Chapter 286: The Lake Guardians! You Want Me to Help You Fight Giratina?
Veilstone City.
A city carved directly out of a sheer mountainside — and also home to Team Galactic's headquarters. The Galactic Veilstone Building. This was where it all was.
"Excellent! Finally, it's done!"
Cyrus stared, fever-eyed, at the crimson chain before him — a chain that pulsed with a faint, ominous red light. A divine artifact forged from the extracted power of the "Lake Guardians," said to be capable of linking the two Legendary Pokémon born from Sinnoh's mythology directly to it, and bringing them under complete control.
"Hahahaha—!! With this, I can finally control the gods!"
Cyrus laughed, unhinged, his face contorted into something between euphoria and madness. He genuinely hadn't expected things to unfold this quickly, this easily. He'd never dared imagine a day like this would come — the New World Plan had always been Charon's idea, Charon's project.
Cyrus had ambition — he'd always had it. He wanted the entire world to look up to him! But there was nothing to be done about it: brilliant scientist though he was, he was still just a scientist, without a shred of trainer talent. As the saying went — not every researcher got the world's favor the way Colress had. If it came down to an actual battle, Cyrus would probably lose to some random kid catching bugs by the roadside.
But so what? Lacking trainer talent didn't matter — as far as Cyrus was concerned, if he could just get his hands on a Legendary Pokémon, he could still ascend in a single leap. And then, the whole world would finally look up to him too.
So he'd spent years scheming relentlessly to obtain a Legendary Pokémon. No opportunity? Then he'd manufacture one. He'd set his sights on Cresselia — no good, though; Cresselia was far too powerful. Even with the mind-control machine he'd built, he'd first have to actually get the machine onto her. And none of them — Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, or even Charon himself — had been willing to help him with that. And what could ordinary Galactic grunts possibly do to get close to something like Cresselia?
But now — all of them were simply gone!
A bunch of fools, looking down on me — and in the end, they're the ones who handed me everything.
Cyrus sneered, thoroughly aware that Charon, Mars, and the rest had never much respected him. If it hadn't been for his technical expertise, Charon wouldn't have bothered with him at all. And now?
"I don't know who's responsible, but they really did do me a favor."
Cyrus slowly lifted the crimson chain, eyes blazing with fervor. Such a beautiful sheen. With this, he could control the twin gods said to command time and space itself. And then — he would be the chosen one. He would be the only one who mattered.
"And then—"
After basking in the moment for a good while, Cyrus carefully tucked the red chain into his bag and turned around. Three separate containment vessels held the three Lake Guardians — the Legendary trio also said to represent "the heart" itself. Having had their power drained, Uxie and the others now lay weak and motionless inside their containers.
"What should I do with you three? Quite the headache, honestly."
Cyrus grinned wide, admiring the three Legendary figures before him. With the red chain already extracted, the Lake Guardians had, of course, outlived their usefulness. But unlike Charon, Cyrus didn't think the three of them were entirely worthless — Legendary Pokémon, after all, even in this state. If he could bring them under his control too, wouldn't that be quite the bonus?
"If you're willing to submit to me, I suppose I wouldn't mind keeping you around. Otherwise—"
Cyrus's ominous threat trailed off unfinished — though Uxie and the others understood exactly what he meant regardless. As three of the "Six Gods" that had existed since the dawn of creation, their wisdom needed no elaboration. Weak as they were right now, even treated this way, there wasn't the faintest trace of anger in the way Uxie and the others looked at him — only an eerie calm. Pity, almost.
Pathetic human. Consumed by the desires in his own heart — and what will the end result be? Attempting to control "gods" would only end in self-destruction. No other outcome was possible. The red chain could "connect" time and space, could bind Dialga and Palkia, yes — but that control was never permanent. And Uxie and the others, in some sense the "true siblings" of Dialga and Palkia, understood the two dragons' temperaments all too well. The moment the red chain failed, this human would be torn apart by furious, betrayed gods — no other possibility.
Seeing Uxie and the others neither beg for mercy nor react with anything but that unbearably calm stare, Cyrus flew into an embarrassed rage.
"That look in your eyes. I really do hate it."
He detested that placid expression of theirs, loathed it thoroughly.
Just as Cyrus opened his mouth to say something further, a Galactic member came bursting through the door in a blind panic.
"Didn't I say — no one comes in without my permission?" Cyrus's face darkened instantly.
"Sir Cyrus, this is bad! We've got intruders!"
The member reported, visibly panicked.
"What did you say?" Cyrus startled.
"It's Champion Cynthia! They've already fought their way up to the second floor — our people can't hold them back at all!"
"Get me out of here, now!"
Cyrus reeled with shock, but caught himself quickly. Team Galactic, having already lost Charon, three of its executives, and a huge chunk of its elite members, was already scattered and disorganized. And as the last remaining executive, Cyrus himself had essentially zero combat ability — let alone against an opponent like Cynthia. Fight? How, exactly? Even Charon himself wouldn't have stood a chance against Cynthia.
"Yes, sir!" The Galactic member remained loyal despite everything.
"Not through the lower floors. We leave from here."
Cyrus went straight to the window, having the member release his Golbat.
"Damn it! But mark my words — I will be back!"
Cyrus cast one last, resentful glance back at the three Lake Guardians. He'd have loved to take them with him, but retreating now was clearly the priority — hesitate any longer and he might not be able to retreat at all.
No matter. Once I've got Dialga and Palkia, this entire world will belong to me.
Cyrus knew what mattered most — the red chain was already secured on his person. What mattered now was reaching the twin gods of space and time first.
Meanwhile, on the second floor.
"Hey, would it kill you to just drop your Poké Balls and surrender quietly? Even your boss Charon's off mining now, and you're still putting up a fight."
Mammon clicked his tongue at the injured Galactic members before him, his tone thick with mockery. Cynthia's Garchomp fixed the group with a fierce, imposing stare, sending a wave of terror through every one of them.
Too strong!
"Mammon, what should we do with these people?" Cynthia asked.
"I've already had Gladion send people over to take custody of them."
"Fair enough." Cynthia nodded. Her original plan had been that if Team Rocket had no presence in Veilstone, she'd contact the local police herself — they couldn't exactly just let these Galactic members walk free, after all. But Mammon had clearly already thought that through — this was Galactic's headquarters, after all, with a substantial number of members here, all convertible into Rocket recruits. No sense letting that go to waste.
"Let's keep moving up."
The three of them continued climbing. Members tried to block their path the whole way, but against Cynthia's Garchomp, resistance was thoroughly, effortlessly crushed. Soon enough, they reached the fourth floor, where they found a massive laboratory.
"Yoo-hoo~ well, would you look at what we've got here?"
Mammon's eyes lit up, a grin he couldn't hide spreading across his face as he took in the three Pokémon trapped in the containment vessels before them. "The legendary Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf."
Cynthia recognized them at once — the Legendary Sinnoh trio from the Lake myths, also known as the Lake Guardians.
"They look terribly weak. Team Galactic must have done something to them." Caitlin's delicate brow furrowed — she could sense clearly just how drained the three Pokémon were.
Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf watched the three of them in turn.
"Let's get them out first."
Garchomp stepped forward, a single sharp swipe of its claw slicing through the air in a flash of cold light. A crack split across the surface of the vessels containing them, and the glass shattered entirely.
"Are you three alright?"
Cynthia moved forward, applying a Full Restore to each of them, helping restore their strength. As some of their energy returned, the trio began to recover, bodies glowing with a soft blue light as they lifted off the ground — naturally, as Psychic-types, all three had the ability to levitate. Uxie, embodiment of "knowledge," hovered between Mesprit and Azelf — clearly, occupying the center position, the leader of the Lake Guardians.
"Our thanks for freeing us, human."
Uxie addressed Cynthia first with a slight nod, its cool telepathic voice resonating in the minds of all three visitors.
"Please, there's no need to thank us. If anything, I'm the one who should apologize. What Team Galactic did — that was a genuine sin." Cynthia sighed. The moment she'd walked in and seen Uxie and the others confined in vessels like lab specimens, her feelings had turned deeply complicated. These were Legendary Pokémon — the very Pokémon that had granted the world's creatures a "heart" in the first place. Legend held that the Lake trio had hatched from a single egg and flown across the land, granting humanity the "wisdom" that enriched their lives, the "emotion" to feel joy and sorrow, and the "willpower" to see their resolutions through. And now, the very humans who'd received their gifts had turned around and caged them, treating them like laboratory specimens. It left Cynthia with an overwhelming, shameful complexity of feeling.
"There's no need to feel guilty. This isn't your fault."
Mesprit, embodiment of "emotion," picked up on Cynthia's feelings with unerring sensitivity, tilting its head slightly, speaking in a resonant, gender-neutral telepathic tone.
"Where there is emotion, dark desires inevitably follow. This is simply an inevitable consequence."
Uxie's telepathic voice remained as cool and detached as ever, seeming entirely unsurprised by today's events — or perhaps it had foreseen this day long ago.
"The very day our Father God created us, I foresaw an event such as this occurring. Humanity's excess of greed will lead them, inevitably, to the abyss — and they will receive the punishment they've earned."
At that, Uxie's telepathy paused, its calm gaze shifting toward Mammon.
"And yet — where bright light shines, shadow is born. When the twin sovereigns are summoned, and the chain wraps around them, he who dwells in the world without heaven or earth will seize his chance as well."
What did that mean?
Cynthia and Caitlin both looked baffled — but Mammon understood at once.
"What exactly are you getting at?" Mammon asked, genuinely intrigued, looking at Uxie.
"The shadow will not let this chance to rebel pass by. Father God has not yet awoken. Only by opposing the twin sovereigns can we prevent it — and that, we cannot do ourselves."
Uxie shook its head.
"You want me to help you fight Giratina? Do I really look like a good person to you?"
Mammon couldn't help but laugh.
Where bright light shines, shadow is born — the "shadow" in that line referred, unmistakably, to the third dragon of the Creation Trio: Giratina. Banished by Arceus to the far side of the world for its violent, unruly temperament — a realm without distinction between heaven and earth, a broken, shattered world. Giratina, dwelling within that ruined dimension, had always been silently watching the world it had been cast out of.
And crucially — in the Pokédex, Giratina's official classification was the "Renegade" Pokémon.
So this so-called "rebellion" — against whom, exactly, was it meant to be?
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