Linkage

21

He looked at the man in the with the spacesuit. Cyrus, was that man's name, he thought he remembered. He didn't think he was supposed to remember that, but for some reason he did. He got a bad feeling when thinking about this man, but here was no reason to distrust someone who hadn't done harm to him. In fact, he thought it might be better to follow whatever this man said. Him and the other man next to him.

"Fein," said the odd man Cyrus, "what do you want to do with him? You said he had a lot of value."

The man Fein looked at him. "Perhaps he'd be good with the other techies. They're making no progress in minimizing the shadow technology. Knowing him, he probably has something in there, considering his history."

"Won't using his competencies bring him back?" Cyrus asked the other man, Fein. "We had to stick Dawn back in the machine after she made her address."

"I suppose you're right. If we're going to use his competencies, let's do something downright manipulative," said Fein. "Cynthia no doubt will come back for him. From what I saw, they were a team. I think we should have him kill her. Now that, would be satisfying." 

"Why not put her in the machine?" Cyrus asked. "Surely you could find a use."

Fein shook his head, "There's nothing she's useful for. Besides, I think it would be fun to watch him do some work for us for a change."

"I suppose you're right," Cyrus responded.

Cyrus grabbed him by the shoulders with a smirk in his eyes. He turned him to the blonde man in blue, Fein, and shoved him over. Some small part of him held a host of anger, disagreement, and fear, but it was so small that it was easy for him to dismiss it. He would rather just listen to him.

The man named Fein grabbed his hands, "Ah, yes, we need you to kill a woman named Cynthia. She's tall, blonde, probably will be wearing black, and she's going to be an intruder. She will act like she is your friend. She is your enemy. For now, you will stand in front of this machine."

The name Cynthia seemed familiar to him. He tried to figure out just what it meant, because some tiny part of him swelled and told him that this was not right. For a moment he thought to hold on to that part, but something told him not to and so he listened to it without question.

And so he did what he was told.

He stood guard in front of a steel machine and waited, waited for Cynthia to come to him.

And he waited with a knife behind his back.

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Cynthia woke to Saturn crouched in front of her face, and she began to panic. But it wasn't because of him that she began to panic. It was because when she closed her eyes, it was like Wes was gone. She could only feel a sliver of the bond, and it was like she felt empty, almost purposeless inside. Part of her wanted to wail, but Saturn was keeping his finger to her mouth.

"What's going on?" She whispered.

He cupped his hand over her ear. "Team Galactic is in the forest. We need to go. From what I've overheard they captured Wes and he's in their stronghold in the Distortion World. And now they're looking for you."

Cynthia took a deep breath in. She couldn't just break the floor this time to escape them, and she was sure that after Saturn's rescue they knew he was against them. Which meant that somehow they had to hide or escape without notice.

She looked at Saturn. "Now what?"

"They're heading this way," he said, "I have a plan. We're going to ambush them by hiding in the trees until they come. Then, since their Pokémon tend to be weak, we can take them out."

"Sounds good," she said. "If we end up getting separated, meet me at Twinleaf Town. I have a plan on how to save Wes."

She knew that rescuing him from the Distortion World was going to be hard, especially with so many enemies, but she had to try. Somehow she had to rescue him. But Cynthia knew it would be difficult. And she couldn't fail. Else who would save Sinnoh?

Without her everything was gone.

But she wasn't sure if she could do it. She didn't even know who she was up against.

The Galactic Grunts took a while to get there. In the meantime, Cynthia had time to think about the bond with Wes. While his presence was faint, even the reduction of it was enough to make her go mad. She realized that she took comfort in it. And to be without parts of the connection was unheard of. It was wrong. She felt wrong.

It was when her anger began to boil that the Galactic Grunts arrived.

Cynthia whistled, and her Spiritomb let out a strong Dark Pulse and then followed with Psychic. All around her grunts were frozen in the air.  The champion jumped down from her branch and walked through the frozen lot. She whistled and let out her Roserade.

"Roserade, why don't you use the forest a little," she said, the anger seeping from her voice.

Her Roserade began to spin, and from its arms cams vines. Vines that grew and flowered with poison. They snaked up and around, and Cynthia watched with pride as her Pokémon hurt the people who took Wes from her. The bad part of her, the angered one, seeking vengeance took over until a singular grunt who had not been captured in the trap walked forward. He had a confident air which Cynthia wanted to snap out of him.

"Have you come to take me in? I doubt you could," She taunted.

The grunt just simply shook his head and released his Pokémon. It was a Sneasel, rather uncommon for a grunt to have. But she went along with it. Cynthia called out her Lucario, who stood at the ready to battle.

"Aura Sphere!" Cynthia called, well aware of the massive typing weakness.

The grunt just stood there and laughed. "Shadow Rush."

Cynthia watched as the Pokémon seemed to make an impossible move towards her Lucario. For a moment she saw a flicker of some kind of dark aura, and she understood as it was too late. These were the Pokémon that Wes mentioned, from Team Ciphr. Of course, she couldn't have foreseen this.

The champion watched as her Lucario took a super effective hit from the Sneasel. She was astounded at the raw force by which her Lucario was hit. And then she was hit. Cynthia stumbled back into her Spiritomb. Her Spiritomb released the grunts, startled by Cynthia, and then toppled into Roserade's poison, feinting in the process.

She could barely pick herself up. The darkness hurt her, and her body ached from the rough hit. Even worse, all the grunts around her had been released. They slowly converged, like a horde, as she took her Pokémon in and tried to run. But she was surrounded. She wondered where Saturn was.

Like a godsend, there was a strong gale of wind as Saturn swooped down with a Golbat. Cynthia took a deep breath as he let his Toxicroak push back the coming horde of grunts.

"You need to leave now!" Saturn shouted at her. "I'll hold them off so you can save Wes. Go! Save Sinnoh! I have faith in you!"

Cynthia looked at Saturn eyes tearing up, "What about you? They'll capture you and make you their slave like they did Dawn!"

He shook his head and took Cynthia's Togekiss from her belt. "Consider it balance for my mistakes. The truth is Cynthia, nobody can tell you whether you're going to be good or bad, a failure or a success, or even worthy but yourself. Choose over your own destiny, just as in this moment, I'll choose mine."

Saturn didn't even face back at her as her Togekiss took her away.

Perhaps, he was right. Maybe, just maybe, she could rescue Wes on her own.