Set in Stone (A Pokèmon Fanfic)

Chapter 16

"Um. So which way?" I stood in the middle of the street, looking towards the left of me, and the path in front of me. There were two similar looking paths. Gold frowned and checked his Pokegear.

"Uhh, do you wanna explore the ruins first?" he asked, pointing to the left. "According to my sources, there is a..." He leaned closer to the Pokegear. "A tree... yeah, a tree blocking the path to Goldenrod. So only the ruins are open."

I raised my eyebrows. "Your sources being the radio station you're listening to now," I said, giving him an accusatory look.

"Yeah..." Gold said, not looking at me. "So it's your choice."

I sighed. "Let's explore the ruins. But we can't stay long."

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Silence. That was the ruins described in one word. Gold and I walked through the underground maze, staring at all the creepy statues and strange engravings on the walls. All was quiet except for the quiet dripping of aboveground leaks. One drop fell onto Gold's head, and my laughter echoed off the barren walls.

"Are the ruins always this boring?" I asked, trying not to howl in frustration. The last thing I needed was something that wasted time.

Gold shook his head. "No. There was this one time..." His eyes lit up. "Oh! Follow me!" He grabbed my hand and raced towards the ladder. I rolled my eyes and ran after him.

We climbed the ladder, out of the underground area. Gold led me past a modern looking building and into a shoddy, mossy brick... shrine? Inside, covered in vines and various fungi, sat a picture enclosed in two walls. Beyond the picture was a word depicted in strange looking letters.

Gold stepped up to the picture.

"Look."

I peered closer and discovered it wasn't really a picture. It was more like tiles that had been flung all over the place. I cautiously picked one up. I wasn't killed.

"Not hexed or cursed," I muttered. I don't know what came over me, but my fingers started moving, putting the pieces together. Finally, I put the last piece in place. The picture resembled a huge, beautifully plumaged bird... Ho-oh. I turned around, smiling.

"Hey, I finis-" Suddenly, the floor gave way beneath me. I fell, screaming, into a pitch black hole. I could hear Gold calling my name, but I was too terror struck to respond.

My feet hit solid ground. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized I was in the underground area again. The statues stared creepily at me. My pockets felt strangely light, and as I patted them down, I realized my Pokegear had fallen out. In a panic, I fell to my hands and knees searching for it. I found it on the ground next to me.

As I checked it for any scratches or nicks, I saw the radio app was open. Odd, because I had turned it off before I entered the ruins. Out of curiosity, I tapped the screen. Would the radio waves reach here?

No, but instead something strange came up. "Unknown Sound," read the screen display. I cautiously turned up the volume. An eerie, mysterious pinging sound came from the speakers. It was pretty creepy, since there was nothing around the ruins, and the sound echoed off the walls.

The thud of feet startled me, and I turned to find Gold panting next to me. Without a word, I turned my Pokegear screen towards him. To my surprise, Gold didn't look very shocked.

"Yeah, the Unown here send out these strange signals using radio waves," he explained calmly. "They communicate using radio waves."

"Wait. How did you know this?" I asked. How come Gold wasn't as creeped out as I was? Not fair.

"Well. I am a Johto native, you know." Gold's voice had a little bit of pride in it. Okay, maybe not. It was oozing with arrogance.

My mental gears were too busy turning to take notice of his pride. I had just figured something out... something that made these ruins a lot more interesting.

"If you're so familiar with Johto," I began slowly, "Why don't you tell me the secret of the Ruins of Alph?"

Gold looked miffed. "Sure," he said. "If you fix one of the pictures, the Unown come out to play. If you can decipher the codes on the walls, you are led into a treasure room, then a mysterious message room which tells you about why the ruins were created."

I shook my head. A very scary picture came rushing back to me. My mom, dragging me in chains through these very ruins. Her gleeful smile, and the masterball in my hand. Her forcing my finger to press the button releasing the pokemon. The ruins warping, and transporting us to a place in between regions...

"No." My voice was rough and strained. "My mother took me here once. She captured Arceus, but only I was powerful enough to control it."

All the color drained from Gold's face. "Capture... Arceus. As in, the creator of this universe."

I nodded. "Yeah, that. Anyways, she forced me to release it, right here in these ruins. It warped the area around us, and we found ourselves in a new ruins. It was very snowy, cold, and sinister."

Gold stumbled back. "That can't be."

I frowned. "Believe me or not, I don't care. I'm telling you the truth. Inside the shrine were the three major Sinnoh legendaries. Dialga, Palkia, and Garantina. We captured them all." My voice trembled.

"All of them."

Gold regarded me with a new light in his eyes. Was it admiration? Disgust? Pity? I didn't want to know.

"My map told me it was in between Sinnoh and Johto... two regions extremely far apart. It connected the two regions. Therefore, my mother dubbed it the Sinjoh Ruins, and the name stuck." I took a wobbly breath. "It was terrifying. I was paralyzed with fear."

"I can imagine." I could tell he was afraid to say more. Gold took a deep breath.

"But, one thing's bothering me." Gold stared right at me. "How come you only remembered this now? Couldn't you have told me right when you came into these ruins?"

He had me there. I had no idea.

"I... I don't know," I sighed. "It just came to me when you mentioned the ruins."

Gold scrunched up his face. "But how did you not know this before? It's your own memories."

Tears spilled into my eyes. I didn't know why. Perhaps it was because my mind couldn't remember anything important. I felt the information, but it was like my memory recovery had hit a wall. And all those important memories were on the other side. It frustrated me to the point where I wanted to curl up into a ball and sob.

The tears flowed down my cheeks now, making a forlorn plopping sound on the floor. "I can't explain," I choked, feeling the salty tears on my tongue. "It's there, but I... I can't reach it. May-maybe there needs to be a trigger to retrieve the memory."

To my surprise, Gold gently lifted his hands to my face and wiped away my tears. Instinctively, my hands latched on to his wrists, tugging them away. His eyebrows lifted in surprise, and I looked away, blushing.

"Sorry." I mumbled. "Nobody's ever done that to me before."

Gold laughed. "I'll bet they haven't," he replied. "Guess what it's called?"

"Um. This is a hard one. How about... wiping away tears?" I tried very hard not to be sarcastic.

"Haha. Funny." Gold looked right at me, and flashed his metallic eyes. "It's called being caring."

I opened my mouth to respond, but a loud pinging sound behind me distracted me. I whirled around to confront... a whole horde of black letter pokemon.

"Holy Arceus..." Gold drank in the scene, his face pale. "I guess the Unown have come to play."