I have got to stop dishing out short, important chapters like this. Next time I get the chance, all short chapters are going to get elongated as much as possible.

But then again, that could draw out the moment so much that it would be absolutely pointless, wouldn't it?

Chapter 29 - A Scientist's Revelations

Cyrus had reached the point where Darkrai's visions affected his time awake as well as what remained of his attempts at rest. The grunts and Commanders had learned quickly to avoid him as much as possible and, when he wasn't avoidable, just stand and take what he had to say and pretend to listen...or run away as fast as their legs could carry them.

At the point in time that Khrista was running back to Mt. Coronet, Cyrus was stalking Charon as the scientist was making his rounds. Charon was doing his best to ignore him, but Cyrus kept muttering about how a Lucario was protecting him from Darkrai. It sounded so childish that the Galactic scientist wanted to turn around and smack his hallucinating boss, but to do so might mean a position worse off than where the old man already was.

"Have you caught Cresselia yet?"

Charon let out a sigh. "No, we haven't. The Pokemon has continued to elude us."

A faint, sinister laugh echoed in the back of the scientist's mind, forcing him to resist the urge to shudder.

"I'm beginning to consider sending you out there," Cyrus remarked darkly.

"I have the children to consider, sir," Charon reminded him. "Someone has to keep an eye on those mindless creatures and that boy."

"I need Cresselia, Charon, and I will send them out to get it if I have to."

"I am aware of that," Charon responded without looking back at Team Galactic's leader. "However, it's going to take some time to prepare them for the upside world. They were practically turned into vegetables by that machine, you know."

"That's what it was meant to do," Cyrus responded calmly. Charon, however, sensed malice in the man's voice as he spoke. "It made them mindless soldiers to obey our every command."

"It also stripped them of most of their knowledge of this place," Charon growled darkly. "Without that, they're as useless as Magikarp."

"So you've said." Cyrus walked around to stand in front of Charon, stopping the scientist. "However, they are without spirit, making them perfect."

Perfectly useless, Charon thought bitterly. His eyes widened, and he realized what he had just thought. Cyrus' "perfect world"... If I'm living in it, then why do I still exhibit things of the old one?

In front of him, Cyrus suddenly collapsed from exhaustion, startling the scientist out of his thoughts.

"Cyrus' perfect world never existed," a dark voice hissed, echoing in the hallway. "The Lake Spirits would have been destroyed if it was. Arceus took precautions not to let that happen, and now we're taking precautions against you. Choose your side wisely..."

As the voice slowly disappeared, the words hit home in Charon's mind. A hidden sixth sense awakened, telling him that something big was going to happen, something that would most likely end up with him worse off than he had been before.

The scientist quickly summoned a pair of Goth Joys to carry Cyrus to his chambers, thinking, I must act quickly...

Well, there's something big going on now, isn't there? Of course, that would be stating the obvious, but I wanted to get all sides of the conflict before the climax.

Isn't it just fun to be able to mess with characters' heads like this?