Linkage

26

Wes wasn't ready to go back to Veilstone City. He was afraid to see the damage that was caused by his failure. Part of Wes was ready to face his mistakes, but another, more prevalent part of him cowered at the idea that he was going to have to do the same. He didn't quite know how to proceed. So he decided just to proceed.

The city was dead still. It was an eerie kind of dead, as if there were something lurking around the corner where it wasn't possible to. Not a living soul save him and Cynthia remained within. Just that thought terrified him.

"They really did take everyone," he remarked.

Cynthia looked around. "Do you think anybody escaped?"

Wes shook his head. "I don't know. We should stay quiet though. I don't have Pokémon to defend myself if we get attacked by a grunt."

Both trotted in a relative silence around the city, examining the buildings. Wes had one question in particular burning in his mind as the walked along. Until he finally got the urge to ask it as they passed another view of the towering Galactic Industries building.

"I wonder if Saturn and Maylene got out," Wes remarked to Cynthia. "They're both such resourceful people so I would hope they did. Though, I suppose there'd be no way of finding them to get help. I'm sure Saturn got out since I called him with the phone I built."

That was when Cynthia stopped and looked around at Wes. Even without their bond, Wes was sure he could feel the toxin of stress and the guilt oozing out of Cynthia. He stopped, looked at her with a difficult look, and wordlessly expected her to explain.

"Saturn got out," she said. "He saved me when I was trying to escape your apartment and I got captured by a grunt. But later in the forest he was captured. It was because I was arrogant and didn't know that the Galactic grunts would have shadow Pokémon. A sneasel landed a super effective hit against my Lucario."

Wes wasn't sure how to feel. He could only fear for Saturn at this point. He knew the man was going to be under the control of Fein and Cyrus, but he had no clue how they were going to use him. Wes could only imagine how Saturn would feel afterwards. Especially considering, like Wes, he was trying to make up for the wrongs he had done in his life.

As his best friend, Wes felt bad for Saturn.

"We just have to hope he doesn't do something he regrets," Wes told Cynthia.

She gave him a sad look, her eyes emphasized by the budding of tears. He took her into his arms, taking a deep breath. He knew he couldn't run, but it was hard not to. He had to fight for Cynthia, for Rui, and now for Saturn.

"He's a good guy," she mumbled into his clothing. "I feel bad that I didn't get to know him, but I was so blinded by hatred of Cyrus that I didn't even know he'd become good."

Wes nodded, hoping that she cherished the warm of his embrace. "Becoming good is a lifelong quest. People are not defined by one action, but rather a series of them. Time is all that will determine one's true colors."

She nodded accepting of what he said, and the two moved on. Soon, they found themselves at Wes's apartment. They decided to take the fire escape up, in case of the low chance of guards inside. They wanted to take their time finding things.

Wes let Cynthia poke around at his desk as he hurried to his kitchen. While Fein had his Umbreon and Espeon, Wes kept always kept a Pokémon as a spare in case something unthinkable should happen.

"I found the book!" Cynthia shouted, as he grabbed his Rapidash.

Wes nodded and took it from her, and as he began to read the passage, everything made sense to him. According to the book, the harvesting of Dusk Stones is what caused the machine to be built. Pokémon had a certain attraction the darkness in the stone. One particularly greedy human, found that when used to power up Darkrai, the stone's shadow energy could be used to attract and control humans. Thus, a machine was built as a tool of war to do anyone's bidding.