A month has passed since the Mobile Fortress Incident. The ruins of Neo Galactic HQ currently sits in the middle of Veilstone like its own abandoned city.

While the people celebrated the end of an era of evil, the paralysis continued to spread. INTERPOL and the Sinnoh League worked closely to monitor the situation, but progress remained limited.

People moved on. As always, time found a conduit to keep flowing.

In present time, we go to the peaks of Sinnoh's mountain range, to a tiny town nestled within quivering cherry blossoms.

Mars inhales her congee while it's still piping hot. She tears into her grilled pork, greasy juices dripping down her chin.

"Don't lick your fingers!" Saturn hisses.

Mars grabs his collar. "Thank you for the food! Saturn and I are going now! We'll be back before dusk!"

Cynthia waves them out. Afterwards silence returns to the musty little house. "Li li," hums Grandma's Chingling.

"It's almost the end of the month," Grandma says, taking a seat beside her granddaughter. "Have you made any progress at all?" Cynthia looks away. The old lady tries again. "You're not going with them?"

"No. I need to find a solid solution to the Planet's Paralysis." Cynthia sets her untouched soy milk aside. "I told you about Uxie. As we're searching for Charon, we're also keeping an eye out for the Relic Key, whatever it might be."

Grandma smirks. "Oh yes, the talking Pokemon. I've only heard of Fogbound Lake as rumors when I was a wee girl. Lucky you."

Despite the weight on her shoulders, Cynthia scoffs. "It's not that fun when you suddenly understand a Pokemon's language."

"It's a big world out there… Incidentally, how long are you going to keep playing with that? That refers to the incomplete puzzle on the table. A few pieces are missing, but Cynthia had managed to reassemble the shape of the Red Sunstone.

"That inscription looks like a compass," Grandma notes. Then she slaps the table. "AH! Wait right there!" She runs off and promptly returns with a battered box from the attic.

"Are you okay, Grandma?"

"Of course I am, now focus! This is the crap you never cleaned up." A pile of dust springs into their faces. Trinkets of long ago. Metals tarnished with age. A locket from Mom. A Gible plushie from Dad. Sand dollars, seashells… A frozen hourglass purchased from a vendor at Sunyshore City.

Cynthia whistles. "So that's where everything went. This is nice and all, but I don't need anything of this stuff, Grandma."

"You scrammed after Rowan gave you a Pokedex." Grandma digs through the forgotten junk. "I swore I… ah! Look!"

"So what? It's just a stonenenene…" Cynthia's neck snaps up. Wait a minute. That's… T-That's…

"It's the same inscription," says Grandma, setting the White Moonstone down. "Heh. Just like complimentary counterparts. You came back from your vacation at Sunyshore one day and just dumped it here. What the heck am I supposed to do with this toy? How do you get the battery out…"

But Cynthia's attention is wholly fixed on the pulsating symbols. A soft, green luminescence. Treeshroud Forest. Mystifying Forest. Crystal Lake. Fogbound Lake. Only one thing shines such an unearthly color.

Cynthia shoots to her feet. "NO! No, this isn't… It can't be!"

"What the heck's gotten into you now?!"

"That can't be the truth, Grandma! He's not… No, he was spouting nonsense like always!"

Grandma smacks Cynthia with a fan. "Kid, you're spouting nonsense! Hey, where are you going?"

"To clear things up once and for all." Cynthia hesitates. Gritting her teeth, she swipes a plastic bag and tosses the Red Sunstone inside.

Grandma yanks Cynthia's hair. "This is important! Wherever you're going, swear you'll keep your Draco Meteor to a minimum!"

"HUH? Grandma, I've been using it to save the world!"

To that, Grandma drags Cynthia outside. "Look." The ground near the sacred Celestic Ruins is riddled with holes. "Remember when you used it to take down Cyrus? You almost destroyed the entire town!"

Cynthia cringes. "B-But I've perfected it!"

Grandma cackles. "Perfected? Don't make me laugh! Titles can be a hindrance at times, you know. People call you Champion and you get delusions of grandeur. You think you're untouchable on top of your throne. You think that's the end of the road."

Cynthia frowns. "Grandma, what are you trying to say?"

"Don't lose sight on the things right in front of you." Cynthia raises an eyebrow. Grandma smacks her granddaughter's back. "Don't just stand there with your mouth open. Go away, shoo shoo. I expect you back before dusk."

Many times Cynthia considers accidentally dropping the Red Sunstone into the sea. Let it sink to the bottom. Let it shatter with the currents. But it's still important evidence. Looker had entrusted it to her. Maybe it's best that he didn't.

"This is just a coincidence," Cynthia grumbles to a tired Togekiss. "I'll clear this all up. Then I'm taking a loooong vacation in the villa I bought at Unova."

"You?" the bird's frown seem to convey. "What about me?"

The sun gleams against the ocean of glass. Only around these parts are the skies ever this blue. Then the red-and-white lighthouse appears into view. The famous beaches. The iconic solar panel walkways.

Togekiss descends on a patch of golden grass, conveniently located next to a group of chattering tourists.

"Welcome to Sunyshore, the city bathed in sunlight! Our first stop is the historical business district—"

"What the hell is going on?"

Everyone gapes at the sight of the legendary Champion of Sinnoh. "M-Miss Cynthia! What an honor to—"

"Why the hell are you walking about in the middle of a national emergency?!"

Blank faces. "We can't at least have fun before the world ends?"

A hand pulls Cynthia aside. "Over there is the Vista Lighthouse. Follow the black road, you can't miss it!"

"Kyaaa it's Flint! Can we have your autograph?"

"Sorry, but I'm all burnt out! Keep it flaming, hotmen!" Flint keeps his ruddy smile until the two of them are safely away from prying eyes.

Cynthia grabs his collar. "Flint, how can Sunyshore set up tours when a paralysis is unfolding?"

Flint puts his hands up. "D-Don't blame me! It's his Council's decision! We don't have a say in politics!"

"Even if it's in the midst of a national emergency, you can't force people to abide to rules. It's just not realistic." Sunlight catches on the golden sheen of his spiky hair. "Sup?"

Cynthia storms up to Volkner. "It happened overnight," he speaks before she can say anything. "When information leaked to the press that the 'Villain of Sinnoh' was born in Sunyshore, everyone flew here to take a piece of history home."

It takes a good minute for that statement to register. "S-Sunyshore? I thought he was born in Veilstone…" Even Mars and Saturn confirmed that.

Volkner waves them down the street. Sunyshore's main district is teeming with people, a good many of them from other cities. Vendors sell a wide variety of space-themed goods from a keychain of the Galactic Emblem with a lightning bolt through it to a dart set featuring a familiar mugshot.

"We tried to stop it," Flint murmurs. "But there's a lot of people in higher-up who wanted his head on a plate. Sunyshore is home to many prominent government officials after all… they see the fact that his association with Sunyshore is a stain on the city's name."

"It's stupid," says Volkner. In a louder voice, he bellows, "Y'all fucking idiots!"

"Kyaaa it's Volkner and Flint and Cynthia!"

"Shit dude! Why the fucking blazes did you do that for? We have to run, now!"

The trio stop running when they reach the inner districts of Sunyshore.

Flint licks his lips. "Soo… What are you doing back here, Cynthia? Didn't INTERPOL search this place from east to west?"

The Red Sunstone burns a hole in her pocket. Cynthia flings it to the ground… and quickly scoops it back up.

"Nice Sunstone."

"Shut up, Volkner."

"Grandfather's house is easy to spot." That voice seems to come from a recording within the Red Sunstone, one only Cynthia can hear. "Do you see where those three palm trees are?"

"Oh fuck me." Despite herself, Cynthia closes her eyes. This way. The two best friends silently trudge after her.

Then she stops. Three palm trees. But no ugly yellow house. No fishing rods laid against painted boards. Even the Chatot-themed mailbox is gone too.

Can't believe I'm doing this. Cynthia raps the door. Please don't be please don't be…

The door opens. "Yes?" It's a woman. Thank Arceus. "Oh, Champion Cynthia. What are you doing here?"

"You're… the federal prosecutor." Cynthia peers into the foreign house. "Um… sorry to bother you, ma'am, but do you know of the old man that used to live here?"

The federal prosecutor returns a professional smile. "It's only ever been my husband and me. My apologies, but I must return to work. Pardon me."

Cynthia bounces down the stairs. "Well! That solves that! Bye!"

Volkner grabs her shoulder. "You came for something. What was it?"

"Okay, fine. I'm curious to see his hometown too. If you two want to be useful, then show me where Cyrus lived."

Their faces go slack. Flint scratches his afro. "Um… let's take a walk," he suggests. "I heard the Pokemon will come out today to blow bubbles."

Thwack. Thwack. Flint's flip flops slap against gravel like rubber ducks falling from the sky. Volkner shuffles along with a slight hunch. It's so jarring to even think that Cyrus could've come from the same place as these two, given how stiff and cold he tended to be. Un-Sunyshore like.

"It was established by us kids that no one should go near Cyrus," Flint begins. "He was… weird. More than weird. That one kid who sat in the corner by himself during playtime. He never spoke, so we assumed he was mute. We never got a good look at his face either, given how his eyes were always covered."

Flint hops on a rocky divider, holding out his hands as if he's on a balance beam. "We believed he lived in a cave somewhere on the beach. He always walked home alone, you see… His parents never came to those mandatory conferences, the open houses… Hell, I don't think they came to our high school graduation either. It's believed he was adopted, but no one dared to ask him."

Cynthia suddenly finds her saccharine-sweet Lemonade to be the most interesting thing in the world. She takes a long, mindless sip, watching as the Wingulls soar over the cerulean skies. Their cries sound like mournful wails.

Volkner speaks. "One day, while Flint and I ran off to the beach after preschool ended, he approached us. Said my robot was nice. Asked if I was willing to look at his blueprints as well." A pause. He tilts his chin to the sun's rays.

"What happened?" Cynthia grunts.

"I was stupid, like those losers back then. I told him to go away, keep his germs to himself…" Volkner smashes a pebble under his heel. "He apologized. Never came to bother us again."

"He knew our names, but we never knew his until the whole Time Gear incident happened," Flint says softly. "And the three of us went to the same middle and high school. Back at Crystal Cave, I got the feeling he hated me with all his guts. The way he looked at me… Heh. Now it makes sense. We weren't exactly nice to him back then."

Cynthia slows her pace. "I just noticed something. Galactic never expanded into Sunyshore, did it?"

Volkner shakes his head. "Last time I saw him in Sunyshore was high school graduation. Then he just… vanished.

"But that man was a genius." The disinterest suddenly breaks from Volkner's monotone. "I saw him in the library working on those blueprints. When he dropped his stuff, I saw his designs… It should sound familiar to you, Cynthia. He was working on the prototype for the solar panel walkways."

Cynthia's jaw drops. "The icon of Sunyshore? B-But didn't you build that, Volkner?"

"The government gave me the blueprints they bought from some third party, Cynthia. The icon of Sunyshore was actually Cyrus's idea. I just made his dream a reality." The way Volkner pronounces his name, full of conviction and respect. Even Flint smiles in agreement.

The trio walk in silence after that. Down the famous solar panel walkway they go, down into the dunes of the shimmering beach.

"On good days, the Pokemon will blow bubbles on the beach," Flint says. He spreads his hands, savoring the sea-scented breeze. "Scientifically, I don't know how this happens, but that's what makes Sinnoh's beaches so different from the rest of the world's."

Volkner deposits his ass into the sand. Flint kicks off his flip flops, digging his toes into the cool, grainy earth. Cynthia tosses her fur coat aside and joins them.

"What I wouldn't give for a nice, cold can of beer…" Flint sighs. A bubble pops on his nose. Soon, he's rambling. "Isn't it scary how we're sitting under the same sky as our ancestors? Like, I bet they saw the same stars we're seeing right now. They probably saw the same sunset too."

"When the sun begins to set and skies are clear, the Krabby and Gastrodon come to blow bubbles." Cynthia only realizes what she had said when the two men look at her strangely. She instantly busies herself with sucking the Lemonade can dry.

Volkner grabs a fistful of sand, allowing it to slip through his fingers like the waterfalls of Fogbound Lake. When he finally speaks, his gaze is distant. "My folks gave up on me. But I had Flint." He swings an arm over his best friend. "If it wasn't for this hothead, I would've headed down the same path… If I had helped him… if we had accepted him for who he was…"

"We could've been friends," Flint finishes softly. "There would've been three stars from Sunyshore. Hell, there would've been a happy ending for everyone."

Eventually the best friends had to leave to resolve a tourism dispute.

"This is stupid," Cynthia says out loud. The puzzled Gastrodon tilts its head. "Yeah, I'm talking to a Pokemon again. Good bye." Something plunks to the sand. That damned Red Sunstone. She brings her foot over it, but stupid Gastrodon rescues the stone before she can do the deed. It tugs her arm. "There's nothing down there!" she groans. "The beach ends…"

Then she sees it: footprints. A trail of footprints beside her own, too recent to be old yet too faded to be new. Whoever this belonged to, they knew where they were going. Away from civilization.

The entrance of Beach Cave looms before her. "It's… real?" Echoes ringing down water-eaten walls. Gastrodon heads inside as if it's coming home.

Cynthia silently follows. Thin waterfalls running down the cracks of the rocks. Shadows and sunlight shifting in an eternal waltz. An atmosphere of a hallowed shrine, a sense of lost timelessness.

There is writing on the wall. Some sort of primitive diary. "This is the official adventure log of our exploration team, Team…"

"We found a Golden Mask at Amp Plains! Monster… floor! Trap… Staircases…"

"I'm in charge of our logs here because he's… One day, Team Dawn will uncover the secrets of our Relic Stones!'

Gastrodon slides the Red Sunstone into Cynthia's trembling hands. "What are you doing?!" She dashes that blasted rock into the wall. CRACK! Above the fallen remains, the sloppy writing of childish hands had stopped. A new set of hands had taken over, the penmanship now much stiffer and refined.

"Are you okay, Cynthia? Take care not to get sick from the storm yesterday."

"Cynthia, did you go back to Celestic Town?"

"Did I do something wrong?"

"You have every right to be angry at me. But please let me know how I messed up. Please let me know so I can fix myself."

Cynthia staggers back, tripping over the sea slug's body. The last entry looms over her head, reading a simple, "I'm sorry." before lapsing into a chasm of nothingness. That's also where the mysterious footprints have stood before turning to a crevice behind a waterfall.

"There's nothing left for me here. If on the slim chance you happen to read this, please accept my heartfelt apology. I had no intention of disrupting your life. I only understand now that you had every right to leave me behind, as I had no right in thinking we were anything other than passing strangers. Follow your dreams, and you'll surely attain them. You'll be a great Champion someday."

"Why did you bring me here?" Cynthia snaps to Gastrodon. Her frazzled reflection glints in its unreadable eyes. It turns away, and out of sheer morbid curiosity does she follow it to the end of the footprint trail.

"I followed Gastrodon back here. Why would I do such a thing?"

"This is stupid. I'm wasting my time. What do I hope to accomplish by returning to this forsaken place?"

"She said this was our special place. Our rendezvous, where it all began. Perhaps that's why I keep coming back, now that she suddenly reentered my life... But I'll end it. I'll sever this thread of foolish sentimentality before…"

"I've tried. Yet time and time again I find myself salvaging the charred remains of a past that never was… We went to the beach. I haven't felt so… in a while. What if…"

Sunlight showers Beach Cave in a dazzling gleam. Life breathes into the walls, calling the past out to play once more.

"It's my first time coming to Sunyshore for the summer," a disembodied voice says from the breeze. "My name is Cynthia!"

"Cynthia?" returns the voice in the wind. "Like the moon?"

The Red Sunstone glows. Its memories pour over Cynthia's reality. She sees chalk. Chalk in a pair of hands that are not her own.

"What if I was wrong?" Thoughts being written from a hesitant heart. "What if this path was not what I had sought? Had I met you sooner, would things have been different for me?"

Cynthia slumps against the wall, fists clasped over her ears.

"My name is Cyrus," spoke the boy.

"Cyrus… heehee. That's a very nice name. 'Cyrus,' like the sun."

Cynthia jerks her head away. That's when she sees it: the date of the last journal entry. Tomorrow would've been Operation ECLIPSE.

"Remind me again why we're looking through Galactic's trash, Mars."

"Because that's where the clues are, Saturn! I'm just following your videogame logic." She's tossing bulky electronic equipment as if they weigh nothing. "Well? Are you just going to stand there and look pretty?"

Saturn sighs. It's getting dark. They'd better hurry back if they don't want to sit through that old hag's berating. "Hmm? Mars, I got something… Bleh. Nevermind, it's just someone's cat picture."

"Wait." Mars swipes a hand through the grime. The glass is cracked beyond repair, but she manages to extract the paper behind it.

Their breaths stop in a heartbeat.

"Saturn?"

"This…" It's all Saturn can do to keep his hands steady. Four sets of eyes stare back at the present. "W-When…"

"Take-a-free-photo-day-and-get-pretzels at Hearthome," Mars whispers. "Jupiter's idea. No one wanted to try my peanut butter and strawberry pretzel."

That's the red dress Mars used to cherish. The one from an expensive, foreign brand… the one that always needed mending because she would rip it. There's Jupiter, who hasn't aged since back then. His own past glowers back, features scrunched in a frown to emulate his… his…

His hero.

It's raining, yet there isn't a rain cloud in the evening sky.

"Saturn…"

"I-I miss Jupiter!" he blurts. "She left without saying goodbye… I-I miss Galactic. I miss bossing the Grunts around. I miss goofing off!" His chest is tightening. "M-Most of all… I-I miss… Da…"

Mars squeezes his arm. "We'll find him!"

Saturn glares at her. "How can you still say that?!" She flinches. "He's gone! GONE! Master Cyrus is DEAD! You saw the evidence, he FELL to his DEATH! The currents tore his body apart!"

"No… No! Boss… Boss isn't… no…" A proclamation with no conclusion. Mars hides her face and turns away.

A shadow falls over the glowing red sun. Cynthia's back, but something is… off. The usual vigor had been sapped from her spirit.

"I called off the search. It's over." Even her voice had dulled. "Let's go home… " Then she sees the destroyed picture. "Oh… This was on his desk. I used to tease him about it… how he looked much nicer if he had smiled."

A dusty wind blows through Veilstone. Something slips from behind the frame: an old but well-kept photo of that ugly yellow house in Sunyshore. The one with the three palm trees. There she was, a sunny grin pasted on her sunburnt face. Squeezing that idiot's life from his fragile body.

"Kids, this is the last time I'm telling you stand still! Cynthia, stop fidgeting! Cyrus, look at the camera!"

"You know what?"

The Commander exchange a glance. "Um… what?"

Cynthia musters a watery smile. "Cyrus was lying. He claimed it was during one point of his life, but… he never did stop treating me as his friend, even though I was the one who completely abandoned him."