INTERLUDE - Cynthia’s Burden (Part 2)

Vernon had signed the law, and so it was time for interrogations. Two policemen were in the room with her, ready to take notes of everything the galactic grunts would say.

“Let’s start this the easy way, shall we?” Cynthia said with a smile. Alakazam was right next to her, ready to use his abilities when needed. “What is your goal?”

“Go die in a ditch,” The grunt said before spitting on her shoe. She smiled at him.

“Alakazam,” She said in an icy tone.

Alakazam’s eye flashed, and his spoons bent unnaturally, and the grunt started to squirm, then scream. The policemen winced and turned away, but Cynthia kept looking. Right into his eyes. With a smile. The torture kept going for around two minutes until the grunt was left on the ground with a nosebleed, passed out, drooling all over himself.

“Verdict?” The Champion asked.

He did not know much, but he knew the names of their leaders. Their organization is led by a man called Cyrus, but he doesn’t know what he looks like. Under him, there are four commanders. Saturn, Jupiter, Charon, and Mars. The reason he didn’t talk was because he seems to fear Mars more than you. They weren’t told what the goal of their operation today was.

Cyrus, hm? Cynthia thought. That was a name those two trainers had told Roark.

“Of course, that would be too easy. What will happen to him?”

He will never speak again, and his intelligence has been reduced to one of a five-year-old.

“Should have talked,” Cynthia said.

They continued like this, going room by room. Floaroma’s police station was never meant to hold so many criminals, so sometimes they had to be packed tightly into rooms. A few of them had tried attacking her, but Alakazam stopped them in their tracks using Psychic. Out of the thirty-four people they had captured, eleven were crippled beyond function by the memory extraction process, and two had died. All of the grunt’s Pokemon would have to be sent to the League to be rehabilitated. They had all been rather new to the organization, so Cynthia had only learned what the leaders looked like except for Cyrus after Alakazam perfectly drew their faces on a piece of paper by levitating a pencil. She had also learned that Dusknoir had been lurking in the plant for a week before team Galactic had moved in, observing the schedules to know when would be the best time to strike.

“Thank you, Alakazam. You can go back to Lucian,”

I hated every minute of it, He told her before teleporting.

Cynthia walked out of the police station and ignored the reporters swarming her once again. Now that she was done with interrogations, it was time to go see some of the trainers that had been held in the plant. There were three in particular that she wanted to see, so she quickly made her way to the Pokemon Center with the two police officers that had interrogated the galactic grunts with her. She ignored the stares and immediately asked for Chase Karlson’s room.

The Champion knocked on his door.

“What’s up? Who is it?” He said.

Cynthia came into the room with the police. “Chase Karlson, I presume? I have a few questions for you.”

The young trainer’s face was swollen and purple, but his eyes widened for a second before returning to a neutral expression.

“O—oh, yeah, no problem. Ask away.”

Cynthia smiled. “I heard you took down a few of the team galactic grunts yourself. I am thankful, but you could have been hurt. What compelled you to go inside of the plant after you figured out something was wrong? Actually, how did you figure out something was wrong?”

“I was working out with my Pokemon next to the plant before my Riolu sensed that something was wrong using his aura. He usually knows better than I do, so I just immediately called the police.”

“And why did you go inside?” Cynthia asked again.

“To test myself,” He spat. “And I failed. How mediocre.”

“You did more than most would have done, and for that, I wanted to thank you personally. Is there anything you heard that could help our investigation? Go over your experience inside of the plant, please.”

Chase did, recalling every detail that happened while he was in the plant, which admittedly wasn’t much since he got there late. Still, every piece of information would help solve the greater puzzle at play.

“Thank you very much, we’ll be on our way now. I wish you a healthy recovery,” Cynthia said.

“Wait,” Chase called out. “I’m going to beat you this year. Just wait and see,” He said with a confident grin.

“Hm? Interesting. And then what?” She asked.

“What?”

“You’ll beat me, and then what? What will your goal be beyond that victory?”

Chase stammered a few words, but Cynthia ignored him and left. It wasn’t the first time she had met trainers like him, and it wouldn’t be the last. The best she could do right now was help him think. Cynthia smiled as she knocked on Cecilia Obel’s door. She was swarmed by what Cynthia assumed were her friends. She recognized all of them— all heirs to rich businesses.

“Good evening. May I have a few minutes of your time, Ms. Obel? Alone?” Cynthia asked.

“Champion Cynthia! What an honor it is to finally meet you! My father has been trying to arrange a meeting between us,” The oldest of them said. Cynthia recognized him as Louis Bianchi.

“Louis… not now,” Pauline King said quietly.

Emilia Lussier clasped her hands. “Cece’s in a really bad place right now, so please be careful with her,” She said.

“Of course. You have my word.”

Louis cleared his throat. “Cece is shaken from what happened to her, I believe it may be best for us to stay to support her—”

“Leave,” Cynthia ordered.

They timidly nodded and exited the room. Cynthia sat next to Cecilia Obel, who straightened her back and fixed up her hair.

“None of that with me,” Cynthia said. She had lived long enough to spot a girl faking her way through life from a mile away. “Be yourself.”

“C—can I? Be myself, I mean.”

“Of course,” Cynthia said, before gesturing toward the two policemen, who then promptly left. This one was delicate and needed privacy. “I see you’re shaken by what happened today. Do you need to vent? I’ll listen before asking you my questions.”

“Well, you’re the Champion of the region, aren’t you? How does it feel to be free?”

“Free? In what sense?”

“You can speak how you want, act how you want, go where you want! You can be free! There’s no one breathing down your neck, judging every little move you make!” The child snarled.

If only she knew how wrong she was, Cynthia thought. She would entertain her idea for now.

“Well, you could do all of this. Just cut the cord, leave your family— I assume you’re talking about your family here.”

“It’s not that simple,” Cecilia sobbed. “You don’t get it. No one gets it. You’re all fake.”

“Well, explain it to me, then,” Cynthia tried. From that point on, she knew that her planned questions were a no-go. She had originally wanted to ask her to tell her dad not to pull back funding from Sinnoh, but Cynthia now knew that would be horribly out of line. She still wanted to help a girl in distress.

“My father called me earlier today. He told me, ‘thank the Legendaries! You’re alive!’” She said, imitating him with a gruff voice. “For a single second, I thought that he was actually worried about me. Can you believe that? For some reason, even though he has always treated me like a thing, I still unconsciously crave his approval. But all he actually cared about was me living until I’m eighteen so this deal between the Bianchis and the Obels can go through. To be honest, I didn’t even care about being taken hostage. I was happy! Happy! That if something happened to me, father’s deal would go up in flames! It’s like two parts of me are playing tug of war! I… I can never be free.”

Cynthia paused. “That was… that was a lot. There is no easy answer here.”

“I knew it. Just go—”

“It’ll take time and effort. Little by little, you’ll have to free your mind from your father’s clutches. But you’ll also have to grow stronger. Strength is nice. It’s humanity’s simplest form of communication. ‘I am stronger than you, and therefore I take what’s mine.’ Strengthen yourself enough until you don’t have to take his orders.”

“I already considered that, but… he’ll just send people after me. Both him and the Bianchis.”

“Well, if they attack you, you can report them, but honestly, I doubt that will do any good. They can line the pockets of any policeman or judge out there.”

Cecilia’s eyes widened.

“What? Surprised I can acknowledge Sinnoh’s faults? I know it like the back of my hand. The region isn’t perfect, but I’ve worked on it for more than twenty years. Slowly. Methodically. But slow and methodical work takes time. Grow stronger and send your father’s agents packing. That is all I can give you.”

The girl clenched her fists around her bedsheets. “Can I really?”

“You don’t know until you try. I’ll be observing you, Cecilia Obel. Win the Circuit, win the conference, beat the elite four, and then let us have a grand battle at the end of the year,” Cynthia said. “I personally challenge you. Don’t disappoint me.”

Cynthia left the girl in her hospital room, and all of her friends barged back in, trying to know what had been said. The Champion didn’t really know what had pushed her to say this. It had just felt right. Obviously, even if Cecilia did make it to her, she would crush her. She didn’t expect any first-year trainer to actually win against the elite four. That hadn’t been done since… well, since she herself did so. But sometimes, all someone needed to leave the dark place they were in was a little push.

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Cynthia knocked on Grace Pastel’s door. It took a few seconds for her to answer.

“C—come in,” She said.

Cynthia came in with the two officers and was surprised to see Denzel Williams in the room too. That was perfect, though, since he had also been at Lake Verity that day.

“Grace Pastel, may I borrow a few minutes of your time?” Cynthia asked.

The girl nodded. It didn’t take an expert to see that her time at the power plant had completely shaken her. She was pale, constantly shivering, and her voice was barely a whisper. Cynthia wondered if she would even be able to ask her anything, but she also couldn’t help but feel terrible for this trainer. Children were a weak spot of hers… she had always wanted some, but there was never enough time. And no one could ever hold her attention for long anyway.

“Champion Cynthia,” Denzel said. “In other circumstances, this would have been the most exciting day of my life, but I suppose it is nice to meet you. Need me to leave?”

“Don’t!” Grace panicked. “Don’t leave.”

“No one needs to leave. In fact, do you want these two officers here to leave?”

Grace shook her head. “No… I know things. Things that will be useful for them.”

“Very well. Are you alright with recounting what happened to you at the power plant? I was told by a few hostages that you were taken to another room.”

The young trainer took a deep breath. “That girl… she calls herself Mars. Do— do you need me to describe her, or—”

“Don’t worry about that. Just keep going,” Cynthia said softly.

With much difficulty, Grace Pastel told her story. That she was cut with a knife and threatened by Mars, and that she witnessed the appearance of Dusknoir firsthand. She also had a few nuggets of new information, like the apparent rift between Mars and the other commander Charon, her infatuation with Cyrus, or that the red-haired woman could seemingly command her Dusknoir without words. She would have to send that information to Fantina later.

“You’re doing very well, Grace. This information could save a lot of people,” Cynthia said. “Now, let’s get back to the month of August. I was told by Roark that you saw this individual called Cyrus. Could you and Denzel describe him for me?”

Grace nodded and told Cynthia about the blue-haired man with sunken eyes, sharp cheekbones, and no eyebrows. She couldn’t remember the exact details, like height or eye color, but Denzel did, so he was a huge help.

Cynthia was about to leave, but she could tell that the girl had something to ask of her.

“Do you need anything else?” The Champion asked. “While I’m here?”

“How can I be as strong and fearless as you?” Grace asked with a sob. “I’m useless. I freeze when I’m scared and I couldn’t even fight back. I can’t do anything. I can’t even sleep without getting terrible nightmares. I—I feel like I’m collapsing.”

“You can never outgrow fear, Grace. You learn to deal with it. Think about it, after today, experiences that may have scared you before feel like a joke, don’t they?” Cynthia asked. “Continue your journey on the League Circuit, and grow alongside your Pokemon. Learn to rely on them and others— they’re smarter and more emotionally mature than you would think. Make connections and meet people. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

“I want to. I want to keep going, but Mars… she said she would look for me. And if she finds me again, there’s no telling what she’ll do to me,” Grace cried.

Cynthia’s eyes widened slightly at that revelation. A thousand scenarios brewed in her brain about using Grace as bait before she slowed down and realized that was the pragmatic, and not the human thing to do.

“Grace, I promise you. I will scour all of Sinnoh to take down team Galactic if I have to. You won’t have to deal with her. I will keep every trainer safe.”

“I wish I could help, but I’m terrified. I’m just a kid… I just wanted to have fun on my journey and try to become the best, but I don’t know if I have it in me,” She muttered.

“You’re still standing, aren’t you?” Cynthia said.

Grace looked into her eyes for the first time.

“You’re strong Grace, stronger than you give yourself credit for. There are others in much worse shape than you are, but you want to keep pushing. That’s what differentiates great trainers from the rest. Even after all the madness, the danger, the death, you still want to do it.”

“I do.”

“Then take as long as you want to pick yourself up. And then keep going,” Cynthia said. “That’s all the advice I can offer.”

Cynthia got up. “Oh, and Grace. I hope you won’t mind, but I read your file. You have a Togetic, don’t you?” The young trainer nodded. “Sleep with it close to you. It’ll do wonders for your nightmares. Just be careful not to get hooked on it, I recommend doing it for a month at most. I suppose it’ll be very useful for Eterna Forest if that’s where you’re going next. Good night.”

——

Cynthia finally made it back to her hotel. Thankfully that had been the last time she would be going out tonight, so she made her way to the bathroom and washed off her makeup, revealing deep bags under her eyes, and the stress lines on her face. Age was getting to her fast, but what could she do but pretend to be perfect for the public? She was only human, but the people didn’t see it that way. To them, she was their Champion. A woman without flaws. And she would keep acting that way. She touched her face, realizing that she was still smiling.

“You’re alone, you don’t have to smile,” She told herself.

The woman sighed as she sat on her desk. It was time to call the kids.

Cynthia opened her laptop and began adding all of the young gym leaders to her call. This team Galactic was bigger than she could have ever imagined. They wanted to mess with reality, but what were the implications? Cynthia felt a flash of fear, remembering stories about team Magma and Aqua. The information wasn’t known to the public— gym leaders included, who only knew of organizations with lesser goals, such as team Rocket, but Magma and Aqua had almost ended the world in a fit of folly, and right now, it looked like team Galactic was on the same path. And so, it was time to bring the kids up to speed. They all politely greeted her, except Candice, who was lagging horribly. Roark was sitting in front of the camera, waiting for her to speak. Maylene was hitting a punching bag in the background, but Cynthia assumed that she could hear her. Gardenia was singing as she spun around in her chair, and Volkner was barely awake.

“I suppose you’ve all heard about what happened today?” She started. Pandemonium erupted in the call, each gym leader trying to get their word in. “Quiet down! I’ve had a long day, so please. One at a time.”

They all quieted down, probably taken aback by the amount of weakness Cynthia inflected in her tone.

“Roark, you first.”

“I’m glad you kept your promise and dealt with the threat at hand, Cynthia. Please tell me if there’s anything I can do?”

“Keep a teleporter in your gym at all times in case you need to be called up— that goes for all of you. Your League-mandated Kadabra don’t know the move yet, so call Lucian and get them replaced,” Cynthia said.

“Sounds good. Also, I want to know anything we have about them. Their goals, the number of people they have, and their leaders, if possible.”

Cynthia explained everything she had found out today.

“Damn, what a drag,” Volkner said. “I thought my tenure as gym leader would be chill, man… turns out I have to deal with terrorists.”

“Anything productive to add, Volkner?” Cynthia asked.

“I can send a few of my people to replace the employees at Valley Windworks,” He said with a sigh. “They’re well versed in anything electrical, and I assume you don’t want an energy crisis in your laundry list of fucked up shit to deal with.”

“Thank you, that’ll be a big help,” She said.

“If they want to screw with reality, then there’s no telling how many people they could end up killing. We need to be on top of this, now,” Roark said. “Your new law today was a great step.”

“Really, Roark? Really? You want to torture people and turn them into vegetables?!” Maylene yelled.

“Maylene, they’re criminals—” Roark protested.

She cut him off. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but criminals have rights to a defense and a trial! And they got none of that!” She interrupted him, still kicking and punching the punching bag.

“It had to be done, Maylene. Don’t let your sense of justice get in the way,” Cynthia said.

“The only reason I joined this call was to know if you had really caused the law to pass,” She said. “And now I know you did. I lost a lot of respect for you today, Cynthia.”

Cynthia sighed. Maylene was the youngest gym leader, and more hot-headed than even Roark. She often let her ideals get in the way of efficiency, something Cynthia hoped she would learn to deal with as she aged.

“Calm down, Maymay. Screaming isn’t helping,” Gardenia said with her usual angelic voice. “Look at it from—”

“From her perspective, I know! I’m just pissed off because if we keep going down this path, we’ll end up being just as bad as the bad guys!”

Maylene had a lot of respect for Gardenia, and they were very close. In fact, Cynthia was sure the two girls were practically sisters.

“That judgment is flawed, Maylene,” Roark said. “We’re doing this to help people. If they don’t want their memories extracted, then they can just talk.”

“And what if they lie? How can you be sure? Wouldn’t you just have Alakazam do it anyways to be sure?”

“Alakazam can tell when people are lying,” Volkner said tiredly. “Your point is null.”

“Shut up, you lazy bum! you never visit me, but you keep being annoying! I hate you!” Maylene screamed.

“I have a city to run,” Volkner said. “You barely do any of the work, you just battle people over and over.”

“I want to help out more, but they keep saying I’m too young!”

“Let’s stay on topic,” Cynthia said. Dealing with all of these children at once was pure hell, even if she liked them. “Gardenia, anything else you want to say?”

“You know me, Cynth. I’m a pencil pusher, you tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

Ah, Gardenia. Always the reasonable one. “Good. And… uh, Candice?”

“Yeah— Trying— Fuck!”

“I thought we sent someone up to Snowpoint to fix the internet. What happened?”

Cynthia heard Candice hit her computer.

“Oh, wait! I’m getting four bars! I’m here! Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” Cynthia said, rolling her eyes. “Hurry up before you lose connection again.”

“Okay, so I had this really wild idea. What if the next time team Galactic showed themselves, we have Alakazam ready, and boom! He just scours through one of their leader’s memory right then and there while we protect him.”

“That’s what you’ve been trying to say this entire time? That was a given,” Volkner yawned.

“It’s a smart idea. You’re just jealous ‘cause you don’t have my intellect.”

“Candice, that was already in the cards. The problem is that if they have a Dusknoir and a Hypno that is capable of teleporting, there is no guarantee that the combined strength of Jupiter, Mars, Charon, Saturn, and Cyrus won’t overpower you— older gym leaders and elite four included. As of now, I’d call their commander a threat to all of you— especially Mars. If you find them, do not engage and call me. I sent you all Alakazam’s portraits.”

“Sure!” Candice smiled.

“All of this fuss is unwarranted. As soon as you find their HQ, they’ll be dealt with,” Maylene said.

Cynthia shook her head. “I wouldn’t be so sure, Maylene.”

“But you’re… you,” Maylene said, having stopped her workout. “If you can’t deal with them, no one can.”

Cynthia could sense fear in her voice and in the gazes of all the others. It seemed that they were finally realizing the true threat that team Galactic posed.

“I’m not saying I can’t, I’m saying that nothing is set in stone and that these people are an actual danger, and will be for the foreseeable future. I’m going to go to sleep. Stay alert, and do not under any circumstances speak to the media. We can’t let anything else slip to the public, or there’ll be a panic. Am I clear?”

They all acquiesced. Cynthia was satisfied as she hung up. The Champion was nice, but strict. She needed to whip all of the kids into shape really quickly, or there was no telling what would happen. She released her Togekiss, who chirped happily and snuggled next to her. It was a tight fit on the bed, but it would have to do.

She couldn’t escape the nightmares without his help. The companions she had seen die, the people she had killed, her failures, her duties, they all came back to haunt her. Sleep was impossible without her Togekiss, and she hoped that Grace Pastel would not fall into the same trap.

Smile Cynthia, She thought. Everything is fine. Don’t let them see your weakness.

Cynthia Collins was Sinnoh’s Champion, but she was human too. She carried the entire region atop her shoulders, and her throne sat on a pile of lies.