I went back and fixed a few chapters. I had accidentally left important names out.

Arc I, The Plate of Space

Chapter Eleven:

The Serpent in the Pit

"You and I are equally as clueless about this Mr. Grimmwolfe person," said Aurelio. He stared out of the fortieth-story window with his chin in hand, eyes absentmindedly following the Pidgeys and Spearows outside. His entire demeanor physically appeared nonchalant, but he failed to hide the edge of worry in his voice. "I just find it hard to believe that Mr. Stone put a random guy in charge of our biggest excavation going on right now. They're digging into a freaking crystal mountain. Doesn't get much more important than that."

I had my legs crossed. "You know Mr. Stone better than I do," I said.

We waited on the chairs in the empty corridor outside of Mr. Grimmwolfe's office. The walls were rosewood dark and the carpet was green. Despite the hospitable atmosphere, the air was cold. Much too cold.

"I just don't get it," said Aurelio softly. "This has bugged me since last night. Whenever Mr. Stone hires on new coordinators, that person is usually from within our branch. And I did the research on this guy. Why some random researcher from the Antebureau would want anything to do with the Crystal Towers expedition—"

The blood underneath my skin was suddenly glacial. "The what, Aurelio?"

"The Crystal Towers expedition," he said, incensed. "The thing we've been talking about all this time—"

"No, the Antebureau."

"Yeah, that's where Mr. Grimmwolfe is from," said Aurelio bitterly. My breath cemented in my throat. "It's a positively absurd branch of the Devon Corporation. They haven't been funded in so long that they might as well be nonexistent right now. But there are still people running it, surprisingly. They deal with taboo interests. Things that other researchers don't want to talk about. The legends of Yveltal and how it drinks the life of all living things...the origins of Banette and its hunger to seek out children...the permanent death of Arceus…"

He slowly trailed into quietness.

"That was…" he began. He looked at me. "That was a project the Antebureau was mega-hyped about decades ago, when I was a little kid. My dad used to get so angry. 'The permanent death of Arceus, my ass!' he would tell me and my grandfather. 'You can't kill Arceus!' But the Antebureau believed you can. That Arceus — that you — could be defeated by mortals and wiped from existence. Forever."

My mind was racing. "The Crystal Towers expedition," I said, becoming irrationally agitated. "That's where my catacombs are. And the Plate of Space."

Aurelio's fingers gripped his chair. "Don't tell me…"

I opened my mouth, intending to speak. I meant to finally tell him about the man on the train, and how he had mentioned the Antebureau. This information I had painfully kept close to me, fearing that perhaps there were forces at work which I could not comprehend; but once again the whimsies of fate had slapped me across the face, angry at my naivety. I should have known that everything in all the world was connected. I shouldn't have convinced myself that the man would disappear into history.

"Aurelio, when we were on the train—"

"Mr. Grimmwolfe will see you now," said the young woman behind the desk at the end of the hall. She had just hung up her phone. "If you'll see yourself in, please."

Aurelio stood up faster than I could interrupt him. "Come on," he said, jaw stiff. "Let's see who this guy is and what he wants to do with this project."

I followed him into the office, picking at my clothes.

When Aurelio reached for Mr. Grimmwolfe's hand, I stood by the door. When Aurelio sat down, I stood by the door. And when he expectantly turned his head around, gesturing with his eyes that I needed to compose myself and sit down with him, I stood by the door, bound to the carpet.

Mr. Grimmwolfe's scar smiled at me, but this time below a shaved face and above the excellently done knot in his purple tie. His irises twinkled, but I didn't trust the creases around his eyes. When he extended his hand, I remained by the door, my arms hanging at my sides.

"Thea," whispered Aurelio. You have to maintain social manners, he was telling me.

"Mr. Grimmwolfe," I said in greeting, the spell breaking at last. I shook his hand, forcing a smile upon my face. I tried my hardest to keep my gaze level, but his second smile was pale and horrible, and even when I blinked I could see the white scar tissue grinning coyly at me. As composed as I could be, I remembered how Aurelio and I had practiced social greetings. "Pleasure to meet you."

A tiny Mimikyu chirped in the back.

"Pleasure is all mine," said Grimmwolfe. "And I need no 'mister.' I'm tired of that. Please...sit."

I sat.

"Dani sent up a note last night to my secretary about your interest in the Crystal Towers expedition, " Grimmwolfe said. He leaned on the front of his desk with his arms crossed. The wood creaked under his weight. "I never thought it conceivable that a Solomon could be interested in any project except their own."

"You've heard of us." Aurelio stated it. It was no question.

"Everyone's heard of the Solomon family," chuckled Grimmwolfe. "Even us in the Antebureau."

Aurelio made a quiet sound, as if he was trying to swallow but his throat was too parched. "I'm interested in joining," he said in a low voice. "This is my friend, Thea. It — she is an old family friend. She's been helping me with my research in the desert."

"Ah, Thea," said Grimmwolfe. His massive arms unfolded, waving at pictures on the wall of different research sites. I saw a photo of Latios on the wall without his human disguise. He was trapped beneath a giant net. My blood rose from frigid temperatures to scorching in a split second. "You know about conducting research? Excavations? Archaeological digs?"

I sat perfectly still. "Nothing," I said.

"And this is your chance to get to know more?"

"Yes." I hoped he couldn't hear my heart thundering.

"Mr. Stone is much more generous than me about letting random people onto a project," said Grimmwolfe, seeming to delight in my less-than-obvious discomfort. "I usually wouldn't make this exception. My team and I could be stumbling onto something huge. But if you're a friend of the Solomon's — that says enough to me. Their reputation is unrivaled. I'd be glad to welcome you both."

We'll be together again soon.

Aurelio took the first step into the treacherous waters. "Huge?" he said. "What are we working with?"

"Honestly, Aurelio, I thought that you had come to me knowing fully what to expect," said Grimmwolfe, returning his attention to Aurelio. My eyes kept sliding beyond his head to the picture of Latios on the wall. The electric net incident. "You're an expert on Arceus. I really, really thought you would have heard."

"Heard what?"

We only awaited the confirmation of our fears.

"My team and I have reason to believe that, inside that crystal mountain..." said Grimmwolfe, spreading apart his words. He held up a tiny glass figurine — my Pokémon form, a likeness designed from drawings upon ancient walls. The small model looked ready to shatter in between his fingers. "...There lies the famous Catacombs of Arceus."

"I would hardly call it famous," said Aurelio, eyes darkening.

He was insulted. Even he hadn't heard of the coined term when I explained it to him. So how had Grimmwolfe acquired that information? The Catacombs of Arceus was not an official location — the legendaries and I had only called it by that name for clarity's sake. Vivid imagery of Latios' imprisonment beneath the net came to mind.

"Well, it soon will be," said Grimmwolfe happily, setting down the glass figurine, "after my team and I dig it up."

Aurelio's hands were fiercely trembling, more than they had in the corridor outside. His fingers were wine red with barely contained rage. "If you really think that's where the catacombs are," he said, "then you have no business 'digging it up.' It's not a playground."

"It will be once all of the valuable things are removed."

All at once, Aurelio breathed out and his hands stopped shaking. He looked into Grimmwolfe's eyes with newfound determination. His following words were prefaced with my imaginary, "Though I disagree with you..." He said, "You'll find Thea and I to be invaluable to your project. We won't let you down."

I silently thanked him, over and over again.

"Wonderful," said Grimmwolfe. "I'm looking forward to our time together."

We'll be together again soon, I thought again. We'll be together again soon.

When we were standing out of the Devon headquarters, I mustered the fortitude to put my hand on Aurelio's shoulder. He was still pale and looked sick. "His insolence doesn't hurt me," I told him, hoping that my words would penetrate his animosity and calm him. "Don't become angry in the name of Arceus. That is for me to worry about."

I had wondered if he would push me away, but he melted into my touch. "I know," he said. His collarbone looked tight against his skin. "It just makes me furious how he talks like that. As soon as I heard he was from the Antebureau, I just knew. Those people are creeps, absolute creeps."

"We will have the access to my Plate as you promised me," I reminded him. "We will retrieve it. From there, I will get the Plates of Times and Cosmos, and all will be safe."

"I just can't wait until tomorrow night to leave," he said. "It's not soon enough. The faster we get you to the Plate, the better. We don't need his grimy hands getting on it." He paused long enough to take another breath. "Oh my gods, my father is going to kill me when he hears about this."

"It's a project concerning you and your family's greatest study. Why would he?"

He grimaced. "The Antebureau makes him — makes us — sick. The very mention of it infuriates him. Just like us, he has to know that an excavation into a place sacred to you being led by a member of the Antebureau — well, he'll know something's up. Plus, he'll jump to conclusions like everyone else, that I can't further my research anymore and that I've joined out of pure desperation. Which isn't the case at all, and I hate that."

A rustle of wings caught my attention. I watched the bird Pokémon soar into the sunrise, my hand still on Aurelio's shoulder. The bells of a church rung somewhere behind the steel buildings, signaling the beginning of a very ominous undertaking.

There were many things still I needed to understand.

End of Chapter Eleven