Archive of Our Own ^beta

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It all started with a crash.

Maxie had finally enacted his plan, but at what cost? His polar opposite, the pirate, looked on in horror. The scene wasn't playing out as planned.

There were earthquakes and scorching rays of sun fluttering down everywhere in Hoenn, possibly outside of it as well. He thought he did his research, but... Maybe he was wrong. No, that couldn't be right. It can't be. He's been calculating this for years, nearly a decade of work now. This can't be incorrect; this must just be the beginning of the process of restoring the earth and adding more to it... right?

But the question was burning at the back of his mind; What if he was wrong? What if he's just begun the end?

His suspicions were somewhat confirmed when his admin, specifically Tabitha, had ran into the cavern and very worriedly mentioned how it was sweltering outside all of a sudden. Nonetheless, he kept his cool, mostly, while still barking out orders to send the admin off to continue calculations. He slightly shown his true thoughts hidden behind his facade when he stuttered a bit near the end of one of his sentences.

He ran out of the cavern a minute or so after his admin did as well, chasing after an explanation for how his choices weren't going as planned. The child who had beat him, May, and his nemesis, Archie, followed after him, instead trying to find a way to fix what he had done. He'd have to think this out on his way back. 

He hopped on his Crobat, flying away, but not before hearing a portion of what the two who had just exited the cavern were saying. Something about "fixing everything". Maybe he should try to fix this. This didn't go as he had planned at all, so naturally he possibly made a mistake. All those years researching Groudon in college and even after went to waste. Well, that was kind of a side project. Maybe those all-nighters did take a toll on him after all...

He flew to Sootopolis City, where everyone was getting targeted by the sun's rays and earthquakes the worst, and also where Groudon was taking its timely rest in the Cave of Origin. He spotted the Sootopolis City Gym Leader, Wallace, as Wallace was talking with May and even the champion, Steven Stone.

He decided to land right in front of the Cave of Origin, where Tabitha was waiting. As he was finished landing, he noticed a figure emerging from the deep blue waters surrounding them.

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The figure was Archie.

Maxie did a small sort-of snicker upon seeing the man emerge from the deep cerulean sea. "Of course you would choose your desired method of travel to be by water," he spoke as Archie got onto land. Archie stayed silent, surprisingly, and it would seem as if it would be like this for a while until the other trio arrived as well. It wasn't too surprising, however, since Maxie brought this upon himself.

Around 10 minutes later, leaving a long, undesirably awkward silence between the three behind, Steven, May, and Wallace all arrived at the small bridge. Maxie cut to the chase and handed over the Magma Suit, the fruit of Team Magma's long-lasting labor, to May effortlessly. It took a lot out of him to do so, but he knew he could finally make things right, or at least attempt to.

Once he was finished with his monologue, he turned to Tabitha to see if he had anything to say, but suddenly, before he could signal to Tabitha to speak, Archie begun to talk. He watched as Archie spoke to May, then Wallace to finish his speaking to May before saying his apologies, sincerely, at that.

"I am sincerely sorry for making you fix all of this. It is not your place to be doing this, it is mine. You are but a young child, after all. But you are the only person who can fix this. You are the wielder of the Blue Orb, May. Please, fix the mess I have caused. And, once more, my sincerest apologies for putting you through this." Archie looked surprised at what Maxie had said, most likely because he seemingly didn't have it in him to do so.

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May entered the Cave of Origin, where Groudon subsided, freshly awakened by Maxie. She wore the Magma Suit, ensuring she would not die as she descended into the cave. Whenever she finally encountered and challenged Groudon, she made quick work at the monster, chipping down its health until it was weak enough to start chucking Ultra Balls, as she was attempting to conserve her only Master Ball that she found in the Team Magma hideout. After many Ultra Balls and many fainted Pokémon, she finally caught Groudon and registered it into her Pokédex.

As she was steps away from where she entered the cavern, she could hear the voices of the two team's leaders. It seems as if one of them finally broke the silence, and it must've just happened, too. She poked her head out of the cavern to see and hear better, but still to the point where the pair could not see her.

"Look, I am sorry. I shouldn't have awakened Groudon, although it's somewhat your fault you didn't stop me. I apologize for making a kid fix all of what I've done, but I don't think I need to say that again, you already heard me say that. I shouldn't have followed through with my plans... you might've though, if I didn't. I apologize for everything," Maxie said to Archie. Archie's face was more unimpressed by the second, hearing everything Maxie was saying was just backhanded words. "Max, yer doin' nothing to make me feel like yer apologizin'. You just sound like yer blamin' things on me and my crew. This isn't an apology. It's just a sad excuse fer one." Archie walked away immediately after saying this, because nothing Maxie could say would truly fix this. Fix what he's done.

Maxie watched as Archie drifted away, soon hopping on Sharpedo and diving out of Sootopolis. He realized that he shouldn't have tried to talk to Archie. He shouldn't have tried to apologize.

He just made everything worse.

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Maxie stayed inside his base for a month or so after that, not wanting to draw any attention to himself; whether it was news outlets, the authorities, or Gabby and Ty. A few things of note happened within this month:



1. Many members quit.


2. He hadn't heard anything about Team Aqua.


And 3, his keystone mysteriously went missing.



Which was weird, since it was built into his glasses, but one morning, after many Magma grunts' resignations, the keystone was missing from his glasses.



Maybe it was staged, maybe it was one of his resigned grunts; in fact, he was almost sure of it. He wondered if this had happened to anybody else, when Courtney ran up to him.



"So, you know how your keystone went missing and all? Well, I was talking to Shelly today and I told her your keystone went missing after a surge of grunts' resignations. She mentioned that the same thing happened to Archie, down to the resignations! Isn't that unusual?" Courtney rushed saying all of this so it was a lot for Maxie to take him, but once he processed what Courtney had said, he was intrigued.



Maybe if he got a database of recent resignations from Team Aqua and searched the list, one of the grunts would be shared. He shared his idea with Courtney, and she in turn asked Shelly for the database. Shelly said they didn't have a database, but she could ask around about who had recently left. 



When she gave Courtney the list that she strung together using information from everyone else in Team Aqua who she could ask, one grunt had been shared that recently left.



Her name was Zinnia.