ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕠 𝕪𝕠𝕦 |𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐|

4

<<Miss Diantha, the helicopter can't land in Lumiose City; we're forced to land in the flat area to the southwest.>>

Diantha was even more terrified by the news, her breathing grew even shorter.
She didn't have the courage to look out the window.


It was the middle of the night when they left Galar. It had taken several hours, and it was almost morning, so she knew perfectly well that those orange hues in the sky weren't normal.

Cynthia had her gaze fixed on an undefined point. She was used to solving catastrophes, but she had no idea what she might find ahead.

Steven, on the other hand, had his eyes glued to the glass.

As they neared the Kalos region, he saw the atmosphere grow darker, more frightening. Memories of the battle against Lysandre a few years ago immediately resurfaced.

Nothing had been heard from him since, but for a long time, standing next to Diantha, Steven felt the danger lurking around every corner.
The region had never fully recovered, especially Lumiose City; any small explosion, theft, or alarm was enough to cause panic—people just couldn't take it anymore.

The situation was drastic, the population had been halved, and a third of the people refused to return to the city after the Team Flare invasion, too scared to face danger again, without a roof over their heads for months and months, with no solid foundation to live on.

Watching the city's reconstruction had been difficult. Diantha had temporarily moved there, but it was truly overwhelming. She saw families, angry, alone, abandoned to themselves, and she felt powerless in the face of all that chaos; there was so little she could actually do.

She helped with her Pokémon, discussed the reconstruction with Clemont, traveled around the Kalos region, visited families and gym leaders, but she felt like she couldn't go on.
Every time she came home, she felt the mask slip from her face, and tears flowed copiously each night, down a face that was losing the joy with which she had always led her region.

Her only comfort was the two champions onboard with her. Cynthia and Steven spent a lot of time in Kalos. Many of the inhabitants from their regions were helpful, gym leaders included.

No one should be left behind.

They landed shortly after, the trail of smoke visible from the landing point.
Dark smoke, from multiple points in the city, covered the sky above.A wave of terror completely overtook Diantha; she had no courage to take a single step, her feet were planted in the ground from anxiety, she didn't want to know anything, but her duty as champion came before her own will.

Her heart skipped a beat. The streets she had once known so well had been transformed into a maze of despair, for the second time.The western part of Lumiose City had been almost completely overrun. It was the industrial center of the city, so fortunately, there were very few residences, and only a small portion had suffered severe damage.
The only building that appeared, to the eye, to be more destroyed than the others was a small boutique. It was a recently opened business, and she only knew it was run by two girls, but she didn't know their names or origins. She felt sorry when she saw only the sign still intact, while the walls had all been overwhelmed by flames and explosions.

"I hope they managed to get out before the disaster," she thought.

At that moment, she felt like an uncrowned queen, imposing in the face of all that chaos. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, but she tried to hold them back as much as possible.
She couldn't afford to be fragile at that moment.The fire smoke irritated her airways, and the atmosphere was increasingly less visible due to the spreading flames. Adding to this feeling of suffocation were feelings of guilt: she had abandoned her region, Kalos, at the most difficult time.