34Getting into the thick of it!
Start Chapter 29
Violet City was smaller than Bianca had expected.
She'd never been, and in all honesty, hadn't heard too terribly much about the place, either. It was one of those locales that one either lived in and around, or never saw in their entire life. Violet City's only real claim to fame were the Ruins of Alph, which lied just outside the city limits, down off Route 36.
Cynthia hadn't said a word the entire ride over aboard the jet, and Bianca didn't like that at all.
"What's wrong?" She asked Cynthia, finally having built up the courage to just come out with it, as they landed.
"Thinking." Cynthia answered, her eyes never leaving the window outside. "…Planning, I suppose would be more accurate."
"Planning for what?"
"Contingencies."
Bianca huffed out a breath. "You're being rather vague."
The ghost of a smile passed across Cynthia's lips. "It's definitely not on purpose."
Bianca had assumed they'd be stopping within a hotel that day, and then heading out to the Ruins of Alph the following morning. Yet Cynthia shook her head when Bianca asked where they were staying, and instead stated, with an odd finality, "We're not going to be here too long, I don't think."
Bianca couldn't help feeling like every word out of Cynthia's mouth was more ominous than the last that day.
They traveled out of Violet not too long after. They'd procured some snacks for the hour-or-so-long trip down to the Ruins, but such provisions were nothing more than candy bars and energy drinks.
Honestly, it was probably the least healthy food that Bianca had had since setting off on this journey.
She truly was getting spoiled, given the way she'd used to eat during her first journey.
They met a few trainers along the way. Bianca battled, but only quick, one-on-one sets. She won all her matches – something that was becoming more frequent as of late, and wasn't that a weird feeling? – before they finally arrived at the entrance to the Ruins of Alph.
"Well," Cynthia coughed into one fist. "This is it."
"Have you contacted Mars to let her know we're coming?"
"Of course." Cynthia stated. "I sent her a message before we took off. She responded, saying that she was excited to show us what she'd found."
"Well, that's good."
"Mm." Cynthia sounded distant, far away, and yet again, Bianca wasn't much a fan.
"You're still not going to tell me what's going on, are you?"
"No, I'm not."
"And why is that?"
"Because I'm not sure if it is going on."
Bianca groaned. "How about I say that I trust your judgement, and that what you think is going on is probably going on?"
Cynthia looked over at her, smiled, and then stayed silent as she stepped out of the Route info building, and into the dusty ground of the Ruins themselves.
Bianca could but sigh.
As Bianca, too, exited out into the crumbled remains of what seemed to have once been an ancient town or temple, she studied her surroundings. The Ruins of Alph were perhaps the most famous collection of ancient architecture throughout the land, largely stemming from the fact that a large variety of artifacts had been uncovered within them.
Some had been of little importance – on a relative scale, Bianca meant. Finding ancient arrowheads was still neat, just not as neat as some of the other things found there – but others had been rather groundbreaking. Some had even linked to Legendary Pokémon traditionally associated with other regions, such as the legendary Arceus.
Bianca had never been, and, in all honesty, hadn't ever really planned on going. Digging through old ruins was never her idea of a good time, even if she could understand why others, such as some of her comrades back at Professor Junipers, were very much fans of such.
She much preferred to get her hands proverbially – and sometimes literally – dirty by taking care of or researching Pokémon directly.
Still, they were here for Mars, and likely to ask her if she had any inkling as to what this Adamantine stuff could even be. Bianca wasn't really sure how much help Mars was going to be, but she liked the woman quite a bit, and wouldn't at all mind an excuse to see and talk to her.
Bianca was just sort of following Cynthia, in all honesty. As she did, she gazed at the many fallen structures that had been here since ages past. Toppled buildings, what seemed to be the remains of a more home-like edifice, and the occasional bone or other biological item.
It was fascinating, just not in a particularly stimulating way for Bianca.
Suddenly, Cynthia stopped, and Bianca yelped as she had to put on the breaks to avoid ramming into Cynthia's back. She managed, barely, but glared over at Cynthia as she stepped to stand in parallel with her.
"Don't just stop." She complained.
Cynthia's gaze, however, was nowhere near her. It was off in the distance, staring at what seemed to be a particular dig site.
"…Is it Sinjoh that you're after?"
"Uh… Cynthia?"
Her mentor snapped out of whatever haze it was that had taken her mind, and looked down to Bianca with an almost believable smile.
"Sorry. What were you saying?"
Bianca shook her head, not even bothering.
Again, Cynthia led. This time down the path that seemed to have had the most recent work done. She led with an odd familiarity, as if the dead-end tunnels and dark halls were somewhere she'd been before.
This was Cynthia, in fairness, so discovering that she'd been down here in the Ruins of Alph before wouldn't so much as register on Bianca's 'Cynthia surprise' meter.
At the bottom, though – and to be fair, Bianca had thought they'd made it to the bottom about fifteen times by the time they actually did – they finally managed to stumble upon the person they'd come here in search of in the first place.
"Mars!" Bianca called out.
The woman in question turned back towards her, and for a moment, a singular instant, there was something in her gaze that Bianca knew not how to gauge. It was gone in the next second, replaced by an easy smile.
"Hello, there, you two."
They spent the next four or five minutes catching up. During that time, Bianca was doing most of the talking. Cynthia spoke when spoken to, but she was just as absent as she'd been the entire day.
"Alright, do you guys wanna' see what I've discovered, then?" Mars asked.
"Definitely!" Bianca projected as much enthusiasm as she could into her voice, even if that was harder than it probably should've been given Cynthia condition. "Is it deeper in?"
"Yeah, but not too far."
"Then lead the way."
Mars did. She led them deeper still, and then down halls that seemed to go on for hours. When Bianca actually checked her phone, she saw that they'd only actually been underground for about twenty minutes, but even so, it felt longer!
Finally, though, the three of them emerged into a great cavern, the likes of which Bianca had only ever seen in photographs.
"Woah…" Bianca murmured below her breath. "You found this?"
Mars laughed. "No, I didn't find this. This whole cave system has been mapped for years and years. I just thought it might be a good spot to look for something else, and lo and behold, I was right."
"What did you find?"
"Oh, I'm not going to spoil the surprise!" Mars chuckled, even as she motioned for them to follow her as they headed deeper, into a much more man-made-looking section of the caves.
The walls had the residue of color pigmentation on them that Bianca could just barely spot in the low light. It seemed as if they were travelling into some more religious sight, perhaps a place of worship?
Eventually, they came out into a room that was, assuredly, a dead end. It was a circular room, perhaps ten or so meters in diameter, and with a ceiling that seemed to stretch on forever – realistically, it was a good twenty or so meters high.
This time, Bianca was flabbergasted.
"This is incredible…"
"Isn't it?" Mars smiled over at her. "It was thought to be an ancient site dug not by those from Johto, but actually relating to the legendary Pokémon from Sinnoh. Mostly, it was thought to be a place to worship Arceus, but there are sections related to Dialga, Palkia, and even a few older charms that seemed to have served the purpose of warding off Giratina. It really is fascinating… but I found something even better."
Bianca wasn't sure how that was going to be possible, but Mars leapt off the side of the raised central section of the room, and picked up an item wrapped in a sort of cloth from off in the corner.
As she did, Cynthia finally outwardly reacted. Her vision locked onto what Mars was holding in her hands, and she turned her entire body to face it, as if she considered it a threat of some kind.
"What is it?"
Mars smiled, then, and Bianca felt something run down her spine, some sort of chill. She didn't know why, or for what reason, but it was the same kind of chill that she'd been feeling every once in a while, for the last month or so.
"Behold…" Mars slowly peeled back the cloth from the object, and revealed what was underneath.
It…
Bianca had never seen anything like it before. She knew that. And yet, when she placed her eyes upon the object within Mars' hands, she found she knew what it was.
It was made of that same material that had somehow wound its way into both Moltres and Articuno's dens. The same material that, apparently, had shown up in Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and so many other places.
Here it had been found, too.
"This," Mars spoke, gazing down upon the gemstone. "Is the Adamant Crystal. That which our ancestors – back when the land now known as Sinnoh was called Hisui, so very many eons ago – used to summon and control the Legendary Dialga."
And it was only then, in that instant of time, that Cynthia stepped forward.
Her eyes were hard. Her posture rigid.
"It was you." She said, and Bianca's eyes widened in both shock and confusion.
"What do you…?" Bianca trailed off, looking between Mars and Cynthia.
"You're the one responsible for it." Cynthia continued, not listening to Bianca's words. "The one who caused the fractures in spacetime, that which had to be filled by Dialga's Adamantine. The one who kickstarted all of this off."
Mars just stood there, unmoving, and yet her face was gradually losing that smile she'd had on it earlier, slowly fading into a much more deadened look.
When finally she spoke, it was quiet, almost a whisper.
"It wasn't a purposeful thing, if you must know. I'd never intended to do anything that might give away what I was planning."
"So, you admit to it?"
"What would be the point of denying it?"
"Hang on!" Bianca shook her head as she stepped forward, entirely out of the loop. "What's going on!? What are you two talking about!?"
Mars didn't say anything, just watched, looking towards Cynthia, evidently expecting her to speak. Bianca's mentor took a breath, then, and stepped to the right, so that she was between her and Mars.
"Mars is behind the Adamantine slowly encroaching in different places around the world. She's done something, and because of it, spacetime itself is breaking apart."
Bianca just blanked.
"W-What!?"
"I came here because I was fairly certain that Mars was responsible for this," Cynthia admitted as she took a step forward. "But I didn't want you to give that away when we saw her. That's why I didn't tell you anything."
The reasoning behind Cynthia's secrecy did make some sense, Bianca supposed, but…
Pretty much nothing else did.
How could Mars be behind this?
Before Bianca could really try and linger on that thought, there was an object prodding against the back of Bianca's fingers. She looked down just in time to see Cynthia press something into Bianca's hands, something she didn't even have the time to really get a good look at before Cynthia herself blitzed forward, her hand extending to try and take the Orb from out of Mars' grasp.
And yet, before she could get close enough, Cynthia just…
Stopped.
As she did, it felt like the entire world shook. The walls cracked around them, and from out of those cracks came that same Adamantine, moving as if in a time lapse, showing the progress that a growing gemstone might make over hundreds of thousands of years. It was almost like a liquid as if filled the cracks entirely, and then…
Everything again was still.
Bianca's eyes were wide. She moved without meaning to, walking around the suddenly still Cynthia and looking her in the eyes.
They were glassy, and were locked onto the orb in Mars' hands… or, at least, where the Orb had been, seconds prior. Bianca felt her heart lurch, reaching out towards her mentor and trying to shake her out of whatever funk she'd been caught in.
Yet when she touched her…
It was like pressing her hand against a solid marble statue. Cynthia's body had no give, no softness.
"Don't worry." Mars said, suddenly panting, as if she'd just exerted herself rather heavily. "Cynthia's fine. She's just… frozen in time for the moment."
Bianca whirled back, her eyebrows high on her head as she tried to process what it was that Mars was saying.
"What are you…"
"I couldn't let Cynthia run about. Not if I wanted to have any hope of actually pulling my plan off. She… she was the one true obstacle remaining that could stop me."
"What are you… talking about!?"
"I thought that would've been obvious by now." Mars said. "I'm going to summon the Legendary Pokémon Dialga. I'm going to take control of it, and, using its power… I'm going to reverse time."
Bianca practically gaped. "You… What!?"
"You should understand, Bianca." Mars spoke, taking a step towards her and giving a tired smile, as if this was something to smile about at all. "I'm going to send to us back. Back to when things made sense. Back to when nothing had gone wrong. When our lives hadn't been ruined, or taken from us."
"What…"
"Think about it!" Mars' voice carried a fervor now as she pleaded with her. "Think about being able to go back to that time, fourteen years ago! Think about being able to correct your mistakes, to be able to make a difference choice! To be able to see your beloved friends and Pokémon again! You could see Hilda, and Emboar!"
Bianca felt her veins turn to ice, her heart lurch within her chest.
"And as for me…" Mars looked up at the ceiling, and breathed deeply. "I'll be able to see my comrades again. I'll be able to prevent Cyrus from fading away from this world. I'll save him, and I'll save our dream. A new world… a better world!"
Bianca took a step forward, her breath and words both catching in her throat.
"I'll be able to go back…" Mars said, and a tear ran down her cheek.
"Back to when my life wasn't meaningless."
And Bianca…
That…
It was wrong.
She knew it was wrong.
Despite everything that Mars was saying, despite what she was trying to insinuate, there was a part of her that understood that already.
But there must've been something on her face that gave that away. Something on her face that told Mars what she was thinking, what she believed, for the woman's own eyes widened, and she drew the Adamant Crystal close to her chest.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
Before Bianca could say anything else, she felt her body just…
Stiffen.
Her upper body didn't; it was just fine, in fact, but her legs…
They were more than rooted to the spot. It was like they'd been cast in solid concrete, transformed from her flesh.
"Wha–"
"That probably won't hold you until the end, but…" Mars shook her head. "That one's not meant to last quite as much as Cynthia's is. I only need to slow you down. Here I was thinking that I wouldn't have to worry about you; that you'd see my plan and realize that its what's best for us, but… I guess I was wrong."
"This… this isn't what's–"
"Don't bother, Bianca." Mars shook her head. "This is the path I've been dead-set on for nearly a decade now. I'm not going to change my mind at the last hurdle."
Despite her words, Bianca didn't want to leave things there. She didn't quite believe Mars, not really. She felt she could get through to her, but…
Mars wasn't going to give her a chance.
"Don't worry about being trapped down here for long. You'll only be aware of this false reality for a few more hours, and then… we should all be back where we're supposed to be. As who we used to be."
"W-Wait!"
Mars did not.
"Goodbye, Cynthia. Goodbye, Bianca."
"Mars!"
But her cries fell on deaf ears. Though Bianca shouted out for Mars to stop…
It was too late.
Mars was already gone.
End Chapter 29
Alright, that's chapter 29! Mars' plan is finally revealed (a couple people guessed this whole thing the moment she was introduced) and Cynthia and Bianca are left down in the ruins of Alph, with Cynthia entirely frozen, and Bianca frozen from the waist down. Can they escape?
Well, you'll probably find out next week!
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