Back in the monitoring station Tenrou, Sanakou, Axl and their respective pokémon were now feeling slightly less intimidated now that Cynthia was gone. Still, Axl and Terry were the only ones bold enough to stand up while the group was still under the watchful eye of Cynthia's lucario. They got up and stretched, then Axl began trying to clean up the cut that Weavile had left on his neck mere fractions of an inch from crossing his jugular vein. Not having much success at treating his own wound, the irritation only caused the scab to bleed anew as trickled blood down, soaking into his shirt. He sighed exasperatedly, then sat back down and buried his head in his hands. Terry meanwhile was got back up to try and release some of her pent up nervous energy, but soon she realized there was nothing to be done in the small, darkened room. With nothing else to do, she lay back down and fidgeted restlessly for a minute or so, then closed her eyes, and attempted to block out what was happening from her mind.

Mina and Tenrou sat along the wall next to Axl, and when they saw him get up, they decided it was apparently safe, for now, and began to talk nervously and quietly to each other in an attempt to distract themselves from their situation. Having nothing else to do, Sanakou simply held both her prinplup and Will's poochyena close, hoping that everything would turn out okay. A few more minutes passed without incident; Tenrou and Mina occupied themselves by chattering lowly in the tongue of pokémon and both Axl and Terry appeared to be asleep, leaving Sanakou hugging the two pokémon for reassurance and the creatures reciprocating the gesture. Before much more time had passed, however, a bit of movement in the room caught her eye and as she looked up Cynthia's lucario was crossing the room from where it had been standing guard by the door. She looked to the others to see if they noticed this but Terry had put herself into some kind of sleep-like trance and Axl was still holding his head dejectedly between his knees while Mina and Tenrou had succumbed to exhaustion and were leaning on one another, unconscious. By the time Sanakou had realized this, the aura pokémon had made it across the room without a sound and she had to suppress a frightened gasp as she watched it summon a ghostly blue flame around its paw, then wave the firey appendage towards Axl. Some of the otherworldly essence floated towards him, making a sound like a chilling breeze passing through dead tree branches.

Surprised by the noise, Axl looked up to see that Lucario had his arm outstretched and was directing a stream of aura energy right at him. Before he could react, the flame reached him and floated into his chest. He could hardly move before he felt a cold tingling sensation across his body. He felt a concentration of the stuff in his left arm and held it up to take a look. A rather large scratch ran along his forearm, compliments of Weavile's earlier outburst; as he watched, cobalt blue sparks emerged from under the skin around the injury and the flesh began to heal itself at an accelerated rate, completely closing without so much as a scar within seconds.

Not a moment later the strange tickle moved again, this time congregating around the rather deeper, more life-endangering cut on his throat. He reached up to feel as the muscle and skin of his neck resealed itself, stemming the flow of blood that had by now made him slightly dizzy. He looked up again when the warmth had completely faded, and the lucario was standing over him, watching to see that the healing was successful. "Thank you," Axl quietly said, not looking the pokémon in the eye.

The blue and black pokémon grunted its acceptance before walking back to its position across the room. Sanakou watched the exchange in bewildered silence; she had almost expected to have seen Axl eviscerated before her eyes, but instead it looked as if like that pokémon had healed him. <I don't know what to think of all this anymore...> she thought silently to herself before wrapping her arms tighter around the two pokémon in her lap and letting herself pass out as Tenrou had.

The lucario looked back at the three humans and their pokémon impassively. It hadn'tÂtruly been necessary to heal the redhead's cuts; they were a far cry from being life threatening, even with the blood loss he had caused by picking at them. No, for all his cold efficiency the pokémon had a certain respect for the young man with the absol, and healing the damage caused by the rash Weavile was the least he could do; being ordered to guard them didn't mean he couldn't allow himself to show a small act of compassion.

The pokémon began to think back to before the boy had run off but before he could begin his reverie his thoughts were interrupted by Axl talking to him. "What have you come to, Lucario? What has Cynthia gotten into now; she would never have worked with the likes of Weavile's troupe before- what happened?

Lucario sighed; even if the human could have understood his words, he wasn't sure that he would trust the boy with such talk about his master. What could he know about her if he had to ask such a question? "Cario," he said, meaning, "Bugger off."

Axl shook his head slowly and thought to himself. He hadn't truly expected Lucario to say much anything in return, but for the pokémon to put him off like that- he couldn't understand why Lucario would talk to him as he had. At any rate, there was nothing to be gained from trying to converse with the jackal, so he once again put his head between his knees and retreated into the confines of his own mind.

Downstairs on the first level, Cynthia and her escort met with Weavile's team, confirming that all of the hostages were accounted for and in good health. She then walked over to the elevator and turned back to Weavile. "I don't suppose it could be quite so easy as just riding down there, could it?"

"Hmph, if only." the dark-type scoffed. "They trashed all the lifts at the first chance they got."

Scizor stepped forward. "If I may be so bold, I have an idea."

"Well come on then, let's hear it." Cynthia looked at the red insectoid curiously.

"Erm," he hesitated, looking to Weavile for approval. The weasel nodded, so he began. "It would clearly result in chaos if they knew what was happening here; if they knew that most of them were going to die now, nothing would stop them from going into a panic and storming whichever exit happened to be closest."

A thoughtful nod, and Cynthia interjected, "That's a good point; we need to cover as many exits as possible. Weavile, how many access points are there to the surface from below?"

"Four- one at the ends of either wing, one near the front and one near the cargo elevator in the garage."

"Hmm... We'll need to block or cover them as best we can then. I suppose the garage can be dealt with easily by Garchomp, what with all the room he'd have to work with in there..." She stopped herself, then spoke to Scizor. "I'm sorry, you weren't finished."

"Thank you," he nodded. "You're right about the garage.: Garchomp will be more than capable of handling anyone foolish enough to climb the service stairwell next to the freight elevator; in fact, he could take just about anyone before they got even halfway up since the two share one open shaft. I believe the wings would be best covered by the others," he motioned to his comrades, Golduck, Weavile, and the two shadowed assassins, "while you and I," he indicated Cynthia, Mars, and Will, "take the front area. It is the largest, which means it is likely to be the most heavily defended, making it the perfect spot to send Mars down."

"Now hold on just a second." Weavile jumped in. "You say that we 'send Mars down' the front stairwell. You mean nobody goes with her?!"

"Well, I figured that with whatever connection Mars has to Cynthia thanks to those kids, she has to do what we say, and nothing can be gained by uneccesarily putting them on-edge." He explained further, "If Mars goes down alone they might be convinced to come up peacefully. They have less reason to be afraid when their leader assures them that it will be safe."

Through the planning going on, Mars kept a straight face, but at the mention of her role, she wavered some and her eyes began to water slightly. <So to save those who deserve it, I'll have to lie to them all; send them like livestock to the slaughter> she thought bitterly.

"And what if our little commander decides to make a break for it?" Weavile asked scornfully.

"You know how quick I can be when the need arises." Scizor said, "If it comes to that, I can be in and out before any of them have the time to even realize that I was there." The implication of what he would do in that fraction of a second remained unsaid, but Mars had a phantom sensation of her neck being snapped like a twig by those powerful claws; she shuddered at the thought.

"Well then," Cynthia spoke up, "I think we can all agree that this seems like a sound plan to work from; we'll figure out the rest as we go. We'll have the humans send the hostages home while the pokémon get prepared as needed. Let's do this right, people."

Upon being dismissed, they went to their assigned tasks: the two robed men went to tell the hostages to head for home while Weavile and Golduck moved to cover opposite wings of the building, where they would each be joined by one of the humans, and Scizor vanished in a red blur as he moved to the front stairs. Cynthia turned to her togekiss, "You take Mars and this young man to the front desk, near the stairway, and wait for me. I'll be back once I get Garchomp into the garage." She then turned to Will and Kirlia, who had stood silently throughout the whole ordeal, and had not missed Mars' comments to herself. "You two head to the lobby area and find a place to keep your head down; once I get back, things may start to get... busy... very quickly."

Finally, Cynthia looked to Mars. She had not missed the commander's errant thoughts either, and in a harsh voice, she told the woman "We make hard decisions every day. All of us do. If you have to do something distasteful to ensure the right outcome, so be it." Mars looked shocked, but was too defeated to fight back. "You'll lie to them, and for those of them that make it out alive, it will be the single kindest thing you've ever done for them. And for those who don't... It wouldn't make a difference whether you lied to them or told them the truth; they've condemned themselves, and neither truth nor falshehood will prevent their judgement." With that, Cynthia turned and walked off for the stairs to the floors above, leaving the group to themselves as she collected her dragon for its duty.

After she had disappeared from sight, Togekiss began to lead the way down the hall, with Will, Kirlia, and Mars in tow. As they walked along the corridor, Will and his pokémon could feel Mars' emotions, and they were surprised to find that she was more upset with herself for having to deceive her troops than she was about what would inevitably happen to them. Wondering what might explain her feelings, Will asked her, "Why are you so upset about lying to the people downstairs? It's what's best for everyone, isn't it? I mean we certainly didn't ask to get caught up in all this, but what's done is done. "If it weren't for this arrangement, they'd have killed everyone here, probably us included."

The redheaded young woman wore a complex expression as she replied, "I know, there's nothing for it now, but it feels... wrong, to have to lie to them, especially the ones I know won't be leaving this place alive." Her voice turned bitter, and she continued, "You know what else, kid? I never even wanted any of this when I started out; all I wanted was to live in peace, but he wouldn't have any of that. He destroyed eveything I held dear, and then press-ganged me into becoming a commander in his little private army..."

Will didn't need psychic-enhanced empathy to see that Mars had a deep-seated hatred for whoever she was talking about, but even with the connection they had established, he couldn't determine who this person was. Eeven in her broken state she was still able to shield the deeper reaches of her mind from probing. She spoke again, "You're right though; there's nothing for it now but to allow what will happen to happen. You were correct though; I do have an idea of who down there are beyond help; some of them joined simply because they enjoy inflicting pain and misery on others, some joined to escape the law. But there is a handful who aren't too different from me; I personally picked each and every person who came here, and I know that there's more than a few people like myself who would just as soon have nothing to do with this Team Galactic." She spat out her own organization's name as if it left behind a foul taste. "I know those people, and I know that you and that Cynthia woman will be able to know through me, and I can only hope that she is true to her word..."

Will let her continue talking as they approached the doorway leading to the main lobby; they all followed as Togekiss led them over the threshold. To Kirlia he thought, <I don't get it; why would she be a part of Galactic if she hates them so much? And who's that guy she was talking about earlier?>

<I don't understand either,> Mayumi replied, <I can't see it in her mind either; it's clouded and obscured somehow. I think all the powerful emotion she has about it is limiting my ability to see clearly, and besides that, it feels like she has some form of mental shielding protecting those thoughts and memories.>

The group was now walking into the staff room just outside the main stairway, and Scizor was standing guard over the door leading down. <Shoot, it seems like the more we find out, the less sense it all makes,> Will felt a little exasperated at these new developments. <Either way, we'd best try to get ready; something tells me that this whole process is going to... I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about what might happen to you when they start... you know...> He glanced nervously at the psychic pokémon who was holding his hand the entire way. They'd get through this, somehow, but neither of them knew what kind of shape they'd be in afterwards. At last they reached a small alcove nearby with chairs to sit in while they waited; Togekiss perched himself on a filing cabinet, while Will and Mars took chairs opposite each other, and Mayumi let herself be lifted into the chair next to Will.

In the darkened room upstairs, Lucario's ears twitched slightly; he heard someone ascending the stairs and heading for the door. The sound moved closer along the hallway, then stopped when they must have been a few yards away. Garchomp hadn't made any noise in response, so Lucario knew it must be Cynthia. He was proven right when he heard her muffled voice talking to the great land-shark moments later. She fell silent again, and then the door opened, casting a harsh fluorescent glow into the mostly darkened room. The pokémon's eyes quickly adjusted to the increased lighting, and his eyes confirmed what he already knew, even without his innate aura-guiding abilities; Cynthia stood in the open portal, then walked in and closed the door behind her again.

Axl awoke to a bright light flooding his vision. He looked around, and before he could focus his eyes to identify the source of the blinding intrusion it receded. In the darkness, he heard a low female voice talking to someone, and when his eyes finally readjusted to the darkness once more he recognized Cynthia. "Alright Lucario, we're about to begin. I wish you could help us downstairs, but you're the only one I can trust to keep these kids safe. I'm taking Garchomp to watch one of the exits while the other teams watch the rest; we're sending Mars down the front." She paused for a moment, "Yes, I know the risk but I have reason to believe that she won't. Besides, if she tries anything, there's no doubt what will happen." Lucario gave a low growl of approval, and Cynthia turned around to leave.

"Wait, Cynthia..." Axl said weakly.

The woman stopped, and looked over her shoulder, "Yes?"

"What happened... With you, I mean?" He hesitated, "You never used to act like this; what happened while-"

Cynthia's face looked pained, "A lot's changed, Axl; people do that. Everything changes, all the time- it's the only constant in this world, and the only way to keep up with the world is to change with it." She turned back to the door and opened it, silhouetting her figure in the light. With a soft, almost bitter tone she finished, "We can run from it, but it always catches up with us in the end, doesn't it?" She closed the door behind her, leaving the room in darkness once more.

TheÂhulking dragon was waiting outside for her, its relatively simple mind contemplating its master's behavior. As she walked down the hallway, it wondered why the other human was so intent on knowing about her. Cynthia led the pokémon down the stairs and together they were off to the garage. Garchomp may not have been a philosopher, but he found that the simpler things were, the happier he was. He was good at following Cynthia's orders, and when he did so it gave him a sense of purpose and pride. Questionins only led to more questions; Garchomp was happy that he had a master who took care of him and gave him purpose and he was more than content leave the past where it belonged.

When they reached the empty elevator shaft, Cynthia instructed the monster to not permit anyone to enter or exit while she was gone. He could do that. He surveyed the area and found the ideal spot to wait and observe on an I-beam just above the first floor level in the back of the shaft. He may have been simple-minded, but he was extremely cunning; the perch he had chosen gave him an unobstructed view of the entire shaft down to the entryway on the floor below, while leaving his considerable bulk unexposed from his potential targets. After he had settled into his place, he gave a contented growl to himself; now he would wait. He could be as patient as he needed to be, and if the time came, he could also be as terrifying and deadly as need be; it was all the same to him. Seeing that the predatorial pokémon had readied itself, Cynthia returned to the inner corridors of the building.

On the western end of the building, Golduck and one of the dark-robed humans had taken up positions near the western stairwell, ready to strike should any of the goons below be foolish enough to try and escape. The pokémon was behind an overturned metal filing cabinet on the far side of the hall, peering over the top into the upper landing so that he would have a clear shot with one of his many elemental attacks to flood the stairwell with, perhaps literally if he chose to use his hydro pump. The man had nestled himself in the alcove near the ceiling where recessed lighting usually casted an ambient glow upon the hall. To better conceal himself, he had disabled the lights in the surrounding area, rendering him almost invisible and prepared to ambush the first hapless fools to make it through the opening below.

In the eastern wing, Cynthia walked past the downward stairwell and saw Weavile and the other human standing in plain sight just outside the door. At first she wondered why they would do this, but as she passed the door, she saw why. The pokémon had used an ice-type attack and had created a floor-to-ceiling barrier of ice that filled the entire landing. It would take even a powerful charizard at least half an hour to melt through that wall, and the only fire-users they knew of the Galactics here using were a handful of stunky or skuntank. Weavile gave a smug grin and Cynthia continued on her way.

As she drew closer to the lobby, Cynthia heard raised voices. She increased her pace until she was in the anteroom by the lobby and saw Scizor hovering around Mars, antagonizing and accusing her. Mars, for her part, seemed to know that she had no choice but to take the abuse or risk the pokémon attacking her, but her expression showed that she wouldn't last much longer; tears were beginning to form in her eyes, which were focused on something only she could see far in the distance. Togekiss looked conflicted and confused, and was floating just to the side, ready to pull the red mantis off if it came to blows, but not having enough authority to order it to back off. Will and Kirlia had retreated to the far corner, and their expressions seemed to indicate that they were seeing whatever vision was overcoming Mars, and it clearly wasn't pleasant.

"-And what sort of human would-" Scizor was cut short as he saw Cynthia's appearance. "You're here," he said, bowing his head.

"And what exactly are you doing, Scizor?" Her voice was as cold as Weavile's ice ever was.

"I- I-" The red bug stammered, trying to find an explanation. "She-"

"Had said nothing to you. You took it upon yourself to antagonize her while I was away."

"I did nothing of the sort-" his protests were shut down again.

"Are you still the same intelligent warrior I saw not ten minutes ago? I am mentally linked to Mars just as closely as those two no doubt traumatized adolescents in the corner are. Do not try to lie to me."

"I... Fine." Scizor grunted resentfully. Turning to Mars he spat "I don't take back a word I said. Not. A. Word." He then looked back to Cynthia defiantly as he walked towards the darkened stairway to the north. "Are we going to do this or what?"

<So, this is what you act like when your leader, Weavile, isn't around? Some honorable, respectable fighter you turned out to be.> Cynthia sighed, "Hmph. We will wait to make sure our allies are ready in their own positions." She walked past the chitinous pokémon to the four others in the area, leading Mars over to a chair in the corner where Will and Kirlia had been trying to avoid Scizor's wrath. "Until then, Scizor, you will remain there and guard the entrance. I will alert you when we are to begin."

The blonde woman sat the redhead down in a chair, then sat down next to her and took her hand firmly. "Listen to me, Mars. I understand that this will be difficult for you for many reasons, but I know you realize it is the only option you have to save even a few of those below." The commander snapped out of her daze and looked Cynthia eye-to-eye. "I'm going to tell you what the plan is now, and it's imperative that you follow these directions to the letter." Mars nodded, and Cynthia went on, "When you go down there, tell them that you dealt with the attackers but that more may be waiting nearby. Becuase of this, you can only send people up and out infrequently and one-at-a-time to avoid drawing attention to yourselves. Do you follow me so far?" Mars again nodded. "Once they've been sent up, I will consult you and your memories to judge who may walk away from here and who will draw their last breath in this building. Obviously we up here will remain out of sight of the ascending members, while Togekiss will handle sorting them out once they leave this place."

Mars took her hand from Cynthia and looked back down to her lap. "I understand; I will do this, no matter my own objections." At that, she bowed her head and closed her eyes, saying no more.

Cynthia then stood up again and walked to Mars' other side, were Will and Mayumi sat, still withdrawn from the red pokémon's earlier outburst. She knelt down spoke softly to them, "You and I will move back into the offices and wait while this all occurs. I know that you two are having a hard time coping with this, but you just need to stand strong, alright?" Neither of them responded, but she felt a surge of positive energy across the tenuous bond that they had forged. "Alright, let's get you two moved now, and then we'll begin." With those words, she rose and stepped back, allowing Will to stand and pick Mayumi up in his arms as they followed her through a door.

<What do we do now, Will?> the frightened kirlia asked her trainer.

Will made the mental equivalent of a shrug, then replied warily. <There's nothing we can do besides what Cynthia tells us: we wait.>