After a hasty breakfast, Chris and Gloria mounted Lugia and flew south, hurrying to Chris's home.
"But how will they react to us being trainers?" Gloria asked as they flew.
"We'll worry about that later. We need to beat those guys in silver there first."
Even with Lugia going as fast as he could, it still took most of the day to get there. "I'm sorry I can't go faster, but only Rayquaza can surpass this speed, and I am unable to teleport there," Lugia told them about midday, when the pair unpacked their lunch. "We should be there around midafternoon."
"It's alright, Lugia, I'm just...really worried. I'm not sure how well my family and neighbors will be able to defend themselves."
"Aren't they fighters like you?" Gloria asked.
"Not most of them. Very few still learn the ways of the fighter, and mostly for entertainment. And without Pokemon..."
As they neared the island, Chris's sinking feeling grew deeper. Then, a column of smoke came into view, and not originating from the volcano. "Oh no..." Chris covered his eyes, not wanting to see what had happened to his home.
"We can still see if we can do something," Gloria said as she hugged him from behind.
But what they found was worse than they could ever have imagined. The smoke was billowing from a cruise ship half sunken in the port, its engines destroyed. Bodies of both natives and tourists littered the ground. Trying not to look at the corpses too closely, they continued in towards the village. They found two of the men in silver pinned to trees by swords, wielded by men who lay dead at their feet, killed by gun wounds. The village was intact, with only a few buildings aflame. Chris ran to the forge, hoping that perhaps someone...
His parents lay dead on the floor, riddled with bullet holes. Chris knelt by their bodies and wept, wishing that he could have been here sooner.
"Is...someone...there?"
Chris turned at the sound of a familiar voice. "Marc? Where are you?"
"He's over here!" Gloria stood by the extinguished forge fire, staring inside.
"Marc! What happened?"
"Chris...you came." Marc coughed, then looked up. "We heard from...the tourists that...you'd become a champion...Mom and Dad...so proud."
"Marc, please, don't speak."
"Must speak...not time...badly burned...Galactic...came yest..." he coughed again, and Chris could tell that there was no way his brother would survive. "Yesterday...we tried...unprepared...revenge on you..." Again he trailed off in a series of horrible coughs, and Chris saw blood fly from his mouth. "Gifts for you...and girl...hidden in grove...good luck...togeth-" Marc coughed, and his rasping breath shortened, finally cutting off with one final choked word. "Win."
Chris's knees gave out. Everything he'd known for so long, gone. As he dissolved into tears, Gloria knelt with him, holding him as he cried onto her shirt. Her tears on his neck felt very distant compared to the pain in his heart.
By the following evening, they and their Pokemon had buried all of the bodies. They had brought out all of the Pokemon that they had found on the tourists to let them know what had happened to their trainers, and after the fire on the ship had died down they had contacted the mainland to let them know what had happened. Some of the Pokemon had left, others had wanted to be sent to their trainers' professors, but all had helped to bury at least some of the dead, at least their trainers. As they finished making the last grave, Chris fell to his knees.
"Chris, there was nothing we could have done. They were here at the same time they were at Cianwood."
"I know, Gloria, I know. But if I had never left..."
"Then Team Magma would have captured me a month ago and possibly done the same thing that Archie and Giovanni tried to do," Kyogre told him. "That or gotten me out of the picture so that they could use Groudon." Kyogre and the rest of their Pokemon were still helping with the clean-up.
"Team Rocket likely would have gotten whatever they'd wanted from Mr. Fuji in Pokemon Tower," Haunter added.
"And I and my friends in Mt. Moon would have all been caught!" Clefairy piped up.
"That mean Magma guy would have hurt me a lot," Pikachu called.
"Not to mention whatever Giovanni could have achieved had he succeeded in Saffron City," Cubone put in.
"We would have never left this island, never seen what was out there, and without you there to achieve your destiny, some form of cataclysm would have destroyed this place. Either Kyogre would have flooded it, or Groudon would have left it high and dry." Dragonaire wrapped gently around him. Her friends, the other Pokemon in the area, were largely missing. One of the few remaining, her brother, said that the men in silver, Team Galactic according to Marc, had captured them during the massacre.
"Nothing is to say that they wouldn't have done this anyways, here or somewhere else, if you hadn't left, Chris." Lugia was flying around above them, watching out in case Team Galactic returned. "These men are the kind who will stop at nothing to get their way."
"Besides, Chris, if you hadn't left home, you never would have met me." Gloria leaned in and kissed him, wiping away his tears. "Don't let it hurt so much because its people that you know. We need to prevent these guys from doing this again. I've already called my parents, and they're going into hiding for the time being, along with many of the residents of Cianwood."
"That's good. But please, just one more day."
Gloria nodded. "Alright. I'll see if I can find out something about this Team Galactic, ok?"
"Just be careful on the ship. It's still volatile."
"The power's dead anyways. Pikachu and I keep our currents contained to just the necessary circuits." Flaffy and Pikachu had been running the electronics to allow them to communicate with the mainland, since the ship's engines had exploded and much of its structure had suffered fire damage.
The Pokemon dispersed, leaving Chris alone in the graveyard. He slowly walked amongst the graves, glad that they had been able to get a name for each of the bodies. Perhaps when the media and officials arrived later, the bodies would be removed, taken to their families for proper services. He hoped that they were. He stopped at where the captain's hat rested atop his grave. They had found him surrounded by the bodies of four Galactic grunts, where he had tried to defend a room of children from them. All told, they had found twenty six Galactic corpses, which were in a mass grave near the shore. There was a mark on the headstones of those who had slain those men, a hero's recognition. It paled compared to the lives that Team Galactic took, however. Finishing his walk among the graves, he stopped beside the graves of his family. From that day on, the island became known as Martyrs' Isle.
Team Galactic is based out of the Sinnoh region, where they have been committing crimes for years. Considered the best organized of the four "Teams", they have seen a surge in membership recently as Teams Aqua and Rocket dissolved.
Gloria read through the Kadabrapedia file on Team Galactic. The picture of their insignia and uniforms left her without a shadow of a doubt that it was them. She continued to read.
Led by Cyrus, a former Sinnoh League champion, they are powerful enough to defy the Pokemon League. Far more violent than the other "Teams", countless murders and rapes can be laid at their members' feet.
"Yeah, we've seen that for sure. What else?"
Their headquarters are in Veilstone, in northeastern Sinnoh, and they also have mobile command structures. So far, their operations have lacked a noticeable pattern, but there is no doubt that Cyrus has a definite plan in mind.
"This isn't good. Come on, Flaffy, Pikachu. We need to tell the others." Unhooking from the power grid, the two followed her off of the ship with her foreboding news...