Veilstone City.
A city carved straight out of steep mountainsides—and also the city where Team Galactic's headquarters currently sit.
Galactic Veilstone Building.
This is Team Galactic's HQ.
"Perfect! It finally worked!"
Charon stares fanatically at the Red Chain in front of him, a blood‑red chain glowing faintly with a crimson beam.
It's a divine Item forged by extracting and refining the power of the "Lake Guardians."
Supposedly, with it you can link up the Legendary Pokémon that govern the Sinnoh region and completely control them.
"Hahahaha~!! With this, I can control 'god'!"
Charon's crazed laughter echoes; his face is twisted with elation.
He never imagined things would snowball so easily to this point.
He'd never dared dream he'd have a day like this; the "new world" plan was Cyrus's idea and creation, after all.
Charon has ambition.
He's always had ambition.
He wants the whole world to look up to him.
But too bad.
Even if he's a prodigy scientist, he's still just a scientist; he has no Trainer talent.
Not every researcher is blessed by the world like Colress, with top‑tier battling strength; if it came to a real fight, Charon would probably lose to some Bug Catcher on the roadside.
But so what?
No Trainer talent?
Doesn't matter.
In Charon's eyes, as long as he can get his hands on Legendary Pokémon, he can still climb to the top in one step.
When that day comes, the whole world will respect Charon.
So he's been scheming nonstop to get a Legendary.
No conditions?
Then he'll create them.
He set his sights first on the mythical Heatran.
Didn't do him much good.
Heatran's strong; and while he did build a machine that can control Pokémon, you still have to be able to actually bring Heatran under control with it.
And neither Mars nor Jupiter nor Saturn nor even Cyrus himself ever wanted to help him.
With just regular Team Galactic grunts, how are you supposed to get near Heatran?
But now—they're all gone.
"A bunch of idiots. You all looked down on me, and now you're just paving the way for me."
Charon's cold smile widens.
He knows full well.
Cyrus and Mars and the rest never really looked at him as anything special.
If Cyrus didn't need Charon's tech and gadgets, he'd never have bothered with Charon at all.
And now?
"Don't know who did it, but… they really did me a favor."
Charon slowly picks up the blood‑red Red Chain, eyes blazing.
What a beautiful sheen.
With this, he can control the Legends in the myths—Dialga and Palkia.
Then he'll be the chosen one.
He'll be the only one.
"And next—"
After savoring the moment for a while, Charon carefully tucks the Red Chain into his bag and turns around.
Three tanks sit behind him.
Each holds one of the three Lake Guardian Pokémon of legend, each representing a piece of "soul."
After having their power drained, Uxie and the others are all extremely weakened right now, lying limp in their containers.
"What should I do with you? That's the real headache."
Charon bares his teeth in a wide grin, admiring the three Legendary Pokémon's forms.
Now that he's already refined the Red Chain, the Lake Guardians are technically useless.
But unlike Cyrus, Charon doesn't see them as pure trash.
They're still Legendary Pokémon.
If he can bend them to his will, that'd be pretty nice too, wouldn't it?
"If you're willing to submit to me, I don't mind taking you in. Otherwise—"
Charon's sinister threat trails off, but Uxie and the others clearly understand his meaning.
As three of the "Six Spirits" that exist as concepts themselves, their wisdom doesn't need much explanation.
They're heavily weakened at the moment, but even after being treated like this, there's not a hint of anger in their eyes as they look at Charon.
Only utter calm.
Or rather—pity.
Pathetic humans, swallowed whole by their own desires.
How could that end well?
Trying to control "god"…
In the end, he'll only destroy himself; there is no other outcome.
The Red Chain can "connect" time and space and bind Dialga and Palkia, yes.
But that control is not permanent.
And as "blood siblings" of a sort to Dialga and Palkia, Uxie and the others know those two dragons' tempers all too well.
The moment the Red Chain fails, this human will be ripped apart by the enraged Dialga and Palkia.
No second outcome.
Seeing that the Lake Guardians not only refuse to beg for mercy but are actually looking at him with that kind of gaze, Charon's the one who loses it.
"Those eyes of yours really piss me off."
He hates that calm expression of theirs.
It disgusts him.
Just as Charon is about to run his mouth some more, a Team Galactic member bursts through the door in a panic.
"Didn't I say you're not allowed in here without my permission?"
Charon's face turns ugly at once.
"Bad news, Lord Charon! We've got intruders!"
The grunt blurts, terrified.
"What did you say?"
Charon startles.
"It's Champion Cynthia! They've already fought their way to the second floor. Our people can't stop them at all!"
"Get me out of here. Now!"
Charon is shocked—but snaps back fast.
Team Galactic has already lost Cyrus and three Admins and a huge chunk of its elite members.
They've been a scattered rabble for a while now.
And Charon—the only Admin left—has no combat ability to speak of.
Let alone when the opponent is Cynthia.
Fight?
With what?
Even if Cyrus was here, he wouldn't be Cynthia's match.
"Yes!"
The Team Galactic member is still loyal enough.
"We can't go down. We're leaving this way."
Charon goes straight to the window and has the grunt send out his Golbat.
"Damn it! But I'll be back for sure!"
Charon throws one last unwilling look over his shoulder at the three Lake Guardians.
He'd love to take them with him, but now is clearly not the time.
If he doesn't pull out now, he might not get the chance at all.
It's fine.
Once I get Dialga and Palkia, the whole world will be mine.
Charon knows his priorities.
The Red Chain's already in his hands.
The most important thing now is getting to Dialga and Palkia.
Meanwhile, on the second floor—
"I'm telling you guys, wouldn't it be smarter just to put your Poké Balls down and surrender?"
Damian looks at the wounded Team Galactic members in front of him, his tone dripping with mockery.
"Your boss Cyrus is already off digging in the mines, and you're still here trying to resist?"
Cynthia's Garchomp looms over them, vicious and imposing.
Just looking at it makes the grunts' legs shake.
Too strong.
"Damian, what do we do with these people?"
Cynthia glances Damian's way.
"I've already had Gladion send people over to take it from here."
"Okay."
Cynthia nods.
She'd been thinking—if Team Rocket didn't have manpower in Veilstone, she'd just notify the Veilstone City police.
It's not like they can just let these Team Galactic members walk.
But Damian clearly already thought this through.
This is Team Galactic's HQ; there are still a lot of members left.
All of them can be converted into Team Rocket manpower.
Can't waste them.
"Let's go. Keep heading up."
Damian and the two women keep pushing upstairs.
They run into more Team Galactic members trying to block them along the way—but in front of Cynthia's Garchomp, it's pure one‑sided slaughter.
In no time at all, the three reach the fourth floor and find a huge research lab.
"Yo‑yo‑yo~ look what we have here."
Damian's eyes light up, the smile on his face impossible to hide as he stares at the three Pokémon trapped inside the containers.
"The legendary Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf."
Cynthia recognizes them at once.
They're the Sinnoh region's Lake Guardians—also known as the Lake Spirits.
"They all look incredibly weakened. Team Galactic must have done something to them."
Caitlin's refined brows draw together; she can clearly sense that all three are badly weakened.
Uxie and the others are watching Damian and his companions just as closely.
"Let's get them out first."
Garchomp pads forward a few steps.
Its sharp Dragon Claw flashes; a cold gleam slices through the air.
Cracks spider across the surfaces of the containers holding Uxie and the others, and then the tanks shatter.
"Are you three okay?"
Cynthia steps up and sprays all three Legendary Pokémon down with high‑grade Potions to restore their strength.
Once some of their HP's back, Uxie and the others finally regain a bit of spirit; their bodies glow faint blue and slowly float into the air.
Right.
The Lake Guardians can all float; they're Psychic‑types, after all.
Uxie, the one that represents "Knowledge," hovers between Mesprit and Azelf.
Clearly, as the center, Uxie is the Lake Guardians' leader.
"Thank you for rescuing us, humans."
Uxie first shakes its head at Cynthia, then a cool Telepathy echoes in the three humans' minds.
"You don't need to thank us. If anything, I should be the one apologizing. What Team Galactic did was… shameful."
Cynthia lets out a sigh.
The moment she walked in and saw Uxie and the others locked up in those containers like experimental specimens, she felt… complicated.
These are Legendary Pokémon.
And not just any—these are the Pokémon that gifted the world its "soul."
According to myth, the Lake Guardians hatched from a single egg.
They flew all over the world, granting humans:
"Knowledge" to make life rich and colorful.
"Emotion" to feel joy and sorrow.
And "Willpower" to see things through.
But now, those same humans, blessed by the Lake Guardians, have captured them and locked them in cages, treating them like lab samples.
It makes Cynthia feel a potent mix of shame and anger.
"You don't need to feel guilty. This isn't your fault."
Mesprit, the being of "Emotion," is keenly sensitive to feelings.
It catches Cynthia's mood at once and tilts its head, its neutral, magnetic Telepathy chiming in.
"Once emotion exists, those jet‑black desires are inevitable."
Uxie's Telepathy is still icy‑calm; it doesn't seem surprised at all by what happened to them today.
Or maybe—it's been expecting it for a long time.
"The day Father‑god created us, I foresaw that something like this would happen."
"Humanity's unchecked greed will lead them into an abyss. They will suffer the punishment they deserve."
Uxie pauses there.
Its gaze, still perfectly calm, shifts to Damian.
"But when the strong light shines and Antimatter is born, when Dialga and Palkia are summoned and chains wind around their bodies… the one dwelling in the world with no sky and no earth will seize the chance to come too."
What's that supposed to mean?
Cynthia and Caitlin both look baffled.
Damian, though, gets it instantly.
"What are you trying to say?"
Damian looks at Uxie with clear interest.
"Antimatter will not pass up the perfect Renegade timing. Father‑god has yet to awaken; only those who resist, Dialga and Palkia, can't stop him."
Uxie slowly shakes its head.
"You want me to help you deal with Giratina? Do I look like some kind of good guy to you?"
Damian can't help laughing.
"When the strong light shines, Antimatter is born"—that "Antimatter" clearly refers to the third dragon of Sinnoh's myths: Giratina.
Because of its violent nature, it was cast out by Arceus to the backside of the world—a place with no sky and no earth.
The Distortion World.
Giratina, who dwells in that broken world, has always watched the original world in silence.
And one very important point—
In the Pokédex, Giratina's species classification is the "Renegade" Pokémon.
And that "Renegade"…
Who exactly is it meant to rebel against?
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