Music: 「ないない」by ReoNa

The desire for the Lake Trio's company sprouted out of Mindy's heart. They were involved in the Creation myths and they may well know something about this peculiar event. Not that Rasu was useless or anything. A Dark-type, however small, could quash a Ghost-type, even if said Ghost-type was part-Dragon and apparently, as Rotom informed, "the guardian of antimatter", ruler of the Distortion World. Giratina was nowhere to be seen. That perturbed her.

What perturbed her more was how topsy-turvy everything swiftly became. A tremor crawled underfoot and shoots of grass flew into the air like Oddish in the wind. A flock of Zubat went past her face and circled the peak of Mt. Coronet, the size of a speck of dust from where she stood, though the Zubat were forming too thick a ring she felt they were more the Pokémon of ill fortune than they were bloodsuckers. Then the peak tilted anticlockwise and the Zubat's wingbeat could now be heard from a distance such that the other residents of Celestic Town gathered at the shrine in the middle of the town. Mindy frowned and tucked her hair behind her ears, her braids wriggling in the still air.

"We're upside-down," Rasu squawked.

Mindy gazed across the silent expanse and shook her head. "Any idea where the Lake Guardians are?"

Rasu chirruped. "Forget about them for now. We need to find Giratina."

Mindy knitted her brows as she threw a pebble and watched it glide slowly towards Celestic Ruins and land just before the shrine, on a spot where no one stood. What were they thinking? Were they praying?

Rasu glanced at the house behind them, still quiet, as if Cynthia and her family weren't home. He repeated his sentiment.

With a shrug, Mindy conceded and took her first step. Her forehead hurt with a throb, forcing her to rub her temples and squint at the path ahead. The floating platforms, all in reverse, scattered themselves at random intervals that she and the house seemed to be deliberately cut off from the main town, drifting further and further from the people, closer and closer and into the fog. Some ways down, a few patches of land and some ponds were unaffected by the distorted pull. Her heart was cold to the touch each time she skipped from one platform to another, and whenever she reached a platform that didn't follow the same laws as its neighbour, a wave of hesitation would surge within her before her legs gave the green light on her body's behalf, leaping and landing before she could protest any further.

The fog was uninviting. Rasu welcomed it. Occasionally, shadowy eyes would glisten and the duo would turn just in time for them to disappear. They appeared in all directions, anywhere in the fog. The thickets were unkind with their thorns and nausea-inducing fragrances, which only served to deepen Mindy's hatred for the fog that made everything vague, only discernible when a cut wiggled onto her skin or a sudden warmth enraptured her. Despite Mindy's pleas, the Darkness Pokémon refused to use Defog, instead indulging in this game of hide and seek with an entity more omniscient and omnipresent than Mindy liked.

The fog gradually cleared as she reached what appeared to be Veilstone City, meteors floating all around the city, its residents locked up at home or in the game corner, faces pressed against the glass to stare at her. Some of them continued to gamble their money and life away, oblivious to the situation outside. Reporters on shaky helicopters noted her presence and went on their various conspiracy theories 'live'.

"She's heading southeast of Veilstone. Where could this cursed brat be off to?"

"She must have lost her bearings."

"Maybe she summoned Giratina. Remember Turnback Cave? Kōki was found there after he was sent out of the Distortion World!"

Turnback Cave? Mindy recalled the news about how Kōki subdued Team Galactic, how he returned to Sinnoh via Turnback Cave, a few metres away from where she was, just past Sendoff Spring and through Spring Path. Cynthia had been the one to escort him to the Veilstone Pokémon Centre and ensured his wounds were tended to.

Exchanging looks with Rasu further assured her the cave was the right place to be. Picking up speed, they headed towards the cave, cutting through trees and twigs and boulders to the hidden grotto where past the shrubbery laid a waterfall in all its majesty, albeit downstream was now skyward. The switch in orientation still needed some getting used to, and Mindy was certain she would wind up with a nasty migraine in a matter of time. They forged on, delving into the labyrinthine tunnels of Turnback Cave, entering identical chamber after identical chamber.

"We're going in circles," Rasu pointed out when they seemed to be going nowhere, the light of the outside world coming into sight every time they passed through a tunnel.

"It's bad, isn't it?"

Mindy perked up at the sight of a grisly man, blood caked all over his spiky blue hair, dripping from his sharp jawline like a tap with a leak, blood that flowed down his monochromatic jacket and the 'G' embossed in gold above his heart. His footfalls were deliberately heavy and slow so his shadow could keep pace like an ill familiar. Rasu narrowed his eyes at the strange figure with a limp, then way past him at the serpentine creature with a misshapen platinum stone wedged between its golden crown.

"You're panicking, anxious, afraid," said the man with his hands locked behind his back as he took a step closer after every word, his gaze unflinching on Mindy's trembling lips, wavering eyes and retreating figure. His black tie lay folded on her breasts. The Murkrow was of no concern to him, not when he embodied a darkness far intense than the Pokémon was capable of wielding.

"Cyrus."

Mindy's chest deflated as his name escaped her lips, as if she were a prison guard bribed to free one of the most heinous criminals in history, and uttering that name was enough to bring key to lock and unravel the guilt snaking inside her veins. Something seemed to press against her will, her frame, and any number of glances at Rasu couldn't appease the fear holding her hostage.

This was the same man who was banished to the Distortion World where the Renegade Pokémon lived. Now both were before her, the man who decided emotions were the source of all strife in the world, and that only the elimination of emotions, along with spirit, could be the end of fighting in the world, and the guardian of antimatter, whose collision with all things matter could cause mass annihilation. It went without saying, as a Legendary Pokémon, Giratina controlled zir treasure well, so even as the world was swallowed by the Distortion World, nothing would be eliminated.

Yet.

"I've heard word of you entering the Trader business. Redemption must be nice." Cyrus scowled at Mindy. "Meanwhile, I have yet to create the perfect world."

Mindy stared at the deformed stalactites hanging overhead. This was deadly knowledge Cyrus possessed. She reciprocated with a fake smile. "You want me to join you on your quest?"

"I don't need a useless bitch by my side, Mindy," Cyrus mumbled. "I've been waiting for this day. I was thinking, what if I never had to make a world from scratch? It was the greatest folly of my life to consider that an option!" He jabbed her forehead and pressed down, his smouldering gaze locked on her hesitant one. "But you helped me a little. You exterminated the pest."

"You don't know what you're saying! It's not my fault Kōki disappeared!" Mindy pushed his finger aside and straightened her back. With the ease in which she carried out the act, she grew sure that Cyrus's goal here wasn't to undermine her. He needed her more terribly than he would ever admit.

Cyrus let loose a crude laugh as he swung his hand to his side. "Anger. Frustration. Despair. Pain. Why are you redeeming yourself through all these emotions? You're such a green girl."

What did he know? Mindy clenched her teeth. He wasn't her and didn't live her life. What gave him the right to speak as if he knew her for a long, long time? Besides, he was out of touch with reality.

Rasu came to her defence with a flap of his wings, launching a peck on Cyrus's skull. "Don't condemn her when you're worse!"

"Worse?" Cyrus shook his head and slapped the Murkrow aside with the back of his hand. Rasu shrieked as he skidded across the cave floor. "I am the wiser one here. You let your emotions govern you, you lose. You lose your heart, your mind, your everything."

Mindy rushed to Rasu's side and helped him up on his feet. His side was bleeding. He would go down before they even fought Giratina. Where were the Lake Guardians when she needed them? Especially Mesprit, when Emotion was targeted once again?

"Why don't we get to the core already? You, Mindy, a vampire thirsting after redemption, have become the most sensational and emotional being to exist. You, a plaything to emotions, will see to their impotence and venom." Cyrus pointed at Mindy and inhaled. With a commanding tone, he set his plan in motion. How he did everything so emotionlessly made Mindy idolise and fear him at the same time. "Giratina, Shadow Force."

The Griseous Orb meant total obedience. Giratina groaned and flickered out of sight before implanting zirself behind Mindy. By the time she spun around, zie's shadowy, red-tipped tendrils gripped her head with so great a force she coughed bile out. A purple stream crawled up her skin and scalp, illuminating every strand of her yellow hair, her veins bulging and turning purple. Thin threads lifted her off the earth.

The last of the violet vapours soon seeped into her being and the lavender in her eyes receded, making way for blood orange.

"What is your desire? What would you give away for it? Say, would you like to trade?"

The words trembled like her figure, tipsy as they tumbled out of her mouth. At this moment, she could feel nothing, nothing except the ghostly threads controlling her every organ, pulling at her yellow hair, and she could see nothing, nothing except Cyrus's piercing gaze. Silence skittered between them. Rasu struggled to reach her but Cyrus had him squawking under his boot.

"Was that so difficult, you entitled girl?"

She wanted to resist, to make some obvious gesture to express her disagreement and anger, but the strings wouldn't let her. Whatever feeling she called upon, they dissipated instantly.

The man scratched the bridge of his nose and yanked his tie off, wrapping it round his right hand till it became a black coil with a crimson tail, much like Giratina's wings. He stepped forward and plucked the string attached to the nape of her neck.

"I want to destroy you and all the emotions ruling this world, Mindy. You will not have your redemption." His eyes glinted at her scowl. His hand made circles and lashed forward. His tie cut the string and she howled in agony as blood oozed out. "For that... I will give you my everything."

All that he had were the makings and undoings of his life, his memories and his reputation.

Just as the strings let her go, just as Cyrus let go of himself, Mindy's consciousness gradually faded.

Around her, the stalactites were falling in threes. Rasu pushed himself off the ground and dragged her by her braids towards the bright exit of Turnback Cave, but he was nothing more than a sinister shadow to her, pulling her gradually, also her burdens, towards the void of oblivion. A few shadows joined them once they were outside, moments before a tremor sent the cave collapsing. A human and three hovering genies. Mindy saw them as blur blotches.

Her eyelids clamped shut and a tear ran down the side of her face and slept in her ear. Just like that, she became a thrall to Cyrus's reign.

But it was she who reigned in attention and prejudice once again, barely hours after she was lauded as having repented by protecting the Old Chateau and its ghosts, while Cyrus was celebrated as a redeemed hero who managed to pulverise her pride.

Having forced to turn back, Mindy sent herself off to numbness. Living had never felt so comforting as now.