Music:「BATTLE: ARCEUS」by Zame

This must be redemption— no, judgment. Mindy thought as she gazed upon the Alpha creature before her. She could hardly bring herself to utter zir name, felt she didn't deserve to sully such grandeur with her tongue.

"I see you summoned Arceus to bless my new world," said Cyrus as he hopped off Giratina and trod up the steps. When he reached Mindy's side, he took her hand despite her resistance and kissed the back of it, his eyes not once leaving majestic Arceus. "You have given me everything I wanted."

Mindy tore her hand away from him and wiped his saliva off by rubbing her hand on his sleeves. "You are not the hero the world wants. Stop deceiving everyone and yourself."

"Deceive?" Cyrus's brows furrowed. He glared at Cynthia and Carolina. "How do you know they are not deceiving you?"

Arceus, as with the Creation and Lake Trios, observed them silently. The rest of Team Galactic slowly got onto the rough terrain of Spear Pillar, awaiting Cyrus's success at the bottom of the steps.

Cyrus proceeded to drive a wedge between Mindy and the grandmother-granddaughter pair. "Mindy, you don't seem to understand our complicated history. It all started in Hisui. Team Galactic was once the Galactic Expedition Team who sought justice and peace, led by an ancestor of mine, Cyllene. And no surprises, the villain was their ancestor, Volo."

Spear Pillar, initially the Temple turned into of Sinnoh, now pillars turned into spears that stabbed into the heavens. Volo, according to Cyrus, contacted Giratina and had it tear open the space-time rift, just so he could draw Arceus out and meet zir. His goal was simple: subjugate Arceus, use zir power to destroy and recreate the world. Of course he lost to a strange fella who fell from the sky one day, concluding that his defeat meant the world didn't need to be remade at all.

"I know where this is going, you beat," growled Carolina. "We may not have a great ancestor, but—"

"But Volo vowed to discover all of Hisui's mythological secrets and conquer Arceus, no matter how many years, decades or centuries it takes him. And now, Hisui is Sinnoh, and Volvo's descendants stand before you, masquerading as descendants of justice and peace, what my ancestor stood for." Cyrus smiled grimly at Mindy. "Do you not understand? They are using you. There's still time to truly redeem yourself, Mindy."

Cynthia hissed and grabbed Mindy's arm, prompting the girl to stare straight into the former champion's face. "Who has more credibility here? You know it."

"Think. If you value your life, think."

Just keep thinking, Mindy. You were made rational and now you are back in reason's threshold. So think. Think harder, think smarter. Mindy wetted her lips as her inner voice droned on and on. She took a cursory glance at the Lake Trio.

They were mouthing to her. She made out words like "know", "feel" and "hold". She thought back to the old man. He mentioned the powers hidden in the lakes: Blizzard in Acuity, Thunder in Valor and Fire Blast in Verity. She's been through a blizzard in the first Trade, met Rotom shortly after her second Trade, bled warmly and had a fever after her final Trade. Was this it? No, there had to be more. The Types of these moves coincided with Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres, in the specific order of their birth, yet Moltres didn't learn Fire Blast naturally. On the other hand, there were Suicune, Raikou and Entei who would fit the bill, if not for Suicune's Water typing. In Hoenn, Castform, the Forecast Pokémon, learnt them all one way or another. In Unova, Kyurem, Zekrom, Reshiram. That was all she could think of, for no such Pokémon struck her when it came to Sinnoh.

Perhaps the perfect fit was the Tao Trio. Reshiram was Truth, which aligned with Verity, and Zekrom was Ideals, which suited Valor for ideals were oft as persevering. Then there was Kyurem, the lack of both Truth and Ideals. And that was Acuity.

If Mindy ignored both the truth and the ideals, everything would become clear, she concluded. Arceus had yet to make a sound. Anything would be good to let her know she was on the right track.

She cleared her throat. She spoke, her voice quivering. "But your ancestors are not you. You may bear resemblances but you may not be the same." She turned to Cyrus. "What Volo aimed for. Aren't you the one acting it out instead?" She then turned to Cynthia. "And Cyllene. You're preserving her righteousness."

How the tables have turned. The threads of fate had a funny way of deciding things.

"Then you leave me with no choice," Cyrus mumbled and slashed Arceus's rear knee with a blade. Ichor seeped out of zir being, a nectarine scent and shade that seemed to heal or prevail any being who chanced upon it. With a cupped hand he collected some of the fluid and gulped it.

Carolina's jaws slackened at the sacrilege he displayed. Cynthia pursed her lips. The rest of Team Galactic held envious gazes at their boss. The Lake and Creation Trio stared at the scene with great ambivalence.

"And what do you expect to happen?" Mindy frowned at the thought of Arceus willingly giving Cyrus zir blood to consume in such sloppy and disgraceful fashion.

"Why don't you try?" Cyrus pushed the knife into her hands, his coarse fingers on her smooth skin giving her the itch to make him regret everything he did to her.

The priest in Hearthome's church would be deeply appalled if he was here. Drinking Arceus's blood meant vitality and life, a spiritual connection. It also meant atonement.

"I..." Mindy fiddled with the knife. She suddenly remembered Shaymin's presence when the Pokémon crept to the one side of her shoulder, waving a paw at Rasu who was perched on the other side. "What should I do, Rasu?"

"Drop the knife," Rasu said in unison with Shaymin.

"Are you sure?" Cyrus stepped forward. "Will you remain a pathetic villain to the world? Won't you redeem yourself?"

It was her mind, her matter, so why did Cyrus make it seem like this was something he was overly concerned with?

"Atonement is not redemption, my sweet," Carolina told her.

"Shut up, old hag," Cyrus spat. "She is a grown-up. She will make her own decisions. So choose, Mindy. You have seen what emotions are capable of. You know how destructive they are. It is time to let go once and for all."

Cynthia combed Mindy's fringes. "You're a Trader. You know it too, that what is given away can't be taken back fairly. You must not go ahead with Cyrus."

The members of Team Galactic joined in, chirping Cyrus's words like a discordant chorus. On the other side were Cynthia and Carolina. Then there were Shaymin and Rasu on her shoulders, ironically enough two angels rather than the cliché angel and devil. Then there was Arceus, waiting for her response. And the Creation Trio, staring at the knife in her hands. And Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, praying, mumbling, watching her and protecting her from afar.

All sounds became noise, grew hollow, so loud and cacophonous they turned into silence. Silence that regained a voice seconds after, a voice that kept fragmenting and shattering and branching out and surrounding her. A vortex of words benevolent and malevolent engulfed her, and she was standing rooted in its eye.

"Make your choice—"

"... too late—"

"Please—"

"Right... Cyrus is right."

"Be grateful."

"No emotion—"

"Great—"

"... if only..."

"... slow..."

"Listen to me!"

Her shuddering frame crumbled. Her knee clung to the pristine step. She wanted to fall so badly, tumble down the stairs and suffer a concussion or something. Squawks interweaved into the voices. How could she have forgotten the murder of Murkrows above Spear Pillar?

"Mindy?"

"Mindfucky—"

"Choose wisely—"

"Beg—"

"Slut!"

"The whole world hates you."

"Do you have a death wish?"

"Why don't I help you die?"

"Go away, Mindfucky."

"Mindy?"

"Choice—"

"Shut the fuck up, Cyrus!"

"You don't get to speak, old hag!"

A scream penetrated the vortex, but the words healed the gap swiftly.

"Gran—"

"That's what you get—"

"Drop the knife—"

The knife. The fucking knife. It was still in her damn hands.

"Where—"

"... love..."

"Drop—"

"Mindy?"

"Ple—"

Mindy stabbed her knee and let out a shrill scream.

"Wrong knee, Mindy. It's Arceus's knee, not yours."

"Shut up, Cyrus! She's hurt!"

"A pity..."

Mindy blinked back tears. Her brows creased.

Tears?

Her vision grew blurry, not because of vertigo or the blood, but these swarming tears stinging her.

Why am I... How?

"Mindy."

She looked up as a red cape caressed her chin. No, it was more of a petal. The creature stood on fours before her, but it wasn't Arceus.

It was Shaymin, in zir Sky Forme.

Mindy looked around. Everyone else was gone, save for Shaymin, Rasu and the Lake Trio, the latter four hugging her. Spear Pillar was blooming with Gracideas.

"What..."

"Judgment," said Uxie. "Arceus used Judgment on you and the rest of Team Galactic."

"What about Cynthia? And Carolina?"

Mesprit hung zir head. "They are waiting for you."

"Down to the last moment, was that all the willpower you could muster?" Azelf sighed. "Why did you stab yourself? Isn't losing one leg bad enough?"

Mindy bit her lip. "I didn't want to hurt Arceus. It would affect my redemption."

"Redemption this, redemption that..." Rasu shook his head. "Is that really what you value?"

What else was there left to care about? Mindy didn't quite know.

"I just want to be accepted. To be loved. Why is redemption so fucking hard anyway?"

Shaymin rubbed zir snout against Mindy's nose. "Because you're not grateful. You're so obsessed with attaining your ideal redemption that the concept becomes obsolete to you."

"And so what?"

"You know it too. It's time to stop living by others' rules, but your own. You have so many people and Pokémon around you who love you and care for you. Stop living a life trying to please everyone else but yourself."

Mindy rubbed her knee wound, the blood all dried up due to Judgment. "Isn't that the point of Trading? To please others?"

Uxie pinched her cheeks. "You misunderstood. Every Trade hinges on Equivalent Exchange. If you Trade only to please, it isn't a fair, nor balanced, Trade."

A large shadow towered over them and Mindy froze at Arceus's appearance. Compared to earlier, she was much more pitiful now, in a state so vulnerable she wished to hide in an urn or a tomb.

"Mindy," said Arceus in a booming voice. "I hereby declare you innocent. You have passed the trials of a Trader and you will live on having learnt your lesson."

Mindy raised a trembling hand and asked if that was all Arceus had to say. If all that she endured over the years, over these days, merely amounted to this end, this Judgment. If she had truly suffered enough and knew pain enough. If she was indeed worthy of love.

"Love discriminates not. Your Judgment may be set in stone, but you must now save Cyrus."

"Why does she have to—"

"Rasu, it's fine. If this is repayment, if this is my way of atoning, I will do it."

In that instance, Cyrus's mind became Mindy's matter.

"She will go alone," declared Arceus.

Her surroundings switched gradually like an artist pulling his cloth off his canvas, Shaymin, the Lake Trio, Rasu, and Spear Pillar fading away into the distance, making way for a sandy environment where water lapped against a shore peppered with palm trees among the buzz of electricity and the salty tang in the breeze, where a blue-haired man donned in a pair of galactic-themed swimming trunks sat cross-legged, back facing her, his lonely shadow cast on the burning sands. He did not stir as she approached, bare feet shuffling towards him, her black dress swaying like the pendulum of a grandfather's clock. Mindy did not understand why his gaze was set on the horizon sprawling before him, the Pokémon League in the distance, Pelipper and Wingull crisscrossing in flight instead of the city, blacked out in daylight. Perhaps he knew she was here and refused to meet her gaze.

That much she was certain when he addressed her without turning with a heavy bitterness in his voice. "You have come to mock me."

"No," replied Mindy in a hushed tone.

The breeze made her braids twirl and slide off her shoulders. Cyrus shifted his weight when Mindy hopped one more step towards him.

"You are speaking normally."

Mindy agreed with his sentiments. Funnily enough, for a nihilist hellbent on banishing emotion and spirit off the face of the earth, Cyrus readily let relief claim him.

"Why are we here?"

Cyrus's question struck her as odd. Arceus's Judgment was clear and Cyrus should know the reason as well.

"Sunyshore is your hometown," she said matter-of-factly. Spotting his scrunched-up face as he turned around, Mindy laughed. "So that's how it is. You have really given me your everything, Cyrus."

"And you really are here to mock me."

Because what else could she fucking do? It's absurd. How did Arceus expect her to save Cyrus who had nothing left of himself, whose redemption was hers to begin with? Why put him in his hometown when he had no recollection of it, nor any nostalgia?

Then again, when Cyrus was young, he was harmless, though he stood a little too comfortable on the asocial side, preferring the company of machines to that of humans and Pokémon, which his parents were quick to denounce. He was a great student, his teachers praised his genius, but still he did not live up to his parents' expectations, and so felt rejected. They wanted someone normal, someone who was capable of communicating with them and other humans, not a child who tinkered with gears and nuts and bolts and marked with those cold objects his comfort zone. Rejection upon rejection later, they resigned and argued over his existence — whose genes led him astray, or was it the name, too almighty and unfitting, or did they do something wrong when his mother was pregnant with him, but after listing down all the superstitions they could conjure, they could find no fault in their prior actions. Tired of their endless tirades, he decided emotions were the source of all strife in the universe, and that only the elimination of emotions, along with spirit, could be the end of fighting in the world.

His lips twitched in consternation as she recounted his story. He was later sent to the Battle Zone where his grandfather lived. Now, the old man was haggard and living out his years cloistered at home. Regret was the predominant emotion in his life. Mindy only knew this because Cyrus had given her even the final moments he had with his grandfather when he revisited the poor soul who thought that Cyrus's sudden decision to journey through Sinnoh woilr change him into a better man.

"He must bear testimony to the man I've become. He confirmed that emotions had no good use in this world."

"What about gratitude?"

If this was Mindy weeks ago, she would never have spoken that word with such defensiveness and hurt. Gratitude. She had lived without caring about it, without need for it. Now, she sought to protect it. She supposed it must be the effect of the Gracidea. Or maybe the Lake Guardians, especially Mesprit.

"Pointless affirmations. Illusions."

Mindy shook her head and kicked the sand, almost losing her balance. "Then why are you still sensitive? Why do you still feel?"

There. She said it. The one thing about Cyrus that bugged her the most.

"I was born human, with a heart. I am forced to feel things."

"But you didn't like it when I was expressionless."

"Being unfeeling doesn't mean you forget basic intonation. Or do you need to be a kindergartener again?"

"Cold. Caustic. Cynic." Mindy inhaled before pushing on with her incisive words. "Cyrus, you have all these emotions you deny. These privileges. You don't know how strange and out of place I felt when I was emotionless. It seemed to be a release at first. Imagine being numb to everything, all the good and the bad!"

"That's what I strive towards. You understand me, but you pretend not to."

"But I don't feel alive. I'm a shell of myself. A Shedinja whose only worth comes from a short, precarious life. A Bug and a Ghost."

Cyrus tsked at her slumped shoulders. "And you have Wonder Guard. Numbness makes you immune. Invincible, even."

No, even a Shedinja would fall. When burnt, when buffeted by winds cooked up by a thousand avian Pokémon in flight, when suffocated by darkness, when struck by spirits kindred or maleficent, when the world rocked, a Shedinja would fall. If not for Cynthia, this Shedinja wouldn't have carried on living. If not for Cynthia, she would think, like many others, that Wonder Guard was the premier ability to be proud of and jealous about.

She had been a Kunekune, something to be cautious of, to distance from. She had been a Shedinja. She came to understand that Shedinja was appreciated because however little, however insignificant it may be, this life was still a life. Perhaps that's why she cried. Because when no one could look at her back fearlessly, when no one dared to stand behind her, she found those who would. Even if it drained them. Even if it hurt them.

"To feel is to truly live."

Sure, it was a sweeping statement and perhaps it came off too strongly, but it gave her strength.

Being numb, or emotionless, and being stoic were entirely different things. Suppression and repression were horrid experiences that when released gave them that vigor, that vibrance to her gestures, her words, her spirit.

Mindy was a testament to all the things Cyrus opposed, then and now.

"Are you saying I'm dead?" Cyrus pushed himself off the scorching sand. He stood at the shoreline where the sea crashed against his feet at intervals with varying power.

"No," said Mindy, her foot in between the shifting sea and the unshakable sand, the hem of her skirt fluttering in the breeze. They faced each other as parallels now, one fully clothed in colours fitting for a funeral, the other almost naked as if ready to return to the womb. "It's time for you to be reborn."

She stepped towards Cyrus. The sea ate her footprint.

"Reborn?"

Mindy looked over her shoulder at the Sunyshore Gym where Volkner could be heard apologising to a crowd through a loudspeaker. "You have nothing now. You're back to the beginning, Cyrus."

"Is this my Judgment?" Cyrus faced the glaring sun.

"Unlike you, I experienced the entirety of what emotion had to offer. It's not a new world you desire, but a new worldview."

Mindy hugged him. It felt like the right thing to do. To give him what his parents could not, what his grandfather had once desired to do.

Warmth dispersed throughout Cyrus's being. For the first time in his long, long life, he became the sun.

Up in the clouds, as electricity returned to Sunyshore, Arceus watched on with an approving nod. This wasn't much, but it was enough for now.

It was enough for Cyrus to know he was Icarus no longer, but the sun.