully appreciate just how vast the mine truly was. The cave spread out all around them, making them notice that the cliff they were on was even smaller than they first thought. The lack of space on the ledge prompted Matt to immediately recall Anton to open up more room.

When Matt went to put away Anton's Poké Ball, Sheena caught a glimpse of golden light shining out of his bag. "What's that?"

"What?" Matt hadn't been looking at what he was doing, and when he did look, he immediately saw the light as well. He furrowed his brow, handed his laptop to Sheena and reached in to retrieve the source of the light - the puzzle box. "It's certainly never done this before," he said, lifting it up. "Rosalita, do you know why?"

"Not for certain," she answered, cocking her head, "but I have an idea. I think I remember reading something about it in the palace archive once… 'the key shall show the road ahead,' I believe."

"It sounds like the puzzle box is going to guide us," Eleanor reasoned. "Matt, see if it does anything to show us the direction we need to go."

"Right, good idea."

Following Eleanor's suggestion, Matt stepped up to the cliff and held out the puzzle box as far as his arm could stretch. Nothing noticeable happened at first, so he moved to point it in different directions. After a few moments, its light suddenly intensified.

"There," Matt said, "something must be over there."

Eleanor joined him and peered out at the area the puzzle box was indicating. "That looks suspicious," she commented, pointing at a ledge below that was connected to the main landmass by an old, rickety wooden bridge. "We should go check that out."

"That bridge doesn't look safe," Sheena observed, having come up alongside Matt and Eleanor with Rosalita behind her.

"You're right," Matt agreed. He put the puzzle box back in his bag and took two more Poké Balls out. "But there's one thing we have in our favor… how big this mine is."

When he threw the spheres, Sally appeared alongside Matt's Magnezone, both hovering over the edge of the cliff. Rosalita quickly tossed one of her own Poké Balls as well, releasing a Staraptor to join them.

"Sally, bring Sheena and I down to that ledge, would you?" he asked his Salamence, gesturing to the cliff below. He then said to his Magnezone, "Zero, please take Eleanor."

"And we'll follow them, Reyes," Rosalita informed her Staraptor.

Sally was the first of the Pokémon to land on the precipice, allowing Matt and Sheena to climb onto her back. She then lifted herself back into the air and pulled away so Zero could take her place and collect Eleanor. Rosalita was last to get on her mount, but Reyes pushed to the front of the pack before the group started their descent.

"This place really is incredible," Eleanor marvelled as she looked around at the cavern. "This isn't what I was expecting a mineral mine to be like at all."

"A mineral mine? I guess Fernando told you that." Rosalita smiled sadly to herself. "The truth is, this mine yielded many more types of treasures than that. Matt, you're Sinnohan so you might understand this the most. In the past our kingdom mined precious artifacts, stones and even fossils here."

"Like the Sinnoh Underground," Matt realized.

"Yes. From what I understand there are also mines in Alola that are similar," Rosalita continued. "It doesn't matter now, though. The mining industry stopped being viable for us years ago, so this mine was closed."

When the group arrived at their destination, Rosalita jumped off of Reyes' back before Matt, Sheena and Eleanor disembarked. Shaymin ran right to the sheer rock face and stared at it. The four humans followed and started examining the wall as well.

"I don't see anything," Matt said to the others. "Is this not the right spot?"

"It doesn't look like there was any excavation done here," Rosalita reasoned, "so why is there a bridge to this spot? What is this?"

"Matt, your bag!" Eleanor exclaimed, pointing at him.

He hadn't noticed, but the light spilling out of his bag had intensified so much that the shape of the puzzle box could be seen through the material. The sight made him gasp, and he quickly took the cube out. Unsure of what to do with it, he simply held it up toward the wall.

The reaction was almost instant. A light matching that of the puzzle box emanated from the wall, and a golden archway and set of doors materialized right in front of the explorers' eyes.

"What?" Matt uttered, gasping for the second time in under a minute. "How does that even work?"

"Did the ones who built it use Gaia's power?" guessed Sheena. "If they did, making a shrine that only appears with a key would be possible."

"It is possible," Rosalita agreed. "The wanderer who came to this land seven hundred years ago left texts behind on how to use Gaia. As far as I know nobody has ever had the same talent in channeling it as he did, but construction of a vanishing shrine is probably within reason."

"Then let's investigate it before it disappears again." Eleanor marched right up to the stone doors, which bore the same 'H' shape pattern of dots that appeared on the puzzle box. Sheena followed right after her, while Matt and Rosalita hung back with their Pokémon.

"Sally, Zero, I'd like for you to guard the shrine while we're in there," he requested, earning cries of agreement from the pair. "There's always the chance we were followed."

"Reyes, you too, please," Rosalita said to her Staraptor, who replied with a determined squawk. She then turned to Matt and started walking with him to the doorway. "That was good thinking, I have to say. I've been expecting Fernando to follow us here the entire time…"

Matt opened his mouth to say something, but when he looked down at Rosalita next to him, he realized that her eyes were watering again. She had turned away from him and was staring rigidly at the doors.

"She expects it, but she doesn't want it to happen… she still hopes there's a way to fix everything with him, I guess…"

"Let's get going," Rosalita said to Sheena and Eleanor, her voice hard and emotionless. She marched straight past them and pushed the doors open.

Eleanor stepped inside after Rosalita, allowing Litwick to illuminate the chamber. Matt and Sheena followed, all of them carefully looking around at their surroundings for any sign of what to do next. It was a simple stone room whose only features were the colorful paintings of Regigigas, Regirock, Registeel and Regice that spread across the walls and floor.

"Come here," Eleanor called out to the others, "look at this."

The engineer beckoned Matt, Sheena and Rosalita to the back wall, where Litwick's flame shed light on the writing inscribed on it.

"This writing… I've seen it before," Rosalita said after leaning in closer to examine it. Instead of ordinary written language, whatever was recorded on the wall was in patterns of dots. "But I don't know how to read it."

"I do." Matt stepped past the others, who looked at him with surprise on their faces. Lowering himself to be level with the writing, Matt began to read it, running his finger along the lines of text as he went. "Whosoever shall wear the crown, here begins the road. Walk this path with resolve and face the three trials that await. Here lies the first of the three trials. The body of rock shall only awaken for one whose gratitude blooms before us. Beware, for if gratitude does not bloom, destruction shall be at hand."

"Shall only awaken for one whose gratitude blooms before us," Sheena repeated. "It sounds like it wants us to express gratitude, but that wording is a little odd."

"I don't know what will happen to bring destruction if we get this wrong," Matt warned, "so we best think about what our next step is before we take it."

"Bloom, like a flower," reasoned Eleanor. "Maybe that's wordplay. What if it doesn't want our gratitude but a flower that represents gratitude? We could try Shaymin."

"It's not Shaymin," Rosalita realized. "Shaymin is the Gardener of Gratitude, but the gardener only plants the flowers. This message is referring to the flower of gratitude itself - the Gracidea."

Shaymin sat on Rosalita's shoulder and smiled proudly as she approached the wall. Matt, Sheena and Eleanor backed up to give her space. When she stood directly in front of the message, she reached into her cloak and took out a small box. It bore the image of a canine Pokémon with wing-like ears, which was holding three spears colored brown, silver and blue. Behind the Pokémon was the shape of a flower with six petals.

The same flower as the one in the coat of arms was inside the box when Rosalita opened it. It was a vivid pink color with yellow stamens and a pair of green leaves sticking out of it. Rosalita held the box up to the dots on the wall, and in response to the pollen that wafted out, the symbols started to glow. A strange light whose source could not be identified filled the shrine.

"What's happening now?" Eleanor wondered, putting words to the confusion all but Rosalita felt.

While the humans were distracted, the pollen of the Gracidea had also drifted over to Shaymin. Its body started to glow and change shape, becoming the Pokémon who was in Rosalita's coat of arms. The grass on the back of Shaymin's original form transformed into a mohawk-shaped tuft between its long ears, the two flowers surrounding its head became a single, scarf-like set of red petals, and its legs more than doubled in length.

"There is no need to be afraid, you!" Shaymin exclaimed, floating into the air once its transformation was complete. "This is the first trial on the road to the Golden City. The message said that, you!"

Eleanor was unable to stifle her laugh. "Thanks, but you sure have changed."

"It's Shaymin's Sky Forme," Rosalita revealed. "When Shaymin gets exposed to a Gracidea flower, it transforms and gains the ability to fly."

"I get a lot stronger too, so don't underestimate me, you!" Who Shaymin was talking to was unclear, but none of the four had much time to think about it. The doors of the shrine suddenly slammed shut, trapping them inside. "Don't focus on me now, you! He is here!"

"Who is here?" Matt nervously asked, though Shaymin didn't answer.

A beam of light erupted from the floor in front of the blocked exit, forcing Matt, Sheena and Eleanor to shield their eyes. Rosalita, on the other hand, wasn't bothered by it. She stared straight into the light as she readied one of her Poké Balls, her eyes burning with determination.

"This is my fight now, so stay back," she told the others. A shape was emerging from the light, though its features remained obscured at first. "I must do this if I am to prove my worth for the throne."

Finally, the light began to fade. A deep, robotic voice echoed through the shrine as the figure emerged from the glare, its rough, craggy body constructed of what appeared to be stones of various shapes simply stuck together.

"Regirock…" Matt uttered as he took his laptop back from Sheena to continue recording what was happening.

"I've waited a very long time to meet you, Regirock. My name is Rosalita, princess of the House of Fernando and current heir to the throne of La Ciudad Dorada. I have come to prove myself and claim my birthright!"

Despite Regirock's bizarre, inorganic appearance, it clearly understood Rosalita's words. It stomped one of its feet into the floor and braced its arms, the 'H'-shaped pattern of dots on its face flickering rapidly. In response to this seeming challenge, Rosalita threw her Poké Ball. It burst open to reveal a Bibarel, who immediately fell to all fours and prepared for battle when he saw Regirock.

"Regirock wants to see what Rosalita and her Pokémon are capable of," Sheena revealed to the others after clasping her hands and using her power. "This isn't a fight between predator and prey, or one living thing defending its nest from another. If I had to say, this is ritual combat."

"We might be seeing something very few people are lucky enough to see," Eleanor said in amazement. "Matt, make sure you record it!"

"I am, I am!" Matt hurriedly answered, making sure he had his laptop pointing in Bibarel and Regirock's direction.

The dots on Regirock's face flashed again while it grunted mechanically. It then raised its arms into the air, slammed them into the ground, and pointed them at Bibarel. A gust of sand burst out from around it, creating a sandstorm that spiraled around the chamber. Matt and Sheena had to back away to prevent the gritty vortex from getting in their eyes, but Eleanor nonchalantly donned a pair of goggles she'd been keeping in a pocket on her skirt.

Rosalita, meanwhile, put her hand above her eyes to shield them. "Sandstorm… I expected as much. Leonel, use Swords Dance!"

The princess's Bibarel lowered himself in preparation to leap at Regirock. Sword-shaped bursts of light circled him before being absorbed into his body, causing an intense red aura to briefly surround him.

"You're doing a good job, Leonel," Rosalita called out to him as the sandstorm buffeted him. "Now, strike with Liquidation!"

A coat of water enveloped Leonel's body before he finally sprang at the advancing Regirock. Their collision caused the water to explosively separate from Leonel's body, while Regirock was thrown back several feet before it could brace itself again.

"That surprises me," Sheena observed. "Everything I know about Regirock says it should be a lot more physically defensive than that."

"It's not a difference with Regirock, it's a difference with Bibarel," Matt deduced. "Its ability must be Simple, which would mean that Swords Dance had twice as much of an effect."

"I see," Sheena said, turning back to the battle.

Regirock raised its arms into the air, summoning forth a flurry of small, sharp stones. It then swung its arms forward, sending the rocks flying to slash at Leonel. The Bibarel dodged as many as he could, but enough hit him to force out a few pained cries.

"This is the sort of thing I know you can handle," Rosalita encouraged her Pokémon. He looked back to her and nodded with a grin on his face, making her smile as well. "Let's go with exactly what we practiced. Defense Curl!"

Leonel jumped into the air and rolled up into a ball. Where Swords Dance had drawn a red aura around him, Defense Curl elicited a blue one.

"So twice as much effect again, right?" Sheena asked Matt.

"Right," he confirmed.

While Leonel remained rolled up, Regirock summoned forth the ammunition it needed for another Stone Edge. Before it could launch the jagged projectiles, however, Rosalita swept her arm in front of herself, making her cloak flap dramatically in the air.

"Leonel, Rollout!"

The Bibarel rolled out of the way of Stone Edge with great speed, leaving Regirock's attack to crash harmlessly into the wall. He spun in a zigzag path toward Regirock before crashing into it. Regirock retaliated by pulling its arm back and charging the green energy of a Drain Punch into it, but by the time the legendary Pokémon swung its target had bounced off out of its reach.

Regirock's dots flashed rapidly, then it jumped into the air and landed again with enough force to send a shockwave through the ground. Leonel was still rolling, but Regirock's Stomping Tantrum knocked him off course for a moment. Eleanor had to jump back to avoid being hit.

"You've got a good pace going now, Leonel. Keep up using Rollout!"

Hearing his trainer's words of encouragement helped Leonel get back on track, and he curved around to head for Regirock again. This time, Regirock readied its Drain Punch in advance, so when Leonel made contact it was able to swing and connect immediately. Green light flowed from Leonel's body into Regirock's as the Normal-and-Water-type flipped back through the air.

Leonel managed to regain his composure, however, and rolled back up before he landed. He barreled straight for Regirock at a greater speed than before. Regirock paused for a moment to appraise the threat, its dots flashing in tune with its robotic voice, then countered by firing Stone Edge into Leonel at point-blank range.

"Ah!" Rosalita gasped when she saw her Pokémon crash backward. His Rollout had finally been stopped.

"That was good while it lasted," Matt said to Sheena while staring at his laptop. "She'd have to start a new Rollout all over now."

"And Leonel probably can't take too much more, even with a doubly effective Defense Curl," she added, taking note of the scratches and other injuries on Leonel's body.

Though Rosalita didn't hear Matt and Sheena's conversation, she was thinking of exactly the same things they were discussing.

"Can you keep going, Leonel?" she called out to him. Despite his weakened state, he sat up and cheerfully chattered back at her, raising her spirits enough to restore her determined smile. "I have to lead you to victory if I am to lead the kingdom, but I cannot and will not sacrifice those I'm responsible for… we must claim victory in this battle now. Swords Dance!"

Another ring of sword-shaped lights circled around Leonel's body, but unlike the first time he did this, a red aura didn't appear around him. This time, he glowed with a vivid red light instead.

"I think Leonel's hit his limit," Matt observed. "This really will end now, one way or another."

Regirock appeared to have come to the same conclusion. It stood still for a moment, appraising its opponent while making a beeping sound, then raised its arms, calling forth the greatest volume of jagged stones yet.

"This is it, Leonel!" Rosalita cried out, sweeping her arm again. "Go forth and claim victory! Liquidation!"

Right as Leonel cloaked himself in water and launched himself at Regirock, the legendary Pokémon released its Stone Edge. Leonel weaved his way through the assault with movements much like those he'd use while swimming. He couldn't evade every one of the stones, but the ones that penetrated his veil of water failed to rattle him.

An explosion of water and dust occurred when Leonel and Regirock collided, creating a muddy mess in the shrine. None of the group could see who came out on top at first, but as the air cleared, Regirock dropped to one knee. It groaned mechanically, then fell forward into the ground.

"We did it, Leonel!" Rosalita exclaimed, running over to hug her Pokémon. "We're finally on the road we've prepared for for so long!"

"I'm proud of you, you!" Shaymin praised her.

"That really was something else," Eleanor said, lifting her goggles as she approached the pair. Matt and Sheena were behind her. "I knew we were seeing something special."

"This is the path the heir to the throne must take to prove their worth," replied the princess, her manner turning serious again. "Ever since I was chosen, I've prepared for this." She stopped for a moment and pet Leonel's head. "I should say, we've prepared for this. The trials are only going to get harder from here, though… it's a game of life and death for the kingdom, and our leader must be strong enough to give their own life to it."

"Since you were chosen?" Sheena asked. "There's quite a bit I'd like to ask you about. I came to this kingdom to learn more about my peoples' connection to it."

"Yeah, me too!" Eleanor exclaimed before adding, "Well, not that last part. But I love history and I want to hear all about it."

"Your interest is heartening," Rosalita said to them. "I wish my brother could see that there are outsiders who truly appreciate our way of life."

Suddenly, Matt, Rosalita, Sheena and Eleanor all heard a strange, unfamiliar voice speaking to them. It was deep, rough and seemed to be coming from everywhere.

"A body of rock. To summon the king, such a thing must be obtained."

"Who said that?" Matt wondered, looking around the shrine for the source of the voice.

"It was as if… it spoke directly into our minds," Sheena thought out loud. She and the others settled their questioning gazes on Regirock, who had begun glowing with golden light.

An invisible force started to pull on Matt's bag, and before he realized what was happening, the puzzle box floated out under its own volition. It was radiating the same light as Regirock, and the rays joined the two together. Regirock soon vanished, and the puzzle box lowered to the floor. When Matt picked it up, he noticed that the sides bearing Regirock's dot pattern were illuminated.

"A body of rock. To summon the king, such a thing must be obtained," he repeated. "That must be what this box really is for. It's not just a map, it's a key. It's how we gather Regirock, Regice and Registeel together to find Regigigas and the Golden City."

"You're correct," Rosalita said. "We still have much to discuss, but now is not the time. We must continue on."

The quartet turned to head for the doors, but they hadn't gotten far before they could hear the sound of an explosion outside.

"Now really isn't the time," remarked Eleanor.

"He must have found us…" Rosalita realized. She swiftly returned Leonel to his Poké Ball. "We're not exactly in a great position for this right now…"

When the group rushed outside the shrine, they were greeted by the clearing smoke from the explosion they'd just heard. Sally, Zero and Reyes were standing firm in the positions guarding the shrine, but across the chasm stood Noel and Leon. Heatran was with them, along with their collared Yanmega, Togekiss, Honchkrow and Lickilicky, all of whom snarled menacingly.

"Yo, what the heck were you doin' in there for so long?" Leon shouted across the crevasse with his fists on his hips. "You kept us waiting!"

"Why would it matter when we don't even know who you are?" Eleanor's expression had quite literally darkened compared to her typical, more upbeat personality.

"Get out of our way," Rosalita ordered the pair, staring at them with an intense fire burning in her already intense eyes. "I don't know if you're with Fernando or not, but honestly, I don't care. Walk away right now."

"Yeah, that ain't gonna happen," Leon dismissively replied.

"Then I'll make you move. Reyes, us-"

Before Rosalita could order an attack, Noel and Leon's Togekiss used her wings to send a blade of wind cutting through the air. It crashed into the ground right in front of Rosalita's feet, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

"No, no, no, you ain't doing that either," Noel declared, waving her finger. "This is how things are gonna go down. You're gonna hand us that magic box you got, and you're gonna give us Shaymin, too. We go to the Golden City, 'n maybe we let you outta this cave."

"Wait, Sis, where is Shaymin?" Leon wondered. "Don't see it with 'em now."

"I'm right here, you!" Shaymin angrily announced, floating to the front of the group. "And I'm not going anywhere but with Rosalita, you!"

"It changed shape…" Leon realized.

"So there really is another form, huh," Noel said to herself. She crossed her arms and smiled. "Ain't gonna change a thing in the long run. You'll be comin' with us, whether we gotta make you or not."

Rosalita opened her mouth to say something, but she paused when Matt touched her shoulder on his way past her.

"Use this chance to get Shaymin out of here," he quietly said to her.

The princess nodded and stepped back, allowing Matt to take the lead.

"You gonna be a hero, dude?" Noel taunted him. "Ain't nobody gonna get between us and our ticket outta this, 'specially not a dork like you. Don't try me."

"You better listen to what Sis is tellin' you," Leon added.

"Well I've got a question for you," Matt countered. "My grandfather was murdered by someone who used a Dragonite wearing one of those collars your Pokémon have. Was it you?"

Much to Matt's surprise, his question seemed to genuinely catch Noel and Leon off guard. Noel's aggressive confidence broke, and she jabbed a finger in Matt's direction.

"You got some nerve even suggesting that!" she angrily said to him, her eyes narrowed to mere slits. "Bro and I might be a lot of things but we ain't no killers! We're just doin' what we gotta do to survive!"

"Is that so," Matt responded, his voice turning bitter. "Because I haven't seen those collars since then… until today."

"The collars were on the Pokémon when we got 'em, dude," Leon admitted.

"What did you say?"

Before Matt could get an answer, Rosalita saw an opening in how Noel and Leon were engaged with him. "Shaymin, fly out of here," she whispered to the Pokémon.

"I won't leave you behind," Shaymin argued. "I must be at the side of the leader, you!"

"You don't need to worry about me," Rosalita asserted. "I'll catch up with you. Just go!"

Shaymin hesitated, but did eventually turn and start to fly back up the way the group came. Though he didn't see this, Matt still knew he had to draw out his argument with Noel and Leon.

"I'll ask you one more time, what did you mean when you said you 'got' the Pokémon and the collars?" he demanded of them. "From who?"

"I don't remember sayin' anything like that." Leon shrugged, taunting Matt with his knowing smirk. "You losin' your mind, dude?"

"You rich folks have been lookin' down on us street kids all our lives," Noel angrily said with her arms tightly crossed. "We ain't takin' it no more. This job is our ticket outta this life, and you ain't gonna take it aw-"

Suddenly, the pair's Lickilicky interrupted Noel's tirade with a cry of surprise. She'd spotted Shaymin making its escape.

"No!" Rosalita exclaimed when she realized her plan was shot. "Shaymin, run for it!"

It was already too late, however. The moment she saw Shaymin flying off, Noel got to work with the control device on her wrist and sent Honchkrow, Yanmega and Togekiss to block its escape route.

"Honchkrow, Icy Wind!" Noel directed. "Togekiss, Air Slash! Yanmega, Ancient Power!"

Honchkrow was the first of the three to act. Positioning himself directly in front of Shaymin, he flapped his broad wings to send a gust of chilled air over it. The attack wasn't very powerful, but Shaymin was still stricken by the cold, losing some of its agility. As a result it was unable to escape when Togekiss and Yanmega barraged it with a blade of wind and spheres of silver energy. Shaymin cried out from the force of the repeated impacts and fell back down to the ledge, where Rosalita caught it in her arms.

"You idiots just made a big mistake," Noel growled. "Since you did that, I'm doin' this. Lickilicky, Dragon Tail!"

The blue glow from Lickilicky's collar intensified, and purple light in the shape of a straight, pointed tail surrounded her typically curled one. She then jumped up and swept away the posts holding up the bridge on her side of the chasm, sending the rickety pathway collapsing uselessly to the opposite end.

"Oh, you guys did it now," Leon mocked. "You made Sis real mad."

"I'm done talkin' to you." With a sweep of her hand over her wrist device's projection, Noel beckoned Heatran to the front of her army. "Shaymin and the box. Now. Or I start puttin' the screws to you. We ain't killers but we don't have these Pokémon to not use 'em, and we got numbers on our side if you think you're fightin' back."

Matt froze. "She certainly isn't kidding about that," he thought. "And we haven't got nearly enough space to even try fighting our way out, anyway… what to do?"

"We aren't afraid of you, you!" Shaymin was back to its old self, having already recovered from its earlier injury. "I'm not going with you, and you're not getting the treasure either."

"Guess the decision's made for me," Matt sighed when he saw Shaymin fly in front of him.

"You made that decision, then. Not me." Noel manipulated the projection with her fingers and ordered, "Heatran, Magma Storm!"

Fixing her glare on Shaymin, Heatran opened her gaping mouth and blasted out a spiraling stream of fire. Shaymin ignored the very real danger this posed, and reared back to throw an Air Slash into the vortex.

Seeing that Shaymin's counterattack wouldn't be enough, Matt quickly called out, "Hydro Pump!"

The combination of Shaymin's Air Slash and Sally's Hydro Pump overcame Heatran's offense, canceling it out in a violent, smoky explosion. Matt covered his face as the force of the collision blew against him.

Before the smoke cleared, Rosalita stepped up next to Matt and put her hand on his shoulder. "I have an idea to get out of here, but I need what just happened to happen again."

"I don't like the sound of that," he answered nervously.

"We'll need it if we're going to get all the way down there." Rosalita pointed over the side of the cliff, where Matt could see an Arcane Science-powered, multi-car mining train sitting abandoned on tracks heading into another spacious tunnel at the bottom of the cavern.

"Ohhh, I get it now," he said. "I think I do, at least."

"What's the matter, can't decide how you're goin' to surrender?" Leon shouted across the chasm once the veil of smoke lifted enough to allow the two sides to see each other again.

"Tell Eleanor and Sheena the plan," Matt quietly said to Rosalita. "I'll handle this."

Rosalita nodded quickly and retreated to the others, leaving Matt to face Noel and Leon. Sally, Zero and Shaymin lined up in front of him.

"Are you gonna give me what I want," Noel demanded, "or do you think makin' me do that again is a good idea?"

"I pick door number three," he countered. "Sally, use Flamethrower! Zero, Thunderbolt!"

Matt's Salamence roared as she spouted a jet of fire from her mouth at Yanmega. Zero, meanwhile, took aim at Togekiss with a bolt of electricity that arced through the air from the antenna on its head. Finally, Shaymin contributed to the effort by lashing out with another Air Slash.

Noel hadn't expected Matt to actually try mounting a counteroffensive, so she wasn't ready to coordinate a response. All she could do was frantically go through the different control options her wrist device offered, her distraction forcing Leon to step in.

"I got this, Sis!" he said to her before turning his attention to the Pokémon. "Honchkrow, Icy Wind! Lickilicky, Water Pulse!"

The cold air that Honchkrow blew toward Sally's Flamethrower soon dissipated into a cloud of harmless steam, but the ring of water Lickilicky launched was able to lessen the intensity of the fire, so Yanmega took little damage from it. Immediately after, Honchkrow shielded his body with his wing, protecting it from a direct blow from Shaymin's Air Slash. Togekiss, however, took the full force of Zero's Thunderbolt, crying out and thrashing around while the electricity brightly illuminated the cave.

"Togekiss, escape that and use Hyper Voice!" Noel ordered the Normal-and-Flying-type Pokémon. In response to the command Noel gave with her wrist device, the light from Togekiss' collar intensified, its influence strengthening Togekiss enough for her to break free from the Thunderbolt.

She then flew to a vantage point where Sally, Zero and Shaymin were all in reach, took a deep breath, and unleashed a loud shriek. Although Zero had a robust defense against Normal-type attacks such as this, the sheer force Togekiss put into it forced the Electric-and-Steel-type Pokémon back just as it did to Zero's allies.

"You say you wanted door number three?" Noel bitterly mocked Matt. "Too bad, what you just did is only gonna get you door number two. Heatran, give 'im what he deserves!"

Noel swept her hand over the projection and then made a tight fist. In response to this motion, Heatran stomped forward, opened her mouth and spat out a Magma Storm more intense than the one before. Sally, Zero and Shaymin stood ready to stop it, and put all their effort into a combined Hydro Pump, Thunderbolt and Air Slash that met the vortex with explosive force. Matt, Rosalita, Eleanor and Sheena all had to brace themselves against the blast's force, while Leon held Noel in place. The air filled with smoke once again, though like the Magma Storm that went into creating it, there was much more of it than before.

"Shaymin, now!" Rosalita called out.

"You got it, you!"

Without hesitation, Shaymin dove straight into the huge cloud of smoke. It tensed all its muscles and focused its mind, drawing the smoke into its body. As it did so, the two scarf-like petals on its neck turned black. Still, it pressed on, growling to get through until it absorbed every trace of the acrid cloud.

Once the cloud was gone, Shaymin strained to keep it all contained. Finally, it screamed, "Take this, you!" before flying straight at Noel, Leon and their Pokémon.

Noel and Leon had no time to react before Shaymin unleashed a blinding light from its body, followed by a massive and powerful explosion. The pair were thrown all the way back into the wall several feet away, with their army scattering around them. Even the heavier Pokémon, Heatran and Lickilicky, couldn't stand against the force of the blast.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the destroyed bridge, Rosalita frantically told the others, "Hurry, we have to go right now!"

Matt, Sheena and Eleanor wasted no time in following Rosalita's direction to execute her plan. All four of them got back on the Pokémon that had helped them descend earlier - Matt and Sheena on Sally, Eleanor on Zero, and Rosalita on Reyes - and set off even deeper into the mine. Shaymin followed as soon as it recovered from attacking Noel and Leon, leaving the pair and their army of Pokémon behind.

When they reached the lowest area of the cavern, Shaymin had already caught up with them. "Hurry up, you!" it barked at them while they recalled their Pokémon.

"Is Shaymin always like this?" Matt flatly and sarcastically asked Rosalita.

"Only in Sky Forme," she answered, equally bitingly. "It would be best for us if we just listened…"

The quartet boarded the train and made their way to the engine at the head of it. All the cars and the engine had the same rusty, flaking red paint on them, and like almost all other Arcane Science technology, the engine had cylindrical bulbs sticking out of it. They were unlit, however, as were the controls Eleanor and Rosalita found when they went to examine the engine.

"I don't know if it still works," Rosalita confessed. "This plan wasn't guaranteed, but it was the best I had…" Noticing how attentively Eleanor was inspecting the controls, Rosalita asked her, "Am I wrong? Do you see something?"

"The actual wires and machinery all look intact," Eleanor said, poking at the cables. "It's missing a power source, but I can fix that."

Eleanor retrieved a Poké Ball from the waist of her skirt and opened it. A Rotom materialized out of it and floated in the air, the lightning bolt-shaped plasma surrounding its body trembling with every slight move it made. When it saw the machinery in front of itself, its smile turned into a toothy, excited grin.

"You want to power this train up, Rotom?"

Eleanor didn't need to ask Rotom twice. The Electric-and-Ghost-type dove straight into the control panel, and its energy brought the engine to life. The bulbs flickered and filled with blue light, and the panel illuminated to display the train's controls.

"Excellent!" Rosalita exclaimed. Looking over her shoulder, she called to Matt and Sheena, "Train's running! Time to go!"

Eleanor mimicked the motion of adjusting a train engineer's cap on her head before bringing her hands over the controls. "All aboard!"

At Eleanor's prompting, the train started to move. It jerked abruptly forward and stalled briefly before getting going, rolling into the tunnel with its wheels clicking rhythmically on the tracks. The group traveled in silence for several minutes before Matt finally exhaled and relaxed.

"Well, that's finally over," he sighed, sitting down against the interior of an empty gondola behind the engine.

Sitting down opposite Matt, Sheena called to Rosalita, "Where are we heading, anyway?"

"I had a look at a map of the old mining system earlier," the princess explained. "We entered the mine in section nine using the elevator. This rail line enters and exits the mine in section six, and there's lodging for workers not too far from where this tunnel ends. We'll be able to rest and recover there."

"That's a relief," Sheena said before taking a deep breath.

"Who were those two, though?" Matt wondered, adjusting his glasses and putting his hand on his chin. "I heard her say that this was their ticket out of a life of crime… once we're out of here I'll look and see if there's any public information on them. Maybe we can get an idea of who we're up against."

"They must be in league with my brother somehow…" Rosalita said as she joined Matt and Sheena riding in the gondola. Her serious attitude from earlier had broken, and she now both looked and sounded tired. "The collars, and those clockwork Poké Balls on their vests… both are Doradan Arcane Science technology."

"Then someone connected to your kingdom murdered my grandfather," Matt told her. "The witnesses to the killer said he had a Dragonite wearing one of those same collars. If it wasn't Fernando, and it wasn't those two we just dealt with, it was someone."

"Once I take the throne I'll find who in the court was involved," Rosalita vowed, hanging her head and turning her eyes up to see him. "It must have been someone in the government. The general public wouldn't know Sutter had that puzzle box."

"Wait, that sounds… strange," Matt thought, moving his hand from his chin to his mouth as he considered Rosalita's words. "It's true that not just anyone should have known he had the box. But if a new ruler must follow the path of the Three Pillars, and the box is necessary to gather them, then…"

Matt's deductions were interrupted when Shaymin perched itself on the edge of the gondola. Seemingly both excited and agitated, it shrilled, "Look alive, you! The fight's not over!" as it stared off behind the train.

Despite Shaymin's alert, it wasn't until an impact shook the train that Matt, Sheena and Rosalita stood up and saw the threat.

Noel and Leon were giving chase, flying through the tunnel single-file with their wingpacks. Yanmega and Togekiss remained with them.

"Oh, when will you just quit?!" Rosalita yelled at them.

"When you give us Shaymin and that box!" Noel shouted back. "I told you, we ain't goin' back to the way our lives've been!"

"Well your lives aren't going to be made on the sacrifice of our kingdom, that I'm telling you now." Rosalita climbed out of the gondola and beckoned Matt to follow her, both of them boarding the flatcar immediately behind it. Shaymin flew to Rosalita's side, and she opened one of her Poké Balls, summoning her Luxray. "Shaymin, give me a hand here. Matt, you back me up."

"Got it, you!" Shaymin excitedly said.

"Same, but without the 'you,'" Matt added with a hint of sarcasm.

Seeing the defense being mounted against her efforts, Noel seized her chance to act first. Pointing forward, she commanded, "Yanmega, Ancient Power! Togekiss, Hyper Voice!"

Yanmega flew to the head of Noel's group and formed several silver energy orbs around himself. Before he could complete his attack, Rosalita countered, calling out, "Isabel, Thunderbolt!"

Sparks of electricity crackled from the Luxray's mane moments before she unleashed a burst of lightning from it, shooting down the spheres before they could impact the train. Togekiss dove in front of Yanmega immediately afterward and filled the tunnel with her earsplitting screeching, but even as it cringed from the pain the noise caused, Shaymin still rushed its enemy head-on. The mythical Pokémon stepped on Togekiss' head to stun her, then backflipped through the air and flung a blade of compressed wind directly into her face before laughing mischievously.

"Why are you givin' us such trouble?" Noel fumed. "You got a brother too! We ain't doin' anything you wouldn't do for him!"

Rosalita took a step back, and although Matt couldn't see her face, he correctly guessed from the way her whole body tensed up that she was upset and hurt.

"It's true that I love my brother…" she admitted, the vanishing of her previous confidence reflecting how torn she felt, "and trying to better your lives isn't wrong either. But you're wrong, I'm nothing like you!"

Noel was so angered and distracted by Rosalita's outburst that she nearly stopped flying after the train. "Of course you aren't. Rich kids like you never understood livin' on the street like we had to!"

During the argument, Noel had retrieved a normal Poké Ball from her belt, and once she was done fuming she opened it. The light within landed on the flatbed car and took the amorphous shape of a Muk. Unlike all the Muk Matt had seen before, this one had an oily blue body with green, yellow and pink flowing aimlessly through him. Some points on his body had solidified into small white crystals.

"Muk, use Gunk Shot!" Noel shouted.

Without hesitation, Muk coughed up a giant mass of sludge outlined by a golden aura. It was large enough to threaten both Pokémon assisting Rosalita, but while Shaymin could easily fly away from it, Isabel the Luxray had no such option.

A sudden flash in front of Rosalita and Isabel forced them both to shut their eyes. They could only hear the explosion that came moments later, and when they were able to look again, they discovered its source.

Standing in front of them on the flatcar was an Aggron. Matt had sent the Steel-and-Rock type out by opening his Poké Ball from around Rosalita's side, allowing him to intercept Gunk Shot without harm.

"That was close." Rosalita sighed in relief. "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it," Matt replied before turning his attention back to his Aggron. "I'm tired of doing this… Tony, use Dragon Claw on that Muk, please."

Noel grit her teeth. "Muk, get away using Rock Polish!"

Tony pulled his right arm back and advanced on Muk, his claws lengthened and glowing with a bright green hue. In response, Noel's Pokémon smoothed out his body, a wave of white light working its way across him as the irregular parts of his mass became uniform. Just before Tony was able to strike, Muk slipped away and slithered to the underside of the flatcar, where he adhered himself to remain out of Tony's reach. Togekiss then swooped into the opening, formed an Aura Sphere between her wings and flung it into Tony's chest. The Aggron roared as he stumbled back from the impact.

"This is never going to end at this rate," Rosalita realized. "Not with that Muk hiding like that… and if we reach the end of the tunnel they'll have room to bring out all their Pokémon again."

"We'll be swamped," Matt concurred.

"Good thing I've got an idea, you," Shaymin said to them both after floating down to them. "I say just stop them from following us. Get what I mean, you?"

Shaymin subtly nodded to the coupling between the train cars, and Rosalita immediately realized what it was suggesting. "I got it," she said to the Pokémon. "You push them back and we'll take care of the rest. Isabel, with me."

Rosalita carefully pushed by Matt and got back inside the gondola, then Isabel leaped over him to join her. She then gestured for Matt to follow her, and once only Tony and Muk remained on the flatcar, she called out to Shaymin.

"Do it now!"

With another mischievous grin, Shaymin reared back and spun multiple blades of wind into Yanmega and Togekiss. The pair were halted by the attack, while one of the Air Slashes came close enough to Noel to force her to stop flying after the train. Leon barely avoided crashing into her.

"Have Aggron use Dragon Claw on the coupling," the princess told Matt.

"Alright." He took Tony's Poké Ball back out of his bag, then called to the Steel-and-Rock-type, "I don't know if you heard her, but break the coupling with Dragon Claw!"

Tony turned around and grunted in acknowledgement to his trainer, then lumbered over and drove his glowing claws straight into the coupling between the gondola and the flatcar. The metal hooks cracked apart and lost their hold on each other.

Now no longer connected to the engine, the flatcar started slowing down. Tony roared in pride at his work, not noticing Muk come back up to the surface.

"Well done, Tony!" Matt praised him before recalling him into the Poké Ball, leaving Muk alone on the flatcar.

"You two might want to keep your heads down and back away for this part," Rosalita told Matt and Sheena. When they both looked questioningly at her, she added, "Just in case."

Though neither of them fully understood what Rosalita intended to do, Matt and Sheena shrugged at each other and went to the other end of the gondola as she suggested. Once Rosalita saw they were a safe distance away, she pointed at the ceiling and said to Isabel, "Use Thunderbolt and don't let up."

Thanks to the pace of the train, the electric bolts Isabel struck the ceiling with kept moving with her. The tunnel collapsed at each point she hit, filling the passageway with rocks that formed an ever-thickening barrier between the train and Noel, Leon and their Pokémon.

"That's enough," she told Isabel after a few minutes, prompting the Luxray to halt her attack. Rosalita gave her a scratch behind the ear, then went to join her companions at the front of the train. "They won't be getting out of the mine this way, at least."

"You fought well," Matt said. "Not just now. Everything I saw you do today was impressive."

"I must agree," Sheena added. "La Ciudad Dorada is lucky to have such a driven leader."

"Thank you, even though I'm not really the leader yet." Rosalita sat down and frowned as she hung her head. "There's so much that still needs to be done. It's all rather overwhelming, and that's before taking my brother into account. I know I have to face him eventually and that's what has me scared the most."

"Scared?" Matt wondered.

"I'm not scared that he will harm me. I'm scared that when I face him again, I won't see the Fernando I love anymore. I'm sure those two goons were working for him and it leaves me to fear that he's already too far gone to be saved… when that time comes, I have to choose between him or the kingdom and I don't know if I'll be able to make the right choice."

By the time she was done talking, Rosalita's whole body was trembling. Sheena sat down next to her and took the princess' hand up in her own.

"I had to face a relative once who I was led to believe was a horrible person," Sheena told her, "and I had to do things that made me feel like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. I made a lot of mistakes along the way but in the end I was able to help do what needed to be done. I'm saying this because I understand how you feel right now, and if it means anything, I believe in you."

Rosalita was stunned by Sheena's words of support and couldn't form a response right away. "Th-thank you…" she finally managed to say. "I'm not even sure I deserve it. A real leader would have been able to deal with their own brother instead of running away the way I did."

"You may have made a mistake, but I promise you that it doesn't make you any less worthy of being a leader." Sheena tightened her grip on Rosalita's hand. "What matters is what you do from here, and I believe you'll do what's right."

Unable to hold back any longer, Rosalita started to tear up. "Thank you so much, I mean it…"

"You're already stronger than you think, you," Shaymin told her in a manner totally different from its typically boisterous personality. "You know what the kingdom's leader is expected to do and you're preparing yourself to face it. That means you're following in the footsteps of what your predecessors did, you."

Matt observed the increasingly emotional conversation between Rosalita, Sheena and Shaymin in silence. Feeling he had no right to insert himself into the exchange, he climbed over the end of the gondola and boarded the engine instead.

-:-

That evening, Fernando watched the sun slowly dip behind the mountainous horizon from a balcony in Lingote Palace. La Ciudad Dorada and the vast tract of land where its empire once stood were bathed in the brilliant orange glow that had long been a notorious attraction for tourists.

Fernando had draped himself in a crimson, gold-fringed cape fastened around his neck by an emblem of his family's coat of arms, which itself had three gold tassels hanging out from its sides. In his right hand, he held a staff that ended in an ornate, translucent gold bulb. Within the bulb rested a glowing, misshapen and prismatic jewel.

"I know you're out there, Sister," he said out loud. A breeze picked up, rustling his hair and cape for a moment. "Please just understand that I'm doing what I must to save us all… come home. There's still time for me to fix everything."

"Count Fernando?"

An aged man dressed in a regal purple-and-gold uniform stood in the glass doorway that led out to the balcony, waiting for acknowledgment before he approached or addressed his superior further. He had a medal with the coat of arms on it pinned to his chest, as well as a broad moustache.

"Ah?" Fernando said, turning around to face the official. "Oh, yes, I called for you. Come here."

Having secured Fernando's permission, the man joined him on the balcony. "What can I help you with, sir?"

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Fernando asked him, not immediately answering his question. "The land, I mean. Look at it."

"Of course it is. We've always worked to ensure it stays that way."

"Then you will understand why I need your help right now." Fernando turned to gaze out over the city again. "I want you to have your men begin preparing the skyship for launch."

"The skyship?" The official raised an eyebrow at Fernando's request, then pulled at the end of his moustache. "If I may, sir, I've served La Ciudad Dorada since your father's reign, and not one time during all those years did we need to launch the skyship."

"But you always kept it repaired and ready in case it was needed," Fernando said back. "Now is the time that you've been preparing for. I hope we will not need to actually launch it in the end, but La Ciudad Dorada is in danger and I need us to be ready."

"As you wish, Count Fernando. I'll give the order right away."

END of CHAPTER 2