Chapter seven is here. Thanks to those who reviewed. Anyone else who has read and didn't review, I hope you liked it, but please review.

Notes: "This is normal talking" 'This is thinking. Italics with apostrophes' "this is telepathy. Italics with quotation marks"

Disclaimer: I don't own this stuff except my OCs. OCs are listed in my profile. (Grumbles) Do I have to say this every Time? Oh well. Now on with it!

Chapter Seven:
The Altomare Museum of History

Soon after we were on our way, Lorenzo offered to take us to the museum by gondola. While in the gondola, Lorenzo and Latias started to have a conversation. I didn't join in. I tried to organize my thoughts. I took out my black rock from my pocket and started fiddling with it wile thinking.

Una had said that in order to find the True Secret, whatever the hell that was, I would need to ask the unobvious questions and have an understanding of the history of the city. I guess it was a good thing I was heading to a museum. Question one: Why did that evil trainer do what he did all those years ago? Judging from what Una said, he was probably after the Secret too. Question two: What is this Secret? Obviously Una and the Order know, they just need to get to it. That brings up question three: Who is the Order of Arceus, and why do they want this Secret? I needed to get a clue or something if I wanted to stop them, because judging by how thing have gone so far, if the Order got their hands on the Secret, things would get bad.

"Esteban, you're awfully quiet," said Lorenzo suddenly. I jumped a bit and dropped my rock.

"Huh, what?" I said as I picked up my rock. "Oh, I was just thinking."

Latias, trying to get me to talk, then asked, "So, why do you want to go to the museum?"

"History," I said. "It's all about the history."

"I can give you a quick overview on the city's history on the way to the museum," Lorenzo offered. "After all, I am the curator."

I thought about it. "Sure, that would be great," I responded.

Lorenzo then began. "This area has always been inhabited in some form or another. It is a very good place for trade. Ancient civilizations had settlements here back before there was the water. Altomare didn't always have flooded streets. Eventually the water came, and this city became even more strategic for trade. With the water, the settlement became a village, the village became a town, and the town eventually became a city.

"Back a little over a hundred years ago, the excessively rich mayor of Altomare had become tired of how shabby the city had become over the years. He hired the great architect Donato Luccio to renovate the whole city so it can rival the greatest European cities."

I took a look at the city around us. The architecture was great. "I guess he was successful then."

"Yes," Lorenzo continued, "but it took him many years to do it. Luccio had said when he was done that it was his greatest accomplishment. Well, after that no much happened in the city. That is, until around seventy years ago." I knew that now Lorenzo was talking about the day with the evil trainer so I stopped fiddling with my rock a bit so I could listen more closely.

"It was a dark and rainy night," Lorenzo said. "He came with no mercy and two resurrected fossils. He would slaughter anyone who opposed him. He would just play with them, and then he would snap his fingers. They would just drop dead." Lorenzo was now talking with pain in his voice, and he was staring into space as if he was reliving the memories in his mind. I had no doubt that such an experience would leave an impression deep enough to make it near impossible to forget even the finer details. Luckily he was still able to steer the gondola like it was nothing. Latias just had her eyes closed and bowed her head in respect. "He was making his way to the museum. That was where I was with my family. I was only a boy then. He made to the front of the museum with his demonic pokémon. He had silver hair, black clothes, and an expression of pure evil. I thought we were dead."

Lorenzo then sighed and paused. "Then, like a miracle, Latios arrived. There was epic battle between the trainer's pokémon and Latios. Each time either aerodactyl or kabutops were near defeat, the trainer would somehow revive them back to full strength, but the trainer would get weaker each time he made the pokémon stronger. Eventually, he got too weak to revive them anymore, and the two pokémon were finally defeated by Latios. Both were extremely weak from the battle. Everyone thought Latios would win, but the trainer wouldn't give up. The trainer knew he wouldn't win, so he tried to take all of us at the museum down with him. He sent a blast of energy, not at Latios, but at us. Latios flew in front of us to absorb the blast. Latios gave his life so more lives wouldn't be lost because of the trainer. The trainer only laughed before he too fell to the ground and died. Latios' body then began to glow and dissolved. In its place was the Soul Dew. After that, the city decided to place the Latios and Latias statue on top of the columns on the main canal in order to honor them. You probably saw them when you arrived in Altomare."

Lorenzo stopped talking. I remained silent in order to honor Latios' memory. "My God," I murmured. "He was an Aura Guardian." Lorenzo and Latias all looked at me. "The trainer, he was an Aura Guardian, but a rouge one. It is the only way he could have done what he did. He died in the end because he used the last of his aura in his final blast. No aura, no life."

"Wow," was all Latias said in response.

"No wonder your aura demonstration was disturbingly familiar," said Lorenzo. "I never made the connection."

"I know this sounds trivial, but do you know why he was heading to the museum, or if he was carrying anything weird or of value?" I asked.

Lorenzo and Latias looked at each other, and Lorenzo thought about it. "I don't know why he wanted to go there, but I do remember that he was holding a rolled up piece of paper the whole time. Now that I think about it, he did drop the paper when he died and I saw that it was a will; the will of Architect Luccio to be precise. I never thought much of it actually because I would see no use of it. Also, it seemed to disappear soon afterwards."

"Hmm," I said. "Thanks." I went back to fiddling with my black rock, and a few minutes later we arrived at the museum.

As I entered the museum, I was immediately in awe because of how grand it was. That mayor a hundred years ago must have spared no expense to make Altomare rival Renaissance Europe. There were carvings, columns, statues, and a couple frescos. In the main open area, volunteers were already hard at work preparing for the gala tonight. To the side, there was a large section of the building had aisle upon aisle devoted to a vast library-like archive of preserved documents. In the open area along the walls and next to the archival shelves, as well as along the wall of the upper level, were relics, artifacts, and antiques important to Altomare's history. In the back was the massive structure that was the Defense Mechanism of Altomare.

"Well, I must go help with the setup," said Lorenzo. "You two may look around." Lorenzo then left to join the volunteers.

As Latias and I were walking to the center of the open area, I was looking all around the building. When we reached the middle, I looked down at the floor and said, "Oh, fossils. Are these the ones that…you know?" I crouched down to get a closer look.

"Yeah," she said, "but there's more to the museum than fossils." I got up and walked with Latias to the back to see the D.M.A. When we got there, Latias was staring at it like she hated it. I didn't blame her; the device almost destroyed the city and was a reason for her brother's death. It looked odd, like it was some piece of metal work. It was almost like something that should be in some art museum rather than the world's most powerful weapon. I reached up to touch it when Latias said, "Don't touch it."

I lowered my hand and said, "Sorry." I looked up at it and started thinking about it. "In a way, it's like a metaphor. Built with the best intentions, but used for the worst reasons. Everything has a dark and light side. While protecting the city from the worst threats, it is at the same time the greatest treat to the very city it's protecting. Only a few people could ever step into this and not be corrupted by the power. Anyone who steps in might become the city's savior, but they can also become death, the destroyer of worlds."

"That's really good," said Latias.

I looked down from the D.M.A. and turned to look at Latias. "Yeah thanks, but I can't help but be amazed by the marvel of engineering."

Latias and I continued to look around the museum for a few hours. She would explain how the different artifacts were important to Altomare's history, and how the archive has a copy of almost everything written in or regarding Altomare. We would look at the different pieces of art, and she explained how on the wall with ornate engravings, there is an opening that plays music box cylinders. It, in a sense, made the museum a giant music box with the music being played throughout the museum. There were other people and tourists examining the museum and archive. The set-up for the gala was also going well. However, throughout most of my time there, I couldn't find any clue about the True Secret, and I wasn't about to examine the entire archive for hours just for a little clue.

"So what is this?" I ask when we get to an antique merry-go-round toy.

"Well, it's a merry-go-round," she said to answer my question.

"I figured that much out on my own," I said, "but what is so special about it?" It was a very nice, little merry-go-round that a little girl would entertain herself with by watching the tiny carved pokémon shaped seats go round and round. An interesting thing about it is that the top was made of four movable rings that had numbers zero through nine around each ring. They could be turned to make any number from 0000 to 9999. The tiny carved seats that looked like pokémon each had their own number, which was from one to thirty-one. On the bottom of the antique was another movable ring, but instead of numbers, there was the twelve months written. There was also a movable golden window that you could move to be in front of the different numbered seat. If you moved the golden piece, it would look like it was marking a date, if you read it from bottom to top.

"It's a music box," said Latias, answering my question. "You would have to wind it up on the side to play it."

I saw that Lorenzo was approaching us. "I decided to take a break," he said. "I see that you like the musical merry-go-round. It was made by architect Donato Luccio as a gift to the city's mayor's youngest daughter on the day he finished the renovations. Go ahead, play it."

I rotated the movable rings and golden piece to read my Teacher's birthday, April 22, 1960. I wound up the music box all the way, and it starts to play. The merry-go-round turned and played a rather pretty tune. It sounded like a more classical tune. It started slow, but eventually got faster. I started listening to the beat. "One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three," I said. "You can waltz to this." The tune lasted for three or so minutes.

"Yes, it is a nice tune," said Lorenzo. "My mother used to hum it to me when I was a boy. The song is called 'Merry-Go-Round of Life'."

"That's fitting for a merry-go-round music box," added Latias. "Uh, Esteban, what's wrong?"

I had been staring at who had just walked into the museum. "Aw crap, it's Una. Doesn't she ever just stay away?"

"Who?" asked Latias.

"I didn't tell you about what happened at the garden, did I?" I said. "Long story short, she's the one who's been causing trouble lately. Part of this cult, Order of Arceus. Have you heard of them?"

"I don't know of any cult," said Latias, "but Arceus is a god to pokémon."

"Ah," I said, "that's where I heard of Arceus before. My Teacher once talked about the pokémon god, creator of all things bright and beautiful. I thought it was a load of bull. God did that, not Arceus." Latias gave me a death like stare. "No offence," I added and pointed to my golden cross. "Now if you don't mind, I have someone to talk to about a secret." I left Latias and Lorenzo and walked towards Una.

She was standing next to the fossils, and she hasn't yet noticed me. I walked up behind her to she what she was doing. "Where is it?" she murmured to herself. She seemed to be looking for something and she looked down at the paper she was holding. It was the Italian document I saw on her boat the day before that read "volontà e testamento dell'ultimo" on the top. I didn't notice it when I glanced at it yesterday, but under the title read "Donato Luccio".

"How do you seem to always go where I go?" She didn't seem startled by me, or at least she didn't show it if she was, and she rolled up her paper.

"The only reason I am not killing you right now is because I don't want to make a scene in the open," she said coolly and then turned to me, "and we are in the same place because of similar interests."

"Yeah," I said, "could you please tell me what the True Secret is? You seem to know, and I hate guessing."

"Why should I tell you?" she answered, "You seem competent enough to figure it out yourself."

"I'll find out eventually," I told her, "but I need to know so I can stop you. If you got to this secret first, then I doubt that happiness and sunshine will follow. I know you wouldn't want that, because I know how you feel deep down."

She tensed up a bit and she began to breathe a bit harder. She quickly calmed down again. "You seem to have taken my advice about history and the unobvious questions. After all, that is why you are here. Keep it up, and you will find what the secret is soon. Now I must go." She then left and started examining the museum's artifacts.

As I was heading back to Latias, Lorenzo was heading back to the set-up for the gala. "Hey, Lorenzo wait!" I said to him. He stopped and I ran over to him. "Lorenzo, can you please tell me what 'volontà e testamento dell'ultimo' means?"

"Sure," he said, "It means 'last will and testament' in Italian. Why"

"Just following a lead," I said to him as I headed to Latias, who was still by the merry-go-round, "Just following a lead."

"So what was that for?" asked Latias. I started to walk into the vast library-like archive and she followed me.

"I needed to find out something. You said that they keep a copy of all things Altomare in the archive, right?" I said as I went down a few more aisles.

"Yes, that is why it is so big," she said. "Did you find what you were looking for then?"

"Not exactly, but I did get a consolation prize," I said. I then went down an aisle labeled "Legal Documents". Latias was still following me. I then climbed up a bit on one of those sliding ladders for tall book cases. I then pushed on the case so that I would slide faster. "Let's see…L's…LU's…Lucario…Ah ha!"

Latias caught up with me and asked, "So what is this consolation prize?"

What I was looking for was behind a little locked glass door for preservation from the elements, but with a little aura and some finagling, I picked the lock and reached in for the rolled up document. "That prize would be a clue to what I was looking for," I said. I closed the little glass door and slid down the ladder. I unrolled it and showed it to Latias. "To be exact, it is the will of architect Donato Luccio. Just like it helped the evil trainer years ago and now the Order of Arceus, it will lead us to the True Secret of Altomare."

So, as you can see, with clues comes questions. I know, I slightly altered the history a bit to fit the story, but I had to for it to work.

Good? Bad? Loved it? Hated it? Yes? No? Please tell me in a review, I heart reviews. I accept all kinds of reviews (positive, negative, constructive criticisms, etc.), except flames or spams. I don't like flames or spams.

I also need to know how I can improve this chapter. I need to figure out how to write it so it reads better, so please tell me.

Chapter 8 may or may not come this month. School starts in almost a week...meh.

Thanks for reading, and please review!