-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
"Hey! ...Hello, anyone there? Is this thing connected? Xerneas!"
"Yes, Magearna, what do you want? I'm busy."
"How is it, are my mechanical implements working ok?"
Xerneas sifts through papers as Magearna talks through the transceiver. Pressing control buttons as she looks through the glass. The heart made of red rock pulses, small bits of rock fall off as the pieces grind together at every beat. Red dust billows up from below.
"Xerneas? Still there?"
"Yes, Magearna. The documents here from Zygarde's inspection detail that yes, there are some successes with your implants. Monitoring to keep track of the beats per minute, the cybernetic Pokémon running about here are very helpful with the busy work of crunching numbers and delivery. Structural stability needs work, though."
"You, G-193."
A robot Delcatty perks up. Gray plating with a number plate drilled into their side. Red rock just like the heart through the window sits in a tank on the Delcatty's back. The sound of whirring and gears clicking together faintly. No machine can truly be silent, the closest you can get is having their internal mechanisms be muffled.
"Yes, Xerneas?"
"Go get some stuff from outside. Take the elevator behind me up back to the surface but don't leave any tracks as you're leaving, we're trying to keep this place as secret as possible. Here's a list." Xerneas taps on the table with a hoof. Delcatty climbs up to get a look at the list.
"Understood. I will go get them. I should be back in around 12 hours, see you then."
"Think you can make it quicker than that? These things are very important."
G-193 pauses and looks at the list again.
"I can do it in half the time, but that poses a great risk to me. Good chance I won't make it back in one piece."
"Then that is fine. Go. I don't need to be seeing you anymore." Xerneas goes back to the control panel, pushing buttons and pulling levers while closely monitoring the screens that light up green with data. G-193 does not completely understand these inputs, only that they keep the heart in working condition. They believe it's because they're hard coded to not understand much of what goes on here.
"If I do not come back, I'd recommend sending out another robot to recover me and finish the mission I failed. Like M-273 or G-45."
G-193 leaves for the elevator, pressing a button to lift them up and out of this underground complex. G-193 had the list in their memory so there was no need to take it. The elevator gets abruptly stuck. G-193 begins to send out a distress signal, but quickly intercepts the radio wave before it reaches anything once G-193 realizes it's just a rock getting them stuck. They reach up to smash a rock off of the wall and the elevator goes up.
"Xerneaaaaaaaaas!" Magearna says through the transceiver. "I'm bored!"
"Magearna, I TOLD you I'm busy here. What now?"
"Are mine or Genesects bots better?"
"Genesects, no question. Now if you'd-"
"What! You're just saying that cuz you're annoyed at me… What do Genesects bots do better than mine?"
"For starters, they listen to orders more and are generally more energy efficient. The fact that we can use the chunks that break off the heart every day as a fuel source is great, but we only have so much of it and we need to eventually stop using it, since we need to preserve the heart. Point is Genesects bots use less of it to function at the same level as your bots, if not better." Cold, harsh words. "Move those crates and empty their contents out into the next room, Xerneas points off to a direct and some bots go to move crates there.
"Now please, no more pleasantries. If you have actual important things to discuss then now's your chance."
"For the life Pokémon you sure are cold. Like, shiver me timbe-"
Xerneas hangs up the transceiver. They have more important things to do. Keeping this heart in working condition is vital. Xerneas wonders why Arceus can't just come down and fix the thing and stop it's gradual erosion. It's even more of a question as to why this heart is even here. A giant rock heart in the center of the earth instead of a molten core like it used to be. Xerneas was here for a very specific task and that was to repair the heart. Xerneas presses a button and a loud screech of metal sounds out.
Beside the viewing window a metal door whirrs and pulls itself open. A metal walkway bridge extends out across the bottomless pit below all the way to the massive heart. The walk takes a while, Xerneas reaches out to touch the heart. When they do, the heart seems to get a little larger. It's slight but noticeable. Xerneas heads back, the door shuts behind them and the bridge compresses back to its original unextended state.
"Your power to bring life back into things is successful, but you were only able to restore 87% of what's been eroded off in the past week." M-385 says. A small Caterpie robot. Nearly useless if it couldn't do analytics well.
"Thank you." Xerneas says, earnestly.
"No need. It is in my programming to help." M-385 said going back to helping the other robots move stuff around and analyze data in the other rooms neighboring this one observation room.
It made Xerneas uneasy how the Caterpie responded. Their job was to breathe life into things. The robots made by Genesect and Magearna were the ones Xerneas couldn't figure out a way to do properly, and the last time Xerneas tried, the robot ceased working entirely. Genesect said their core energy popped, Magearna wasn't sure. Some are just impossible to breathe life into, Xerneas wasn't even sure that they could breathe life into that massive beating rock. They were more annoyed that they were stuck underground until a different way of repairing it was found.
Xerneas clicks another button, then another. Repeat.
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
G-193 roams the forest after exiting the elevator. They knew they shouldn't waste time but curiosity gets the best of them as they look at all of the bug Pokémon surrounding, wondering what the heck G-193 is. Every time G-193 tries to approach, they skitter away. The wildlife was some of the most interesting stuff G-193 could see after being cooped up underground for so long.
G-193 suspected that their curiosity was an error. First and foremost they were built as a combat robot, picking normal type Pokémon such as Delcatty with a somewhat wide arsenal and dexterity. But they were never built to wonder. For a time G-193 suppressed this curiosity but eventually gave in thinking it pointless to hold back on learning stuff. They justified it by thinking that the stuff they learn will help in combat. But one thing that couldn't be justified by that was the abyss sitting under Aurial town. Some allure it had. Why was it there, how is it there, why would Pokémon willingly live above it and be so confident in their wooden structural supports that they wouldn't just fall in and get consumed by darkness?
Weird. Maybe- Just maybe, G-193 thinks that they are being too logical in how they think. Maybe the people of this town are just as entranced as G-193.
Staring down, it's very easy to lose track of time, even when you have an internal clock always telling you what the time is by the millisecond. It's been almost half an hour of just staring down with curiosity. Things not noticeable by first glance can be seen, there's plant life down there. Maybe even Pokémon as well. Who knows. Maybe the legendaries do, the ones who command everyone around.
A realization hits G-193, they probably shouldn't stick around much longer. Sitting on the edge of a massive hole in the earth is dangerous and other Pokémon in the town might have even seen them by now which would be grounds for discipline or even dismantlement. G-193's internal mechanisms click frantically to get up and move suddenly. They need to get those things Xerneas asked for. What did Xerneas ask for? G-193 is suddenly forgetting what was on the list as their body goes into an auto-pilot state. G-193 doesn't actually want to leave, they want to keep studying the abyss from a safe distance. But their internal pistons and hydraulic mechanisms say otherwise, trying to carry the robot Delcatty away.
Before G-193 can turn all the way around something slams into their metal plated side, seizing up internal mechanisms just enough to send them hurtling down into the abyss. G-193 catches a brief glimpse of who attacked them before they are consumed by darkness. A glimpse of a tall figure with light purple fur. Then, G-193's camera lens eyes go dark.
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-