POV: Cynthia / LOCATION: Crystal Cave
Admittedly, I am not surprised as to where the White Moonstone leads me. With those four stolen Time Gears under his belt (or waistband), there's only one place left for him to go.
And that location yawns before me now: Crystal Cave. Home to the fifth and final Time Gear.
Honestly, Cyrus. Can't I leave you alone for two seconds without you wanting to destroy the world?
"That meddlesome soul is here, all right," Uxie grumbles. "I can smell its putrid essence."
How can Uxie smell with no nostrils? As much as I'd like to find the answer to that inquiry, there are more important matters to attend to than ponder on the placement of these so-called olfactory glands on a non-humanoid, mythical Pokemon.
"He's still in there?" I say, astonished. He's a fast little rat like his Weavile, so I expected him to be on the other side of the world by now. Unova, probably.
"Yes."
On the bright side, there's still ample time to clap his bony ass. But on the other, I'm annoyed as hell that he twists our arms right as we're about to make any real progress in this damned story!
Stepping foot into Crystal Cave, I am relieved to find that it hasn't turned into a bloody, gory hellscape. The type with severed animal heads impaled on spikes by the hands of some blue maniac who thinks that he's GOD. You know. Like some bipedal hedgehog from an internet horror story.
Anyway, the multicolored crystals are all intact. The bioluminescent glow hangs in the ceiling like moss over an ancient tree. The crystallized flowers have their heads fixed down a path which wounds around a waterfall. That's also where the White Moonstone wants me to go.
Azelf fills its diaphragm with girth and bellows, "EDLER SISTER!"
"Even human bombs won't crack her thick skull," Uxie says disapprovingly.
"Isn't Mesprit guarding a Time Gear?" I say. "Cyrus will stop at nothing to steal it."
"That broken soul is wholly inferior to us Lake Guardians. Unless it evokes an arcane power sealed away since the advent of time, there is nothing to worry about."
A subdued breeze slips out of the murmuring stream and seeps into the cavern walls.
"It is too quiet," Uxie says after a pause. After more consideration, it adds, "Mesprit sees the world through her heart. We might have an issue if that soul exploits her fatal weakness."
Ruh-oh. Mesprit is in biiiiiig trouble.
Upon entering the Crystal Puzzle, a scream spears through my eardrums. What initially sounds human quickly unravels into something pulled out of a hundred throats that forgot how to speak. A friction of discordant sounds which chafes through my heart and robs the breath from my lungs.
No human could've made such a disturbing sound. That was the wail of a wounded animal, weeping over the death of its children.
I am bathed in cold sweat. Judging from the Lake Guardian's bewildered face, they must've felt the same.
"ELDER SISTER!"
Yelling incoherently, Azelf shoots off into the next chamber. And when it glimpses the motionless body of its sibling, it drops to the ground and crawls over on its legs and paws.
"Elder Sister? Elder Sister, why are you sleeping here?"
Mesprit's mouth is open in an eternal gasp.
"Azelf." Uxie's voice is grave with warning. "Step away from her."
No reply.
"Azelf!"
"Elder Sister is hurt, Elder Brother. Why are you not angry?"
"I will not repeat myself—"
"Elder Sister said that when family gets hurt, family gets angry and sad. But you are neither of those things. You do not feel anything. Why?"
Azelf sounds genuinely confused. And hurt.
While Uxie dredges up a half-assed explanation, I tend to the Pokemon that litter the ground like plastic bags that were kicked around by the wind. A Zubat, a Murkrow, a Magikarp, and a Sneasel. Two plus two finally equals four when I see the Rotom.
They're Cyrus's Pokemon! But… why are they… Did they de-evolve? Is that even possible?!
"Do not," Uxie says before I can do what I want to do.
"Why not?" I bark, getting angry over Uxie's lack of anger, of empathy, for its injured sibling. For the Pokemon that have suffered from Cyrus's madness.
"If you touch them, you will be infected," it continues softly. "Their time have been stolen."
"They're dead?!"
"No. Their existences have been suspended in a realm between time and space. It is similar to what you have witnessed in Mystifying Forest. In areas where the flow of time had been stopped."
This is crazy!
"Did Cyrus do this?" I whisper.
Uxie casts a glance to Azelf, who refuses to leave Mesprit's side despite several severe warnings of the consequences of its actions. "It would be the most likely suspect, yes."
"How?"
To that, Uxie has no answer. Or it might have, and it's not going to tell me because I won't like it.
"I'm going to stop him," I declare. I'm the only one who can.
No response, again. Uxie is staring listlessly at Azelf's hunched back. At Mesprit's wide-opened eyes, frozen in wonder and shock.
But just before I leave, Uxie finally speaks.
"Be careful."
"I know that!"
"Curb your ego and listen to me for once! If you rush recklessly out there, you will die. That soul is stronger than you can ever imagine."
And in a lower voice, it adds, "Cyrus might even be stronger than me now. Than the three of us combined."
Bursting into Crystal Lake, I announce:
"Cyrus, I'm here to trounce your ass!"
The silent trickling of water answers me. Keeping my trembling Poke balls close to my hip, I march to the heart of the lake, to the pedestal which houses the Time Gear.
Suddenly, my feet freeze in place. Gooseflesh is crawling down my back. What stopped me was the faintest whisper of a bow drawing over taut strings. Of piano keys giggling like rattling teeth. Of a melody swelling up to attain minor key.
Boss music.
Something green flashes in the upper left corner of vision. Autosaving.
What the fuck? Gurl, get a hold of yourself! This ain't one of Saturn's videogames!
"Quit hiding!" I shout. "I'll drag you out like a fried drumstick!"
No one appears. The currents of the lake undulate, as if laughing at my expense.
Justifiably fed up, I proceed to steal the Time Gear before he can steal it. That's when the gooseflesh flares up again. Right on schedule.
"There you are," I say without turning back.
"Did you miss me?" replies a voice as smooth as sterilized metal.
"I have better things to remember."
"I suspected as much."
Swiveling around, I come eye-to-eye with the galactic motherfucker himself.
"Cynthia," he says with a quirk of the brow.
"Cyrus," I say with a very appropriate gesture.
"You are as radiant as always."
"And you're crusty as fuck."
He throws back his head and laughs. His laughter is thick, as if he's gurgling razors.
"What did you do to your Pokemon?" I bark.
His smirk twitches. "There you again, poking your nose into where it doesn't belong—"
"Uxie said you stole their time!"
"I—"
I brandish a finger at his smug mug. "You've gone way out of line! This lunacy ends now!"
"Cynthia, if you insist on repeatedly interrupting me, then why do you even bother to ask me anything—ah. I know. You see me as not worthy of your precious time. The Paralysis is spreading, the world is tipping into eternal sleep, and crazy, demented Cyrus has the audacity to revert to his evil ways."
Cheesus I want to slap him so hard that his head bounces like a plastic marble.
"What makes my delusion to fix the world different from your delusions of grandeur, Cynthia? We both have dreams. Yet why is mine the wrong one?"
"You talk too much," I hiss through hot spittle.
"Will you crush my throat again?"
That, and I shut up. His smirk is cold.
"I have a proposal. If you do manage to stop me, then I will forfeit the Time Gears, surrender peacefully, and resign myself to rot in prison.
"But if you fail"—His snarl is full of teeth—"then I will rip out your legs so that you will watch me change the world."
My response? Simple.
"You're outta your damn mind!"
"Do we have a deal?" he says evenly.
"Don't treat this like another one of your phony business interactions! How do you expect me to trust you anymore?"
"I have nothing to wager but my words. However, if you dismiss me again, everyone and everything you love will die."
He states all that with a smile. That psychopath.
"Fine!" I bark. "I agree to your terms!"
This will be a breeze. Cyrus has no Pokemon to fight for him. He hurt them. And I'll make him pay with ten times the pain!
"Roserade, Razor Leaf!"
Razor Leaf is a fairly easy attack to evade, unlike the never-miss Magical Leaf. I fully expect Cyrus to roll out of the way.
The only thing that ends up rolling is his head once the Razor Leaf cleaves it cleanly off his neck.
Time slows down. My horrified Roserade stares at me. I can only stare back.
"Hasty as always," Cyrus sighs.
Then his fallen body pulls itself up, hands reaching for the head, and upon finding it, they screw it back on the neck stump.
"Usually, I'd take your agreement in writing," he continues dryly as he tucks exposed sinew under the flap of his larynx. "But actions speak louder than words, yes? I shall add my name to our contract as well."
Suddenly, he's not there anymore. I instinctively back up against a crystal, heart pounding and eyeballs burning as I strain to find him amidst this wintry battlefield.
Then Roserade screams. Cyrus is hunched over its blossoms, his face buried in its neck. When Roserade manages to break away, its neck is torn open, oozing bright blue sap.
"Heavy with a kick of numbness." Cyrus runs a long tongue over Crobat's fangs. "Your Roserade's blood is a tactile delight. You've raised her well."
Leaping to the air, Cyrus tucks in his wings and drives into my Roserade like a drill.
And my Roserade goes down before it can even gasp.
Afterwards, Cyrus casually dusts the briars off his shoulders, flicks the loose strands of hair out of his forehead, and folds his arms behind his back. Honchkrow's black wings, unmistakably sewn into the skin of his shoulder blades, trail behind him like a cape suspended in gravity.
"Signed, Cyrus. CEO of Galactic Energy, also known as the Cosmic Energy Development Corporation." He performs a dramatic flourish with a black feather pen.
"W-What did you do?" I wheeze.
A tilt of the head. A thoughtful pause.
"I told you," he says gently, "back at Valor Lakefront. Unlike you Trainers, I do not make Pokemon my friends or partners. Unlike those simpleminded fools of Team Galactic, I do not use Pokemon as tools.
"Instead, I make the power of Pokemon my own."
With a swift snap of the fingers, crystals seal the exits. Cyrus stands in front of the Time Gear, hair and clothes billowing in an unseen wind, his arms outstretched as though welcoming me with an embrace.
"Cynthia, my dearly beloved Champion of Sinnoh! You were compelled to come here to protect all that is precious to you. I, Cyrus, the former boss of Team Galactic, will make you regret paying heed to your heart!"
