Summary from Coronis--
Brief summary:
After taking a pee, Emerald turns around and is astonished by the mysterious ring, which appears to be held by a hand in silhouette. It attacks him, and he quickly retreats to his room with Sapphire to grab his E-shooter. Sending out Sceptile to fight, he faces the silhouetted Pokemon, and decides to try pacifying it with the Sea Mauville soil. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, and Steven arrives at the scene. Steven wants to avoid straining Sceptile since its efforts are needed, and Mega Evolves Metagross to fight. However, the silhouetted Pokemon is too fast even for Mega Metagross. Emerald tries another soil type, but apparently it fails to pacify the Pokemon successfully. The Pokemon then vanishes, and Emerald explains all about his E-shooter and soil to Steven. He notes that the second soil type he used was from the Faraway Island, and is shocked why it didn't work since it theoretically works on all Pokemon, with Mew being the ancestor of all species. However, there is something more unsettling, and Emerald questions if they are really facing one single Pokemon, because he felt the gaze of another Pokemon within the ring.
Back at the Sky Pillar, Ruby takes off on Latios after having checked out all 49 floors and taking snapshots of the mural. He sees the chains and recalls how Norman ad Wally had to work in sync previously to reach Rayquaza. Thinking back on Zinnia's words, especially about the incident 9 years ago, he wonders if Zinnia's method to stop the meteor involves Rayquaza. Latios wants to know how Ruby came to know of Zinnia, and Ruby gets a flashback of the time right after he and Emerald were bestowed upon their task by Steven. Emerald wonders if Ruby will talk to his other loved ones about the impending crisis, and Ruby thinks of his family, Wallace, Birch and Wally. However, he is reluctant to do so, because he hates to see the despair on their faces. Emerald feels the same, and he wishes not to bring the bad news to Crys and the Trick Master. Ruby suddenly thinks of Courtney, who would probably share his feelings since she did suggest he keep Sapphire out of danger in the last incident. He has no idea of her whereabouts now, but still holds onto the Memory Lighter she gave him. He decides to dig deeper into its memory with Emerald to see if he finds anything, and to his surprise, sees an incident where Courtney was confronting a spy disguised as a Magma member, who turns out to be Zinnia. Zinnia mentioned in the flashback that she was a descendant of the Draconids whose ancestors built the Sky Pillar, and that she has already accomplished her goal as a spy and made her departure. Maxie stopped Courtney from chasing after Zinnia, and revealed that it was Zinnia who told him all about Groudon and how to awaken it (akin to the ORAS games I guess). He didn't care about her true intentions, since he got what he needed.
Ruby explains to Latios that he became more intrigued when he saw the Salamence in the memory flashback, and thus wanted to meet Zinnia. However, he feels stressed since he might need to have a heavy conversation with Steven. Latios wonders why, and Ruby says after hearing Zinnia's words, he wonders if it is best that he and Devon step away from what they're doing and just leave it to the Draconids to do their job, since they have foreseen it 1000 years ago and have been planning on how to divert the crisis all these years. Latios wonders if Ruby really trusts Zinnia and her people since they did cause pain to him and Norman. Ruby says he is a little angry, but the two things are separate. After all, nothing will be left if their planet is destroyed, which is why he would rather trust Zinnia, although she has bad personality, a bad mouth, bad attitude, verbally provocative, doesn't listen to others, and is extremely selfish. Latios sweatdrops that Ruby doesn't seem to be just a 'little' angry.
Ruby points out that Devon sees the Draconids letter of warning as an act of threat, and the Draconids view Devon as the enemy. He has no idea why, but he thinks they have no time to let this rivalry get in their way. Latios thinks Ruby is becoming mature, but Ruby has no idea how to bring this message across to Steven with the right words. Latios agrees, and remembers what Ruby says about a person having bad personality, a bad mouth, bad attitude, verbally provocative, doesn't listen to others, and is extremely selfish (clearly pointing to Ruby himself). Ruby wants to know what Latios means, but Latios tells him to forget it. Suddenly, Latios makes a halt, and they are confronted by three men riding on Flygons with Mawile, Sableye and Slowbro (note the patterns on their headbands are the same as those on Zinnia's leg brace, so they are most likely Draconids). The three are clearly targetting Ruby and demand an answer why he was at the Sky Pillar...
