Lisa the Legend: Chapter 82 - Last Night on Earth now up! (24th June 2013)

[Gavin Luper]

Hello readers,

Although I finished LTL nearly two months ago now, it took me this long to be able to open the word document again. I think I needed time away - even though all I needed to do was proofread and edit each chapter before posting it. In any case, I've done it now, so here's the next chapter.

Three quick notes:

1. Firstly, now that I've started posting, I've decided each chapter will go up EVERY SECOND SUNDAY. I've hesitated to post regularly before for fear that nobody will read in time and will get left behind, but I'm doing it now, so please be advised that chapters will be fortnightly from now on.

2. Secondly, as chapters will be regular again, this chapter (chapter 75) will be the last one with the "previously on" segment beforehand. It's a bit time-consuming and won't really be needed now that updates are regular (I might include it when a chapter harks back to a really old chapter, though).

3. I'm reverting back to the other title for Book III of LTL. It's Lisa the Legend III: Rogue once again. You'll see why soon enough.

Without further ado, here's chapter 75 - hope you enjoy it! Chapter 76 will be up in two weeks!

Cheers!

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Previously on Lisa the Legend:


Lisa discovered the truth of her relationship to the Legend ...



Her father was still speaking, but Lisa heard his voice as if he were calling to her down a cold, dark well. “When you were four years old, Suicune bound itself to you, Lisa. I was there … I saw too late what happened … there was nothing I could do … And so the same thing happened to Lance and Azura … Darius became bound to Entei, and Marina to Raikou … everything changed … by the Legend, it means you kids … the three of you … are now the ones bound to protect the secret … guard the legendaries … you are the ones …”



... and the truth of her relationship to Suicune:



“Exactly,” Dad said. “The only way anyone can take the fragment of key hidden within the Sepulchre of Suicune is to have you enter it, Lisa, as you are the guardian of Suicune. That’s why the Union tracked you down so vehemently over the past four months, Lisa; that’s why you’ve been the object of their attacks so many times. Once they possessed you, they could effectively force you into the Sepulchre of Suicune, once they found it, and lo and behold, they’d be a step closer to having all the keys and finally having access to the secret in the shrine of the legendaries.”



Lisa, Marina and Gavin escaped the reaches of both the Union and the Guard to attempt to fulfil to Lisa's new mission:



“Lisa’s bleached her hair and gone into renegade action-fighter mode,” Marina said dryly. “We’re gonna break into the Sepulchre of Suicune and get the key fragment ourselves! Come along for the ride, it’ll be heaps fun!”

Gavin’s face had gone slack. “Wait – what?”

“I’m not going back to the safe house,” Lisa said.

“Why the hell not?”

Lisa fought the urge to snap at him.

“Because I’m so sick of this constant running, the constant hiding from the Union, hoping they don’t find me,” she said tersely. “And I’ve realised the sooner I get the fragment of the key that’s in the Sepulchre, the sooner the Union will have no use for me anymore.”



Lisa's date with destiny came to a tragic end:



//A little further down – yes, right there. Hold the sceptre tightly, Lisa. Now, make the cut// Suicune’s voice echoed calmly in her pounding ears.

“Okay, here goes,” Lisa said in a terrified voice.

She gripped the sceptre tightly in both hands and, murmuring a silent, jumbled prayer, she pressed the diamond blade into the soft skin. A thin red cut began to open up.

“N-nearly done,” Lisa quavered.

All of a sudden, Suicune gave a guttural growl and threw all his weight down onto the blade. The sceptre burst through his flesh and tore his heart into a hundred pieces. Her arms trapped beneath his bulk, Lisa watched in horror, her scream mingling with his almighty roar, as crimson blood exploded in bucketloads from his chest, his violet-black eyes reeling backwards as he fitted violently, legs and head flailing in agony, until the ice-white aurora on his back extinguished itself and his dead, broken body went limp, leaving Lisa alone to a private eternity of terror.



And Lisa discovered that an old diary, left in the Sepulchre of Suicune decades ago, belonged to none other than her dead grandfather:



Lisa struggled with her own sense of restraint for a moment before flipping frantically to page 61. An amused smile crossed her face when she saw that her grandfather had even written a header – Vital information for quick reference – and underlined it twice with his fountain pen. Her eyes scanned the page greedily, but page 61 was a disappointment: the scrawled text was in the form of antiquated glyphs. A little nervous, she flipped over to page 62.

And her heart almost stopped.



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Chapter 75 – Destiny Fulfilled.


Lisa stared in utter disbelief at page 62 of her grandfather’s leather-bound diary. The words on it encompassed a lifetime, surely; they certainly encompassed hers.

In her grandfather’s slanted fountain pen scrawl was written:

Locations of the Seven Keys

Key 1 – buried beneath the only mixed deposit of Moon Stone and Sun Stone located in cave m1-r3 of Mt. Moon in Kanto region. (see page 11)

Key 2 – secured beneath a glyph-engraved tablet in cave w3-b12 of Mt. Fairfax cavern system in Johto region. (see page 15)

Key 3 – planted within the Sacred Statue of Celebi, found in Ruins of Alph, grand mausoleum, later moved to foyer (!) of Blackthorn Museum of the Arts Goldenrod Radio Tower’s Museum Wing. (see page 22)

Key 4 – secured beneath a glyph-engraved tablet in the most blinding cave in the Silver Rock Island network. (see page 34)

Key 5 – still undetermined; but I have two main theories (see page 63)

Key 6 – 1/3 Sepulchre of Suicune (Lake of Purity Lotus Lake); 1/3 Sepulchre of Raikou (the Ikoswit Gorge, near Emerald Plains); 1/3 Sepulchre of Entei (Mt. Fairfax). (see page 47)

Key 7 – the most perplexing mystery of all.

The Iron Lock

It is written on a turquoise tablet that we found within the Ruins of Alph, in their ancient language:

“He who opens the Iron Lock will obtain the fire of the Phoenix.”*

*Hudson, Westwood and I have discussed this at length. It could mean ultimate power or eternal life or the ability to resurrect dead souls. Or all of these?

Lisa glanced at the final page of the diary, but it had been torn out.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!”

Lisa repeated the phrase what felt like a thousand times. She read and reread the information contained in the pages before her, completely mindblown by the enormity of her grandfather’s work. So was this what Suicune had referred to before they had entered the Sepulchre? Ultimate power or eternal life? They didn’t sound so horrible.

Disappointment tempered her excitement suddenly: here was the empirical proof that her grandfather had, indeed, known full well about the Legend and the Guardianship. Suicune had been right in assuming that he had lied about Bernard Hudson’s alleged ‘rediscovery’ of the Legend – he had played dumb, either for money or some other motive. With a mild surprise, she noted that Westwood, Hudson and her grandfather had evidently all worked together: that explained why the Union had been so keen to kidnap Westwood. Lisa realised, with another jolt, that it also explained why Westwood had been so hospitable to her, allowing her and Gavin to stay at his mansion in November: though he had never addressed it, he had known who she was; he had been friends, or at least colleagues, with her grandfather.

Lisa re-examined the diary. Unless her grandfather had been mistaken, he knew even more than the Guard seemed to about the power within the Iron Lock. Lisa’s mind buzzed. Eternal life? It couldn’t be. The ramifications of that would be too titanic to fathom …

Her skin broke into gooseflesh. The thought of eternal life danced before her brain. What did that mean? Eternal life for the person who opened the Iron Lock? Eternal life for all? How could that be the same power that Suicune described as terrible?

For the first time, the fire within her flickered. If she tried to dispose of her key fragment, or hide it somewhere unfindable, the Union would never be able to access the ‘fire of the Phoenix’. At the same time, it would be her decision for the world to never discover the full extent of the magic within the Iron Lock.

She shook her head, trying to clear it of the clotting confusion, and instead flipped back and forth through the diary, amazed. The work that must have gone into acquiring all that knowledge must have been tremendous. How had he discovered so much? And why had he kept it a secret, and not passed it on to Ryan? Why had he decided to store it, of all places, in the supposedly never-to-be-entered Sepulchre of Suicune?

Flabbergasted, Lisa stared at the description of the third key’s location. Had she really been mere metres away from the Third Key, back in October? The Museum Wing was an opulent annex of the Radio Tower, standing slightly separate from the tower proper. Lisa frowned. Had the statue survived the Radio Tower’s collapse in October? Had it been destroyed, blown to pieces, perhaps, and the Third Key found by a staff member or, worse, a Union agent?

Her heart, almost vibrating, was attempting to occupy her throat: if the statue hadn’t been destroyed, did that mean the Third Key was still located in this very city, only a few kilometres away?

She had to find out.

After noting with dismay that the last page of the diary had been torn out – and roughly – she flipped back to the front page of the diary and stared curiously at the dedication. Something definitely wasn’t adding up … but now was hardly the time to dwell on it. Lisa clapped the diary shut, locked the tiny gold bolt in place and slipped the diary back into her jeans. Her heart still racing, she pulled on her sunglasses, shoes and socks and ran into the living room before stopping abruptly in her tracks.

She hesitated anxiously: her mind had darted to the key fragment in her pocket. If she went outside and by a turn of bad luck was captured by some Union agent, the fragment that Gavin and Marina had entrusted her with – and their greatest weapon against the Union – would be lost too.

She scanned the apartment for somewhere unassuming to hide the fragment. She would only be gone for a couple of hours at the most, probably: she needed somewhere inconspicuous just in case. Returning to Dave’s room, she hunted through the messy chest of drawers by his bedside.

“Oh, perfect!” she giggled, after fishing through the mess of the bottom drawer. Among Dave’s boxers and briefs, a couple of chains, a belt, a sea of old receipts, a belt buckle, a deflated football and some loose change, she had found a box of condoms. Unable to suppress another giggle, she opened the half-empty box and dropped the fragment into it. She hesitated. If someone broke in and shook the box, they’d hear something odd within. Or was she being too paranoid?

Sure that all would be fine, she closed the drawer and then, vacillating, opened it up and reopened the box. Feeling slightly as though she had strayed into forbidden waters, she used the sharp edge of the key to make a tiny incision in one of the condom packets, and then slid the fragment into the packet completely. She closed the box up and rattled it: it was impossible to tell that there was anything unusual within. Laughing at her own thoroughness, she hid the box well in the sea of clutter in the drawer and went to wash her hands in the bathroom.

Jogging back through the apartment, she noticed a note on the bench from Marina:

Hey Leese,

I know you’re too proud to take this from me face to face, but I also know you’re out of cash, so here’s some dough for food, male company, etc.

Love you,

Marina.

And at that exact moment, Marina’s mobile buzzed in Lisa’s pocket. She checked the screen: a text had come through from Gavin’s phone:

breakfast over, on the road now wooo! stay safe! M. xo

Lisa grinned; Marina’s sign-off had given her a James Bond flashback. Feeling incredibly grateful, she took the three fifty-dollar bills from beneath the note and, pocketing them and the key to Gavin’s apartment, she left.

*

The owner of the Internet café on Madison Street was surly and his rates were excessively dear (five dollars for half an hour), but Lisa paid happily and scrambled to get online at the nearest computer terminal. She tapped her fingernails on the desk impatiently as the homepage loaded, image by image, and then, finally, she typed in the search bar, ‘Sacred Statue of Celebi’ and clicked on the online encyclopaedia entry that popped up first on the list of results:

Antoknossos’ Celebi

Antoknossos’ Celebi (pictured), also known as the Sacred Statue of Celebi, is one of the most renowned works of art extracted from the Ruins of Alph in the Johto province.

The statue is a feat of ancient sculpture. Constructed by Alphian sculptor and poet, Adrian Antoknossos (1305 – 1351), it is comprised of almost pure jade, standing at a staggering 1.8 metres high and up to a metre wide. The piece is notable for the fact that it was sculpted not from one block of stone, but from two blocks that Antoknossos fused together to create a perfectly symmetrical statue. The work dates back as far as 1339 and is considered by many to be Antoknossos’ master work.

Finally extracted from the Ruins of Alph in 1975, the statue was initially housed in the Blackthorn Museum of the Arts from 1975 through to 1982, when it was purchased by Charles Druos for the Museum Wing of the newly-constructed Goldenrod Radio and Communications Tower (Radio Tower). Though the statue survived the 2002 Radio Tower Collapse, the Museum Wing itself was greatly damaged and had to be demolished. The statue is temporarily being stored in the Goldenrod City Library, pending the reconstruction of the Radio Tower, currently slated for early 2006.

Lisa bit her tongue with mingled excitement and wonder. She had learned about Antoknossos and his works at school: he was one of the most famous artists of his era. She shivered. So he had known about the keys, then. Was he an ancestor of her, Darius or Marina, perhaps? Or had the Guardians of that time simply entrusted him to protect the key for them?

She tapped her fingers on the desk again. How on earth was she supposed to extract a tiny key from within a solid block of jade, short of blowing it to smithereens? And how on earth was she meant to get away with it in a public place?

She pulled out the leather-bound diary and flipped through to page 22, looking for guidance. She squinted at her grandfather’s slanted writing, reading through his musings until she came to a diagram of Antoknossos’ Celebi, and a scrawled note from Theodore Walters:

According to the texts I have found, the key was embedded in the exact centre of the statue’s head, right behind the eyes.

“So now what?” Lisa mumbled aloud; the dark-skinned, dreadlocked girl at the computer beside her smirked and cast her an obtuse look. Lisa shrugged it off and went back to scanning the internet page, as though it would also offer information on how to extract hidden keys from within the statue.

After a few minutes, she gave up and left the Internet café, setting off down the crowded sidewalk of Madison Street toward Goldenrod’s Central Business District, where the library was located, hoping that some kind of genius idea would hit her before she got there.

*

The door of Lance Hudson’s drawing room swung open and he stepped into the stunningly well-lit reception area. Sarah sat at her desk, typing up an e-mail.

“Need a refill, Lance?” she asked blankly, tapping away at her computer.

“Not right now, Sarah. I have some great news from Giles and Gideon.”

“Ooh!”

Sarah tore her rust-coloured eyes from the screen and devoted her full attention to Lance who, having just returned from an important meeting, wore a black, pin-striped suit, complete with shiny shoes, a red silk tie and a grey fedora.

“What is it, then?” she asked.

“They just got confirmation about the kids from Jack Criddle, one of Lisa’s listed associates. It looks like all three of them – Lisa, Gavin and Marina – have banded together, like we thought. And apparently they’re now somewhere in mainland Johto, though we don’t know where.”

“Incredible,” Sarah breathed. “Man, I can’t believe them. What on earth are they up to?”

“And if they’re alive and well, why aren’t they answering their phones?” Lance added bitterly. “Anyway, Giles and Gideon are going to keep investigating for me, but in the meantime, I need you to get the heads of the teams together for a meeting ASAP so we can brief them on this. We’re going to need the whole Guard involved if we want to find them.”

“Righto!”

“Oh, and call Darius and tell him I need to see him right away.”

“I’m on it.”

*

The Goldenrod City Library was one of the oldest structures in the metropolis: an imposing edifice of white marble columns and ornately decorated windows, its eight levels cast half of Madison Street East into its shadow.

As Lisa stared up at the library, Marina’s mobile vibrated in her pocket. She took it out of her pocket and saw that a new message had come through from Darius Hudson:

Hi Marina. We’re all really worried about you and hope you’re safe. Text me back if you are able to.

Lisa felt a sudden pang of longing. She had tried to put Darius out of her mind with the events of the past few days, but with his words right before her eyes, it was impossible to forget him. Sitting down on a park bench immediately before the entrance to the library, she closed her eyes and imagined a day – just one day – alone with Darius, perhaps just going for a walk at the Lakeside Mall in Ecruteak or seeing the latest film at the Octoplex. She rolled the moment around on her palate for a few seconds, enjoying the sweetness and the otherworldliness, before sighing and shoving Marina’s phone back in her pocket.

She reopened her eyes and set about scanning the entrance to the Goldenrod City Library. The staircase that led to the edifice was no less decadent than the building itself: white marble steps, framed on either side by thick black and gold balustrades, rose sharply to the elevated sandstone archway that led into the library’s foyer.

“Here goes,” Lisa muttered to herself, stepping onto the bottommost stair.

She had only taken a few steps when she heard it: a familiar voice – the voice of a woman – barely a metre to her right.

“ … actually built inside the statue. Right in the middle of the head, behind the eyes.”

Her heart skipped a beat and her mind seemed to frost over instantly, but the sheer panic forced her to keep ascending the stairs slowly. She didn’t dare look to her right, but rather, focused on the enormous shape of the grand archway ahead; nonetheless, she was aware with each thudding footfall that Veronica, Joseph Sterling’s right-hand woman, was exactly in step with her.

She was almost halfway to the archway when her brain managed to regain some authority over her limbs. Feeling as though she were practically shining an enormous spotlight on herself, she reached a landing and knelt down, ostensibly to tie her shoelace. Blood rushed to her head and her vision blurred – she half expected to hear a cry of shock and then the sizzle of a beam of energy rushing at her – but there was only the sound of the morning traffic in the street below, the bad singing of a nearby busker and the general hum of pedestrians and tourists.

Catching her breath and thanking her lucky stars that she had bleached her hair at Jamie’s house, Lisa untied and retied her shoelace and surveyed the people who were now several metres further ahead than she. The sleek length of platinum blonde hair draped against a black-clothed back, combined with the unmistakeable voice Lisa had heard, confirmed for sure that the woman on the steps ahead was Veronica. Amid her panic came a sense of rising dread: Veronica was flanked by no fewer than four men, no doubt some of the most highly-skilled agents the Union had to offer.

Without really thinking about what she was doing, Lisa unknotted her other shoe and set about slowly retying the lace. Veronica’s words rang in her ears.

The Union knew about the statue. They had discovered exactly where the key was.

*

Trying to align herself with the tail end of a guided tour, Lisa walked as casually as possible through the sandstone archway and into the alfresco foyer of the Goldenrod City Library. Her eyes bulged behind her dark aviators: the foyer was yet another exercise in antiquity-style opulence. Colourful tapestries decorated the sandstone walls and verdant creepers dotted with violet flowers clung to the glassless windows and balustrades. Various artworks and sculptures adorned the corners of the foyer, but none quite so great as the enormous jade sculpture in the very centre of the room.

Six feet tall, Antoknossos’ Celebi was raised on a granite podium, surrounded by eager tourists who seemed to vary in their interest in the piece: some took photos of themselves beside the sculpture as a kind of jaded ritual; others traced their hands over the smooth surface in an apparent trance, clearly fascinated by the work.

“And yes, I know what all your eyes have immediately gone to, but we’ll touch on Antoknossos’ work at the end of the tour,” boomed the auburn-haired tour guide, tapping her clipboard impatiently as the entire tour group – like Lisa – gawked at the jade Celebi. “For now, let’s start with an overlooked gem of the Renaissance: the first tapestry of Soliono of Ecruteak!”

There was a vague buzz among the other tourists. Lisa shuffled along behind them, keeping close enough so that anyone watching would think she was a part of the group, while maintaining enough distance between herself and the tour guide so that she would not be seen and asked to pay.

As the tour guide launched into a tired introduction of Soliono’s tapestry, Lisa scanned the foyer for signs of the Union agents. The reason she had not spotted them when she entered the foyer quickly became apparent: they had split up. Though Lisa had not seen any of the men’s faces, she could only spy one of them for sure – a bulky man in torn blue jeans and a leather jacket – standing at the concierge desk, apparently asking for information. Lisa’s eyes darted around the foyer: where had Veronica gone? Had the others entered the library itself, perhaps?

“And next, we have a well-known piece that is sure to delight you all: Garbaddi’s famous fresco, The Mourning Light. Keep up, please!”

Scarcely avoiding having her foot impaled by an elderly woman’s walking frame, Lisa shuffled along with the group, trying to feign interest. Once the tour guide launched into a discussion of Garbaddi’s use of light in his painting, she wheeled around again to scan the foyer – and at once, her eyes fell on Veronica.

She was standing behind Antoknossos’ Celebi, previously obscured from Lisa’s line of sight. The oversized pair of brown sunglasses that covered most of her face gave her the unassuming impression of a bimbo. Indeed, as Lisa watched her, it seemed that Veronica’s plan had been to disguise herself as a bottle-blonde moron: she wore an uncharacteristically revealing black halterneck and frayed denim shorts, and rather than overtly appraising the structure, she seemed bored by it, instead texting on a bright pink mobile phone while one of the other Union agents read the long inscription beside the statue, apparently fascinated.

“If you’re not going to keep pace with the group, at least have the courtesy to stand right at the back!” snarled the elderly woman behind Lisa, roughly clattering past her as the group moved on to the next piece.

Lisa flinched, not because she was fazed by the woman’s outburst but because she feared it would draw attention to her; however, for the second time that day, she was proven to be somewhat paranoid: neither Veronica nor either of the two visible Union agents looked up from what they were doing. She reminded herself for the umpteenth time that with her short, bleached hair and different clothes, she looked nothing like the Lisa Walters the Union knew.

She reluctantly followed the group to the third, fourth and fifth pieces of interest, casting surreptitious glances at Veronica and her agents as often as she dared. They weren’t making any obvious movements, and yet they were lingering for a long time at the statue. Was the foyer about to be rocked by a massive explosion? Were the agents biding their time for something to happen before they took the Third Key – from right beneath Lisa’s nose?

Lisa frowned. There were two security guards in the foyer and a handful of large cameras affixed to the sandstone ceiling. Given her knowledge of what the Union was capable of, she knew that such security measures amounted to little more than a picket fence.

“And now, the moment I can tell you’ve all been waiting for: Antoknossos’ Celebi!” declared the tour guide, her voice loaded with empty excitement. At once, the throng of tourists abandoned the latest tapestry and swarmed toward the statue.

Lisa didn’t idle: she rushed forward with the rest of them, keen to avoid the vengeful clatter of the elderly lady’s walking frame, and at once found herself mere metres away from an unsuspecting Veronica, who still had not moved an inch. Amid the camera flashes and teenagers posing for photographs in front of the statue, Lisa saw Veronica turn her head and say something to the Union agent nearest her, but over the cacophony of the tourists’ excited chatting, Lisa couldn’t make out what was said.

And then, suddenly, shielded by the crowd, Veronica moved.

Standing firm against the jostling of the tourists, Lisa glued both her eyes to the blonde woman before her. Veronica reached into her pink handbag and produced what looked like a compact. She opened it, gouged her fingers into whatever was within, and placed it sleekly into the bag once more.

“No! Move, move, move!” Lisa hissed, as an obese man wearing a Hawaiian shirt moved into her line of vision, sipping at a slushie, apparently unaware of the artistic wonder before him.

When the man finally moved, Veronica had too – but not far. She had crept around the other side of the statue and was now tracing her fingers slowly around its middle. Lisa squinted and moved a little closer, so that she was now close enough to touch the statue itself. Veronica’s fingers seemed to be coated in some kind of vermilion-coloured powder, but her tracing around the statue left no mark at all.

Heart pounding, Lisa instinctively took a step back from the statue, anticipating some kind of sudden explosion, but her brain caught up with her: if Veronica was still standing right beside the statue, there was clearly no imminent danger. Gingerly, Lisa stepped back onto the granite podium and began tracing her hand around the statue, much as Veronica had. Pushing past a couple of bored-looking kids, she circled the statue until she was right beside Veronica, who now stood in the statue’s shadow, sending a text on her mobile phone.

Lisa’s breath had left her: she raised her head as if appraising the Celebi’s ornate antennae and then, beneath her aviators, sneaked a peek at the screen of Veronica’s pink-and-silver mobile. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the screen flared to life and a notification appeared:

1 new message received – Joe.

As her heart thudded, Lisa readied her legs. Was Joseph Sterling sending through the order to blow the statue to pieces? Would she need to run to save herself? She took a surreptitious snatch at oxygen with her nostrils and pretended to check the time on Marina’s mobile before she shot an electric glance at Veronica’s mobile one more time and saw on the screen, just before Veronica deleted it, a text message:

It will take several hours. Go back at 8pm and retrieve it.

Veronica clapped the phone shut and stowed it in her pink handbag. Lisa jolted and returned to gazing solemnly at the statue. For a terrible, blood-curdling second, she felt Veronica’s eyes burning into the side of her face. Mustering all her confidence, she reached a leaden arm out and traced her fingers over the statue’s surface, apparently entranced, before turning deliberately away from Veronica and pushing very gently through the crowd, toward the plaque that described the statue.

Adrenaline electrified her veins as she stared blankly at the plaque on the floor, pretending to read it. She didn’t dare look up to find out if Veronica was looking at her, but stared resolutely at the shiny plaque before her, the words on it utterly meaningless. Seconds passed and then, mercifully, minutes. Slowly, her face cooled.

After a good five minutes – and most of the crowd of tourists – had passed, Lisa scanned the foyer gingerly and found no sign of Veronica or any of the other agents. Her heart struggling to regain a steady rhythm, she walked in a controlled manner toward the ladies’ toilets, locked herself in a cubicle and, putting her head in her hands, shook uncontrollably.

*

A fierce April sun bore down on the Ikoswit Gorge, a ribbon of sunburnt rock that divided the thick, verdant foliage of the Ikoswit Forest from the vast landscapes of Emerald Plains to the east. Unhindered by the midday heat reflecting off the rock walls, two teenage figures hiked down the centre of the gorge, keeping their path close to the narrow sliver of water that ran the length of the canyon.

“This is looking more and more familiar,” said Gavin, wiping his sweaty forehead on his sleeve. “I think we’re just about on it. Maybe one more bend.”

Marina squirted a jet of water into her mouth from her bottle, gulping it down gratefully.

“I wish I hadn’t been blindfolded at the time, otherwise I’d have some clue as to where it is,” she sighed, veering around a jagged orange-brown boulder.

“I’m sure we’re close,” Gavin said confidently.

They approached a sharp bend in the gorge.

“I think it’s just after this bend,” Gavin said. “Are you nervous, then?” he ventured gingerly.

Marina seemed to stiffen. She turned and faced Gavin, her face chalk-like.

“I’m rationalising it like this,” she said, her voice rigid. “Lisa went in there and had no idea what she had to do. At least I know what to expect. I know what I have to do, so it won’t be a shock when Raikou says it.”

She seemed to verge on saying something more, but decided against it, and strode onwards, ever closer to the bend in the gorge.

“Of course, there’s still the chance that we’re completely wrong, and the Union already have the fragment,” she added seriously.

“I reckon Lisa’s right,” Gavin said, shaking his head. “If Suicune told her only the guardian can do the deed, then he’s right.”

“I know. But I really wish it was the other way,” Marina sighed heavily.

Their path curved around the bend. For a few paces, nothing was visible except the opposite wall of the gorge, red and shimmering with reflected heat. Then, they rounded the bend and a new stretch of canyon unfurled before them, looking almost identical to the last stretch except for one detail.

“Oh wow,” Marina gasped.

Standing on a high boulder in the middle of the gorge was the legendary beast of electricity: Raikou.

*

Marina Frost kept her head pressed firmly against Raikou’s furry violet back as the legendary dog pelted down one rocky tunnel after another, yellow sparks exploding from his jaws as he ran, setting fire to the formerly dormant wooden torches fixed along the walls.

After a few minutes, the beast slowed; Marina shifted her head ever-so-slightly off Raikou’s fur and saw, through tendrils of her own ultramarine hair, that the tunnel had opened up into a larger antechamber.

“Wow,” she breathed.

Raikou’s antechamber was no less breathtaking the second time around: at the broadest side of the cavern, a dais made seemingly of pure gold glittered gorgeously in the yellow light of the torches. A six-foot-tall golden statue of Raikou, eyes made of dark amber, guarded the giant, gem-encrusted oak double door that led to the Sepulchre of Raikou. In other circumstances, the excess of gold might have been gaudy, but the sheer grandeur of the scene rendered such a thought impossible.

//Welcome, Marina Frost//

Marina tore her gaze from the glittering cavern; Raikou, whose back she was still clinging to, had turned to regard her kindly, the black-and-blue face uncharacteristically soft.

“Thank you,” Marina said, slightly timidly, as she slid awkwardly off the beast’s back. She hurriedly straightened her flyaway hair and brushed it out of her face as Raikou paced toward the golden dais and then turned to face her.

//Your second visit to my Sepulchre// Raikou said telepathically. //And the last time anyone will see it ever again//

Marina felt a pang of fear and tragedy; so, Lisa’s hypothesis had been dead on.

“S-so … when the Union brought me here last time … you tricked them?”

//One of the many security measures the Guardians put into place, in case we were ever forced to enter the Sepulchre under duress// Raikou said, scraping his claws nonchalantly against the golden dais; a deep swipe mark appeared in the soft metal. //Assuming, of course, that the party placing us under duress didn’t already know that we had to be killed with the Sceptre – which, luckily, the Union didn’t. They thought a bit of Entei’s powers and a machete could finish me? HA!//

Marina couldn’t muster up the strength to laugh; her hands were beginning to tingle slightly, her heart fluttering.

//Ah – yes// Raikou said suddenly. //You are aware of what must happen within the Sepulchre, aren’t you?//

“Yes. Lisa told me,” Marina breathed.

//Ah, Lisa Walters// Raikou said. //Truly an inspirational young woman. She is the reason we are here now, of course. Had she never dropped into our Brotherhood’s meeting in the Burned Tower, Suicune never would have come up with his scheme to open the Sepulchres prematurely, and Entei would never have turned against us quite so violently// He shook his enormous head bitterly.

“Where is Entei now?” Marina asked.

Raikou pawed his own statue casually.

//He has abandoned the Brotherhood and our true cause. Apart from that, I will never know. We will not speak again//

Marina flinched.

Raikou fixed her with a serious gaze.

//So I am to take it that Lisa has entered the Sepulchre of Suicune, then. And my brother is dead//

Marina shivered.

“Yes. She did it just yesterday. That’s when we realised I hadn’t actually fulfilled my duties here.”

//And what is the great plan? Has the Guard decided to do what Suicune once planned – and I agreed to? Enter the Sepulchres, hide the fragments elsewhere, away from the Union’s grasp?//

“Well – that is the plan – yes,” Marina said slowly. “But it’s not the Guard’s plan – it’s ours. Well, Lisa and Jamie came up with it, but we’re playing along. We’re not telling the Guard anything.”

For the first time, Raikou looked mightily impressed by the blue-haired teenager before him.

//Youth never ceases to inspire me// he boomed. //That you have done this without the Guard’s knowledge is a pleasing truth to hear before my end. I have never truly trusted the Guard//

“Suicune said the same thing to Lisa.”

//We were in agreeance, then. The Guard always were a little too good to be real, I think// Raikou said, his electric-blue bolt-shaped tail bouncing slightly in amusement.

His face suddenly sharpened.

//Well – there is no sense in delaying the inevitable, nor is there any sense in keeping Gavin Luper waiting. Let us enter the Sepulchre and be done with it all. Before we enter, though, I wish to say that I admired your courage a great deal when you were brought here by the Union. Indeed, it has been a great honour to serve your mother, and grandmother, and the rest of your bloodline before that – a line of truly impressive women and men//

A painful silence lingered in the air; searching for the right thing to respond with, Marina said awkwardly, “Thank you so much. I suppose – on behalf of all of us – it’s been great to serve as Guardians with you, too.”

Raikou laughed suddenly; a loud, non-telepathic guffaw. Once he calmed down, he fixed Marina with his deep crimson eyes and smiled.

//You don’t mean it in the same way as I do, but thank you for saying it.

//And now, let us meet our destiny//

*

The Sepulchre of Raikou was a tiny chamber, its floor, walls and ceiling all constructed of what looked like solid, translucent amber. Two torches were fixed in golden brackets on the far wall, but only the yellow flame on the right still burned, its light reflecting brilliantly in the glassy room.

Beneath the bracket was a golden tabernacle.

“My sceptre is in there, right?” Marina said, her heart beating faster than ever.

Raikou had stalked over to the tabernacle and sat down, tail sparking mildly.

//It is. You should act quickly. You will want enough time to escape this cavern before it self-destructs//

“Right,” Marina said firmly, but her palms were sweaty and she was feeling progressively more woozy. She gingerly made her way to the tabernacle, threw it open and groped around inside; her hand closed on something unexpectedly soft. Bemused, she pulled her find from the tabernacle: it was a foot-long silver sceptre, encrusted with amber, its tip a deathly-sharp white crystal.

A thick piece of paper had been tied with a strand of red ribbon to the handle.

//From your grandmother// Raikou said. //She summoned me one day, years ago, to enter this place and leave that note for her descendent//

“She felt guilty,” Marina surmised, untying the ribbon and tucking the note into her pocket. “She agreed to lie to my mother about the Legend, apparently for money.”

Raikou’s face soured.

//I wish I had never had to know that//

Marina felt a wave of guilt.

“I’m sorry – on her behalf.”

Raikou tilted his head in a way to say that he did not mind.

//No time for this. You have your sceptre and only seconds of calm remaining. You must do it now//

As he spoke, there was a sudden tremor; a growling was coming from somewhere beyond the amber walls.

“Okay,” Marina said. “Okay, I can do this …”

//You must!// Raikou urged. //Come closer//

Marina shuffled forward, her shoes scarcely lifting off the sleek amber floor, her limbs stiffening as she reached Raikou’s side.

Her head was spinning as she stood over Raikou’s calmly breathing body, sceptre at hand. She raised the weapon high as Raikou shifted his foreleg, revealing an exposed underbelly, heart beating beneath ice-white fur.

Gasping, she froze.

“I can’t. It’s too much, I’m sorry – I can’t!”

Raikou’s scarlet eyes locked with her frightened ones; in the same instant, the floor shook violently, and the ominous rumbling began to grow louder.

//You are a Frost. You have the courage to do this//

Marina swallowed; her throat was swollen with a ball of fear.

“Can you do what Suicune did for Lisa? If I hold the sceptre to your chest, can you kind of –” Marina gestured to indicate Raikou impaling himself.

//Yes. Go, you must do it now or there will be no time! Be brave, Marina!//

Gritting her teeth, both hands gripping the handle, Marina held the tip of her sceptre to the ice-white fur near Raikou’s heart, and steadied her footing as the floor shook again.

Raikou smiled toothily, said, //Take the fragment and run, child!//, and threw himself onto the razor-sharp tip of the sceptre.

Abruptly, chaos reigned: hot blood spilled over Marina’s arms as she screamed; Raikou’s body fitted wildly, sparks flying from his back; the floor trembled again; and the final torch was extinguished, plunging the sepulchre into pitch blackness.

“No!” Marina spluttered, pulling her arms from Raikou’s carcass. Panic begin to stalk her heart: she was blind and the world was shaking violently. She reached for her belt, picked a pokéball at random and pressed the button on it; a burst of radiant white light exploded from the ball, briefly illuminating the chamber and reflecting off the golden tabernacle and the sconce; Marina lunged for the place where the right torch had once burned and felt her hand close over something small and glassy.

Bitterness and joy mingled in her hammering heart as an explosion rent the air, throwing her roughly to the amber floor beside Raikou’s body.

Destiny fulfilled.