Shattered Dreams

Nothing

The elevator door opened, and an eerie echoe bounced the walls of the cavern. Area zero Underdepths, the heart of Paldea beats as if a choir in absolute harmony was singing an alien and ethereal song which echoed off the walls, coruscating beams of energy emitting from it. Gleaming gems of enormous tera shards, with mountains of them in the distance.

"My... MY GOODNESS!" Briar exclaimed, her voice echoes through the cavern's walls. Her eyes widened as she took in the entire landscape around her. A vast amount of tera shards, a sea of different kinds all within a massive cavern.

"Are we..." Carmine spoke quietly, seemingly at lost for words. "Underneath Area Zero?" she asks.

A Rotom phone flew out of Briar's pocket, giving her a brief look at their current location, "Yes! According to my data, our current position is way deeper than where we last were."

Looking at a desk filled with stacks of papers. Kieran approached the desk, an array of different documents on the behaviour of terastal energy scattered on the table, "Hey, what's... all this stuff?"

"Reports? From... the esteem Professor Turo?!" Briar flipped through the reports, her eyes widening as she flipped through the pages. "Stellar energy? The Hidden Treasure, Terapagos! Slumbering in the form of a crystal?"

"To think there is so much that Heath didn't write about! These papers are a veritable treasure trove."

"Terapagos..." Kieran whispered to himself, Terapagos was his priority here, and every second wasted in here was costing him his opportunity to finally capture it. He immediately looked around, trying to find some way he could advance further into Area Zero Underdepths.

"C'mon, let's hurry up and go further in."

"I still haven't gotten my fill with these documents, but... OK! Let's head in deeper." She replied, "it's best we discover the truth with our own eyes after all."

Terapagos was his only reason for being here, they could come back for the documents later, but for now he needed to focus on finding this 'treasure', it is the only way of making Juliana realize everything that she did to him and he couldn't let that chance fall through his fingers.

As they make their way deeper down the cavern, she could feel as if the walls were calling her. She looked towards the crystals and felt herself falling deeper as she gazed into the reflection. It was the same story all over again. It felt like she was looking into a mirror into the past. All the memories from back in Kitakami had started to surge to her mind. She started to remember everything from back then. The memories of her and Kieran kept flashing in her head.

Even as she tried to shake free of the images that flooded her mind, a feeling of regret began to grow within her, knowing that this was what she caused. The images of Kieran from back then wouldn't stop replaying in her mind, like a movie that kept playing. She tried to get rid of it, but it wouldn't cease. The more she tried, the worse it got.

"Juliana..."

... Why'd you lie to me?

"Earth to Juliana..."

I'm sorry... I didn't mean to...

"Hey!" Carmine called, breaking her from her trance. "Are you okay?" She asked, worryfull eyes staring back into her own.

"I-I'm... fine, just a little lost in thought. Sorry that I made you worry there. Why'd we stop?"

Carmine gazed back into her eyes with worry. She wanted to ask her so bad but fought the urge to not do so. Not now...

"There's something blocking our way. There's no way we're going any further with 'this' in the way." She said, pointing to a cluster of tera crystals, seemingly emerged from the ground itself.