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Chapter Text

AJ looked on in agony as her precious Milotic was thrown back violently against the wall of the arena.

“Starmie, follow through with Rapid Spin!”

“No!” she cried out, her heart pounding furiously against her ribcage. “Milotic, quick! Use Dive!”

It was a mark of how strong the bond was between the young challenger and her pokemon that her Milotic responded so quickly. With a musical cry and displaying a supernatural grace that no earthly creature should ever possess, particularly not in the midst of a heated battle, Milotic twisted her serpentine body in a high arch, her scales glittering resplendently in the garish stadium lighting before vanishing into the pool with barely a splash.

And not a moment too soon; a split-second later, Starmie’s lithe form sliced through the air exactly where Milotic had been, the purple-edges of its body glinting ominously as it soared up and around the arena in frustration, awaiting his next command.

AJ resisted the temptation to sigh in relief. She wasn’t out of the woods just yet. Grinding her teeth in consternation, her pale knuckles whitening as she tightened her grip on the handrails, a nervous habit she’d developed somewhere through her years as a trainer facing one gym or another. Raising her left hand, she absently tucked a stray lock of dark hair behind her ear, taking advantage of the momentary pause to attempt to form some sort of counter-strategy.

She’d never be able to out-maneuver Starmie; it was simply way too fast for Milotic to handle. On top of that, Milotic had already taken heavy damage in her previous battle, but in spite of that she wasn’t stupid enough to think her opponent was going to give her enough time to pull off a Recover or an Aqua Ring, and with the wide array of special moves at Starmie’s disposal, AJ would never last long enough to score a winning blow.

Unless…

She grinned. There was a way, she just needed to tough it out and pray for the right opening-!

“Starmie, use Ice Beam!” AJ’s challenger called out unexpectedly, her voice slicing through AJ’s thoughts with familiar rigid professionalism. “Freeze the surface of the pool so Milotic can’t surface!”

AJ blanched as the purple bejeweled pokemon cried in assent, the tip of his top-most point bending and emitting a powerful beam of pure white frost. Starmie’s Ice Beam was powerful enough to freeze a layer of ice several feet thick. She wasn’t sure that Milotic would be able to break through it. If she couldn’t, AJ would be forced to forfeit, and even if she could, the amount of energy it would require would exhaust her pokemon and basically give Starmie the win!

“Uh-oh folks!” the sonorous voice of the commentator, whom AJ had nearly forgotten was there, echoed out all around them. “It looks like AJ’s Milotic is in a tight spot! She’ll need to do some quick thinking to get out of this one!”

“Milotic, hurry! Use Twister before the ice gets too thick!”

Instantly, the water in the pool began to churn and froth. Despite Starmie’s best efforts and the encouragement of its trainer to ‘Hurry!’, its attempt to freeze the surface of the arena quickly became useless as large chunks of ice began to break away from the portion that had successfully been frozen, caught up in the ferocious current of the water as it swirled around in an ever-quickening whirlpool.

Milotic erupted from the center of the pool, rising into the air in the center of a massive watery funnel cloud. The force of the wind that came exploding out of the emerging waterspout was so strong it nearly knocked AJ backward off her podium. Using one hand to grasp the metal handrail in front of her to secure her person and slapping the other one on the top of her head to keep her cap from flying off, AJ gritted her teeth and squinted through the maelstrom in a desperate attempt to keep an eye on what was happening in the arena.

“Wow-ee!” the commentator exclaimed in shock and delight to the crowds that packed the stadium around them as well as the millions of fans watching at home over the television. “Look at the power of that Twister! Talk about a turn-around! I don’t envy Starmie right now!”

It was true. Starmie had completely lost control of his psychic levitation, the force of the winds too great for him to fly against, and he was caught up in the gale against his will. AJ couldn’t help the satisfied smirk that grew on her face at the sight of her opponent’s pokemon defenseless and at her mercy, buffeted by the wind and water and ice that churned in the vortex of air around it. Oh yeah, this moment had been a long time coming…

“Starmie, use Rain Dance!”

The absurdity of her opponent’s command was so great that AJ’s jaw actually fell open.

Rain Dance? She told her Starmie to use Rain Dance?!

The commentator seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

“Well, what a call! Starmie’s trainer has ordered it to use Rain Dance! For those of you who don’t know, Rain Dance is a special move used by Water-types to strengthen the power of Water-based moves! Although a little extra strength could certainly go to Starmie’s favor right now, the rain only seems to be fueling Milotic’s Twister!”

The latter part he needn’t have said, however. Anyone with eyes could see that the sudden storm clouds that blossomed over the stadium at the beginning of Starmie’s Rain Dance had been pulled into Milotic’s Twister, adding fuel to the already impressively powerful Dragon-type move. Raindrops were now flying around in the tempest, stinging like needles as they pelted AJ in the face. She grimaced but otherwise ignored them as her mind whirred into overdrive, trying to see her opponent’s strategy.

Rain Dance… Rain Dance… Why on earth would she choose that move?! Strengthening the storm was only making her Starmie take more damage from Milotic's Twister!

Deciding she’d better end things fast before she had the chance to find out, she quickly called out to her pokemon.

“Milotic, now! Hit Starmie with all you’ve got!”

Like the arm of a terrible god of the sea, the twister moved; half-wind, half-water, one-hundred percent pure destructive force. Overhead, Starmie’s storm clouds surged with it, lightning crackling ominously through the static-charged air, adding further drama to the already highly climactic scene. This could be the moment that decided AJ’s future…

Lightning…

AJ’s eyes widened in horror, but before she could do more than gasp, her opponent played her hand.

“Starmie! Thunder!”

The small purple pokemon, who it was nearly impossible to see as he was tossed about in the violent storm winds, suddenly began to glow an eerie, phosphorescent blue. For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath as every eye watching from home or here in the stadium trained itself on the incredible luminescent spectacle before them; a glowing Starmie orbiting Milotic’s massive pitch black death-funnel like a satellite being sucked into a black hole…

And then, with a roar like an atomic bomb, Starmie fired its Thunder attack straight at the funnel cloud.

There was a flash of blinding light as the funnel literally exploded, and AJ’s scream was lost in the din as the resulting explosion sent her flying backward off her podium.

She hit the ground on her back with a heavy thud, the air successfully driven from her body. AJ staggered to her feet on the wet grass, disoriented, struggling to catch her breath. Her cap was gone and her hair in disarray, the once-neat ponytail mussed and slightly askew, but she didn’t spare her appearance any extra thought. One of the stadium workers darted forward, catching the confused girl under her arm and helping her gingerly into the box, his expression one of complete shock. AJ didn’t have any time to waste on the man, however. She had only one thing on her mind.

Rain Dance didn’t just strengthen the power of water-type moves, it also improved the accuracy of the move Thunder. How could she have forgotten that? What a rookie mistake! And now Milotic was…

Milotic was…

From behind her, she heard the frantic cry of “Pi! Pichu!” before her first-ever pokemon, Pichu, suddenly darted into her box, the bill of her missing cap clamped tightly in his jaws. AJ had no thought to spare for her Pichu or her hat; stumbling away from the attendant, she collapsed against the railing, her legs quivering like jelly as she struggled to draw breath through her wounded ribs and take in the scene in front of her.

The arena was a massive, swirling cloud of steam that obscured all vision. Milotic’s Twister was gone, and so were the storm clouds generated from Starmie’s Rain Dance, both blown away by the ensuing explosion caused by Starmie’s Thunder. No sign of either pokemon could be seen in the haze. All was quiet in the stadium. Not a soul made a sound, every eye on the shifting mass of mist, waiting with baited breath for some sign of movement, some indication of who would emerge the victor…

Suddenly, with a whir of spinning limbs, her opponent’s Starmie erupted out of the mass of steam, its purple body flying around the cloud in a victory lap. The stadium erupted in a sudden violent wave of noise. Some were cheering, others booing, everyone screaming at the top of their lungs.

AJ, however, didn’t feel like making any sort of noise. Her eyes were glued to the swirling mass in front of her, despair and regret welling up inside, searching for some sign of her poor, defeated pokemon.

“Oh, Milotic…” AJ whispered softly to no one, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m so sorry…”

“Pi… Pichu-pi,” Pichu mumbled consolingly though his mouth full of hat as the tiny electric mouse scrambled up his trainer’s back to settle on her shoulder. Gently, he rubbed his cheek against hers, giving off a few weak sparks as was his way of showing affection.

“Incredible!” gushed the commentator to the wildly screeching fans. “What an amazing display! I haven’t witnessed a pokemon battle this fierce in years! However, as must all good things, this battle too has come to an end! And the winner of this Kanto Elite 4 challenge Three-on-Three match is, with two wins, Mist-!”

The referee held up his flags, cutting the surprised commentator off mid-word. AJ was speechless. What was happening? Was something wrong? Was it her poor Milotic?

A sudden surge of icy terror gripped AJ’s heart. What if something terrible had happened? What if Milotic had been injured beyond what Nurse Joy could heal? That Thunder was exceptionally powerful; the strongest she had ever witnessed from a non-electric pokemon in all her time as a trainer, and coupled with Milotic’s predisposed weakness to Electric attacks and the added boost Rain Dance had given Starmie’s attack and the fact that Milotic had been in the middle of a churning vortex of water and air…!

Pokemon deaths were incredibly rare in official League battles, but they weren’t unheard of. The thought of her beloved Milotic’s body floating lifeless in the pool all because of her lapse in judgment earlier in the battle set a new wave of panic and hysteria surging through her and she had to fight back the sob that was threatening to tear itself from her throat.

“Un-be-lievable, folks!” The commentator cried out, and AJ felt her heart leap into her throat in fear, awaiting the horrible news that her precious Milotic had been irreparably damaged all because she was a horrid failure of a trainer and would be stripped of her license immediately. “The match isn’t over! Milotic is still moving!”

The fans in the stadium were beside themselves, but AJ felt only dull shock. Though every person in the stands screamed for her to move, though her foe was undoubtedly already again on the offensive, though every fiber of her inner-trainer was pleading with her to call out a command and take control of the battle, she found it was all she could do to stand there, stunned, her knuckles white on the railing before her, her eyes scanning the mist desperately for some visual confirmation that her pokemon was indeed alright, unwilling to believe it could be true until she saw it for herself.

With a sudden, merciful gust of wind, the last vestiges of the steam blew away, and there she was.

Beaten, bruised, slightly burned on one side, her Milotic lay partially in the pool, partially without. From the way her sinuous muscles convulsed occasionally atop one of the tiny rafts the League provided for the aquatic arena, you could tell; Starmie’s Thunder had paralyzed her. As tears of relief spilled over AJ’s cheeks and a strangled sort of gasp escaped her trembling body, she realized the truth: Milotic wouldn’t have been able to survive that attack had she not been paralyzed. From the silvery-metallic glint of her scales, she could tell Milotic’s special ability, Marvel Scale, had been activated upon paralysis. It was that that had saved her. Luck. Pure, dumb luck.

The announcer, AJ was sure, was in the midst of explaining this fact to the undoubtedly confused fans, but she had long since tuned his voice out. Leaning as far over the railing as she dared, she called out to her pokemon, her voice still weak from having gotten the wind knocked out of her moments earlier.

“Milotic… Do you… Are you sure…?”

She wasn’t sure how to express what she wanted to say. Are you sure you really want to keep battling for me, the trainer who nearly got you killed because of her own reckless stupidity? But before she could let the guilt of her momentary ineptitude overwhelm her, Milotic turned her head and fixed her trainer with a beady stare.

AJ swallowed gruffly past the lump in her throat and understood - this wasn’t just AJ’s chance to prove how powerful a trainer she was, this was Milotic’s chance as well. And there was no way Milotic was about to let anything ruin that for her.

They stared at each other for a moment, trainer and pokemon both, until AJ slowly nodded, accepting Milotic’s decision.

Steeling her determination, AJ took up her beloved cap from the tiny rodent on her shoulder, quickly tugged the hair tie from her head, letting her ponytail fall out in dark tendrils behind her as she jammed the cap back on her head, this time twisting it roughly backwards. A couple of her bangs poked out of the hole in the back of the hat and fanned across her forehead, but she ignored them as she faced her opponent once more, determined this time to win; not for her, but for Milotic.

“Well, you’ve trained your pokemon spectacularly,” her opponent called out stoically from across the arena, an unreadable look in her eyes. “It takes quite the water pokemon to stand up to a direct hit from a Thunder attack. Your Milotic is pretty special.”

“I know,” AJ replied tersely.

“Still, it isn’t all about winning. A good trainer knows when to give up. Your Milotic’s taken quite the beating, and I don’t think she can stand much more without taking serious injury.”

To anyone else, it would sound like cautionary advice from an official member of the Elite Four. AJ, however, could hear the all-too-familiar note of reprimand in her tone and recognized the vaguely concerned look in her eye on behalf of her pokemon.

“I know that as well,” AJ answered. “But… this isn’t just my battle. You ought to know that better than anyone else here. This is Milotic’s chance to prove herself, and if she isn’t ready to quit, then I won’t give up either!”

She finished her speech with an unintended note of defiance in her voice and the stadium roared in approval. AJ didn’t really care about their opinion, however; her eyes were locked on those of her adversary, the Kanto Elite Four’s premier Aquatic Master, Misty Waterflower.

Finally, after a long, tense moment, Misty nodded; begrudgingly, but there was a definite glimmer of pride in her eyes that made AJ’s heart soar.

“Well then, if that’s your decision I suggest you don’t hold back,” Misty taunted, instantly back in battle mode.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ve been looking forward to this moment for a long time,” AJ shot back with a grin.

“Starmie! Let’s end this with a bang! Hydro Pump!”

AJ’s eyes lit up. Misty had done exactly what she’d been hoping she would. This was her chance!

Offering up a quick prayer to Mew, Arceus, and anyone else who could be listening, she jabbed her finger into the air and cried triumphantly, “Milotic, now! Mirror Coat!”

Starmie's topmost limb bent forward, a desceptively small orb of water forming at the tip, surging with power as water pressure built up behind it, ready to burst. At the same time, Milotic's entire body began to glow with a silvery light that steadily began to crackle and spark. It was a race now - a race that would last mere heartbeats - to see which pokemon managed to fire off its attack first and be declared the winner.

So of course, they moved in tandem, launching their final moves simultaneously. Starmie's Hydro Pump exploded forward in a volatile burst, with all the force of a fire hose, aimed directly at Milotic's limp, half-paralyzed form. Despite how brutal the move was, particularly considering Milotic's injuries - in her current state, a Bubble could have knocked her over - in a removed way, AJ knew this was Misty's way of showing a bit of mercy. She could have fired off another Thunder, or a Psychic or even a Rapid Spin. But a Water-Type move would do the least damage while still winning her the fight in a suitably dramatic fashion, and would cause Milotic the least injury besides. It was the right call for an Elite Four member. The kind and professional way to end the match.

Or it would have been, had Misty been expecting the Mirror Coat.

Starmie's Hydro Pump collided mid-air with the Thunder that manifested from Milotic's Mirror Coat - a powerful yet risky skill that would take whatever special attack the pokemon had just been hit by and fire it back at twice the power. That Thunder that Misty had conjured had been especially strong - strong enough that AJ knew that, by all rights, they should have lost that match. But a combination of Milotic's sheer nerve and the pure dumb luck that was her Marvel Scale ability had allowed her to endure the hit and had afforded them this one, impossible chance.

Before Starmie realized what had happened, the bolt of pure electrical energy ripped clear through its Hydro Pump, splitting the powerful blast of water clean in two until it collided directly with the jewel in the center of Starmie’s body. The small aquatic pokemon was blown backward with a tremendous bang, slamming into the arena wall with a sickening crunch. The jewel, now slightly cracked, flickered once… twice… then the glow faded completely as the pokemon slid into the pool, unconscious.

For a moment, the entire arena was dead silent.

“Starmie is unable to battle! The winner is Milotic!”

The ensuing explosion that erupted from the fans was almost equal to the initial Thunder attack on Milotic’s Twister, but AJ wasn’t listening to the screaming of the celebrating fans, nor the adulations of the commentator who was nearly beside himself with excitement as he bellowed the results into the night.

“AJ Ketchum has just defeated Misty Waterflower of the Kanto Elite Four, two to one! What an unbelievable comeback! I’ve never seen the like in my life! Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow when we watch this promising young trainer take on the Dragon Master Lance for the title of Kanto Champion!”

Leaping off the platform, Pichu perched precariously on her shoulder, AJ all but sprinted down to the water’s edge and literally threw herself into the pool towards her pokemon. Pichu, who had leaped off her at the last moment to spare himself an unwanted bath, stood by the edge cheering in delight as his master quickly swam towards the raft and embraced her Milotic, tears of joy streaming down her face as they bobbed up and down in the chilly, turbulent water.

“Milotic! You did it! You were amazing! I can’t believe you survived-! That you didn’t-! That you’re not-!“

The earlier fear of nearly losing her pokemon came back with a vengeance, mixing with the sheer, impossible joy of having actually won that match, and she suddenly found herself trembling and sobbing into Milotic s neck, ignorant of the commotion all around her.

“M-Milotic, I’m s-so sorry, I should’ve s-seen that coming, and you w-were so hurt, and it’s all my f-fault!”

Milotic nuzzled her trainer softly on the head, and instantly she felt herself calming down. It was one of Milotic’s special abilities; calming the emotions of those around them, and she was sharing it selflessly with her trainer in spite of everything that had just gone down. AJ understood it as her way of letting her know she didn’t blame her, and she felt her heart swell with love and affection for her teammate. She still felt terribly guilty, but she managed to pull herself together enough to offer Milotic a shaky, tearful smile.

“We did it!” she squealed in delight, throwing her hands in the air in victory as her pokemon preened before her, basking in her trainer’s praise and the still-ongoing adulations from the crowd.

“Hey!” a voice called from the sidelines, and AJ turned to see her opponent waiting at the water’s edge.

“You’re going to get sick if you stay in there much longer, the water’s freezing! Besides, your pokemon needs medical attention!” she called out sternly, her hands on the hips of her light blue one-piece bathing suit, her official League cape fanning out behind her in the breeze.

Grinning bashfully at the older woman, AJ pulled the empty pokeball off her belt, clicked it once so it grew from the side of a walnut to roughly the size of an orange in a matter of seconds, then cried out, “Milotic! Return!”

A beam of red light shot out, touched Milotic’s glittering flank, and then in an instant her champion of the evening was gone, safe and sound in her pokeball where she could rest peacefully. Swiftly paddling to the side of the pool, AJ gripped the rough cement siding and hoisted herself out. Pichu instantly jumped back on her shoulder, chattering animatedly in her ear.

As she straightened up, she found herself suddenly face to face with the woman who only a moment earlier had been her adversary. There was a slight pause, as both women regarded each other quietly, but the older woman’s lips swiftly began to tremble as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Oh, baby, I’m so proud of you!”

“Mom…” AJ groaned, half-embarrassed, half-amused as her mother enveloped her in a rib-cracking embrace, ignoring her daughter’s wet clothing. Still, she couldn’t help but hug her back just as tightly.

“You were so good!” her mom exclaimed when they parted, holding her out at arm’s length and gushing enthusiastically. “I’ll admit, I was worried for a moment when my Corsola took down your Lilligant so quickly- “

“Lilly was just tired,” AJ cut in quickly. “She had that big battle this morning against Bruno and I don’t think she got all the rest she needed-!“

“And then when Pichu came out!” she continued, riding right over her daughter as though she weren’t talking, “I thought you’d lost your mind! But no, your cute little friend managed to take down my Corsola and my Gyarados!”

“Pichu!” Pichu replied, sticking up his chest in pride.

“Yeah, he’s kind of awesome,” AJ giggled in response, making Pichu cheer and lick AJ’s cheek affectionately.

“And then your Milotic, of course.” And here, AJ could see they’d finally gotten to the point her mom wanted to mention the most. “Oh, baby, you don’t know how good it feels to see my daughter so adept at using water-type pokemon! And against my Starmie! I know everyone thinks Gyarados is my best pokemon, but really, Starmie’s been with me the longest, and-!“

“Misty! Ashlynn!” a familiar voice called out, and the two women turned to see an elderly man jogging toward them, wheezing slightly.

“Oh, goodness me…” he panted, leaning forward and resting his hands on his knees. “Curse this old body of mine… Ladies, you need to get a move on! The car is waiting to take you both to your hotel, and I’m sure everyone can’t wait to congratulate you both on your battle! Why, I don’t believe I’ve seen a battle that intense since your father-!“

“Professor,” AJ cut in hastily, partially to stop him before he got started on one of his infamous tangents and partially because she didn’t want her big night ruined by talk of him, “We can’t leave yet, mom and I have to take our pokemon to the Pokemon Center. I still have to face Lance tomorrow, so I need-“

“Oh, yes, yes of course!” Professor Oak exclaimed cheerfully, not at all upset at having been so rudely interrupted not even a moment earlier by someone so much his junior. “Well, I’ll just go tell the others to hurry on without you then. We’ll meet you there.”

“Thanks, Professor,” AJ replied warmly, beaming affectionately at the old man.

“Come one, AJ,” her mom interjected, flipping AJ’s cap back around so it was facing the correct way and linking arms with her daughter. “Let’s hurry. Our pokemon need medical attention, and I think Jade might go crazy if you wait too long to call her.”

Laughing, AJ headed off with her mother, Pichu chortling delightedly on her shoulder as they trudged off towards the pokemon Center within the Stadium, the fans still packed in the bleachers, screaming themselves hoarse in celebration of AJ’s victory over the final member of Kanto’s Elite Four. Tomorrow, she would face the Champion and then, if she won, her dream would finally become a reality. Nothing, it seemed, could bring her down.

AJ gave a weary sigh as she shouldered the door to her hotel room open, absently flicking on the light as she kicked off her sodden sneakers, letting her wet socks squish on the luxurious carpet. She closed the door behind her with a snap before moving further into the room, grateful that she’d decided to get her own place to sleep rather than rooming with her mother or one of her aunts; she loved her family to death, but after a long day of grueling battles she was glad for the opportunity to spend some time alone with her thoughts.

Peeling off her fingerless gloves, she set them on the dresser to dry before removing her favorite vest that she’d worn everywhere on her adventures, hanging it up on a coat hook beside her hat. Sliding her fingers beneath the hem of her shirt, she moved to slip the sodden article of clothing over her head when suddenly, the video phone by her desk started ringing.

Slightly annoyed that the front desk wasn’t screening her calls like she’d asked, she walked over to unplug the device before pausing when she saw the name on the caller ID.

Harrison, Pewter City, Kanto.

AJ grinned, all thoughts of removing her still dripping clothing and taking a nice hot shower forgotten as she grabbed a nearby chair and sat down in front of the monitor and answered.

There was a pause, then the screen flickered and the face of a familiar middle-aged man appeared, squinting into the screen.

“Uncle Brock!” AJ exclaimed happily, smiling at her mother’s best friend.

“Hey, there’s our hero!” Brock replied, beaming back at her. “I was afraid you weren’t going to answer!”

“I almost didn’t,” she admitted with a sheepish grin, and to her relief he laughed.

“I don’t blame you, you’re probably exhausted. So how’re you feeling? You looked pretty good out there tonight.”

“Heh, thanks. How’d you like my battle against Bruno?”

“Excellent. Your Lilligant is really something special. I can’t believe she took down his Steelix and his Machamp! You’ve really been raising them well!”

AJ flushed with pride. “Well, I learned how to raise pokemon from the best.”

Now it was Brock’s turn to blush, though he did so with more grace than she did. Brock Harrison had been a near-constant figure in her life as her mother’s close, personal friend as well as fellow Kanto gym leader. Though technically he was a pokemon Doctor, he still kept up the Pewter City Gym with help from his father, Flint, and had taught her from a young age everything that he knew about breeding and raising pokemon. AJ had had a lack of supportive older male figures in her life, and now that she was older, she was grateful that he’d been willing to step in and take up the mantle. He may not be her father, but he was definitely something like a favorite uncle.

“So where’s Pichu?”

“At the Pokemon Center. I left him with Nurse Joy. He wasn’t very happy, but he was exhausted after his fight with mom’s Gyarados earlier and I wanted to make sure he got all the rest and attention he needed.”

“Mmm,” Brock said, nodding in approval. “That was probably for the best, though I’m sure it was a hard decision to make. I know back when I used to travel with your mom and dad, Ash never liked being parted from his Pikachu either-“

And there it was. AJ tried her best to keep her smile plastered on her face, but couldn’t help the sudden surge of animosity that welled up inside her like a venomous Arbok. She loved Brock, she really did, but it seemed like every time they spoke he had to make some connection between her and her father.

Thankfully, she was spared having to force the rest of the conversation by a loud interruption on the other end of the line.

“Dad, what are you-? Wait, is that her?! You called her without telling me?!”

Brock suddenly looked panic stricken. “Uh, no- Jade, I just-!“

“Dad! Get outta the way! Move! Let me talk to her!”

Two disembodied arms suddenly appeared on the screen and shoved Brock away from the camera. Off screen, she heard a thud and a loud ‘Oof!’ as the older man hit the floor, but her attention was quickly centered on the girl who took his place on the monitor.

She was swarthy, like her father, and though AJ wasn’t one for beauty, she couldn’t deny that this girl in particular was a looker. Her hair fell in gorgeous chocolate ringlets around her heart-shaped face, her dark green eyes glittering like her namesake with poorly-restrained excitement as they focused in on the computer screen.

“Jade!” AJ exclaimed, delighted, all negative feelings inspired by the mention of her father instantly evaporated by the sight of her best friend.

Jade let out an ear-splitting scream of excitement. “Ah! AJ! Girl, I’ve missed you so, so much, you have no idea how boring life is here without you!”

“Well, I told you to come up here with me. I have this whole, humongous room to myself. We could have shared, you know.”

“I know!” Jade whined, sounding petulant. “You know I wanted to! But dad had that medical conference and somebody had to watch the gym while granddad was away on vacation in Unova!”

“I know, I’m just messing with you,” AJ laughed, leaning back into the chair with a smile. She missed adventuring with her best friend and getting to spend every day with her. After spending years on the road together off and on, not having her there was like not having her Pichu; it just felt wrong.

“What happened to your hair?” Jade suddenly asked, her nose wrinkling prettily in distaste.

AJ laughed, running a hand absently through her partially dried locks. “Oh yeah. I jumped into the pool after my match with mom. I was a little overexcited.”

“And you haven’t showered yet? Girl, you’re gonna be Pokemon Master! There’s gotta be paparazzi swarming all over the place! What if they take an embarrassing picture of you and it’s up all over the news tomorrow!

“Oh please,” AJ said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Like I care what they say about my hair in the tabloids. Besides, this hotel is super spiffy. They’ve got security Machoke on almost every floor. I don’t think I have anything to worry about.”

“Security Machoke?” Jade repeated, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. “Where are you staying at?”

“Meowth Manor.”

Jade’s jaw dropped.

“Meowth Manor? But that place is like… Elite. Is your mom paying for it?”

“No. They’re letting me stay here for free while I’m challenging the League. Apparently, it’s great publicity.”

“Wow…” Jade breathed, resting her chin in her hands and looking wistful. “You’re so lucky…”

“You could have come with me…” AJ sing-songed, and her friend let out an agonized moan.

“Ugh, this is so unfair! Why are you so mean? I thought you were my best friend! My sister from another mister!” AJ’s laughter was cut short by an unexpected jaw-cracking yawn.

Jade snorted.

“Attractive.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“I’d probably better let you go so you can shower and get to sleep. I’d wish you good luck, but you’re totally gonna cream Lance tomorrow so what’s the point?”

“Ugh, don’t say that! Now you’ve jinxed me! Besides, he’s the Champion, and I barely managed to win against mom-!“

“Oh please. Lance isn’t half the trainer he used to be. The only reason he’s the Champion now is out of respect. It’s just an honorary thing; he lost his right to the title years ago to your deadbeat daddy. Now shut up, get some sleep, and cream that dude tomorrow so you can get the title of Kanto Champion back in the Ketchum family where it belongs!”

AJ grinned lazily at her best friend. “Right. Thanks, Jade.”

“Love you, girl. Night.”

“Night.”

With a wave and a wink, the screen went black, and AJ was once again alone in the semi-darkness of her hotel room.

Another yawn threatened to tear her face in two, and she cast her bed a look of poorly concealed longing, but as the air conditioner kicked back on and a wave of air gusted over her still sodden body making her break out in a rash of shivers, she remembered her heroic leap into the pool earlier that evening and her desperate need for a nice, hot shower.

“Give me five minutes,” she told her bed as she rose to her feet and hurried off down the hall.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day, and a definite challenge in spite of Jade’s optimism, but deep in her heart she knew she could do this. The team she had assembled was the best of the best- she had faith in them, and they in her. Together, nothing could stop them.

With that emboldening thought fresh on her mind, AJ set about preparing herself for bed.

Chapter Text

“AJ, honey, could you get the door?”

“Got it, mom!”

AJ’s mother sent her a frazzled smile through the milling throng of guests that currently invaded the living room portion of their seaside home in Cerulean Cape. The place was packed to the rafters with family and friends, regional gym leaders, league officials, estranged acquaintances, and people she’d never heard of before in her life. As it turned out, everyone wanted to be a part of the celebration for Kanto’s newest Grand Champion; eating great food, mingling with celebrities and reporters, basking in the limelight if only for one night… This was the dream right here.

Well, for some peole. Truth be told, AJ hated it. All these strangers, pretending they were close, mooching off AJ’s newly won celebrity status. It was obnoxious and headache-inducing, and while she knew that her mother was ten times more stressed out than she was at the moment, AJ couldn’t help the small, mutinous part of her that was delighting in her mother’s discomfort for forcing her to throw this little shindig in the first place.

Alright, so it wasn’t exactly her mom’s fault; a non-formal meet-and-greet was an excellent way for AJ to reintroduce herself to the nation’s leading experts and professionals as Kanto’s newest Champion, as well as to begin establishing positive relationships with the various Gym Leaders she would be working closely alongside for the foreseeable future.

She didn’t need to bother chumming up to the Oaks, thankfully, like other Champions might have to. Notoriously quick to judge a person’s character from the first meeting, Professor Samuel Oak was basically AJ’s surrogate great-grandfather, thus saving her the need to butter him up. And Gary, the current leading Pokemon Expert for Kanto, had been a frequent visitor at the Waterflower household for most of AJ’s childhood - for all that she and his son, Sammy, had hated each other as children - thanks to his friendship with her mother and the old genius recluse, Bill, who lived on the east side of the cape.

Still, even knowing that this party was essentially a necessary evil, she could have done without all of the undercover reporters, movie stars, athletes, and other ‘celebrities’ who had somehow managed to score invites. She blamed her aunts; they’d been in charge of the guest list, and heaven forbid Violet and Lily do anything without their entourage.

If there was any good to be found tonight, it was that most of the guests had no idea what she actually looked like. Her mother had forced her to dress up a little and wear her hair down, and Aunt Daisy had somehow managed to convince her to put on a little makeup. Or, more accurately, had locked her in a room, bound her to a chair, and painted it on herself. While everyone was looking for a scruffy girl in a red vest and a hat, the young woman in the knee-length, form-fitting black dress that shimmered as she walked was able to sweep past them without comment. Hurray for being a tomboy.

By the time she’d managed to duck and weave through the crowd of people milling about the living room and make her way into the entryway, the doorbell had rung an additional five times.

Grumbling to herself over where their doorman had gone off to - probably to sneak some food from the kitchen - and wondering what kind of psycho would just stand there and ring a doorbell over and over and over again, AJ threw on a plastic smile and opened the door, ready to pretend to be polite to whatever politician or contest star or other random nobody might be standing on the other side.

“Wow,” the not-a-nobody commented idly as she took in her friend’s appearance with an impressed sort of smirk. “You clean up nice.”

“Jade!” AJ practically squealed, throwing away all pretense of decorum as she threw herself out the door to catch her best friend in a rib-cracking hug. “You’re here! Save me!”

“That bad already?” came Brock’s voice from the side, opening up his arms with a warm chuckle and catching AJ with a pained ‘oof!’ as she sprung out of Jade’s arms and into his.

“It’s pretty bad,” she admitted, leaning back and smiling fondly up at her surrogate uncle, “but it’s better now that you two are here!”

“Where’s Pichu?” he asked, looking down at their feet as though expecting the excitable mouse to pop up and say hello like he usually did.

“In the backyard with the rest of my team,” AJ replied with a shrug. “He’s not a fan of crowds, plus people are taking pictures of them. They seem to enjoy it… mostly.”

That, and Lily said that if she let Pichu crawl all over her like she usually did, his little claws would scratch up her dress and that was apparently a big no-no.

“But seriously though,” Jade continued as she and her father followed AJ into the house, three-inch heels clicking loudly off the polished hardwood floor, raising her voice somewhat to be heard over the excited babble drifting out from the other rooms. “Who did this to you? I need to send them flowers.”

“Me, of course.”

AJ’s aunt Daisy suddenly swooped in seemingly out of nowhere, catching Jade around the shoulders of her seafoam green gown and smirking down at her niece.

As always, AJ’s aunt was a knock-out. Her long blonde hair undulated down her back in golden waves like a sunset in Alola, and the wine-red, low-cut dress she had on hugged her body in what AJ could only assume were all the right ways. She wasn’t actually sure though. Despite a lifetime of trying, Daisy had never quite managed to get AJ to care all that much about fashion; it was hard to be too concerned about your appearance when you spent most of your days camping and wandering around the wilderness picking fights with wild pokemon.

“She’s tried to fight it for years,” Daisy continued in a teasing tone, reaching forward to tweak AJ’s nose affectionately, “but I always knew we had a little mermaid princess in there somewhere.”

Jade and Brock laughed as AJ let out a theatrical groan. Eighteen years and Daisy had still never tired of her dumb little joke. Still, she had to admit, she did think she looked good all done up in her dress and with her hair all sleek and shiny… but she also couldn’t shake the feeling that she was suddenly thirteen again and feeling out-of-place in her own body.

“Daisy, I’m the Champion now - you’re supposed to be nice to me," AJ said in a mock-stern tone.

“Oh, but I am, sweetie,” she cooed, ignoring her niece’s petulant scowl. “You’ll thank me for it later. Now. Have you seen my husband? I’ve been looking for him everywhere.”

“I think I saw Uncle Tracey in the backyard, doing some sketches.”

Daisy blinked, then frowned.

“Of who? You’re in here.”

AJ shrugged.

“I don’t know… Pokemon?”

With an exaggerated eye-roll, Daisy turned and stalked off, vanishing back into the crowd of strangers and muttering under her breath.

AJ turned back when she felt Brock’s hand encase her shoulder.

“I’m gonna go on ahead and say hello to everyone,” he said, casually dismissing himself. “But AJ, you really did great out there. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks, Brock,” she replied, feeling a warm glow radiating from somewhere in her navel. She’d been congratulated three-dozen times tonight, but it always sounded different when it came from someone she knew.

“So anyway…” Jade continued once her father’s tuxedo-clad back had vanished into the crowd. “Why are you skulking over here alone? Girl, this whole party is for you! You should be living it up! This is your night!”

Her response was to make a kind of ‘blargle’ noise and let her tongue loll out of her mouth in the least classy way imaginable.

Jade, who was used to her best friend’s behavior, merely sighed and shook her head with a look on her face that seemed to ask why she was even trying.

This was easy for her, though. Jade looked great, just like she always did. She was a natural at this sort of thing. Her hair was done up in a multitude of braids, tied back in an elegant tail with multiple blue and green gemstones threaded through it. Her dress was floor length and seafoam green and extended over one shoulder, showing off her dark, beautiful skin.

AJ had never been one for fashion, but Jade looked good without even trying - so when she did try, it was something else altogether. Her friend at least looked the part of the Champion. Wearing pretty dresses just made AJ feel like she was playing pretend.

At her behest, the two young women began slowly advancing through the house. Though Jade turned more than a few heads, most people didn’t even seem to notice AJ, which was fine by her. Let Jade be her smokescreen if it meant she didn’t have to deal with any more vapid conversations.

As they passed out of the foyer and into the living room proper, where it seemed like the majority of the guests were congregating if they weren't out on the back patio, they crossed in front of her mother's large television that had been turned to one of the various big-name news stations in Kanto. Not surprisingly, they were busy talking about AJ. Kanto having a new Champion for the first time in nearly twenty years was big news, after all. And it seemed like that was nearly all anyone could talk about these days.

AJ didn't mean to listen in. Honestly, she didn't. She wasn't exactly a theatrical person, not like her aunts, so being the center of attention - especially on a national level - was humiliating at best and anxiety-inducing at worst. But it was hard not to turn your head and perk your ears up when a stranger said your name, which is exactly what happened.

She didn't recognize the man on the TV. He had maybe a few years on AJ, with slicked-back dark hair that had been gelled to the point that it was basically armor, wearing a narrow-fitted dark suit that made his pale face seem even paler than it should have. The man looked like he hadn't spent much time outside recently, which made the title that showed up under his face - 'League Analyst' - a dubious claim at best. The man likely hadn't participated in a pokemon battle since he'd stopped traveling at the age of thirteen. If there was one thing in life she couldn't stand, it was these trumped-up armchair battling experts. The kind who'd sit there and scream at people on the internet about how one pokemon was better than another, or how one Champion would clearly win in a hypothetical battle against another. The people who knew nothing were usually the ones shouting the loudest that they knew everything.

"...and I have to be honest," he was saying to the host, "I'm not impressed. And I know I'm not the only one in Kanto right now who shares these doubts."

"I don't know," came the response from one of the hosts, a middle-aged woman with too-blonde hair and a tight blue dress, "I saw that match the other day against Misty - it was impressive! My daughter was beside herself when AJ won! It was a spectacle!"

There was a chorus of indistinct agreements from the other members of the panel, but the League Analyst was already shaking his head disdainfully.

"You mean the fight that she barely won? By accident? And against her own mother, no less - you can't tell me that no part of you thinks she went easy on her because they're related-"

"If that's going easy, I don't want to know what no mercy looks like," one of the older men joked, and the group paused for a round of artificial laughter.

"The point is," the analyst insisted, undeterred, "many in Kanto are questioning the wisdom of allowing a girl so young - a teenager, no less - to become our new Champion. And after watching her battles, seeing her attitude in interviews, many of us are not convinced that she has what it takes. If this is our new Champion - our replacement Ketchum - then it's hard not to look at her and find her wanting. She's barely even a ghost of her father-"

“So where’s little Sammy?” Jade asked absently, seemingly not noticing the tv broadcast as her eyes scanned the small crowd of strangers and soaked it all in. She tugged lightly on AJ's arm as though towing her forward, dragging her away from the TV and the repeated accusations and doubts AJ had been receiving from the moment she officially announced she would be challenging the League. “I haven’t seen his scrawny little butt in ages. He isn’t going to miss this, is he? You can use your new Champion status to order him around, make him get us food.”

AJ was grateful for the distraction. Though she'd been doing her best to ignore them, it was hard not to take the insensitive comments of strangers seriously. Especially when every single one of them felt the need to compare her to her father. But she wouldn't dwell on that tonight. Tonight was about celebrating her and her team, and the culmination of her dream, with her family and friends and everyone she loved... Them, and about ten times as many people she didn't know or care about.

There was a large table full of hors d'oeuvres set against the wall that AJ had tried to raid earlier only to be stopped by her mother lest she ruin her makeup. Her stomach rumbled pitifully at the sight, a reminder that she hadn’t actually eaten since before lunch.

“I don’t know,” she replied to Jade's question, stepping up to the table and casting a wary eye about the room to make sure her mother wouldn’t see her. A plate of bacon-wrapped water chestnuts caught her eye and her mouth immediately began to salivate. “He’s so busy nowadays, he never answers my calls or returns my messages. I saw his parents here earlier, but I don’t think he came with them.”

Her mom wasn’t around. It was now or never.

Utilizing all of her advanced reflexes honed from years of intense pokemon training, AJ snatched up several of the chestnuts by the toothpicks they’d been skewered on and shoved them all into her mouth at once like an energetic Skwovet.

It wasn’t real bacon, of course; though some parts of the world did still eat pokemon meat, most places had abandoned the practice altogether. What she was eating was synthetic; basically, meat-flavored tofu that both looked and tasted like actual meat. Or so she’d been told. She’d never actually had real meat before. The thought of killing a Spoink or Tepig for real bacon made her nauseous. Though, admittedly, she’d heard that it was delicious.

Jade, who had opened her mouth to respond, now stood gaping in horror at her friend as she struggled to chew her mouthful of food, occasionally wincing as she bit down on a toothpick.

“Um suhry,” she tried to say, not seeing the way Jade winced and stepped back as flecks of food flew from her mouth. “Muhm wuhdn’t leh me ead... after Daisy finished my makeup, so…”

“Seriously, how do you never change?”

“I’m just special I guess,” AJ teased, snatching up another chestnut only to catch the way Jade’s eyes glanced over to the side moments before she felt a hand touch down on her shoulder.

Fear of her mother catching her stuffing her face had her blood turning to ice in her veins, but when she turned around, already pulling a guilty smile and completely oblivious to the smudges of sauce on her face, she found not her mother but her grandmother, Delia, standing behind her.

Delia’s tight-lipped smile was a mix of consternation and genuine amusement.

“Your mother sent me to find you,” she said, pulling a wet wipe out of her handbag and gently cleaning her granddaughter’s cheeks. “She wants us all to gather in the dining room so we can have a toast.”

AJ had flushed to her ears in embarrassment over both being caught stuffing her face and having her grandmother clean her up like she was a child. On the one hand, she was annoyed because - hey, Pokemon Champion here! She was a grown woman now! Let her stuff her face and make a mess out of herself if she wants to! But on the other hand, she was immensely grateful that her grandmother had caught her before her mother did. Delia had never seriously gotten mad at AJ before. The sweet older woman simply didn’t have it in her.

“Thanks, Grandma,” AJ mumbled, half mortified, half trying not to laugh. “Um… would you mind-?”

“It’ll be our little secret,” she replied, taking the half-chewed toothpicks out of AJ’s hand and wrapping them up in the wet wipe. “I’ll dispose of the evidence. You two head along now. And Jade, darling, you look beautiful as always!”

“I love Grandma Delia,” Jade announced as she took AJ by the arm and the two made their way into the dining room. “I need one of my own.”

“Well, I’m not selling, but I suppose we can share.”

Word must have gotten out about her mother’s soon-to-be toast because the dining room was filling up fast. AJ and Jade parked themselves by the wall nearest the kitchen, and AJ did her best to enjoy her last few minutes of relative anonymity. Most of the strangers at the party hadn’t recognized her because of how different she looked now that she was all dressed up, but once her mother gave her toast and showed her off, that would be over. At least she’d managed to sneak a few snacks in the meantime.

A woman passed by with a tray of champagne glasses, and AJ hurriedly snatched two of them up, passing one over to Jade. If necessary, she could hide behind it.

...Ok, no, she couldn’t, but sometimes holding something in front of her face made her feel less self-conscious.

Most of the faces she saw filing in around her meant nothing to her, but there were a few familiar sights. Violet was nearby, chatting up a retired Lieutenant Surge. Lorelai, whose place AJ’s mother had taken on the Elite Four and who now ran an aquatic wildlife reserve on the Orange Islands, was in a deep discussion with Erika, getting on in years but still the graceful gym leader of Celadon City.

Just across from her she recognized Professor Oak senior, who appeared to be asleep in a chair sitting against the opposite wall. Professor Gary Oak stood beside him, and when she caught his eye he sent her his friendliest smirk. His wife Leaf was at his side, and she shot a bright smile and a wink her way. Really, where was Sammy? What was so important that he couldn’t make it tonight?

She was considering going over and asking when the crowd began to part near the edge of the room and her mother appeared, making her way hurriedly over to the center so everyone could see her.

With the ringing sound of a spoon tapping a champagne flute, all eyes in the room immediately turned to Misty.

“Thank you all for coming,” she began once the dull roar of conversation had quietened to a soft murmur. AJ hid her smile behind her champagne glass; the warble in her mother’s voice took away some of the strangeness of being at a black-tie party held especially for her. You’d think that being a gym leader and Elite Four member for years would have curbed her mother’s stage fright, but there was just something about public speaking…

She could dress up like a mermaid and dance underwater for thousands of people without batting an eye, but ask her to give a speech, and all of a sudden, she was a tongue-tied ten-year-old.

Not that AJ was any different.

“Before we dig in, I would like to give a toast,” her mom continued, letting her gaze slowly sweep the room, taking in everyone there, “to my beautiful daughter and Kanto’s newest Champion, Ashlynn Ketchum!”

The room let out a raucous cheer and AJ felt her cheeks burn red. There she was, completely surrounded by her friends and family - and a whole bunch of strangers - celebrating the accomplishment of her life-long dream. This might just be the happiest moment of her life, and though she wasn’t an overly sentimental person, she couldn’t help but bask in the ever-expanding bubble of warmth and love that she felt for almost every person in the room. Well, the ones she knew at least.

Eight long years of dreaming and struggling and training and fighting… Eight years of putting it all on the line, and now finally, she was here. She had arrived. This was her moment.

“I was blessed to have a… unique viewpoint of AJ’s journey,” Misty continued once the cheers had died down a bit. “On the one hand, as her mother, it’s been such an amazing experience, watching as my little girl has grown up to take the spot of the most powerful trainer in Kanto.”

Here, there was another round of cheers, and Leaf Oak let out a loud ‘whoop!’ that left most of the room laughing.

“But I’m also a member of Kanto’s Elite Four. Having the chance to face off against my daughter as she fought for her place, getting to witness directly the bond she shares with her pokemon and the results of all of her hard years of struggle and training… has been an experience that I will never forget.

“I am so, so proud of you, AJ…”

The applause continued, mixed with several awws, and in spite of herself, AJ could feel a few tears beginning to well up in her eyes. Jade already had them streaming down her cheeks, to say nothing of her mom, or her aunts, or Grandma Delia, or especially Brock, who was sobbing openly into his napkin.

And you know what? So what if she cried. So what if everyone saw her do it. This was the happiest she’d ever been and nothing could bring her down now.

“…and I know your father would have been so proud of you, too.”

It was like she’d been punched in the gut by a Hitmonchan.

The smile on her face turned sickly and began to slowly slide off of her face.

Oh no. Oh, please no. Not this. Not again. Not now.

“I see so much of him in you,” her mom continued, half-addressing AJ, half-addressing the crowd, and AJ turned away, feeling all of the joy and love that had been welling up inside of her leaking out like air from a balloon. “Watching you battle against Lance in the finals brought back so many memories…”

The crowd was nodding along, smiling wistfully, hanging on Misty’s every word as she took them all back in time to memories of the man they used to know, the friend they had all shared.

The stranger AJ had never met.

Something black and angry was beginning to pool in the pit of AJ’s stomach. Almost every face in the crowd was staring at her mother, but she could feel Jade’s eyes on her, sense the pity in them even though she wasn’t looking.

Why did this always happen? This was her night! Her victory! Her moment!

This had nothing to do with him!

Perhaps it was because she’d allowed herself to be lulled into a state of emotional vulnerability. Perhaps it was because this night was the culmination of years of hard work and it was being stolen from her by the man she hated most. Whatever it was, though she knew she shouldn’t, she was suddenly gripped by an unbearable need to leave. To run. To escape and just be… somewhere else. Anywhere else. Anywhere where she wouldn’t hear the sound of his name.

Setting her glass down on a nearby table, AJ turned and left the room. Jade made a quiet noise of surprise, but she ignored her. A few people shot her curious, concerned looks, but she paid them no mind. She needed to be out, now, before someone tried to stop her, before someone got her to open her mouth and she said… things she shouldn’t say.

A face caught her eye just before she slipped out of the room. Her aunt Daisy. Her expression betrayed her concern, but she said nothing and AJ made no move to communicate with her. A moment later, she was out the door.

She didn’t stop there. Legs moving faster with every step, she crossed the hall and entered the kitchen.

There was no one around. Everyone was in the dining room to hear her mother’s speech. She could still hear the buzz of conversation in the other room, but it was mostly obscured by solid walls and the droning of their kitchen appliances.

Crossing the floor, AJ approached the kitchen sink and let her palms lay flat against the cold metal. Her heartbeat was erratic in her chest. She needed to calm down. She needed to… to relax. To just breathe.

She should have expected this. She should have seen this coming, should have prepared herself, steeled her heart against it. Of course they were going to make this about him. It was always about him. Why should she have expected any different? Had she honestly thought things were finally going to change? Was she really so naïve?

Too soon, the door was being pushed open behind her.

“AJ?” came her mother’s voice, questioning, confused. “What are you doing, hiding in the kitchen?”

“Nothing,” she said a little too quickly, keeping her eyes glued to her warped reflection in the sink, already regretting her tone but knowing it was too late to reign it in. “I’m fine, mom. Just go back to the party.”

“Sweetie,” her mother pressed, adopting that ‘concerned mother’ tone that for some reason only seemed to irritate her further. “What is it?

“I said it’s nothing!” Her voice was louder now, though she hadn’t meant it to be. Her control was rapidly slipping. “I just… I need a second to-“

“Ashlynn,” her mother murmured, and here, something inside of her finally snapped, “you can talk to me-“

“Don’t call me that!” AJ shouted, turning around and slashing her arm violently through the air like she was warding away a Beedrill.

Her mom took a step back, looking confused and alarmed.

“Don’t call you what? Your name?”

“N-no, I… I just…!”

She was flagging. The anger and injustice were seething around inside of her, tangling and warping and confusing, and she couldn’t get her tongue to obey for long enough to finally express to her mother exactly why she’d taken to being called AJ rather than Ashlynn so very long ago.

“AJ,” her mom tried again, trying her best to sound patient, though there was a definite note of ‘remember-we-have-guests-over’-flavored warning in her tone, “I can’t help you if you won’t tell me what’s wrong.”

AJ stood rooted to the spot, the skirts of her too-nice dress clenched in her fists in a futile attempt to stop her shaking. She shouldn’t say it. She shouldn’t. She’d been holding it back all this time, for so long, for so long… She can’t let it out here, not now, not when so many people were here and her mother had worked so hard and they were supposed to be so happy…

“Why…?” she whispered, rasping, every cell in her brain pleading with her to stop. “Why, every time… No matter what I do… Why do you always have to make it about him?”

The moment she said the word, it was as if a lifetime of unvoiced thoughts and hidden pains swelled to life before her, expanding in density to fill the space between the kitchen appliances, her mother, and her. The fluorescent lights shimmering across the folds of her gown seemed garish and false.

“What…” Her mother stopped to swallow before trying again, her voice once again shaking like she was giving another speech. “What are you saying?”

The vulnerability in her mother’s tone should have been her final warning, her sign that she was pushing too far, that there are words that shouldn’t be said. But she’d finally taken that leap and was even now tumbling down the metaphorical hillside, unable to stop her rapidly-growing momentum.

“You know what I mean,” she scoffed, feeling her voice begin to tighten and her eyes begin to blaze. “Everything… Everything I do, everything I accomplish, no matter what it is, somebody, always, finds some way to compare it to- to Ash!”

“A-AJ,” Misty tried to cut in, taking a half-step forward and raising her hand as though to reach out and touch her daughter, “that’s not… we’re not trying to… to belittle your accomplishments, we just see so much of your father in you-“

“He’s not my father!” AJ exploded furiously, feeling a sick sort of vindication wash over her at having finally said it, ignoring the flash of hurt that flickered across her mother’s face. “He’s never been my father! Never, not once in my entire life! He was gone before I was ever born!”

“That’s not fair,” her mother said stiffly, her voice hollow and small. “You don’t know… We don’t know-“

“No, we don’t!” AJ interrupted, her voice startlingly savage, “Because he was gone before anyone could ask! He ran before I ever had the chance! So stop trying so hard to make me into him!”

“No one is trying… AJ, no one ever-!“

There was a disturbance at the door, as though someone had tried to enter the kitchen only to be stopped by another person. Misty jumped as though only just now remembering that she was throwing a party in her house for a group of strangers who could all probably hear her daughter shouting, but AJ was too far gone now to care about her or her mother’s reputation. The dam had finally burst and she was going to say what she’d been wanting to say for years.

“Oh, so you’re saying that Professor Oak giving me a Pichu as my starter was just random happenstance?”

“AJ, please, he… He was just feeling sentimental-!“

“I challenged the League younger than he did! I won the title of Champion before he did! But no matter what I do, what contests I win, nobody seems to care! All they ever talk about is him! Why am I never good enough?!”

The tears in her mother’s eyes probably should have elicited some sort of effect on her, but she was seeing red. All she could hear in her ears were the constant, repeated comments made by the guests at the party tonight, the news anchors and journalists over the past week, and anyone else who cared to talk about her recent victory – and how it compared to Ash Ketchum’s nearly twenty years before.

“I hate him,” she rasped, glaring daggers at her mother as if all of this was somehow her fault. “I hate everything about him. I hate living under his stupid shadow, and I hate how everyone feels the need to compare me to him. I am not Ash Ketchum! I’m not some selfish, deadbeat loser who abandoned his family to run off like a coward and die-!“

AJ’s tirade came to a stop with a resounding slap as her mother struck her across the face.

A split-second later, the kitchen door opened and Aunt Daisy was there, sliding in between them, taking Misty by the arms and pulling her away.

“Stop it, both of you,” she said, voice quiet yet firm. “This is not the time or the place.”

AJ stood completely still, her face still turned away by the force of the slap. Her cheek stung and her eyes prickled with tears.

“I think you should take a walk, AJ,” Daisy continued, dismissing her niece from the kitchen.

She didn’t need to be told twice. Without a backward glance, she left her mother behind, heading towards the back entrance to the kitchen, away from the now-quiet party and towards the distant staircase that would lead up to the second story and her bedroom.

Outside the door, she came to an abrupt stop.

Delia Ketchum, her grandmother, was standing just outside the door. Her face was turned away, towards the wall. AJ’s first thought was that she’d been eavesdropping, but knowing her grandma, she’d probably come there as soon as the fight had started to keep others away, to try and give them some privacy.

With a sickening sensation, she realized she must have heard every word she said.

AJ took a slow, shuddering breath, then ran, leaving her mother’s quiet sobs and her grandmother’s hurt behind her.

Within moments, she was up the stairs and back in her room. With a noise that could have been a grunt or a groan or a wail, she belly-flopped onto her mattress, feeling her hate and guilt coil up within her like an insidious Seviper.

Her mother had hit her. She had never…! But then, AJ had definitely gone too far… It had felt so good at the time to finally get it off her chest, but even though she absolutely loathed whenever people compared her to the man who had abandoned her, and even though she’d been yearning to finally confess all of that to her mother… The way she’d done it, the way she’d attacked her... it hadn’t been right.

It wasn’t her mom’s fault that her father had abandoned her - had abandoned them. It wasn’t her fault that he was famous and everyone everywhere knew his name. It wasn’t her fault that she’d pursued the title of Champion largely to prove to herself that she was better than him and that people would obviously want to talk about their similarities once she’d finally done so.

She knew they never meant any harm whenever the comparisons came up. It was a completely normal thing to do, especially for their friends and family. But to AJ, there was no greater insult than to say she was anything like him.

Why would she ever want to be compared to the man who hadn’t even wanted her?

There was a quiet knock at the door. For a horrifying moment, she thought that Daisy or Grandma Delia had come up to speak with her. Or worse, her mother. She couldn’t face them right now. She couldn’t face anyone.

Anyone other than the person who actually opened the door without waiting for a response.

Jade took one look at her best friend lying face-first on the bed and let out a quiet sigh.

“Girl, you really screwed up this time.”

AJ moaned but didn’t answer.

Closing the door with a soft thud, Jade made her way across the room and sat down beside her, reaching out and gently stroking her hair.

After a moment, she spoke.

“Do you feel better now that you told your mom how you really feel?”

AJ shook her head.

“Do I need to tell you that you definitely need to apologize to her and your grandma?”

AJ shook her head again.

“Good. Then I won’t have to chew you out. But wow, talk about crashing your own party…”

In spite of the situation, AJ let out a hoarse chuckle.

“This is the worst night of my life,” AJ mumbled, mouth full of her comforter.

Jade snorted.

“I mean, it’s pretty high up there… but I still think that time you challenged Sammy to one of those Contests back in Slateport was worse. Remember how you got food poisoning after taste-testing your own weird pokeblock creation but insisted on being in the Contest anyway? So you were up on stage, on live TV, trying to do that Alolan dance with Pichu, and you held up that hoop for him to jump through, and instead you projectile vomited through the-“

“Ok!” AJ cried, rolling onto her side so she could shove her hand over Jade’s mouth and make her stop. “OK! I get it! I remember! There’s no need to keep talking!”

They struggled for a moment on the bed, fake-wrestling as Jade tried to force AJ off of her until finally her friend seized her pillow and smacked her upside the head with it, leaving AJ down for the count.

“So?” Jade asked after a moment, panting slightly. “Feeling better?”

“No,” AJ mumbled morosely from beneath her pillow. “I screwed things up big time.”

“Yeah, but I mean, that’s pretty normal for you.”

Jade squawked as AJ’s pillow struck her in the face.

Beneath the sound of Jade’s furious indignation, a sharp crack split the air.

Both girls went still, looking around the room in confusion.

A moment later the crack came again, only this time, now that they were quiet, they could tell it was coming from the outer wall.

“What in the world…?” Jade began, only to cut off by a third crack.

Someone was throwing rocks at her window.

“Who is it?”

“How am I supposed to know?!”

“Go look!”

“Me?! It’s your window, you go look!”

“Jaaade, pleeeease?”

Jade let out a groan and slowly pushed herself to her feet.

“I swear, if it’s some kind of murderer or… or crazy reporter…”

She picked up AJ’s desk lamp and held it up like a club. AJ had to bite her lip to prevent herself from laughing. They were on the second floor, what was she going to do with that lamp?

“I’m pretty sure security would have prevented any of those people from making it this close,” she offered up wryly from her place of safety on the bed.

“Then who’s outside throwing rocks at your window?”

Well, she had her there.

Mustering up her courage, Jade made it to the window and drew open the blinds in one quick, dramatic moment.

Nothing happened.

Hesitant, Jade leaned forward and pressed her face against the glass. Almost immediately, another rock hit the window and she leaped back with a horrified squeak.

“Oh, Arceus-!” her best friend cursed, flipping the window latch and throwing the glass partition open. “Sammy?! What is wrong with you?!”

“Sammy’s here?” AJ asked, immediately perking up.

Jade didn’t answer, instead leaning further out the window with her head tilted to the side as though struggling to hear.

“What? What?! No, you- Will you just shut up and get up here already? It’s cold, and I don’t want to fall out the-!“

In a flash of light, Sammy Oak and his Gallade materialized in the bedroom, causing Jade to jump in surprise and hit her head on the edge of the window.

“Sorry I’m late,” Sammy offered with a crooked smile as he took in the two girls in one sweeping glance, “but I saw the lights on in your room and figured-“

AJ was already up and throwing her arms around him, and he returned her embrace with a one-armed hug of his own and a warm chuckle.

“Well hey now, somebody cleans up nice.”

“Stealing my lines,” Jade grumbled, rubbing her head as she shut the window and the blinds behind her. “Same old Sammy Oak. And did you have to do the whole cliché window-rock thing? Why didn’t you just have Gallade teleport you up earlier?”

AJ stepped away and sat back down on the corner of her bed, allowing Jade a turn to hug their friend.

“Well, I would’ve,” he replied, patting the taller girl lightly on the back, “but Gallade refused to let me teleport into a woman’s room uninvited.”

“At least one of you is a gentleman,” Jade said, winking at Sammy’s pokemon over his trainer’s shoulder.

Gallade offered the two females a curt, formal bow before Sammy returned him to his ball.

Sammy looked good. He hadn’t exactly dressed up for the party, but his casual slacks and button-up shirt and jacket - pretty normal attire for him, actually - still sort of fit in with the dress code for the evening. At least, it did more than AJ’s regular clothes. His sandy brown hair was windswept and a little out of place, but his green eyes, freckled face, and crooked smile were the same as ever.

It had been a while since she’d seen him. He’d been caught up in some sort of inter-lab project between his father and Professor Elm in Johto, so he missed the tournament, and while he’d sent her messages to congratulate her, this was the first time she was seeing or hearing his voice in months.

It was weird to think that the three of them used to travel together on their journeys, spending every day together, but now rarely got to see each other because their personal lives kept getting in the way. Weird, and more than a little depressing.

“So what’s up?” Sammy asked, leaning back against the desk. “Ditching your own party? I mean I can’t say I’m surprised, but…”

His eyes locked on AJ’s and suddenly narrowed.

“What’s wrong? Why do you look… like this?”

He made a sweeping gesture with his hands that took in all of her, and Jade reached out and smacked him across the head.

“Hey! Tact! That is not how you talk to your best friends!”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry, whatever,” he shot back, fending Jade off and stepping further away from her. “I just figured you’d look happier tonight, y’know, considering.”

“I had a fight with my mom earlier,” AJ replied, turning away so she could stare down at her carpet in shame.

“A loud fight,” Jade offered. “A very loud, very public fight. About her dad.”

Sammy let out a low whistle while AJ flopped pathetically back onto her bed.

“Wow, what spurred that on?”

“Her mom’s victory speech turned into another ‘how much we miss your dad’ speech.”

“Oof.”

“Guys, can we, like… not talk about this? I feel bad enough as it is.”

Jade shrugged as though to acquiesce, but Sammy fixed her with one of his quiet, calculating looks.

“Actually…” he said softly, “this might be the best time to talk about this.”

She shot him a cold look as though daring him to press the issue, and he smirked, delighted as always to rise to the challenge.

“I’ve spent the past few weeks in Johto, doing a joint-study with Elm’s lab,” Sammy began, casually dropping down into AJ’s computer chair and kicking his feet up on her bed, letting his dirty shoes rest on her bedspread. AJ promptly shoved them off with a disgusted look. “And while I was there, I became decently well acquainted with Johto’s new Champion.”

‘New’ was a bit of an exaggeration. Ethan, first-ever Champion of the newly splintered Johto League, had defeated Lance and claimed his title three years ago, after which it was decided that the Indigo League would be finally split in two, with a proper Champion presiding over each country. The Indigo League continued as one singular entity, to promote unity and preserve history, but it now had two separate branches; Kanto and Johto.

She’d met Ethan briefly following her victory over Lance, as Johto’s Champion obviously had front-row seats to the match. He was just a few years older than her, with bright golden eyes and a winning smile, but in the whirlwind following her win, they barely had time to do more than shake each other’s hands and pose for some photos before she was whisked away for more interviews. He’d been invited to the party but hadn’t RSVP’d, according to her aunts.

“And you’re telling us this… because?”

“Well, while we were talking one day about the migratory patterns of indigenous birds in some of the lesser-trafficked parts of the country,” Jade let out a dull groan which he affected not to notice, “he happened to share with me a very interesting story about an unusual encounter he had up in the mountains shortly after winning his title.”

There was a drawn-out pause as Sammy leaned back in the chair, gently swiveling back-and-forth with his knees so he could see his two friends, both girls waiting in silence for him to get to the point.

“…And?” AJ finally prompted, knowing this would go on forever if they allowed it, and Sammy flashed her another cheeky grin. Both girls rolled their eyes. He could be so annoying sometimes.

“According to Ethan, he’d been bumming around the area of Mt. Silver – you know, the mountain range League Officials have restricted access to-“

“Yeah, because the whole area is prone to avalanches and is an endangered pokemon habitat,” Jade cut in from her seat on the floor. “It’s one of the last places in the world where Tyranitar can be found in the wild. Dad donates to the Wildlife Preservation Fund for Rock-and-Ground-types. What on earth was Ethan doing out there?”

“Apparently, Champions are exempt to the restriction,” Sammy explained hastily, clearly not enjoying how Jade had derailed his story. “He said he was looking for a break before his League duties started, and where better than an uninhabited mountain range where nobody could bother him?”

Actually, that sounded pretty good to AJ. An escape from the press, from the pictures and interviews and spotlights. Just a place to be alone in the wild again like when she was just a regular trainer… The buzz from the party downstairs reached out to her again and she shuddered. She could feel whatever need had pulled Ethan there tugging at her right now.

“Anyway, that’s not important. What matters is what Ethan says he saw.”

AJ felt her curiosity pique, and even Jade sat up a little straighter. For Sammy to be this intent on telling the story, it had to be something good. And considering Sammy, she doubted it would be anything less than a legendary pokemon sighting.

Realizing he had both girls’ undivided attention, Sammy straightened up in his seat.

“He says he got turned around in the caves for a bit and couldn’t remember where he came from. He eventually managed to make it back out, only to come face to face with a man.”

AJ blinked. A man? Not a legendary pokemon? But then… what? Who else would be there in the middle of nowhere? Poachers?

“He was in his late thirties to mid-forties, and according to Ethan, he never said a word. Just pulled a pokeball from his belt and challenged him to a battle. And Ethan lost.”

Jade let out a hollow whistle. Or tried to; it sounded more like she was trying to blow out a candle. She couldn’t whistle to save her life.

“He lost?” AJ repeated incredulously. Sure, Ethan was one of the newer Champions, but he was still a Champion. He’d nearly managed to beat Cynthia at last year’s charity inter-league tournament. For him to have lost, and to some random old man in the mountains…

All at once, AJ felt her blood begin to rush in her veins. She could admit that part of her mood stemmed from a generalized despondency that had begun to manifest over the last few days. It had come on rather suddenly after she’d realized she’d finally made it to the top. And now that she had… where was there to go? Outside of charity matches with other Champions and the odd challenger who made it past the Elite 4, what else was there for her to try her strength against?

But if some random old hiker could take down Ethan, then… maybe there was more out there. Maybe there were still more challenges to find, more peaks to climb…

“But that isn’t even the most interesting part,” Sammy continued, bringing AJ back to earth. His eyes were locked on hers, glittering in that way they did whenever he knew something she didn’t. She didn’t have to press him, however; this was clearly something he was eager to share.

“Ethan never found out who the man was; he was forced to retreat back down the mountain to get his party checked out, and the one time he went back, he was never able to find him again. However, he said the trainer was insanely strong, and that he wore a blue and white hat… and he carried a Pikachu on his shoulder.”

There was a pause as the full impact of Sammy’s words reverberated around the room. Unbidden, AJ’s eyes drifted over towards the picture of her and her grandmother Delia hanging on the wall over Pichu’s tiny bed.

Slowly, she let herself flop backward on her bedspread again, staring at the ceiling. All at once, the flash of excitement that had been sparked by Sammy’s story had been sucked away into the black hole that seemed to pop up whenever her father was mentioned. Was there really nothing she could do to get away from him?

Jade broke the silence with a sharp scoff.

“Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you’re buying this.”

The chair creaked as Sammy shrugged, but AJ didn’t respond. The ceiling fan over her bed was spinning in lethargic circles.

“AJ, come on – people claim to see your dad all the time. He’s basically a legendary pokemon himself. They’re just dumb stories someone made up, don’t let it get to you. And you!”

Here, she turned her attention to Sammy, and her tone went from consoling to hostile like the crack of a whip.

“You should know better than to come here and mention stuff like that! Especially now of all times!”

“No, I think now is the perfect time to bring this up,” Sammy interjected, and AJ tilted her head so she could see him better.

He was sitting forward in his seat now, gaze fixated firmly upon her, but the usual cocky gleam in his eyes was gone, replaced with something earnest and… desperate.

“AJ… How much longer do you have before Lance officially steps down and you take over? A couple weeks? A month?”

She shrugged noncommittally, and he nodded.

“Exactly. In the blink of an eye, your life as you know it will be over. You finally made it, and that’s awesome, but… it occurred to me that our adventures together are… Well, they’re over now.”

There was a heavy pause, and AJ felt her fingers tangle up in the bedspread below her.

“Sam,” Jade cut in gently, “why are you bringing this up now? Our adventures have been over for a long time. I’ve been back at dad’s gym, you’ve been learning the ropes from Professor Oak. Only AJ has kept on, and she’s finally made it to the top. Why are you making this into something sad?”

“Because it is, in a way,” he said, briefly turning to look at Jade before returning his gaze to meet AJ’s. “I know our little team split up years ago, but once AJ takes over, we won’t ever be able to head out together again. We won’t just be trainers. We’ll be AJ the Champion of Kanto and her friends, the next Professor Oak and the future Gym Leader of Pewter City –“

“More like future Elite Four member once I knock Bruno’s sweatpants off-“

“-and I just… I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”

His admission was so out of character, so unlike Sammy Oak to ever say, even to his best friends, and yet… she felt the truth of it echo inside of her.

All she had ever wanted was to be the Champion, but now that she was there, she wasn’t ready for the journey to be over. They had grown up, all of them, but now that their dreams were finally being achieved, she found that all she wanted was to go back in time and be young, wide-eyed kids again. To travel the road with her best friends at her side and the promise of boundless adventure on the horizon.

When Jade made no move to interrupt again, Sammy scooted his chair closer to the bed and reached out to touch AJ’s leg.

“Look… I’m sorry I mentioned your dad, but honestly, who cares about that. I didn’t come here to tell you about some hobo in the mountains, I came here because Ethan’s story reminded me that we still have time. We still have a chance. Now, before Lance officially steps down. I don’t actually think we’ll find your dad. Honestly, I think the man’s been dead for twenty years, but who cares? What better excuse are we going to find? Let’s go. You, me, and Jade. One last adventure.”

Something inside of her was growing. Something small and warm and bright.

Adventure. Her friends. One last journey, before the pressures and responsibilities of being Kanto’s Champion took over her life.

It sounded too good to be true. It sounded impossible.

But then, since when had the impossible ever been enough to stop her?

“Yeah…” she whispered softly, and Sammy’s eyes seemed to light up with her growing smile. “Yeah! Let’s go! I’m Champion now – I’m sure Ethan can convince the Johto League to grant us access!”

“Wait, what? Seriously?” Jade asked, flabbergasted, as AJ suddenly righted herself and hopped off her bed. “We’re just gonna run off to Johto on a whim?”

“Why not?” she laughed, snatching her bag from her desk and her hat from her dresser. “It’s not like we have anything better to do.”

“Oh sure, none of us have lives or responsibilities or-! Wait, what are you doing?”

AJ paused in the act of opening her bedroom window and turned to shoot her friends a quizzical look.

“What does it look like? I’m leaving.”

“Now?!” Jade blanched, and even Sammy looked taken aback.

To be fair, she was almost certainly rushing things, but the buzz from the party below could still be heard, and the thought of going back downstairs to face her mother again made her insides feel like they were full of cement. People were certainly talking about her and how unprofessional and immature she’d seemed; how ill-fit she was to be the Champion. She didn’t want to face them now. She wanted to run away and just be a trainer again.

AJ met her two friends’ stunned faces with a shrug.

“You losers coming or not?”

Sammy was the first to break, letting out a short bark of laughter before turning to Jade with a defeated sigh.

“I guess I have only myself to blame for this, but… Well, it’s nice to know some things never change. You coming, Harrison? Or does AJ have to drag you along like she did all those years ago?”

“Watch it, Oak,” Jade snarled, pointing one manicured finger dangerously close to his face. “Of course I’m coming. But nobody’s going anywhere until AJ gets changed. She can’t go stomping around the mountains wearing that.”

AJ looked down at her dress and grimaced. Oh, that’s right… She’d forgotten she was wearing it.

“We’ll take the front door,” Jade said, snatching Sammy’s arm and dragging him across the room. “We’ll meet you outside when you’re ready.”

“Al- ow! Alright! Jade, chill! Let go of my arm!”

“You and I need to have a very serious talk,” she heard Jade snarl before her door closed behind her two best friends.

Maybe this was crazy. Maybe spur-of-the-moment decisions made while you’re emotional and scared aren’t the wisest, especially when they involve sneaking out and fleeing to another country without telling your mother. But the promise of traipsing around the wilderness with her two best friends again before life caught up to her was too sweet to ignore, so she shoved her doubts and misgivings away, buried beneath her excitement and sudden influx of energy.

She left her mom a note before slipping out the window and into the night. She may still be mad at her, but she didn’t want her to think she was kidnapped. She promised to be back in a month, and while she was sure that conversation was not going to go well, hopefully some time spent with her friends would be enough to cool her off.

And hey. If the rumors were somehow magically true and she did run into her father… Well, beating his pasty face into the dirt would go a long way towards making her feel better.

Chapter Text

AJ hadn’t always hated her father.

In fact, as a child, she had all but idolized him. That wasn’t all that surprising; being the child of a celebrity basically meant that everyone treated you like you were special based purely on the fact that someone related to you actually was. And when she was a kid, she drank it up. She may not have understood why people gave her extra attention, but with her mother always being so busy, first at the gym and then later with the Elite Four, attention had been something she’d craved.

As she got a little older, however, and as she began to understand more about the world, questions began formulating in the back of her mind. Questions about this man she’d never seen before, this man people called her father, this man they kept saying she would grow up to be just like.

Who was he, really? Why wasn’t he there? Where had he gone? If he was really as special as everyone said he was, then why did he disappear without telling anyone where he was going? If he was really the greatest pokemon trainer Kanto had ever seen, how could he and his entire team vanish without anyone ever hearing about it? And if he wasn’t dead after all, then… where did he go? Why did he disappear?

Once she became a teenager, she’d started connecting the dots on her own. He’d been a celebrity, he’d been one of the most famous trainers alive, everything had been going his way. The only thing that had changed for him in the months before his disappearance had been her.

Her mother had gotten pregnant and he was going to be a father. That had to be it then, didn’t it? Her birth meant the end of his adventures. She was what drove him away.

But as a child, she still hadn’t fully rationalized her way through that yet. As a child, she still didn't fully understand why, when the topic of her missing father came up, her chest would start to constrict and she’d start looking for excuses to run away. Why whenever anyone compared her to him, tiny pinpricks of irritation or resentment began to manifest. But they were small feelings back then. Quiet, dark impulses that chittered at the edges of her psyche like Zubat, out of sight, never fully addressed, never fully formed.

At least, not until she turned ten and her own pokemon journey finally began.

That was the day everything changed.

The way that a trainer starts their pokemon journey is different in every country AJ had visited. But in Kanto, a place mired in tradition, it was typical for ten-year-olds to gather in Pallet Town, at the central lab run by the Oak family, where they would take their final test for their trainer’s license and, if they passed, receive a Pokedex and be given their very first pokemon.

True, you didn’t have to do this - most cities would let you take the test either in city hall or at a designated testing center, and you could theoretically start your journey from anywhere you wanted. But starting your journey from Pallet Town was a time-honored tradition, something that you just ‘did’ if you grew up in Kanto, and while in later years AJ would come to enjoy and even prefer shirking tradition in favor of whatever felt right at the time, in those early days, it had been very important to her to start her journey off right.

She’d flown out the day before after saying goodbye to her mother and her aunt Daisy. Grandma Delia had picked her up from the airport up in Veridian, and she’d spent the evening with her grandmother being forced to listen to endless stories about how her father had started his journey and how he’d woken up late and nearly missed getting his first pokemon so she had better rest up and make sure she set her alarm properly or she’d end up just like him.

AJ hadn’t needed any extra incentive to get up early. There wasn’t a chance she’d be late to this. In fact, she’d gotten there too early and was forced to wait impatiently on a rickety bench outside the testing center for two whole hours, tapping her tennis shoes on the cold concrete and ignoring the nervous mutterings of her peers as they slowly trickled in behind her.

While some of the other kids were reviewing their notes or angsting pathetically about the test they were about to take, the most commonly repeated topic of conversation was about which pokemon they were going to pick as their starter. It seemed like everyone wanted to know what the others were doing, as if the opinions of strangers had any bearing on a decision this important.

In Kanto, like in most countries, you would be provided with a small selection of pokemon to choose from upon obtaining your license, assuming you didn’t already have a starter prepared by a relative or close friend. And while the Oaks generally had a wide selection of young, safe picks for newbie trainers for their first partner, the selection always included Charmanders, Bulbasaurs, and Squirtles, and it was typically one of those three who newly-licensed trainers would end up leaving the building and beginning their journeys with. Again, tradition.

Unlike most of her peers, however, who had spent a considerable amount of time deliberating over the decision, weighing the pros and cons of each one, for AJ, there had never been any question. After all, she was the daughter of Misty Waterflower and had grown up in Cerulean City running around the gym and splashing in the pools. Her mother’s love of water-type pokemon had soaked into AJ’s bloodstream. In a way, this decision had been something she’d been born to make.

A Squirtle. Just the thought alone was enough to make her smile. She was going to pick a Squirtle.

Really, it was the perfect choice. Some trainers favored Bulbasaur, as it gave you a slight advantage over the first two gyms typically challenged along the traditional gym track that most trainers followed - though of course, you could challenge them in any order you wanted, so this line of thinking was mostly only applicable to traditionalists. Bulbasaur was seen as the safe pick and was sometimes looked down on for that reason, but any trainer with half a brain knew the power that a Venosaur could bring to the team. Bulbasaur was an excellent choice.

Others preferred Charmander for the opposite reason - they liked the extra challenge that confronting the Pewter and Cerulean gyms provided by starting with a fire-type and in her opinion were usually trying to show off. That didn’t make Charmander bad by any means. Charizards were famous around the world - Lance had a Charizard on his team, and he was the Champion. That was all that really needed to be said about that.

And while she knew that both were strong options and had their own set of pros and cons, AJ had spent very little time actually considering them. Her heart had been set on Squirtle since she was old enough to think. There was no question in her mind about who she was going to pick. She’d even already spent some of the starting money she’d been given by her mom on quality food and vitamins specifically meant for aquatic reptilian pokemon so she could make sure it would grow up big and strong. She’d even planned out her future team completely around the Blastoise she knew she’d one day have.

She’d spent years dreaming of this moment, and now, finally, it was here. She couldn’t wait. Before the day was done, she’d have her very first pokemon and would be taking her first steps towards destiny.

So imagine her surprise when, after passing the test with flying colors and being issued her very own trainer’s license, she was pulled aside by one of the aids just as she was moving to join the queue of other successful trainers getting in line to choose their partners and was told that Professor Oak Senior had wanted to speak with her.

She’d assumed he’d just wanted to say hello and wish her luck before she left. He was sentimental like that, and while he wasn’t actually her great-grandfather, in a way he was and had always treated her as such. She loved him a lot - he’d always made time for her when she was visiting, answering her questions about pokemon and the world at large and doting on her affectionately - but if she were being honest, she really didn’t want to see him right now. Her Squirtle was right over there somewhere, just waiting for her. Couldn’t she go see him after?

But she was pulled out of the queue and away from the room where the other trainers were receiving their starters. The aid led her down a long hallway, then up two flights of stairs and down another hallway before finally dropping her off inside a darkly furnished office where she found not the elderly Professor Oak but instead his actual great-grandchild, Sammy, standing against the wall and nervously fidgeting with the edges of his brand-name sweater vest.

AJ stopped at the threshold and stared.

Sammy was here today? She hadn't seen him downstairs; did he not take the test? Or did he take it earlier and already had his license? Did he already have his starter? If so, which one did he pick? Probably Charmander. He was full of himself like that.

Her and Sammy’s relationship was… odd. In a way, she assumed that they were almost like cousins, except her actual cousins were six and two respectively and she loved them both like the younger siblings she never had. But she saw Sammy usually a few times per year when she came down to Pallet to see her grandma or if the Oaks were in Cerulean for whatever reason and the two had gotten on well enough when they were little.

But at some point, the knowledge that both of their fathers had been rivals when they were younger had cemented itself in AJ’s head, and she had taken it upon herself to decide that she needed a rival too, otherwise, how was she going to be a strong trainer?

It didn’t help that Sammy was so naturally confident and good at everything, or that being an Oak meant he got everything he wanted. Her belief that she needed a rival mixed in with unrecognized feelings of jealousy and resentment, and had created something of a strained atmosphere between the two over the past couple of years, and now they didn’t really talk anymore. But that was fine. He was going to be her rival. It was better this way.

In later years, AJ would look back and realize that maybe it hadn’t been so easy being Sammy, living with the constant weight of the Oak legacy pressing down on him. That maybe he more than anyone could sympathize with what it was like when your father was a household name and everyone else was forcing their expectations on you. That maybe his constant fidgeting, the way he was always adjusting his clothes or his hair, was a nervous reaction from a boy not knowing how to process his anxiety and not the actions of a vain showoff trying to call attention to his appearance. Maybe his familiar crooked smirk wasn’t supposed to be condescending but was instead a subconscious nervous reaction when he wasn’t sure how to proceed - something she apparently brought out of him a lot.

But AJ had been ten then. Immature and blind to the way the world looked through any lens that was not her own. And Sammy was just her rival - nothing more or less than a measuring post, a convenient tool for her to use to gauge her progress and spur her onward. His thoughts and feelings barely registered to her.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to make small talk with Sammy, because almost as soon as she’d arrived, Professor Oak Senior came shuffling up behind her, ushering her all the way into his office with an excited smile far too energetic for a man his age, carrying a small box in his hands.

“Well now, can you believe it?” the older man began, a genial smile on his face as he shuffled slowly around his desk, holding on to the filing cabinet for support. “The day has finally arrived. Feels like just yesterday that the two of you were born, and now…”

Great, he was rambling again. She didn’t have time for this; what if they gave all the Squirtles away?!

“Did you need us for something, Professor?” AJ asked, doing her best to not let her frustration show through. Really, she did love the man, but he talked so much and she didn’t have any time to waste here.

“I have a little surprise for the two of you,” he said, positively brimming with excitement and anticipation as he gently eased himself down into his thickly-padded chair. “I know we’re not supposed to play favorites, but I’m retired now so I can do what I want. And after all, the two of you, starting your journeys on the same day, just like your fathers…? Well, you can’t blame an old man for feeling nostalgic.”

There it was again, that uncomfortable tightening sensation in her chest. A foreign sort of anxiety was welling up inside of her, a sense of foreboding, like some part of her instinctively knew that something unpleasant was about to happen, but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what.

Professor Oak Senior spared her from having to try to puzzle it out by setting the small plain box on the desk in front of him, turned so that it was facing them, and slowly lifted the lid upward.

Inside, nestled in pillowy folds of lavender, sat two glistening pokeballs.

“I have two special starters here, picked out just for you!”

Something in AJ’s stomach knotted painfully together. It felt like her insides were being squeezed so tightly that they were soon going to form a dense, leaden ball.

No.

No, no, no, no!

A Squirtle. She wanted a Squirtle! She’d always wanted a Squirtle!

It didn’t matter what was in that ball. It could have been a Gyarados and she wouldn’t want it.

This isn’t what was supposed to happen. It was supposed to be her choice! This isn’t what she wanted!

“Sammy,” Professor Oak continued, completely oblivious to the way that AJ was currently spiraling out of control. “You come first. Yours is on the left - ah, my left, your right. Your parents and I had this planned out for quite a while, I think you’re going to be just thrilled!”

If Sammy felt at all betrayed the same way that AJ did about the senile professor and his parents taking this decision away from him without so much as a ‘by your leave’, he was doing a great job of hiding it. With only a second of hesitation in which he wiped his palms on the sides of his pants, he reached the desk in two steps and slowly reached out, pulling the pokeball out of the box with a trembling hand.

A moment later, he pressed the button and, in a familiar effusion of light, a small, fuzzy brown creature materialized on the desk.

Curled in a ball, clearly having been sleeping, it slowly blinked its large amber eyes open and gazed up at Sammy with a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty that perfectly mirrored his own.

It was an Eevee. He’d been given an Eevee. Just like his father.

The ball in AJ’s stomach tightened even further. Suddenly, she could see what was coming for her, inevitable, like a train rushing down toward her from the other side of a dark tunnel.

Oak was still talking, but AJ was hardly listening. Something about Sammy’s Eevee being the offspring of his father’s Umbreon and his mother’s Glaceon and how poetic and beautiful it was that they were going to start their journeys together.

Sammy hardly seemed to be listening either, but he’d reached out his hand tentatively towards his first-ever pokemon and seemed both surprised and delighted that it was letting him pet it, gently rubbing its head and its big soft ears against his palm, mewling affectionately. He didn’t look so uncertain anymore.

Too soon, Oak was turning his attention to her, inviting her to come forward. She was lucky that he seemed to care more about his actual great-grandchild than her, because the way he kept glancing over at Sammy, who had scooped his Eevee up into his arms and stepped away from the desk to give AJ space, was distracting him from the way she was desperately fighting to school her features.

She couldn’t let him see that she was upset. Professor Oak was a sweet old man, he really was trying to do something nice for her. She didn’t want to disappoint him. She didn’t want to break down in tears in front of him and Sammy because of what was about to happen. Because she knew exactly what was about to happen, and it wasn’t fair.

She picked up the pokeball, barely registering the slight chill of the cool metal because her fingers seemed to have gone momentarily numb, and clicked the button on the front of the ball.

There was another burst of light. A yellow figure appeared on the desk, immediately beaming up at her with bright, curious eyes and a friendly smile.

It wasn’t a Pikachu.

It was worse.

A Pichu? They’d given her a Pichu?! But it…! It was a baby! She couldn’t start her journey having to take care of a baby pokemon! How was she supposed to battle?! How was she supposed to catch anything else to round out her team?! What was she supposed to do when she came up against Brock?! Why would they do this to her?!

The pokemon seemed completely oblivious to its new master’s disgust and contempt. Her entire body had stiffened, her hand still extended, still holding its ball in white-knuckled fingers, and it had moved forward to sniff and then affectionately lick them.

She almost jerked her hand away but stopped herself. It wasn’t its fault. It had no way of knowing that she didn’t want it. That it being given to her had crushed a dream she’d cherished since she was small, ruined plans she’d been making for years. All because some senile old man felt sentimental. All because the people around her couldn’t seem to let go of some dead man she’d never met.

Professor Oak was still talking, still rambling like always, completely oblivious to how thoroughly his supposed kindness had destroyed her. Pichu was greeting Sammy’s Eevee now, who had hopped back onto the desk to say hello. Only Sammy seemed to be paying her any attention, occasionally shooting her unreadable glances out of the corner of his eye.

But she paid him no mind. She wasn’t paying attention to anything. She had gone numb. All she wanted to do was run away to someplace quiet where no one could see her cry.

When Sammy had challenged her to her first battle, immediately after leaving the building several minutes later, if he’d been surprised by the fury that had shown on her face when they squared off for the first time, he didn’t let it show.

And if he noticed the tears in her eyes when she lost, recalling her fallen starter and turning away without a word, trying not to let the others see her wipe her cheeks, he never commented on it. If he had noticed, he probably thought she was just upset at having lost her very first pokemon battle.

But honestly? That had been the furthest thing from her mind.

As it turned out, the trip from Cerulean City to New Bark Town in Johto was going to end up taking longer than AJ would have liked.

This was partially her fault. She’d intended to leave her mother’s seaside mansion on the cape and fly straight to Saffron City, where they could catch the magnet train and be in Johto within a few hours, but she’d forgotten that Jade was still dolled up in her party dress and wasn’t fit for a trek up a dangerous mountain. To say nothing of her team which she’d left behind at the gym in Pewter City; of the three, only AJ had her main team with her at the house, and they were easy enough to gather up since they were all still loitering around outside.

This meant that the trio was forced to make a detour westward, over Route Four and past Mt. Moon, in the complete opposite direction of Saffron.

This wouldn’t have been a problem, except once you factored in the distance they’d have to fly from Pewter to Saffron if they still wanted to catch the train, and then from Goldenrod to New Bark Town, the detour would have easily tripled the length of their journey.

Still, there was no use in complaining. She was the one who had decided that they should go on this spur-of-the-moment trip with zero warning. Besides, it’s not like they were in a rush, and the Kanto and Johto regions were relatively small, at least compared to places like Kalos or Unova. Heading west over the mountains would still take longer than taking the train, sure, but if they flew through the night, they could be in Johto by morning.

Her companions hadn’t been as keen on that idea as she was.

“We are not,” Jade said emphatically as they left her home in Pewter, heading south towards Pallet Town so Sammy could pick up a few things himself, “flying all night to Johto just so you can climb up some dumb mountain a little bit faster! Some of us need our beauty sleep! Sammy, say something. Talk some sense into her.”

Sammy, who was riding on the back of his Corviknight, glanced over at his two friends sitting on Jade’s Metagross, and shrugged.

“We can stay the night at the lab,” he offered, his voice coming through the mic on his pokegear so they could hear him over the roar of the wind. “My parents won’t be back for a few days anyway.”

AJ sighed but acquiesced. She supposed expecting them to fly all night was a little silly… and it’s not like the mountain was going anywhere.

Still, it was hard to curb the restlessness that had bubbled up within her ever since Sammy had mentioned this chance for one last adventure. Maybe it was anxiety about taking on her new role as Champion and all of the responsibilities that were bound to come with it, or maybe she just wanted something else to dwell on aside from how awful she’d been to her mother and how she’d ruined her party tonight. Whatever the case, she wanted to be at the mountain now - today, even though that wasn’t possible. She just wanted to escape the world for a bit with the people she cared about most and pretend, even just for a little while, that they were naive, bright-eyed kids again with the whole world at their fingertips.

They arrived at the famous Oak lab in Pallet Town about three hours after leaving Pewter, which was pretty decent all things considered. It was dark out as they disembarked on the grass, the area almost completely silent save for Pichu leaping about energetically as he reveled in his freedom; AJ had been forced to keep a secure hold on him during the flight due to his tendency to take flying leaps into the open air and laugh uproariously as Metagross was forced to catch him with its psychic powers to stop the little mouse from being splattered across the ground below.

Aside from that, the trip had been great. Metagross could book it if it wanted to, and with its ability to encase its riders in psychic shields to protect them from being buffeted by the wind, the trip had been fairly relaxing. Almost like owning a flying car. Maybe she needed to get herself a Metagross one of these days.

The same wasn’t true for Sammy. His Corviknight was faster and more agile than Jade’s Metagross, but he’d been at the full mercy of the wind during the trip. As he slid down off of his pokemon’s side, slightly bow-legged and taking a moment to pause and stretch his tired back, AJ found a playful smile growing on her face as she took in his disheveled appearance.

“Uh oh, watch out,” she joked, stepping closer and reaching a playful hand up toward his head. He reflexively slapped it away, however, looking alarmed, and when she tried a second time, he did it again. This was followed by a tense pause as Sammy glared at her in silent warning and AJ responded with a gleeful, predatory smile.

A moment later, the two were engaged in a violent struggle as AJ tried to tousle Sammy’s already windswept hair and Sammy desperately tried to fend her off, the air suddenly filled with the sounds of his annoyed grunts and her spastic laughter.

Jade, who had been seeing to her Metagross, turned around to the source of the commotion and stared.

“What are you idiots doing?”

“Jade!” AJ laughed, lunging again for Sammy’s hair and missing as he dodged out of the way. “Quick! Call the fashion police! Sammy doesn’t look perfect!”

Her childhood friend bristled at the age-old snipe, but all attempts to escape his smaller assailant were seemingly in vain.

“Will…! You…! Stop…?!”

Sammy’s heel struck a rock in the darkness and he fell back, arms windmilling comically for a moment before he grabbed at AJ’s hand in reflex as though she could somehow catch him. She obviously could not, being a head and a half shorter than him. Instead, he pulled her along into his fall.

She crashed down on top of him with a pained ‘oof!’ and lay still for a moment to catch her breath, inhaling both the scent of the grass and his cologne. Maybe he had done something to prepare for the party. When she finally pushed herself up on her hands, she took stock of his annoyed expression before spitting her hair out of her mouth and sending him a guilty smile.

Slowly, she reached up and ruffled his hair.

“Got you!” she said with a winded chuckle.

“Yeah, great. Now get off me.”

AJ acquiesced, pushing herself to her feet and stretching, grinning ostentatiously, watching as Sammy brushed at the grass stains on his pants with a murderous glower.

“Can you two, like, stop flirting and let us inside? I have to pee.”

Sammy pushed past them, stomping around to the front door of his parents' home-slash-laboratory, muttering mutinously under his breath. As always, AJ took his frustration to be a sign of victory.

“What was that about?” Jade asked, lowering her voice as she stepped in closer.

AJ frowned.

“What was what?”

“That. That right there. You know what I’m asking about.”

She shrugged, looking away out into the darkness of the night.

“I don’t know… I guess I am being a little too hyper. I just… Tonight sucked, you know? But I’m really looking forward to this trip and… I’ve missed you both, like a lot. I’m probably being a little too excited. And I just want to distract myself from my mom for a bit.”

Jade stared at her, and for a moment, AJ felt like she was being x-rayed.

“Yeah, I get you,” she finally conceded, turning away as Sammy opened the door and marched inside without looking back at either of them, though he left the door open in an unspoken invitation.

AJ moved to follow, but Jade suddenly brushed past her with a murmured, “Just be careful or someone is going to get the wrong idea.”

She stopped, confused, but Jade kept going, entering the house without another word to AJ.

Wrong idea? About what? Her and Sammy? But nobody was there to see them but her!

Shaking her head, she followed her friends into the familiar house. Sammy’s home was actually attached to his father’s lab, but though you could freely move from one to the other, the two had separate external entrances.

Their living room was just as she had always remembered it; clean white walls decorated with fanciful landscape paintings that Leaf had carefully curated throughout the years, glimmering mahogany flooring that was always pristine thanks to their legion of maids. They had a pair of couches surrounding a heavy walnut coffee table that was perched atop a thick rug that featured stylized depictions of Pyroar on the savannah. Everything from the classy furniture to the gilded vases to the ornate chandelier screamed opulence. She teased Sammy a lot over the years about being a spoiled little rich kid, but… well, it wasn’t a lie. He really was a spoiled little rich kid.

Said spoiled little rich kid was now ambling back in her direction, hands in his pockets and a lazy look having replaced his annoyance from earlier. That was good; she loved to tease him, but Jade was right. She probably needed to calm down.

“Well,” he said as he drew near, “Her Highness has found the bathroom and peace has been restored to the world. You can put your stuff wherever, and you know where your team can sleep for the night. I’m guessing we’re leaving bright and early?”

AJ nodded, meaning the response to be a yes to everything he’d said. Jade’s attitude should improve now that she was liberating her bladder, and after years of visits, she knew exactly which artificial habitats were where so her team could sleep easy tonight. Well, aside from the two who would be staying with her.

“Wait, so where am I sleeping?” she asked, more for want of something to say than actual curiosity. She knew what the answer probably was.

“Couch,” Sammy replied as he pointed across the room to his family’s camel-back sofa, exactly as she had expected.

She couldn’t stop the grin from worming its way onto her face, however, as the urge to tease him suddenly flared up inside of her once more. Something about his presence just brought this out of her. Jade wouldn’t be happy.

“Oh?” she said, feigning an innocent voice and knowing she’d failed instantly as Sammy’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “We’ll be out here? You don’t want to have a sleepover in your bedroom for old time’s sake?”

He scoffed, not even phased.

“What old times are those? You never slept over in my room. Ever. My dad would have killed me.”

“Yeah, but he’s not here now,” she pressed, stepping closer and smiling up at him. “You could have two pretty girls in your room tonight. Doesn’t that excite you?”

A look of legitimate horror crossed his face and he quickly stepped away.

“That sounds like a nightmare actually,” he said, rubbing at his eyes. “Are you really so eager to sleep on the floor?”

“Oh, no; me and Jade would take the bed. You’d be on the floor.”

“Couch,” he repeated sternly, earning a laugh from her. He shook his head before turning to walk away.

“Hey, Sammy?” she called out before he disappeared down the hall.

He turned, lifting his eyebrows, looking too tired to respond.

“...Thanks. For suggesting this, I mean. I really needed it.”

For a moment, he simply looked at her. The house was quiet, the lights soft and dim and warm. The expression on his face was completely lost to her.

Finally, he turned away.

“Yeah. You’re welcome.”

AJ awoke early the next morning to the dulcet tones of what any sane person might have assumed was a pair of Onyx engaged in a bout of professional wrestling.

Years of experience, however, had taught her that that was actually what Jade sounded like when she snored. And though she’d gotten used to it during their travels and had even gotten to the point where she could sleep through it, a few years of separation was enough to have desensitized herself to it completely.

Waking up meant more than dealing with her best friend’s snoring, however. As the thin rays of morning light pierced through the gaps between the blinds, casting the room in slanting strips of burnished gold, the memory of how she had arrived in the Oak’s living room came back to her with the dull thunk of leadened guilt dropping into her gut. She groaned in equal parts exhaustion and dismay, stretching her tired limbs and upsetting the couch cushions that had up until now cocooned her.

Great. Reality was back and now she had to face it.

She could try to go back to sleep, she supposed. It was still early, after all; no doubt Jade and Sammy would still be out for a while. But she knew herself well enough to know that if she tried, she’d end up just lying awake, stewing in regrets over how she handled last night. Might as well get up and face the day on her feet. Like a Champion.

She managed to extricate herself from her pillowy prison without too much trouble, though she took a moment to marvel at Jade’s sleeping posture on the opposite couch; one foot up over the backrest and an arm draped across the coffee table with her head dangling off the cushion, she looked like a Staryu that had dried up under the summer sun.

As she crept around the eerily quiet Oak home on pink-socked feet, careful not to wake her friends or alert any pokemon who might be up and wandering around the home, she set off on a quest to satisfy her two greatest needs; taking a pee and a hot shower. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long until full alertness brought along with it thoughts about her mother and how she was reacting to the events of last night.

She had to have noticed by now, right? Sure, maybe she went straight to bed after the guests had finally left and didn’t come up to AJ’s room to check on her - it was possible, though she doubted it, especially since the ever-meddlesome Daisy had still been around - but now that it was morning, she had to have realized that her daughter had run off in the dead of the night like some melodramatic preteen.

She was probably furious. And still hurt. And disappointed. Oh, Arceus, she really screwed up this time. She should probably do something… give her a call? No, no phones - not right now. She still needed time. Time to… work up to the apology she knew she had to give. Why was apologizing so much harder when you were apologizing to someone you actually cared about? She could apologize to randos all day; what did they matter? Her mom, though...

But her mom wasn’t the only one who deserved an apology, AJ considered as she finished toweling off and studied her reflection in the foggy mirror. Grandma Delia did as well. Sure, she hadn’t gone off at her directly, but… she’d been right there, she’d heard everything she’d said…

Maybe she could start by apologizing to her. That felt… easier. Like a stepping stone. Something she could do first to work up to apologizing to her mom.

But she still didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, and Grandma Delia was almost certainly still asleep…

And so it was that, a few minutes later, after getting dressed and grabbing a slice of bread since she felt too guilty about helping herself to the food in the Oak’s kitchen, AJ left the house and the still-snoring starfish and set off down the hill under the warming rays of the rising sun with Pichu riding about on top of her hat.

Her grandmother’s house was just visible on the horizon. She and the Oaks were neighbors, technically, if only in the sense that they were the closest residences to one another. The Oaks owned a large estate on the edge of town, owing to their need to monitor acres and acres of land to let the pokemon owned by the trainers from Pallet roam free and get the air and exercise they needed.

Grandma Delia lived nearby not because she needed the space, but because she wanted it - and because at the time they’d moved in, the land had been cheap seeing as nothing else was nearby. The land was now considered prime real estate, but no one had ever managed to convince her grandmother to sell.

She had once asked her why. Her response had been that she always wanted her family to know where their home was.

The house was quiet when she arrived; the interior dark, no sound save for a gaggle of Oddishes traipsing about the well-kept garden. But AJ had expected it to be; Grandma was staying with her mom for a couple of days, she knew. That didn’t mean the house was left unoccupied, however.

AJ took a moment to fish her keyring out of her backpack while Pichu ran about the yard scattering the Oddishes away. She almost never used her keys, seeing as she was rarely home, but she always kept them on her. She only had three; one for her home on Cerulean Cape, one for her aunt Daisy’s place in downtown Cerulean proper, and one for here. She slid the key into the lock and gently pushed the door open, careful not to make too much noise.

Her plan failed when Pichu ran in between her legs, squeaking in obnoxious delight. Why did she even bother?

Well, may as well let him know she wasn’t a robber. Though knowing him, if he was awake, he already knew exactly who she was.

“Hello?” she called, only slightly raising her voice. “Mimey? Are you awake? It’s me!”

The sound of approaching footsteps plodding down the hall caught her attention, and she turned and smiled as her grandmother’s aging Mr. Mime entered the kitchen.

The years were certainly taking their toll on him, but he smiled at her as genially as ever. His face was lined and wrinkled, his knees and elbows more knobbly than ever, and the tufts of blue hair sticking out from either side of his head had dulled to something that was more gray than not. Still, though his eyes were sunken and becoming a little milky, they still shone with familial delight at the sight of her.

AJ knew a lot of people who didn’t like Mr. Mimes - Sammy included. They thought they were creepy. AJ had never been able to understand that, however. Mimey wasn’t just a pokemon, he was part of the family.

She stepped forward and enveloped the pokemon in a warm hug, careful not to squeeze too tight. Pichu jumped up on her back, climbing around her backpack and ending up on Mimey’s head, which was apparently his idea of a greeting; he was eight years old - nearly at half the life expectancy for his species - but he still acted like a child. She supposed that was a natural result of him never evolving.

He chittered happily for a moment before Mimey, scowling up at his forehead, gently lifted him with telekinesis and lowered him to the ground, where he promptly scampered off into the next room, exploring as though he hadn’t been here a thousand times before.

Mimey pointed to the stove for a moment as though asking if she wanted breakfast before immediately hobbling off to get started.

“Ah - wait, you don’t have to-!”

But he wasn’t listening, already pulling green onions and imitation Farfetch’d eggs out of the refrigerator and pulling out a host of pots and pans.

Once he got started, there was no stopping him outside of challenging him to a battle and knocking him out. Instead, AJ found herself sitting at the kitchen table, awkwardly staring out the window and trying not to fidget.

He knew, she decided. Knew she’d done something stupid. Why else would she be here when her grandmother wasn’t? Why else come here alone first thing in the morning when he knew the night before she’d been having a party way up in Cerulean? He was too smart for her own good. Psychic-types always were, but this one had watched her grow up and knew her better than almost anyone. He could have read her even without his psychic powers. Not that Mr. Mimes were particularly adept at reading minds, but emotions? They were scarily good at that.

No point in hiding it. May as well face the music.

“Bet you’re wondering what I’m doing here, huh?”

He didn’t respond. But then, he didn’t have to. The question hung in the air like dust.

“...I had a fight with mom,” she confessed, her voice low as she addressed the tabletop.

Mimey stayed silent, his hands moving deftly even in his old age as he puttered about the kitchen, but something in the set of his back had her opening up to him better than if he’d come at her with tongs and hot irons.

“About my dad, I mean. And I… I said some things that… I know I shouldn’t have. And Grandma, she… heard all of it.”

Here, she risked a glance up to find that Mimey was finally looking at her. He had an expression on his face that was… hard to describe. Bright eyes, gently upturned eyebrows, a soft set to his withered lips… Somehow, it seemed to be a reminder, firm yet not unkind, that her Grandma loved her - would always love her - and that there was nothing she could possibly do to change that.

She had no idea how she knew that. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. But then, she had always more or less understood what Mimey was trying to tell her.

“I know,” she replied, letting her gaze fall back down to the table.

She did know. She knew better than most that her Grandma could endure just about any injustice and still find it in her heart to love. But that only made it worse.

After a moment, she stood up from the table and left the room. She didn’t go far, though. The house wasn’t all that large, and the kitchen was directly connected to the living room, which held only an old recliner, a soft couch, several bookshelves, and an outdated television, with a staircase in the corner heading up to the bedrooms on the second story. She stopped in front of the mantlepiece and paused for a moment to look at the photographs.

In almost twenty years, they had barely changed. They moved through time from left to right like a roll of film. On the right were pictures of her; one of her and her friends, her with her mom, the day she got her first badge, the day she got her first pokemon…

Then there, in the middle. The day she was born. The first picture of her. The first picture without him.

The picture directly beside it was a photo from her parents’ wedding. Her mother looked so young. Both looked so happy. But they couldn’t have been. Not really. Not considering what happened next. Pictures were worth a thousand words, but no one ever said those words were true.

She shifted her eyes to the left, watching her father’s life pass by in reverse for what felt like the hundredth time. Him finally becoming the Champion. Him with his friends, some she knew well like Gary or Brock; others she had only met in passing, like May or Dawn or Serena. Him getting his first gym badge. Him getting his first pokemon.

Then, finally, the first picture of him. The day he was born.

And there, standing beside Delia, holding her father in his arms…

Her grandfather. The first person to abandon her grandma. The person who had, perhaps, started it all. Their terrible family legacy.

But it would end with AJ. No one would ever leave her Grandma again.

AJ might be running, but it wasn’t forever. She just… needed to get out for a little while. Get away and settle her head. It was different from what her father had done, what her grandfather had done. She wasn’t disappearing without saying a word to anyone. She wasn’t going off alone. She would be back.

It was different.

Guilt had her retreating to the kitchen again. The silence with Mimey may be awkward, but it was better than stewing alone in a room full of pictures of her dad.

After a couple of minutes, she asked Mimey if she could borrow a pen and some paper. May as well do something with her hands to pass the time, and she had wanted to start her apologies with her grandmother anyway.

She hesitated, the tip of the pen barely inches away from the page.

What should she say? What could she say that didn’t sound... insincere? Hollow? Flippant? If apologizing to her grandma through a letter was this tough, how impossible was it going to be when she finally saw her mom again face-to-face?

After an agonizing few seconds, she finally lowered the pen and wrote, her letters forming into shaky, hesitant shapes, ‘I’m sorry. I love you. AJ.’

Well, that was exhausting. Six words should not be so draining. She moved to put the pen down until she realized that, out of context, that could almost sound like some kind of dramatic and ominous farewell. Especially to a woman who had already been abandoned by both her husband and her son.

Hastily, she put the pen back down and scribbled out a quick ‘PS - heading to Mt. Silver in Johto with Jade and Sammy. Will be back within a month. I’ll bring you a souvenir!’

There. That sounded better, and not like she was about to vanish from off the face of the world. Bet her deadbeat dad hadn’t even done that much. See? She was better than him in every way imaginable.

She almost added a ‘Please don't tell mom’ to the end there, but stopped herself. That would just sound childish. Besides, no matter how mad her mom was, she wasn’t about to pack up shop and tear off after her. Right?

For a moment, she considered adding it again, but stopped herself. Her grandma was more likely to side with her mom in this situation anyway.

She stuck around her grandma’s place for a little while longer, catching up with Mimey and letting Pichu burn through some of his never-ending energy, but before an hour had passed she was already up and out the door, heading back to the Oak’s lab.

The sooner her friends were up, the sooner they’d be on their way, and the sooner she’d arrive at Mt. Silver. And then she could just… put this all behind her for a while. Yeah. That’s what she needed. An escape.

She ignored the voice in her head telling her that that’s probably exactly what her father and grandfather had been thinking the last time they’d walked out Delia’s front door.

Chapter Text

Thankfully, the distance between Pallet in Kanto and New Bark in Johto was actually pretty small, all things considered. It required that they fly west, angling south beneath the mountain range that made up the Indigo League’s Victory Road, but the region was coastal and warm, and the journey only lasted a few hours on the back of Jade’s Metagross, which was a welcome relief.

She’d visited New Bark Town once before, early on in her journey, shortly after her first loss in Kanto’s Pokemon League Conference. She’d been too green then and had lost handily in the very first round, but then she hadn’t expected to do well anyway, barely being eleven years old at the time. She’d done it more for the experience, always intending to head out to other regions after finishing Kanto’s gym circuit, and Johto had always been planned as the next step on her journey.

Yet despite having visited New Bark before, it still surprised her how similar it was to Pallet. Both were relatively small and quaint settlements on the edge of the region. Both were the traditional starting points for pokemon journeys. And both happened to house the lab for that region’s preeminent pokemon researcher.

If it weren’t for the fact that New Bark was actually the older of the two settlements, she would have sworn that someone had just copied the idea of Pallet Town in its entirety and pasted it over here in Johto. The only real difference was the trees. Pallet had mainly maples, whose five-pointed leaves painted the town a burning red every autumn. New Bark and its mountainous hills were surrounded by thin reedy pines that cloaked the area in an eternal swathe of greens and browns.

She supposed she should have felt guilty, showing up unannounced at Professor Elm’s lab that morning and just barging in, but Sammy assured them he wouldn’t mind. The man had a reputation for being flighty and forgetful, and according to Sammy, would likely have forgotten they were coming even if they had called ahead.

Arriving at the lab had been a bit of an odd experience. The building was large and square, without a hint of architectural sophistication, covered in gleaming windows that shone like the carapace of a Heracross beneath the bright morning sun. They’d landed just outside one of the back entrances used by employees and researchers, in an old and barely used parking lot - most researchers using pokemon to commute to and from work.

Jade and Sammy recalled their pokemon and AJ finally released her hold on Pichu, letting him cavort across the cracked pavement while they each stretched and shook out their tired limbs before making their way toward the sliding doors. They were normally locked, of course, to prevent randos from just wandering in through the back entrance, but Sammy had a pass to the lab since he’d spent the last few weeks working here.

When the trio of unannounced visitors walked into the small atrium - black linoleum tiles glinting dully beneath the starched white walls, the air conditioner working perhaps a bit too hard as goosebumps burst all up and down AJ’s bare arms - the workers inside met them with confused and cautious glances. She vaguely wondered how often they had to deal with people just barging in. It was probably fairly common - or at least the attempts likely were. This was Elm’s lab, after all; he probably had to deal with attempts at espionage all the time.

Thankfully, the aides' hesitation changed to looks of recognition and relief upon noticing Sammy Oak. Then changed again to shock and poorly restrained awe when they spotted AJ.

She shuffled uncomfortably, trying to decide how to hold herself. It had only been a week and she still wasn’t used to this yet, random people she’d never met knowing who she was on-sight. How was she supposed to act? Was she supposed to be cool and aloof, like Diantha? Or bold and brimming with confidence, like Cynthia? Why didn’t Lance give her some sort of ‘How to be an Inspiring Leader for Dummies’ book?

Pichu, however, seemed to be sucking it up, crawling up onto her head and waving at the strangers as though they’d all come to see him. To be fair, this was just how he acted normally - he was a bit full of himself. He probably had no idea that he was famous now. Not for the first time, she wished she could be as carefree as her partner.

A girl about their age in a white lab coat with thick, square glasses and her mousy brown hair thrown up in a messy bun approached them with a nervous but familiar smile for Sammy, engaging him in conversation yet throwing several startled glances in her direction as if AJ wasn’t aware of her doing it.

Is this what Champions put up with every day? Randos just gawking at them like they were Mew itself? If so, it was getting old, fast. She could at least say hello to her, too.

After Sammy finished saying whatever he had been saying - honestly, AJ hadn’t been listening, too concerned with making sure she was standing up straight under the watchful eyes of Elm’s researchers - the aid scurried off deeper into the building, still casting not-so-secretive glances back in AJ’s direction.

Jade leaned in with a smirk.

“I’m surprised she didn’t ask for your autograph.”

“Shut up,” AJ hissed back, her face suddenly flushing scarlet. Oh Arceus, that’s a thing people could start doing, wasn’t it?! What was she supposed to do if someone asked? Her handwriting was awful!

After an interminable wait, the mousy aid returned, letting them know that Professor Elm would see them now. Sammy nodded with a grateful smile, all charm and good looks fit to make the poor girl swoon, and started off, not needing a guide to walk him to the office since he’d been there several times. Jade followed along, AJ bringing up the rear, suddenly wondering if she was walking strangely and if anyone would notice. Why did it suddenly feel like she’d forgotten how to walk? She could feel every eye following her until she rounded the corner and started down the hall.

All at once, she was annoyed. She’d had people’s eyes on her for years now whenever she was battling, why was it weird now? Maybe because she didn’t spend a lot of time walking during a battle?

Professor Elm was a thin, gangly man with a head like a perfectly rounded and brightly waxed oval. His hair had receded considerably, leaving the top of his scalp shiny and bare, a fringe of gray-brown clinging around the sides like moss.

Everything about him seemed to exude forgetfulness, from the crooked set of his glasses to the way his tie hung loose and askew around his neck. His clothes seemed ill-fitting, though that may have just been because of how bony and thin he was, and though his smile was friendly, there was a definite air of fogginess about him, as though you were never 100% sure that he was all there.

His office was a mess as well; stacks upon stacks of files and documents and books piled up over tables and desks and chairs and even the floor. There was a Hoothoot perched atop one stack, standing on one foot and gazing at them crookedly, letting out a doleful hoot of welcome. Atop another stack sat a sleeping Corsola, acting as a paperweight.

“Ah, welcome!” he said, surprisingly energetic as he set down his mug of coffee and stood from his seat behind his desk and the veritable mountain of random detritus littered atop it. “Sammy, my boy, always a pleasure. And AJ - wonderful to meet you! Remarkable job, winning the Champion seat so young. An excellent battle, or so I’m told. Couldn’t see it myself, unfortunately - too much to do. You know, I actually knew your father-”

“Professor,” Sammy cut in hastily, shooting AJ a covert look of apology, “we’re really sorry to barge in like this, but-”

“Oh, no, no, no trouble at all! Always a pleasure to have a visit from such a bright young mind! Lyra will be delighted to hear you’re back; you’ve been such a help with her research. You know, there’s a Stantler heard passing through on their migration just now, and I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to-”

“Actually, Professor,” Sammy cut in again, though from his expression, Professor Elm getting carried away by tangents was apparently an every-day occurrence, “I’m afraid I’m still not back yet. I’m going on a quick journey with AJ and Jade before her League duties begin.”

“Ah, well now,” Elm said, scratching his head and looking around the room absently as though he were searching for something but couldn’t remember what that thing was. “A shame, that, but… Yes, yes, have a good time, lad, we’ll be here when you get back.”

He picked up his mug and took a sip, only to spit out a mouthful of thumbtacks. He’d grabbed the wrong mug. AJ and Jade exchanged looks.

“Professor,” said AJ, stepping forward. Maybe she needed to steer this conversation in the right direction. “I’m actually here to see Ethan. Sammy thought you might know how to get in touch with him? I heard he lives in Goldenrod, but he spends a lot of time here, so we thought it might be faster to check here first.”

“Ethan?” Elm said, frowning as if he’d never heard the name before. “No, no - sorry, but I haven’t any idea where he is. Busy lad. The Champion, you know. Ah, but Lyra probably knows where to find him.”

AJ, who had begun to think this entire trip had been a massive waste of time, perked up at the last.

“Chummier than the heads of an Exeggutor, those two. I think she said something about seeing him today. Now let me think… I put my pokegear down around here somewhere…”

He began to rifle through a folder, as though the device was hidden somewhere between the pages.

“That’s alright, Professor,” Sammy said smoothly. “I have her number. If she’s with Ethan, then they’re probably over at the park anyway, but I can give her a call myself. Don’t worry about it.”

“Aha!” the older man exclaimed, dropping the folder and clapping his hands as though Sammy’s response had been some sort of scientific breakthrough. “Excellent! Well then, I’ll leave it to you, lad! Yes, yes! Off you go - and we’ll discuss more about those Stantler when you get back, eh? Always a pleasure! You as well, AJ! And you, uh, er…”

“Jade,” Jade supplied, a polite smile on her face.

“Ah, yes - Jade! Of course. A pleasure.”

And just like that, he was rifling through his papers again, apparently looking for the glasses that were still perched crookedly on his nose.

Sammy caught their eye and jerked his head toward the door. They left the disorganized office, and even more disorganized man, behind them in silence, not speaking again until they were out of the building. The eyes that had watched her walk in watched her walk back out again, some of them speaking in hushed whispers behind their hands. She thought she saw one of them snap a picture of her.

Wait, what if someone had leaked her little outburst last night to the press?! Maybe they weren’t staring at her because she was famous - maybe they were laughing at her behind her back!

She needed to be away from the lab and other human beings, pronto.

“So now what?” she asked, clapping her hands for want of anything better to do with them. Pichu took the opportunity to jump down off of her shoulder and roll around in the nearby grass. “Call this friend of yours, or…?”

“We can,” Sammy said, plucking Corviknight’s ball off of his belt and summoning the large stygian bird to his side. “But chances are she’s at the park, like I said before. That’s pretty much where she always is when Ethan is around. He likes to go there to hide from people.”

Ah, a man after her own heart. With orders to follow him, Jade summoned back her Metagross, AJ ran to catch Pichu who had decided to root through a trash can, and together the three took off once more into the sky, soaring above the town of Little Root, heading toward the hills.

“So who’s Lyra?” Jade asked, the two of them once again using their pokegear to communicate with Sammy so they didn’t have to shout. “And why was Elm talking about Stantler?”

“She’s one of Elm’s aids.” Sammy explained, his voice a little muffled through the pokegear due to the sound of the rushing wind. “She and Ethan go way back. He brought up the Stantler because she’s been researching regional variant evolutionary parameters here in Johto, and I’d been giving her a hand with some of it.”

“Johto has regional variant pokemon?” AJ asked, looking startled. Why hadn’t she ever heard of that before?

“No,” Sammy said quickly. “Or, well, none that we know of. But that’s what Lyra is studying. Specifically, regional variant evolution. Like how we have Farfetch’d here in the Indigo League, but no Farfetch’d here have been known to evolve, unlike the ones in Galar. Lyra’s research aims to understand what phenomena encourage evolution specific to certain regions and then see if it can’t be reproduced in other places, to produce similar or even brand new results.”

“That would be awesome,” AJ said emphatically.

“Tough to prove, though,” Jade chimed in. “Pokemon evolutionary methods are so wild and diverse… You could test a thousand different methods on Farfetch’d alone and never find whatever makes them evolve. What if it’s just genetic? Sometimes, it is.”

“Yeah, but not always,” AJ argued back. “And think about how awesome it would be if it could be done? Or if it unlocked an entirely brand new evolution unique to Johto? That would be so cool!”

“I’ll be sure to tell her how excited you are about her research,” Sammy said in an amused tone. “She’ll probably end up being the next big Johto Pokemon Professor, from what I’ve seen. She’s Elm’s favorite by far. I know you’re Kanto’s Champion now, but getting in with her early will probably be a good thing for you, considering how often we work together on things.”

“Ooh, high praise from Sammy Oak,” AJ joked, feeling another wicked urge to tease him bubble up inside her. Mew, they’d been apart for too long. “Is this the part where we tease you about your secret brainiac love tryst with this Johtoan scholar?”

“Ugh,” he groaned, letting the sound drag out ostentatiously. “I expect this nonsense from Jade, not from you. Trust me, Lyra is definitely not my type.”

“Well, Jade is being weirdly silent about it!” AJ laughed, gently ribbing her friend, who for her part was shooting AJ a longsuffering look. “Apparently, I have to step up! And what do you mean, not your type? Is she ugly? Too smart for you? What even is your type anyway - coordinators? People who spend too much time doing their hair?”

“Sammy’s type,” Jade said, cutting in before Sammy could defend himself, “is clearly people who are completely oblivious.”

There was a lull in the conversation, as Sammy muttered something darkly under his breath that was too quiet to hear though it sounded like it might have been a threat, and Jade stared off straight ahead as though she hadn’t spoken at all.

AJ blinked, confused.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, feeling suddenly out of the loop. Since when did Jade and Sammy have inside jokes she wasn’t privy to? “Oblivious? What, like… idiots?”

Jade suddenly snorted, and even Sammy let out a surprised bark of laughter.

“Yeah, love,” Jade said, grinning from ear to ear and throwing an arm around AJ’s shoulders. “That’s exactly right. Sammy is attracted to idiots, because he’s an idiot, too. I’m glad we got that covered.”

AJ joined in on the laughter, though more reservedly. Somehow, she got the feeling Jade hadn’t been making fun of Sammy with that comment, but she couldn’t see how.

“I hate both of you,” Sammy said from the other side of the line, though she could still hear the note of amusement in his voice. “Also, we’re done with this conversation. We’ve arrived at the park anyway.”

When Sammy had mentioned a park earlier, AJ had expected something along the lines of playgrounds and water fountains, maybe a tennis court or some old guys playing shogi on benches.

In actuality, what she found as they lowered themselves to the ground and dismounted was a wide, grassy area with a scattering of trees and not much else. Sentret and Rattata darted about in the distance, the call of wild Pidgey echoing in the trees, and she thought she could see scarring on some of their trunks indicating that Heracross might live nearby. There were walking trails she could see, looping out into the distance, but for the most part, the ‘park’ seemed to be just an open, unworked clump of land.

Sammy recalled his Corviknight, Jade her Metagross, and Pichu burst free from the confines of AJ’s vest to gambol about on the grass. You’d think he hadn’t been outside in years rather than minutes from the way he was acting. As she watched, he spotted a Caterpie up in a tree and tore off after it, leaving the poor thing to squeal in terror and climb higher to escape.

Sammy led the way through the park, not following one of the paths but instead heading off toward the west, Jade having no trouble matching his pace with her supermodel legs, but AJ needing to walk a little faster to keep up. It wasn’t fair that both of her friends were taller than her.

She kept an eye on Pichu to make sure he was following, but he kept up just as he always did. He was chased out of the tree by an angry mother Butterfree and a wave of Stun Spores, after which he darted around behind them, seemingly touching everything and anything.

He ran around, sniffing at odd mushrooms or investigating bushes or the knots of gnarled trees before rushing back to her, climbing up her legs and onto his familiar shoulder perch before launching himself off again to go and investigate something else of interest. He had the attention span of a caffeine-addled four-year-old, though she was long since used to it at this point.

Finally, after a couple minutes of walking and entering a section of the park where the trees were perhaps a bit thicker, they came across a trio of young adults lazing about beneath the shade of a large white birch. She recognized Ethan immediately, though that wasn’t hard to do considering he was the only guy in the group.

He was sitting down, back to the tree, eyes closed as though asleep, one arm resting lazily on the knee of his black shorts. He had on a red long-sleeved jacket and his familiar black-and-gold hat turned backward, which had become his trademark. He didn’t seem to notice their approach, simply enjoying the quiet of the morning.

Or, what would have been the quiet. A little to the right sat a girl who AJ assumed must be Lyra, and she was talking so quickly that it was a wonder that she hadn’t passed out from lack of oxygen.

She was kneeling on the grass about a span away from Ethan, making notes on a tablet while she talked almost non-stop, her eyes occasionally raising away from the screen to turn in his direction, her large white… bonnet? Is that what that type of hat was called? Whatever it was, it swayed whenever she turned her head. It reminded her of a Jumpluff.

The third and final member of their trio was a young woman who looked like she might have a year or two on Ethan. She was lying on her back on the grass, head propped up on Ethan’s thigh, eyes closed and arms splayed out, legs crossed at the ankles.

She had indigo hair, pulled into pigtails beneath a round, bill-less yellow cap. Her white jacket was unzipped, revealing a red shirt and blue-and-yellow spats, and her legs were surprisingly muscular. AJ couldn’t help but wonder how much time she spent hiking.

A Marill was running around nearby, chasing a handful of Hoppip who were bobbling languidly through the air, and it was the Marill that noticed them first, freezing in place for a moment before turning and racing back to Lyra, hiding behind her and gibbering fearfully as it pointed in their direction.

Lyra glanced over at them, as did Ethan, opening his eyes and frowning in their direction. From the look on his face, she could tell right away that he wasn’t happy to be disturbed.

His eyes registered Sammy first, and his expression shifted to one of relief and recognition. Then his eyes met hers, and his eyebrows rose in obvious surprise.

“Sammy!” Lyra said, quickly rising to her feet and stepping forward to greet them. “Hey there! Wasn’t expecting to see you again anytime soon!”

Her voice was bubbly and filled with effervescent energy. Not at all what she’d been expecting when she’d pictured Lyra, Elm’s favorite aide, research genius, and Sammy’s fictional love interest. She thought she’d be… well… duller.

“Hey Lyra,” he replied, leaning down to return the hug she was already giving him. “And yeah, sorry for showing up unannounced like this.”

He said the latter while casting an apologetic look towards Ethan, but the Johtoan Champion was still gazing at AJ as though sizing her up.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Lyra replied. “You know you’re always welcome around here. So what’s up? Oh, did you hear about the Stantler?!”

“Uh, I did, yeah,” he said, somewhat awkwardly. “But, uh, that’s not-”

But at that moment, the other girl finally opened her eyes and lifted her head off of Ethan’s thigh to turn and regard the group. Her gaze swept over Sammy with bored indifference, lingered on Jade for a moment as though wondering who or what she was, then stopped on AJ.

There was a beat, then she sat straight up and turned.

“Am I still asleep,” she asked, her voice a little hoarse from her nap, “or is that the new Kanto Grand Champion?”

A wry smile wormed its way onto Ethan’s face.

“You live in a perpetual sleep,” he responded dryly. “But yes, that’s AJ Ketchum, Kanto’s new Champion.”

The girl grinned.

“Wicked.”

All at once she was on her feet, striding forward with confident steps, an eager and somewhat hungry grin on her face. Was it just AJ, or did her teeth seem a bit more pointed than usual?

“Hey,” she said briskly. “How’s it going? The name’s Kris. How’s about a battle?”

AJ blinked several times, taken aback. This girl was a force of nature.

Wait, did she say battle?

She opened her mouth to agree - social niceties were awkward, but a battle she could handle - when Ethan interrupted.

“Uh-uh,” he said, already on his feet and walking closer, shaking his head in mock reprimand. “No, ma’am. You can’t just walk up to a Champion and demand a battle.”

AJ was about to say that she really didn’t mind, but Kris cut her off, glaring daggers at Ethan.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, golden boy.”

“You wanna battle Kanto’s Champion?” he asked, placing his hands on his hips and staring Kris down. “Go to Kanto, get all the badges, win the top spot in the League Conference, submit your official challenge to the Elite Four, and fight your way past her mom and the rest of the League in four official matches all held within the span of a single week… then you can battle the Champion.”

He sounded serious, but there was a twitch to his lips and a glint in his eye that let her know he was mostly just trying to rile his friend up.

Kris gave an exaggerated eye roll.

“Yes, mom, I know how the League rules work, but that doesn’t mean-”

“That you get to challenge a Champion willy-nilly,” he finished for her, clearly enjoying the look of murder she was sending his way. “Clearly I’ve been too generous with you.”

Kris socked him in the arm.

“Now,” he continued, his face showing no sign of discomfort but lifting a hand to rub at his sore bicep, “Champion AJ, what can I do for you today?”

AJ fidgeted awkwardly. This was not going at all how she had expected. Champion AJ? Was that how she was supposed to address him?

“Uh, well…” she began, then mentally slapped herself. Get it together, AJ! “I was wondering if… I mean, you see… I need a favor?”

The last bit came out weakly, like a question. It suddenly occurred to her that just marching up to another region’s Champion completely unannounced and demanding a favor was extremely rude, even if it was a pretty small favor, all things considered. What if he said no? What would they do then?

But Ethan’s grin remained fixed on his face, his amber eyes glittering in the sun like burnished gold.

“Uh-uh,” he said again, in the exact same way he had to Kris. “Sorry, AJ - Champions have rules too, you know.”

They did? Oh crap - was she supposed to, like, fill out some kind of official request form? Lance hadn’t said anything about that! What if she caused some sort of international incident?! Oh great… First, she makes a fool out of herself at her own party, then she goes and offends the Johtoan Grand Champion… She really was determined to screw everything up, wasn’t she?

As though he could read her inner turmoil, Ethan’s grin softened a bit.

“I’ll give you whatever help I can,” he said reassuringly, but then that wicked grin returned to his face full-force. “But first… It’s tradition, whenever two Champions meet for the first time. You have to battle me.”

Kris threw her hands up in the air.

“I knew it! You just wanted to battle her yourself!”

“Of course I did!” Ethan said, laughing as Kris gave him a rough shove that nearly toppled him over. “Champion’s privilege!”

“Yeah, I’ll show you ‘Champions privilege’-!”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, waving her off airily. “Come take my spot from me for real and we can talk.”

Kris snarled and stalked off, but Ethan was still grinning. AJ assumed they weren’t really fighting - maybe this was just how their friendship worked? - but she eyed the older girl askance just in case.

“So?” he continued, bringing her attention back to him. “You down? Sorry, I know it’s kinda last minute and all, but-”

“What?” she asked. “Oh. Oh! Yes! Absolutely, yes!”

A battle? With another Champion?

Today was suddenly turning out better than she could have imagined!

“Excellent,” he said, all eager smiles. “I’ve been looking forward to this since I saw you battle Lance at the finals, but I didn’t think I’d get the chance so soon!”

He turned and strode off toward a nearby clearing devoid of trees, calling for the others to follow. Jade, Sammy, and Lyra all obeyed, Jade shooting her an excited smile, and Kris fell in behind them, no longer looking like she could chew through granite.

AJ, however, hesitated for a moment, barely even noticing Pichu climbing his way back up to her shoulder and chattering animatedly in her ear.

He’d been looking forward to it? To battling her?

That she’d been looking forward to it made sense - she was the new kid on the block. She needed to prove herself. But that another Champion actually wanted to battle her, too…

Something inside of her was dancing energetically. She fought to school her features and appear confident and composed as she hurried off after Ethan and her friends.

“Three pokemon each,” he called out across their grassy makeshift arena. “No items, no substitutions. Lyra can be our ref. And since I don’t want to attract too much attention, let’s have them be three one-on-one battles - y’know, not to let things drag out too much.”

“Sounds good to me,” she agreed quickly. He could have limited it to a single one-on-one bout, and she would have jumped at the chance. Hastily, trying not to let too much of her eagerness show, she squared off against him across the green, wiggling her fingers in anticipation.

“Kick his teeth in, AJ!” Jade shouted from the sidelines in her traditional overly-bloodthirsty show of support.

“Yeah, kick his teeth in!” Kris echoed unexpectedly from the other side of the field.

Ethan shot her a flat look.

“Really? Just like that, huh? No one cheering for me?”

“I’ll cheer for you, Ethan!” Lyra said hastily, trying for a friendly smile but unable to hide the red that blossomed in her cheeks.

This immediately prompted an outpouring of boos and shouted accusations of referee bias from Jade, Sammy, and Kris alike that left AJ and Ethan laughing and Lyra looking like she’d been pelted with stones.

Once they’d recovered, they squared off across the field again, taking their stances. It was funny how every trainer had a ‘pose’ they used when starting a battle; it wasn’t something they decided on consciously, at least not usually, and it had no impact on the battle itself. But they all had one.

Ethan stood slightly turned, one foot forward, legs apart. He had his right hand extended to the side close to his belt where his pokeballs hung, his left arm held up, bent at the elbow, resting in front of him as though to defend himself. His smile looked eager, and from the way the sun glinted in his eyes, she could see why some called him Gold.

“Well, since you’re the guest, I guess I’ll go first,” Ethan said, all confidence. “Since we’re doing three one-on-one matches, we’ll have the winner of the previous bout be the one to choose their pokemon first, just to keep things interesting.”

He plucked a pokeball from his belt, winding up and chucking it into the ring like he was playing baseball.

“Allow me to introduce my starter.”

With a roar that made her weak at the knees, a Typhlosion manifested in the center of the field, the flames on its back erupting like the volcanoes its kind were known to inhabit.

The beast was massive, easily half again as tall as AJ and three times as wide, with flesh-rending claws and a mouth full of glittering teeth sharp enough to make a Sharpedo jealous. It preened for a moment under the bright afternoon sunlight, letting its flames die down before shifting to all-fours so it could paw at the ground, awaiting its challenger.

AJ was grinning. She couldn’t help it. She’d seen this behemoth in action on tv three years ago as it carved its way through Will’s team in a relentless roar of fire and destruction. To think she was actually getting the chance to battle against it..! Being the Champion was the best!

“Alright then,” she said, somewhat breathless, snagging the front of her cap and twisting it around, making her bangs poke out of the back in a way that Jade had always assured her was really dumb looking. “If that's how you want to do it, then we’ll go starter vs starter! Pichu, get in there!”

With a valiant cry, her tiny little hero leaped off of her shoulder and entered the ring. When confronted face-to-face with Ethan’s Typhlosion, its diminutive size became all the more apparent.

Despite obviously knowing how good her Pichu was - he’d been in the stands during her Elite 4 challenge - the Johto Champion couldn’t help the condescending smirk that flickered across his face.

“Let’s start off nice and easy, Typhlosion,” he called out, letting arrogance coat his words. “I’d hate to roast that rat alive and cause an international incident.”

Ah, trash talk. A tradition as old as battling itself.

“Typhlosion, start things off with a smokescreen!”

Typhlosion fell to all-fours with a slight tremor, sinking its claws into the loamy soil and letting the flames on its back roar back to life with a surge of heat that seemed to smack AJ in the face even from several yards away. Black, sulfurous smoke began gushing out, twisting into the heated air, coiling about the massive creature like a veil of death.

Well, better cut this off fast.

“Pichu, Rain Dance!”

It’s difficult to say what a Rain Dance even was. Pokemon Researchers had been studying the moves these mystical monsters could use for generations now, but no one had ever been able to tell. The particular movements the pokemon used didn’t seem to matter; they could hula dance around the entire arena or stand completely still and either way, the storm would appear. It was a localized weather phenomena that violated all known natural laws.

As a pokemon trainer, however, AJ didn’t really care about the science of it all. What mattered was that as dark smoke filled the air, even darker clouds materialized overhead as though from nowhere, a thick wind kicking up, pleasantly refreshing after experiencing the heat of Typhlosion’s flames, pushing the smoke away, dissipating the smokescreen.

Then the rain came, thick and heavy, falling to the ground in fat, wet drops, steadily increasing, dampening her skin and the grass. The smoke was gone, but Typhlosion was now enveloped in a new haze, this one of white steam as the rain quickly evaporated on contact with its fur.

Under the downpour, its flames had weakened, slowly vanishing as though they’d been retracted into its body like quills.

“Clever,” Ethan called out, shouting a bit to be heard over the wind. “But not unexpected. I’m still not impressed. Let’s see how you handle this: Typhlosion, Bulldoze!”

With a furious roar, his Typhlosion broke into a dead sprint, down on all-fours again, nine-hundred pounds of muscle and rage bearing down on her starter like a freight train as its claws tore up tufts of grass and earth.

It was fast. Still, he’d have to get up earlier than that if he thought he could catch them.

“Pichu, Quick Attack! Then get up on its back!”

Pichu was gone in a flash, zipping around the Typhlosion like a bolt of lightning while the furious fire type ground to a halt, claws digging furrows in the now-muddy grass, slowly swiping at it with paws that could have squished it in an instant.

Pichu was too fast, however, and a moment later had leaped up on the larger monster’s back. The lower part, away from the cherry-red nodes where its powerful flames usually emanated.

The one advantage that her Pichu had over other pokemon used by trainers at her level was its size. Almost always, the main teams used by Champions, Elite Four members and even Gym Leaders when they were being serious were dominated by large, powerful pokemon. The kind who could level the playing field with a single powerful blow. Even the ones who did use speedier pokemon still used ones that were normally several times Pichu’s size.

Sure, Pichu wasn’t as strong as most others, and there were many who could match him for speed. But when your entire team became accustomed to fighting towering monsters, suddenly dealing with a tiny mouse no bigger than your paw could throw you for a loop, pokemon and trainer both, and AJ took full advantage of that.

“Now,” she shouted once her partner had secured his position on Typhlosion's lower back, “use Nuzzle!”

Ethan wasn’t just going to just stand there and take it though. At the same time, he called out, “Typhlosion, Eruption!”

There was a split second in which Pichu glowed yellow beneath the storm before the arena basically exploded in a wave of fire and steam.

When it cleared, she could see her Pichu just a few feet ahead of her where it had been blasted away. Its coat was blackened and smoking where it wasn’t soaked in grassy mud, but it was still up on all fours, looking haggard and hurt but still willing to go.

Honestly, that move alone should have done it. Pichu was quick and smart, but it wasn’t hardy. A side-effect of still being technically classified as a ‘baby’ pokemon was a lack of stamina and endurance. Pichu won its matches through a combination of opponents underestimating him and the wide array of unique moves he’d learned over their journey together. He usually couldn’t take more than one hit, and even now had only managed to hang on because the rain had weakened Typhlosion’s fire. One more hit and he was done.

Typhlosion wasn’t in great shape either, however. Pichu’s Nuzzle had managed to land before he’d been blasted off, and she could see her gambit had paid off. He was paralyzed, his thick, murderous muscles spasming beneath his charred coat as he glowered across the field through the rain, eyes locked on Pichu in a way that made her think it would very much like to gobble it up as a snack.

Across the field, Ethan had a funny sort of look on his face; half surprise, half frustration that he’d been toying around with her instead of taking her seriously. Sure, this battle had no stakes and no witnesses aside from personal friends - but to a real trainer, that didn’t matter. A win was a win, and he’d let this go on for too long already. Ethan was about to exit the arena; the Champion was finally coming out to play.

“I’m surprised that thing is still alive,” he called out. “Doubt that’s going to last for long. Typhlosion, enough with the games; use Sunny Day and let’s get down to business.”

AJ grinned. She’d hoped he’d waste a move like that. Just as Typhlosion moved to lift itself back up, she called out, “Pichu, Electric Terrain!”

Sparks danced out across the battlefield, catching in puddles, multiplying as they skittered across the ground, enhanced by the rain and the wet. They didn’t hurt, but as Typhlosion’s Sunny Day failed due to its muscles locking up from paralysis, AJ could see the pieces suddenly align in Ethan’s shocked face, illuminated in the yellow glow of the electrified arena.

“Typhlosion quick, Dig!”

But it was too late.

“Pichu, Volt Tackle!”

Her yellow mouse broke into a run, its body shooting off bolts of lightning as it charged, enhanced by both the rain and the electrified terrain. Typhlosion tried to burrow underground, but it was too slow and its spasming muscles certainly weren’t doing it any favors.

With a clap like thunder, her Pichu collided with Typhlosion, and the larger monster was blasted onto its back where it lay still, steaming under the drizzle.

“Typhlosion is unable to battle!” Lyra cried out, suddenly reminding AJ that they had an audience. “Pichu is the winner!”

From the sidelines, Jade let out a whoop of victory that sounded out over the smattering of applause offered by Sammy and Kris.

As Ethan recalled his starter, AJ directed Pichu to join Jade and Sammy instead of returning to her side as he normally would. He needed to get his burns looked at.

“Jade, can you-?”

“Already on it, babe,” she replied, pulling a vial out of her bag. Ah. Well, considering who her father was, she shouldn’t be surprised. It was nice, traveling with her again.

She turned her attention back to Ethan, unable to help the surge of pride and glee that she felt over having won their first bout. This wasn’t like Lance, who was old and out of his prime; this was the youngest active Regional Champion in the world aside from her. This was big.

For his part, he didn't look frustrated with his loss. On the contrary, he seemed to be looking at her in a new light.

“Well, you won,” he said expectantly, bringing her back to reality. “That means you choose first.”

Oh, that’s right.

She thought it over for a moment before shrugging and pulling one of the balls off of her belt.

If she didn’t know for certain what was coming, then she might as well go with…

“Come on out, Arcanine!”

With a jovial howl, her Arcanine took to the field, heavy paws splashing in the mud under the quickly dissipating rain, his large proud head standing head-and-shoulders taller than her. If there was a single word she could use to describe him, it would be ‘majestic’. And that wasn’t her bragging either - Arcanine really were, as a species, that picturesque.

Ethan sized up her pokemon with an appreciative eye before plucking his own ball from off his belt and lobbing it into the ring.

Ahead of her, a truly massive Gyarados appeared. It reared back and roared in challenge, long, sinuous body extending its massive fanged head nearly two stories high. But what was most surprising about this Gyarados wasn’t its size or its ferocity - it was its coloring.

Most Gyarados were blue, but this one… this one was red.

“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” Ethan said, clearly noticing the stupefied look on AJ’s face. “I caught her up at the Lake of Rage. Never seen one that color before. I’m training it to finally take down Cynthia’s Garchomp, so try to give her a challenge, eh?”

Cynthia’s Garchomp? That unholy beast? Fat chance of that ever happening.

“If I let the Kanto Champion three-stock me, Kris won’t ever let me live it down,” Ethan said jokingly to his Gyarados, though from the side of the arena, she could see Kris nodding emphatically. “So let’s go ahead and end this quick. Gyarados, Dragon Rage!”

Immediately, the colossal sea serpent reared back with a spine-melting roar before surging forward, spewing swaths of blue flame across the battlefield.

Dragon Rage wasn’t fire - not really. It was plasma of some sort, but it gave off no heat unlike regular flame. That didn’t stop it from incinerating most things that it touched, and many were the towns that had been reduced to ash under waves of Gyarados’ infamous Dragon Rage.

But Arcanine wasn’t afraid. Needing only AJ’s quick shout of “Extreme Speed!”, it blasted forward, almost faster than the eye could see, zipping directly underneath the oncoming wave of death.

“Now use Fire Fang!” she shouted, knowing that it was a desperate move but not having many other options.

Unlike before with Pichu, where she had the disadvantage in size, here she also had a disadvantage in typing, which was much harder to overcome. AJ knew the limits of a Gyarados well, having grown up around her mother’s, but that also meant she knew their strengths, and unfortunately for her, they were many.

More specifically, she had to confront the fact that both being a water-type and possessing many of the characteristics of dragon-types made Gyarados particularly resistant to fire, which was most of what her Arcanine could do - other than physically bashing into it with a Takedown or Play Rough, which wouldn’t do much against a giant snake many times its size.

Still, resistant didn’t mean immune, and if she could just burn it…

Ethan wasn’t the Champion for nothing, however, and as though he saw this coming, he shouted, “Now, Gyarados - Outrage!”

For a normal pokemon, Outrage would be a silly attack - they basically flopped around in an angry fit, so if you were small and cute like Pichu, it would be more adorable than intimidating.

For Gyarados, it basically meant it leveled everything around it - and she’d foolishly moved her Arcanine in close to avoid the Dragon Rage or any projectile water attacks or Hyper Beams she knew it had ready in its arsenal.

Arcanine was lithe and quick on its feet - but though it managed to avoid being crushed, it soon found itself trapped between the sinuous tangles of Gyarados’ body.

Exactly where Ethan wanted it, apparently.

“Let’s end this with an Aqua Tail!”

There was nowhere to run. Water encased Gyarados’ body, summoned from seemingly nowhere, its sinuous body unraveling at a frightening speed, and with a crack like a whip it lashed outwards, catching Arcanine as it tried to evade, sucking it into the whirling vortex of water until the massive tail connected and, with a literal wave, her pokemon was sent sprawling out of the arena where it crumpled in a wet heap on the grass.

“Arcanine is unable to battle!” Lyra called out, once again reminding AJ that she was even there. That girl had zero presence. “Gyarados is the winner!”

Either she was imagining things, or there was some poorly concealed satisfaction in that ruling. Maybe she really was biased.

Ethan returned his Gyarados with a satisfied smirk. He wasn’t gloating, however; she could see reflected in his expression the same poorly-restrained excitement that was crackling like electricity through her veins.

This, this right here… This was what it meant to be Champion, why they had worked so hard to get to this spot. All the fame, the accolades, the attention… none of that mattered. Not compared to the thrill of real competition.

This wasn’t over yet, however, and to be honest, she wasn’t putting on the best show. Sure, she’d won the first bout, but she knew that was mostly because Ethan hadn’t been taking her seriously. His mistake of course - she was the Champion of Kanto, he should have known better - but then, she could have sent out Milotic against his Typhlosion instead of trying to show off. When he’d picked a legit counter to her Arcanine, she’d lost handily.

This last round would decide the match, but she had the advantage of being able to pick last. Odds were in her favor. She just needed to focus.

“Guess I’m on the defensive this time,” Ethan said, though she was relieved to see tension in his stance. At least he saw her as a threat. “Let’s wrap this up with a bang.”

And with a colossal roar, a Tyranitar manifested on the field.

Suddenly, all previous thoughts about winning her first real fight with another standing Champion vanished abruptly from her mind.

Not out of defeatism. An opportunity had just appeared in front of her, one she didn’t think she’d get so soon, one she had vaguely toyed around with the idea of asking Cynthia for help with if she ever met her - though that had always been more of a fantasy involving her idol than an actual concrete plan.

But here was Champion Ethan with an honest-to-gods Tyranitar. Not a dragon, though you’d be forgiven for thinking so based on its scaly hide and its volatile temperament. One of the few beings capable of not only tanking direct hits from pseudo-legendaries like Garchomp and Dragonite, but of dishing out some of its own.

More than that, this time, this place… it couldn’t be more perfect. The area was controlled, no civilians were around… Jade, Sammy, and Kris could clearly take care of themselves - and Ethan certainly could… This was it. This was her chance.

The thought that she should definitely ask first flickered across her mind, but she cast it aside. She didn’t want to lose the element of surprise, and after all, this was still a battle - one she intended to win. It would be fine. Probably.

Hesitant, she plucked her sixth and never-used, at least not in battle, pokeball off of her belt and, shaking off her last-minute uncertainty, threw it into the ring.

And death appeared.

Her Hydreigon was massive, larger than a house, with dark mottled blue and purple scales on its thick hide and ratty, desiccated wings that beat the air with haunting flaps that should not have been able to sustain its flight yet nevertheless did.

Its three heads sniffed the air, confused. It was blind, much like its pre-evolutions, the eyes on its main head not developed enough to see anything other than sources of heat. It mainly sensed its environment through smell, sound, and empathy. Being of the dark-type allowed Hydreigon to sense emotions to gauge the location of its prey, which usually worked in its favor as just about anything that saw one was inevitably overwhelmed by sheer terror.

At the edges of the arena, she could see Lyra gaping up at the towering behemoth in shock. Kris was sitting up straight at attention like a Furret, eyes glittering with anticipation. Sammy was slowly backing away, and Jade was shooting her warning looks, but Ethan, the Champion, was gazing at Hydreigon with barely concealed excitement.

His Tyranitar clearly felt the same, and it threw back its head, puffing out its chest, bellowing in challenge. Of the bare handful of pokemon who had earned the moniker 'pseudo-legendary’, these two were far and away the most territorial, and the most violent. This would truly be a showdown worth watching.

Or should have been.

Hydreigon, upon hearing Tyranitar’s challenge, also threw back its head to cry out. Only, this wasn’t a cry of challenge. It was a cry of fear.

Its three heads looked around, frantic and confused. Though the two extra heads didn’t have brains of their own, they did allow Hydreigon to sense the environment, and it was desperately searching for something - anything - familiar and safe.

This was a mistake, AJ realized too late. She had hoped to help Hydreigon get used to the idea of battling - that fighting didn’t have to be to the death, that it could be an outlet for its fear and aggressions. That’s why she had been waiting for an opponent strong enough to handle her, something she wouldn’t accidentally maim or kill.

But she’d underestimated Hydreigon’s trauma. And as she rushed forward, calling out, trying to soothe her terrified beast, Tyranitar, who was getting impatient, slammed its foot on the ground and bellowed once more.

Hydreigon balked, not recognizing the strange and aggressive stranger, and before AJ could stop her, her switch flipped from flight to fight.

“No, stop! It’s ok! You’re safe!”

But AJ’s cries were unheeded, and without warning, the dragon summoned three balls of elemental energy, one in each gaping mouth, and let them loose on the surrounding area. A Tri-Attack.

A bolt of lightning blasted towards Tyranitar, but the mighty creature slapped the ground with its tail, summing up a Stone Edge to pull a hunk of rock out of the earth and block the attack. The rock exploded, but the fragments of stone bounced harmlessly off the monster’s diamond-hard carapace.

A jet of white-hot flame blasted towards Sammy and Jade, leaving the two scrambling away for their lives with panicked shouts, the ground left blackened and steaming in their wake. On the other side, a jagged lance of ice tore through the earth in a zig-zagging line directly towards Lyra, who stood frozen in terror, apparently unable to do anything more than throw up her arms as if that could possibly save her from the oncoming wave of death.

A moment before the beam struck, she was tackled out of the way by Kris, the beam leaving a layer of ice in their place several feet thick.

“AJ,” Ethan called out over the chaos. “What’s going on?”

“She’s just scared!” she tried to call out, but her voice was drowned out as Hydreigon let loose a powerful Uproar that blew out her eardrums. Tyranitar barely flinched, but she could see Ethan behind it, calling out an order, no doubt for his perfectly well-behaved pokemon to knock hers out and gain control of the situation.

If it could do it in one hit. Hydreigon may not be as hardy as Tyranitar - and clearly not as well trained - but it was still a Hydreigon. Even without her issuing orders, the fight could last several minutes, and they ran not only the risk of hurting their friends but of completely destroying the park.

Recognizing her complete and utterly humiliating defeat, AJ pulled Hydreigon’s ball out of her pocket and called it back.

It vanished in a flash of red, leaving behind in its absence nothing but the ringing in her ears and the sting of guilt and embarrassment in her chest.

Alone in the middle of the field, she felt everyone’s gazes directed at her, just like back at the lab.

However a Champion was supposed to act, she could comfortably say that that… that had not been it.

Chapter Text

AJ found herself seated across from Ethan at a rickety rectangular table in one of the many break rooms in Professor Elm’s lab.

After the disastrous conclusion of their battle in the park, few words had been said. The others had been miffed, and rightfully so, after AJ’s out of control pokemon had nearly killed them, but it had been decided that they would go back to the lab to get their pokemon treated rather than head off to the pokemon center. It was closer, yes, but it was also less public, which was probably the bigger deciding factor. Ethan and AJ walking into a pokemon center together would obviously grab attention, something neither of them particularly wanted at that moment.

The others were around, just not with them right now. Sammy had volunteered to take their pokemon to get checked out, since he knew his way around the place, and Jade was with Lyra and Kris, messing around in the small kitchenette, allegedly making tea.

It didn’t take three people to make tea, but it did take three people clearly making excuses to get away to make a situation even more awkward than it already was. At least Lyra’s Marill was still there, cutting through some of the tension with an endless stream of nonsensical chatter as it yanked napkin after napkin out of the dispenser on the table.

Ethan, for his part, looked like a confused mix of stern and upset, like he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to put on his Champion hat and lecture her, or if he could just be pissed like a normal person since she was a Champion, too. Though that last fact also seemed to be throwing him off.

“I am so, so sorry,” she said softly, apologizing for what felt like the hundredth time since the end of their battle and aware that she was averting her guilt-ridden eyes from Ethan’s own unblinking golden gaze, but it was too hard to look him in the face right now. “That wasn’t… I didn’t think that would happen.”

She winced even as the words left her mouth. That was a terrible apology, and from the expression on Ethan’s face, he knew it, but he was being the bigger person by preventing himself from calling her out on it.

“What,” he started, his tone hard, before stopping himself and running a hand over the top of his hat like another might have over their hair. After a moment, he started again, tone softer.

“What is with that Hydreigon of yours? It seems…”

He hesitated, mouth working as though he’d forgotten how to speak.

“Untrained,” Kris supplied bluntly, pulling out a chair and plopping down beside her friend, two mugs of steaming tea in her hands. She placed one in front of Ethan, holding the other up in front of her mouth but not drinking, instead examining AJ critically over the rim of the mug.

AJ noted that Kris had now decided to be part of the grilling rather than avoiding them - she seemed like the kind of person to force their way into things - and also that she hadn’t brought her any tea. That wasn’t very nice.

At her word, Ethan made a gesture of agreement, but from the look of bewilderment on his face, it was obvious he hadn’t been able to bring himself to say it, as if he couldn’t believe that it could even be true. After all, AJ was a Champion, just like he was. New, but still a Champion. What kind of Champion couldn’t control their own pokemon?

Lyra rejoined them then, carrying a tray with several more mugs of tea that she set down in the center of the table, distributing the steaming beverages between herself, AJ, and Jade who was pulling out the chair at AJ’s side. Elm’s assistant sent a disgruntled look at the untouched mug in front of Ethan, then let her eyes flicker briefly to Kris before returning to her task. Kris didn’t seem to notice.

AJ picked up her mug with a quiet word of thanks, taking a slow sip, using the opportunity to organize her thoughts. Mmm, chamomile? That seemed like the sort of thing Lyra would drink.

Ethan and Kris were still staring at her, expectant, bordering on demanding. Well, they deserved an explanation. They all did.

She lowered her mug to the table with a sigh, sitting forward, linking her ankles together under her chair.

“My Hydreigon,” she began slowly, searching carefully for the words; she could never find the right words when she needed them, “is… a rescue. I saved her from a traveling menagerie, where she and a bunch of other pokemon were being abused. She… hasn’t fully adjusted yet.”

The look of judgment had faded somewhat in Ethan and Kris’s eyes, to be replaced by touches of sympathy and righteous indignation.

Ethan still looked a little confused, however, and he asked, “A menagerie had a Hydreigon? And they were abusing it?”

His tone was disbelieving, but he wasn’t exactly calling her a liar; he just wanted more of an explanation. She understood the unasked question - How? Hydreigon wasn’t the kind of pokemon a regular person could handle - you’d need to be an expert trainer to manage a pokemon of that caliber. And she’d mentioned abuse - you didn’t abuse a Hydreigon. Well… you didn’t abuse a Hydreigon and then walk away alive.

“She wasn’t a Hydreigon at the time,” she clarified, idly tracing her finger along the top of her mug. “She was a Zweilous. They kept her in a cage, showed her off to crowds, provoked her heads into fighting each other for entertainment, that sort of thing.”

There was more than just Zweilous, of course, she explained; the Curious Creatures Carnival and Menagerie Extraordinaire had had a host of allegedly wondrous and stupefying attractions and oddities to bedazzle the mind and ensnare the senses - and their guests’ wallets. They’d had a pair of Mr. Mime, one of them Galarian, who they would have gambol about, slapping each other like jesters. A Delphox who would make rings of fire that shimmered in many colors, and a group of Furret who were forced to race around, jumping through the rings as they grew smaller and smaller. A dour-faced, emaciated Smeagle who painted caricatures of the guests.

None of that was bad on paper per se; she’d seen contest stars do as much. But there was a clear difference between a pokemon who’d been carefully raised and trained to perform, and a pokemon who was forced to do so under threat of abuse from its handlers.

It was obvious that the pokemon were being mistreated; they were thin, smelly and unwashed, and were threatened with starvation and whippings if they didn’t perform, all of them fitted with shock collars to keep them in line. Most of the workers carried whips or long cattle prods with ends that gave sharp electrical shocks, or else employed other pokemon - mostly Toxicroak, a small pack of Mightyena, and a surly Drapion, though the owner had a particularly ill-tempered Tsareena who took pleasure in kicking others down - who would keep the others in line.

“Where was this?” Ethan asked, looking as though he was prepared to march over and put an end to this himself, and Kris spoke right on top of him, demanding, “And people just showed up to watch this?”

“In Unova, about a year ago. And some people did,” though the show's turnouts were usually pretty small, and most of the people who did show up left quickly, looking discomfited, “though I’m pretty sure the whole traveling performance act was just a front to hide the illegal transportation and sale of stolen pokemon. They had way too many pokemon who were never put on display, and their crowds were never large enough to sustain them financially. It wasn’t hard to figure out what they were up to.

“Anyway, when we found out, my friend and I - Hilda is her name, we traveled together for a bit - we brought it up to the police at the nearest city, but by the time they went to investigate, the menagerie had already disappeared.”

She remembered the look of pure rage and indignation on Hilda’s face when the police officer had told her they were still looking into things, but that the criminals had managed to escape. She’d been ready to march off after them alone, face down the entire group of them on her own if she had to, her all of fifteen at the time, not even a full year into her journey. They started later in Unova.

Luckily for them, Lenora, the gym leader of the city, had overheard the conversation with the inept police officer. Word had gotten around about the bizarre menagerie passing by the city and she’d been doing her own investigating, and agreed to tag along with AJ and Hilda, using her Stoutland to track the troupe by scent.

They’d caught them in the night, and upon realizing that Nacrene’s gym leader had come after them, the criminals had abandoned all pretense of being performers and had launched into attack mode.

The battle had been something else. AJ was mainly used to official battles, the kind that followed guidelines set up by the League. She’d come across the odd poacher or two in her time, but that battle… It was violent. Bloody. No pokemon had died, thankfully - though several had been badly injured, along with many of the carnies and a couple of Lenora’s gym trainers, and part of the forest had been set ablaze. Lenora and a gaggle of trainers from her gym had done most of the work. Hilda had taken down the ringleader and his trumped-up Tsareena.

It had been AJ who had set free the display pokemon who were kept in their cages rather than in their balls, an attempt to keep up the act of being a menagerie to anyone they passed by. Most of them had bolted the moment their cages were open, fleeing into the wild. Not Zweilous. It had flinched back, cowering against the inner wall of its cage, terrified of this strange new human who had appeared before it.

One of the carnies had come up behind her then, his Noibat swooping down out of the dark, a long electrified cattle prod in his hands. Pichu launched himself at the avian pokemon, knocking it out of the air, the two tumbling to the ground, but the attacker still had a weapon in his hand.

He lunged, but not at AJ, instead aiming for the Zweilous, shouting for it to get up and attack her, to obey him. Zweilous had cried out, both heads in screeching, terrified disharmony. AJ had moved without thinking, throwing herself in front of the cattle prod, taking the shock. She still had the burn scar on her chest.

Zweilous had lashed out then, terror pushing her to the limit, but not at AJ. It’s Dragon Pulse, issued from both gaping mouths, had blasted the carnie backward and through a tree. He’d broken his back in the fall.

“And… she’s been with me ever since,” AJ concluded, still staring into her mug. “I’ve been trying to help her - to get her used to being outside again, to being in a party, let her know she’s safe now, but… I don’t know how long she was in captivity, and…”

And it wasn’t going well. She had evolved not long after AJ had rescued her, and ever since then, she’d been a constant hassle. Not that AJ didn’t care about her and want to help her - she did. She was her pokemon now, her friend, her partner… But she was also an out-of-control threat to almost everyone around her.

If she was out of her pokeball, and AJ wasn’t around, she rampaged. If AJ was around, but strange pokemon or people were as well, she rampaged. She only ever seemed to feel safe and calm in AJ’s presence - and over time, AJ had managed to get her to relax at least somewhat around Pichu and the rest of the pokemon who made up her main team rotation. Hilda was also apparently ‘ok’ in Hydreigon’s book, and after a few months of careful work, both AJ’s mom and Gary Oak had managed at least some level of acceptance, but only when AJ was there.

It had been decided, after talking things over with the Oaks and her mom, as well as an official diagnosis from Brock, who was still a pokemon doctor and world-renowned breeder despite also being Pewter City’s Gym Leader - the man of many hats, some called him - that they would need to bring a specialist on board. Someone who dealt in the rehabilitation of abused pokemon. Someone who wasn’t afraid to risk getting involved with a pokemon this dangerous.

And AJ had agreed, only… Well, those services wouldn’t come cheap, and it wasn’t long after she’d returned from Unova that she’d begun training in earnest for the Pokemon League Conference, and then after she’d won, she had her official Elite 4 challenge to focus on, and then her battle with Lance, and now…

There just hadn’t been time.

She would have left her with the Oaks at the ranch like she did for the rest of her pokemon when they weren’t actively with her, except that she would have gone wild and attacked everyone and everything around her. They could have kept her restrained to her pokeball instead, just until AJ returned for her, but something about that just felt hypocritical. AJ had saved her from captivity, she didn’t want to be the one to then turn around and force her into it again.

“I know I shouldn’t have chosen her in that battle,” she concluded, finally looking up and meeting Ethan’s gaze. “It’s just… I thought, if anyone could handle Hydreigon, it would be another Champion. Your Tyranitar didn’t have any issues blocking her Tri-Attack. I thought that if I could show her what a real battle was like, against an opponent who wouldn’t flinch or run away, one where the outcome wasn’t death or humiliation… I don’t know. I thought it would help her relax a bit more, be more comfortable with the idea of pokemon battling and just calm down a bit around strangers. Instead I just made things worse. I’m so sorry. I should have said something to you before, or asked…”

“Yeah, you should have,” he said, tone blunt, but then he softed a bit. “But I get it. Once you’ve seen that specialist, if you get to the point where Hydreigon can start having practice battles, give me a call. I’d love to help - and have an actual rematch, once she’s up to it.”

AJ smiled gratefully - both for his offer, and his acceptance of her apology.

“Thanks, Ethan.”

“Yeah, me too!” Kris chimed in, suddenly downing her entire mug of tea in one go. She slammed it back down on the table, making Lyra wince. “I’ve got quite the Salamence on my team, you know. If he’s going to maintain his claim as the best dragon in the whole Indigo League, then we’re going to have to face you down at some point.”

“Self-proclaimed title,” Ethan said, tone flat. “And I think both Lance and Claire will have something to say about that.”

Kris scoffed and waved her hand dismissively, as if Lance and Claire were nothing to be concerned about and not world-famous dragon tamers, one of whom had held the Champion title for nearly three and a half decades - ignoring the brief stint that Ash had been the Champion.

Now that tensions had lowered a bit, AJ allowed herself to relax and take another sip of her tea. Sammy still wasn’t back yet, but that was alright. She still needed to ask Ethan to see if they could get permission to go hiking up Mt. Silver, something that was more likely to succeed now that he was in a better mood.

At her side, Jade had seemingly clocked out of the conversation, instead messing around on her pokegear, oblivious to the fact that Marill had stolen her mug of tea and was now drinking it down.

Before she could ask about Mt. Silver, however, Ethan suddenly spoke up again, taking control of the conversation.

“Who was it you said you were traveling with again? Your friend from Unova?”

“Hilda?” AJ asked, and Ethan nodded, a thoughtful frown on his face.

“Yeah, that’s her name… why does that sound so familiar to me?”

AJ knew why, and opened her mouth to answer, but was beaten to the punch by Kris, who offered up a flat, “Wasn’t that the name of Unova’s run-away Champion?”

Ethan’s eyes brightened with recognition, and AJ must have made a face, because both of their gazes refocused on her, looking suddenly intent.

AJ sighed and nodded.

“Yeah, that’s her. Hilda White. We traveled together for a bit.”

And it only had been for a bit - less than a full year. Hilda had been a brand new trainer then - in Unova, trainers started their journey at the age of fifteen, not ten. It was believed by Unovans, and much of the world for that matter, that this was a much better age to receive your trainer license, as fifteen-year-olds were obviously more mature and better able to take care of themselves and their pokemon.

That wasn’t wrong - statistics of trainer injuries and deaths in their first year of their journey proved that - but AJ couldn’t imagine having to wait an extra five years to start her journey. She would have gone mad.

But though they’d only journeyed together for a short time, AJ still considered Hilda one of her better friends. They’d met not long after Jade and Sammy had decided to end their journeys, leaving AJ alone and lonelier than ever. Hilda had been a much welcome companion in those first few months without her best friends around.

Still, Hilda’s rise had been meteoric - she’d won Unova’s Champion title at the age of seventeen, just a few months before AJ herself had, which meant she not only beat AJ to the punch in terms of age, but also in terms of how long she’d been on her journey. Going from newbie to Champion in a little over two years wasn’t just unheard of - it was generally considered to be impossible. Until Hilda did just that.

Only, immediately after she won, she renounced her title and disappeared. Nobody knew why. Nobody knew where she was. It had been a scandal, with journalists having a field day, claiming the girl had been too young, that she hadn’t been able to handle the pressure, that ‘green’ trainers like her shouldn’t even be allowed to challenge the League, nevermind that she had done so and won.

This had become something of a sore point for certain parts of the population; that the ‘newer’ generation of trainers was weak, and Hilda had sort of become the prime example of that. AJ herself had already been on the receiving end of that scrutiny, as had Ethan she knew, and Leon, the next youngest Champion after Ethan who was from Galar and in his mid-twenties.

The reason that so many new Champions were so young wasn’t because the newest generation was more talented, it was argued, but because everything was supposedly easier nowadays than it ever had been before, which bred the sort of weak will that caused Hilda to run away.

AJ had called her a couple of times, both after she’d won and disappeared, and then again a couple of days after AJ herself had become the Champion, but her friend hadn’t answered. Something had gone on in those last months, she knew. Something involving a criminal organization known as Team Plasma, who had lead a series of coordinated terrorist attacks throughout the region. AJ had known, mostly through reports from her mother, that Hilda had been involved in that in some way, though how specifically she didn’t know. All she knew is that it was over now, Hilda had become the youngest Grand Champion in world history, and then had renounced her title almost immediately and disappeared.

She’d received one message from her since they’d parted ways, on the night she’d beaten Lance, congratulating her on her victory, so she knew Hilda was alive. But where she was, or what she was doing, she had no idea.

“Are you two still in contact?” Ethan asked, and before AJ could say ‘no, sorry, and I have no idea where she went or why she ran, her business his her business’, he continued with, “Something’s come up and I think she could be a big help. I got in touch with Iris already, but… well, from what I’ve been told, Hilda was right there in the thick of it, so…”

“The thick of what?”

Ethan frowned, seeming to think it over for a moment. He glanced sideways at Kris, but the other woman was busy making faces at Lyra’s Marill, making it laugh.

Finally he sighed, then shrugged.

“No reason why I should keep it from you. You’re my fellow Indigo League Champion, after all - no doubt you’re going to hear about it before long. What do you remember hearing about Team Plasma?”

AJ blinked. She had literally just been thinking about that. Could Ethan read minds?! No, no - that was dumb.

“Uh… not much, I guess. Hilda and I weren’t really in contact for much of that. Something about a cult of self-professed pacifists who preached against pokemon battling, only it was actually just another group of people stealing pokemon, right? They convinced people to release their pokemon, then abducted them. Why do you ask? They were disbanded a little over a year ago, right?”

Ethan nodded along throughout her summary, then grimaced at the last.

“If only. Seems like some of them have migrated over here to Johto and have been stirring up trouble here over the past couple of weeks. Mostly in Goldenrod, though some have been spotted as far as Olivine and Azalea, preaching about the evils of pokemon battling. If that was all it was, then fine - but considering their history, well… the League is getting a little nervous.”

“I haven’t heard anything about that in Kanto…” AJ said slowly, wondering if that was true or if Lance hadn’t bothered to tell her yet.

Ethan nodded as though he had expected that.

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s spread much further just yet. I’m hoping we can nip it in the bud early. I mean if it’s just some remnants looking to start over with the same ideology but without the crime, then that’s fine I guess. People can have their beliefs. I just don’t want another episode like what happened in Unova here in Johto. Especially not after that attempted Team Rocket resurgence a decade ago.”

Team Rocket, one of the oldest criminal organizations from the modern era, had been a big name around the world during her parents’ time, but especially here in the Indigo League. It was said that Ash Ketchum had helped put a stop to them - one of his three-thousand heroic exploits - though their leader had vanished without a trace. They’d tried for a comeback in Johto ten years ago, around the time that Ethan would have been starting his journey, but nothing came of it and it had fallen apart fairly quickly - but not before they managed to hijack the radio tower in Goldenrod and cause some chaos.

“So I guess what I’m asking is…” Ethan continued, then hesitated, looking uncertain for a moment. “If you have Hilda’s contact info, can you give it to me? Or send her a message on my behalf? I’d like to talk to someone with a bit more hands-on experience with Team Plasma if I can.”

AJ bit her lip, and at her look of uncertainty, Ethan raised a hand.

“I just want to say that, whatever it is you originally wanted to ask me for, that has no bearing on this request. Whether you help me get in touch with Hilda or not, I’ll still do my best to help you out. I promise. Champion’s honor.”

AJ laughed.

“No, no, that’s not… I mean, thanks, and I trust you. I doubt you’d go giving her contact info to the press or anything.”

Ethan made a face that had AJ laughing.

“The only issue is… well, I mean, Hilda didn’t just ghost the rest of the world - she ghosted me, too. I’ve only had one message from her since her disappearance, so I don’t know that giving you her contact info will do any good.”

“Hey, once is already once more than I’ve ever heard from her,” he said jokingly. “Any little bit would help. And it’s not like I lose anything from trying.”

That was true enough, and she didn’t think Hilda would mind. Well, if she did, she could always just ignore him. She seemed to be doing a pretty good job of ignoring people lately.

With that, AJ pulled out her pokegear and rattled off Hilda’s contact info. At the same time, she hurriedly composed a message to her friend, letting her know she’d given her info to Ethan and letting her know it was for a good cause, she promised, please don’t hate her.

“Perfect,” Ethan said, looking slightly relieved. “Now then - let’s get down to business. I think I’ve put you off long enough. What is it you needed my help with?”

“Oh,” AJ said, suddenly remembering why they’d come down here in the first place. “Um, well… Ok, so this is going to sound a little random, but… Do you think you could grant us League clearance to visit Mt. Silver for a bit?”

Ethan stared, completely nonplussed. Then he blinked. Then frowned.

“Um…” he said slowly, scratching at the side of his head. “I mean, I… guess I can, yeah. I’d just need to make a phone call. But, um, like… why?”

AJ took a deep breath. Suddenly, her reasons for wanting to go to Mt. Silver felt incredibly childish and silly, especially in the wake of discussing pokemon related abuse and crime syndicates and Champions who disappeared off the face of the earth. How would he react? After their failed battle, would she just be giving him another reason to think she was incompetent?

But she told him. All of it - both Sammy’s story about the trainer Ethan had met and how that sounded sort of like a description of her father, as well as how she just wanted one last hurrah with her friends before she officially took over for Lance.

She thought he’d understand that last bit - and from the look of understanding on his face, he absolutely did. But she included the first bit about her father anyway, because she thought it’d add an air of authenticity to her request and make it seem like the trip was more important than it actually was.

Unfortunately, one could not mention Ash Ketchum, even in passing, without his name eclipsing everything and anything within a five mile radius. She could literally see the moment when it clicked in Ethan’s head, who she was and who that meant her father must be, and he realized she was saying the man he’d met on the mountain might possibly have been her father - the one and only Ash Ketchum. His eyes grew wide.

“Wait,” he said, sounding suddenly winded. “Are you…? Do you really think…?”

Kris had returned her attention to the conversation then, distracted by Ethan’s reaction but having missed AJ’s explanation and now looking back and forth from Ethan to AJ with a look of curiosity.

AJ bit down her impatience and shook her head emphatically.

“Honestly? No, I don’t. I think that man’s been dead for nearly two decades now. But it seemed like as good an excuse as any to get away for a bit, and… well... Why not?”

Still lost, Kris turned to look inquiringly at Ethan, but he seemed to be regaining his composure.

“Right,” he said slowly, “yeah, no - I see what you mean. And I get it. Wanting to get away for a bit, that is. This can all be just…” He made an obtuse gesture with his hands, motioning to everything around him. “...A lot. But yeah, I can give the League a call and see if I can give you an exemption. I do have to warn you, though. Mt. Silver is not a normal mountain. You’d better go prepared, or don’t go at all.”

“I’ve been up snowy mountains before,” she said with a wry smirk, thinking of Mt. Coronet in Sinnoh and the few grueling weeks she’d spent scouring its peaks, but Ethan shook his head grimly.

“Mt. Silver isn’t like other mountains. It’s… wild. Untracked. Other regions may have bigger mountains, or taller, or more famous - but it’s how unknown Mt. Silver is that makes it dangerous. There are no trails to follow, no maps or guides. The pokemon there are tough - probably the toughest in all of the Indigo League, and they aren’t used to people, so they tend to lash out fast and hard. And there’s something about the mountain… I don’t know what it is - something magnetic maybe? - but radio frequencies, internet connection… Nothing passes through to the outside world. You’ll lose all connection to the outside while you’re there, so if you run into any trouble, there’s no calling for help.”

AJ had heard many of these things before, and had dismissed most of them after she’d decided to make the trip herself. After all, she was a seasoned adventurer, and she had Jade and Sammy with her, along with all of their pokemon. They could handle whatever the mountain had to throw at her.

But in Ethan’s voice, she could hear something… different. Something solemn. Something almost awed. It was like he respected the mountain, was wary of it. Like it was a challenge. A threat.

AJ found herself frowning. Now that she heard Ethan talking about it, she felt a little less certain. Maybe she should take some extra precautions. The problem was, almost no one was ever allowed to go there, so there was little research that could be done about the place.

“Are there any legends about the mountain?” AJ asked. “Usually places like that have some kind of… I don’t know, lore or mythology associated with them. Like the folktales about Lugia in the Seafoam Islands, or Ho-oh and the Burned Tower in Ecruteak.”

Those were the ones Ethan would be the most familiar with. Johto had more legends than Kanto did. At best, they had the occasional legendary bird sighting and something about an alien pokemon people claimed came from space down in the southern isles, but that was really it.

But Ethan shook his head.

“No, nothing. There have never been any myths or legends about the place, and no legendary pokemon sightings either. It’s just a big, lonely mountain in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing to see at all. That’s why I went there - I knew I wouldn’t be bothered by anyone. It’s also why I didn’t get why you wanted to go, but…”

He shrugged as if to say it was whatever, and AJ nodded.

“I’ll make the call,” Ethan promised, rising to his feet. “But I’d suggest you wait until morning before heading out. It isn’t all that far from here to the mountain if you fly - maybe just a few hours - but you’ll want all the daylight you can get. It gets cold at night, and the pokemon get nastier.”

“Sounds like a plan,” AJ agreed, though internally she was disappointed that they couldn’t go ahead and leave right now. “Guess we’ll set up camp out in the park, if that’s alright.”

She knew they could stay at the Pokemon Center, but considering how much Elm’s aids had been staring…

“You could always stay here in the lab,” Lyra offered with a smile. “We have bunks for the researchers who stay overnight or who are just visiting. I’m sure the professor won’t mind!”

AJ did her best to hide her grimace. The last thing she wanted was people taking more ‘secret’ pictures of her while she brushed her teeth or slept in a cot.

Seemingly reading her mind, Ethan chimed in again.

“I can do you one better. How about you guys come crash at my place?”

“You have a place here?” Jade asked, confused. “I thought you lived in Goldenrod.”

“I do,” he said. “But my mom lives here in New Bark Town. We’ve got plenty of space - Kris is already staying there with me, but I’m sure she won’t mind a couple of extra guests, especially not ones as famous as AJ.”

He winked at her to show he was joking, but she wasn’t amused.

“I mean, I don’t want to impose…” she said, hesitant. “We’re totally fine camping for the night.”

“You’ve got days of that ahead of you,” Ethan said, waving her off. “Trust me, it’s fine.”

She glanced at Jade who nodded, looking excited at the prospect of not sleeping outside tonight, and AJ sighed, accepting.

One night at a stranger’s place wasn’t the end of the world. Ethan’s mom probably wouldn’t be weird like the aides had been; her own son was a Champion, after all.

And then tomorrow, finally - finally - the mountain.

No more delays.

Chapter Text

The trio left bright and early the next morning, with Lyra and Ethan both saying their farewells outside the doors to Elm’s lab while Pichu and Marill exchanged loud, energetic goodbyes. Kris was apparently still asleep, it seemed; based on Ethan’s explanation, she was basically impossible to rouse in the morning, so he was saying goodbye on her behalf as well.

As it turned out, Ethan had some surprising news. He’d actually heard back from Hilda, which was a miracle, but not quite as big a miracle as the fact that she had apparently been in Johto for quite some time. In Blackthorn, apparently. AJ wasn’t quite sure if she should be offended that her friend had been so close and hadn’t bothered to reach out to her, or happy that she’d even agreed to meet up with Ethan in a few days, which would mean that she can’t be that dedicated to this whole disappearing act. Not for the first time, she wondered what exactly had happened to make her friend go AWOL in the first place, but shrugged the thought off.

Hilda had actually responded to AJ’s text as well, letting her know it was fine and that, if she was still around after AJ got back from her trip, she’d try to make time to pay her a visit. That made it sound like she was keeping busy doing… whatever it was she was doing, but she hadn’t clarified what that might be, and AJ didn’t press. If she wanted to tell her, she would.

They left New Bark Town before the sun was even fully over the horizon, soaring up over the quilted pine trees and heading north-northeast in the direction of the towering mountain range that divided the Johto and Kanto regions. Further to the east, she knew, lay Victory Road - the path Pokemon League Conference hopefuls would take on the way to the greatest inter-trainer competition the Indigo League had to offer. It was also where most of them were weeded out; the unofficial preliminary preliminaries.

But a little ways to the west of League Headquarters, just past the Johto border, sat Mt. Silver.

Ethan had made the call the day before, shortly after their talk in the lab, and had received permission without much trouble - though he was apparently told by whoever he spoke to that AJ could have just called in and asked herself. True, Mt. Silver was in Johto, but the Indigo League was still the Indigo League even after the divide. They wouldn’t have denied her because she was the Champion of Kanto.

AJ had blushed at that, suddenly embarrassed. The thought had never even crossed her mind. Johto was Johto, after all, and she hadn’t wanted to step on Ethan’s toes. More than that, she realized, she still hadn’t fully come to accept that she was actually a Champion now. She still felt like the same old person she'd always been.

The journey didn’t take long; only a few hours, about the length it had taken to fly from Pewter to Pallet the day before. The difference was, signs of civilization had fallen behind almost as soon as they left the hills of New Bark Town, the wild, untamed land rising up below them like waves of rock and earth, their crests topped with trees like verdant seafoam. The land here was truly uninhabited, and she could believe Ethan when he said this place was untracked. And Mt. Silver wasn’t even a speck on the horizon yet.

They had to angle more to the east first, in the direction of Victory Road, before they could continue onward so they could check in at a Ranger station. Official procedure and all that, to keep a record of who went in and when. They had her, Jade, and Sammy sign their names in a logbook - an actual paper one, no less - and from what she could see, she could count the names of the people who’d been allowed in within the last five years on one page. Ethan’s name was only a few lines above theirs, separated by a handful of random researchers and surveyists.

While the mountain was kept mostly off-limits to people, Rangers still occasionally made patrols of the area - looking for poachers mainly, but also keeping tabs on the pokemon population and patrolling the borders of the preserve. It wasn’t much, honestly, but it was something. To hear the Rangers talk about it, however, it sounded like a pretty sleepy job. One of them, a dull-eyed man in his early fifties with a patchwork beard and a prominent pot belly, let her know in a bored voice that this was the most action he’d seen all year. Three people, signing a ledger. Was this where Rangers were put out to pasture?

The detour didn’t take long, thankfully, and before they knew it, they were back in the skies again, soaring closer to the distant mountain. After a time, the greens changed to white below them, seafoam in truth, as they angled higher and higher into the sky and snows began to cover the mountaintops below them.

Mt. Silver gradually came into view, rising into the distant sky, a lonely monument on the horizon. Not as tall as Mt. Coronet in Sinnoh, but still the tallest mountain in all of Kanto or Johto. With snow covering its peaks and the faint bluish tinge of the rock, it almost seemed like it too could feel the effects of the cold. AJ could see where it got its name from.

Well, technically speaking, Mt. Periwinkle probably would have been more accurate - but she could admit that name lacked the same gravitas as Mt. Silver.

It was around this point in their trip, however, hours into their flight, as they neared Mt. Silver, that the effects of the cold could no longer be ignored. Frost had begun to build up around them, dusting the front of the heavy blanket AJ and Jade had wrapped around themselves and Pichu, covering Sammy’s hood and scarf. That ice was building up on Metagross as well, and while the sturdy pokemon didn’t seem to mind it too terribly much, Corviknight was another story. If they didn’t land soon, Sammy was liable to fall clear out of the sky.

They decided landing now was as good a time as any, particularly since they were just about at the foot of Mt. Silver anyway. Soaring low over the trees, AJ spotted what she thought was a herd of Stantler grazing amidst a copse of red maples, and what might have been an Ursarang stalking up behind them. Sleeping Hoothoot and Noctowl could be spotted in the trees despite the cold, and on the ground, the odd Furret den concealed beneath piles of snow.

They had arrived - finally. Arrived, in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles away from civilization.

Something in her chest seemed to loosen. She felt… free. Unburdened. Though she’d never been here before, returning to the wild still felt somehow like coming home.

They’d made it! Her friends! Adventure! Adventure with her friends! Relief turned to joy, bubbling up inside of her, ready to burst. She needed an outlet - quick - or she really was going to explode.

She rose, throwing off the blanket and leaping off of Metagross’s back as they reached the ground, and the moment her boots hit the snow, she stooped down, scooping up a handful, packing it into a neat ball.

Before Sammy had even fully dismounted, her snowball caught him full in the face.

He spluttered, bemused, but AJ was already down again, grabbing another handful of snow.

“Don’t,” Jade said warningly, trying to point a threatening finger at her, though the effect was somewhat ruined by her fluffy pink mittens. “Seriously, how old are you?”

“You’re never too old for a snowball fight,” AJ said, vying for a sweet, innocent smile. Jade rolled her eyes, scoffing, completely oblivious to Sammy approaching from behind. His handful of snow went right down the back of her coat, earning a shocked shriek from Jade and a full-belly laugh from AJ.

“Oh, Oak, you are so dead…” Jade hissed, murderous, and a moment later, she’d launched herself at Sammy, tackling him to the ground, shoveling fistfuls of snow onto his face.

They devolved into a full-out snowball war for the next few minutes, each of them running around like children, screaming and laughing and pelting each other with snow. Pichu tried to help her out, but his little paws were too small to be of much use, so instead he took to blasting snowballs out of the air with electricity. Jade was cheating, however; her Metagross kept conjuring up psychic shields to protect her, and when Sammy called her out on it, sounding very much like a five-year-old when he did, Metagross used its powers to rattle the tree he was hiding behind, causing a mini-avalanche of snow to cascade down on top of him.

That put an end to the fight, mostly because Sammy losing was the only outcome Jade and AJ could agree on. After recalling their pokemon and stretching a bit, the group decided that they may as well get on with it, and they fell into step, heading north towards the mountain proper.

There were supposed to be caves up there, according to Ethan, filled with rare and powerful pokemon; Mamoswine and Jynx and Larvitar, if you were extremely lucky. Per the League, they had permission to catch whatever they wanted, so long as they kept it within reason and reported it to the Ranger post when they left. Though AJ didn’t have any hunting in mind, she couldn’t deny that if she stumbled across a Tyranitar, she’d do her best to snag one. No one could pass up an opportunity like that.

Despite the cold, despite the bitter wind that chapped her cheeks and the foot or more of wet snow that hampered their progress, AJ was having a blast. The air was thin and chill, but the sky overhead was endless and blue, not a cloud in sight, and the bright sun shone down on them, lending them a little warmth and making the snow glitter in the trees and on the ground all around them like the world had been dusted in a million sparkling diamonds.

They walked for hours, just chatting with each other, talking and joking and laughing and catching one another up on everything that had gone down in their lives over the past several months, simply enjoying being in one another's company again.

For AJ, this just meant catching them up on her training, which had mostly been done in seclusion in the Cerulean Caves, a series of partially underwater caverns that bordered the northern shore along the cape of Cerulean City. Technically speaking, the area was off-limits to regular trainers, but thanks to who her family was, she’d been able to get special permission.

As expected, Sammy had pressed her about rare pokemon sightings. Rumors had it that a rare pokemon lived in the caves, some terrifyingly powerful psychic-type - but AJ hadn't seen anything of the sort. Just a bunch of Golbat and Poliwrath, maybe the odd Golduck or two. Nothing you wouldn’t see in the surrounding hills and rivers, though admittedly a good bit stronger. Certainly nothing worth talking about.

The rumors weren’t old enough to be legend anyway - they’d only been around for about thirty years or so, so it was doubtful it was a real legendary pokemon. AJ was convinced it was just a story cooked up by the townsfolk to scare young trainers away from the caves before they were ready to handle them. All in all, the visit had been a bit of a disappointment - but it had provided a great space to train away from prying eyes.

Sammy’s tunnel vision on the rumors was pretty typical of him, however. He had a secret dream, he’d confessed to AJ and Jade once a few years back, one he’d never told to his father or great-grandfather out of fear they’d laugh. While his goal was to become a famous researcher and world-renowned pokemon authority just like they were - keep the Oak name alive and all that - he secretly wanted to focus his studies on legendary pokemon.

The thing is, most of the time, studying legendary pokemon was the field of archeology or even anthropology, not biology. Legendary pokemon were certainly real - there was more than enough evidence to support most of their existences, barring some extreme outliers like Mew or Arceus who didn't have verified, documented sightings to back them up - it was just that they were so rare that dedicating an entire career to studying them was… Well, without live specimens, the best most could do was research old fables or ancient ruins and theorize.

And that wasn’t really what the Oaks did. They didn’t just theorize - they turned theories into fact and revolutionized the world in the process. And as the next generation of Oak, Sammy was expected to do just that. Not just by his family, but by the world at large. So to say that he was going to go study legendary pokemon was a lot like saying his plan was to strike it big by winning the lottery. Technically possible - but so improbable as to throw the whole notion out of the window entirely.

That was why he’d been interning at Elm’s lab, he had explained as they’d trudged along through the snow. He had a theory - not one unique to him, but one he was intending to be the first to prove - that most, if not all, legendary pokemon reproduced. Since little to nothing was known of most legendary pokemon, and since most sightings occurred infrequently over the span of decades if not centuries, it was an oft-claimed belief - particularly in places like Sinnoh, Kalos, or Hoenn, where their legendary pokemon were practically deified - that some if not all Legendaries were more than mere pokemon. They were treated almost like gods, and along with their (allegedly) god-like powers came immortality.

But not all legendary pokemon were said to have created the world, or rule over the forces of nature, or be emissaries from alternate planes of existence. Some, like the legendary birds of Kanto, had been spotted across multiple regions, and it was Sammy’s belief that these pokemon weren’t much different than regular pokemon - that is, that they, much like the common Pidgey or Spearow of Kanto, had migratory patterns, and that they likely had a nesting area they frequented where they laid their eggs.

Until he was allowed to strike out on his own and begin doing independent research, he was biding his time, building up his credibility by assisting Elm and Lyra with their studies, but also taking all he could from Professor Elm’s research into breeding. He was considered the world’s foremost expert on the subject, after all.

And that all sounded great, though AJ kept her less optimistic thoughts to herself. She wished Sammy all the best, of course - she’d known for a while now that this was something he was particularly passionate about - but considering how he didn’t even have a chance at proving his theory unless he managed to not only find a legendary pokemon, but hold on to it long enough to see if it could breed… Well, the likelihood of success wasn’t exactly very high.

AJ herself only had a passing interest in so-called legendary pokemon. Sure, it’d be really cool to see one - even better to battle or even possibly capture one - but in her eighteen years on this earth, she’d never even so much as glimpsed one.

It was actually one of the few things she had to concede that Ash had beaten her at. During his travels, he had - allegedly - encountered just about every legendary pokemon that was said to exist in this world. True, many of his encounters were mostly hearsay - that is, he didn’t usually bother taking photos of them or trying to capture them. The most he did was occasionally attempt to scan them with his pokedex, which usually resulted in blurred images that sometimes could be corroborated, sometimes not, and it was an oft-debated subject among enthusiasts on the internet on nerd forums as to whether he was a reliable source or not.

Still, he was usually with other people when he had found a legendary, which meant that he had other witness testimonies to back his up. And while a single person encountering so many legendary pokemon in their life was improbable to the point of silliness, it also seemed unlikely that he could get so many strangers to lie for him.

In the end, AJ didn’t know what she believed. It would be so easy, so satisfying, to just write him off as a liar and move on. But when her mom, or Brock, or Gary, or uncle Tracy were the ones backing his stories up… Well, it was complicated.

In any event, if he’d seen them all, she’d never even seen one. If this was a contest, she’d lost - and handily. So she’d decided long ago that she didn’t care. Seeing a legendary pokemon was a matter of luck, after all, not skill. Nothing to be worked up about.

Jade’s story was considerably quicker. She’d spent the last several months helping her dad at his gym. To hear her tell it, she’d actually taken over most of the gym challenges in his place, as he was usually busy attending some conference or another. There were apparently talks of her taking the Gym Leader Certification Exam at League Headquarters sometime next year and making her transition to Pewter Gym Leader official.

Now that, AJ hadn’t known, and she’d tackled her friend in such an enthusiastic hug that the two of them had toppled over and rolled down a short hillside, Pichu chasing after them with excitable shouts.

“I don’t know what you’re so happy about,” Jade had muttered after pushing herself up and brushing the snow off of her clothes, affecting cool nonchalance in her tone. “You were just named the Champion of Kanto; what’s a Gym Leader next to that?”

But she was grinning to herself in a pleased sort of way, and AJ had a feeling the pink in her cheeks was from more than just the cold.

And that was more or less how they spent the day. Talking about the present turned to talks of the future, which turned to talks of the past as they recounted familiar stories and anecdotes about their travels together. Occasionally, they would stop when they came across a wild pokemon, sometimes allowing for brief pauses while Sammy took notes or photos on his pokedex, other times changing routes to give a surly pack of Piloswine or a herd of Girafarig a wide berth.

They made camp that first night under a tall cliff, still on the foot of the mountain. It was slow going with the heavy snows they had to trudge through and no paths to follow, but it wasn’t like they were in a race, so that was fine. They were met with light snowfall the following morning, but nothing too severe. It actually made the world seem rather serene, and though they still spent most of the day talking, there were several lengthy pauses in which the group merely walked, gazing out at the landscape and taking it all in.

Every so often, one of them would release one of their pokemon to let them get some fresh air and travel alongside them for a time. How long depended on the pokemon, of course, as some endured the cold better than others.

AJ’s Togetic managed a few minutes before the chill had her asking to return to her ball, looking absolutely miserable. Sammy’s Leafeon seemed determined to tough it out for as long as possible, despite her grass-type nature making her predisposed to a weakness to the cold. She seemed to be affronted that Pichu was handling the cold better despite being smaller - though to be fair, though Pichu spent a good deal of time jumping and racing and rolling through the snow, he kept running back to AJ’s side every couple of minutes so he could curl up in her scarf and steal her body heat. He also kept pushing his frozen paws against the skin of her neck and it was really not ok.

Jade’s pokemon seemed to be handling the cold the best. Her Mawile didn’t seem bothered much if at all, calmly waddling alongside her, occasionally snapping up bushes full of tiny frozen berries in its cavernous maw. Her Sableye didn’t seem to mind the cold much either, though it wasn’t a fan of the daylight - too bright for it even though it was still cloudy - so she didn’t keep him out for long.

They had a quick lunch on a small plateau that overlooked a lake a few miles below. They’d made it partway up the mountain and had been making decent enough time - not that they really had much idea of exactly where they were going. The food was mostly sandwiches, though they busted out their gas-powered stove and whipped up some hot soup as well. Anything to get some of the chill out of their bones.

After lunch, they decided to take a detour down to the lake and do some fishing. It was cold, but not cold enough that the lake's surface had frozen over. She let her Milotic out to get a bit of exercise too, knowing there probably wouldn’t be much chance once they were up in the caves.

Sammy joined her, the two of them turning it into a contest like they always did, Jade merely sitting beside them, starting a campfire to ward off the chill and complaining about the cold, true to character.

AJ won the fishing contest, of course, as she almost always did. She’d been taught by the best, after all. Sadly, there wasn’t much to find in the lake save for Magikarp and the odd Remoraid, all of which they tossed back. Agreeing that they’d rested enough, they decided to get a move on.

It was a few minutes after packing up and setting off once again up the mountain that it happened.

Something caught her eye, hidden among the rocks on the hillside beside them. She turned back, scanning the perimeter, and almost missed it - its white coat blending in exceptionally well against the snowy backdrop, but the curved black horn on the side of its head was a dead giveaway.

AJ stopped in her tracks, frowning.

“Isn’t that… an Absol?”

Sammy and Jade turned to look in the direction she was pointing. The Absol stood still for a moment, just long enough for them to spot it, as though it were waiting for just that, before it turned and silently vanished into the terrain.

“Welp, that’s it, kids,” Jade joked. “We saw an Absol. We’re all gonna die.”

Sammy snorted.

“Figures you’d be the superstitious one. There is no actual evidence that Absol cause or can predict disasters, that’s all just myth and dark-type prejudice.”

“Ok yeah,” AJ cut in before Sammy and Jade could go off on another dumb argument about something they both actually agreed about, “but what is it doing here?”

“Some idiot probably released it,” Sammy said with a shrug. “How else could it have gotten here? Absol aren’t native to Johto.”

“But here?” AJ pressed, spreading her arms and spinning around. “How? No one is supposed to come here.”

“Dunno. Maybe it traveled here from Blackthorn or the League? I mean it’s far, but it’s not that far.”

She supposed he was right about that. It could have made the journey after months, or perhaps even years, of wandering. Maybe there was a whole pack of them. Absol were typically solitary creatures, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t mate.

Jade muttered something dark under her breath about ‘introduced species’, and Sammy let out a snort.

“Yeah, but what are you gonna do about it?”

She didn’t reply, but she was still scowling darkly at the mountains up ahead.

AJ didn’t blame her. She had a better reason than most. Introduced Species were one of the biggest issues present in the world today, especially considering how connected different regions were nowadays. Trainers traveling with pokemon from other regions were becoming increasingly more common, but that also meant that pokemon were sometimes released into the wild in regions or habitats that they weren’t supposed to be in, and that caused problems.

The League had taken to imposing heavy fines on any trainer caught releasing a pokemon into an ecosystem it didn’t belong in. This was both an issue of reckless abandonment, as sometimes the pokemon simply couldn’t survive in that area and was left to wander until it died of starvation or exposure or other issues. The offense was bad enough that you could lose your license.

But the other issue - and the bigger issue, in the grand scheme of things - had to do with Introduced Species. Because sometimes, the pokemon didn’t die. Sometimes they survived. Sometimes they thrived. And sometimes, they completely destroyed the ecosystem in the process.

AJ could remember vividly the incident that had nearly decimated Mt. Moon just a couple years back. There had been some kind of Bug Enthusiasts gathering in Pewter City, and some maniac from Unova had thought it would be a great opportunity for him if he caught a bunch of bug pokemon native to the Unova region and brought them along to trade or sell to other enthusiasts. That way, he could collect more rare bug species for himself and pad out his wallet at the same time.

The problem? He severely over-estimated the worth of some of the species he brought with him, and from what AJ had heard, he’d left the convention with still nearly two dozen Durant he’d brought along and had been unable to sell.

Not able to afford to feed them all and unwilling to keep searching for potential buyers or trades, he decided he’d just offload them into the wild at Mt. Moon, where no one would see him do it.

Absolute chaos had ensued.

Durant had no natural predators in Mt. Moon, but the region was rich in the ore that they ate and used to build nests, allowing them to breed and reproduce at an alarming rate. Durant are also highly territorial and hostile pokemon. They chased the Onix out of their complex network of tunnels, taking them over for their own, and the resulting migration caused landslides and cave-ins all over the mountain, injuring and killing people and pokemon alike and destroying the once well-known passages through the mountain. What’s more, they hunted the Clefairy, already an endangered species, severely reducing their already low numbers.

The Ranger chapter in the area tried their best to stop things, but the situation quickly grew out of control and they were forced to reach out to the League for help. Since Mt. Moon was closest to Pewter, this suddenly meant that this was Brock’s problem. For the next several months, he and the trainers of his gym had been forced to join the Rangers in rooting through Mt. Moon, hunting down the Durant, desperately trying to exterminate the menace and preserve the crumbling ecosystem.

Bounties had been placed on the heads of the Durant, offering large monetary rewards to any trainers who managed to catch them. A chapter of Rangers from Unova had flown in, bringing along Heatmor, Durant’s natural predator, to assist with expunging them. After all was said and done, the Durant were finally removed, but Mt. Moon was still recovering, Clefairy’s endangered species status had been updated to critical, and the idiot who had caused the disaster had been stripped of his license and arrested.

All in all, introduced species were a very big problem.

But Absol wasn’t like Durant. They were solitary, typically non-aggressive pokemon who mainly ate berries and vegetation and didn’t leave much impact on the environment. She knew that was harder to gauge than she was making it seem, but she really didn’t think Absol was about to ruin the ecosystem like those Durant. And anyway, Sammy was right - what could they do about it? They were way out in the middle of nowhere.

Eventually, the endless hiking through the snow and the bitter cold caught up to all of them. There were still a few hours of daylight left, however, so AJ decided to take a gamble and called out her Arcanine.

He materialized in a brilliant flash beneath the glimmering sun, heavy paws sinking into the snow but thick coat protecting him against the cold.

Almost immediately, AJ stepped forward and buried her face into his fur, feeling the warmth soaking back into her numb cheeks. She felt more than saw Jade and Sammy do the same on either side of her, Sammy letting out a contented moan and Jade murmuring a fervid, “Aw yeah, that’s the stuff…”

Pichu, who had been once again cocooned in her scarf, wriggled his way free and scampered up onto Arcanine’s back, squeaking and nuzzling up against his friend excitedly.

After a moment of joy, free from the cold, AJ pulled back and looked up at her pokemon.

“Hey bud… I know this might be asking a lot, but… do you think you can give us a ride for just a bit? I can’t feel my toes.”

Three people was a lot more than Arcanine was used to carrying, but he let out a bark of approval and lowered himself so they could climb aboard. It would be fine, she told herself as she took the front spot, Pichu curling up between her legs and Jade scooting up behind her. They’d keep to a slow walk and take the gentlest route forward. She’d give him a big treat when they broke for camp tonight as thanks.

She’d only intended to stay on his back for an hour at most, maybe two - but the warmth of his back contrasting against the biting cold of the air as they steadily climbed higher and higher had her not wanting to get off, and before she knew it, the sun was setting.

Arcanine didn’t seem too terribly tired, but she still felt bad about it. They decided they would break camp now, as it was bound to get much, much colder when the sun fell and nobody wanted to be traveling in that. Plus, as Ethan had warned them, that was when the meaner pokemon came out to play. It hadn’t been that bad last night, but why take the risk? The Ursarang would be more active, and there would be Sneasel and Misdreavus up and about. Better to rest through that and move about in the morning when they could see.

They picked a small, partially obscured patch of ground on the mountainside to set up their tent. The trees around it formed a small, open ring that had just enough space to hold them while also hiding them from watchful eyes, which would hopefully keep roving pokemon away. They had some repels too, of course, which AJ got to spraying around the perimeter of their camp while Jade set up the tent and Sammy got to work on dinner.

When AJ returned, she found Sammy hard at work and Jade nowhere to be seen, though the tent was at least erected. Poking her head inside, she found her friend lying across their sleeping bags with her Nintetales out of her ball, Jade having draped her pokemon’s luxurious tails across her body like an enormous fluffy quilt.

“You,” AJ said flatly, “are ridiculous.”

“You don’t know me,” Jade mumbled, turning her face away and rubbing her cheeks against the fluffy fur. “You’re just jealous.”

AJ glanced over at Ninetales to gauge its reaction, but it seemed more resigned than anything else. Lucky for Jade she had an Alolan Ninetales and not a Kantonian one. The ones here tended to be a lot more sensitive about people touching their tails. Then again, Jade undoubtedly knew that. Ninetales had been her first pokemon, after all, back when it was a Vulpix.

They lit a small fire under the setting sun, mostly for warmth. Dinner consisted of a hot stew full of potatoes and carrots, one of Sammy’s many recipes. AJ would never tell him this, but he was easily the best cook of the three of them. Still, she thought he knew. It was probably why he was always volunteering to do it.

After they ate, they set about feeding their pokemon as well. This was a bit of a harder process to do, considering how varied pokemon diets were. Lucky for trainers nowadays, then, that pokeballs could be used to store more than just pokemon. Just the thought of trying to carry around enough food on her back to feed her team every day made her shudder. She’d need trucks.

Pichu was easy enough; he ate mostly nuts and berries, though he’d long since been in the habit of stealing parts of her meal, so he was always well-fed. Milotic ate various types of river plant that AJ typically mixed vitamins into to make sure she was getting her protein when she couldn’t let her out in an actual river to find food. Togekiss, like Pichu, ate mostly nuts and berries - only about five times the amount, so she set the three up on a large blanket to protect them from the snow and let them at it.

Arcanine preferred meat, so she set him up with large slabs of Tauros, separated from the others. This was not synthetic, unlike the meat that most people ate. When she was a kid, she had felt bad about pokemon eating other pokemon, and had always had a hard time feeding the Tentacruel or Gyarados at the Cerulean Gym - but as her mother had put it, not all pokemon are omnivores like people, and some needed to eat meat to stay alive. That was just life.

She did usually feed him processed foods, however; there was a brand of pokechow that was typically provided to carnivorous pokemon with teeth that was packed full of the vitamins and nutrients that they needed, but they couldn’t eat it all the time. She typically fed him real meat sparingly, but since she’d made the poor guy carry them around like some sort of Mudsdale… Well, he deserved a treat.

Aegislash didn’t need to eat - or at least, it didn’t derive its sustenance from food, so she let it be. And that just left Hydreigon.

She was about to pull her out, but then thought better of it. They were on the mountainside proper now; if she pulled her out here and she had another freak-out, she was liable to bring an avalanche down right on top of them.

She didn’t need to feed yet anyway; being in the pokeball slowed a pokemon’s metabolism. She could go another day or two without needing to eat. Still, she resolved to find a better campsite tomorrow, one a little less precarious.

They ended up turning in pretty early that night. They stayed up for a bit, sitting around the campfire and talking, but it really was freezing there on the side of the mountain, and the icy wind was doing a number on their spirits.

Deciding that turning in early meant an early start, they doused the fire and, after taking a cursory look at their surroundings, AJ decided to call out her Aegislash again and ask it to guard the camp while they slept. It was the ideal choice, as the ghost-type had no need for sleep and preferred the night anyway. It agreed with a low, creaking groan - the only sound it was really capable of making - and dipped the top of its hilt toward her in a stiff, austere bow.

Nodding in approval, Sammy called out his Gengar and Jade, after a moment’s hesitation, decided to pull her Sableye out as well. They didn’t really need all three out at once, but no good trainer needed an excuse to let their pokemon out of their balls, and it’s not like the ghosts really noticed the cold.

Their sleeping bags - the thickly-padded kind meant for winter conditions, complete with a warm quilt spread over the top - were arranged side-by-side, feet towards the tent door. AJ hung her belt with her pokeballs on a hook dangling from the top of the tent and immediately jumped towards the middle sleeping bag with a cry of “Dibs!”, Pichu jumping in beside her.

She snuggled down deep inside before poking her head back out and peering up at her two friends who were staring down at her, nonplussed. She expected Jade to put up a fight since she’d had the middle spot last night - everyone knew the middle spot was the warmest, you had body-heat in stereo! - but instead she turned and shot Sammy a wry look.

He affected not to notice, instead shrugging and saying, “Good, keep me away from Jade. She kicks in her sleep.”

Jade, who had opened her mouth no doubt to say something glib, instead gawked and said, “What? No I don’t!”

“Yeah, you do,” Sammy said emphatically, hanging his own belt beside AJ’s and placing their battery-powered lantern there as well. “It’s like you wrestle Primeapes in your dreams.”

“It’s true,” AJ said, then after Jade turned her scandalized look on her, quickly added, “but I still love you?”

Pichu agreed with a bright squeal. Jade scoffed and began undoing her own belt.

“Tonight,” she muttered darkly as Sammy wriggled his way into his own sleeping bag, “I’m making sure my every kick connects with one of your shins.”

She hung her belt up and turned off the lantern, ignoring AJ’s look of horror.

“I have done nothing to deserve this!”

“You sided with Sammy! That’s taboo! It’s like I don’t even know you anymore!”

“Times change, Harrison,” Sammy muttered from AJ’s other side. “Looks like I’m the best friend now.”

“Fine. You two deserve each other.”

“Aww, Jadey-poo,” AJ joked, scooting closer and wrapping her arms around Jade in the dark. “Don’t be like that. It was a one-time fling. You know you’ll always be my one and only!”

Jade grumbled but didn’t push her away. It was cold, after all. AJ half-considered asking Sammy to scoot closer behind her - make a warm, toasty sandwich with her in the middle - then thought better of it. That might be a little weird. In any case, despite it being earlier than usual, the fatigue of the day and the warmth of the sleeping bag quickly had her fading away into unconsciousness.

She wasn’t sure how long she was out - maybe a couple of hours? That’s all it felt like - but she found herself jerking awake as several furious roars rent the air.

Alarmed, but still befuddled from sleep, AJ pushed herself upright and tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes. Something was wrong. Something - several somethings, from the sound of it - were moving around outside the tent. And they didn’t sound happy.

There was a brief commotion inside the tent as, from what she could guess, Sammy had moved to turn on the small electric lantern and had stepped on Jade by mistake, who had apparently still been asleep somehow. AJ ignored them, getting out of her sleeping bag and crawling toward the tent flap, hastily undoing the zipper. Pichu leaped out before she could stop him, and as his threatening growls joined the ever-growing cacophony outside, she felt her panic start to grow.

She stepped into her boots, not bothering to lace them, snatching up her belt with her pokemon and stumbling out into the freezing night air. It was dark out, though with the light of the moon overhead and the white, snowy landscape all around them, it didn’t take too long for her eyes to adjust.

There, behind the tent, Pichu and Aegislash were squaring off together with Sableye and Gengar, the ghosts glowing ominously in the moonlight, as though they were having a stare-off with the trees.

No… No, not trees. Those were Snover and Abomasnow - an entire pack of them, at least twenty or more. They had gathered around, surrounding the camp to the north, upwards on the mountain face, and were steadily growing closer, looking agitated.

Several confused thoughts ran through AJ’s mind, from ‘Why are they upset?’ to ‘Why are there so many wild Snover and Abomasnow here in Johto the first place?’, but before she could pursue the thought, a few of the Snover raised their branchy arms and summoned several icicle shards that they began firing at the ghost pokemon.

Gengar vanished into the shadows while Aegislash raised its shield, calmly tanking the hits, doing its best to shield Pichu, Sableye, and the tent - but it wasn’t quite wide enough, and the occasional stray shard slipped past it. A few of them tore through the tent, making Jade scream and Sammy curse.

AJ snarled. She didn’t want to have to do this, but these pokemon weren’t leaving her much choice.

“Pichu, come back!” she shouted, knowing her little electric mouse wasn’t to be of much help fighting a pack of trees. “Aegislash! Use slash!”

Pichu darted back to her side upon command, climbing up her legs, perching on her shoulder, as Aegislash lifted its heavy metal body off of the ground and, in a whir of speed that should have been too fast for something of its bulk, spun its sword blade through the air, violently slashing into two Snover who had gotten too close. The thick metal bit through the bark like a woodsman’s ax, and the creatures stumbled back, clutching the gashes in their trunks, oozing sap-like blood.

She hated having to get this violent with wild pokemon, but when they were on the offense like this, you often didn’t have much choice. When a pack of wild pokemon pressed a fight, they were usually going for the kill. AJ and her friends were severely outnumbered, and those icicle shards they were shooting were sharp. She needed to put on a show of force to drive them back.

Gengar re-materialized out of the shadows, launching Sludge Bombs at the encroaching tree pokemon, trying to force them away. Aegislash slashed again, this time nearly removing another Snover’s arm, while Sableye fired beams of light - Power Gems - from the glowing stone on its forehead.

Jade and Sammy finally stumbled out of the tent then, Jade throwing AJ her coat while Sammy held up both his and Jade’s belts, trying to figure out in the dark which pokeballs were his and which were Jade’s.

“What’s going on?” Jade asked, only now taking in the horde of Snover and Abomasnow bearing down on them as another wave of ice shards rained down around them. AJ was forced to duck to avoid them, spinning around and holding Pichu to her chest to try to shield him with her body. One of the shards grazed her arm, drawing blood and a sharp hiss from her lips.

Sammy and Jade had ducked too, only Jade had tried to reach out and snag one of the belts from Sammy’s hand and had somehow managed to instead knock them both out of his hands so they fell to the snowy ground.

“Ok, this needs to stop,” AJ growled, reaching for Arcanine’s ball on her belt. Let’s see how these stupid trees like being set on fire…

But before she could, the chorus of roars took up again, only this time louder, more insistent. The Snover were pulling back, still firing the occasional shard of ice, but the Abomasnow were now in a full-on frenzy, beating the ground with their thick, branch-like arms.

AJ had no idea what that meant. Was this some sort of intimidation tactic? She didn’t know a whole lot about Abomasnow, other than that they liked to hide away on tall mountains and keep to themselves. Were they usually this territorial? Or was this just more of what Ethan had said - the pokemon here being wary of humans? More prone to attack strangers?

All thoughts vanished, however, as the roars of the Abomasnow faded away, only to be replaced by a distant rumbling, slowly growing louder and louder.

The Abomasnow turned and began to leave, ambling after their young, but the rumble continued. Nervous, AJ stepped forward, peering through the treeline, up the mountainside, where she could see a veritable wave of white, like a blanket of soft death, steadily rushing down to meet them.

An avalanche.

The Abomasnow had summoned an avalanche.

They were all going to die.

AJ was frozen, her hand still hovering over Arcanine’s ball. The rolling tide of snow was bearing down on them - she needed to act, to move - boulders were being swallowed, trees ripped straight out of the ground as the very earth beneath their feet trembled as though in fear.

Jade was shouting something behind her, something about her pokeballs. That sparked something in AJ’s head, and she realized that if she didn’t move, Pichu and her pokemon were going to die there with her. Her hand moved again, grasping Arcanine’s ball - and she stopped. What could she do? Arcanine couldn’t outrun an Avalanche. There was always Hydreigon, but she would absolutely lose it if she pulled her out right now. She’d probably make the avalanche worse.

Too late, she remembered her Togekiss. She could carry AJ to safety… but what about Jade and Sammy?

Only a few short seconds had passed, but the avalanche was already literally right there. How had it gotten so close, so fast? There wasn’t any more time to think. Her friends would have to take care of themselves.

She shouted for Aegislash, praying it could hear her as she fumbled Togekiss’s ball from off of her belt. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of light - Jade or Sammy had summoned something, but she couldn’t see what - and the wave of snow roared ceaselessly forward.

She held her finger over the button, and for a horrifying moment, she hesitated. What if she called Togekiss out and she couldn’t carry her away in time? What if she got caught in the snow and was crushed alongside her and Pichu?

That moment of hesitation ate up the last of her time. The avalanche broke through the treeline, bearing down on them. Someone shouted behind her and she lobbed Togekiss’s ball into the air, praying that she, at least, could fly away and survive - and just before the snow hit her, the stray image of the Absol she’d spotted earlier that day flittered through her mind.

Aegislash materialized in front of her, raising its shield as if that could in any way possibly save her, and the world went dark.

Chapter Text

Hilda sat alone in the corner booth of one of Goldenrod City's seven-dozen trendy cafes, tuning out the torpid sounds of what passed for the 'not-mainstream' mainstream indie music in Johto these days that pumped endlessly through the speakers overhead. The dark mahogany table was polished so brightly that what little sunlight managed to peek through the authentic bamboo blinds still seemed blinding.

The cafe was nice, she supposed - if a tad eclectic, the design philosophy apparently being 'let's decorate with random things found in the attics of elderly hippies' - but to be honest, cafes weren't really her scene. She liked a strong coffee as much as the next guy, but cafes were for poetry snobs and trendy business men. Her, in her tattered hat and tank top and jean shorts? Not so much.

She'd finished her barley tea about ten minutes ago - not her drink of choice, but hey, when in Johto - and still, the person she was supposed to be meeting hadn't bothered to arrive yet. She'd been forced into making crawly snakes with her straw wrapper for lack of anything better to do. And she wasn't even good at that. Which led to stewing.

On the one hand, his tardiness was super rude. And she still wasn't sure she even wanted to be here - favor or no. Sure, she owed AJ one, and it's not like she was having any luck in Blackthorn anyway, but…

On the other hand, though, the person she was waiting for was a very important kind of guy. She was sure he had ten dozen things he needed to do today and probably couldn't help running late. Not that that made things any less annoying for her. Still…

Maybe she should get a refill on her tea? Did they do free refills in Johto? And maybe they had some kind of… breakfast pastry or something? She wasn't hungry, but it would be a distraction at least.

With a clatter, the front door of the cafe was thrust open with unusual force, making the little decorative beads rattle obnoxiously and drawing the startled attention of every other artsy teen and middle-aged divorcee in the building. There, silhouetted in the doorframe, looking winded and flushed and clearly as though he'd come rushing as quickly as he could, was the person Hilda was waiting for.

Johto's current Grand Champion, nicknamed 'Gold' because of the burnished glint of his eyes - though his real name was just Ethan. Judging from the way everyone was staring - or pulling out their pokegears to snap photos - he'd been immediately recognized, but if he noticed all of the looks he was getting, he didn't seem to care. His golden eyes swept the establishment from back to front until they found her, hunkered over in the corner, trying not to draw attention to herself, and they seemed to light up.

A moment later, he was at her table, sliding into the seat across from her, a polite though somewhat harassed smile on his face.

"Hi. Sorry," he said quickly. "I know I'm late, I just-"

He cut off as the pokegear strapped to his wrist started to ring. A look of annoyance flashed across his face as he examined the caller id on the screen for a moment, then rolled his eyes and muted the call. She thought she heard him mumble "Stuff it, Anthony" under his breath.

He flicked his gaze back up to hers and smiled his easy-going 'Champion' smile.

"Sorry, yeah - I… It's been one of those mornings, you know?"

"Yeah," she said, smiling back politely. "I get it, don't worry. Good to meet you."

"Yeah, you too," he said eagerly, reaching across the table to shake her hand. Very official and important-like. "I was excited to get to meet a former Unovan Champion. And AJ had great things to say about you."

Hilda felt her smile grow a little forced when he mentioned her previous title, but luckily, they were interrupted then by a somewhat star-struck waitress who tripped and stumbled all over herself trying to take Ethan's order. One coffee, two creams, two sugars. And a bagel. He was hungry.

Once the waitress had scurried off, Ethan turned his attention back to her and she felt like she was under a spotlight. She suddenly didn't know whether she should have her elbows on the table or not. Was that rude in Johto? What were they even doing here? Did he pick this place out of convenience, or did he come here regularly? Probably not, given how the waitress acted. Were coffee shops just his kinda vibe?

"Sorry for calling you out like this, out of the blue," he said suddenly, as though reading her mind. "You said you'd been in… Blackthorn, right? Is it cool if I ask what you've been up to? Just sightseeing?"

"Oh, uh… Yeah." That wasn't… technically a lie. She'd been there, and she'd… seen sights. Though she figured if she told him the actual reason she was in Johto, he'd think she'd lost her mind. "Y'know, just… seeing the world. Adventuring. I've been wanting to… see more. Experience more. That sort of thing."

That response had been so vague, it was hardly a response at all, but Ethan didn't seem to mind. He just nodded along politely like that made sense. And maybe it did, in a way, but it was a lie. A convenient lie; one she'd given to her mother and brother and friends after she disappeared. The ones she'd bothered to contact, at least. It seemed to be enough for most people. Most people except for her brother - though of course, as her twin, he'd always been able to see right through her.

"Blackthorn is beautiful this time of year," Ethan said, continuing the conversation instead of lingering on her sudden disappearance, for which she was immensely grateful. "I'm sorry that I pulled you away from it."

"No, it's fine," Hilda said, brushing aside her paper straw snakes, if only because it gave her something to do with her hands. "I was planning on heading over to Ecruteak next anyway. Check out some of the legends about… giant flying pokemon. And, um… the local history. You know."

He nodded again, though something in his eyes seemed to glitter.

"You should talk to Morty, the gym leader, when you get there," he suggested. "He's an expert on the city's history and knows a lot about the towers. He should be able to tell you everything you want to know."

Luckily, she was spared from having to make more smalltalk by the return of the waitress, who handed Ethan his coffee and bagel with visibly trembling hands. He smiled at her gratefully despite the bit of coffee that had spilled on the tabletop. She flushed bright pink and all but dashed away.

Hilda studied Ethan while he set to work wiping up the mess and adding his creams to his coffee, and decided that the waitress's reaction had to have been ninety-percent just because he was famous. He wasn't bad looking or anything, she supposed, and he was confident and charismatic, which was a plus - and obviously an excellent battler - but he really wasn't Hilda's type at all. She preferred guys who were… gentler. Who didn't hide behind a mask of bravado. Who had long hair and soulful eyes and a smile that…

Ok. Stop that.

Really, though, now that she was examining him up close, he really didn't seem all that 'Champion'-ey. Like, when you think of Champions, you immediately think of Leon and his ridiculous cape, the sheer hype from the cheering crowds, his roaring Charizard. Or Diantha - the lights and the glamor, her undeniable, superhuman grace and poise. Or Cynthia - barrelling through scores of challengers without pause, her wild, maniacal laughter drowned out by the ferocious roar of her Garchomp.

Even Lance had had class before he retired - equal parts refined gentleman and bloodthirsty dragon master. But Ethan? He looked like her next-door neighbor. Or that one guy at school who always brought a skateboard even though he didn't actually know how to skateboard.

Though to be fair - she had hardly looked the part of a Champion either. And neither did AJ, honestly. Maybe it was something you acquired with age? Like facial hair or crow's feet.

"So," Ethan said, then paused to take a bite of his bagel. He chewed for a moment, swallowed, then grinned at her sheepishly. "Sorry. Starving. Anyway - I don't want to keep you forever, I'm sure you're a busy person, so let's get to it. I was hoping you'd be able to tell me a bit about your experience with Team Plasma."

Hilda blinked. Well that came out of left field.

"Um… I mean, I guess. But wouldn't you be better off just contacting Iris? Not that I don't want to help," she clarified quickly, "it's just… wouldn't that have been easier?"

"Yes," Ethan agreed, apparently deciding his bagel was too dry and adding cream cheese. "And I did. But from the sounds of it, you were there in the thick of it, and I guess I was just curious to see if there was anything more you could add. Anything that might help me understand more about what we're dealing with."

"...Dealing with?"

They both stared at one another blankly for a moment before a look of comprehension dawned on Ethan's face.

"Oh. Right. I forgot to explain. Sorry, I-"

His pokegear started to ring again, and she thought she caught the name 'Joey' before he muted it.

"Popular, aren't you?" she asked wryly, and the sudden look of sheer exasperation on his face had her laughing out loud.

"Y'know," he began in a tone that very much implied she was going to be the unwitting outlet for an impromptu rant, "the pokegear first started taking off the year I started my journey. And they had this nifty feature trainers could opt into where, if you had someone's number registered on your pokegear, and you were within the same general vicinity - like in the same city or the same route - you could send out a notice letting other people know you were up for a rematch. And I thought - hey, that's pretty cool! I wanna be the best! I wanna make trainer friends! Let's do it!"

The look he gave her then reminded her of a dead fish.

"If I could go back in time and slap myself, I would."

"Why? That sounds like a pretty cool idea. And you can just opt out if you don't want a rematch."

"Yes, but see, you had to give the other person your phone number for it to work," he said in a long-suffering tone. "Do you have any idea how many people young, naive me exchanged numbers with?"

"Uh…"

"Dozens. Easily. I think the final count had it almost to eighty-seven before I stopped because my phone kept blowing up. Every day - multiple times an hour, phone call after phone call after phone call. And it's gotten so much worse after I became Champion. People come up with nonsense reasons to call me and talk about absolutely nothing for ages just because I'm famous now or whatever-"

"OK, so then… Just block some of them?"

Ethan looked aghast.

"I can't just start ignoring them now that I'm 'famous'," he said, putting finger quotes around the word as though to underplay the fact that he was, in fact, incredibly famous. "That's so rude!"

Hilda laughed again.

"Hey, you're talking to the girl who threw away being the Champion and ghosted all of her friends and family without so much as a status update. I may be the wrong person to be giving you advice about your popularity issues."

For a half-second, she regretted bringing up her disappearance, thinking Ethan would take it as an invitation to ask her about it. To her relief, he instead gave her an amused smile and said around a mouthful of bagel, "Clearly, I'm not as brave as you are."

That got another laugh out of her.

"So anyway," she said, getting the conversation back on track. "What was it you were saying was going on? And why would knowing about the incident with Team Plasma be helpful?"

He took a swig of his coffee to wash the bagel down. Clearly, the cream cheese hadn't helped with the dryness issue.

"Because they're having a bit of a resurgence," he said. "Here, in Johto."

Hilda stiffened. Her vision seemed to tunnel until everything else in the world disappeared except for Ethan.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing serious yet," he clarified quickly, catching on to her tone. "No explicit crimes, no noticeable uptick in pokemon abductions. In fact, they've only really been spotted so far here in Goldenrod and over in Olivine. Mostly just preaching on the street corners - pokemon pacifism and whatever that creed of theirs was."

"A load of Tauros crap is what it was," Hilda spat. "Just a group of con men taking advantage of people and convincing them to release their pokemon, only so they could steal them. All that 'holier than thou' pokemon slavery nonsense was just a scam meant to prey on people's good nature."

"True," Ethan said, cutting her off. "Though honestly, if all this is is some remnants who want to keep up the preaching but without the crime, I don't really care. I mean, we can't do anything about that anyway. Free speech and all that. But I don't like the idea of a criminal organization jumping ship from another country over to mine. I mean - this wouldn't be the first time an international crime syndicate tried to make a comeback in Johto. Gotta be prepared."

She didn't know what he was referring to with that, but she was one-hundred percent on board with making sure Team Plasma stayed dead. They'd done enough damage as it was.

She opened her mouth to say sure, she was game - ask her whatever he wanted. She'd even be willing to stick around and help out. After all, if Plasma was in Johto, then there was a chance that he was as well…

But then the sound of a distant boom sounded out over the drone of the music and the building rattled, and their conversation was forgotten.

Hilda and Ethan exchanged puzzled looks. Outside on the street, she could see a couple pedestrians staring up at the sky, looking concerned.

Ethan glanced at his pokegear as though expecting it to go off, but for once, it remained silent. Instead, he rose to his feet, half-eaten bagel forgotten on the table as he said, slowly, "Forgive me, but I think I… need to go see what that was."

"Yeah," Hilda said, standing up and following him. "I'll come with you."

The other inhabitants of the coffee shop had migrated to the windows, peering curiously outside, Ethan finally forgotten. No one noticed them leave. Hilda didn't even realize that they'd forgotten to pay.

Outside, though the street looked normal enough, Hilda could immediately tell that something was off. There was an… energy in the air, something that prickled at her skin, making the hair raise on her arms. Something was wrong. Yet in spite of that, everything on the street seemed fine.

Ethan glanced around, then strode out onto the empty street, turning in circles.

"I don't see anything off… What could have caused that boom?"

Hilda's eyes landed on the couple she'd seen through the window earlier standing on the sidewalk a few buildings away. They were staring up at the sky, heads together, talking quickly. Hilda stepped out onto the street and turned, following their gazes upward, past the tall row of buildings to the north that were obscuring her view of the skyline.

"Ethan… Ethan, look! Over there!"

There, just to the north, beyond the wall of buildings… A column of black smoke rising high into the air.

Ethan didn't even hesitate. In a flash, he had a pokeball in his hand and was summoning one of his partners - a Fearow - out onto the street. A second later, he was on its back and taking to the skies, leaving her behind.

But not for long. She had her own Golurk out of its ball only seconds after Ethan, and within a few moments, her pokemon had rocketed up into the air, soaring off after him.

She had time for just one random thought - since when had Ethan had a Fearow? She didn't recall hearing about that on his Champion team. Maybe he just used it when he needed to get around? - before they drew close enough to the source of the commotion to see what was going on. Then, all thoughts disappeared from her mind.

A building - a Pokemart, judging by the roof - was on fire. Some sort of accident? But that wasn't the end of it - the streets were overrun with people and pokemon, battling, screaming, launching blasts of fire and bolts of ice in every which direction. It was absolute mayhem.

For a wild moment, she thought she was seeing the start of some kind of riot. Until they drew close enough for her to notice that a majority of the people were wearing the same outfit - gray jumpsuits, with black boots that reached their knees and matching gloves that reached their elbows. Thickly-padded vests protected their chests, lined with pokeballs, and a cowl covered the lower parts of their faces to obscure their identities. On their heads, they wore black berets with white Xs on the front.

And there, pinned to their breasts, plain for all to see, was the sigil of Team Plasma.

"What in the world…?" she breathed, horrified. Hadn't Ethan literally just been saying that they hadn't done anything villainous yet? Well, that aged like Moomoo Milk. There was a pretty big gap between preaching your ideology on street corners and open acts of flagrant terrorism.

This was unlike anything she knew of Team Plasma. The villainous organization she knew operated in secret, hiding their nefarious actions behind a veil of professed altruism. They didn't openly attack cities in broad daylight. Had they become radicalized since she'd defeated them? But why?

As they drew in close to the center of the chaos, she could see that most of the Plasma grunts were going unchallenged. Oh, a few of the police had arrived and were trying to battle them, but they were heavily outnumbered, the attack having only just started minutes ago, their backup having presumably not arrived.

There were a few others trying to stop them - an assortment of civilians and random trainers who must have just happened to have been in the area, but their skill levels were clearly wildly varied and they weren't having much success. The rest of the grunts who weren't dealing with their would-be stoppers were instead taking the opportunity to order their pokemon to destroy everything around them.

Windows and storefronts were smashed, trees set ablaze, garbage cans upended and sent rolling down the street. There didn't seem to be any point to it. It was like they were causing chaos for chaos's sake.

Ethan dove low on his Fearow, straight down towards the middle of the street, landing behind the row of grunts doing battle with the police. The burning Pokemart was just across from him, and the roar of the flames burned in his golden eyes.

Snatching a ball from off his belt, he lobbed it into the air and with a flash, his Jolteon took to the field. Electricity arcing between each spiked tuft of hair, it let out a high-pitched growl before darting forward, Agility making it move like a yellow blur, running lightning-fast rings around the attackers, firing off a wave of Pin Missiles.

The attack stung, but not enough to seriously injure. It was enough, however, to make the alarmed attackers move back, to gather them all together in a neat clump at the center of the circle - at which point a single, well-placed Thunderbolt was all that was needed to take them all down at once. Suddenly direction-less, their rampaging pokemon quickly began falling to the police on the other side.

Hilda hit the ground just behind Ethan, jumping off Golurk's back. She ordered it to enter the flaming Pokemart and make sure there were no people or pokemon trapped inside, and as it phased out of existence, she turned her attention towards the rest of the grunts who were busy terrorizing the remainder of the street, unimpeded by the police.

There were people cowering in a nearby alleyway, one harried Heracross doing its best to protect them from a cruel-looking Garboder who towered over it, spewing out poisonous gas. Just down from them, partially hidden behind a delivery van, an older man was shielding his unconscious Aipom from a huge Scolipede who seemed determined to knock the vehicle over. One particularly brave little girl who had been trying to fight back let out a high-pitched scream as her Ledian was blasted through the window of a record shop by a ferocious Liepard.

Hilda plucked a ball from her belt and lobbed it into the street.

"Goodra! Mud Shot!"

Her massive, gooey beauty hit the asphalt with a gurgling roar, and a frothy wave of mud erupted from its mouth, blasting the Garboder back into the side of a building. It slammed into the brick siding in a spray of brown and greenish-purple, the mud mixing with its body's natural toxins, collapsing down onto the sidewalk unconscious in a puddle of filth.

Her pokemon's cry caught the attention of the Scolipede, who turned toward Goodra as though sensing a stronger adversary than a stationary delivery vehicle - only to immediately be blindsided by a fierce Power Whip that slammed the Scolipede into the truck, then rose and crashed down on it again, driving it down onto the pavement where it struggled to rise.

Her Goodra's long, slick antenna lashed out again at the Liepard, but missed as the nimble creature danced backwards, baring its fangs and hissing. A second later, Ethan's Jolteon had alighted upon its back, coming out of nowhere, and dumping thousands of volts of electricity directly into its body. It crumpled to the ground, muscles locked and twitching.

Several of the police officers had advanced at this point, urging the civilians to flee, pursuing the remaining Team Plasma grunts, while the few officers who remained secured the grunts Ethan had taken care of or else congregated in front of the burning Pokemart, calling out water-type pokemon to try to contain the blaze.

Hilda didn't have any water-types on hand, but her Goodra at least knew Water Pulse, so she set her to helping out - only to stop a moment later as her Golurk came stomping out of smokey building interior, carrying an unconscious old woman in one arm and her terrified Sunkern in the other. Its leaves had been badly scorched and it seemed to be unable to move.

While Golurk set the old woman and her pokemon down, Hilda joined Ethan, the police officers, and her hard-working Goodra at the storefront, watching as their pokemon set to work dousing the flames.

"I can't believe this," Ethan muttered darkly, gazing into the flames. "What on earth would inspire them to do something like this? What was the point?"

"Yeah," Hilda said, thinking back to her confrontations with Team Plasma in the past. "Kinda spits on the whole 'pokemon pacifism' schtick, doesn't it?"

"C-Champion Ethan?!"

Ethan and Hilda turned to find a young police officer approaching them, practically goggling at Ethan, looking positively awestruck.

"S-Sir! Thank you, sir! F-For the assistance, I mean! You were amazing!"

The man looked like he was around Ethan's age. Older than Hilda, at least. Hearing him call Ethan sir was weird.

If Ethan thought the same, he didn't let on.

"What's the status?" he asked, his voice firm and authoritative. "What was the point of this? Do we know what their goal was?"

"S-Sir?" the young officer asked. "Oh, um… I-I'm not really-"

An older officer, a woman in her forties and the one who was clearly taking charge here, shouldered roughly past her younger fellow officer and met Ethan's gaze roughly.

"It isn't just here," she said curtly. "We radioed in for backup as soon as we responded, but there are attacks being levied all over the city, so no one could come. That's why it's taking so long for the firefighters and EMTs to get here. They're busy going everywhere else. Haven't you noticed the sky?"

Ethan stared, then as one he and Hilda stepped back and gazed around at the skyline.

Obfuscated by the towering buildings around them, columns of smoke that she swore hadn't been there before - or had they been but they'd been too focused on the first one they saw to notice? - were now rising in multiple different directions. This wasn't a random attack on this one street. The city itself was seemingly under siege.

A heavy weight seemed to drop into her navel. Today was not going as expected. Not at all.

"If you're going to do something, do it," the officer continued to Ethan. "We've got this handled here."

Ethan nodded curtly, not wasting any time speaking, and for a moment there, in the anger and determination she saw on his face, he really did look like a Champion. He moved to pull his Fearow's pokeball off of his belt, but suddenly, as though part of some divine joke, his pokegear began ringing again.

Johto's Champion swore - loudly - and moved as though to rip his pokegear off and hurl it across the street. Then stopped as he examined the caller ID.

A moment later, he'd answered it.

"Whitney?"

"Ethan!" a woman's voice shouted, sounding harried. "The League told me you were in the city! Are you here? Where are you?"

"I'm across town," he said. "About six blocks south of the Magnet Rail station. Listen-"

"That's perfect!" Whitney interrupted. "Listen - I got word from some of my girls who are over on that side of the city. It's the Radio Tower! They're after the Radio Tower - it's Team Rocket all over again!"

Ethan swore again - he really had a mouth on him - but Whitney kept on talking.

"All of these other smaller attacks must just be a diversion. I don't know what they're after this time - it's clearly not some quiet take-over like before, but-"

The sound of a resounding explosion coming through from her side cut her voice off. Hilda and the senior police officer crowded in closer to Ethan to hear better.

"Whitney?" Ethan called out when a few seconds passed without response. "Whitney?! Are you alright? I'm coming over there-!"

"No!" Whitney's voice shouted back, and in the background, Hilda thought she heard the sound of screaming and the furious moo of a Miltank. "We've got this - we're actually making our way to the tower ourselves, but we're too far - I don't think we'll make it! You're closer, so you go! Figure out what they're after and stop them!"

"Whitney-!"

But the call went dead. She'd hung up on him.

For a moment, Ethan looked like he was waging a war with himself. Go to the Radio Tower? Or try to help the gym leader? Columns of smoke were still rising in disparate parts of the city. A lot of people were in need of help. Hilda's eyes bounced from the little girl cradling her unconscious Ledian as she wept, and the old man down on the ground beside his injured Aipom. The people who'd been in the alley had finally escaped, but they were lingering around looking listless and coughing wetly. They'd clearly inhaled some of Garboder's poisonous gas.

First Responders hadn't arrived yet, but how much could Hilda do if she stayed? They were pokemon battlers, not medical experts.

The officer thumped Ethan on the shoulder.

"You should do as Miss Whitney says," she said, voice not quite an order. "Leave the city to us. If the Radio Tower is really their target, then that's where they'll have their big guns and it's where you'll be needed most. I'll radio dispatch and let them know what Whitney told us. But you should get going."

"I can go help Whitney while you deal with the Radio Tower," Hilda offered, but Ethan shook his head, looking grim.

"She can handle herself. Do you have any idea how many kids her Miltank has made cry? She knows what she's doing."

"Ok," Hilda said slowly, "but these aren't exactly kids we're dealing with here."

He cocked an eyebrow at her.

"From how terrible their battling skills are? They may as well be. Now come on!"

Goldenrod's Radio Tower was one of the largest in the Eastern Hemisphere and serviced pretty much all of Johto, much like how its twin in Celadon handled the Kanto region. The building was absolutely massive in and of itself - a veritable skyscraper reaching approximately forty stories in height - but on top of that, quite literally, stood the tower's radio antenna that extended an additional hundred meters into the air. It was one of those sights that you tended to ignore from ground-level, but if you were higher up, the image of the tall, triangular tower piercing the skyline was a sight to behold.

Right now, more distracting than a giant braided metal tower were the people swarming its base. People in familiar gray jumpsuits with their signature black berets.

Plasma. But why? What interest did they have in a radio antenna? Was their plan to broadcast their pacifist propaganda over the airwaves? Didn't attacking a city to try and pull that off seem a bit… hypocritical? Even for them?

Her first instinct was to swoop down on the roof and start dishing out justice. However, she could see more activity down on the street below, and if they both attacked up top, then the ones below could escape. They'd need to divide up their efforts.

"Leave the top of the building to me," Ethan called out, clearly thinking the same thing. "I'll take care of whatever's going on, then enter the building from the top."

"Then I'll take the bottom," she replied. "Help the police and enter from the ground. We'll meet up in the middle."

"It's a plan," he said, sounding grim. Then, just before swooping off, he added, "And Hilda? Thanks."

Then he was gone, angling towards the roof of the Radio Tower. Hilda ordered Golurk to descend. No more thoughts. It was go time.

On the street below, she could see two rows of Team Plasma grunts had barricaded the road in front of the Radio Tower, blocking off either side of the street - an easier task than it should have been, considering this was an older part of the city and the roads weren't as broad as they were in some of newer sections.

There were a lot more of them here than there'd been at the previous location - at a rough estimate, she'd say about twenty - which made sense if this was their true target, but still didn't seem like a very large number. Then again, she had to remember there were more up on the roof where Ethan had gone, and who knew how many might be in the building proper?

When she'd battled them in Unova, Team Plasma's numbers had been somewhere in the low hundreds - maybe three or four, in total - but she'd never really needed to confront them in large groups. Or when she did, she either hadn't been alone or else she'd manage to catch them in smaller groups of ones and twos. Not huddled together like this in a chaotic mob. And who was to say how their ranks may have grown, now that they'd apparently tossed aside the altruistic shtick and had turned to outright terrorism?

The grunts were currently oblivious to Hilda swooping in from above, too busy holding off the police, who, though fewer in number than they should have been thanks to the wide-spread chaos in the city, seemed to be slowly making some progress on the east side of the road.

On the west, however, three trainers stood facing off against ten grunts, and they clearly weren't doing well. They were all women; two in their early twenties, one maybe fourteen at most, and from their glamorous appearance and the pokemon they were using - a Wigglytuff, a Dunsparce, and a Sentret - she had to assume these were trainers from Whitney's gym. Perhaps even the ones she'd mentioned to Ethan over the phone.

As she watched, one of Plasma's Watchogs fell to a particularly savage Double-Slap from Wigglytuff. At the same time, however, a Croagunk had managed to hit the youngest trainer's Sentret with a Low Kick, sending it crashing into the side of an out-of-commission newspaper stand. As it struggled to rise to heed its trainer's desperate pleas, the Croagunk drew back its hand, revealing it one purple poison-tipped claw, and prepared to strike.

Golurk crashed down on the pavement between the Sentret and the Croagunk with so much force that the asphalt cracked underneath them. The Sentret's trainer screamed, clearly thinking that Hilda's Golurk was another foe, but a moment later, before the Croagunk had time to react, it took a Shadow Punch straight to the face, sending it flying backward into the stunned group of Plasma Grunts.

Hilda hopped off of Golurk's back and took stock of their situation again. Everything looked different from the ground, but it seemed like the Plasma grunts on this side of the street had now turned all of their attention to her.

From the sneers on their faces, none of them recognized her. Good. That meant none of them were smart enough to flee.

"You three, get out of here," she called over her shoulder to the worn-out gym trainers. "I'll handle this."

Plasma was recovering from the shock of her sudden appearance. They were reforming their lines now, getting their pokemon in order. She counted no fewer than twelve pokemon on her side of the street, facing her down; an eclectic mix of everything from Purrloin to Krookodile, Swoobat to Gurrdurr. Mostly Unovan pokemon who she was very familiar with, but there were also a few odd ones, like Mightyena, or Rattata, or Murkrow. They'd either had a lot of luck stealing international pokemon, or… No, that's probably exactly what it was. She was more enraged now than ever.

"Um, like… Who are you?" the trainer with the Dunsparce asked while the youngest trainer scooped up her injured Sentret, cradling its injured body in her arms and sniffling.

"I'm with Ethan," she said, pointing upwards towards the top of the Radio Tower. The trainers glanced upwards, where you could barely make out the sight of Ethan atop his Fearow, circling the roof of the building. Jets of flame could occasionally be seen blasting into the sky. He'd called out his Typhlosion, then. Was that a good sign, or a bad one?

"The Champion is here?" the Dunsparce trainer gasped. "Like, no way!"

"We're not leaving," said the one with the Wigglytuff, though both she and her pokemon looked absolutely exhausted. "Miss Whitney would never forgive us."

"Then at least stay back," Hilda said, turning back to face Team Plasma. "I don't want you to get caught up in the crossfire."

"Hey, you can't tell us what to-!"

In a flash of light, her Emboar took to the street, beating its two utterly massive fists on the ground and bellowing in rage at the small group in front of him. He was one of the few members of her current team who had battled Team Plasma alongside her back in Unova. He remembered what they'd done, just like she did. And he was pissed.

"Emboar!" she shouted, making sure Team Plasma could hear her. "Flame Charge!"

Her Emboar scuffed his hooves on the asphalt twice, then took off at a dead sprint, its body bent low, thick arms held out to either side to maximize its attack radius as it charged straight forward, bellowing furiously. After the first few crashing steps, flames enveloped its body, creating a veritable flaming meteor that barreled straight into enemy lines with hardly a care.

Some of Plasma's pokemon tried to flee, and some even managed it - but crowded together as they were on the narrow street, many could do little more than brace for impact and were tossed aside like so many bowling pins.

Her Emboar was a whirling dervish. Cloaked in flames, it lashed out with its heavily muscled arms, striking powerful blows, crumpling a Gurrdurr in a single hit, sending a Krookodile flying through the windshield of a parked car. In seconds, the enemy line had broken as Team Plasma struggled to rally against the sheer ferocity of her starter pokemon. And across from them, she thought she could see signs of the other line of Plasma grunts finally taking notice, distracted by Hilda's sudden presence, and the police had taken advantage and were pressing forward.

However, this wasn't a clean, League-endorsed battle, the kind that had rules and regulations and either a Ref or the honor system to keep you in line. Plasma wasn't battling for competition, and they didn't care what they had to do to win or who got hurt in the process. Hilda's Emboar may out-match any of them if they went toe-to-toe, but she was still drastically outnumbered, and Team Plasma was not only already replacing their fallen pokemon, but were also calling out more - bringing everything they had to bear against her.

And her Emboar was not infallible. He was sturdy and strong, but he was slow, and large, which made him an easy target. Golbat and Noivern attacked him from above with Air Slash and Gust. Seismitoad used their sticky pads to scale the sides of buildings, out of reach, to pelt him with Mud Shots and Water Guns. She knew her Emboar was tough, but anyone would eventually flag under a hailstorm of ranged attacks.

He wasn't alone, however. Her Golurk rocketed forward, nailing the Seismitoad with a powerful Hammer Arm, sending it crashing down onto the decorative bushes below, out of commission. When the enemy Swoobat swooped down to blast Emboar with another Psybeam, Wigglytuff knocked it out of the sky with a fierce Double-Edge. At least one of Whitney's trainers had decided to ignore her order to stay back. She owed her a thanks.

Still, though. Things weren't looking good. Her Emboar may just be tanky enough to endure this long enough for them to win, but it would probably be better if she called out a third pokemon, if only to draw some fire and give Emboar some slight reprieve. Her hand moved to her belt to do just that.

Then, several things happened simultaneously that made everything so much worse.

From across the street, on the side opposite the radio tower, the front door of some nondescript office building burst open and a veritable deluge of people began flooding into the street. For a wild moment, Hilda thought they were reinforcements - though whether for her or Team Plasma, she didn't know. It soon became clear, however, that they were neither.

They were men and women, dressed in crisp business suits, who'd clearly been holed up in their office building looking to avoid the conflict in the street but were now utilizing Hilda's surprise attack to make a break for it. Which put them out in the open where they were in real danger of being caught in the crossfire.

Several of Team Plasma's pokemon - the ones who couldn't fly and were dealing with the brunt of Emboar's aggression - decided to peel away from the vicious monster they couldn't best and instead hone in on these new, easier targets. Both Golurk and Wigglytuff found themselves forced to pull back from aiding Emboar to instead play defense for these idiots as they ran, screaming, down the street.

At the same time, the door to the Radio Tower had burst open as well, and this time, there were reinforcements - but for Team Plasma. Most of them were nobody grunts who were obviously still a problem, but some of them must have been admins or some other, higher level of grunt, because as soon as they exited the building, three new pokemon took to the street who were clearly much stronger than the rabble she'd been tearing through like wet toilet paper. A Machamp, a Scrafty, and a Gothitelle.

And while all of this was happening, an ominous creaking noise split the air, echoing out from somewhere above them. Everyone on the street - Hilda, Team Plasma, Whitney's trainers, the police, the pokemon, the random civilians fleeing the battle - looked up as one and watched in horror as the massive steel antenna atop the radio tower suddenly shuddered and slowly began to tip sideways - toward them.

While Hilda was distracted, Gothitelle struck, lashing out with a powerful wave of Psychic energy that stabbed into Emboar's mind, bringing its rampage to a sudden end as it crashed to the ground, clutching its head and roaring in agony.

Golurk shifted, fading into the shadows, popping up behind Gothitelle, poised to strike, only to be driven back by a powerful Sucker Punch from Scrafty. Before he could recover, he found himself assailed by a series of blows - Beat Up and Foul Play - that seemed to target the chinks in Golurk's armor, driving him to his knees.

Too much was happening at one time for Hilda to react. Above them, the radio antenna toppled sideways, and screams called out from all around her.

And then it stopped. With a skull-rending screech, the twisted tower turned, falling sideways - then stopped, some part of its hundred-meter length landing on some other, distant building a couple streets over, and it bounced, rattled ominously, several of the satellite dishes that were attached to it breaking free and raining down like murderous hail. Thankfully, none of them hit anyone, each one shattering on the ground, sending shrapnel flying, inducing more screams.

But the antenna itself seemed to be staying put for now. Despite the majority of its length dangling into the open air, drooping down toward the street below, bending under its own weight, it didn't fall. Some of its supports must still be attached to the roof. Though how much longer they had, she didn't know. Either Plasma was actively trying to bring it down, or else the battle with Ethan had become especially destructive. Regardless, it was doubtful that it could support its own weight for long. They needed to end this and get off the street, ASAP.

When she glanced back at the battle, the Machamp had seized the vehicle that her Emboar had knocked that Krookodile through earlier and had hefted it over its head. With a roar, it stepped forward and hurled it - not at a pokemon or even at Hilda, but at the office workers who were trying to flee.

She barely had time to scream "Golurk!" and throw her arm up over her face, as though that was somehow going to help her - but then Golurk was there, phasing away from the Scrafty and materializing directly in front of them.

The sedan crashed into him, and he just barely managed to catch it, but not without being pushed back several steps and nearly being knocked over. It let out a low, pained groan and slowly lowered the wrecked vehicle to the ground. She could see his armored plating was cracked and badly damaged, the ethereal glow in his eyes dimming. He was done.

But Machamp wasn't. When she looked to see where it had gone, she found that it was standing over her Emboar, who was still on the ground, writhing in pain from Gothitelle's psychic attack. The Machamp linked the fingers of its four hands together and landed a powerful double-blow on the back of Emboar's head, knocking him out.

Hilda hissed, recalling him and her Golurk before they could take any more damage, and sending out her Goodra again. This wasn't good, she thought. Two of her pokemon were down and she was wildly outnumbered - and on top of that, trying to protect these civilians was getting in the way of her actually battling at her hardest. Not to mention that if she went all out, she'd likely kill someone and destroy the city around her. And who knew how long they had before the antenna above them gave in under its own weight and broke, sending fragments raining down on top of them?

But she couldn't run. If Team Plasma thought they could make a comeback in another country, she was going to stop them. Just like she did before.

She plucked two more balls off of her belt and summoned nearly the remainder of her team to the field - Eelektross and Gardevoir.

The truth was, most of the pokemon she had with her were ones she'd found and begun training after her disappearance. Other than Emboar and the last pokemon who she hadn't pulled out yet, none of the others had been there when they'd challenged Unova's League, and while they were coming along nicely, none of them were really as strong as her A-Team. But they'd get there. Today would be another test.

Hilda made sure she made the first move. Her Goodra let out a powerful Hydro Pump, aimed directly at Gothitelle, who threw up a Light Screen in an attempt to weaken the blow.

At the same time, Plasma's Scrafty leaped clear over the jet of water, twisting its powerful legs through the air, aiming straight for Gardevoir - only before Hilda could call out an attack to catch Scrafty while its pants were down, Wigglytuff jumped forward, readying what might have been a Play Rough - only to be caught instead as Scrafty quickly changed targets mid-air and swapped out the High Jump Kick it was readying for a Reversal that ended with him slamming Wigglytuff down onto the road, the pink balloon pokemon letting out an agonized squeal.

One of the Plasma grunts let out a bark of laughter.

"It's a good thing we listened to the boss and brought all of these fighting types along," he joked to his companion.

Because Whitney was the Gym Leader here and she used normal-type pokemon. That made sense. Maybe Team Plasma had gotten just a bit smarter since they'd last fought.

But not smart enough. While they were distracted with their victory over Wigglytuff, Gardevoir fired a quick Psybeam at Machamp, more to keep it at bay than any actual attempt to hit it, and her Eelektross hopped up, straight into the jet of water that Goodra was still firing at Gothitelle.

Her pokemon let the current carry him forward, straight at the unsuspecting Gothitelle, still focused on its Light Screen, which Eelektross burst straight through, sinking his fangs into her torso with a powerful Crunch, knocking her to the floor and pinning her down. A second later, with the two of them doused with water, he let loose a powerful Discharge that caught not only Gothitelle, but all of the surrounding Plasma grunts and pokemon in the blast, rendering them unconscious.

Machamp tried to seize this chance to charge Goodra, but Gardevoir was there to protect its team mate, firing off a Dazzling Gleam that had Machamp leaping backwards, four arms shielding his face from the burning light. Scrafty tried to take advantage of Gardevoir's distraction, leaping high into the air again, but this time he was caught by Goodra's Power Whip. Her long tentacle wrapped around Scrafty's midsection, whipping him through the air, before finally releasing, sending him flying through a window on the third floor of the Radio Tower.

Oops. Clearly, Goodra needed some more training before she could reliably battle in urban settings. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to pay for that.

The other Plasma Grunts were still there, still battling, but the police had managed to close much of the distance on the other side of the street and were nearly upon them, providing the distraction Hilda needed to deal with the real threats. At the same time, most of the civilians had either escaped or else were smart enough to know not to run into the street in the middle of an open battlefield. The Dunsparce trainer was trying to back Hilda up by dealing with what grunts remained on their side, and the oldest of the three had recalled her Wigglytuff and was now using a Pidgeotto, who sent powerful whirlwinds at any grunt who tried to run past her.

Now down to just Machamp, Hilda brought all of her might to bear. She needed to finish this, leave the rest to the police, and enter the Radio Tower to find who was in charge. And also get off the street before that blasted antenna fell.

Goodra let out a burst of Mud Shot, which missed as the Machamp darted nimbly forward, heading not toward her team, but instead toward a lamppost which it seized in all four hands and, with a quick grunt, tore free from the ground, hefting it in its arms like a baseball bat.

It took one step and swung, forcing Goodra to duck to avoid the blow - then froze as Gardevoir seized it with its psychic power, holding it in place. Then came her Eelektross, sliding across the mud that Goodra had left splattered across the road, leaping up onto Machamp's immobile body, and with one powerful bite, its Thunder Fang brought Machamp to its knees. Or it did once Gardevoir released her psychic hold.

"Good work, team!" she shouted, relieved. That had been harder than she'd hoped, but battling in the actual Radio Tower should be easier - less room in an office building for her team to get overwhelmed by numbers. Things were looking up.

And then she found herself literally looking up as the ominous creaking from above suddenly intensified, the antenna seemingly no longer able to support its own weight horizontally, stretched across two buildings. Something snapped with the sound of tortured metal, and the distant half of the antenna that she couldn't see tore free and fell on some other street with a horrifying crashing sound, like a box of pots and pans being spilled down a staircase - only about a thousand times more deadly.

The bottom-half of the antenna, the last remaining twenty meters or so which had still been attached to the Radio Tower by a couple of supports, suddenly freed of the burden that had landed on the distant roof, now swung down toward them, dangling over their street like a murderous pendulum, the metal supports bending, the creaking growing louder and louder.

And then they broke, and what remained of the base of the antenna began to fall, directly on top of them.

Everyone screamed - the grunts, the police, Whitney's trainers, the pokemon - everyone.

Everyone but Hilda.

She hadn't wanted to do this, but at this point, she had no choice.

Seizing the last ball on her belt, she whipped it forward and summoned her last pokemon - not a secret, since the world had seen her use it when she'd challenged the League in Unova, but still not something she liked to pull out willy-nilly. Still, desperate times…

In a burst of light, Reshiram appeared.

It didn't wait for command. A powerful light glowing from its jet-engine-like tail, Reshiram let out a fearsome roar and took to the sky in a blast that left a powerful gust of wind in its wake, literally rocketing upward at blinding speeds until it collided with the toppling antenna.

The dragon seized the falling tower in its claws, slowing the fall. For a moment, it almost seemed like the weight of the construct would be too much for even it - but then the light on its tail grew even brighter, expelling a gout of flame as it strengthened, and slowly, slowly, their descent began to even out.

That didn't stop bits of metal shrapnel and machinery to break free from the antenna and rain down on them - but Gardevoir threw up a Reflect screen, a veritable umbrella of psychic energy to shield them from the falling debris. Hilda recalled Goodra and Eelektross, giving more room for the police and Whitney's trainers to gather around her under the shield. Even some of the Plasma grunts joined them, though most were trying to flee. There would be time to pursue - time to clean out the Radio Tower proper - once this antenna situation was dealt with.

Then someone exited the Radio Tower, and their eyes met.

He was an older man, squat and dour-faced with terrible posture and a balding head of what may have once been lilac hair but was now too gray to really tell. He wore a lab coat and an unusual pair of round, orange-tinted sunglasses.

She didn't know him. But from the contingent of Plasma grunts who followed behind him, standing at attention, he was clearly someone important. Maybe even the guy in charge?

He examined her for a moment through those orange-tinted lenses, then glanced upward at Reshiram as it slowly lowered the fallen antenna to the ground, and smiled crookedly.

"So," he said, his voice dry like brittle leaves. "I see you did not abandon your legend when you fled from being the Champion of Unova. Perhaps you are not a complete fool after all."

Hilda scowled, reaching for her belt to call back her Goodra, but more bits of metal tore free from the antenna above, shattering atop Gardevoir's psychic shield. It wasn't safe yet.

"Those idiots," the man said, glancing back up at the antenna. "Did the fools think we needed the actual structure? Or are they simply incapable of controlling themselves? No matter - we got what we needed."

He pulled a pokeball out of his pocket and summoned a rather lackadaisical looking Slowking onto the street.

"Wait," Hilda shouted, desperate to buy time. If they escaped now, how would they know what they were after? Gardevoir was putting everything she had into the shield, she didn't have anything to spare to grab them. "Who are you? What were you doing here?!"

The man eyed her again shrewdly, then glanced one more time up at the antenna. No, not at the antenna - at Reshiram.

"You can call me Charon," he said. "And don't you worry. So long as you have that, you'll be seeing us again."

Hilda reached for her belt again, deciding to risk it - but it was too late. In a purple flash, the Slowking teleported Charon and his group away. Notably leaving the other grunts behind.

With a hulking crash, Reshiram landed on the street, dropping the remains of the Radio Antenna with an ear-splitting clatter. Overhead, she could see Ethan swooping down towards them.

The battle around them had seemingly ended. The police were rounding up the last of the grunts who hadn't escaped. It was over. They had won.

And yet… Somehow, as she surveyed the chaos left behind, it didn't really feel that way at all.

Chapter Text

Darkness.

And then, with a sharp stab, something surged through her body, crackling through her veins, her heart, her head - and she sat up with a gasp, suddenly wide awake.

Panting, winded and confused, she stared wildly at the dark that surrounded her. Where was she? What happened? Why was it so… dim?

Something shuffled around on her lap, and she looked down, squinting, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness, and saw a familiar electric-yellow glow.

Pichu. He was there. He must have shocked her awake. That explained the sharp pain then.

She shivered, scooping her little mouse into her arms and hugging him close, more to try and calm herself with the familiar action than a search for warmth. It was freezing, though. Where were they? The walls - if that’s what they were - were bluish white, but she could barely make them out. There was light coming from somewhere - behind her maybe? - but her body was sore and it hurt to move. What on earth had happened?

Something groaned in the shadows beside her. Not the groan of a person - more like the creaking groan of metal under stress. She turned her head, wincing at the sharp pain that flickered through it, and after a moment her eyes made out the form of her Aegislash beside her, its metal body just barely visible, trembling in the dark.

At first, for a wild moment, she thought that it, too, was shivering from the cold. Then memories of the avalanche came crashing down on top of her like - well, like an avalanche - and she realized that it was shaking from the effort of keeping the wall of snow away from her.

How? How on earth had it managed to… She looked around, noticing for the first time that the tiny space they were enclosed in was roughly the shape of a sphere. It must have used Protect, encasing them all in a shield of psychic energy. The snow was piled on all around them - behind, in front, above, below - but in this tiny bubble, they were safe.

For now. Until Aegislash’s energy ran out - how long had she been unconscious? - or until they ran out of air. Whichever came first. And if that didn’t get them, exposure to the cold certainly would. Or starvation. So many ways to die, who would the lucky winner be?

Wait… It was dim, but it wasn’t pitch black. Light was coming from somewhere.

She twisted around, wincing again as her injured body protested. Aegislash may have shielded her from being crushed, but she’d clearly still been hurt. How? Not important. Need to get out.

There. It was hard to tell, but it looked like the wall of snow behind and above her was a little lighter than the rest. What did that mean? Moonlight? Was the moon bright enough to pierce through the snow? How far down was she?

There was really only one choice. They needed to try to dig their way out. Arcanine would have been the most obvious pick, but the bubble of protection Aegislash was providing them wasn’t big enough for him. She could try to get Aegislash to tunnel a way out, but if it stopped focusing on their shield, the snow might come crashing down on top of them.

She and Pichu could try it on their own with their hands, but… She reached out and touched the snow overhead. It was densely packed, and her fingers, mostly numb, stung at the touch. Right, the cold… She wondered if she was developing frostbite, or at least pneumonia. She didn’t know if she had the energy to dig her way out.

That left one option. Fumbling at her belt with deadened fingers, she managed to grab Milotic’s ball and summon her in a flash that briefly illuminated their tiny pocket of air in a dull red haze.

Milotic appeared, long, sinuous body completely filling the space, tangling around itself, wrapping around Aegislash, crushing AJ and Pichu against the dense wall of snow.

It let out a confused, musical cry, but AJ didn’t have time to explain. Trying her best to gesture to the wall of snow above them, she said, “Milotic! See the light above us? I need you to try to bore a way out for us with Hydro Pump. Think you can do that?”

She prayed this would work. It was the only thing strong enough that could do it. If it failed… Well, then she and Pichu would drown, or else freeze to death a little bit faster. But what other options did she have?

There was a momentary pause as Milotic tried to shuffle awkwardly around so it could find the correct section of wall to blast, but before long, AJ felt more than saw its serpentine body undulate, pressure building up inside of it before, with a blast like a cannon, it sprayed its Hydro Pump upwards toward the dim, distant light.

Water sprayed in AJ’s face, freezing cold, making her gasp and her lungs freeze up, but right as she thought they’d failed, the Hydro Pump punched through the wall of densely-packed snow. Light flooded into their hidey-hole, accompanied by a gust of chill wind. The torrent of water quickly faded away, leaving in its place a hole roughly wide enough for AJ to squeeze through.

“Amazing!” AJ breathed, shivering violently as she tried to hug Milotic. After a moment, she returned her to the ball and ushered Pichu through the hole first.

As it scrambled up ahead of her, she turned back to Aegislash and said, teeth chattering, “Just hold out for another minute, bud. I’ll return you as soon as I get out.

It groaned in assent, and AJ turned, pulling herself into the tiny tunnel, shivering and shimmying for all she was worth.

It was surprisingly long - about three feet, which was more than AJ had expected - but she breathed a sigh of relief once her head finally broke the surface with Pichu trying - and failing - to help pull her out. Once out of the hole, she rolled onto her back, breathing heavily, then fumbled Aegislash’s ball out of her pocket and recalled him.

As soon as she did, there was a muffled ‘woomf’ from within the hole as the snow caved in.

AJ lay on her back, staring up into the sky, panting.

She had almost died. Her, and all of her pokemon with her. What about Jade and Sammy? Had they managed to survive? Were they buried under the snow, too? Somewhere down below, stiff and cold? Had this stupid adventure really become their last?

No, don’t think like that. Giving up never helped anybody. One of them had summoned a pokemon right before the avalanche hit them, remember? If Jade had gotten her Metagross out - or even Sammy’s Corviknight - they could have escaped. Both of them, together.

But if they had… Wouldn’t they be here, searching for her? Wherever ‘here’ was.

Actually… where was she? The landscape looked completely different now, which was probably to be expected, but the mountain… it looked further away than it had when they’d stopped yesterday. Had the avalanche pushed them further down the hillside? That might explain why, if Sammy and Jade were alright, they were nowhere to be seen. It also explained why her body hurt. Aegislash may have protected them from being crushed by the snow, but if momentum had swept them downhill, then they’d probably been bounced around a lot.

She lifted a hand to her temple and winced again as a sharp pain lanced through her head. She had a lump the size of a Voltorb there. No wonder she’d been unconscious. Her hand continued upward and she let out a short, humorless bark of laughter. After all that, she still had her cap on? Amazing.

For the first time, she noticed the sky. It was cloudy, thick with the promise of more snow, but it suddenly occurred to her that it was daytime. She had no idea what time of day it was, with the sun completely lost behind the heavy cloud cover, but she must have been down in that hole for at least a couple of hours.

Pichu made a noise beside her, and she turned her head, seeing something swooping down out of the sky. For a moment, she thought she was hallucinating. Then she recognized her Togekiss.

It had escaped the avalanche after all and had come back for her. All of a sudden, she felt the overwhelming need to cry.

As Togekiss touched down in front of her, AJ forced herself up on shaky knees and threw her arms around her pokemon, letting the horror of the past several hours wash over her. She’d almost died. Her, and Pichu, frozen to death under a mountain of snow, her Milotic and Arcanine and Hydreigon trapped forever in their pokeballs, never to be found again. Sammy and Jade, lost, possibly dead. And Togekiss, who she’d at least managed to save, had spent the entire night in the freezing cold, flying around searching for her.

How long would she have continued looking? Her body was trembling from the long exposure to the frigid air, her feathers bent and ragged from the violent winds. Togekiss weren’t built for these harsh climates. She likely wouldn’t have survived much longer on her own, not if she stuck around searching for her.

She sniffled, hurriedly wiping tears from her eyes. No. Now wasn’t the time for this. Her friends were lost, her pokemon needed help, and she… Well, she was pretty sure she had hypothermia, or would soon. She needed to act. Her thoughts felt thick and syrupy. What was the next step?

Her supplies were gone. Everything - her clothes, her food, her shelter, had been buried under the snow along with their tent. Should she focus on that first, or on finding Sammy and Jade? If Togekiss was in better shape, she could try both - send her out to look for her friends while she focused on surviving - but it was obvious that Togekiss wouldn’t be doing any more work today. She was in almost as rough shape as Pichu. They needed a fire, stat.

Fire. There was no wood around to burn, but…

She plucked Arcanine’s ball from her belt and summoned her loyal pokemon once more.

In a flash, Arcanine was down at their side, trying to curl its long body around AJ, Pichu, and Togekiss at the same time, sharing its surplus of body heat with them. It wasn’t until the warmth washed over her that she truly realized just how cold she had been. She curled into his side, tangling her deadened fingers into his fur, trying to think through the haze of cold and pain.

Togekiss couldn’t fly, but… Aegislash? It could phase through the snow, search for anyone who might still be below… But no. Even if it wasn’t completely exhausted from the effort of saving her life, the search area was far too large and he moved too slowly to cover enough ground.

There was also Hydreigon. She was blind, but she made up for it with superior senses of smell and hearing. Plus, she was an empath. She’d be able to track her friends from their emotions.

Assuming they weren’t unconscious like she had been. Plus, Hydreigon was still wild and hard to control. There was no telling how much help she’d actually be, and if there was another incident like with the Abomasnow, she could trigger another avalanche. No, no Hydreigon while in these mountains. Bringing her along had been a mistake.

That meant AJ had only two usable pokemon; Milotic, who wouldn’t be much help on land, and Arcanine.

She could set Arcanine to digging through the snow… but no. It was obvious to her now that AJ and Pichu needed his warmth to stay alive. They wouldn’t be able to stay pressed up against him like this if she set him to burrowing around under the snow. And again, there was the problem of the search area being too wide.

No, she’d have to abandon the idea of searching under the snow for now. She had to trust that her friends had managed to escape. That meant looking for them above-ground, and that she could easily do from atop Arcanine’s back. Use his superior sense of hearing and smell to track them. Yes, that would work.

She recalled Togekiss, thanking her, then explained the situation to Arcanine as she climbed up onto his back. Her body still ached and she couldn’t stop trembling, but she couldn’t afford to waste any more time either.

It took much longer than she had expected to actually get seated. Her limbs seemed devoid of energy, and try as she might, she couldn’t stop shaking. Even Arcanine’s excess heat didn’t seem to be enough to ward off the chill that had seemingly settled deep into her bones. Pichu was curled up in front of her, tucked between her legs where Arcanine’s thick mane and her body sheltered him from the icy sting in the air.

They set off at a soft gallop, angling down the hillside. She had no idea where to begin looking first, but she instructed Arcanine to keep his nose to the wind and his ears alert. If he scented anything, or heard anything that might be another person, he was to alert her immediately.

She didn't know how long they walked for. The fog was clouding her brain, a haze of ice and pain that seemed to be draining her of purpose, making it hard to focus or even keep up a coherent string of thought.

More than once, she blinked and found the landscape around her completely changed, trees appearing where there had been none, sudden rock formations forming seemingly from nowhere. The very earth seemed to rise and then flatten between blinks. When had they traveled so far? How long had they been searching? She wanted nothing more than to curl up and fall asleep, but knew, in some dark part of her mind, that to do so here and now would be dangerous. She might not wake up this time. And who would find Jade and Sammy?

Before long - or maybe it had been a long time and she hadn’t noticed - Arcanine seemed to perk up, ears at attention as it turned and began heading up the slope and towards what she thought might have been the east, though it was really hard to say. It picked up its pace, the wind whipping through AJ’s hair, and she almost hunkered down into Arcanine’s mane - something she’d been avoiding doing in case she fell asleep - when she noticed something in the distance.

It was a figure, heading towards them. A figure with two legs, and two arms, and a coat, and - it was a person. A person! They found someone!

Thoughts of Jade and Sammy seemed to energize her for a brief moment, and she dug her heels into Arcanine’s side, spurring him on faster.

Only, as they drew close, it became clear even to her in her foggy state that this person, whoever it was, wasn’t either of her friends. She felt her newly-kindled excitement suddenly snuff out like someone had dumped a pile of snow onto a dying campfire. The exhaustion and cold seemed to return with a vengeance.

Whoever it was, they were an older man, and alone, calmly - but clearly - heading directly for them. He was older, maybe in his sixties, with the hard, weathered face of a man who spent years toiling in the wilderness. His thick gray beard was short and well-kept, however, and his thick, bark-colored overcoat seemed clean, if noticeably old, indicating that he at least took care of himself. His eyes were as hard as ice as they neared him. He looked as cold and merciless as the mountain itself.

“Who are-?” he began once they’d gotten close enough to speak, his voice like iron, then stopped as he took in the state of her appearance. His tone shifted to one that was softer, more concerned. “What happened? Are you alright?”

Not Jade. Not Sammy. But that didn’t mean she was giving up. After all, he might have seen something, heard something. It wasn’t over yet.

“Have you seen anyone else around here?” she asked, voice rasping, ignoring both his questions and the ones popping up in her mind about who he was and why there was some random old man up here in the mountains where no one was supposed to be. There wasn’t time. “A boy about my age with sandy brown hair, and a girl, a little taller, dark and really pretty?”

He shook his head slowly, letting his eyes scan the distant hilltops as though they might pop up from behind a tree. There was a look of concern and consternation on his face, like he didn’t appreciate hearing that there were more strangers about.

“No, I’m sorry. I came to investigate last night’s commotion, but you’re the first person I’ve seen. You’re injured.”

He placed an emphasis on that last bit as though it somehow mattered.

“I’m here with two of my friends, Sammy and Jade,” she said, once again ignoring him. “We have permission to be here from the League.”

She wasn’t sure why she added that part. Whether he was a poacher or some lost hiker, he likely didn’t care one way or another whether she had permission to be here. A wry look passed across his face.

“We were attacked last night after we set up camp. Some Abomasnow - I don’t even know why Abomasnow are here in Johto - and they caused an avalanche. My friends and I were separated, and I don’t…”

She cut off, realizing that she was rambling. Her voice had become somewhat strangled. She cleared her throat, trying to appear calm and in control. She was a Champion now. Champions don’t panic. Champions always have everything in order.

Something like sympathy - or maybe pity - showed in the old man’s eyes, but AJ turned away, refusing to acknowledge it.

“Girl,” he said quietly, “if you haven’t found them yet, you won’t. Have you been out all night? You look like you’re about to fall on your face.”

She sniffled. Her head felt tight like a drum. She didn’t have time for this.

“I need to keep looking,” she said thickly “If you’ll excuse me.”

“Stop,” he said, not demanding yet still fully expecting to be obeyed. To her surprise, her Arcanine hadn’t moved. Hadn’t she nudged him with her foot? Why wasn’t he obeying her? “My cabin isn’t too far from here. Come with me - I can put some hot food in your stomach, and I have some bandages for your head. And more importantly… I have some friends who might be able to help.”

She stared, not understanding.

“Friends?” she asked, only now registering that he said he had a cabin nearby. People didn’t live here. “Who…?”

“Come,” he said, turning around and motioning her to follow. Again, to her surprise, her Arcanine seemed to obey him.

“Who are you?” she asked, suddenly remembering Ethan’s story about the strange hiker he had battled. But this couldn’t be him… could it? He didn’t have a hat, or a Pikachu, but that didn’t mean anything. It could still be him. Only… wasn’t he too old? This man had to be in his sixties, at least.

“Just an old hermit,” he said, chuckling lightly. “I’ve lived up here for - oh, about forty-odd years now?”

Forty years. Of course. Much too old to be her dad. She knew that. She was being silly.

“And… your friends?”

“You can’t live in the wild for forty years without getting to know the pokemon around you,” he said with a shrug. “Some of ‘em are friendly. Some, not so much. But none of ‘em like visitors, so they tend to stay away from hikers. The nice ones do, at least. Point is, I know a pair of friendly Froslass who I think would be willing to search out your friends if I ask ‘em nicely. They owe me a favor anyway, and better they do the searching than you. They know the land better, and… Well, you look like a strong breeze could do you in, girl.”

Of course. Wild pokemon were his friends. Not other people. That made sense. And he was right; the pokemon who lived here would know the mountain better than she. They probably would stand a better chance of finding her friends.

And honestly, in this moment, that was all that mattered to her. She didn’t want to go with him to his cabin. Didn’t want to have her wounds treated and eat warm food while her friends were lost or possibly dead.

But he had a point. At best, she was hurt and exhausted and wandering aimlessly, hardly even able to think straight. She would be of no use to anyone. She hated it, but the logical part of her brain seemed to have awoken at least somewhat and was telling her to listen to this strange old man. After all, she wasn’t the only one in need of treatment, and if Pichu and Togekiss could get some help too…

She had a million questions, but she quieted them all, letting Arcanine continue plodding alongside her mysterious savior.

All questions but one, which came tumbling out of her mouth as though of its own accord.

“Who are you?”

He turned, casting her a long look, as though sizing her up. She had no idea what he was looking for.

Whatever it was, he seemed to find it. Or maybe he didn’t find it? Regardless, a moment later, he turned back to continue facing down the path he was guiding them along.

“Cole,” he said finally. “The name’s Cole. And you?”

“AJ,” she replied.

The snow was picking up again. She wasn’t much of the praying type, and didn’t believe in gods anyway. But if any of those stories about legendaries ruling over life and fate and nature were true, she prayed to them now.

Please, someone help her find her friends. Don’t let her have led them to their deaths.

Jade let out a violent sneeze, then muttered sullenly to herself, wiping fitfully at her nose and lamenting that she didn’t have any tissues as she bent to clean the snot off of her fingers in the snow.

The campfire in front of her crackled, the dull snapping seeming in tune with Jade’s mood. She could feel the heat from the flames, but it seemed distant and muted, most of the warmth siphoned off by the frozen landscape that surrounded her. Instead, she snuggled even more deeply into Ninetales’ fur, letting her tails wrap around her like a huge, fluffy blanket.

For once, her pokemon didn’t seem annoyed in the slightest by her master’s obsessive need to cuddle. Instead, she was gazing at her with evident concern, her sapphire eyes thick with worry.

Jade tried for a smile, knowing it was pointless.

“I’ll be fine, girl,” she said, averting her gaze back to the flames. “We’ll all be fine.”

Her grip tightened around the belt in her hands, feeling the round bumps of the pokeballs under her knuckles.

Four. Four pokeballs. Meaning he only had two pokemon to help him. And from the looks of things - though admittedly she didn’t know his pokeballs as well as she knew her own - he didn’t have Corviknight or Dragonite to help him.

She fought down another wave of guilt and frustration.

It wasn’t her fault. He wouldn’t blame her. She shouldn’t blame herself.

The crunch of footsteps in the snow behind her caught her ears, and she and Ninetales both turned to find her mysterious savior returning to the campfire, accompanied by his rather sour-faced Indeedee, who, bundled up with specially made boots and coat against the cold, was carrying with him two trays of food.

Not for the first time, Jade stared, trying to decide if she was really seeing what she thought she was. What kind of person went hiking up in the mountains alone but brought along their personal butler pokemon?

The man settled down across from her with a polite, though still somehow commanding, smile. He was an older man, well past his prime yet somehow still managing to exude an aura of power and authority. She’d rarely ever felt the same from other people. Only Champions like Lance or Cynthia managed anything of the sort. Only this man was no Champion. He couldn’t be. She would have recognized him otherwise. Right?

The other thing that was immediately noticeable about him was the obvious air of affluence. His coat was posh and clearly tailored, Tauros leather on the outside, Minccino fur on the inside. His gloves seemed to be made of the same material, sleek black against the white snow, and his pants, black and slim-fitting, were clearly Wooloo wool. Imported from Galar, then. His boots, based on the pattern, had to be Druddigon skin. Everything he wore seemed to be expensive.

And that was just his outfit. When he’d found her wandering in the cold just before dawn, she’d been astonished to see his tent. She’d thought the tent they’d been using had been nice - decently spacious and built for the cold - but this man had somehow brought along a full-on yurt with sturdy metal legs that kept it up off the snow and thickly padded walls to keep out the chill. She assumed his Indeedee must have helped set it up with its psychic powers, because otherwise, it would have been too much work for a man his age.

The man had money, and it showed - he had his own personal Indeedee, for Mew’s sake - which only made it all the more bizarre that he was here in the first place. Perhaps he was just a rich, old eccentric billionaire who enjoyed backpacking in extravagance? There were certainly weirder hobbies.

But the weirdest thing about this stranger was the fact that he wouldn't tell her his name. He ‘preferred to keep his privacy’, he had said. So instead, she stuck to calling him ‘the old man’.

The Indeedee extended the tray toward her, the warm scent of sausages and poached eggs and buttered toast wafting towards her nose, and she found herself accepting the food with a thanks that came out almost as a groan. She was starving, and hot food sounded like the most glorious thing in the world right about now. With barely a thought, she grabbed at the fork that had been provided and speared one of the sausages, cramming it whole into her mouth, letting the hot juices explode across her taste buds.

“Oh, Mew…” she mumbled around a mouthful of meat. This… This was… She had never had sausages this good. She needed an Indeedee of her own.

Indeedee paused for a moment to shoot her a pointedly revolted look before returning stiffly to his master’s side, awaiting his next command.

“I’m glad to see you at least have your appetite,” the man said, smiling at her across the campfire. His voice was deep, but it flowed with a confident, self-assured cadence that spoke of one who was used to command. Perhaps it was just the lighting from the fire casting strange shadows across his angled face or the deep set to his eyes, but his smile seemed somehow predatory. “I was worried when I found you, but you seem to be in better spirits now.”

Jade swallowed hastily, picking up her napkin and wiping at the juices that had leaked down her chin.

“Yes, uh… Sir,” she said, trying to remember her manners. “Thank you. For helping me, I mean. It was very generous of you.”

The man made a dismissive gesture with his hand.

“Think nothing of it. After the traumatic experience you suffered, it was only right that I lend a hand. It is the responsibility of the older generation to look after the new.”

Jade had stumbled across this strange old man in the early morning hours, before the sun was even fully above the horizon. She’d been up for hours at that point, riding on her Metagross, spurring it to use its psychic powers to search for her friends, and it had brought her to him upon sensing his presence.

Whenever she blinked, she could see the events of last night, flickering behind her eyelids like a silent movie. The Abomasnow attack. Her, stumbling out of their tent behind Sammy, half asleep and confused and scared. He had snatched up both of their pokebelts when he left the tent and had been trying, in the dark, to tell which was his and which was hers.

There had been a tussle, then. With the avalanche bearing down on them, she’d had so many thoughts going through her head - run away, get Metagross out to save them, recall Sableye, save AJ and Sammy - that they had all crashed and jumbled together, leaving her useless. In a desperate grab, she’d knocked both belts from his hand by mistake, their pokemon falling to the ground between them.

She’d reached out at the same time he had, clawing at the belts in a panic. She’d only meant to grab hers, not both of theirs, but she’d accidentally yanked them both out of his hands. He’d managed to hold on to two of his pokeballs, however. The rest were still on his belt, which she now held in her lap like a talisman.

She’d managed to get Metagross out just in time, jumping onto its back, yelling for Sammy to do the same. He’d tried. He’d managed to get his arms up on Metagross’s side, yelling about his Gengar, while she directed Metagross to use its psychic powers to grab AJ and Pichu.

Only then, Aegislash had appeared, throwing up a Protect around its trainer. It blocked out the snow, but blocked out Metagross’s psychic just as surely, and she watched, horrified, as her best friend was swallowed by the roaring tide of ice and cold.

She’d screamed, yelling for Metagross to do something, somehow, but instead her pokemon soared up and away from the avalanche, keeping her safe. She wasn’t sure how much time passed between her screaming and her sobs and the roar of the mountain before she looked back and realized that Sammy wasn’t behind her anymore. At some point, while she’d been focusing on losing AJ, she hadn’t realized she’d lost Sammy, too.

She refused to believe they were dead, either of them. She didn’t care about the probability of survival. Her best friends could not be dead - they could not be. She wouldn’t accept it. Not until she saw their bodies.

Once the avalanche had settled, she had Metagross swoop down low and begin digging through the snow with his psychic powers, reaching out telepathically for signs of life. Hours had passed. They found nothing. Not even her Sableye or Sammy’s Gengar.

The pokemon were probably fine. Ghosts could phase through solid objects if they needed to. That didn’t mean she wasn’t worried about them, but their situation wasn’t as dire as the rest. She would find them when she found them. But AJ and Sammy…

In the early morning hours, Metagross tipped her off that it sensed a presence. Her pokemon was exhausted, as was she, to say nothing of how badly the cold was affecting her. Praying it was Sammy, she ordered Metagross to take her to them, only to find this strange old man instead, and…well, here she was.

They ate in silence for a moment, Jade savoring the taste of the eggs and the fresh apricot juice, wondering who this man was and what he did to afford such luxury - and how she could get the same - when the stranger spoke again.

“You seem to be enjoying the food. Ducklett eggs are hard to come by in Johto, and that Pignite sausage… a rare delicacy. I’m grateful that I have this chance to share them with someone. I’ve become accustomed to dining alone, you see.”

Jade froze, mid-chew. Pignite sausage? As in… authentic Pignite sausage? Not imitation?

She forced herself to swallow, feeling suddenly grim. She’d never actually eaten real pokemon meat before. She’d never liked the idea. Not when she spent so much time working with them, training and breeding and raising them. Sure, pokemon ate each other, but… well…

She did her best to shake off the sudden feeling of guilt. This wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t slaughtered the thing herself, she hadn’t known that was what was being served… She was alone, without food, and was depending on this man’s generosity to survive. Besides, it wasn’t like not eating the food now would make the pokemon any less dead. All she could do now was not let it go to waste.

She tried to ignore the voice in her head that continued to praise how delicious it was. That certainly wasn’t helping.

“Yes,” she said instead, distracting herself by focusing on being polite to her host. “Thank you very much. After the avalanche, I lost all of my food and supplies… I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

The man paused, fork hovering in the air as he gazed at her, suddenly intent.

“Forgive me, my dear, but something about your face… You seem familiar. Would you mind troubling an old man with your name?”

“Oh,” she said, suddenly embarrassed. How had she forgotten? Her earlier hysteria must have driven all the sense out of her head. “I’m so sorry. My name’s Jade. Jade Harrison. I’m from Kanto.”

“Harrison,” the man repeated, looking momentarily blank. Then he smiled again, and that mysterious predatory gleam was back. “Yes… of course. You would be related to Brock Harrison then, the gym leader of Pewter City?”

Jade blinked. She knew her dad was famous in certain circles, but wow.

“Yeah. I mean, yes, I am. I’m his daughter. How did you…?”

But the old man chuckled, returning his attention to his food.

“Please. I hail from Kanto as well. You would be hard-pressed to find a native Kantonian who doesn’t recognize the name of Pewter’s gym leader. Though I wouldn’t have guessed you were his daughter right away, what with the Ninetales at your side - and Alolan, no less. Rare, in these parts. An exquisite creature, might I add - her coat is especially luscious. You must be raising her well.”

Jade felt a brief surge of pride. She had taken great care when raising her Ninetales - and yes, she was beautiful. It felt good to be recognized for her effort.

But she instead chose to focus on his implied question, saying, “Yes, well… Pewter may be known for its rock-type gym, and I may have several powerful rock-types myself, but… Honestly, I’ve always had a soft spot for pretty pokemon, so…”

When serving in the gym, battling trainers, she had a whole host of pokemon to choose from - Geodudes and Onix for the newer trainers, Golems or Aggron for the experienced, Tyrantrum or Probopass or Drednaw for when she was serious.

But her personal team - the one she took with her when she wasn’t on official gym business, didn’t really seem like the team you would expect the daughter of a rock-type gym leader to have.

Sure, she had a Gigalith and Minior - they were rock types. But she also had Ninetales and Metagross and Mawile. Jade liked pokemon who were pretty. Her Gigalith had been specifically bred and fed only the choicest of minerals so that the gems that grew on its body - rubies, jaspers, carnelians - would be of the highest quality. Her Minior shimmered and glowed a deep indigo when its shields were down, leaving glittering trails like diamonds in its wake as it flew.

She was less concerned with battling with these pokemon - not that they couldn’t take care of themselves - and more interested in appearance, and she had won more than a few contests in Hoenn and Sinnoh while traveling with AJ and Sammy. But admittedly, that had never really been her concern. She just liked pretty things, and that was that.

She wasn’t sure why, but she had expected condescension from the old man after admitting that. Sure, he clearly cared about personal appearance, judging by his clothes and his food and his yurt - but when a pokemon trainer admitted to caring about things other than pure battling, they tended to be looked down on.

The man, however, smiled approvingly.

“Yes, I know exactly what you mean,” he said. “I myself have always had a penchant for ground-types, yet I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere without my Persian. She is my pride and joy, and I take great care in maintaining the luster of her pelt, the shine of the gem in her forehead… Pokemon should be powerful above all else, but they can also be beautiful. There is no need to choose one over the other, not if you have any talent as a trainer.”

Jade smiled, relieved and - surprisingly - feeling an odd surge of camaraderie with this old man. He appreciated the importance of appearance, he clearly had excellent taste (well, except maybe in where he got his food - no matter how delicious it was), and knew that pokemon could be both beautiful and strong - and seemed to agree that they could and should be both. Not to mention he was clearly living the crazy rich lifestyle she had always wanted. And he had saved her life.

If there was, like, a contest for ‘coolest old rando you ever met one day on a mountain in the middle of nowhere’, he’d be holding the top spot, no question.

“Now,” the man continued, completely oblivious to the fact that Jade had just decided he was everything she wanted to be when she was an old rando herself, “you seem to have restored your strength at least somewhat. What do you intend to do now? My advice would be to return back down the mountain from where you came, but I suppose you intend to remain and search for your friend?”

“Friends,” she corrected automatically, refusing to believe that AJ was dead no matter what she saw. “And yeah. We came here together. I’m not leaving without them.”

He met her gaze for a moment, considering, then shook his head.

“So be it. Then I suggest you be off. Every minute in a search and rescue is of the utmost importance, especially in such a harsh place as this. Will you be going your own way? You may accompany me if you would like. I’m surveying a bit of the nearby area for the next couple of days, so I had already planned on heading northward.”

Jade hesitated, looking down as Indeedee psychically lifted her now-empty tray from her hands. What she wanted more than anything was to call her Metagross back out and go zipping across the landscape again, but… She’d had him out all night, had him shoveling through the snow with his psychic powers. Her Metagross was a phenom of endurance, but even he had his limits. She needed to let him rest while she could.

Ultimately, she decided to accompany him, at least for a bit, until Metagross had recovered enough for her to head off on her own. He nodded in acquiescence, though she couldn’t tell if her decision had pleased him or annoyed him. She got the feeling he wasn’t the type who cared much for company, but she, at least, wanted someone else around.

She recalled Ninetales, deciding to let her rest for a bit as well - she might have need of her later - and then joined the old man as they left his camp behind, Indeedee shuffling around, cleaning up after them and watching the camp.

True to his word, they angled northward, the skies overhead a dark gray, heavy with the promise of more snow. Lovely. At least the landscape around here wasn’t as steep as where they’d camped last night. Fewer trees, sure, but more boulders. After the Abomasnow, she found she preferred her rocks more than ever.

Not long after leaving the camp, the old man pulled a pokeball from his belt and summoned an absolutely massive Mamoswine who towered over them, practically a mountain in his own right.

“Mamoswine,” the man commanded, in a sharp, powerful voice that expected complete obedience, “clear a path for us ahead.”

The behemoth snuffled in acquiescence, turning around, lowering its powerful tusks to the ground and clearing snow and rock alike as it shuffled forward, leaving a relatively smooth path in its wake.

Jade could admit it; she was impressed. This might just be the finest Mamoswine specimen she’d ever seen. She’d half expected, after his comments about how well he treated his Persian, for Mamoswine to also boast pristine and beautiful fur - but that wasn’t the case at all.

That wasn’t to say that Mamoswine was ugly, however. Its fur, like the rest of it, was tough and rugged, like the mountainside. Its tusks were white and long, but marred with numerous nicks and scars that spoke of years of toil and use.

And yet, there was still beauty there. Not the beauty of a flower or a precious gemstone, like Jade typically preferred, but more the beauty of a landscape. Mamoswine was a sight to behold, breathtaking in its own right. Beauty came in all forms.

They traveled on like this for a time, following behind Mamoswine as it cleared a path for them. With him leveling the ground, it actually made their on-foot travel quicker than it otherwise would have been, which helped ameliorate a bit of Jade’s guilt about not conducting her search on the back of her exhausted Metagross. The constant up and down of the terrain helped stave off the cold a bit too, as Jade soon felt her legs begin to burn from the workout.

She wasn’t sure how long they walked. An hour? Maybe more? She saw no sign of AJ or Sammy, but then, whatever it was this old man was surveying for, he didn’t seem to be finding it either, as they walked on and on without pause. From the way his eyes scanned the perimeter constantly, checking trees or boulders or pokemon tracks, he was clearly searching for something in particular. But what? The only thing of value on Mt. Silver would be Tyranitar - but those lived in caves, not up on the snowy mountainside.

Eventually, with her thoughts focused mainly on her friends, the silence began to get to her, and she found herself letting a stray thought slip past her lips more to break the monotony of their endless footsteps than desire for an actual conversation.

“Mew… I hope they’re alright.”

The older man turned and sent her an unreadable look.

“Why do you do that?” he asked as they walked. “Swear to Mew.”

Jade blinked, caught off-guard by the completely unexpected question.

“Uh… I honestly don’t know. It’s just a thing people say, right? Like when people say Arceus?”

But the man shook his head, looking annoyed for some reason.

“In the olden days, in ancient Hisui - the land that is now called Sinnoh - the pokemon known as Arceus was worshiped as a deity who created the world, along with other legendary pokemon, Dialga and Palkia. In those days, the Hisuians swore to Sinnoh - who it is believed was another name for Arceus - because they believed it could hear their prayers and answer them if they were worthy.

“You can see this same tendency in other regions. In Hoenn, for example, people would pray to Jirachi, who it was believed could grant wishes. Or in ancient Kalos, they would make offerings, to Xerneas, Lord of Life, in celebration, or to Yveltal, the Arbiter of Death, to appease it and keep it at bay. These are old beliefs, ones that have mostly died out as human civilization has advanced. Nowadays, not even Sinnohans pray to Arceus, not in earnest.”

“Sure,” Jade said slowly, not at all understanding where this random history lesson had come from. Why did old people always feel the need to lecture? “But I mean, you’re not really praying to Mew or Arceus when you swear, right? Maybe you were back in the day, but now, it’s just a thing people say.”

“But that’s just it,” he pressed, suddenly sounding fervent. “Kanto is a land unlike most others. Kanto is a land without gods. Unlike most other regions, we do not have any history of pokemon being worshiped as deities - oh, our ancestors feared the legendary birds because they believed they were the harbingers of terrible storms or drought, but they did not worship them. The number of what we call legendary pokemon is also smaller in Kanto than in any other region. Why, then, has society come to start using Mew’s name in the same way that they do Arceus in other lands, if we have no history of worship?”

Jade shrugged, keeping her eyes on the surrounding landscape, already bored with the conversation.

“I don’t know. Probably because we don’t have gods? Who else but Mew do we have to swear to?”

“Swear to no one,” he replied sternly. “Place no one above you. Pokemon are not our gods. A pokemon is just a pokemon. Even a legendary pokemon can be made to heel to a trainer of sufficient strength. Above all else, strive to be that sort of trainer.”

Jade chose to stay quiet. She had no idea what was up with this old dude, but she wasn’t about to debate him. He’d saved her life and she had more important things to worry about than his self-empowerment spiel or atheism or whatever he was on about.

Ahead of them, his Mamoswine stopped, letting out a low rumbling sound that may have been a growl.

The man stopped as well, placing a hand on his pokemon’s flank and examining the landscape. Jade stepped up beside him and did the same.

It was hard to say what they were looking for. The land sloped downward below them, though the angle wasn’t too harsh here, no chance of additional avalanches. Honestly, she’d developed a bit of a phobia. Though dotted with the occasional boulder or tree, most of what she was seeing was an endless field of white. If there was something down there - a pokemon or another person - she was having a hard time seeing them.

The man slung his backpack off of his shoulders, reaching inside and drawing out a pair of binoculars. The expensive kind, of course. Wordlessly, he held them up to his eyes and peered down the slope. Snow was beginning to fall now, and Jade wondered if that would make the binoculars useless.

“Do you see anything?” she asked, beginning to feel impatient. Now that they had stopped moving, the cold was seeping in faster than ever.

He lowered the binoculars, and for a moment she was startled to see a look of dark triumph on the man’s face.

“Look for yourself,” he said. “There are two people moving just down the valley. Perhaps your missing friends?”

Jade snatched the binoculars out of his hand, no longer caring if she was being rude. Hastily, she pressed them up to her face, searching down the valley, seeing nothing but white. The snowflakes were definitely getting in the way. How was she supposed to find them if she didn’t even know where to look?!

Then - a flash of orange. She turned back, realizing she’d zoomed in too close - Mew, these things were powerful. Or, not Mew. Whatever.

Zooming out a bit, she moved a little slower, heart in her throat until-

Arcanine. It was Arcanine, walking beside an unfamiliar old man. Another one. Go figure. Were snowy mountains just the natural habitat for random old dudes? Thoughts of finding both of her friends alive and well died, and part of her seemed to die along with them.

But there, up on its back…

“AJ,” she breathed. She was alive. She’d seen her buried, unable to save her, swept away by the relentless tide of snow, and yet…

Tears stung at her eyes as she lowered the binoculars. She was alive. Her best friend was alive!

“Go,” the man said, taking back his binoculars.

Jade blinked in surprise. She’d literally forgotten he was there for a moment.

“You aren’t coming with me?”

It felt odd saying that out loud. He wasn’t her chaperone, after all; they’d met up by accident and it wasn’t like he was suddenly part of their group or anything. It just seemed weird to go their separate ways now, rather than introducing him to AJ and whoever she was with first.

“I’m afraid not,” he said, stuffing his binoculars back into his bag. “I have other business to attend to. You should hurry before they get too far away. And remember - I like to keep to myself whenever possible, so if you could avoid mentioning meeting me to your friend, I would be grateful.”

“Sure,” she said slowly. She felt bad. This man had found her, fed her, and helped her find AJ who Jade had all but given up for dead, and now he was telling her to forget him? How was she going to pay him back?

Still, the urge to rush down to AJ was stronger than her sense of duty. Besides, the literal least she could do was honor the old man’s wishes. If he wanted to drop off the radar for a bit, then fine. He must be pretty famous if he was as rich as he seemed to be. Maybe he was here for the same reasons AJ was.

With one last thank you and farewell, he turned and followed his Mamoswine, disappearing around one of the countless rock formations that dotted the mountainside.

Shivering from both the cold and excitement, Jade summoned her Metagross.

It still looked exhausted, though not nearly as much as it had before. When she explained that AJ was just down below and she needed a ride to catch up to her, it lowered itself down without a second thought, and before she knew it, she was soaring off down the mountainside, back to her best friend’s side.

Her hands were still tight around Sammy’s belt, however. One friend down. Now they just had to find Sammy, and everything would be ok.

Chapter Text

When Cole had said he had a cabin, AJ wasn't quite sure what she'd been expecting.

People who owned cabins in the mountains were usually the rich, snooty types, and their cabins were usually rustic vacation retreats, set on the fringes of the wilderness but still with all of the trappings of modern convenience.

This was Mt. Silver, however; about as much in the wilderness as a person could get in either Kanto or Johto. There was no electricity here, no way for construction crews to climb up this mountain to build a respectable structure that could withstand decades of heavy snows and wild pokemon. Plus, Cole was just one man. He didn't need much space, and even then, how much space could he even have?

She expected to find a ramshackle lean-to. Some shoddy structure barely held together by twigs and faith that would feel cramped with even just the three of them inside.

What they found, after maybe an hour or so of travel thanks to the gentle pace Arcanine had set, was honestly much nicer than she had expected.

Cole's cabin was certainly rustic and looked like it belonged to an older, simpler age, not to mention small, compared to modern buildings, but it looked cozy and well-kept. It was a traditional log cabin, two stories tall, situated in a clearing in a sparse patch of woods. Mountains rose up around them on all sides, hiding this cozy little valley from view, and according to Cole, a stream snaked its way down from the top of Mt Silver, running along the opposite side of the cabin just past the thicket of spindly pines. The towering central spire of Mt. Silver rose above them, omnipresent, swallowing the northern horizon.

When they had arrived, well past noon, AJ had done her best to dismount on her own - whether because she was trying to appear tough or because she'd underestimated just how weak she was, she honestly couldn't say - but had nearly fallen flat on her face. Thankfully, Jade was there to catch her.

The sheer relief at being reunited with her best friend had been positively overwhelming. She'd popped up seemingly out of nowhere not long after AJ and Cole had begun their trek to his cabin, careening wildly toward them atop the back of her Metagross, shouting and laughing and crying all at once.

Her story of what had happened to her had been short - mostly just her and Metagross searching through the night - but the discovery that Sammy hadn't been with her, that he'd fallen off of her Metagross, that he didn't even have most of his team with him, had hit her like a punch to the gut. She refused to believe he was dead. She couldn't. The pain of it - the guilt - would have consumed her. So instead, she stubbornly maintained that he was alive and they would find him in due course.

Cole had waited until Jade had steadied AJ on her feet and both girls had recalled their pokemon before inviting them inside.

"It's not much," he said, social niceties sounding odd coming from his rough, gravely voice, "but it's warm and I can put something hot in your bellies."

"It's perfect," Jade said gratefully, one arm around AJ as they followed behind. "Thank you again for all of your help."

AJ wanted to push away from Jade and insist that she could walk on her own, only… Well, from the way her legs were shaking, she doubted that was actually true. Plus, Jade was warm. Not as warm as Arcanine, but the whole world felt like ice right now, so any warmth would do.

Instead, she let her eyes sweep the front of the building, taking it all in. There was a simple porch, complete with a bench and two rocking chairs, all sitting beneath a snow-covered awning. Various buckets or mismatched tools sat around or leaned against the cabin walls - axes, hoes, scythes, saws, etc.

The walls themselves were made of wide, stacked logs, but she could see that, while old, the wood had clearly been sanded and lacquered at the time of construction. The logs had been fitted together at the corners with notches to keep the building stable and minimize gaps in the wood, though what spaces there were had been filled in with what appeared to be mud or plaster. Clearly, the construction work had been done mostly by hand.

The roof was thatched with a thick layer of pine straw to stave off the cold, but that had been buried beneath a good foot of snow. The fact that it hadn't caved in under the weight spoke of its sturdy construction. She counted at least three chimneys. There were windows in the walls - actual glass, surprisingly - though there weren't many, and what few there were were covered so AJ couldn't see inside of them.

Another thing that caught her eye almost immediately were the pokemon. A Chimecho dangled from beneath the corner of the awning, its tail gently stirring in the breeze. It let out one of its pleasant, echoing chimes when it noticed AJ watching it. From around a pile of chopped firewood near the far side of the cabin, she could see a pair of Snorunt peeking out at them shyly. A shadow passed overhead and she glanced up and spotted what she thought was a Skarmory streaking across the sky - though it was hard to tell against the gray, cloudy canvas.

AJ glanced at Jade but said nothing. First Absol and Abamasnow, now Chimecho and Snorunt? It wasn't all that uncommon to run across a pokemon that was out of its natural environment - people broke the law all the time, especially out in the wilderness where no one could see them - but this was Mt. Silver. Nobody was supposed to come here.

Ultimately, as Jade helped AJ up the porch steps and into the cabin, she decided it didn't matter. The warmth hit her like a slap in the face almost as soon as she walked in, and she let out an involuntary sigh.

Much like with the outside of the cabin, the inside caught her by surprise with how well-kept it was. She'd expected dirt flooring, or maybe wood, and was surprised to find that it was instead made of smooth river stones layered with thick rugs or mats to fight off the cold. The interior was lit, albeit dimly, by the warm crackle of a fire in a thick stone hearth and what little light pierced the gloom through the handful of windows. The mantle over the fireplace was decorated by hand-carved wooden figures of various local pokemon, giving teh room a touch of that lived-in feel.

The cabin appeared to be comprised primarily of one main room, which contained the central living space that surrounded the hearth, a cooking area, and a single table presumably used for dining. There were more rocking chairs and a makeshift couch situated in front of the heart, all made from wood, though covered in quilts and thin cushions for padding. A lone bookshelf sat in the corner with a few dog-earned tomes on its shelves. The space looked sparse but comfortably lived in.

The kitchen area was small, with only a few short cupboards beneath and above polished countertops, a spice rack, and a large pot-bellied stove - the really old-fashioned kind that you actually had to burn wood in to use.

Beside it was what AJ presumed was the dining area, though it was really just a small table with two chairs. Most of the table was covered in various odds and ends; a sewing kit, a whetstone, small slabs of wood that were partially carved, a bundle of herbs, etc.

Up above the kitchen and dining area was a loft, though it was dark and she couldn't tell what was up there. A lone ladder led up, though beside it on the ground floor was a door that led into one of the back rooms from where Cole was now exiting.

"Well don't just stand there," he said, tone blunt yet not unkind. He was carrying blankets in his arms which he quickly thrust at Jade. "You and your friend look like death. Especially your friend. Bundle up in these, go sit yourselves in front of the fire, and I'll find you something hot to put in your bellies, hm?"

"Thank you," Jade said again, letting go of AJ so she could fumble with the heavy quilts in her arms. Pichu took the opportunity to leap out of AJ's arms and rush over to the fireplace, curling up on the rug in front of it. Within seconds, he was asleep.

AJ took a moment to brace herself against the back of the wooden couch before turning to Cole and saying, "What about our friend Sammy? Didn't you say you knew some pokemon who could help us find him?"

"Ah - that's right. I nearly forgot." The old man paused for a second, making a disgruntled face. "Give me a second."

He walked over to the bookshelf, grabbing a small wooden flute off of one of the shelves before stomping back off outside.

While Jade threw one of the quilts around AJ's shoulders and all but pushed her onto the couch in front of the fire, she could hear a short five-note trill call out from outside. After a few moments, Cole played it again, then, after another pause, again.

"Whoa," said Jade, catching AJ's attention. She was holding out the quilt that Cole had given her to admire it. It was thick and large, made up of checkered strips of cloth, though what stood out to Jade and now to AJ were the patterns that had been stitched into the front of the quilt. Every square of cloth appeared to have a different Unown sewn into it, with Xatu, Natu, and Sigilyph soaring around the edges.

AJ took a moment to look at her own. She had the legendary dogs of Johto, arranged in a triangle. The work was somewhat crude, but it was still impressive. Cole had clearly sewn these himself. She let her eyes scan the cabin again, taking everything in. He must have made all of this - except for a few things like the stove. She supposed that, if you were going to live off the grid, you had to be good at working with your hands, and he had been here for forty years… but still. How long had this taken him?

A noise caught her attention, and she glanced up at the loft where she was surprised to find a pair of eyes gazing down at them curiously out of the shadow. A moment later, the creature jumped down in a yellow flash, landing atop the bookshelf, then the mantle, then down onto the floor where it examined AJ and her friends curiously. It was a Pikachu.

Something clicked in the back of AJ's head, and she let out a half-hearted snort.

Jade, who had just cocooned herself within her quilt and curled up beside AJ on the couch, shot her a concerned look.

"You're not dying on me, are you?"

AJ shook her head, extracting an arm from her own quilt just long enough to point at the Pikachu.

"Remember Ethan's story? Looks like we found our culprit."

Jade stared for a moment, not understanding at first. When it clicked for her, too, she let out a loud 'Pffft!' noise through her lips.

"He thought this old man was your dad? He's way too old!"

"He didn't," AJ corrected softly. "Sammy was the one who made the connection, not Ethan."

At the mention of Sammy's name, a heavy silence fell over them. On the rug in front of them, the Pikachu had apparently decided to ignore the strange humans on its couch and was now sniffing cautiously around her sleeping Pichu, a look of obvious concern on its face.

"He'll be just fine," AJ said softly, hoping to ease its concern a bit, but a moment later, the Pikachu had dashed off, vanishing into one of the back rooms before returning a moment later with another, albeit much smaller, blanket that it struggled to drape over her Pichu's sleeping form.

A moment later, a large shadow swooped over the doorway and the sound of beating wings reached into the cabin from the porch outside.

Whatever it was, Cole appeared to be speaking with it. She thought she heard the words "lost boy" and "north" and "gets too far", but she couldn't be certain. A moment later, the shadow took off again into the sky and Cole returned back into the cabin, shutting the door firmly behind him.

"What was that?" Jade asked as he returned the flute to the bookshelf and headed into the kitchen. "Sounded pretty big."

"I saw a Skarmory earlier," AJ supplied. "Maybe one of those?"

"That didn't sound anything like a Skarmory-" Jade began, when Cole answered, making his way back to the kitchen.

"Just an old friend of mine. A Braviary. It's lived up in these mountains for years now, and I've helped him out of a spot of trouble or two. I asked him to go find those Froslass and set them to searching for your friend, and he's going to scan from the skies a bit too and let us know when they've found him. Don't you girls worry; we'll find your friend soon."

AJ felt a wave of relief wash over her now that she knew that there was an active search party looking for Sammy. Jade, however, frowned.

"A Braviary? Why are there so many non-native pokemon hanging out around this mountain?"

Cole chuckled, pouring something from a pitcher into what appeared to be a tea kettle and setting it on the stove. The fire inside was already lit. How had he done that so fast?

"You new to pokemon training?" he asked. "Fool trainers release their pokemon in the wrong environments all the time. It's a shame, but it's not all that uncommon."

"Sure," Jade said, in a tone that seemed to imply that she was the last person who needed a lecture on introduced species, "but we're in the middle of nowhere where normal trainers aren't supposed to be. I can buy that they may have migrated here over time, but… so many? You can't tell me that's not unusual."

Cole shrugged, taking a moment to lean back against the cabinet beside the stove and scratch at his beard.

"Look, I ain't no pokemon expert or nothin'," he said, "but I've lived here for a long time, and I have my theories. I figure, most pokemon who get released by incompetent trainers are lookin' to stay away from humans. They're hurt, they're scared, they don't want to be used again. So, if they survive long enough, they probably try to head to areas where there aren't many humans around.

"The pokemon here didn't all show up yesterday. Many of 'em have lived here for years. They stay on the move, keeping away from the routes humans usually use to travel, and the ones who can survive the climate usually make their way here. Assuming they aren't killed or caught by another trainer along the way. It ain't something mysterious. It's just hurt, rejected souls lookin' for somewhere safe to call home."

AJ found herself nodding slowly. That made sense. It also explained why those Snover and Abomasnow last night had been so violent. If any of them had been hurt or abused by their trainers before they were released, then they likely had a natural distrust for humans, or at least passed that down to their offspring. And trainers were a rare sight on Mt. Silver. Pokemon here weren't accustomed to seeing people around. Ethan had said the pokemon here were stronger and more territorial than normal, but she hadn't considered the role that bad trainers may have had on their temperament. To hear Cole say it, it almost sounded like Mt. Silver had become a home for the abandoned and betrayed.

The kettle on the stove began to whistle, and Cole quickly grabbed an oven mitt and lifted it off of the burner to begin pouring into a couple of tin cups he'd removed from one of the cabinets.

When he stepped aside, AJ got her first good look into the metal wood-burning stove and felt surprise wash over her when she realized that what she was seeing inside was not a lit fire, but a Slugma.

"Is that safe?" she asked as Cole carried the two steaming drinks over to them. At his confused glance, she gestured to the stove and tried not to stare around at the wooden walls around them.

Cole laughed.

"Oh, Sluggy? She's fine. She don't like goin' outside much when it's in the snowy season - water and Slugma don't mix much. But she's a bit attached to me, so she doesn't like returning the caves. Had a nasty run-in with a Pupitar, and those things have long memories and bear grudges. So, we struck a deal - if she helps us with cooking, we'll keep her nice and fed and safe. She's much better at keeping the temperature nice and consistent than an actual open flame."

That was actually kind of ingenious. She knew that professional chefs sometimes used fire-type pokemon like Simisear or Torkoal for certain kinds of cooking, but she hadn't expected a hermit to have taken up the practice. She absently took a sip of the steaming drink and blinked in surprise. She had no idea what it was - some kind of cider made from berries? It was extremely tart, but not unpleasant. The warmth in her belly seemed to sink all the way to her toes.

"You said 'we'," Jade said, taking a sip and pulling a face. She didn't like sour things. "I thought you lived here alone."

"Ah, no. Actually, I live here with my son. He's out and about right now, but he should be back by supper. If we don't have word of your friend by then, I can send him out to help search, but with Braviary and Froslass on the case, I think we have a good chance of finding him first."

He lived with his son? Well, that explained a few things, like why his cabin was this large.

"Did he help you build all this?" she asked, gesturing around. "I'm actually surprised by how nice this is."

"No, no. Most of this was built before he came to live with me - that was about twenty or so years ago. I forget. We did put in some add-ons when he came along. But no, most of this was built when I first came here."

"All by yourself?" Jade asked, looking flabbergasted, and Cole let out a full belly laugh as he opened the door to the stove and passed some wood along to his Slugma, who let out a grateful slurping noise.

"You think I built all this alone? I'm flattered that you think so highly of me. No, I had some help. I lived in tents and a cave for a bit, but after I befriended some of the locals, they helped me out. It's a wonder what you can do with a few friendly Machoke and a Gravler or two. An Onix to fell and haul trees. Donphan to level the ground. I've made a lot of friends in my time here, and they help me out like I help them out. It's not all that surprising."

He made it sound like a simple matter of course, but AJ had already experienced first-hand how violent and mistrustful the pokemon here could be. Just who was this strange old man? How had he come to be here, and why?

"I hope you'll indulge me," he said, messing about in his tiny kitchen, pulling out baskets of dried mushrooms and berries, preparing to chop what appeared to be a bushel full of an odd, root-like vegetable, "but I like to talk. It's not often I get company. Why don't you girls tell me a bit about yourselves, eh? Indulge an old man for a bit. Where are you from? What brings you all the way out here to the back-end of nowhere?"

Jade glanced at AJ as though to see if she was going to answer, but when she didn't, Jade took up the explanation instead.

Her name was Jade, she said, and she and her friends AJ and Sammy had come up for a bit of sight-seeing. AJ was grateful that she left out the bits about AJ being Kanto's newest Champion - sure, Cole probably wouldn't care about that and it's not like the opinions of some sheltered hermit mattered in the long run, but the thought of someone else knowing that she, the Champion, had screwed up so badly and hadn't been able to defend herself against a wild pokemon attack had her insides knotting up painfully. She didn't want to think about that - not now or ever. She just wanted to find Sammy and go home.

But they couldn't do that now, so she continued to sit in front of the fireplace, wrapped up in a warm quilt, slowly sipping Cole's oddly-flavored cider while Jade filled the silence with mindless smalltalk. On the rug in front of her, Pichu was curled up, sleeping, while the old man's Pikachu stood watch.

The three of them were childhood friends and had traveled here from Kanto, Jade explained. The trip was supposed to be one last adventure before they hung up their hats as trainers and moved on to their boring adult lives.

Cole had chuckled at that, as though he saw something funny.

"Growing up isn't so bad, lass," he said, shooting them an indulging smile. "And it doesn't have to be boring, either."

"Is this the part where you tell us that life is what we make of it, oh wise hermit of the mountain?" Jade joked, flashing one of her dozen charming smiles to show she was kidding and displaying once again just how much better she was at socializing than AJ. The old man let out a bark of laughter.

"Well, you got me there," he conceded, now fiddling with a few different tins on his spice rack. "But if a strange old man can't drop sage wisdom every now and then, what's the point in livin' to be this old?"

They chatted on for a bit about nothing until AJ had drained the last of her cider and the flames on the hearth had died down somewhat. She was feeling a lot better now, she could admit, but her head still felt off and her body was still sore and fatigued. She needed to sleep, she knew, but her anxiety over Sammy was keeping her up, at least for now.

Jade didn't seem to have this same concern, however. She seemed completely at ease as she chatted with Cole, talking about the pokemon in the area, where Larvitar were more frequently spotted, which introduced species he'd been accustomed to seeing, what areas of the mountain they should avoid on their trek back down. If anything, it almost sounded like Cole was a favorite uncle of hers that she hadn't seen in a while. Not for the first time, AJ found herself jealous at how easily Jade seemed to be able to make friends. Personability - another trait a good Champion should have. Another trait she was lacking.

Eventually, after setting up a large cauldron so he could begin piling in the ingredients he'd been preparing, Cole turned to his guests and asked, "Now - you don't have to answer me if you don't want to, and I don't mean anything by it - you don't have the look of poachers about you, though… Well, anyway. If you don't mind, can you tell me why you're here? Here specifically, that is - Mt. Silver ain't exactly a normal vacation destination. Not that you can't be here, mind, it's just… Well, it's unusual is all. And the folks who typically set out to come here ain't usually the friendly type."

Jade sent AJ a covert look out of the corner of her eye as though asking for permission to tell the truth. She shook her head. Cole seemed nice enough, but that didn't mean he deserved her whole life story.

"It's… our friend," Jade said instead, clearly making this up as she went. AJ wondered if it was as obvious to Cole as it was to her. "Sammy, the one who… the one we're looking for. He's actually an Oak. You know, like Professor Oak - inventor of the Pokedex, yadda yadda. He's his great-grandson. He wanted to come up here to survey the mountain, y'know for… research or whatever. Anyway, we heard no one ever comes up here, so we decided to tag along. Figured I could use this as an opportunity to catch a Tyranitar, but mostly we just wanted to get the old team back together for one last hurrah."

Cole was nodding along even as he shaved a garlic clove over the cauldron. From his expression, he looked like he was concentrating more on his task than listening to Jade. To her credit, at least, her story wasn't a complete lie. AJ was actually kind of impressed. For being on the spot, that wasn't bad. For Jade, at least.

"Oak…" he said slowly. "Yes, that name sounds familiar… I'm guessing his great-grandfather is the one who got you clearance from the League to come up here?"

"Yup," said Jade, latching onto the convenient excuse he'd provided to her. "Him and… Um, I called in a favor to my dad, too. He donates a lot of money to a wildlife conservation fund so the Rangers are kinda indebted to him."

"Your father?" Cole asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you're some spoiled rich girl."

There was a teasing note to his voice to indicate he meant no offense. Jade laughed.

"Ha, I wish. But no, not really - I mean my dad is a Gym Leader, but…" She shrugged. "My dad is Brock, by the way. Brock Harrison, the Gym Leader of Pewter City."

Cole's hands stilled.

"Brock Harrison?" he asked, not looking at them. "Gym Leader of… Pewter City?"

"That's right," Jade said proudly.

"That name sounds… familiar," he murmured, frowning at the garlic in his hands as if he suddenly didn't know what he was holding. After a moment, he shook his head and continued shaving the garlic. How much was he planning on adding?

"Must have been fun, growing up as a Gym Leader's kid," Cole continued after a moment, finally setting the garlic aside and reaching for his heavy wooden spoon to stir the contents of his would-be stew.

Jade shrugged.

"Eh. I guess so. It's the only life I've lived so I don't really know how to compare it."

Cole nodded, but didn't really seem to be listening. He pulled his clay crock forward and ladled some more water into the pot, frowning at the contents.

"I bet you got to meet a lot of famous people growing up. That must have been fun. Elite 4 members, other Gym Leaders… It's true that your father is close friends with the Gym Leader of Cerulean City, isn't it? Misty Waterflower? Do you know her? How is she doing these days?"

AJ slowly turned her head to stare at the old man.

How did he know that her mom and Brock were friends? How did he even know who they were? Hadn't he told her he'd been living on this mountain for the last forty years?

"You mean Elite 4 member Misty Waterflower?" Jade corrected, leaning back into the makeshift couch and letting her shoulder thump into AJ's. She sent her friend a playful wink. "Yeah, I'd say she's doing alright. Don't you think, AJ? Tell him how your mom is doing."

Cole, who had just lifted the pot off of the counter so he could carry it to the stove, suddenly stumbled. He managed to keep his grip on the pot, thankfully, but not without sloshing a good bit of the uncooked stew onto the floor.

Jade leaped to her feet, dropping her quilt and rushing to his side.

"Oh! Are you ok? Let me help!"

"I'm fine, lass, I'm fine - just stubbed my toe, that's all. No need to fuss."

But his expression betrayed his words. His face was pale and his eyes kept darting away from Jade and the ruined food on the floor over toward the couch where AJ was sitting.

Suddenly, guilt flooded through AJ. Here she was, content to let this stranger take care of her, but she'd never paused to consider how he was doing. He was getting on in years, living alone on a mountain for decades… What if he had health issues of his own? What if he was hurt in some way and was just trying to hide it?

Jade must have had a similar thought as she was insisting on helping him out, but Cole was having none of it.

"Settle down, lass, settle down… I'm fine, I promise - I have more than enough here to replace what I spilled, it won't take me but a second-"

"Then at least let me get this cleaned up for you!"

"Nah, don't bother yourself. Sluggy! You feelin' up for some stew?"

He pulled the door of the stove back open, gesturing for Jade to step back and his Slugma slowly oozed its way out of the door, plopping down on the stone kitchen floor with a wet thud and immediately began excitedly slurping up the spilled stew. Steam filled the kitchen, the smell of burned food filled the air, but within seconds the mess was clean and Slugma was sliding its way back into the stove, a contented look on its face.

Well now, that was convenient. She'd never heard of a Slugma being used like an all-purpose vacuum cleaner, but it worked.

"See?" Cole said, shutting the door of the stove once again and returning to the pot on the stove. "Good as new. Now, you let me take care of this, and you go take care of your friend over there. Take her some more cider, too. She looks like she needs it."

Truth be told, AJ had warmed up a good bit, but it was also true that she still felt a bit shaky. More cider sounded really good. So did a nap.

When Jade returned and refilled her cup, AJ downed it in record time despite the heat. Then, her eyes on her still-sleeping Pichu, she let herself lean onto Jade's shoulder as her friend and Cole continued their endless conversation about nothing. All thoughts of how or why he had known her mother's name had fled from her head as the warmth of the cider and quilt and fire and Jade all melded together and she felt her heavy eyelids slide shut.

Her last thoughts before passing out were of Sammy, lost somewhere out in the cold, all alone.

Sammy's foot struck a rock hidden in the snow, and he cursed as jagged, lancing stabs of pain shot their way straight up his leg and into his brain.

His Gallade shifted, looking concerned, but Sammy waved him off irritably. There wasn't anything either of them could do about it, and Gallade was already more than half carrying him as it was.

They'd been walking for hours now. Or shuffling, more like. It was slow going - and painful - what with the piles of snow they had to contend with, the bitter cold, the fact that they had no idea where they were or where they were going…

Oh, and the fact that his leg was broken. Couldn't forget that.

The avalanche last night had been… Well, to say it was the stuff of nightmares would be the understatement of the century. An attack in the dark while they were asleep, razor-sharp ice shards raining down on them, him and Jade fighting over which belt belonged to who…

If either one of them had been able to call their pokemon out on time, things might have been different. It was such an embarrassing mistake - such a rookie move. He'd been so cocky before, so sure that nothing on this mountain could surprise them. Figures that his biggest obstacle would end up being himself. Jade had tried to rip the belts from his hands because he was taking too long, and they'd fallen to the ground. They'd both reached for them, but…

Gallade and Leafeon. They were all he had now. Well, them and Gengar - though he didn't actually have Gengar's ball, as it was still on the belt that was presumably - hopefully - in Jade's possession. They'd fought over the belts, and Jade had won, tearing them both away and leaving only two of Sammy's balls in his possession.

She'd summoned her Metagross then and he'd tried to climb on behind her. But he'd fallen. Fallen back down to the ground and the approaching avalanche, landing rather awkwardly and full on breaking his leg in the process. That was it then. He was doomed.

Except that was when Gengar had swooped in and saved him.

Gengar couldn't fly - well, it could fly on it's own, just not with a passenger - but it had managed to seize him by the shoulders and drag him off as the avalanche raced down after them, Gengar weaving deftly through the trees and boulders as it soared downhill, Sammy's limp body bouncing along behind it like a broken sled. Those few seconds - minutes? - had been harrowing, and he could only remember them now as fleeting flashes of terror and pain before Gengar had managed to pull him far enough away that they were out of the path of the wave of snowy death.

And now, here he was. Makeshift crutch under one arm, the other slung around Gallade's shoulders. Hobbling like a cripple through the frozen wilderness. No food, no shelter, no idea where he was or what they were doing.

He should have had Gallade teleport him back down the mountain. True, his psychic powers weren't as well developed as the female-half of his species, meaning it would take them several teleports - perhaps dozens - as well as the better part of the day before they reached civilization and could go for help. But the problem was, he knew Jade and AJ were around here somewhere. They wouldn't leave until they found him. If he just stuck it out - waited for them to find him first - they could all leave together.

He refused to believe that either one of them had abandoned him. Not them. They were his friends.

Not for the first time that day, he found himself cursing his own stupidity for suggesting this trip in the first place. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time - he'd rehearsed a dozen different ways to present the idea to AJ before he'd arrived at her party in Cerulean. But then Jade had dragged him out of her room after he'd suggested it, and…

Well, there was the start of the problem. Jade had it in her head that the only reason Sammy had proposed the idea was because of some dumb childhood crush he'd had on AJ. Like he was planning some ridiculous confession here on this ridiculous mountain of all places for no good reason.

She'd been completely wrong about that, of course. Not the crush thing - he could admit now that he'd been rather obvious about his infatuation for AJ when they were younger, even if AJ herself was the most oblivious person on the planet and had never noticed.

He'd always paid special attention to AJ, even back when they were kids. It was hard not to, what with her long, dark hair and sparkling blue eyes, freckled cheeks and sun-kissed skin from years spent running around the rivers and capes of Cerulean. Not to mention her boundless confidence, her sheer enthusiasm for adventure, the wild freedom that danced in her eyes. After growing up in and around his family's lab, feeling the weight of his surname shackling him, meeting AJ had been life-changing. She was magnetic. She pulled you to her.

When they'd started their journey at the same time, he'd been secretly ecstatic. He'd thought it had been his chance, that they could journey together, spend time together. He hadn't wanted to date her or anything - he was ten, girls made him feel flustered and clumsy. He just wanted to be her friend. And then she'd decided - all on her own - that they would be rivals. Sort of blew his dreams up right in his face, but honestly, he hadn't minded that much. It still gave him an excuse to talk to her, which he was more than happy to do - even if she had really seemed to hate him at the time.

No, what Jade had been wrong about was this whole fantasy she'd cooked up in her head that Sammy was planning on doing anything at all about those feelings. He'd buried them away long ago, perfectly content with just being friends. Sure, they tried to poke through every now and then, but he was always firm about pushing them back down. AJ didn't see him that way - she never had. She hadn't ever expressed romantic interest in anyone. Her whole life was about pokemon, and he was happy enough just being a part of it.

But Jade wouldn't let it go. She kept making snide comments or giving him knowing looks, and doing so in ways that were completely open and obvious to anyone else who might be around - especially AJ. True, she apparently hadn't caught on yet, but still. AJ may be oblivious, but she wasn't dumb. Well… she wasn't dumb about most things. She would catch on eventually. And then where would he be?

Wherever it was, he had to concede now that it would be better than being lost and alone with a broken leg on a frozen mountain. His injured foot struck another hidden rock buried beneath the snow and he hissed through his teeth.

They'd been traveling uphill for what seemed like hours - or at least it felt that way. With the sky overhead so cloudy, it was tough to say what time of day it really was. Gengar was scouting ahead, keeping an eye out for any wild pokemon as well as any signs of AJ or Jade. Gallade, who had made him a makeshift splint of sticks tied together with Sammy's shoelaces, was doing most of the work, Sammy's arm thrown over his shoulder as he half-supported, half-dragged Sammy up the mountainside.

Leafeon ambled on beside him, her plant-like ears and tail sensing the air while she sniffed the ground, searching for clues. Truth be told, he doubted she'd find anything; they were heading uphill, across ground that had just been devastated by the avalanche. It probably wasn't the safest route - nor the easiest, especially with his injured leg - but if AJ and Jade were looking for him, this would be the most obvious place he'd be.

Really, he ought to just call her back to her ball. Gallade needed to stay out to help Sammy walk, and he didn't even have Gengar's ball anymore, but there was no reason for Leafeon to stay out here and freeze alongside him.

The problem was, she wouldn't go back in. Or rather, she wouldn't stay in. Pokeballs had various settings that trainers could choose to customize how they wanted. One of the more contentious was the ability to choose whether your pokemon could let itself out of its ball at its own volition or not.

It was generally considered the morally correct choice to let pokemon release themselves from their pokeballs of their own accord. At least, assuming they could behave themselves and had been trained. For instance, while all of AJ's pokemon could let themselves out of their pokeballs whenever they wanted, her Hydreigon could not. AJ hadn't made that change yet to her pokeball's settings.

There were typically two arguments to be had about this particular feature. On the one hand, you had those who believed that letting pokemon pop out willy-nilly could lead to potential disasters - and sometimes it did. Poorly-trained pokemon sometimes popped out on busy streets, or else to pick fights with other pokemon who happened to be nearby. Zangoose and Seviper were notorious for displaying this kind of behavior. But on the other hand, if the pokeball was lost or stolen, if the setting was turned off, the pokemon would be trapped inside, possibly indefinitely unless someone were to find the ball or it were to be broken.

Sammy, who often considered himself to be more open-minded, had all of his pokeballs set so that pokemon could let themselves out at will. They were all well-trained enough to know not to pop out when it was dangerous, or indoors if they were too large, etc. Usually, it was fine.

But sometimes, like now, his pokemon abused the privilege. Leafeon refused to stay inside her ball. He had no idea what good she thought she was going to do him, tiring herself out and getting frostbite on her toes, but he'd given up on trying to convince her to stay in. His fingers were too numb to change the settings on her pokeball right now anyway.

He watched her as they walked, trying to see if she was letting out any tell-tale signs of giving in and letting him recall her, when something caught his attention.

There was a noise. A sort of… ringing sound. Like someone was tapping a good-sized bell with a small mallet. The sound was quiet and muffled, but it stood out against the wind, the only other sound to be heard for miles aside from their footsteps and his labored breathing.

At first, Sammy thought he was hallucinating. Why would there be a bell up here in the mountains? Surely there wouldn't be any shrines up here, or any ski resorts. Mmm, a resort… Resorts had food and hot tubs… No, Sammy, focus. Keep moving. This was no time to daydream.

But as they kept walking, the sound grew steadily louder and louder. No, not louder - closer. Whatever was causing it had to be just up ahead on the mountainside.

But what? He couldn't see anything unusual. Granted, after seeing nothing but snow and rocks for the last several hours, his eyes had sort of glazed over, but if there had been any sort of building or man-made structure up ahead, he would have seen it by now.

Was it a pokemon? Chimecho usually lived in cold, snowy mountains like these, but they weren't native to Johto. Then again, neither were Absol or Abomasnow, so that didn't really mean anything. There could be a whole host of introduced species up here. Jade would have a fit.

But no… as the sound rang out again, now about as loud as the ringing of a pokegear might have been, he could tell it wasn't the cry of any pokemon he'd ever heard of. And it wasn't a pokegear either - the frequency and volume of the ringing was too inconsistent to be from a machine. But something was making that ringing noise. Something close by.

He wasn't the only one who had noticed, of course. Gallade didn't look all that interested, focusing instead on supporting Sammy, but Leafeon had perked her large ears up, her luminescent hazelnut eyes scanning their surroundings curiously.

The ringing struck again and she was off, hopping through the snow because it was too deep for her to walk through normally. She was angling up and to the left a bit. Trusting her ears over his, he motioned for Gengar to go with her, and the specter floated on ahead, easily outpacing her as she struggled to move through the snow.

He nudged Gallade to follow them, and his pokemon shot him a flat look. His eyes seemed to imply that now was not the time to go investigating strange noises, but Sammy rolled his eyes and tried to forge his way ahead anyway, forcing Gallade to follow him or else allow Sammy to fall on his face.

Ahead of him, Gengar stopped, twisting around behind an oddly-curved rock formation that vaguely resembled a Ryhorn's face, one lone boulder curving up toward the sky at least five spans high. He made a noise, like a rasping gurgle. Leafeon hastened to his side, hopping through the snow to get a closer look.

Sammy tried to hurry - he really did - but trying to hop faster on his one good leg up a mountainside through three feet of snow was not exactly a recipe for speed. He nearly pitched forward, forcing Gallade to catch him before he crashed into the ground.

He shot his partner a thankful smile, but the look of stern reprimand on his face had Sammy looking away, abashed. Fine then. They'd take it slow.

It probably took another minute or two to make their way to the boulder - an absurdly long amount of time. Eventually, however, after far too much effort, they joined Gengar and Leafeon in staring at what was honestly the last thing Sammy had expected.

There, behind the rock formation, partially smashed and almost completely empty, was a nest.

A nest made of pure ice.

Sammy glanced around, examining the surrounding area again. He couldn't think of any reason for why a pokemon would choose to build a nest here. It was at ground-level, open to exposure, where any scavenger could just walk up and make off with the eggs. In fact, there was only one egg left in the nest. This was a terrible location.

Which could only mean this spot wasn't chosen intentionally. He examined the area again, paying special attention to the damage the nest had apparently sustained. It can't have been built here. It must have been caught up in the avalanche and swept away, coming to a stop here when it collided with the rock formation. The other eggs - assuming there had been others - had likely been lost or destroyed.

And that was tragic, in a way, but it was also life. Admittedly, he was a half step away from freezing to death and his leg was in excruciating pain, so he didn't have a lot of space left in him for sympathy. Still, he wasn't able to completely stop his inner researcher from cataloging evidence and drawing conclusions.

First of all, what kind of nest was this? His first thought was a bird pokemon just from the general shape of the nest, but the only ones who made their home in the region were Noctowl or Murkrow, and both were known to build their nests in trees. Sure, the nest could have been in a tree originally, but their nests were never so large, and certainly not made of ice. There may have been the odd Skarmory in the area, but they nested in caves - and again, no ice.

The size of the nest had him focusing on the egg again. It was pretty large too - maybe about the size of his head, maybe a little bigger. The shell was a pure, crystal blue that glittered like sapphires. Whatever it was, somehow - call it trainer's intuition or his Oak genes - Sammy could tell that it was something special.

But what? An ice-type pokemon, surely. What else but that would build a nest of ice? But while there were certainly ice-type pokemon living in and around Mt. Silver, this egg didn't seem to be a match for any of them.

Piloswine buried their eggs to keep them safe from predators. Sneasel hid their eggs beneath the roots and in the hollows of trees. Neither had nests, at least not like these. Delibird had nests - and were even known to layer their nests with soft paddings of snow - but their eggs were never so large, and Sammy had seen Delibird eggs before. They were usually red and white, not blue.

The thought came to him that this could be an Articuno nest, and he actually chuckled. Right, sure. Lost on a mountain, possibly hours away from death, and he just happens to wander across the discovery of a lifetime. That would truly be the irony of ironies. He was more likely to wander across Ash Ketchum. At least people had actually seen Ash when he was alive. No one had ever seen an Articuno nest, much less an egg.

Whatever the egg was, that high-pitched ringing sounded out again, and this time, it was obvious that it was coming from the egg. Was it close to hatching? Could the mystery actually be about to solve itself?

Sammy glanced around again, examining the landscape critically. He had no idea how long it would be until the egg hatched. Could be minutes, could be hours - but he didn't have either to waste. He needed to find AJ and Jade, or at least find warmth and shelter before nightfall. As much as he may want to, he couldn't stay and watch. He needed to press on.

But then, considering how the nest had clearly been swept away in last night's avalanche, could he in good conscience leave the egg alone? It was likely to become lunch for a Sneasel if he left it where it was. Out here alone, exposed to the elements and predators, without its mother nearby to protect it… Maybe he could take it with him?

He couldn't carry it, though, and neither could Gallade - not with him needing to carry Sammy. Gengar could do it, but the idea of an egg being in such close proximity to a poisonous ghost seemed like an objectively bad one.

He ultimately decided on letting Leafeon be the one to carry it. Her tail was strong, yet flexible, and she was able to wrap it securely around the egg and lift it out of the nest. The egg pinged again when she did, as though whatever was inside had been startled by the sudden movement.

Silently wondering if this had been a good idea or not, Sammy instructed his troupe to continue on. It was barely noon and he'd hardly slept. It had been hours since he'd had anything to eat or drink. Hobbling his way up this steep, snowy mountainside was draining him like he'd never been drained before. Exhaustion was soon to get the better of him.

But AJ and Jade were up here somewhere, and so was the rest of his team. He had to keep believing that. If he stopped, if he doubted for even a moment… he didn't think he'd have the strength to move forward.

And so, weird new egg in tow, they pressed on. The wind seemed to rise on the mountainside, rushing down towards them in a powerful rush as though the mountain itself was sighing.

Perhaps this was just another sign that he was beginning to lose it, but for a moment there, the breeze had almost felt… warm.

Chapter Text

AJ wasn’t sure how long she was out. Though padded with cushions and quilts, Cole’s couch was still technically just a wooden bench, which meant her sleep was punctuated by the tossings and turnings of a person completely incapable of getting comfortable. She eventually found herself being roused by Jade as her friend began dabbing at the cuts and bruises on AJ’s face with a cotton swab soaked in disinfectant. 

She hissed at the sudden stinging sensation, jerking away, still half-asleep and trying valiantly to fight Jade off, but her friend was having none of it. 

“Girl, put the gloves down or I will tie you up. You know I will. If you don’t let me clean you up, you’re going to get an infection or worse. Scars. How are you ever going to be a mermaid princess if you let your pretty face get all messed up?”

AJ grimaced but let Jade do her work, glowering up at her petulantly with the quilt pulled protectively around her shoulders. Not that she cared about being a mermaid princess - she knew Jade was just kidding, or at least hoped she was - but she was at least right about her needing to get her injuries treated. She’d actually managed to forget for a bit that she was hurt, what with the more pressing issues of the cold and exhaustion. Now that she was focusing on it, however, her head ached and her spine still felt stiff and sore.

After Jade had done her work and wrapped a large cloth bandage around her temple to cover the lovely bump she’d received from the avalanche, AJ could admit that she did in fact feel better. Not perfect, of course, but compared to how she’d felt after climbing out of that hole… 

The short nap in front of the fire along with the warm cider-like drink and the quilt cocoon seemed to have improved her condition considerably. Jade gave her some pain killers that Cole apparently had stashed away in his first aid kit, and AJ felt confident that after a warm meal and maybe a bit more sleep, she’d be back to almost normal condition. 

The meal was actually the real reason Jade had chosen then to begin treating AJ’s wounds. Apparently, the stew was done and it was time to eat, and as much as they knew AJ needed to sleep, they knew she needed to eat, too. 

As they gathered around the small, somewhat rickety table, Cole and the girls were joined by Pikachu and her now-awake Pichu, who looked much better than he had earlier. AJ took a moment to examine the cutlery. While the cups and bowls appeared to be made of some kind of pottery, the spoons Cole had provided were made of metal. She eyed them and the cauldron that he had cooked the stew in, then turned to look at both the stove and the first aid kit. 

Cole, who was seating himself at the head of the table after having served his guests, noticed her confused look and seemed to intuit what she was thinking. 

“Most of what we have here we make ourselves,” he said. “But some of it we trade for with some of the Rangers at the base of the mountain.”

Jade looked up in surprise, her cheeks full of stew.

“Uh hanges ‘o ooer ‘ere?” she asked, and both AJ and Cole pulled identical disgusted, yet amused, faces. Pikachu was staring at her with a look of mild exasperation. 

Flushing, Jade swallowed and tried again. 

“The Rangers know you’re here? I thought no one was allowed to be here.”

“They’re not,” Cole said with a smile. “Though I’ve been here so long that no one seems to mind. I’m friendly enough with some of the older Rangers, and I give ‘em a hand every now and then. In return, they sometimes get me things that I don’t normally have access to - like the first aid equipment you used. These spoons were a gift, actually. As long as I’m willin’ to help ‘em out, they’re content to turn a blind eye to me bein’ here.”

Well that sounded distinctly illegal. Then again, Cole clearly wasn’t a bad guy or doing any harm to the pokemon or the environment. He was just a kindly old hermit who had apparently given up on society. The Rangers must feel like they can trust him if they were willing to risk their jobs like this. 

Then again, remembering how bored and lazy the Rangers had looked when they’d checked in at the station, it was entirely possible that the favors they had Cole doing were just normal Ranger assignments that they didn’t want to do themselves. She almost pitied him - but then, he seemed to benefit from it, so no harm no foul?

The stew was, honestly, delicious. She’d had her doubts before, but even lacking the spices she was used to, the food was phenomenal. It has a rich, smokey flavor, and with every bite, the warmth seemed to spread from her mouth to her belly and straight out to her fingers and toes. She couldn’t remember eating anything so wonderful in her entire life. Either Cole was just that great a cook, or starvation and nearly freezing to death had dulled her taste buds. She decided to be charitable and lean towards the former.

Cole encouraged them to dig in, paying special attention to AJ as he did so. He kept pouring her more cider or passing her more slices of bread - freshly baked from his Slugma-powered stove. He actually seemed a little… too eager. Almost like he was mothering her. She chalked it down to him being lonely, but she noticed that he wasn’t nearly as pushy with Jade or Pichu. Maybe he was just worried about her health?

He also kept focusing much of the conversation on her. Though it was still Jade who answered most of his questions and kept the back-and-forth alive, he kept turning back to AJ, asking about her life - where she was born, if she had any siblings, if she was closer to her family, etc. If it wasn’t for the delicious food, and Jade obviously playing her spokesperson, she might have found all of the prying annoying.

Her reprieve came in the form of the sound of the front door opening, catching everyone’s attention.

“Hey, I’m back!” 

Pikachu let out a delighted cry, leaping off of the table even as Cole, his expression suddenly flashing to one of nervous excitement, quickly pushed his chair back and rose to his feet. 

Before Cole could speak, before the newcomer had even fully entered the house, AJ turned her head, muscles still a little stiff, and tried for a polite smile as her eyes rested for the first and thousandth time upon the newcomer… and felt the smile slip off of her face and splatter at the ground at her feet, her insides knotting together so quickly and tightly you would have thought they’d turned to stone. 

He was far older than the pictures on her grandmother’s mantle. The five o’clock shadow was new, as were the crinkles on his face and the clothes on his back. But if the old, tattered hat on his head wasn’t already a dead give-away, then his eyes would have been enough. 

A dirty amber that glinted with boundless confidence and purpose. An admittedly charismatic look that she’d found herself studying for years, one she’d never quite been able to duplicate…

She had actually found her father. 

He’d just walked in, out of the clear blue. That wasn’t… He was supposed to be dead, how could he…? How hard had she hit her head? Was she still asleep? Still trapped under the ice and snow, hallucinating mere moments before death? That had to be it - the only explanation. 

For a moment, the sudden silence that had seized hold of the cabin seemed to ring out in her ears. AJ’s entire body had stiffened unnaturally, her face gray and slack, food like cinders in her mouth as she stared, absolutely poleaxed, at the man who had just walked in the door. He stared right back at her, his face betraying equal amounts of confusion and apprehension. 

Jade, who had been in the middle of shoveling more stew into her face when the door opened hadn’t actually looked up yet. She had one hand covering her mouth as though trying not to be rude, chewing as quickly as she could until, with a large gulp and an embarrassed smile, she turned her head towards the newcomer. 

“Hi!” she said brightly, pearlescent smile illuminating her face. “We’re just-”

Then she stopped, her eyes going wide, her face an odd mixture of surprise, disbelief, and horror, looking for all the world as though a Timburr had just struck her across the face with a two-by-four. Slowly, she turned around to look at AJ, as though to gauge her reaction. AJ barely seemed to notice. 

The awkward silence seemed to stretch for a moment, expanding to fill the space between them, Cole and the stranger both having immediately picked up on the sudden tension that had filled the room, though neither seemed to understand the cause. 

Finally, the man stepped further into the room, shutting the door behind him and slowly taking off his hat. He gave the girls at the table a quick once-over before turning his attention to Cole. 

“Dad,” he began casually, “I see you decided to invite our neighbors over for dinner. Neighbors who we don’t have.”

There was an odd undercurrent there, as though he was trying to subtly chastise Cole for something, but all that AJ could focus on at the moment was the sudden realization that he didn’t recognize her. 

But then, of course he didn’t - how could he? He’d never met her. He’d run off before she was even born.

Something inside of her seemed to ignite then, whatever had held her petrified with shock at his unexpected appearance before now fracturing beneath the sudden wave of white-hot hate and rage and betrayal that she felt frothing up inside of her, rising hotter and faster than the geysers on Cinnabar Volcano. 

“Son,” Cole began cautiously, his eyes bouncing back and forth. “Listen. This is-”

But then AJ was suddenly on her feet, without even realizing she'd moved, scooting her chair back noisily on the aged wooden floorboards, startling Jade and upsetting the table, making the dishes rattle. 

“You’re Ash Ketchum,” she interrupted loudly, the dull bluntness of her voice sounding odd in her ears. 

The man hesitated almost indiscernably, then smiled. 

“I’m sorry?” he asked, his voice perfectly polite and controlled, almost quizzical. His eyes, however, were as blank as stone. 

Cole held up a hand. 

“Lass-”

“You’re Ash Ketchum,” AJ repeated, this time even louder, and she suddenly became aware of the fact that her entire body was trembling as she stared into the face of the man some had called her father and he stared right back without even a hint or trace of recognition in his eyes. 

She could feel the fury quaking inside of her now, writhing in her insides, clawing at her intestines, twisting up into her throat. She tasted iron, but her stomach was tying itself in painful knots.

“Listen, miss,” he said, and the fake sympathy in his voice, like he was speaking to a child, was like throwing gunpowder directly onto an open flame. “I can see you’ve hit your head and I think you may be a little confused-”

“Shut up!”

She hadn't meant to shout, but she couldn't help it; the sheer volume of her voice scratching painfully at her throat, and the occupants of the room drew back in collective alarm. A small part of her mind registered that she'd officially passed the point of being hysterical, but she could hardly hear the voice of reason over the sound of her ragged breathing or the blood thundering in her ears. With every pulse, she felt her self-control slip further and further away. 

A lifetime of cooped-up furry was about to get a long-awaited outlet. 

“You’re Ash Ketchum,” she repeated again, this time spitting the words out like an accusation. “The one-time runaway Champion of the Kanto League. The one who abandoned his friends and family like a coward! Admit it! Admit that’s who you are!”

The cabin had grown deathly still, all eyes fixated on AJ and the man who had just walked in. 

His countenance had changed with the impact of her words. Gone was the false facade of simple, polite obliviousness, replaced by a harsh and bitterly cold glare, harder than the mountain they were standing on. Yet even still, his eyes still held that glint of confidence and charisma that so grated on her. 

“Listen,” he shot back, “I don’t know any Ash Ketchum who ever ran away from anything, but that’s beside the point. I don’t know who you are, how you came to be here, or why my father let you in,” he bit out the last words with particular venom, shooting Cole a sharp look, “but whatever it is you’re after, say it and get out of my house.”

“Ash,” Cole cut in quickly, looking alarmed, “you don’t understand! This girl is-!”

AJ felt her heart suddenly leapfrog into her throat and she quickly cut off the older man with a somewhat panicked, “He doesn’t need to know who I am!”

The look that Cole sent her could be best described as exasperated, but she ignored him, focusing instead on Ash. She didn’t want him to know who she was. He didn’t deserve it. He’d left her, and that was that. 

But if he was here and alive, then there was something she needed to do. Something she needed to prove, to the world and to herself. 

“Two weeks ago,” she began, breathless and agitated, “I challenged and defeated Lance for the title of Pokemon Champion of the Kanto League – but if you’re still alive, that means you’re still Kanto’s Champion and until I defeat you, my title is a lie-!”

“No.”

The unexpected interjection had AJ tripping over her words, spluttering in confusion as her entire dramatic spiel fell to pieces before she could get it past her lips.

“I… what?”

“No. I won’t battle you.” The look on his face was condescending to the extreme. “I don’t have time for this. Get out of my house and go be a Champion somewhere where somebody cares. Come on, Pikachu.”

He turned to leave, the little yellow mouse hastening to follow its master. Cole raised an impotent hand, looking forlorn, and at the sight of Ash turning his back and walking out on her once again, AJ’s fury ignited with a passion that drove all reason from her mind.

Without pausing to think, she seized a cup from off the table and hurled it at the wall where it exploded into hundreds of little pieces as she screamed after him, “You’re just gonna walk out on my challenge like you did on your wife?!”

“ AJ!” Jade squeaked, looking horrified, but she was past the point of caring. The blood was pounding too loudly in her ears. It had felt so satisfying to hurl that at him. She only wished her voice hadn’t cracked there at the end.

Ash had frozen in his tracks in front of the doorway, hand still on the handle, completely still. AJ held her stance, facing him as defiantly as possible, but she couldn’t seem to stop the way her body was shaking. 

Finally he turned, face ghastly, gaunt eyes like augers, and pointed a solitary finger at her so forcefully that she nearly drew back.

“One battle,” he grated, voice guttural and hoarse, “That’s it. Win or lose you leave my house and never come back. Agreed?”

“Fine.”

He jerked the door open and headed out into the fading light. AJ followed immediately.

“A-AJ!”

“Ash!”

Neither Ketchum spared a comment for their friends in the cabin. They stalked around the side of the building towards a relatively large, open plot of land between the cabin’s exterior walls and a large rock formation that jutted out of the side of the mountain. The ground was snowy, interspaced with the occasional tree or rock or patch of dead grass, and though the daylight was swiftly dying, it was still more than bright enough to see. The perfect location.

They faced off across their makeshift field, glaring for all they were worth as Jade and Cole took their places at the sidelines. Her best friend was trembling, arms wrapped tightly around her midriff as anxious tears welled up in her eyes. She was worried for her. She shouldn’t be. She ought to know by now that AJ could handle herself. Cole for his part simply looked furious, though whether his anger was directed at her, at Ash, or at himself, she didn’t know.

Pichu climbed up her leg, positioning itself on her shoulder. Across the field, Pikachu did the same.

“Here’s how it’s gonna play out,” Ash called, sounding dispassionate. “Six one-on-one matches. No replacements, no items, just straight up battle. To make things easier on you, if you can take out even three of my pokémon, I’ll consider you the victor.”

Her teeth grated in irritation. Many words had been used to describe Ash Ketchum in the past; arrogant was never one of them. He wasn’t taking her seriously. He didn’t think she was a threat. She’d prove him wrong.

Without pausing to answer, she snatched a ball off of her belt and hurled it into the ring. The capsule opened with a burst of red light, and in a moment her Arcanine materialized on the ground before her, piles of snow evaporating into steam around his feet.

There was a pause as he examined her pokemon almost appraisingly, and then, “Y’know, Miss Champion of the Kanto League, official League guidelines state that the defendant is the one to first choose a pokémon so as to give the challenger the advantage. Guess you must have forgotten that little tidbit. Ah well, don’t let it worry you; I’ll go easy.”

And with that cocky declaration, he plucked a ball from his belt and tossed it lazily into the air.

There was a flash, and Venosaur appeared in the ring, massive haunches shifting, the petals of his enormous flower testing the air. Arcanine let out a roar of challenge, his powerful cry startling the nearby Hoothoot from their trees, but Venosaur seemed unperturbed, examining Arcanine with calm detachment.

Hot, sticky rage bubbled inside of her. He deliberately chose a grass-type to fight against her fire? And a slow grass-type at that?! Oh, she’d show him alright… No one disrespected her pokémon…!

As one, she and Ash grabbed their hats and twisted them backward. She saw confusion flash across his face for a moment, but she chose to ignore her sudden flush of embarrassment and take advantage of his lack of attention to the battle that was about to begin.

“Arcanine!” she shouted, not waiting for the referee to start the match since technically they didn’t have one and she doubted either Jade or Cole were willing to fill the vacancy, “Flame Charge!”

Arcanine exploded into a dead sprint, flames erupting around his body, twisting and twirling around him in a tangled red-orange blur as he charged down his target like a fiery meteor.

She wasn’t usually one for the ‘in your face’ battling style, but her need to shut his unworthy mouth was overriding any other thought. His Venosaur didn’t stand a chance against her Arcanine, and there was no way it could move fast enough to dodge the hit.

She waited for Ash to call an attack, but he never did. Instead, while her eyes were trained on him, waiting for the command that never came, she didn’t notice Venusaur lift its right foreleg and slam it into the earth.

All at once, the ground beneath them jumped upward and AJ was thrown back with a crash. Scrambling to right herself, she barely managed to climb up on all-fours in time to see the arena change drastically.

The floor between them fissured and cracked, chunks of rock and earth jutting upwards at all angles, altering the battleground from a peaceful snowy field to one that better resembled the mountainside she’d been climbing earlier. It was the earthquake attack. Typical.

Arcanine, however, had been trained better than that. The moment the ground had begun to shake, it leaped high, soaring over the trembling ground, barely dodging a massive stone that had erupted to impede him. 

He landed, paws outstretched, on a second stone and used it as a springboard to quickly change his direction without losing speed. The ground still trembled and shook but Arcanine was too fast to catch, crisscrossing the battlefield in a flaming blur, leaping from stone to stone, almost flying, waiting for an opening. 

She felt herself smile; if Venusaur hoped to catch him, he’d have to get up earlier than that.

Without warning, as he alighted briefly atop another stone, ready to leap again, Arcanine suddenly face-vaulted and smashed into the floor, flames going out. Before AJ had time to accurately understand the full implication of the root she saw wrapped around Arcanine’s paw, her Pokémon was suddenly lifted high into the air by Venosaur’s massive, powerful vines and violently smashed against the mountainside.

AJ’s breath caught as Arcanine was tossed like a ragdoll to lay limply at her feet, whimpering slightly, struggling to stand.

Fumbling at her side, AJ retrieved his pokeball and returned him to safety. Mind still blank with shock, she turned her attention back to her opponent, who was regarding her with obvious disappointment on his face.

“You’d think Kanto’s so-called Champion would be able to recognize such an obvious distraction when she saw it,” he drawled lazily, recalling his Venusaur. “Earthquake followed by Grass Knot followed by Power Whip… child’s play. You’re going to have to do better than that to defeat me.”

She didn’t think it possible, but if anything, her hatred grew. Snatching another ball off her belt, AJ called forth her next partner.

Togekiss materialized with a cry of delight over the ruined ground and immediately turned to face its trainer with concern. No doubt she could instantly sense the open hostility and hatred coursing through AJ’s veins, but she didn’t have time to explain. 

Across the field, Ash called forth his second pokemon, and a large lavender cat with a forked tail and a gemstone on its forehead appeared, taking in the surroundings with cool serenity. Espeon, then.

No type advantage this time, but no resistances either, and she knew for a fact he had other pokemon he could call out to make this battle harder for her, like his Pikachu for example. He still wasn’t taking her seriously.

“Togekiss!” she bellowed, the wind blowing back her hair and jacket as she jabbed her finger furiously at the opposing pokemon, “Make it quick! Sky attack!”

At once, AJ noticed Espeon’s tail begin twitching, but she paid it no heed as her pokemon soared up into the air, preparing to land a blow she was sure would put his Espeon out of commission; psychic types were notorious for having weak constitutions.

Suddenly, Espeon began multiplying, sending various copies scattering around the battlefield, each one staring contentedly up at AJ’s pokemon.

“Crap!” she snarled, changing tactics. “Alright, forget the sky attack, Togekiss! Use Aura Sphere!”

Double-Team… figures he’d wuss out and use a trick like that. Then again, it was a smart move for a psychic type. 

There were ways around it, though; other psychics who possessed foresight, for example, or canine pokemon who could track by scent. Togekiss was none of the above, but she did have one thing - quite the list of moves that were difficult to dodge, Aura Sphere among them.

As the sphere of energy manifested in front of Togekiss’s body, AJ shot Ash a smug look only to see boredom splayed across his face. She glanced back down at the awaiting Espeons and saw that their gems were glowing, tails swishing lazily back and forth, awaiting Togekiss’s move.

The energy ball fired, aiming towards one of the Espeon below, ready to explode in a wave of energy that would dissipate every clone and reveal who the true pokemon was - and suddenly, a massive energy shield appeared above the clones.

Light Screen.

The sphere exploded on the powerful psychic barrier, what little of the Aura Sphere that managed to burst through dissipating a handful of clones, but not nearly enough. AJ’s plans were once again shot.

“Alright, forget that then!” AJ snarled, enraged that her attack had failed. All hope was not lost, however; special attacks would be weakened, but not physical. “Get in close and use Aerial Ace!”

Togekiss swooped low like a Staraptor, building up speed before slashing through the first line of clones, each of them exploding into dust upon making contact with Togekiss.

As his clones went, Ash remained impassive, staring at AJ as though waiting for something. The feeling of his eyes on her only kindled her fury further, and she egged her pokemon on, eager for the moment when she struck his Espeon down.

Finally, they were down to one Espeon. How she’d managed to hit all but the real one, she didn’t know, but it didn’t matter anymore. It stared apathetically at the swiftly approaching Togekiss, gem still glowing, tail still swishing back and forth until with a heavy thud the two bodies crashed into each other.

“Yes!” AJ cried, triumphant. “We got ‘em!”

Ash shook his head as though incredulous.

“Yeah, that’s right!” she shouted across the field. “Not feeling so cocky now, are you?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he responded, voice oddly flat. “You just gave me the battle.”

“What are you-?”

In that moment, she realized two things - the first, that the Espeon her Togekiss had knocked across the arena had suddenly turned itself into a tree branch. A substitute . Second, that Togekiss was writhing uncomfortably up in the air, wings twitching spastically as though in great pain yet somehow still airborne.

“Togekiss?” AJ called, feeling uneasy, but a moment later her pokemon took a nosedive and crashed painfully into the ground in front of her.

“No!” she yelled, running forward and examining her beloved fairy. Her eyes were closed and her breathing labored. “What…? I don’t…?”

Something brushed past her with a purr. She jumped back, startled, and could only stare as the missing Espeon calmly strode past her, returning dutifully to its master.

“Like all psychic pokemon,” Ash started up again, adopting a lecturing tone, “Espeon possesses the ability to see into the future. It may not be as developed as certain other species, like Xatu, but she can at least predict what move her enemy is going to make. This, on top of how short-sighted and gullible you are, makes you easy to fool. 

“I distracted you with a children’s tactic; double team and light screen. You thought my strategy was defensive, when in reality, Espeon used that time to repeatedly calm its mind and sharpen its focus, heightening its attack. You needlessly exhausted yourself in your effort to beat me. You’re not thinking enough.”

“Shut up!” AJ snarled, hands shaking as she recalled her unconscious Togekiss. “You have no right to tell me what to do!”

“You’re right,” Ash stated simply, petting Espeon lightly on the head and recalling her as well. “In any event, you’ve proven you’re impossible to teach. Let’s just get this over with so I can go back to my peaceful life, eh?”

Go back to his peaceful…?!

AJ hadn’t known it was possible to loathe someone as much as she did him in that moment. Standing up, she stomped back to her designated spot and drew her next pokeball.

“This fight isn’t over,” she spat, chucking her ball in the air. Milotic materialized before her, preening elegantly in the fading sun.

“Kid, this fight ended before it even started,” he replied, throwing his own ball. With a roar and a burst of flame, Charizard appeared.  “I’m getting tired of this. I’ll go ahead and make this quick, ok?”

“You fat-headed-! Milotic, Hydro Pump!”

Milotic reacted at once; nose held high, it took a deep breath, focused its strength, and from its mouth spewed a massive jet of water with enough force to carve stone.

What happened next was nearly unbelievable.

Faster than you could blink, Charizard leaped forward, straight over Milotic’s stream of water, and, wings flapping furiously, began charging straight at her.

“Up, Milotic!” AJ screamed, suddenly terrified. “Milotic, up! Aim up!”

She tried, but the speed Charizard was displaying was insane, and controlling a stream of water being expelled at such high pressure was no easy feat. Angling higher to avoid the rising column of death, Charizard covered the distance between them in seconds with a terrifying roar, claws outstretched, ready to strike…

And passed Milotic’s head seemingly without noticing. For a wild moment, AJ thought he’d missed his target, but all too suddenly his true motives became clear.

Charizard dove and seized Milotic by her rainbow-colored tail, and with a few beats of its powerful wings, the two were airborne.

The Hydro Pump was cut suddenly short as Milotic wailed in surprise. Shock had stilled AJ’s senses, and she couldn’t think of a single command to issue. What sort of bizarre tactic was this?!

Charizard looped high, then began diving down, Milotic flapping behind him like a serpentine streamer, only for Charizard to loop upwards again. He was flying in circles, slowly building speed, going faster and faster and faster…

Suddenly he erupted into flames. He began to rotate, still flying in one massive loop, as before her eyes a massive circle of flame began to glow in the air, Milotic dragging through it, defenseless as she was roasted alive.

AJ inhaled sharply and wracked her brains for a command that could help, a tactic, an idea, anything, but it was too late. With the savage ferocity one would expect of a fire dragon, Charizard utilized all of his gathered momentum and hurled the flaming Milotic downward where she crashed in a fiery pile into the snowy embankment.

“Milotic!” AJ cried, running forward.

Without warning, the ground exploded as a flaming Charizard came crashing down in a spectacularly horrifying pile driver.

“No!”

Charizard clambered off the steaming pile with a disdainful snort, shaking snow and dirt off of his snout and wings as he stomped back over to his master, leaving AJ alone with her pokemon.

Milotic was, predictably, unconscious. Black burns ran up and down her once-beautiful body, but though it looked like several of her bones were broken, she was still breathing. Marvel Scale must have activated in the fiery ring before she hit the ground. 

She recalled her Milotic, feeling tears of fear, humiliation, and hatred welling up in her eyes, but refused to let them fall. She’d lost three of the fights already. She couldn’t afford to lose another.

Stumbling back to the starting point, she remained quiet as she called forth her fourth pokemon.

Aegislash took to the battlefield with the dignity one would expect from the ancient, regal pokemon. Across from him, a truly massive Snorlax faced off against it. Surprisingly, it was not asleep.

AJ frowned; she had the advantage, as Aegislash could faze out and avoid most of Snorlax’s attacks, but everyone knew that a battle against a Snorlax was always a battle of attrition. Thankfully, Aegislash could endure just about anything.

“Aegislash, swords dance!” she cried, deciding to not immediately jump into the offensive this time. She was still enraged, still desperate to beat him into the ground, but she was more cautious, especially after what had happened to Milotic.

As her pokemon began his empowering dance, Snorlax slowly meandered closer, a look of lackadaisical peace on its chubby face.

“Quick, King’s Shield!” she called out just as Snorlax got close enough to strike, remembering that Snorlax sometimes knew the odd dark or ghost-type move.

Instantly, Aegislash went rigid, placing its large, ornate shield in front of its body, ready to deflect any attack.

But Snorlax didn’t attack; not directly. Instead, it reached out, grabbed the now solidified Aegislash in one hand, grasped the shield in the other, and yanked.

Under normal circumstances, a pokemon like Snorlax could never hope to reach out and touch a ghost-type like Aegislash… but by using King’s Shield, AJ had forced Aegislash to manifest its entire body on the physical plane. And there was something about this Snorlax… it was larger, far more animated, and more muscular than your average Snorlax. The shield was torn from Aegislash’s grip, and before either AJ or her pokemon could react, Snorlax clapped his hands together, smashing Aegislash’s face into its own shield with a tremendous crash.

AJ’s jaw dropped. Aegislash’s eye was spinning, disoriented from the blow to the face from its own indestructible shield. Snorlax calmly gripped the ghost by its handle, it being too stunned to phase out of the corpulent monster’s grip, and drove the blade into the mountainside.

Before AJ could react, Snorlax lashed out, shield in hand, and Mega Punched her pokemon’s body into the rock, effectively trapping it.

AJ felt a shudder spasm its way across her body as Snorlax dropped her Aegislash’s shield absently on the floor and strode back to its trainer. All she could see of her pokemon was its hilt, and its ethereal arms blowing lazily in the wind like tassels. It was unconscious. Snorlax, defeating her Aegislash without even breaking a sweat… had she not seen it first-hand, she would have said it was impossible…

“That’s four,” came Ash’s cold, dispassionate voice from across the field as his hulking monster of a pokemon vanished into its pokeball in a flash of red light. “I said if you could win three fights I’d name you the victor. You failed. Get off of my property.”

Red-hot rage exploded inside her as she considered the way she’d been defeated. Her hatred of the man she was battling had grown to such an extent that any and all rational thought had flown out the window. She wasn’t leaving that field until she took at least one of his pokemon down.

“Pichu, go!” she snarled even as she recalled her unconscious ghost back to his ball, the little yellow mouse she’d started her journey with leaping from off her arm and onto the battlefield, looking determined to make its trainer proud.

She half-expected him to tell her to knock it off and leave. It would’ve been the ‘responsible’ adult thing to do, after all. She’d already failed his challenge. 

Instead, to her surprise and further annoyance, he merely scoffed and said, “Haven’t you suffered enough embarrassment yet?”

Wordlessly, he summoned a large, aged Blastoise to the field.

“Why didn’t you evolve that Pichu of yours?” he continued from across the field, a sardonic look on his face. “I certainly hope it wasn’t to prove a point.”

“I’m going to kill you…” AJ snarled under her breath.

“AJ,” the elderly man called from the sidelines in warning, but Ash cut him off.

“No! If she wants me to beat her entire team into the ground, I will! Let this be a lesson! How could she ever hope to truly be a Pokemon Master if she can’t even take care of her partners? If she treats them like pawns in a selfish game, seeking personal glory or whatever this stupid vendetta of hers is about? Look at that one - it’s just a baby! It’s not even fully grown! No matter what title she thinks she’s earned, if this is how she cares for her pokemon, then she deserves to be stripped of her license and have her pokemon taken away-“

“Shut up!” AJ screamed, absolutely beside herself. “Who are you to talk about raising-?! Who are you to-?! PICHU, VOLT TACKLE!”

Pichu immediately scampered across the snowy field, cheeks sparking, electricity forming around its small body until it formed one solid mass of energy.

Once again, her opponent didn’t react. In the blink of an eye, Blastoise was immersed in a shield of water and AJ lost sight of his form.

She snorted in derision; if he thought Aqua Ring would do him any good against a Volt Tackle, he was dead wrong. A split second later, Pichu crashed head-first into the bubble of water, and with an explosion the battlefield was suddenly covered in steam.

Squinting through the mass of vaporized water, AJ sought desperately for the sight of the opposing Blastoise’s unconscious body, but it was no good; the steam was too thick.

Without warning, something massive exploded from the cloud of steam and slammed violently into the mountainside, water spraying in every direction as though from a fire hose. 

Blinking in stunned disbelief, AJ watched as the object revealed itself to be Blastoise’s shell, stuck partially buried in the rock, water still dripping from the holes where its legs should have been. The steam was now clearing, and though she could see her opponent’s callous face, she couldn’t see her pokemon anywhere. Where had Pichu gone? And why was Blastoise stuck in the wall?

The sound of shifting stone could be heard, and a moment later Blastoise emerged from where it had been stuck like a dart plucked from a dartboard, shaking dirt and bits of loose gravel off of its arms and head, trying to reorient itself. A fuzzy yellow lump tumbled to the ground amidst the debris.

Bile rose in AJ’s throat.

Half-stumbling, half-sprinting, AJ crossed the distance between herself and Blastoise and fell to her knees beside the limp body of her starter pokemon.

“P-Pichu?” she stammered, voice suddenly an octave higher than usual.

There was no response.

The world seemed momentarily frozen; she cast her eyes wildly about her, feeling helpless and lost. Pichu wasn’t moving… Pichu wasn’t responding… Pichu wasn’t… He wasn’t…

Jade had her hands clamped tightly over her mouth, eyes wide and tearful. Cole seemed gray and unmistakably aged as he looked over her with mourning evident on his wise, stony face. Even Ash seemed to be showing signs of evident concern, but she had no time for her opponent’s feelings; the only thing she could focus on was the lifeless, broken body of her best friend lying silently before her in the snow.

“Pichu… Pichu, please…”

Silence, and then…

Pichu coughed.

AJ inhaled sharply, scrambling wildly for the never-used ball on her belt.

“Oh! Oh! Pichu, hold on! I’m here, I’ve got you! You’ll be ok! Just… Just get inside, and-,“ she clicked the button on the pokeball and Pichu vanished inside in a burst of red light, “-and I’ll make it all go away, ok? Just hold on! Oh…”

Her hand reached blindly for the backpack she’d forgotten wasn’t there. She’d lost it in the avalanche, meaning she had no potions, no medicines. Nothing she could use to ease his pain.

She was hardly aware of the fact that she was rocking back and forth on her knees, sobbing uncontrollably as she hugged his ball to her chest. Please be ok, please be ok…

A voice cut through her despair, restrained but no less firm and insistent.

“The match is over. You have lost.”

I have lost…

AJ stilled. Her eyes had glazed over as she stared down at the pokeball clasped in her white-knuckled hands and let his words wash over her.

“I’m sorry for your Pichu, but I told you this would happen. Recklessly endangering your pokemon isn’t something that anyone should ever do, especially not the Champion. Keep in mind in the future that when you battle, more than your pride is at stake. At the end of the day, the fault for your pokemon’s injuries is yours, not anyone else’s. Own up to that, and you’ll be one step closer to deserving the title you bear.”

Recklessly endangering… was that what I was doing? Do I hate him so much that I put Pichu’s life at stake? Am I… a monster? But… Pichu isn’t a baby. He was strong enough to take on Kanto’s Elite Four and the Champion, Lance. If anyone’s a monster, he is. Any sane trainer would have stopped their pokemon before something like this happened. He’s the monster. His pokemon are monsters. I’m not…

Ash half-turned as though to walk away, and AJ’s eyes flew wide open.

But I do have a monster of my own.

Across the field, AJ noticed Ash hesitating. Her hand had twitched towards the last pokeball on her belt.

“…What are you doing?” he asked, eyes trained on her hand.

She grasped the ball and plucked it from her belt. His scowl darkened.

“If you do this, I’m not responsible for what happens next,” he warned.

“Ditto,” AJ replied, voice dry and husky.

She lobbed the ball into the air.

A massive being materialized in the space between them, larger than Cole’s cabin, and a skull-rending roar split the air.

“AJ, no!” Jade called, but her cry was lost under the sound of the beating wings and ragged breathing of AJ’s final pokemon. 

A pokemon so dangerous, she couldn’t let it out of her sight, not even with the professor. 

A pokemon so dangerous, she couldn’t use it even against the Elite Four.

Hydreigon’s three heads whirled around, testing the environment, screaming defiance at everything that moved. She could sense the same confusion and fear that she always felt whenever she dared to let Hydreigon out of its ball, but she seemed even more agitated now than usual. Something inside her told her that it was feeding off of the negativity and pain that AJ herself was feeling. Good. Finally, she and Hydreigon were on the same page. Both had suffered. Both experienced so much hurt… and now, both were going to get their chance to lash out.

Jade and Cole had scrambled away from the arena, and she could see Noctowl and Murkrow hastily flapping away in the distance. Every sensible thing in the surrounding area was fleeing as fast as it possibly could to escape the wrath of the dark god of destruction before them.

Everything but Ash.

He stood tall on his side of the arena, staring down Hydreigon with a furrowed brow, much like she’d seen her grandmother Delia do when she discovered one of the plants in her garden wasn’t growing quite right. Without a word, his Pikachu leaped down off his shoulders and squared off against the dragon, whose temperament was steadily growing more and more enraged.

The image of her Pichu crushed upon the ground suddenly flashed through her head, but she cast it aside. Ash would need to take his own advice. Her Hydreigon didn’t wait for an order; terrified and confused, the dragon raised its three heads and readied three powerful beams in each gaping mouth. It was Tri-Attack. Pikachu was doomed.

Or so she thought.

It was gone in a blur. One moment, Pikachu was standing on all-fours, facing down Hydreigon like it was some common Spearow, and the next it was gone. There was no indication that the pokemon had even been there at all had it not been for the line that had been drawn in the ground and the puffs of powdery snow in the air that followed it, heading towards the rock formation where Pichu and Aegislash had met their fates.

Agility. She’d never seen a pokemon move so fast. But it didn’t matter how fast it was; a Pikachu couldn’t hope to fight a Hydreigon, it wasn’t possible!

The Tri-Attack exploded harmlessly on the arena floor, spraying AJ with bits of snow and dirt, leaving a gaping crater smoking behind, felling several nearby trees and setting their limbs ablaze. Well, Pikachu had dodged the hit, but it couldn’t dodge forever. Hydreigon was simply too strong…

“Pika!” came a defiant cry from somewhere overhead.

Turning her attention upward, AJ spotted the yellow mouse perched atop the rock formation looking down at Hydreigon’s three heads. She wasn’t the only one who noticed him; Hydreigon bellowed back as if Pikachu’s cry had been a challenge and fired off a Dragon Pulse.

Once again, Pikachu was quicker. Leaping off of the rock formation just as it exploded from the force of Hydreigon’s blast, Pikachu twirled a few times in the air, its tail glowing silver, and just as one of the dragon’s gaping mouths reared close enough to swallow the electric rodent whole, it spun and struck the monster in the temple with its tail.

It was Iron Tail, and it was apparently powerful enough not only to launch Pikachu higher into the air, but it sent Hydreigon’s first head crashing into the rock face where it lay, stunned.

The second mouth struck, and was once again slapped aside by Pikachu’s Iron Tail.

As the main head, understanding that her plan wasn’t working and switching tactics, readied a Dark Pulse to blow Pikachu out of the air, the rodent suddenly switched its strategy as well. The glowing of the tail ceased, and the tiny mouse began to rotate as it free-fell towards Hydreigon, its body beginning to glow and crackle with charged energy. 

AJ recognized the move, having had her Pichu use it dozens of times before. It was Volt Tackle, and it was never going to work. Hydreigon would hit it first.

It struck her then that Ash was issuing no orders to Pikachu. Did he not see what was happening? Did he not care if it got hurt? What had happened to all of that preaching from earlier? She shot him a brief look, but he was merely watching with rapt attention, as though he were the one fighting the Hydreigon instead of his Pikachu.

Just as she predicted, Hydreigon’s Dark Pulse struck before Pikachu did. Free falling from the air as it was, it had no way to maneuver and avoid the oncoming blow. 

Moments before the tiny rodent was enveloped by a beam of black energy so dark it seemed to absorb the surrounding light, the gathered electricity from Volt Tackle encompassed the pokemon and he became a small, yellow ball of energy for a split-second before he was consumed.

For the span of a heartbeat, she thought Hydreigon had won.

And then the yellow ball of lightning exploded out of the dark energy ray and collided with the force of a thunderclap onto the dragon’s scaly chest. There was a crack like a cannon and a blinding effusion of light, and AJ found herself blasted off of her feet. Moments later, the ground trembled with an almighty crash and all was still. 

Finding herself on her back, AJ sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes to get her vision back, wondering what had happened.

What she found was her last pokemon collapsed on its back, unconscious, triple heads lolling silently on the floor, one wing slightly bent, a nasty black burn wound on its chest where Pikachu had struck it. Pikachu itself was calmly jogging back to its master, who helped it onto his shoulder without comment.

All anger fled from AJ’s body at that moment as she took in her final pokemon’s defeated body and let the significance of this humiliating defeat wash over her. 

Her entire life had been building up to this moment… the moment where she became the Pokemon Master. Sure, as far as the rest of Kanto knew, AJ was the Champion… But knowing that Ash was alive and being unable to defeat him, AJ knew for herself that it wasn’t true.

All of her doubts and insecurities from the past couple of weeks seemed to crash down on top of her with a heavy sort of finality. 

She wasn’t worthy to be the Champion.

A sort of numbness stole over her then. Exhaustion tinged with despondency; the maelstrom of emotions that had been roaring through her during their battle had finally dissipated, leaving her raw inside. She no longer felt anything anymore. 

This exhaustion carried over to her body; she barely registered clicking the button and returning Hydreigon to its ball. She found herself kneeling on the edge of the battlefield, staring down at her gloved hands. They were trembling.

Did it even mean anything anymore? Her life’s goal had been to prove that she was better than Ash Ketchum; better at pokemon, a better person, a better friend, and to become a Champion before he ever did… Her whole life had built her up to this one moment, and… she’d failed.

She wasn’t a better friend. Her recklessness had put Jade and her pokemon in danger - not to mention Sammy, still lost and possibly hurt or dead because she’d wanted to come on this stupid adventure. She wasn’t a better person. A better person wouldn’t have lost their cool like that, or been so obsessed with hatred and vengeance that they threw all common sense out the window. And she wasn’t better at pokemon. Not at raising them or at battling. 

She couldn’t control her Hydreigon. Her clumsiness had cost her the match and caused all of her pokemon undue pain and humiliation. She’d even almost lost Pichu… 

And the battle. How could she ever dream of being Pokemon Master when Ash was able to sweep her entire team without taking a single loss? He hadn’t even needed to shout a command at Pikachu! It basically took out Hydreigon, her strongest pokemon, on its own! 

Her eyes widened as a realization came to her. It wasn’t just Pikachu… Ash hadn’t issued a single verbal command the entire battle. His pokemon had been acting on instinct alone. How was that possible?! Was he really that close to his pokemon? Had they been together so long, their trust and dependency so great, that they didn’t even need to speak?!

The crunch of snow and gravel told her he was approaching.

“The battle is over now, for real,” he intoned darkly, and she shrank back at his tone though she did not look up at him. She couldn’t bear to see his face right now.

“I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care to know. I spent most of my life trying to stop people from abusing and mistreating their pokemon, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone like you. Your arrogance and need to win drove you to put your pokemon in needless danger, and when you realized you couldn’t win, you threw the both of us in harm’s way as well in some childish tantrum. 

“Do you realize what would have happened if we couldn’t have gotten that Hydreigon under control? It could have caused landslides or forest fires! Thousands of pokemon might have been killed! But no, all you saw was victory and what you’d need to do to seize it. Disgusted isn’t strong enough of a word to describe how you make me feel, but it’s a good start.”

The realization of her crimes was terrible enough, but having Ash Ketchum of all people be the one to throw them in her face was the icing on the cake. She didn’t think she had it in her to cry anymore; she was wrong. Her hands tightened painfully on her legs as she squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself not to cry out or shake too violently, fighting off the sobs that threatened to come. He’d seen her cry once, she wouldn’t let him see it again… But Arceus, he was right…

She’d never even considered the implication of sending Hydreigon out into battle. There was a reason why she never used her. Hydreigon was a threat to everything around her, herself included. Pokemon could have died. People could have died. This went beyond being a bad trainer; was she so obsessed with destroying him that she’d sacrifice her own humanity to get there?

She heard the sound of people approaching from behind the cabin, and when the two emerged once more, Jade called out her name and began sprinting over towards her.

“AJ! Oh, AJ, are you ok? What were you thinking?! Have you lost your mind?!”

Jade had fallen to her knees beside AJ on the snow, but she couldn’t bring herself to answer her friend’s questions. The guilt and shame of all that had just transpired, her humiliating loss at the hands of Ash Ketchum, what she’d done with Hydreigon, how she didn’t deserve the concern and love her best friend was showing her… Everything was piling on top of her too quickly. The tears were leaking out faster now, and she had to use every ounce of her failing strength to keep herself together.

“AJ… What…?” Jade whispered, but she didn’t finish. A second set of footsteps finally caught up, accompanied by a bit of wheezing.

“Ash…” Cole gasped softly, standing somewhere behind her, “Ash, wait-“

“A deal is a deal,” Ash cut in, still directing his words at AJ. “You got your battle. You lost. Now get off my mountain and never come back.”

He started to walk away.

Finally, however, it seemed that Cole had had enough.

“Boy, stop!”  

“What?!” Ash snapped. AJ could see from the shadows cast by the setting sun that the two men were facing each other.

“You can’t send them away!”

“And why shouldn’t I?!” he snarled viciously.

There was a beat, and she could see the shadow of Cole’s arm reach up and touch Ash’s shoulder.

“Because she’s your daughter.”

There was silence in the clearing, deafeningly loud, and before AJ could stop herself, she turned back to look.

He was staring down at her, and the torrent of misery and anguish she currently felt churning through her body she could see clearly reflected in his eyes.

Chapter Text

The Indigo League Headquarters were located in the center of the large, infamous mountain range known as Victory Road, which ran north to south, coast to coast, neatly bisecting its two halves, Kanto and Johto, into two separate yet distinct wholes. The League had been built in that spot for that exact reason - being in the center of both nations, a part of both and yet apart from both. There was significance to that. Intentionality. Poetry. 

It was also annoying as all get out. Victory Road was not easily traversable - that was sort of the point, in so far as the League Conference was concerned - and though they’d built a roadway leading there a few decades past, it was still far removed from the rest of modern society and made the repeated trips one needed to make there if one were the Champion a tedious and boring affair. 

At least this time, Ethan hadn’t had to make the trip alone. The League had sent him a driver, so he was comfortable enough in the backseat of a spacious luxury vehicle, snacks and drinks provided, as the person behind the wheel wove them deftly through the mountainous roads of Eastern Johto, but the trip was hours long and he’d have lost his mind if he’d been forced to make it alone. Accompanying him today were Hilda, the one-time Champion of the Unova League, and his childhood friend Lyra, who had been sent as Professor Elm’s representative. 

Technically speaking, Professor Elm didn’t need to be represented at all, but it was tradition that if one country’s League was hosting a conference with representatives from another country’s League, that nation’s professor was typically invited along. Since the Indigo League had two professors, this meant that they usually took turns - or at least, they did until the League had split, but AJ hadn’t technically taken over yet, so for now, that was a moot point. On the outside, this may look like a compromise of some kind, but Ethan knew that both labs hated the formalities and tended to look for any excuse to foist the job off on the other lab. This time, it was Elm’s turn - which meant it was Lyra’s turn, because Elm couldn’t be bothered. 

Lyra was ecstatic, however, and to be fair, she had every right to be. She had virtually no reason to be here and nothing to add, but it was a fairly bold demonstration on Elm’s part of how highly he trusted and valued Lyra that he’d send her in his place. Ethan didn’t want to bring up that Elm hadn’t wanted to go in the first place and had probably completely forgotten about it already - no need to rain on Lyra’s parade. Even if Elm didn't care about the meeting, who he chose to replace him mattered to the League.

Kris, however, had been decidedly… less than ecstatic. When he’d called her the morning after the attack in Goldenrod and told her that he was heading to the League with Lyra and an ex-Unovan Champion, she’d jumped right out of bed - where she’d still been sleeping despite it being nearly noon - and began rummaging around for her pants, shouting about how she’d be there right behind him. He had to let her down as gently as he could when he told her she wouldn’t be coming along. To say she’d been mad would be an understatement. 

The thing is, it’s not that he didn’t want her to come along, it was just… You can’t just tag along to meetings between Leagues like these. Kris was great, but she wasn’t… Well, she wasn’t a Champion, or a member of the Elite Four, or a Gym Leader, or a representative from a lab, or… really anyone particularly noteworthy, at least not in the sense that he could excuse her presence. Hilda was coming because she’d dealt with Team Plasma twice now, in Unova and in Johto, and potentially had a lot to add to the discussion - plus she was an ex-Champion. Her name carried status. It wasn’t the same. 

Lyra had been acting fairly smug about the whole thing ever since she heard Kris shouting at Ethan during their call that morning. She kept smiling to herself or spontaneously humming like she was in the best of moods, to the delight of her Marill and the confusion of Hilda, who didn’t really know her at all and kept shooting her confused looks from her seat to her right. Honestly, it was making things kind of awkward. 

Perhaps the worst-kept secret in New Bark Town was the enormous crush Lyra had on Ethan. Everybody knew about it. Ethan knew about it, and had known since they were kids, since before they’d even left on their journeys. The thing is, he liked Lyra - she was sweet, and funny, and smart, and his best friend… But that was all she was. He didn’t have any interest in pursuing anything more and kept hoping she’d take the hint so they didn’t have to have any awkward, potentially friendship-ruining conversations, but… Well, so far, no luck. 

The ride, which had been a little tense from the get-go - though that was entirely due to the severity of the attack on Goldenrod and his and Hilda’s concerns surrounding it - had devolved into silence only a few minutes into the trip, and even now, Ethan remained quiet, gazing out the window at the passing mountains. Lyra had tried a time or two to coax them into talking, but neither had really been in the mood. He supposed he did owe her a thanks, however; the weirdness of her giddiness over Kris’s absence was enough to distract him over thoughts of Team Plasma. That was a silver lining of sorts. Right?

He glanced towards her when her Marill let out an indignant shout because Lyra wouldn’t let her play on her tablet, then accidentally met Lyra’s gaze and returned her beatific smile with one of his own that he really did try to make seem natural before returning his gaze out the window. If it seemed forced and fake, well… He’d feign car sickness. 

She’d become more obvious in her affections ever since Kris had started hanging around with him. Though to be fair to Lyra, Kris had sort of come out of nowhere. 

Ethan had met Kris for the first time during the finals of the League Conference match that would eventually lead to him becoming the Champion. He’d never even heard of her before their match, but she was easily the toughest opponent he’d faced in his journeys up until that point, with a beast of a Feraligatr who seemed to be able to tank most of what came at him and pay it back with equal fervor. The match had come down to their last pokemon each, his Typhlosion just barely managing to overpower her Mismagius. He’d won, she’d lost. 

He remembered shaking her hand after the match, caught up in the whirlwind that was the cheering from the stands and the flashing of cameras, and she looked equal parts pissed at having lost and exhilarated over the tight match. She thanked him for the fight, her voice tight, trying to reign in her disappointment and be professional in front of the roaring crowds, but then he was swept away by reporters and the excitement and the thrill of what was to come next, and the trainer named Kris disappeared from his mind entirely. 

At least until a couple of weeks later, when he’d been at a bar in Goldenrod on a Saturday night, a few weeks before he was planning to set off on a months-long journey to prepare for his official challenge to the Elite Four. 

He’d been sitting at the bar, snacking on some nuts, absently watching a baseball match as the team with the Electabuzz pattern - he didn’t follow baseball so he didn’t know their names - lost handily to a team whose mascot was a Starmie. 

He wasn’t drunk, but he was just tipsy enough to find the idea of an Electabuzz losing to a Starmie humorous, and it was right around that time that a mug was placed on the bar beside him with a bit too much force, the clack startling him enough to make him literally jump in his seat, and he turned to find the stool beside him being pulled out and Kris sitting down beside him. 

And she just started talking to him. Casually. Like they’d known each other for years. Like them meeting up again that evening wasn’t a random twist of fate but instead something planned, something they’d both intended on happening. Ethan wasn’t shy, but he’d never met anyone as assertive and extroverted as Kris was. There was a sort of wildness about her, a sense of freedom. She was like a thunderstorm - beautiful and terrifying all at once. 

Minutes turned into hours which somehow turned into him waking up in his apartment hung-over wearing only his socks and his hat. She was sleeping beside him. 

And from that moment on, she was just… part of his life. She wasn’t always around of course - after taking the title of Champion, he often found himself being sent all over the region, and she was still fully dedicated to journeying, meaning she’d often disappear to one place or another, sometimes for weeks or months on end. But she always came back. And he was always happier when she was there. 

They weren’t… dating. Or at least, neither of them had ever actually talked about it. Kris wasn’t big into labels and Ethan honestly didn’t care. But his mother had referred to her as his girlfriend once a few months after they’d officially met, and he hadn’t had the guts to correct her. The fact that he’d never called her his girlfriend was probably a contributing factor in Lyra’s continued attention. 

The girl in question caught his reflection in the window and sent him yet another flirtatious smile. He caught Hilda's bewildered expression in the reflection just behind her. This awkwardness was going to be the death of him.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long after that that they arrived at their destination, and the trio and Lyra’s Marill exited the vehicle, awkwardly stretching and shaking out their limbs after being trapped in the back of a car for the past four hours. He really needed to look into getting a private plane, or helicopter, or something - something like what Diantha had. It had always sounded so pretentious to him before he had the job, but now that he was constantly being whisked all over the country… Well, he could see the need. 

League Headquarters had always seemed needlessly austere and stiff to Ethan. When you thought of the League, you thought of excitement, of epic battles and larger-than-life pokemon. And sure, the actual Stadium itself, which was several kilometers down the mountain, surrounded by a small town that mostly consisted of hotels and restaurants that thrived purely off of the few times a year when competitions were held, was all of that and more. 

But the League Headquarters always felt somewhat disappointing in comparison. He remembered being so excited to visit for the first time - and then getting there and realizing that it was basically a glorified office building full of boring men and women typing away at computers. Oh, it looked grand - massive marble staircase flanked with ornate statues of Nidoking and Nidoqueen leading to an opulent pair of darkly-lacquered double doors set into a truly statuesque building that seemed to have been hewn out of the very stone of the mountain itself, the building certainly made for a pretty picture for brochures and news articles and the like. But he’d rather be down at the Stadium itself if it were up to him.

There wasn’t much room for conversation now as they were greeted by someone he didn’t know - a receptionist? Secretary? Her name tag said ‘Felicia’, so a Felicia, then - and were herded up the grand staircase and into the building proper. 

The funny thing about being the Champion was that your average person thought you were the person in charge of running the League, except… Well, that’s not how it worked at all. Imagine if any rando could suddenly take over the entire League and start changing the rules up just because they were good at battling. Being good at battling did not mean you had what it took to run and organize the entire League. You needed schooling for that. A different set of skills and wits. If being the Champion suddenly meant you were in charge of all of that, no one would want to do it. 

Being Champion was more like being the star player on an internationally famous sports team. You were the face of it, you directly impacted whether your team succeeded or failed, you held all the notoriety and fame and brought in all the money - but there was a whole team of people behind the scenes who did most of the clerical work. Organizing tournaments, setting up policies, managing gyms - the Champion assisted with these things, but they weren’t in charge of it. The League was run by a bunch of boring business people and government officials, and while they would run ideas by him and Lance or come to them for endorsements or support, there was a pretty large gulf in the League itself between the battlers and the pencil pushers - and they both tended to look down their noses at the other. It made being here feel even more stifling than it already would have been.

Inside, they were forced to shake hands and exchange greetings with several people who he barely knew. Then, after riding an elevator up three stories, heading down two hallways, and making a pitstop at the restroom, they had finally - finally - arrived at their destination.

The Conference Room - capital letters for this one, as it was the big one - was honestly a bit too lavish for Ethan’s taste. Just like everything here. It had clearly been furnished by Lance some years passed, and the man had always had a very… particular sense of style. 

The walls were covered in rich, purple wallpaper inscribed with golden filigree, and the carpet was a deep scarlet - both Lance’s favorite colors, as seen in his traditional Champion attire. The center of the room was taken up by a truly massive octagonal table of hand-carved mahogany, darkly lacquered and shining brilliantly beneath a ridiculously ornate golden chandelier, the arms of which seemed to be made up of tiny, twisting Dratinis. And to complete the dragon theme, there were ornate busts of Dragonite and Kingdra and Charizard lining the walls. 

Ethan found himself wondering, as he pulled out a chair and took a seat, if he could convince AJ to redecorate now that Lance was retiring. He hoped so. He always felt so out-of-place here, like it was Lance’s Conference Room, not the Conference Room meant for both Champions of the Indigo League. 

Hilda and Lyra took seats on either side of him, facing the back wall. Currently, the wall matched the same color and design as the wallpaper that covered the rest of the room, but Ethan knew from previous experiences that the wall was actually one large screen, and once the call started, it would switch to showing the video image or images of the person or persons he was speaking to. Just above the wall, attached to the ceiling, was a small video camera, the techy kind that would automatically adjust its zoom to fit the number of people sitting at the table. 

As they sat, Ethan slid his palm across the tabletop and a hidden screen embedded in the table flickered to life. He typed a few things in, getting everything set up, then with a quick word to his companions to let them know it was starting, he sent the call.

There was a pause, then the screen that was the back wall winked on and Ethan found himself looking at the face of Unova’s newest Champion, Iris.

She grinned her thousand-watt trademark grin and waved at him energetically through the camera. 

“Ethan! Hiya! Long time!”

“Not that long,” he said with a small chuckle. “We did just talk the other day.”

Talking to Iris always made Ethan feel more relaxed. Part of this was due to her overly friendly personality - something which should maybe have seemed odd coming from a woman in her early thirties who unironically dressed in princess pink, yet somehow just seemed to work for her - but part of it was also because Iris had become the Champion shortly after he had, and both of them being the ‘new kids on the block’, so to speak, had made it easy to relate to one another.

Iris smiled again - her smiles always seemed so genuine, it was easy to see why she was so popular in Unova - and then her gaze flicked to take in the people sitting on either side of Ethan, and her eyes seemed to bug out. 

At his side, Hilda winced and offered up a sheepish wave. 

“Uh… Hey there, Iris-”

“Hilda?! Is that…?! Why are…?!” She spluttered for a moment, basically incoherent, before finishing with a dramatic, “You’re alive!”

Hilda laughed softly, shaking her head with a smile that was equal parts sheepish and amused. 

“Of course I’m alive. You didn’t really think I was dead, did you?”

“Well, no, but… I mean, when you ghost me like that, what was I supposed to think? It’s been ages! What are you doing in Johto?!”

“That, uh… That’s kind of a long story. Now’s not the time. Maybe we can talk about that later…?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Iris said, rolling her eyes, though there was a playfulness there to show she wasn’t really annoyed. “The others should be here in a second anyway and we’ll have to get started, but after, you owe me a call.”

“The others?” Ethan said, butting in. What others? He’s set this call up between Johto and Unova exclusively. No one else had been invited.

Iris smacked herself in the forehead.

“Oh, shoot. That’s right - Ethan, sorry, I meant to give you a heads-up, but things have been kinda crazy around here. We’ve got some more guests coming. I think they should be - oh, nevermind, here they are!”

And before Ethan could ask who she was talking about, the window showing Iris’s video capture shrunk down a bit as several other windows began popping up across the wall - something that should not be happening, not unless you had specific clearance to just jump into an inter-league conference call - and one by one, they winked into life 

All at once, Ethan found himself greeted by the faces of Cynthia, Steven, Leon, Diantha, and Geeta - as well as an older man he didn’t recognize with salt-and-pepper hair and a long brown trench coat. What had started as a relatively small inter-league conference call had just become a full-on summit meeting. And he had not been not prepared.

He looked to Cynthia first - because everyone looked to Cynthia first, how could you not - and she smirked. 

“Hey there, Golden Boy. Sorry for dropping in unannounced.”

He smiled back weakly and tried his best to return her greeting without stammering. 

He’d met Cynthia before - a few times, in fact - and while he’d managed to get past being starstruck in person, anyone would need a second if she just popped out at you out of nowhere. She was in her mid-to-late fifties now, her once famous golden hair now sporting a silvery sheen, but the lines on her face and the crinkles in her eyes only served to make her look weathered, not weak. Every ounce of her being exuded strength. There was a reason why she was considered the face of pokemon battling. 

It still annoyed him when she called him ‘Golden Boy’, though. 

He let his eyes scan the faces of his peers as they exchanged their typical pleasantries, with him and with one another. It was funny how this gathering of some of the most influential and powerful people in the world could sport so many disparate personalities. 

Leon, Iris, and Cynthia were all smiles - Leon’s confident and toothy, Iris’s sweet and bubbly, Cynthia’s crooked and sarcastic. Geeta nodded with detached politeness as though she were at a business meeting, whereas Diantha’s nod seemed as though it came from a queen on high. Steven was barely paying attention, fiddling with something on his desk, as absent-minded as ever.

If Ethan was being honest with himself, despite having held the title of Champion of Johto for a few years now, he still felt a little out-of-place among his fellow Champions. This was because - at least until just recently - he’d been the youngest. At least in terms of age, though really, it was length of time in station that ought to matter most. It never seemed to, though, at least not to the press. 

While no individual Champion was considered ‘above’ any of the others, with each of them holding the same station and authority in their collective alliance, there was still this sort of idea prevalent in the world that older Champions - that is, ones who’d held their title the longest - were given more respect and their actions and opinions carried more weight. And it was hard for him to shake that mindset, even now. It was like, subconsciously, he wanted to defer to their every opinion, despite him needing to stand up and represent Johto on his own merits.  

The Champions could basically be divided into two groups - commonly called the ‘Old Guard’ and the ‘New Guard’. The Old Guard were the well-known Champions, the ones who’d held their titles for decades and were famous the world over. Cynthia, Steven, Diantha, and, until recently, Lance. It was meeting these living legends that had taught Ethan that there was more to being Champion than beating the one who came before you. You couldn’t just earn the title. You had to hold it. Prove that you could stand the test of time. Only then could you really claim that you were one of the best. 

The New Guard were the Champions who had only won their titles in the last five years or so, which obviously included Ethan. The big name among them, the one who seemed destined to go the distance, who was the talk of the proverbial town, was Leon from Galar. It was speculated by many that he would rise to take Cynthia’s place one day as the ‘best of the best’, and some thought that day wasn’t far off. Other names among the New Guard aside from himself included AJ and Iris. 

There were also technically two outliers within their international alliance - the Alola Region, who was still setting up their League and didn’t have an official Champion just yet, and the Paldea Region, which… Well, they had a Champion - her name was Geeta, and she was nice enough. But she was also clearly not on the same level as the other Champions, usually losing in the first round whenever there was an Inter-League Charity Conference. 

But Paldea did things a little differently than most. Their League wasn’t a meritocracy - that is, the Champion wasn’t the trainer who had overcome all obstacles and risen to the occasion. Instead, their Champion was elected. By the governing board who ran Naranja Academy - arguably the most famous and prestigious academy in the entire world, whose alumni included almost every big-name professor or doctor or researcher in the last few centuries. But it wasn’t a school for battling, so the Paldea Region wasn’t exactly known for producing top-tier Champions. 

One of the big reasons that the New Guard was often given less respect came down to that question of longevity. Statistically, most Champions didn’t hold their title for more than those first five years. There were a lot of reasons for why - lack of experience, inability to cope with the pressure, etc. - but the biggest seemed to be that Champions, on average, received more Challenge requests in their first five years than they did in any given year following that. This was because not every trainer who took first place in the League Conference went on to battle the Champion, and what deterred most of them was lack of confidence, usually inspired by the thought of having to face the active Champion. 

But there was a big difference between battling Lance, the Dragon Master, who’d held the title of Champion for literal decades, and battling Ethan, random nobody from New Bark Town, who’d held the title for three years. Challengers who’d won at the League Conference years ago but never had the guts to face Lance, or who couldn’t make it past the Elite Four previously, would suddenly come crawling out of the woodwork when a new Champion took their seat. Which meant, of course, that the first few years of one's tenure as a Champion were rife with endless battles, which only added to the stress.

“So,” Ethan said brusquely once the pleasantries were over - honestly, having everyone’s attention suddenly turn to him made him feel claustrophobic, but this was his meeting, after all, and he wasn’t about to back down now - “to what do I owe the pleasure of… Well, all of you joining us.”

Were they that interested in what had happened in Goldenrod? It was big news, to be sure - but they could have read about that in the paper, or just given him a call or shot him an email. All of them inviting themselves to his meeting with Iris with no warning felt a bit odd. Were they all just that bored?

Diantha quirked a brow. 

“Has no one told him…?”

Iris laughed nervously and scratched the back of her head. 

“Ahaha, sorry - I didn’t have a chance. It was all so sudden-”

“Then let’s get you up to speed,” Cynthia interjected, suddenly all business. He knew she was just looking at her camera, but her piercing gaze seemed to tear straight through him. “Your attack on Goldenrod - it wasn’t an isolated incident. There were several more this morning, stretched across nearly every other region in the alliance.”

Ethan went still. There were multiple attacks? All just this morning?! How was this the first he was hearing about-! But no, of course - he’d spent the morning traveling to Victory Road, he hadn’t been watching the news. He’d missed it. 

Hilda sat forward, looking intense. 

“Team Plasma launched attacks on multiple different regions, simultaneously? How? They don't have the manpower - and what would even be the point?”

“Not Team Plasma,” Diantha corrected curtly. “The attacks were carried out by individuals sporting the names of multiple infamous criminal organizations, some of which have been thought to have been dead and buried for years, now suddenly revived.”

“Both Sinnoh and Unova were hit by people claiming to be from Team Rocket,” Iris said. “The police weren’t able to detain anyone, but the damage was minimal - they showed up on Victory Island, which doesn’t really have much of a population at all, so we’re not sure what they were after. The attack didn’t last long.”

“They hit us in Snowpoint,” Cynthia said, practically in a growl. “By the time I got there, the attack had already ended. Candice - the gym leader - ran the punks out of town without too much trouble, but some superficial damage was done to the front of Snowpoint Temple, which is an important cultural and historical landmark. Per the police, ‘their motives are still unclear’.”

She bit out that last bit with particular venom. The mysterious salt-and-pepper man who hadn’t spoken up until this point shifted uncomfortably. 

Ethan’s fists had clenched on the tabletop. Team Rocket was back. He could still remember, vividly, the damage they’d done up at the Lake of Rage, the pokemon they’d abducted and abused in Mahogany Town. And now they’d left the Indigo League and started making messes Sinnoh and Unova? Why? Did they think they’d have a better chance over there?

“And that’s not all,” said Leon, chiming in. “We got a surprise visit, too - from a group calling themselves Team Magma, who I understand had some sort of gang war in Hoenn a few decades ago, is that right? They seem like a bunch of clowns to me, but that didn’t stop them from tearing up my hometown of Postwick. Mostly just destroyed some crops, but they tried to set the Slumbering Weald ablaze for some reason. Luckily, my kid brother and his friend were in town and were able to stop them, but most of them got away.”

“And we received the other half of the bumbling duo,” Diantha added. “Team Aqua, or whatever they call themselves. They’re an utter embarrassment - to society, to fashion sense, and to the art of pokemon battling. They tried to cause a fuss in Anistar, but were quickly trounced by our very own gym leader, Olympia, before they could do much more than startle a few people.”

Ethan’s jaw had actually fallen open. Not just Plasma and Rocket, but Aqua and Magma as well? Was the world going mad?!

His eyes flicked to Geeta, who still hadn’t spoken, and she smiled a very polite and insincere sort of business smile. 

“Our Academy received a visit from some people calling themselves Team Flare, but there wasn’t so much an attack as a disturbance. They tried to break into the library and were escorted out by security. They also… may have attempted to kidnap one of our teachers, Professor Raifort, on her way home from school that day, but the attempt was thwarted by some of our students.”

So that made five. All that was left was Hoenn. 

There was a lull in the conversation, and after a few seconds, Steven glanced up from whatever it was he’d been working on. 

“Hmm? Oh, yes - we had a visit as well. From Team Galactic. Not the friendliest of groups. There was a bit of a tussle out in Pacifilodge - small community, rather quaint. No one was terribly injured. I’d been in the area at the time, and… Well, it ended rather quickly.”

At that, he shrugged as if it hadn’t been anything worth mentioning. The Galactic Grunts who had had to deal with his Metagross would probably beg to differ. 

Ethan shook his head slowly, staring into nothing. This… This was madness. He had not been prepared to deal with this today. 

“But why?” Lyra finally asked, speaking for the first time and breaking the silence. “Other than the fact that there were attacks, there don’t appear to be any points of commonality. Was anyone able to determine what they were after?”

“No other areas were on the receiving end of nearly as much destruction as what you experienced in Goldenrod,” Leon answered. “Most of what we had to deal with were basically small-time riots, and other than you and Steven, no other Champions were involved in ending the attacks. Most weren’t even handled by Gym Leaders. They were all small-time - except for yours, which from the sounds of it, was quite a bit more intense.”

“We can’t even confirm that they are in fact working together,” Diantha added. “Though it seems silly at this point to assume otherwise. To my knowledge - and please, do correct me if I am mistaken - but none of these attacks seemed to have been led by anyone we know to be or have been a leading member of any of these organizations. ”

“Not that we know of,” said the salt-and-pepper man. His voice was curt and rough, and he looked haggard, like he hadn’t been getting proper sleep. “It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have more Champions on the scene - it’s not anyone’s fault, of course, and I’m grateful that none of the incidents were as bold as the one in Goldenrod, but we’re lacking in reliable first-hand accounts. What witnesses we do have don’t seem to know much about who these organizations even are. For now, we can’t be certain who is in charge.”

“Diantha’s right, though,” Hilda said. “They’ve got to be working together, right? I mean, there’s no way that multiple debunked criminal organizations from the past all decided to revive themselves within a couple of days of one another and launch attacks on every region in the alliance by pure happenstance.”

“Not every region.”

Ethan turned as the door to the Conference Room swung open and in marched Lance followed closely by Professor Gary Oak. Gary Oak had come? Why? Wasn’t it Elm’s turn?

He was greeted by a chorus of hellos from the other Champions on the monitor. Lyra moved as though to give him her seat, but he waved her down and pulled out a chair on the other side of Hilda, Professor Oak taking the next seat down so there were now five of them facing the monitors. The camera zoomed out so that they were all included. 

“Hey,” Cynthia said loudly so as to be heard over the others, "what are you doing here, Lance? Shouldn’t you be retired? And where’s the new kid? I wanted to meet her.”

From her tone, you could barely tell they’d just been talking about something as serious as what basically boiled down to multiple simultaneous international terrorist attacks. Then again, Cynthia didn’t seem the type to be cowed by anything. A tsunami could be bearing down on her and she’d probably stand her ground and expect it to turn around. It probably would.

Lance shot Cynthia an exasperated smile. 

“Two more weeks,” he said, scooting his chair in closer to the table and touching it with his palm so that a screen pulled up for him to fiddle with. “After that, I have a reservation booked at a lovely spa and resort in the Orange Islands. As for Miss AJ, we… don’t actually know where she is.” 

Here, he pulled a disgruntled face. 

“I called her this morning, but didn’t receive an answer. According to her mother, who’s on my - er, Kanto’s Elite Four, she left a note with her grandmother saying she was going on a trip and would be back soon. That’s all we know.”

Diantha scoffed. 

“Don’t tell me we’ve had another young Champion turn tail and flee.”

Hilda stiffened in her chair and stared daggers at the older woman, but she affected not to notice. 

“No,” said Professor Oak quickly. “She’s with my son and their other friend, Jade. He left me a note, too. Apparently, they went off for one last hurrah before AJ officially takes over for Lance.” Here, Ethan could see Cynthia and Leon nodding as though that made perfect sense to them. “Though I admit,” he continued, “I don’t know where they went or why they’re not answering.”

“They’re on Mt. Silver,” Ethan chimed in, and at Oak’s surprised look, he continued. “They actually came to see me a couple days ago to petition for approval to go up there, since it’s restricted - though AJ didn’t actually need it, since she’s an Indigo League Champion now herself. I’ve been up there before, too - the mountain does something wonky to radio signals. She probably never received any messages.”

Gary Oak nodded thoughtfully, though Lance slapped the table lightly with his palm as though to signal that was the end of that and said, brusquely, “Regardless, she isn’t here now, so let’s focus on what needs doing. To correct one misconception that I heard as I walked in, not every region was subject to an unprovoked attack by a criminal organization. Kanto remains unaffected. There have been no reports of any organized criminal activity at this time.”

That caught Ethan by surprise. Somehow, he hadn’t even thought about Kanto, despite it being right next door.

“What about Alola?” Iris asked. “I know they don’t have their own Champion yet, but they’re part of the alliance now. Has anyone heard from them?”

“I gave Kukui a call this morning,” Professor Oak said. “He says there’s been nothing out of the ordinary so far, but he’s got the island kahunas on high alert. Though, with their population being as small as it is, I can’t help but feel like they would have noticed a group of strangers showing up out of nowhere.”

“Ok then,” Lyra said quickly, sitting up straight and trying not to stare at Professor Oak. He knew her well enough to know that she was trying to put on a good show for him so he’d think she was useful and impressive. “We’ve had multiple attacks in various regions, excluding Kanto and Alola, of varying degrees of severity. What’s the common thread? What’s the goal?”

At that, no one spoke. There was a pause during which Ethan could practically see the wheels turning in everyone’s minds. 

Finally, Steven spoke up, almost absent-mindedly. 

“Perhaps, instead of looking for commonalities, we should instead be looking for outliers. Ethan, the attack on Goldenrod was not only the first, but also the most severe. Can you tell us more about it? Perhaps we can glean something from that.”

So he did, giving a truncated account of the events, with Hilda occasionally chiming in with additional details. He was visiting with Hilda who had happened to be in the country to talk about the recent increase in Team Plasma activity in the region. Then, there’d been an explosion, and when they went to investigate, the city was under attack. 

The damages were widespread and extensive. Multiple buildings set ablaze, shops or office buildings ransacked, millions worth of property damages, random civilians assaulted on the streets, dozens of people and pokemon hospitalized for injuries of varying degrees of severity. 

But most of the damage seemed to be almost random, and it was his opinion that much of the attack had been a distraction meant to pull the police and Whitney’s attention away from the true target of their attack - Goldenrod’s Radio Tower. 

“They destroyed the antenna on top of the building,” Ethan said. “Radio signals are still out in much of central Johto, to my understanding, though they should be back up in a day or two. Other than just causing general mayhem and stealing some things from the Radio Tower, I don’t know what the point of the attack was.”

“What did they steal?”

“Just some technical components - transceivers and… Look, I’m not a radio or… mechanical engineering kinda guy, I don’t really know what they are. But I have a list if you’d-”

But Steven was already nodding, somewhat impatiently, so Ethan pulled up his screen on the table again and began tapping on it. In a few seconds, he’d sent the report he’d been given along to everyone else.

While they looked it over, he added, “Team Rocket had targeted the Radio Tower once before, when I was just starting out as a trainer. But when they did it, it was reportedly because they were looking to contact their old leader, Giovanni, who had disappeared some time before. Seemed like a kind of desperate move at the time, but… Well, it is what it is. As far as I know, or knew, that was the end of it.”

Steven was frowning down at the list of stolen goods as though he were trying to read a foreign language. 

“Nothing here looks to be particularly worth stealing to me,” he mumbled, almost to himself. “I don’t see what the point would be… Well, unless you wanted to build your own radio tower and were too lazy to source the materials yourself, but why not? It would certainly be more circumspect. And why not just take over the Radio Tower again if your goal was to hijack the airwaves a second time?”

“Did you notice anything else in the attack?” Leon asked. “Anything at all? Even something minor could be the clue we need to unravel this mystery.”

Ethan shook his head, glancing over at Hilda to see if she had anything else to say. She was scowling at the table, and for a moment, he thought she was reading the list over too, only her screen had dimmed due to lack of interaction. She was staring into space. 

Iris seemed to have noticed as well, because she asked, “Hilda? You ok? You’ve been spacing for a while now.”

Hilda’s head jerked upright at the sound of her name, but her face remained concerned. 

“No, it’s just… Well, I mean… Iris, did you say there was an attack at Liberty Island?”

“Yup,” she replied. “Very little damage, no real injuries sustained. Team Rocket didn’t stick around for long. Not sure what they were after. Why do you ask?”

Hilda bit her lip, looking unsure, then sighed and shook her head. 

“Look, this could be nothing, ok? But at the end of the attack, the antenna atop the Radio Tower broke and fell onto the street. I was forced to call out my Reshiram to catch it before it killed everyone.”

Ethan nodded along, the memory playing out in his head of that majestic pure-white creature rocketing into the air in a blaze of blue fire. Very few trainers in the world could claim to have seen, let alone actually caught, a legendary pokemon. And in the chaos of everything that had happened, he’d somehow forgotten that he was sitting right next to one of those lucky few. 

“Someone had exited the Radio Tower then,” Hilda continued. “He was this… older guy. Short, gray hair, funny glasses. He said something to me that I hadn’t really paid attention to at the time, but…”

“What’d he say?”

Hilda shrugged uncomfortably. “That as long as I had ‘that’ - Reshiram - I’d be seeing them again.”

She looked around. “I mean, I have a legendary pokemon and they’re a gang of thieves, of course they’d say something like that. But if we’re looking for potential points of commonality, then Iris, that attack on Liberty Island…”

Iris blinked, then opened her eyes in surprise. 

“You think they’re looking for legendary pokemon?”

It was Ethan’s turn to frown. ‘Looking for legendary pokemon’ wasn’t a realistic goal for anyone to have - especially not when they were talking about the potential union of multiple infamous crime syndicates. It was such an egregious waste of money and manpower, it made his head spin. 

Lance seemed to be having similar thoughts, because he turned to Hilda with a skeptical set to his face as he said, “I’m not as familiar with the legends and myths of Unova, but even supposing there are stories about a legendary pokemon on this - Liberty Island? - Even so, it seems like this may be a stretch.”

“Actually,” Steven chimed in, looking thoughtful, “she may not be far off. Pacifilodge Town doesn’t have any stories of its own, but it’s the closest settlement to the tower where Rayquaza is said to appear.”

“And Magma attacked the Slumbering Weald,” Leon added. “If their goal had been to force the guardian deities from legends to appear, that would explain their strange behaviors.”

“As far as I know,” Professor Oak said, “every location that was attacked either has a legend associated with it, or is the closest location to one. The exception would be Naranja Academy, unless Miss Geeta knows something I don’t.”

All eyes turned to Geeta, who shifted uncomfortably in her seat. 

“There are no legends involving mythical pokemon in the Academy itself, no,” she said. Then, after a moment, added, “Though the teacher who was nearly kidnapped is our history professor, and she’s the foremost expert on the legendary pokemon in the region. Perhaps, if this is truly the reason, that is why they targeted her?”

“It would also potentially explain why Kanto was ignored,” Ethan said, suddenly jumping on the bandwagon. “Kanto doesn’t really have many stories of legendary pokemon, does it?”

“It doesn’t explain Alola, though,” Iris interjected. “They’ve got guardian deity pokemon out the wazoo, with some of the highest incidences of sightings in any region in the alliance. You’d think they’d try to start there first.”

“Hold on,” Lance said, raising his voice and holding up his hands to silence the back-and-forth. “We’re making a great deal of assumptions here based purely off of what could honestly be a coincidence. Let’s try to keep an open mind.”

“I’m with Lance,” Cynthia said. “Not that targeting legendaries is anything new, of course, but that doesn’t explain why all of these organizations are striking in tandem now, or why they all randomly switched countries. Hilda, can you tell us anything else? Anything else that might stand out?”

But Hilda shook her head. 

“Honestly, no. Other than that I didn’t know who that guy was, despite him seemingly being the one in charge of the attack. I’d faced off with most of Team Plasma’s leaders just a couple years ago, so I should have recognized him, meaning he’s probably new. Other than that, all I know is he’s a short, old man with funny orange glasses and he called himself Charon-”

Cynthia’s hand slammed down on her desk so loudly that everyone in the call jumped. 

“Charon? You sure about this, he said he was Charon?!”

“Uh, y-yeah. Why? Do you know him?”

But it was Mr. Salt-and-Pepper who spoke up. 

“Charon - also known as Pluto, the head scientist of Team Galactic. He somehow managed to escape in the aftermath of the incident in Sinnoh a few years back. We never caught him.”

Cynthia was snarling now. 

“So he’s with Plasma now, eh?”

Everyone stared at her for a moment, as though wondering if she was going to mega-evolve into some terrifying new creature and go on a rampage. 

After a beat, Diantha said, “Well, I suppose this is evidence that the groups are indeed working together. Not that there was really any doubt.”

“Yeah, but it still doesn’t tell us what they’re after,” said Iris, and Leon shrugged. 

“We’ll figure it out when we figure it out. For now, I say we take the idea Hilda suggested and get our Elite Four and Gym Leaders organized to keep an eye on any areas with any myths or history involving legendary pokemon. Just to be safe.”

“But we still don’t know that that’s actually what they’re after,” Geeta interjected, but Steven cut her off. 

“Even if it’s not, even if it’s just a distraction, it can still inform us of where they’re likely to strike next. Regardless, organizing our Leagues should be the obvious next step.”

“In that case,” Lance said, “and until we know more, I think Kanto should volunteer to send some of its Elite Four down to Alola. We have the fewest myths pertaining to legendaries, and Alola has some of the highest, at least in terms of density. If the legendaries are the targets, then we have less to fear than most. 

“I could wish that AJ were here to assist, but… I’ll send Bruno and Koga to back them up, and if AJ returns, I’ll send her as well. With any luck, we’ll be able to capture someone in one of these raids and we’ll be able to figure out who’s behind this and what their real motives are. For now, however… All we can do is prepare.”

“And don’t forget,” Professor Oak chimed in as the Champions readied themselves to end the conference call. “If you know of any other trainers in your regions like Hilda who have captured a legendary pokemon, find them and offer them protection. There aren’t many, but they’ll probably be targeted soon.”

Suddenly, Hilda let out a groan at his side, slumping forward and placing her head in her hands. 

Ethan smiled sympathetically. The idea of having bodyguards clearly wasn’t her idea of a good time.

“You probably don’t need protection yourself, considering you’re basically a Champion,” he said. “And even if you do, you can just hang out with me for a bit. Unless you think I’m that annoying.”

Hilda shook her head morosely. 

“No, it’s not… It’s not that. I just…” She sighed again, then dragged her fingers down her face dramatically until they were only covering her mouth. She was staring up at Iris, who was looking back at her in confusion. 

“I have to make a phone call. And Iris… You’ll need to send someone out to Castella City. Someone with a lot of patience.”

“Wait, I do?” she asked, looking more confused than ever. “Why? What’s in Castella City?”

“My twin brother,” Hilda grumped, pulling out her pokegear. “And the world’s biggest brat. He’s gonna need your protection.”

Chapter Text

It was cold. So unbelievably cold. 

He’d lost track of how long it had been. Night had fallen, and with it, the temperature. He hadn’t thought he could get any colder than he already was.

He was wrong. 

He’d stopped shivering. He knew, somewhere in the back of his fog-thickened thoughts, that that was a bad sign. He could barely feel his extremities anymore - which was nice, actually, considering that his leg was broken and it dulled the pain somewhat. 

But none of that mattered now. 

It was over. For him, at least. He’d reached the end of his tether. If his friends were still looking for him - if they were even still alive - he hadn’t found them. He’d been walking for hours, through knee-deep snow, no food or water, no warmth, no shelter. And ultimately, it had come to this. Stranded on top of some gods-forsaken mountain in the middle of nowhere. No one was going to find him. His journey ended here. 

He’d collapsed against a boulder, too tired to go on any further. The air up here was so thin. His lungs were burning, every breath seeming incapable of bringing in the oxygen he needed to function. He leaned back against the rock, letting his hazy eyes rake the skies, unsure if the glimmer he was seeing stretched out across the dark were the stars or the tears literally freezing in his eyes. 

His fingers were completely numb at this point. Unable to move, but that wasn’t a bad thing. In his last act of defiance, he’d somehow managed to recall both Gallade and Leafeon to their balls, and had each of them held fast between his frozen fingers. They wouldn’t be able to escape on their own. Not yet, at least. Not until the last of the strength had left his body. 

The egg that he’d found now sat between his legs. He didn’t know why he hadn’t left it behind. He could feel movement inside of it every now and then - or he could, back when he could still feel. The ringing noise sounded out occasionally, but whatever it was, it refused to hatch. Perhaps it, too, was waiting for someone. Someone who would never come. 

Gengar lingered nearby. It was said that ghost pokemon could sense death. Could he sense it now? The sun setting on his trainer’s life? Did it see the darkness slowly bearing down on him, dimming his vision, numbing the pain and grief? Did it mourn, or did ghost types have some sort of intrinsic understanding of death that superseded human logic or intuition?

Sammy had issued his final command already. When he died, he was to take Leafeon and Gallade’s balls and find AJ or Jade. If it couldn’t find them, it was to make its way back to Pallet, somehow, and return them to his mother and father. They’d never forgive him - his pokemon, that is. But they’d survive. That was all that mattered to him now.

Leafeon had been his first pokemon. The offspring of his mother’s Glaceon and his father’s Umbreon. Would his parents ever know what had happened to him? Leafeon had been more than his partner. She was practically his sister. And Gallade had been a gift from his aunt before he’d even left Pallet, as she’d known he’d always been partial to Ralts. AJ had been so mad when she’d found out, claiming he got to have two starter pokemon and that wasn’t fair. 

Thoughts of AJ made him smile involuntarily, and dimly he could feel the sting as his lips cracked. AJ, with her long hair and cerulean eyes. He’d loved her since they were ten years old, and he’d never told her. Probably for the best. Her friendship meant the world to him, and he’d never want to risk that. 

And Jade, with her sharp wit and ceaseless comebacks. They’d become better friends than he could have ever imagined. He could still remember the day when they’d boarded the ship for Hoenn, and AJ, after having been literally shoved by Jade, had asked him to officially travel with them. That was the happiest day of his life. If he was going to die here, then he was content to bask in it, losing himself to memories of happier times with his favorite people - his parents, his best friends, and his pokemon - as the world gradually slipped away…

The haze thickened, his vision slowly growing white. There was a distant ringing noise, growing louder and louder. Was this… death? He was surprised to find he was scared, but… It wasn’t so bad…

Vaguely, he registered the feeling of something moving on his lap. The ringing cut short with a crackle, like ice over a frozen pond. The fog seemed to thicken - no, not fog, snow - and in the back of his head somewhere, Sammy registered that the sky had been clear not even moments before and wasn’t that odd?

A new sound reached out to him. Heavy and rhythmic, like the beating of wings.

A shadow darted forward, placing itself in front of him, and for a wild moment, Sammy wondered if his Gengar was going to be the one to spirit him away and how nice that would be. His eyes slowly began to close. 

But not before just barely registering the silhouette of something large descending toward him out of the white gloom. 

Something seized him physically by the arms, and he was wrenched into the air.

Darkness overtook him.

If there was one thing that Jade absolutely hated, it was awkward silences. 

Not that she couldn’t appreciate a good silence, of course. She wasn’t one of those people who needed to chatter incessantly to fill the empty space, no matter what Sammy said. But awkward silences? Those moments where the quiet presses down on you, thick and uncomfortable as a wet wool, where you struggle to do or say anything because other people are being emotional and you don’t wanna accidentally trip a land mine? Yeah, those suck.

She’d always hated being over at a friend’s house when one of them got into a fight with their parents. Listening to AJ and Misty go at it in the kitchen at AJ’s party had been uncomfortable enough. But this? This was in a whole ‘nother league.

Then again, she wasn’t sure what she had exactly expected. It wasn’t every day that you get lost in the mountains, almost freeze to death, get rescued by a kind old man, then have your best friend’s long-lost-and-thought-to-be-dead-daddy just waltz on in like it was a typical Tuesday happening. 

Wait, was it even Tuesday today? She honestly had no idea. How long had they been up on this mountain anyway?

At the moment, Jade was standing beside the table in Cole’s cabin, helping him clean up after the hasty round of emergency first aid they’d been performing on AJ’s pokemon. 

They’d been in bad shape. Jade honestly didn’t know what was more surprising; that Ash Ketchum was apparently every bit the unstoppable phenom that rumors and legends had always hyped him up to be, or that AJ had not even stood a chance against him. The way his team had so effortlessly and mercilessly driven hers into the ground… Honestly, it was scary. She couldn’t even think of another word for it. 

They were miles and miles away from the nearest Pokemon Center; Cole had said the closest was over near Victory Road, though apparently the Rangers Station they’d passed through would have been closer. But that would have required them leaving in the night without shelter or supplies, crossing over freezing and unknown terrain filled with aggressive wild pokemon, AJ without her team and still not fully recovered from her brush with death. And it would have meant leaving without Sammy. 

That was out of the question, for obvious reasons. So instead, in spite of how unbelievably awkward it was, they were forced to retreat to Cole’s cabin for the night. 

Ash had left almost immediately, not saying another word to Jade or AJ. Just picked up his things and marched right back out the door.

Jade wasn’t really sure how she’d felt about that. On the one hand, how dare he? Just walk out on AJ again like that? Knock her feet out from under her, kick her when she was down, then just waltz off like it wasn’t his problem? He may as well have just spat in her face. For the man who was supposedly her father’s best friend, the hero of a hundred stories, and - allegedly - the goodest guy to have ever done good, he was seriously coming across like a heartless, arrogant jerk. 

On the other hand, however, Jade could almost sympathize. Coming off of what had to be the world’s absolute worst first impression - both for him and for AJ - what else could he do? AJ had locked herself away in Cole’s bedroom once they’d returned to the cabin, clearly not interested in speaking with anyone, content to wallow in her own misery. The tension in the air had been so thick, Jade was certain she could have carved it with her pinky nail. 

It had lessened somewhat after Ash had walked out, except now without AJ for company, Jade found herself alone with Cole. And that was awkward enough in its own right. 

No one had said anything - Jade wasn’t even sure if AJ had made the connection yet, having been so hyper-focused on the surprise reappearance of her not-so-dead father - but Cole had referred to Ash as his son, and Ash had called him dad… Didn’t that mean that Cole was AJ’s grandfather? Was this situation going to somehow get even more awkward?!

These Ketchums and their ridiculous drama. Why did she ever let herself get tangled up with them in the first place?

She must have had a look on her face - or maybe Cole had had his fill of awkward silence - because the older man cleared his throat rather pointedly and offered up a hesitant, “You know… You’re pretty skilled at this. I was expecting to have to do all of the work myself, but you’ve got a deft hand.”

He was gesturing to the table, indicating the messy collection of used bandages, piles of desiccated herbs and berries, and the mortar and pestle they’d used to mix them together. 

Jade shrugged, deciding that any topic of conversation was better than this cloying quiet. 

“I learned it from my dad, yeah. He’s pretty famous for being a pokemon doctor and breeder. I’m his only kid, so I was kinda forced to learn about it when I was growing up. He likes to bring his work home with him.”

“Your father being Brock, yes? Pewter’s Gym Leader?”

She nodded, but didn’t elaborate, instead busying herself with brushing the leftover plant detritus off of the table with one of the unused rags. 

She could feel it, almost like a sixth sense - how badly Cole wanted to segway from her father to Misty. To ask about his daughter-in-law, about AJ, maybe even about Delia. But if he asked, Jade was resolved to stay quiet. It wasn’t her place to talk, and to be honest, she wasn’t certain that she felt he had the right to know. 

So instead, in an attempt to divert the fledgling conversation along another route, she said, “We’d be lost without your knowledge of herbs, though. I mean I know a few things, but a lot of this traditional medicine stuff is lost on me. You taught me a lot.”

And she meant that. Cole’s first aid kit had hardly been sufficient to treat all of AJ’s pokemon, so they’d had to get creative - hence the mess. 

Most of AJ’s team had actually been fine - well, not fine, but not in any serious danger. Arcanine, Togekiss, and Aegislash were injured, yes, but not terribly so. Jade had helped Cole whip up a large amount of medicine for them to drink to dull the pain of sprains and bruises and speed the healing process - mostly oran and sitrus berries blended with powdered energy root, which was horrifically bitter but effective - then returned them to AJ’s pokeballs to sleep. Jade knew from experience, and Cole agreed, that they shouldn’t need much more than a day or two of rest before they’d be up and about again. 

Pichu and Milotic were another story. 

Both had sustained several broken bones during their battle, with Pichu still unconscious and Milotic sporting a terrible burn that covered nearly half the length of her body. Their situations were far more critical - especially Pichu, who clearly had sustained internal trauma and appeared to be having trouble breathing.

They’d all but exhausted Cole’s supply of rawst berries trying to make a salve to treat Milotic’s burn, creating several bowls of a thick mint green paste that they’d carefully spread along her once-glittering scales. Cole had also made her some foul-smelling concoction using Revival Herbs that had put her straight to sleep, which made the process of spreading the salve and bandaging the wounds a bit easier. She’d been returned to her ball not long after. 

Pichu, however, remained outside of his ball, as though AJ couldn’t bear to see him leave her sight. They’d done what they could with him, but it was difficult to fashion a splint for his leg considering how small it was, and there wasn’t much at all they could do for his internal injuries. They’d bandaged his torso, dribbled as much of Cole’s revival herb concoction as they dared down his throat, but ultimately could do nothing more than let him rest. 

Right now, he was asleep on Cole’s bed. The last she’d checked, AJ had been lying beside him, half curled around him as if she could physically shield him from any more harm, quietly crying where she thought no one could see. 

The sight of it had made her skin itch. AJ never cried. It had always seemed like she never knew how. 

As Cole picked up one of the baskets of herbs, meaning to return it to the cabinet where it belonged, he made another valiant stab at conversation. 

“So… You and AJ been friends for long?”

“Sort of,” she replied, picking up the bowl they’d used to crush up the herbs and berries and frowning at it. How were they supposed to clean this without running water? Oh, right - there was snow outside. Duh. “I’ve known AJ since… forever, it feels like, but I wouldn’t say we were really friends until I was twelve, when she dragged me out of my dad’s gym and made me go on an adventure.”

Cole quirked an eyebrow, an amused smile on his face. 

“Sounds like there’s a story behind that. Care to share?”

Jade hesitated, aware that he was probably just trying to pull more information out of her about the granddaughter he’d never cared before to meet, but before she could think of a way to tell him off or change the subject, he added, “You don’t have to, of course, but we don’t have much else in the way of entertainment up in these parts.”

Well, that was certainly true. Plus, if she let his attempts at conversation die, the awkward silence was going to come back, and she really didn’t think she could stomach any more of that. 

Deciding there really wasn’t any harm in telling him the story, she gave in and began to talk, opting for the more detailed version if only because that would mean she’d be talking longer and there’d be less uncomfortable quiet. 

Maybe Sammy was right. Maybe she did have a problem. 

She and AJ had basically been cousins, in a way. In the sense that their parents had always had a sibling-like bond, they lived far away from each other, but they saw each other’s faces mostly through holiday cards or the odd visit. Jade had real cousins, of course - her father had what felt like a million siblings - but he’d been older than all of them, which naturally translated to her being the oldest of the next generation of Harrisons. She’d never really been all that close to them as a result - more of a babysitter than a peer. 

AJ being closer in age, it probably would have made sense if the two had gravitated towards each other when they were younger. But they didn’t. Part of that was the distance and only seeing each other maybe once or twice a year. But the bigger reason had to do with them being such completely different people. 

AJ was always the wild child. Running around outside, picking fights, chasing pokemon, getting herself into trouble. Jade was her opposite in almost every respect. She preferred to stay indoors, she cared about her appearance, and while she liked pokemon well enough, she’d never really been all that interested in battling. Oh, she’d probably take over the family gym one day - tradition and all that - but she had no desire to challenge the League, no dreams of being the Champion like most kids her age. 

Jade liked her creature comforts. Living alone in her dad’s big house. Never having to work all that hard. Getting to laze about. She could admit now that she was older that she’d enjoyed having things handed to her. Expected it, almost. Like she didn’t think she’d needed to work for anything. 

Which is probably why, when she turned ten, she didn’t start her own pokemon journey. 

Instead, she’d stayed home, where it was comfortable, where she didn’t have to traipse through the wilderness or get chased by Beedrill or learn to get comfortable peeing behind bushes. Most of her friends and family had looked at her like she was crazy, but what did she care? This was her life. Let her live it like she wanted. 

She still went to get her license when she turned ten, of course. She may not have any interest in going on some grand life-changing journey like all of her friends, but she still liked pokemon. And it’s not like she needed to study for it. Not with everything her father had taught her. 

“You’re close to your father, aren’t you?” Cole had asked, pulling a knobbly broom out of a corner and getting to work, sweeping up the shredded leaves and crushed stems from off of the stone floor. Jade almost asked why he didn’t just pull his handy-dandy Slugma out to clean up for him. If she had had an all-purpose Slugma vacuum, she’d use it for just about everything.

“Yeah, I guess,” she replied, moving the chairs out of the way so he could more easily reach under the table. “My mom died when I was little, so I’m an only child. My dad was never really the same after, and he started to dote on me kinda excessively. Not that I minded too much. I mean I complained about it loudly, but I secretly loved it. I liked the attention. I kinda feel bad about it now, though. I could be a brat when I wanted to.”

“I’m sure he knew how you really felt,” he said with a warm smile. “Fathers always know.”

He turned his attention back to sweeping, either ignoring or else completely oblivious to the way the awkward tension seemed to come rushing back into the room. 

Deciding not to linger on the topic of fathers, Jade pressed on with her story.

Her dad had been surprised and concerned when Jade had told him she didn’t want to go on a journey, instead preferring to stay home and work at the gym. The logic being, or so she told him, that she was probably going to inherit the gym from him anyway - which was a fairly bold assertion at the time, but she had been ten - so she may as well spend her time getting as much experience as she could. 

She could tell he disapproved, but one of the great things about her dad was that he never tried to force her to do anything. He’d make suggestions, but rarely ever demands, always content to let her find her own way in life so long as she understood that she was responsible for the consequences of whatever actions she took. 

“Everything changed the day that AJ showed up in Pewter,” she said, taking a seat in one of the chairs she’d pushed aside. All of the cleanup seemed to be done now, save for the sweeping, but that wasn’t exactly a two-man job. 

It had been almost two years since Jade had received her license and announced that she wasn’t going on a journey. She’d been lounging about at home late one afternoon, grooming her Vulpix and watching some trashy celebrity drama on the tv when her father had come home and called her down, announcing they’d had a guest. 

If she’d been surprised to see AJ there unexpectedly in her entryway, it had been nothing at the absolute shock evident on AJ’s face at seeing her. 

“What are you doing here?!” she had asked, looking positively thunderstruck, and when Jade had sarcastically responded that she lived there, AJ had said, “Well sure, but I mean… Why are you here… now? Did you come back to visit? Are you hurt?”

And it was then that both Jade and AJ learned that AJ had had no idea Jade hadn’t left on a journey like everyone else. 

If anyone had ever needed any evidence that the two hadn’t been all that close when they were younger, this was it. Jade had been twelve at the time, two years past the day when she could have started her journey, and AJ had had no idea that she’d chosen not to until just then. 

“And she was so… judgy about it,” Jade said, laughing to herself as she helped Cole move the chairs back under the table. “AJ had been a very… ‘my way or the highway’ kinda kid at the time. She didn’t have a lot of patience for other people’s opinions or perspectives if they were contrary to her own, and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to try to justify myself to this short, entitled brat, so we kinda ended up getting in a fight.”

Jade took a seat at the newly cleaned table and accepted another steaming cup of cider from Cole with what she hoped was a grateful smile that didn’t let on how much she hated sour things. Seriously, was this all this man drank?!

“How did your father react?” Cole asked, seating himself opposite her with his own cup, a look of genuine interest on his face. “You said he liked to let you do your own thing - did he tell you off, or just let you two shout at each other?”

“Dad?” Jade asked, letting out an exasperated noise. “You kidding? The old man planned that interaction from the start. He’s an evil mastermind. He just stood in the corner looking all smug while AJ called me ten kinds of idiot, looking down on me with all of her one week’s worth of trainer experience behind her. Needless to say, I was pissed.”

“So what did you do?”

“I decided I was going to shut her up,” she said, taking a sip from her cup and trying not to make a face. The flavor seemed to stab at her tongue like Maractus spines. “After we yelled for a bit, AJ made some comment about me being pathetic or something - I don’t really remember what she said, but I just about lost it. So I told her that if I couldn’t get anything through that thick skull of hers, then I’d have to beat it in.”

“So you challenged her to a battle,” Cole said, nodding as though he were following along. 

Jade laughed uneasily. 

“Uh, no. I mean, yes, but no. When I said I was going to beat it in, I meant literally. I was full-on ready to throw down, no pokemon needed.”

“Oh,” Cole replied, blinking in surprise. 

“Yeah, I can go a little crazy when I snap,” Jade continued, smiling ruefully. “Luckily for us, my dad was still there. He said it sounded like a great idea for us to overcome our differences. A pokemon battle, not a… yeah. Put our anger aside, get to know and understand each other through battling, yadda yadda… You know how old guys talk.”

Cole’s smile let her know he took no offense to that. 

“AJ was all for it, of course. Pokemon was all that girl ever thought about. Still is, actually. But I didn’t want to. I’d given her enough of my time as it was and I just wanted her gone. AJ tried to make a bet on it, saying that if she won, I had to travel with her on her journey - which, I have no idea why she wanted that, we weren’t exactly getting along. But if I won, she’d agree to leave me alone - which, I mean, was pretty stupid. She was going to have to leave Pewter at some point to continue her journey anyway, so I didn’t have to battle her to eventually get what I wanted. But then my dad decided to sweeten the pot by saying that the winner would get his badge, and…”

Jade shrugged, remembering the sudden surge of eagerness which had surprised even her. 

Trainers who worked at her dad’s gym had varying levels, but to move up to the level that got to battle challengers, you had to have earned the Boulder Badge yourself. It wasn’t the only requirement, of course, but it was a requirement. Those trainers earned more and didn’t have to spend so much time cleaning or feeding the pokemon who lived at the gym. 

Normally, she’d have to work at the gym for a couple more years to earn her way up to that rank - that, or beat her dad in an official battle, which she’d never even thought to try doing before. Battling for a badge as a Gym Trainer was different than battling as a challenger. Challengers faced different pokemon depending on how many badges they’d collected, which for Jade was obviously zero. Battling for a badge as a Gym Trainer meant facing him as if you’d earned at least four badges, and she knew she had no hope of that. 

But if she could win the badge now, and just by beating this newbie trainer who likely still had no idea what she was doing, then what was the point in waiting? 

And so her dad took them both to the Gym that evening after it had closed for the day, having them square off in the central arena while he played referee. It all felt very official, in spite of the fact that it was essentially a grudge match between two irate preteens. She’d been surprised, however, when he told her she wasn’t allowed to use the gym’s pokemon to battle. 

“You’re only allowed to use your own pokemon,” he had said. “This is a battle about your beliefs. You need to compete using your own strength.”

Which was a problem, because the only pokemon Jade actually owned was her Vulpix - a gift from her father when she’d gotten her license. And she didn’t really battle with her much. When helping out at the gym, she had always used her dad’s pokemon.

To complicate matters, AJ had three pokemon, and when her dad announced that there was no limit on the number of pokemon either party could use, she felt the anger of the apparent unfairness boiling in her belly. Of course he was going to give AJ the advantage. He really didn’t want her to win that badge, and he’d always wanted her to go off on a journey just like he had. He’d rigged this! 

The battle started, Jade called out her Vulpix and was prepared to match AJ’s Pichu with all that she had… only to be surprised when AJ called out a Spearow instead. 

“You need to understand,” she said to Cole. “I was totally confused. My Vulpix was an Alolan one, so it was an ice type. AJ knew that, yet she still sent out a flying-type pokemon. I thought she was mocking me, trying to act like she was better than me by sending out a pokemon she knew had the disadvantage.”

“And was she?”

Jade could still remember that battle almost perfectly, even now, eight years later. Her Vulpix had taken down AJ’s Spearow with almost embarrassing speed. The type advantage mixed with AJ’s lack of experience and Spearow’s limited training all combined for a very rapid knockout. That, and while Jade hadn’t been journeying herself, she had been working at her dad’s gym. Despite AJ’s insistence that she was the pathetic one, Jade had learned a lot about proper battle strategy. 

Powder Snow to knock Spearow out of the air and leave it vulnerable. Tackle to send it out of the ring. The fight had ended before it had even started, and while Jade was left feeling oddly flushed and proud over her first real victory, AJ had looked suddenly stiff and unsure. 

She must be sending her Pichu out now, Jade had thought, and had been once again surprised to see a Kakuna take the field. 

A bug type? And this time, a cocoon who couldn’t even move or attack? Was she just sacrificing her pokemon one by one in some bizarre play at attrition? 

When the second round started, AJ tried for a Harden, but it didn’t matter. Powder Snow once again to knock it down and make the ground slick. Then her Vulpix didn’t even have to use Tackle. She just pushed Kakuna out of the ring. 

What was going on? Where had all of AJ’s bluster and bravado gone? Why talk so big when she had nothing to show for it? Was the girl just an idiot?

Finally, down to her last pokemon, AJ had no choice but to pull out her Pichu, but she did so with obvious reluctance, like it was the last thing she wanted to be doing. Jade had no idea what that was about - was she trying to protect it because it was still a baby? - but if she won this last fight, then she’d get her dad’s badge and prove AJ wrong. It was time to get serious. 

The battle between Vulpix and Pichu dragged on for several minutes, full of Tackles and Powder Snows and Sparks. As the seconds ticked by, she could see AJ growing more and more frustrated, shouting at her Pichu, urging it on, trying to encourage it. Jade, however, found herself growing more and more embarrassed, as, in a rare moment of self-reflection, she took stock of the situation and felt a cold, bitter understanding settle on top of her. 

Tackle and Powder Snow were about all her Vulpix could throw out. True, Pichu wasn’t much better, but AJ at least had the excuse of being a brand new trainer who just started out, and Pichu was a baby. Jade had had her license for two years now. Why hadn’t she ever seriously trained her Vulpix? She knew she should have more moves at her disposal - Quick Attack, Aurora Beam, Confuse Ray, Disable. So many things that could easily turn the tide of the battle, but not in her arsenal because she’d always treated Vulpix like a cute pet to cuddle and fawn over and nothing more. 

And there was nothing wrong with that - she still believed that to be true. Not everything with pokemon needed to be about battling. But as she faced off now against a newbie trainer two years her junior, it finally occurred to Jade that maybe she’d allowed herself to get a big head because she’d always been using her father’s pokemon at the gym when she’d been battling or training. Pokemon she’d had no hand in raising. Pokemon that had all but been given to her, that she hadn’t had to struggle and grow with on her own.

Maybe she wasn’t ready to be a full Gym Trainer after all. 

“So how did the battle end?” Cole asked, sounding far too interested considering how positively embarrassing the entire thing had ended up being. 

“With a whimper,” Jade said with a shrug. “Pichu charged in with a Spark, but slipped on the icy ground from all the Powder Snows we’d been tossing about. Crashed head-first into Vulpix, which was the intention I guess, and managed to knock her out with the Spark - but Pichu knocked himself out in the process. The battle ended with a double KO.”

In a real, high-stakes battle, that might have been really exciting. For two idiot new trainers who barely knew what they were doing, it spoke more to how inept they were and how much further they still had to go. 

Cole shook his head, looking far too amused for her liking. 

“And? Did either of you win the badge?”

“Nope. Dad said we were both disqualified, which meant no one had to hold up their end of the bargain. AJ stormed off back to the pokemon center looking furious. Dad tried to stop her, offered to let her stay at our place since she was practically family, but she brushed him off. 

“When we got back home, we didn’t speak. I retreated to my room, treated Vulpix, then sat on my bead and stared out the window for hours, thinking. When dawn came, I had already left the house, and left my dad a note telling him I was leaving. I met AJ at the Pokemon Center just when she was about to leave, back to Viridian Forest to train, and I asked if I could go with her.”

Jade shrugged, taking one last gulp of the tart beverage before setting her empty cup down on the table. After a momentary hesitation, she pushed it away lest Cole get the idea she wanted a refill.

“And that’s that. We’ve been friends ever since.”

If nothing else, Cole certainly had that ‘grandfatherly smile’ thing down pat. 

“Well now, that’s quite the tale. I’m a little jealous.”

Jade snorted. 

“Of what? How much of an idiot I was?”

“We’re all idiots at some points in our lives,” Cole said, not unkindly. “Truth is, most of us are idiots most of the time. But it sounds like you and AJ had an eventful start to what became a strong and enduring friendship. The sort of friendship that most people can only dream of. I’d say you were fortunate, but friendship takes work and I can tell you’ve worked hard. I think you’ve earned the right to be proud - and to expect others to be a little jealous.”

Jade smiled softly, her eyes on her fingers as they drummed absently across the empty tabletop.

This was going to be a problem. If Cole kept being this nice, it was going to be tough to hate him.

When Jade entered Cole’s room a few minutes later, she found AJ exactly where she’d left her, curled up on her side atop the bedspread next to Pichu. 

Her eyes were closed, which made it hard for Jade to tell if she had finally fallen asleep or was merely wallowing in misery. 

Deciding not to press the matter, Jade did her best to quietly tiptoe over to the small workbench that had been set up beneath the lone window. She could see AJ and Sammy’s belts lying across the top, mixed in among the hammers and chisels and the accumulation of wood shavings. The belts were the sum total of their current worldly possessions. Three belts. Two trainers. 

Outside the window, Jade could see the clouds from earlier in the day had parted. The sky was inky black, as dusted with stars as the table before her was with wood shavings. The moon hung not quite round and not quite full above the top of Mt. Silver. 

Unbidden, AJ spoke. 

“I wasn’t trying to show off,” she said softly, and Jade tried not to wince at how scratchy her friend’s voice sounded.

“I know you weren’t,” she replied, thinking she was talking about her battle with her father. 

“I never wanted Pichu for my starter,” AJ continued as though she hadn’t heard Jade speak. “I was so mad - so mad that other people kept trying to make me into something I wasn’t, that I took it out on him. I refused to use him in that first week. Never trained him, never spent time with him. I caught that Spearow and Weedle so I would have other options, so I wouldn’t have to rely on him.

“But he still fought so hard for me in our battle. Even though I didn’t deserve it, even though I’d hated him…”

She sniffled, her eyes still locked on her unconscious partner. 

“He deserves a better trainer than me.”

“Stop it,” Jade said, shucking off the kiddie gloves and giving AJ her sternest glare. “He loves you, you love him, and you make an amazing team. You can’t let one loss shake you up this much.”

AJ didn’t respond, but she didn’t have to. Jade knew what she was thinking. 

This wasn’t just about the loss. It was how she had lost. To whom she had lost. 

It hadn’t taken long, after they’d started traveling together, for AJ to come clean to Jade about how she felt about her father. After a few months of traveling together, of challenging gyms and run-ins with Sammy Oak and a thousand different variations of ‘you remind me of your dad’ from familiar faces and strangers alike, AJ had reached some sort of limit and had finally let it out in a rush of rage and frustration. How much she hated being compared to him. How much it hurt for everyone to always be celebrating someone who had abandoned her. Her desire to get revenge in the only way she knew how - to beat him at everything and anything he’d ever done. To prove she was better. That she was better without him.

The very foundation of who AJ was as a trainer, of what she wanted to be, had just been upended. She was like a puzzle that had been thrown to the ground, pieces lying in a discordant heap, unrecognizable, not even a semblance left of what she was supposed to be.

For a moment, Jade struggled with finding the words she needed to say. She knew it was time to play the best friend card, but honestly, the drama of this moment was so absurd it made soap operas look mundane in comparison. What would her dad say right now? Probably something like, ‘people aren’t defined by their mistakes’, or ‘one bad day can’t undo eight years of good ones’. Something old man-ish like that. 

Only, Jade never got the chance to say it. 

Before she could speak, they heard the unmistakable sound of the front door of the cabin being thrown open, slamming into the wall with a resounding crash that had Jade jerking upright on the stool with a fearful squeak. 

Ash’s voice rang out throughout the small cabin, loud and clear through the thin wooden walls. 

“Someone’s entered the Sanctuary.”

As Jade struggled to calm her suddenly galloping heart rate, confusion started to take over her momentary panic. Sanctuary? What sanctuary? How could there be a sanctuary up in the middle of nowhere?

If Jade’s fear was dying down, however, Cole’s was just warming up. 

“Who?!” he demanded, sounding fearful and, surprisingly, furious. “How?!”

“I don’t know,” Ash replied tersely, and from the hurried sound of his footsteps, he’d hastily crossed the room. There was a shuffling sound as he presumably gathered a few things. “I just got a message about it. I’m heading there now. Stay here and watch them.”

And without another word, Ash was hastening back across the cabin. 

“Ash-!” Cole tried, sounding harried, but a moment later the door slammed shut and silence once again engulfed the cabin. 

Jade hazarded a glance at AJ. 

She was still lying on the bedspread, but she’d lifted her head up at the sudden arrival and had frowned cautiously at the door during the whole spiel. They couldn’t see anything through the walls or closed door, of course, but the inner walls were thin and the cabin wasn’t exactly large. They’d heard everything. 

AJ glanced back at Jade and a silent understanding seemed to pass between them. Hesitantly, Jade rose to her feet and headed back out into the main room. 

She found Cole pacing nervously in front of the fireplace, chewing on his thumbnail. He was going to ruin his cuticles that way. Assuming he hadn’t already. 

“Everything ok?” she asked cautiously. 

Cole actually jumped in surprise. That was a sight. 

“Fine, lass,” he said, running an agitated hand over his gray beard. “Everything’s fine.” 

His tone didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Her doubt must have shown on her face, because he added, in a softer voice, “You should stay with your friend. Get some rest. You’ve had a long day.”

She had had a long day. A spectacularly long one. But she wasn’t going to be brushed aside that easily. 

“What’s the sanctuary?”

He flinched. 

“Nothin’. It’s not important. Don’t worry about it.”

“It sounded pretty important to me…”

Something irritated seemed to flash across Cole’s countenance, letting her know she was pushing too far. She didn’t care. She wasn’t the type who quelled easily.

“He said someone was in there, right?” Cole seemed to swell for a moment, like he was getting ready to muster all of his old man authority to try and force her to drop the subject, when she hastily added, “Is there any chance it’s Sammy?”

The old man blinked in surprise. Clearly, after everything that had gone on today, he’d forgotten about their third friend. 

For a wonder, his agitation seemed to decrease somewhat. 

“Yes… Yes, that makes sense,” he said, running another frazzled hand through his thin hair. “There’s a good chance that’s who it is.”

“Then let’s go!” she said, suddenly excited. “If it’s him, then-!”

“No, lass. Ash will find him. You need to stay put.”

“But if he’s hurt-!”

“Girl,” Cole said loudly, suddenly stern, and his deep voice had a surprising power to it. “It’s full dark out now, and you don’t know the mountain as well as we do. Plus, your friend’s entire team is down for the count. The last thing we need is for you two to go out wandering about and getting lost again, especially when she can’t defend herself.”

Jade bit off her retort, looking furious. He may have had a point, but she didn’t appreciate being told what to do. 

“Ash will find him,” Cole repeated. “He’ll get him and be back here before you know it. Now, go look after your friend. I’ll let you know when they’ve arrived.”

For a moment, Jade stared at him, chewing on the inside of her cheek. Then she turned and returned to the room, closing the door firmly behind her. 

AJ was sitting up now, staring at her intently. 

“We’re not really going to stay put, are we?” 

A smile quirked at the corner of her lips. Finally, a bit of AJ’s old fire was coming back. 

Still, Cole had been right about one thing. AJ’s team was down for the count. They wouldn’t be able to rely on them. 

Jade hated this. Not just being stuck inside while some old dude tried to boss her around. Not just being stuck wondering if Sammy was ok or if he was even alive. She hated not knowing. She hated the idea that there was something going on around her but she had no idea what it was. 

Sanctuary? What kind of sanctuary? Why was it some kind of secret? Why did it matter that someone was in it? Because it clearly did. Something must have notified Ash that someone had found it, and if something had notified him, it must be something important. Something they’re protecting? Something related to pokemon, surely. There were a lot of introduced species on this mountain. Was that somehow related? And why did it need to be protected? Is that the real reason why Cole and Ash were here? 

And Sammy. Cole had forgotten all about him. Hopefully, his Froslass and Braviary were still on the hunt. Assuming he’d ever even sent them out to find him. But if Cole hadn’t immediately assumed it was Sammy who had found the sanctuary, then who was it he was expecting? Who did he think would find it? As far as he knew, no one else was on the mountain but them. 

Jade, however, knew that wasn’t true. There was someone else on the mountain. A kindly, fantastically wealthy man who had found and fed her, helped her find AJ again, and asked for her secrecy. Was that a mistake, then? Was this Sanctuary, whatever it was, what that old man had been looking for? Should she tell Cole? Could she trust him? Either of them?

Ultimately, she decided she didn’t care. The sanctuary, whatever it was, didn’t matter. These old men and their stupid games didn't matter. None of it mattered.

She’d spent too long sitting around, counting on other people to help Sammy. If you wanted something done properly, you needed to do it yourself. 

“Come on,” Jade said softly, conscious of how thin the walls were and hoping Cole couldn’t hear them - or that if he did, he only heard vague whispering. 

“But…”

Jade, who had already crept her way back to the workbench and, more importantly, the window just behind it, glanced back over her shoulder and found AJ gazing down at her still unconscious Pichu with evident distress. 

“He’ll be fine,” she said. “He just needs to sleep.”

But when AJ didn’t move, Jade sighed and picked up her belt, calling out her Mawile.

“Mawile will keep an eye on him and get Cole if there are any problems. Also, Mawile, make a bit of noise every now and then so he thinks we’re still in here.”

If her pokemon thought that was an odd command, she didn’t comment on it, instead nodding and offering her master twin smiles from both of her mouths - one sweet, the other feral.

“But my team,” AJ started again, and Jade felt frustration at AJ’s newfound lack of confidence suddenly flooding through her. Where was the girl who, only days ago, had slipped out of her bedroom window and ran away from home on a whim?

Jade picked up Sammy’s belt and lobbed it at her, feeling no small bit of satisfaction as it smacked AJ right in the face. Oops. 

“There. You have a team. And they’ll listen to you because they know you and they’ll want to help us find Sammy. Now are you coming or not?”

AJ’s hands tightened around Sammy’s belt. Lifting her eyes off of her Pichu, she met Jade’s gaze and nodded.

Sneaking out of the window, as quietly as they dared, Jade felt a strange surge of… not quite nostalgia. Deja vu? It felt similar to when they’d left AJ’s house on Cerulean Cape just a few days ago to set out on a wild adventure together, sure, but it also felt very similar to when AJ had asked Jade to travel with her when they were kids. Only this time, their roles were reversed and it was Jade pulling AJ out of the comfort of isolation and into the wild unknown. 

She didn’t think she’d ever properly thanked AJ for that. Then again, she’d probably say she never needed to. That’s just what best friends do, after all. 

There were tracks leading from the cabin. Ash’s, she assumed, but it never hurt to make sure.

Calling out her Ninetails to track his scent, they scurried off into the night.

Chapter Text

The bitter night air whipped through AJ's hair as together she and Jade sped through the dark atop her friend's Metagross.

They had successfully managed to sneak out of Cole's cabin through the window, AJ a little less gracefully than she would have liked, falling to the snow with a grunt and scaring off the same pair of skittish Snorunt she'd seen earlier that day. Though she'd been inside in the warm for most of the day and had had a nice, hot meal, her body still wasn't fully recovered from nearly freezing to death the night before, and on top of a general sort of weakness in her limbs and the fog that seemed to shroud her thoughts, the frigid night air felt like it cut straight through her, sinking deep into her bones.

Still, she couldn't turn back. Didn't want to turn back. Sammy was still out there, somewhere, hurt or possibly worse, and… Well, the only thing that seemed worse than braving the freezing cold in her condition was the thought of remaining locked inside Cole's cabin for even another minute.

She had to think of the place as Cole's cabin - the cabin that belonged to Cole, despite him sharing it with Ash. If she even for a moment thought of it as Ash's cabin, she knew she'd either turn tail and run or else set the place ablaze.

Jade had called out her Ninetales, the only uninjured pokemon between the two of them who could reliably track by scent, and they had followed her a ways into the nearby woods after a trail of footsteps that were clearly Ash's from when he'd left the cabin. Only, it wasn't long at all until the trail had stopped. It seemed clear from the larger indentations in the snow that came seemingly from nowhere that he'd called out a pokemon - probably his Charizard, that monstrous nightmare who had nearly immolated her beloved Milotic - and had proceeded the rest of the way through the skies.

That probably meant that the Sanctuary, whatever that was supposed to be, was far away from here, but the bigger problem was that Ninetales couldn't track through the sky. And so, Jade once again called out her Metagross and the duo took to the air, Jade having her massive steel behemoth scout ahead with his psychic powers to see if he could 'sense' Ash anywhere nearby. If he'd gotten too far, this would be useless - Metagross were powerful, but their psychic powers weren't as well developed as, say, an Alakazam's, so their reach only went so far - but it must have sensed something because it had turned and sped off after it, leaving AJ and Jade clinging to one another and shivering as they soared off across the sky.

In AJs hand, she clutched Sammy's discarded belt, feeling the four pokeballs under her palm, counting them over and over again as if doing so could somehow distract her from the biting cold.

Leafeon and Gallade weren't there. She knew that because they always occupied the first two slots on his belt, and those were the balls that were missing. Gengar likely wasn't there either, as he'd been out of his ball when the avalanche had occurred. The same was true of Jade's Sableye, and he still hadn't returned to her yet. That left Corviknight, Dragonite, and a last mystery pokemon that she couldn't be sure of.

"What do you think this 'Sanctuary' even is?" Jade had asked, breaking the tense silence that had surrounded them since they took to the air.

AJ shrugged, finding that she actually cared about this mystery very little. What mattered now was finding Sammy. Finding him, and then… well…

"Could be anything," she replied, voice flat. "Some old shrine, an endangered pokemon habitat…"

She stopped because that was all she could think of. Jade seemed to catch her mood and opted to remain quiet.

Finally, after what had felt like an endless eternity but in actuality probably wasn't more than a few minutes, the ground seemed to rise up below them as they neared the foot of the last, tall spire that marked the very peak of Mt. Silver, and the dark mouth of a cave gaped wide open before them.

They landed with a gentle thud, Metagross's impact muffled somewhat by the snow, and together Jade and AJ slid off. The opening seemed large enough to fit Metagross's body with ease, but there was no telling how tight the cave would get inside, so Jade opted to recall it, instead replacing it with her Gigalith, whose glittering red gemstones began to glow with a soft, red light, illuminating the surrounding area. With Gigalith taking the lead, the two entered the cave.

For a place called 'The Sanctuary', it was awfully dim and damp. And surprisingly empty. She'd half-expected to find scores of wild pokemon in here - Ursarang, possibly Beartic given the number of introduced species around, though she knew those types preferred to live near the ocean. Maybe a Tyranitar den? They were supposed to live up here. However, the cave was completely devoid of any signs of life and was deathly silent. Only rock and snow and cold, empty air. At least, at first.

The further they progressed into the cave, the more and more prominent the sound of distant roaring became, until finally, they rounded a bend, ducked beneath a jagged curtain of stalactites, and found themselves at the foot of a gushing waterfall.

"What in the…?" Jade began, staring slack-jawed and the raging torrent of water cascading down from out of the gloom. AJ concurred. Finding waterfalls in nature was hardly unusual. Finding a waterfall here, at the top of a mountain in the freezing cold? That was a bit strange. Where was the water coming from? Melting snow from mountaintops could eventually trickle down into a stream, which could feed into a river and an eventual waterfall, but they didn't just pour out of the rock like this without a source. Not at the highest point in all of the Indigo League. And shouldn't it be frozen? Maybe the current was too fast for that, but still…

AJ let her eyes leave the bizarre sight and instead scanned the cavernous room they'd entered into. Gigalith's light wasn't all that strong and bathed everything in red like a scene from a horror movie, but she could tell that they'd hit a dead end. There was nothing here save for them and the mysterious waterfall.

"Where did he go?" she asked, taking a few steps forward and turning about. There were no openings in the walls or the ceiling, at least none that she could see, other than the one that the water was thundering out of.

"I don't…" Jade began, then frowned. "Do you… Do you think he might have gone behind the waterfall?"

Normally, she'd doubt it. It was freezing, and she couldn't even tell if there was anything at all behind the waterfall. That sort of thing only happened in children's tales. However, since there were no other options left…

AJ plucked Sammy's Dragonite from off of her friend's belt and released it from his ball.

The large, serpentine dragon materialized in front of them in a scarlet flash, horned head nearly brushing the ceiling as it stretched and yawned as though waking from a languorous nap. After an exaggerated moment, it let its jaws shut with a loud snap before turning to face them, blinking in the darkness as its eyes adjusted to the dull red light. When it noticed AJ instead of Sammy, it scowled in confusion.

Dragonite were easily the most placid of all of the pseudo-legendary pokemon, a trait they shared with Goodra and none of the others. Sammy's Dragonite in particular had always been a bit of a goofball. But they could be mean when agitated, and she knew he could easily bring this cave crashing down on top of them if she let him rage.

Thankfully, they knew this Dragonite fairly well - they'd been there when Sammy had caught him as a Dratini in the Safari Zone, sealing an easy win for him in what had been another of their seemingly endless competitions as rivals - and he seemed willing to give them the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately lashing out when he realized they were not his trainer.

"We're looking for Sammy!" she explained, raising her voice to be heard over the roar of the water. "He's missing and might be hurt. We think he… Can you check and see if there are any openings under the river, or behind the waterfall? We were following someone who might know where he is, but he disappeared."

Dragonite cast her a calculating look, as though mulling over how bizarre her request was and whether it really wanted to be obeying her or not. Finally, he turned and leaped into the water with an almighty splash, peppering both girls with droplets of freezing water.

"Charming," Jade muttered, wiping her face with her hands.

He took a few minutes to return - minutes in which AJ shifted from foot to foot anxiously, Jade huddling in on herself and trying not to shiver in the cold and the damp - but before long he erupted back out of the water, the sight somewhat terrifying in the dim red light, once again showering both girls like they'd been in the front row of the log flume ride at an amusement park.

"Can you not?!" Jade spluttered, desperately trying to brush the water off of the front of her coat, but Sammy's Dragonite seemed not to notice. Instead, he was gazing at AJ and gesturing to the waterfall somewhat insistently.

"Wait," AJ said, sounding disbelieving for all that she'd been the one to ask him to check, "is there really something behind the waterfall?!"

The Dragonite nodded its massive, scaly head, looking impatient. And agitated. Whatever was back there, it seemed to be urgent. AJ and Jade exchanged looks. Somehow, this trip kept getting weirder and weirder.

Actually getting behind the waterfall proved to be a bit of a problem, as the water was thundering down at an impressive velocity - seriously, how was there a waterfall at this altitude?! - and it was so bitterly cold that attempting to swim through it would have been impossible. She probably would have passed out just from wading through it.

Thankfully, Dragonite was there to save the day, though not without demonstrating his obvious annoyance. He could really be a brat when Sammy wasn't around. The massive dragon positioned himself at the edge of the falls, forehead against the cave wall, stretching his powerful body out, extending his wings as far as they would go, diverting a portion of the water down his muscular back and allowing for a small gap of space to appear between him and the wall. Water still trickled down around him, sprinkling like a freezing shower, but that was nothing compared to the waterfall itself. With harried shouts of thanks, the two girls and Jade's Gigalith hastened through the small gap Dragonite had created, careful not to slip on the slick rocks.

A moment later, they were beyond the waterfall, into a small alcove that Dragonite had to crouch to move into. In the dim, red lighting, it was difficult to see very far, but the path seemed to continue onward before them. Onward, and upward.

AJ considered recalling Dragonite, since it seemed cramped enough as it was, but the dragon was ushering them forward with surprising urgency. Could he be sensing something? Maybe he was just that eager to see Sammy. She decided not to begrudge him that, making eye contact with Jade and exchanging silent, reassuring nods, unable to speak over the thunderous roar of the falls at their back. Together, they set off up the dark, damp incline, Gigalith taking the lead, Dragonite stomping along at their backs.

Not for the first time, she found herself wondering what exactly this sanctuary was supposed to be. Though this time, with actual curiosity. Before, her concern over Sammy had been paramount, but it was hard not to goggle at the utter strangeness of it all now that she was presumably in the heart of it. A waterfall hidden in a cave at the top of a lonely mountain? A secret tunnel concealed behind it? And the path - it didn't exactly look man-made, it was much too rough for that, but at the same time it was too straight, the slope too even, the space too consistent in size, to be at all natural. Something had created this path intentionally, but what? A pokemon? What other than a Steelix could make something like this, or even want to?

About a minute into their climb, as the sound of the falls began to dim behind them, the ground drying out, making it easier to climb, a gust of wind came billowing down from the darkened path before them. AJ braced herself on instinct, as, still weakened from nearly freezing to death and now nice and damp from the shower she'd taken courtesy of Dragonite and the falls, she was expecting the icy gale to slice straight through her, as cold and relentless as those icicle spears the other night.

Instead, she found herself gasping as unexpected heat brushed her cheeks, ghosting over her frozen skin with the warmth of a summer evening, comfortable and calming.

For a wild moment, she thought she'd lost her mind. Maybe she wasn't in a cave behind a waterfall after all. Maybe she'd never managed to escape the avalanche, and all of this - Sammy missing, finding Ash, her terrible loss, this bizarre late-night escapade - was all one long hallucination born from an oxygen-deprived brain moments away from death.

Only, when she turned to Jade, she saw the same look of baffled confusion on her face. She'd felt the wind, too.

They pressed on, however, legs moving a little faster, a warm burn forming in her thighs as they went up and up and up. She wasn't sure if the tunnel was actually that long, or if curiosity and exhaustion were making it feel that way, but it was beginning to seem like no matter how far they climbed, the darkness at the edge of Gigalith's light never seemed to end.

Until it did. Abruptly, without notice it seemed, the path simply ended in an opening that led unmistakably back into the outside world.

They stepped out of the cave and into the open air, and stood, gaping, at the scene before them.

Lush, green grass, as far as the eye could see, stretching over hills and vales, dotted with flowers and trees, gently undulating in the warm evening breeze. A sea of stars, a beautiful, glimmering tapestry, painting the night sky in unusual clarity, surrounding a bright, gibbous moon that illuminated the world in a pearlescent glow. She could see a lake in the distance, and a gentle river snaking its way down toward them, undoubtedly the source of the waterfall from before.

It was… perfect. Picturesque.

Impossible.

And there were pokemon. Here and there, spread out across this unexpected verdant paradise. Dewgong in the river. Meowth darting through the bushes. Pidgeotto sleeping in the trees. And up in the sky, something… Something beautiful, glowing like a rainbow, drifting lazily across the moon…

Was that…?

The sound of harried, scrambling footsteps echoed out behind them, and they turned, startled, to find Cole emerging out of the tunnel, pale-faced and wheezing from the exertion. He'd clearly come racing after them not long after finding them gone. Well, the cabin was too small for their escape to go completely unnoticed, but even still - how on earth had he gotten there so fast? He was seconds behind them. Had he called one of the wild pokemon he claimed to be friends with to hitch a ride?

AJ opened her mouth - though whether to make an excuse for their escape or to ask where they were, she didn't know - but he cut her off with a breathless and beleaguered, "Come! Back! You have to leave - now!"

AJ frowned, but it was Jade who answered him, looking irate.

"Leave? Nuh-uh. Not until we find Sammy."

"You don't understand," he gasped, stepping forward as if to seize their arms, but Dragonite and Gigaleth moved to intercept, looking threatening. He stopped, but otherwise ignored them, gazing at the girls imploringly and wringing his hands. His anxiety was practically palpable. "It's not too late! If I can get you out now - if he doesn't know you're here-!"

AJ opened her mouth to ask who - Ash? - but then something shifted in the air around her, the world seemingly growing darker, more still, and then everything was happening at once.

<You have broken your promise.>

There was a figure standing near them, something that hadn't been there a moment before. Taller than AJ, it had a weirdly alien-looking body, with grayish-purple skin and a long, lavender tail, and arms and feet that each ended in three bulbous digits. It was a pokemon, clearly, but not a kind AJ had ever seen before, and in its eyes she could see a cold, sinister gleam that spoke both of intelligence and deep-seated distrust.

Dragonite reacted instinctively. Like a Litten that had been started by a feral Granbull, Dragonite turned and let out a sudden blast of blazing blue flame - Dragon Breath - straight at the creature, as though it meant to cremate it on the spot.

AJ let out a startled shout, throwing up her hands to shield her eyes from the sudden blazing light, but the creature, whatever it was, merely lifted one hand and created a shimmering shield in the air - a Light Screen? - and the flame burst harmlessly upon it, rolling away from the psychic barrier, scorching the grass and dissipating into the air.

Then, before Dragonite could prepare a second attack, before AJ could call it back, a violet streak rent the air, right where Dragonite was standing, and in a moment, Sammy's Dragon was blasted backward as though flicked by a giant finger, rolling through the grass, letting out an agonized roar that made the bones in AJ's body tremble.

"Wait!" Cole shouted, but AJ and Jade were already moving, AJ reaching for another of Sammy's pokeballs, not sure what was going on but knowing that she needed to defend herself. Jade had already called Gigaleth forward, ordering a Power Gem, but before it could comply it was lifted up into the air by an invisible force and literally hurled backward, where it crashed straight into Dragonite as it struggled to regain its footing, sending both of them tumbling to the ground in a pained heap.

Panic was setting in now. Who was this mysterious pokemon, and how on earth was it so strong?! She had one of Sammy's pokeballs in her hand now, ready to throw though not certain who she'd picked, when Cole suddenly planted himself in front of her. He wasn't facing her, though - he was facing the pokemon, one hand outstretched in a halting gesture.

"Stop!" he panted, looking haggard. "Mewtwo! It's not what you think! I didn't break my promise!"

Mewtwo? What in the world was a Mewtwo? She'd heard of Mew, but not… Wait, was Mew real?! Was this some bizarre evolution?!

The pokemon - the Mewtwo - glowered at Cole with a cold fury.

<You have brought people here. Again. I forgave you once before, but I warned you I would not do so a second time.>

AJ blinked and shook her head. That voice… the pokemon was speaking, but not out loud. It was communicating telepathically. She'd met a rare handful of pokemon who could do this before, most of them psychic types, but never had their voices carried this level of… malevolence. It was like she could feel its hatred echoing from its mind straight into hers.

"No," Cole said quickly. "Not true. I did not bring them here - they followed Ash and came here themselves. I tried to stop them - I did - but I was too slow, and-"

<It doesn't matter,> the pokemon said, raising a solitary hand and forming a crackling ball of dark energy between its three stubby fingers. <You know the rules.>

"Please, wait!" Cole tried again, spreading his arms as if he meant to shield the two girls behind him, but the Mewtwo didn't seem to care, the crackling ball growing in size, preparing to fire.

Suddenly, in a burst of pink sparkles, another creature appeared in the air seemingly out of nowhere. Small, pink, and - for lack of a better word - adorable, it looked like a smaller, child version of Mewtwo, though its entire body was the color of cotton candy and its large eyes seemed friendly and playful rather than sinister and brooding.

It floated in the air, long thin tail undulating sinuously, before launching itself at Cole and latching onto his face with a delighted cry.

"Mew!"

AJ blinked. Then blinked a second time. Then stuck a finger into her ear and wiggled it around, just to make sure no water had gotten in there.

Had it just said…?

The reactions from Cole and Mewtwo at this mythological creature's sudden, impromptu appearance could not have been more different.

Cole merely raised a hand and brushed it off of his face, paying no more attention than if a playful Skitty had jumped on his lap while he was watching TV. His eyes were fixed on Mewtwo, guarded and desperate. He hardly seemed to notice the small pink creature fluttering around his head at all.

Mewtwo, on the other hand, suddenly looked furious. His hand remained raised, the Shadow Ball poised to strike, but his attention was now fixated entirely on the newcomer.

<Do not interfere!> he intoned darkly, sounding for all the world like he was growling despite the voice coming from his mind, not his throat. 

The pokemon - the Mew? That seemed impossible, and yet… The Mew paid no more attention to Mewtwo than Cole paid to Mew, instead fluttering through the air like a distracted Cutiefly. It soared around Cole, chittering and laughing, before cocking its head and examining AJ and Jade for a moment, then flipped upside down and spun like a top for seemingly no reason whatsoever. A moment later, it was down on the grass, rolling around, getting tangled in its own tail and letting out playful, happy squeaks.

Mewtwo snarled, lowering its hand finally but turning fully on Mew.

<You know why this must be!> it shouted - if one could be said to should telepathically - as Mew found a pair of dandelions to root up. It shook the flowers like pom-poms, then floated up and stuck them behind Cole's ears.

A moment later, Mewtwo bellowed, <I will not let ruination befall this place on your mercurial whims!>

AJ exchanged what felt like her dozenth confused look with Jade. She had no idea what was going on. Was he - the Mewtwo, or whatever - speaking with Mew? Assuming that's what it was. It almost sounded like they were only hearing half of a conversation, but Mew certainly wasn't acting like it was having a conversation. In fact, it was behaving for all the world like Mewtwo wasn't even there.

With a soundless snarl, the Mewtwo turned away, glaring off into the darkness. From the set of its shoulders, the quaking in its arms, she'd have said it was seconds away from exploding. It hadn't hesitated to decimate Dragonite and Gigalith, and yet it seemed unwilling to lash out at Mew in the same way despite Mew being about as defenseless as a Magikarp. What was with this dynamic? Why did it speak to Mew as though they were equals when Mew seemed to have an even worse attention span than her own Pichu? Was it a baby? It sure acted like one.

<First that male is brought here,> Mewtwo said, though AJ wasn't sure who he was addressing, <now this… I cannot abide->

Something clicked suddenly in AJ's head, and without a thought of caution she stepped forward, up beside Cole, and said, "A male? You mean Sammy?! Is he here? Where is he?"

Cole shot her a warning look, gesturing for her to back away, and Mew actually leaped off of Cole's head and onto hers for a moment before taking her hat and putting it on its head with a bright, chittering laugh.

She did her best to ignore it, however. Mewtwo had turned to meet her gaze, and for a moment, she suddenly felt like she was a 10-year-old trainer who had just jumped in front of the Champion Cynthia and demanded a battle with her Garchomp. Using only her fists.

Its eyes… They were dark and cold and completely devoid of empathy. She could tell in that instant that it could strike her down as quickly and as cleanly as it had Dragonite only moments earlier and show not a hint of remorse.

AJ had faced dangerous pokemon before. What trainer hadn't? She'd been in a number of especially tight spots in her life - that rogue Dusknoir that was kidnapping travelers. The newly-revived Tyrantrum that got loose in Sootopolis. That time on a cruise when a wild Gyarados managed to attain temporary mega evolution and plowed straight through her ship. To say nothing of the avalanche the other day.

Some pokemon were so powerfully deadly that they seemed more like forces of nature than living creatures, but this… There was something oddly human about it that made it feel downright evil. This wasn't just unfathomable destructive force - this was unfathomable destructive force aimed by a malevolent will, directly at her.

For a heartbeat, she nearly backed down. She didn't have her team with her, and even if she did, there was no way that she could handle this…

But then she remembered Sammy in danger, and her spine stiffened. She held her ground.

Mew suddenly perked up, flipping back upright from where it had been doing mid-air cartwheels, dropping AJ's hat onto the ground and turning to gaze off into the distance. Mewtwo turned as well, breaking eye contact with AJ, and suddenly she could breathe again.

A figure was approaching out of the darkness. Racing toward them, footfalls quick and heavy on the soft grass. Something small and yellow jumped down, darting forward, and a moment later there was a Pikachu parked in front of her and Cole, glowering up at Mewtwo, sparks dancing threateningly on its cheeks.

Mewtwo regarded it for a moment, saying nothing, but then turned again once its trainer had arrived, panting slightly, to join the group.

It was Ash. Of course. His eyes bounced from Cole to AJ to Jade, then back to AJ. He looked scared. And furious.

"Dad!" he said, somewhat out of breath. "Why are…? What are you doing?! You brought them here?!"

"No!" Cole said, now sounding exasperated, likely because he was having to defend himself for a second time. "Why would I…? They snuck out and followed after you!"

"You should have been keeping an eye on them!"

"And who's the one who came barreling into the cabin, shouting for all the world to hear about the Sanctuary, huh?!"

AJ kept her eyes averted, ignoring the two quarreling men and the terrifying pokemon in front of her. With Ash's sudden appearance, she suddenly wasn't sure what to do with herself. Or how to feel.

Just seeing his face brought on fresh waves of guilt and shame and embarrassment from their battle earlier, which mixed in together with the perpetual hatred and rage that any reminder of his existence naturally brought about in her. Add to that the terror of the terrible pokemon who was watching them all, and the general oddness of… literally everything that was happening right now, and it all sort of blurred together into an uncomfortable bundle of awkwardness that she wasn't quite sure how to process. She simultaneously wanted to run and punch him square in the nose. Neither seemed like a good idea.

Since everyone else's eyes were on Ash and Cole, however, AJ was the first to notice another figure approaching out of the gloom. It took a moment to recognize Ash's Venusaur waddling towards them, massive haunches carrying the lumbering beast forward at a slow and surprisingly gentle pace. Its enormous flower seemed much more vibrant and healthy here in the grass and warm night air than it had down on that snowy mountainside, but AJ was more distracted by the fact that it seemed to be carrying a large bundle over its head, wrapped up in its thick, green vines.

Something swooped out of the darkness behind Venusaur. Something with glowing red eyes and a sinister smile. Something very, very familiar.

AJ hadn't even realized she'd pushed past the older men. She was running down the grassy hill now, towards the approaching pokemon, completely forgetting the terrifying Mewtwo and the drama with Ash and everything else.

"Gengar!" she shouted as her friend's pokemon zoomed down towards her, his sharp-toothed smile looking suddenly gleeful. "Is that-? Is he-?"

But she'd reached the Venusaur by that point, and to her surprise, Ash's pokemon lowered its burden without her even needing to ask, gently placing it on the floor and unraveling its vines, revealing a young man in too-nice clothes and messier hair than she'd ever seen him have before.

It was Sammy. It was him! He was alive!

But he wasn't awake. He wasn't moving. Why wasn't he moving?

She called his name, falling to her knees beside him, hands reaching out, cupping his face to gently shake him, to wake him up, to see that stupid, awkward grin of his, but retracted her hands with a gasp. His skin was so cold. She hadn't realized how pale he was before in the darkness, but now that she was paying attention, he almost seemed to glow in the moonlight.

She reached out again, as though trying to transfer some of her body heat through her palms into his cheeks, and didn't realize she was crying until her vision grew too blurry to see and she had to remove a hand to wipe at her eyes.

Jade had joined her. She hadn't even noticed. Her older, smarter friend had her fingers on the pulse point of one of Sammy's wrists, a look of stern concentration on her face. Venusaur still lingered beside them, looking concerned, and Gengar floated overhead, watching over them, worried for his trainer. Even Pikachu and Mew had joined them, with Ash's starter lingering near Sammy's head, sniffing him, and Mew flying laps around them all seemingly without noticing the group's grief and despair.

"...He's alive," Jade said after a moment, lowering his hand. "But his pulse is faint, and he's so cold. He needs a hospital, but I don't… I don't know how we're going to get him back down the mountain in this state."

The tears were still falling down AJ's cheeks, a combination of relief at having finally found him and grief over knowing that he wasn't ok. Pikachu made a consoling noise and half-moved as though to nuzzle her leg like her Pichu might have done, then stopped and seemed to think better of it.

Gengar made a rasping sound, gesturing down to his trainer. AJ blinked, struggling to regain control of her emotions and tried to decipher what Gengar was trying to tell them. Sammy's… chest? His hands?

It was then that she noticed that he clearly held something clasped between his fingers. Prying them apart took more work than she wanted to admit - it honestly felt a little too much like rigor mortis for her liking - but before too long, she and Jade had managed to pry two pokeballs from his frigid fists.

Instantly, both pokemon released themselves from his pokeballs, materializing beside them on the grass in twin flashes.

Leafeon let out a wailing cry and threw herself at her trainer, nuzzling up beside him, trying to share her body heat.

Gallade stood beside them, looking furious, arms and legs trembling, but he kept his eyes locked on his trainer's unconscious form as though the fault for his state was somehow his own.

"He was found on one of the nearby peaks," said a voice over her shoulder, and AJ realized that Ash and Cole must have joined them by now. It was Ash who was speaking, and she kept her eyes averted. "He must have been wandering ever since the avalanche. Hours spent out in the open without any food or protection. It's a miracle he's alive, though from what I understand, he was moments away from freezing to death before he was rescued."

Leafeon made a despairing keen and Gallade seemed to stiffen even further, if that were possible. Sammy must have recalled them both and trapped them in their balls so they wouldn't freeze to death alongside him. That was such a Sammy thing to do. But his pokemon didn't need to blame themselves. This wasn't their fault. It was hers.

Silence engulfed them, then. All of them, gathered around Sammy's unconscious form like it was some sort of wake. This felt wrong. He wasn't dead yet. They could help him - they could. Somehow.

She cleared her throat, hoping her voice sounded clear and steady. She didn't need Ash to see her showing any more signs of weakness.

"Should we… try to move him back to the cabin? Or keep him here for now?"

It was nice and warm here, after all. There weren't any beds or anything, or blankets, or medicine, but to get him back to the cabin would mean traversing the bitterly cold mountain again - not to mention passing him back through the waterfall.

Actually, how had Sammy gotten here? Had someone carried him through the waterfall in this state, or were there other entrances? Maybe they could use one of those to get him back out so they wouldn't have to risk him getting wet?

"The cabin would be best, I think," Cole said, crouching down beside her. "We've got food there, after all, and a nice warm fireplace, and at least some medical supplies. We can let him rest there overnight, then in the morning-"

"In the morning," Ash cut in, "you can take him back down the mountain and get him to a hospital. As quickly as you can."

There was a surprising edge to his voice, and for a moment she thought it was because of her. When she chanced a glance over her shoulder, however, she found he was glowering behind him.

Mewtwo had approached and had been watching them all from a distance. When it met Ash's challenging gaze, however, it shook its head.

<You know the rules, Ash Ketchum. Now that they know the secret, I cannot allow them to leave.>

AJ and Jade locked eyes again. Cannot allow them to leave…? What did that mean? Was this pokemon going to keep them trapped here? All because they had seen it?

Ash stood, looking furious, Pikachu racing to his side and Venusaur flexing its powerful legs as though preparing for a battle - which would be very bad, considering she and Jade and Sammy were right in the middle of them - but Cole spoke up, sounding like he was trying for a patient voice.

"The boy is in serious condition, Mewtwo," he said. "He needs medical attention."

<It makes no difference,> the pokemon began, but then suddenly Jade was the one rising to her feet.

"He could die!" she shouted, irate.

Mewtwo calmly met her gaze.

<Then he dies.>

AJ stiffened, then turned and rose to her feet as well. Now it was all four of them, together with Pikachu, Venusaur, Gallade, and Gengar, all facing down this one pokemon who seemed completely unconcerned. And after his display earlier, she wasn't sure that he should be.

Still, if anyone thought they were going to get in the way of her saving Sammy-!

"This boy," Ash said, voice gruff, "rescued an egg that had been caught in that avalanche. The only survivor from the nest, but it will live thanks to him. And you'd repay his kindness with death?"

<Do not pretend that it was an act of charity,> Mewtwo sneered. <I know well how human trainers behave. He meant to keep that egg for his own. Regardless, I cannot risk the sanctity of this place for the life of one mere human. Humans are not to be trusted.>

Ash snarled, but Cole shook his head, looking aggravated.

"I keep telling you, life isn't all black and white. People and pokemon, we aren't either good or evil. These children, they mean no harm-"

<No harm?> Mewtwo cut in. <You forget, I can see into your mind, Cole Ketchum. I can see the battle Ash had earlier this evening with that female - his offspring, is it? I see the way she treated those pokemon she has the gall to call her 'partners'. Mean no harm? No, she is everything I have always said humans are. Selfish and self-destructive, and I will not let her destroy everything we have built.>

Silence rang out, and for once, it seemed like Ash and Cole were at a loss for words.

AJ wasn't sure that she had ever felt quite so small in her entire life.

<...Yet still, we made a bargain, Ash Ketchum,> Mewtwo continued after a moment. He met Ash's gaze levelly. <I agreed not to destroy any humans who came here, if you could keep them at bay. For many years, you have done your job well - but today, you failed. Still… It seems Mew would be upset with me if I were to dispose of them, so I will offer them the same that I have offered you. They may stay with you on the mountain, and work to keep this place safe. But they may never leave. Not if they intend to carry the knowledge of this place with them.>

Before any of them could argue, before anyone could get a word in edgewise, Mewtwo disappeared, vanishing in the same way that it had arrived.

Ash swore, slamming his fist onto his thigh. A moment later, he was stalking off, muttering and cursing to himself, though he stayed in their proximity.

AJ let her gaze fall back to Sammy, then up to Jade, who was gazing down at their unconscious friend with a look of deep upset. If that creature was right, if they were trapped here… It was all her fault. What if it wouldn't let them leave? What if they were stuck here forever? Could they battle their way off the mountain? With the sheer ease that it had defeated Dragonite and Gigalith, simultaneously, she had her doubts, but… This couldn't be it, right? They couldn't just be… stuck.

"For now," Cole said, breaking the silence with a voice of firm determination, "let's worry about what's most important: getting your friend somewhere warm. He's our top priority."

Of course. Sammy. Take care of Sammy first - and Pichu, obviously - and then after that… Well, she'd think about that later.

"I suppose," she said slowly, "we could get Venusaur to lift him up onto Jade's Metagross. Can he fit through that cave? But there's the waterfall - oh, but Gallade can teleport us across that - but wait, how did he get here? Is there another entrance we can just fly through? That might be better - and faster. Do we have any fire pokemon who can-?"

"Calm yourself, lass," Cole said, placing a bracing hand on her shoulder. "I can do you all one better. Mew!"

The Mew - it was actually a Mew! He called it Mew, and it responded! - who had been playfully bouncing from one of Venusaur's massive petals to the next, immediately stopped its game and floated down to Cole, cocking its head to the side and staring at him curiously

"Do you think you could lend us a hand, and maybe teleport this boy back down to my cabin? He's in a bad way and could use some good soup."

Mew let out an approving cry and raised its arms as though it were going to do just that.

"Ah, wait!" AJ said quickly, fumbling for Sammy's belt. She quickly recalled Leafeon, Gallade, Gengar, and Dragonite, promising the first two she'd release them once they got to the cabin. Gengar and Dragonite needed to rest - Dragonite was still unconscious, and would probably need some more first aid, but he wasn't in dire condition so he could wait until Sammy was dealt with.

Jade recalled Gigalith as well, coming up beside AJ and Cole, ready to be teleported - or whatever it was Mew was going to do to them - but it wasn't until she noticed Venusaur backing off that she realized Ash apparently wasn't coming. She turned her head and caught him staring at her, but he quickly turned away and walked off without a word, Venusaur ambling after him.

Well, good. She didn't want to be around him anyway. Let him stay here with that monster, Mewtwo. They deserved each other.

"Everyone ready?" Cole asked. Pikachu, who had climbed up onto his shoulder and was apparently tagging along, let out a cry of assent, which Mew echoed with delight, and a moment later, they were gone in a bright, pink flash.

Chapter Text

Mew had managed to teleport them directly back inside of Cole’s cabin. All of them, simultaneously - which was an outrageous feat considering the distance and the number of people, but then again, it was an actual Mew, so…

Still, the group had somehow managed to reappear in the oddest of locations. AJ was seated on the mantle of the fireplace, displacing several of Cole’s hand-carved trinkets, sending them tumbling down onto the rug with a muffled clatter. Jade wound up lying on the couch on her back with her legs up over the armrest. Cole was in the kitchen, sitting on one of the chairs at the table as though he’d just arrived for a meal, and Sammy was lying face-first on the floor directly beneath the window, half obscured by Cole’s thick, woolen curtains.

Maybe this was Mew’s idea of a joke? Or maybe it literally had no idea what humans did in a house and this was its best guess. Either way, they’d made it here all in one piece, so she supposed she had no room to complain. And even better - she had her hat! She’d thought she’d left it in the Sanctuary, but here it was, on her knee for some reason. Beggars can’t be choosers.

She thought for a moment that Mew hadn’t joined them until Jade’s Mawile came ambling out of the back room, having heard them return, and was immediately confronted with Mew popping out of nowhere, floating upside-down and staring straight into her eyes with unsettling intensity. Mawile could only gape in astonishment.

After taking a moment to gather themselves, Jade getting off the couch and AJ hopping off the mantle, the group got to work dealing with Sammy. AJ and Jade picked him up under his arms and dragged him back to Cole’s bedroom where they laid him down on the bed beside the injured Pichu, draping him in blankets and fretting over him impotently.

Cole suggested they leave him to rest for now. He’d need some hot foot when he was awake, of course, but for now, he just needed to focus on warming up. AJ considered suggesting that she and Jade climb into the bed with him - to share body heat - but the bed wasn’t all that large and she was worried about disrupting Pichu. Her partner needed rest as badly as Sammy did.

Ultimately, they decided to leave Sammy and Pichu alone and return to the kitchens to wait, with AJ releasing Sammy’s Gallade and Leafeon to watch over them, just as she’d promised she would. Leafeon ended up crawling up into the bed beside Sammy anyway, and she was small enough that Pichu wasn’t disturbed. Gallade promised to keep an eye on Sammy and Pichu both and took up a position beside the bedroom door, watching his trainer with haggard eyes.

Mawile, freed from babysitting duty, was returned to Jade’s pokeball. Something she was all too pleased with, considering how Mew had decided to try using Mawile’s large, rear-facing jaws as a kiddy slide and seemed to find it hilarious whenever Mawile would snap at it.

Before leaving the bedroom, however, AJ paused to check on her Pichu. It had only been a few short hours since the battle and it was far too early for him to have recovered, but she couldn’t help it.

She reached out gently as Cole and Jade filed out of the room, letting her finger trail across one of his pudgy little cheeks. He looked so small like this. So much more so than usual. Without his constant presence, she felt unbalanced. Like she was suddenly missing one of her arms. She needed him to wake up. To get better. So she could apologize. So things could go back to normal again.

If they ever could.

To her surprise, at the stroke of her finger, Pichu seemed to rouse a bit. He half-opened his eyes and gazed up at her blearily through a haze of sleep and medicine and pain. She felt tears sting her eyes again but forced them down. Pichu didn’t need to see her crying. She’d done enough of that. She needed to be strong, for him.

“Hey bud,” she whispered softly, crouching down so she was closer. She looped her left arm around his body, curving around him protectively atop the mattress - not touching him directly, conscious of his injuries, but the closest approximation she could get to a hug. “How… How are you feeling?”

He made a weak squeaking noise and tried to smile. It made her heart break all over again.

“It’s ok,” she said, forcing positivity into her voice. “Don’t strain yourself, just get some sleep. We found Sammy; he’s sleeping next to you. Everything’s going to be ok, alright? Just rest now. I’ll see you in the morning.”

It seemed to AJ that some of the tension left Pichu’s body upon hearing that Sammy was ok. With a weak mewl, he nuzzled AJ’s finger with his cheek, giving her a very light affectionate shock, and then a moment later, he was out again.

AJ took a moment to collect herself. No more crying. She was done being weak.

When she stood and turned around, she was surprised to find Pikachu standing in the doorway. She’d forgotten it had chosen to come with them. It had a tiny blanket clenched between its teeth - the same one it had brought over earlier that day when they’d arrived at the cabin, half frozen to death. It regarded her for a moment with quiet, considering eyes before darting forward, hopping onto the bed, and draping the little blanket around Pichu’s body. A moment later, it jumped down and disappeared back into the outer room.

AJ followed, feeling hollow, and slowly closed the bedroom door behind her, doing her best to pretend like she was locking her sorrow away behind the door as well.

Back in the main room, however, things were clearly tense.

Jade had seated herself at the kitchen table, elbows on the hard wood as she stared daggers at Cole as though the force of her gaze could draw words out of him like water from a damp sponge. Cole, for his part, was studiously ignoring her while he prattled around the kitchen, randomly opening and closing cupboards, slamming them closed only to moments later open them again, aimlessly wandering in circles as he seemingly did his best to ignore her entirely.

Jade, however, was not the type to be ignored, and once AJ had rejoined them in the outer room, she broke the tense silence with a curt, “I think you owe us an explanation.”

Cole whirled around, looking incensed.

“I owe you an explanation?” he said, practically shouting. “You? You, who deliberately ignored my warnings and snuck out on your own? Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What you’ve ruined?!”

“No!” Jade cried, throwing her hands in the air. “Because you won’t tell us anything! How is it our fault when we have no idea what’s going on!”

Cole seemed to chew on that for a moment, worrying his lip between his teeth as he glowered down at her, his face slowly turning red from the strain of holding in whatever it was he was trying not to say.

AJ pulled out the chair beside Jade and sat down as well, staring up at the old man - her grandfather? She hadn’t actually paused to unpack that yet - and said, softly, “Cole. Please.”

Whether it was because of her tone or because she was the one who was asking, she didn't know, but it seemed to do the trick. His shoulders slumped, a heavy, haggard breath leaving his lungs in one fell swoosh, and he passed a weary, trembling hand over his face and beard as though wiping away a sheen of not-present sweat.

Across the room, she could see Pikachu sitting on the couch, eyes darting between them and the Mew who was trying to inspect the chimney despite the currently burning fire. After trying to not get burned and failing, the Mew erected a psychic shield around the top of the flames, which only resulted in smoke being diverted from the chimney shaft and instead pouring into the main room for a moment until Pikachu’s enraged shouts got the Mew to take the shield down.

Finally, after another moment of silence, Cole stomped over to the table and plopped himself down heavily in a chair across from them.

“I suppose…” he began, then shook his head and sighed. His eyes were glued to the tabletop, but they seemed heavy and sad. “I suppose… You’re right, lass. Now that it’s come to this, now that you… know… There’s no sense in keeping you in the dark. But I never… I never intended this…”

He seemed to crumple for a moment, drawing in on himself, but with a herculean effort, he managed to pull himself back together. Not for the first time, AJ found herself thinking about just how solid Cole seemed. Not just physically, but mentally. Emotionally.

“I guess… Well, I guess we should start with… Well… I’m sure you put this together already, but… I’m your grandad.”

He affected a kind of awkward smile that seemed to be more of him bracing for impact than extending kindness, like he thought she was going to lash out at him. Well, to be fair, that’s exactly what she’d done when she saw Ash for the first time. She supposed he had reason to be wary.

Still - for some reason, none of that burning resentment and hate that she had for Ash was present when she looked at or thought of Cole. Oh, she wasn’t happy with him; he’d abandoned Grandma Delia. Did he never think about her? About how lonely she was, all by herself in Pallet? Yet still, even though she thought he was a terrible person… She didn’t hate him. Not with that same level of vitriol and rage that she felt for Ash. Her dislike for Cole was a candle beside a raging forest fire when compared to how she felt about him.

Instead of verbally acknowledging his declaration, she simply nodded and waited for him to go on. She wasn’t about to rage, but if he thought she was going to smile or be happy about it, he had another thing coming. And if he even dared to ask about Grandma Delia…

But Cole seemed to understand how she felt, nodding back and letting his eyes dart away to look absently around the room as he gathered himself.

Finally, he began to speak.

“To fully understand what’s going on here - about Mewtwo, and the Sanctuary, and… everything… I think we need to go back a bit. Back to when I was a young man. Younger than you two, even. That’s when it all started. When I was just a young trainer traveling the world with my best friend, and we made the discovery that would change... everything…”

Cole’s story was a long one, but he took it slow. They had time, after all - basically under house arrest and waiting for their injured friends to rest and recover. It wasn’t hard to get drawn into his tale, either. Especially not when he started with a bombshell reveal that came out of left field.

He’d been born and raised in Viridian, he said. Spent his days playing in the forest and dreaming of going on his pokemon journey, just like every other kid in Kanto. He’d had no grand ideals of becoming the Champion or anything like that - clearly, AJ and Ash had gotten that from somewhere else. He’d just wanted adventure. To travel the world and see everything there was to see. Not like his best friend. No, Giovanni had wanted to be the absolute best for as long as Cole could remember.

It took a second for his words to register, but when Cole paused significantly after revealing his friend's name, after the patient look he gave them, it became obvious.

“Wait,” Jade said, exchanging looks with AJ. “When you say your friend's name was Giovanni, you don’t mean…?”

“Indeed I do, lass,” Cole said with a sad smile. “That Giovanni. The man who would go on to become the leader of the infamous international crime syndicate known as Team Rocket. Though at the time, I knew him as just a boy with big dreams.”

“Oh, Mew…” Jade breathed, then blinked when Mew teleported over from across the room, staring at her intently as if she’d called it. Which, she was now realizing, she actually had.

But Cole just reached up and pushed the floating legendary being away with the same look of absent-minded reprimand you’d give to a Purrloin who wouldn't stop jumping on the dinner table.

Cole and Giovanni started their journeys together, and after making a circuit of Kanto, they did the normal thing for serious trainers who weren’t content to call it quits and headed off to other regions - Cole, eager to see new sights, and Giovanni, eager to test his mettle against the best and brightest that world had to offer. And for years, that was how they lived. True pokemon trainers in the prime of their youths. Endless possibilities on every horizon.

And when they were about sixteen, they returned to Kanto. Not permanently - Giovanni was in the habit of returning once a year to challenge the trainers who showed up for the League Conference. He was determined to take the title of Grand Champion by the age of twenty - the youngest ever to do so in Indigo League history - which meant he’d need all the practice he could get. Plus, it let him keep up with other up-and-coming trainers in the Indigo League. His one-sided rivalry with Dragon-Tamer Lance, a trainer from Blackthorn, was fairly well known.

They’d decided to head up to Cerulean City before the Conference so that Giovanni could get some training done in the Cerulean Caves. They’d done their training in Victory Road for the past couple of years, but Giovanni had recently become convinced that it was too populated with Champion hopefuls, and that if he didn’t want his battle strategies revealed to his opponents, he needed to train elsewhere - somewhere secluded, with strong wild pokemon. Cole thought he was paranoid, but he’d never been to the Cerulean Caves, so why not?

It was on the way to the caves that everything changed.

“We were walking along the riverbank, y’see, when I heard this strange noise coming from somewhere in the reeds. I didn’t know what it was, but it sounded like a pokemon in distress. So, ignoring Gio’s complaints, I decided to go and check it out. And this,” he said, pointing to Mew, who was busy chirping amiably with the Slugma in the stove, “is what I found.”

“You just… found a Mew along some random riverbank near Cerulean City?” Jade said, nonplussed.

Cole smiled ruefully.

“I suppose you thought we met in some fancy abandoned ruin, hmm? Somewhere fantastical and exotic and strange. But no - it was just there. All tangled up in fishing wire with the fishing pole still attached. Oddest sight you ever saw.”

“But… how?” AJ asked. Mew was psychic - it could teleport, or just break the string with sheer force. It being trapped by something so mundane seemed almost as impossible as its actual existence.

“Who knows,” Cole said, shrugging. “Maybe it didn’t know what fishing wire was and got trapped by mistake. Maybe that was its weird idea of a game. It does things like that from time to time. All I know is, of all the things I’d seen, I’d never seen anything like that before. But it looked like it needed help, so I waded forward through the river to try to untangle it - only, when I drew close, it floated up and away, out of reach!”

But the fishing rod was left dangling down below it, so Cole reached out and snagged it - and then, bizarrely, was left trying to reel the Mew in like it was some common Magikarp. When he tugged on the rod, it floated further away, and when he reeled the string in, instead of pulling the Mew closer, it instead began to spin around as the string unwound. Giovanni had joined him at this point, and together the two boys kept trying to get the strange creature down so they could untangle it, but no matter what they did, it seemed to drift further and further away.

Finally, after a few minutes of reeling, the last of the string came away, and the Mew was freed - and it just stayed there in the air, floating above their heads, laughing for all the world as if the entire scenario had been some wonderful game.

“And from that moment on, it became… attached to me,” Cole explained with a self-deprecating shrug. “Couldn’t tell you why, honestly. At first, I thought it was because I had tried to save it, but I figure it wasn’t actually in any danger in the first place, so…? Gio wanted to catch it, of course - he wanted to catch everything, but especially anything strong - yet every time he tried, it was like the pokeballs would veer off course, or else Mew would teleport away and not show its face again for hours. But every time it disappeared, it always returned. Every time. Without fail.

“And to be honest, that’s when I should have noticed that something was off. Gio lost at the League Conference that year, but he’d made it to the semi-finals, which was the best he’d ever done, and after that, he kept talking about how, if he’d had stronger pokemon, things would have been different. He’d been more focused on training before, but after we met Mew, it was as though all he saw was a pokemon’s raw power. Maybe… Maybe if I’d said something then… Tried to change his mindset…”

Cole shook his head, looking older than he ever had before. Mew perched itself on top of his head like a hat, facing backwards, and let its tail dangle down in front of Cole’s face. He ignored it.

“So… wait,” Jade said, looking confused. “Mew has been with you ever since you were sixteen?”

“More or less,” Cole said. “Not all the time, mind. It hid itself whenever strangers would show up or we’d enter a city or the like, but once we were back on the road, there it would be again. And it’s not like Ash and his Pikachu - Mew does what it wants, whenever it wants, and it's easily distractible. So we’d be walking along and suddenly it would fly out of a bush, chasing a pack of Pidgey, or else it would disguise itself as a Seedot and fall out of a tree and bonk one of us on the head. Childish things like that. It’s more like it was following us rather than traveling with us.”

Or at least, that’s how it was at first. But as time went on, and as Giovanni became more and more obsessed with strength, a rift started to form in their friendship. The way that Giovanni began treating his pokemon worsened - working them harder and harder, discarding the ones who underperformed, only searching out the best and brightest that he could get his hands on. His obsession with winning was warping his worldview, and he was dismissive of Cole whenever he tried to voice an opposing opinion, usually pointing at Mew as the example of everything a pokemon should be. Much of the fun of their adventures had been sucked away, replaced by Giovanni’s obsession with power.

By the time they returned to Kanto a year later so Giovanni could challenge the League Conference again, Cole had already made up his mind. He was going to enter the League Conference as well - one last hurrah with his childhood friend. And then, after it was over, win or lose… he was going to end his journey. And Giovanni would continue on his own.

“Gio was fine with it,” Cole said. “I’d expected… I don’t know, maybe some level of argument from him. We’d started our journey together, after all, and even though he’d changed much from the boy I used to know, on some level, he was still my best friend. But he didn’t seem to care at all that I was stopping. He even seemed sort of relieved. He mostly was concerned about whether Mew would follow him or me. He seemed to think it would be him - like it was a given, since he was the better trainer of the two of us. Like one day, it would deem him worthy and allow him to catch it. But then we entered the tournament, and…”

And Cole had done much better than he’d expected. Sure, he’d had nearly seven years of journeying under his belt at that point, but battles had never really been his focus. Still, it was hard to spend that much time traveling and training with a talented trainer like Giovanni and not pick up a few things, and before he knew it, he’d made it to the semi-finals.

And his opponent was Giovanni.

“Gio was delighted,” Cole said with a rueful smile. “Not to be battling his friend; he was delighted because he knew he’d destroy me, which meant he’d be going on to the finals. The best he’d ever done. I didn’t care much - I’d already done much better than I’d intended, and what better way to hang up my hat as a trainer than helping my old friend take another step on his journey? But then, well… The unexpected happened.”

Cole had called out his first pokemon… and instead, Mew had appeared.

Not openly. That is, Mew appeared, but it had changed its appearance to look like Cole’s first pokemon, so the crowd, the ref - even Giovanni and Cole himself - had no idea what had happened. At least, at first.

“Wait,” Jade interrupted. “How on earth did you not know? I mean… wouldn’t it be kind of obvious?”

“There’s a thing that makes Mew unique. A thing that has earned Mew its spot among legends - even legends that have been claimed to be spirits of nature, creatures who rule the elements, or even veritable gods who created the world we live in. And honestly - after what I’ve seen in the Sanctuary, after the stories I’ve heard from Ash, I believe most of those legends. But Mew stands out largely due to its unique ability - it can use any move that any other pokemon can use.”

Jade frowned. “So you mean… it… transformed? Like a Ditto?”

“Exactly,” Cole said, nodding along. “But a Ditto can only transform into a pokemon that’s nearby, and it can only use the moves that pokemon knows. Mew doesn’t have that restriction. Mew can do anything that any other pokemon can do. So it can transform, yes, just like a Ditto - and it can create illusions like a Zoroark, and it can explode like an Electrode, or create huge earthquakes like a Torterra, or… well…”

When Cole had summoned his first pokemon, he’d intended for his Rapidash to come out. And out a Rapidash came - only, it wasn’t really his Rapidash, it was Mew, transformed into a Rapidash. So when Giovanni called his Rydon, both he and Cole, and the entire crowd, assumed that Cole’s pokemon was done for.

So imagine everyone’s surprise when, instead of using Agility like Cole had ordered, his Rapidash seemingly ignored his order and instead used Hydro Cannon, hitting Giovanni’s Rydon with a jet of water so powerful that it blasted him right out of the arena in a single blow.

The stadium went absolutely wild. They thought they were seeing the results of an exceptionally well-trained Rapidash who had defied the constraints of its species’ natural typing and was manifesting some new, unique strength, never before seen in the world of pokemon battles.

But Cole and Giovanni knew the truth. That wasn’t Cole’s Rapidash.

One by one, Mew, disguising itself as Cole’s pokemon - even when he tried to recall it, to swap out, no matter what he did, always, Mew stayed in the arena - completely swept Giovanni’s entire team. Using moves and displaying abilities that those pokemon should never have been able to learn. It was a total knock-out. Cole six, Giovanni zero.

And Giovanni was furious.

“He wouldn’t believe me,” Cole said, shaking his head. “He thought I’d been lying to him all this time, that I’d actually caught Mew and never told him, that I’d intentionally brought him out in our battle to embarrass him in front of the crowd and his rivals and peers. No matter what I said, what explanations or excuses I gave, even after I forfeited the final match, he wouldn’t hear it - though, coincidentally, that was how Lance won the League Conference that year, by me dropping out - though he didn’t become Champion for a few years yet. Anyway, Giovanni was furious, incensed that I had stolen away his victory, spat on his dreams, and flaunted a strength I hadn’t earned. And from that moment on, our friendship was over.”

But not before breaking into Cole’s hotel room that night and trying to steal Mew from him.

“I barely even recognized him anymore at that point. He broke through my door just after midnight with his Nidoking and his Persian, coming straight for me, convinced I had Mew’s pokeball and that he could steal it from me and make its strength his own. But I didn’t. I’d never caught Mew. After a few moments of battling in which the room was completely destroyed, Mew teleported me away - and we returned to the place we’d first met. The riverbank north of Cerulean City.”

And there, Cole said goodbye. It was too dangerous, keeping Mew with him. Giovanni would certainly make another try at catching it, and Cole would be much easier to find than Mew. For its own safety - and honestly, for his - the two would need to separate. So there, on the riverbank, Cole explained the situation as best he could and bid Mew farewell. And he left, hanging up his hat as a trainer, just as he promised. And he didn’t see Giovanni again for years.

“I decided to go to Pallet Town,” Cole said. “After I’d confirmed that Giovanni had left the country to continue his journey, I figured it was safe to stay in Kanto. He’d figure out soon enough that I didn’t have Mew anymore, and I was ready to put my training days behind me and become a proper adult. Y’know, become boring.”

Here, he flashed Jade a knowing smile, which, surprisingly, Jade returned. Were they friends again? Wasn’t Jade mad at him? People were weird.

“And, well… We can skip ahead a bit, but… It was in Pallet that I met your grandmother, Delia. I won’t bore you with the details, but we dated for a bit, fell in love, then got married, and bought a tiny little house with a lot of land at the edge of the town, because it’s what she’d always wanted, but also because it was more remote and I figured I’d be less likely to find there. Though I still hadn’t seen or heard from Giovanni in years.”

“And Mew?” AJ asked, eager to change the subject off of her grandmother, just in case her anger on behalf of this woman she loved got the better of her and she started yelling again. “Did it actually stay away? It… doesn’t seem like the type to listen to commands.”

At that exact moment, Mew knocked over a glass jar full of chestnuts, spilling them all over the counter, which was apparently uproariously funny to it and it alone.

Cole rolled his eyes.

“Mew listens about as well as a two-year-old, but it did stay away for a bit. Though it wasn’t long before I started seeing it popping up around Pallet. Not usually as close as it did before, and never where others could see it. But it was around. It would disappear - sometimes for weeks, even months - and then randomly show up in the pantry when I went to get a snack, or float past the window when no one else was looking. I remember one time, I pulled back the shower curtain and there it was. Screamed so loud, Delia thought I was being murdered. Couldn’t tell her though - I mean, how could I? Mew never showed itself to anyone else. She’d think I was crazy. So I just kept quiet.

“It didn’t seem to mind Ash seeing it though. Oh, he was a baby - he doesn’t remember, and that may be why Mew didn’t care. But sometimes, when Delia was out of the house, or in the garden, I’d find Mew floating above his crib, letting him play with its tail. It was cute, in a way.”

AJ fought down the sudden surge of annoyance. Oh, sure - Mew showed itself to Ash when he was just a baby, and he’d met every other legendary on the planet. But AJ? Only got to meet a legendary for the first time after she met Ash. How was that fair?

“So then…” Jade said, looking both eager to move the story along, but also hesitant to broach what was clearly a sensitive subject, “...why did you disappear?”

Cole sighed, then turned to gaze out the window. It was pitch-black outside, well past the point where they should have been asleep, but his eyes stared as though he were seeing things no one else could.

“It was Mew,” he said finally. “Came to me one night after Delia and Ash were asleep. It was in a panic - I’d never seen it so agitated before. And before I knew what was happening, it grabbed me and teleported me away - in my pajamas and everything. Back to the riverbank in Cerulean.”

“But why?”

AJ was surprised to find she was the one who had asked. Cole turned back, meeting her gaze, and his eyes seemed so heavy.

“Giovanni was back. It had been years since I’d seen him, but those years had… changed him. He had… new friends. Associates, I guess. They’d come into money. And they’d returned to the riverbank in Cerulean where we’d first seen Mew, desperate this time to find and catch it. And maybe the smart thing would have been to simply stay away - but they were catching any wild pokemon they came across, en masse, using these odd electrical cages that shocked and injured the pokemon they captured. I think they were built with catching Mew in mind, but they were using them to catch anything and everything they could. Some would be used and abused by the newly formed Team Rocket, but most would be sold on the black market. Mew brought me there to save them. I think it thought I could reason with him. Stop Giovanni. But…”

Cole’s shoulders slumped.

“I failed. I found him, and we fought. First with our words. Me, calling his actions wrong. Him, calling me a hypocrite and a liar. Then, with our pokemon. But I didn’t have my team with me, and most of them hadn’t battled in years anyway. So I battled with Mew. The fight grew fierce, much of the riverbank was destroyed. But Giovanni had grown strong since last we’d battled, and he managed to injure Mew. Not badly enough to win the fight, but he drew blood. I didn’t know what the ramifications of that would be at the time. If I had…”

He shook his head again, then continued.

“We won, but the destruction was immense. Before Giovanni fled, he swore that he’d come for me again. That he’d follow me to the ends of the earth to get his hands on Mew. And I knew, then, that Delia and Ash would be in danger so long as I was with them. Even if I got Mew to leave. So I asked Mew to take us somewhere safe, and…”

He opened his hands and looked around.

“It brought me here. Turns out, the top of Mt. Silver has been a sort of Sanctuary since… well, probably forever. It’s not man-made; the pokemon made it. Those grassy fields and warmth? Legendaries maintain it as a kind of… space outside of space. They go there to keep away from humanity. Used to be, there were several spaces like that all around the world, but as technology has advanced, so too has human civilization, and fully wild spaces are becoming few and far between. Mt. Silver may be the very last such refuge in all of the Indigo League.

“But I never meant to disappear like I did. Oh, I intended to go into hiding, but… Not without word. Not by vanishing in the night, leaving Delia alone to raise Ash without me. When I realized where I was, I got angry. I demanded that Mew take me back to Pallet so I could explain - demanded that it show itself to my wife so she wouldn’t think I’d gone insane or was making up excuses. But it refused. We fought - or rather, I screamed and yelled and it… disappeared again, this time for months, leaving me alone, abandoned in the sanctuary at the very top of an icy mountain.”

He turned to AJ, his eyes full of sorrow.

“I’m not trying to make excuses, lass. You have every right to hate me - just as Ash did. But I had no tools, no clothes appropriate for the weather. Nothing to tackle this frozen death trap, and no pokemon to ride or to help fend off the hoards of ferocious wild pokemon that call the slopes their home. It took years for me to begin befriending the locals, years before I was slowly able to start building a life here. By the time I had what I needed to get down the mountain again on my own… Well, I’d lost track of time, but I knew a lot had passed. I’ll never forget my first run-in with the Rangers at the base of the mountain. When they told me what year it was… I broke down and cried for hours. Ash was already seven years old. I’d been gone for five years.”

Cole leaned back in his chair and examined the ceiling.

“I suppose… I could have tried to go back. Tried to explain - to hope Delia would believe me. But then, how could she? How could anyone? Oh, the legendary Pokemon Mew who no one has ever seen before popped into our house in the dead of night and teleported me to the top of a frozen mountain. They’d put me away. Or worse - what if they believed me? What if they came looking and found the Sanctuary? And meeting the Rangers brought me back in touch with news of the world. I knew Team Rocket was still a thing - stronger and larger than ever, expanding overseas. If they hadn’t found me yet, it was because the Sanctuary truly was safe - but it wouldn’t stay safe forever. Not without someone looking after it.

“So… I stayed. I figured… Ash would be leaving on his journey soon. He didn’t need a father anymore, and what kind of father brings with him the threat of an attack by Team Rocket? He and Delia had likely written me off as dead or a dead-beat years ago. She’d probably moved on. Found someone else. Someone better. And I… I’d made enough mistakes. I had a calling to do.”

“And here you still are,” Jade said quietly, and Cole nodded.

“Nearly forty years. I help the Rangers, keep poachers off the mountain, work with the wild pokemon to protect the Sanctuary. As time has passed, more and more legendaries have been coming by. There truly are fewer places for them to stay. Fewer places left where they can be safe from humans. I know Team Rocket is gone now - Ash told me - but there will always be men like Giovanni in the world, and even people with the best intentions can make terrible mistakes. I failed my wife and son… and my granddaughter… but maybe, I can still help these pokemon.”

AJ thought back to the attempted Team Rocket resurgence just a few years ago that Ethan had been involved in stopping. Then to the incident with Team Plasma in Unova that had led to Hilda running away. Cole was right. One criminal organization abusing pokemon was bad enough, but people like this were everywhere. And if they ever caught wind of the Sanctuary, if they ever got their hands on a pokemon as strong as Mew, then the world itself would be in danger.

She still didn’t quite forgive Cole. But she also understood that it wasn’t fully his fault, either. She’d only known Mew for about an hour now, and even she could tell that everyone was basically at the mercy of its infantile, mercurial whims. How much did Mew even understand about humans? About human ideas of morality, of right and of wrong? It probably had no conception of abandonment, or what it had done to her family. It was just trying to keep Cole safe.

After a quiet moment, she said, softly, “For what it’s worth… I think Grandma Delia would forgive you.”

Cole shook his head, looking mournful.

“Ash says the same, but I…”

“Grandma Delia is the best person I know,” Jade added in. “She’d totally forgive you. She’d forgive just about anyone. Her heart is just huge like that.”

“I know,” Cole said. “Believe me, I do. But I… I don’t think I deserve it. I don’t think… I should get to take advantage of her kindness like that.”

“It’s not about being deserving,” AJ replied, her voice soft. “She’d forgive you because she wants to. Because she still…”

She couldn’t finish the sentence. She was still waiting for him to come home. Him, and Ash, too. In that little house in Pallet where they’d been a family, once. And now, she was waiting for her, as well. Vanished in the night, stuck now on this stupid mountain. A supernatural magnet for idiotic Ketchums. Would she ever get back home?

“Hang on,” Jade said suddenly. “That explains why you’re here, yeah, and I guess it explains about that weird… Sanctuary or whatever. I mean, there’s a lot to unpack there, but… What about that thing - Mewtwo. Is that some legendary I’ve never heard of? Some monster who wants to keep us prisoner here forever? What’s the deal?”

Cole let out another sigh, but this time, rather than being weighted with grief and solemnity, it instead sounded somewhat exasperated.

“Honestly, lass? That’s a whole different can of worms entirely. I mean, not really - it’s connected, all of it. But it’s a long story, longer still than what we’ve already gone over, and it’s late.

“More than that, though,” he added when AJ opened her mouth to argue, “I don’t rightly think I’m the one who should be telling it. Truth to tell, I wasn’t a part of most of it, not the beginning at least, so you’d just be getting the tale secondhand from me. Plus, there are bits of it I still don’t fully understand. No, if you want the rest of the story, you’ll need to speak with your father.”

AJ had to bite her tongue to stop herself from shouting ‘He’s not my father!’ at the top of her lungs. Honestly, the response had risen up unbidden, completely of its own volition. Like a knee-jerk reaction she’d become conditioned to give to certain stimuli.

That didn’t stop her from scowling at Cole, even if she knew that reaction was petulant in the extreme. Speak to Ash? No, thank you. She didn’t need a full run-down on Mewtwo’s life. It was a crazed, homicidal monster who was keeping her and her friends prisoner on this mountain, and that was all she needed to know. No, what they needed was a way out, a way to get home. Nothing else mattered.

Well… Nothing except for Pichu and Sammy’s health. Even if she'd had a plan of escape - which, sadly, she did not - they were stuck here anyway until they both recovered. And since they had time anyway… Well, perhaps it was better to let the story rest after all. No need to browbeat Cole for any more information, at least not tonight.

For tonight, they would get some sleep. Tomorrow… Tomorrow, she and Jade would put their heads together and come up with a plan. A plan that did not involve Ash.

She’d made it this far on her own. She didn’t need him then, and she didn’t need him now.

Even if everything she’d ever known had been turned right on its head, that, at least, would never change.

Chapter Text

When Sammy first opened his eyes, he thought he was dead.

A bit melodramatic, perhaps, but hey. He'd been through a lot. He'd earned the right.

Everything was black. Which seemed odd, actually, because the last thing he remembered was… fog? Yes… Yes, a white fog, completely surrounding him. And a figure emerging from the gloom, indistinct, snatching him up and carrying him away.

But to where? The afterlife? Is that where this was? Somehow, now that he was conscious, he doubted it. Wasn't the afterlife supposed to be… pleasant, or something? Assuming he'd gone to the good place - and in his estimation, he was a pretty good guy, so that's where he should be. Right now, though, he didn't feel so good. His entire body felt stiff and sore, his thoughts sluggish and out-of-sync, a terrible sort of weakness seemed to have settled deep in his core, nestled into his very bones, and his head felt tight like a drum, the insides pounding in time with a sharp, steady ache.

This sucked. If this was the afterlife, he'd rather just be dead.

He opened his mouth to call out - see if any other-worldly beings would be chill enough to fetch him an aspirin and a glass of water - but his throat was so dry that instead of words, he instead let out a violent sort of coughing fit that left every bone and joint in his body aching in protest, and sent a sharp, stabbing pain arching up from his ankle.

Something moved at his side, a lump of warmth he hadn't even fully processed had been there until it suddenly wasn't, and as his vision adjusted to the gloom, he could see a pair of familiar almond eyes glittering down at him.

"L… Leafeon?" he asked, his voice raspy and hoarse, and with a delighted cry, his starter launched herself at him, nuzzling her prickly muzzle against his cheek and mewling affectionately. If he didn't know any better, he'd almost say it sounded like she was crying.

He had half a mind to push her off of him, but he was surprised - and somewhat alarmed - to find that he didn't have the strength. Even just moving his arms seemed to take a herculean effort. He felt as weak and helpless as a Feebas.

More movement. A figure, standing over him. Gallade? It was hard to make out his face, but he looked concerned.

A second later, there was the sound of a door being opened and light washed over the room, giving him his first real good look at his surroundings.

He was lying in a bed in an unfamiliar place with crude wooden walls. And there, silhouetted in the doorframe, was Jade.

Despite the haze of weakness and pain, he felt a smile work its way across his face at the sight of her.

"You're alive," he noted, forcing as much strength into his voice as he could.

He expected her to fire back some clever insult or quip, as was their way. The essence of their friendship was defined by their rapport.

Instead, with a poorly restrained sniffle and genuine affection, she said, "Yeah… You, too."

Ah, so that was the tone they were going for. Well, they had all almost died.

He tried to sit up. He really did. But his limbs simply were not having it, and after a moment of futile struggle, he found that Jade had walked over next to Gallade and was looking down at him in concern.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, voice going to 'doctor mode', as he and AJ had taken to calling it, and he coughed again.

"Like I nearly froze to death," he replied, deadpan, and she nodded.

"Any notable pains? Anything that seems to stand out?"

"My leg," he gasped as his attempts at sitting up caused another sharp stab of agony to lance up his injured limb. "I think… I think I broke my ankle? I'm… It's hard to remember. And I'm so thirsty…"

"I'll take a look at it," she said. "But first… Gallade, we should move him out to the couch. We can get some food in him while I look at his ankle, and I don't want to disturb Pichu."

What Pichu had to do with any of this, Sammy didn't know, but it seemed to confirm that AJ was also around... wherever they were, and that was an enormous relief. Sammy did his best to lift his arms, expecting Gallade to haul him up and help him walk his way out to the couch, but a second later and with a brief touch, his pokemon had instead teleported him there. Well, that was unexpected. And extremely disorienting.

It became clear to him then that they were in a log cabin of some kind. The thick curtains in the outer room had been drawn back, letting in pale sunlight from outside, though with the heavy cloud cover, it was difficult to say what time of day it was.

The 'couch' was really just a wooden bench with a thin padding of cushions, though it was positioned directly across from a roaring fire that crackled merrily in a rough stone fireplace, the mantle of which was decorated with a series of crude, hand-carved pokemon figurines. The stone floors were covered in multiple rugs to stave off the cold, and the room also held a narrow bookshelf in one corner and a pair of rocking chairs, along with a handful of other odds and ends.

Gallade helped Sammy into a seated position, wrapping him up in a blanket that had been left on one of the chairs as Jade and Leafeon exited the back room where Sammy had presumably been sleeping, Jade shutting the door softly behind them and heading over into the small kitchen area which held only a few cupboards, a dining table clearly not meant for many, and an old-fashioned cast-iron stove.

As Leafeon hopped up onto the couch beside him, resting her head in his lap, Jade messed around the kitchen for a bit, pulling bowls and spoons and things out of the cupboards, which showed Sammy that she was familiar enough with the building that she must have been here for a little while. A moment later, she was heading back to him,

"Here," she said, holding out a bowl and a steaming tin cup. "You need to get some food in your belly while you can."

He reached for the food, grateful, but his hands were trembling so much that Jade refused to give it to him. Instead, Gallade dragged a stool over and began feeding him like he was some sort of invalid. Which… Well, ok, that's exactly what he was, but it was still humiliating.

Jade had fetched another stool from somewhere and used it to prop up his injured leg while she sat herself in one of the rocking chairs and looked him over. After a couple of minutes of silence in which Gallade alternated between feeding him the warm - if somewhat bland - stew and the unbelievably tart cider, Jade had rolled up his pant leg, stripped off his woolen socks, and was examining his swollen, purple ankle critically.

"You really did a number on this guy, didn't you?" she said finally, standing again and heading off into the kitchen to rummage through some more cupboards.

"That's what happens when you fall off the back of a flying Metagross," he replied blandly after swallowing some more cider. He felt like his tongue was starting to go numb from how sharp the flavor was.

Jade, who was returning with what looked to be an old first aid kit, cast him a sorrowful look.

"Sammy… I'm so sorry-"

"Shut it," he said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "It wasn't your fault. I'm the idiot who slipped and fell. Let's just be happy we're all alive."

A heavy sort of silence fell over them then, and for a moment it was almost peaceful in a somber kind of way. At least until Jade began wrapping his ankle, the pain of which nearly had him starting out of his seat.

Once she was done, he settled back into the couch and asked, "So… where is AJ, anyway? And where are we? A Rangers Station? How did you find me?"

They were clearly still on the mountain, that much was obvious. But why? Had they just not wanted to move him yet?

Jade, who'd been repacking the first aid kid, stilled.

"Uh… Not… Not a Rangers Station, no."

He waited for her to continue, but she didn't. She seemed to be waiting for him to ask.

He glanced around again, taking in the sparse décor, the lack of any electricity or anything one might associate with the trappings of modern convenience. Who else but the Rangers would have a cabin on Mt. Silver? Clearly not anyone affluent.

"Well… Then whose cabin is this?"

She turned to stare at him. Then, after glancing towards the window for some reason like she was checking for eavesdroppers, she said, her voice pitched low, "Sammy, I have the craziest story to tell you and you are not going to believe a word of it but you need to shut up and let me tell the whole thing without interrupting because otherwise this is gonna take all day and I don't know how long we have till they get back."

That came out in a rush. And all in one breath.

"Uh…" he replied dumbly. "Ok?"

They? They who? The people who owned the cabin? AJ? Why did it matter when they got back?

He opened his mouth to ask, but Gallade seized his opportunity and shoved another spoonful of stew into his mouth, forcing Sammy to either chew or choke to death and allowing Jade to begin speaking uninterrupted.

What followed was the most ludicrous tale he had ever heard in his entire life - and he wanted to study legendary pokemon for a living.

Apparently - at least according to Jade - after they'd been attacked by that gang of Snover and Abomasnow and had been separated, while Sammy was off freezing himself to death, AJ and Jade had, by complete happenstance, stumbled across AJ's long-lost grandfather, who, as it turned out, had taken to living as a hobo on the restricted slopes of Mt. Silver after he'd been essentially kidnapped forty years ago by the actual, literal, real-life pokemon Mew.

If finding him wasn't coincidental enough - insane reason for being here notwithstanding - it seemed that Ethan's story about that powerful trainer with the Pikachu he'd met here had been correct. It was the actual, literal, real-life Ash Ketchum, AJ's father, who had taken to living here himself for some inexplicable reason, and when AJ found him, she apparently lost her ever-loving mind and challenged him to a battle in which she'd been defeated so spectacularly you'd have thought she was a greenie challenging her very-first gym leader.

And finally - because all of that wasn't enough already - apparently these old men were hanging out in the wilderness like this because there was a secret legendary pokemon preserve on top of the mountain that no one knew about, and some monster of a pokemon named Mewtwo who was totally a real thing she swears and not at all a figment of a trauma-induced hallucination was allegedly holding them all hostage now to keep the secret.

Now, Sammy had known Jade for a long time. He knew she liked to talk, and she liked to tell a tale or two when she knew she had an audience. And she was definitely prone to embellishing. But she wasn't really the type who lied, at least not outright. Not unless she was joking.

But usually her jokes were funnier and more coherent than this.

Several minutes later, after she'd exhausted her tale, during which Sammy had sat mutely on the couch being spoon-fed by his Gallade, he was finally allowed to speak.

"Jade," he began slowly, keeping his tone as moderate as possible. Hey, it wasn't easy having to tell your friend that she was suffering from some form of post-traumatic hysteria and needed to speak with a specialist, but that was just what friends did for each other - but she cut him off.

"Don't even," she said quickly, stabbing a finger in his direction. "I'm not crazy. I'm not. Everything I just said is the complete truth."

"But I mean…" he said, finding a smirk working its way onto his face. "Mew… two? You can't be serious. Like, were you even trying with that name?"

She gawked, clearly offended.

"I didn't-! I'm not the one who named it! Ask your pokemon if you don't believe me! Ask! Mewtwo is real, right?"

Leafeon, it seemed, had actually fallen asleep on his lap at some point during Jade's story, but Gallade was nodding, looking stern.

Sammy stared at him for a moment, then let out a snort.

"Yeah, alright," he said, tugging the blanket around him more securely. "Well, let's just hope it doesn't mega-evolve into Mewthree, otherwise, we might have a real problem on our hands."

Jade looked like she was seriously considering the ramifications of socking a sick person in the schnoz when the sound of footsteps and muffled voices approached from outside. A moment later, the front door swung open, and in along with a sudden blast of cold came AJ, who was walking backwards, apparently talking to someone outside, oblivious to his presence.

"Jade," she called over her shoulder in a sing-song voice. "I've got some great news for you!"

"I bet mine's better," Jade replied, smirking, and AJ finally turned, her eyes landing immediately on Sammy.

He smiled, weakly.

"Sup?"

The backpack she'd been holding fell out of her hand with a dull thunk.

A moment later, she'd practically launched herself at him, shouting his name and throwing her arms around his upper torso in a fierce hug that, on any other day, would have given him the high of his life. On this particular day, however, his body was achy and weak and sore, so instead it just hurt like crazy.

The sudden commotion woke Leafeon, who let out an alarmed shout, thinking they were under attack. Gallade eventually had to pry AJ off of his trainer so he could breathe again.

"I'm so happy you're ok!" she finally said, stepping back and smiling gently down at him, genuine joy and relief in her too-blue eyes, cheeks rosy from the cold.

He adjusted the blanket so it was more secure around his shoulders and did his best to hold his sour expression. It wasn't fair when she looked at him like that.

"I won't be for long if people keep jumping on me," he managed in a suitably sour tone, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever, you love it. Oh yeah - Jade! Look!"

It was Jade's turn to let out a scream of delight, as in through the front door came her Sableye, who gave the room a brief once-over, spotted Jade, and immediately ran straight to her.

"Sable!" she shouted, catching her pokemon as it threw itself excitedly into her arms, chittering in delight as Jade nearly squeezed it to death - if ghost pokemon could die again - rocking it back and forth and cooing into its ear.

"My buddy! My Pal! I'm so sorry we got separated! I've missed you so, so, soooo much!"

Her Sableye responded with equal enthusiasm, practically bouncing in her arms. Sammy was soon distracted from the boisterous reunion scene by the third and final figure who came in through the open door, shutting it firmly behind him to prevent any more heat from escaping and stooping down to pick up the bag that AJ had dropped.

It was an older man, maybe in his sixties, with a weathered face, a thick, gray beard, and a broad physique that spoke of years of manual labor. His gaze seemed to pierce right through anything he looked at, but from the crinkles around his eyes, he was no stranger to smiling.

"You forgot something, lass," he said, his voice a bit gravely, and AJ gave him a grateful smile that Sammy couldn't help but notice was a bit forced, almost as if this older man made her feel uncomfortable.

"Thanks," she said quickly, snatching it out of his hands. If the older man noticed anything odd in her attitude, he didn't let on. Instead, he turned to Sammy with a genial smile and said, "So! You're finally up, lad! It's been a couple days. Good to have you on your feet. The name's Cole."

"Sammy," he replied, taking the man's hand and giving it a shake. Or, well, letting him shake it - Sammy still felt too weak to do much more than hold his arm out. Holy Arceus, how many calluses did this man have? His palm felt like granite!

"And I'm not quite on my feet just yet," he continued, retracting his arm back into the cocoon that was his blanket. "But thanks for helping me and my friends out. Sorry to impose."

"Nah, it's not a bother," Cole said genially, waving it off. "Anything for family."

An awkward sort of heaviness filled the air as AJ seemed to stiffen, her eyes fixated on the inside of the backpack. Jade let her gaze bounce back and forth anxiously between her friend and Cole.

Sammy just stared, his mind working as quickly as it could. Had he just… confirmed Jade's story? Was this strange old man really AJ's long-lost grandfather? The improbability of that statement was so outlandish, his inner Oak wanted to cast it aside without thought, and yet… Why would he lie? And why would AJ go along with it? A bad practical joke? But AJ didn't joke about her father's side of the family…

What kind of insane soap opera had he just woken up in? Was he the one who was hallucinating?

He didn't get a chance to ask, however. Not with the old man himself in the room. He'd ambled over to the kitchen area to fetch himself a glass of this too-tart cider, but the cabin was small enough that he was still well within earshot. So instead of discussing the obvious gray-bearded Copperajah in the room, AJ instead filled the awkward silence with discussion on what they'd found.

Apparently, she and the old man had left the cabin that morning to go scrounging for herbs, as they'd used much of Cole's stock previously and now that there were so many people in the cabin, they needed all they could get. Not just medicinal herbs, but also any kinds of nuts, berries, or tubers they could scrounge up by foraging. And while they'd been able to find some, the bigger haul by far was discovered mostly by mistake.

"He just came out of nowhere!" AJ was saying, having taken a seat on one of the stools and beaming over at Sableye. "There I was, hunched over, trying to dig through the snow with frozen fingers, when I heard a shuffling noise and turned around and - Bam! Sableye!"

Jade's pokemon let out a delighted chittering sound that may have been a laugh, though it still sounded eerie and cruel. Sammy knew better, though - Sableye just naturally sounded that way.

"Mama's little hero," Jade said, ruffling Sableye's head affectionately, and Sammy made a face, just like he always did. It was so… weird… hearing her refer to herself as anything's mother, but especially a pokemon he'd known for so long. To be fair, she had hatched it from an egg, but still.

"And look what he found!" AJ continued, brandishing the navy blue metal-framed backpack, one of its torn straps flopping around listlessly. From the looks of it, it was actually his. "I think it must've been left open when we went to sleep that night, 'cause it was open when Sableye gave it to me and it looks like a lot of your stuff is missing from the main pocket, Sammy. But I checked the smaller pockets and I found some good stuff! Spare pokeballs, some repels, your food supply - human and pokemon, thank Arceus - and best of all, clothes!"

His clothes, he knew, had actually been in the front pocket together with his food. But like most trainers, he kept them stored inside pokeballs to reduce their weight as well as the space they took up. It was a surprise to hear they hadn't fallen out during the avalanche, but then, stranger things had happened. Just today, in fact. Though unfortunately, it sounded like much of his scientific equipment was lost, including his notes, surveying equipment, his pokedex and pokegear, etc. They were far and away the most expensive items he'd had on his person, and the hardest to replace, so in a way, losing them somehow seemed worse despite none of them being useful in an emergency situation in the same way food and clothing were. He needed to adjust his priorities.

"I wasn't able to find any of our stuff," AJ continued, "but I was hoping maybe Sableye could take us back to where he found the backpack and maybe we'd have a bit more luck searching around there? I think my Arcanine has recovered enough to help us sniff them out. Jade? You wanna come with me and look? Ninetales would probably be a big help, too."

Jade hesitated, casting a nervous glance toward Sammy, but he nodded.

"I'm fine," he said resolutely. "Just need some more sleep is all. Shame you didn't find any medicine in my bag, but if you go out and look some more, maybe you'll find yours or AJ's. That would be more useful to me than you hovering over me while I nap."

"Fair enough," she said, smiling. "Little Sammy is cranky, after all."

He glared at her with as much hate as he could muster, but his friends just laughed. The jerks. He couldn't stand them, sometimes. And he was so happy they were all alive.

"We heading out again so soon?" said Cole as he rejoined the conversation, and at once, AJ's body language seemed to close up.

"Oh, Cole - you don't have to come out with us again," AJ said, trying to be polite, though Sammy had known her long enough to recognize the tone of 'please leave me alone' that was laced through her voice. "I'm sure you're tired, and Sableye can guide us back to where the backpack was. You can stay here and relax - and maybe keep an eye on Sammy."

Part of him felt a little miffed that she was pushing this stranger off on him, but then again, assuming the story was true - and he was still having a hard time coming to grips with that - she had her reasons. And he really was planning on going back to sleep. He was exhausted.

But Cole simply waved her off, an animated smile on his face, looking for all the world like he was oblivious to her poorly-hidden discontent.

"Bah, nonsense! We still need more food, remember? Better to scrounge up as much as we can while the weather's good - and you can use some of those pokeballs to help us carry more back, and in just one trip! Not that I'm not grateful to hear you found more food - I hope you don't mind if we use it, lad, but I'm rather looking forward to gettin' to chow down on something other than berries and tubers for once."

"Feel free," Sammy said with a crooked grin. "Food's meant to be eaten. And you are taking care of me, after all."

"Now that's a good lad!" Cole exclaimed with a full-bellied laugh. He seemed… really chipper, despite AJ's obvious cold shoulder. Then again, the man hadn't had a normal meal in decades, from the sound of it. Were he in his shoes, Sammy would probably be openly weeping from unrestrained joy.

Within a few minutes, AJ and Cole were back out the door, this time with Jade in tow. AJ lingered just long enough to ask Gallade to please remember to also keep an eye on Pichu while they were out, who was still in the bedroom sleeping on the bed. They'd offered to move Sammy back there, but he'd politely declined. The bed was certainly more comfortable than this would-be couch, but his seat in front of the roaring fire felt more inviting. Plus, with how exhausted he was, they could have laid him out on a bed of rocks and he'd still have conked out in under five minutes, so what did it matter? Let Pichu have the bed to himself.

Sammy wasn't sure how long he was out for - at least a couple of hours, judging by how the fire had died down and the light outside the window had changed - but before he knew it, he was waking to the sound of someone rooting around through the cupboards in the kitchen.

Still feeling somewhat groggy, Sammy struggled to push himself up into a seated position. Despite having just eaten not that long ago, he felt like he could go for another meal. One made from their actual food supplies and not that flavorless hobo stew.

Only, when he looked over toward the kitchen toward the sound of the noise, he was surprised to find not either of his friends or the strange and overly-friendly old grandfather, but another man altogether.

He was younger than the first, though still old enough to be Sammy's father. If the hat and the Pikachu sitting on the counter weren't enough to give him away, his face would have done it. Though old, weathered, and decidedly male, the family resemblance was still there for anyone who had studied AJ's face as closely as he had.

This was the Ash Ketchum. Hero of a Hundred Stories. Champion of a Thousand Battles. Befriender of Legendaries.

Eater of… walnuts, apparently, judging by what he was holding in his hand.

He didn't notice Sammy was awake at first, munching away at his snack and gesticulating randomly at his Pikachu, who had the walnut cracker held awkwardly between its tiny paws as it struggled to break through the hardened shell using a tool never meant for a pokemon.

It struggled in vain for a moment, grunting and straining, fighting with the awkwardly held implement, all while Ash looked on, laughing as quietly as possible, too amused to consider offering help.

After a moment, the cracker slipped violently from Pikachu's grip and was somehow flung across the kitchen, hitting the stone floor with a metallic clatter. Pikachu let out a cry of despair that resulted in Ash letting out an ungainly snort of laughter, flecks of chewed walnuts flying everywhere. A moment later, he slapped his palm over his mouth and turned toward where Sammy had been sleeping, only to find him awake and sitting up, watching them both in a mixture of amusement and mild disgust.

There was an awkward sort of pause as the two males examined one another while Pikachu went scrambling for the misplaced tool. After a moment, Ash swallowed down the rest of the walnuts, wiped absently at his mouth with his hand, then, after taking a fortifying breath and clearly second-guessing himself, slowly stepped forward.

"Sorry," he said after a moment. His voice was scratchy but not unkind. "Did we wake you up?"

"I was up before the walnut cracker went flying," he said. "But it's fine. I probably needed to wake up anyway."

Another awkward pause. Ash adjusted his weight from leg to leg while Sammy let his eyes bounce randomly around the room. Great. Now he had to make small talk. This was out of his wheelhouse. Where was Jade when he needed her?

After a minute of cloying silence, Ash slowly made his way into the sitting area, pulling out a stool instead of the free rocking chair and taking a seat. Gallade, who had been resting in the other rocking chair opposite the couch, stood to offer Ash his seat, as though his was somehow preferable, but the older man waved the pokemon down. Pikachu returned from the kitchen, hopping up onto its trainer's back and letting out a cry of greeting directed at Sammy, which he returned with a polite nod. He looked around for lack of anything else to do and found his Leafeon still sleeping at the foot of the couch. He doubted she'd left his side even once. She was such a worrywart.

"Your partners are well trained," Ash spoke up suddenly, sounding like he was reaching desperately for something to say to fill the silence.

How was it that it was him who sounded nervous and uncertain? He was Ash Ketchum. If anything, it was Sammy who should be the one feeling out of sorts - and just to be clear, he absolutely did. He had no idea how he was supposed to be navigating this veritable ocean of awkwardness.

Not only was he now being forced to make nice with a literal living legend, one who was supposed to have been dead for nearly two decades, but he was also the long-lost father of the girl he'd been in love with for years. And she absolutely detested this man. How was he supposed to approach this? Be polite and make a good impression, like you'd normally do when meeting the father of the girl you liked? Or would AJ like it better if he was rude? Should he be calling him 'Mr. Ketchum'?

This was too much. Couldn't he just go back to sleep?

"Thanks," Sammy said after a moment. "My parents taught me well."

"Your father is Gary Oak?"

"Yep," he said. "And you're Ash Ketchum."

"Small world."

"Not so small if you've been able to hide in it for nearly twenty years."

Ash's face grew awkward again.

"Yeah, it… It's a bit of a story," he said, taking off his hat and running a hand through his unruly black hair.

"I've heard. Something about a… magical fairytale land on top of a forbidden icy mountain where legendary pokemon frolic, guarded by some scary monster who's holding us all hostage. Something like that?"

"Something like that," Ash repeated.

"Sounds a bit crazy, if you ask me."

"To be fair, it is a bit crazy."

Well, at least they could agree on that. Still, as absurd as it all sounded, it was getting harder and harder to dismiss it out of hand, now that the actual Ash Ketchum was sitting right in front of him. The man was basically a legendary pokemon himself, in a way. Somehow, despite never having actually met him before, it all sounded much more plausible coming from him.

"You're lucky to be alive," the man continued, changing the subject. "How much do you actually remember?"

"From after the avalanche?" Sammy asked, and when Ash nodded, he shook his head. "Honestly, not much. We wandered about for a bit, lost, looking for AJ and Jade, but all we found was a nest that had been displaced in the disaster. Only one of the eggs was intact, but I couldn't tell what kind of pokemon it was. We took it with us, figuring it was safer that way - away from predators, you know? But we never found help. The last thing I remember is white fog and something grabbing me… Was that you? Are you the one who saved me? And what happened to the egg? Is it alright?"

Weirdly, Ash was smiling again - this time, a genuine, full-lipped grin, and Sammy almost had to ask him to stop. The resemblance to AJ was uncanny. Seeing that smile on someone else's face was discomforting.

"No, I didn't save you. The egg's mother did. She was flying around, desperately searching for her nest in the aftermath of the avalanche, but couldn't find it. But you'd brought the egg high enough that the sound of the baby's beak pecking the shell from inside could carry far enough to reach her. She found you both as it was hatching, and decided to carry you with her and the infant into the Sanctuary. You saving that egg likely saved your life."

Sammy blinked, taken aback. So he'd be dead right now, frozen and buried under a heap of snow, likely never to be found, if he hadn't stumbled across that random egg and decided to carry it with him. He knew he'd been close to kicking the bucket there, but somehow, hearing this just made his mortality feel all the more apparent.

"...But what kind of pokemon was it?" he asked, finally. "I couldn't figure it out. You said the mother was flying around, and I vaguely remember seeing something with wings before I passed out, but it definitely didn't seem like a Skarmory egg. Was it some introduced species I'm not familiar with?"

"You really don't know?" Ash asked, and when Sammy said no, the older man let out a bark of surprised laughter that made Sammy sit upright, affronted. He may be an Oak, but that didn't mean he knew literally everything there was to know about pokemon.

"Sammy," Ash said, sitting forward. "That was an Articuno egg. You helped save an endangered species - and a legendary one, at that."

An… Articuno…?

No, that's not… It couldn't be. There was no way that- He had to be lying. This was a joke. It had to be. It had to.

But there was… something about this man, about the look on his face, the glint in his eyes. The confidence. The pride. It was similar to how he felt when he was working with his father. He wasn't lying. He didn't know how he knew, but he did. Ash was telling the truth.

Slowly, Sammy sat forward, placing his face in his hands, and stared into nothingness.

An Articuno. An actual Articuno. He'd had the egg in his hands - actual proof that they do indeed reproduce like regular pokemon. He'd seen the nest. The egg had hatched in his arms and the mother had appeared in front of him and saved his life… and he remembered almost none of it.

He'd lost his supplies, so he'd been able to take no notes, no samples, no pictures - nothing. A once-in-a-millennium, groundbreaking, earth-shattering pokemonological revelation the likes of which hadn't been discovered in decades… and he had nothing to show for it. Nothing but the hazy memory of a blue eggshell and a broken nest.

What would his father say? Would he even believe him at all?

"Are… you ok?" Ash asked, sounding nervous again. "Do you need some water?"

"I'm fine," Sammy said, taking a deep breath and schooling his features as best as he could. The despair he felt at hearing that he'd been so close to the discovery of a lifetime only to have it slip right through his fingers was… a lot to process, but he could handle it. He was an Oak. "I just feel like someone out there is mocking me, that's all."

If that made any sense to Ash, he chose not to comment on it.

"Well, you'll be happy to know the baby survived. You did a tremendous thing, carrying that egg along and protecting it, even when you knew you were likely going to die."

Sammy leaned back again but kept his eyes averted. He was too depressed at missing his impossible chance to be flattered at a compliment from the Ash Ketchum.

"It's not like I did anything grand," he said, staring into the fire as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world. "I didn't even know what I was doing, honestly. I was pretty out of it. The fact that it survived was more luck than anything."

He chanced a glance at Ash only to find a small smile twitching at the corners of his lips. If he ever told AJ that her smile looked like her father's, she'd probably punch him straight in the jaw.

"How's your leg?" Ash asked, changing the subject again, much to Sammy's relief.

"It's certainly been better," he replied sarcastically, but Ash merely nodded.

"And Pichu?"

Here, Sammy hesitated. He could joke and downplay his own injuries all he wanted, but Pichu…

"I honestly don't know," he said. "I haven't seen him myself, but from what I've been told, he's still in a bad way. The others are out looking to see if they can find any of our supplies. If they can find our medicinal stores, then I think he should be fine, but…"

But the mountain was huge. Just because they'd lucked into finding Sammy's backpack in no way meant they had any realistic shot of finding the rest of their supplies. And if Pichu's recovery time relied on that, then his odds weren't looking good. He probably wasn't going to die - Jade and especially AJ wouldn't be content waiting it out if that was on the table - but an improperly healed injury could lead to the end of a pokemon's battling career. The stakes were still fairly high. But what else could they do? Were they really trapped on this mountain?

Ash was quiet for a moment, but though his gaze was locked on Sammy, from the look in his eyes, it was evident he was seeing something else, far away. The silence stretched on, and his scowl grew deeper. Finally, with a sigh and a shake of his head, he broke his gaze and looked down at his shoes.

His Pikachu wandered over, glancing up at his trainer expectantly. Ash shook his head again, muttering something under his breath, looking for all the world like he was arguing with himself. Pikachu growled, then chattered for a bit, and Ash stared at it as though he could understand every word it said. Finally, with one last, beleaguered sigh, he looked back up at Sammy.

"Listen," he said reluctantly. "There… may be another way to help Pichu. And even you, maybe. I'm not sure. It's more likely to work for Pichu, but considering what went down with that egg…"

"What are you on about?" Sammy asked, completely lost.

He worked his mouth for a second, no words coming out. It looked like he was struggling to find the best way to string a sentence together as he absently played with his hands.

Finally, he said, "You're an Oak, right? Which means you're probably pretty smart. I mean, if you're anything like your father…"

"I do alright," Sammy replied, and Ash nodded.

"Good. So then, how much would you say you know about legendary pokemon?"

Sammy blinked and fought down the urge to sit up straighter. He needed to seem unphased.

"As much as can be known, I suppose. I've studied about as much as there is to study about them."

Ash was still nodding along, but he didn't really look like he was fully paying attention.

"The thing is, the Sanctuary… Well, some legendary pokemon live there, yes. But most of them just sort of show up every now and then. Whether it's migratory, or if there are other factors, or if it's just on their whim, I don't know."

Sammy felt his fingers start to itch. He wanted to go there so badly - to study them, to take photos and chart patterns and write up theses and… No, stay calm, don't geek out. If Ash started to think Sammy was too excited, he might think it was for the wrong reason and prevent him from seeing the Sanctuary for himself. Please, let AJ and Jade find more of their missing supplies - he needed his research materials more than ever.

"The thing is," Ash continued slowly, "sometimes… Sometimes, some pokemon… Well, they can be… Summoned, I guess. Not all of them, but… Some of them seem to embody various… Well, ok, I don't know exactly how to put it, Gary would probably be pulling his hair out right now, but some pokemon can seemingly be everywhere and nowhere all at once - and you can… compel them to manifest if certain conditions are met."

Sammy frowned. It wasn't unheard of, strictly speaking. Some pokemon, like Spiritomb, worked in more or less the same way, though he'd never heard it explained in such terms. You weren't so much 'compelling them to manifest' as you were establishing the correct conditions for a given phenomenon to occur, but that didn't matter. He could study this later.

"Are you saying there's a legendary pokemon we can meet in the sanctuary who can… what? Heal Pichu? And maybe even my leg?"

"Possibly," Ash said, looking relieved that Sammy had been able to deduce what he'd been failing at explaining. "At least, I've seen it heal injured pokemon before. But it doesn't always heal everyone who comes to ask. I don't know why, or if there's any rhyme or reason to it. But considering your lack of options…"

Then it was worth taking the chance. What did they have to lose? Even if he didn't get his leg healed, this would still be a remarkable opportunity. He'd need to at least find a pen and a notepad. His great-grandfather was never going to believe this!

A thought popped into Sammy's head then, and he turned to Ash with a frown.

"If you knew this was a possibility, then… Why did you wait so long to say anything?"

For a moment, all was silent save for the crackle of the fireplace and the haunting wail of the wind outside the cabin walls. The look on Ash's face was… hard to describe. For once, he didn't look much like AJ.

"Honestly," he said, finally, his voice quiet, his eyes downcast, "I… wanted to keep you away from the Sanctuary as much as possible. I know that… doesn't make much sense anymore. AJ and Jade have already been there, and so have you even if you don't remember it. There's no sense in keeping it secret. It's not like Mewtwo would just let you go, not without a fight, not now that you know. But I just… I thought… I thought I was keeping you safe, I guess. I don't know…"

Sammy stared at him silently. Was this… really the Ash Ketchum? From all of the stories he'd been told, it had always seemed like the man had been able to do anything. And yet, here he was, seemingly at a loss. Was the legend… really more of just a man than Sammy'd ever given him credit for?

"Is this Mewtwo really that big a deal?"

Ash looked up, meeting his gaze. There was a weight there. A pressure Sammy couldn't seem to name.

"He is. He's extraordinarily strong. But he's not… Contrary to what it may seem, he's not a bad pokemon. He's just been through a lot - seen a lot of the horrors of the world, and it's… warped him, in a way. Made him protective of pokemon and mistrustful of people. That's why he acts the way he does. That doesn't make holding people hostage ok, but…"

"But I mean," Sammy said, sitting up straighter and searching for the words he wanted to say. "You're… I mean… You're… You. You're Ash Ketchum. I mean… Is he really stronger than you?"

From the stories, Ash could do anything. There was no battle he couldn't win, no legendary he couldn't tame. It made Sammy somehow feel… betrayed, though he knew that wasn't fair at all.

"I might be able to beat him in a fight," Ash said, shrugging, his gaze once again glued to the ground. "Maybe. If it was just him, and if no other pokemon came to back him up - and that's a big if. He's become their defacto leader. They trust him to protect them and this home they've built for themselves. But even if we did beat him, what then? He'd just come after us again, over and over, so long as we know the secret, and then what? How much carnage would he cause? How many cities destroyed, how many lives lost? He has no qualms against killing humans if he needs to. But I… I can't bring myself to kill him. He's one of a kind, and he isn't…."

So that was it, then. It wasn't that Ash couldn't beat Mewtwo, it was that he'd never tried. Never tried because the consequences seemed too dire. If Mewtwo really was as strong as he said, and if he really intended to pursue them endlessly, then there really only were two options to keep both people and the pokemon of the Sanctuary safe. Either kill or capture him, assuming he could even do so, but which Ash seemed to be completely against, or else stay here and be his willing hostage and help to protect the Sanctuary with him.

It was… heroic, in a way, Sammy supposed. People had been called heroes for less. And yet…

"...and the reason you're telling me and not one of the others?"

Here, Ash let out a humorless chuckle.

"AJ won't speak with me. And I don't blame her, honestly. I see the way she looks at me. There's… There's real hatred there, y'know? And Jade - Well, I won't pretend like I know her, but she seems to be fairly loyal to AJ. She's been avoiding me too. You're the first one to give me a chance to speak."

Part of that explanation rankled, in a way. The implication that Sammy being willing to engage in dialogue with Ash somehow meant he was less loyal to AJ than Jade was. But it was true that, of his friends, he was easily the most rational, the least prone to being swept up in emotion. Solid Oak genetics and all that. Avoiding Ash may be AJ's petty way of getting back at him or avoiding having to engage with difficult emotions she wasn't ready to process just yet, but it didn't actually help their situation at all. Ash knew things, things his friends might need if they wanted to escape this situation.

But if this was something AJ couldn't do right now, then that was fine. Let Jade be her emotional support - Sammy would handle Ash.

"Just, do me a favor when you broach the idea to AJ," Ash said, rising suddenly to his feet, signaling that their unexpected conversation was at an equally unexpected end. "Don't tell her the idea came from me. Tell her it was your own idea. You've studied the legendaries - you said so yourself, so it won't sound outlandish coming from you. There's a legendary who can heal. I'll talk to dad, too. You can probably make the trip tomorrow, once you've rested a bit more."

"I mean, sure," Sammy said slowly. "But… why?"

Ash shrugged, heading back towards the door.

"I just… She really hates me, you know? If the idea was coming from me, she might just reject it out of hand."

Sammy felt a surge of annoyance wash over him as he turned to follow the older man's exit from the cabin.

"She wouldn't risk Pichu over something this petty," Sammy said flatly. "Give your daughter more credit."

Ash stared, surprised, then slowly looked away. If anything, he suddenly looked sheepish.

"Yeah… You're right. I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

After a beat, he left the sentence unfinished and a moment later was out the door. The cabin fell silent again.

Sammy settled back on the couch, his hand drifting down to stroke Leafeon's prickly fur.

Exhausted as he felt, sleep was a long time coming, his thoughts instead filled with legendary pokemon and equally legendary trainers, and how neither of them seemed to be at all what he had always expected.

Chapter Text

The streets of Castelia City were overflowing with human life, as per usual. 

And normally, N would have done anything to stay away. Cities were not really his ‘thing’. He wasn’t a fan of such crowded spaces, the way that humans seemed determined to pack themselves in like Tandemaus, all piled up on one another, seemingly reveling in their filth and squalor and moral degeneracy. Oh, he’d begun warming up to humans in the past few years, but cities still disgusted him. The quiet folk who lived in smaller communities, closer to nature and pokemon, were more his speed. 

That didn’t stop him from making the trip here today. Some things were worth putting up with the worst parts of humanity for, he considered, as he sprinted down the bustling street, calling out breathless apologies as he awkwardly forced his way through the crowd, earning a slew of shouts and rude remarks in his wake. Well, he probably deserved that. 

But who could blame him? He was excited - his months-long search was finally - finally! - at an end. Did he feel a bit guilty about having his best friend, a Zoroark, create an illusion so he could sneak into the back room of the post office, break into the manager’s office while he was away at lunch, and rifle through their computer systems so he could find the address he was looking for? Yes. Did that stop him? No, not really. It was probably illegal, but it was for a good cause. The police would understand if he was caught. Right? 

In his excitement, he slammed into a young man in a dark black sweater and a matching beret as he was exiting a coffee shop and just about bowled him over. He stopped long enough to help him up and apologize, barely noticing how he gaped at him like a Magikarp - perhaps he’d never been run over before? - but in a flash, he was back on his way, forgetting the man entirely. 

He was close now, according to that map he’d been given by that kindly old man at the pizza parlor. So close… Was this the street? Yes - yes! And there it was - Conkeldurr Condominiums! At last. At last!

Breathless, he jogged to the entrance and shouldered open one of the glass double-doors. The atrium was cool and air conditioned, but despite how pleasant it felt after his race through the city, he didn’t linger. There was a hallway in the back. He made a beeline straight toward it.

Around the corner. Up two flights of stairs. His heart was hammering, his breathing strained, his mind in disarray. Down the hallway. Take another left. 304… Room 304…!

There! He slid to a stop, panting for all the world as though he’d run a marathon - which, he supposed, he literally had. His limbs felt jittery, electric tingles shooting up and down his fingers. He took a moment to try and fail to calm himself, running his sweaty palms across his jeans, straightening his shirt, adjusting his hat, then finally lifted his hand, fist poised to knock.

And froze. 

What was he supposed to say? 

It had been two years since he’d seen her. Two years since their fated battle, since they’d clashed, two chosen heroes, fated rivals, truth vs ideals. And in the end, she’d turned his world upside down. 

He was still panting for breath, still standing in front of the apartment door, but now, suddenly, he felt nervous. Anxious. They’d had no contact since he’d disappeared, and while she’d remained forever in the back of his mind, his north star, his lighthouse on a stormy sea, the trainer who had changed his life… What was he to her? Did she ever think of him at all? Did she even want to see him again? After everything they’d been through with Team Plasma, honestly, he had his doubts. 

And truth to tell, that was unusual in and of itself. This strange sort of… hesitation. This unusual fear. The way his face felt flushed, his palms sweaty, his sudden concern over whether his clothing was clean, whether he was presentable… It wasn’t like him. He didn’t understand where these concerns were coming from. But they were there, and they were making it very hard to move forward. He’d run this whole race, but now here he was. Frozen before the finish line. 

His eyes seemed to drift of their own accord until they landed on the nameplate sitting above the doorbell. It read ‘H. White’, black on gold, though clearly made from cheap plastic. She was here, just beyond the door. Whatever awaited him, he’d never know unless he mustered his courage and knocked. Be brave, like she was. 

He took a breath. Then another, to steady himself. Wiped his palms on his jeans again, straightened his cap a second time as though it had somehow gone askew in the last couple of seconds, then cleared his throat and, with one more pause for no other reason than because he needed that extra moment, he let his knuckles rap cautiously on the heavy-set wooden door. 

A minute passed with his heart in his throat. 

Nothing happened. 

He knocked again, this time a little louder. Still nothing. Was she not home? Had he come at a bad time? 

Growing desperate, he rang the doorbell. First once, then, in a slight panic, several times. Now that he thought about it, it was entirely possible that she was out. She could be running errands, or out training, or… Or she could be away on a journey. That thought hadn’t even occurred to him. What was he to do now? He’d come all this way. How on earth was he to find her?

Just then, he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching behind the door. His heart leaped, his body froze as hope and fear collided inside of his chest in a violent explosion, spinning in wild, kaleidoscope colors as the lock clicked, a chain rattled, and the door finally, finally opened. 

But only a crack.

There, peering out at him suspiciously through the gap between the door and the wall, was not Hilda. 

It wasn’t a girl at all. 

“Bruh,” said the boy, his tone flat, his expression a mixture of suspicion and annoyance. “What kind of lunatic goes around ringing people’s doorbells like that?”

The wave of disappointment that rushed over him then was so potent that he felt his body sag beneath the sheer weight of it. It wasn’t her. This wasn’t Hilda. He was mistaken. 

Or was he? That was her name on the nameplate, was it not? Perhaps this person was… a friend? An acquaintance? A… lover? For some reason, that last thought made him feel even more antsy. A sharp spike of fear seemed to be rising in his throat, but for the life of him, he couldn’t understand why. 

N’s silence only seemed to annoy the mystery boy further. As his scowl deepened, however, N couldn’t help but notice that his hair, sticking out in messy tufts beneath his blue cap, was the exact same shade of brown as Hilda’s. His eyes, glaring at N with distrust, were like mirrors that showed Hilda’s same shade of pale, morning-sky blue. 

“Are you gonna talk, or like…?”

N blinked, then shook his head, centering himself. 

“Ah, I apologize,” he said quickly, straightening up. He was several inches taller than the boy, yet somehow, even with his face pinched between the crack in the door, he seemed to be looking down on him. “I… I’m looking for someone. Is this the residence of H. White?”

The door opened a bit wider, but the suspicion didn’t leave his face. 

“You’re lookin’ at ‘em.”

N gaped. Did he have the wrong place after all?! But no - no, he said that his name was H. White, which would mean… This was never Hilda’s place of residence at all. This was just someone with a similar name. Of course. That was bound to happen in a city so large. He’d been such a fool - if he’d been more accustomed to city life, he probably would have seen this coming. 

But if this wasn’t her place, that meant she wasn’t here. And who knows where she could be? Anywhere in the world, possibly. Would he ever find her again? And what was it, exactly, that he was looking for anyway? 

N’s silence had stretched on for too long yet again, it seemed. 

“Forgive me,” he said quickly. “I just… It appears I have the wrong location. I was looking for… someone else. Someone with a similar name. A Hilda White, not… Well. It doesn’t matter. I apologize for disturbing you. Have a nice day.”

With that, N turned to leave, feeling spent, only to be stopped when the boy took a half step out of his apartment and called, “Wait up - what do you want with my sister?”

The boy’s apartment was, well… chaotic, for lack of a better word. Clutter was everywhere, gathered in the corners of rooms, on the tops of tables, strewn across bookshelves and countertops and every available surface. Piles of clothing, clean and otherwise, candy wrappers, fast food containers, energy drinks, pokechow, comic books and video games. Everything, everywhere, all at once. 

It was a lot to take in, but more unkempt than actually dirty. Surprisingly, the room didn’t smell. The floors were relatively clean - cluttered, certainly, but free of lingering grime or dirt - and the dishes in the sink were mostly cleared of any old food residue. A bachelor pad, then, but not a hopeless one. The boy clearly cleaned sometimes. Enough that he wasn’t worried about catching any disease.

“I wasn’t aware that Hilda had a younger brother,” N said, giving the apartment a curious once-over as he followed the boy down the hall, past the kitchen and toward the main sitting room where he could hear the muted sounds of a television. And under that, the unmistakable noise of pokemon. Several of them, in fact. They sounded… rude, perhaps even a little crass, but clearly in good spirits. Well cared for, then. He felt some of his unease begin to lessen. 

“Twin,” the boy said curtly. “She’s got, like, two-and-a-half minutes on me. That doesn’t count. No matter what she says.”

“Still. I would have thought she’d have said something.” 

Then again, would she have? They’d only met a handful of times, and the conversations they’d had - profound, introspective, and fascinating as they had been - had all been about grand topics, like the purpose of life, the nature of humanity and pokemon and where they all fit together in this grand tapestry called life. He’d never asked about her past, her family. Just another reason for him to see her again. There was so much more to talk about. 

The boy - he still hadn’t told him his name, actually - turned and flashed him a crooked grin over his shoulder. 

“Meh. She doesn’t talk about me much. Says I’m an embarrassment.”

Well, that sounded… cruel. Had Hilda really said that? That couldn’t be right. 

Then again, he hardly seemed upset by it. On the contrary, he actually seemed… pleased? By the insult?

Humans, he considered for the billionth time, were strange. 

“Sorry the place is a mess,” the boy said as they walked into the living room, not sounding sorry in the slightest. “I wasn’t expecting company. Well, actually I was, but… Well, whatever.”

The place really was a mess, but N felt like he was already becoming accustomed to it. The living room was sparsely furnished, with only a cheap old couch on one wall and a second-hand tv stand on the other, the wood chipped and flaking, the television itself showing the pause screen to some kind of video game. What looked like a large, fuzzy white bean bag occupied a third wall, half buried under a pile of blankets and pillows.

Aside from that, there was a coffee table in the middle of the room, littered in pizza boxes, soda cans, two mismatched socks, and a bowl of what looked like diced pinap berries. In a corner sat a computer desk that sported four monitors - why on earth anyone would ever need that many, N had no idea, but then he'd rarely used computers anyway - and a flashy computer chair, one of the few things in the room that looked new, that was seemingly spinning of its own accord. It slowed to a stop as N’s eyes rested on it. 

But the decorations, minimal as they were, didn’t mean much to N. The faded carpet, the movie posters on the walls, the shelf full of toy figures that were still in boxes - none of that made much of an impression. What stood out to him immediately were the pokemon. 

“Say hi to the crew,” the boy continued, making a generalized sweeping gesture with his arm. “Crew, this is… Uh… He’s like, Hilda’s… boyfriend or whatever, I dunno. Boyfriend, this is the crew.”

The crew, as the boy had called them, were an eclectic bunch, and their voices echoed out around him, drowning out the muted sounds of the video game blaring from the tv screen. Curious, confused, cautious. 

“This is Bossman,” he said, pointing to the Kingambit sitting on the couch, who was clutching a video game controller of all things and staring up at him with a look of complete boredom on its face. It was impatient, he could tell. And annoyed that N was interrupting them. 

“Up top is Miss Squawks.” He pointed to a Chatot roosting on a perch near the window. The pokemon preened for a moment in welcome before opening its beak and saying, in mimicked human speech that sounded distinctly effeminate and sultry, “Hey there, handsome!”, and then, in a completely different, deeper, more aggressive voice, “You got a death wish, punk?!”

“Ignore her, she watches too much tv,” the boy said, rolling his eyes. “Then we got Funky Kong - like the video game guy? - sleeping over under those blankets.”

He pointed to the beanbag, which suddenly shifted, revealing a thick, meaty arm that emerged from beneath one of the blankets to lazily scratch at its belly. It was a Slaking. And it seemed to be asleep. 

“And then Jarvis is in the computer, I think,” 

All four screens winked to life, showing the bouncing image of a Porygon Z and a caption that read, ‘Help, I’ve been sucked into a video game and I can’t get out!’

“And that’s it. Oh, well - Amy Rose is asleep in the back room. I almost forgot about her. She’s a baby, so try to keep it down.”

And with that, he plopped back down on the couch, picking up his discarded game controller and unpausing. And without even a glance at N, who was still standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, the boy resumed playing games with his Kingambit. 

After a moment’s hesitation, when it became clear that he’d all but forgotten about him, N decided to make his way over to the empty computer chair to take a seat. It was that or sit on the floor, and with all of the junk on it… Well, that didn’t seem like a pleasant idea.  

As he moved to sit, however, something odd happened. He could have sworn he felt something brush past his leg, only there was nothing there. And something had definitely laughed - a playful, mischievous giggle. Only the voice hadn’t matched anyone he’d yet met. Hilda’s brother had only named five pokemon - was there a sixth he’d forgotten to mention? A ghost-type, perhaps?

After a few minutes of silence in which N was hesitant to speak lest he break the boy or the Kingambit’s concentration, he finally decided that he’d waited long enough. This awkwardness was going to kill him. 

“So, um… Forgive me, uh… Mr. White?” 

The boy, who up until then had displayed perfect concentration on the video game, suddenly blinked and stared at N with wide eyes. 

“The heck did you just call me?”

“Oh. Well, I mean - you haven’t given me your name, so I-”

The boy let out a bark of laughter, returning his attention to the game. 

“Dude - you’re like, two years older than me. Don’t call me ‘Mr’, it’s weird.”

“Mr. White! Mr. White!” the Chatot parroted overhead, swinging back and forth on its perch.

“Then, what should I call you?”

“The name’s Nate. Short for Nathaniel.”

“Nathaniel, then.”

“Dude. Just Nate.”

“Nate. Right, of course.” He stared for a moment, frowning. “...But didn’t the nameplate say ‘H. White’? Is this actually your sister’s apartment?”

He glanced around at all the clutter and frowned. Surely she didn’t live like this too, right? 

“What? No, man - I don’t know where she lives. Actually, I don’t think she’s ever technically settled down anywhere, not since she left on her journey. She does sometimes send her mail over here though. Mom has a tendency to go through our stuff. Shouldn’t you know this, Mr. Boyfriend?”

“No, I’m not… Wait, then what is the H for?”

“Nothin’, man, don’t worry about it.”

Only at that moment, the monitors behind N winked to life again with another message from the Porygon, whose icon now resembled a genie along with the words ‘Your wish is my command!’, followed by a picture of Nate wearing thick coke bottle glasses and a button-up shirt with a bow tie and suspenders and a caption that read ‘The H stands for Hilbert!’

“Bro! What the heck!” Nate - Hilbert? - exclaimed, turning his attention away from the video game entirely to shout at his Porygon. “Not cool! Don’t just go exposing my identity to strangers!”

On screen, the Porygon brought up an image of an important-looking document with the title ‘The Freedom of Information Act’, while overhead Chatot shouted in a loud, deep, male voice, “You can’t handle the truth!”

“So your name is… Hilbert, then?” N asked, trying to make sense of the conversation. 

“No! Yes! I don’t - look, my name’s Hilbert Nathanial White, but I go by Nate, ok? Hilbert’s a lame name for dweebs. Don’t call me that.”

Something happened on screen - a cinematic played in which one of the characters brutally murdered the other in a method so over-the-top gratuitous and graphic that N actually felt bile rise in his throat, and Nate let out a cry of despair. 

“Hey! I was distracted! That’s cheating!”

The Kingambit shrugged, leaning casually back on the couch and smugly stroking one of its long, pointed mustaches. Nate scowled. 

“Oh, it is so on…”

After another pause in which Nate and his Kingambit doubled down on their video game, N cleared his throat once again. 

“My name is N. Just… so you’re aware.”

“N?” Nate said after a moment, not taking his eyes off of the tv while his fingers flew wildly across the controller in a staccato of clicks. 

“Yes.”

“N? Like the letter?”

“Yes.”

“Is that short for something too?”

“Natural.”

“Natural?”

“Yes.”

“It’s natural that it’s short for something?

“No - well, yes, I suppose, but no - it’s short for Natural.”

“Natural?”

“Natural.”

“You messing with me?”

“No?”

“Naturally.”

Someone laughed - a pokemon, but not the Kingambit or the Chatot or the Porygon, and the Slaking was still asleep. Nate’s eye twitched, but didn’t comment. Had he not heard it himself? 

That settled it. There was definitely another pokemon here. Whatever it was, though, it was hiding. But why? And how? A Kecleon, maybe? Whatever it was, wherever it was, it couldn’t hide from N. Not completely. He could hear its voice. 

It was a unique talent N had. A gift that apparently separated him from most if not all other humans. The reason Ghetsis and the rest of Team Plasma had taken an interest in him in the first place. He could hear and understand the voices of pokemon. 

To be fair, that was a bit of an over-simplification. It wasn’t as though his brain magically translated the unique sounds they made into human language; every specific bark a Lillipup made didn’t have a direct one-to-one human language equivalent word. And pokemon didn’t communicate with one another strictly with vocal sounds anyway; if they did, pokemon wouldn’t be able to understand each other. It was more that he could do what they did - interpret the intentionality behind their sounds and actions and understand their meaning. In a way, he was closer to being a psychic than to say he was fluent in pokemon language, but that wasn’t quite right either. He wasn’t reading minds, he just… understood what they felt, in the same way that they understood each other.

And how a pokemon felt said a lot about their trainer. When with Team Plasma, he’d intentionally only ever been introduced to poor trainers, those who abused or mistreated their pokemon, all to reinforce the idea that all trainers were evil and pokemon deserved freedom. That was part of Ghetsis’s plan, to make N a tool to suit his own evil purposes. 

But meeting Hilda had changed that. The voices of her pokemon had been so… happy. Friendly. Unified behind her own voice, working in tandem with her not as pawns, but as equals, as friends. As family. And it was that, more than anything, that had caused the first chink in his armor, the first fracture in the stained glass castle of his false ideals, built up by Ghetsis, that Hilda would eventually bring crashing down with her courage and her kindness and her smile. 

He’d met many other trainers since then, and had come to see the error of his ways. There were many kinds of people in this world, and many different bonds held with their pokemon, each as unique as the last. But Hilda and her bond with her pokemon had always stood out to N, even after all this time, as something truly unique. Truly special. 

And yet…

Here, in this dirty room, amidst the chaos and the clutter, in a world so unlike any he’d ever known… Though Nate was so very different from his sister, N couldn’t deny - he felt it again. That special something that had set Hilda apart, so clearly echoed here in her twin brother. 

The way he interacted with his pokemon - no, not his pokemon, his friends. The way they joked and laughed with each other, the flippant remarks, the teasing banter, the affectionate shoves and nudges. On screen, Nate pulled off a combo with his character that must have been particularly good, because the Kingambit let out a frustrated grunt and sat forward in his seat, focusing all of his attention on the game all while the Chatot cheered them on overhead. 

Nate may not be able to see it himself, but to N, someone who’d never really had friends of his own, it was apparent. And it made him a little jealous. 

Finally, the match concluded in what N could only assume was epic fashion, because Nate leaped to his feet, crowing loudly, hands thrown into the air and shouting, “Yes! Get some! Who's the real king? This guy, that’s who!” all while Kingambit chucked his controller to the side, slumping back into the sofa, crossing his arms and sulking. Porygon let out a series of sharp air horn blasts from the computer's speakers while playing loud victory music played, and overhead, Chatot began to sing, “You’re the best around, nothing’s ever gonna keep you down!”

N, for his part, simply covered his ears and smiled awkwardly. He may be jealous of their bond, but certainly not of their volume. At this rate, he was liable to go deaf. 

“You ready to go again, you sore loser?” Nate asked, but suddenly, a new sound split the air. A loud, piercing wail, coming from down the hall toward where N presumed Nate’s bedroom was. 

Nate and his pokemon all cringed in unison. 

“Oh, crap. We woke her up.”

“Woke who up?”

But he didn’t have to ask. A moment later, a small, pink pokemon waddled into the room, crying loudly as thick, wet tears dripped down its tiny, cherubic cheeks, dragging a thick, makeshift metal club along behind it. 

“Aw, Amy Rose? What’s wrong, my little gremlin?” Nate asked, dropping his controller on the couch and scooping the Tinkatink into his arms. She buried her face into his shoulder but continued to sob theatrically. Nate began to bounce her like an infant, awkwardly patting her back and looking lost. 

“Sorry,” he said to N, looking a little embarrassed. “She only just hatched a few days ago, and I’m not really used to dealing with baby pokemon, so…” 

He cast his eyes around at the rest of his party, clearly desperate. 

“Anyone have any bright ideas? Does she just need more sleep, or…?”

Kingambit pressed both hands over his ears as though to block out the noise, looking dower. Slaking continued to sleep, clearly used to all the noise. Chatot began singing a lullaby that could barely be heard over the wails, and Porygon pulled up multiple articles on its computer screens, including ‘Baby Pokemon for Dummies’, ‘So You Want To Raise a Fairy Type?’, and ‘10 Signs You’re A Terrible Father’. 

N let out a chuckle. Rising to his feet, he stepped closer to Nate and held out his arms. 

“May I?” he asked, and Nate, looking slightly surprised, passed her over. 

“Be my guest,” he said.

The Tinkatink scowled up at N in confusion, not recognizing or trusting this strange new human, and then began to cry all the harder. He laughed, then settled her against his side, gently stroking her head. 

“There, there,” he murmured. “It’s alright. You’re just hungry, aren’t you?”

It wasn’t a guess. He could tell from the way she was crying - not out of fear or pain, but for attention. Baby pokemon voices weren’t as clear or distinct as their adult counterparts, but he could still more or less understand her. She was hungry, and sleepy, and sort of bored, and she really wanted to play with Kingambit’s mustaches, but hungry before all of that. 

“I have some berries with me,” he continued, reaching into his waist bag and plucking out some oran berries. He usually carried a few on his person at all times, in case he came across an injured pokemon, or just wanted to share a snack. He glanced up at Nate for permission, and when he nodded, offered a couple to the Tinkatink. 

She stared at them for a moment, her crying completely stopped, before leaning over and chomping them right off of his palm. As she chewed, cheeks bulging, drooling slightly, she gazed up at N with shining eyes full of newfound trust and interest. 

“Whoa…”

N glanced up, confused, and found not only Nate, but Kingambit, Chatot, and Porygon all staring at him in a mix of wonder and adoration. 

“How… How did you know…?”

For a moment, he considered telling Nate the truth. After all, Hilda knew, and despite only having known him for about ten minutes now, he seemed trustworthy. Ultimately, however, he decided to keep the truth to himself. His ability to speak to pokemon had gotten him in trouble in the past. Better to keep quiet for now. 

Instead, he merely shrugged and said, casually, “I spend a lot of time with wild pokemon, so I’ve gotten pretty good at reading them. And baby pokemon are all pretty similar at the end of the day. If they’re crying and they’re not obviously scared or hurt, it’s usually because they’re hungry, they’re sleepy, or they need to relieve themselves.”

The Tinkatink had already swallowed her berries and was now searching for more, trying to crawl out of N’s hold and down his shirt towards his waist bag. 

“Alrighty, guys,” Nate said, rescuing N from Tinkatink and earning a shout of angry protest from the baby pokemon as she reached continuously for N. “The person we’re supposed to be waiting for still hasn’t arrived and I don’t know how long they’re gonna be. Wanna go grab some lunch?”

There was a general cry of assent, and with a rustle, Slaking suddenly rose to his feet, looking eager and not at all asleep. 

Tinkatink, who was still fighting to get to N, bonked Nate over the head with her mallet, earning a pained hiss from her trainer. 

“Yeah, ok - here, Funky, take her for a sec while I go find my wallet.”

Nate thrust Tinkatink at Slaking, who took her with a confused look on his face. A moment later, she’d crawled out of his hands, up his chest, and around onto his shoulder where she began gnawing on his fur, babbling incoherently. N didn’t have to be able to read pokemon’s minds to tell that Slaking was not impressed with this new turn of events. 

He didn’t suffer for long, however, as within a few minutes, N and Nate were exiting the condominium, heading down the stairs and back to the street where they set a course towards the small park N had dashed through earlier. Nate had recalled most of his pokemon, bringing them along, but the Tinkatink he kept in his arms, carrying her down the street and laughing as she oohed at every passing car and screeched at the Pidove that flew overhead. 

The park wasn’t much to speak of - just a sparse, circular field of dead grass, surrounded by a few thin trees and a structured sidewalk. It sat off of the street between a cluster of tall buildings, a lone spot of corporatized nature in a sea of capitalism and human vanity. One end of the park sported a rather rundown playground, the slide covered in graffiti, the swingset missing half of the swings, and a small skate park that hosted a few teens smoking and ditching school. The other half had a few gazebos with dirty metal picnic tables, and parked off to the side near them was a gaggle of food trucks. 

It was to these food trucks that Nate made a beeline, waving to the stoners in the distance but denying their calls to join them. 

They stopped in front of a large, candy apple red truck with the words ‘Burg’s Burgs!!’ spray painted atop the top in garish yellow and neon green. A few plastic tables had been set up around it, the white of the plastic now a dull yellow due to years of accumulated grease, but why anyone would sit there when there were picnic tables under the gazebos just a few yards away was anyone’s guess. An old box TV had been set up near one of the other trucks, showing the local news. The scent of grease was thick in the air, merging with the exhaust from the trucks in a rather unpleasant fashion. N knew that no matter how much time he spent with humans, he’d never get used to city life. 

The man inside - Burg, N presumed? - was plump man in his mid-to-late forties wearing a dirty apron and a hair net over his greasy black locks, lazily reading a newspaper while the cooking stations were busy being managed by a fighting pokemon duo of a bored looking Throh and spindly Sawk. 

Nate slapped his palm on the side of the truck, shouting, “Burg! My man! What’s shakin’?” Tinkatink mimicked him, screeching and slamming her mallet against the vehicle.

Burg jumped, startled, reaching for a spatula to defend himself, but then he caught sight of Nate grinning sheepishly at the window and he relaxed. 

“Nate! Arceus, boy, you nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. My kid hasn’t learned any manners yet.”

Burg stepped closer and leaned out the window to get a closer look. He’d missed a few spots while shaving that morning. “This that Tinkatink you said you got the egg for? Where’re you always gettin’ these rare pokemon from, anyhow?”

Tinkatink blinked up at him then grinned, showing her blocky, misshapen teeth. 

“Aint she just a cutie?”

“Meh,” Burg said, noncommittally, before switching to business mode. “So! What can I get for you today? Full spread again I take it? Brought a friend along this time, eh? Told you these were the best burgers in Castelia!”

“More like cheapest burgers, right?”

“Eh. Best. Cheapest. There are many metrics through which one can subjectively gauge superiority. Or so my lawyers tell me, anyways.”

“You got a lawyer, Burg?”

“Who’s askin’?”

“Fair enough. You want just one, N, or are you hungry for more?”

N blinked. “Oh, um. Yes, just one - but I can pay for myself, you don't need to-”

“Nah, let me get this one,” Nate said, trying to fish for his wallet and juggle Tinkatink at the same time. “I won big last week anyway, so I’m loaded.”

He then proceeded to order eight cheeseburgers, four of them doubles, with fries and sodas, a corndog ‘for the kid’, an extra order of fries ‘for the missus’, and while Burg got his boys ‘Mario and Luigi’ to work cooking the food, Nate headed over to another truck and ordered twenty pounds of vegetarian pokechow. 

That was a lot of food, and had to have cost a pretty penny. Then again, he had a lot of pokemon, so that made sense. 

They sat at one of the plastic tables while they waited, Nate keeping an eye on Tinkatink as she ran around the grass, smashing dandelions and generally wreaking mayhem, while N, at a loss, let his gaze idly bounce around from truck to truck, unsure what to do with himself. Social interactions weren’t his strong suit, and Nate was genuinely so different from most other trainers that he’d met, he didn’t even know where to start. 

Actually…

“Do you mind if I ask,” N began, his gaze once again resting on the television as an ad for excessively manly trucks began to play. “You must be rather widely traveled. Most of your team isn’t native to Unova. Have you already ended your journeying, then?”

“Ended?” Nate said, then let out a short laugh. “Man, I never even started. When my sister and all of her friends set off on their journeys, I stayed home.”

N turned in surprise. 

“You did? But then… How do you have such a wide variety of pokemon on your team?”

“Trades, mostly,” Nate said with a shrug, checking his pokegear. “I have my license, obviously, I just never did the whole ‘travel the world, challenge gyms’ thing. Hilda would send me pokemon from time to time, like if she caught one she knew I liked or didn’t have time to properly care for, and then I’d sometimes meet trainers on the Battle Subway and we’d trade. Pretty normal.”

“The… Battle Subway?” N asked, confused, and it was Nate’s turn to look at him in surprise. 

“You’ve never heard of the Battle Subway?! Aw man, it’s sick - way better than those boring, official League battles.” 

He leaned closer, looking suddenly animated. 

“The Battle Subway’s, like, a connected series of subway stations all across Unova. You ride around and do battles on the Subway, and they all have different rules and restrictions - it’s a blast. They offer some pretty crazy prizes sometimes, too. You should give it a try! I keep telling Hilda to come check it out, but she never does. I think she’s just scared she’s gonna lose to me.”

Thankfully, before Nate could really get going on his explanation, a loud, trumpetting fanfare sounded out from the television, and both boys turned to see a ‘Breaking News!’ banner flash across the screen.

A moment later, the banner was replaced by an austere woman in too much makeup who said, without preamble, “We’ve just received word that multiple terrorist attacks have broken out simultaneously across the island nation of Alola. Eye witness accounts report that these attacks seem to be the work of the thought-to-be-debunked Team Galactic, which was known to have terrorized the Sinnoh region over a decade ago. Events are still unfolding and news off the ground is limited, but we do have this live footage to show you of one of the attacks that seems to have been focused on a cultural landmark known as the Ruins of Conflict on Melemele Island.”

The picture changed to a rather shaky video recording of what looked like someone standing atop an old bridge, clearly from a tourist’s pokegear. The only sound that could be made out clearly was screaming and distant explosions. Several men and women dressed in gray could be seen approaching, directing what appeared to be a gang of Skuntank and Purugly to attack the civilians, firing off Sludge Bombs and Hyper Beams, tearing up the terrain and destroying the surrounding area. 

Someone grabbed the person filming, trying to drag them away, shouting that they needed to run. The man complied, and N lost sight of the attack for a moment as the tourist ran through the crowd, the image a wild blur of color as his arm pumped up and down..

Without warning, the man tripped, the image bouncing wildly as he hit the ground, rolling over, trying to get up, but then suddenly the screen was filled with the image of a massive Drapion looming over him, lifting a poison-tipped claw, poised to strike - 

Then, with an ululating cry, it appeared - the legendary guardian deity pokemon of Melemele Island who N had only ever seen drawings of in books - Tapu Koko. It flew in from nowhere at great speed, nailing the Drapion with a powerful sucker punch from one of its massive, shield-like arms, and the offending pokemon was blasted backwards, away from the tourist. 

The video was shaky and crooked and hard to see, but it looked like the guardian pokemon took a moment to let out a battle cry before charging forward to face the oncoming Galactic grunts alone. Then the video cut out. 

“Goodness…” N breathed, hardly daring to believe his eyes. The incident with Team Plasma here in Unova was bad enough, but this? This was madness!

“Yeah,” Nate said, shaking his head. “It’s getting crazy out there. That looked pretty bad, but according to Hilda, what went down in Goldenrod the other day with Team Plasma was even worse-”

N hadn’t even realized he’d moved until he’d seized Nate by the shoulder and yanked him in closer. 

“What incident with Team Plasma? What are you talking about?”

Nate stared at him in wide-eyed shock. 

“Bruh. Where have you been? Do you not watch the news? Team Plasma attacked Goldenrod City in Johto just the other day. Blew a bunch of stuff up, sent loads of people and pokemon to the hospital, set half the town on fire - it was crazy. They knocked down the Radio Tower too, or something like that. Hilda was there with that Johtoan Champion - that Gold guy or whoever - and they got caught up in the fight. You really didn’t hear about any of this?”

N released Nate’s shoulder and settled back in his cheap plastic seat, feeling winded. 

“No, I… I’m usually on the road, I…  don’t follow the news…”

He didn’t even have a pokegear or a pokedex. He’d rejected most of those things, preferring to interact one-on-one. He’d never considered it a problem before, but now…

Plasma was back. Back, and in Johto for some reason. And they were openly attacking people and pokemon now. No more hiding, no more lies, yet somehow, worse than ever. 

And he was here. In Unova. Doing nothing. 

“I’m sure whoever Hilda’s sending over will have more news, so you can ask them about it if you’d like.”

“Hilda is sending someone?”

“Yeah. Didn’t I tell you? Wait… Maybe I didn't. I don’t remember. But yeah - Hilda called me the other day, and I guess she - or, well, Iris technically, since she’s the Champion now - is sending someone out to, like, babysit me, or whatever? They’re going to take me to a safe house and keep me there till this all blows over. Which sucks, but like… What do you do, amirite?”

The news continued, anchors and analysts debating on screen, but N was hardly paying them any mind, his head spinning. 

Plasma. In Johto. Was his father there, too? Why? For what purpose? Hilda was sending someone… He could ask them questions then, find out more… Part of him wanted to pick up and leave right this second, charge off to Johto to Hilda’s side to confront his father, but waiting just a couple of hours more could give him the benefit of added information. Yes… Yes, he’d wait here for just a bit longer, and then when Nate went off to his safe house, N would…

“...are now reporting that the island Kahunas have rallied their Gym Leaders to confront these attacks. Meanwhile, we’ve received word that two members of Kanto’s Elite Four, Bruno and Koga, have arrived in Alola to back up local law enforcement.”

The news droned on, but N hardly paid attention, his eyes on the cracked pavement beneath his feet and his mind in another nation across the sea. 

After a couple more minutes, they brought on an analyst to discuss the recent attacks which had apparently been happening all over the Alliance, led by multiple different criminal organizations, though League Officials had apparently been quiet on the presumed motives. He really had missed a lot. Maybe he should consider getting a pokegear of his own. Maybe then he could register Hilda’s number and not have to worry about searching the world for her.

“And what do you think,” the Unovan reporter asked the analyst from Kanto, both of them talking heads filling colored squares on a pixelated screen, “was it wise for Kanto to send two members of its Elite Four to back up another region, or do you-”

“No, I don’t. I don’t think it was wise,” the analyst interrupted, looking stern. He was surprisingly young, maybe mid-to-late twenties, with black, gelled hair, slicked back, and a narrow, dark suit, and eyes that seemed completely insincere. “I think it was a mistake. While I applaud our nation’s desire to aid our allies in this time of need, we’re clearly at a critical juncture here, and what this attack has shown us is that no one is safe. We should not be weakening our own defenses-”

“Yes, but Kanto is the only nation that hasn’t been attacked,” the Unovan reporter cut in. “So of all of the members of the Alliance, I think a lot of people would say that Kanto should be the first to be offering foreign aid-”

“Yes, but yesterday, people were saying the same thing about Alola,” the analyst argued. “Yesterday, it was ‘oh, Kanto and Alola are fine, Kanto and Alola are the only regions that are safe’ - but now, we see that’s not true. Alola has also been attacked, and who’s to say Kanto isn’t next? We don’t know what these people are after, so there’s no reason to think that Kanto is being spared - we could be attacked tomorrow, and with half of our Elite Four missing, we’re weaker now than anyone.

“I think I speak for a lot of Kantonians when I say that the question I have on my mind most right now is ‘where is our Champion?’ Where is AJ Ketchum? If we had both her and Lance, I don’t know that we’d be as nervous about sending Koga and Bruno away, but she’s gone. Mysteriously vanished. And for those of us who were already uncertain about her, who thought she was too young, too emotional after that immature public outburst at her victory celebration, we’re now looking at her absence and thinking that our concerns were justified. 

“Even other former Champions who’ve been replaced or stepped down, like Hoenn’s Wallace, or Unova’s own Hilda and Alder, are coming out of the woodwork to step up and help out where needed - but AJ, our acting Champion? Just - gone, she’s ghosted us. Her first opportunity to show us what she’s made of, and she’s playing hooky? It’s not a good look, and the world is taking notice.”

N frowned, then turned back to Nate. 

“Wait. You said someone was coming to get you?”

“Yup,” Nate replied, glancing over at Tinkatink, who was currently singing along to herself as she bashed out a melody against a chair leg. 

“But… why? Is there some reason to believe that you’re in any more danger than anyone else?”

Nate seemed to freeze for a second, his mouth half-open, as if searching for an answer. 

“Hey, Nate!” came Burg’s voice from inside the truck. “Your burgers are done! You need some help carryin’ it?”

“Oh, yeah!” Nate said, jumping to his feet. “Um, sure! If one of your boys wants to lend me a hand, that’d be great. We’ll be heading over to the picnic tables under the gazebo. N, let’s go!”

And with that, hands juggling multiple plates of burgers and fries, Nate hurried off, the Throh and Sawk scurrying behind him, arms equally laden with food. 

N stood and followed, but at a slower pace. He was avoiding the question. Why? Was he in danger? Him, specifically? What could any criminal organization want with him?

Lunch was a chaotic affair, though N could admit he was already becoming used to all the noise. N, Nate, and Kingambit sat at one of the picnic tables with plates of burgers and fries set out in front of them; one for N, and two a piece for Nate and Kingambit. 

Tinkatink and Chatot sat on the table top, eating from plates of fries, the Tinkatink having temporarily set down its club in favor of a corndog, while Slaking laid out on the grass, the twenty pounds of pokechow laid out in front of him. He glowered up at Nate sulkily. 

“Don’t give me that,” Nate said warningly. “I got you two burgers just like me and Bossman.”

Slaking snorted dismissively. 

“Dude, I can’t afford to buy you fifteen hamburgers for every meal! Besides, that’s like, super unhealthy. You want to get fat or die of a heart attack? Is that what you want?”

N eyed Tinkatink, whose mouth was stuffed with so many fries that they couldn’t all fit inside, and idly wondered if Nate had any room to talk about feeding pokemon healthy diets. 

He also couldn’t help but notice that one of the burgers was missing. Nate had ordered eight; one for N, and two for Nate, Kingambit, and Slaking. Where had the final burger gone? Their mysterious, invisible friend?

Whoever it was - whatever it was - it was nearby. Down by Slaking, it sounded like, and while he couldn’t hear the cries it was making, he could feel a sense of contentment coming from it, joy from getting to eat a tasty burger, and amusement at Slaking’s annoyance. 

Well, it seemed happy. And friendly. If Nate was keeping it a secret, he must have his reasons. No need to pry. 

“So how long has Hilda been in Johto?” N asked. 

“Dunno,” Nate replied around a mouthful of burger. “I hadn’t heard from her in ages till she called the other day, and she didn’t have time to chat. Sounds like whatever’s going down over there is pretty serious.”

N looked down, disgruntled. He wanted to be there, to help. Sitting here, eating junk food… He felt useless. 

“Any idea on when the person you’re waiting for is supposed to arrive?”

“Nope,” Nate said. “Which is kinda rude, right? Like, can’t I even get an ETA?”

“Could you… Could you call Hilda now and see?”

He tried to hide his excitement. Why hadn’t he thought of this earlier? He didn’t have a pokegear, but Nate did. 

Nate shrugged, then glanced down at his wrist, taking a moment to type a few things in, pausing only to shoo Chatot away from his plate as she tried to steal some of his fries. 

A call signal rang out under the gazebo. N held his breath. 

Silence… Then, after a moment, the answering machine picked up. 

“Hey, this is Hilda! Leave me a message and I’ll think about getting back to you.”

“Brat,” Nate muttered, then, a moment later after the beep to signal to begin leaving your message, he let out another, louder, “Brat!” into the pokegear. 

“She’s probably ghosting me,” he said, ending the call. “She does that all the time. Time for plan B: Jarvis? Take a letter for me.”

A large holographic display lit up over the picnic table, showing an old-fashioned bit of parchment onto which Nate’s words began inscribing themselves, a small, pixelated Porygon Z floating off to the side with a quill in its hand.

“To my dearest sister,” Nate began, purposefully making his voice pompous. “Greetings and salutations. It’s a pleasant afternoon here in sunny Unova, but though I’ve been waiting all day, your dumb babysitter hasn’t shown up yet and I’m starting to lose my mind.”

Well, N thought. He lost that fake snobby voice rather quickly. 

“But don’t worry - I’m not bored. I’ve actually just met an old friend of yours, and let me tell you, he’s all Natural, if you catch my drift. We’ve been having lots of fun talking about you, so please, tell your babysitter to take their time. I’m just busy showing him your old baby photos and telling him all your most embarrassing stories. Now Jarvis, snap a pic.”

N, who had a mouth full of burger and who was reaching for a napkin to wipe some mustard off of his face, suddenly had Nate’s arm thrust around his neck, dragging him in close. A brief click later, and a holographic image of him and Nate was floating in front of him just below Nate’s letter - Nate, grinning like an idiot, flashing a peace sign, and N, looking confused, cheeks stuffed like a Skwovet with mustard on his chin. 

“And send,” Nate said, sounding pleased with himself, and before N could swallow his mouth full of burger and protest, the message - and the picture - were both on their way. 

Well. Alright then. 

Their lunch continued amiably for a time, Nate periodically checking his pokegear and becoming increasingly frustrated from his lack of response from his sister. N could relate; while the photo had been somewhat embarrassing, it at least let Hilda know that he was with her brother. Assuming she cared at all. 

A thought occurred to N, and he glanced over at Nate and asked, “How does the person we’re waiting for know where you are?”

Nate frowned, chewing on the end of his last fry like it was a cigarette. 

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we’re at the park right now. Are they coming to look for you at the park? How would they know you’re here? Wouldn’t they be going to your place first?”

Nate stared at him for a moment, then slumped forward and let his forehead thump on the tabletop. 

“Wow. I am so dumb.”

A minute later, he’d gathered up all of his pokemon except for Tinkatink and rushed off, telling N that he’d be right back after he left a note on his door telling ‘the babysitter’ where they were and to please keep an eye on Amy Rose till he got back. N had offered to go with him, but he was a much slower eater than Nate apparently was. He still had half of his burger and most of his fries left to eat. How had Nate eaten both of his so quickly?

He was also surprised that Nate had so willingly left his Tinkatink with him. True, she’d made a fuss when Nate tried to recall her, and N obviously wasn’t going to try to steal her or anything, but Nate couldn’t have known that for sure. A part of him admired how trusting he was - but having seen some of the darker parts of the world, he wondered if it wouldn’t be better for Nate to be a bit more cautious. 

The condo wasn’t that far away, so he knew Nate wouldn’t be long. He entertained himself in the meantime by continuing to eat his burger and feeding his leftover fries to Tinkatink, who would eat some, or smash the others with her mallet with a fiendish sort of glee. 

Nate had a point. She was rather cute… in a gremlin sort of way. 

“Well, well, well…” came an unexpected voice from behind them.

N turned, and was surprised to find himself confronted by not one, but a group of no less than eight or nine people. All of them strangers, all of them wearing black, long-sleeve shirts with dark berets, just like the man he’d run into earlier. Except that these ones had cowles pulled up over the bottom halves of their faces. 

The one in front spoke, a burly man in his middle years with close-cropped hair and eyes that burned with a malice that N was certain wasn’t only in his head.

“Male, roughly twenty years old, long, green hair… It’s really him. Looks like that rookie was tellin’ the truth. He really is in town.”

Laughter rang out among his comrades and they slowly began to spread out around the gazebo.

N swallowed his half-chewed mouthful of burger, then slowly rose to his feet. 

“Do you have some business with me, sir? I’m afraid I don’t know you.”

The older man blinked in surprise, then let out a bark of laughter. 

“I keep forgetting they had us change our uniform. I get it’s for secrecy, but… Eh. Where are my manners?”

He lifted his left arm, tugging down the sleeve. There, emblazoned on his wrist, was a tattoo. A scarlet capital R. 

“Prepare for trouble,” the Team Rocket admin said, smiling sinisterly through his mask. 

Flashes of red emanate from all around him. Pokemon being summoned from their balls. Raticate and Weavile and Golbat and Arbok and Weezing. Surrounding the gazebo. Trapping him. 

Panic began to overtake him. He had no idea what was going on, but he was alone and drastically outnumbered, surrounded on every side, and with only two pokemon of his own to his name. And on top of all of that, he had Nate’s Tinkatink to think of. Getting out of this unscathed would be hard enough, but with a baby to protect? 

“Come now,” he offered, raising his hands in front of him to show he wasn’t a threat. “Surely, if we talk this out, we can arrive at a peaceful resolution.”

Sitting on the table, Tinkatink banged her tiny mallet against the tabletop and growled as menacingly as she could at the strangers. They paid her no mind.

The man snorted. 

“You really are as soft-hearted as they say, aren’t you, Natural Harmonia?” At the sound of his real name, N felt himself stiffen. “I hear Ghetsis is willing to pay a pretty penny for news on your whereabouts. Or more specifically - that pokemon you carry around with you. I wonder how much he’d pay if I stole it from you? Heh… Then again, I’ll probably just keep it for myself-”

“Hey!” a loud voice shouted from somewhere behind them, and the man turned around, looking annoyed. 

There, standing behind him, flanked by Mario the Throh and Luigi the Sawk, looking as heroic as a man could expect to look in a greasy apron and a hair net, stood Burg of Burg’s Burgs. Behind him were a gaggle of other food truck owners and their pokemon - a Torkoal, a Simipour, a Krokorok.

“I don’t know what business you clowns are up to,” he said, trying to sound intimidating, “but this is our turf! You idiots startin’ fights is bad for business! So scram - get outta here! And don’t let us see you round these parts no more!”

A chorus of assent rose behind him, food truck workers raising fists, shouting for Team Rocket to get out of town. 

A couple of the Rocket grunts broke away from the circle, heading towards N’s would-be saviors, wicked gleams in their eyes. 

Before they had a chance to respond, however, N seized his chance and plucked the first pokeball off of his belt, chucking it into the grass just outside the gazebo. 

In a flash of red, a towering black dragon materialized, taller than the gazebo, with strong talon-tipped feet, wide, imposing wings, and a bulbous tail that crackled and sparked with arcing blue electricity. 

Throwing its head back, Zekrom let out a roar so powerful the very air seemed to vibrate, and the ring of Team Rocket grunts broke in a panic, freeing up room for N to snatch Tinkatink from off the table and escape. He ran around Zekrom, turning once he’d reached the grass behind him and found that most of the grunts had turned away to face him, including the leader. A few of the others, however, had chased after the food truck vendors, who had apparently broken and fled as soon as Zekrom had appeared, clearly terrified that this powerful dragon was coming for them. 

Well, great. Looks like he couldn’t count on them for backup after all. Where was Nate? How long until he returned?

“Beautiful,” the Rocket leader murmured, gazing up at Zekrom with fervor. “But don’t worry - you’ll be out of this pacifist coward’s unworthy hands and with a real master before you know it.”

And with that, he called forth his pokemon - a Jynx, her hips swaying, palms extended, a malevolent glower on her face. 

“Once we’d heard you’d been spotted running through town, I put in a call,” the leader explained, looking smug. “I may not be arrogant enough to think that I can take down your Zekrom all on my own, but we’ve kitted ourselves out with Ice and Fairy-types to give us the edge. You may as well give up now.”

And before N could respond, the Rocket thug roared, “Ice Beam, now!”, and the Jynx complied, pressing her hands together and firing a powerful, frigid blast of ice, directly at Zekrom’s head. 

Zekrom didn’t move. It didn’t even attempt to dodge. The bolt of ice blasted clear through his head, tearing straight through it, as though there wasn’t any resistance at all. 

For a moment, the Rocket leader and his Jynx could merely gape in shock at the bizarre image of a towering, headless Zekrom loomed over them. 

But then the Zekrom vanished as though it had evaporated, its body merely dissipating into mist, and before they could comprehend what had just happened, a smaller, jet-black form was revealed in its place, charging straight towards them, leaping high into the air with a savage snarl and scoring Jynx directly across the torso with a powerful Night Slash. 

They hit the ground together, Jynx and N’s Zoroark both, but a moment later Zoroark was on his feet again and racing back to N’s side. Jynx, however, shuddered on the ground and couldn’t get up. 

The Rocket leader looked murderous at having been tricked and recalled his Jynx. Over his shoulder, however, N could see the truck vendors flagging under the assault, Burg’s Sawk blasted back through a plastic table, the Simipour collapsing after a vicious Thunderbolt. 

They needed to run. They couldn’t win this battle. To be fair, N wasn’t much of a battler to begin with - he’d been raised believing that pokemon battling was abusive and wrong. And though he’d begun to come around, begun to see that it could be a safe and empowering sport for people and pokemon alike, he still didn’t much enjoy it. His skills were nothing compared to the likes of Hilda. His hopes of victory were basically zero. 

Still. He had to do what he could. These people were in this situation because of him - Tinkatink and Burg and the others were being put in danger because of him. Because of his association with his father and his past ties with the criminal gang known as Team Plasma. He couldn’t stand back and let abusive, wicked humans win. That wasn’t the world he wanted to live in. His ideals may be lofty and impractical, but wasn’t that why Zekrom had chosen him?

The Rocket grunts who’d stayed to confront him with their leader were moving in now, urging their pokemon forward. An Arbok slithered to his right, hissing menacingly. To his left, a swift Raticate, drool oozing from its fat cheeks. And in front of him, Jynx was recalled, replaced by a Clefable that stomped at the ground, its cruel glare looking uniquely out-of-place on what was normally such a sweet and shy pokemon. 

N could hear their voices. The hate. The rage. But above all of that, the fear. Fear of what their trainers would do to them if they failed to deliver results. 

Zoroark snarled, arms wide, as though he could protect N from all three at once. In his arms, Tinkatink whimpered, not quite understanding what was happening but fearful all the same. 

A red glow lit the buildings around him and he heard screaming. Something was breathing fire in the direction of the food trucks. Trucks - vehicles, full of gasoline to power their engines, propane to light their grills. 

He snatched his second and final pokeball from his belt and lobbed it into the air - not in front of him, but away, towards the street. It opened with a flash, and the sky instantly blackened, thick, furious thunderclouds filling the air. 

For the second time, the truly massive, black dragon materialized, only this time, it was no illusion. It hit the pavement in front of Burg’s food truck with a heavy crash, placing itself between the fleeing vendors and the pursuing Rocket grunts, and with a roar of vengeful fury, its wings beating the air, its tail beginning to whir then whine then roar as a cavalcade of blue bolts of lightning rained down from the heavens like meteors, tearing up the pavement, striking at pokemon and Rocket grunts alike, driving them back. 

At the same time, N seized upon the distraction to turn and flee. Zekrom would follow, he knew, once they were at a safe distance - and if he could get Team Rocket to follow him, they might leave the vendors alone, giving him the chance to climb on Zekrom’s back and fly to safety. It was a desperate play, but the only real one he had. 

The hurried patter of feet rushed up behind him, and the impression of a scavenger streaking after its prey impressed itself on N’s mind. The Raticate was rushing forward, not willing to let them escape. 

It leaped, mouth gaping open, its massive incisors shiny with saliva, only to get tackled out of the air by Zoroark. 

In spite of the desperation of the situation and the infant pokemon in his arms, N stopped. He couldn’t leave Zoroark behind. They tussled on the grass for a moment, the Raticate’s teeth sinking into Zoroark’s shoulder, eliciting a cry of pain from his partner, but a moment later, Zoroark’s body became enveloped in a black patina and Raticate was hit point blank with a Night Daze that blasted it backward. 

The scuffle had taken too long, however, and the others had caught up. Arbok appeared, rearing up out of the grass, yellow eyes glinting under the sea of roiling clouds, and it hit Zoroark with a nasty Glare attack that left it paralyzed. Unable to move or defend itself, it could only watch as the Clefable sauntered up, drew back its fist with a savage smirk, and Mega Punched him straight to the face. 

He hit the grass with a whimper and didn’t get back up. N was defenseless now. In the distance, he could see Zekrom beginning to flag. Lightning still arced down from the sky, but Zekrom was hunkered down, unmoving, as it tried to defend the food truck vendors and their injured pokemon from the barrage of attacks coming from the small crowd of Rocket grunts. Their leader hadn’t been kidding; from all of the icicle shards and powdered snows, dazzling gleams and mud shots, they really had been prepared to take Zekrom on. 

Zekrom couldn’t dodge or flee - not without abandoning the people and pokemon behind him. And he couldn’t let loose with his more powerful attacks - not without damaging the food trucks and possibly triggering explosions. He was trapped, just as surely as N was. 

“Well that was easier than expected,” the Rocket leader laughed, admiring the scene in front of him. “Someone, secure that baby pokemon - it’s weak, but I’m sure someone will pay money for it.”

Help. He needed help. Nate - the police - anyone! 

A grunt stepped forward, extending a hand down to grab Tinkatink, and N wrapped her in his arms and huddled over, kneeling on the grass, shielding her with his body. 

“Just give up already will you? Golbat - Supersonic this idiot.”

N braced himself, knowing there was no real way to defend against a sonic attack of this nature and already inwardly begging Nate for forgiveness - when something jumped up on his back. 

Whatever it was, whoever it was, it let out a furious shout of “Vi!” and suddenly, everyone - people, pokemon - was picked up off the ground and hurled backward as thought caught in the blast radius of some kind psychokinetic explosion. 

He lifted his head, astonished, craning his neck in futility to try and see who his savior had been. He couldn’t see them, but he could hear their voice - taunting, victorious - and he recognized it. It was that same, invisible pokemon who’d been with Nate all day. Had it stayed behind when Nate left? To watch over Tinkatink?

It finally jumped off of N’s back, landing on the grass in front of him, squaring off against the Rocket Grunts, and he got his first good look at it. 

It was short, maybe about as tall as N’s knee, with soft, yellow fur and tall, orange ears. It turned around, its massive cerulean eyes bouncing from N’s face down to the Tinkatink in his arms, and it gave off a bright, confident smile. 

He knew this pokemon. Has seen pictures of it, old drawings from centuries past, while doing his research on Zekrom and Reshiram. 

It was a Victini. An actual Victini. The pokemon of Victory itself, coming to his aid.

Its voice was emboldening, encouraging. Telling N and Tinkatink not to worry. Friends were here. 

And they were, N suddenly noticed. From all around them, pokemon were there. Drilbur and Exadrill, burrowing their way up from out of the grass. Flocks of Swanna and Unfezant swooping down out of the sky. A manhole cover was torn off of the street as swarms of Trubbish and Garboder came oozing out of the sewers. 

Pokemon. Wild pokemon, acting on their own, without the bidding of a trainer to compel them. Coming to his rescue, just as they had when he was a lost, scared child, alone in the wild with no one to protect him. 

The barrage of attacks against Zekrom faltered as packs of wild pokemon descended on the Rocket grunts. What they lacked in battle training and prowess they more than made up for in sheer numbers and righteous indignation. 

N pushed himself to his feet, recalling his fallen Zoroark and gazing around in wonder as the tides around him quickly began to turn in his favor. Tinkatink was shouting victoriously in his arms, cheering them on, adding to the chaos. 

The Rocket grunts who had surrounded him were getting back to their feet now, fighting off their disorientation. The Leader ordered a charge, barely audible over the chaos of battle all around them, and their pokemon moved - Golbat, Arbok, and Clefairy - surging forward, full of fury and fear. 

But Victini was there. In a flash, it was in front of Arbok, tiny arms extended, and with a cry of might far too powerful to be contained in such a small body, Arbok was seized in a wave of purple psychic energy and lifted up off of the grass. 

It let out a cry of shock and its body undulated in the air for a moment, struggling pointlessly, before suddenly whipping around like - well, like a whip - and slapping the Golbat straight out of the air as it moved to strike Victini from behind. 

Golbat hit the grass with a dull crunch, its wing bent, unmoving, and Victini sent the Arbok flying at its trainer, sending them both in a heap of twisted, tangled limbs and tail. 

All that left was Clefable, who prepared a powerful Dazzling Gleam, the pink-and-white light glowing between its palms, illuminating the gloom under Zekrom’s storm-summoned skies, only to halt as Victini began to glow even brighter, red flames turning white, so bright they dimmed even Clefable’s Dazzling Gleam, and a moment later, in an incandescent V, Victini charged forward, colliding with Clefable in a fiery explosion so strong, it singed the hairs on N’s arms and set the bill of his hat ablaze. 

By this point, even the leader of the Rocket Grunts had to concede he was outmatched. Two legendary pokemon, a sudden swarm of wild pokemon coming in to defend them - and there, down the distant street, he could see people were coming. Men and women in blue and black. The police had finally answered the call. 

The Admin glowered, enraged, but took a step back nonetheless, recalling his Clefable and cursing. 

“You’re not getting away!” N shouted. Tinkatink screeched as well, waving its club like a conductor’s baton, and Victini readied itself to move if the man tried to run. 

It was over. 

Until suddenly, it wasn’t. 

From overhead, around the side of a building, a helicopter was suddenly there, the sound of twirling propellers loud enough to drown out some of the frenetic sounds of battle. Then there was another, and another, flying towards them, straight towards the park. 

At first, N thought that it was the police - who else would be flying helicopters around the city toward an active fight scene? 

But then one of the helicopters turned, revealing a man in a black shirt and hat with a Slowbro at his side, standing near the open door. He pointed, and then Ice Beams began raining down on Zekrom from the sky. 

They weren’t the police - they were Team Rocket reinforcements!

Another helicopter joined the aerial assault, but the third touched down on the grass, spilling out a handful of new grunts, calling out pokemon, coming to the Admin’s defense. 

N, his eyes on Zekrom, overwhelmed in despair, didn’t notice the Granbull racing toward him, jaws open, ready to bite, until Victini nailed it with a Flame Charge that sent it bouncing backward, yowling in pain. 

The number of pokemon surrounding them were growing, however, and N was beginning to doubt that Victini could hold them all off on its own…

If only N had more pokemon… If only he’d trained more seriously… If only he was a fighter, like Hilda, then this wouldn’t be happening and Victini and Zekrom wouldn’t be forced to handle this all on their own…!

A Houndoom barreled forwards, only to get tackled by Victini, which left N’s right side open to attack. An Escavelier approached, zooming over the grass at high speed, spear-like arms poised to strike, too fast for N to outrun. All he could do was panic as he tried to think of the best way to shield Tinkatink from harm. 

But then, out of nowhere, like a hero in a storybook, Kingambit was there, catching the Escavalier by both of its arms, feet digging into the grass as he stopped the charge single-handedly, his expression murderous. 

“Alright, now - Finish Him!” came a familiar voice from behind, and with a sinister smirk, the Kingambit hunkered down and lifted the Escavalier straight up into the air like he was deadlifting - only to then slam it back down on the grass with his whole body, letting the massive blade on his forehead tear through his foe’s iron outer shell in a savage Guillotine. 

Victini blasted back a Persian in a wave of vivid flame while Slaking appeared, not rushing even now, stopping a Graveler in one mighty fist and hurling it backward like a bowling ball, scattering a row of grunts in a panic. 

“N! You alright? Where’s-?”

But then Tinkatink leaped out of N’s arms and ran to N, bawling in a mixture of fear and relief as her trainer scooped her into his arms. 

Nate hugged Tinkatink for a moment, looking equally relieved, before recalling her to her ball where she’d be safe. 

“Thanks for looking out for her, N. Seriously.”

“No…” he said, pushing himself back to his feet. “Thank you for saving us.”

A Honchcrow swooped in low, poised to strike, only for N’s Poryzon Z to blast it out of the sky with a Tri-Attack. 

“This is insane,” Nate said, watching as Victini, Slaking, Kingambit, and Porygon Z fought the Rocket Grunts back. Victini was doing most of the work, but the other three were there to watch its back and make sure it wouldn’t get overwhelmed or let anything sneak by. “I’m so sorry you got pulled into this mess.”

“No - it’s me they’re after, not you.”

“You? Wait, why would they be after…?”

But then it seemed like he noticed Zekrom for the first time, and his jaw dropped. 

“Whoa… Whoa whoa whoa, no way! You’re him?! You’re that guy, the one my sister fought against?! That’s crazy!”

The Rocket Admin, realizing he’d lost the upperhand a second time, took the opportunity to retreat while his colleagues, unawares, continued the fight. He jumped into the helicopter that had previously lowered to release his backup and ordered it back into the sky. A couple of the other grunts, realizing they were about to be left behind, jumped in after him, but three or four were abandoned as it lifted back into the air. 

He was getting away… Well, they couldn’t run forever. The police would catch them. So long as they could stop the fighting for now, that was what mattered in the short-term. 

Something blasted out of the side of one of the other helicopters. There was a woman standing there, holding some sort of… bazooka, it looked like, except instead of explosives, it fired some hunk of metal that, when it collided with one of the Swanna trying to defend Zekrom, suddenly expanded into a large, metallic cage, trapping it inside. 

It seemed like the cage could fly on its own, thankfully, so the pokemon didn’t drop out of the sky - but when it tried to beat the cage open with its wings, it received a powerful electrical shock that rendered it momentarily senseless. A moment later, the cage was pulled almost magnetically back within the helicopter. 

More of these strange bazooka blasts came out of the helicopters, snatching up the wild pokemon who had come to help. One of them hit the Simipour who belonged to one of the food truck vendors, and another struck a Herdier that was fighting with the police. Both of them were trapped and sucked into the helicopter as well. 

They were stealing pokemon! They needed to stop them before they got away!

One of the more enterprising Rocket grunts tried to fire one of those cages at Zekrom, only for the dragon to blast it out of the sky with a bolt of lightning. The wild pokemon were in a panic now, however. Upon realizing they were being captured, they were beginning to flee in every direction. 

As N watched, the Slowbro from before readied another Ice Beam, only to be hit unexpectedly by a fleeing Unfezant. Clipped by its wing, the Slowbro’s body jerked right as the Ice Beam was fired, and it scored a direct hit - not on Zekrom, but on the other helicopter’s tail rotor, freezing it in a block of ice. 

The helicopter drifted for a moment, unable to steer properly, and as it listed sideways, the main blades struck the outer wall of a building, tearing through the windows in a terrible cacophony of screeching metal and broken glass. 

Faster than you could blink, the helicopter spun out of control, spinning in a death spiral, plummeting down to the ground - right where the Zekrom was standing. 

But he couldn’t move - couldn’t flee. If he did, the helicopter would hit the food truck vendors he was protecting. N could do little more than shout in horror as the helicopter collided with Zekrom’s chest, exploding in a ball of fire and metal shrapnel. 

Zekrom roared in agony, and the pokemon and people battling around it began to flee in earnest now, no longer interested in battling, just getting away from a place where helicopters apparently rained down from the sky. 

Zekrom slumped forward, disoriented, clearly in pain. He was done. N needed to recall him - this battle was over. Burg and the others would have to fend for themselves. 

Though that actually didn’t seem necessary. The battle lines had seemingly broken with the helicopter’s surprise demise, and most of the wild pokemon had already fled the scene. All that was left were the police force pressing forward and the Rocket Grunts falling back. 

This time, it actually seemed like the battle was well and truly over. 

The first helicopter, the one with the Slowbro, turned tail and fled as well, retreating back where it had come. The second, however, that held the Admin, paused just long enough for the man to heft one of those odd, cage-shooting bazookas and aim it right at Zekrom. 

“No!” N shouted, fumbling for his ball. Zekrom had been able to easily defend itself before, but it was stunned now, injured. He might not be able to protect himself this time!

He pulled the ball off of his belt, but it was too late - the Admin had already fired. 

In a burst of flames, Victini materialized in front of Zekrom and took the hit. 

“VICTOR!” Nate shouted, but the cage was already expanding, trapping Victini inside. The tiny pokemon struggled, letting out a blast of fire and psychic power, but the cage fired back, zapping the tiny powerhouse with a torrent of electrical energy, and Victini slumped sideways in the cage, dazed. 

Without thinking, N clicked the button on his pokeball, and Zekrom was recalled, safe.

Then the cage trapping Victini was pulled back into the helicopter, and realizing they’d missed their chance for Zekrom but had caught another, unintended prize instead, the helicopter was flying away. 

As though by impulse, Nate broke out in a run, chasing after it, as though he could possibly catch up, but they both knew it was useless. Neither had any pokemon strong enough to carry them, or fast enough to pursue helicopters. There was nothing they could do. He was gone. 

He had saved N and Zekrom both, and then he was gone. 

The fighting had ended just as abruptly as it had begun.

What followed was a blur. The police asked him and Nate to remain beneath the gazebos while they put out the fires and saw to the wounded. They’d need to take their statements, figure out what was going on. Neither argued. 

Nate had completely deflated. His pokemon had tried to comfort him, but they looked just as badly shaken as he was, and he’d ended up recalling them all, claiming he needed a moment to himself. N didn’t know what to say. How do you comfort someone whose friend had just been kidnapped right in front of them?

This… This is what his father had done. Done to every trainer whose pokemon Team Plasma had kidnapped while claiming they were being ‘liberated’. Was stealing pokemon really what this had all been about? And what of those other attacks, by those other organizations? Was this why they had attacked Goldenrod and MeleMele Island? Were they out there, stealing more pokemon, ruining more lives? For what? For power? For the thrill of it? 

N didn’t know. But he knew they had to fight it. Had to fight to keep things like this from happening again. Because that was the world he and Zekrom strove for. 

Nate’s pokegear began to buzz. Listlessly, he lifted his arm, going to silence the call. Then, he caught the caller ID and hesitated. 

After a moment, he chose to answer. 

“Hilbert?” came Hilda’s unmistakable voice from the other end of the call. “You absolute brat - what are you doing to N?! How did you even meet him?! And where-? No, nevermind, just…  What did you tell him? I swear, if you embarrassed me, I’m going to-!”

“Hilda,” Nate said, his voice raspy, but Hilda was talking to quickly to hear him. 

“-got a call from Rosa, the one Iris sent to get you. She says she stopped by your place but you were gone. Tell me where you are so we can coordinate - Rosa says there’s some sort of commotion in the city and traffic is backed up, but maybe you can go to her-”

“It’s too late,” Nate cut in, and N didn’t think he’d ever heard someone sound so broken. 

“What’s too late?” Hilda asked, then, after a moment, with growing concern, “Hilbert - what’s too late? What happened?”

“He’s gone,” he gasped, body beginning to tremble, and N found himself wrapping a bracing arm around his shoulders. 

“Who’s gone? N? Where’d he go?”

“No… No, Victor! Victor is gone! They took him!”

And then he was sobbing outright, and N was trying to hold him up, and Hilda was demanding explanations, and a police officer was approaching to finally get their statement, and it was all wrong. Everything was all wrong. 

Chapter Text

The abrupt transition from the thin, icy air of Mt. Silver to the pleasant warmth of the Sanctuary was so sudden, it was as though someone had pulled a blanket out of the dryer and chucked it straight at AJ’s face. A bizarre experience, to be sure, but a uniquely pleasant one. 

The group had decided to forego the behind-the-waterfall route this time, as making the trip with everyone would have been difficult, particularly with Sammy’s injured leg. Instead, they’d taken the route that wild pokemon used, and which was presumably also the route that Sammy had been brought into the Sanctuary to begin with. Following Cole’s guidance as he’d soared ahead of them atop the Braviary he’d befriended, they looped up and around the last tall spire of Mt. Silver until they found a particularly craggy indent, like a massive pockmark on the mountain face, and flew straight into it. 

Just before she thought he was going to crash, he vanished. The space in front of the near-vertical crater was apparently some sort of portal that led into the Sanctuary itself, providing an easy access point for flying pokemon or anything too large to fit into the cave. 

Jade and Sammy had flown in next, riding atop Jade’s Metagross. Usually, when the trio had to fly somewhere, it was AJ who rode with Jade. However, given the state of Sammy’s leg, he couldn’t currently ride on his Corviknight, so he and AJ had opted to switch places. She found herself missing the relatively smooth passage that Metagross provided, however, as the way Corviknight bobbed up and down in the air with every beat of its wings was starting to become nauseating. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t long at all until it was her turn to fly through the portal - an absolutely harrowing experience, having to fly straight at a rock face despite knowing that it was an illusion and she’d be perfectly safe - and a minute later, they were landing on the lush, green grass and dismounting. 

The air here was so warm, the sky so blue, the sun so dazzling… A positively surreal sight after the bleak, frostbitten wasteland that was Mt. Silver. It truly was a paradise, secreted away in the center of this harsh wasteland of ice and snow. A wonder of the world, had humans ever found it. Though she knew that if they did, it wouldn’t remain a wonder for much longer. 

While Jade’s Metagross helped Sammy dismount with its psychic powers and Cole bid farewell to his wild Braviary friend, AJ recalled Corviknight and took a moment to pretend to examine the scenery. Internally, a small part of her couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer beauty of it all - the flowers and trees dotting the landscape, leaves and blades of grass alike undulating in the pleasant breeze, the gentle river, the rolling hills, the pokemon… But it was hard to let herself fully feel the wonder of it all. 

Discreetly, she lifted a hand up to her belt and let her thumb stroke the first ball in her lineup. Pichu was in there. He’d rarely spent any time in his pokeball at all on their journeys, so the sensation of him being in there and not up on her shoulder or racing around through the grass, squeaking and laughing and causing a ruckus… It just felt wrong. 

Despite being together with her friends on a fantastical adventure in an impossible paradise surrounded by legendary pokemon, she was struggling to fully immerse herself in the wonder of it all. Everything around her just felt gray and lifeless. And it wouldn’t be put to rights until Pichu was up and smiling again. 

But then, that was why they were here, wasn’t it? After they’d returned to the cabin yesterday afternoon, while they were all gathered around the table for dinner - well, all of them except Ash, who had been conveniently absent once again - Sammy had brought up the topic of legendary pokemon with Cole. 

That had been great for her, because it meant she could avoid engaging in direct conversation with her grandfather and instead pick at her food in sullen silence. Or at least, she could until Sammy had brought up the topic of which legendary pokemon lived in or had been spotted in the reserve, and whether any of them had the ability to heal. 

If his tone had seemed a bit staged, and if he’d been giving strange, rather knowing looks to Cole, AJ had soon forgotten all about them once Cole had confirmed, with a look of mingled surprise and frustration that he hadn’t thought of it himself, that such a pokemon had indeed been seen in the Sanctuary a few times. Which meant she didn’t have to sit here like a lump feeling useless after all - there might actually be a way to help Pichu. 

Maybe. Possibly. After all, the pokemon in question didn’t live in the Sanctuary - it had just been known to make the odd appearance from time to time. And while Cole claimed he knew where to go to seek it, he had stressed the fact that he couldn’t promise that it would show up - or that it would offer to help even if it did. But honestly, what other choice did she have? 

And so, here she was. 

Off to meet a god and beg for its mercy. 

On any other day, she may have found it funny how this still wasn’t the strangest thing that had happened to her on this trip. Only, it had been hard to see the humor in things these days.

As Cole had explained the night before, the legendary pokemon that Sammy had been alluding to, the one who was said to be able to heal, was a deity from Kalos known as Xerneas. 

AJ had heard the name before, of course. You couldn’t have spent years traveling the world with Sammy Oak without having him talk your ear off about every legendary pokemon under the sun. And while AJ could admit that her knowledge about this particular legend from the other side of the world was a little lacking, Sammy had been more than happy to expound in excessive detail.

Xerneas was said to have been worshiped in olden days as the ‘Lord of Life’ - one of two beings people had believed governed the natural cycle of life and death, alongside its counterpoint, Yveltal. Xerneas was allegedly responsible for presiding over the creation of new life - of springtime and births, the planting season and things like that. Old holidays that celebrated Xerneas were still held across Kalos, Paldea, Galar and Unova in the spring, full of dancing and feasts and celebration. 

To counter this, Yveltal was worshiped at the tail end of fall, as the autumn gave way to winter, as crops withered and people and pokemon alike withdrew to their homes and hovels to endure the harsh, frigid months of stillness and death. Contrary to Xerneas, however, Yveltal wasn’t so much worshiped as it was feared, and its holiday was mostly one of solemnity, where offerings were made to appease the ‘Lord of Death’ and beg for its wrath to pass them by in the night. 

The two were intrinsically linked, however, and while the people feared Yveltal, they did not hate it. Death was necessary for the cycle of life to continue, and its importance was well understood in those ancient days. They were two halves of a whole, it was said. The opposite faces of a coin. You couldn’t have one without the other. And it was sometimes said that when the faithful came to Xerneas to plead for salvation, Yveltal would on occasion appear in its stead and deliver not the mercy of continued life, but the mercy of a swift, painless death. 

Stories, of course. Trumped up legends from a backwards society that hadn’t understood enough of science and natural law and instead sought answers in fairytales and myths. 

And yet, standing here now in this garden of giants, of myths made real, she couldn’t help the small yet insistent tremors that radiated down her legs, trying to root her in place.

What if, when she cried to Xerneas for help, it didn’t show? And worse than that… What if, just like in the old stories, Yveltal appeared instead and stole her Pichu away?

An insane thought on any other day. But not this day. Not when they were here. Not when the truth of the world stretched out in front of her across impossible hills of green. 

The group set a course across the luscious, verdant fields of the Sanctuary, moving much slower than AJ would have liked due to Sammy limping along, using Jade as a crutch. She’d been annoyed at first when Cole had said they needed to land and walk the rest of the way - flying straight there would have been faster and easier, especially with Sammy’s injury - but Cole had seemingly been concerned about possibly causing offense. 

“You need to understand, some of these pokemon are old - ancient, even,” he’d explained, walking alongside her. “And they’re powerful. Extraordinarily so. Askin’ them for help is already a bit presumptuous, especially for us humans, so if we want to improve our chances as much as possible, I figure it’s best to try and show a little humility. In the olden days, the peoples of Kalos and Paldea and even Galar used to make pilgrimages that could last for weeks, even months, to beg for their aid. I figure the least we could do is walk for a few minutes.”

But AJ was antsy. Every second they delayed was another second that Pichu was in pain. Surely no respectable being - especially not one that was said to be a god - would overlook that over something so petty as rudeness. 

Yet even with that sense of urgency spurring her onward, AJ found herself plagued with the conflicting desire to turn around and go back to the cabin. After all, nothing could go wrong if she didn’t try. 

It was a stupid thought. A selfish thought. One that would accomplish nothing but continuing Pichu’s suffering, but she couldn’t deny any longer, not now that they were actually here, that she was scared. And this fear was a new concept for her. She wasn’t one to back down from a challenge just because she could fail - or at least, she didn’t used to be. She hadn’t been scared when she’d challenged the Elite 4 or the Champion, Lance. A bit nervous, perhaps, but not scared. This fear of failure was foreign and strange, something that had spawned inside of her more recently. Ever since arriving on the mountain. Ever since meeting Ash. 

As though oblivious to AJ’s emotional turmoil, her companions all seemed to be in particularly good moods today. 

Sammy especially was in his element, for all that he was being half-carried by Jade. His wide eyes sparkled under the sun like a child on their birthday, eyes bouncing around eagerly, exclaiming at every sight and bemoaning the fact that he didn’t have his pokedex on him to take pictures or notes. 

His frenetic pointing had caused two small pokemon they’d come across playing in a patch of pansies, pokemon who AJ didn’t recognize - a Meloetta and a Shaymin, apparently, according to Cole - to slowly draw back from the group and hide in some nearby bushes. 

When a small blue creature floated by overhead and waved - Manaphy? Or maybe Phione? - Sammy had literally shrieked like his favorite pop idol had just showed up on his doorstep. AJ had never seen him this excited before. On any other day, it would have been hilarious. 

Cole for his part merely seemed amused, and somewhat embarrassed, at Sammy’s over-the-top reactions to what must have seemed to Cole as nothing more than the mundane aspects of his everyday life. Jade, however, was clearly starting to get annoyed at having to keep dragging Sammy forward every time he wanted to stop and gush.

The path to their destination wasn’t paved, of course - there were no roads or even dirt paths in the Sanctuary - but it wasn’t a difficult journey. The grass was soft and dry, the hills they passed through not too steep, and as they made their way, they gradually began to follow the bank of the river that snaked its way through the evergreen paradise. This soothed AJ’s anxiety at least somewhat; water always did, and as they walked along, she found herself watching the river’s gentle currents flow, following the path of a lone Goldeen as it danced just below the water’s surface.

“So, question,” Jade asked, no longer paying Sammy any mind as he pointed at a figure in the distance and argued with himself over whether it was a Suicune or a Virizion, “I get this is like, the Sanctuary where Legendary pokemon come to chill out or whatever. But why are there so many… regular pokemon here?”

She pointed over to the river bank where a Meowth was taking a nap under the shade of a tree. A Squirtle popped its head out of the water for a second to watch them before diving back down, out of sight. 

“I don’t get how a Meowth could have survived the journey up this icy mountain the whole way here.”

“It didn’t,” Cole said simply. “It came here with Mewtwo. Or rather, I guess it’d be more correct to say Mewtwo brought it here. It, and most of the other non-legendary pokemon you see.”

He made a sweeping gesture with his hands, and for the first time, AJ started to really pay attention. There was a Togepi playing in a bed of flowers beside a sleeping Vileplume. A Geodude rolling down a hill. A Dewgong sunbathing on a rock. 

She’d noticed the regular pokemon before, of course, but had completely overlooked them in favor of the overall strangeness of the warm, green paradise they’d found - as well as the actual legendary pokemon who hung out here as well. She hadn’t even spared a thought for how they’d arrived. Certainly, a Dewgong couldn’t have made its way here, even if it had been released in the wild. 

“Mewtwo did?” Jade asked, clearly flabbergasted. “But why? Is it holding them hostage, too?”

“No, no,” Cole said, chortling good-naturedly. “He rescued them. You’d probably want to ask Ash for the full story - he was there, after all, not me. But it has to do with that story I told you and AJ the other night, the one about Giovanni and his obsession with Mew. From what I hear, he tried to clone Mew from a bit of the blood he got in our last battle and ended up with Mewtwo instead. That same cloning technology went on to clone a bunch of other pokemon, who you see here now living in the Sanctuary to keep them safe from humans. I forget the rest of the details though. I was already here on the mountain when all of that was happening.”

“Cloning, huh?” Sammy said, apparently having been brought back to reality at least for the moment. “Most of the regular pokemon seem to be native to the Indigo League. Was Mewtwo made somewhere in Kanto or Johto? When did this happen?”

“Oh… I’d say about… Thirty years ago, give or take? Some of these pokemon are the same ones that Mewtwo brought with him, but most are descendents. They’ve been able to flourish here peacefully, free of human interference. I can’t say I agree with Mewtwo’s every opinion, but I can’t deny these pokemon have had a great life since coming here.”

“Thirty years…” Sammy mused thoughtfully, a pensive frown on his face. “That was right around the time that the lab on Cinnabar burned down, right?”

“I have no idea, lad,” Cole said with a shrug, and Jade snorted. 

“Everything on Cinnabar burned down after the volcano erupted.”

“No, I meant before that. The one Blaine and Dr. Fuji used to work at, where they were researching fossil restoration.”

“Blaine and who?”

“You know - famous researcher? Went on to oversee the Lavender Tower? Passed away in that fire that burned down his lab-”

“Sammy, no regular person knows the names of every random researcher on the planet. We’re not all a bunch of dorks like you Oaks.”

“Dr. Fuji was a household name!” Sammy exclaimed, affronted. “Everyone in the Indigo League knows about him! His research led to so many breakthroughs - fossilized pokemon restoration, artificial pokemon like Porygon - none of that would have been possible without him! He was a genius! A national treasure!”

“Yeah, ok… Nerd.”

“Maybe if you’d actually paid attention in school-!”

“Now, now,” Cole cut in, vying for a placating tone. “Xerneas isn’t a fan of contention, so let’s keep the… uh… discussions to a minimum. At least for now, alright?”

That quietened them both down, and not for the first time, AJ found herself silently marveling at Cole’s ability to take command of a situation. For someone who’d spent so much of his life alone, he still knew how to get a couple of bratty teens to shut up. Well, mostly - Jade was being quiet, but Sammy had gone back to mumbling under his breath about legendary pokemon. 

You could take Sammy out of the lab, but you couldn’t take the lab out of Sammy. 

They continued on their way for several more minutes, seeing several more pokemon, legendary and otherwise, and following the path of the river until Cole had them start to pull away and head off between the hills again. 

AJ felt her frustration begin to mount. Just how far did they have to go? And how big was this place, anyway? The horizon seemed to stretch on forever, but that couldn’t be real, right? Entering the Sanctuary felt like stepping out of reality and directly into one of those generic stock-image backgrounds on desktop computers. Did the paradise have edges? Invisible demarcations that delineated the end of the dream and the return to harsh reality? Or was this space truly this expansive? Had Palkia itself done some godly mumbo-jumbo and created a never-ending pocket dimension for his legendary friends to play in?

“We’re here,” Cole said, and AJ didn’t miss the slight note of reverence in his tone. 

‘Here’ apparently meant a relatively small and unremarkable pond nestled in a copse of trees just a few dozen meters from the riverbank. There wasn’t much to say about it, really; it didn’t look particularly deep, and while the waters were calm, they seemed a bit murky and brown. The occasional lily pad or dead leaf floated listlessly in the stagnant waters. The wind was mellow here, the grass barely moving. No wild pokemon, legendary or otherwise, could be seen. All was quiet. 

The main feature of the pond was the small island located in the center, maybe only a few paces in diameter, that held nothing but brown, muddy dirt and a single dead tree. That last actually was notable, as it stood out to AJ as the only dead plant she’d seen since entering the Sanctuary. 

The bark was dark and dry, the limbs shriveled and leafless, branches clawing upwards toward the clear, blue sky like the petrified fingers of a person who’d died still begging for salvation in their final moments. It was unsettling, in a way. And it did not set her mind at ease in the slightest. 

The group stood still for a time, merely staring at the tree and the pond in total silence as though waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

Finally, Jade spoke up. 

“So… Now what? Is there some sorta ceremony, or…?”

Cole shrugged. 

“Dunno. I’ve never summoned it myself, only seen it show up a time or two. It, or Yveltal. They both seem to like this place.”

AJ’s muscles seemed to stiffen of their own accord. Her intestines felt like they were slowly filling with cement. 

“What do you say, O Samwise Oaktree? What does your nerd brain tell us? We need to, like, construct an altar or something? Play a special song? Make a human sacrifice?”

“Pretty sure the ancient people of Kalos just made food offerings,” Sammy replied, adopting his patented ‘Oak’ tone that let them know he was in researcher mode, “but I doubt that actually matters. The legends say Xerneas first appeared after a great war and healed the wounded pokemon, but it did that of its own accord. Add that to what Cole said about it just showing up sometimes on its own, and I think it’s fair to say we probably don’t have to do any kind of ritual.”

“Maybe it shows up when it senses need,” Jade offered. “Try bringing Pichu out.”

That sounded like as good an idea as any, but for some reason, AJ hesitated. Her limbs felt stiff and heavy. The fear was rising in her chest again, clawing its way up her throat now. She was scared. Scared to ask and have nothing happen. Scared to ask and have the wrong pokemon show up instead. 

Which was absolutely stupid, she knew, as she forced her limbs into action, frustrated with herself and taking slow, robotic steps towards the edge of the pond. She had nothing to lose by asking - not unless Yveltal showed up, and if it did, she’d fight it off. That, or die trying. Which wasn’t a comforting thought, but what else could she do? Give in and accept it? But it wasn’t until she’d reached the water’s edge and stared down toward her murky silhouette reflecting in the water that the true source of her fear seemed to be made apparent. 

She wasn’t just scared that nothing would happen - or that things would go wrong. What was really getting to her was the potential ‘why’ behind it. 

The stories made it seem like, when people would make the pilgrimage to ask for help, Xerneas and Yvettal would judge the seeker’s worth and respond in kind. That there was some sort of test they performed - known only to them, impossible for mortal minds to comprehend - that dictated whether you were saved, spurned, or sacrificed. And while on another day, she may have found that notion laughable, here, right in this moment, as she stood beside the water’s edge, it frightened her. 

Because she knew what they’d find if they looked into her heart. She’d had that cold reality thrown into her face enough times since arriving on this mountain, she didn’t need to hear it again from some faceless deities of life and death. Two terrible monsters had already held that mirror up to her face and shown her she was just as monstrous as they were. 

‘How could she ever hope to truly be a Pokemon Master if she can’t even take care of her partners? If she treats them like pawns in a selfish game, seeking personal glory or whatever this stupid vendetta of hers is about? ‘

‘She is everything I have always said humans are. Selfish and self-destructive, and I will not let her destroy everything we have built.’

How could she, of all people, have the audacity to ask for Xerneas’s help? When she was the reason her Pichu and the rest of her partners had been so badly hurt in the first place? What sort of arrogant fool destroyed the things most precious to them and then had the gall, the sheer nerve, to expect someone else to clean up the mess?

If she was Xerneas, she’d turn her away in a heartbeat. 

Maybe it would be better, safer, to have someone else ask. To have it be Cole who made the request, who had sacrificed everything, even his own happiness, for the sake of these pokemon. Or Jade, who had the biggest heart of anyone she knew, who still stood beside her even after AJ’s selfishness had imprisoned her here alongside her. Or Sammy, who, even when hurt and moments from death, had still been trying to protect his pokemon and that egg. 

They were so much better than her. Surely, Xerneas wouldn’t turn them away. And if there was even a chance that one of them asking could improve their odds, then the right thing to do - the responsible thing to do - would be to turn around now and ask someone else to take her place. 

And yet… 

She plucked Pichu’s ball off of her belt and stared down at it in silence. 

Even though she knew that was right, even though that logic was sound, even though she knew in her heart of hearts that she didn’t deserve him - him, or any of her partners who she’d misused and betrayed - the thought of handing him over to someone else made every fiber of her being scream in denial. 

Pichu was her partner. Her first pokemon. Her best friend.  

And yes, she had been the one who got him hurt. She let him down. She’d failed him.

But even now, as purely selfish as she knew it was… She refused to let him go. 

He was her responsibility. And even if it was selfish, and even if the gods, even Arceus himself up on his throne over space and time, looked down on her and denied her, she didn’t care. She was going to be the one to make this right. Whatever it took. 

So she knelt down on the grass, not far from the edge of the pond, and clicked the button on her pokeball. In a flash of red, Pichu materialized on the ground before her. 

His face twisted in discomfort, cheeks flushed, breathing haggard. His little limbs were still swollen from where the bones had broken, and who knew what other internal trauma he still suffered from? 

The best they’d been able to do for him over the past couple of days was to let him sleep and force feed him pureed berries and herbs, but that could only do so much. Jade was confident his life wasn’t in danger, but even if he’d recover on his own, it could take weeks - possibly months - and without proper medical treatment, she knew his bones would probably set wrong. He’d almost certainly have a limp at the very least. His battling days would be over. 

And that wasn’t the end of the world, she knew. Pokemon had to retire from the competitive scene all the time due to improperly treated injuries. Even human athletes dealt with as much from time to time. He’d be devastated - as would she - but they’d get over it. He’d always be her best friend. That would never change. 

But the knowledge that this was her fault, that she’d done this to him, was almost too much to bear. Having him laying right in front of her was bringing the grief up all over again, and for a moment, she almost forgot why they were even there. 

Still kneeling, she leaned forward, palms on either side of her pokemon, and curled her fingers into fists, tearing through the grass, struggling to control her roiling emotions. It didn’t help, though. The tears came, and with them, the quaking and the sobs. 

Pichu was out now, clearly suffering for anyone who cared to see it. Where was Xerneas? Why hadn’t it appeared?

What was she supposed to do? Call out for help? Shout into the heavens? Would Xerneas hear her then? If it could hear that from so far away, then couldn’t it hear this? Pichu’s strained breathing, his weak squeaks of pain and discomfort? 

And if not Xerneas, then who? Did she scream at Arceus, who probably existed and who clearly didn’t care? At Mewtwo, for trapping them here and preventing her from getting Pichu to a doctor? At Ash, who she still blamed for every bad thing that happened despite knowing deep down that this time, it was on her? Or did she yell at herself? Continue to berate herself, impotently, and hope that if she abased herself enough someone else might show them pity?

But it wasn’t to some faceless pokemon god or terrible monster or even Ash that she spoke to. As the tears poured down her cheeks, she lowered her head down as close as she could get without touching him, and whispered, voice strangled with tears, “Pichu… I’m s-so… I’m sorry. P-please… Please forgive me…”

Wracked with sobs, overcome with her own grief and despair, AJ didn’t notice the subtle shift in the air or the light around them. She didn’t hear the gasps or soft exclamations of wonder from her friends, or feel the way the world around them seemed to still. 

In fact, it wasn’t until she felt the shuffle of movement under her palms that she opened her eyes again, and, blinking through her tears, found herself confused at all of the yellow she was seeing mixed in with the green. 

They were buds, she realized after a moment, poking up through the grass. Dandelion buds. The petals closed, newly born, still not fully formed. They hadn’t been there before. It was as if they’d all suddenly grown in the last few seconds, watered by her tears. But how…?

She jerked her head up, then fell back on her butt with a shout of alarm. 

There, standing directly in front of her at the water’s edge, was a pokemon. 

It was like a Stantler, only absolutely massive, even taller than she would have been if she were on her feet - and that was before you took the antlers into consideration. The fur on its legs and body and tail was the deep bluish-black of the night sky, with some gold on its forelegs like starlight, its limbs sleek and thin, its neck and head a dark cobalt blue. Its face and slender snout spoke of an innate sense of regal wisdom. 

And it’s antlers - they were huge, each ending in four prongs that seemed to be made of clear, perfect diamond. The light that filtered through them shimmered and glowed, sending waves of rainbow color undulating down their lengths from tip to skull. 

AJ couldn’t breathe. It was there - it was actually there, right there, in front of her. Xerneas had appeared. Not Yvettal - she hadn’t even been snubbed! Actual Xerneas! In the flesh!

She then remembered Pichu who was still trembling on the grass in front of her and she struggled to push herself back to her knees, limbs quaking with almost as many emotions as there were colors glowing in the Lord of Life’s horns. 

Now wasn’t the time to gawk. She wasn’t Sammy. She didn’t care that this was a legendary pokemon or a veritable god - not now, at least. Not while Pichu needed help. 

“P-please,” she managed, breathless and tense. What was she supposed to say? What was the ‘proper’ way to beg for its help? For someone to show them mercy? “Please, I… Pichu, he… Please…”

The words wouldn’t come out. She was going to cry again. Stop it! Focus! You can cry later, now isn’t the time!

Xerneas stared at her, unmoving, unblinking. Its eyes… they were a shade of blue just a touch darker than its face, and yet… There was something strangely human about them. It felt as if they touched her soul, like they could see deep inside of her, read every thought or feeling she’d ever had. 

She flinched and almost looked away. She didn’t want it to read her, to see what she’d done, to see every cruel or hateful thought she’d ever had - especially since they’d been so plentiful recently, ever since arriving on the mountain, and nearly all of them had been about Ash, who, for all she knew, was probably its friend. She knew she wasn’t perfect. She knew she was flawed, but… Pichu shouldn’t pay the price for that, right? Don’t weigh her sins on some scale like the stories said - she’d pay the price, she’d pay any price, just take his pain away!

“Please…” she said again, and this time, she bowed herself low. “Please help him… Please…”

Silence. No sound met her ears but the placid pounding of her heart and Pichu’s struggling breaths. The moment stretched on, tense and hopeful and desperate and scared. 

And then, after an agonizing pause, it moved. 

It, too, bowed its head low, and for a wild moment, she thought it was bowing back to her. It wasn’t until she noticed the tip of its nose gently brushing Pichu, its tall antlers encasing AJ on either side, that she realized what it was doing. 

Its horns glowed, the radiant light all but blinding her. The wind rose, a warm gale, swirling up around them. Below, all along the grass, the dandelion buds burst into full bloom, sweeping across the carpet of grass outward from where Xerneas stood in a radiating spiral of wonder and life. 

And then it was straightening up, backing away, and there, in front of AJ, her Pichu began to move. 

He yawned languorously, stretching his little arms and legs and back as far as he could get them as if waking from a lovely nap. He blinked his eyes open slowly, letting them adjust to the bright morning sunshine, then turned to stare at Xerneas in comical stupefaction.

AJ’s hands clasped themselves over her mouth to stifle a sob. He was up! He was moving! He was ok!

Pichu noticed the movement, though, and when his eyes landed on hers, his face broke into a bright smile and within seconds he was up, off the grass, and leaping straight into her arms with a bright, welcoming cheer. 

She caught him in midair, pulling him in close, hugging him so tightly she was liable to break his bones again, but she couldn’t help it. She was laughing and sobbing all at once, rocking him in her arms, unable to control herself. 

He was ok. He was going to be ok. 

The surge of relief was so strong, she nearly collapsed back onto the grass. She still felt awful for how she’d used him and the rest of her team, of course, but knowing that Pichu would be ok - that he wouldn't have to suffer for the rest of his life due to her neglect - was so unbelievably liberating. It was like she’d been carrying around a Golem on her back for the past couple of days, and she’d finally set it down. 

It didn’t matter that they were stuck on this mountain, together with Ash and that monster known as Mewtwo. Everything would be ok now. So long as she and Pichu were together, there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do. And she knew he knew it, too.

She wasn’t sure how long she stayed like that, but when she finally remembered where they were and what was going on, she found that Xerneas was no longer standing in front of her. 

She looked around, still kneeling on the grass, Pichu excitedly licking her cheek, and finally noticed that Xerneas had made its way over to Sammy. He was testing his broken leg, putting his weight on it and laughing in amazement and delight. He’d been healed, just like Pichu had been. The others stood a little apart, Jade crying, Cole smiling in happiness and relief. 

After a moment, Sammy seemed to remember himself. 

“Ah, thank you, uh… Xerneas?”

He thought about it for a second, then apparently decided that a bow was appropriate. It was short and choppy and awkward, and he looked a little embarrassed with himself after it was done. 

Jade followed suit, albeit more gracefully, but Cole contented himself with a grateful nod. Xerneas nodded back to each in turn before slowly turning around and making its way back to the pond. 

As it made to pass her by, however, AJ offered up a quick, heartfelt, “Thank you - for saving him,” which made the Xerneas pause unexpectedly. 

For a moment, it turned to look at her again. When their eyes met, she felt an… impression settle upon her mind. An understanding of sorts - not words, exactly, but meaning suddenly flowed into her, and she knew that Xerneas was telling her something. 

It was never about worth. All things have their seasons, for growth and for decline. Xerneas encouraged growth in its season - and for AJ and Pichu, it was not time for their season to end. When Xerneas chose to heal them, it did so in the hopes that it might encourage that growth. But the rest would be up to them. 

It had healed her and her friends - human and pokemon alike - but it had only treated their physical wounds. The wounds that remained in her heart, however - those she would have to see to herself.

Dazed, not certain if that was real or if she’d made it all up, she nodded and watched as Xerneas turned away, heading towards the tree in the center of the pond. Its hooves made no sound as they glided atop the water’s surface, every step cleansing the pool and clearing the stagnant water, until at last it reached the withered tree. 

Then, just like that, it was gone. No flash of light, no fanfare. It simply vanished, as if it never was.

Pichu sprang out of her arms, just as energetic as ever, and as it raced around the grass, squeaking animatedly, it kicked up waves of dandelion seeds from the flowers that had seemingly completed their growth cycles, replacing the yellows with a field of soft white. 

Then Pichu turned and raced somewhere behind AJ, likely off to greet Jade and Sammy and Cole, but AJ remained where she was, kneeling at the pond’s edge, watching the dandelion seeds that were caught in the breeze get carried up into the air and away, far out of sight. 

Everything in their season, Xerneas had said. And she and Pichu were still in their season of growth. 

That meant it wasn’t over. Her defeat against Ash - as a trainer and as a person - had all but upended her. But she’d wallowed long enough. She’d become Champion of Kanto, but that didn’t mean her journey was at its end. She and Pichu still had a whole lot of room to grow, and it was time to stop pitying herself and get back on her feet. 

But she remained still for just a moment longer, watching the dandelions dance and letting the gratitude and the warm morning light soak into her bones. 

Jade sat alone on the hilltop overlooking Xerneas’s pond, a small but contented smile on her face. Overhead, the midmorning sun was well on its way to its peak, and she basked under its glow, letting the warmth of the sunlight match the warmth of the joy she was still feeling in her belly, heating her on both sides. 

After spending so much time out on that freezing mountain, she really deserved this. 

The group had decided to stay in the Sanctuary for a while longer after witnessing the miracle that had saved Pichu and Sammy. It’s not like they had anything else to do, and this was definitely preferable to going back to the cold and the snow. 

They’d taken the opportunity to let their pokemon out of their balls, something they hadn’t done since that disastrous night of the avalanche, and as Jade sat back, gently stroking one of her sleeping Ninetales’ many luxurious tails, she let her eyes take in the scene before her, doing her best to paint the image into her memory banks. She wanted to remember this day forever. 

Her Metagross and Gigalith were snoozing on the grass behind her. Sableye was hiding in Metagross’s shadow, not a fan of the bright light but not wanting to miss out either. Mawile was rooting through some nearby bushes, softly singing to herself while she snapped up fistfuls of berries, and overhead, her Minior floated by, shields down, sprinkling the air with shimmering stardust. 

Down the hill a ways were AJ and Sammy. Sammy’s pokemon had all crowded around him after he’d called them out, delighted that their trainer was healthy again. Leafeon had literally tackled him to the ground in her joy. Gallade kept trying to look stiff and austere, but she’d been able to see how emotional he was even from a distance. 

It hadn’t taken long for him to default back to Oak Mode, however, and he was even now crawling through the grass, Leafeon and Gengar at his side as he spied on a pokemon that was flying by far overhead. Something that almost looked like a Moltres, except that it was black and red instead of red and yellow. The Galarian variant, perhaps? 

Sammy’s Dragonite was resting in the pond, its lower half in the water, its upper half lying on the bank, sunbathing as it slept. Corviknight was nearby, pecking at the ground, looking for seeds to eat as it occasionally scanned the perimeter as though it were on guard duty. 

Sammy’s sixth and final pokemon, one Jade hadn’t even realized he’d brought with him, was a Sylvally - one of those artificially created pokemon from Alola. It pawed at the grass with its freaky chimera feet looking a bit lost and confused, no singular part of its body looking like it matched with the whole. When and how he’d got his hands on something as rare as that, she had no idea. Oak connections, she assumed.

AJ, for her part, had moved off alone for a bit, and with Pichu busying himself with scampering all around, making up for all of the energy it hadn’t been able to burn over the past couple of days, she took the time to call out each of her pokemon, one by one, and hold a quiet conversation with them. 

She was much too far away to overhear what was being said - at this distance, AJ herself was no bigger than the last segment of her pinky finger - but she didn’t have to. She knew what she was doing just from seeing her body language, the way she bent her head low, the way each of her pokemon tried to comfort her in turn. She was apologizing for everything that had happened in the battle with her father. And it looked like each of her pokemon had forgiven her without question. 

In a way, Jade supposed this was a good thing. A trainer needed to be able to hold themselves accountable for their mistakes, especially to their pokemon. If a trainer couldn’t admit when they were wrong, it could breed mistrust in their team and weaken their overall dynamic. It was nice to see AJ put away the rage for a moment and concede that, even if the match had been against the man she hated most in the entire world, she’d still pushed her team too far and had hurt them in the process. There was a maturity there. A form of higher-level trainer acumen she’d come to expect from her best friend - at least, where her pokemon were concerned.

At the same time, though, Jade couldn’t help but feel like AJ was blaming herself just a bit too much. After all, injuries happened in trainer battles all the time - it was the nature of the game. And sure, usually any responsible trainer had a variety of medicines on their person to provide immediate treatment to either heal the injury or else provide pain relief until they could arrive at a Pokemon Center for more serious treatment. But given the avalanche, that hadn’t really been a possibility for them in this case. 

Maybe some of those injuries were on her. Calling Pichu out after she’d already lost the fight, and the entire situation with Hydreigon - those were clearly on her. Milotic, Jade lay entirely at Ash’s feet - the burn was one thing, but that final pile driver had been completely unnecessary.
 
But Arcanine, Togekiss, Aegislash - those injuries hadn’t been too serious at all and were rather par for the course for a pokemon battle, especially one at the level of Champions. Jade had the feeling that AJ was beating herself up entirely too much. This situation with Ash was warping her vision. 

Her friend had staked entirely too much of her identity on being better than her dad. And now that she’d lost to him, she’d seemingly lost much of herself as well. 

The soft crunch of footsteps on grass allerted her to his presence, but she kept her eyes on AJ, unconcerned. A moment later, breathing heavily, Cole sat down on the grass beside her, looking a little winded. The hill wasn’t that steep, but the man was in his sixties. All of this hiking around can’t have been easy for him. 

“Beautiful day,” he said as a way of greeting. 

Jade smiled and nodded but said nothing. It was a beautiful day. A perfect day. 

But Cole Ketchum wanted something. She could hear that in his tone from a mile away.

“Glad things worked out,” he continued after a moment, scratching at his beard. “I’ll admit, I was a bit worried - if Xerneas hadn’t shown up, I don’t know what we’d’ve done. But it did, and Pichu and Sammy are both back on their feet. That should ease everyone’s minds a bit.”

He sighed, and she noticed out of the corner of her eyes that his gaze was also locked on AJ. 

“One wound healed,” he said softly, almost to himself. “Now onto the next.”

He turned to Jade then, a conspiratorial set to his face, and said, “Now lass, I was hopin’ you’d do an old man a favor.”

She turned to Cole and flashed him a lazy sort of smile. 

“Well, I suppose. We do owe you, after all.”

As long as it wasn’t too onerous. She was comfortable here. She didn’t want to move just yet. 

“That’s a good lass,” the older man chuckled amiably. “It might be a bit of a doozy, though. See, I was thinkin’... Well, I s’pose I should just say it. I was thinkin’ that now’s as good a time as any to try to mend this thing between AJ and her father.”

Jade’s entire body tensed. She gently pushed Ninetales’ tail off of her lap and sat forward, elbows resting on her knees. 

“Who says it needs to be fixed?” she asked cautiously. 

Cole looked at her askance. 

“You can’t be tellin’ me you enjoy spending everyday livin’ with all that tension in the cabin, do you?”

She did not. And considering how they had no idea how long they were going to be stuck here, the prospect of dealing with that for an indefinite amount of time was particularly cloying. 

Still though. 

“Look,” she said, not unkindly, “AJ’s attitude towards Ash may seem a bit extreme to you, but I get where she’s coming from. She doesn’t have to like or get along with him just because he’s her father. She didn’t need him when she grew up without him, and she doesn’t need him now.”

The truth, though, is that Jade wasn’t sure she really agreed with that. Oh, she knew that what she was saying was true - parents and children don’t have to get along just because they happen to be parents and children, and trying to force the issue and ignore the bad blood just for that reason was just asking for more resentment and hate. 

But the thing was, she also knew that she was just regurgitating AJ’s favorite talking points. She was defending AJ and her decision instinctively because she was her best friend and taking your side is what best friends do. And honestly? After all these years, after seeing how much her father’s name had hurt her, she kind of hated Ash Ketchum, too.

But there was a part of Jade that, as a third-party observer to this ridiculous Ketchum family soap opera, could see that AJ’s proximity to it was narrowing her field of vision. AJ had always believed that her father had run out on her and her mother, which was the source of most of her resentment. Yet it was clear to Jade now that there was more to this story than they’d known - or thought they’d known. Only AJ was so determined to hang on to her hatred that she was unable, or perhaps simply unwilling, to see it. 

Maybe… Maybe Cole was right. Maybe AJ had been wrong about her father for all of these years. Maybe this could be salvaged.

Maybe.

Cole let out a particularly heavy sigh through his rugged mustache. 

“You’re not wrong, lass,” he said. “Truth be told, I’m probably meddling in places I have no right to be. I may be her grandfather, but do I get to play that card just because we’re related by blood? I was never there for her like a grandfather should be. I never put in the work. I haven’t earned it. But there’s a part of me that wants to try and make things better because… Well. Because I know how Ash must be feeling. 

“I’ve been in his shoes. After all, I was once the deadbeat father who disappeared without a trace, only for my child to find out after they’d grown up without me that I was alive and kickin’ on some random mountain in the middle of nowhere. And if fate was kind enough to me to give me a chance to get to know my son, to build that relationship with him that we were both denied, well… I suppose I want to try to pay that kindness forward for someone else.”

Jade shuffled uncomfortably. He was making sense. And much to her frustration, Jade was wavering. She knew she was supposed to have AJ’s back on this one, but the idea of resolving this misunderstanding between them was sounding really sweet. Like a storybook ending. The picture-perfect kind you see in dumb TV dramas. Call her a sap, but she’d always kinda liked those. 

“Are you sure that Ash would even want that?” Jade said, deflecting. “Their first meeting wasn’t exactly a positive experience, and he’s done a pretty good job of running away ever since. He’s avoiding her almost as much as she’s avoiding him.”

Cole stroked his beard thoughtfully. Was that just a thing that all old men did? Some physical tick men developed when they got older? Or maybe having hair on your face was just distracting and made you want to play with it all the time. 

“If I had to guess,” Cole said, “I bet Ash is probably trying to give AJ space because he knows how she’s feeling. He was in her shoes too, once. So even if he wants to get to know her, he probably feels like he can’t try to force it since he was the one who disappeared. Plus, that fool battle of theirs has made things rather awkward for everybody.”

Well that was the unvarnished truth. Still, what he said made sense, and it painted Ash as being considerate rather than the coward she’d unfairly assumed he was being. She’d really let AJ’s attitude color her view of this situation. Maybe she did need to take another step back so she could really see what was going on here. 

“You don’t have to help, lass,” Cole continued heavily. “And I’m sorry for puttin’ you on the spot. I guess I just… I’m grateful every day that I got to know my son, in spite of everything. And I guess I… Well. If I had the chance to reconnect with a family member I thought I’d lost forever, I’d do just about anything. But maybe that’s just my experience with Ash talking. I shouldn’t assume things about other people.”

But Jade had stopped listening. She’d gotten caught up on his words, on the idea. 

“I’ll help,” Jade said, almost without realizing she’d spoken. 

Cole blinked in surprise, then smiled excitedly. 

“You will?”

“Yeah,” she said, nodding as she felt her resolution firm. “She’s my best friend, after all. I have the right to meddle, even if you maybe don’t. And anyway, telling your best friend when they’re being stupid is all part of the job.”

Cole chuckled, slowly extending his legs so his heavy hiking boots plopped down on the grass in front of them. 

“She’s lucky to have friends like you two,” he said, letting his eyes wander over to his granddaughter affectionately. 

“Yeah, we’re pretty great,” Jade joked, earning another chuckle from Cole. “Though we’re pretty lucky too.”

Getting AJ and Ash to actually open up to each other was easier said than done, however. It would require that they actually speak to each other first, which was already a pretty big ask when the two couldn’t even seem to stand being in the same place for longer than five seconds. 

Still, though. If this worked out, then maybe… Maybe AJ could finally set down some of that baggage she’d been lugging around for most of her life.

And so, under the bright sunlight, the two began to scheme. 

Chapter Text

The day after witnessing Xerneas’s miracle, AJ was up and out of the cabin almost as soon as the sun was. Cap on her head, Pichu on her shoulder, she set off once more into the wild, determined to get back in touch with her roots. 

Forget the fact that she was the Champion now, or that she was trapped on an icy mountain with the man she hated most and the monster who was Mewtwo, or that she literally had no idea how to get out of this situation. She had just lost the biggest pokemon battle of her life, but now that her Pichu was back up and on his feet, it was time to stop moping. It was time to do what she’d always done after experiencing a loss, be it in a gym battle, during the League Tournament, or even just against a random trainer on the road. 

Buckle down and get to work. 

She’d set off alone that morning, leaving Jade snoring on the couch and Sammy curled into a ball in the corner by the fireplace. Now that Pichu was all better, they’d given Cole his room back, meaning the three teens had taken to crashing out in the main room. With only one couch, however, they’d decided to take turns with who got to sleep on it and who had to make do with laying on quilts on the cold, hard ground. Not that the couch was all that much softer. 

Cole had mentioned off-handedly at dinner the night before the need to make renovations. Adding new rooms to the cabin, or just building a new one entirely. He made it seem like it wouldn’t take that long - just a few months, he said, as if that was no time at all - so long as they enlisted the wild pokemon he’d befriended to help out. 

But the conversation had unnerved AJ. Cole had lived here for decades now, and he’d seemingly already accepted that AJ and her friends were going to be trapped here forever just like he was. He was looking ahead to the future - a future in which they never escaped. A future in which she never saw her mother again. 

AJ hadn’t given up yet, however. There had to be a way out. She was finally the Champion, she had family waiting for her - she wasn’t about to accept being imprisoned by Mewtwo. 

The problem was, if she couldn’t beat Mewtwo in a battle, how was she supposed to get out? She’d seen the way it had effortlessly taken down Sammy’s Dragonite and Jade’s Gigalith. Maybe on another day, she’d insist on battling it first before conceding that it was stronger, but her battle with Ash had dealt a heavy blow to her confidence. 

That, and lacking supplies or access to a Pokemon Center, she knew she needed to be more careful when it came to battling. Just because Xerneas had helped her out once didn’t mean it would do so again if she deliberately picked a fight with Mewtwo and got her whole team crippled. 

Hence her desire to train. To get back in touch with who she really was - a trainer, first and foremost. Clear her head a bit and see the bigger picture. Plus, the more she trained, the stronger her team would become, and the better off they’d be in a potential battle against Mewtwo. 

And, well, if she got a rematch with Ash, she might just be able to beat him next time. Not that that was her goal. Of course not. 

The air outside the cabin was piercingly cold, the weak rays of the morning light not nearly strong enough to lift any of the chill of the preceding night. AJ decided then that it didn’t really matter where she trained, so she may as well make for the Sanctuary. There was plenty of open space there to work with, and most of the Legendaries they’d spotted the day before had avoided them, so it shouldn’t be a problem. 

The mountain did offer wild pokemon she could battle - particularly strong ones, too - but after the avalanche the other day, AJ was more than a little wary about going around picking fights. Especially on her own. And anyway, after spending a few days convalescing, her team needed to get back into the swing of things, too. Get out of their balls, stretch their muscles, get their hearts pumping. Battle practice could wait for later. 

The fact that the Sanctuary was actually warm and pleasant to be in had absolutely zero bearing on her decision. 

Once in the Sanctuary, she made her way down to the riverside, keeping an eye out for any stray legendaries who might be a problem but not seeing anything too concerning. There had been some sort of tornado-looking thing that whisked by across a neighboring hilltop, but nothing else out of the ordinary. Once at the river, she called her team out and, after leading them all in their normal stretches, set them to work. 

She’d discovered yesterday that not only had Xerneas healed Sammy and Pichu, it had also taken the liberty to heal the rest of her team. Most of them had only had minor bruises to begin with, but Milotic’s burn was completely gone as well, leaving her whole team animated and fighting-fit.

They started with cardio. She set Milotic to swimming laps up and down the river, Togekiss flying circles overhead, while she, Pichu, and Arcanine got to jogging. Aegislash didn’t exactly benefit from cardio, not having a heart or muscles of its own, so he settled down to meditate by the riverbank. 

She’d taken a risk and called Hydreigon out, too. There was no one around, after all, and if AJ was ever hoping to use her in actual battles, she’d need to get used to the training regimen as well. 

She’d seemed confused at first, but after a moment, lifted herself up off the ground on her ragged wings and followed after Togekiss. She wasn’t nearly as fast, of course, being both a much larger, less agile pokemon and also just not being used to the work - but then, they didn’t need to move at the same speed, anyway. Pichu ran at AJ’s side, but her Arcanine was running laps around them. It didn’t matter how fast you went, just that you were pushing yourself. 

She wasn’t sure for how long she worked them, losing herself in the familiarity of the routine, but once they were all good and sweaty and the sun had made some progress overhead, she let them take a break for a few minutes before lining them all up on the riverbank and setting them up to do standard move repetitions. 

That was, three reps of twenty of their ‘standard’ special moves, blasted off over the water’s surface where they wouldn’t hit anything or accidentally set the grass on fire. Pichu’s Thunderbolt, Arcanine’s Flamethrower, Milotic’s Water Pulse, Togekiss’s Dazzling Gleam, Aegislash’s Shadow Ball and Hydreigon’s Dark Pulse. Over and over and over, the special moves blasted out across the water in a rainbow of colors, kicking up steam or fountains of water and generally destroying the peace and serenity of the Sanctuary. 

This was probably the best workout they could accomplish right now outside of actual mock battles. Back home, her mom had a whole building near the Cerulean Gym dedicated to training, and it had been kitted out with unique equipment or facilities meant to allow water-type pokemon to build muscle or strengthen limbs or flippers or tails. 

But since just about every pokemon had a unique body type, most of that equipment had to be specially made, meaning it didn’t come cheap. It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing you could lug around with you when you were out traveling, which meant that AJ had to make due with cardio and calisthenics. 

And while her team worked, AJ was hardly idle. While they focused on maintaining their power and control of their special attacks, AJ got to work behind them doing her own workout. Situps, pushups, squats - it had nothing to do with pokemon battling, but it helped her to keep in shape, and it came in handy when she was out adventuring in the wild. And in any case, it was important that her team see that she was working just as hard as they were, that they were all in this together. 

It wasn’t long before they started gaining an audience. The wild pokemon who lived in the Sanctuary had begun to gather around, cautious but curious, to see what this human and her weird team of pokemon were up to. 

Most of them were the clones that Cole had mentioned yesterday - a Rapidash on a hilltop, a Scyther hiding behind a tree, a Seadra in the river - but a few of them looked to be legendaries as well. Some of them she recognized (was that a Celebi?!), some of them she didn’t. But she let them be. So long as they didn’t interfere, it was fine - learning to ignore distractions was a good form of training too, and in any event, she didn’t want to do anything that could piss off the locals and get her kicked out. 

As she watched, a Charmander walked up beside Arcanine, watched it spew its powerful Flamethrower out over the river’s surface for a moment, then puffed out its chest and began mimicking it, though with a much smaller, weaker Ember. It clearly had no idea what Arcanine was up to, but the Charmander seemed to be having fun, so what did it matter.

Once they’d done their special attack reps, she had them switch over to physical attack reps, to work out a different set of muscles. Tackles, Flame Charges, Aqua Tails, Aerial Aces - she spaced them out so they wouldn’t hit each other and let them at it, making slow laps to examine their forms, correcting them when necessary. The wild pokemon were growing in number, most of them watching with interest, but some of them were starting to play along, practicing their own moves, showing off to AJ and to one another. 

While AJ had been distracted, scanning the perimeter to examine the wild pokemon and make sure none were getting too close to her team where they might accidentally get hurt, she spotted a figure on a nearby hilltop. A figure with a familiar hat and a Pikachu on his shoulder. 

As soon as she noticed him, he turned and vanished. She glowered, but fought to keep herself calm and focus on their training. There was no sense in letting him get her all riled up. What did he even want? Was he spying on her? Did he think she was out here abusing her pokemon? What did he know, anyway?

AJ stuck at this for a while, working her team through all of their best and strongest moves. Hydreigon tuckered out first, which was no surprise - she wasn’t used to this yet, and she was starting to get antsy with all of the wild pokemon around. Eventually, after a couple of hours had passed, AJ called it quits and ordered her team to take a quick dip in the river to cool off. She ended up joining them as well, because by that point, she was a hot, stinky mess and this was the closest she was going to get to a bath in this place. 

After they cooled off, it was time for lunch. She was eternally grateful that they’d found Sammy’s backpack and they’d been able to recover some of their food stores. Granted, it was only Sammy’s food, but he was a notorious over-packer, always saying he wanted to be prepared for any situation, and while she’d often teased him about being a worry wart in the past, she had to admit - he’d saved them this time. 

His food reserves included a wide selection for pokemon of all types - and a healthy serving of human food as well, which Cole had been all too happy to explore while cooking their meals. His food stores weren’t endless, however, and now that he was supporting not only his team, but Jade’s and AJ’s, she knew they weren’t going to last long. It would likely be only a week, probably less than that, before they were forced to let their pokemon spend parts of each day hunting and foraging in the wild for food. Another reminder of her need to get off of that blasted mountain.

After lunch, she’d recalled all of her team except for Pichu, and the two had decided to take a stroll around the Sanctuary. Anything was better than returning to the icy cold of the mountain, or the suffocating claustrophobia of the cabin. 

It was about noon now, or getting there at least. She wasn’t sure how long they’d walked for, Pichu occasionally dashing off in some random direction to examine something weird or strange, but AJ’s clothes were mostly dry at this point, so it had to have been for a while. Truth to tell, she was getting slightly lost. The Sanctuary was so big, and everywhere looked so similar. Worst case scenario, she could return to the river and hope she found her way back to the portal or the cave. 

Thankfully, before she really needed to consider that, she stumbled into her friends. 

Jade was off by herself, crawling around on top of her Metagross, scrubbing him down with a thick wire brush that she must have obtained from Sammy’s life-saving backpack. Pichu leaped off of her shoulder and dashed over to their friends, amusing himself by scampering up Metagross’s body and chirping animatedly at Jade, who barely paid him any attention. 

AJ, however, decided to make her way to Sammy instead, who was resting beneath the shade of a large beech tree. Sitting down in the shade just seemed like the perfect thing after the morning workout she’d had.

Sammy hardly seemed to notice her as she approached, hunched over as he was and working on something in his lap. AJ ended up flopping down on the grass beside him with an exaggerated groan in place of a greeting. Saying hello wasn’t worth the energy. 

“Good workout, I take it?” he asked absently, clearly only half paying attention. 

“As good as I’m likely to get here,” she mumbled. Idly, she wondered if she’d be able to get him or Jade to battle with her tomorrow. They were likely the best practice she was going to get, unless one of these legendaries decided they wanted to spar. Neither of them was exactly Champion-level, however, so it wouldn’t do much good. At best, she’d probably have to resort to her team practice battling each other - something they’d been doing forever, so there wasn’t much more to learn from it. 

Sammy grunted but didn’t try to continue the conversation. A peaceful sort of silence passed over them, comforting in its familiarity, and she contented herself for a time just lying on her back, arms folded behind her head on the soft grass, watching the distant figure of Jade trying to clean her Metagross while Pichu got in the way. 

Finally, getting bored, she turned to Sammy and frowned. 

“What are you doing, anyway?”

He was still hunched over, fidgeting with something in his lap that she couldn't see. When he didn’t respond, she pushed herself upright and leaned into him to get a closer look. 

He was scribbling notes on scraps of bark that he’d apparently ripped from the tree behind him. Using a stick with a burned tip as a pen. 

As was to be expected, it wasn’t going well. His words were faint and almost impossible to read, and the pieces of bark were so small, he could barely fit any information on them. 

“Wow,” she said, unimpressed. “You’re really desperate, aren’t you?”

“What else am I supposed to do?” he grumbled, shooing her away. “The greatest discovery of my lifetime is right here in front of me, but I don’t have my pokedex, or any pens or books or… or anything! I tried to use some of my spare shirts, but Jade wouldn’t let me. Said we’d need them since you two don’t have any extra clothes.”

Silently, AJ offered up a word of thanks to Jade for being the voice of reason. She needed to change as soon as she got back to the cabin. She’d been wearing this shirt for days now. Thankfully, they’d found some soap in Sammy’s supplies - dish soap, laundry detergent, and just regular soap for people and pokemon, which meant baths were back on the menu, but she’d need to wear his clothes for a while until she could get hers washed. Maybe she could convince Cole’s Slugma to heat up the water for her?

Still, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for Sammy. Here it was - a Sanctuary filled with legendary pokemon, the culmination of his impossible dream, stretched out in front of him. And unless she could save him from this place, no one would ever know.

She flopped back down onto her back on the grass, feeling defeated. Another moment of silence stole over them, though this time, to her at least, it felt heavy, weighted. 

“I’m sorry,” she said softly, gazing off blindly into the sky through the thicket of branches overhead. The tiny snatches of blue she saw through the tangles of dark wood seemed almost like stars. 

Sammy paused in his meticulous scratchings to look over at her and frown, a bit of charcoal on his nose. 

“For what?”

“You know,” she grumbled, starting to feel self-conscious. Apologizing always made her feel like she had a horde of Digletts tunneling under her skin. “For bringing you all here. For getting you trapped. It’s my fault.”

Sammy looked around uncertainly, then slowly set his scrap of bark and charcoal down on his backpack beside him. 

“Um… AJ, I don’t know how hard you hit your head during that avalanche, but you seem to be forgetting that this whole trip was my stupid idea in the first place. If we’re going to blame anyone - and honestly, I don’t really think it’s anyone’s fault, but whatever - then it should be me.”

“Shut up,” she mumbled, stretching out her legs, letting her heels drag through the grass. “You only suggested the trip for my sake - because I was stressed out about being the Champion and my fight with mom. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Sammy coughed awkwardly, looking away. 

“Um… Yeah. About that…”

“About what?”

“I, uh.. Well, I didn’t suggest the trip for you. I was gonna suggest it regardless. You having had a crappy evening just kinda… played into my plans a bit, I guess.”

“You were?” she asked, surprised. It had felt so spur-of-the-moment to her. If he’d been planning it, why’d he wait until that moment? If he’d wanted to go on a trip with her, all he’d needed to do was call or shoot her a text. Why feel the need to ‘plan’?

“Yeah. Because, like…” Here, he shuffled around a bit, looking unusually flustered. He kept his eyes averted, arms folded on his knees, but there was a bit of pink rising up his neck that was very unlike him. Admittedly, she found the rare, bashful look on his face somewhat intriguing. 

“Cause like…?” she prompted, and he let out a short, irritated breath. 

“Just… I mean, we’re.. Like, older now, y’know? I mean… Growing up, starting our adult lives… I just… wanted to spend some time together before… Well, life takes over, I guess. Before we start to grow apart.”

AJ sat up, frowning. 

“Hold up. Who says we’re gonna grow apart?”

He shot her a flat look. 

“I mean, how long has it been since we last saw each other? How long until we see each other again, assuming we get out of here? Once you’re bouncing around the country performing Champion duties twenty-four-seven and I’m locked up in a lab or spending months at a time camping in the Viridian Forest studying the mating rituals of Parasect or whatever. We just don’t have the time that we used to when we were regular trainers, y’know?”

“Sure,” she said dismissively, “but I mean, that doesn’t mean that we’re gonna grow apart-”

“Everyone grows apart, AJ,” Sammy said, and there was a surprising note of defeatism in his voice. “Especially when they rarely get to see each other anymore…”

It struck her then that this had been weighing on Sammy much more than she’d realized. During her travels, after he and Jade had decided to quit, AJ had more than felt their absence. She’d missed them every day and it had started to drive her a bit crazy before she’d met Hilda. But she’d never said anything to either of them about it because they’d both decided to take the next step in their lives and she didn’t want them to feel bad about pursuing their dreams just because those dreams were different from hers. 

But now she wondered if maybe she should have said something. Not asked them to keep going with her, but just… let them know that she missed them and that she valued what they had. Sure, she’d always sort of believed that some things went unspoken, that if your friendship was strong enough, it didn’t need to be said. But maybe… 

Maybe sometimes, the things that so often go unspoken deserve to be said. 

And maybe Jade was right about her being an emotionally stunted little troll doll who needed to learn to open up every once and a while, but she wouldn’t be conceding to that out loud where Jade could hear her. 

“Sammy,” she said softly, and if the note of genuine tenderness in her voice surprised him, it surprised her even more. “We’re not ever going to grow apart. You, me, or Jade. You’re too… Important. To me. Our journeys are connected. They always have been, and they always will be. And no amount of your emo Sammy pessimism is going to stop that.”

She said the last bit with a smile and a teasing twist in the hopes that it would undo a bit of the embarrassment of how sentimental that had gotten. She meant every word, but that didn’t stop her insides from squirming. She really wasn’t good at this sort of thing. 

Sammy, for his part, merely shook his head in mock disdain and said, flatly, “That was so unbelievably corny-”

She tore up a clump of grass and tried, unsuccessfully, to shove it in his mouth. He managed to fend her off, but he was laughing along with her, which was a good sign. 

“Ugh. If this is what ‘being connected’ to you means, I think I can do without,” he whined, wiping dirt and grass off of his face. 

“Shut up,” she laughed. “We’re bound together forever and I can prove it. Empirically, with scientific evidence that will satisfy even your cynical little mind.”

“I doubt that,” he said, leaning back on his elbows and stretching his legs out further than hers as though just to taunt her with the fact that he was taller. “I also doubt that you know what the word ‘empirical’ means in this context-”

“Sammy, literally every important moment of my journey as a trainer is connected to you in some way.”

“That,” he said disbelievingly, though there was a smile on his face as though he thought she were joking, “is a load of Tauros dung. Though I appreciate the sentiment.”

She undid the latch on her belt and yanked until it slid out from around her waist and dangled in the air between them. All six of her pokeballs glinted in the sunlight, most decorated in a multitude tiny scratches and dings from years of adventures that they had all shared. 

“Every pokemon on my current team,” she began, adopting an obnoxious, lecturing tone that she knew would annoy him to no end, “arguably my best team, some would say, is related in some way to you. Because we’re connected.”

He stared for a moment, watching the belt sway in the breeze, then turned back to her. 

“Um… I wasn’t even there for like, half of these, though?”

“Pichu,” she began, ignoring him and pointing down the hill toward where Pichu had apparently given up on helping Jade and was instead busy running circles around Metagross’s legs, “goes without saying. I mean, you were there. You know that.”

He nodded, a funny little smile on his face. Of course he knew that. They’d both showed up to the lab in Pallet on the same day to get their starters and had both been pulled aside by his great-grandfather, Professor Oak Senior, who had apparently set aside special starters just for them. A Pichu for her, because of who her father was, and an Eevee for him, for the same reason. 

She’d been furious at the time, but looking back on it now, that was where it had all started. Her and Pichu, and her and Sammy. 

“Both of us received our starters on the same day, in the same way, and for the same reason.”

“Right. Except that I got two starters, remember?”

“Shut up,” she said again. “We all know you’re a spoiled little rich kid whose favorite aunt got him a Raltz before he’d even left home, you don’t need to rub it in-”

“I’m pretty sure this spoiled little rich kid also beat you in our first ever pokemon battle,” Sammy continued, sounding smug. “Not many people can say they defeated the illustrious Champion AJ in a fight, and yet I was the first-”

“Next,” she said, raising her voice to drown him out. He could be a real brat sometimes. And here she was, trying to cheer him up out of the goodness of her own heart! “We have Growlithe. Do you remember that one?”

“I think so,” he said, furrowing his brows and looking off into the distance. “That was in… Johto, right? Near Azalea Town?”

“Yup, that’s the one. The day you saved my life.”

“Growlithe saved your life,” Sammy corrected. “I just… happened by.”

There’d been an electrical fire in an old building on the outskirts of Azalea, and it had gone up in flames faster than the town’s fire fighters could react. Due to a miscommunication, AJ had thought that her Pichu had run inside, and like an idiot, she’d dashed in after him, only for the ceiling to collapse on top of her. 

The Growlithe had been a wild one who lived in the woods nearby. AJ had battled it the day before with Pichu but had failed to catch it. He saw AJ rush in, calling Pichu’s name, and when the roof collapsed, tried to dig her out. When he realized he wasn’t going to be able to do it on his own, he ran for help and found Sammy on the road, who’d been following the rising column of smoke. Sammy, thankfully, decided to follow the frantically barking Growlithe and, together with his Kirlia, managed to teleport into the burning building to rescue her. 

Pichu, as it turned out, had run off to try and act cute to get free food from strangers and had never been in any danger in the first place. A rather embarrassing realization for her, but Growlithe had been impressed by her dedication to her partner and had decided to let her catch it, so it ended well enough. 

“Did I ever thank you for that?” she asked lightly, leaning back on her elbows and mirroring his pose. 

“Yes,” he said. “And then you got embarrassed and shoved me into a river.”

“Oh yeah…” she said, remembering that perfect way he’d squawked - surprise and indignation balled into one ungainly shout - just before his body hit the water. “Anyway, next is Feebas.”

“Who I was not there for,” Sammy said. “Thus proving my point.”

“Nope. Only my Aunt Daisy was with me for that one. It was right after I’d suffered my first loss at the Pokemon League Tournament, right after I’d finished the Johto Circuit. I got knocked out in the first round, but you’d made it to the second, remember? I was so mad.”

After losing, she and Jade had separated briefly to go home and visit their families for a couple of weeks. While in Cerulean, her Aunt Daisy had invited her on a fishing trip up near the cape so they could catch up and she could tell her all about her journey thus far - but instead, AJ had ended up spending most of the day ranting about Sammy Oak and how unfair it was that he’d gone farther than her when he was ‘nothing but a spoiled little rich kid’ who was ‘born with a silver spoon in his mouth’ and she’d had to work ‘ten times as hard as he did’, and so on, and so on. 

Daisy had listened patiently for a while, being a good aunt and letting her niece rant, but eventually, she’d decided to drop some of that good old-fashioned adult wisdom on her by reminding her that she shouldn’t judge people based on preconceptions, and that a person’s true worth was usually hiding inside for someone to uncover. 

AJ had been thoroughly unimpressed by Daisy’s fortune-cookie level advice, but almost as soon as she’d said it, there was a tug on the line and, seconds later, to her and her Aunt’s dumb surprise, she was reeling in a Feebas. An actual Feebas - in Kanto! Impossible! Her luck had to have been off the charts!

But while both AJ and Daisy had been derailed from their conversation over their need to celebrate AJ’s catch - and take multiple selfies with the pokemon to send to Daisy’s sisters and brag - the appearance of Feebas had unknowingly cemented in AJs mind the reality of her aunt’s admittedly cliched wisdom. It repeated in her head over the rest of her break every time she pulled Feebas out to show off or begin training. Over and over again, on a loop. If ever there was a pokemon who embodied the ideal of not judging a book by its cover, it was Feebas.

So, a couple of weeks later, as AJ and Jade boarded the ferry to begin their travels through Hoenn, when AJ saw Sammy leaning against the guard rail and staring out into the ocean, alone, she moved without thinking and finally asked him to officially join her and Jade as the third member of their group. 

Sammy blinked in surprise once she’d finished explaining. 

“Wow,” he said slowly. “I never knew…”

“To be fair, Feebas’s fishy face probably would have been enough to connect the two of you together…”

He gawked, then straightened up, indignant. If there was one way she knew of to rile up Sammy Oak, it was to poke fun at his appearance. 

“Excuse me?” he said, mostly joking - but only mostly. “Do you see this face of mine? I’m stunning. I’m downright gorgeous. How dare you compare me to a fish! We look nothing alike!”

She repressed her urge to smile - maybe he wasn’t as much of an entitled brat as she’d thought when they were kids, but he was certainly vain, that was for sure - and turned to carefully scrutinize him. 

Slowly, she reached a hand up and grabbed his chin, pressing her fingers and thumb into both of his cheeks, making his lips pop out like a fish. 

She gasped theatrically.

“Feebas! It’s you!”

Sammy jerked his face away with a groan of disgust. 

“You are just so…! Do you have any idea how many ladies have tried to date me over the years?!”

“Next,” AJ said, ignoring him, “is Togepi.”

“Which I actually was there for,” Sammy said, settling back down beside her. “That egg I won in that archeology competition in Celestic Town.”

“We won.”

“I won,” Sammy repeated emphatically. “I did all of the work while you shouted at me to go faster and Jade ate all of our snacks.”

“Um, yeah? I was the moral support and Jade was lightening our load so we could move faster and destroy the competition.”

“Ok, well - leaving aside how dumb that is - explain to me again why you got the egg and I didn’t?”

“How do you not remember this? I saved you from that Bronzong you pissed off and then you got all weird and said I could have the prize as thanks.”

Sammy groaned and shook his head. 

“That’s right… That’s what I get for trying to be a gentleman-”

“Gentleman?!” AJ repeated, outraged. “The second you found out the prize was a Togepi egg you tried to renege on your promise! I had to battle you to get you to back off! You whined for days!”

“Well it was a big deal!”

“More like you’re a big baby.”

“Shut up. You’re the worst.”

“I should’ve shoved you into another river.”

They glowered at each other for a moment, then both broke out into grins and looked away. 

“Alright. Well. We done with this trip down memory lane yet?”

“Nope, two to go. Do you remember how I caught Honedge?”

He frowned, tilting his head up to stare up at the clouds. 

“Um… It was a dare, right? Something about a haunted house?”

It had been a haunted mausoleum, actually. Some old museum in Snowpoint that was supposed to have historical artifacts collected from around the world, but that had closed down years and years ago for one reason or another. Sammy and Jade had been fighting about something, like they always did, and it had somehow resulted in them sneaking into the museum at night so Jade could prove she ‘wasn’t scared of ghosts’. 

The particulars were lost even to AJ, admittedly - it had been a long time and they’d had a lot of misadventures. But while Jade and Sammy had gotten separated and had learned some lesson about friendship or teamwork or whatever while trying to escape from a gaggle of playful ghost pokemon, AJ had stumbled across, battled, and subsequently caught her Honedge. 

“That was also where you caught your Haunter, right?”

“Yup. The ringleader of the whole troupe.” A wicked smile split across Sammy’s face as he leaned in and said, conspiratorially, “It was his love of messing with Jade that won me over.”

AJ laughed. Of course that was the reason. Her friends were idiots. She wouldn’t trade them for the world.

“Which brings us to Zweilous,” she continued, and Sammy shook his head, still looking amused. 

“Yeah, which happened all the way in Unova after we stopped traveling together. How are you gonna spin this one?”

This cocky prick. He was so full of himself, all the time. How did she put up with him?

“Do you remember, back when we were still ten years old and hadn’t left Kanto yet? We’d met up in Fuschia by happenstance and I challenged you to a contest in the Safari Zone?”

Sammy frowned, but nodded. 

“Yeah. You were pissed that I was one gym badge ahead of you, so you wanted to one-up me by proving you were better at catching pokemon.”

This had been a downright lie, of course. AJ was absolutely not better at catching pokemon than Sammy was, and they both knew it, but she’d been so annoyed at being behind her rival that she had to do anything she could to try to regain the upper-hand. 

Thus followed one of the most humiliating defeats of her young life. She’d gone into the contest guns blazing, determined to hunt down something exceedingly rare, like a Pincer or a Chansey, and had instead spent the entire allotted hour stomping through the swampy grass and catching nothing. She kept passing up the ‘common’ pokemon because she didn’t want to miss anything better. She never even spotted anything rare. 

Sammy, however, had meticulously caught every pokemon he’d come across, and while they were mostly common pokemon like Nidoran or Pidgey, catching twenty common pokemon was still more impressive than AJ catching a whole lot of nothing. 

Toward the end of the hour, he’d given up on searching for pokemon in the grass, content that he’d handily destroyed her at their contest, and had decided to spend the rest of the hour fishing and taunting her. Frustrated, she joined him, thinking that if nothing else, she knew she was at least better at fishing than he was. 

So when both of their lines tugged simultaneously, she was sure she was about to win and pull up something wonderful like a Seaking or a Slowbro. 

Instead, she got a particularly small and pathetic Magikarp. And Sammy had somehow managed to snag a Dratini. 

“You know, I don’t know that I’ve ever hated you more than in that moment,” AJ said, humming to herself. 

“I don’t know about that,” Sammy said. “I can think of a dozen other moments, easily, that come close. But none of this has anything to do with you fighting poachers in a traveling menagerie in Unova.”

“After our contest,” AJ said, patiently, “we met back up with Jade at the Pokemon Center, and you were just being so insufferable. Just… gloating, so bad, and I was so mad, and Jade was completely unsympathetic because I was the one who’d challenged you in the first place.”

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t have been the one gloating if you’d won.”

“The point is, you said something to me then. Something like, you were glad that Dratini had come to you instead of me because I’d never be up to the task of raising a pseudo-legendary.”

Sammy pulled a face. 

“I did? I don’t remember that…”

“Well, you did, and it stuck with me. I don’t think I ever said anything about it, but I took it like a personal challenge, and I was determined to one day catch a pseudo-legendary pokemon and add it to my Champion Team just so I could prove you wrong. But in all of our travels together, I never did. Not until we’d separated. Granted, me coming across Zweilous like I did was just random chance, but…”

She shrugged. Truthfully, she still didn’t fully feel like she’d accomplished that goal. She had a Hydreigon now, sure, but with how temperamental she was, AJ didn’t use her in battle which meant she still wasn't really part of the team. But she’d get there. One day. And on that day, she’d finally be able to tell ten-year-old Sammy he could eat his words.

They stared at each other quietly for a moment, letting it sink in. 

“Did you just make all that up?” he finally asked, and AJ laughed. 

“Listen - we already know what the future looks like for us, so there’s no need to stress. One day, you’re gonna take over for your dad as Kanto’s professor. You’ll send all the little kiddies off on their adventures with bright eyes and bushy tails, and I’ll leave them crippled and broken at the end.”

“And Jade will torment them in between,” Sammy finished, smiling to himself. It was an old joke, one the group had used to make back when they still traveled together, when AJ becoming the Champion was still a pipe dream. But now it was a reality. And nothing had changed between them. 

“We’re a unit, the three of us,” AJ said simply. “You’re the brains, Jade’s the heart, and I’m the muscle. And together, we form one large super robot who can protect the world from aliens or whatever.”

“Alright, I think we’re getting off topic.”

“But no matter what we do or where we go, we’re always going to be friends. We’ll always be connected. And we’ll share in every important moment.”

Something burst over the hillside, startling the duo, soaring high into the sky on the sound of flapping wings. It took AJ a moment to realize that it was a flock of Articuno, some of the pale blue Kantonian variety, and a few lavender Galarian forms. She counted maybe five or six fully grown adults, and a smattering of smaller forms that had to have been newly hatched babies. 

It was a surprise to see them in the Sanctuary, though. Of all of the legendary pokemon here, she’d have thought that Articuno would have no problem with the icy cold of Mt. Silver proper. Maybe the Galarian Articuno were resting in the warmth before continuing their migration back to Galar? Or maybe even ice-type pokemon needed a break once in a while.

As they watched, hands shading their eyes as the giant birds made their way across the skies, two figures broke free from their ranks, swooping down low in a wide circle, rapidly descending until, suddenly, it became very apparent that they were heading straight for them. 

They landed on the grass in a rush of icy wind, the older of the two - the mother - landing some distance away and folding her wings with an austere sort of grace. She gazed at them in silence, watching, carefully, as the baby Articuno landed somewhat clumsily on the grass just a few feet away from AJ and Sammy, nearly pitching forward onto its face and needing to hop a few times and beat its wings to maintain balance. 

The baby Arcticuno was, for lack of a better word, adorable. Tiny in comparison to its mother, it still stood about as tall as AJ’s kneecaps would have been if she were standing too. The bigger surprise were its feathers, however. Unlike the pale sky blue of its mother or the rich lavender of their foreign counterparts, this baby’s feathers were all a soft white, like freshly fallen snow. The feathered crest on its crown was shorter as well, and fluffier, as were its tail feathers, which at the moment were barely longer than her forearm. 

No one had ever seen a baby Articuno. Or at least, no one had ever been able to document the encounter. Its feathers must change color as they age. A relatively simple and uninteresting fact to most, but the first real, concrete fact about the life cycle of an Articuno to have been revealed in centuries. Sammy must be having conniptions. 

She snuck a glance in his direction and found that he was outright gaping, his jaw slack, his eyebrows nearly vanishing into his hairline. This was officially the closest he’d been to a legendary pokemon since regaining consciousness, and for a wonder, it looked like he had no idea how to react. 

The mother was still watching them silently, but the baby let out a soft, musical cry and hopped closer, eagerly examining the two humans with clear interest. It leaned down to examine AJ’s pokemon belt, which was lying across her lap, the metal capsules glinting in the light, the baby tilting its head this way and that as though it had never seen the like before. Which, given how small it was, and how obviously young, was no surprise. 

A bit late, it finally clicked in AJ’s head. This must be the baby Sammy had rescued! 

She reached out a hand to stroke its feathers, but the baby hoped away, out of reach, instead circling around to Sammy’s other side where it began examining him, searching his legs, his lap, his chest, until it found his belt still strapped around his waist. 

The baby leaned down and began pecking at the balls on his belt. 

This seemed to finally snap Sammy out of his stupor. He straightened up a bit, hovering a hand over his belt to protect his pokemon from this inquisitive baby and asked, his voice noticeably tremulous, “W-what’s up, bud? You… wanna meet my pokemon? I guess… I guess they were there too, huh? When we, uh… Helped you. H-hang on, I’ll… I’ll call them out.”

So he had noticed this must be the egg he’d rescued. Well, he was the smarter of the two. He’d probably caught on right away. The baby was still trying to peck at his belt, however, and the mother was still standing guard, watching in silence. 

Something about this moment felt different for some reason. Important. Portentous. 

AJ let her gaze bounce back and forth, from the baby to the mother, and finally, it hit her. 

“Sammy,” she said softly, placing a hand on his leg to get his attention. “I think… I think it wants you to catch it.”

“What?” he yelped, too loudly, glancing frantically from AJ to the baby. “N-no, no, I’m not-! I would never-!”

But the baby was hopping up and down now, clearly excited, chirping energetically, confirming AJ’s guess. 

Hesitant, Sammy let his gaze drift over to the mother, who was still watching them from a distance. 

Their eyes met, and for a long moment, neither of them moved. 

Finally, slowly, the mother bowed her head. Then, a moment later, it was off, launching back into the sky on powerful wings that sent gusts of chill air and flurry of snowflakes billowing in their faces. They watched in silence as it soared away, vanishing in the same direction as the flock from before. 

“I don’t understand,” Sammy said softly. “It’s still just a baby… Why would she…?”

But he let the thought die out. Some pokemon were just like that. Some lived their whole lives in packs, never separating from their parents or their young. Some would raise their young until they’d reached maturity and would set off on their own. And some never spent any time with their offspring, kicking them from the nest at birth or else just leaving their eggs to fend for themselves. Such was nature. Perhaps Articuno were the same. 

The baby didn’t seem bothered by its mother’s absence. Instead, it began pecking at Sammy’s hand, clearly annoyed that he wasn’t paying it any attention. 

“Ah- ow! Stop! Hold on, just- Hold on a second! Geez!”

Trying and failing to fend the Articuno off, Sammy quickly grabbed his backpack and began rummaging through the front pockets, pulling out a single pokeball that, with a click, expanded to fill his palm. 

He held the ball out in front of him, palm facing upward, then hesitated. 

“Are… Are you sure this is what you-?” 

But the baby pecked the center of the ball, not listening, and in a flash of red, dematerialized and vanished. The ball rattled for a moment, then stilled, the capture indicator blinking red and letting out that familiar, satisfying hum.

The two teens stared for a moment, stunned, then Sammy let out a single, disbelieving laugh. 

“I did it,” he said, breathless. Then, again, louder, “I did it! I caught a-!”

In a bright flash, the pokeball vanished, leaving Sammy empty handed. 

He gawked for a moment, utterly stupefied, before understanding seemed to finally steal over him. Then that elation from before seemed to melt into embarrassment. 

“I, uh…” he said, suddenly sheepish, running a hand through his hair. “I forgot for a moment there that I already had a full party, so… uh…”

So the ball vanished and the pokemon he’d just captured was sent to the lab. 

AJ tried to fight it - she really did - but it was no use. She snorted, slapping one hand over her mouth, the other arm wrapped around her midsection as she tried to hold in her giggles, but within seconds, the both of them were overcome with peals of laughter. 

The moment hadn’t been that funny, not really. But sometimes, when something so strange and wild and wonderful happens, there isn’t really anything else you can do but laugh. 

“You did it, Sammy!” AJ cried, once she’d regained a bit of her control, though they were both still giggling and feeling a bit high on life. She threw her arms around him, hugging him from the side. “Even without your pokedex or your research tools, the intrepid Professor-Oak-to-Be still manages to get it done! You caught a baby legendary who you can study! Proof - physical proof - that they reproduce just like regular pokemon! You’re finally making your crazy dream come true!”

“Ha, uh… Y-yeah…” was all he could say, red rising up his neck and coloring his ears and he flashed a lopsided grin down at her. “And to think you were trying to apologize for us coming here.”

“Well, I can’t take credit for this,” she said, beaming up at him. She should probably let go, but for some reason, she didn’t want to. It was nice, being close like this. “But this does prove me right. About before? Every important moment.”

“Every important moment,” he repeated, his smile and something in his eyes beginning to soften. 

Then, it was quiet. Too quiet. They were sitting really close and she was hugging him and he was smiling and his eyes were very green and this all felt very strange but not necessarily in a bad way and maybe it would be ok if they got even closer-

“Am I, uh… Interrupting something?”

Sammy practically leaped out of his skin, jerking away from AJ so suddenly that she lost her balance and fell forward into the grass. When she pushed herself back up, confused, Sammy was already on his feet, straightening his clothes and brushing the grass off of his pants, looking flustered. 

“Jade!” AJ cried, brightening up again, the strange feeling from before all but forgotten. “You’ll never guess what just happened! It’s big news! Huge! Tell her, Sammy!”

“Oh?” Jade said, and she bit her lip, fighting back an amused smile as she turned Sammy, whose face just seemed to be getting even redder. “Big news, huh? Should I guess, or is it patently obvious?”

“N-no,” Sammy choked out, averting his gaze, his voice tight and stilted. “I-it’s not… We didn’t…”

“Sammy caught that baby Articuno!” AJ shouted, throwing her hands into the air, not able to hold back any longer. A second later, she slapped her hands over her mouth, looking horrified. “Ah! Sammy! I’m sorry! That was supposed to be your big reveal!”

Jade’s expression changed to one of genuine surprise and excitement. For all that she and Sammy bickered from time to time, they really were best friends and she knew how big this was for him.

It was her turn now to congratulate him and give him a hug, which he returned, still a bit awkward. While she gushed over his achievement, AJ pushed herself to her feet and slid her belt back around her waist. 

This was a good day. A marvelous day. A day to always remember. Nothing could shake this feeling of triumph and elation. 

“Sammy - would you give me and AJ some space. We need to have a chat.”

AJ blinked, looking up at her friend in surprise, but Jade had her eyes locked on Sammy with an expression that clearly said that celebrations were over now and he was dismissed. 

Sammy, however, hesitated. 

“Wait… I mean, you’re not-?”

Jade rolled her eyes. 

“Ugh, no, that’s not what we’re going to talk about, geez. You’re so paranoid.”

“Right, but it’s just-”

“Goodbye, Sammy! Take my Metagross and go spy on some legendary pokemon or whatever. Bother someone else for a bit.”

He scowled, obviously annoyed that she was pushing him around, but the idea of riding her Metagross while he tracked and observed the legendary pokemon who lived in the Sanctuary was clearly too tempting to ignore. He stomped off with a huff, though didn’t actually argue back. Within a minute, he was up on Metagross’s back and zooming away. 

AJ, who had been watching Jade curiously, finally spoke once Sammy was out of earshot. 

“We have to chat?”

Jade sighed, walking over under the shade of the beech tree and sitting down. She patted the spot next to her, inviting AJ to join her. 

“Yeah, girl… We need to have a talk. Only… I’ve gotta brace myself, cause I know you’re gonna be pissed.”

AJ let out a short breath in lieu of a laugh. She was making her nervous, now. Is this karma getting back at her for thinking things were going so good a moment ago? 

“What, more bad news? I can’t imagine things could get much worse than they already are.”

Unless she was going to say they’d run out of food or something - but they could always go foraging. Not ideal, but not impossible. Or maybe someone was sick? But they all looked fine last night, and nothing had seemed off this morning…

But Jade was shaking her head, looking antsy. 

“No, not… It’s not like that. It’s just…”

“Just…?”

Jade bit her lip, then lowered her hands to the ground and dug her fingers into the grass as though she were anchoring herself in preparation for a storm. 

“I think… I think you should, maybe… I dunno. Talk to your dad?”

For a surreal moment, AJ felt as though liquid fire and ice had surged through her veins simultaneously, leaving her skin feeling prickly and plastic. She turned away from Jade, letting a moment of silence pass between them as she tried to work her way through the surge of confusion and anger and denial that had passed over her at the mere idea of willingly speaking with Ash. 

After a pause, letting her eyes fixate on some flying pokemon too far in the distance to see clearly, she asked, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible, “...Can I ask where this is coming from?”

Jade, it seemed, was fully aware that she was swimming through a sea of Overqil, but she pressed on anyway, clearly suicidal. 

“It just… feels like the right thing to do.”

“The right thing to do,” AJ parroted, voice full of venom. “Funny. Here I thought that abandoning your wife and child didn’t seem like the ‘right thing to do’, but hey, what do I know?”

Jade took a deep breath. 

“We don’t know that that’s what happened-”

But AJ was suddenly up on her feet and stalking away. Her entire body was trembling as though her blood had been literally set to boil inside her veins. 

Jade was up and hurrying along behind her in a flash.

“AJ! Wait, hear me out-!”

“How dare you?” AJ snarled, whipping around and turning on her friend so suddenly that Jade nearly pitched forward in her sudden attempt to stop. “You, of all people - you know how I feel about this! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“I am on your side!” Jade insisted earnestly. “AJ, I am always on your side! But this- this whole situation is crazy insane and I feel like there’s a good chance we’re missing something-!”

“I am not going to him for help,” AJ cut in, turning around to walk off again. “I don’t need him! I’ve never needed him!”

“Girl,” Jade said, exasperated, jogging along behind her. “There’s clearly so much more going on here than we ever imagined before. Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to figure out the truth?”

“I know the truth!” she shouted, turning on Jade again. They’d hardly made it more than two dozen paces from the beech tree, but from how hard AJ was breathing, you’d have thought she’d been running laps. “He left me! He left me and mom and grandma and that’s all that matters! I don’t care about anything else! That’s all I need to know!”

“I know you’re upset,” Jade said, clearly trying for a consoling tone, but her sentimentality was getting to her, and her voice was beginning to choke up with emotion. She reached out and took AJ by the upper arms, bracingly. “And I’m sorry - I am. I really, really am. But AJ…”

AJ jerked herself free and stomped off again, literally seething. How dare she… Jade was supposed to be her best friend. She was supposed to be supporting her. Not siding with Ash. Placing him before her, just like everyone always did. 

“AJ, please don’t run away,” Jade moaned, still scurrying behind her, and AJ snapped. 

Whirling around again, finally feeling the tears of frustration and anger start to show, she bellowed at her best friend, “Why are you pushing this so hard?”

To which Jade responded, mirroring AJ’s anger with unexpected ferocity, “Because you’ve been given the opportunity to meet a parent you thought was dead and you don’t even care! Some of us would kill for that chance!”

And then everything got very quiet. 

For a moment that seemed to stretch out indefinitely, twin looks of surprise adorned either girl's face as the shock of Jade’s words seemed to echo hauntingly in the air around them. 

AJ felt all of her poorly restrained anger and hurt at her best friend start to deflate unexpectedly inside of her, replaced by a rush of sudden comprehension and sympathy and grief. 

She could see from Jade’s face that her emotions were also rapidly changing - only her surprise was quickly morphing into embarrassment and confusion and guilt. And then suddenly it was Jade who was turning away and hurrying off, fleeing from AJ just as surely as AJ had been trying to flee from her. 

“Jade!” AJ called, all of her previous anger forgotten as she hurried after her friend. “Jade- stop! Hold on!”

“I-I’m sorry,” Jade called disjointedly over her shoulder, still rushing away. “I didn’t… That wasn’t-”

But AJ had caught her - literally, arms around waist from behind, she pulled her much taller friend into a tight hug, halting her in place. 

Jade was trembling. Not from rage like AJ had been before, but from the tears that she knew were pouring down her cheeks, even as she hid her face behind her hands in shame. 

“I didn’t mean to…” she started, voice choked, still sounding confused and hurt. 

AJ pressed her forehead against Jade’s back and shook her head. 

“I know.”

“I wasn’t… trying to- T-to guilt you, o-or…”

“I know, Jade. I know.”

She hadn’t meant to say that. Those words she’d shouted in anger - AJ had the sneaking suspicion that Jade hadn’t even known she’d felt that way until they’d come erupting out of her mouth of their own volition. 

Jade had lost her mother when she was still a toddler. 

She was approximately two years old at the time. Too young to actually remember anything about her. AJ herself had been a newborn, so she didn’t know much about her either outside of things she’d heard from Brock or her mother. But she’d been a researcher, an associate of some old colleague of Brock’s who lived out on the Orange Islands, and they’d met up at some seminar or another and had instantly hit it off. 

It was funny. To hear her mother or Uncle Tracey or Gary Oak speak of it, Brock had apparently been something of a playboy in his youth. Or an attempted one, at least. He apparently had a habit of hitting on basically anything in a skirt, and was almost unanimously rejected by every woman he’d ever spoken to. That had never seemed to deter him though, apparently, and he’d just pick himself up off the floor after every rejection and move on to the next girl. 

That behavior sounded a tad creepy to AJ, but according to his friends, Brock simply had a big heart, one that was looking for someone to love and for someone to love him in return. And eventually, he’d found her. Their relationship had been a wildfire, passionate and all-consuming, and if his friends had sometimes found the couple embarrassing to be around, well… That was just further evidence of how much they loved each other. 

But that Brock who was a playful flirt, the one who hit on every girl he met or who loved his wife so openly and honestly that it embarrassed everyone else in the room - that was a man AJ had never met. 

The Brock she’d always known was kind and patient and caring, yes, but also reserved and withdrawn. According to her mother, he’d changed after losing his wife. It was like some of his spark was just… gone. And he’d never gotten it back. 

Her death wasn’t a mystery, either. Not like Ash. She hadn’t vanished without a trace - she’d simply gone on a trip into Mt. Moon one day to perform a routine inspection on the Clefairy population and never came back. She’d been accompanied by a small group of Rangers, so Brock hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but as the days stretched on without hearing from her, he began to grow worried. He contacted the Rangers, but when he learned that her team hadn’t reported in, he set off into Mt. Moon himself to find them. 

The Rangers sent people in as well, and they were helped by members of the Pewter and Cerulean gyms, as well as volunteer hikers who knew the mountain well. They scoured the caverns, looking for signs of the team, evidence that they’d passed by somewhere, some indication of where they might have gone. 

Four days into their search, they pulled her body out from the wreckage of a rockslide. They never knew what had triggered it - whether it was caused by a battle or wild pokemon or just a natural phenomenon. 

Brock fell apart, then. He’d lost his best friend Ash only a few months before, and now he’d lost his wife, too. It took months for him to pull himself out of his grief enough to function again, but he had to. He had a little girl who needed him, after all. Needed him to be her father and her mother, both. It took some time, but he did manage to pick himself back up and put himself back together - for Jade’s sake more than anything else. But according to her mother, it had been ages before she saw him smile again. 

Jade rarely talked about her mother, and AJ had always sort of assumed that that was because she didn't have much to say. After all, she’d been so young when she’d died, she hadn’t even known the woman. AJ had always thought that Jade had simply accepted it and moved on. 

But now, in this moment, it occurred to AJ that maybe Jade wasn’t as alright as she let on. That maybe she’d avoided discussing the topic of dead parents for AJ’s sake, because she knew how naturally that topic could segway to Ash and how triggering that was for her. Maybe she’d always just… bottled it up to spare AJ’s feelings. And just that thought alone made AJ feel like maybe she hadn’t been the best ‘best friend’. 

They stayed still for a time, AJ hugging Jade and Jade struggling to calm herself down and stop crying. The wind in the Sanctuary was pleasantly warm, the scent of grass thick in the air. 

After a time, Jade removed AJ’s arms and turned to face her, a crooked, sad smile on her tear-stained face. 

“Thank you,” she said, sniffling. She wiped at her eyes again, then wrapped her arms tightly around her middle like she was hugging herself. 

“I’m sorry,” she said finally, and AJ nodded. 

“Yeah… Me, too.”

“I didn’t…” Jade hesitated, staring blankly over AJs shoulder. “I didn’t mean to project that onto you. I… I didn’t even know I felt that way until I said it.”

“I know.”

“And I’m not going to force you,” she continued as though not hearing AJ. “I won’t bring it up again after today, I promise. But I still think you should talk to him.”

AJ took a deep breath. 

“Jade, I don’t-”

“I’m not asking you to suddenly forgive him,” Jade interjected. “He still abandoned you, even if it wasn’t his fault. Even if he was just trapped here like we are, you still had to grow up without him and with everyone always comparing you to him. I know. But AJ…”

Here, it was Jade’s turn to take a deep breath. And then she stepped forward, pulling AJ into a tight hug. 

“Girl,” she whispered into her ear. “You are not ok. No matter how much you pretend like you are, I know you better than that. Someone who was ok wouldn’t have blown up at your mom like you did, or lost control in that battle, or even flipped out at me. I don’t know if talking with him is going to help, but… I think there’s a good chance it might. It’s worth a try, even if it’s hard.”

She pulled away, but held on to AJ at arm’s length and tried for another smile that was still too crooked and watery to be real. 

“And hey, if nothing else - even if it doesn’t help, even if you don’t feel any better… Maybe the next time you blow up, you can direct your anger at the right person. Because we both know who it is you really want to scream at.”

Jade left, walking off alone deeper into the Sanctuary. She needed some alone time, AJ knew. Time to process her feelings about her mother and her envy toward AJ. 

AJ, for her part, slowly walked back beneath the shade of the beech tree and settled back down on the cool grass. 

The morning had started out so well, too. And now once again, here she was. Sucked right back into this impossible drama. 

She didn’t have the energy to think about Ash right now. She still wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t simply slug him in the face on sheer impulse if he even tried to speak to her. 

Something chittered up in the branches, scrambling down the side of the tree until he was down at her side. Pichu. She’d lost track of him there. The last she’d seen, he’d been messing around on Metagross, but then Sammy had taken it and left and she’d had her fight with Jade, and… 

Pichu examined her face for a moment, floppy ears swaying in the breeze, then came over to nuzzle her cheek with his, sending her a few weak shocks. She winced at the pinching pain but otherwise didn’t comment. She was used to his ways of showing affection. Instead, she reached one arm up in a half-hug and kissed him on the forehead. If nothing else, Pichu always had her back. 

Closing her eyes, she settled back against the grass and tried to think of anything other than Ash. It was a pleasant afternoon. A warm breeze, soft grass, and cool shade in a verdant paradise, and with her body still sore from her morning workout, a nap seemed well in order. 

Even still, sleep was a long time coming. 

Chapter Text

AJ’s days spent trapped in the Sanctuary soon fell into a routine. 

Every morning, she’d wake up early before Jade or Sammy, gather up her pokemon and what food she could scrounge from the kitchen, then head off into the brisk mountain air and make her way to the Sanctuary. 

There, she would immediately get to work training. They’d start with cardio and calisthenics, take a break to cool off in the river, and then, by mid-morning, it was time for battle practice. 

Sometimes, she’d bum around the mountain proper, looking to challenge the wild pokemon in the area, and she had some success. There was a memorable encounter with a surly Ursarang, and a handful of run-ins with Weavile or Golbat, but nothing too taxing. It quickly became apparent that, even if the wild pokemon on Mt. Silver were stronger than what you’d normally find in other parts of Johto, the bleak landscape made actually running across them something of a rare occurrence. It was ultimately a better use of her time to have her team just train against each other in the Sanctuary. Plus it was warmer there anyway and she wasn’t likely to accidentally set off any more natural disasters. 

Having her team practice battle against themselves wasn’t the best solution either, however. While they were certainly at a closer level to one another, they’d done practice battles with themselves loads of times in the past. They knew each other’s moves too well. If they wanted to get better, they needed new challenges, to face off against a wide variety of pokemon with a wide variety of typings and movesets. But aside from Jade and Sammy - who she’d also done practice battles with countless times in the past and who, though she loved them both, were absolutely not on her level - she didn’t have much in the way of options. 

The wild pokemon in the Sanctuary weren’t much help either. While some of them had begun to warm up to AJ and her team, some even going so far as to bring them berries and nuts after a workout, or cool them off with flapping wings or gentle jets of Water Guns, they didn’t have much in the way of battle experience. She supposed living in an idyllic, serene Sanctuary for your entire life would naturally lead to complacency. Being protected by Mewtwo and the other Legendaries meant they never needed to fight for themselves. And who would they fight against? No one knew they were here. 

The Legendaries, on the other hand… Now there was something AJ had suddenly set her sights on. Not like Sammy, who was still desperately trying to study them despite his clear lack of tools, and not like your average trainer, who might be interested in catching one for themselves for greed or pride or whatever. No - AJ didn’t want to catch one. She wanted to battle them. 

Honestly, what greater training could there be? Legendary pokemon were all supposed to be stupid levels of powerful, and their skills and abilities ran the gamut of what pokemon could do. If she could get a few of them to agree to spar with her from time to time, her team’s growth rate would skyrocket. And maybe - just maybe - she’d get strong enough to take down Mewtwo and get out of this place. 

The problem was, what few Legendary pokemon she’d been able to find hadn’t seemed interested in staying put long enough for her to ask for a bout. She’d spotted a Raiku at one point watching their training from atop one of the nearby hills and had made the mistake of calling out to it. It had bolted almost as soon as she’d gotten its name out of her mouth. 

And the same sort of scenario played out with every one of them. She didn’t make it a habit of studying up on every legend in the world, so she didn’t know all of their names, but there was a time when something that looked like what might have been a Rapidash - if Rapidash were Ice-Type - came cantering by, and when she tried to hail it, it shook its head as though it were irritated and continued on. Then there was that giant grass-type Magcargo looking creature - the one that looked like it was made entirely of dead leaves and twigs - who slowly oozed its way straight through the middle of her makeshift arena, completely ignoring her and her pokemon as if they hadn’t even existed. 

It was getting to the point where she was considering just calling one of her pokemon out and provoking them to battle. The problem was, she didn’t want to piss them off. If they thought she was a threat, they might gang up and attack her, or prevent them from entering the Sanctuary at all. And then where would she and her friends be?

One morning, just a couple of days after her argument with Jade, found AJ sprawled out on the grass after their morning workout. They’d eaten lunch, comprised mainly of what food they’d found in Sammy’s bag - though even generous estimates seemed to indicate that wouldn’t last more than a couple more days and then it’d be back to foraging. Stomachs sated, she’d recalled her team to let them rest and had collapsed herself, not willing to make the trek back to the cabin yet, or even to go looking for Sammy or Jade. 

She was tired. She’d been pushing herself and her team extra hard as a sort of outlet for her pent-up frustration. But what else was she supposed to do? She literally had no other options. 

Pichu was snoozing idly at her side, basking in the warm sunlight. AJ closed her eyes and tried to will herself into doing the same, but it was hard. She was nice and tired from the workout, and with the grass soft beneath her, the sunlight gentle and warm and the breeze pleasantly cool, it should have been perfect. It should have been easy. Instead, her thoughts seemed to churn with an unpleasant, chaotic energy, keeping her awake. 

Before long, the sound of approaching footsteps caught her ear. She kept her eyes closed, though. There were only four other humans who could be in the Sanctuary, and one of them wouldn’t be walking up to her so casually. 

“‘Lo, there,” came Cole’s polite greeting. “I can see you’re workin’ hard.”

AJ opened one eye and peered up at him. He was grinning in that casually friendly way he had that she’d come to interpret as his ‘I want something but I don't know you well enough to come right out and ask’ sort of way. He could be weirdly polite at times, for a hermit. Then again, the revelation that he was her grandfather had been equally strange for both of them, and they’d never quite settled into a normal dynamic. 

AJ grunted in reply, closing her eyes again. 

“We just finished,” she said. “I’m exhausted.”

“I bet,” he replied, grunting softly as he awkwardly lowered himself down beside her. Not for the first time, she found herself wondering how a man his age had been getting along up here with all of the hiking and bending and climbing he had to do. 

“It’s a lovely mornin’,” he said, somewhat breathless, though that was from exertion and not from the wonder of the scenery. Still, it was true enough. She grunted again in response. 

For a moment, peace stole over them, and AJ began to wonder when she’d stopped feeling as awkward and uncomfortable around him. Just a few days ago, she’d not wanted to be alone in his presence. True, she’d still rather be with Jade and Sammy - or even just alone, honestly, would be fine - but she’d slowly begun acclimating to his presence. He didn’t really bother her anymore. He was even sweet, in his own bumbling sort of way. She didn’t know what to think of this change or where it came from, but it was there, and there it was.

Finally, however, the silence proved to be too much for Cole, and he apparently decided that now was as good a time as any to get around to whatever it was that he’d bothered searching her out for. 

“Listen,” he said, already sounding hesitant, which was a clear indicator to AJ that he didn’t think she’d take well to whatever he was going to say. “I’m old, see? And old people… Well, we’re meddlesome. Dunno why. Just a truth of the world. Maybe we’re just impatient ‘cause we know we don’t got much time left. Point is… Well. I wanted to talk to you about your dad.”

AJ felt her muscles tense as though on instinct. First Jade, now him? Why wouldn’t people just leave her alone?!

She draped one arm up over her eyes as though to block herself away from the world as she mumbled, “Well, I don’t, so too bad.”

“You really hate him, don’t you?” he asked, but AJ didn’t answer. She felt like her actions had made her stance on the man fairly clear. 

After a moment, when it became clear that she wasn’t going to speak, he let out a weary sigh. 

“Well… If you won’t speak to him, then… Maybe you’ll speak to me.” He paused, as though giving her a moment to do just that, and when she didn’t reply, he said, “I heard about your fight with Jade.”

AJ’s eyes opened and she lifted her arm, confused. 

“She told you about that?”

Cole nodded, looking sad. 

“Seems like she just needed someone to talk to.”

“And she chose you?” 

Cole shrugged. 

“Old people are easier to open up to. Another truth of the world.”

That, and Jade clearly couldn’t talk to AJ about it. Sammy would have been the obvious next choice, but then again, Sammy was usually too logical to be your sounding board. You couldn’t really vent your problems to him because he always assumed you were asking for solutions, when usually, you just wanted to be heard. That, and he was probably off somewhere trying to carve a crude description of Mew’s behavioral habits into a piece of bark like some sort of prehistoric caveman scientist. 

“Anyway, talkin’ to her got me thinkin’. See, I can tell you don’t like your father. And that makes sense, I think, given what you’ve always thought about him. But your battle… You were far angrier than I think anyone expected. I guess I figured there must be somethin’ more to the story. And maybe I’m just bein’ a meddlesome old fogey, but… I’d like to hear your side of it. If you need someone to listen.”

He was being a meddlesome old fogey. And it was annoying. 

And yet… Maybe he was right. Maybe there just was something about old people that made you want to pour your heart out to them. Maybe it was residual guilt over her fight with Jade. Or maybe it was because she thought if she explained herself, Cole would see her side and leave her alone about it. 

But in any case, for whatever reason, she found herself beginning to speak. 

“Do you have any idea what it’s like?” she asked, gazing off toward the distant hills. “Having a parent who’s a household name? A parent who’s famous the whole world over? Who was one of the best battlers the world has ever seen?”

Cole shook his head, but AJ wasn’t really waiting for a response. It was a rhetorical question. She was getting swept up in her anger and indignation again, feeling that never-dying ember in her heart kindle itself into a warm blaze. A tale as old as time, really. 

“Everywhere I go, everything I do, everyone I meet… Somehow, in some way, connects back to him. I catch a pokemon? Oh, Ash had one that was stronger. I get a gym badge? Ash got his faster. Even when I finally became Kanto’s Champion - the youngest champion in Indigo League history! - all anyone could talk about was how my battling compared to Ash’s and how he would have done things differently. How he would have done it better! How I just don’t compare!

“And if they’re not comparing me to him and listing all of my faults in explicit detail, they’re instead trying to pretend I am him! Here, have a Pichu as your starter because Ash is your dad! We cooked you some food for the road - it’s fried chicken, your dad’s favorite! Here, have a sweater - it’s dark green, your dad loved dark green!”

Cole had a sympathetic look on his face, but she ignored it, avoiding his gaze. She didn’t need his sympathy. She didn’t know what she needed, but it wasn’t that. 

“It’s like… like I just can’t do anything right. Anything on my own. Every success I have is attributed to him - ‘oh, of course she made it to the finals, she’s Ash’s daughter’. Though he would have done it better, of course, and won the whole thing. And when I fail? ‘Oh, that’s disappointing. Ash wouldn’t have made that mistake.’ I can never be my own person. I’m always expected to just be… him.

“But I don’t want to be him. Every time I’m told I remind people of him, like it’s supposed to be some sort of compliment, it just… it makes me so angry. Why on earth would I want to be like the man who left m… who left mom and grandma? So I decided I’d shut everyone up by proving to the world that I was better than him. Make it so they stopped comparing me to him, and instead compared him to me.”

She flopped back on the grass listlessly, staring up into the cloudless blue sky. 

“And then I get here and… What do you know? They were right. He completely wipes my whole team with no losses. Legendary pokemon frolic around him. He… he is better than me. My whole life, dedicated to one cause, and…”

She shrugged, letting her little rant die. No grand finale, no epic conclusion. Just a pathetic flop. Just like her.

The hillside was bright and sunny and warm, and yet for some reason, she felt cold. Hollow. Like there was this endless void that had opened up inside of her, a deep dark chasm of ceaseless yearning, and she had no idea how to fill it. 

She’d lost her purpose. What was left for her now?

Cole let out a short breath.

“Ashlynn,” he said, sounding exasperated, and she bolted upright again, looking incensed. 

“Who told you that was my real name?!”

No one was allowed to call her that but her grandma and Professor Oak Senior! Especially not him! Especially not somewhere where Ash could hear it!

But Cole ignored her and continued on. 

“You’re my flesh and blood, which means you’re not stupid. And if half of the things I’ve heard about my daughter-in-law are true, then I know she didn’t raise you to be a fool.”

AJ’s jaw worked furiously, but no sound came out. First, he uses her real name, then he calls her an idiot? After she’d actually opened up and bared her heart to him like he asked?! She didn’t care that he was in his sixties - she’d throw down with an old man! 

“That fool battle you had with your father - Ash,” he amended, seemingly noticing the look of fury on her face and deciding not to push her any farther than necessary. “I’m no battling expert, but even I know the reason you lost.”

“Yeah, because he’s a monster,” she snorted, though internally she cringed because calling him a monster just seemed to add on to his unassailable persona as the greatest pokemon trainer ever and that wasn’t what she’d intended and she hated it. 

“No,” Cole said, bluntly, then shook his head. “I know you know this. Ash is an incredibly gifted trainer. He’s talented beyond all reason, with courage and drive that put most other trainers to shame, and a team of powerful, devoted pokemon that trust in him just as much as he trusts in them.”

“That’s more than one reason,” AJ deadpanned, not interested in hearing yet another speech praising all of Ash's accolades. 

“I haven’t gotten to that yet. Those qualities Ash has, those things that set him apart, that made him the best? Even after all these years, he possesses them all still. And I see every one of those qualities in you.”

AJ, who had been tearing up blades of grass, trying not to pay attention, suddenly jerked her head up and stared at Cole in surprise. 

“What?”

“You heard me. Honestly, the only thing Ash has on you right now is experience - but that’s not why you lost. It gives him the upper hand, sure, but I imagine Lance had that same upper hand when you challenged him for the title of Champion, but you still won then, right?”

“But then… Why did I lose?”

“Because you let your anger get the better of you.”

AJ stared, then turned and let her gaze sweep off into the distance, replaying the battle against Ash in her head for the hundredth time, only now focusing on herself and her actions rather than what had happened with their pokemon.

“People talk a lot about the bond between a trainer and their pokemon - but for most, that’s just lip service. Idyllic platitudes, the stuff you put in stories to give them that romantic flair. But for trainers who’ve reached the top, trainers who battle and become the very best - they know how important those bonds are. For a trainer to battle at their very best, they and their pokemon need to be of one heart, one mind. United under a single purpose. They have to know each other - trust each other, completely. Otherwise, things like hesitation, doubt, insecurity - they’ll pull the team apart.

“When you challenged your father, you were literally out of control. All that hate and pain you keep bottled inside, it came bursting out. You were no longer in tune with your pokemon, and you charged in, guns blazing, not even attempting to strategize, and it became painfully easy for Ash to pick you apart.”

He was right, she realized. Obviously, she’d known that she’d completely lost her head in that fight and she’d made some dumb calls - calls that got her Pichu and her Milotic badly hurt. But that was how she’d been viewing her actions in that battle this entire time - as the moral failing of a trainer who didn’t care about the safety and well-being of her team. She’d completely neglected to consider the obvious tactical failing that came from letting her and her pokemon be completely ruled by emotion rather than reason and logic. 

Battles needed passion, yes, but they needed strategy, too. Otherwise, she was no better than a charging Rhyhorn, running dead ahead in a straight line, unable to turn to avoid the approaching cliff. 

But she knew this. Of course she knew this. This wasn’t some revelation - some truth of battling she’d not understood until now. She’d have never beaten Lance, otherwise. Never have made it past the Elite 4. Never have even gotten through the Tournament. She’d still be some foolish rookie trainer, struggling to collect badges and failing at every other turn. 

She’d really let her hatred of Ash throw all of her common sense out the window, hadn’t she?

“So…” she asked, suddenly feeling the age gap between her and Cole and all of the years of wisdom he had on her, “do you think I… Would I be able to beat him if I could figure out a way to keep my head on straight when we battled?”

Cole shrugged uncomfortably. 

“Well… Like I said, I’m no battle expert. And truth to tell, Ash… Well, he really is as good as they say. So I’m not gonna sit here and promise you that you’d win if you had a rematch. But I think I can promise with some certainty that it wouldn’t go the same way as last time. I don’t think there’s any realistic chance that he’d be able to sweep your entire team without taking any losses himself. He may still win - he’d been at this for a long time and he’s very, very good - but if you lost, it’d be a respectable one.”

AJ doubted that there was any such thing as a respectable loss when it came to a hypothetical battle with Ash. If she couldn’t defeat him outright, what was the point? Still… 

Vying for a light tone to ease up some of the heaviness of their conversation, AJ said, “I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever be able to battle Ash without losing it and trying to maul him.”

Cole turned to her and offered her a sympathetic smile. 

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I think you sell yourself too short.”

She snorted. 

“You saw the way we battled the other night.”

“Yes. But I’m also seeing the way you’re sittin’ here and talkin’ to me right now.”

AJ stilled, feeling uncomfortable. 

“Why is that?” he pressed. “Why can you talk to me but not to him?”

“That’s not… It’s different.”

“Is it? I abandoned you too, you know. I did it first. And in a way, isn’t me being here at all the reason why Ash vanished in the first place? If you think about it, aren’t I the one to blame for all of this? Why don’t you hate me as much as you hate him?”

AJ kept her gaze fixated down on her knees. 

“...I do hate you,” she said, softly. 

Only they could both tell that was a lie. Her words carried absolutely none of the heat that they’d held earlier when talking about Ash. 

She didn’t hate Cole. She wasn’t happy with him, exactly, but she’d also come to understand that it wasn’t his fault - that he was very much a victim in all of this, too. He hadn’t wanted to leave Delia or Ash. He’d basically been abducted. 

And while she wasn’t sure that she necessarily forgave him - not that she really knew that there was anything to forgive, honestly, but the hurt was still there, somewhere - she couldn’t deny that he was a nice man who was trying his best. And if she ever found a way to reunite him with her grandmother, well… She’d give it a chance, at least. If Delia wanted him back in her life, AJ wouldn’t stand in the way. 

But the same could not be said for Ash. Because no matter how similar their situations were, according to Cole, AJ knew that there was a world of difference. At least, to her. 

Because Cole wasn’t her father. Cole wasn’t the person AJ had been constantly compared to for her entire life. The person whose very name seemed to steal away her thunder at every big moment. The shadow cast upon her every moment of glory. The insurmountable titan that blocked her path at every step. 

She couldn’t say that, though. She didn’t have the energy for it. Not again. 

So instead she defaulted to the admittedly petulant, “You wouldn’t understand.”

Cole nodded, accepting that that was the best he was going to get. But he still turned to her and said, “I know. But you know, there is someone here who would. Someone who knows exactly what it’s like to find out that the father they thought had abandoned them was still alive.”

AJ said nothing. In her head, she could hear Jade’s voice from the day before, crying out in pain and jealousy and sorrow. 

‘Some people would kill for that chance!’

But she remained quiet, stewing in anger and denial. After a time, Cole patted her bracingly on the shoulder before leaving her to her solitude. 

AJ wasn’t sure how long she stayed sitting there on the grass. She kept trying to push her conversation with Cole out of her head, to stop letting Jade’s words echo in the back of her mind, but it was useless. 

Finally, in a fit of frustration, she pushed herself to her feet and started walking. To where, she didn’t know. Somewhere. Anywhere. Anywhere that wasn’t right there. 

Her legs were short, but she was moving fast. Pichu, who’d awoken when AJ stood, had to scramble to catch up.

She wandered the Sanctuary for a time, taking advantage of the wide-open space to claim some much needed alone time. The tiny cabin was cramped enough, but with tensions as high as they’d become, now with Ash and Jade and Cole, none of whom she really wanted to speak to at the moment, the place felt more stifling than ever. It felt good to stretch her feet, to spend some quality time with her Pichu beneath the wide-open sky, the promise of a strange new sight around every bend. 

However, try as she might, she couldn’t get her thoughts to stop drifting back to Ash, which kept souring her mood. Why did Jade and Cole feel the need to meddle so much? Why couldn’t they just let things be? 

Worse, why was she starting to think they might be right?

She recoiled at the thought every time it crept into her mind, but there was a part of her that was slowly, begrudgingly, beginning to think that maybe she was the one in the wrong, here. Maybe she was being immature. Maybe. Just a little bit. 

She still hated him. Still wanted nothing to do with him. Was still completely adamant that she did not need him in her life. 

But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t at least take a stab at civility, right?

After all, Cole had had a point - if she couldn’t even keep her cool in a normal conversation, how was she supposed to control her emotions if they battled again? And if they never battled again, if she never beat him, how was she ever supposed to really feel like she deserved to be the Champion?

She wasn’t sure how long she walked around for, aimlessly climbing up and down hills, passing through clusters of trees, wading through fields of wildflowers. Finally, as she wound her way through a particularly twisty, rock-strewn pass between two unusually steep hills that looked like mini mountains, she found herself wondering if she should maybe try and find Sammy for some company. Talking with him might help get her mind off of things - and so far, of the three people she felt comfortable talking to right now, he was the only one not trying to push her into talking to Ash. 

All thoughts of finding Sammy vanished from her head, however, as she rounded a large rock formation that opened the pass up into a broad meadow of sunflowers. She hardly noticed the flowers, however. She was too busy staring in horror at the large, fire-breathing reptile she’d nearly crashed straight into. 

The Charizard stared back at her, looking equally surprised. Then, after a moment, its expression shifted to one of disdain. With a dismissive snort, one that expelled a breath of scalding air and smoke directly into AJ’s face, it turned and stomped off, long tail swishing through the air, keeping the flame high enough above the ground to avoid setting the flowers ablaze. 

AJ watched it go, feeling a mix of disgust and relief swirl inside of her. On the one hand, good riddance. She didn’t want to see it, either. On the other hand, part of her was admittedly a little afraid. The memory of that fiery meteor crashing down on her Milotic was still vivid in AJ’s mind. This thing was a savage. 

Wait… If Charizard was here, then that meant-!

“Don’t mind him,” came a low voice from over to her right, and she jerked her head in surprise to find the last person she wanted to see sitting at the base of a boulder, eating an apple. “He treats everyone that way. I blame his upbringing.”

Sitting there, cross-legged on the ground, mouth full of half-chewed fruit, he didn’t look all that special. His hair was messy and unkempt beneath his tattered, iconic cap. His faded jeans looked threadbare, his jacket had more patches than not, and his shoes looked like they’d been mauled by a Mabosstiff; dirty and ragged and floppy-eared. She supposed none of that was really his fault - they didn’t have many supplies to go around, and it wasn't like he could go shopping for new clothes - but it was still strange every time she saw The Ash Ketchum dressed like a hobo.

It was his eyes that she avoided, though. That familiar, glinting amber that had started out at her from a dozen photos in her family home growing up. His face was much more lined now, his jaw patchy with stubble, but it was still the same face. Still the same eyes. Still the same man. 

Two powerful desires were warring inside of AJ, viciously tearing at one another, desperate to seize control. One wanted to turn on her heel and retreat the way she’d come. To not just leave - but flee, quickly, sprinting if she had to. Anything to get as far away from this man as quickly as possible. 

The other half of her wanted nothing more than to draw back her fist and punch him. Hard enough to break his nose would be preferable, but just wiping that smile off of his face would be enough. He wasn’t actually smiling - just sort of staring back at her with a look that clearly said he was just as caught off-guard by this random encounter as she was - but that didn’t matter. In her mind’s eye, he was always smiling - that same, insufferable, confidant smile that she hated so very, very much. 

In the end, neither won out. Both desires seemingly tried to take control simultaneously which resulted in her taking an awkward, jerky step to the side as if her body wasn’t actually sure what it was supposed to be doing - turning to both flee and strike him and instead doing neither and just looking like an idiot. She lifted her arm almost subconsciously, fingers balled into a fist, then instead scratched at her hat even though she wasn’t itchy and crossed her arms over her chest. Her limbs felt like they’d been possessed by aliens.

If Ash thought anything strange about that, he didn’t comment on it. Her insides felt like they were vibrating. What was she supposed to do now?! She lost her chance to storm off! But she didn’t want to stay here and talk to him either! Gah!

Her conversation with Cole popped up in her head then, and she struggled for a moment to control herself. She could do this… She could totally do this. Maybe. Maybe she could view this as training? Like a random encounter with a pokemon - only it was her nemesis instead. Just… Breathe. Keep your interaction short, but civil. No fighting. No losing control. 

Several awkward seconds had passed since her arrival, with AJ staring blankly ahead, arguing with herself internally, and Ash sitting on the ground, half-eaten apple forgotten in his hand, watching her with the same sort of wariness one might have if their picnic was interrupted by a half-crazed Primeape. If you didn’t know any better, you’d almost think he was the one who was uncomfortable. Him! Ha!

Finally, after swallowing at least three times for no other reason than because it delayed her having to speak, AJ cracked her teeth open just far enough to ask, “...What do you mean by that?”

If her voice was excessively monotone, well… That was still better than shouting, right?

Ash stared at her blankly for a moment with a look of pure confusion on his face. Then he seemed to realize she was trying to respond to what he’d said before about his Charizard - the only thing that had been said so far, so that should have been obvious - and he replied, quickly, saying, “Oh, uh… He just has some hangups, that’s all. He was abandoned by his original trainer back when he was young, so… He’s slow to open up to strangers.”

Bizarrely, there was something so utterly normal about someone telling a story about Ash or one of his pokemon that AJ found herself responding on auto-pilot. 

“I know. Uncle Brock told me the story.”

She half expected him to shut up. To realize from her curt tone and her closed-off body language that she wasn’t interested in chatting. 

Instead, his eyes seemed to light up for a moment as he said, suddenly excited, “Uncle-? Wait, are you and Brock close?!”

“Yes?” she replied, once again without thinking. What kind of dumb question was that? Of course she knew Brock. “I’ve known him my whole life - he’s practically family. Jade’s his only daughter.”

She didn’t know why she added on that last bit. Just because she was trying to be civil didn’t mean she needed to tell him anything he didn’t need to know. 

Ash, however, was grinning, either ignoring or somehow oblivious to her less-than-friendly attitude. 

“Wow… That’s crazy! I mean, dad had mentioned- but I wasn’t sure if I believed him since he’s never met Brock. How’s he been?”

AJ could feel herself closing up and struggled to remain calm. 

“He’s fine,” she said curtly. That was all he was going to get from her. 

Did he even know that Brock’s wife had died? Probably not. It happened only a few months after Ash’s disappearance. But she didn’t want to talk about that. She didn’t want to tell him anything more about his old friends and family than she already had. She didn’t want to open up those floodgates and have to deal with whatever emotions he chose to exhibit as a result. And she didn’t want to have to try and force herself to pretend to be civil during that conversation, because she knew full well she wouldn’t be able to. 

And if he even so much as dared to mention her mother’s name…!

But he didn’t. He didn’t press for more information on Brock, or Misty, or his mother, or anything to do with his old life. Instead, he stared wistfully into the sky for a moment, a sad sort of smile on his face, before he shook his head as though to shake off the residual drops of melancholy and instead pushed himself to his feet. 

Standing, he was a good head taller than she was. His face looked even scruffier somehow from this angle. She took a step back as though he were a frightening wild pokemon and she needed to keep her distance. 

But he didn’t attack, obviously. Instead, and with a smile that was only somewhat forced, he asked, “Well… Do you want to meet my team?”

AJ blinked. 

Do what now?

Noticing her obvious confusion, Ash let out a short laugh and lifted a hand to rub awkwardly at the back of his head. 

“Yeah, so… Honestly, I don’t really know what to say in this situation. I’ve never been good at this sort of thing. When in doubt, I usually try to steer the conversation toward pokemon, so I guess I thought…”

He trailed off, laughing uncomfortably. AJ found herself staring. 

Was he… 

Was he nervous?

“Um…” she found herself saying blankly. “Sure?”

He smiled again, looking relieved, and then a moment later cupped his hands around his mouth and let out a loud whistle. 

In less than a minute, his team had assembled around them, returning from the disparate parts of the sunflower field where they’d been minding their own business. She hadn’t even noticed they were there. She’d been too fixated on Ash.

There was Charizard, with its surly glower. Venusaur, its massive flower looking especially lively under the dazzling late-afternoon sun. Blastoise, yawning, looking sleepy. Snorlax, actually asleep. And Espeon, who was examining AJ with apparent interest. 

And of course, Pikachu, who was down on the ground now, chattering away with Pichu. 

Ash made his introductions, though there was hardly any need. Not only had she seen them all in their disastrous battle the other night, she’d known all of their stories for years now. Heard them, over and over and over again, from her mom or Brock or Tracey or Gary or Professor Oak or literally anyone who’d ever met him. 

And not just his current team. AJ knew nearly all of Ash’s pokemon. Most of them personally. Because when he’d abandoned her, he’d abandoned them as well. Left forgotten on the Oak’s ranch. Waiting for a trainer who had left them behind. 

After his presumed death, custody of his pokemon had shifted to AJ’s mother - but running a gym full-time in another city was a lot of work and she simply didn’t have the time to take care of Ash’s old pokemon, so she’d instead passed custody along to Grandma Delia. Delia had met with each of them, AJ had been told, to explain that Ash had been pronounced dead and that if they wanted, she would set them free. 

A few of them had taken the deal, returning to their original homes, their lands and their packs and their families. And in the intervening years, a few had passed on. But most of his pokemon remained on the Oak Ranch, helping out the Oaks and their aides, visited regularly by Delia and by Misty and AJ on occasion when they were in the area. Hardworking and ever faithful. Still diligently waiting for a trainer who would never come. 

Did he ever think about them? Did he even care at all? 

Breathe, AJ… Just breathe…

Ash’s team greeted her happily, with no lingering disdain or anger from their previous battle. They all seemed genuinely cheery and well cared-for. Well, except for Charizard - he just glowered and kept his distance like a brat. 

The others, though, all seemed friendly and happy to meet her. Which was a surprise, but then, AJ’s dislike towards them was entirely colored by their relationship to Ash. She shouldn’t hold that against them, she decided as she reached up to rub Snorlax’s belly, feeling Espeon brush up against her leg. It wasn't their fault who their trainer was. 

All in all, that interaction had gone much more smoothly than she’d anticipated. She’d even done rather well keeping her cool and not blowing up. Maybe she could do this after all?

Lured into a false sense of security, the comfort of interacting with his pokemon instead of with him, AJ felt her next words slip past her lips before she had a chance to consider them. 

“Do you want to meet my pokemon?”

Ash’s smile - a mixture of surprise and delight and hope - was nearly as dazzling as the sun. Feeling strangely off-kilter and beginning to question if she was losing her mind, AJ reluctantly plucked four of the six balls from her belt and summoned most of her team.

AJ’s pokemon seemed to share her initial discomfort, lining up and gazing warily at Ash and his pokemon as though not sure if they were supposed to be battling or not. But their fellow pokemon who had so ruthlessly dismantled them in the arena the other day greeted them with unfeigned geniality, and Ash seemed to be genuinely interested in getting to meet a new group of pokemon. To be fair, she considered, he’d probably only interacted with the same group for the last twenty years. Getting to see new pokemon - especially several who weren’t native to Johto - was probably a breath of fresh air.

Ash worked his way down AJ’s current team, one-by-one, stopping to greet each individually, admiring their poise, the sheen of their fur or feathers or scales, their musculature, asking for each of their stories. 

And she found herself giving them. Hesitantly at first, but then seemingly pushing past her reluctance and allowing herself to simply speak. Talking to him wasn’t easy, but it was easier when she was talking about pokemon - particularly her pokemon, of whom she was especially proud and always eager to praise. 

And they seemed more than willing to accept it - from her and from him. He rubbed Arcanine’s belly, fed Togetic a Sitrus berry from his pocket, bowed low to Aegislash as though greeting a king and even apologized to Milotic for the burn she’d sustained in their battle. 

This… This was not going at all like she’d envisioned. Who was this man? What was going on?

“You know,” he said eventually, pausing to laugh as Pichu scrambled up his back and stole his cap, biting the bill between his pointy teeth and racing off into the sunflowers with it, his Pikachu racing behind, “people sometimes say that you can tell a lot about a trainer from the pokemon they keep on their active team. I never put much stock in that before, but…”

“What does that mean?” AJ asked defensively, feeling some of her apprehension start to return. 

She knew what he was referring to, vaguely. It was kind of like fortune telling, in a way - some sort of pseudo-science behavioral analysis you’d see middle-schoolers talk about, or in those click-baity online quizzes. Things like ‘10 Signs You Should Break Up With Your Boyfriend’, and then claiming that your boyfriend having a Hypno means he’s a closet rapist, or a Sylveon means he’s secretly gay, or a Toxapex means he’s a drug addict. Some took it a step further by claiming you could psycho-analyze a person’s personality based entirely on what pokemon they carried on their team. It was all nonsense, of course, so for Ash to randomly bring this up out of the blue was strange and more than a little disconcerting. 

But Ash didn’t seem to notice her concern. Taking another bite of his apple that he apparently now remembered he’d been eating, he gestured toward her Arcanine, who was sniffing at a flower patch, and said, “Well, just take a look at you - you’ve got an Arcanine, the ‘Legendary’ pokemon. Famous for its unfailing loyalty and bravery.”

He turned and gestured to Milotic, then to each of the other pokemon in her team in turn. 

“Then, Milotic - also incredibly loyal, but sporting a beautiful and calming countenance, and very, very difficult to obtain. Togetic - another exceedingly rare species, one who’s said to only appear to those who are pure of heart. Aegislash - this pokemon was said to have accompanied kings and emperors in days of old; its ability to sense innate leadership potential is unparalleled. And of course, your Hydreigon - perhaps one of the most temperamental and challenging to raise of all of the so-called ‘pseudo-legendary’ pokemon. 

“Your team is an almost definite indicator that you were meant to be the Champion. That you assembled and command the respect of a group of rare, powerful, awe-inspiring pokemon all on your own - one meeting you for the first time would naturally be lead to assume that you’re a brave,” Here, he pointed again at Arcanine, “Loyal,” Milotic, “Kind,” Togekiss, “Diligent,” Aegislash, “and fearsome trainer destined for the top.”

AJ felt winded. On another day, she might be accusing him of trying to butter her up - those compliments were certainly a bit excessive, right? He didn’t even know her, he was just trying to get on her good side! And yet… the simple sincerity in his tone, the utter lack of guile on his face… Did he… Could he actually mean all of that?

“And then there’s your Pichu,” he continued, and she felt herself lock up. 

Here it was. She knew that was too good to be true. She’d let down her defenses and now he was going on the attack. 

Angrily, she braced herself for him to make the comment - the same comment that everyone always made. 

“If anything,” he said, “your Pichu is the most telling member of your party. It shows that you didn’t strategically pick out your team members to give off that impression - you’re just using pokemon you like. It’s really impressive. I’m not surprised at all that you were able to defeat Lance.”

And now AJ was really confused. Where was the snide comment? The comparison to Ash - well, he was Ash, maybe he thought that was a bit awkward? But everyone had something to say about her starter - about what it was, why it hadn't evolved - and it was almost never anything kind. Even he had made a rude remark during their battle! But now suddenly, her Pichu was commendable? He really was just trying to butter her up!

While she was caught up in her own internal conflict, Ash turned to her with a curious frown. 

“Does Kanto give out Pichus as starters now, or…?”

Not wanting him to get the wrong idea and think she’d chosen Pichu willingly, lest he think even for a moment that she’d picked her starter because of him, she quickly explained about what Professor Oak Senior had done and the ‘special’ starters she and Sammy had been given. Then, for reasons unknown even to her, she tacked on the completely unneeded additional fact that Sammy had been given a Ralts by his aunt as well.

If Ash thought that was weird, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he frowned and muttered something under his breath that sounded like, “If Gary had gotten two starters, I would have rioted...”

There was a brief lull in the conversation after that, and AJ felt her skin start to prickle. Talk. She needed to talk. Anything to distract herself from the fact that she was willingly lingering in his presence. Some part of her knew that didn’t actually make any sense, but everything about this moment felt like a hallucination, so what did it matter?

For lack of anything else to say, she asked, “So… What does your team say about you?”

“Me?” he asked, then looked around at his team blankly. “I don’t know… That I’m a ten-year-old who never grew up?”

In spite of herself, she felt a snort of laughter work its way out of her mouth. She clapped a hand over her mouth in surprise and anger, at herself for slipping, but the damage was done. Ash caught her eye and smiled again. She turned away. 

Alright. She needed to get out of here. Something was wrong. She must have eaten something bad for lunch, or… Heat stroke? Something. Something wasn’t right, that was the point, because she hated this man and she couldn’t let herself forget that, even for a moment. 

Before she could initiate her awkward retreat, however, Ash spoke up again, catching her off-guard. 

“So where’s your Hydreigon?”

She hesitated. 

She didn’t want to tell him about Hydreigon. Didn’t want to voice aloud her failings as her trainer, how she hadn’t been able to help her adapt, how she still wasn’t able to control her in battle. He’d already seen how bad of a screw-up she was, she didn't need to give him any more ammo. 

But for a wonder, for a brief moment, she found herself putting her anger and insecurities to the side to focus on Hydreigon. Everything AJ had tried so far with her had failed. But she could acknowledge now, especially after her conversation with Cole, that even if she was technically the Champion, she was still young and there was a lot she didn’t know. And if there was one thing that Ash had over her, it was experience. 

He’d been around. He’d seen a few things. She’d heard the stories, countless times. 

Maybe… Maybe he might know something she didn’t? Some way to help Hydreigon? To ease her trauma? To make her feel… safe? With AJ?

She didn’t want to ask. Not him. Never him. She didn’t need him. She never did. Never would. 

…But maybe Hydreigon did. And maybe, as her trainer, it was time for her to put her pride aside and ask.

AJ took a deep breath. Then another, just because.

Then, turning to face Ash, she plucked Hydreigon’s ball off of her belt and held it in her hand, gazing down at it. 

“She’s not… comfortable… with strangers…” she began. 

And then she told him. Everything. 

The whole story - about the traveling menagerie in Unova, the abuse she’d suffered, the night-raid AJ had participated in to free the captured pokemon from the smugglers, everything. She told him about her struggles raising her, how she’d evolved so soon, how she frequently lost control and lashed out at everything around her, and about everything she’d done and was doing to try to help her acclimate. 

And he listened. He didn’t interrupt, didn’t make any judgy comments. He just stared at her and listened, his brows furrowed in concern, his expression so reminiscent of her grandmother that it almost made her ache. 

The story took some time, but he waited, listening patiently, as she laid it all out for him. For once, her hate had taken a backseat, eclipsed by her concern for her pokemon. They stood together near the boulder she’d found him at, standing at the edge of the meadow while they’re pokemon lazed about together, talking or playing or napping, as if this scene was completely normal. As if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. 

“...I basically have to carry her around with me everywhere,” she concluded, feeling a little spent. “She doesn’t trust Oak’s aides and goes wild when she’s on the ranch and I’m not there - but locking her away in her ball isn’t any better than keeping her imprisoned like the smugglers, and I can’t do that. Even releasing her doesn’t seem to be an option - she spent most of her life in captivity, I don’t know that she knows how to care for herself, and she’s so strong. What if she causes a disaster and gets herself or others hurt?”

Ash was nodding along, a distant look in his eyes. 

AJ shook her head, feeling lost. 

“I don’t know what to do. Brock says we should get a specialist involved - some kind of pokemon therapist who can help her, but I haven’t had the time yet to look for one and they’re not exactly easy to come by-”

“That won’t work,” Ash said suddenly, cutting her off, and she blinked. She’d been so engrossed in telling the story, she’d nearly forgotten who she was talking to. 

“It won’t?”

“No - Well, I mean, it’s not a bad idea. She might benefit from it, eventually. You should probably still give it a try, especially if Brock says it’s a good idea. But if your goal is to have her on your team, to actually fight battles with you, then there’s a bigger hurdle you’ll need to overcome, and therapy isn’t going to help her with that.”

AJ frowned. 

“There’s a bigger hurdle? What does that mean?”

“I mean, the reason you’re struggling to control Hydreigon in battles isn’t because of her trauma - well, not directly, at least. The problem isn’t her fear of the humans who abused her. The problem is you.”

AJ felt like she’d been sucker-punched straight to the gut. She flinched, every muscle in her body suddenly rigid. 

Ash didn’t notice. He continued talking, gazing into the distance, oblivious to the girl at his side. 

“Every good trainer knows about the bond that exists between them and their pokemon. But for some, this bond is naturally stronger than others. For people, they say it’s got something to do with psychic powers or aura or whatever - but the truth is, everyone can sense it. Psychics and those who can sense aura just have an advantage in that they can pick up on it faster. 

“Certain pokemon are the same. Some types have a stronger sense of this - like psychics, ghosts, fairies - and yes, dark and dragon-types. But there are also certain pokemon who just naturally have this sort of sixth sense in them. Lucario, for example, or Hatenna. The problem is, Hydreigon falls into that category - she’s not only a dark-type and a dragon-type, which is already bad, but Hydreigon as a species are also naturally in tune with people’s emotions. It’s how they make up for their poor eyesight.”

He was just talking. Just rambling away now, completely oblivious to the world around him. AJ tried to calm her anger, tried to take deep, soothing breaths. Maybe he hadn’t meant to insult her. Maybe he was just an idiot who didn’t pay attention to what he said. It would be fine. Don’t lose your cool. Remember, this is training. Training to beat him. 

“The problem,” he said, still going, still oblivious, “is that when you call her into battle, she instinctively reaches out to you empathically, looking for something to ground her. But you aren’t grounded. What she’s searching for isn’t there. You’re lacking it.”

Togekiss, who was drifting lazily over a particularly tall cluster of sunflowers, suddenly stopped and turned around, gazing at her in concern. Milotic, who had coiled up on the grass, was now lifting her head. Even Arcanine and Aegislash had stopped and turned to look at her. 

AJ hardly noticed, however. Her fists were clenched, shoulders quaking, and her vision had practically gone red. 

Breathe… Don’t blow up… Breathe…!

“Basically, you can give her all of the therapy you’d like, but she’s never going to perform well on your team. Hydreigon isn’t going to be able to get over her problems until you learn to get over yours-”

And she snapped. 

“Don’t,” she spat, tone like acid. “Don’t you dare…! You have no right…!”

Ash gaped at her, confused. He had no idea. But of course he didn’t - how could he? He was never there. 

She fought with herself for a moment, desperate to lash out, desperate to scream at him, to hit him, to do something…! But then Pichu was there, tugging on her pant leg, looking worried, and she forced herself to step away. 

“Don’t ever try to tell me what to do,” she snarled before stomping off. “You are not my father.”

She heard him call her name behind him, but she ignored him. She had no idea where she was going, but it didn’t matter, so long as it was away from there. 

Pichu was racing along behind her, and she could hear her other pokemon following, all calling out, voices filled with worry, but she tuned them out, too. 

Her blood was thundering in her ears. That hate she’d almost managed to put behind her for a moment was back in her face again, roaring full throttle. 

She’d actually let her guard down - actually let herself open up to him, like an idiot, and this is what happens. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. 

But how dare he? What gave him the right to try and talk down to her? Tell her what to do, tell her she was flawed and imperfect, as if she didn’t already know? 

As if he was completely oblivious to the fact that those problems were his fault to begin with. 

Then again, he probably - no, certainly, was. He was just a selfish, oblivious idiot. And she didn’t need him. Would never need him. 

She’d figure this out on her own. 

Chapter Text

A few days after Sammy’s fateful encounter with that baby Articuno found the group gathering together in the cabin late into the evening, preparing for dinner. 

This occasion was notable if only because it was the first time that all of them were gathering together for a meal at the same time. Normally, Ash would be off on his own doing who knows what, or else the trio would decide to have an impromptu picnic in the warmth of the Sanctuary. With the cabin being as small as it was, and with tensions running as high as they were between AJ and Ash, and AJ and Cole, and now AJ and Jade apparently - basically, AJ and everyone except him - well, suffice it to say that get-togethers weren’t exactly a comfortable time. 

But today was apparently special, because Cole had happened upon some rare peppers while foraging in the mountains and he had boasted that he could use them and some of the food they’d found in Sammy’s backpack to make them the best stew they’d had in years. 

Truth to tell, Sammy wasn’t really all that thrilled. He was getting sick of stew and all of its soupy variants as it was basically all they ever ate anymore - but to be fair, considering their current living conditions, the only real way they had to cook was either boiling or roasting over an open flame, so he supposed beggars couldn’t be choosers. It’s not like they had access to a grill, or an oven, or a microwave. Cole didn’t even own a frying pan. Sammy had had one, once - as did AJ and Jade - but they’d been lost in the avalanche. 

It was the simple, everyday things you took for granted that you end up missing the most, he supposed.

Regardless, while he may be sick to death of stew, he wasn’t about to miss this meal. Cole was planning to use the last of Sammy’s remaining fresh meat - imitation, of course - which meant that after today, there’d only be the canned stuff left, and only for a little while. This could be his last chance to eat anything that wasn’t a berry or a tuber or an herb, possibly for years. And he clearly wasn’t the only one keen to be present.

The result was a surprisingly pleasant if somewhat chaotic gathering in the cabin in which everyone tried to help with the cooking but the kitchen was far too small for so many bodies, meaning there was a lot of bumping into one another and laughter as they shuffled around, chopping vegetables or applying seasonings or generally causing mayhem. 

Well. Almost everyone. 

AJ was the notable exception, having tagged along because she apparently hadn’t realized Ash would be joining them, and when she found out, she’d elected to instead remain seated on the couch, sending frosty glares in their direction and generally being a grouch. 

To be fair, that was already a pretty significant development. The fact that she’d remained in the cabin at all was a miracle in and of itself. She was making progress. Baby steps and all that. 

And if part of him was annoyed that she wasn’t helping with dinner, well - there really wasn’t any room here for any more people anyway. Honestly, he hadn’t done more than wash off the root vegetables that Cole had collected that afternoon and dice a handful of wild onions. He didn’t have space to judge. 

Once the prep work was done, however, even Sammy was out of things to do. The actual ‘cooking’ part was taken over by Cole and Jade, who were standing over by the old Slugma-powered pot-bellied stove, talking about nothing and laughing like they were a favorite grandpa and granddaughter bonding at a holiday gathering. Any tension that may have existed between them and AJ apparently did not exist without her, and the general good vibes they were giving off warmed the cabin even more than the roaring fireplace did. 

Layered over the sound of convivial voices was also the omnipresent babble of pokemon. Pichu and Pikachu had scampered up into the loft, and while Sammy couldn’t see what they were up to, whatever it was was loud and involved them scampering back and forth, the staccato of their claws across the aged wooden timbers filling the cabin with the sounds of disjointed percussion. Gallade was in a rocking chair next to Jade’s Mawile, the two of them talking while Leafeon snoozed on the carpet near the fireplace. 

Mew had been there earlier as well, albeit briefly - it had noticed a flock of Noctowl out the window and had teleported outside to give chase and hadn’t returned. Normal behavior, Sammy had come to find. Maybe it would return, maybe not. It had the attention span of a toddler. 

Sammy for his part found himself seated at the kitchen table with Ash. He’d considered joining AJ over on the couch, not wanting her to feel left out, but he’d somehow found himself in a conversation with Ash about legendary pokemon that he admittedly wasn’t keen on ending anytime soon. 

“I mean, I think it’s logical to assume that most of them breed,” the older man was saying, scratching at his five o’clock shadow and letting his eyes absently rake the ceiling. “If you’re asking if I’ve actually seen it happen, or if I’ve seen an egg or an infant form of every legendary pokemon that I’ve ever met - then no, I haven’t. But I have seen quite a few. Kanto’s legendary birds, the dogs of Johto, the noble pokemon of Unova, both Spectrier and Glastrier… I’d say I can confirm that more than half of what we call ‘Legendary’ pokemon do breed like other pokemon do. They’re not all that different, honestly. Most of the ‘legends’ about these pokemon are pretty heavily embellished. I mean, they may have done some of the things the legends say they did - or maybe their ancestors did - but most of them really are just rare, unusually powerful pokemon.”

“Right,” Sammy said, nodding along. “I mean, that’s the common consensus about most of them. It hasn’t been proven yet, but logically, that makes the most sense. But then you have pokemon like… I don’t know, Arceus, who’s a god apparently, or the Tapu guardians of Alola who’ve allegedly been alive for as long as human record, or even Mew, who’s a complete mystery. And don’t even get me started on those Ultra Beasts…”

Honestly, talking to Ash was fascinating. While he clearly lacked a scientific mind and couldn't answer a lot of questions about even basic biology, his first-hand accounts with these pokemon that most had only ever heard of in story books was invaluable. He had so many random facts about them - eating habits, temperament, observations on potential migrational patterns - he was a veritable gold mine in human form. Sammy almost didn’t mind being trapped up here if it meant he could pick his brain for the next several years and even venture into the Sanctuary to see and study these amazing creatures himself. 

‘Almost’ being the operative word, of course. Not having a reliable way to record his findings took most of the wind out of his sails. And even if he did have a notebook, without any way to capture photos or video footage, without any way to take samples of hair or feathers or scales, without a pokedex to scan the pokemon and take back evidence of shape and height and weight, the sounds they made, the moves they know… It would all just be considered hearsay. Even from an Oak. Especially from an unproven Oak. People would doubt him. Say he was making it up for clout, because he was pressured by the need to live up to his famous family name. 

And he couldn’t have that. His dream wasn’t just to see things no one else had seen, but to publish those things and broaden the scope of humanity’s understanding. And he couldn’t do that if people thought he was a fraud. 

Technically, he did have one incredibly solid piece of evidence. The baby Articuno. He’d captured it, and it had been sent back to his family’s lab. Knowing what he did of how they operate, no one would likely notice it for a few days yet. 

Hundreds of trainers were registered to his family’s lab in Pallet, which meant that dozens of new pokemon came in on the daily and were usually kept in their pokeballs. Pokemon stored in their pokeballs were set in a sort of state of suspended stasis, which slowed their biological functions, so they didn’t need to eat as often. Which was a good thing, because otherwise, the cost of feeding and housing them, and the manpower needed to stop them from fighting one another, would be astronomically higher than it already was. 

Workers at the lab would go through them periodically, letting them out to roam the large estate, flex their limbs, get some exercise and eat and relieve themselves before recalling them back to their balls and rotating on to the next group. Articuno wouldn’t be let out for a bit just yet. 

But when it was… Well, then his secret would be out. He was sure that his parents would do what they could to stop the news from leaking, to give him a chance to come home and explain - but they couldn’t hold off forever. The news would leak eventually. And if some enterprising intern thought to steal his discovery to make a name for themselves while he was gone…!

He hadn’t mentioned catching the Articuno to anyone but AJ and Jade, however. He felt uncomfortable bringing it up to Cole and Ash. They’d dedicated their lives to protecting this preserve and the pokemon who lived there, and while the Articuno had let itself be caught willingly, he still didn’t think it gave off the best impression. He didn’t want them to think he was here for the wrong reasons. Though, technically, he wasn’t here of his own volition in the first place anyway. 

As much as he was enjoying this conversation and the warm bubble of conversation that filled the cabin, however, it was hard not to notice the petulant glowers AJ kept throwing their way. She’d have to forgive him later, however; he had research to do. She knew how much this meant to him. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t long before Jade called out that the food was ready. The humans gathered around the kitchen table, which wasn’t quite large enough for five people, so it was a bit of a squeeze, and the pokemon who were already out sat around the living room, lounging in chairs or down on the rugs. They didn’t have enough food on hand to feed everyone at once, so they were on rotations now, too. 

Sammy almost wished he was over there with them, however, as the moment that AJ took the seat beside him, a frostiness overtook the table and all of their previous positive energy was seemingly sucked out of the room. 

Jade, ever the people pleaser, did her best to keep her smile as bright and toothy as possible. 

“Thanks for the hard work, everyone!” she said, not quite avoiding looking at AJ, but it was noticeable all the same. “Cole, it smells great!”

“As it should, lass,” he chuckled amiably, doing a much better job of hiding his awkwardness than Jade was. “You did half the work! And of course, we have Sammy’s excellent supplies to thank for this bountiful harvest!”

“I do what I can,” he said, offering the older man a crooked half-smile. He hadn’t really done much but let him paw his way through his food stores, but that was fine. May as well use it before it went bad. Being stored in pokeballs meant it had a longer shelf life than it would have, but some of it - like the meat they used in the stew, or the bread Jade had sliced up and toasted - wouldn’t have lasted longer than another week or so. May as well eat it while it was still good. 

But that was basically all this meal consisted of. Cole’s spicy-smelling stew - which was at least an improvement over the bland version he usually served - and Sammy’s leftover Slugma-toasted bread, which Jade had at least attempted to season with some wild garlic, though they’d had no butter. The only other part of the meal was more of Cole’s never-ending tart cider that he seemed to guzzle like water. His fascination with this beverage was bizarre - though it occurred to Sammy that maybe it was because it was the only flavorful thing he got to eat on the regular. 

“Well then, enough chatter,” Cole said, thankfully ending the pleasantries. “Dig in before it gets cold!”

Then there was silence as multiple hands reached out across the tiny dining table, ladling stew into bowls, grabbing slices of bread or pouring themselves drinks. 

Every hand but AJ’s, as she sat still, staring stony-faced at the scene in front of her, looking not at all pleased to be here. She never even reached for any food.

After a few tense minutes of silent eating, filled only with the sounds of chewing, the scrap of utensil on dish, or the chatter of the pokemon from the other room, finally, someone dared to break the silence. 

“Um,” said Ash, looking for once not at all confident or charismatic, instead forcing an unbearably awkward smile onto his face as he lifted the half-empty plate of toasted bread. “Here, AJ - would you like some bread? It’s… It’s pretty good.”

That, Sammy thought, was perhaps a bit too much exaggeration. It was fine for what it was, but he wouldn’t exactly call it ‘pretty good’. Then again, Sammy was used to… well, fancier dining, and as a mountain hermit, Ash’s pallet had clearly declined in the last two decades, so Sammy wouldn’t hold it against him. 

AJ stared at the proffered plate for a moment like it was an Ekans hiding in the grass, ready to bite her, then let her gaze flicker back up to Ash’s. 

“I’m not hungry,” she said. 

Then, after another tense, awkward pause, she scooted her chair back, the wooden chair legs scraping across the stone floor unpleasantly, got to her feet, and walked away. If the sound of the back door closing behind her was a tad louder than it normally would have been, well… He was still impressed that she managed not to outright slam it.

Ash let out a heavy sigh, setting the dish back down on the tabletop and looking for all the world like a Boltund who’d been left out in the rain. 

“...She really hates me, doesn’t she?”

There was a hollowness to his words that seemed to make them cave in on themselves, crumbling in the air and filling the room with dust. Jade gazed off in the direction AJ had retreated, looking conflicted, torn between wanting to go to her side and giving her the space she needed. Cole, for his part, lifted a hand and rested it bracingly on Ash’s shoulder, lending him support. 

But Sammy wasn’t here for this teen drama nonsense, and he was tired of walking around on eggshells all the time. You don’t make things better by dancing around the issues - if there’s a problem, you focus on it till it’s resolved. And how was anyone supposed to do that if people kept clamming up and staring wistfully into the middle distance?

“Take it from someone who knows,” Sammy said, bluntly breaking the silence as he reached for another slice of bread. “It’s not exactly easy growing up with a famous parent.”

The pressure, the expectations, the way everyone thought they knew you before they even met you… It was enough to drive anyone mad. And that was before you factored in AJ’s abandonment issues. Combine the two, and they were lucky she hadn’t spent the last few days foaming at the mouth. 

Jade sighed. She could relate. She’d seen it all first-hand - and had even experienced it a bit herself, though her father wasn’t nearly as famous as his and AJ’s. Cole let out a noncommittal grunt that could have meant anything, honestly, but it was Ash’s reaction that surprised Sammy the most. 

He blinked, then frowned, glancing around the table at each of their faces as though confused. 

“You mean because of Misty?” he asked. “I know someone said she was in the Elite 4 now, but that can’t have happened until AJ was a little older, right? Probably around the time she left on her journey. How much of an impact could that have had?”

Sammy stared at Ash for a moment, completely lost. 

Then he said, “...You’re joking, right?”

Ash looked around uncertainly. Even Jade was staring at him like he’d grown an extra head. 

“Uh… no? I don’t-”

“They’re not talking about Misty, boy,” Cole said, scraping at the inside of his bowl as though determined to scoop up every last bit of stew. “They’re talking about you.”

“Me?” Ash exclaimed, looking genuinely shocked. “But I’m not-! I mean, ok, I was the Champion for a bit, but I barely held the position for more than a year. Why would anyone remember me? I disappeared before I had a chance to prove that I could go the distance. No one should remember me.”

The silence around the table was deafening. Both Sammy and Jade were staring at Ash with twin looks of dumbfounded confusion. Was he being serious right now? He couldn’t actually not know, right? He was Ash Ketchum - the Ash Ketchum. Hero of a Hundred Stories, Tamer of Legendaries, the Very Best Like No One Ever Was. How on earth could he not know how famous he was?

Funnily enough, there was something familiar and… almost endearing about how dumb he sounded right now. It took Sammy a second to realize that it was because AJ could often come across as the same level of clueless. He shook that thought right off. 

“Ash,” Jade said, slowly, “do you really not know how famous you are?”

“Me?” he asked, stunned. “Why?”

Jade’s mouth worked silently, like she was frantically trying to come up with a reason only there were too many reasons to choose from and she didn’t know where to start. 

Finally, she spluttered, “For… everything?!”

“Everything?” he repeated, bemused, then let out a bark of laughter. “What does that even mean?”

“Ash,” Sammy cut in. “You’re basically a living legend - well, a dead legend to most of the world. People don’t just call you the best trainer Kanto - or the Indigo League - ever had. Some people even think you were the best the world had ever seen. People still talk about how you battled against Team Rocket and other criminal organizations, how you met and gained the trust of nearly every legendary pokemon the world has record of. You’re… well. You’re the Ash Ketchum. What did you expect?”

Ash was pulling a face that looked like he was waiting for someone to say ‘Just kidding!’, like they were on some sort of unfunny prank show. When no one did, he took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair in a distracted sort of way, looking confused. 

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said finally, replacing his hat and setting his elbows on the table so he could rest his chin on his fist. 

“You really thought you could meet all those legendary pokemon and no one would comment on it?” Sammy asked, wryly. Seriously, this man had the sort of luck he could only have dreamed of - well, before he got stuck on this mountain. Now, he’d met nearly as many as Ash had. Or had seen as many, at least. 

And weirdly, his new dream was now to get away. With specimens, of course.

“Well, they never did before,” he said blandly. “Actually, most people never knew that I’d met so many legendary pokemon. Like, sure, there were a few other people with me, usually - like Brock, or Misty, or Dawn, or my other friends. But it’s not like I went around announcing it to the world or anything. 

“And it’s not like I was all that famous. I mean, maybe people knew who I was around the time that I made Champion, but you make it sound like I’m some sort of hero or something. Other than some minor paparazzi when I became the Champion, it’s not like people treated me all that special. I made friends in a lot of places, sure, but… I wasn’t a celebrity. Not really.”

Sammy sat back, feeling stunned. He really didn’t know? He really had no idea how famous he was? But how? Why? If all of the stories about him were true - and he wasn’t denying them, so they probably were - how on earth could he have been oblivious to his fame?

And he was famous. People still talked about him, all the time. His battles would air on TV specials, recounting the most famous trainers of the past decades. People would mention him all the time on online forums discussing the strongest trainers who ever lived or legendary pokemon encounters. Not to mention the deluge of comments he knew AJ had received on their journey whenever people recognized her name. 

And it happened a lot - especially around Gym Leaders or Research Labs. But more so in the past few months than ever before, as AJ had won the Indigo League Tournament and announced her intention to battle the Elite 4. It was all the internet could talk about. All tabloids or journalists wanted to opine on. 

The gears in his head clicked into motion, and slowly, gradually, Sammy started to put the pieces together. 

“I have a theory,” he said suddenly, breaking the silence once again, and all heads turned to him. 

“A theory?” Jade parroted in tones of equal curiosity and the familiar sort of resignation you’d expect from someone who’d been forced to listen to thousands of Sammy’s theories over the years. Sammy nodded. 

“Yeah. A theory as to how Ash could be so famous now, but maybe not back then. I mean it’s just a guess, but…”

He trailed off. Why did it matter if he knew he was famous or not? It didn’t change the reality of what AJ had had to put up with. It wouldn’t fix anything between them. Still, though, he liked a good puzzle, and with Ash and Cole and Jade all watching him expectantly, he decided to push forward with his hypothesis anyway. Better than everyone clamming up again.

“Let’s say that Ash is right,” he began, “and at the time of his disappearance, he wasn’t really all that famous, all things considered. Famous enough as the new Champion of Kanto, but not really that big of a deal just yet on the global stage. What could have happened that would have changed that?”

Everyone else exchanged confused glances but said nothing. After a moment, Ash said, “...I disappeared?”

Sammy snapped his fingers and pointed at Ash. “Exactly. You disappeared. Mysteriously, without a trace. And what happened next? Jade, what happens when a Champion goes missing? Think about Hilda from Unova.”

“Uh,” Jade said quickly, looking around, suddenly put on the spot. “They, um… I don’t know. They get famous?”

“Yeah, sort of,” Sammy said. “Rather, the news goes wild, right? It’s all anyone can talk about. Every headline in the Alliance for weeks after Hilda dropped off the face of the earth was all about her - who she was, where she went, why she left, etc.

“But they can’t just keep talking about that forever. Newspapers, gossip magazines, online blogs - they all love controversy, so a Champion just disappearing under mysterious circumstances is like a literal vein of gold to them. They’ve got to mine that story for all it’s worth, but people get bored if they just rehash the same thing over and over again. So eventually, they’d try to reach out, interview people, get new perspectives.”

Which is exactly what happened with Hilda, Sammy knew. AJ had once told him how she’d been harassed by a few different Unovan tabloids after her friend’s disappearance, all of them looking to score an interview and dig up any juicy gossip AJ might have on her old friend. 

“Ash, you traveled all around the world. You met a lot of people - people who might have been willing to claim their five minutes of fame by talking about you to journalists and reporters. And if any of them had known about your adventures with legendary pokemon, well…”

Then the news would have leaked - ‘Ash Ketchum Tussles with Tornadus’ or some other stupid headline would have appeared, the story likely embellished, larger than the already larger-than-life truth, which would have encouraged other people who knew similar stories - or even others who just made stuff up for clout - to also chime in. And it would snowball, gradually, getting bigger and bigger, until Ash Ketchum the legend eclipsed anything that Ash Ketchum the man had ever been. 

And it was that legend, that impossible figure from a story, that AJ had always been compared to. Not the actual man himself. 

“So you’re saying,” Ash said, frowning at the ceiling as he struggled to put the pieces together, “after I disappeared, the tabloids went digging for gossip and ended up finding out about some of my adventures and broadcasted them for clicks and clout, which somehow combined with my mysterious disappearance until it snowballed into me being some sort of over-the-top impossible legendary hero?”

“Basically,” Sammy said. “I mean, I’m just spitballing here, but I think it makes sense as a theory-”

“Yeah, I’d buy that,” Jade said, leaning back in her chair and pushing her bowl away, looking satisfied. “Makes more sense than most things, I guess. That’s one question answered.”

One question. One of dozens still unanswered. They’d been here for days already, and yet still, Sammy felt like they’d made remarkably little progress toward the central problem - getting home. Sure, he’d been sidetracked by all of the legendary pokemon he could finally see and interact with, but none of that mattered if he could never get back and report his findings. 

The one hope he had was Ash Ketchum. The thought that maybe he knew something they didn’t, had some clue that would see them home again. But if he did, why hadn’t he tried to leave himself? Sammy had wanted to pick his brain for days, but with AJ around, the only chance he’d had had been the day he’d woken up. Her explosive temperament, particularly whenever her father was near or was brought up in conversation, was proving to be one of their biggest obstacles. 

But she wasn’t here now. Which meant he didn’t need to be considerate.

“So why did you disappear?” Sammy asked, bluntly segwaying into the heart of the matter. They’d danced around this long enough for AJ’s sake, but she wasn’t here now and he was tired of waiting. “I mean, not ‘why are you stuck here’ - I know you’re trapped on this mountain the same way we are thanks to that Mewtwo pokemon or whatever. I don’t care about that. What I want to know is, how are you here? Why did you leave?”

Jade had stiffened at his side, shooting him wide-eyed looks like she couldn’t believe he’d just straight up asked. Jade was always the one trying to remind him and AJ to be polite and have manners - usually AJ more than him. She cared a great deal about appearances. Then again, she wasn’t trying to stop him like she usually would. She sat silent and still in her chair, gaze bouncing anxiously between Sammy and Ash. She wanted to know as badly as he did. 

Ash, for his part, didn’t look annoyed or upset at the question, which was good. He did sigh, however, adjusting his hat again which appeared to be a nervous tick before pushing his dishes away, clearing the spot on the table in front of him for seemingly no reason at all. 

After a moment, his palms running absently over the smooth, aged wood, his eyes gazing into nothing as though he could see answers written in the grains of the timber, he said, softly, “It’s… not all that interesting of a story, honestly. Nothing mysterious about it. I just… needed to clear my head, and… I left.”

There was a pause then, a lull in the conversation in which Ash simply stared into oblivion, seeing things that weren’t there. For a moment, Sammy thought that was it, that that was the only answer he was going to get, and for the first time, he felt a surge of rage spike inside of him. 

That’s it? You abandoned her because you just needed to ‘clear your head’?! This was the man his father and Brock had always claimed was the best friend they’d ever had?!

But before Sammy could speak - could take a page from AJ’s book and break something - Ash continued. 

“Becoming the Champion was all I’d ever wanted. It had been my dream since… longer than I can remember, honestly. I worked so hard to get where I was, and when I finally made it… I was on top of the world. 

“I mean, it’s not really all it’s cracked up to be. The hours are long, there’s a lot of bureaucratic red tape you have to deal with, the constant media circus is just… honestly, the worst. And then there’s the whole lack of freedom thing to contend with. When you’re just a regular trainer, it’s like you can go anywhere - do anything. Nothing holding you back or keeping you down but your own fears and doubts. But you can overcome those. Break barriers, seek new horizons… But as the Champion, you’ve got all these responsibilities, all these eyes on you, constantly, with their doubts, their expectations… It’s a lot. But even still… despite all of the drawbacks and annoyances, I’d finally made it there. I was higher than a kite. And nothing was going to take that away from me.”

Here, he shifted slightly, as though uncomfortable. He finally lifted his eyes from the table top just long enough to glance at Sammy and Jade, as though gauging their reactions, before letting his gaze focus somewhere outside the window into the darkened night. 

“...Until, I guess, the day came when Misty told me she was pregnant.”

His words seemed to echo silently around the quiet kitchen like a bomb blast, and for a moment, Sammy was incredibly glad that AJ had stormed off and hadn’t been there to hear that. 

“You left,” Jade said, breath suddenly hitching, “because you found out-?!”

“No!”, Ash said hurriedly, waving his hand in the air. “That’s not…! I didn’t leave because of AJ. I didn’t leave on purpose at all. It was just… Like I said before, I needed to clear my head. 

“Misty being pregnant was…” he gaped for a moment, seemingly grasping blindly into the void of his mind for the words that could possibly sum up the enormity of what he was feeling before finally settling on  “...unexpected. We didn’t… It wasn’t planned. It just happened. Out of the blue, it seemed. But despite that, Misty was so happy. Scared, but happy. A beautiful mistake, she’d said. And I…”

Here, he hesitated again, only it wasn’t Jade’s thunderous scowl he was glancing at uneasily - it was Cole’s look of quiet sorrow. 

“I guess I can see why that would have been a lot,” Sammy said, adopting a placating tone. He wasn’t exactly happy about this revelation either - the fact that AJ’s paranoid fears about Ash’s disappearance being because of her was actually true was like taking a surprise Gunk Shot to the face from a Garbodor - but Jade looked about two second away from going protective mama Kangaskan on this old man and Sammy knew he had to keep her in check if he wanted to keep getting answers. They could beat him up later. 

“It… It was,” Ash said, letting his gaze flick toward Sammy and Jade again before settling back down on the table. “And for a lot of reasons. Me still being only about a year into my tenure as the Champion was already a huge source of stress, but I’d felt like I was slowly growing into it, you know? Adjusting to the change, rising to the challenge. But then the pregnancy just… It came out of nowhere, and it felt like this house of cards I’d been carefully constructing over the past year had been hit by a bowling ball and everything just… fell apart again.

“I can admit now that I was scared. Well… more like terrified. We weren’t ready - I wasn’t ready. We were so young, we’d both been so focused on our careers, with achieving our individual dreams… A baby wasn’t in our plans. Not then. Maybe not ever. Honestly… I can tell you now I hadn’t even thought about it. Not even in a ‘maybe one day’ sort of way. Being the Champion had been my only goal for the future for so long. Starting a family was just… It was so foreign to me. 

“And honestly? I… I had no idea how to be a dad. Or what being a dad even meant. I didn’t… I never got to have one of my own. What was a dad even supposed to do? I didn’t know how to raise a kid. Raising pokemon was all I knew. Was I supposed to take her out into the wilderness and have her battle against Caterpie until she was grown up enough to take care of herself?”

Sammy said nothing, but silently, he thought that AJ probably wouldn’t have minded that so much. 

“I started to spiral. It all just got to be too much, and I found myself wishing things were still as simple as they were when we were kids, just… traveling together, seeking adventure and not having to deal with the press or the pressures of adulthood or having to grow up too fast. And I think that must have been when I decided that what I needed was to just… take a step back, you know? Get away from the crazy for a bit and just… recenter. And there was nowhere where I felt more at peace than when I was out on a journey with just me and my pokemon, so… On a whim, without saying a word to anyone, I just packed up and left.

“I hadn’t picked Mt. Silver for any special reason. The trip had been so spur-of-the-moment, I just wanted somewhere close where I could get away for a while, and the mountain happened to be the closest and largest bit of untracked land to League Headquarters, so I came here. I wasn’t supposed to be gone forever. I only ever meant to be gone for a few days - maybe a few weeks at most, though I knew Misty and the League would be pissed at me. But then I found my way wandering up the mountain and ran into dad and… And Mewtwo…”

“What-” Jade said suddenly, then blinked as though she’d startled herself with her own interruption before continuing in a softer voice, “What is Mewtwo? Cole had said something about… I don’t know, a lab experiment or whatever? Something about Giovanni and Mew, but he said we should ask you about it, so… Why does he hate us so much? What did we… do?”

Ash nodded solemnly, taking another deep breath and letting it out in a tired rush. 

“We - as in, you and I - didn’t do anything. We as people, however… well…

“Mewtwo is the end-result of years of work that Giovanni and Team Rocket put into trying to claim the power of Mew for themselves. I’m assuming dad told you his part of the story? Right, well - during their last fight, Giovanni had managed to get his hands on some of Mew’s blood, and with it, he tried to create a new pokemon from its DNA. I don’t know why he didn’t just clone Mew directly - maybe he couldn’t, or maybe he was arrogant enough to think that he could build a new pokemon who was better and stronger. Creating artificial pokemon was still in its infancy in those days. They’d only just succeeded in creating the first Porygon - and Team Rocket was involved in that as well. But I’m getting off track - the point is, after years and years of hard work, they succeeded in their experiments with Mew’s DNA, and Mewtwo was born.”

“I’ve never heard anything about that,” Sammy said. He wasn’t arguing, exactly - he’d just done loads of research into artificial pokemon before and thought he’d known the history fairly well. 

“Well, I’m not surprised,” Ash said with a shrug. “Giovanni wasn’t exactly on the up-and-up. He wouldn’t have wanted this to be public knowledge - not if he was going to use it to take over the League. Better that it be a surprise, right? In their initial testing, they found that Mewtwo possessed incredibly destructive psychic powers. Without a Mew to compare him to, it was hard to say how he stacked up as a clone, but regardless, he had incredible potential, and Giovanni was pleased. 

“They mainly kept him in their lab on Cinnabar Island, but they’d move him about sometimes for ‘field tests’. I don’t know if you knew this, but Giovanni used to be the gym leader in Viridian, for a time at least, and it was during that time that Mewtwo was created. Sometimes, they’d have Mewtwo transported to the gym, and there, after hours, Giovanni would put Mewtwo through strict tests and training regimens. Well, I say ‘training’, but let’s be honest - it was full-on abuse, not just for Mewtwo, but for the pokemon he had him training against. 

“They’d force Mewtwo into hours and hours of protracted battles or tests to push the limits of his psychic abilities, pushing him to the point of extreme physical and mental fatigue. In battles, he’d face increasing odds, sometimes seemingly endless waves of fights, sometimes with as many as five opponents at a time, and they’d drag on and on until Mewtwo collapsed. And they’d outfitted him with special ‘armor’ meant to amplify his abilities, but also to restrict him, so that if ever he tried to disobey or fight back, he’d receive excruciating and debilitating electrical shocks that would leave him disoriented and near senseless.”

A silence had gripped the cabin at this point, and it took Sammy a moment to notice that even the pokemon in the other room had grown quiet, all of them apparently listening into Ash’s story with rapt and horrified expressions. 

“Can you imagine what that must have been like?” Ash asked softly, staring into nothing. “If everything you’d ever known from the moment of your birth was captivity and torment and pain? It’s no wonder Mewtwo hates humans. No wonder he thinks Trainers are a disease. I can’t blame him. If anything, it’s a miracle he hasn’t set off on a conquest to kill us all. He hates us enough to try it.”

“How did he escape?” Jade asked, and as was expected from his most empathetic friend, Sammy could hear the tell-tale wobble in her voice that indicated she was struggling to hold back her emotions.

“He grew too strong,” Ash said simply. “Giovanni’s plan wound up backfiring. In his rush to make him as strong as possible so he could use him to take over the League, Mewtwo ended up growing too strong, and he was able to break free of his restraints. He destroyed the lab in Cinnabar on his way out, though not without stealing some of their equipment.”

“Why steal the equipment?” Sammy asked, and Ash gave a one-armed shrug.

“I don’t know what his plan was, exactly - use it to build a clone army so that he could liberate pokemon from the tyranny of humans? He tried, actually - back when I was still a rookie trainer, I actually met him. Brock and Misty, too, though they probably don’t remember. Long story short, though, he tried to steal pokemon away from trainers, then clone them to build an army, but the pokemon didn’t want to leave their trainers so it led to a whole battle. Anyway, the point is, Mew showed up and they fought, and when I tried to stop them, I– Well. I… didn’t exactly succeed, but I guess Mew managed to get through to him because they ended up leaving together - them and the pokemon he’d cloned - and that’s it.”

“Which would have been when they arrived here, on Mt. Silver,” Cole interjected. “About thirty years ago or so. My guess is, Mew brought Mewtwo here because it knew he’d be safe from humans. But maybe it was also thinking humans would be safe from him. He didn’t take kindly to me at first, neither, but well, we get along… after a fashion. And now, he’s become the official guardian of the Sanctuary.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold up,” Jade said, lifting her hands to rub at her temples. “Rewind a sec. You said my dad and Misty met Mewtwo?! And Mew, too? I mean - Mew, also, not Mewtwo - whatever. Why have I never heard of this?!”

“Because of a little thing called ‘hypnosis’,” Ash said, wiggling his fingers in the air and smirking at his little joke. 

When Jade just stared, dumbfounded, Ash expounded. 

“Mewtwo used his psychic powers to make us forget. Us, and the other trainers who’d been involved, and all of our pokemon… Like I said, he’s incredibly strong. The hypnosis he cast overwrote our memories of the event and we all forgot about it completely. I only remembered when I got here and saw him. It took a reminder that strong to break the hypnosis. And seeing as no one knows about Mewtwo, and Mew isn’t exactly the kind of pokemon you’d just bump into on the road one day - well, unless you’re dad, I mean…”

He shrugged simply as though to say that was that. 

Sammy stared. 

Leaving aside the implications that Mewtwo was powerful enough to successfully hypnotize dozens of people and pokemon at the same time and have it last for decades - not even Hypno were that good, and they’d evolved specifically in the direction of mastering the ability to hypnotize others - the rest of Ash’s tale was hard enough to swallow on its own. 

The rational side of his mind was struggling to accept the sheer absurdity of the idea that Ash had just happened to run into his missing father on a remote mountain range on a trip he’d taken by chance, as well as the very same legendary pokemon who he’d met as a child a decade prior. And that was before you factored in the idea that the mountain held a secret sanctuary for legendary pokemon. The odds of that happening were so small that it wasn’t even worth trying to estimate. In fact, his cynical side kept telling him that it had to be a lie - it just had to be. Things like this just didn’t happen. 

But then again, considering how Ash had already met just about every legendary pokemon ever, which was already beyond the realms of improbability, maybe it made more sense to accept that there was just something about Ash that drew him to these places. Maybe the legendary pokemon called to him without him knowing. That sounded crazy too, of course, but given the evidence, it was much easier to swallow than just pure, dumb luck. It might even be worth studying one day. 

But not today. Today, they had more problems on their hands. Like finding a way home. 

Cole snorted loudly, cutting through the heavy atmosphere and drawing everyone’s attention to him. 

“You make arriving here sound so simple. But the truth is, you and your daughter are more alike than you think.”

Ash made a face as though to protest that, but Jade quickly asked, “What do you mean?”

“Remember how AJ blew up when she found her dad? Well, he wasn’t much different,” Cole said, jerking a thumb in Ash’s direction. 

“Oh, come on,” Ash said quickly, sounding embarrassed. “You can’t blame me - and I wasn’t that bad-”

“You broke my nose!”

“Right, but -  I mean, it was just your nose, right?”

“You punched me in the face!”

“Yeah, cause you told me to leave! You barely said anything to me at all and just told me to get out! What else was I supposed to do?!”

“I was trying to save you from getting stuck here like me! And at least AJ had the decency to keep her fighting to pokemon. She didn’t resort to physical assault-”

“Well, let’s not put that past her just yet,” Sammy said, only half-joking. Jade whacked him in the arm with a silent look of reprimand. 

“I was trying to protect you,” Cole said adamantly before rising to his feet and gathering up the dishes. “And if I was a bit awkward about it, well - I hadn’t exactly expected to run into my son up here. Though I s’pose you understand that feeling a bit better now, eh?”

“And now, you’re stuck here. Just like us,” Ash finished lamely. Even hardly knowing the guy, defeat looked strange on his face. 

“Well, not just like you,” Jade said, standing to help Cole clear the table. “I mean, we didn’t up and vanish without a trace. People know we’re here.”

Cole, who had been scraping the remains of their dinners off of their plates and onto a large metal platter to feed to Slugma, suddenly turned to face them, alarmed. 

“What? People know you came here? How many?! What did you tell them?!”

Jade gaped wide-eyed under the sudden onslaught of questions, looking very much like a child who’d just been caught stealing cookies. 

Sammy, who’d also risen to help clean up, snorted disdainfully. 

“Of course we told people where we were going. We’re not crazy people. I left a note for my parents, Jade messaged her dad - even AJ left a letter at her grandma’s place when we passed through Pallet. I mean, we didn’t broadcast our intentions or anything, but we didn’t just ghost our friends and family.”

And if that had come out a little pointed, well… He owed this man no favors. Even leaving the personal drama aside, going on a trip alone to an icy mountain filled with dangerous pokemon without telling anyone was an objectively stupid thing to do, and he had no qualms telling him that to his face. 

“Oh, and Ethan knows - he’s the new Johtoan Champion,” Jade added, opening the door to the pot-bellied stove and smiling at the Slugma within as she fed her her dinner of table scraps.

“Yeah, I forgot about him. You actually met him once,” Sammy said, turning to Ash as he gathered up the dishes to take them outside to clean in the snow, only Ash hardly seemed to be listening, instead staring intently at the tabletop as though there was a puzzle hidden in the wood grains that he was trying to work out. “Apparently, he climbed up this mountain a couple years back and ran into you, but you beat him in a battle and he was forced to retreat.”

“That does sound familiar…” Cole said, looking worried. 

“And there’s his friends Kris and Lyra… There’s a chance Professor Elm knows by now, too. Oh, and we had to pass by the Ranger’s Station on the way here and sign in, so they’ve got a record that we’re here, as well.”

Jade stopped when she noticed the way Cole was anxiously wringing his rag in his hands. 

“They know we came up here,” she said, soothingly, “but they don’t know anything about you or the Sanctuary. And even if they do come up here looking for us, they’ll never find it. No one would ever find it unless they knew it was there.”

“Well, I didn’t know it was there-” Sammy began, playing devil’s advocate.

“You got carried in by an Articuno. That doesn’t count.”

“You didn’t know it was there either-”

“Yes, but we were following Ash who did know it was there-”

“And anyway, they may not know about Cole, but Ethan knows about Ash. Or well, he knows that we thought - or well, I thought - that the trainer he fought on Mt. Silver may have been Ash, so there is some connection at least.”

Jade closed the door to the stove and set her bowl down on the counter before turning and smacking Sammy lightly upside the head. Cole, for his part, was looking more anxious than ever, and Ash was staring so fixated at the tabletop that he was liable to burn a hole straight through it. 

“But uh… Yeah. I’m sure the Sanctuary is safe. No need to worry about that.”

As Jade immediately set to work soothing Cole’s concerns and reassuring him that everything would be fine, Sammy took it as his chance to escape. Gathering up as many plates and bowls and utensils as he could, he set off out the back door and into the frigid night. 

It wasn’t that he’d meant to set them on edge, it was just… Well, what was the point of lying? Burying your head in the sand wasn’t going to change reality. People did know they were here, which meant that, eventually, people were going to come looking for them. The son of Kanto’s Pokemon Professor and the newest Kantonian Grand Champion, lost in the mountains? There was no way people were going to let that slide - especially not his or his friends’ parents. Give it another few weeks and Mt. Silver would suddenly see foot traffic like it’s never seen before. 

But he also knew this wasn’t really a realistic hope for a potential rescue. The mountain was too large, the Sanctuary too well hidden, and with the wild pokemon playing sentries, they’d have more than ample warning before the search parties arrived. They’d likely be forced to hide in the Sanctuary itself for a few days till the search parties gave up. 

They couldn’t risk the Sanctuary being discovered - for more reasons than one, but the biggest being that Mewtwo wouldn’t take that lying down. Best case scenario? They’d suddenly have a bunch more prisoners. Worst case - and, if he were being honest, the much more likely scenario? Mewtwo would follow through with his threats. People would die. Possibly including them. 

The full moon shone through an unusually clear sky as Sammy knelt near one of the fresher piles of snow, his knees crunching wetly in the icy powder as he dropped his burden with a clatter on the ground beside him and began the arduous task of scraping off the residue of their dinner with fistfulls of snow. Once they were clean enough, he’d take them back inside and, using Slugma to heat up some water, he’d use the soap found in his recovered backpack to kill off any lingering germs. 

Something shifted in the darkness nearby, the sound instantly filling his mind with images of rogue Sneasels ganging up on him in the night, and he seized a butter knife, rising to one knee and preparing himself to flee back into the cabin for help before he noticed the figure sitting next to the back door and the tension left his body. 

“...AJ?” he called, squinting through the dark. There were no lights on the outside of the cabin, seeing as there wasn’t any electricity at all, and it was dark beneath the awning that sheltered the back porch from precipitation, but with all of the moonlight reflecting off of the snow on the ground, he could just barely make out the figure of a girl with long, dark hair huddled against cabin’s outer wall, knees tucked into her chest to ward off the cold. 

Had he walked right past her without noticing? How long had she been sitting there?

When she didn’t reply, he dropped the butter knife and got to his feet, brushing the snow off of his knees before walking over to her. Cleaning could wait. The dishes weren’t going anywhere. 

She glanced up at him as he approached, but didn’t say anything. Her expression was closed off and hardly inviting, but she didn’t tell him to leave either, so he took that as a good sign. 

Stepping onto the back porch, he walked casually toward her, carefully avoiding an old rusted hoe and a bucket of what looked like salt before sitting down at her side. 

“What are you doing out here?” he asked, only to pause as the sound of Jade’s laughter echoed out with startling clarity from inside the cabin. “...You were listening to us, weren’t you?”

For a moment, she said nothing, content to stare blankly out at the dark, inhospitable landscape that stretched out before them. 

Finally, she murmured, almost too quiet to hear, “I was right.”

Sammy shrugged with one shoulder.

“Yeah. Well, I mean, kind of.”

When she didn’t say anything, he took that as his permission to continue. 

“Yes - he left because he found out your mom was pregnant with you. But he wasn’t intending to stay away forever. He did what you did - when things got stressful, he needed to get away for a bit to clear his head - and he wound up trapped on this mountain, unable to go back home. Just like us. You didn’t drive him away.”

She snorted, burying her face in her knees and rubbing her nose against her pants as though trying to work warmth back into her frozen cheeks. 

“Don’t do that. Don’t give him an out.”

“I’m not-”

“Sammy,” she said, warning thick in her voice, and he rolled his eyes. 

“Do you honestly think I care at all about his feelings?” he asked, keeping his voice low but unable to keep his clear disdain from leaking through. If she could hear them outside, then they’d be able to hear them inside, and he had the feeling AJ wanted to keep this conversation private. “I’m not saying this to defend him - he’s not the person I care about here. But I know you, AJ, and I know you’re going to internalize his statements in the worst way possible, and I don’t want to see you do that to yourself.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’re blaming yourself for this,” Sammy said bluntly. “It means you’ve always blamed yourself for this. You see how hurt your mom and your grandma have been, how much Brock or my dad or your uncle Tracy and all of his friends miss him, and you hate him because you think you’re the one to blame. You hate him because he’s made you feel guilty for being born, as if that was a bad thing, as if any of this was at all your fault - but it’s not, AJ. It never was.”

“You heard what he said, Sammy.” Her voice was muffled, her face pressed against her thighs, hiding from him. “I was a mistake. He left mom because of me.”

“You were an accident, not a mistake,” Sammy corrected. “The mistake was him running off to an icy mountain to clear his head and not telling anyone where he was going. Which makes sense, actually - people always talked him up like he was the best battler who ever lived, but no one ever said he was all that bright.”

For a wonder, she actually laughed. Softly, barely more than a weak chuckle, but it was something. 

After a moment, she lifted her face back up and, to his alarm, there were actually tear tracks on her cheeks. 

“This is so stupid,” she said thickly, wiping at her eyes. “We should have never come here. I’m sorry.”

“Eh,” he said with a shrug, looking back up at the sky. “I mean, it’s not ideal, but… Well. I never would have found that baby Articuno if we hadn’t, so…”

“Right. Well. I’m glad it wasn’t a total waste, then,” she joked.

“Glad to see you’re willing to make sacrifices for my dream,” he said, playing along, and she laughed again. 

“Honestly? If we ever get back home, then I’d say it was worth it. But if we’re trapped up here with him forever, then-”

“You let me worry about that,” Sammy said quickly. “I know you don’t want to talk to him, so you don’t have to. But I’m going to keep trying. I feel like there’s got to be more he knows about all of this, and the more information we have, the better.”

Honestly, it was the obvious solution anyway. He was always the brains of their group - he should be the one focusing on collecting info. AJ was the brawn. If it came down to a fight, they’d need to count on her, but he didn’t mind taking point on the whole ‘figuring a way out of here’ thing, especially if it meant he could spare her from having to deal with her father. 

But to his surprise, she shook her head. 

“No. I can’t… I can’t keep running forever. I have to confront him. I need to control my temper and face him. Even if we do get out of here, if we leave without me ever beating him, then… I just… I know that I’ll never be able to move past this. Part of me will be stuck here forever.”

“You know you don’t have to prove yourself to him, right?”

But AJ shook her head again, then turned and flashed Sammy a sad sort of smile. 

“No. It’s not him I’m proving myself to. It’s me.”

Sammy lifted a hand and patted her gently on the back. Honestly, no - he didn’t really get it. This was clearly some irrational coming-of-age thing, or maybe it was just a thing between muscle-head battlers. But if it mattered to AJ, then fine. She had his support 

“Well,” he said, by way of segwaying into a different topic of conversation, “it’s cold and I need to finish cleaning those dishes. Wanna give me a hand, or are you gonna sit here till you turn into a popsicle?”

AJ grumbled and buried her face back into her legs. 

“I don’t wanna do the dishes,” she mumbled petulantly. “I didn’t even get to eat yet.”

“Well, whose fault is that?”

She turned her face just enough to glower at him and he rolled his eyes. 

“There’s probably still some left over. You can go in now and eat if you want. Everyone else is done already.”

She mumbled something, but with her mouth pressed against her thighs, it was impossible to make out. 

“What was that?”

“I said,” she said, exasperated, pulling her face back up so she could talk like a normal person, “I’m too… embarrassed… to go back in right now.”

Whoa. She was becoming self-aware now. Maybe this was a coming-of-age story. 

“If this is part of your plan to face your father, you’ve still got a long ways to go.”

The glare she shot him could have boiled him on the spot - though with how cold it was out here, he may not have minded. 

“...Want me to bring you something out?”

Her glare dropped off her face and she perked up a little. 

“You’d do that for me?”

The surprise, relief, and delight on her face shone almost as brightly as the moon. 

“I’d do anything,” he said, slightly winded, forgetting to add the sarcastic twist to his words that would have given him plausible deniability. 

But AJ merely grinned lazily and said, “I knew you were my favorite.”

Sammy rolled his eyes again, more because it was in character for Sammy to do that than for any other reason and awkwardly climbed back to his feet. He needed to clear his head. Get back inside and get her some food and use those few seconds to remind himself of who and what they were. 

This trip had certainly been one of unexpected developments. AJ finding her father and the complex tangle that had become their relationship and what it meant for AJ as a trainer. Sammy discovering that egg, finding so many legendary pokemon and what that meant for him as a researcher. There was really no telling what twists would come next, or what versions of them would descend back down the mountain - assuming they ever did. 

But if there was one thing not developing, it was them. He and AJ would always be just him and AJ. And he couldn’t let himself forget that. 

Chapter Text

The morning after she’d inadvertently eavesdropped on the conversation Ash had had with her friends during dinner found AJ once again out in the Sanctuary, training. 

They’d started with warm-ups like they always did - stretches followed by laps then calisthenics, the best workout she could find at the moment - but if her movements seemed stiffer, more jerky than usual, like she wasn’t completely focused on the task at hand, well… That’s probably because she wasn’t. 

In the back of her head, she kept repeating Ash’s words, over and over again. Unintentionally, like a bad song you couldn’t stop repeating the chorus to no matter how hard you tried. 

A mistake. She was a mistake. He’d never wanted her, and when he found out… He left. She was right. She’d always been right. 

And yet… For some reason, inexplicable even to her, the confirmation that her secret fear had been true hadn’t filled her with any more of the rage and anger that had felt so commonplace over the past week or so. Oh, her hate for him was still there, still simmering somewhere deep down, but above that, looming over everything else, like that last frozen spire of Mt. Silver itself, was this gray sort of pallor she’d come to know as grief. 

And this was throwing her off her game somewhat, because what did she have to grieve over? What did she care if he never wanted her? She’d never wanted him, either, and anyway, she’d always suspected it, deep down. No need to pretend anymore, no need to pay any heed when her mother swore up and down that he was a great man - kind, compassionate, brave - she knew better. Now that she had confirmation, she didn’t need to have any reservations. Her hatred for him should have boiled over. 

But instead, her anger felt… cooler, more distant. Still there, but not as present, as though it had burned a hole inside her gut and had sunk so low that it was little more than a dim glow now. And after basking in its raging heat for so long, the absence now left her chill. 

If she didn’t know any better, she’d almost say she was… hurt. Except even just the thought that that might be true was so upsetting that she forced it out of her mind every time it cropped up, shaking her head, trying to focus on her breathing, on keeping pace, on counting repetitions. 

But then, inevitably, thoughts of the conversation last night would pop back up in her head again, unbidden, and the cycle would continue. 

The worst part was, no matter how it galled her, she could almost… almost… sympathize. In a way, at least. Not the abandoning her and never wanting her and being an awful human being part - no, she’d never forgive him for that. But the rest? 

The pressure of being the Champion - she understood that uniquely well. Better than anyone else on that mountain, surely. The need to get away, just for a bit - to step back into nature, to journey again, just for a little while, to recenter, to clear your head - she understood that, too. After all, that was the whole reason she was even here. 

And the idea that it had been an accident, that he hadn’t meant to be gone forever, that it had never been his intention to abandon her or her mother or anyone else…

Honestly, she wasn’t sure. A large part of her wanted to shrug it off in disgust, to interpret it as just what it appeared to be - pathetic excuses from a washed-up loser who refused to take responsibility for his actions. But as easy as that would be, she couldn’t exactly deny that, absurd as his story was, well… Wasn’t that literally exactly what had happened to her and her friends? If she held Ash wholly to blame for abandoning her, didn’t that mean she had also effectively abandoned her mom as well? 

It didn’t sound fair when she applied the same standard to herself. But if she was being fair to herself, then she had to be fair to him, too, otherwise she would just be an immature hypocrite. Being immature is why she lost her battle against him in the first place. She needed to grow up and control herself. She needed to be mature - to learn to control her emotions, not be controlled by them. Even when - no, especially when - it was hard. 

But being mature meant confronting the idea that he hadn’t abandoned her on purpose, and if that was true, then her reason for hating him…

The thought was so upsetting that she’d end up shrugging that right off as well, because it was easier to ignore than to confront. Just like the actual Ash Ketchum. 

And then her thoughts would loop again. Just as she did - running circles in this grassy field. Running nowhere. Ending up right back where she started. 

But at least jogging was beneficial. Her inner turmoil, however, was just distracting and upsetting. She needed to focus. To buckle down and get to work. Maybe then, her head would clear up.

After warming up, she lined her team up on the riverbank again and set them to doing repeated reps of their standard special attacks, their usual endurance training, blasting them out over the water where no passing pokemon were likely to be harmed. This had become routine for them by this point, and even Hydreigon had become used to it. Her endurance had already improved by a notable margin, even after just a few short days. Improvements were easier to notice when you were just starting, but even still, it spoke to her potential. If only they could get over her block…

It was around this point that the wild pokemon of the Sanctuary began gathering around again, which had also become routine. They’d been cautious and uncertain about this strange human and her pokemon partners initially, but curiosity had eventually gotten the better of them, and by now, many of them would join in on the training - though some clearly took it more seriously than others. 

AJ didn’t mind. They were rarely distractions, and many of them even agreed to help out, launching projectiles for her team to aim special attacks at or providing them with snacks or water during breaks. 

As she watched, the same little Charmander she’d noticed a few days before raced excitedly to her Arcanine’s side to join him in spewing fire out across the water’s surface. It had only managed weak Embers before, but now, after a few days of training, the distance they traveled had nearly doubled, and the streams of flames were considerably more consistent. It would probably learn Fire Spin before too long. They were really improving!

She actually really liked it when the wild pokemon joined in. It made her feel less like an outsider here. Most of the legendaries were still avoiding her, and with her avoiding her friends in turn and not wanting to return to the cabin, she was grateful for their company. It made her feel a little less lonely, and it provided a needed distraction from her unwanted thoughts. 

After another couple of hours practicing moves and working on the basics of speed, timing, aim, control, etc., the time had come for battle practice. It was at this point that most of the wild pokemon bowed out, as AJ’s team was in a league of their own in this regard. The wild pokemon of the Sanctuary simply couldn’t keep up, which meant they just got knocked around and her team gained nothing from the experience. Some of them would stick around to watch or even battle each other, but AJ usually had her team draw lots and have them battle one another. Not the best training regiment anymore - they’d battled each other too many times now - but the best workout they were likely to get. 

However, it was as the wild pokemon were clearing the field and her Pichu and Aegislash were squaring off for their match that something different finally happened. 

A loud howl rent the air, high-pitched and slightly whiny, drawing the attention of everyone in the vicinity. 

Startled, AJ glanced around, then turned and looked up toward the hilltop behind her, shielding her eyes from the bright mid-morning sun, squinting to find the source of the commotion. 

It was a pokemon, of course - although what kind, she couldn’t say. It was perched on the hilltop, howling at the sky, though she could make out little more than a vague silhouette thanks to the glare of the sun. Thankfully, after a few more seconds - once it was done making a dramatic introduction, she assumed - it finally quieted down, lowering itself on all fours and loping rapidly down the hillside at an impressive speed. 

As it approached, AJ tensed. Whatever this pokemon was, it was almost certainly a legendary of some kind. She didn’t recognize it, but that also meant she didn’t know its temperament. Was it coming to attack? Did it want to drive them off? None of the wild pokemon looked scared or worried - more curious than anything else - but that didn’t necessarily make her feel any better. With legendary pokemon, you could never tell what they were going to do. 

The creature raced down onto the field, dodging nimbly between the other wild pokemon who were gathered around to spectate, and for a moment, AJ thought it was coming toward her. To her surprise, however, it performed one last, unnecessary leap before landing with a nimble sort of grace right in front of her Pichu. 

The creature was a good size - maybe about as tall as her - and though it had rushed down on all-fours, it was standing now on just its two hind legs. It was covered head to toe in bright yellow fur with the occasional jagged streak of black, though its belly, face, and feet were also black. It also had blue whiskers, and overall looked distinctly feline in appearance, with sharp claws and fangs and pointed ears. 

Seeing it up close, AJ thought that it was maybe a Zeraora - though what legends involved Zeraora or where it came from, she couldn't remember. Sammy would know, she’d ask him later. 

As she watched, the pokemon gazed down at Pichu with a shrewd sort of look, as though it were sizing him up, before it flashed a crooked yet excitable grin. Extending a paw, it flipped it palm-up and growled, flexing its digits in a ‘come at me’ sort of way. 

Pichu blinked, clearly confused, then turned to look at AJ over his shoulder as if wondering how he was supposed to respond to this weirdo. 

AJ, however, was suddenly beside herself. Was this legendary pokemon actually offering to spar?! 

This was it! Training! Actual training, with a legendary pokemon! Someone strong enough to give her a run for her money! Finally, a way for her team to actually get stronger! She could cry!

Still, though, she needed to be calm - don’t freak out. She might scare it away. Play it cool. Don’t startle it…

Taking a hesitant step forward, keeping her hands up in a sort of ‘I come in peace’ gesture, she licked her lips out of nervous habit before calling out to the strange pokemon in the least-threatening voice she could come up with. 

“Um… Hello there! I’m… Uh, who are… Are you asking to battle with Pichu?”

The Zeraora glanced over toward her for a moment, looking her up and down with an almost annoyed expression as though this strange human was nothing more than an irksome distraction, before looking back at Pichu and nodding excitedly, letting sparks dance up and down the fur on its body in a show of eagerness. 

Ah, so it was an electric type as well. Maybe that was why it was interested in Pichu? Though none of the legendaries in the Sanctuary had given her the time of day before… Something had to have sparked a change. 

Ha, sparked - cause it’s an electric type? 

“Pichu,” she said, trying and failing to reign in her excitement. “This is your chance! I think it’d be a good experience! Why don’t you give it a try?”

Pichu tilted his head to the side, still looking a little unsure. After a moment, it turned and chirped in confirmation, and the Zeraora, roaring in approval, raced to the opposite end of the field, taking Aegislash’s place as it slowly floated out of the way. 

This was it… What she’d been hoping for for so, so long! And Zeraora was another electric type at that! AJ didn’t think Pichu could take him in a one-on-one fight; even with the disadvantage of being a baby pokemon weighing against him, there was also Zeraora’s legendary status to contend with. It was sure to be crazy strong. But still - it was bound to be a workout, and training against opponents of this caliber was sure to help her prepare for the day when she finally beat Ash in a battle. 

As Pichu squared off against his foe, AJ stepped away from her normal position, standing behind her pokemon, and instead walked around so she could watch the fight from the sidelines. She normally still issued commands when training against wild pokemon, so a legendary should be no different. 

However… Memories of her loss to Ash, specifically in the way he’d beaten her without issuing a single command, had left her flustered and frustrated. How had he done that? How could she learn to do it, too? Short of asking him, the best way to figure it out would be to practice. 

Besides - Pichu didn’t need commands here. This was training, not a full-on battle. The goal wasn’t necessarily to win. She wanted to focus more on his movements and seeing where there was still room to improve. 

Since she wasn’t participating, AJ took the role of the referee. Standing off to the side toward the middle of their makeshift arena, AJ raised one hand high overhead and called out, “Ready? Begin!”

At once, Zeraora charged forward, loping on four legs, sparks erupting all over its body as it barreled down on Pichu. A Wild Charge, then. So it was starting off guns blazing. 

Electric-type moves wouldn’t be as effective against her Pichu, but the physical tackle aspect of the move would still hurt. If he were a tankier electric-type, like an Electivire, he could probably shrug the attack right off, but considering how Pichu was about one-sixth Zeraora’s size, that wasn’t an option. 

Pichu, for his part, instead remained still. Bracing himself on all four legs, he let out a cry and let a surge of crackling electrical energy rise out of his fur, covering him in a golden glow, powering him up. It was Agility; he was trying to raise his speed to give himself some sort of advantage in this fight where he was already up against numerous disadvantages. Not a bad idea. 

When Zeraora drew close enough to tackle, Pichu dodged nimbly to the side, movements enhanced by Agility, and followed up with a Quick Attack straight into Zeraora’s side. 

The legendary stumbled, but the blow seemed to barely phase it, and it quickly countered with a Slash from its claws that only narrowly missed. 

Then the two were off, dodging and leaping and twisting and streaking all over the battlefield, two yellow electric speedsters in a tussle to see who screwed up first. 

The problem was, she knew, PIchu’s disadvantages were too many. His greatest abilities as a member of her team were the ones meant to set the battle up for his team mates - only many of those moves wouldn’t work here, as there was no further battle down the road in this one-on-one match. On top of that, while normally he could use something like Rain Dance or Electric Terrain to boost his admittedly lacking offensive capabilities, those would only end up strengthening Zeraora as well. 

Her Pichu was a lot of things, but a strong attacker wasn’t one of them. Being a baby pokemon had its disadvantages, including electrical sacks in his cheeks that were not nearly as developed as his evolved counterparts, meaning he couldn’t zap opponents with nearly as much juice. 

Then there was his size - what gave him an advantage in dodging attacks also left him with a disadvantage when dealing physical attacks of his own. A Quick Attack from him didn’t hurt nearly as much as one from Zeraora did. Normally, he needed the type advantage to help him actually win a fight. This was a terrible match up for him from the get go. 

But that was actually what she had been hoping for. Training was all about pushing yourself to your limits and learning to overcome obstacles. If she wanted easy, she wouldn't be a pokemon trainer in the first place. 

And in her mind's eye, it wasn’t Zeraora that Pichu was facing, but a Pikachu; a stronger, larger, yellow electric monster commanded by an older man in a dumb cap. That was the end goal. Defeating them and proving once and for all that they were better. 

Zeraora dodged another of Pichu’s attempted tackles, then hit the ground on all-fours and, while Pichu was still moving through the air, lashed out with a powerful Thunderpunch. 

The move scored only a glancing blow, but it was enough to send her tiny Pichu flying back a few paces. As he leaped back to his feet, however, ready to continue their physical altercation, Zeraora let out another howl, throwing its arms back, and with only the telltale crackle of static as a warning, let loose a powerful Discharge that sent an explosion of electricity arcing outward 360 degrees. 

Pichu, unable to dodge, tried to counter with a Thunderbolt of his own, hoping to overpower the Discharge and push it back, but it was no use. Pichu’s Thunderbolt faltered then failed under the stronger attack, and the Discharge hit Pichu dead-on, knocking him backward. 

It being an electrical attack meant it didn’t do much damage, so her partner was back on his feet in seconds, but those seconds were all it took for Zeraora to gain ground. 

Charging in on two legs this time, its hands were raised, both fists crackling in bright, blue plasma. AJ had no idea what that move was - a double Thunderpunch? Or some special move that only Zeraora could use? - but as it reached Pichu it began to let loose with its fists, raining blows down at her partner like it was a martial arts master. 

Her Pichu did his best, dodging and jumping about, putting his small stature and his Agility to the test, but eventually, back to the corner, as Zeraora pressed the assault relentlessly, he seemed to realize there was no getting out of this and he’d have to meet him head-on. 

Leaping back, down on all-fours, her Pichu let out a cry as Zeraora charged him again, and, engulfed in a wave of yellow lightning, he exploded forward in a Volt Tackle to meet his opponent in a direct clash of thunder versus thunder. 

Zeraora caught the tackle in both hands, its plasma-coated palms struggling to push the Pichu away before, in a literal twist, it spun, jerking its torso around and narrowly dodging the Pichu missile as he rocketed by before slamming one of its fists into Pichu’s back, knocking him out of the air and down onto the grassy ground. 

“Stop!” AJ shouted, hurrying forward. “Stop the match! Pichu lost! It’s over!”

Thankfully, Zeraora didn’t try to press the fight. On the contrary, as AJ helped Pichu back up and checked him for injuries, the Zeraora hunkered down and began to speak to him in low, rasping growls. 

Pichu, who AJ deemed was ok if maybe a little bruised, responded rather despondently at first, but then slowly began to perk up as the two chatted back and forth. Eventually, once AJ had let him go, Zeraora led him a few steps away where he got down on all-fours beside Pichu and, with a growl, let electricity begin arcing all over its fur as though it were trying to show him something. 

Pichu, after observing for a moment, then got down and copied him. 

Zeraora growled something else, and Pichu responded, making tiny adjustments until the legendary pokemon was pleased. 

AJ stared. 

Were they… training still? Was Zeraora trying to teach her Pichu something? Maybe how to improve his ability to hold his electricity in his body, or… some other secret only legendaries knew? How? Why?

As reluctant as she was to interrupt this, however, getting to spar with a legendary was an opportunity she didn’t want to pass up - and she wanted the rest of her team to get the chance to try it as well. 

Stepping forward again, AJ cleared her throat awkwardly and, when Zeraora glanced at her, annoyed, she tried her best to smile as pleasantly as possible. She needed to stay on its good side… even if it was clearly a brat. 

When she asked it if it would consider sparring with the rest of her team, however, it looked distinctly unenthused. 

Pichu, ever the team player, joined in, chattering at Zeraora and gesturing at his friends, making his most adorable baby-doll eyes just for extra effect. 

At first, AJ thought it wasn’t going to work and she’d just have to be grateful it had taken a liking to Pichu and let him train while she worked with the others, but the Zeraora let out an over-the-top sigh and chattered something back at Pichu, to which Pichu apparently perked up and nodded excitedly. The next thing she knew, the legendary was throwing its head back and howling at the sky again. 

AJ covered her ears, wincing. It wasn’t too terribly loud - Hydreigon was much worse - but it was still unpleasant. After it had calmed down, both it and Pichu turned back toward the hill it had raced down earlier, and AJ found herself turning as well, confused, only to find a group of newcomers emerging over the crest and heading down the hill toward them. Her jaw dropped. 

More legendaries - five of them, in fact. Coming toward them. And some of them she recognized. 

There was a Latias, zooming through the air without needing to flap its wings, its sleek red-and-white body glistening in the morning sunlight as it streaked towards them, doing a lap around the field at record speed as if just showing off that it could. 

A Cresselia floated gracefully behind it, not rushing, its golden-crescent head held high, body shimmering in a radiant rainbow aurora. It occurred to AJ then that Cresselia must have been the pokemon she’d seen floating across the moon when she’d first entered the Sanctuary looking for Sammy what felt like so very long ago. 

And she could have sworn one of the pokemon was one of the Tapu guardians of Alola - although how it had arrived here, she had no idea. Weren’t they supposed to be guarding the islands? This one - Tapu Fini, she thought? She could never remember - floated down in a lavender seashell, riding inside as though it were a queen in her royal chariot, its long, aquamarine hair undulating in the breeze. 

She had no idea who the other two were though. One of them was another feline pokemon like Zeraora, though this one walked on all-fours and was sleek and slender, its fur the pure white of fresh snow. Most notably, however, were the fangs - or tusks? Absurdly long and large, they almost looked like blackened swords were extending down out of the pokemon’s jaw. How it didn’t stab itself with them, she had no idea. 

The last pokemon was easily the most distracting. It almost looked like a Ditto - if Ditto were as big as a Snorlax, pure silver, had a golden knut for a head and sported two massive, beefy arms. The pokemon almost looked like what would happen if liquid mercury gained sentience and decided to become a gym bro. Its shoulders and hands also sported massive iron knuts, which not only made it it look more swole, but also gave off the impression that it was wearing brass knuckles. A punch from this pokemon would literally pulverize her, but it lumbered along with an almost lackadaisical pace, as though it were content to merely bask in the sunlight. 

Once the newcomers had all reached the bottom of the hill, they gathered together behind the first yellow legendary, looking surprisingly friendly and inviting. AJ could only gawk. What was this? Why were they all here now, and what was with the sudden shift in attitude? What, had they just been waiting beyond the hill for Zeraora to call them, or had they just… appeared, magically, at that exact moment? Every other legendary she’d tried to speak to had either run away or ignored her entirely. Even Sammy’s baby Articuno wouldn’t let her pet it - though to be fair, it was a baby. It probably didn’t count. 

Pichu, being Pichu, was hopping up and down energetically, waving hello at the newcomers. He only stopped when Zeraora spoke to him, at which point Pichu turned and started shouting toward the members of the rest of her team, who had been gathered around the edges of their makeshift battlefield to watch the match. 

Slowly, her team moved forward, clearly unsure about what was going on here. Even Hydreigon came over, but she stopped behind AJ as though she could somehow have hidden behind her. 

“What’s going on?” AJ asked, feeling overwhelmed. 

The Zeraora smirked, then pointed at her team and then the newcomers, then crossed its arms in a satisfied sort of way. 

“Are they… here to help us train, too?” she asked, hardly daring to believe it. What was this? Why the sudden change of heart?

Then again, maybe it was better to not look a gift Ponyta in the mouth.

Splitting them up into practice pairs was simple enough, particularly since each of the legendaries apparently already had a partner in mind. All that was really needed was to make sure they were spread apart enough to not interfere with one another while she herself walked around and monitored them, taking mental notes on areas she could see needed improvement. 

Which is exactly how she spent the next couple of hours, making slow, repeated circles around the large field they’d taken to training in, watching these impossible battles unfold before her eyes and drinking in every second of them in the hopes that she’d find every clue they offered to how they could get stronger. 

Arcanine had been paired up with that white-coated cat with the sword-like fangs, and despite this legendary apparently being an ice-type, it was easily giving her Arcanine a run for his money. 

Her fire-type bounded across the field aggressively, launching Flame Charges and Fire Fangs left and right, but the ice-type dodged most of the attacks with nimble grace, peppering Arcanine with Powder Snows meant more to irritate and annoy than to harm. It was evident that her Arcanine struggled with smaller, more agile foes, and it seemed like she’d allowed him to fall back too much on ‘hitting something really hard’ as his go-to strategy. Of all of her pokemon on her current team, Arcanine would probably benefit the most from starting again from the basics and building himself back up. If she could work on varying his options to approach, he’d be better equipped to deal with surprises like what Ash’s Venosaur had thrown at them.

Nearby, Aegislash was squaring up against that large metal blob pokemon, which had apparently been quite the interesting matchup, as while Aegislash could phase through or else face-tank many of its opponent's moves with its hefty shield and ghost-type attributes, the metallic goop monster seemed equally impervious to physical attacks, letting most of them slip right through it. Their battle seemed focused on letting Aegislash block its powerful blows and then practice different ways of countering, and in a way, it felt less like a battle and more like this legendary pokemon was an unusually handy training dummy. They may not be the same, but it was easy to see Ash’s Snorlax in the hulking girth of this strange Ditto-esque legendary.

Up in the sky, Togekiss was paired up with Latias, and as she watched from down below, the two streaked back and forth in blurs of white and red, filling the air with blasts of Extrasensory and Dragon Pulse, Dazzling Gleam and Aura Sphere. It almost looked like there was a fireworks display. Theirs was a high-speed battle of aerial superiority, but it seemed apparent to AJ that while Togekiss excelled in a broad range of offensive options, she was lacking in physical stamina - something AJ had already taken note of from her loss to Ash’s Espeon.

Milotic and Tapu-Fini had taken to the river for their bout, and as they battled, they dove in and out of the water, blasting one another with Water Pulse and Ice Beam and Psychic. The entire riverbank had become a splash zone, drenching anything that came too close. Milotic was easily one of the most technically proficient members of her team, but Tapu-Fini had her beat when it came to defensive barriers and shields, not only throwing up Light Screens and Aqua Rings to block or absorb Milotic’s blows, but even just clamping its shell shut and letting her attacks wash harmlessly over her. 

But while AJ made frequent rounds to her other pokemon to check on them and see where their strengths and weaknesses lay, she spent most of her time watching Hydreigon who had been paired up with Cresselia. 

She’d been hesitant to let Hydreigon practice, however, as the last two times she’d tried to bring her out to battle had ended disastrously. Luckily, there were no innocent bystanders nearby who could get hurt this time - most of the wild pokemon having gravitated to the other battlefields to spectate, having sensed that Hydreigon was a danger - and here in the Sanctuary, there were no icy mountains to bring crashing down in avalanches or forests to set ablaze. 

Plus, her opponent, Cresselia, seemed like an excellent pick. She exuded a calming, compassionate aura that was distinctly non-threatening, and most of her moves that she used were psychic-types, such as Psybeam or Confusion, which Hydreigon was immune to, meaning she could practice dodging without taking any actual damage. 

And yet, despite everything for once being in her favor, Hydreigon was clearly still terrified. 

When the battle had started, Hydreigon had panicked almost immediately and fired off a frantic Tri-Attack that Cresselia had managed to calmly deflect with her psychic powers. Then she attacked again - Hyper Voice, Dark Pulse, Dragon Breath, everything calmly dodged or countered by Cresselia without the pokemon even breaking a sweat. Even more miraculous - she didn’t seem angry or annoyed with Hydreigon’s temperament, instead calmly waiting while AJ tried to soothe her. 

Eventually, the combination of AJ’s reassurances and Cresselia’s benevolent temperament was enough to quell Hydreigon’s fears somewhat, and AJ got her to agree to practice with Cresselia, dodging her psychic attacks and countering with Dragon Breath - a simpler move that Cresselia wouldn’t have to work so hard to defend against. 

It was an improvement - technically a massive improvement, all things considered - but Hydreigon clearly still had a ways to go. Eventually, after little over an hour, Hydreigon was the first pokemon to call it quits, and AJ returned her safely to her ball, letting her know how proud of her she was to face her fears and thanking Cresselia profusely for her help. 

A couple hours later, as the afternoon was winding down, the rest of her team was beginning to tucker out as well, so AJ decided to call it quits. 

She’d been standing by Pichu at the time, watching him and Zeraora duke it out, and though she couldn’t be certain, it seemed to her like Pichu’s Volt Tackles were coming out faster now, thanks to Zeraora’s guidance. Granted, she didn’t have any tools here to measure that, so maybe this was all in her head, but it certainly seemed that way to her. The rest of her team looked exhausted, but pleased, as they gathered around her, their legendary sparring partners joining in, everyone calling out to one another in thanks and farewell as they separated for the day. 

As Pichu climbed up on her shoulder to wave farewell at the retreating Latias and Cresselia, AJ felt something cold pass over her, like she was being watched. 

She turned, scanning the hilltops, half expecting to find Ash spying on her again like he had been before. Instead, she found something much worse that made her blood run cold. 

There, on one of the hilltops, was a familiar lavender pokemon. 

Mewtwo. 

He was too far away to see clearly, yet to AJ, it seemed as though their eyes met and a dark chill ran down her spine. What was he doing? Why was he watching her? What, did he think she was out here abusing pokemon? These legendaries had agreed to help her of their own accord - she’d done nothing wrong!

Before she could react - though honestly, she had no idea what reaction she would have had - he vanished, simply teleporting away, and she let loose a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. 

Scary. He scared her. Few things in life legitimately frightened her - not, like, in the moment, like obviously the avalanche had scared her, but she didn’t stay up at night thinking about the dangers of avalanches. Not like Mewtwo. He scared her like few things in life had scared her before. And she had no idea what she was supposed to do about him. 

Shaking it off as best she could, she ordered her team to take a dip in the river to wash off some of the sweat and let them cool off. All except for Milotic, who’d been in the river all afternoon, but she joined them anyway. She hardly needed a reason to spend time in the water. 

Now that training was done for the day, once her clothes had dried off after her dunk in the river, she really had nothing to do other than return to the cabin. Which also just so happened to be the last place on earth she wanted to be. Especially now that everyone else was being so buddy buddy. 

It had been claustrophobic before, sure, and that hadn’t changed. But at least before she’d had a reason to spend time there. Pichu and then later Sammy had been hurt and were recovering, and naturally, she’d wanted to be near them, so she’d willingly submitted herself to staying in the cabin. Plus, Ash had seemed more than willing to spend extended amounts of time in the Sanctuary, so staying in the cabin meant not having to deal with him. 

But that wasn’t true anymore. Now that he and Sammy were bonding over legendaries, he no longer avoided the cabin and was even coming ‘round for dinner on the regular. And it didn’t help that Jade and Cole had seemingly teamed up to try to get her and Ash to ‘talk it out’ or whatever. It made her feel like, suddenly, the two people who were supposed to be on her side here weren’t anymore. 

Now, it was AJ spending copious amounts of time in the Sanctuary and avoiding the cabin. When had she and Ash swapped places? That didn’t seem right. 

Still, it was better here than there with their stares and judgy eyes. So instead of returning, she elected to stay, releasing Hydreigon from her ball once again and telling her team to wander about and do whatever they wanted. And while they went to do just that, AJ walked over to the hillside and plopped herself down on the soft grass, taking a deep breath and letting the scent fill her nostrils with pleasant nostalgia for the days when she was younger and spent every afternoon running around in the wild outdoors. 

This was peaceful. She may want to leave this place as soon as possible, but while she was here, she may as well enjoy it for what it was. A time to relax. A time to focus on things that didn’t stress her out. Things that weren’t Ash, for example, or the things he said, or the things he did, or…

Crap. This was impossible. And it was likely never going to end, either - even if she did get out of here. At least, not until…

“How do I get stronger?” she asked herself out loud, her voice a faint whisper, barely audible over even the gentle eventing breeze. 

The problem was, you couldn’t lay it out so simply. She had to accept that there was no easy fix to this, no simple way to suddenly grow by leaps and bounds. Once you had reached her level, once you were near mastery of a craft, skill growth slowed to a crawl. This was true about all fields - painting, dance, professional athletics, and, yes, pokemon training. There weren’t any simple tricks that were going to show immediate, drastic improvements in her battling, not once you’d reached Champion level, and especially not any that would be enough to bridge the gulf that stood between her and Ash. 

Training with the legendaries was great - amazing, even. The type of opportunity she could have only dreamed about before. But it would take weeks, probably several months, before her team began to really show the signs of their growth. Not soon enough for her. And in any event, Ash had likely been training with these same legendaries for over a decade now. 

And the worst part was, the more she thought about this, the more the frustration and hunger for strength grew within her, the more she remembered Cole’s story about Giovanni. How the boy he’d once called his best friend had become one of the greatest evils the world had ever seen, all spurred on by a seemingly unquenchable thirst for power. 

AJ wasn’t like him. She wasn’t. She loved her pokemon. She’d never abuse them, never cast them aside because they failed to perform to her standard. 

But her battle with her father had already showed her that there was a part of her that, when blinded by rage, would place her needs above theirs and disregard her normal concern for their safety. And while that may not be on the same level as kidnapping and torturing pokemon or trying to take over the world, well… If there was one thing she’d come to understand well while trapped on this icy mountain, it was slippery slopes. 

But still… Was it so wrong to want to be stronger? She was a pokemon trainer - and the Champion of Kanto, at that. Wasn’t getting stronger the whole point? Wasn’t being the best the very reason trainers battled at all?

Only, it wasn’t, she knew. Not for her, at least. It was never about being the best. It was about being better than him. 

And it was then that, as she lay there on the soft grass, watching the sun set in the most peaceful prison on earth, a thought bubbled into her mind. One spurred on by memories of the training this afternoon, her desires for quick, relatively simple ways to gain a boost in battle power and the realization that sometimes, she placed her needs in front of her pokemon’s - and above all else, how much she hated Ash Ketchum. 

Her thoughts swirled together in her mind like berries in a poffin blender, churning and breaking apart and forming together into a singular question in her mind that seemed to ring out like a deep, brassy gong, echoing across the night. 

Why hadn’t she ever evolved her Pichu?

It wasn’t a new question. Or rather, it was a question she’d been asked loads of times before, countless thousands of times, even way back when she was a greenie trainer still traveling the Kanto circuit. People were always asking her that, either because they were surprised that she’d willingly stick with a baby for a partner or else assuming there was some specific reason behind it, be it a tragic illness or some personal philosophy about pokemon training that she wanted to share with the world. 

But the truth, AJ only now realized, is that she’d never actually asked herself that question. Had never even allowed the idea to come to mind. Because she knew what the answer was. She’d just never actually admitted it before. 

When asked, AJ would always brush the question off by saying it was his choice - that Pichu simply preferred being a Pichu, and that was that. And for most people, that was the end of the conversation. After all, plenty of pokemon chose not to evolve. It was hardly unheard of - at least, outside of the pro-battling sphere. Who were they to judge? 

But the reality was, AJ had never actually asked Pichu if he wanted to evolve. She’d just assumed that was the reason because he never had. 

It wasn’t like she was stopping him. She didn’t carry everstones around in her bag to keep him trapped as a Pichu, and it wasn’t that she didn’t love him enough. She loved him to pieces. He was her best friend in the entire world. Which must mean, then, that if he hadn’t ever even tried to evolve, he simply must not want to. 

And she’d taken such pride in that - bragging about it, even, when people would ask. Pichu was a fighter - he was determined to show the world what a Pichu could do. He didn’t need to evolve, to become something other than what he was to be strong. He already was strong, and he would prove it - and so would she. Together. 

Unbidden, Ash’s words from their ill-fated battle came floating into her mind, thick with condescension. 

‘Why didn’t you evolve that Pichu of yours? I certainly hope it wasn’t to prove a point.’

In the cool of the evening air, AJ felt her cheeks flush with anger and shame. 

He had been right, of course. Mostly, at least. She could admit that now.

When Pichu had been chosen for her as her starter against her will, she’d hated him. Hated him because she couldn’t openly hate others. She couldn’t take it out on Professor Oak or her mother, so she took it out on him. Kept him trapped in his ball for that entire first week, refusing to use him, determined to be rid of him as soon as she could find better partners to replace him. 

She didn’t want to be Ash. She didn’t want to be made into Ash. Why couldn’t people just let her be her?

But then everything changed after her embarrassing loss against Jade in the Pewter Gym. Even though she’d neglected and mistreated him, he’d still fought so hard for her in that match. Why, she didn’t know. He had to have known she didn’t deserve it. He owed her no loyalty after how he’d been pushed aside and ignored through no fault of his own. But even so, he’d given it his all for her, and his bravery and determination had touched her heart. 

That night at the Pokemon Center, after renting out a bunk for herself, she’d crawled into bed, pulled the privacy curtains closed, and then called Pichu out and apologized for how she’d been behaving. He’d forgiven her, of course - he hadn’t even seemed like he thought there was anything to apologize for. But that was the night that everything had changed for her. That was the night that the purpose for her journey had manifested. 

See, after the fight with Jade, she was struck with two conflicting views that she had been struggling to reconcile. On the one hand, she didn’t want Pichu. She’d wanted a Squirtle, and they’d given her a Pichu because she was Ash’s daughter. But she didn’t want to be Ash’s daughter, which meant she didn’t want Pichu because she didn’t want that connection to him. 

But on the other hand, Pichu hadn’t done anything to deserve her ire. He’d fought so hard for her - he deserved a trainer who would fight for him, too. And she wanted to be that. After their humiliating defeat, she felt more drawn to him than she’d ever expected to be. 

The end result was the decision that she would set out to beat her father in everything he’d ever done. She’d be better than he ever was - prove to herself and the world that she’d never needed him in the first place - and Pichu would be one of the key parts of that. She didn’t get to chose her starter just like she didn’t get to chose her father, but if nothing else, Pichu was still technically not a Pikachu, so it wasn’t exactly the same thing - and hey, people always said Ash was so impressive for using Pikachu, a not fully evolved pokemon, as his ace. Wouldn’t it be even more amazing if AJ took the Champion spot with a Pichu? Then no one would talk about Ash anymore. They’d all be too impressed with her. 

She’d never said that aloud, however. Never told Pichu her plan. But now, she wondered if she had ever needed to. After traveling together for years, after seeing and experiencing her hate for her father first-hand, it was likely that Pichu had been influenced by AJ’s desires, even if only  subconsciously. There was a strong possibility that the reason he’d never evolved was because deep down, he knew she didn’t want him to. And didn’t that mean that, ultimately, the choice was never really his to begin with? 

The thought roiled inside her stomach like rotten stew. 

She never wanted to take the choice away from her pokemon. She’d always believed that whether they evolved or not should be their decision, not hers. After all, she knew well the pain and frustration of someone else taking important decisions away from you. 

But she also couldn’t deny that her feelings may have played a large part in this. 

As she watched, the glowing yellow ball that was Pichu zipped by down below, chasing another pokemon through the dark in a frenetic game of tag. It was good to see he was having fun, but she couldn’t get the thought out of her mind. 

On a whim, she sat up and cupped her hands around her mouth as though to call out to him, but an icy spike of fear stabbed through her gut, and she found that she couldn’t quite work up the courage. 

She was afraid. Afraid to ask him his thoughts on the matter. Afraid of what he might say. 

Because if the answer was yes, he wanted to evolve… Didn’t that mean she’d been a horrible trainer for all these years, ignoring his wants? 

And if he did want to evolve, then what? That was conflicting in and of itself. 

On the one hand, she’d miss his cute, tiny Pichu form she’d known for all these years. His soft, floppy ears, his endless energy, his cute little cries. Pokemon often experienced changes in temperament upon evolution as well - what if he stopped being the precocious little pest she knew and loved? Granted, she knew she’d always love him, even if he became more mature or restrained and didn’t spend as much time stealing her hat or scampering around in the bushes, but… It would be different. And they could never go back to the way things were. 

On the flipside, though - from a battling perspective, there was virtually no reason not to let him evolve. Granted, it wasn’t going to be enough to beat Ash, of course, but it would certainly be a boost in power for her team. Pichu had never really been her ace - baby pokemon like him simply lacked the power to get the job done. Instead, he’d been more of a wildcard on her team, there to catch trainers off guard and set his teammates up for success with moves like Rain Dance, Electric Terrain, Nasty Plot, Thunderwave, and Baton Pass. He was nimble and hard to hit, which meant his weaker constitution wasn’t usually an issue, and if he didn’t hit hard either without a type advantage on his side, hey - he didn’t have to. 

But he wouldn’t lose any of that if he evolved. On the contrary, he’d gain quite a lot. Pikachu’s stronger body and larger electrical sacks on his cheeks would really open up his offensive options, and he’d retain all of the moves he’d learned as a baby. He’d run faster, hit harder, and generally be a much larger asset to the team as a whole. He could even finally step up to be the ace she’d always wanted him to be. On paper, the choice seemed cut and dry. 

But a large part of her knew that the only reason she was even considering this now was because she was looking for anything - anything at all - that could help her beat Ash. It was her own selfish pride she was looking to serve with Pichu’s hypothetical evolution, not him. And if that wasn’t pulling a Giovanni, she didn’t know what was. 

And on top of that, she couldn’t deny that a large part of her still recoiled at the thought of having a Pikachu on her team. The comparisons to Ash would only increase tenfold, and to make matters worse, it would feel like she needed to emulate him in order to better herself - as if that wasn’t the most revolting thing she could think of. 

She was getting nowhere. As the day dragged on, her thoughts ping-ponged ceaselessly back and forth over the pros and cons of having Pichu evolve and the dread of broaching the topic with him for fear of how he’d respond. And when she wasn’t dwelling on that, she was back to thinking about the conversation she’d overheard the night before or the one brief meeting she’d had with Ash in the sunflower field when they’d introduced their pokemon to one another and how confusing and upsetting it was trying to reconcile Ash the Impossible Hero with Ash, her Arch-Nemesis, and Ash, the normal guy she met here on this mountain. 

All in all, despite how calming the evening wound up being with her just lazing around in the grass as though she had not a care in the world, it actually wound up being rather stressful. 

When the sunset reached its end and darkness began finally shrouded the skies, she briefly considered returning to the cabin before casting the thought aside and instead setting up a picnic for her and her team. It was about time for some of them to eat anyway, and in any event, with her head being all screwy, the last thing she needed was to have Cole or Jade try to push her into speaking with Ash again. Or worse - have him actually be there. 

The meal was scant and sparse - mostly bread, cheese, nuts, and berries for the majority of her team, and what remained of Sammy’s pokechow supply for Arcanine and Hydreigon. His stores of pokechow had actually been decently stocked, but considering the appetites of some of their pokemon - Hydreigon and Dragonite especially - even that wouldn’t last them more than a few more days. AJ genuinely wasn’t sure how she was going to feed Hydreigon after that. 

When dinner ended, AJ let her team go back to roaming around the Sanctuary, content herself to flop back down on the grass and stare at the stars and think. Her thoughts were heavy and unpleasant and she didn’t like them, but she preferred their company at the moment to the other humans on the mountain, so her thoughts would do. 

The others scampered off, exploring or taking naps or playing with the wild pokemon, but Hydreigon stayed by AJ’s side, lying down next to her, all three necks splayed out lazily on the grass, enjoying the calm and warmth of the evening air as the sky darkened and the stars began to show.

AJ must have dozed off at some point, because when she next opened her eyes, the sky was considerably darker than it had been. Slightly groggy, it took her a second to realize what had woken her. 

Voices. Voices coming from beyond the hilltop. Male voices.

AJ wasn’t in the mood to speak with anyone right now, but she didn’t want them to stumble across her either. She didn’t know why they were in the sanctuary at night - and arguing - but it wouldn’t hurt to take a look.

“Stay here,” she ordered Hydreigon, who looked perfectly content to continue snoozing in the soft, warm grass. Getting to her feet, AJ hurried up the hill in the direction the voices were coming from, dropping down low as she neared the top of the hill and eventually getting down on her belly once she reached the top. It was dark out and hard to see, but she’d rather be safe than sorry. 

Down below, maybe a few dozen paces down the hillside, two figures stood in the darkness - one human, the other monstrous. 

It was Ash and Mewtwo. And they were arguing. 

“...years now, and they still don’t remember! This could work, Mewtwo! Please!”

His voice sounded… desperate. Pleading. It was strange to hear, coming from him. 

Mewtwo didn’t respond - or maybe it did. He communicated telepathically, she remembered, but he must not be broadcasting his thoughts for anyone in the vicinity to hear, so she had no idea how he might have replied, and in the dark, it was impossible to make out his expression. 

“Because it’s wrong,” Ash said emphatically. “You of all people should understand this. Trapping someone against their will, holding them prisoner, threatening their safety if they don’t obey you… How does this make you any different than Giovanni?”

AJ felt her insides solidify. She couldn’t believe he’d just said that straight to Mewtwo’s face. She couldn’t tell if Ash had guts or was just plain suicidal. 

Maybe being this close was a bad idea. If Mewtwo decided to retaliate, she didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire. 

Mewtwo’s response was once again lost to her, and even his expression was hard to make out in the gloom, but he didn’t immediately lash out with a wave of psychic power, so that was probably a good thing. 

After a moment, Ash spoke again, and his voice, which was softer now, was nearly lost beneath the sound of the wind rushing through the grass. 

“People and pokemon - even the best ones - make mistakes. What separates the good ones from the monsters is how they choose to react to their mistakes. It’s not about expecting perfection, it’s… It’s whether they’re willing to try, to be better - that’s how you tell.”

Silence again, and body language alone wasn’t enough to indicate to AJ whether Mewtwo had responded or was simply staring in blank-faced silence. 

Finally, after a moment, Ash seemed to relent - his body seeming to slump from exhaustion or defeat, she couldn’t tell.

“Just… think about it,” he said finally. “Though you should hurry; we may not have much time.”

In the blink of an eye, Mewtwo was gone. 

What had that been about? They’d clearly been discussing them - or at least, AJ and her friends and the situation Mewtwo had trapped them in. Was Ash… trying to help? Trying to reason with it to set them free?

Did he want her gone so badly he’d risk pissing off a monster who’d clearly be happier if they were all dead?

It took her a moment to realize that Ash was walking up the hill. He was heading straight for her. 

Panicking, AJ hastily began crawling backwards, not wanting to stand lest he see her. If he saw her, he’d know she’d been eavesdropping! And worse, he’d probably try to talk to her again! She wasn’t ready for this now, she hadn’t had time to prepare!

Once she’d crawled far enough, she scrambled to her feet and raced back down the hill, desperate for a place to hide. Only, this was a wide, empty field - no boulders, no trees, not even a trash can she could comedically dive into. There was nowhere to hide and nowhere to run - nowhere, except her Hydreigon, who was still snoozing in the grass not too far away. 

She made a beeline straight toward her. 

Hydreigon lifted one of her heads as AJ drew near, sniffing the air, clearly sensing AJ’s panic, but before she could make a noise, AJ dove behind her, crawling over her tangle of necks and hiding herself in the shadows. 

Hydreigon shifted, beginning to lift her central head, clearly now on edge, but AJ hastily pressed a palm against her third neck, the one she was huddled against, and whispered, softly, “No, don’t - don’t move! My d- Ash is coming, and I don’t want him to see me! Stay still and pretend like I’m not here!”

Hydreigon growled low in her chest, looping her one neck more protectively around AJ and shifting her other heads so that her trainer was more hidden. 

Idly, as AJ struggled to calm her frantically beating heart, it occurred to her that this over-the-top reaction of hers could hardly be constituted as being more mature, but she pushed the thought away. She’d been emotionally vulnerable all day today; she didn’t have it in her to face off against her dad right now. She’d be mature later. 

She wasn’t sure how long she was planning on hiding here. Long enough until she could be reasonably sure Ash was gone. To her horror, however, after a few seconds, as her heart rate calmed and her breathing steadied and she began to think that maybe he’d turned around and gone another way, the sound of footsteps on grass suddenly reached her ears, only to be immediately drowned out by the sound of Hydreigon growling. 

He was here?! He came over to them?! Why?! What was wrong with this man?!

Oh no, he was going to catch her hiding like a child - why was she such a spaz?! This was ten times as embarrassing as her storming out during dinner the other night!

But the bigger problem was Hydreigon. She wasn’t good around strangers already, but add to that AJ’s current feeling about this particular person and Hydreigon’s abilities as an empath, and there was a greater-than-zero chance that she was about to Hyper Beam him off the face of the earth if he got any closer. 

Softly, softly enough that he hopefully wouldn’t hear her, AJ began stroking Hydreigon’s head - the one attached to the neck she was coiled up in - and whispering soothing words, desperate to calm her and keep her from lashing out. 

Honestly, though, after their battle - and especially after she’d actually opened up to him the other day and confessed all of her struggles and worries with Hydreigon - he really ought to know better than to just approach her like this. She took back what she’d thought before about him having guts for confronting Mewtwo - the man was clearly just suicidal. 

As Hydreigon’s growls grew to a crescendo, seemingly heedless to AJ’s pleas, she heard Ash’s voice from somewhere nearby call out a hasty, “Whoa! Easy, girl! I mean no harm!”

Reflexively, AJ reached for her belt. If Hydreigon showed any signs of attacking, she was going to have to recall her before he got hurt. Maybe then she could play this off as her having been asleep and she’d have a justifiable excuse for shouting at him for once thanks to his idiocy. 

However, as she braced herself to grab the ball and recall her pokemon… nothing happened. 

She couldn’t see Ash or what he was doing, and she didn’t want to poke her head out to try and look and give herself away, but after a few seconds, impossibly, Hydreigon’s threatening growls began to subside. 

“That’s right,” Ash said, his voice sounding louder now, either because he was closer or because Hydreigon was growing quieter, “that’s a good girl. See, I’m not so bad… You want some of this? I have extra.”

The unmistakable sound of Hydreigon’s jaws snapping shut reached her ears, and for a wild second, AJ thought that sure she must have just bitten him, only for his voice to ring out again, calm and soothing, sounding not at all like he’d just received a grievous flesh wound, “That’s right… Tasty, isn’t it? I’ve got loads - help yourself. Charizard likes them, too, so I collect a lot.”

AJ could only stare into the dark, absolutely numb. He was… feeding her? More importantly, she was letting him feed her? She didn’t let anyone feed her - no one but her, Hilda, and her mom! Even her growling had stopped - she seemed totally calm now! What was going on?! Was he some kind of pokemon whisperer or something?!

“Beautiful,” Ash continued softly, and while she couldn’t see him, in her mind’s eye she had an image of him standing at Hydreigon’s side, gently rubbing her neck while her pokemon scarfed up what she assumed was a snack of berries he’d found somewhere. She had no idea if that’s what was actually happening, but it seemed likely from context. His voice had a low, level cadence to it that came across as very non-threatening, which, amazingly, seemed to put Hydreigon at ease. 

“We haven’t had the chance to meet yet,” Ash continued. “I’m Ash. I’m…”

He trailed off, and AJ waited for him to finish the sentence with something like ‘I’m AJ’s father’. 

Instead, he changed the topic. 

“Where is your trainer, anyhow? Knowing her, she probably wouldn’t leave you all alone. She’s close by, right?”

Icy dread seeped into AJ’s veins. Did he know? Did he somehow know she was right there, listening to him and looking like a complete idiot or was she being paranoid?

Hydreigon made a short snorting sound from one of her mouths, and Ash hummed as though it were a response to his question. 

“Well, I can see your friends down there, so she’s probably close,” he concluded, and had to physically stop herself from sighing in relief. “Though she’d probably be mad to see me talking to you.”

Normally, yes, she would be. Right now, however, she was too scared of being found out to waste any energy on being angry. 

Ash let out a surprisingly loud sigh followed by the telltale sound of grass crunching, and in her mind’s eye, she imagined him sitting down and staring down the moonlit hillside. 

“I saw your training today,” he said, and AJ blinked. He had been watching? From where? When? “You looked good - I thought Cresselia would be a good partner for you. She’s gentle and doesn’t like violence. Oh - sorry. I’m the one who asked her and the others to train with you today. I knew AJ was hoping for the chance, and I thought… Well. I can’t do much else for her, but I could do this at least. I hope you don’t mind. I know you don’t like battling.”

AJ stayed silent, but her mind was reeling. He was the reason those legendaries had finally decided to give her the time of day? Part of her was annoyed and infuriated, but most of her was just… confused. 

“She told me a bit about what you’ve been through,” Ash said softly, but from the tone of his voice, it almost sounded like he was talking to himself. “Terrible people, doing terrible things… I’m so sorry that you had to experience that. In a way, Mewtwo is right. There will always be evil people out there, looking to abuse and exploit others. If we could all just… isolate ourselves in our own little bubbles, we probably wouldn’t experience that kind of hurt anymore. But that doesn’t fix things. He can’t see that. 

“He wasn’t lucky, like you. He wasn’t saved by a kind person like AJ. Mewtwo had to fight and save himself, and now he can’t trust anyone. He doesn’t see that he’s trapped himself in an entirely new prison of his own design, or that he’s forcing others to be trapped with him. You, though… 

“You’ve been hurt, but you still have people you can trust. And in a way, I’m sure that’s probably scarier. Opening yourself up to people is what allows you to get hurt in the first place, but if you keep yourself isolated forever, well… Then it doesn’t matter how powerful you are. In the end, you’re just another lonely soul… stuck on a mountain.”

From her hiding place, AJ stared up at the sky. She couldn’t tell if he knew she was there or not. If he didn’t, then why would he just randomly stroll up to a pokemon and start soliloquy-ing to an audience that wasn’t there? Unless this is just what happens when you’re trapped alone on a mountain for nearly two decades. You just walk up to random pokemon and start talking to them because you’re lonely and bored. 

That was… actually kind of sad. 

From the ostentatious way Hydreigon’s left head was licking her chops, she’d clearly finished Ash’s gift of berries. AJ wondered how much longer her patience would last. 

Ash seemed to be thinking the same thing, because from the crunch of grass, it sounded like he’d stood up again. 

“Listen,” he said, “I know I’m just a random old man and you don’t need to pay me any mind, but… Would you do me a favor? AJ… promise me you’ll look after her. I know I don’t need to ask that, but… Well… No man is an island. She can’t do everything on her own, but I think in her haste to prove herself, she forgets that sometimes. She’s grown up now, and… she doesn’t need a father, even if she wanted one. And even if she did, I wouldn’t be on that list.”

He said the last with a self-deprecating chuckle. Something in AJ’s chest tightened in a painfully familiar way, but she ignored it. 

“But she still needs her friends,” he continued, and there was an odd note to his voice now. It seemed… thicker, somehow. “She needs you - and Pichu, and all the others. Remember that for me. And remember that for yourself, too. The next time you find yourself on the battlefield and you start to get scared - remember that you’re not alone anymore. AJ’s always going to be there, standing behind you, fighting with you. She’ll never abandon you… because it's the ones who’ve been abandoned who know best how much it hurts.”

After a brief pause, the soft sounds of footsteps on the grass reached her ears, growing quieter with every step, until they gradually faded away. 

He was gone. She didn’t need to hide anymore. 

Yet AJ stayed where she was, curled up beside her Hydreigon, staring into space. 

The tightness in her chest hadn’t left, but she refused to examine it. She didn’t want to empathize with him. She didn’t want to understand him. She didn’t - because she didn’t want to forgive him. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. 

And as to why not, well… She didn’t want to examine that, either. 

So she stared at the sky in silence as the hours dragged on. Alone, ensconced in her hiding place. A prison of her own design.

Just another lonely soul stuck on a mountain. 

Chapter Text

The skies above Olivine City felt alive with a frenetic sort of fury as yet another unexpected battle waged its way across the town. Cold, fat raindrops began to fall out of darkened skies, as if the world itself was lamenting the outbreak of more senseless violence, the clouds crackling with thunder and outrage at the same. 

Kris hunkered down on the back of her Salamence, buffeted by the wind and rain but unwilling to land. Most of the police officers were down on the ground, battling Team Plasma in the streets, which left many of the aerial pokemon unchecked as they assaulted buildings, smashing water towers or severing power lines and generally causing mayhem. 

This attack was pointless. Just like all of the others, though this was the first time Kris was actually there in person getting to participate in one. Most of the other incidents she’d only heard about on the news or through second-hand accounts from Ethan or Hilda, but this… She’d thought they’d be more thrilling, more exciting. Actually seeing it first-hand just made her nauseous. 

A blast from a Noivern sent echoing sound waves rippling down a street, blowing out the windows on multiple buildings, raining dangerous shards of glass down on the fleeing citizens below. 

Without needing an order, her Salamence angled his wings downward and swooped in low, letting out a vicious Dragon Pulse straight into the Noivern’s unsuspecting back, blasting it clear out of the air. A Swoobat turned and tried to defend itself, but her Mismagius who had been silently gliding beside them let out a wail and her Hex seized the Swoobat in its icy grip before it could get off its Psybeam, and it, too, faltered and fell from the sky. 

Two beams of light from down below recalled the pokemon before they hit the ground and could take serious injury, and the Team Plasma grunts turned tail and fled. She considered giving chase, but they were running straight in the direction of a police barricade, so she let them go and nudged Salamence to continue his patrol of the skies. 

This might be a battle, technically - but it wasn’t the battle she was used to. There was no challenge here, no finesse; no artful competition between teams of well-trained expert combatants, facing off on a stage with your pride on the line. This was just violence, pure and simple. These Plasma goons wouldn’t last five seconds in the ring with an actual trainer.

It had been about nine days since the attack in Goldenrod, and since then, the entire world seemed to have gone mad. Multiple villainous organizations long thought dead and buried had risen from their graves to attack the Alliance, and it seemed like there was a new assault somewhere two to three times a day. 

For Johto, it had started in Goldenrod, and while thankfully none had been nearly quite as large as that first, they’d had repeated incidents all over the country, from Blackthorn to Ekruteak, Cianwood to Azalea. Seemingly, any settlement even remotely close to a story or a sighting of a legendary pokemon was a target - which was probably why they were here in Olivine now, given how close it was to the Whirl Islands, where legends claimed Lugia slept peacefully beneath the sea. 

Something about that just wasn’t adding up to Kris, but she pushed the thought away. There was a battle happening right now; there would be time for thinking later. 

As Salamence rounded a building, angling south-east, the Olivine Lighthouse came into view. The iconic alabaster obelisk, the heart of the city, was currently the focal point of the assault, with the streets around it flooded with Team Plasma grunts and police officers, their pokemon trading blows and tearing the pavement to pieces while the skies above crackled and groaned. 

The trainers of the Olivine Gym had taken up defending the lighthouse directly, with many of them stationed either right outside the entrance or throughout the building proper, their pokemon firing attacks from out of windows to keep Team Plasma at bay. Kris had left her Feraligatr at the entrance, and she could see him now as she drew closer, his hulking blue form picking up a Watchog overhead and hurling it straight out into the sea while Jasmine’s own Steelix let out an Iron Tail that took down three pokemon simultaneously. 

The lighthouse itself was being orbited by multiple Magnemite and Magneton, who floated around the central spire forming a protective barrier of electricity, using Thunderbots and Flash Cannons to defend the lighthouse from projectile attacks. All the while, Jasmine herself remained in the top alongside her Ampharos, the Guardian of the Waves, who kept the lighthouse powered and guided ships safely to port. Only now, her Ampharos was busy shooting massive bolts of lightning from the top of the tower, blasting down anything that came too close. 

From her position overhead, it seemed clear to Kris - even having never fought in a pitched battle quite like this before - that Team Plasma was losing handily. They’d only had around twenty to thirty grunts in the first place, but while they’d managed to do a considerable amount of damage in very little time, the combination of the police and gym trainers was clearly more than enough to deal with them. The police moving through town had managed to herd most of them back towards the lighthouse, and while they were now grouped together with their friends, they were also caught in a vice grip with no way out other than to take to the sea. 

Which is exactly what they began doing. Noticing they were trapped, several of them began calling out water or flying types to try to escape, while others made for the docks and tried to commandeer the boats left in the harbor. 

Not that they would get very far. She, Salamence, Mismagius, and Feraligatr would pursue, of course, as would the police, but some would likely still get away. A few usually did. 

Still, the thought irritated her. It was cowardly. If you were gonna attack a civilian town like this, blowing things up, hurting people, then you didn’t get to run off like a wuss when things turned against you. In a pokemon battle - in any kind of pokemon battle - you stood your ground until you won or you collapsed. There was no retreat. 

Growling to herself, she ordered Salamence to pursue the ones trying to flee, leaving the lighthouse to Jasmine and the cops - only as she did, she noticed one grunt - no, not a grunt, an Admin - who was scowling up at the lighthouse in fury as though it had done her some personal affront. 

Enraged, she snagged a ball off of her belt and called out a truly massive Hippowdon and cried, voice barely audible over the wind and rain, “Enough of this! If we fall, at least let us make it cost them! Hippowdon, Earth Power! Bring down that blasted lighthouse!”

Kris blanched. Was this lady crazy?! If she knocked that thing down, she’d destroy half the harbor - and likely kill half the people and pokemon battling around it! Including her own people!

She seized Salamence’s neck and tried to physically turn him around, shouting at both him and Mismagius to stop the psycho Hippowdon, but Salamence was flying too fast and she was already out over the harbor now. She wouldn’t get to turn fast enough, and Feraligatr was too far away to hear her commands. 

As the Hippowdon slammed its heavy feet into the ground, fracturing the pavement, summoning the power of earth to rend the ground beneath the lighthouse, the waves in the harbor suddenly began frothing and churning with renewed vigor, growing to massive size. 

As though in response to her desperation to stop them, the ocean itself seemed to be answering her call, the tides pulling back as though inhaling, one massive tidal wave rising from the sea, nearly a third the height of the lighthouse itself, rushing in at incredible speed, directly toward where Team Plasma was caught in the pincer trap. 

As the water surged forward, those grunts trying to flee on the backs of water pokemon or in stolen boats were caught in its wake, pushed back toward the shore in a cacophony of terrified shouts. Those people on shore who saw the approaching wave panicked and tried to make a break for it, the Plasma Admin herself noticing too late, her Hippowdon able to do little more than turn and scream before the water hit them. 

For a moment, Kris thought she was witnessing a miracle. Perhaps the mighty Lugia itself rising from the sea to save them. 

But a moment before the wave made landfall, she a saw it - a pokemon bursting free from the water, the source of this massive Surf attack. 

The Poliwrath hit land right as the wave did, the water sweeping away everything before it, knocking people and pokemon off their feet. Police and gym trainers were caught in the blast as well, though the Poliwrath had managed to contain most of the damage to the area where most of Team Plasma had been gathered. 

Some of the water splashed up to the lighthouse proper, and as Jasmine’s Steelix braced itself for the hit, her Feraligatr seized it in both hands and, in a feat of Superpower, lifted the beast clear overhead, just out of the way. 

Showoff. 

Some of the disoriented grunts tried to get back to their feet, to keep fighting, but Poliwrath was there, delivering quick chops and punches or else blasts of Hypnosis from its belly to keep them down. 

And just like that - with one wave, the battle was over. 

More ships were pulling into the harbor now, Kris could see as she directed Salamence to return to the base of the lighthouse. Ships bearing flags from the Cianwood Gym. So this must be Chuck’s doing. He’d heard about the attack and raced to Jasmine’s aid, sending his Poliwrath first as it could swim faster than their boats could sail. 

It was clever. Team Plasma had never seen it coming. She was surprised to see he’d abandoned Cianwood to help, though; his island had been the victim of an attack only a few days prior and they were still in the middle of cleanup. Wasn’t he worried? 

Then again, maybe he felt like Kris did. As Salamence began lowering himself to the ground at the base of the lighthouse, she let her eyes sweep the damaged city and felt that same thought from before crop up into her head. 

Something wasn’t adding up here. 

Ethan and the other Champions all thought these attacks had to do with finding legendary pokemon. And, yeah, on the surface, it sure looked that way. All of them, other than that first in Goldenrod, were centered around cities and towns closest to famous sightings of legendary pokemon, or at least the legends surrounding them. And after what had happened in Unova the other day, when Hilda’s brother had his legendary pokemon stolen from him… Yeah, it seemed like direct confirmation that that was what was happening. 

Only… If they were after legendary pokemon, why attack Olivine and Cianwood? These were the closest settlements to where Lugia allegedly lived, sure, but… Lugia lived in the Whirl Islands, not in Olivine or Cianwood. All of the legends agreed on that. It’s one thing to attack Ekruteak - that’s where the towers were, that’s where the legendary dogs or Ho-Oh supposedly hung out - but Olivine? 

Why not just go straight to the Whirl Islands directly? It’s not like it was a closed location - people went there all the time. Sure, you had to be an experienced cave diver to get to the deeper parts, but the caves were well trafficked. No one would blink an eye if you said you were going there. They could have easily snuck over and started wreaking havoc, and it would have been hours probably before news reached the mainland and the League could form a response. Plenty of time to search for Lugia or try to drive it out of hiding. 

But instead, they attacked human settlements. And it didn’t even seem like they were trying to get to the harbor. They were just trying to do as much damage as possible. But why? What did they gain from that? 

Kris didn’t know. She’d never admit this out loud, but… Well, she wasn’t exactly the smartest cookie. Which was a weird expression because cookies weren’t smart in the first place, but… Well, she knew where her strengths lay, and they weren’t in being big brained. 

She’d probably need to ask Ethan about this. Or Hilda, maybe. Actually, the best person would be Lyra - that girl was crazy smart - but she also seemed to kinda hate Kris for some reason, so maybe Ethan could ask her instead. 

So as she dismounted, waiting for Jasmine to descend from the lighthouse and for the police to finish cleaning up, she pulled out her pokegear and gave Ethan a call. 

Now that she’d been on the front lines of one of these attacks, he wasn’t allowed to ghost her anymore. She was part of this too, now, and she was tired of being left out. 

The skies above Goldenrod were considerably cheerier than those over Olivine, which Kris appreciated, dismounting her Salamence under the bright midafternoon sunlight and stretching her sore lower back. There was a time when a couple hours of flying on the back of a pokemon would have been nothing. She was only twenty-four. She can’t be getting old yet.

The airport itself was all hustle and bustle, like always. Goldenrod was the only city in Johto large enough to warrant an airport of this size, which also meant it was the only airport in the country that serviced international flights. As Kris made her way through the air conditioned building towards the Arrivals section, she tried her best not to look like she was gawking. The truth was, however, that she’d never ridden an airplane before and for some reason she found the entire idea exciting. 

She found Ethan and Hilda waiting near Arrival Gate D, both of them looking worse than the last time she’d seen them. 

Ethan, for his part, was seated at the end of a row of stiff plastic chairs, staring intently at his pokegear and clutching a styrofoam cup of coffee in his other hand, the cup bearing the dark green circular logos from one of the popular chains from a nearby kiosk. His face looked pale and he had dark circles under his eyes. The poor guy clearly hadn’t been sleeping. 

Hilda, for her part, was up and pacing in tight, anxious circles. She, too, looked pale and worn, but where Ethan looked half-dead, she looked like she was bursting with nervous energy. It was her who noticed Kris’s approach first, and she flashed her a brief, tight-lipped smile of recognition before turning away, never stopping her pacing. 

“Don’t all greet me at once,” she joked, coming to a stop by Ethan’s chair and nudging his leg with her knee. “Sup?”

“Kris!” he said, finally lowering his pokegear, though his enthusiasm at seeing her sounded a bit forced. “Are you alright? How’s the situation in Olivine? I was reading the reports now, but-”

“It’s fine,” she said, plopping down into the seat right next to his and stealing the coffee cup out of his hand. She grimaced when she took a swig, however, and immediately handed it back. Not only was it cold, it was way too sweet. Boy needed to cut back on the sugar. “Chuck showed up at the end and we wrapped things up nicely. He and Jasmine are setting things back in order now, and the cops managed to catch a few of the grunts and at least one admin. Dunno if you’re gonna get anything out of ‘em, though.”

“How bad was the damage?” Hilda asked, joining the conversation even as she continued to walk in circles. She kept glancing up at the gate, watching the stream of strangers pass them by. 

Kris shrugged. 

“I mean, it wasn’t good, but… It was no Goldenrod, either. Lots of broken windows and ruined pavement, things set on fire… You know the drill. Like I said, though, Chuck showed up to help, and they got the situation under control in no time. Give ‘em a couple a days to get things sorted, and you’d probably never even know there was an attack.”

True, the damage looked bad, but it was mostly superficial. Windows could be replaced, roads repaved - and with pokemon helping, they could get it done in no time flat. It would probably cost the government an arm and a leg, but hey - that was a problem for someone else. 

Olivine wasn’t like Goldenrod. The attack here had been much more intense, and as she’d flown in, she could still see the signs of damage. The streets had been repaired by now, of course, and they’d managed to restore the emergency radio frequencies, but there were still blackened spots all across the city showing where the fires had burned the hottest, and many of the buildings around the Radio Tower itself were still partially destroyed. 

Ethan sighed, putting his cup of gross coffee down and rubbing the heels of his palms into his eyes, leaning as far back in his chair as he could go, stretching out his back. He was rewarded with a staccato of loud cracks from his spine. Kris nodded appreciatively. 

“Thank you for helping,” he said, lowering his hands and sending her a sad, crooked smile. “I was about to head over myself, only it was over too soon. No doubt thanks to you.”

Kris shrugged. She’d helped, sure, but as far as she was concerned, it was Chuck who had saved the day. She said as much, and Ethan sighed again. Every time he did, he seemed to deflate a little more. 

“He shouldn’t have left Cianwood,” he grumbled, crossing his legs. “His city was just attacked a couple of days ago - what if they’d been attacked again right after he left? I could have been there - or Karen, she was close. His responsibility is Cianwood first. Not all of Johto.”

“All of Johto is everyone’s responsibility,” Kris said, flicking him in the temple. “He had a right to jump in and help, just like I did, or any of the other random trainers who’d just happened to be there. Don’t get pissy because someone did a good deed.”

“I know,” he grumbled, sinking lower into his seat and looking like a surly child. “I know, I just…”

“Yeah,” she said, taking off his hat and ruffling his hair in a way she knew drove him insane. “I get it.”

The poor guy was running himself ragged trying to put out all of the fires lately. With attacks happening nearly every other day it seemed, he was constantly flying up and down the country, responding to incidents, helping with the clean up, martialing the League, fending off reporters, suffering unjust criticism from politicians, and generally trying to keep the country from descending into chaos. He probably hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in over a week. 

She wished he’d just rely on her a bit more. He had to know she could handle it - she’d made it to the finals of the League Tournament and he’d only just barely beaten her. Practically a fluke. On another day, it could be her sitting here wearing the hat of the Johto League Champion. 

Then again, she also knew this wasn’t entirely his fault. As the Champion, he had to keep up certain appearances for the media and the public at large, and that meant relying on the Elite Four and other Gym Leaders in times like these. It wasn’t that they weren’t capable, Kris just wanted to be included in the list of people Ethan knew he could count on. But she knew that the media would have very different reactions to him saying ‘I’m sending the Elite Four out to assess the situation’ and ‘I’m sending a friend of mine without any notable achievements to her name, but don’t worry, I can totally vouch for her.’ 

Suddenly, Ethan’s eyes seemed to focus. He sat up, snatching back his cap and running a hand over his face as though to try and wake himself up, then crammed the hat back on his head and stood. 

“They’re here.”

Hilda stopped pacing and turned. 

There, emerging from the gate amidst the stream of strangers, were three people Kris had never met before. 

She recognized the first immediately, however - her round, cheerful face was instantly recognizable anywhere in the Alliance. The brightness of her personality matched only by the brilliant princess pink of her dress - Unova’s own Champion, Iris herself. 

Despite the general direness of the Alliance’s situation and her reason for being here, as well as the fact that she must have just emerged from a ten-hour flight all the way from Unova, the foreign Champion’s face lit up in a genuine smile when she noticed Ethan and Hilda and she immediately began marching straight over to them. 

Both Kris and Ethan smiled back on reflex - Ethan looking somewhat relieved that she’d finally arrived, though Kris’s smile held that general sort of electric excitability she felt whenever she met a strong new trainer for the first time. Hilda, however, ignored Iris entirely, blowing right past the older woman and instead all but tackling one of the boys following behind her in a tight hug. 

Kris didn’t recognize the other two males following behind in Iris’s wake. One was a taller man, maybe a couple years younger than her, with long, bright green hair that ran all the way to the middle of his back, with a black-and-white cap, a white button up over a black turtleneck, and khaki pants. 

The other, the one currently being crushed to death in Hilda’s embrace, was much shorter, still seemingly in his teens, wearing a blue jacket and black cargo pants and a bright red cap with the pokeball symbol on the front. It took a moment for Kris’s memory to jog, but once it did, she realized she must be looking at Hilda’s twin brother. His face was a confusing mixture of relief that his sister was there and embarrassment that she  was hugging him in public.

Iris, who had looked mildly upset that Hilda had ignored her greeting, watched the two teens hug for a moment before shrugging and turning back to Ethan and Kris, her grin returning in earnest. 

“Ethan! Heya, Golden Boy! Came to get me in person, eh? Give me the star treatment?”

Ethan laughed, managing to work up a genuine smile from under all of his exhaustion, and stepped forward to take Iris’s hand, giving it a warm shake. 

“Of course. Wouldn’t do to keep a fellow Champion waiting, now would it?”

“Meh,” she said, placing her hands on her hips and squinting up at him shrewdly. “You’re just saying that so that I have to pull out all the stops the next time you come visit Unova, aren’t you?”

“You caught me,” he joked back, and the two laughed. 

Kris kept up a fixed, awkward smile, but said nothing. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel a little out of place here. All of this ‘people’ stuff… It wasn’t really her forte. She was actually sort of in awe of Ethan at the moment - he was clearly exhausted, yet still managed to pull a polite and professional face. He even sounded genuinely friendly. Kris wasn’t sure she could manage that consistently even on her best of days. 

Not for the first time since Ethan made Champion instead of her, Kris found herself silently wondering if, had she won the match that day and their roles had been reversed, she’d actually have been able to hack it. She was convinced she was their equal when it came to battling - the thing she used to believe mattered most if one was to be the Champion - but when it came to every other aspect; the fame, the constant attention, having to stand up and lead others… Those weren’t her strong suits. She didn’t enjoy that sort of thing the same way that Ethan did. She just wanted to battle. 

Maybe it was a good thing she’d lost. And maybe that was also why she hadn’t exactly been chomping at the bit to battle her way through the Elite Four to challenge Ethan for his title. Oh, the battles sounded great, but she could battle Ethan any time. He could keep the title. She would keep adventuring.

“Thank you for coming,” Ethan was saying, “but are you sure it was ok? I mean, is Unova going to manage without you?”

“Bah, it’s fine,” Iris said, waving a hand through the air. “Old man Alder has come out of retirement to help out with the crisis, so if anything, Unova’s got manpower to spare. Besides, someone had to tag along to bodyguard the boys, and anyway, there’s a certain someone here who I wanted to catch before she ran off again.”

With that, she turned and stared rather pointedly at Hilda, who was still talking to her brother, though she’d finally pulled back a bit and was now saying something to him while he nodded along, looking like he was trying not to cry. 

Kris thought he heard her say, “We’re going to get him back - I promise,” before the silence behind her seemed to grab her attention and she turned to look at them for the first time. 

Finding all eyes on her, she blinked in surprise, then took a tentative step away from her brother. 

“Um…” she said awkwardly, then seemingly noticed the second boy who’d come with Iris for the first time, and her jaw dropped open. 

For a moment, Hilda looked torn between who to greet first. It was obvious to Kris that she wanted to go to the tall green boy - and he looked just as eager to speak with her, honestly, given the hopeless puppy-dog look on his face - and from the guilty looks she was shooting Iris, she clearly wanted to avoid talking to her entirely. Eventually, however, and with an apologetic look to the boy, she walked hesitantly over to Iris and offered up a weak grin. 

“Hey there, Iris. Long time no… see…”

“Yeah,” Iris replied, her tone clipped. “Long time. Very long time.”

If you didn’t know any better, you’d almost think Iris was Hilda’s very disappointed mother. 

The silence stretched on for a moment as Iris stared pointedly at Hilda and Hilda kept her eyes glued to her shoes. 

Finally, with an exaggerated sigh, Iris stepped closer to the younger ex-champion and reached out, grabbing the bill of her cap and tilting it upward so she could see her face. 

“You been ok?” she asked, and Hilda nodded sheepishly. 

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

Then she reached out and gave her a quick hug. After a moment, Hilda returned it.

“We should probably get going,” Ethan said, gazing at his pokegear again and checking his notifications. “Our ride is waiting, and it’s a long trip to League Headquarters.”

“Oh, shoot!” Iris exclaimed, releasing Hilda and looking panicked. “We haven’t grabbed our bags yet and I still have to pee!”

“I can get your stuff,” Ethan said with a rueful smile. “You go take care of business.”

With a grateful smile, Iris, Dragon Master and Champion of Unova, turned and immediately fled in the direction of the nearest restroom. 

As the rest of the group made their way down to the baggage claim area, Kris grabbed Ethan by the arm and dragged him forward to separate themselves a bit from Hilda and the boys. 

“Listen,” she hissed, trying to sound firm while also keeping her voice down so they weren’t overheard by random passers by, “you’re not going to blow me off today like you did last time, alright?”

“Excuse me?” Ethan asked, looking genuinely confused. 

Kris huffed. How dare he try to play innocent?

“Last time,” she said impatiently, “y’know, when you and Hilda and Lyra got to go up to League Headquarters and have a big, important meeting and you left me out? Well, this time, I was involved in an attack, which means if Hilda and her posse get to be involved, so do I!”

Ethan scratched at the back of his head, looking discomfited. 

“Well, I mean… It’s not exactly the same situation-”

The growl that came out of her throat could have rivaled a Liepard. 

“Fine,” he said, making a placating motion with his hands and sounding even more tired than he looked. “You can come. I’ll make up some excuse. Just… Try not to embarrass me, alright? These meetings are serious.”

“E-embarrass you?!” she spluttered, suddenly incensed. “Excuse me?! What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“You know what it means,” he grumbled, not making eye contact. “Do not, under any circumstances, run up to Lance and demand a battle. Or Iris, or anyone from the Elite 4, or any one else who may be there-”

“Oh please,” she snorted, annoyed. “Do you really think I would-?”

She cut off as he turned and gave her the most deadpanned look imaginable. 

Well, alright. Maybe he had a point. It’s possible that she might maybe have been thinking of perhaps working in a challenge request - if there was time. But if he was gonna be such a big baby about it, then fine. She’d reel it in. Or try to. 

Before she could respond to him, however, she realized they had an unexpected guest. 

There, walking at Ethan’s side, was Hilda’s brother, looking distinctly uncomfortable. 

“Oh - hey,” Ethan said, looking around in surprise. 

“Hey,” the boy - Nate, Kris thought his name was? - said, flashing them an awkward sort of half-grin and clearly feeling out of place. “Sorry for… I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, I just needed to… escape for a bit.”

“Escape?” Ethan asked, and Nate made a subtle gesture behind him. 

“Yeah. From that.”

Curious, Kris glanced over her shoulder in the direction he was pointing and saw that Hilda and the taller green-haired boy had fallen behind the rest of the group. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their bashful faces and awkward body language was a pretty clear indication of what was going on.

Kris grinned, then turned back around, giving them some privacy.

“Oh, to be a teenager again,” she quipped, giving Ethan a playful nudge with her elbow. 

“Not for all the money in the world,” he replied, shaking his head ruefully.

“Tell me about it,” Nate finished bitterly.

The summit meeting of Alliance Champions was one of the most brutal forms of torture Kris had ever been subjected to. 

As she sat in a stiff chair at Ethan’s side around a round table in some meeting room tucked away in the armpit of League Headquarters, she felt her brain actually begin to liquify from how unbelievably boring the entire proceeding had turned out to be. 

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. This was a meeting of Champions! It should be… dynamic, or flashy, or… anything, honestly, would be fine at this point. Anything other than monotonous tedium would be wonderful. Wasn’t someone going to battle? Well, maybe not - she knew that wasn’t what they were there for, but come on, let a woman dream a little. It didn’t even have to be a pokemon battle - let someone shout at someone, maybe have a fist fight, call their mother a Wailord, anything!

Sure - getting to see Cynthia, her idol, up on the big screen with her familiar slanted grin, her usual black humor, was great. Leon, too - his confidence came across as a little overbearing, but the dude had earned the right to boast, and she wasn’t too proud to admit that he was hot, which was also definitely great. Seeing all of the Champions in all of their HD glory was great. Having them all together, talking to each other, seeing Ethan be included as one of them - all great. 

…for about thirty seconds. It was around then that Kris realized that seeing them all on a tv screen really wasn’t much different from just catching an interview with them on the news, even if it was in some privileged meeting that most people would never see, and much of her excitement began to wear off. Sure, she got to see Lance in person - that was cool - but she’d seen him in person before, so it wasn’t as exciting. Plus, Ethan wouldn’t let her challenge him to a battle. 

Once the glow of seeing all of the Champions together had worn off, Kris was left with nothing to do but sit and fidget as the most exciting and powerful trainers in all of the Alliance read statistics off of spreadsheets at each other and recounted events that everyone already knew about from the news for like, an hour.

What was even the point of this? Just to keep in touch? To foster solidarity or team building or… whatever dumb corporations parrotted to brainwash their employees? Sure, getting Nate and N - the green-haired guy Hilda had been all flustered around - to share their story of when N’s Zekrom had been targeted by Team Rocket only for Nate’s Victini to be kidnapped instead had been both important and interesting, but it was also all junk they’d known for days now. Was it really necessary to bring them into the meeting and make them go over it all again?

But the rest of the news - attacks in various places, damage reports, costs of repairs, poll numbers reflecting public sentiment, etc. - all of it was exceedingly dull. And Kris had rapidly come to regret asking to be invited along. 

If she’d known it would be this dull, she’d have asked to go bum around Victory Road instead. 

The worst part was the one crusty old detective guy - Looker or whatever his name was, with the salt-and-pepper hair and no clue what he was doing. He talked at length about what they’d been able to discover about the various crime syndicates and what their motives were from investigations and interrogations, but from the sounds of it, it was a whole lot of nothing. Just a whole bunch of words that tallied up to ‘We still have no idea what’s going on and we’re no closer to stopping this’. Which meant Ethan’s exhausted days were only going to grow longer.

After a while, the topic of conversation shifted to where the various Leagues had spread out their man power, stationing members of the Elite 4 and what retired Champions had offered to help throughout the countries so they could quickly respond to incidents. They’d displayed maps of their countries, with markers showing where they were stationed, colors displaying probable targets, notes detailing how they planned to proceed in the event of the seemingly-inevitable next attack. 

But it wasn’t until Lance was up talking about Kanto that Kris finally began to wake up from her stupor. 

Finally, after days of nothing, after everyone in the Alliance had come to believe that Kanto had seemingly been spared from the chaos - they’d been attacked. 

There’d been a raid in Cerulean, and another out on the Sevii Islands. Elite 4 member Misty Waterflower - AJ’s mother - had responded to the first, having been in town at the time, and the second had been handled by the renowned ice-master Lorelei, who had retired to the Orange Island archipelago a few years back and had been just a skip and a jump away.

Just two attacks - nothing at all compared to the other nations - but Kanto had sent off half of its Elite 4 to back up Alola and was now under intense scrutiny from the media and the government, with public sentiment seemingly indicating that they had left themselves open to attack and that they needed to recall Koga and Bruno immediately - a move that would leave the already struggling Alola in dire straights. 

“We’re still not sure why they targeted Cerulean,” Professor Oak was saying, idly scrolling through documents on the screen inlaid on the circular table before him. He and Lance were Kanto’s only representatives today, though the table still felt crowded with the addition of herself, Ethan, Iris, Hilda, Nate, N, and Lyra, who had tagged along in place of Professor Elm. 

“There have been rumors for some time about some fearsome legendary pokemon living deep within Cerulean Caves, so I suppose that might have been the cause… but there has never been any sightings of anything. Not even rumors of sightings. Most of the locals believe the stories to be folk tales created to scare children away from the caves because they’re dangerous - not because anything was actually there. But I suppose Team Galactic may not have known that.”

Kris frowned, thinking back to the attack in Olivine that morning. From the sounds of it, Team Galactic had attacked Cerulean City possibly because there were rumors that maybe there was a legendary pokemon in the cave - but once again, they attacked the city, not the cave. Why? Why not just go straight to the source? Why waste time with the city where they knew there was both a strong police presence and a gym leader, and where a member of the Elite 4 was widely known to live? 

Everyone was acting like targeting legendary pokemon was the goal, but… was it? They’d only found one so far - Nate’s Victini - but from what she understood of the story, it had been a total fluke. Sure, they’d been targeting N for his Zekrom, but even that had been more or less an accident. Team Rocket hadn’t known N was in the city until he’d literally run into a grunt on the street. They weren’t in Castelia for N or Nate - they were there for something else. But what?

Kris frowned, scowling up at the screen. It was moments like these that made her wish she was smarter. They were missing something - something obvious. She could feel it in her bones. Something… Something to do with… She didn’t know, honestly, but she wanted to say it had to do with the attack on Goldenrod. Something about the attack there that was different. Something… Maybe something Ethan had said? She’d have to ask him later. 

Then again, she could just be wrong. She was in a room full of brilliant people, and if none of them thought they were wrong, well… Maybe she was seeing things. Maybe she just felt out of place and wanted to feel useful. She wasn’t used to being dead weight, but in terms of this meeting, she absolutely was. She really didn’t belong here. 

“At this point, I’m afraid we can’t put it off any longer,” Lance was saying. “We’ll have to send a search party into the mountains to find AJ. Kanto needs its new Champion - that should appease public sentiment at least a bit, and if we can get her back, we should be able to keep Koga and Bruno in Alola, at least for the time being. The attacks there have been some of the most severe; we can’t abandon them.”

Lance let out a sigh that had his shoulder’s slumping. For the first time, Kris found herself noticing his age. He’d always appeared so impossibly tough on tv, but now, he looked like a weary, weathered old man who just needed to put down his burdens and finally rest. 

“I can only hope that the Rangers can find her in a timely manner…”

But the mountains were huge, Kris knew. Untracked, barely mapped, and without internet connection or radio signals thanks to the mountain range’s bizarre electromagnetic interference, communication between search parties would be difficult - basically impossible. They could walk right past AJ’s party and never know it. They’d have to rely on pokemon to track them down, but it would still require multiple search teams - which would mean a lot of money and a lot of man power being wasted. Not a good look for Kanto’s new Champion. 

“I’ve been up there before, just a few years ago,” Ethan said slowly. “If necessary, I… might be able to help with the search.”

Kris whipped her head around in shock. Ethan was volunteering to go up the mountain? How? Why? He was Johto’s Champion, he had too much on his plate as it was to disappear potentially for days, and he was already exhausted enough as it was. 

But she could see the resignation on his face and the determination already setting in over it. This is just what it meant to be a Champion. It wasn’t all about the fun of high-level battles, the pride that came from everyone knowing you were the very best. It was about stepping up and doing what was needed when no one else could. 

But this time, he wasn’t the only one who could. 

“No,” Kris said, speaking up for the first time. “I’ll go. Just give me clearance and I can go find them.”

“Kris,” Ethan began, adopting a tone that seemed to imply that the big kids were talking and she needed to butt out, but she ran him over. 

“Yeah, I’m not a Champion, or in the Elite 4, or a Gym Leader, or anything like that - but that’s why I’m the best option. The rest of you are needed here, protecting people - you can’t afford to disappear for who knows how long looking for AJ who's lost somewhere on Johto’s frozen butt crack. But I can. Ethan, you know I’m a good enough trainer to handle the wild pokemon up there, and I’ve explored more than my fair share of icy mountains. I can do this. Let me help.”

He stared at her in silence for a moment, but she could see the gears turning in his head. He knew she was right. Why was he stalling?

“If Champion Ethan vouches for you,” Lance chimed in, “then I see no reason not to ask for your help. We’ll still want to send the Rangers, of course, but Mt. Silver is particularly vast and dangerous. The more hands, the better - but I’d rather not send you alone if we can help it.”

Professor Oak cleared his throat. 

“I’ve got some Aides back at my lab who are retired trainers. They’re not tournament champion level, of course, but they’re experienced trackers, so if one of them partners with you-”

“No, I’ll go! Let me do it!”

Kris had to stop herself from actually gawking. Lyra had stood up, raising her hand like she was attending a lecture, looking determined. 

“I’m an expert tracker - I do it all the time for research! Plus, I’ve met AJ and the others before, and I know Kris. If she’s going, I should go with her!”

Lyra was volunteering? To go with her? Why?

To be fair, this was good news. If Kris had to have a partner and it couldn’t be Ethan, then she’d rather it be someone she knew - and she knew Lyra, after a fashion. It was just… Didn’t Lyra hate her? Why would she willingly volunteer to spend an extended amount of time with her, alone on a mountain?

Unless she was planning to push her off a cliff. 

Professor Oak was nodding approvingly, however, and the sight of it made Lyra seem to glow with pride. Oh - maybe that was why she was volunteering, for recognition from ‘the’ Professor Oak. Maybe she didn’t want to dispose of Kris after all.

Or maybe this was a ‘two birds, one stone’ situation. 

“Thank you, Miss Lyra,” Lance said, smiling kindly. “I’m all for giving these two young women permission to enter - but I’ll leave the decision up to Champion Ethan. Mt. Silver is technically in Johto, after all, and they are your friends. It should be your call.”

Both Kris and Lyra turned to stare at Ethan. He blinked at the sudden attention, then sighed, running a hand down his face. 

“I…” he began, then stopped, reconsidering. “Yeah… Yes, they can handle it. Lyra spends most of her time tracking pokemon through the wilderness for her research, and Kris is both a talented battler and an expert mountain climber. If you two can take care of this for us, that would be a huge help.”

“Of course!” Lyra exclaimed, just as cloyingly sweet as Dipplin syrup. 

“We’ll find them quick,” Kris promised, feeling a rush of excitement flowing through her. Adventure! In a restricted, forbidden, mysterious mountain! And best of all - she was helping! She was actually contributing! Being a team player never felt so good!

And it was probably that that surprised Kris the most. As excited as she was for a new adventure in a land that was practically uncharted, it was the knowledge that taking on this responsibility removed a weight from Ethan’s shoulders that made her the most excited. 

Huh. Maybe she still had some growing to do after all. Go figure.

Chapter Text

AJ had completely lost all sense of time. 

How long had it been since they’d arrived on the mountain? Since the avalanche? Her disastrous battle with Ash? Healing Pichu?

Over a week now, easily. Possibly two, by her counting, since it all began. Two weeks since she’d fought with her mother. Two weeks since she’d last seen home. 

And in that time, so much had changed. So much was no longer the same, and likely never would be again. Even if they managed to find a way home again. 

She had changed, here on this mountain. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say she’d been changed by it. Changed in ways she still didn’t fully understand, in ways that admittedly scared and confused her. She didn’t know that she liked these changes. Didn’t know that she was changing in ways that she wanted to change. 

But, like so many things in life, this seemed to be something else she had no say in. It just happened, and her only choices were to run or accept it. To step up and meet life head-on, or turn tail and flee like a coward. 

And so, because she could see now that this was apparently something she’d always been doing, AJ did what she always did. She ran. 

She avoided her friends, and she avoided Ash, and most of all, she avoided self-reflection. Even though she knew it was stupid and cowardly, and even though she knew that she was going to have to face up to it eventually. Even though she knew nothing was going to change until she did. Instead, she sought distraction; anything and everything that could fill up space and occupy her time. Anything that wasn’t what she really needed to be doing. 

AJ’s days were now filled with training and scavenging for food. The latter now a necessity, as they’d all but eaten through what remained of Sammy’s stores and, unable to locate either hers or Jade’s supplies, they really had no options other than to starve. 

Scavenging, as it turned out, was a laborious process that ate up large portions of their days. 

Thankfully, the Sanctuary offered a vast selection of edible plants and berries for the pokemon, which was usually enough for the Pichus or Togekisses of the group, who ate mainly plants and not too much at that - but for Arcanine or Hydreigon, who needed meat for at least some of their diets, they were forced to go hunting out on the mountainside. A change which proved to be quite a struggle for Hydreigon in particular.

On the one hand, it was a nice excuse to get out of the cabin and away from Ash and her friends for a few hours, seeing as how AJ couldn’t leave Hydreigon alone on these hunting excursions lest she risk her losing control and causing another natural disaster. On the other hand, the trips tended to be incredibly frustrating and slow, taking up hours in the bitter cold as Hydreigon, who had never lived in the wild before being captured, had no idea what she was doing and was terrified of coming into contact with wild pokemon. 

In a way, though, the hunting trips made for decent training. Perhaps not so much in the high-level combat sense, but it did serve as a sort of brutal crash-course on general battling basics, and - cruel though it seemed through any non-naturalistic lens - it was showing slow but steady improvement in terms of getting over her fears of interacting with others. 

By being forced to hunt others to survive, Hydreigon was finally beginning to come to terms with just how big and powerful she was - and how little she really had to fear from others. She was no longer the small, abused Zweilous in a circus cage. It was a sort of ‘kick her out of the nest’ situation that, while not something AJ was exactly thrilled with, she could at least come to accept if she focused on the silver lining. 

Besides, they really did have no choice here. AJ couldn’t hunt the meat for her on her own, and it’s not like there was a Pokemart around for her to go shopping.

When she wasn’t hunting with Hydreigon, she spent her days back in the Sanctuary, training with the legendaries - whichever ones deigned to show up on any given day, that is. Some of them came every day, like Zeraora or Cresselia. Others seemed to show up whenever they felt like it, like Latias or that big silver Ditto. 

This was actually a good thing, as it meant her team got to work on new things every day, and when legendaries were their sparring partners, their training was always at the highest level. 

Hydreigon stuck with Cresseila, whom she felt safest around. Normally, AJ would have preferred to mix things up a bit, but considering Hydreigon was still working on her block and the extra training she was getting from hunting, she figured she should go a little easy on her for now. She’d already made incredible improvement just in being willing to participate - pushing her too hard would only have a negative impact on her and possibly undo all of the great progress they'd made. Best to be gentle. 

She had no such compunctions for the rest of her team, however, and always made sure to work them hard during their training with the legendaries. There was no telling how long they’d be here, and while it seemed like it was ramping up to be a while, she still wanted to make sure they got as much out of the experience as they could. 

And even though it had only been a few days, she could see signs of improvement already. 

Arcanine had lucked out in that an Entei had shown up and taken an interest in him. As a fellow fire type with a similar body shape, the stern yet encouraging Entei had put Arcanine through the ringer, and though incremental, she’d already noticed improvements in his speed and maneuverability, as well as the power of his tackles and fire attacks. 

Togekiss had a rotating cast of trainers, all of whom seemed inclined to battle her in the sky, usually varying between up-close or long-range battles. Togekiss’s speed had always been excellent, but AJ could already see improvements in both stamina and evasion - though the day that a Zapdos showed up and sent Togekiss through an aerial gauntlet of precision lightning bolt dodging had just about sent her heart leaping out of her throat. She didn’t want to risk another trip to Xerneas - the God of Life may not be so forgiving of stupid injuries taken during training. 

All in all, improvement seemed steady across the board, and while there was really only so much one could improve in such a short amount of time, even when training with legendaries, it was still remarkable that the growth was enough that she could see it with her eyes, even without a pokedex to help her chart it. Growth always slowed once you reached the peak of your field. That she could see it at all after only a few short days was phenomenal and spoke to just how far she still had to go to reach legendary level. 

The only member of her team who she hesitated to look over was Pichu. He was still training with Zeraora every day, the vain bipedal feline having taken a liking to her partner and helping him to hone the storage and output of his electricity so he could make the most of what little power he had. And while AJ could see the improvements and was proud of all of the work he was putting in, it was hard to watch him fight and struggle to get stronger when she knew he could go much farther if he evolved. 

But that just brought up all of the same conflicted feelings she’d been having ever since that evening on the hillside, and the same back-and-forth arguments would begin in her head again, prompting her to turn away from him and Zeraora and go distract herself watching someone else. 

She still hadn’t talked to him about it. She didn’t know how to. But she’d eventually decided that it felt wrong bringing it up herself, because she didn’t think she could separate her biased feelings on the matter. She wanted it to be his decision, but how could she go about telling him she was ok with whatever he wanted without making it sound like she was pushing him one way or the other? She wished she could talk to Brock about this. He always knew what to do. 

But talking to Brock would necessitate talking about how she hated Ash. Then again, after the way she’d blown up at her party, he probably knew now how she felt. He’d probably have some wise words to help her feel better about that, too. That, or he’d try and push her to reconcile just like Jade was. 

Why were Harrisons always so nosy?

And just like always, thoughts of Pichu and the reason he never evolved inevitably led to thoughts of Ash. Their terrible battle. Their talk in the sunflower field. His confession that he’d left because of her. The words he’d spoken to Hydreigon that night on the hillside. 

Thinking about Ash was like being sucked into a black hole. The thoughts kept pulling her in, no matter how hard she tried to run from them. They were dark and scary and she was terrified to follow where they would lead her because she had no idea what, if anything, was waiting for her on the other side. 

She hated him, though. She did. She knew that, even if she knew nothing else. It didn’t matter if him abandoning her wasn’t his fault, and it didn’t matter if the rest of the world comparing her to him was outside of his control, and it didn’t matter if he was actually a nice guy deep down and not the self-centered monster she’d always painted him to be. 

She hated him. She clung to that thought, desperately, unwilling to relinquish it. It was her north star, her guiding light. 

Because if she didn’t have her hate, then what did she have? Where had she been going all this time? What was the point of it all? 

Luckily for her - or perhaps unluckily - as she sat once again stewing in her inescapable doom spiral, lounging languidly near the Sanctuary’s river as her pokemon washed off the sweat of another day’s long workout, she was rescued from her thoughts by the surprise arrival of Jade, who showed herself at the top of the hillside like an enemy army who had seized the high ground and was pressing her advantage. Well, great - now she was going to have to talk. 

She loved Jade, even if she wasn’t her favorite person right this second. But she really didn’t want to talk to her, or anyone, right now. Maybe she could jump into the river and swim away and just pretend she didn’t see her…? No, no, that was too dramatic, and it would be obvious. Maybe she could pretend to trip and fall in? And then just… casually swim to the other side?

Too late - while she was busy musing potential escape routes, Jade had quickly descended the hill and approached her. Curse her and her long, beautiful legs. Then again, AJ hadn’t exactly  been trying hard to escape. She really had been too lazy to stand up. She was tired from her workout and the grass was comfy here. 

“AJ,” her friend began once she’d arrived within a few paces, throwing up a tentative smile like nothing was at all out of the ordinary between them and yet maintaining a safe distance as though AJ was a feral Pyroar who was liable to try and maul her. 

“Jade,” AJ replied evenly, keeping her eyes on the river bank. 

To be fair, they weren’t actually fighting per se. They’d had fights before and they were usually louder than this. Still, though… Things with her best friend had been off-kilter for days now, and short of either of them relenting on the situation with Ash, AJ wasn’t sure how they were going to reconcile. 

“Are you all done here?” Jade asked, in a tone that said she’d been waiting for a while. Knowing her, she’d probably been camping out on the other side of the hill, just out of sight, waiting for her chance. 

“Just washing up,” AJ replied, gesturing to her pokemon who were lazing about in the river. Pichu was using Milotic’s serpentine body as a makeshift water slide, much to Arcanine’s annoyance, as he kept launching himself off of her tail and cannonballing into the river right in front of his face. The legendaries had all disappeared as soon as training was over, but several of the wild pokemon were still loitering about, chatting with one another or AJ’s pokemon. They were giving AJ and Jade a wide berth, however; maybe they could sense the awkwardness. 

“Great!” Jade said, sounding perhaps a bit too enthused. Then, after another awkward pause, she stepped a little closer and said, hesitantly, “Did you want to… um, come back to the cabin for lunch? Maybe?”

Every muscle and fiber and sinew in AJ’s body seemed to tense up at the mention of returning to the cabin with the others, which Jade must have seen, because she immediately waved her hands in the air in a frantic sort of way and said, hastily, “A-Ash won’t be there! It’ll just be you and me! And Sammy and Cole, I mean, but-!”

AJ tossed her head like an agitated Mudbray. For some reason, hearing Jade emphasize that Ash wouldn’t be there only seemed to annoy her even more, as if someone being conscientious toward her was an insult or something. She didn’t know why; obviously, him being there would have been a deal breaker. Jade knew this. She wasn’t wrong for bringing it up. Was AJ getting mad just for the sake of getting mad now? 

“Is that… a no?” Jade asked, stepping back and looking decidedly crestfallen. She forgot sometimes just how sensitive Jade could be. She actually looked legitimately crushed. 

“No,” AJ said automatically - then, realizing her mistake, quickly said, “I mean, not ‘no’, not…” She sighed. This was dumb. “Yes, I’ll come have lunch with you.”

“Really?!” Jade asked, her sudden excitement making her swell like a Jigglypuff, and AJ couldn’t help letting out an amused breath. 

“Yes, really. What is that look for? Eating lunch isn’t that exciting - not here, anyway.” Not anywhere where the only menu item ever was stew.

“Everything I do with my best friend is exciting,” Jade replied, beaming ear to ear as she leaned over and offered AJ a hand to help her up. 

AJ couldn’t fight the begrudging smile that wormed its way across her face. 

“Great, now I know you’ve lost it,” she mumbled jokingly, taking Jade’s hand and rising to her feet. 

She paused for a moment to stretch her back and groan. She was sore. She’d spent a good chunk of the morning right as the sun was rising out digging through the snow looking for tubers. The Sanctuary may have plenty of food for the pokemon, but Mewtwo apparently didn’t like the humans taking too much food from here, so they were forced to rely on the mountainside. The brat. Maybe if he let Cole forage for food in here, their dinner menu could expand a bit. 

Speaking of, maybe she should just leave her team here? They could eat here while she was gone, and it's not like they didn’t know where to find her if they needed her. Then again, who knew what trouble they’d get up to while she was gone - especially Pichu and Hydreigon. Better to recall everyone before she left. 

Besides, she could use the excuse of needing to feed them if she decided she needed to escape the cabin early. Always best to have a back-up plan, she thought as she recalled her team, her Pichu scrambling up the river bank, pausing only long enough to shake some of the water out of his fur before climbing up onto her shoulder. 

The walk back to the cabin was odd, if only because she couldn’t remember ever feeling this out of sorts around Jade. Her friend talked ceaselessly the whole way back, rambling on about nothing, but that wasn’t unusual. As Sammy often pointed out, Jade couldn’t stand silence - and with Pichu chattering away on her shoulder, carrying on a conversation with seemingly no one in that way that he often did, the walk ended up being rather noisy. But what was weird was how awkward it was and how forced Jade’s chipper attitude felt. 

Maybe it was because AJ was her best friend and knew her too well to be deceived so easily. Or maybe it was because this was the first time they’d spoken one-on-one since the fight they’d had the other day. Either way, AJ was keenly aware of just how wrong this interaction felt, how none of it was as it should be. And with everything that was going on, AJ just really wanted her best friend back. 

Which meant that for once, she should probably stop running. 

“Jade, I… Can we talk?” AJ asked softly as the two made their way across the verdant fields of the Sanctuary and back to the cabin. 

Jade, who had been talking - ceaselessly and about nothing for the past several minutes - instantly closed her mouth. She didn’t respond, but AJ took her silence as acquiescence. Her body language seemed apprehensive, as though she was afraid of what it was AJ was going to say. 

Given how emotionally unstable AJ had been since arriving on the mountain, maybe Jade was right to be on edge.

“It’s… about the other day. About… when we fought. I just wanted to say sorry again. I didn’t… I’m just sorry.”

She half expected Jade to do her usual Jade thing and wave it off, tell AJ it was fine and water under the bridge and not to worry about it anymore. 

But she didn’t. Instead, she remained quiet for a moment - a moment that seemed to stretch out for an eternity, the sudden lull in conversation leaving a silent, yawning gap yearning between them, filled with nothing but the sound of their out-of-sync footsteps on the grass as AJ began to wonder if Jade was going to reject her apology - before finally, with a soft sigh, she said, “Yeah… I’m sorry, too, AJ. I didn’t handle that well, and… I wound up discovering some things about myself that I didn’t even know were bothering me, and I sort of took them out on you.”

AJ regarded her for a moment out of the corner of her eye. Jade looked… sad, almost. Wilted. Like a Sunflora that had been left in the dark for too long. 

AJ took a deep breath, trying to force her way past the awkwardness through power of will. This wasn’t exactly her area of expertise, but…

“Do you want to… talk about it?”

Jade had spent years listening to AJ rant about how much she hated her dad, but she’d never once listened to Jade talk about her mother. She wasn’t sure she’d be of much help, but if she just wanted someone to listen, then…

Jade smiled sadly but shook her head. 

“No, that’s… I mean, I do think I need to talk about it. Probably more than I realized. But… You’re not the person I want to talk to.”

“Oh,” AJ said, feeling a little stung despite seeing where she was coming from. “Ok.”

“No!” said Jade, eyes popping and waving her hands frantically in the air. “That’s not - I don’t ‘not’ want to talk to - Ugh! I meant, I want to talk to my dad! He never talks about mom ever, and it’s just… It’s not fair, y’know? I want to know more about her, but you won’t be able to give me that - that’s all I meant, I swear!”

For a wonder, AJ actually laughed. 

“Yeah, I get it,” she said reassuringly. “Besides - I’m not the best sounding board when it comes to parents.”

“True,” Jade agreed, and they both laughed again. 

There was another pause, this one not quite as awkward as the last, that lingered for a while until Jade finally said, “I’m sorry for pushing you so hard. About your… about Ash, I mean.”

It was AJ’s turn to shake her head. 

“No, I… I needed it. Besides, you’re my best friend - it’s your job to push me when I’m being an idiot. I count on you to keep me in line.”

Jade looked surprised for a moment then tilted her head to the side curiously. 

“Does this mean you… agree with me?”

AJ looked away, not meeting Jade’s eyes. 

Honestly, she didn’t know how to answer that. As far as Jade was concerned, nothing had happened since their fight about AJ needing to talk to Ash - nothing other than AJ storming off in the middle of dinner like a whiny brat. 

She didn’t know about them introducing their pokemon to each other in the sunflower field and how incredibly normal he had seemed - not even monstrous at all, really, at least until he called her emotionally unstable. Sure, he was probably right about that, but still. She didn’t know that she’d eavesdropped on their conversation at dinner the other night and now understood the reason why Ash had disappeared in the first place and how she couldn’t really deny anymore how relatable his feelings were. And she also didn’t know about her eavesdropping on him talking to Hydreigon the other night and how strange and conflicted his kindness had made her feel. 

AJ didn’t know that she could say that any progress was made. She didn’t want progress to be made; she wasn’t trying to progress in the direction Jade wanted. But she couldn’t deny that things were different now. How different, exactly, she wasn’t sure, but certainly different. 

She hated him. But the heat was dimming. She didn’t know why. 

But she wouldn’t tell Jade that. Not until she figured this out for herself first. Not until she discovered a way to beat him. 

That was still her ultimate goal, at the end of the day. 

Wasn’t it?

“Ok, fine,” Jade said, accepting that AJ wasn’t going to answer. “Let me ask this instead then - are we ok?”

AJ turned back to Jade and met her gaze. For a wonder, Jade actually looked unsure, as if there was any way she didn’t know how AJ was going to respond. 

AJ tried to smirk - to play the moment off as teasing and playful because emotions made her uncomfortable - but she couldn’t actually stop her lips from morphing into a small, sincere smile as she turned to Jade and said, “Of course we are. You drive me insane sometimes, but… I love you too much to stay mad at you.”

The last word cut off with a strangled choke as Jade caught her in a rib-cracking hug, just about lifting her off of her feet in joy. Pichu, who’d been knocked free of AJ’s shoulder in the love-tackle, quickly scrambled his way back up his trainer’s back to dance around on her head in celebration while Jade repeated over and over again how AJ was her bestest friend in the whole wide world and she loved her too and she was so happy that she didn’t have to spend all day hanging out with ‘smelly hobo men’ anymore.

Once they were close enough to the invisible exit, Jade called out her Metagross and together, she, AJ, and Pichu climbed up on its back and took off, soaring up into the sky, through the portal, and back out into the freezing mountain air. 

The chill was always a slap to the face after leaving the Sanctuary, but with her and Jade now back to normal, the cold didn’t seem as sharp as it usually did. They passed the short flight back to the cabin talking and laughing about nothing as though nothing had ever changed, and AJ was surprised to find that her buoyed spirits continued even after they dismounted and entered the cabin, managing to offer genuine smiles to both Sammy and Cole, who were finishing up lunch preparations right as they girls arrived. 

Lunch was a simple yet convivial affair, and AJ was in better spirits than ever. Despite being in Ash’s home again, despite still being trapped, despite having no idea what to do about Ash or their future, something as simple as being around her friends again - talking and joking and having fun - was enough to wash away some of the gloom she’d been living under for the past few days. 

Maybe this was all she needed. Some time spent with the people she cared about, the people who cared about her. People who could pull her out of her own head, stop her from doom spiraling all the time and help her focus on the good parts of life. Despite nothing really changing, she felt lighter and more free than she had in days. 

Just sitting here, in this too-cramped cabin with this flavorless stew, she felt happier and more at ease than she had in days. Things finally felt like they were looking up. 

And then it all came crashing down to the ground when, in a moment of deja vu, the front door of the cabin flew open with a resounding bang and Ash, looking windswept and pale, announced in a loud, panicked voice, “There’s someone in the Sanctuary!”

AJ stared, spoon frozen halfway to her mouth, gawking at Ash in stupefaction as the impact of his words seemed to reverberate hauntingly around the now silent cabin. 

Someone was in the Sanctuary? Someone other than them? But who? How?! Who else knew it was here?!

Cole was on his feet in a heartbeat, looking panic-stricken and older than ever before. 

“Who?” he asked, winded, walking quickly around the table and looking distinctly pale and jittery as he grabbed his coat from off of the stand by the fireplace. “When did they arrive?”

“I don’t know,” Ash replied hurriedly, letting his eyes bounce around the group as though counting them, his gaze resting on AJ more than once. “I just got word, and since the cabin was on the way - we should all go. It might take all of us to stop Mewtwo from… well…”

From going on a rampage and killing the intruder. 

Sammy and Jade were up and moving, snatching up coats and scarves, recalling what pokemon had been lingering in the living room. An urgent, frenetic energy had filled the cabin, and the group moved with a purpose, united in their goal to protect the Sanctuary and the pokemon who lived within it - and possibly whatever hapless hiker had stumbled their way into a death trap. 

All except AJ. She stood as well and began gathering her things, Pichu shouting orders from her shoulder like a general marshaling an army, but something felt a little odd to her and she couldn’t quite wrap her head around what. 

How was someone in the Sanctuary? With all of the wild pokemon patrolling the mountainside, could someone have really made their way all the way here without being noticed? If so, they would have had to have known exactly where to go, exactly what it was they were looking for beforehand - but how? No one else knew the Sanctuary existed. 

Unless there was something else they weren’t telling them. Some other part of their backstory, yet unearthed. Wouldn’t be the first time Ash and Cole had kept a secret from them. 

AJ was the last to leave the cabin, shutting the door firmly behind her. Jade was calling Metagross out of his ball, but she could see Ash was already astride his Charizard, waiting impatiently for the others while Sammy mounted his Corvinight and Cole, stashing away his flute that he’d used to summon his ride, struggled to climb onto Braviary’s back. 

“We should make for the waterfall cave entrance,” Ash was saying as Jade hopped up onto Metagross’s back and offered AJ a hand to pull her up. “It seems that’s where they’re going. If we can catch them and stop them there, in the tunnel before they reach the Sanctuary…”

“Good idea,” Cole said, breathless. “If they don’t see the Sanctuary proper or any of the legendaries, then Mewtwo should be appeased.”

AJ opened her mouth to ask if it wouldn’t be better for one of them to fly around to one of the other entrances and catch the intruder from the other end in a vice grip - but before she could ask, Ash had taken off, Charizard’s powerful wings carrying him quickly out of reach. Cole and Sammy weren’t far behind him. 

Well fine then. This was their life’s work; let them call the shots. 

The journey back to the Sanctuary was tense and silent. Even Pichu seemed to read the mood and for once had put his playful nature behind him, bundled up in AJ’s scarf and scowling at the last, lonely peak that stretched before them, at the base of which they’d find the entrance to the waterfall cave where she and Jade had followed Ash what felt like ages ago. 

“I just don’t understand,” AJ said finally, feeling the tension and exasperation well up inside of her. “Someone is here? Who? How? Who else could possibly know there was a legendary pokemon Sanctuary up here, and who could have snuck their way in without any of the wild pokemon on the mountain catching them?”

Jade met her eye for a moment, and AJ could see the concern blazing on her friend’s face. Jade worried her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment, hesitation like she was going to say something to AJ… but then seemed to think better of it, turning to face forward and simply saying, “I don’t know.”

Weird. This whole situation was so weird. Had one of the legendary’s alerted Ash that someone had snuck in? That’s what had happened with Sammy before, so they must have some sort of system… but why come to the Cabin first? He was Ash Ketchum - couldn’t he have handled this on his own? Or sent one of his pokemon to alert the people at the cabin while he rushed ahead first?

Maybe she was overthinking this. Maybe he’d just been caught off-guard and panicked, or maybe he’d been bumming around out on the mountainside when he heard the news and the cabin had been on the way. Maybe she’d conditioned herself to not trust him and was now physically unable to do anything but assume the worst in his every action. 

They landed at the entrance to the waterfall cave before too long, with Ash standing at the entrance with his Pikachu and his Charizard, hurriedly ushering them forward. In the time it took Sammy, AJ, and Jade to dismount and recall their pokemon, who were too large to fit in the cave, Ash had grabbed a handful of sticks off of the ground and had his Charizard set the ends ablaze to use as makeshift torches before finally recalling him, which he handed out as the group made their way inside - Cole first, looking pale and haggard, followed by Sammy, his face stiff and furious, then Jade, still anxiously chewing her lip, then finally AJ. 

She was unable to stop herself. As she reached to accept her torch from Ash, her eyes seemed to meet his of their own accord, and for a moment that lasted for only a heartbeat, they stared at each other, postures mirrored, each with a hand on the torch, Pikachu up on his shoulder and Pichu up on hers. 

She couldn’t reach his expression, but his eyes - those same burnished amber eyes that had haunted her all her life from those photos on her grandmother’s mantle - seemed to bore straight into her soul. Something in her chest squeezed again. She looked away, wrenching the torch out of his grip and following after Jade. 

The group hurried through the cave as quickly as they could, boots slipping on wet rocks as they ducked beneath low-hanging stalactites, making their way through the dark and narrow passage toward the sound of rushing water. 

When they reached the waterfall that blocked the secret entrance to the Sanctuary, Sammy moved to summon his Dragonite again, but Ash beat him to the punch, pulling out his Espeon and using her psychic powers to divert a portion of the waterfall and allow them to pass through, once again waiting until the others had slipped ahead of him before following up behind. 

As they entered the tunnel, AJ tried to push ahead, conscious of how close he was behind her, but the tunnel was narrow and there wasn’t much room to move without physically bowling Cole and Sammy over so she was forced to match their pace - which, for Cole, a man in his mid sixties trying to rush up a rocky incline, wasn’t exactly fast. 

The tunnel felt longer than she remembered, but that may have just been the anxiousness of the situation. She kept her eyes peeled, but with only the dim light of the makeshift torches to illuminate their path, it was hard to see much of anything around them. Still, she kept alternating from trying to squint through the gloom ahead and letting her eyes sweep the ground, looking for any signs of the intruder. But she saw nothing. Nothing but darkness. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, something seemed to emerge from the gloom up ahead. A single figure, standing alone in the center of the tunnel as though blocking their path…

<That is far enough.>

A shudder seemed to pass down AJ’s body from tip to toe. 

Mewtwo. 

Pichu leaped down from AJ’s shoulder at once, positioning himself protectively between his trainer and the monster, as though there were any way he could possibly take it on alone.

Silence and confusion seemed to grip the group for a moment as they stopped, all in a huddle, breaths ragged, torches gripped in sweaty hands and darkness all around them. 

What was going on? Why was Mewtwo here, waiting for them in ambush in the tunnel? Did it think they were the intruders? Had its paranoia convinced it that they were in cahoots somehow?

Cole, breathless from exhaustion, stumbled forward a few steps and peered at Mewtwo cautiously through the darkness. 

“Mewtwo?” he gasped, winded. “What…? What is this? Where is the intruder? Did you already…?”

Something cold seemed to settle over AJ. Had it already disposed of them? Had they been too slow? But where… She didn’t see any bodies, any signs of violence. Had it teleported the remains somewhere else, or…?

Mewtwo stared for a moment, as though sizing Cole up. Even in the darkness, AJ could see the sheer malice in its eyes, burning in the dark like black flames of pure hate. 

Finally, it said, in a soft, slow voice that echoed psychically across all of their minds, <Why don’t you ask your son?>

There was a pause, as each of them struggled for a moment as though his words had been a puzzle that they simply didn’t understand. Then, slowly, as one, AJ, Cole, Sammy, and Jade all turned to face the last member of their group. 

Ash was standing alone, a few paces back, his torch held up but his eyes on the ground, hidden behind the bill of his cap. Pikachu still up on his shoulder, and Espeon on the ground at his side. 

Something seemed to seize AJ’s heart, then. Fear, confusion, anger - she couldn’t quite put a name to it, but it set her heart pounding in her chest, her palms slick beneath her fingerless gloves. 

Cole cleared his throat gruffly, then took a step toward Ash, gazing at him imploringly. 

“Ash,” he said, and his voice was rough, weak. “What… What is this? What is Mewtwo talking about?”

At the sound of his name, Ash finally lifted his head, and the light from the torches seemed to make his eyes burn a brilliant amber. 

“I’m sorry, dad,” he said finally, and in the stillness of the cave, even his soft whisper was easy to hear. “But I finally saw my chance, and I… I had to take it.”

“What…?” Cole began, but Mewtwo quickly ran him over. 

<There is no point to this,> it said, tone cold and commanding. <Let it be over with->

“No!” Ash shouted, surprisingly desperate, staring hauntingly at Mewtwo. “Please, just… give me a minute. I need to explain-”

<They will not remember your words,> Mewtwo tried again, but Ash shook his head. 

“It doesn’t matter. I need… I need to say it anyway. Even if it’s… just for my sake.”

Mewtwo tossed its head, looking exasperated, but to her surprise, seemed to concede to Ash’s request. 

<Fine. But make it quick. My patience it not endless.>

Ash nodded, swallowing thickly, then turned his gaze back to Cole, who was staring at his son as though he was some strange creature he’d never laid eyes on before. 

“I’m sorry,” Ash began, softly, “for tricking you all. There was never an intruder. I just… I needed to come up with a situation urgent enough that I could get you all here, together. Mewtwo wouldn’t leave the Sanctuary, so… I had to bring you to him.”

He adjusted his stance a bit, like a nervous kid giving a speech in front of his classmates, but kept his eyes on Cole. 

“I’ve actually been planning this since the beginning,” he continued. “Ever since I first arrived here. From the moment the hypnosis that Mewtwo had placed on me as a child broke and I remembered. I knew that there was at least a chance that - if he agreed to help me, if I could convince him - we could use it to rescue you from this place.

“But it wasn’t enough, back then. Mewtwo didn’t want to risk sending us back down the mountain even with our memories wiped with hypnosis. As strong as he is, I had accidentally proven that there was a chance, however small, that it could break again. That we’d remember him and the Sanctuary, and we’d carry that knowledge back into human society. A risk he wasn’t willing to take. So I waited. I waited here, with you, doing my part, keeping the pokemon safe, keeping you company… Waiting for my chance to find a way to finally send you home.”

Here, he paused to smile ruefully, extending his torch to gesture at AJ’s friends. 

“Though, of course, it turns out that opportunity came in the form of other would-be prisoners. I guess I didn't do much in the end, after all… but I owe you a thanks, Sammy, Jade. It was our conversation at dinner the other night that gave me the missing pieces I needed to finally set my plan in motion.”

“We didn’t do anything,” Jade interjected, sounding confused, and Ash chuckled. 

“You did, actually. When we were talking over dinner, you told me two very important things that were necessary to finally get Mewtwo’s help.

“First, when I told you the story about how I’d met Mewtwo before - me and my friends, Misty and Brock, back when I was a kid - you, Jade, asked me how it was possible that that had happened when your father had never told you about it. You confirmed for me then that Mewtwo’s hypnosis was powerful enough that, even decades later, Brock and Misty still didn’t remember their meeting. That it would take a reminder as powerful as what I had had - seeing Mewtwo face-to-face - to break the hypnosis. Which meant that my plan to use Mewtwo’s hypnosis to wipe my dad’s memories and send him home was viable. 

“The second piece of information came from Sammy,” he continued, now gesturing to Sammy with his torch. “He pointed out after dinner that, unlike me, you three were smart. You didn’t run off to this mountain alone and in secret. You told people where you were going - your parents, my mom, the rangers, even Johto’s Champion. People know you’re here, which means if you remain trapped, if you never return, the League is going to send people looking for you. Kanto losing another Ketchum Champion under mysterious circumstances, together with one of the Oaks and the daughter of Pewter’s Gym Leader? Not a chance they’d leave that lying down.”

<I conceded that keeping them here presents a risk I had not foreseen,> Mewtwo said. <Though I would sooner kill you all and be done with it, I would earn the ire of Mew and several of the other pokemon in the Sanctuary who have grown fond of you… To my disgust, wiping your memories and sending you back to the human world does seem to be the safest option for the pokemon I must protect.>

“So then send them home!” Cole shouted, gesturing to AJ and the others. “The children! They deserve to be free! But there’s no need to send me with them-!”

“Dad,” Ash cut in, exasperated, “you know you won’t survive up here for much longer. You’re not a young man anymore, and I can see - we all can see - just how hard it is for you to get around nowadays. If you stay up here, you’ll end up dead before too long, but if you go home - back to human civilization where you belong - you could have another ten, twenty - thirty years, even! Decades of life back! Decades you deserve, after everything you’ve gone through.”

Cole shook his head, ready to argue back, but Ash lifted his torch higher, making a placating motion with his hand and cutting him off. 

“I’ve only got another moment left, so… let me say my goodbyes while I can.”

Mewtwo shifted behind them, as though to indicate that he’d never agreed to giving him another moment, but Ash pressed on, heedless of the threat. 

“Dad…”  

He paused, his mouth working soundlessly for a moment before letting out a short, barked laugh.  

“Wow, this is weird. Y’know, Dad, I don’t think I ever told you this, but… You’re kinda of my hero.” 

A pause followed, and you could see the surprise on Cole’s face as Ash’s words caught him off-guard. The silence in the tunnel seemed to stretch for a moment, holding everyone still as the weight of the situation and what was about to happen seemed to finally settle fully on each of them. 

At Cole’s side, AJ stood rigid, every muscle in her body taut, jaw clenched, brows furrowed, hands balled into fists so tightly her knuckles were screaming. Some foreign, indescribable feeling was welling up inside of her, bubbling up her throat, clamoring for her attention. 

There was no way out. They were trapped in a vice, with Ash Ketchum on one end and the monstrous Mewtwo on the other. Even if they could all team up on one of them and take them - which was a big if - the other would just get them from behind. 

Not to mention, the tunnel was small and cramped. Not big enough to have a real fight in. And that was before you considered the very real risk of a cave in. No, attempting to fight would very probably mean death, either at Mewtwo’s hands or at the hands of rocks falling in on their heads.

But still - she couldn’t give up, couldn’t let this happen. Why, she didn’t know, but she couldn’t. Ash’s plans had to fail, because… because he was Ash! That was the only reason why! She had to stop him! Had to protect her friends and Cole from…!

From what? From finally being allowed to go home? From being rescued from this prison? Wasn’t that a good thing? Wasn’t that what she wanted?

But then Ash would still be stuck here, alone on this mountain, without even Cole for company. 

But he deserved it, right? Didn’t he deserve what he got? Shouldn’t she feel vindicated?

But she’d forget him. Forget their confusing moments. The sunflower field. His conversation with Hydreigon. 

She’d also forget her embarrassing loss, though. Forget how she lost her temper. Forget what a failure she was. 

But she’d still be a failure, even if she forgot. She’d forget the progress she’d made. Forget all the training, and the legendaries, and the work she’d put in. The revelations she’d had about herself, about her friends. 

And she’d never get her chance to finally beat him.

Ash’s eyes were fixed on the ground, gaze unseeing, a wry twist to his lips that clashed openly with the striking bitterness painted across his countenance.  

“It’s just…” he continued quietly, as though talking to himself, “Everything I did in life, every tournament, every championship, every accomplishment or accolade or award… I only ever pursued them because of you. Despite not being there, you shaped my life. Even my childhood dream of being the Pokemon Master, ‘the best there ever was’... it was always just so you’d be proud of me.” 

To his credit, in this moment, Cole was the very picture of stoicism; striking, grizzled countenance, rugged gray beard, broad shoulders from years of physical labor, and a piercing hawk-like gaze. Despite his age, he was as implacable as the mountains themselves, and yet… AJ could see water in those once-fierce eyes, and those powerful arms were quaking with the onslaught of emotion he was trying so valiantly to suppress.  

Ash cleared his throat gruffly, free hand rising to adjust his hat, hiding his eyes behind its brim.  

“I blame mom, to be honest,” he said, half-joking, not quite hiding the tremble in his voice. “All throughout my childhood, she told me stories about you. Of the kind of man you were, the kind she wanted me to be. Selfless and brave and always helping others… There was no greater compliment than to hear her say, ‘Your father would be so proud of you’… 

“And I wondered sometimes, how… How could she be so strong? Never doubting, never questioning your motives or your disappearance. Trusting in you, absolutely… What kind of man must you have been to have inspired such unwavering confidence in her? 

“And then I found you. And now I know. I know what being a hero really means-“ 

“It’s not about heroics, boy,” Cole barked sternly, his voice powerful and authoritative, not displaying a hint of the tangle of emotions she could clearly see in his eyes.  

“I know, dad, I know…” Ash said quickly, making placating gestures with his hand. “I’m not… doing this to be a hero, I’m not doing this for me. I’m doing this for mom… Dad, she’s been without you for nearly forty years-“ 

“And without you for nearly twenty,” Cole cut in again. “Delia is a strong woman - she doesn’t need a man to complete her. But any woman would suffer at the loss of their only child, Ash. Go home. Your family needs you-“ 

“And they don’t need you?!” Ash demanded loudly, and Cole sighed, shaking his head.  

“Most of my life has been spent on this mountain. You’re grown, and have children who are grown, and Delia’s moved on-“ 

“But she hasn’t!” Ash bellowed angrily. “She’s still waiting for you to come home! In your little house in Pallet, right where she lost you! Ask them, if you don’t believe me! Ask! She never believed you’d died! She knows you’re still out here!” 

Cole’s mouth worked, but no sound came out.  

“You gave up your whole life, your happiness, everything, for the sake of these Pokémon, the world, and the ones you love. But the burden doesn’t have to be carried alone - I told you that once before. I’m taking it up now, and you are going home to spend the rest of your life in peace. You don’t get a choice in the matter, just like I didn’t get a choice when I had to grow up without you.” 

The two men stared at each other, eyes burning fiercely, as though they could force the other to yield through sheer willpower alone. Finally, however, Cole looked away. He didn’t say another word, but even in the dim torchlight, she could see his shoulders shaking.  

AJ felt uncharacteristically scrambled inside, her emotions a confused tangle, whipped into a tempest by Ash’s emotionally charged speech.  

Part of her wanted to lash out at him, to argue - to cry that he was wrong on mere principle, by merit of simply being him… But at the same time, she wanted Cole to go home. She wanted Grandma Delia to not be so alone anymore. 

She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her lungs, it seemed, were having a difficult enough time simply breathing with the sheer weight of her anxiety pressing down on her, ice-cold chains wrapping tight around her heart like bands of iron.  

Worst of all, she couldn’t push away the thoughts and feelings that had wormed their way through her while Ash had been monologuing. Something in his words, something strange, something she was too terrified to acknowledge or even think about at the moment had seemed to resonate somewhere deep within her. Words she recognized, somehow so familiar…  

The words of a child to the father they’d never known.  

‘She told me stories about you…’ 

‘...how could she be so strong?...’ 

‘…Your father would be so proud of you…’ 

‘…what kind of man must you have been?...’ 

‘…tournaments, championships…’ 

‘…only ever pursued them because of you…’ 

‘…you shaped my life…’ 

‘…and now I know…’ 

Her throat had dried to the point of pain, but she couldn’t work up enough moisture in her mouth to swallow. Suddenly, she felt very, very cold.  

“Jade, Sammy.” 

Her best friend jumped at the sound of her name and turned her gaze from the silent Cole to stare apprehensively at Ash, bouncing anxiously on the balls of her feet. Sammy met his gaze head-on, but his face was unreadable, his soft green eyes now gray like granite.  

“It was good to see you two again. You’ve both grown so much. Your parents must be so proud.” 

Jade looked lost, her mouth half-open like she wanted to respond to the compliment but was unsure how to.  

Ash continued, heedless. “Thank you for being AJ’s friend. For being with her, staying by her side, everything I couldn’t do and more. I know you won’t remember this, but… stay close to your friends, your family. There is nothing else that matters more.” 

Jade nodded slowly, her lips trembling, wide amber eyes flooding with emotional tears so typical of her best friend. Sammy didn’t respond, but he looked troubled, his face set in that way he had when trying to find a solution to an unsolvable problem.  

Ash turned his hollow gaze finally to AJ, and with a shuddering breath, she felt her throat unstick.  

“AJ…” 

“No,” she managed throatily, her voice thick with an emotion that she couldn’t, wouldn’t describe.  

He smiled softly. 

“I know you don’t want to hear this…” 

“Don’t you dare…” 

“…but I’m sorry.”  

There was some sort of spasm in her chest, and her response was lost as she fought with futility to regain self-control, shaking her head back and forth like a petulant child.  

“I know it must be too little, and far too late…” 

Don’t you dare, AJ Ketchum! 

“…but I’m so, so sorry.” 

AJ! Don’t you do it! 

“I never got to hold you, to see you open your eyes…” 

Don’t you dare cry! Don’t give him the satisfaction! 

“…take your first steps…” 

Please… 

“…get your first Pokémon…”  

Oh, Arceus… 

“…or take your place as Kanto’s Champion.” 

He gave a short, humorless chuckle. “But then, you never needed me after all, did you? You’ve become ten times the trainer I ever was at your age. I guess all I was good for was a reputation the world would hold you to and a name - Oh… I can’t believe Misty named you after me, you must hate that.” 

AJ was lost, tossed against the breakers, too spent of her every faculty to fight the turbulent emotional storm that was assaulting her on every side, and yet the onslaught would not cease. One more blow, she knew, and that would be it.  

“I know I have no right, no need, to ask this, but… take care of your mother. Misty is…” He shook his head, unable to finish the thought. “And AJ… one last thing, before you go. You’ll forget, but it has to be said while I have the chance.” 

Their gazes were locked, cerulean against amber, and her heart thudded weakly in her chest.  

“…I love you.” 

And she broke. Eighteen years of hatred and anger that had shaped and formed her life, her existence, her very being - the stained-glass window of her soul - shattered in an instant, the falling pieces tearing her to shreds.  

A strangled sob escaped her throat, hot tears painting her cheeks, and she felt herself lurch forward; whether a subconscious impulse to move toward her father or her knees finally giving out after so much buckling, she didn’t know. She saw Sammy move to catch her out of the corner of her eye, but at the same moment, Mewtwo finally made its move.  

Cole bellowed a futile “No!”, and Jade screamed reflexively, but in a flash of light and a wave of cold, the world went black, and AJ kept right on falling, falling into the lonely darkness.  

Chapter Text

The skies above Mt. Silver were a perfect crystalline blue with nary a cloud in sight on the morning that Kris and Lyra set out on their expedition to find Kanto’s missing Champion. 

The wind was chill here, and though the weak morning light wasn’t nearly enough to keep them warm, it sparkled on the freshly fallen snow in a way that seem paradoxically cheerful against the frozen backdrop of grays and whites and browns, the remote mountain range so isolated from the rest of the world that it seemingly knew nothing of the dire circumstances that had brought the two young women there in the first place. 

Or maybe that was just Kris. In spite of everything, she couldn’t deny the bubbling surge of excitement and elation welling up in her chest as she trudged ahead, iron-spiked hiking boots crunching noisily on the pristine snow with every step. It had been so long since she’d last gotten out and had a real adventure, and while she knew she wasn’t here to mess around, the sheer joy of being one with nature again was enough to make her want to start skipping. Y’know, if that were possible in these heavy boots or in snow that reached mid-calf. 

After the summit meeting with the other Champions, Kris had wasted no time in getting prepared for the journey. She’d considered flying back to Ethan’s place in Goldenrod so she could grab her hiking gear, but the League had insisted that they waste no more time in finding AJ and had generously agreed to foot the bill to purchase all-new equipment for the trip. Which was why Kris was now sporting her fashionable new hiking bag, new hat and gloves, new goggles, new coat and pants with all the pockets you could ever need, new thermal underwear and thick leggings and the most wonderfully soft stockings made of Flaffy fleece. And let's not forget the amazing hiking stick she’d been given, complete with a thick steel spike at the end so you could easily drive it deep into the frozen ground to help keep your footing. 

Her only complaint would be her new boots. They were fine - more than fine, actually - but being brand new, they hadn’t had a chance to be broken in yet, and she was already lamenting the blisters she’d more than likely have that evening. Still, though - it was a small price to pay.

When she’d agreed to come, she’d done so purely out of a desire to help - and maybe because the thought of exploring Mt. Silver sounded exciting and fun. She had no idea she’d be getting an all-expenses-paid shopping trip out of it. Maybe she should volunteer to help out more often. 

The sound of labored breathing behind her reminded Kris once again to slow her pace a bit. Her companion was no stranger to being outdoors, but Lyra hadn’t had as much opportunity to go climbing random mountains as Kris had. She wasn’t used to this - either the strain of walking up such steep inclines buried in snow or the lack of oxygen at high altitudes, and they’d had to stop to take breaks a few times already.

The two women had departed the Ranger’s Station early that morning, not long after sunrise. They’d confirmed with the Rangers present that AJ and co had in fact checked in almost two weeks ago, but they hadn’t heard anything since. When Kris had signed her name on the visitor’s log, she could see AJ, Sammy, and Jade’s names listed right above hers. When they said this mountain was untracked, they weren’t kidding. No one ever came here. 

The Rangers had already heard from their superiors and most of them had already set out with their pokemon to begin searching the mountain for AJ, but there’d been no news yet. Not surprising - with how big the mountain was, and without the use of radios or GPS or the internet, a search like this could take days, maybe even weeks if something had gone wrong and AJ was hurt or lost. There was no telling how far she and her friends had traveled or which direction they’d decided to go, but from what Kris had heard, they hadn’t planned to be here for too much longer. With any luck, she or one of the Rangers would catch them on the way back. 

Though - and maybe this would sound a bit tone deaf - Kris was A-ok with the search taking a few days. Sure, she knew how dire circumstances were back in the civilized world, and again, she wasn’t here to play around, but… Well, normal people were never given the chance to come here. This would probably be Kris’s one and only opportunity to climb Mt. Silver. Let her have a couple of days at least!

They reached the top of the hill they’d been climbing and Kris, taking note of Lyra’s labored breathing, decided it was probably time for another break. The trees were a bit more dense here, thick pines whose arms were heavy with last night’s snowfall, but there were a few boulders nearby that sat out of their reach. They could sit there and rest a bit without needing to worry about snow falling on their heads. Wordlessly, Kris made her way over to them, trusting Lyra to follow - and she did, collapsing onto the boulder beside her with a grateful sigh. 

Silence gripped the clearing for a bit, broken only by the sound of their labored breathing. Actually, most of the trip had been silent. Other than when they’d passed by the Ranger Station, neither Kris nor Lyra had spoken a word to each other. 

It was a bit weird, if she were being honest. Not that Kris was a stranger to silence or anything - most of her journeys she’d taken on her own. But Lyra was usually such a chatterbox, running her mouth a mile a minute. Sure, maybe part of her silence was due to her being out of breath, but if Kris were being honest, she’d put her money on there being another cause. Namely, Kris herself. 

She chanced a glance at her companion out of the corner of her eye. Lyra was as decked out in brand new winter survival gear as Kris was, though hers was decidedly more pastel in color. The shorter girl had the rubber straw from her water pack inserted into her mouth as she scowled down at her pokegear, struggling to operate it with gloved hands. 

Kris was still sort of surprised that Lyra had volunteered to come along with her. Maybe this was just her trying to earn brownie points from Ethan or the Professors - or maybe she, like Kris, had just felt like she should be doing more to help out - but Lyra had never exactly seemed to enjoy being in Kris’s presence, and while the two had hung out in the past, it had always been when Ethan was around. Kris had never thought of her as a friend. They were both Ethan’s friends. And it didn’t help that Kris had always suspected that Lyra had had feelings for the Golden Boy, which just sort of naturally made things awkward. 

And yet, here she was anyway. It was surprising. But maybe it also spoke to Lyra being more mature than Kris had ever given her credit for. Maybe she’d misjudged the girl. 

Suddenly, as though sensing the direction of Kris’s thoughts, Lyra lowered her pokegear and frowned. 

“What are those?” she asked, breaking her two-hour silence as she hopped off the rock she’d been sitting on and trudged her way through the snow over to a nearby copse of trees. 

“What are what?” Kris asked, standing up to join her. Her voice sounded a little hoarse from disuse. 

Lyra crouched down in the snow a few feet away from the pines and tilted her head. 

“Don’t these look like Mightyena tracks to you?”

Kris frowned as she reached Lyra’s side, squinting down at the footprints she could now see in the snow. How had Lyra noticed those? The girl must have binoculars for eyes. 

“Um… Maybe, yeah. They’re too big to be Houndoom - but Mightyena aren’t native to Johto. Why would there be any here?”

She thought she heard her mutter something about ‘introduced species’, but then Lyra turned her puzzled expression up at Kris and asked, “No one in AJ’s party had a Mightyena, right?”

Oh, good call - but “No, not that I know of.”

“I didn’t think so,” Lyra said, turning back to the tracks, but she still looked puzzled. “If I remember Professor Oak correctly, the only pokemon they had with them at the time they left who have feet anything like this would be AJ’s Arcanine, Jade’s Ninetales, and Sammy’s Leafeon. But none of them would leave tracks in this shape… And they don’t really look like Mightyena tracks either, now that I look at them more closely. The toes are all wrong.”

Kris shrugged. Maybe they were Mightyena tracks, maybe not. Kris may live and breathe pokemon, but that didn’t mean that she’d memorized every footprint for every species in existence. Lyra had lost her a bit for a moment there, but she agreed with the conclusion that this probably wasn’t from AJ’s party. Which meant that this was a waste of time. 

But she refrained from saying that, instead standing back and watching as Lyra struggled to enter something into her pokegear. When she finally got to her feet, she let her eyes sweep the canopies of the trees around her as though she were a crime scene detective looking for clues to a murder. 

Deciding this probably meant that they were done resting, Kris started walking on, and Lyra followed behind her. Not really knowing which direction to go, she found herself following the tracks Lyra had found, because why not? They seemed to be heading towards the center of the mountain range anyway. That seemed as good a place as any to search.

She supposed she should be impressed that Lyra was taking this so seriously. Kris hadn’t even noticed the tracks. How was she supposed to be finding AJ if she let clues like that pass her by so easily? Then again, whether or not they were Mightyena tracks, they didn’t belong to anyone in AJ’s party, so what did it matter? Tracks belonging to other pokemon weren’t clues about AJ. Still, though - maybe she should keep her eyes peeled. 

After a few moments of walking, Lyra surprised Kris by speaking again. 

“I wish I could come up here to do some research,” she said, her voice thick with melancholy. 

From her tone, it was obvious that she was speaking to herself, but Kris found herself replying with a, “Yeah, me too. Not for research, just - like, to explore. Who knows what could be hiding up here?”

“Right?!” Lyra said, suddenly sounding about three-hundred percent more involved in the conversation than Kris was expecting, and she blinked, momentarily caught off-guard as Lyra stepped closer. 

“Like - what if those had been Mightyena tracks? Sure, even if they were, it’s probably just some Mightyena who was released illegally - but what if it wasn’t? What if they’ve lived here for ages and we never knew because no one is allowed to come here?”

“Maybe,” Kris said slowly. “But aren’t Mightyena native to Hoenn? And isn’t it a lot warmer there? I don’t know that they’d be able to handle how cold it gets up here. Plus, even if it was a Mightyena, it could have also just belonged to one of the Rangers.”

Lyra gaped for a moment, mouth flapping like a Feebas as though she hadn’t thought of that possibility and Kris had just taken all of the wind out of her sails - but then she rallied unexpectedly and surged again, stepping even closer to Kris so they were now walking side-by-side. 

“Sure, I guess it could be - but just think about it! I mean, you’re right - Hoenn is definitely warmer than Mt. Silver, but it would hardly be the first time a divergent breed of pokemon appeared in a different climate! Look at Vulpix! Fire-type here and in Kanto or Hoenn, but Ice-type where they’re found down in the Alolan mountains! What if it’s the same here! What if there’s some ice-type variant of Mightyena living up in these mountains and we never knew because no one is allowed to come here! A Johto-specific variant evolution, or even an entirely unique regional variant to the entire Poochyena line! Nothing like that has ever been discovered in Johto before! It would be the discovery of a lifetime!”

Lyra was breathing heavily again, though this time it was clearly more from excitement than from exertion. She’d gotten really close to Kris now, and even through her goggles, Kris could see the way her eyes sparkled like the snow under the bright morning sunlight. 

Oh - that was right. Kris remembered now. Ethan had definitely told her at least once before that Lyra’s research focus was on regional variant pokemon. She had thought it was weird at the time, considering how Johto didn’t actually have any recorded exclusive regional variants, but maybe that was the point. Maybe Lyra’s goal was to discover any that may exist. 

And honestly? Kris had to admit it - Lyra’s excitement was infectious. Sure, everyone had thought about the possibility of discovering a new pokemon at least once in their lives, but to hear Lyra talk about it, it no longer felt like some absurd pipe dream like winning the lottery. It suddenly felt distinctly possible. After all, if there were ever a spot in Johto where an undiscovered pokemon could live, it would be here - on the lonely slopes of Mt. Silver. 

“That,” Kris said, feeling a grin working its way onto her face, “would be so cool! Do you really think it’s likely? The reason that footprint looked weird was because it was some kind of Johto-exclusive kind of Mightyena?”

“I mean, likely? Uh… Well, no, probably not,” Lyra said, giving a self-deprecating laugh as she seemingly noticed how close she’d gotten and took a step away to give them some space. She continued to walk at Kris’s side, however. “But possible? Absolutely! A place like Mt. Silver is a pokemon researcher’s dream! And if not Mightyena, then it could be anything! Noctowl, Misdreavus - there could even be still-living Ursaluna up here! But, ah… Well, with the climate being so oppressive, and with how much red tape you have to cut through to get up here, well… It’s basically a pipe dream.”

Kris turned and flashed Lyra a shrewd smile. 

“So are you telling me that the real reason you volunteered for this trip was because you wanted the chance to come up here and do some research?”

Lyra turned away and gazed off over the hills towards Mt. Silver’s still distant towering spire. Kris had a sneaking suspicion that the pink in her cheeks wasn’t just because of the cold. 

When Kris laughed, Lyra got a bit defensive. 

“I-it’s not like I don’t also want to find AJ! I want to help Ethan and the others protect the world, but I’m not a fighter like you guys, so… This is the best I can do!”

Kris made a placating gesture with her free hand, using the other to stab her walking stick into the ground as they pushed on through the snow. The tracks they were following were unusually clear, probably thanks to all the fresh powder from last night’s snowfall.

“Hey now - I’m not judging you. Who says you can’t have two reasons for doing something? I mean, it’s not like I’m only up here out of the goodness of my heart. I figured this was the only chance I’d ever get to see Mt. Silver, so I took it. The fact that I’m helping out is a bonus.”

“You too?” Lyra asked, sounding relieved, and when Kris nodded, the shorter girl let out a heavy sigh. “I was just… worried you’d think less of me if my motivations weren’t completely altruistic.”

Kris let out a ‘pshaw’ and tossed her head. 

“Look, the only people who get uppity about things like that are the lazy people who don’t do anything with their lives anyway. As long as people are getting help, who cares if your motivations are selfish? Better to help people selfishly than not help anyone at all. And besides - if we found some kind of brand-new pokemon, that would be the coolest thing ever, and you know Ethan and AJ would agree.”

“It really would,” Lyra said, breathlessly. “It’s honestly been my dream. I mean, I know it sounds silly, and kinda… pie-in-the-sky, but…”

Here, she paused to take a deep breath, then said, “It’s just… People at the lab, they all keep saying that I’m probably going to step up and be the next Johto Professor one day after Elm retires. A-and, I know that sounds… like I’m bragging or something, but honestly, it kind of frustrates me. They only say that because they think I’m Elm’s favorite and because Ethan and I have been friends since we were kids. They don’t say that because they think I’m the best for the job. It’s just nepotism. 

“But I want to prove that I deserve it. I want to be someone who’s made a groundbreaking discovery, just like Professor Elm did. When I become Johto’s professor, I want people to know that I earned that spot, that it wasn’t just given to me because of who I know and what connections I have.”

Lyra blinked, then seemed to realize where she was and who she was talking to, and the sudden burst of bravado vanished and the silly, flippant Lyra who Kris had always known took her place, laughing that same self-deprecating laugh again. 

“S-sorry, I, uh… Got a little carried away there, I didn’t mean to-”

“No, I think that’s awesome,” Kris cut in. “I mean it. And when you do, I hope you get to rub it in all of your doubter’s faces.”

“Yeah,” Lyra said softly. Then, after a moment, “Thanks, Kris.”

Quiet fell over the two again as they trudged their way through the snow and the cold. As Kris’s eyes swept the landscape, looking for any additional tracks or clues of human presence, she found herself internally marveling at just how much her impression of Lyra had changed over the course of the last few minutes. Before, she’d always seemed like a silly airhead who was obsessed with Ethan and thought about nothing else. But now, after actually talking to her for more than five minutes without Ethan present, she found that she was actually… kinda cool? Maybe they had more in common than Kris had initially thought. 

“So why haven’t you come up here before?”

Lyra shrugged. 

“I mean, it’s not that easy, right?”

“Sure, but I mean, Ethan is the Champion now. He got in. And AJ was able to bring Jade and Sammy with her. Surely with your connections to Ethan and Professor Elm, getting up here wouldn’t be a problem for you, right?”

Lyra sighed heavily, kicking at the snow in front of her in a despondent sort of way. 

“Right, you’d think that, but… Well, Ethan’s just always so… busy. And I’m not… I mean, I’m not exactly the best battler around, you know? And these mountains, they’re… dangerous. I couldn’t come up here by myself, but Ethan’s too busy, he rarely gets time off. And a proper research trip would take… weeks, probably. Maybe even months. There’s no way he’d ever be able to come with me, even if he wanted to.”

Oh, yeah - she hadn’t thought about that. Ethan was so busy nowadays with all of his League duties, she’d be lucky if he could even come up with a couple of days that he could lend her. Weeks were entirely out of the question. 

“Well, alright then,” Kris said. “Forget Ethan. Why not take me with you?”

Lyra whipped her head around, practically gawking at Kris through her goggles. 

“I… W-what? You… You’d want to come with me?”

“Um, yeah?” Kris said, sounding somewhat exasperated. “Go on an adventure through dangerous and unknown terrain, looking for pokemon no one has ever seen before? That’s, like, the coolest thing I can imagine. It doesn’t even have to be Mt. Silver - the next time you’re going on a research expedition and need company, hit me up!”

“Yeah…” Lyra said slowly, then, with a broad smile blooming on her face, “Yeah! Ok! I-If you’re sure, I mean, that would be amazing!”

Laughing, almost not able to believe just how much her relationship with Lyra seemed to have changed after just one conversation, Kris turned and let her eyes scan the horizon almost absent-mindedly…

And time seemed to stop. 

There, standing on the hillside a little ways to her right where she swore there had been nothing only seconds before, partially obscured by the trees, stood a very familiar dog-like pokemon. A pokemon with a coat of the purest cerulean, and whose tail seemed to undulate constantly with the non-existent breeze. 

Suicune. 

Kris opened her mouth, but no sound came out. It had been years since she’d last seen Suicune - not since she’d been on her journey proper, not since she’d lost to Ethan. She had thought that she would never see her again, and yet… There she was. Right there. As though she had been… waiting for her. 

Kris extended a hand, but before she could move, before she could speak, the Suicune jerked her head as though motioning for Kris to follow, then she turned and was gone. 

With a strangled gasp, she let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. That had happened, right? It wasn’t a hallucination? Suicune had really just appeared and had motioned her to follow. What could that mean? Why now? Where did it want her to go?

Lyra, it appeared, hadn’t noticed the pokemon, but she did notice that Kris had stopped moving. 

“You ok?” she called, walking back a few steps and looking up at Kris in concern. “Are you stuck? Did you… see something?” 

She turned and let her eyes rake the treeline, but there was nothing to be seen, now. 

How was Kris supposed to proceed here? Could she tell Lyra about Suicune? She would sound crazy, she knew. She’d never told anyone before, not even Ethan. Suicune had appeared to Kris several times over the years, and she’d even battled the legendary pokemon once or twice. She never knew why it had taken an interest in her, but it had, and Kris had always kept it to herself. She didn’t want to be one of those crazy people who swore they saw Legendary pokemon everywhere, and besides, it had always felt like her own little secret. 

Only now, it had appeared when she was with another person. And it had told her to follow. That must mean Lyra was included, right? Suicune wouldn’t be mad if she brought Lyra along, right?

“...Kris?” Lyra asked, now looking genuinely concerned at the lack of response, and Kris gave her head a quick shake. 

“Y-yeah, sorry. Um… So… I think I… saw something. Over there. Just… just trust me, ok?”

She expected resistance - because wouldn’t that be natural? Why blindly follow someone into the trees with no explanation? 

But to her surprise, Lyra just said “Ok” and followed along with no other comment. And maybe that wasn’t that odd - they were here looking for AJ after all and they had no clue where to go. Any path was as good as any other, so why not follow Kris into the trees? Still, though, Kris once again found herself pleasantly surprised with Lyra. 

They reached the treeline within a few seconds, and it was there that Lyra gasped. 

“Look!” she said, crouching down. “Footprints! These look just like those ones I saw before! And they’re fresh!”

Kris took a deep breath. So they were Suicune’s tracks, then? She didn’t know Suicune to leave tracks unintentionally. Maybe she’d been trying to get Kris to follow her all along. 

Together, the two pushed on, dragging their legs through the snow, winding around trees and bushes, following the tracks as best they could. Every now and then, Kris thought she saw a flicker of movement up ahead; a flash of blue, the swish of a sinuous tail. They were on the right track. Thankfully, the path they were on wasn’t long, and before they knew it, the two breathless women rounded a particularly large rock formation and came up short. 

There, on the hillside before them, stood Suicune. 

Lyra gasped, clutching Kris’s arm, her jaw nearly on the floor, but Kris said nothing. 

We followed you, she thought. We did what you asked. What were you trying to show us? 

As though Suicune could read her mind - and to be fair, Kris wasn’t certain that it couldn’t - it turned and ran down the opposite side of the hill, away from them, its body quickly disappearing from view. 

“H-hey!” Lyra shouted, running after it, struggling to make progress through the heavy snow. “Wait! Come back! Kris - come on!”

Kris was at her side a moment later, the two of them fighting their way up the hill, trying not to lose their footing and slide back down. It took a few minutes to reach the top, and they’d certainly lost Suicune by the time they did, but as they crested the hill, both of them panting and all but leaning on their walking sticks for support, they discovered what it was Suicune was trying to lead them to. 

Four human bodies, laid out in the snow like they were sleeping. Side-by-side, as though placed there intentionally. 

Three familiar teens, and one strange old man. 

Darkness. 

And then, with a strangled gasp, AJ awoke, bolting upright, one arm extending as though reaching for… 

Reaching for…

She blinked, confused. Her thoughts felt muddled and lethargic, churning sluggishly in her mind like sludge, her memories just a blur of colors that left everything vague and brown. 

Where… was she? A hospital room, it looked like. She was sitting in a bed, scratchy white blankets pooling in her lap, wearing nothing but a paisley nightgown in a dull seafoam green. 

There was an IV in her arm and a few beeping machines of indeterminate purpose set up around her. Confused and disoriented, her eyes bounced around, taking in brown wooden flooring and flat emerald wallpaper and a tv on the wall that was showing a muted news report. 

Something shifted at her side and she jerked her head, alarmed, only to wince as a deep-rooted ache seemed to thunder inside her brain from the sudden movement. There, sitting in a chair at her bedside, slumped over and fast asleep, was a familiar older woman with a shock of bright orange hair.

She still had her League uniform on. She must have come rushing here straight from some work event. Her makeup was a bit flaky and AJ could see the bags under her eyes that spoke of a late night. How long had AJ been here? And where was ‘here’, exactly?

“Mom?” she called, her voice a bit croaky from disuse. When her mother didn’t stir, AJ cleared her throat and tried again. 

“Mom? Mom! Wake up!” 

She leaned out of the bed a bit and gave her mother’s knee a firm slap. 

The older woman woke with a start, eyes wide with alarm as she stared blearily around the room, clearly still not fully coherent. 

When her gaze met AJ’s, she blinked and shot her a confused frown. 

“...Mom?” AJ tried again, fighting off the sudden urge to laugh. She still had no idea what was going on, but seeing her mother like this was never not funny. 

“...AJ?” her mom replied, clearly still half asleep. 

“Yeah, hi. Welcome. Wanna tell me where we are?”

Her mom stared for another moment, then wakefulness seemed to hit her all at once, her eyes suddenly focusing, shock and relief dawning on her face in equal measure as she took in a sudden, shuddering breath and then practically threw herself at her daughter, capturing the younger girl in a rib-cracking embrace. 

“Oh! Oh, AJ, sweetie - you’re awake! You’re ok! I was so worried!”

“Mmmph!” AJ tried to respond, her face crushed painfully against her mother’s collar bone. This certainly wasn’t helping her headache. Struggling a bit, she managed to turn her face far enough to free up her mouth so she could say, “Mom! Cut it out, I’m fine!”

Her pleas fell on deaf ears, it seemed, and AJ was forced to simply sit and wait in awkward silence as her mother sat on her bed and rocked her back and forth, letting her seemingly ceaseless tide of positive affirmations wash over her. 

Finally, after an uncomfortable eternity, her mother pulled away, her eyes red and puffy but with a relieved smile on her face. She didn’t return to her chair, however, and instead remained perched at her bedside, smoothing back AJ’s hair or adjusting her gown. It was like she couldn’t stop touching her. 

“Mom,” AJ said, finally managing to get a word in edgewise. “What’s going on? Where are we?”

Misty frowned, a look of concern returning to her face. “Where-? AJ… We’re in the hospital.”

AJ had to fight very hard to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Her mom wouldn’t take kindly to that. 

“Right, no, yeah. I gathered as much. I meant - where are we? Why am I here? And… why are you here?”

“Do you not remember?” she asked. “You and your friends - Sammy and Jade - disappeared. You left a note saying you were going to climb Mt. Silver.”

Mt. Silver… Right, ok, that sounded familiar. They’d come to Johto, met Ethan, got permission to climb the mountain, and then… 

Her head throbbed painfully. For some reason, what came next was a blur. The more she tried to remember, the more her head hurt. The best she could come up with was a field of endless white. Snow, maybe?

Just then, the door to her room opened and a nurse walked in. She came to an abrupt halt when she saw AJ sitting up in bed. 

“Oh, you’re awake!” the nurse said brightly, her surprise giving way to a genuine smile. “Excellent! Let me go and fetch the doctor - I’ll be right back.”

The doctor was there in seconds, as if she’d just been waiting in the hallway for some reason, and her mother excused herself for a moment to go to the bathroom and freshen up while the doctor and nurse ran her through a gauntlet of questions and performed a variety of routine examinations. 

“Do you feel any pain?” the doctor asked, scratching her nose with the back of her pen as she frowned down at her clipboard. “Any discomfort anywhere?”

“Just a headache,” AJ replied, absently palpating her body with her hands. Everything felt ok. She gave her toes an experimental wiggle. Nope, all good. 

“And you don’t remember anything?”

AJ shook her head slowly. 

“I… I know we went to the Ranger’s Station, and then we started up the mountain… I think we just traveled around for a bit, and then…”

Something stirred in her mind. A dark, frozen mountainside. Trees moving in the night. The ground shaking beneath her feet. 

“...an avalanche?”

The doctor looked up, surprised. 

“You say there was an avalanche?”

“I… I think so…?” AJ said, but her head twinged in a particularly painful way and she was forced to stop and massage her temples. 

“We’ll get you something for your headache,” the doctor said, motioning to the nurse who quickly made her way over to the medical cabinet. “An avalanche, though… Well, none of you have any injuries to speak of, at least none that we’ve seen. No head trauma, no broken bones, no signs of succumbing to exposure… I’m genuinely at a loss as to why you were all found unconscious. If I had to guess, I’d wager it was probably a wild pokemon attack.”

The nurse returned with a small plastic cup full of some sort of brown liquid that AJ drank down in one quick gulp. She handed the cup back and made a face as the taste fully registered. Yup - it was awful. A nice mixture of cough syrup and motor oil.

“A pokemon attack?” she asked, trying to distract herself from the taste that was now somehow coating her entire mouth in an oily film. The nurse gave her a sympathetic look and returned a moment later with a cup of water. AJ drank it down greedily. “So like… sleep powder or hypnosis or something?”

“Precisely,” said the doctor. “Though likely hypnosis - we found no evidence of any spores on you. I’ve heard that there are sometimes flocks of roving Misdreavus haunting the mountainsides of Mt. Silver. Perhaps you and your friends were unlucky enough to run afoul of one and you all got caught up in the blast. It’s hard to say, but your general lack of injuries or any symptoms aside from loss of consciousness, memory loss and a lingering headache… Well, it adds up.”

Right… No, that actually did make sense. She’d heard about the Misdreavus as well. She could definitely see something like that happening. 

Still though… It was mortifying, in a way. She was supposed to be Kanto’s Pokemon Champion, and she got herself and her friends hospitalized because she couldn’t fend off a pack of wild pokemon? And worse - they’d had to get rescued?

Sure - things like that happened, even to the best of trainers. Pokemon were dangerous, everyone knew it. But she knew how this would look to the media. Not even a month into her tenure as the Champion and already she was needing other people to save her. 

She wanted to curl up in her cheap blankets and die. 

“At this point, I think it’s safe to say that you’re fine,” the doctor continued as the bathroom door opened and AJ’s mother returned, looking quite a bit fresher than she had before she left. “I think we’re going to have the three of you stay another day just so we can keep an eye on you - psychic interference can sometimes lead to strokes or psychological breakdowns, so we want to monitor you for a bit to make sure you’ll be ok - but you should be good to checkout in the morning.”

“Thank you, doctor,” AJ’s mother said, taking over for her as AJ herself slumped back in her bed, feeling drained. Being stuck here for a day sounded awful, but what was worse was the knowledge that the media would probably be having a field day once the news got out. Was she just fully incapable of doing anything right? 

Once they’d left the room, AJ found herself alone once again with just her mother. The TV in the corner had been turned off when the doctor had come in, and AJ’s pokegear was nowhere to be found. Idly, she wondered if she could ask her mother to find it for her. She needed something to keep herself entertained while she was trapped here. Maybe she could also ask her to go to the Pokemon Center to check on her team - she assumed that was where they were, at least - and maybe fetch Pichu and bring him to her before he caused trouble. To be fair, he’d definitely cause trouble here too, but it felt wrong when he wasn’t around. 

She turned to face her mother who had been awfully quiet since returning to her seat at AJ’s bedside and was surprised to find her anxiously fidgeting. 

“AJ…” she started, then faltered, looking like she was struggling to find the words. After a moment, she started again. “Sweetie, I… Can we talk?”

“Um…” AJ said slowly. “I guess…?”

It’s not like she had anything else to do. 

Her mother smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Why did she look so… anxious?

“Thank you. I… I know it’s not very nice of me to corner you when you’re trapped in the hospital, but… When I heard you were hurt, and when I thought about the last conversation we had, I just…”

The last conversation they’d…?

Oh. Ohhhh, Arceus, how had she forgotten?! The last time she’d seen her mother was at her big party at home when she’d made Champion and they’d had that huge fight in the kitchen about her dad!

The guilt that AJ had struggled with after the fight now came rushing back to her with all of the force of an avalanche - a thought that made AJ’s head twinge in pain again until she pushed it away - but now that guilt was joined by the additional guilt of her running off and apparently almost dying after saying all of those awful things to her mother. What if those had been her last words to her? What sort of monster daughter would she have been then? 

“AJ…” her mom said, and AJ began panicking in earnest when she heard how choked her voice sounded and saw the tears welling up in her eyes. “I… I’m so s-sorry… I didn’t… I never knew…”

“Mom, no - It’s not your-”

“A-and I hit you…! I can’t… I never should have-!”

“Mom,” AJ said again, louder this time, and she sat up straight and slid her legs off of the bed so that she was facing her mom. “Stop, it’s ok-”

“It’s not ok!” she said, slightly hysterical, only to stop when AJ pulled her into a tight hug. 

“Mom,” she said softly, burying her face in her mother’s familiar shoulder. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. I said… I said terrible things to you. I made a fool of myself in the middle of that party you worked so hard to set up and I embarrassed both of us in front of all of our friends and family. I’m so, so sorry, mom.”

Her mother hugged her back, just as tightly, sniffling slightly. 

“I’m sorry I never realized how you felt about being compared to your father.”

“It’s fine. I mean - I never said anything. How could you know?”

And weirdly - it was fine. For some reason, one that AJ couldn’t even begin to explain, all of that normal heat and fire that usually simmered in her belly, ready to erupt at the mere mention of Ash Ketchum… It was gone. 

And that was disconcerting in its own way. It had been there for so long, had been such a lasting part of who she was, that to lose it - especially seemingly out of nowhere - was almost scary, in a way. Was the key to getting over her hate just… finally owning up to her mother about her feelings? Or was this some unintended consequence of whatever psychic pokemon had knocked her out? The doctor had said that there could be side effects… Even if losing her uncontrollable hate could really only be classified as a good thing, she didn’t know how she felt about some external force tampering with her brain. 

Still, though. Whatever hate she’d once held for her father had cooled somehow, and it instead left her feeling… empty. She wasn’t sure how to explain that away, either. It was like she was… missing something. Or maybe she’d forgotten something? To be fair, she’d forgotten quite a lot, apparently, but she didn’t see what forgetting a few days of a hiking trip had to do with anything related to how much she hated - or didn’t hate? - her father. 

She hadn’t even noticed until right now that she was apparently even calling him ‘her father’ in her mind. Now that was just spooky.

“I just…” her mom continued, now stroking AJ’s hair like she used to do when she was a little girl, “I always felt like I needed to draw comparisons to him because I wanted you to feel connected to him, somehow. He was gone, but I thought… I don’t know. I thought maybe you’d feel closer to him if I pointed out all the things you had in common. Maybe that way you wouldn’t feel as bad about only having one parent. I wasn’t… I never intended to make you feel like you weren’t good enough.”

“I know, mom. I know… And for the record, I never felt bad about only having one parent. You were always there for me. I never needed anyone else.”

“Thank you, sweetie. I love you… so, so much.”

“I love you too, mom.”

It was funny. After their fight, AJ had been so scared of owning up to what she’d done and apologizing to her mother that she’d literally fled the house in the dead of night and ran off to another country. But now that the time had finally come, it had been so… easy. What had she been so scared of, exactly? 

They heard the sound of AJ’s door being opened, and the two teary-eyed women pulled apart to find one Ethan Gold, Champion of Johto, standing on the threshold, looking embarrassed and distinctly uncomfortable. 

“Um,” he said haltingly. “Sorry. I, uh… I should have knocked. I didn’t mean to- I’ll just come back later.”

He went to leave, looking far younger in his embarrassment than he had the last time she’d seen him, but AJ motioned for him to stay. 

“No, it’s fine. We’re done. Did you come to see me on my deathbed? How Champion-ly of you.”

He smirked, letting a little bit of his awkwardness fade as he stepped back into the room. 

“Of course. Just doing my Champion duties, after all. How are you feeling? Both Jade and Sammy said they were fine, but-”

“Nah, I’m good,” AJ said, sitting back into her bed and pulling the blankets up over her legs. “No injuries to speak of. Just a slight headache, but they gave me some drugs for that, so I’ll live. You’ve seen Sammy and Jade? They’re ok?”

Ethan nodded along like that was what he was expecting as he came to stand at the foot of her bed, smiling in polite greeting at AJ’s mother. 

“Yeah, they’re in the same boat. No wounds, just headaches, and no memories of anything at all past an avalanche, or something? Does that sound right to you?”

AJ frowned, but nodded. So they remembered the avalanche as well? So it wasn’t just a dream then. Her head twinged again as she tried to delve into that gaping hole in her memories, but thanks to the medicine she’d been given, it wasn’t nearly as bad. 

“Well. As weird as that all is, I guess it’s a good thing that we sent people up into the mountains to find you guys. Kris and Lyra said they just… found you all lying in the snow. All laid out, like someone had placed you there to sleep. Who knows how long you might have laid there if we hadn’t found you? You could have died from exposure.”

AJ had to take a second to process that. Not the ‘dying from exposure’ bit - that was scary, sure, but it didn’t happen, so it was ok. Them all being laid out in the snow was weird - had the pokemon who had attacked them done that? Maybe they’d taken pity on them and tried to make sure they’d be found? Strange, but not unheard of. Plenty of wild pokemon were dangerous, but not all of them were out to kill. Some were just territorial and wanted to be left alone. 

But no, what really caught her attention was the first bit. 

“You said you sent Kris and Lyra into the mountains to find us?” AJ asked. “But… why? We’d only been gone a couple of days.”

She didn’t remember much, but she remembered that. That avalanche - assuming it was real, and since apparently they all remembered it, it must have been - had happened on the second night. She couldn’t remember anything past that, but their run-in with whatever pokemon had wiped their memories can’t have been too long after, right? And they hadn’t died of exposure, meaning they can’t have been left lying in the snow for all that long. 

“A couple of…?” Ethan repeated, looking genuinely flabbergasted. “AJ… It’s been nearly two weeks since you left.”

Two weeks…? She turned to look at her mom who nodded in confirmation, looking concerned. 

Oh, Mew… Whatever had attacked her had erased nearly two weeks of memories from her brain? That was horrifying! 

“And quite a lot has happened in those two weeks,” he continued, his tone now turning grave. “I… don’t suppose you’ve had a chance yet to fill her in?”

“No,” her mom said, sighing heavily. “She only just woke up. I didn’t want to just spring it on her.”

“Spring what on me?” AJ asked, not liking being kept in the dark. The conversation had taken on an unexpectedly ominous tone and she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer. 

Ethan sighed, taking off his cap and running his fingers through his hair. He looked like he was regretting the fact that it had fallen to him to tell her. 

“Listen,” he said, setting his hat back on his head and fixing his golden gaze steadily on hers. “I know the doctors said they want to monitor you for a bit, but… Do you think you can get the OK to come to League Headquarters for a bit? Lance is waiting there, and so is Champion Iris and Former Champion Hilda. There’s… a lot to catch you up on, and none of it is good.”

Her mother said something about finding her clothes and stood up, but AJ ignored her as Ethan found the tv remote and turned it back on. 

It was still muted, but she could see now what her mother must have been watching before she’d fallen asleep. The live broadcast was showing aerial scenes of what was unmistakably Sootopolis City in Hoenn in what AJ could only describe as a pitched battle. Pokemon were everywhere, trainers in black and white uniforms running wild, ordering their teams to attack buildings or destroy property while police officers and Gym Trainers struggled to fight them off. It was chaos, pure and simple, and the once pristine beauty of Sootopolis was slowly crumbling under the weight of all of the violence. 

“What in the world…?” AJ whispered, horrified. 

“Welcome to my last two weeks,” Ethan said heavily.

Chapter Text

AJ sat, stone faced, as the montage of news highlights showcasing the disasters that had been going on in the world over the course of the past couple of weeks flickered across the screen. Tiny teasers of the terrors that had been popping off all across the Alliance, from Alola to Kalos and everywhere in between. 

And in a detached and perhaps somewhat selfish sort of way, she couldn’t stop those intrusive thoughts from bubbling in - that while all of this had been going on, she’d been away on vacation. Playing around in the snow while cities were being attacked and pokemon kidnapped and harmed. What a wonderful way to begin your tenure as the new Pokemon Champion. 

They were in the main conference room in League Headquarters now, complete with its truly massive octagonal table made of solid mahogany that took up eighty percent of the space, the tacky purple wallpaper and scarlet carpet only superseded in their hideousness by the truly awful golden chandelier that hung from the ceiling - a ceiling that wasn’t all that high to begin with, so it felt like if you were too tall, you were liable to smack your head on it when trying to sit down. Thankfully, AJ was short, so that wasn’t a problem for her, but still. Who had okayed the design for this room?

That was the least of her problems right now, but it was easier to focus on something silly and stupid than try to confront the enormous reality that was that the Alliance was now all but at war with a mysterious group of terrorists whose motives were completely unknown. 

From the hospital, after getting dressed and getting the ok from the doctor - so long as she promised to return in a few hours for her checkup - AJ and her mother had accompanied Ethan out of her hospital room and out into a jet black sedan that had taken them straight to League Headquarters. 

She hadn’t been prepared for the swarm of paparazzi that had been lying in wait outside the hospital, mobbing her as soon as she stepped outside, snapping so many pictures and asking so many questions that it was like she was in a hurricane of strobe lights and inarticulate shouting. Someone must have leaked that the new Champion had been hospitalized. That can’t be good for her image. 

Thankfully, the League apparently had sent some suits to hold the reporters off, and AJ was quickly ushered into the waiting car by Ethan without needing to make any statements. Which was good, because she had no idea what she would have said. 

At the League, they were joined in their meeting by Lance, as well as her old friend and ex-Champion, Hilda, and her successor, Unova’s current Grand Champion, Iris, who… was in Johto for some reason, apparently. Also joining them were Kris and Lyra, who were seemingly only there to explain to AJ how they’d found her. A rather short story, apparently, as it seemed like they’d stumbled across her within just a few hours of searching. 

“And you were all just… lying there,” Kris finished, glancing at Lyra for confirmation and shrugging. “Just… all four of you, side-by-side. It’s like someone put you there for us to find, but… There weren’t any other tracks or anything nearby. No idea who - or what, I guess - it could have been.”

“You really don’t remember anything at all?” Hilda asked, looking concerned, and AJ shook her head. 

“No. It’s like… We got there, we wandered around a bit, had some fun, saw some pokemon… And then once I get to that second night on the mountain, things start to get fuzzy. We… We set up camp, went to sleep, and then… I think something attacked us in the night? A group of Snover, I think, but… The last thing I remember is looking up at an avalanche rushing down toward us, and then… nothing.”

But the avalanche can’t have been what caused their memory loss. After all, they were all unharmed. No bruises or broken bones, no signs of hypothermia, and no head trauma. They must have escaped the avalanche then, somehow, and whatever had caused their memory loss had to have happened not long before they were discovered. Otherwise, they’d have had more symptoms of prolonged exposure to the cold, just lying out there in the snow for who knows how long. 

“Any idea who that old man with you was?” Kris asked, and AJ shook her head again. 

“None. I don’t even know who you’re talking about - I haven’t seen him yet. But none of the Rangers came with us. It was just us three.” And if it had been a Ranger, he would have been recognized when they were all transported to the hospital, so that was out. “Honestly - he’s probably just some lost hiker or something we happened to pick up on our trip.”

If he hadn’t been identified yet, whoever he was, then he probably hadn’t had any ID on him. Which was more than a bit suspicious - you don’t just end up on Mt. Silver by accident, and the only people who wind up in restricted areas without ID are usually the kind you don’t want to associate with. There was a better than decent chance he was a poacher or something, but it was a mark of just how serious the international situation was that none of them were talking about it. Normally, dealing with poachers was one of the League’s top priorities. Compared to what they were dealing with now, though, one lone poacher was small potatoes. 

It was only after Kris and Lyra had caught AJ up on the circumstances surrounding her recovery that Lance took over the conversation, bringing AJ up to speed on their current situation and pulling up the screen on the wall to show her news reports from around the world to emphasize just how dire things had become. 

Which brought her to now, gaping in horror as Lance paused the video and let the screen grow dim. 

A momentary silence gripped the room, the weight of what they were facing settling on each one of them like a mantle. 

AJ swallowed thickly, then turned to Lance and the others, feeling the shame and guilt swelling up inside of her. 

“Everyone,” she said, softly, “I… I’m so sorry, I should have been here to help-”

“No,” Lance said, cutting across her quickly. “None of that, now. You are not to blame for being absent, and no one here faults you. What we are facing now is… unprecedented. No one saw this coming. We - all of the nations in the Alliance - have dealt with our share of disasters in the past, but this? On such a scale? It beggars belief. Please, do not blame yourself.”

It was easy enough to say, but it didn’t do anything to appease her guilt. Moreover, while Lance could say that he didn’t blame her, she knew the media was another story. They’d had it out for her since before she’d even won her title. They must have been having a field day in her absence, painting her as an incompetent failure. She dreaded facing those reporters again now more than ever. 

“So, what’s next, then?” AJ asked, trying to rally her spirits. “Do we really not have any leads? No clue about what they want?”

“We’ve got the International Police looking into things,” Iris said, shrugging, “and hunting down terrorists is really their expertise, not ours. But last I heard, it’s… not going well.”

“The best we’ve been able to do so far is put out the fires as they spring up,” Ethan added, and for the first time, AJ noticed just how exhausted he looked. “We’ve got our Gym Leaders on high alert, and both Champions and Elite 4 members have been on the move, up and down our respective nations, acting as both support and deterrent, but… At this point, if we can’t figure out what they’re after or who is leading them, I don’t know what else we can do.”

He tapped something out on some sort of screen embedded into the surface of the table in front of him and a large map of the alliance appeared on the larger screen on the wall for all to see. There were several glowing pins placed around the major cities in each country. With another tap, the image zoomed in on just the Indigo League, which made it much easier to see just how many attacks there had been, and in how many places. 

“The only sort of pattern we could make out is that most of the attacks - except for that first one in Goldenrod that me and Hilda dealt with - seem to be taking place in cities close to where Legendary Pokemon are said to live or have appeared in the past. Which isn’t a lot to go on, I know, but the theory may have been confirmed just a few days ago when Team Rocket stole a Victini from Hilda’s twin brother.”

AJ whipped her head around to stare at Hilda in shock. Hilda had a twin brother? And he had a Victini?! Why had she never told her that!

Hilda, however, was now scowling murderously at the map, seemingly too busy imagining reaching through the screen to wherever Team Rocket was and throttling whoever had hurt her brother than paying any attention to AJ. 

Kris made an odd sort of noise from her end of the table, almost like she was going to say something then thought better of it and tried to hide it behind a cough. It caught everyone’s attention anyway - the room was rather quiet and somber, after all - and she found herself the subject of everyone’s expectant gazes. 

“Do you have something to add, miss Kris?” Lance asked, polite, but with the tone of one who was expecting to be obeyed. 

“No, I just…” she hesitated, looking around, her eyes lingering on Ethan for a moment, then sighed and sat back in her seat. 

“Look, I… I don’t actually have anything to add, I just… Isn’t it weird to anyone else? We’ve been working off of this assumption that they’re targeting legendary pokemon, but… Why target so many and all at the same time? Why not pool their resources and go after one, then move on to the next after they succeed?

“And also - I was at that attack at Olivine a few days ago. People kept saying they targeted the city because of the stories of Lugia and the Whirl Islands. But like… Olivine is pretty far. I mean, it’s close, relatively speaking - but it’s a good ways away from the islands, and it’s not like that’s a restricted area. It’s a popular tourist spot. Why would they attack the city - one that has a pretty tough Gym Leader backing it up - instead of just going to the caves directly? That doesn’t make any sense.”

AJ frowned, then looked back up at the map. Now that Kris said it, she had a point. AJ had been just sort of blindly accepting everything the other Champions were saying because she’d been gone for two weeks and had missed it all. She hadn’t thought to question any of it. 

But looking at the map again… Attacking Ekruteak and the Orange Islands made sense if they were going off of the premise of ‘hunting legendaires’. But Olivine, Azalea, Cianwood… and was that Cerulean City? Sure, there were legends - or rumors, in the case of Cerulean - about mythical pokemon in locations that were sort of nearby those locations, but not in the cities themselves. If the goal was to find Lugia, or Celebi, or whatever, then why not go straight to the locations that the legends spoke of? Why attack the nearby settlements instead? Settlements which, as Kris accurately pointed out, had police and Ranger outposts and often Gyms or even just random trainers who could rally together to fight them off? 

“I understand your point, Miss Kris,” Lance said - again, not impolite, but so impossibly firm, “and indeed, I’ve been asking myself those exact same questions. Why target so many places at once, and spread themselves so thin? Why send so many low-level grunts instead of focusing their strongest forces? Why have all of these criminal organizations clawed their way back from the dead only to join together - and, seemingly at random, swap which countries they’ve decided to terrorize? I suspect that you are right - that there is clearly more at play here than we are seeing. But if not for the Legendaries, then what?”

He seemed to be asking Kris, but the older girl could only shake her head. She didn't know. 

Lance sighed, looking as though all of his years were catching up with him at once. 

“Whatever their true reasoning, the pattern thus far has indeed seemed to target human settlements closest to the locations legends speak of. Not, as you say, Miss Kris, the actual locations - but the closest locations where humans live. With the abduction of young Nate’s Victini and the attempted abduction of N’s Zekrom, as well as the comments made to Former Champion Hilda, it seems that their goals do revolve around legendary pokemon in at least some capacity. Unfortunately, until we know more, we are left playing defensive.”

The speech wasn’t exactly rousing, but AJ understood. It’s not that Lance didn’t want to do more - they couldn’t. So long as their enemy was going to continue attacking settlements where people and pokemon lived, it didn’t matter what their motivations were - it was their job to protect them. 

The League was not a police force - but when crimes involving Pokemon appeared, the police would often reach out to the League for assistance. Gyms worked jointly with local police and Ranger offices to keep cities safe, and when a situation grew too dire, it was up to the Champion and the Elite 4 to step in. At the police’s discretion, of course. 

The best they could do is hope the police did their job and caught the people responsible. Until then, the League would do their part to protect the innocent. 

“So how can I help?” AJ asked, directing her question directly to Lance. Sure, she was the Champion now, but he wouldn't officially step down for another week or so, and she was the one who had missed out on everything thus far. She wasn’t about to make a fool of herself by butting in and trying to take charge. 

“If you would,” Lance said, “I had actually hoped that you’d be willing to go and reinforce our friends in Alola.”

“Alola?” AJ said, caught off guard. 

“Yes. I’m not sure if you’ve had much opportunity since you awoke to catch the news…? No, of course. Well, then forgive me for being the bearer of ill news, but the public opinion of you as our new Champion has been… not exactly positive.”

She suspected as much, but it still hurt to have it flung in her face by her direct predecessor. She did her best to keep making eye contact with him and not let herself sink down into her seat. 

“There are some - not many, I think, but perhaps a vocal minority - who believe that your absence until now is proof that you aren’t ready to take my place. And the news that you were hospitalized, foolish as it is, has seemed to only further instill the notion that you are unreliable. 

“In addition, while you were gone, I had previously sent Koga along to Alola to back them up. Kanto does not have many stories about Legendaries, as I’m sure you know, and at the time we’d not suffered even a single attack. Our friends in Alola, however, are full of legends, and lacking a fully realized League of their own. Their Kahunas and Gym Leaders are doing what they can, but the devastation has been severe thus far, and they desperately need aid.”

“Why haven’t we sent anyone else?” Lyra asked, looking around quizzically. 

“Kalos, Galar, and Paldea are too far,” Iris replied. “And most of us are spread too thin as it is to be sending anyone foreign aid. The only reason I’m here right now is because Alder came out of retirement, but I need to be getting back to Unova ASAP. I’m planning on flying out tomorrow.”

“Maybe I can go to Alola too?” Hilda asked, but Ethan shot her down. 

“You’d be an amazing asset, I’m sure,” he said, “But your main job right now is bodyguarding N. Rocket has tried for his Zekrom once before - they could do it again. And it’s better to keep him here, in the Indigo League, which has seen the least amount of conflict so far. Besides - you’ll make for great backup in AJ’s absence.”

“There is another reason why I want to send AJ,” Lance said, taking over the conversation again. Here, he turned fully in his seat so he was facing her head-on. “As I said, your reputation at the moment is not great. An unfortunate aspect of being the Champion - one that you must learn quickly if you are to make it - is understanding the value of how the public perceives you. Though we have shown them time and again that Kanto has been the least devastated - and thus should be first in line to help our allies - all the media sees is that we have been attacked and we’ve sent some of our Elite 4 away. We must show them that we are not only strong as a League, but that you are strong as my successor. And the best - and quickest - way that I can think of to turn your perception around in the eyes of the public is to send you somewhere where your talents can shine.

“The situation in Alola is much more dire than in Kanto, and the people need our help. Go, and use the strength you displayed when you unseated me to show the world,  not just Kanto and Alola, that you are a Champion. Do that, and none will be able to question your worth again.”

“Yes…” AJ said, somewhat breathlessly. Then, again, with more strength, “Yes. Of course. I’ll leave as soon as I can - oh, but, um, I’m still technically under observation at the hospital, so I probably won’t be able to head out until tomorrow.”

“Of course,” Lance said with a nod and, unless her eyes were deceiving her, a small smile. “I’ll have the League charter you a plane. And AJ - thank you.”

It was him she wanted to thank. He was right; if she could show the world how strong she was, if she could make a name for herself by protecting Alola in their hour of need while Lance held the fort here at home, then no one would ever be able to call her weak again. This was it. Her chance. Not only to do some good, but to throw her haters’ slander right back in their faces. 

She’d been a little upset about being sent away at first, but now, she was eager. She was ready. 

It was time to step up and be a Champion. 

As the rest of the group stood and made their way out of the Conference Room, AJ paused for a moment, her attention caught by something on screen. 

It was the list of legendary pokemon that Ethan had pulled up earlier, slowly scrolling through all of the known legendary pokemon and their alleged habitats. But the one that was on the screen right now was nothing more than an ancient stone carving. A famous photo of a relic found in a rainforest centuries ago. 

‘Mew’ the caption read. ‘Confirmed sightings - none. Habitat - unknown.’ And that was it. 

AJ stared at the picture for a moment, thinking. 

Then she turned and left. She needed to get prepared for her trip. Who knew how long she’d be in Alola for? 

The late morning sunlight that filtered gently through the third story windows of the Indigo Plateau’s General Hospital glittered across the sparkling linoleum floor tiles as Jade made her way languidly down the otherwise abandoned hallway. 

The light wasn’t quite strong enough to warm her. Not that the hospital was cold, per se, but there was just something chilly in the air that she couldn’t quite seem to shake. Maybe it was because they were at such a high altitude, or maybe it was because of how empty the hospital was and it was giving her the heebie-jeebies something fierce. Hospitals were so creepy when there was no one else around. Definitely on the top five places not to be when alone at night - right between cemeteries and carnivals. 

To be fair, the Indigo Plateau boasted only a fairly small community. It operated more like a tourist destination, except instead of getting seasonal sight-seers off on holiday, the Plateau would instead see periods where hundreds if not thousands of trainers would flock to the Stadium up near the summit to watch or participate in the Grand Tournament that was held here twice a year; once for Kanto, then again for Johto. Or even better - to witness someone actually trying to take on either country’s respective Elite 4. 

But none of that was happening now. Jade could imagine that when one of the Tournaments was going on, this hospital probably saw a lot more traffic, but now? The actual population of people who lived in and around the Plateau was quite small, so the vast majority of the building actually went unoccupied most of the time. Which was nice, in a way, but it also made the empty floors feel like scenes from a horror movie. 

She wished AJ were there. Jade had left her room shortly after waking and being informed of what had happened, only to find that her best friend had been whisked away to have some big important meetings for Champion’s ears only. Sammy was up, too, but he was in a mood this morning - something to do with having lost all of his research supplies as well as his pokegear - and he’d left the hospital almost as soon as he’d gotten dressed so he could head down to the village and get himself a new one. 

She’d considered going with him - what else was there to do while AJ was in her meeting? - but ultimately decided against it. It was cold outside, and after all, she didn’t have her supplies or her pokegear either. There’d be no way to get in touch with AJ if she left, and she didn’t want her to return to find her and Sammy gone without her. So instead, she decided to take a walk - just get out and stretch her legs a bit. Anything other than staying cooped up in her hospital room where the only source of entertainment were the public access TV stations. 

Jade actually had flicked the TV on at first, which was when she’d discovered that the world had apparently gone insane in the two weeks that they’d been gone. She’d watched the news for a bit, wanting to be brought up to speed and horrified at the destruction she saw spread not only across the Alliance but even here, in her own home, but eventually, she’d had to turn the TV off. It was making her sick, seeing what was going on and knowing she could do nothing about it. 

Which was another reason she’d opted to wait rather than go with Sammy. She’d bet all the cash in her now-missing wallet that whatever AJ’s top-secret Champions-only meeting was about, it had to do with this. She could get all of the details - including all that top-secret stuff the news didn’t know about - from her girl once she got back. 

Still, it was taking a while, and the longer she lingered in less-trafficked parts of the hospital, the more convinced she was that the ghost of some old dead guy was going to pop out and try to eat her toes, or… whatever it was ghosts did. She always covered her eyes during those parts of horror movies, so she wasn’t actually sure. She decided to make her way back to her room and wait there. That’s where AJ would know to find her, after all. And besides, maybe she could get someone to bring her some food? She’d go buy some herself from the cafeteria, but… Well, her wallet and trainer ID were presumably lost somewhere up on Mt. Silver, never to be seen again. 

It was when she returned to the second floor’s east wing where she and her friends had been staying that she found herself interrupted by an unexpected visitor.

“Jade!” came the sound of a familiar voice, and by the time she turned around to see who was calling for her, she found herself already smothered in the protective embrace of her father. 

“D-dad?!” she asked, trying to pull back so she could look at him, but he seemed determined to squeeze her to death, so she let him at it. 

“There you are!” he said, trying to sound normal, but she knew him well enough to recognize the poorly concealed relief in his voice. “We’ve been looking for you all over! I’ve been trying to call you, but-!”

“Yeah, sorry,” she said, finally managing to extract herself from her dad’s hug and flashing a quick welcoming smile at AJ’s mom who had walked up behind him, sending her an amused wink that seemed to say she’d just need to put up with her dad’s antics for a moment. “I lost my pokegear on the mountain, so I haven’t been able to contact anyone.”

“Ah,” her dad replied, some of the tension leaving his body as he scanned her from head to toe and determined she was physically sound. “Right. Yeah, that… that makes sense. I should have thought of that. But what about you? Are you ok? Should you be up and walking around-?”

“Dad, I’m fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. Mew, he could be annoying. 

Something in her head twinged a bit - like it felt wrong somehow to use the word ‘Mew’ in that context, but that didn’t make sense as she’d done it about a bajillion times in her life, so she let it go. 

“The doctors said there’s nothing even wrong with me. Or any of us. We just… have some amnesia or something. That’s it.”

“Amnesia?!” he repeated, sounding alarmed and reaching for her head like he was going to somehow diagnose her through the power of touch alone, but she swatted his hand out of the air with an annoyed huff. 

“Dad. I’m. Fine! The doctors already checked us out. No head injuries, no diseases, not even a head cold. We’re fine!”

“I tried to tell him,” Misty said from off to the side, and her dad made an embarrassed face and looked away. He was always such a worry wart.

“But why are you here?” Jade asked, changing the subject. “I mean, not that I’m not grateful or whatever, but - what about the Gym?”

“Grandad’s looking after it,” her dad said with a shrug, finally releasing her shoulders and sliding his hands into his pockets. He looked like he was finally calming down a bit now that he’d seen with his own eyes that she was up and ok. “I figured he could handle it for a bit until I returned. It used to be his Gym, after all.”

True enough - her grandad didn’t have even half of the battling talent of her or her father, but he could hold the fort down well enough. He kept his licensing up to date for situations just like these, but also because, Jade suspected, he wasn’t quite ready to hang up his hat and retire yet. She could respect that. 

“I imagine AJ probably misplaced her pokegear too, huh?” Misty asked, sighing regretfully. “I should have realized sooner. Well… I guess I can pick her up a new one while she’s in her meeting. She’ll need one if she’s to do her job properly.”

“Aw, what a sweet, doting parent you are!” Jade gushed in exaggeration, then turned to her father, throwing on her most charming ‘I’m your one and only sweet baby girl’ smile, fluttering her eyelashes ostentatiously. “If only I also had a sweet, doting parent who could buy me a new pokegear too…”

Her dad stared at her for a moment, nonplussed, then let out a small bark of laughter and a rueful shake of the head. 

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” he said. “We can go pick one up later.”

“And maybe we can grab some food too?”

“Fine, fine…” Here, her father sighed heavily in a very put-upon sort of way, but the smile he was giving her was affectionate. “What am I gonna do with you?”

“Feed me, hopefully.”

It was then that Jade realized they were standing in front of an open doorway, but the room inside wasn’t empty like most of the others she’d walked past that morning. 

The room was dim, the lights and television turned off, but the sunlight that filtered through the slanted blinds that covered the windows was more than enough to reveal the form of an aged older man. He looked like he was maybe in his sixties, with gray hair and a rugged beard to match. Unlike Jade and the others, he had yet to wake up. 

She recognized him - sort of. She didn’t actually know who he was, but she knew from her conversations earlier with the doctors and Sammy that he’d been found together alongside Jade and her friends when they’d been rescued from the mountain. If nothing else, he certainly looked the part of a mountain hermit, but unfortunately, Jade had absolutely no memories about him whatsoever. 

It was sad, in a way. Her dad had traveled here all the way from Pewter just to be with her when he’d heard she had been hospitalized. Granted - she was fine, he totally didn’t have to do that, he was just overprotective - but he had still done it. She had someone who would do that for her. 

But who did this old man have? No one, from what she could see. All alone and unconscious in the hospital, and he had no one waiting by his bedside. 

Misty caught her gaze and stepped up beside her to peer into the room, her dad joining behind them. 

“It’s sad, isn’t it?” she asked, softly. “I mean, for all we know, he’s a poacher or escaped convict or something, but still. I wish there was a way we could help him.”

“He’s the guy you were found with?” her dad asked, and Jade nodded. “No clue who he is?”

“Nope,” she replied. “No idea. I don’t remember him at all - and neither does Sammy.”

“Or AJ,” Misty chimed in. “We asked her earlier, but…”

“And he had no ID?” her dad asked, sounding puzzled. “What about his pokemon?”

“He didn’t have any,” Misty said, shaking her head and stepping back from the doorway. The others followed, leaving the old man and his empty room behind. “The Rangers said that he had no pokeballs on him at all when they found him. Just the clothes on his back.”

“A poacher would have definitely had pokemon with him,” her dad said thoughtfully, scratching at his chin. “I can buy that he might have lost his supplies in the same way Jade and the others did, but his pokemon? If nothing else, he should still have had his belt on him.”

“Apparently,” Misty said, lowering her voice a bit, “some of the Rangers who are stationed at Mt. Silver admitted to knowing him. They said he called himself Cole and he’s apparently lived up in the mountains for decades. They’ve let him be because he’s just a lonely old hermit, but when their superiors found out, they were furious. I mean, Mt. Silver is off limits - it doesn’t matter how nice you think he is, you can’t just let random people live there.” 

Her dad looked disgruntled, and she thought she understood. On the one hand, if he really was a harmless old man and it really had been decades, then who cared? On the other hand, though, Mt. Silver was a protected habitat for endangered pokemon, and rules existed for a reason. If you made exceptions for one person, you had to make them for everyone. The Rangers really shouldn’t have turned a blind eye. 

“So wait,” Jade asked as they reached her room. “ We do know his name? Then how have we not figured out who he is yet? Can’t we, I dunno… fingerprint him or something? Do a DNA test?”

She walked over to her bedside table and snatched up her belt where her pokeballs were kept, attaching it to her waist. 

“That’s assuming Cole is his real name,” her dad said, leaning against the doorframe. “And a DNA test only works if we have something to compare it to. Fingerprints, though… If he ever had a trainer license, then fingerprinting should help.”

“I think the police already took his fingerprints,” Misty explained. “But I imagine they have to take them back and run them through a database or something. I have no idea how long that takes. But if he didn’t have any pokemon with him, does he even have a license?”

That was the question. But as long as his life wasn’t in danger - and from what she understood, he didn’t have any injuries or anything on him either, he was just still asleep - then it was probably fine. Either the police would discover his identity or he’d wake up and be able to tell them himself. 

In any case, odds were he wouldn’t remember anything about the past two weeks either, so she wasn’t likely to get any answers out of him. She’d leave him to the authorities to deal with. For now, she wanted to get out and get lunch. And a new pokegear. 

When she turned to leave her hospital room, however, she found that they’d been joined by a fourth person - an older man with a lanky build and salt-and-pepper hair, wearing an overly-large brown trench coat over dark slacks and a white button up. Everything about him reeked of old-school PI cliches, especially the somewhat haggard look on his face that screamed that he’d been living off of coffee and cheap cigarettes for the past several days. 

“Mr. Harrison?” he asked, his voice sounding equal parts polite and exhausted. “Brock Harrison, that is - Pewter Gym Leader and world-renowned Breeder and pokemon doctor, is that right?”

Her dad looked around, not having noticed the man approach them, and turned around in the doorway to face him full-on. 

“Uh- Yes, that’s me. Can I… help you?”

It was clear he thought the man was a fan or something, at least up until he fished around in his trench coat for a moment and then pulled out a glittering black-and-gold police badge and flashed it in their direction. 

“My name is Looker, Mr. Harrison. I’m with the International Police. I’m sorry to trouble you, but since you’re here… I was hoping you might be able to help with something.” He glanced at Jade through the doorway, then added, “It won’t take long, I promise.”

“Oh, um… Sure. Is this related to the…” her dad gestured vaguely in the air like he was trying to point at everything, and the Looker man nodded. 

“Yes, it has to do with the attacks. If I may step inside?”

Her dad nodded - though really it was Jade’s hospital room, shouldn’t they be asking her? - and together, he, Looker, and Misty all came fully into the room, which was now starting to feel a bit crowded. Her dad and Misty came to stand by the bed near Jade, but Looker went straight to her TV. He pulled a small laptop out of his trenchcoat - which, honestly, how much junk did this guy keep stashed in there? - and connected it to the TV so he could share the image on the larger screen. 

On the TV were several mugshots of wanted criminals, and a few images that had clearly been taken from surveillance cameras that were a bit harder to make out. Below each was a name and a brief description, though Jade could tell at first glance that most of these men and women had ties to various well-known criminal organizations around the world. The same ones that were now waging guerilla-style warfare on the Alliance. 

“I’ve already spoken to Mrs. Waterflower about this,” Looker said, stepping back a bit and pulling out a remote that he used to shuffle through the slides on the screen, “and she’d given me what help she can. But your record shows that you were involved in a number of incidents involving criminals from these organizations in your youth, and I was hoping you might be able to help identify some of these individuals. We’ve obtained a plethora of images from civilians over the past two weeks, and we’ve had agents combing through them, trying to make connections. Many of the low level grunts who are involved in the raids seem to be newer members, but if we can make any connections to any of the original criminals, it could go a long way toward helping us finally pin them down.”

“Sure, of course,” her dad said, sounding surprised. “It’s just, well… I mean, it’s been a long time since those days. I can’t promise that I’ll be able to remember anyone’s faces-”

“That’s fine,” Looker said, clicking the remote and pulling up a list of photos with the title ‘Unidentified Potential Conspirators’ at the top. “At this point, any help we can get - any at all - would mean a lot.”

What followed was several minutes of Looker pulling up blurry photos taken from people on the streets in the midst of a chaotic attack or else stills from security videos, with Looker pausing on what felt like every single person he thought might have potentially been in charge and asking her father if he recognized any them. 

For the most part, the answer was no, and Jade quickly began to feel like this was a waste of time after all. To be fair to him, though, he was being asked to remember people’s faces from ages ago. Before Jade was even born - back when he was her age or even younger, still traveling around with AJ’s parents. That would have been hard for just about anyone. And what was worse, it was keeping her away from lunch!

But every now and then, her dad would hesitate, frown up at the screen, and say something like, “That looks like someone from Team Aqua I might’ve battled in Sinnoh,” or “That… might have been a Team Rocket admin. Didn’t we run into them in Fuschia?”, and then Misty would either shrug or give an affirmation. 

Jade wasn’t sure how much this was helping, but Looker kept going for several more minutes. He only stopped when his pokegear began to ring. 

“Forgive me,” he said, glancing at the screen and frowning, “but I need to take this. Let’s take five, then I’ll come back and we’ll wrap this up.”

And with that, he answered the call with a curt, “Talk to me,” before exiting to the hallway. 

Her dad sighed, reaching up and rubbing at his eyes in an exhausted sort of way. Misty patted him on the arm in commiseration. 

“I feel like that probably wasn't very useful,” he said, and Jade snorted. 

“Yeah, I felt the same when he questioned me,” Misty commiserated. 

“I wish I could do more to help out…”

“So do I. So do we all. But until the police find a lead…”

Jade tuned them out, not wanting to dwell on the terrible things going on out in the real world. Jade wasn’t part of the League like her dad or Misty or AJ. Well - technically, she was registered as a Gym Trainer at her father’s gym, so that wasn’t true per se, but it didn’t amount to the same thing. Unless an incident happened right in front of her face, there wasn’t much she could do either. She didn’t like feeling useless. 

Instead, she gazed up blankly at the tv screen. Looker had left the photos up when he’d stepped out, and apparently, they were in slideshow mode, because every few seconds, the photo on the screen would change. 

So many criminals. She knew these crime syndicates had been a big deal back in the day, but to think there were still so many people involved even now. She didn’t recognize any of them, but then again, how could she? They were all strangers to her. She’d probably never even see any of them ever, unless they finally got arrested and she saw their mugshot pop up on the news-

The image on the screen changed again, and Jade’s breath caught in her throat. 

It was an old photo, indicated clearly by the date listed on the bottom which placed the image as having been taken some thirty-odd years ago. The man in the picture had been older even then, in his thirties or thereabouts, with close-cropped black hair and a slight widows peak, sporting a finely-tailored suit of an expensive cut and a scowl that could make a Primeape cower.

Unlike most of the other photos, which were all mugshots or photos taken in secret, this one was clearly staged; a promotional photo of some sort. He was standing in front of a building - it was hard to say what kind, but from the large and imposing double-doors behind him, it must have been an important one - and standing beside him, looking proud and arrogant, was a Persian. 

There was something about this man… Something that itched, something that made her head throb in spite of the medicine the nurses had given her when she woke up. But what? She didn’t know him. How could she?

Her eyes bounced over to the description next to the image and read: “Giovanni, founder of Team Rocket. Age: Unknown. Whereabouts: Unknown. Former Gym Leader (Veridian)”

That was Giovanni? The founder of Team Rocket? Sure, she’d heard his name once or twice, probably from one of her dad’s stories, but she didn’t think she’d ever seen a picture of the man to put a face to the name. The photo was old though - did that mean that he hadn’t been seen in all these years? Why was he in Looker’s list, then? Just because he’d founded Team Rocket and that meant he might be involved? It did say ‘whereabouts unknown’, which must mean he was never caught and was presumably still alive.

The image on the screen disappeared as the slideshow moved on, replacing it with a photo of a man with a mane of bright red hair, but Jade quickly stepped closer to the laptop and hit the back arrow, bringing Giovanni’s photo back onto the screen. Her father was absorbed in his conversation with Misty, not paying any attention to her, but that was alright. All of her focus was on the photo now. 

Now that she was closer, she could notice some details she hadn’t before. His suit, for example, was exceptional - clearly a high-class piece of clothing, not the sort of thing a regular business man would wear. And the Persian was also in a league of its own. Its lithe musculature, the glossy coat, the shine of the gem on its forehead; this was a well cared-for creature. The pride of this man’s life. She could see it. With a certainty that came from somewhere she didn’t understand, she knew - this Persian meant everything to him. 

The pain in her head grew worse. The itch was almost insatiable. She… She knew him. She didn’t know how, but she’d seen him before. 

But where?

There was a knock on the doorframe, and Jade and the others turned to see that Looker had returned. 

Jade stepped away from the laptop hurriedly, worried that he’d think she’d been going through his files or whatever, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Misty. 

“Mrs. Waterflower,” he began, then hesitated. “Rather… Mrs. Ketchum. I need to speak with you. Something has… come up.”

“What is it?” Misty asked slowly, taking a step closer and looking both confused and concerned. “Did something happen to AJ?”

“No, no - nothing like that,” Looker said, stepping into the room and boasting an expression that could only be described as… well, uncomfortable. “I… suppose there’s no reason to keep it a secret. The call I just received - it was from my people back at the station. It’s regarding the man that was found together with your daughter - both of your daughters,” he amended quickly, glancing at her dad, “and the young Mr. Oak, when we recovered them from Mt. Silver.”

“Do you know who he is?” Jade asked, suddenly intrigued, and Looker nodded, though he kept his eyes on Misty. 

“Yes, we do… Or, we think we do. They ran his fingerprints through every police record, legal document, or trainer registry we had… and we had a match.”

Here, he paused - though from his expression, it was less for dramatic effect and more because he wasn’t quite sure how to proceed. 

“...and?” her dad pressed, and Looker sighed. 

“I’m… not quite sure how to say this. According to his trainer registry - though it’s not been renewed in decades - the man lying unconscious in the other room goes by the name of Cole Ketchum.”

He paused again as the name ‘Ketchum’ seemed to reverberate hauntingly around the room. 

“...We think he’s Miss AJ’s paternal grandfather.”

Misty took a step back and stumbled, needing her father to reach out and steady her. 

“How…” she breathed, looking like she’d just taken a Double-Slap straight to the face. “Are… Are you sure? But he… He’s been gone for… for decades…!”

“Forty years, give or take,” her dad said, looking equally astonished and perturbed. “If I remember right, didn’t he disappear when Ash was still a baby? And you’re saying he’s been hiding up on Mt. Silver all this time?”

“I’m sure this is… surprising news,” Looker said, showcasing what Jade thought was an understandable level of discomfort. How weird was it to have to walk in and tell a woman that you’d found her late-husband's long-lost father? “From what I can tell, the man doesn’t have much family left in this world. There’s AJ, of course, but records are showing that he was reported as missing - as Mr. Harrison stated - nearly four decades ago, so she likely would have never met him. Well, aside from on the mountain, presumably. And with Ash Ketchum deceased, that leaves only the man’s widow… Well, wife, I suppose; one Mrs. Delia Ketchum. I was going to give her a call to let her know, but I thought that, since you were already here…”

“...Yes,” Misty said after a moment, struggling to gather herself. “Yes, of course… I… I’ll give Delia a call, and… Arceus, what am I supposed to say? What is she going to think?! After all these years…”

“I can call her if you want,” her dad offered, but Misty shook her head. 

“No, no… I’ll do it. It should be me. Oh, Mew…”

And she walked out of the room, pulling out her pokegear and looking completely out of sorts. 

“What are the odds?” her dad said, looking positively floored. And then, after a moment, “Hey, do you think that’s why he was with you? Did you maybe bump into him and find out who he was, and maybe you were trying to bring him back down the mountain when you were attacked? Jade?”

But Jade didn’t answer. She was staring back at the screen, at the photo of Giovanni. 

The moment Misty had said “Oh, Mew…”, it had hit her like a Rydon. 

“Why do you do that?” the voice had asked - older, powerful, authoritative. “Swear to Mew?”

The wind was chill, and the snow had been so cold, and she’d been so worried about AJ and Sammy after the avalanche - but she’d been saved by the sudden appearance of a strange old man. 

A man who was clearly well off. A man who exuded strength and authority. 

A man who had bragged at length about his precious Persian…

“Swear to no one,” he had said. “Place no one above you… Even a legendary pokemon can be made to heel to a trainer of sufficient strength.”

Legendary pokemon… The attacks… Team Rocket… Giovanni… The mountain… Cole Ketchum…

Her hands were shaking. Her head hurt so badly. Everything felt like it was tunneling. 

“...Jade?” her father asked, looking concerned. “Jade, are you ok? Do I need to get the doctor?”

She opened her mouth and took a deep, shuddering breath. 

Chapter Text

As the sun passed its zenith and the day progressed to midafternoon, Sammy Oak found himself seated on the sparse grass beside a young beech tree on a hill overlooking the Indigo Plateau and the rugged mountains of Victory Road that lay beyond. 

The location was something of a small park located behind the hospital. There had been a short brick path he’d found behind the visitors entrance that led to this tiny hill that was clearly being carefully maintained by the groundskeepers, what with flowers leading up the path, the neatly trimmed tree that perched alone on the hilltop, and the single park bench seated comfortably beneath it. There was a semi-circular partition of polished wooden handrails that enclosed the bench and the well-worn dirt path that made up the total area of the lookout, probably no more than seven or eight meters in diameter. The hill was a bit steep, so he wondered if this place was trafficked much by patients. It was more likely that it was something of a favorite lunch or break spot for the hospital staff. Either way, no one was here now, so it made for the perfect spot to get some alone time. 

Truth be told, Sammy was in a bit of a terrible mood. Well - ‘a bit’ was putting it mildly. When he’d awoken in the hospital with a throbbing headache and no memories of the past couple of weeks, he’d been confused, naturally, but that was all. Things like this just… happened, sometimes, when you were a pokemon trainer. It was hardly the first time he’d woken up in the hospital since setting out on his journey when he was ten. 

However, when he’d discovered that he’d lost his pack and all of his equipment in the process… Well, that was another story. 

Sammy was a researcher. His bag was full of more than just spare clothes and food and pokeballs. He’d had delicate scientific instruments in there. The rare and expensive kind. The kind you can’t replace with a casual trip downtown. His pokedex and pokegear had contained all of his research notes - years worth of study and observations and hypotheses. And - sure, most of that would have been backed up on the cloud, so he’d still be able to access it once he got his replacements. But there was no internet access on Mt. Silver, so any notes or observations he may have made while on the mountain were now gone forever. 

And that was something he couldn’t simply shrug off. Losing his memories was one thing, but if he’d had his notes, he’d at least have been able to try putting it all together. Maybe figure out what happened, what went wrong. Without them, he was lost in the dark. And Sammy didn’t like not knowing things. 

To make matters worse - it was Mt. Silver! People rarely ever got to go there! Think of the things he’d probably seen, the observations he’d likely made! Sure, the likelihood of him having made some world-shattering discovery was basically zero, but that wasn’t the point! The point was that he could have encountered any number of fascinating discoveries, found little-known information about the world of pokemon, and instead, like some rookie trainer, he wound up losing all of his stuff and being sent to the hospital. 

Sammy grunted and tried to shake his anger off, focusing his attention instead on the brand-new pokegear he was holding in his hands. After waking up and confirming that AJ and Jade were fine - though AJ had apparently already left the hospital to go to some big important meeting or something - Sammy had immediately gone down to the village to get himself some replacement gear. 

He’d had to stop by the Pokemon Center first, both to pick up his team as well as to get his trainer’s license replaced since he’d lost his, after which he was able to visit the bank and, with his trainer’s license as his ID, he was able to withdraw funds from his account to go on his shopping trip. 

He had a new backpack now, which was lying off to the side, together with new pokeballs, two weeks worth of food for his team - which he always insisted on carrying around in case of emergencies - medical supplies, clothes, and most importantly, a new pokegear. For the missing pokedex, he’d wait till he got back to the family lab where he could pick one up for free. 

Setting up his new pokegear was a pain, though. The sales rep at the store had offered to help him, but it had been a few hours at that point and Sammy was eager to get back to the hospital to check on his friends, so he’d declined the offer, confident he could do it himself. Of course, once he got back to the hospital, he’d found AJ still hadn’t returned and Jade had apparently gone off on a walk and he couldn’t find her. So instead, here he was; enjoying the fresh air and the scenic view of the Plateau… but really not doing either as he fought with this stupid new phone. 

It was a newer model than the one he’d had before, and for some reason, every time they upgrade models, the designers felt the need to move all of the buttons and settings around and he was having a terrible time trying to figure out where everything was. He had just managed to finish entering in his profile information to have the system begin automatically downloading his most recent backup from the cloud so he wouldn’t need to go through re-adding notes or contacts or the like, when the sound of footsteps behind him caught his attention. 

Mildly annoyed that his alone time was being interrupted, Sammy glanced over his shoulder, expecting to see an overworked nurse or something climbing up the hill to take a break, and was surprised when he instead saw the familiar white and red cap, black hair and blue eyes of his best friend, AJ Ketchum. The Pichu on her shoulder gave a shout before jumping down and racing over to him, hopping through the gaps in the fence and coming to a stop right in front of where Sammy was seated beneath the beech tree, chattering and squeaking and generally being the lovably obnoxious pest he always was. 

Sammy reached out to scratch his ears in greeting, but he kept his eyes on AJ, watching as she stepped carefully over the guardrail, naturally struggling a bit because her legs were so short. Once she’d successfully passed the obstacle, she paused, arms akimbo, and stared down at him with a shrewd look in her eyes. 

“So here you are,” she said, her tone laced with fake annoyance. “Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you, young man?”

Sammy held up his still-loading pokegear in response. 

“New phone, who dis?”

She mimed kicking him, though it was really more of a nudge with the toe of her tennis shoe, then plopped down in the grass beside him with a languorous sigh. 

“Today’s been weird,” she stated emphatically, and he nodded in silent assent. It had been weird. But seeing as she was the Champion now, weird was probably going to become her normal, so she should probably get used to it. 

“Where’ve you been all day?” she continued, staring blankly off towards the distant mountains, and he gestured to his pokegear again. 

“Went into town to pick up some replacement gear. Y’know - since we lost everything we brought with us.”

AJ chuckled, but there was no humor there. 

“Right, yeah. A future Gym Leader, the son of Professor Oak, and Kanto’s Grand Champion… Needing an entire team of Rangers to come and rescue them. So much for being experienced trainers.”

Clearly, AJ was just as frustrated about what had happened as he was. Funnily, instead of commiserating, when he heard her levy those same criticisms at herself, the ones he’s been saying to himself all day, it annoyed him. No one bad-talked his friends - not even his friends. 

“Well,” he said, trying for a lighter tone, “Mt. Silver is a restricted area for a reason, remember?”

“No,” she replied bluntly before letting out a humorless chuckle. “I don’t remember anything.”

“Right, yeah.” That was a poor choice of words. Still, though her tone was obviously bitter, her expression wasn’t. She seemed more… resigned rather than depressed. More irritated than angry. That was good, right? 

After a moment of quiet, he thought he heard her mumble “...Ethan didn’t end up in the hospital with amnesia, and he went up the mountain by himself.”

“Stop it,” Sammy said, flicking her on the thigh. “The mountain is huge. We probably went and did something stupid - either you for the challenge, or because I wanted to research something, or because Jade was hungry - and it went bad. It’s not the first time, it won’t be the last. Just another misadventure to add to the list, right?”

She grunted but otherwise didn’t reply. For lack of anything to say, he found himself glancing back down at his pokegear. Ninety-two percent. Mew, this was taking forever… Though to be fair, he did have quite a few notes saved to his pokegear. This was sort of his fault. 

He glanced back over at AJ out of the corner of his eye - partially out of concern and partially because he just liked to look at her - and it occurred to him suddenly that her mood probably didn’t have as much to do with their failed adventures on the mountain. Sure, it was a huge bust, and the media was probably having a field day with it, but she’d spent most of the morning in a meeting with other Champions, talking about the situation that the world had been facing while they were away. A meeting that can’t have been pleasant. 

“...How did it go?” he asked, and when she raised an eyebrow at him, confused, he cleared his throat and clarified. “Your meeting, I mean. I’m sure it’s classified or whatever, but… how bad is it?”

“Bad,” she said, turning her gaze off to the horizon again. “So unbelievably bad. The news clips alone… I have no idea what’s going on, and it doesn’t sound like the League or the police do either. I’m… I want to help, you know? I want to… fix things. But I don’t think I can. I’m just one person. Even as the Champion, I can’t… I just, I didn’t expect to feel so powerless after successfully taking on the League. I guess I thought things would be simpler once I reached the top.”

She gave a short, self-deprecating chuckle. 

“...That was really stupid and naive of me, huh?”

Sammy smirked, letting his gaze sweep the horizon as well, wondering which peak she was looking at. 

“Yeah, probably. But you’ve always had a problem with doing things on your own.”

There was a beat, then suddenly AJ straightened up, looking affronted.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, annoyed. 

“No,” he said quickly, realizing he’d misspoke. “Not - that came out wrong. I meant - you always think you have to do things on your own. But you don’t, y’know? You’ve always sort of had this ‘me against the world’ attitude, AJ, but it’s not just you. You aren’t alone. That’s all I meant.”

She rolled her eyes, but it seemed more performative than anything, and she quickly settled back down. 

“I know that,” she said, and to him, she sounded a bit petulant. “But Champions are sort of supposed to be able to stand on their own. That’s the whole point - being the very best and all that.”

“Regardless,” he said, “Champions aren’t alone either. They’ve got the whole League behind them - it’s why it’s there. And even if Jade and I can’t do Champion things with you, and even if we can’t physically be with you all the time, we’re always going to be here… metaphorically, y’know? We’ve always got your back.”

“Even if I’m in Alola?” she asked softly. 

“Yes, even if you’re in-” He stopped, then turned to look at her. “Alola?”

She flashed him a sad smile. 

“Lance and the League are sending me there. I guess the attacks there have been particularly severe, and with them still getting their own League set up, they don’t have a Champion of their own to defend them. So, since he’s still technically the Kanto Grand Champion until he officially retires, they’ve asked me to go instead.”

“And… how long will you be there?”

She shrugged, looking back out at the distant mountains. 

“I guess… Until the situation blows over.”

And after nearly two weeks of this madness, who knew how long that would be?

Sammy looked away, trying not to scowl. 

It’s not that he was worried about her, per se. To be fair, he absolutely was - but he also knew she could take care of herself, regardless of whatever had happened up on that mountain. She would be fine. And it’s not like her being in Alola was really all that different from her being in Cerulean or here at the League, give or take a few hours displaced due to timezone shenanigans. It’s not like she’d be close to him either way, and in a world as connected as theirs, no matter where she was, she was really only a phone call away. 

But this news that she was already up and leaving stoked at a burning annoyance in his gut that he’d been trying to ignore all day. Because as bad as losing all of his equipment and two weeks of his memories was, there was something worse about this whole ridiculous memory loss situation - he’d lost his last hurrah with AJ. 

The whole point of this stupid trip had been an excuse for them to spend time together before the realities of their new adult lives inevitably pulled them all apart. He’d chosen Mt. Silver on a whim, but the destination hadn’t mattered - it was just spending time with her, and Jade as well, that he’d been aiming for. One last trip, one last journey. One last chance to be kids. 

And he’d lost it. All of it. They set out, went to the mountain, spent maybe two days having fun together… and then nothing. All of those memories, all of the moments of their last great adventure, just… gone. Lost, as though they never were. And now they were back in the real world, and the vagaries of life seemed to be absolutely determined to rip them apart again.

And he knew that this wasn’t the end of their friendship. They’d always be friends, the three of them, and they’d still continue to meet up in the future, when their schedules allowed it. But they’d start to grow apart, little by little. He knew this. That was the fate of those who didn’t get to see each other regularly. And with AJ off being the Champion, and Sammy focused on his lab work, well… Without adventures to give them a united purpose, there was nothing to keep them close. 

“...Sammy?” she asked, having taken note of his silence, and he absently played with his pokegear, not really paying attention, just trying to buy a few seconds to collect himself. 

He’d known this was coming. He’d been preparing himself for it for years now, since they’d all stopped journeying together. Sure, it sucked that his plans for their last trip together had been squandered, but why dwell over things that can’t be changed? If she was determined to set off to do this, however dangerous, then he’d see her off with a smile.

“Sam-?”

“It doesn’t matter where you go, AJ,” he said, cutting her off and trying to force his voice to sound nonchalant. “To Alola, or Kalos, or… anywhere. I… Jade and I, I mean… We’re always going to be there for you. We’ve shared so many important moments together on our journeys, and… even if those journeys end up going in different directions, those moments we shared - they aren’t going anywhere. We’ll always have them.”

The embarrassment he was feeling from his sudden outburst of sincerity was almost enough to make him squirm. He wasn’t usually this sentimental. Whatever had happened to them on that mountain had clearly screwed with his head. 

He half expected AJ to tease him - and honestly, he would have preferred it, because then he could try to laugh the moment off. 

Instead, he heard her whisper to herself, barely audible over the breeze rustling through the leaves of the tree behind him, “Every important moment?”

He was hit by a sudden wave of deja vu. Something about the setting - with the tree, and Pichu running through the grass, and AJ, sitting right next to him beneath the gently swaying branches and a clear blue sky, and those words, said in earnest, lingering in the air…

It all felt so… 

His pokegear rang, and Sammy literally jumped, startled, and all of the previous weirdness was forgotten as, heart in his throat, he stared down at the screen of his pokegear that he hadn’t even realized had finished updating and read the name on the caller ID. 

“Oh, great,” he groaned, leaning back and closing his eyes. 

“What?” AJ asked. 

“It’s my mom…”

Of course it was. Give him a moment alone with the girl he’d secretly been madly in love with since he was ten, and still his mother could find a way to interrupt them even from leagues and leagues away. 

“...Are you not going to answer it?”

Sammy scowled and sat up straight, reaching for his backpack. 

“Not right now. I’ll call her back later-”

“Sammy - have you not spoken to your parents since you woke up?”

He squirmed, not meeting her eyes as his pokegear continued to ring. 

“Well… I mean, no, not exactly-”

“Sammy!”

“What?! I only just got my new pokegear working again!”

“You could’ve called from the hospital! Or the Pokemon Center! Or- I don’t know, asked someone if you could borrow their phone?! What is wrong with you?!”

Technically, he knew she was right, but he’d been kind of preoccupied that morning. And besides, he knew someone from the League, or even Misty, would have notified them to let them know he was ok. It was still a crappy move on his part, but though he knew he needed to talk to them, he wasn’t about to do it here - not in front of AJ. He’d embarrassed himself enough today, the last thing he needed was to have his mother babying him or screaming at him for not calling in front of her. Or both. 

“Listen,” he said, vying for a calm, rational tone, “I get it - you’re right. But I’ll call them back later. Right now, I need to-”

He never had a chance to come up with an excuse, because AJ suddenly reached over and pressed the ‘answer’ button on his pokegear’s screen. The ringing cut out, only for the image on the screen to be replaced with an image of his mother sitting at a desk and looking clearly frustrated. 

Sammy could only gape in horror. He couldn’t believe she’d just done that!

“Sammy?!” his mother shouted, her dour expression breaking into one of instant relief. “Sammy! You finally picked up! Gary - honey - Sammy’s on the phone! He finally answered!”

His mother looked the same as she always did. Long, straight, honey-blonde hair that hung just below her shoulders, a blue camisole and a knee-length white skirt. He always thought she looked too young to be his mom, but she was the same age as his and AJ’s fathers and had set off from Pallet Town on her pokemon journey on the same day they had, though she’d stopped journeying after Johto. She’d gone adventuring more for the experience than for any desire to be a Champion. 

“Hi, Leaf!” AJ said, leaning in way too close so that his pokegear’s camera would pick her up. Their faces were basically touching at this point, and he could feel her body pressed against his side. This could not possibly get any worse. 

“Oh, AJ! Sweetie! Are you ok? You both aren’t hurt, are you?”

“We’re fine, I promise,” AJ said with a smile before turning and shooting Sammy a deadpan look. “This one wasn’t going to answer your call, so I did us all a favor.”

“Wha-?!”

“Samuel Oak!” his mother growled threateningly, resting her hands on her hips - the age-old sign of maternal disappointment - and looking positively furious. “Is this true?!”

“I- No! Not exactly!” he tried to lie, but his mother could always see through him. It didn’t help that AJ was on screen, shaking her head, tattling on him and giving him away. 

“I cannot believe you - do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?!”

“Mom, really, we’re fine. And I only just got my new pokegear working - I lost my old one on the mountain, so I haven’t been able to-!”

“You could have died! You could have frozen to death or been paralyzed for life - or worse! ”

And as she launched into her tirade, Sammy could do nothing but close his eyes and groan as her reprimands washed over him like a furious tide. This was exactly what he’d been trying to avoid. AJ patted his arm consolingly, but she didn’t look sorry in the slightest. 

Thankfully, his mother was soon interrupted by the sudden arrival of Sammy’s father. 

“Did you say Sammy was on the line?” he heard, before a moment later, Professor Gary Oak was on the screen. He was still wearing his lab coat, so he must’ve rushed over from the lab - though, from the background, it looked like that was where both of his parents currently were. In one of the more top-secret wings, from the look of things. Why had his mom been calling him from there? Why was she even in there at all?

“Sammy!” his father said, looking somewhat winded. “There you are! What took you so long?!”

His mother nodded approvingly, clearly pleased her husband had come to join her in chastisement of their willful and boorishly disobedient son. 

But Sammy had had enough of this. No more chewing him out in front of AJ, please. They could do this later. They were almost making him wish he really had died.

“Mom, Dad - I’m fine, really! I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner, but we’re all ok, there’s no need to panic-”

“What?” his dad said, looking confused. “Oh - right, yeah. I know. Who cares about that?”

His mother reached over and slapped his arm. 

“Oh, uh,” his dad said, suddenly backpedaling. “I mean, yes - that’s great. We’re glad to hear you’re ok, of course. Though, I mean, Misty already called us, so we already knew you were fine-”

“Gary! It’s the principle of the matter!”

“Yeah, right - of course. Listen to your mother.”

AJ was laughing now, trying and failing to hide it by stuffing her fist in her mouth. Pichu had climbed up on her shoulder to take a look before shouting a greeting at his parents and scampering off again. 

“Guys, really - Can we do this later-?”

“Still though,” his dad said, running right over him as though he wasn’t listening at all. “I’m shocked it took you this long - I mean, if it were me, I would’ve - When I saw her, I practically - No, not practically, I did - I just fell right out of my seat! Sammy, this is incredible! I still can’t believe it! Where did you find her?! She’s gorgeous!”

Well, now he’d lost Sammy entirely. Not only was his dad not letting get a word in edgewise, he was also practically babbling nonsense. Where did he find who? Who’s gorgeous? 

Wait, she? Did his parents think he had a girlfriend?!

He swore to Arceus above, if his dad started in on some misunderstanding about him having a girlfriend in front of AJ-!

“Dad, what are you-?”

“I gotta say, it’s been a real hassle trying to keep her secret. Do you know how many researchers here would kill for the chance to have their names on this discovery? I told your mom and Gramps, of course, and they’ve been helping me take care of her, but you’ve got to get back here quick because I don’t know for how much longer we can keep her cooped up like this.”

His mom had now apparently completely forgotten her previous anger, swept up in his father’s excitement. She was full-on beaming, practically bursting with pride and excitement as she nodded along to her husband's words, all but bouncing in her seat. 

“Dad, what-?”

“Now, don’t be angry,” his father said, holding up a hand. “I know this is your discovery, but since you’re not here, and I mean, who knows how long she’ll stay in this growth cycle - Ha! I mean, we’ll soon know! The world will know! - but I had to start taking measurements right away. I’ve got it all recorded for you for when you get back, but you’d better be fast or I might just put my name on the reports if you keep making me do all the work!”

“Dad!” Sammy finally shouted, fed up. “What - in the name of Arceus - are you talking about?!”

But it was at that moment that a disturbance could be heard off-camera. A voice, one that sounded a great deal like Professor Oak Senior, shouted something like a warning, and both of his parents glanced over their shoulders before quickly diving out of the way as, there, hopping up onto his mother’s now-abandoned seat and apparently trying to fly through the video screen towards Sammy, was what was unmistakable an Articuno. 

Or… Well, almost. It didn’t look quite right. 

It was too small, for one thing. From all that he’d read, an Articuno should stand about as tall if not taller than a grown man, but this one wouldn’t have made it much higher than his kneecap. And its feathers were clearly too short - both on its crest and especially its tail. But the biggest difference of all was its color. Real Articuno were a deep sky blue, unless they were dark purple like the ones from Galar. But this one? This one was white, like freshly fallen snow. 

His parents had returned to the screen now, his father adjusting the camera that had been knocked slightly askew by the pokemon’s sudden appearance, his mother stroking the pokemon’s plumage as she calmed her down, whispering to her sweetly that it was just a video and Sammy wasn’t really there. 

Sammy could only stare. That was… it had to be… 

An actual baby Articuno.

His head began to ache.

“See? Now that’s a good girl, Artemia,” his mother crooned softly, and the baby Articuno let out a musical chirp and nuzzled his mother’s hand affectionately. 

His father sighed, ribbing at the bridge of his nose in a tired sort of way. 

“Leaf, you can’t just go naming it.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because she’s not yours - she’s Sammy’s!”

“Oh, he doesn’t mind,” she said. “He’s a terrible son anyway for not calling me. This is his punishment. Besides, she likes it - don’t you, Artemia?”

Artemia the baby Articuno crooned again and his father scoffed, shaking his head. 

“You see what happens when you don’t call? Now get back to the lab soon, or the next thing you know, your mother is going to be telling everyone that she’s the one who made the discovery.”

But Sammy wasn’t listening anymore. His eyes had glazed over, and in his mind, memories and moments were flickering before him so quickly he was in danger of getting whiplash. 

The avalanche, his broken leg, the ringing noise and finding the egg, nearly dying, then the cabin, the Sanctuary, the legendary pokemon, Xerneas’s healing and the flock of Articuno and that afternoon in the sun beneath the tree where he’d sat with AJ. 

Him holding out the pokeball. The baby Articuno pecking it and getting captured. 

AJ’s smile. The way her eyes had glittered with joy and pride beneath the shade of those swaying branches. 

“ Every important moment .”

It was like rising from the depths of a dark and murky pool of water back into clear, fresh air. He sucked in a strangled breath, jerking his head to the side to look at her, to see if AJ was having the same revelation that he had - but she was gone. 

He struggled to his knees, almost forgetting his parents were still on the line, looking around, but she was halfway down the hill now, racing at a dead sprint back to the hospital, her Pichu desperately trying to catch up to her. 

“I’ve got to go!” he said quickly, snatching up his backpack and struggling to find a way to end a call on this stupid new pokegear while simultaneously clambering over the wooden guardrail without falling.

“What?!”

“Samuel Oak Jr-!”

But he didn’t have time for this - really, this time. 

Without thinking, he blurted out, “Ash Ketchum is alive!”

Both of his parents shut up. 

“He’s alive, and he’s stuck on Mt. Silver! I have to go - I’ll call you back later!”

And with that, he shut off the call and stuffed the device into his backpack, racing off after AJ. 

AJ thundered down the hillside, sprinting back toward the hospital, hair whipping through the air and heart thundering in her throat as the same mantra repeated over and over again in her head. 

How dare he… How dare he…?!

Against all odds, after all that time, finally, she had…! And he’d just thrown her away - again! Right after she’d finally found him! Right after she’d actually started to-!

AJ’s body slammed painfully into the outer doors of the hospital’s side entrance, not even bothering to try to slow herself down. She seized the handle in her sweaty hand and threw the door open, charging inside, ignoring the bewildered looks she was receiving from patrons and hospital staff alike and instead raced off in the direction that she believed led to the stairwell. She had lost her pokegear and couldn’t make any calls, but hopefully, her mother was up there somewhere, waiting near her room. 

Oooh, her mother…! Just wait until she told her mother! If Ash Ketchum thought he could run away from them again, he had another thing coming! If he thought AJ was pissed, just wait until Mom found out he’d been alive all this time!

Reaching the entrance to the stairwell, AJ turned, racing up the flight of stairs two steps at a time - only to end up crashing head-long into another person as she hurried to enter the second floor wing. 

Whoever they were, they were tall, and AJ ended up bouncing right off of them like she’d collided with a Wigglytuff, falling back onto her butt on the cold tile floor. 

For a panicked moment, AJ thought that she might have run into a patient and felt a surge of guilt and concern overwhelm her anger. Only when she looked up, slightly dazed, she found herself gazing into the startled face of Jade. 

“AJ?!”

“Jade - hi. Ow.” She struggled to get up for a moment before accepting Jade’s proffered hand and letting her pull her to her feet, surreptitiously rubbing her sore backside and trying to pretend like she was just wiping dust off of her knee-length denim shorts. 

“Girl, contain yourself - you’re in a hospital.”

Yeah, that was probably sound advice. However, ‘containing herself’ was simply not something AJ was capable of at the moment. From over her friend’s shoulder, she could see Brock catching up to them, walking at a brisk pace and showcasing the correct way to hurry when in a hospital setting. He looked concerned. 

“Jade - girls!” he called out. “What’s going on?”

At this, Jade made an ‘oh!’ sort-of face, like she’d just remembered what she was doing, and she frantically seized AJ by the upper arms, bending over a bit so their eyes were level. 

“AJ! I remembered! I remembered what happened after the avalanche!”

AJ felt a sudden wave of relief wash over her. Good, good - if Jade remembered, it would be that much easier to convince her mother that she was telling the truth. From behind her, she could hear the unmistakable sound of someone thundering up the stairway behind her. 

“I remember too,” she said to Jade, reaching up and clasping her best friend’s forearms, taking a second to steady herself. “I remembered just now, with Sammy - they must not have known he’d caught that baby Articuno, but when his parents showed us-! We have to go, we have to find my mom and tell her-!”

At this, AJ actually tried to turn and race off down the hallway again, but Jade’s grip on her arm was firm, anchoring her in place. 

“AJ, wait!” Jade exclaimed just as Sammy burst out of the stairwell together with her Pichu. “That’s not all! I remembered something else! Something important!”

“What?” she asked impatiently, not really listening, trying to break free of her friend’s grip as Pichu climbed his way up her leg and back onto her shoulder where he belonged, chattering angrily at having been left behind. 

“Giovanni! The - the leader of Team Rocket guy! Y’know, the one from Cole’s story?! AJ - I met him! I met him on Mt. Silver !”

At this announcement, AJ stilled. Sammy, joining them and panting slightly, was the one who asked, “Hold up - Giovanni? What are you on about? When did you see him?”

“It was after the avalanche,” Jade explained, finally letting AJ go and looking anxious and guilty. Her hands began gesticulating wildly in front of her like they did when she was panicking. “After we were separated, but before I found AJ. We - I was - I mean… He- He found me! Saved me, gave me some food and helped me warm up, and… It was him! I didn’t know it then, but I know it now! I saw his picture in the police records - it was really him! He talked about his Persian, and he said he was up there ‘surveying’ or something - I don't know, the point is, he’s the one who found AJ and Cole for me. He found you! He saw Cole! He knows he’s been living there all this time!”

For the second time in less than ten minutes, AJ felt like her entire world had just flipped upside down. 

Giovanni… The founder of Team Rocket. The man from Cole’s stories, the man who had once been his best friend. Who had battled him for control of Mew. Who had created Mewtwo and had horribly mistreated him, turning him into the monster he is today. 

In a way, you could say that all of this - including Cole and Ash’s disappearances - could be laid squarely at Giovanni’s feet. The crimes of his past were terrible enough to consider even before adding in the personal traumas her family has suffered at his hands. 

But now, with added context from what was going on in the world around them, with the sudden, mysterious resurgence of not only Team Rocket but other well-known infamous criminal organizations, having risen from the dead to terrorize the world once more… Somehow, impossibly, it felt even more grave than ever. 

And he knew Cole had been living on Mt. Silver… 

Sammy, for his part, was spluttering incoherently. 

“You saw him?!” he finally managed to get out, looking flabbergasted. “Why didn’t you say anything?!”

“Well…! I mean…! It’s not like I knew who he was at the time!”

“Why does that matter?!”

“He asked me not to tell anyone I’d met him! And he saved my life, Sammy!”

“Yeah, sure - but after you heard Cole’s story, after you saw the Sanctuary, you probably should have mentioned it!”

“I forgot! So sue me!” Jade shouted, throwing her arms into the air in exasperation. “I got a bit distracted by the presence of dead daddies and my friend almost dying and the whole ‘secret pocket dimension where legendary pokemon hang out’ bit! There was a lot going on!”

“AJ?” came a voice from behind, and AJ turned to find her mother approaching, giving the group a concerned look. “Guys, why are you yelling? You’re in a hospital.”

Another man was following along behind her, wearing a long trench coat and a dour expression as though he, too, could not fathom the rudeness of raising your voice in a hospital. 

Pichu shouted, gesticulating toward AJ’s mother as if she hadn’t seen her and beginning to frantically pantomime what AJ could only assume was the entire story of what had happened on the mountain. Naturally, no one understood. 

“Mom,” AJ cut in, “there you are! Listen, I need to tell you something - something big. I remembered-!”

“You mean about Cole?” she asked, and AJ blinked in surprise, feeling rather like all Drifloon who had all of the air sucked out of them. 

“Cole? You… you know?!”

“So it’s true, then?” And when AJ could do nothing but gawk, her mother reached out and took her hand, looking distressed. “I just got off the phone with Delia. She… I’m honestly not sure how she’s taking it. This just came out of nowhere - for all of us. I can’t even imagine… But she says she’s on her way. She’ll be flying out from Veridian in about an hour, so she should be here not long after - I had to pay out of the nose to get that last-minute booking, but, well… We’ll go pick her up from the airport when she arrives.”

AJ took a second to reach up and rub at her eyes. Her mom knew already? And she was this calm about it? 

“Who… Who told you?” AJ asked, dragging her hands across her face and trying to calm down. 

“Detective Looker did.” Her mother gestured to the man behind her, who nodded in a polite greeting. “They ran his prints after they got him to the hospital and got a match from his old trainer ID.”

AJ glanced over at the older man again. So he was a detective? If he had told her mother about Cole, then… 

“I still can’t believe it,” her mother continued, practically talking to herself. “Until you confirmed it just now, I don't know that I actually did. That he’s been alive all this time-”

She didn’t know. She knew about Cole because of the police, but that was it. She didn’t know about dad. She didn’t know what was really going on. 

“Misty-” Jade started, but Sammy stopped her with a look. AJ took a deep breath to steady herself, then reached out with her other hand, taking her mother’s in her own. Her fingers felt cold. 

“Mom,” she began - then, suddenly remembering that Brock was even there, stepped to the side so she could see the both of them - “Uncle Brock… Listen. There’s something we need to tell you. You… You’re not going to believe us, but I swear -  I swear it’s the truth.”

“Does this have something to do with Jade saying she saw Giovanni on Mt. Silver?” Brock asked, his usually carefree demeanor gone, now replaced by an expression so stone-faced it was no wonder he’d been Pewter’s Gym Leader for so long. 

“Giovanni?!” Detective Looker cut in, looking shocked. “And you’re certain?!”

Jade said something in the affirmative, but AJ’s eyes were trained on her mother’s, who was looking at her with concern. 

“Go on,” she said, squeezing AJ’s fingers. “You can tell me anything.”

AJ swallowed, trying to work the moisture back into her mouth. 

This was going to sound so absolutely insane…

“Dad… is alive,” she said finally. “He’s alive… and he’s on Mt. Silver.”

The silence that followed was so loud that for a moment, she could have sworn she’d gone deaf. 

Watching the subtle shifts in her mother’s expression was almost haunting. Concern changed to confusion, as though she didn’t understand the words coming out of her daughter’s mouth - then, in a flash, her eyes widened in shock and disbelief, then shuttered again, lips pulling down as though offended, convinced that she was being told a particularly cruel and insensitive joke, only to hesitate, melting once more into confusion as she realized that AJ of all people - the girl who had exploded at her own victory celebration - would not be joking about Ash Ketchum. 

After an interminable pause, Looker cleared his throat. 

“Um… That is, ah… Your father would be… Former Indigo League Grand Champion, Ash Ketchum?”

“AJ,” Brock said, and his tone had adopted a familiar, gentle, non-threatening cadence that she recognized from watching him do his work as a Pokemon Doctor, “I think we should maybe get you back to your room to lay down. I can go find the doctor-”

“She’s not having an episode!” Jade shouted, angrily, and right on top of her, Sammy said, “She’s telling the truth! We saw him! All of us did!” Even Pichu was crying out in agreement. 

“Listen,” Brock said, raising his hands in an ‘I come in peace’ sort of way, carefully maintaining his soft tone, “you’ve all just been through something traumatic. It’s not unheard of for people in your situation to mistake seeing things that aren’t really there-”

“So what, we’re all just collectively having the same exact hallucination?!” Sammy asked, exasperated. “How is that any less insane?”

AJ, however, kept her eyes trained on her mothers, watching as a rainbow of emotions flickered across them. Worry, fear, hurt, hope, longing… She wanted to believe. She wanted it to be true, more than anything. But AJ knew that what they were saying was so impossible - so utterly ridiculous and absurd - that it flew in the face of all logical reasoning. 

Proof. They needed proof. Something that could convince them, no matter how tall a tale this was. 

Something tugged at the back of her mind. A memory of a story told over dinner, one she’d been forced to eavesdrop on because she’d stormed out of the cabin like a spoiled child. 

“Mewtwo,” she breathed, barely more than a whisper, and her mother’s eye seemed to twitch. 

“What was that?” Detective Looker asked, leaning forward and cupping his ear like he was hard of hearing. 

“Mewtwo,” AJ repeated, though louder this time. “Mom, Brock - does that name mean anything to you? Mewtwo. It’s a pokemon - a powerful one. Dad said you met it once, but you…”

Forgot. Of course they did - he’d wiped their memories just as surely as he’d wiped theirs before kicking them off the mountain. But the amnesia wasn’t permanent - Ash had remembered their encounter after seeing Mewtwo’s face up close, and AJ and her friends had all managed to recover from their own memory loss. If she could just get her mother to remember…!

“Mew…two?” Brock said, looking very much like he was trying to keep the incredulity off of his face and failing spectacularly. “I… AJ, do you hear yourself right now?”

“It’s real, dad!” Jade shouted angrily, with Sammy adding right on top of her, “I know how it sounds, but it’s an actual pokemon. Giovanni cloned it using the research of Dr. Fuji, back when he was still the Gym Leader of Viridian City!”

But AJ could see this plan wasn’t working. It had taken actually seeing Sammy’s baby Articuno before the memories had come back for her and Sammy. Ash had needed to be face-to-face with the real Mewtwo. Just saying the words aloud wouldn’t be enough.

There was movement down the hall. People were coming toward them. At first, she thought it was hospital staff coming to see what the disturbance was - but a quick flick of her eye showed her that it was actually Hilda and Ethan. Probably coming to check on them, or maybe to take them to lunch like they’d offered after the meeting with Lance that morning.

“If I may interject,” Detective Looker said, still looking dubious but at least seeming like he was willing to entertain the story for a moment if nothing else. “Why on earth would Giovanni have been up on Mt. Silver? And why would Ash Ketchum have been hiding there for so long?”

Jade, Sammy, and Pichu began speaking on top of one another, Jade starting with the Sanctuary, Sammy jumping way back to when Cole was a trainer journeying with Giovanni, and Pichu rambling about who knows what in his wildly energetic way. Naturally, with them all talking at once, nobody understood a thing. 

By this point, Ethan and Hilda had drawn close enough to recognize that there was a commotion of some sort going on, and it was with twin looks of concern and confusion that they joined the group, which was now large enough that they were blocking most of the hallway.

“AJ? What’s up?” Hilda asked, letting her eyes bounce around the group. Ethan’s pokegear suddenly rang out, and it was with a look of supreme annoyance that he stepped back from the group to answer the call, muttering something about finally changing his number. 

“It’s nothing-” Brock tried to say, clearly not recognizing Hilda and not wanting to involve a stranger in their family madness, but Jade cut him off. 

“It. Is. Not. Nothing ,” she practically snarled, and Hilda took a quick step backward, looking alarmed. 

“We’ve got our memories back,” Sammy supplied, ever the voice of reason. “It’s caused a bit of controversy.”

“Oh…?” Hilda said, clearly confused as to why that would be a bad thing, but it was then that Ethan stepped back toward the group, still holding his pokegear and looking grim. 

“There’s another attack starting,” he announced, and everyone turned to look at him. 

“Where?” AJ asked, and Ethan shook his head. 

“Everywhere. It seems we’re getting multiple reports of attacks popping up all over the Alliance all at once. Lilycove, Azalea, Saffron… They’ve never happened simultaneously like this. None of the attacks seem very big, but people are scrambling because we’re already spread so thin as it is. I know you’re still recovering, but I think we need to get out there-”

“No.”

The surprise on Ethan’s face was almost a perfect mirror of her own. She hadn’t even realized she’d spoken at first, only now that she had, she felt her spine stiffen. 

“No?” he repeated, confused. “AJ, we can’t just sit here and do nothing-”

“It’s a distraction,” she said, suddenly confident. “Don’t you see? Kris was right - none of these attacks make sense because the attacks themselves don’t matter. That’s why you haven’t been able to find a pattern, and that’s why they’re all going off en masse right now. It’s to keep our eyes looking everywhere except for where they actually are!”

Ethan looked absolutely stupefied, but it was Hilda who asked, “So… where do they not want us to look?”

Both Sammy and Jade opened their mouths as though to launch into their confusing spiel again, but AJ quickly cut them off. 

“There isn’t time to explain more than once. Can you get in touch with Iris? And Lance,” she added, glancing at Ethan. “Tell them I think I know what’s going on and how to stop it, but there isn’t much time. We need to meet as soon as possible. Can you do that?”

She’d have done it herself, but without a pokegear, she didn’t have any way to get ahold of them. Not that she knew Iris’s number anyway. 

“AJ,” Brock tried to cut in, now sounding stern, just as Ethan opened his mouth to say “But-”, and something inside of AJ snapped. 

“We don’t have time to argue!” she said - not quite shouting, but projecting in a way she never had before. She almost felt like she was giving orders in a pokemon battle, full of authority and expecting strict obedience from her team. “Every second we waste puts people and pokemon in danger - now can you call them or not?”

Brock, for a wonder, had closed his mouth. He was staring at AJ as if he’d never seen her before. Hilda nodded quickly, looking equally blank, but Ethan met her eyes levelly. His golden gaze looked… not offended, exactly, but like he was sizing her up. Like two Pyroar meeting in the wild for the first time. 

Finally, he nodded. 

“...Yeah. They should both still be at League Headquarters. If we hurry, we can catch them.”

“Then let’s go,” she said, and as Hilda and Ethan both turned and headed off, messing with their pokegears, AJ turned her attention back to Brock, Looker, and her mother. 

“I know this sounds insane,” she said. “I know you’re concerned about our mental health. But if there’s any part of you - any part at all - that thinks there’s even the slightest chance that we might not be crazy, then please come with me. We’ll explain it all there.”

Brock sighed, rubbing at his eyes in a tired sort of way. Looker frowned, scratching at his five o’clock shadow. 

But AJ only had eyes for her mother. She had her arms folded like she was hugging herself, staring into the distance, looking concerned and unsure. After a moment, however, she nodded her head and said, “Ok.”

AJ let out a short breath. Well, alright then - that was a start. They needed to hurry, though. If the attacks were going off now, all at once, then that could only mean one thing. Giovanni was already on the mountain. He was making his move, to finally capture Mew - and likely any other legendary pokemon he could get his hands on - and that meant Ash would need all the help he could get.

Chapter Text

The main conference room at League Headquarters was never meant to hold this many people. 

There was AJ, Jade, and Sammy, of course, who had arrived together with her mother, Brock, the detective Looker from the International Police, Hilda, and Ethan, and they alone would have been more than enough to make the room feel full thanks to the ridiculously huge table that took up much of the room. But they’d been joined shortly after arriving by Lance and Iris, the two who AJ had requested, but then also, surprisingly, Kris and Lyra, who had apparently been hanging around and had just been swept up in the commotion - and then two boys who AJ didn’t know at all. A taller man in his early twenties with long light green hair and a younger boy with a head of messy brown hidden beneath a scruffy baseball cap holding what looked like a Tinkatink in his arms and who looked a lot like Hilda. Her mysterious twin brother? When did he get here?

There wouldn’t have been enough seats at the table for everyone present. Luckily, there were only two people who had even bothered to sit - Sammy, who had accessed the built-in computer terminal on the table’s surface to call up his parents at their lab and put them on the big screen, and her mother, who had apparently needed to take a seat in order to process everything that was going on. 

However, with so many people standing in a room that was eighty percent table, the group found themselves left huddled together in awkward clumps in the corners of the room and feeling awfully claustrophobic. Again - who okayed the design for this place?!

Lance had not been happy with the request for this sudden meeting. After all, attacks were going off all around the Alliance, literally as they were speaking. Reports were coming in from places as far as Alfornada and Santalune, and while no individual attack seemed particularly large or threatening, the media had been whipped into a frenzy and was demanding attention from the League. It was clear from his expression upon entering the room that if AJ didn’t have a very, very good reason for asking him to be here, they were going to be having very loud words. 

But that was before. Before she and her friends had started to explain. Before Looker confirmed the identity of Cole and Sammy got his parents to reveal the baby Articuno. 

AJ had taken control of the explanation this time, beginning with the moment that their memory loss had first begun - right after the avalanche and their separation. She talked them through meeting Cole, his cabin in the woods, the Pikachu that had reminded her of Ethan’s story of the powerful trainer he’d met in the mountains and how she had initially thought it had all been a silly misunderstanding. Jade had explained about meeting Giovanni, and Sammy told the tale of wandering the mountainside with his broken leg, finding the egg and being rescued moments from death by the mother Articuno. 

Then, meeting Ash. Even now, almost two weeks after the fact, she still felt shame threatening to overwhelm her as she recounted their first meeting. The argument they’d had, and, worse, that terrible battle. She could have skipped it over, but she knew it was important. Every piece of evidence she could give would be a point toward convincing them she was telling the truth. Her tendency to lose control when her father was brought up was widely known by now, thanks to how public her fight with her mother had been at the party, and the pokemon Ash had used during the fight were the same ones it was known that he had disappeared with. Little things like that would give her story credibility.

After that came her and Jade sneaking out to find Sammy, and the discovery of the Sanctuary. 

She’d hesitated for a moment to recount this part. The Sanctuary was supposed to be a secret. A special haven where legendary pokemon could go to be safe. Revealing its existence to anyone was to increase the risk that the secret would leak and the haven would no longer be secure. 

Only, it already wasn’t secure. Giovanni knew where it was. And if he knew, then all of Team Rocket knew - all of every criminal organization on the planet would likely know before too long. Now wasn’t the time to keep the secret. Now was the time to fight to keep them safe. 

She and Jade placed heavy emphasis on that first initial meeting with Mewtwo, however. They stressed - repeatedly - about just how powerful Mewtwo was, about the burning hate that had been stoked to a blaze inside of it at Giovanni’s hands that was now directed towards all of humankind. About how, even if Ash and the legendary pokemon in the Sanctuary managed to fight Giovanni off themselves, that would only incite Mewtwo’s rage and could lead to its retaliation. And it saw no difference between Team Rocket and regular trainers. Its attack would be indiscriminate, and the destruction would make their current situation look like nothing in comparison. 

It was Cole’s backstory that she knew would be the hardest sell, however. That he and Giovanni had been friends in their youths was believable if not a little unexpected, but not particularly extraordinary. That they’d met Mew, however - that they’d fought over it, that it had chosen Cole and, eventually, all but kidnapped him when it had taken him to the Sanctuary atop Mt. Silver - was another thing altogether. And when you added the whole bit about Mewtwo being Mew’s clone, well…

This was the part they had no evidence for. That Cole was alive and had been on the mountain - that they could prove. He was here at the hospital, after all. That at least some legendary pokemon traveled to Mt. Silver to breed was also provable thanks to Sammy’s baby Articuno, though with the caveat that it was just one legendary pokemon, and one that was already known to frequent icy mountains in the first place. 

But the Sanctuary itself - a pocket dimension out of space and time - or the presence of other legendary pokemon, let alone Mew or Mewtwo, was already a stretch. And that Ash Ketchum was there, that he’d stumbled across the Sanctuary and his father seemingly by mistake, that AJ had done the exact same thing nearly two decades later, or that Giovanni was involved in this at all… None of that they could prove. 

And it was clear that that would ultimately be the sticking point. 

It took about fifteen minutes or so to wrap up their tale, finishing with a brief explanation of Ash’s betrayal and Mewtwo wiping theirs and Cole’s memories so that they could come home, and by that point, the room had grown completely silent. Every face looked back at her with some variation of confusion and disbelief. Not exactly a good sign. 

“Please,” she said finally, trying to remain firm and not let the ardent desperation she felt welling up inside her take over. “I know… I know how this all sounds, and with us just getting out of the hospital… Well, I don’t exactly blame you for not believing us. But please… We’re telling the truth. Giovanni is on Mt. Silver, he knows where the legendary pokemon are, and if he gets his hands on them…”

She trailed off, letting the severity of the implication stand on its own.

The room was silent for a moment as the occupants exchanged uneasy looks. She could see what they were thinking - the thought of Team Rocket or any villainous organization getting their hands on even one legendary pokemon was bad enough. But a whole group of them? Was it worth risking, even if AJ was almost certainly off her rocker?

Lance cleared his throat. His face looked grim, and somehow older than it had ever looked before. 

“AJ,” he began heavily, and she knew right away that she wasn’t going to like what he was going to say. “It’s not that I want to doubt you. Even with a story as extraordinary as that, it would still normally be my prerogative to look into this further. However, these are not normal times or normal circumstances. A very real war is being waged right now, and our people - not just here in the Indigo League, but all across the Alliance - are in danger. I cannot in good conscience sign off on an expedition into the middle of nowhere when we are currently needed here.”

AJ stood her ground, meeting Lance’s gaze head-on. She knew he’d say that. It was the rational thing to say, after all. But she knew she was right and she couldn’t back down. More was at stake here than a few burned buildings. 

“I know it’s a lot, asking you to go on blind faith,” she said. “Especially coming from me - the unproven new kid who hasn’t had a chance yet to earn your trust. But I know you know that there’s more at play here than these random attacks. You said it yourself this morning - when Kris pointed out how stupid this has all been, how pointless all these attacks are. They haven’t achieved a thing in the two weeks since this began, so why are they doing it? Ask yourself what they stand to gain from all of this - all of the money and manpower they’re wasting, all of the grunts they’re letting get arrested for seemingly no reason at all?”

“And you believe you’ve figured it all out?” Lance asked, curt but not necessarily angry. She could feel the frustration coming off of him in waves, but it didn’t seem like it was frustration with her necessarily - it had more to do with this entire situation, with the lack of progress in stopping the attacks for two whole weeks and seemingly no end to the conflict in sight. 

“They want to distract us,” she replied. “To keep us busy. To avert our eyes and our ears and tie up our hands and our resources so that we don’t see what they’re really after.”

“Which is what, exactly?” Lance challenged. “This… alleged paradise of legendary pokemon that you have no evidence for?”

“When did these attacks start happening?” she challenged back. “About two weeks ago? A few days after we left? Right around the time that Jade saw Giovanni - or that he saw Cole on the mountain? If these dead criminal organizations have been silent for so long, why did they all suddenly rise from the grave now? Do you really think that’s a coincidence?”

“You mean that he allegedly was on the mountain, and that he allegedly spotted Cole,” Lance replied, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. “I repeat, you still have no evidence to suggest-”

“Then what do you want from me?” AJ snapped, throwing her arms up into the air. “Should we keep running around like Doduo with our heads tied in knots, playing cleanup forever and getting nowhere? Would you rather wait until Cole wakes up - if he wakes up! - and corroborates our story, or would you even consider the testimony of a random hermit you’ve never met before? We don’t have time to stand around and waste - Giovanni has had two weeks to put his plan together, and all of these sudden attacks this afternoon would seemingly suggest that he’s making his move now, making sure we’re all too busy putting out fires to see what he’s really up to! What do we gain from waiting?!”

“The trust of the people!” Lance snapped back, finally losing his composure. “The faith that the Alliance has in their Champions and their League! You have a great deal to learn about being a Champion, Miss Ketchum, but above all, you must take this lesson to heart: 

“Being the Champion is not about fame, or glory, or pride. It’s about service - about being the linchpin that holds it all together, no matter how heavy the burden becomes. This world we live in, this world of pokemon - it is a wondrous place, but also a place of great danger. At any given moment, a person knows they may lose their homes or their livelihoods to the whims of a pokemon - wild or otherwise. What keeps people going, what keeps society pressing onward, is the faith that the people have that the League and their Champion will be there to protect them when times get hard. And if we all go off running up into the mountains on some wild Farfetch’d chase while their homes are being torched to the ground by criminals, that faith they have will be forever shaken!”

The silence that followed seemed to fill the empty space like thick syrup. AJ and Lance stared at one another across the too-large mahogany table, each breathing heavily, while the rest of the room looked on. 

AJ wanted so badly to scream at him, to let him know just how wrong he was and in every way that he was mistaken. Except… Well, she knew he wasn’t. Everything Lance had said just now was right, and she knew it. The trouble was, she knew she was right, too. His unwillingness to bend was frustrating, but then, could she blame him? If she was in his shoes, wouldn’t she feel the same way?

She could feel her anger boiling inside of her - that same red-hot temper she’d inherited from her mother. It had been her constant companion for all of her life, but now, she knew, was not the time. Losing control is what led to her fight with her mom at her party. Losing control had cost her her battle with her father. And losing control now would cost her Lance and his support. 

She wasn’t a child anymore. She was a Champion. And a Champion must be in control. 

She took a slow, deep breath, letting it hold for a moment deep within her chest, before letting it out through her nose. 

“I’m not suggesting that the League send everyone,” she said, keeping her tone level. “Mt. Silver is a dangerous place even on the best of days. We’d only need to send the best of the best - people we know can handle a direct confrontation with a legendary pokemon or the leaders of these criminal organizations who I’m sure will be there. Naturally, with all that’s going on, we’d want our Gym Leaders to stay put and keep the peace as best they can. How bad is the situation right now?”

She directed the last question to the room at large, glancing towards Professor Oak on the big screen, but it was Ethan who answered. 

“Bad,” he said, “but manageable. From the messages I’m getting, we’ve got at least seven separate attacks happening in the Indigo League alone right now - three each in Johto and Kanto and one in the Orange Islands - but these attacks all appear to be much smaller than what we’ve gotten used to. It looks like Sabrina has already handled the incident in Saffron, and Bugsy’s got the one in Azalea just about routed. Sounds like a couple of passing contest stars were in the area and helped them out.”

AJ nodded, feeling emboldened. Looks like they weren’t the only ones being stretched thin. 

“If these attacks are as small as they say, then they don’t need our direct attention - we should let the Gym Leaders and the local police do their jobs and handle things. We can keep our remaining Elite Four members on standby, ready to jump in anywhere that needs attention, but Lance, it’s worth it to commit at least some of our people to check out Mt. Silver. If I’m right, then we can finally put a stop to this once and for all. If I’m wrong…”

She shrugged as if to say they haven’t lost much, but Lance quirked an eyebrow shrewdly.

“If we’re wrong, then we’ve wasted precious hours and manpower for nothing and will have dealt our reputations - as individuals and the League as a whole - a heavy blow.”

“Yes,” she said, acknowledging his criticism with a nod. “But as Ethan just pointed out, that manpower isn’t needed at the moment. And I genuinely believe that we’re better utilized trying to end this once and for all than we are playing cleanup and posing for interviews after attacks that will more than likely be over long before any of us could even get to them. Besides, this isn’t like when Kris and Lyra came to find me the other day - we don’t have to scour the whole mountain at random. I know exactly where the Sanctuary is and we can go straight there. With good weather and fast pokemon, we’d be there in two or three hours. If it turns out I’m wrong, we’d be back at League Headquarters before midnight.”

Lance didn’t respond right away. He was staring at her in a considering sort of silence, clearly lost in thought. AJ tried not to hold her breath. While she knew she’d be heading up the mountain regardless of what Lance decided, having his support could make a world of difference in what was to come. There was no chance Giovanni was going up the mountain alone. She had no idea just how many forces he would be bringing with him - and from the report that morning, most of the higher ups from the other organizations had yet to be seen. It was low level grunts doing most of the fighting in the series of raids they’d been experiencing; the higher ups were clearly being saved for something big. Something like this. 

Brock let out a breath, looking strained. 

“Everything about this is insane,” he muttered, not looking at anyone in particular but clearly meaning the words for his daughter and their friends. 

Jade stood up straight, looking livid and about two seconds away from flying off the handle, but thankfully, she was interrupted by an unexpected voice coming from the screen projector. 

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that necessarily,” said Professor Oak Senior, who AJ hadn’t even realized had been a part of the discussion. He shuffled over from wherever he’d apparently been listening from off screen, leaning heavily on his cane, and paused for a moment to stroke Sammy’s baby Articuno affectionately. The pokemon let out a musical cry and preened. 

“What do you mean, gramps?” Gary Oak asked. 

“I can’t confirm or deny anything Ashlynn has been saying,” the professor clarified, “but parts of her story do ring true. This… Mewtwo you spoke of - the cloned pokemon that Giovanni created during his time as a Gym Leader. I was good friends with the late Dr. Fuji - rest his soul - and I know about much of the research he was working on towards the end of his career. I remember him speaking to me about a shady benefactor who had become one of his sponsors, and I also remember hearing about the accident decades ago that ended his life and destroyed his lab. Giovanni, as it so happened, vanished not long after. If his benefactor truly was Giovanni, and the research involved the creation of this Mewtwo, well… I suppose the pieces do fit together rather nicely.”

It wasn’t exactly a resounding declaration of support, but knowing that the esteemed Professor Oak didn’t think she’d gone completely loony was still a fairly large boost to her confidence.

On the other side of the room, in the corner with Iris and Hilda, the man with the long green hair suddenly raised his hand. 

“Ah, excuse me,” he said, sounding a bit like a boy in class who was hesitant to interrupt his teacher. “Forgive me for - perhaps I should have spoken up sooner? This contention is about whether there’s proof or not of this pokemon sanctuary atop the mountain, yes? Well… if that’s the case, then why don’t we just ask?”

Detective Looker, standing in the opposite corner with Brock, ran a free hand through his thinning hair in an exasperated sort of way. 

“If all we had to do was ask, we wouldn’t still be here, would we?” he said, his tone thick with sarcasm. “You can ask these three again and again, but three testimonies of the absurd isn’t going to make it any less absurd.”

“Four,” the green-haired man corrected, and Looker frowned. 

“What?”

“Four testimonies,” he said again, then pointed toward AJ. “That Pichu there has also been testifying that what Miss - AJ? - Miss AJ has been saying it true. He’s not happy that he’s been ignored. He also doesn’t seem to like you very much, Detective sir.”

Detective Looker stared at the young man for a moment as though not certain if he were joking, then glanced toward Pichu who was standing on the tabletop making a rather rude gesture in his direction. 

“You think asking this Pichu is going to change our minds?” Looker said, his words practically dripping with incredulity. 

The younger man let out a good-natured laugh as though completely oblivious to Looker’s tone. 

“Oh, no - no, of course not. But I was thinking, if a sanctuary like this really does exist, and legendary pokemon go there to rest and breed, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that other legendary pokemon would know about it?”

Hilda suddenly let out a loud gasp, slapping her hand onto her forehead with solid-sounding smack. 

“N! You’re a genius! Why didn’t I think of that?!”

“Think of what?” Brock asked, confused, but the boy - N? - was already talking. 

“You’ve been preoccupied with your friend’s health. But yes, we could ask Reshiram - or my own partner, Zekrom - about this sanctuary. If it exists, they should know about it - and once they learn about the danger, I imagine they wouldn’t hesitate to take us there. Ah, but we’ll need to go outside. Zekrom is rather large; I don’t think he’d fit in here with this table in the way.”

“So… If they corroborate our story, you’ll come?” AJ asked, trying not to sound too hopeful, and Hilda shot her an obvious look. 

“What? The confirmation is for them, not for me. I’m coming regardless. I’m not a Champion anymore; the League doesn’t get to boss me around.”

For a moment, AJ thought her chest was going to burst open from the sudden surge of love and affection for Hilda. If she was coming, that was two Champion-level trainers! That was a big deal!

“Me too,” her brother said, looking determined and staring around as though daring anyone to tell him no. “If there’s even a chance Team Rocket is there, then that’s where I’ll be. I’m getting Victor back.”

The Tinkatink in his arms let out a battle cry, waving her makeshift mallet in the air and accidentally smacking her trainer in the face. N clapped the younger boy bracingly on the shoulder, looking excited. 

So that was six then. She didn’t know how good N and Hilda’s twin were in a fight, but it was something-

“I’m in, too,” Kris piped up from Ethan’s side behind Lance. “I’m with Hilda on the whole ‘no one tells me what to do’ thing. Besides, I’ve been up the mountain at least once, which is more than most of you.”

AJ had to physically stop herself from bouncing on her toes. That was seven! And Ethan had said Kris was as good as he was, which meant now potential three Champion-level trainers! 

“I’m… gonna stay behind,” Lyra said, flashing AJ an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, I just… I’m not much of a battler. But maybe I can help coordinate? At least until you… get to the mountain and we can’t contact you anymore…?”

AJ nodded. That made sense, and she wasn’t upset. The mountain really was a dangerous place. No sense in anyone coming along who couldn’t handle themselves. 

“Should I go and ask my partner now?” N asked, moving as though to squeeze past the twins and head towards the door, but Lance interrupted, staring straight at AJ. 

“Are you truly prepared to do this?” he asked, and when AJ scrunched her brown in confusion, he clarified - “I mean, to go off up this mountain again without the League’s blessing. In open defiance of the voice of the people. You realize that by doing so, the media will paint you in an even worse light than they already have. Your reputation may be tarnished irredeemably.”

AJ took a slow breath, letting his warning fall over her like a sentencing from a judge. For a moment, she felt like she could really feel it pressing against her skin. 

“I am,” she said finally. “But I’m not defying the people. I’m saving them. I know - in my heart, in my mind - that this is the right thing to do. The media can say whatever they want to about me, but I’m going to do the right thing. No matter what.”

“And if you’re wrong?” he asked, and there was a heaviness to his words then, a look in his eyes that made this question seem so much more important than anything he’d asked her yet.

She shrugged.

“Then put all the blame on me. Strip me of my title if you have to. I’m still going up that mountain.”

Absently, she was a little surprised at how easy that was to say. Being the Champion was all she’d ever wanted, for as long as she could remember. But right now, her life’s dream meant nothing to her. There were more important things at stake. 

For a second, she thought she saw a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips, and a certain proud gleam in his eyes - but then it was gone, and he was all business. 

“So be it,” he said, turning and letting his gaze sweep the room at large. “Promises made by a Champion aren’t so easily broken, AJ. But if you’re going to be the Champion, then I suppose it’s about time I start treating you like one. If you need my help on the mountain, then you shall have it.”

AJ’s jaw nearly dropped. 

She did it? He was coming? She’d convinced him to come?!

Almost as soon as he’d spoken, Iris chimed in that she was coming too, almost as though she were waiting for this little battle between Lance and his successor to end before voicing her intent. “I’d never make it back to Unova in time to help anyway,” she added, shrugging. 

With Lance and Iris finally on board, things in the room suddenly became loud and chaotic. Professor Oak Senior was saying something about sending them all of the data they had on Mt. Silver while Sammy’s father was apparently engaging in a heated argument with his wife about going up the mountain too. Hilda and her boys had already made their way to the exit, talking amongst themselves in hurried tones - presumably off to summon their partners and ask about the Sanctuary. 

Looker, for his part, seemed exasperated - like he hadn’t fully gotten on board with this whole thing, but having realized that he had no say in the matter, was just going to go along with it. He stopped by Lance and Iris and was discussing whether he should arrange a special task force to follow them, but the Champions seemed to be telling him that he should have the higher-ups focus on supporting the Gym Leaders in fighting off the attacks until they got back. 

“We’ll let you know if we need you,” Iris was saying, “Though if AJ’s right, we may end up needing an aerial transport vehicle to cart off the potential prisoners once we’re through with ‘em.”

“And how would you call me, exactly?” Looker asked bluntly, but the rest of the conversation was lost to AJ as someone bumped her shoulder from behind. 

It was Jade, who was grinning at her with full excitement and pride. 

“AJ! You did it! You got everyone onboard!”

“Yeah,” she said, trying her best to seem nonchalant and not at all like she was fighting off the urge to jump up and down with excitement. “Guess so, huh?”

She looked around at all of the people in the room, feeling a little overwhelmed that she’d managed to gain their support. It occurred to her then that this was her first chance as the Champion to lead. It had gotten off to a rocky start, but things were looking up.

Pichu jumped off the table and scrambled back up to her shoulder, cheering and licking her cheek affectionately. She laughed, lifting a hand to scratch his ears. 

“Never doubted you for a moment,” Sammy said, smirking. 

“Yeah, unlike some people,” Jade added, turning to scowl at her approaching father. 

He threw his hands up in an ‘I surrender’ sort of pose, but still came over to stand with them. 

“I stand by my concerns,” he said, and Jade looked about ready to throw down again until he added, “but if you’re intent on going up there, then I’m coming with you.”

“You are?” Jade asked, clearly caught off guard, and Brock shrugged. 

“It’s a chance to go up Mt. Silver,” he said, echoing a sentiment she’d been hearing a lot lately, before adding, “Besides. If there’s even a chance that Ash is actually up there, then I need to see it for myself.”

Jade rolled her eyes, muttering something under her breath in an annoyed tone while Brock looked on in affectionate amusement. The typical father-daughter scene had AJ turning her head, looking for her mother, who was still sitting at the table, lost in thought. 

Tentatively, AJ approached her, not sure what to do or say. Slowly, she reached out a hand, placing it on her mother’s shoulder. 

“Hey, mom,” she said, vying for a soft, non-threatening voice, but still having to speak up a bit over the din of voices in the room. “You ok?”

Her mother looked up at her, her eyes cloudy and blue. 

“...Yeah, sweety. I’m ok.”

AJ hesitated, then asked, “Do you maybe want to stay behind and-”

But her mother cut her off with a sharp look, and AJ dropped it. She hadn’t thought she would, but she figured she deserved to at least offer her an out. This was going to be harder on her than on anybody. 

“Ok,” she said instead, squeezing her shoulder bracingly before dropping her hand. “Just… let me know if you need anything, ok?”

Before she could walk away, her mother grabbed her hand. 

“AJ,” she said, her voice almost too soft to hear. “Is he… Is he really…?”

“He is, mom,” she replied, kneeling down so their faces were closer together. “He’s up there. He stayed behind to protect the Sanctuary and keep those pokemon safe.”

She left out the part about him pushing her away again. Rational or not, it had hurt, and she was going to make him pay for it. But her mother didn’t need to hear that. 

To her surprise, her mother let out a watery laugh, squeezing AJ’s hand and using her free hand to wipe unsteadily at her eyes. 

“Yeah… That sounds like Ash.”

Someone reached out to tap her on the shoulder, and AJ straightened up to find that Lance had approached her, a stern look on his face.

“I meant what I said before, AJ - about Champions not being allowed to go back on their promises.”

AJ nodded, looking solemn. 

“I know. And I meant it too.”

If they got to the mountain and there was no Sanctuary, no Ash Ketchum, no Giovanni… Well, she would have just interrupted multiple League Champions in the performance of their duties in the middle of an international emergency. She would step down, willingly. 

Though, of course, she knew she wasn’t wrong, so she wasn’t all that concerned about that. She was too busy worrying about what was going on up on the mountain. 

Lance nodded, his face impassive. “Good.”

A moment later, however, his face broke into a congenial grin. 

“You know, I had my doubts about you at first.”

AJ blinked. To be fair, she had expected as much - that was probably pretty normal when handing over your title of Champion to someone else, especially someone so young - but did he really have to say that to her face?

“I’ve held this title for so long - too long, most would say. Myself included. I had thought, twenty years ago when I lost to your father, that the time had finally come to pass the torch along… but then he disappeared and I was forced to take it back. And in all these years, I had nearly given up hope of finding another trainer who had the spark. Finding Ethan had been a delightful surprise, but when we split the League, I had my doubts of finding another within the same generation to watch over Kanto.”

His smile turned kindly - almost grandfatherly - as it took her in. 

“It wasn’t until now that my doubts began to disappear. When you stood up to me for what you thought was right - when you declared your willingness to toss your pride and glory aside for the betterment of the people and pokemon you serve… That was when I knew. I expect great things from you, Miss AJ. Lead on, and we will follow.”

AJ barely managed to get out a surprised “Thank you,” before Lance had turned his attention to her mother, still sitting at the table. 

“Misty - I assume there’s nothing that I can say to persuade you to remain in Kanto?”

Her mother scowled, looking affronted, and finally stood, squaring her shoulders and gearing up for a fight. 

“No. If my daughter is going up there - if there’s any chance at all that Ash is there - then that’s where I’m going.”

She looked like she was dying for him to try and refuse her, but Lance was nodding along as though he’d expected nothing less.

“Of course. Though, since we sent Kohga to back up Alola, that means that without you, me, or AJ, Kanto will have but half of its Elite Four members available to assist should the situation begin to escalate. It’s not ideal, but perhaps Johto would be willing to loan us one of theirs until we return.”

He made a face and shook his head. 

“Truth to tell, I’d like to bring every Elite Four member we have along, but it simply isn’t feasible.”

“Do you not think we’ll be enough to handle it?” Sammy asked, joining the group, and Lance sighed. 

“I cannot say. If AJ is right - if Giovanni is making his move, then our missing admins - the leaders of Teams Aqua and Plasma and Galactic and all of the others who we’ve been looking for since the attacks began and yet haven’t even seen a hair of  - are almost certainly with him. It’s impossible to say whether the forces we have here will be enough to quell them or if we’ll find ourselves outnumbered.”

“But…” Jade said, looking uncertain for the first time. “I mean… Giovanni is one thing, but those other guys… I mean, they can’t stand up to a Champion, right? And between you, and AJ, and… I mean, we’ve basically got five Champions and an Elite Four member on our side, and the rest of us aren’t slouches. We should be fine, right?”

“You’re forgetting the legendary pokemon,” AJ said. “I mean, with any luck, we’ll be able to stop them before they get to the Sanctuary - but this is Giovanni we’re talking about. I doubt he went up there without a plan, and if he somehow manages to capture some of them, or if they decide all humans are a threat…”

She didn’t say Mewtwo’s name aloud, but she and Jade had witnessed his power and ferocity when they’d first entered the Sanctuary. Her friend’s face paled noticeably. If Giovanni somehow got control of Mewtwo, there was no guarantee that even all of them together could take it down. 

“AJ is right,” Lance said, completely missing Jade’s panic. “But in fairness, I usually prefer to assume the worst in all situations. We should probably be enough, but I’d always like to have more. Even if we show up there with too much backup, all that means is that the battle ends that much quicker, and with less damage to the environment and fewer injuries all around.”

But with the world in the state it was now, they couldn’t go asking the other Elite Four members or Gym Leaders to come along. If only there was someone else they could ask…

Lance turned his attention back to her mother, saying something about contacting the remaining Elite Four members, but someone cleared their throat nearby and AJ turned to find Ethan standing behind her, with Kris and Lyra close behind him, chatting among themselves. He looked a bit grim. 

“AJ,” he said slowly, then sighed, reaching up to rub at his eyes. “Listen, I… I’m glad you got the help you need, but… I think I’m going to stay behind.”

AJ blinked, feeling a little like she’d just been smacked in the face. 

“It’s not that I don’t want to believe you,” he said quickly, seeing her expression, “it’s just…”

“I know it’s a lot,” she said carefully, and he let out a hoarse laugh. 

“Yeah, no kidding. But I mean, it’s not like it’s completely mad - like you and Kris and Professor Oak said, parts definitely start to line up if you look at it from your perspective. But I - we - have a responsibility to the people of the Indigo League. Asking me and Lance to abandon them when they need us is asking too much.”

AJ felt herself starting to deflate a little. She could see where he was coming from, but still… Having Ethan on her side would have meant the world to her. He was the first Champion she’d met, other than Lance. Her partner Champion protecting the Indigo League. And though they’d only met a couple of times, she had thought they were already starting to become friends. She had thought for certain that he’d be on her side.

From her spot next to him, Kris punched him lightly on the arm. 

“What’s this, then?” she asked, giving him a disappointed look. “You scared?”

Ethan rolled his eyes but didn’t rise to her low-effort bait. 

“I just feel like having all of the Champions disappear is a risk that we shouldn’t be so gung-ho about taking. I mean… Maybe you’re right - Maybe Giovanni really is leading people up there, and maybe there are legendary pokemon, but…”

“Ethan, there really are legendary pokemon up there,” AJ butted in, now desperately hoping she could still turn him to her side. Sure - he was talking sense, and maybe it would be a good move to leave one Champion behind - but if one had to stay, let it be Iris or whoever. She wanted Ethan because he was her friend. “You saw Sammy’s baby Articuno!”

“One legendary pokemon,” Ethan said, looking apologetic. “And I’ve been up that mountain myself, remember? I didn’t see anything-”

AJ opened her mouth to argue, but Lyra cut her off. 

“No, there’s more than one. Kris and I saw a Suicune. It’s what led us to AJ and the others.”

AJ stared at her in astonishment. No one had told her that!

“And you did see something,” Kris added before Ethan could interject. “Didn’t you battle a mysterious trainer with a super strong Pikachu?”

“Ok!” he said, holding his hands up in front of his face like he was warding off an attack. “Ok, so there’s more than one legendary pokemon and yeah - maybe I battled someone who could have been Ash Ketchum. Maybe. But I still don’t see a plausible enough threat to warrant sending all of us up there - especially not when we have people in active danger right here, right now.”

AJ opened her mouth… then slowly let it close. She wanted so badly to argue with him and get him to change his mind, but… Well, he was a Champion, too. He had to follow his heart and do what he thought was best for the people of Johto. It would be hypocritical to stand in his way. 

Kris, however, apparently didn’t feel the same and punched him again. 

“You’re such a buzzkill,” she said, as if that was in any way relevant to the crisis at hand. “You heard everyone - the pieces all fit together so nicely! What more proof do you need?”

“They do not fit together nicely!” Ethan practically spluttered. “I mean, yeah, sure - maybe some of the explanations make sense, but there are plenty that don’t! If the attacks are supposed to be distractions, why did they start two weeks ago when the alleged ‘invasion’ or whatever is happening now? And what was up with Goldenrod? Why was that one different?”

“What was different about the attack on Goldenrod again?” AJ asked, feeling a bit guilty - but in her defense, she’d only learned about all of this this morning and there was a lot going on. 

“Hilda can explain-” Kris started, then frowned, looking around. “Or not. Guess she went outside with her boys. But that was the biggest attack of the bunch, right? Way more damage. And they stole a bunch of stuff I think.”

“Yeah, most of the attacks involved petty looting, but Goldenrod was the only one where they stole something that wasn’t, like, people’s purses or stuff you’d find on the shelves of a pokemart or whatever. They stole a bunch of components from the Radio Tower, but we can’t figure out why. Plus Charon was there - he’s a big-time leader from Team Galactic, and he’s the only leader we’ve seen involved in any of these attacks so far, which would imply that whatever they stole was important - and I can’t see how any of that has to do with Mt. Silver.”

AJ struggled for a moment but eventually had to give in. He had a point - she couldn’t see how any of that related to Mt. Silver either.

“I… see your point,” AJ said, conceding, though it brought her no joy. Losing Ethan was a blow almost as big as losing Lance would have been. “I mean, the only thing that comes to mind with radios and Mt. Silver is that they don’t work on Mt. Silver.”

“Maybe they’re trying to build a special radio tower that… can work on Mt. Silver?” Lyra offered, trying to be helpful, but still looking like even she knew the suggestion was stupid. 

“I mean I guess,” Kris said, shrugging. “But what would be the point? Not much of a population up there to broadcast to, right? Unless they wanted to play music for pokemon.”

She and Lyra laughed - not so much because it was funny, but because of how absurd the idea was - but Ethan’s face suddenly went completely blank. 

“Radio broadcast…” he mumbled, clearly talking to himself, and a moment later, his eyes went wide. 

“You ok?” she asked, noticing how gray his face had gone, but just as suddenly he had turned around and was shouting at Lance, looking panicked. 

“What is it?” Lance asked, looking equal parts concerned at Ethan’s sudden change in demeanor and annoyed at being shouted at, but Ethan looked past the point of politeness.

“It’s about the attack on Goldenrod,” he said frantically, sounding a little breathless. “That first one, the one that started all of this. Our outlier.”

“What about Goldenrod?” Iris asked, and AJ realized they’d become the center of attention for everyone who was still in the room. 

“They stole random radio parts from the Radio Tower, remember? And we couldn't figure out why? Lance, think about it: Team Rocket? The Radio Tower? The Lake of Rage?”

None of this meant anything to AJ - or, apparently, to anyone else in the room, which made AJ feel a bit better about being in the dark - but Lance’s eyes suddenly grew wide and he slowly lifted his hand to his forehead, looking positively floored. 

“Of course,” he breathed, sounding winded. “The Radio Tower… Why didn’t I see it earlier…?”

“See what?” Sammy asked, annoyed, and Ethan quickly began to explain. 

“Years ago - way back when I was still a rookie trainer - Team Rocket tried to stage a comeback in Johto. They took over the Goldenrod Radio Tower and started hijacking the broadcasts.”

“Right, I remember that,” Brock said slowly, nodding along. “Lasted for a few hours - even some of the frequencies in Kanto were being taken over. But what’s that got to do with what we’re dealing with now?”

“Hijacking radio frequencies to broadcast their propaganda wasn’t all they were after,” Lance answered. “They were also testing a particularly malicious frequency that they broadcasted out of a satellite station in Mahogany Town, targeting the Lake of Rage. The frequency was special - not just meant to be picked up on the radio, but instead targeting the wild pokemon living around the lake. It drove them to a state of frenzy where they lashed out violently against each other and anyone who came close to them, and drove many to evolve prematurely.”

“That was actually the first time Lance and I met,” Ethan said, taking over again. “I bumped into him when I was investigating the lake, and we teamed up to destroy the satellite station and stop the broadcast. I don’t know what their goal was - whether to whip the wild pokemon into a frenzy and attack the town, or if it was just a means to force wild pokemon to evolve so they could capture their stronger forms without having to put in the work, I don’t know.”

“Ok, but why does this matter now?” Iris asked, still looking a little lost. “I mean… I haven’t been on this mountain before, but weren’t you all saying that you can’t get any kind of internet connection there and that radio frequencies can’t pass through the mountains?”

“They can’t pass through them,” Ethan said, looking grave. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t work. We should confirm with Steven, but- wait! Professor Oak! Sir!”

Ethan quickly turned his attention to the projection of the Oaks that was still up on the wall. Gary and Leaf were still arguing in the background, but Professor Oak Senior had settled himself in the computer chair in front of the camera and had been feeding the baby Articuno by hand. At the sound of his name, he looked up. 

“Hm? Yes? Speak up, lad, these ears aren’t what they used to be.”

“You said you had data about Mt. Silver, right? Do you know about the issue with radio and internet frequencies not passing through the mountains?”

“A bit,” the professor said, frowning slightly. “I don’t believe anyone ever discovered the cause, if that’s what you mean, but I do know that whatever it is - the electromagnetic waves or some kind of radiation or-” 

Or the legendary pokemon having a secret sanctuary on the top of the mountain, AJ added mentally, but kept her mouth shut to let the Professor explain.

 “- or whatever it is, that’s why frequencies can’t pass through the mountains, which is why you don’t get a signal when you’re there.”

“They can’t pass through the mountains,” Ethan said, placing a heavy emphasis on the word ‘through’. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t work at all, right?” 

Professor Oak leaned in closer to the screen, looking confused. 

“I’m afraid I don't understand what you’re getting at, lad.” 

Oh good - it wasn’t just AJ then. 

“What I mean is, if someone were to, hypothetically, set up a radio tower on the mountain and start broadcasting, would you still be able to pick up a signal?”

The professor cocked his head to the side, looking thoughtful. At his side, the baby Articuno did the same. 

“Hmm… Well, I suppose… In theory, yes, the tower should still be able to produce the signal. There’d still be interference from… whatever is causing the interference on the mountain, so it wouldn’t travel far. I imagine you’d only be able to reach a very limited area, but it still might be possible.”

“And if that someone were Team Rocket, and the radio frequency they were broadcasting were the same one they pioneered at the Lake of Rage…”

“Then… you’d drive the wild pokemon into a frenzy?” Jade asked, still looking lost. 

But AJ felt like she’d just been doused in a bucket of ice water. 

“You’d drive the legendary pokemon into a frenzy,” she said, barely more than a whisper. “They’re going to target the Sanctuary and Mewtwo with their frequency.”

“That was my thought, yeah,” Ethan nodded. “And if that’s their plan, and if this Sanctuary of yours is real, then… Well, I think this just got a whole lot more serious.”

AJ had had her doubts, before, about whether Giovanni would really be able to take Ash and Mewtwo together. Even with the full force of his criminal enterprise behind him, what could he really hope to achieve when pitted against both of them - and the veritable army of legendary pokemon at their backs?

Now, however… If there really was some sort of radio frequency that could drive wild pokemon wild, and if it worked on legendary pokemon too… 

Panic started to well up inside of her chest. Her concerns about Ash and the Sanctuary from before now felt like a puddle beside the ocean of anxiety now threatening to drown her.

“We need to go,” Aj said, her voice sounding loud in the dull quiet of the room. “Now.”

The others wasted no time in making for the door, with Ethan saying something about calling Steven, Hoenn’s Champion and an expert in engineering, and Kris and Lyra following close behind. 

Lance excused himself as well, stating that he needed to go and change if they were going to charge off up the mountain. The same seemed to be true for just about everyone, as among them, only AJ, Sammy, Jade, and Kris had brought along supplies suitable to climb Mt. Silver. While the others made their not-so-quick trip to the sporting goods store for a wardrobe change, AJ and her friends agreed to set off first, stating that they’d rendezvous at the Rangers Station at the foot of the mountain before making the final ascent together. 

Feeling fear and panic and anxiety warring inside her, she gathered Jade and Sammy, made sure Pichu was up on her shoulder where he belonged, and, after quickly changing into their cold weather gear - the only gear they’d still had on when they’d been found, as they’d actually been wearing it - they were on their way.

The moment she stepped outside, she was swarmed by reporters. 

AJ was actually stunned for a moment, having completely forgotten about the paparazzi. They’d had people from the League pick them up from the hospital and take them to Headquarters earlier, and they’d been able to shepherd them along and form a barrier to protect them from the media, but AJ had left the building with only Jade and Sammy this time, and they were instantaneously mobbed. 

It was quite literally like being pelted with stones - except instead of stones, it was flashbulbs and q, shouted questions, all tumbling over each other from the roiling mass of reporters that had boxed them in against the front doors in a confusing, incomprehensible roar of “Miss Ketchum! Miss Ketchum!”, “Over here! David Lane from the Celadon Times-”, “Champion AJ, what is the League doing to-?”

There were so many questions jumbled right on top of one another that she couldn’t pick a single one out to answer even if she wanted to, and with the camera flashes going off like strobe lights, she felt practically blinded, not able to see if there was a way out of the scrum. 

Jade and Sammy both tried to help, holding out their arms as if they could shield her and trying to shout at the reporters to get back, Pichu squeaking impotently from her shoulder, but it was two against more than twenty at this point. They weren’t doing much good. 

AJ tried to speak - she really did. She called out that she had no comment, that she didn’t have time to answer questions, she was on League business and they were interfering, but her voice was lost in the din and nobody seemed to be able to hear her. How, exactly, did they expect her to answer their questions if they were all screaming on top of each other like this?! They were like a pack of rabid, starving Houndour who had cornered a Sentret.

The doors behind her opened, and she saw what looked like League security hastily exiting the building with their Machoke, trying to force the reporters back to give AJ some space. Eventually, a gap opened up to the left, and she felt Jade take her hand, dragging her in that direction. They just needed to get far enough away that she could call out her Metagross and they could get out of here. 

It was then, however, that a thought occurred to her. 

Lance had just been lamenting them not having any additional backup. They couldn’t ask for any more help from the League or the police, but… Who said the only good trainers were associated with the League? She thought of Hilda and her boys, and what Ethan had said earlier - about how Bugsy had been able to quickly quell the attack in Azalea earlier with the help of a couple of contestant stars who had just happened to be in the area. 

Random trainers had been helping Gym Leaders and the police fight off these attacks for weeks now without needing to explicitly be told to do so. Just look at Kris - she had no professional affiliation with the Elite Four or even any Gyms for that matter, but she was still coming along. 

There were probably loads of capable trainers out there who could help. Good people who would do the right thing. The only problem was, how would they find them? How could they get a hold of them and convince them to trust her?

But the answer was right in front of her. The media. 

If these sleaze-ball reporters were going to capitalize on this disaster to pad out their wallets, then she was going to capitalize on them right back. 

The League security team was moving with them, forming a pocket around AJ and her friends as they walked, but the reporters followed right along. It made AJ feel a bit like bacteria that had been swallowed by a cell as it tried to dissolve them. They were trying to head around the side of the building, avoiding the main staircase that led up to the front doors of the League Headquarters and instead aiming for a relatively open patch of grass to the side where they could call out their pokemon, but the crowd wasn’t making it easy. 

And as they walked, AJ kept looking for an opening. Not in the crowd, but in their clamor. If she could get them to shut up for a second so she could talk…! But the reporters seemed more concerned with shouting over each other than they did actually getting any answers. 

Suddenly, someone broke from the crowd. He stepped in front of them, somehow managing to dodge under the outstretched arm of a Machoke, invading their bubble and coming to a halt directly in front of AJ. He had a smarmy, ingratiating smirk on his face and a mic held up to his mouth as he said, in a loud, carrying voice, “Well, well - if it isn’t our runaway Champion. Finally decided to come out of hiding?”

Sammy stepped forward, ready to shove the man to the side, but AJ caught his arm, pulling him back. The crowd had quieted down a bit at the sound of the newcomer’s voice, their cameras and microphones all pointed expectantly at her. Even the security team had hesitated, looking to her to see how she wanted them to proceed. 

But AJ stepped forward, approaching the man. This was her chance - if she could get him to let her make a statement…

Something about him looked vaguely familiar, though she was certain they’d never met before. He was older than her by a good decade or so, she’d guessed, with a pale face, a dark, narrow suit, and black hair that had been slicked back with so much gel it practically looked like a Kabuto carapace. His eyes were a sickly green, small and narrow, and they gazed at her like a Pidgeotto eying a juicy Caterpie. 

“Yes - hello,” AJ said, mainly because she didn’t know what else to say. This whole public speaking, doing interviews thing wasn’t really her forte, but she was going to have to get used to it eventually. May as well start now. 

The man hummed in response, but in a sarcastic sort of way. 

“It’s a bit of a surprise, actually seeing you in person,” he continued. “With the way you’ve been mysteriously absent these past couple of weeks, we were under the impression that you were content to sit back and let Lance do all the hard work while you kicked back on vacation.”

“Uh,” she said, blinking rapidly at the unexpected accusation. “Well that’s… There wasn’t any internet or radio interactivity where we were, so I was actually unaware of what was going on until this morning-”

“Yes, I’m sure,” the man cut in, sounding absurdly condescending, and AJ found herself scowling. 

“I’m sorry - who are you supposed to be?”

“Me?” he said, pointing to himself and feigning a look of astonishment, as though he could not believe that anyone wouldn’t know who he was. “I’m Sebastian Stilles, Miss Ketchum - official League Analyst and reporter from KNN.”

KNN - the Kanto News Network. It took her a second, but then her brain connected the dots. 

She knew where she’d seen him before. He was that guy from the news broadcast that had been playing on tv during her celebration party after she’d made Champion. The talking head who thought he knew a thing or two about battling despite clearly not having been in a real pokemon battle since he’d quit traveling when he was twelve. 

To be fair, she didn’t actually know if that last bit was true, but that was the aura he was giving off. He reeked of spoiled wanna-be and overcompensation. She disliked him almost immediately. 

“Tell me, Miss Ketchum,” the reporter continued, a greasy smile on his face, “surely you’ve heard the news about the multiple attacks that have broken out across Kanto this morning, yes? Yet here you are, safely in League Headquarters, rather than out on the streets lending a hand. Why is that?”

“Right,” AJ said slowly. “I was in the hospital this morning when the attacks started. I just got out of a meeting with Lance and Ethan about-”

But he didn’t wait for her to finish, instead launching straight into his next question. 

“What are your plans - if you have any - to finally put an end to the violence that has sprung up since you took over as Champion?”

“We actually do have a plan,” she said, feeling her blood beginning to simmer. Did he just not-so-subtly imply that these attacks were somehow her fault? “If you’d let me, I’d like to-”

“And what would be your response to the criticisms levied by many that you only earned your title due to a combination of nepotism and Former Champion Lance being well past his prime?”

AJ actually gawked for a moment as though she’d just been slapped across the face 

“E-excuse me?!”

“Forgive me, Miss Ketchum, but there are many out there - in Kanto and abroad - who are questioning the wisdom in having Kanto’s new Champion be someone so young, and who are wondering if you perhaps found your journey made easier than most thanks to your mother being in the Elite Four, your close association with the Oaks, and your father’s famous last name.”

Here, he paused to smile at her. His too-white teeth seemed to glisten in the flashes of the surrounding cameras, a sardonic grin that seemed to be deeply enjoying what he was doing. 

There was a scuffle behind her, as though someone - though whether it was Jade or Sammy, she didn’t know - had tried to force their way forward, but AJ held out her arm to stop them. 

She knew what he was doing. He didn’t actually care about the answers to his questions or about anything she had to say. He was just trying to provoke a rise out of her so he could make a headline. AJ, the hot-headed teenager who blew up publicly at her own celebration party, the immature little girl who wasn’t ready to be the Champion yet. This wasn’t journalism - it was low-effort content farming, no different from what no-life trolls did for views on social media. 

No wonder he kept calling her ‘Miss Ketchum’ instead of ‘Champion AJ’. 

“I would say that some people have a lot of time on their hands and should probably find better ways to spend their life than pretending to be experts in fields they know nothing about,” she said, forcing a fake smile of her own. 

She didn’t have time for this. She’d hoped to be able to make a call for help to send out across the world through the news, but at this point, she was just wasting time. Giovanni could be on the mountain right now and she had an hours-long journey ahead of her!

The man raised his eyebrows, looking unimpressed. 

“So you believe you know more than League experts?” he asked, making the question sound as though it were the most ludicrous claim imaginable. 

“I believe that I know more than some wanna-be talking head who hasn’t had a real battle in fifteen years,” she spat back, and someone in the crowd of reporters made an excitable sort of noise, as though imagining the headline they were going to have for the evening news. 

Her blood was full-on boiling now, but she was doing everything in her power to hold back the impending outburst. And to think - not even a half an hour ago, she was patting herself on the back for making so much progress with Lance. But it’s easy to act mature when confronted with a well-reasoned argument from a well-intentioned opponent like Lance. This guy was intentionally provoking her. He would love nothing more than to see her explode. She didn’t want to give him what he wanted - that would be the same thing as letting him win…

With a sneer, the man raised his mic back up to his lips and said, condescension dripping from his every word, “Forgive me if I can’t take that seriously from the girl who’s spent her life eclipsed in the shadow of her much more talented father.”

AJ wasn’t even sure what happened next. One moment, she was staring at him as though she’d never seen a creature so vile and repulsive in her life. The next, she’d taken a step forward, cocked back her arm, and let her fist fly straight into his greasy smirk. 

The crowd let out a shocked gasp, the flashes of cameras increasing in intensity for a blinding moment as Sebastian Stilles - worst reporter in the Indigo League - stumbled back, looking absolutely shocked as blood gushed out of his now-ruined nose. He lost his footing and fell backwards, stunned, but was caught by the crowd before he could hit the ground, staring up at her in stupefied horror as though he couldn’t believe she’d actually done that. 

Honestly, she couldn’t either, and she grimaced as she shook her hand in front of her. Punching someone in the face was a lot more painful than movies made it seem. But it had felt so unbelievably good. 

Lance was going to kill her. So much for all those nice things he’d been saying about her earlier. 

But none of that mattered now. She didn’t have time for this - not for stupid reporters or concerns about her image or even the inevitable assault charges she’d probably have pressed against her. They’d wasted too much time here. 

AJ turned, and the circle of reporters drew back as though afraid she was going to come after them next. The League security team looked hesitant, some of them turning around as though wondering if they needed to be protecting the paparazzi from her instead of the other way around. 

She reached out and snagged the microphone out of the hand of a woman who wasn’t able to pull back fast enough, holding it up to her mouth and looking in the direction of what she thought was that reporter’s camera, hoping they were filming this. 

“I’d like to make a statement,” she said, and the woman nodded, a little fearfully. Well, fear wasn’t exactly the kind of respect she’d been hoping for as the Champion, but it was something. 

“My name is AJ Ketchum,” she said loudly, addressing the group at large. “The current Grand Champion of the Kanto League. And I have something to say.”

Here, she took a deep breath. This may not be the smartest way to go about this. Lance would definitely have some choice words. Her mother, too. The League was probably already kicking themselves about not hiring a PR Team for her. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and how else was she supposed to rally people to come to their aid?

She had one card to play - a card she’d never played before and had sworn up and down that she never would, despite what Sebastian Stilles seemed to think. But she was playing it now. 

If he thought her famous last name had made things easier for her, well, then let it be true today.

“My father - Ash Ketchum - is alive,” she said, pausing for a moment to let it sink in, watching as the expressions on the faces of the reporters and security guards around her changed from hilarity and fear to shock and disbelief. 

“He’s alive,” she repeated, “and he’s on Mt. Silver - where he’s been for the last eighteen years, doing what he does best and keeping pokemon safe.”

And not raising me, she thought to herself, the words bubbling up in her mind, unbidden. Not being there for me, or for mom. Missing my every important moment and forcing a legacy on me I never asked for. 

And ultimately, she knew, none of that was really his fault. But it didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t there. Who was to blame really didn’t matter. The result was the same, and no one could change that. 

“These attacks that have been plaguing the Alliance are the result of a plan probably years in the works by a man named Giovanni. Me and Lance and Champion Ethan and a few others are heading up the mountain again now to provide backup, but that’s all we can send. The rest of the League has their hands full putting an end to the violence and trying to keep you all safe, but this won’t truly be over until Giovanni is stopped.”

And once he was stopped - if he was stopped - what then? Would Ash come home? Did he want that? Did they? Was he just supposed to step back into the void he’d left in their lives like he’d never gone? She’d found him once and he’d pushed her away again. And sure - maybe that wasn’t exactly his fault either, but how many times can you be rejected by someone before the hurt grows too big to heal?

“Ash Ketchum is alive,” she repeated, and to her surprise, she felt emotion creeping into her voice, tightening her throat and filling her eyes with tears she refused to shed. “He’s alive… but he needs help. He can’t do this on his own, but the League can’t afford to send anyone else to help him. Please… If you can hear me… If you have a team that can handle a life-or-death brawl… If you remember Ash Ketchum, if you ever called him a friend… Please. At the tallest peak of Mt. Silver. He needs you. We all do.”

Her voice gave out then, but it was fine - she’d said what she needed to. She handed the microphone back to the mystified reporter and turned to walk away, stepping over the legs of Sebastian Stilles as he sat on the ground, still trying to stem the flow of blood from his ruined nose. 

The crowd was shouting questions, but they parted for her all the same. Perhaps out of fear that she’d hit them, too. Perhaps because they could see the look on her face. In a removed sort of way, she wondered if her declaration about her father being alive was enough to eclipse the news that she’d punched a reporter in the face and broke his nose. Anything was possible. Or maybe it would just be used as further evidence that she had gone completely psychotic.

Jade and Sammy said nothing as they joined her on the grass, Jade summoning her Metagross and Sammy climbing onto his Corvinight. Within seconds, they were up in the air and heading off towards Mt. Silver once again. 

AJ remained quiet, keeping her head down and her arms wrapped securely around Pichu so he didn’t fall off. The League was probably going to be mad. She’d just invited a bunch of strangers to storm a restricted pokemon habitat - one notable for being especially dangerous to traverse. If anyone showed up and got hurt, or any poachers thought they’d try their luck and take advantage of the situation, it would probably be on her head. 

But so be it. She’d punched a man on live TV today. What was one more mistake to add to the list? Try as she might, she couldn’t bring herself to care all that much. 

Sometimes, when you did what you thought was right, people got hurt. You still have to do the right thing, but just because that thing is right, it doesn’t erase the hurt that you caused. She’d have to own up to her actions once all was said and done. And she would. That was the person she wanted to be. 

She was not her father. Even if they both tried to do what they thought was right, and even if they both ended up hurting people in the end. 

She was not her father - she had screamed that in her heart every day, since the day she’d been given her first pokemon. Her father had - intentionally or not, willingly or not - abandoned her twice. It didn’t matter if he had wanted to cause her pain, because he had. The pain was there, and it was real, and it didn’t magically vanish just because he’d had good intentions. 

But she was not her father. She didn’t abandon the people she cared about when they needed her. 

And with that thought foremost in her heart, she faced forward toward the distant mountain and the uncertain mountain that lay in the heart of it.

Somewhere above the frostbitten peaks of Mt. Silver, a fleet of ships descended through the clouds. 

They hovered for a moment, slowly circling the tallest peak of the mountain range before touching down in a relatively level clearing, their landing gears sinking several feet into the densely-packed snow. 

The docking ramp of the lead vessel lowered, and an older gentleman descended with slow purpose-filled steps, a Persian at his side. 

The wind was frigid here, and it seemed to pierce the man even through his top-of-the-line Beartic-fur snowsuit. Age was catching up to him, and any lesser man his age would have immediately balked at the chill. Yet instead of backing down, he found the wind and the cold bracing. 

This was it. The moment he’d been working toward for forty years. 

As Giovanni’s boots crunched through the snow, he glanced up at Mt. Silver’s tallest peak, looking more purple now in the fading light of the dying day, but he couldn’t stop the self-satisfied smirk from gracing his lips. 

Other ships touched down behind him, and people began flooding out onto the mountainside. Rocket Admins and leaders of other organizations - Plasma, Aqua, Magma, Galactic; the names changed, but the hand that pulled their strings did not - began taking to the field, releasing their pokemon and spreading out wide to begin the search. It had to be close.

The largest ship of all was the last to land. A cargo vessel, carrying Dr. Charon and the partially constructed segments of his special radio tower, as well as the surprise boon they’d managed to snag in Castelia. They’d gone through a great deal of trouble to acquire the necessary components at such short notice. He’d been waiting a long time to use this tech again, and he could think of no better venue. 

One of his Admins, Archer, approached from behind to give his report. A cabin had been found nearby, but it was empty. Instead, the readings were pointing west-northwest. So then - the final peak of the mountain itself. Perfect. 

His smirk grew more pronounced, a sneer in full. 

He was so close now, he could practically smell it in the air. 

Before the new day dawned, the ambition he had dedicated his life to fulfilling would finally - finally - be in his grasp. That which was rightfully his would finally be returned to him. 

He ordered Archer to take Maxie, Archie, and half of their forces and remain with Charon. He would need the help to move and assemble the remaining parts of the tower. The completed structure would have been too large to transport, so Charon had decided to assemble what he could in the lab and complete the construction on-site. That would take some time, but it was fine. Time was something he had to work with. 

The remaining forces led by Ghetsis, Mars, and Lysander were quickly assembled and ordered to spread out, searching the mountainside between their landing point and the last tall spire of Mt. Silver. That was the direction their readings were giving them. 

The mysterious magnetic properties of Mt. Silver were a nuisance, preventing most forms of long-distance communication from passing through, which meant it was difficult if not entirely impossible to exchange information between those on the mountain and those without. However, as he had discovered personally on his trip, this restriction only applied to long-range communication. Short-range frequencies would still work, albeit at an even shorter distance than intended. 

He had brought along a radar of sorts, devised by old researchers from Silph Co and utilizing what information remained from his experiments on the blood he’d stolen from Mew and that abominable failure, Mewtwo. It wasn’t much, but it had allowed them, once on the mountain, to roughly determine the location of his prize. It was hardly exact, and with that mysterious interference, they may yet need to send some men out to triangulate the position - but it would do for now. In any event, the central spire seemed auspicious. That was where they would head first. 

It didn’t take long. Being so close to his prize, his blood seemed afire with a vigor and determination he’d not felt since he was a much younger man, and the cold barely seemed to touch him. Minutes passed by between blinks, and before he knew it, they were arriving at the foot of the last lone peak. From its base, he could see what looked to be a small creek flowing from the depths of the black maw of a cave. 

It would be there, he knew. He didn’t need to check the radar again. Call it intuition if you must, but he was never wrong. His prize would be there, somewhere within. It was within his sights, now.

The sun was nearly beneath the horizon now, painting the once-white snow in burning swaths of orange and red and gold. Victory, it seemed to say. Victory.

A few meters away from the cave’s entrance, the group came to a stop. 

There was someone standing in front of the cave, barring their way. Just one someone. A single man. 

A man too young to be Cole, and yet… There was something familiar about him. The shape of his face, the casual slouch, the iconic hat, the Pikachu glaring from atop his shoulder…

Yes… Yes, he knew this boy. He would remember that amber-eyed glare for as long as he lived. 

Giovanni let out a short breathless chuckle. 

“Well now… do wonders never cease? Just how many legends have taken to hiding on this mountain exactly?”

The boy - the man - said nothing. His Pikachu hopped down off his shoulder, squaring off, as if it and its trainer alone would be enough to prevent them from accessing the cave. 

Giovanni’s forces began to spread out, encircling the man, easily outnumbering him twenty-to-one, cutting off any hope of escape. The man didn’t flinch. His face remained steady, his eyes aflame with determination.

Giovanni planted his cane firmly in the snow, allowing himself to lean against it as he settled in for a show. 

“Very well then,” he said, letting his words ring out as darkness gradually fell across the mountain. 

“Entertain me.”

Chapter Text

From her penthouse in Cerulean City, Daisy Waterflower-Sketchit sat perched stiffly on the edge of her chiffon loveseat, staring ashen-faced at the television screen, her half-empty glass of lemon-zested seltzer water forgotten in her limp hand. 

“Ash Ketchum is alive,” AJ said, staring into the camera with a look of haunting desperation that Daisy had never before seen on her niece. “He’s alive… and he’s on Mt. Silver.”

The words seemed to echo in the air for a moment - haunting, illusory. Slowly, she lowered her hand, setting the glass down on the coffee table, feeling more than hearing the hard clack of glass against wood. The thought that she should be using a coaster floated improbably across her mind. 

“Tracey,” she called, but her voice was weak and croaky. AJ was still on the screen - she’d just punched a man and then turned to the camera and- “Tracey?! Tracey!”

Her husband, Tracey Sketchit, walked over from the kitchen, his hands covered in soap suds, his face concerned. Their daughter trailed behind them, an uncapped marker still held in her hand from where she’d been coloring at the kitchen table, looking confused.

“You ok, love?” he asked, but she merely pointed wordlessly at the screen where AJ was still talking.

“...If you remember Ash Ketchum, if you ever called him a friend… Please. At the tallest peak of Mt. Silver. He needs you. We all do.”

Then she was walking away from the camera. Reporters were shouting, asking questions, but she didn’t turn back. A moment later, she was gone.

Tracey’s jaw had gone slack, soap suds now dripping from his hands onto her nice carpet. 

“Mama?” her daughter asked, not understanding what was going on but sensing the mood and looking concerned. 

“I…” Tracey began, then stopped, swallowing thickly, trying to work moisture back into his mouth. Suddenly, Daisy was moving. As though the shock had worn off all at once, she reached out and snatched her pokegear off the coffee table and immediately began calling her baby sister. 

The phone rang once… twice… then voicemail. 

She tried again. Then again, angrily screaming in her head, demanding to know why Misty was ghosting her now of all times. On the fourth attempt, the call went straight to voicemail without ringing. So she was ignoring all of her calls then. Great. 

“Any luck?” Tracey asked, and she glanced up to see he had his own pokegear up to his ear. “Brock’s not answering either.”

Then, suddenly, his pokegear began to ring, which startled them both - him enough that he actually jumped. 

“Is it them?” Daisy asked, now frantic, glancing back at the tv screen and seeing that they’d cut back to the reporters in the studio who looked just as confused as she did. 

“Uh, no… No, it’s…” 

But instead of finishing his sentence, he accepted the call. 

“Hello? May?”

He was quiet for a second, though it was obvious May was shouting on the other end of the line, as she could almost make out what the younger woman was saying. 

“I…” Tracey said, trying to get a word in edgewise. “Yes, I saw… No, I haven’t… He’s not answering me eith- I don’t… I don’t know, May, I don’t know…”

She could see that Tracey was getting emotional. But of course he was; Ash Ketchum may be her brother-in-law, but he was one of Tracey’s best friends. They’d traveled together as kids on their journeys, albeit not for as long as he’d been with Misty or Brock, or even May, but still. They’d been close. Brothers, even.

“Is this real?” she could hear May finally ask, and Tracey looked to her, as he always did when he was lost. 

Daisy met his gaze levelly. 

“...AJ wouldn’t lie about something like this,” she said finally. After all, she had been one of the few who had known just how much AJ had hated her father growing up. She’d never really been one for practical jokes in the first place, but especially not about something as important to her family as this. 

May seemed to have heard her, and she said something to Tracey about Max and Dawn. Tracey nodded, looking frazzled as he absently tried to wipe off the remaining soap suds onto his pants. 

“Mama?” her daughter asked again, stepping closer to Daisy and looking scared. “Is everything ok?”

“Everything’s fine, love,” she said, pulling her daughter in for a hug and kissing her on the forehead. “But I think I’m going to call your Auntie Lily and ask if you and your brother can have a slumber party tonight. Your daddy and I need to go see your cousin.”

Her daughter let out a cheer, all concerns evaporated. Lily always let her stay up late and eat too many sweets, but tonight, Daisy didn’t care. 

She let her eyes rest on the TV screen as Tracey walked hurriedly away, still talking on the phone, searching for his belt where he kept his pokeballs. The news anchors were still talking, animatedly babbling back and forth with no additional details, but the words on the bottom of the screen seemed to echo hauntingly in Daisy’s mind. 

“Ash Ketchum Alive?”

AJ was the first to arrive at the Ranger’s Station at the base of Mt. Silver, together with Sammy and Jade, with the sun rapidly descending toward the horizon and the shadows of the tall, spindly pines that dotted the area stretching long across the rocky mountainside. 

This was to be expected, of course - after all, they’d been the first to leave - but it was still frustrating having to stand around and wait for the others to catch up, knowing what was more than likely going down up on the mountain. 

Giovanni could be there already. They could already be fighting. He could have already found the Sanctuary! And while they didn’t know for sure that the radio frequency Ethan had mentioned was a real concern or not, she had to remember that this was the man who had created Mewtwo in the first place. She had no idea what tricks he could have up his sleeves. He’d been waging all-out guerilla warfare on the entire Alliance for the past two weeks without having been caught. There was no telling what he could have in store. 

The Rangers in the station didn’t seem pleased to have AJ and her friends just show up unannounced. They hadn’t seemed to mind much before, but now, as the trio signed their names on the ledger just below Kris and Lyra’s entries from the day before, the Rangers seemed unusually prickly, insisting that multiple forms be signed and actually demanding to know who in the League had authorized their presence - At least until AJ bluntly reminded them that she was the Champion now, which meant she authorized her own presence. That had seemed to cow them a bit. 

The tension was probably because of Cole. Or rather, they’d probably gotten the tongue-lashing of their lives from their superiors once it was revealed that they’d knowingly let some rando old hermit live on the mountain for nearly four decades despite it being a restricted area. Now, fresh from their reprimand, they were actually trying to do their jobs. Which was probably a good thing, honestly, but with AJ as tense as she already was, she wasn’t in the mood for getting tangled up in bureaucratic red tape. 

Instead of waiting inside in the warmth, she instead took to pacing around outside in the gravel parking lot, anxiously cracking her fingers over and over as she stomped around in tight, concentric circles, letting her gaze bounce alternately between the distant peak of Mt. Silver and the south-eastern horizon, where she’d be able to spot the rest of the group as they began to arrive. 

And in her mind, her thoughts were like whirlpools. No matter how much she fought against them, tried to focus on anything else, still, always, they dragged her back to her father. 

She was anxious. Not just about Giovanni, not just about the situation up in the Sanctuary - she was anxious about him. About seeing him again, about how she was supposed to act. 

His last words to her seemed to play on repeat in her mind, over and over again in a ceaseless loop. And she didn’t like the way they made her feel. It was… uncomfortable. Foreign. Kinda itchy. 

When she’d woken up in the hospital without her memories, she’d been surprised to find her once-constant hatred gone, but even now that she had those memories back that didn’t mean that she necessarily liked him now either. She didn’t know how she felt. Everything was so mixed up and confusing and… honestly, kind of scary. Puting the present situation aside for a moment, there was a large part of her that didn’t want to see him again - if only because she knew it would be awkward and embarrassing and uncomfortable. But she also wasn’t about to just let him push her away again. And if that was stupid and contradictory, well - welcome to her life. 

She didn’t know what she wanted from him, exactly, but she knew she wasn’t about to let him have the last word. Hate him or not, father or not, she was still determined to beat him eventually. And he still hadn’t apologized to mom or Grandma Delia. 

Jade and Sammy stuck with sitting on the porch, giving AJ her space, which she was grateful for. She had something of a powder-keg mentality right now and didn’t want to accidently blow up at one of them. Punching that reporter earlier had felt cathartic, but it wasn’t enough to release all of her pent-up anxiety and frustration. Pichu had also chosen to stick with Jade, who was feeding him walnuts from a small satchel she’d obtained from one of the rangers. Even in their tense situation, she’d somehow managed to befriend them, even while AJ was practically breathing fire out of her nose. She had no idea how she did it. Jade sometimes seemed straight-up magical. 

Thankfully, AJ wasn’t made to wait for too long. The first people to arrive after her were Hilda and her boys, riding on the backs of the twin legendary dragons of Unova, Reshiram and Zekrom. They were all neatly decked out in their brand-new winter weather gear, clearly ready for the cold, though she still had her reservations as to whether these boys were really up to this. 

Rather than join Jade and Sammy on the porch, they elected to stand awkwardly around in the parking lot as well, forming their own little cluster a few steps away from where AJ was pacing. Hilda had assured AJ that the others left close behind them; their pokemon were just faster fliers which is why they got here so much sooner. But the taller one with the green hair - N, she thought she had heard them say - had remarked about how they’d confirmed with their legendary pokemon that the Sanctuary was real. 

“It figures that as soon as humanity discovers the location of this paradise, their first action is to seek to claim it for their own,” N said, a dark look passing over his face, but Hilda shook her head, putting a comforting hand on his arm. 

“No - the first thing humanity did was try to protect it and keep it secret. That’s what AJ’s father and grandfather were doing. And yeah - now some creeps are trying to mess it up, but that’s why we’re here. To stop them.”

He looked at her for a moment, his eyes boring deeply into hers, then nodded, slowly letting his glower be replaced with a gentle smile that mirrored her own. 

Behind them, Nate was making a face of extreme discomfort and disgust. 

The next to arrive were her mother, Uncle Brock, Lance, and Iris - her mom and Brock on the back of his Aerodactyl, and Lance and Iris on the back of his Dragonite. 

AJ had tensed instinctively when they touched down, mentally preparing herself to be berated in stereo by both her mother and Lance for both hitting someone on national tv and asking complete strangers to come to Mt. Silver to assist. Even Brock might get in on it; he didn’t yell, usually, but he could give you a mean disappointed frown that would leave you guilt-stricken for days. 

Yet, surprisingly, that didn’t happen. Her mom had simply hurried over to give her a hug, wearing a sky-blue parka and rambling in a frazzled sort of away about leaving a voicemail for Grandma Delia to explain why they wouldn’t be there to pick her up from the airport and worrying about how the older woman was going to take all of the shock. Lance, Brock, and Iris all seemed various levels of worried but ready - with Brock being the most withdrawn and Iris being the most energetic, practically bouncing around in her new bright pink beanie and matching coat and gloves. 

Lance was just all business as he always was, commenting on the reports he was still getting about the situation in the Alliance. Old Blaine had emerged from his gym off the coast of Cinnabar and had successfully stopped the attack there, but a new one had sprouted up in Lavender Town at the base of the Memorial Tower. Erika was moving to assist as Sabrina was still dealing with the aftermath of the attack in Saffron, but it looked like this attack was the smallest of all of them, which seemed to have actually helped push Lance towards believing AJ’s theory that the attacks were really just meant as distractions and nothing more. 

When about a minute passed after their arrival and no one commented on her punching a man on television, she concluded that they must have been so caught up in getting prepared and heading out that none of them had paused to check the news. And why would they? They could all receive the most up-to-date intel on the global situation directly from the League itself. This was an unexpected bright spot on an otherwise terrible day. 

Sure, her mom and Lance were still both likely to chew her out eventually, but if it could wait until after she’d helped them save the world, maybe they’d cut her some slack. 

Now that her mother and fellow Champions had finally arrived, AJ was ready and willing to take off to the Sanctuary then and there - but she quickly realized they were still missing two people. Where in the world were Ethan and Kris?

The answer came a couple of minutes later when the latter’s Salamence descended from the clouds and landed with a heavy crunch on the gravel parking lot, kicking up rocks as it skidded across the ground, its claws gouging deep furrows nearly two meters in length. Kris slid off her behemoth’s back with an excited grin, and Ethan hopped down right behind her. 

“Sorry we’re late,” Ethan said hastily, taking off his hat and running his hand through his already messy hair. “Steven’s a talker when you get him going, but we talked a bit about the radio frequency, and he agrees with old Oak that it’s theoretically possible. I think he said he was going to come too as soon as they got things under control in Hoenn, but who knows how long that will take?”

“With any luck, we’ll have the situation well in hand before he has the chance to arrive,” Lance said bracingly, clapping the younger man on the shoulder. “Well - now that we’re all accounted for, shall we be off? AJ, you’ll take the lead?”

She gave a quick nod, not in the mood to waste anymore time with pointless conversation, and with that they each returned to their respective mounts, climbing aboard and taking to the skies with AJ and Jade in front atop her friend’s Metagross, heading west-northwest. Before them in the distance lay the last lone peak of Mt. Silver; a dark obelisk on the burning horizon as the sun slowly sank from sight. 

The trip from the Ranger Station to their eventual destination wasn’t as long as the trip there had been from the League, but with her sense of urgency and anxiety ratcheted up to eleven, every second seemed to crawl through molasses. She half wished she’d opted to catch a ride with Hilda, knowing she could have been at the summit that much quicker on a legendary pokemon built for speed, but the rational part of her mind fought to remind her that it was better they move as a team and not take any unnecessary risks.

She couldn’t stop her mind from hyper-fixating on Ash, however, and wondering, despite her messy tangle of conflicted emotions, how he was doing. Of course Giovanni would pick now of all time to initiate his plan, literally the day after Ash had finally managed to get Cole and the rest of them off of the mountain. If Giovanni had just attacked a couple of days earlier, they’d have all been there to help and he wouldn’t be facing this all on his own!

Then again… If they’d all been there, there would have been nobody to go to for help. Lance and Ethan and the others wouldn’t be here either, and they’d have had no idea about the radio frequency - assuming that was a real thing. 

Ultimately, they were probably all much better off now because he’d sent her away, which had allowed her to rally reinforcements. It was frustrating, but she knew deep down that it was right, even if that hadn’t been his intention. Not that she’d ever admit that to his face, however. 

As they flew on, night gradually fell and the wind chill worsened, compelling AJ to hug Pichu tight, her little friend tucked into the front of her coat for warmth. Below them, the snow-covered earth rose like cresting waves from a ghostly sea. Mercifully, the sky was clear and bright, the moonlight illuminating the snow beneath them enough that they could fly at speed without worrying about crashing into anything. 

It was eerie, though. Perhaps it was just her heightened sense of anxiety or the way the moon cast the dark shadows of the pines in black swatches across the pale landscape, but there was something in the air that just felt unnatural and wrong, and it grew stronger the closer and closer they got to their destination. It took her a few minutes to pick up on what it was. 

The pokemon. There were no wild pokemon anywhere to be seen. No Noctowl in the trees, no Misdreavus floating through the air, no gangs of roving Sneasel darting through the shadows. It was as though the mountain had been completely abandoned - or as if everything that lived there had gone into hiding. 

Something in the distance caught her eye. There, obscured by the trees, very close to their destination… Something was glowing, a dull orange, like a bonfire or maybe…

She didn’t finish the thought. She had a feeling she knew exactly what it was, and as they drew closer, seeing the plume of black smoke rising into the air, she had her answer. 

Cole’s cabin was on fire. 

The old wooden building was completely engulfed, the logs already blackened and creaking, too far gone to bother trying to save. In a strange sort of way, the sight made something in her gut twist with sadness. She hadn’t enjoyed the time she’d spent stuck there, but it had been Cole’s home for so long. She hated to see it destroyed. 

The building was far enough away from the surrounding trees that she doubted there was much risk of the blaze spreading, but as they soared overhead, she could see the ground around the building torn up in chunks, see what few trees had survived years of logging laying broken and splintered on the hillside. 

There had been a battle here. But against who? Her father? She saw no sign of him, or of anyone, or any living thing at all. She spared a thought for the pokemon who had lived nearby - the Chimecho who loved to dangle from her grandfather’s porch, the pair of shy Snorunt who hung out near the firewood stack. Had they managed to escape before the place was set ablaze? 

But there wasn’t time for that now. Her group was already moving on, away from the flames and off toward the not-so-distant sound of combat. It was coming from the direction of Mt. Silver’s last, lonely peak, where the cavern entrance to the Sanctuary was located. They were too late.

The scene that met them on arrival was pure chaos. A pitched battle like nothing AJ had ever seen before, the air filled with a cacophony of screams and explosions as opposing forces crashed into one another, letting off blasts of flame or ice or psychic energy or whatever element happened to be theirs to control and leaving the surrounding terrain devastated in their wake. 

Right away, she recognized the invading forces. They were smaller in number, but only just; a group of darkly-dressed men and women numbering in the dozens, dotting the landscape in loosely-sketched battle lines, directing a team of powerful pokemon as they pressed the attack; Rhyperior and Camerupt and Claydol and Purrloin, giving no ground and showing no mercy. Behind them, off in the distance and hard to make out in the dark, AJ thought she saw a small fleet of airships resting on the snow with a steady stream of reinforcements pouring out onto the battlefield. 

Ignoring them for a moment, AJ tried to squint through the gloom as she searched through the opposing side, but try as she might, she didn’t see any people. Instead, Giovanni’s lackeys seemed to be battling against purely wild pokemon. 

She could see Ursarang and Abomasnow leading the charge, the sharp claws of Weavile flashing in the moonlight as they sprinted across the battlefield, Piloswine and Sentret and Froslass and every type of pokemon she could think of - native or introduced species - standing their ground and trying to fight the invaders off. Cole’s Braviary friend swooped low to rake a Raticate with its claws, and she thought she could even see a wild Tyranitar in the mix, laying enemies low with powerful swipes of its tail, its roars of challenge piercing the night, audible even over the din.

Everything was chaos, but in a way, that was a blessing. It meant that Giovanni’s people didn’t notice them right away when they arrived. Which was a good thing as, still high in the sky, when they finally arrived at the scene of the battle, the group paused for a moment, almost against their will, as they stared in horror at the chaos unfolding below them. 

The entrance to the cave was just over there to the left, across the battlefield. She could see the misshapen black shadow that would mark the cavern’s mouth. Much of the fighting was focused in that area, and she thought she saw the moonlight glint off of something large and metallic being carried on a cart before a pair of Aggron and a Graveler hauled it into the cave and it was lost to the darkness. 

Whatever that was, it wasn’t good. With her father nowhere to be seen, she had to assume that Giovanni had already made his way into the cave. Had they already lost?

But the battle was still ongoing, and the wild pokemon didn’t appear to be in a frenzy. Well - they were, but in a normal ‘fighting for our lives’ sense, not the ‘crazy criminal technology has driven us insane’ sort of way she’d been fearing. That was good; it either meant that they were wrong about the radio frequency or Giovanni hadn’t been able to put his plan into motion yet.

But if that had something to do with what they were trying to haul through the cave, then they had only minutes. 

The wild pokemon outnumbered their invaders, but it was obvious that that wasn’t enough. Against the might of a well-trained, funded and organized crime syndicate like the one lead by Giovanni, they were slowly but steadily losing ground. Every one that fell found itself captured inside a pokeball, and with every step gained, the remainder of Giovanni’s forces were closer to their goal of reaching the cave. 

They needed to act, now. But before AJ or anyone else had time to come up with a plan, someone broke from their group. 

“Wait!” she thought she heard Hilda’s voice cry out from behind her, but seconds later, a black dragon zoomed past her and the others, lightning crackling from its tail as it crashed headlong into the battlefield, directly into the enemy’s undefended rear lines, its green-haired rider screaming in anger. 

A second later, Hilda split off from the group to join him, her twin brother in tow as her own white dragon crash-landed into the snow beside its Unovan twin. All three trainers quickly jumped off their mounts, summoning additional pokemon from the balls on their belts and leaping directly into the fray without so much as a ‘see ya later’. 

She heard a loud scoff from the side, and she turned to see that Lance’s Dragonite was flapping its wings a little ways to her left, trying to bring him and Iris in close enough that they could speak without the beating of Dragonite’s powerful wings knocking them off their Metagross. 

“Too hasty,” she thought she heard Lance shout. “I understand the urge to help, but we need to think of a plan! Acting without thought is only going to make things worse!”

He wasn’t wrong, but then again, it wasn’t like Hilda and her boys had done anything they couldn’t fix. 

Actually, this probably worked out for them. 

She called out to Lance, shouting to be heard over the wind and the battle, and motioned for them all to land. They needed to get somewhere where they could talk, at least for a moment. Neither she nor Jade had their pokegears, and while they couldn’t make calls on the mountain, if any of them had the walkie-talkie app installed, they might have been able to use that to communicate if they were close enough. 

Though - now that she thought about it, she hadn’t had that app installed anyway, so it wouldn’t have mattered. 

As they landed, nobody bothered to dismount, instead huddling in as close as their large pokemon would allow. 

“This is wild,” Kris said from atop her Salamence, the first to speak. “I mean I figured it was going to be mad up here, but this-”

“It’s proof that AJ and the others were right,” Brock chimed in, looking grim. “I haven’t spotted Giovanni-”

“Or Ash,” Misty interrupted, a distressed expression on her face, and Brock nodded. 

“-or Ash, but I thought I recognized some people from Team Magma. I’d have to get closer to know for sure, but-”

“I definitely saw Ghetsis,” Iris said, scowling furiously. “I’d know that ridiculous getup of his anywhere. He’s not getting away this time.”

AJ had to physically stop herself from yanking at her hair in frustration. There wasn’t time for this! They could be angry at the criminals later after they were stopped!

“Guys,” AJ cut in, tone clipped, “focus. I have a plan. The fighting has clearly already started, but I don’t think Giovanni has made it to the Sanctuary yet, and none of the wild pokemon have lost their minds, so we still have time!”

“Where is the Sanctuary, exactly?” Ethan asked, glancing around as though he’d see it behind a tree. 

“It’s in the mountain,” Sammy answered. “Or, well - it’s basically in its own special pocket of space, but the entrances are in the mountain.”

“There’s a cave where most of the fighting is centered around,” AJ said, quickly taking over again before someone interrupted to ask about how pocket dimensions worked. “That’s one of the entrances, and I think that must be the only one Giovanni knows about, because otherwise, they wouldn’t be wasting their time-”

“One of the entrances?” Lance asked, and AJ nodded. 

“Yeah. I saw what looked like some of their pokemon hauling something heavy into the cave’s entrance, so I think Giovanni may have already gone inside - but it’s a bit of a long tunnel, so it should take them a few minutes to make it all the way in. If we split up, half of us can follow them into the cave from behind, while the other half takes one of the other entrances, and we can catch him in a vice. If we can stop him before he makes it to the Sanctuary-”

“Where is this other entrance?” Lance asked again, his tone curt and clearly eager to get a move on. 

“On the side of Mt. Silver’s peak. We have to fly to get there - there’s a sort of almost vertical crater in the mountain’s face that looks like a giant pockmark, and you just fly straight into it.”

“Very well - then we split up, as AJ suggested. She and Miss Jade will take myself and Iris to this other entrance-”

“And me!” her mother interrupted, her tone brooking no argument, and Lance gave a distracted nod. 

“Yes, fine - Misty and Brock will come along as well. Ethan, that leaves you and Miss Kris to back up Miss Hilda and the others to make it to the cave and cut off their escape.”

“And me,” Sammy chimed in. “You don’t need all three of us to show you the secret entrance, but I can help Ethan and the others find their way in case the cave gets cut off for some reason.”

“Excellent thinking, Mr. Oak. Ethan - are you prepared? Most of the fighting appears to be happening on this side, and while I don’t know what we’ll find in AJ’s Sanctuary, the danger out here is real and present. If you need more of us to stay behind-”

“No, we got this,” Ethan said, his eyes gleaming with golden confidence, and Kris flashed them a goofy duel thumbs-up that clashed somewhat with the feral grin on her face. 

“These idiots won’t know what hit ‘em.”

“Wonderful. Well then - no more time for talking. Let’s be off.”

With a powerful gust of wind, Lance’s Dragonite took once more to the skies, Brock’s Aerodactyl following closely behind. 

AJ and Jade lingered just long enough to throw a quick “Good luck!” to Ethan and Kris, which they reciprocated before Kris’s Salamence surged forward on all fours through the treeline toward the battle. 

As Jade’s Metagross began levitating back into the air, AJ’s eyes met Sammy’s of their own accord, and they both immediately flashed almost the exact same nervous grin. 

“Stay safe,” she called out as Metagross pushed through the branches back into the sky. 

“Yeah,” Sammy replied, waving. “See you on the other side.”

And then they were back in the air. Lance and Brock had both waited, obviously not knowing where to go, but they followed behind closely as soon as Jade directed their course, and within moments, they were off. 

At AJ’s suggestion, instead of making a beeline towards the second entrance, they instead decided to circle wide around the battlefield. It would cost them an extra minute or two, but it was better than risking some enterprising lackey of Giovanni’s noticing them up in the air and deciding to follow after them, and it was better to not let the enemy know that there was more than one entrance to the Sanctuary. 

The battle below hadn’t changed much in the few seconds that they’d been strategizing on the ground, but with the surprise intervention of Hilda and her boys, the focal point of the battle was beginning to shift away from the cave and now a good number of enemy forces were moving on the newcomers. 

Hilda and N’s twin dragons were a force to be reckoned with all on their own. Standing side-by-side, tails glowing an ominous red and blue, they were raining explosive blasts of fire and lightning across the battlefield, making them impossible to ignore. It looked as though they were aiming their attacks towards the distant parked airships - which was a feat, considering they were easily hundreds of meters away - and a portion of the enemy numbers were being forced to enlist pokemon to throwing up barriers of Light Screens and Protects to save the ships from being torn to pieces. 

The nearby forces rallied to try to take the dragons on in close quarters and distract them away from the airships, but at their feet, they were being protected by a gaggle of pokemon clearly summoned by Hilda and her friends. AJ could see a Goodra take down a Medicham with a powerful Mud Shot, a Slaking hefting a Donphan overhead and hurling it away like a bowling ball, a Gardevoir throwing up psychic shields and aiding her allies with Heal Pulses while a PorygonZ fired Tri-Attacks into the enemy horde. 

AJ had no idea which pokemon belonged to which trainer, but they were all working in sync so well, you’d have thought all three humans had trained them together. 

As the enemy forces began pulling back from the cave in earnest to rally against Hilda, they were blindsided by the emergence of a charging Salamence crashing into their flank, blasting foes with waves of Dragon Breath and gusts of wind from its wings. Following behind, Kris’s Feraligatr lifted up a fallen tree and hurled it into the mass of grunts, sending three or four crashing to the ground. An Electabuzz fired off a shot at Feraligatr, catching it on the arm, but before it could follow up with the opening it had created, it was driven off by Ethan’s Typhlosion as it let loose a powerful Eruption from its back, sending a gout of flames spewing in all directions and forcing the enemy into a hasty retreat. 

They were still outnumbered, but they had the element of surprise on their side - that, and two legendary pokemon. If they were quick, they might be able to turn this battle around, but there were more reinforcements emerging from the ships and the criminals were quickly regaining their footing and shaking off the surprise. 

Luckily, Giovanni’s stooges weren’t the only ones rallying, and as they turned their attention against Hilda and Ethan’s groups, the wild pokemon who’d been defending the cave from the beginning rallied in turn, taking advantage of the confusion to force the humans back. 

From overhead, AJ watched an Abomasnow - maybe even one of the ones who had attacked her and her friends the night of the avalanche - send a Scrafty flying with a powerful Wood Hammer, only to be attacked from overhead as a Golbat spewed acid on it from above. It let out a roar of pain that could be heard even from AJ’s distant position in the skies, but a moment later, a Psycho Cut knocked the Golbat out of the air as Sammy and his Gallade charged towards the cave. 

AJ shook her head and forced herself to look away. She couldn’t let herself get distracted now. It felt wrong, leaving her friends and these wild pokemon to fend for themselves against this onslaught, but she knew that this was only the fringes of the battle. Wherever Giovanni was - wherever Ash was - was where the real battle would be. 

They circled wide around the perimeter of the battlefield, trying to stay high enough in the air that the darkness would hide them and trusting in their friend’s attack to keep would-be onlookers distracted. The closer they got to the mountain’s peak, the darker and colder the air seemed to become. The rocks themselves no longer looked their familiar periwinkle in the darkness, now instead a dull sort of grayish black, like the haunting pallor of frozen death. 

She kept her eyes peeled, squinting through the darkness, raking the surface of the mountain to find the crevice that served as the secret entrance to the Sanctuary. It took longer than she would have liked in the dark, even with Jade there helping her, but before too long they found it, carved into the side of the rock face like a battle scar 

“OK!” AJ shouted to Lance and her mother. “Follow behind me and Jade! This is going to look… well, suicidal, honestly, but we’ll go first so you’ll know it’s safe!”

She thought she heard Iris yell “What?” in response, but they’d delayed too long already. Instead of shouting her explanation a second time, she decided that the best way to explain would be to simply show them - and together, she and Jade zoomed straight toward the mountain face as quickly as they could. 

In spite of knowing it was perfectly safe, and despite having taken this route several times over the past couple of weeks, AJ still flinched and closed her eyes a split second before they passed through the invisible aperture. It was hard to shake the feeling that you were about to crash even if you knew what you were doing. 

The moment the warm air hit her skin and the scent of flowers and grass filled her nostrils, she knew they’d made it. She opened her eyes and found herself once more in that secret verdant paradise they called the Sanctuary. 

Pichu poked his head up out of her coat and looked around, clearly excited to be out of the wind and the cold. As he wriggled his way free, AJ turned to watch as first Lance’s Dragonite then Brock’s Aerodactyl emerged out of thin air behind them, coming to a stop beside them as they took in the view with identical looks of shock and wonderment. 

“Wow…” she thought she heard Iris breathe. 

To be fair, the Sanctuary truly was a sight. Endless rolling hills of gently swaying grass, fields of wildflowers dancing in the perennial summer breeze, the distant picturesque river and the ocean of glittering stars painted across the sky overhead. It was as if the space existed not just outside of time, but outside of worldly concerns, as if it didn’t care at all for the war that had descended upon its doorstep. 

But while the others were gawking, AJ and Jade were exchanging worried frowns. Just like before, the same feeling of wrongness seemed to linger in the air. Everywhere she looked, the pokemon were missing. 

To be fair, she wouldn’t exactly call that unusual. It had taken a few days for the wild pokemon who lived here to begin warming up to AJ and her friends, and even by the end of her stay, most of the legendary pokemon still ignored or outright avoided them. But it was still very strange to look around and see no one. Were they all in hiding? Had they sensed the danger and decided to flee? 

And where was Mewtwo? AJ had half expected the monster to pop up the second they entered the Sanctuary, ready to wipe their memories again or else just kill them outright. That it wasn’t here seemed to speak volumes. 

“Come on,” she said, loud enough for the others to hear as she nudged Metagross into motion. “We need to get to the cave.”

The cave’s entrance - or exit, as she tended to think of it - on the Sanctuary side was a bit harder to find, mostly because it was located on the side of one of over a thousand nearly identical hills no bigger or smaller than any of the others. AJ knew vaguely where it was - somewhere to the left and forward - but as they flew, they swooped in low, closer to the ground, so they could make sure they didn’t pass over it. 

As it turned out, it wouldn’t have mattered. As they approached the area where AJ thought the cave’s exit was located, she saw what was clearly a huddle of pokemon standing around on the field just outside of the opening, looking anxious and worked up. So this was where they’d gone - to defend the cave. 

She recognized several as she approached; Dewgong and Wartortle and Meowth. All of them the clones from Ash’s story, the ones Mewtwo had brought along when it had escaped Giovanni’s clutches. But she didn’t spot any legendary pokemon in the crowd. Not even Mewtwo. Where were they?

If the pokemon were still standing around, however, that had to mean that Giovanni hadn’t made it inside just yet. He must still be in the tunnel. If they could get in there and block his entrance-!

“Down here!” she shouted, letting the others know to descend, though it probably hadn’t been necessary. Where else could they have been going?

As they swooped in low, however, she felt that tiny, surging bubble of excitement and hope that had been swelling up inside her suddenly pop as, before her eyes, a figure burst from the cave. They were running, facing backwards toward the cave, shouting something as the sound of explosions came echoing out behind them. The ground shook and smoke filled the air, slipping out of the cave’s gaping mouth as, shortly behind the man, two pokemon emerged from the cave as well - an Espeon, frantically throwing up psychic shields, trying to block the tunnel’s entrance, and a familiar Pikachu. 

It was Ash. They were close enough now that she could make out his stupid hat. She stooped down low on Metagross’s back, urging them to move faster. If they could make it in time-!

But it was already too late. An explosion rent the air, louder than any of the others, as Espeon’s shield shattered and a flood of men and pokemon emerged from the tunnel’s entrance, pouring out onto the grassy field as the chaos of the battle in the outside world finally breached the stillness of the Sanctuary. 

There were dozens of them - Houndoom and Gengar and Perugly and Incineroar - goaded by their trainers, laying about them with wild blasts of fire or balls of sludge or errant Hyper Beams, clearing the space around the mouth of the cave, driving the wild pokemon back. 

They tried to rally, but these cloned pokemon had never known real combat, always protected in the warm bubble of the Sanctuary. They quickly floundered under the sudden, heavy assault, toppling like dominoes as, to her abject horror, the criminals under Giovanni’s command quickly began tossing pokeballs, eager to snatch up any pokemon they could get their hands on. 

The first ball was slapped away by Pikachu’s tail, and the second caught midair by Espeon’s psychic power and hurled away into the darkness, but it was evident that two pokemon alone were not going to be enough to stem the tide pouring out of the cavern’s mouth. Ash quickly summoned a third pokemon - his Charizard, which took to the field in a roar of pure fury as it let loose a Fire Blast straight into the approaching hoard - but even that wasn’t going to be enough. 

Pokeballs were flying everywhere now, too many to stop, and as Ash looked around, helpless, his pokemon too busy trying to force the enemies back to stop them from stealing the wild pokemon of the Sanctuary, AJ heard Jade shout from her side, “Metagross, Protect!”

A massive psychic shield materialized, floating in the air between the cowering clones and their would-be captors, the pokeballs bouncing off of it in a staccato of dull plunks. 

At the same time, she heard both Brock and Lance shout “Hyper Beam!” in unison, and two beams of pure energy erupted from the mouths of their mounts, tearing into the swiftly growing ranks of Giovanni’s troops, digging rivets into the ground and sending people and pokemon flying. 

Ash spun around at that, clearly caught off-guard, and she thought she could see his eyes grow wide at the sight of not just her and Jade, but her mother, Brock, and even Lance flying above him. 

There wasn’t time for a reunion just yet, however, as the invaders began directing their attacks upwards at the newcomers, and Metagross was forced to shift its protective shields to surround AJ and the others to spare them from being knocked from the skies. 

They retaliated in kind, her mother summoning her Starmie and Iris pulling out an Archeops, and with Pichu joining in, they rained devastation from above as Metagross continued to shield them from harm.

“Enough!” a loud, authoritative voice barked, and for a wonder, the battlefield finally grew silent. 

From the mouth of the tunnel, a figure emerged. It was an older man in his mid- to late-sixties, with close-cropped gray hair and a pronounced widow’s peak, walking with the aid of a cane and wearing what she could clearly tell was an expensive getup; thick furs and polished shoes so black you almost couldn’t see them in the darkness. At his side strutted an arrogant Persian, and on his weathered face was a sinister smirk. His eyes seemed to glow with a malevolent gleam. 

She heard Jade gasp softly at her side, but she didn’t need to look at her for confirmation. 

This was Giovanni. 

He was here, but it wasn’t too late! If they could stop him now-!

“Pichu!” AJ shouted, ready to order another attack, but Ash held up his hand and she stopped. He wanted them to wait? But why? He was right there!

Giovanni walked to the front of the group, his grunts hastily making way for him, but he didn’t so much as glance at them. He kept his eyes forward, looking casually around at the Sanctuary as though impressed, but always keeping Ash in his direct line of sight. 

“Well now,” he said, affecting a nonchalant tone, but you could hear the coldness that underlined every word. “So it truly does exist.”

“Leave!” Ash barked, sounding half demanding, half desperate. “If you have any sense - if you know what’s good for you at all - leave this place, now, and don’t come back! You don’t know what you’ve done!”

But Giovanni merely snorted. 

“Boy, I know more of what I’m about than you could even hope to dream. Do you have any conception at all of how long I’ve been searching for this place - or a place like this? Longer than you’ve even been alive.”

More men were pouring out of the cave behind him, his numbers slowly growing - yet for some frustrating reason, no one was acting. Why was Ash just standing there? Why weren’t they fighting?

He didn’t really think he could talk Giovanni down, did he?!

“How?” Ash tried again. “How did you find us? How do you even know about this place?”

Giovanni’s sneer was condescending in the extreme. 

“Surely you don’t think this place is unique, do you, boy?” he asked, and AJ couldn’t shake how weird it was to hear this grandpa call her dad ‘boy’. He was nearly forty. “There are countless tales from cultures all over the world that speak of places like this - havens where guardian spirits and gods were said to reside, where humans could go to piously seek their aid. Of course, as humanity grew more enlightened, we learned the truth - that these were no gods or divine spirits, merely pokemon. And as our power and influence grew, as we learned to tame nature and pokemon and bend them to our will, these special places began to gradually shrink and disappear, until there were almost none left at all.”

Across the front line of his soldiers, AJ could see a few men and women quietly push their way to the front. They weren’t holding any pokeballs - instead, each had some sort of metal rod in their hands that looked bizarrely like overly-large curling irons. In the dark, she thought she saw what looked like cords extending from the base of the rods, leading back somewhere into the crowd, but from this distance, she couldn’t tell for sure.

“I should have known, back when we first met. I can see it in your eyes, that hateful arrogance. You’re Cole’s boy, aren’t you? Yes, you would be… Him and his bloodline have ever been stones in my path. Did you know we used to travel together? Yes, I thought you might. Did he tell you that he stole something from me, something that by all rights should have been mine? I swore vengeance on him then, but when he disappeared, I despaired of ever finding it. I searched high and low, investigated every rumor, every legend, stirred up trouble in every land in the hopes that I might draw him out of hiding. But as the years passed with no sign of him, I began to lose hope - that is, until you.”

There were more men now, in the back of the group, and she could see that cart she’d thought she’d spotted before had finally emerged from the tunnel. It was heavily laden with machine parts and long metal rods, but in the dark, it was impossible to say what they were for. Quickly, as Giovanni continued his monologue, his men got to work assembling the pieces. 

This had to be related to the radio frequency Ethan had mentioned, right? Even if it wasn’t, it would probably be better not to take the risk. But Ash still had his arm extended, still willing them not to move. He seemed intent on listening to Giovanni ramble - but why? Who cared what this madman had to say? Ash didn’t know about the radio frequency - would he still be making this same call if he knew? 

“Me?” Ash asked, looking confused, and Giovanni grinned. 

“It was your disappearance that tipped me off. When you, Cole’s son, had vanished mysteriously just as he had - leaving your wife and child behind with no explanation, just as he had, and right after claiming the seat of Champion… That was my clue. After all, the only human on the planet who has had more interaction with these so-called legendary pokemon than me would be you. I knew then that you must have joined Cole, and if I could figure out where you left, that would be my ticket to finally finding him - and Mew.

“But once again, I was left searching for years in vain. I went everywhere, all over the world - every place you’d ever been, to every location where you’d ever left behind a story. All for nothing. Yet again, the years passed me by with nothing but fruitless searches left to my name. It wasn’t until your daughter became the Champion in your place that I decided, on a whim, to search Mt. Silver. It was isolated, after all, and it was located close by to Indigo League Headquarters - the last place you’d been seen. I didn’t believe that I would really find you here, but after decades of pointless searches, I had become desperate, clutching at any and every straw…”

Here, his smile grew pronounced, and it twisted his face in a truly unpleasant way. 

“And against all odds, my perseverance was rewarded. Can you imagine the thrill I felt - the triumph! - when I not only ran into your daughter and her friend, but that their interference led me finally to Cole? How absurd are the odds, how farcical the story? A lesser man might be inclined to claim that it was fate or divine providence that led to our meeting this day. 

“But I am no lesser man. There is no fate, there is no divine providence - there is only that which you can make happen by seizing it with your own two hands. And now, Ash Ketchum, my time has finally arrived. Bring him to me - bring me that cheat of a father of yours, and the Mew that will at last be mine!”

His voice had been steadily rising towards the end there, growing more and more unhinged, until he all but screamed the last part, one hand extended towards Ash as a maddening light danced in his eyes. 

But before Ash could answer - before he could even begin to say that Cole was no longer there - they were interrupted. 

<Enough.>

A figure appeared in the middle of the clearing, simply materializing as if from nowhere, standing equidistant between Ash and Giovanni. Its tall, alien body was instantly familiar to AJ, who had carved its pale lavender fur, its long, sinuous tail, its bulbous digits and its baleful glare deep into the darkest recesses of her mind. 

Mewtwo had at last made an appearance. 

“No!” Ash tried to shout, but Mewtwo lifted a hand, erecting an invisible barrier to keep him back. The pokemon’s eyes were fixated on Giovanni, and AJ could feel a surge of pure, black hate that washed against her mind in unrestrained psychic waves. 

But Giovanni didn’t seem worried. On the contrary, he met Mewtwo’s glare with an expression that seemed to be bordering on disappointment. 

“Oh,” he said, his tone flat. “It’s you. The failure. I thought I might find you skulking around here.”

“Mewtwo, please - wait!” Ash tried again, pushing against the barrier while Pikachu shouted at his side, but it was no use. 

<Silence, Ash Ketchum,> Mewtwo replied, his mental voice as cold and empty as always. <I agreed - against my better judgment - to give you a chance to handle this on your own, but you have failed once again. I swore to you before that if ever this man should show his face before me, I would end him with my own two hands. And now he has brought an army to our doorstep.>

“Mewtwo, stop! I can still fix this!”

<Humanity is a disease. A plague upon the world. Thirty years have passed, and still, things have not changed. The time for empty promises is over. I will purge the problem at its source - starting with him!>

AJ felt every hair on her body stand on end. Her worst fears were coming true, right before her very eyes. It wasn’t just Giovanni they were going to have to fight - but Mewtwo as well.

Her hand moved instinctively towards her belt, absently debating over which of her current lineup would be the best suited to take on Mewtwo, but Giovanni let out a bark of loud, disparaging laughter. 

“End me? How amusing. Well then - feel free to take your best shot, but be warned. My bite is much worse than my bark.”

Mewtwo didn’t hesitate. Ignoring Ash’s cries, it lifted its hand, three bulbous digits pointed sinisterly in Giovanni’s direction, a crackling orb of dark energy manifesting in its palm, and with a wordless howl, sent the orb flying in the direction of Giovanni and his men. 

Almost faster than you could blink, the orb crashed into the front line, exploding with a blast so powerful that it tore up the ground and nearly blew the hat off of AJ’s head. She could hardly stop herself from gaping, however - that blast could have killed dozens, easily! How were they supposed to confront that?!

Only, when the dust had cleared, she was shocked to find that no one was injured. Giovanni and his men looked hardly affected at all. 

The men and women who had pushed themselves to the front of the row earlier during their boss's monologue were still holding those odd rods, and each one had extended upwards, pulsating with rings of golden light at the tips. AJ could see it now - there was some sort of force field extending around them that had protected them from Mewtwo’s attack. It must have come from those weird rods. 

Everyone was stunned for a moment, even Mewtwo, who stared at Giovanni in wide eyed amazement, as though it couldn’t fathom the idea that its attack had had no effect. 

Giovanni, for his part, was looking smug. 

“Astonishing, isn’t it? What human ingenuity can do? Then again, Mewtwo, I’d have thought that you of all creatures would understand best - after all, you are the product of human ingenuity.”

That seemed to tick Mewtwo off, and with a roar, it let loose another blast - this one looking like a Dark Pulse - but it once again broke against the barrier impotently. 

“It’s been thirty long years since your failure embarrassed me,” Giovanni continued in an almost conversational tone, as though oblivious to Mewtwo’s repeated attempts to kill him. “And while most of our research was lost in the blaze you set, we were able to recover some of it. That gave us thirty years of testing and trying, thirty years of humanity’s technological advances to correct where we went wrong. Thirty years in which you’ve been stagnating. I’m afraid you’ll need to try a bit harder than that if you hope to leave even a scratch on me.”

Mewtwo let out another blast - and then another, and another - but each one washed pointlessly across the barrier like waves on the sea shore, achieving nothing. Mewtwo was panting now, though whether from exertion or pure rage, she couldn’t tell. 

“Are you suitably impressed?” Giovanni asked once Mewtwo had finally stopped his futile assault. “It’s rather remarkable, I’m aware. The only problem is, powering a barrier this strong requires an equivalent amount of energy - something that should have been impossible for the portable version like this. What was I supposed to do, then? Sacrifice dozens of Electrodes? Well, certainly, if that’s what it would take - but think of how wasteful that would be. And the effort needed to cart them all up here, hook them up to the machine… Too much. Luckily for us, in a supreme stroke of good fortune, we stumbled upon a particularly useful catch about a week ago in Unova…”

Giovanni stepped to the side, gesturing behind him, and there, in the back of the crowd, near the tunnel’s mouth, stood a solitary Machoke. It was carrying something on its back almost like a backpack, and when it turned obediently at Giovanni’s command, AJ could see it was something like a large glass cylinder. The top and bottom were made of metal and covered in coils of no discernable purpose, and she could see several cords extending out of the bottom, presumably leading to those metal rods that were forming the protective barrier - but what stood out most of all was the pokemon inside. 

It was small, perhaps about as large as a Pikachu, albeit with much bigger, floppier ears and yellow fur everywhere on its body except for its head, which was striped in reddish orange across its forehead, stretching from ear tip to ear tip and forming a large V. Its bright, bulbous blue eyes looked listless and pained. AJ wasn’t sure what pokemon it was, but something about it looked vaguely familiar… 

At the sight of this imprisoned pokemon, Mewtwo let out another snarl of rage and fired another pointless Shadow Ball at Giovanni, but this, too, exploded harmlessly against the barrier. As it did, the glass cage the creature was in glowed, and the creature let out a scream of agony. 

“Remarkable, isn’t it? Unovan legends claim that Victini’s body possesses a near limitless amount of energy. We’ve only had this one in captivity for about a week, so our tests aren’t complete yet, but I feel comfortable enough with the results we have had from our tests to say that these claims are close enough to be considered correct. Though, if you’d like to aid in our testing, please, feel free to keep attacking. Let’s see which one of you gives out first.”

Of course - that’s why it looked familiar! That pokemon belonged to Hilda’s twin brother, the one who’d been stolen by Team Rocket in Unova!

Here, finally, Mewtwo hesitated. As murderous as its hatred towards humanity was, it had also declared itself the protector of pokemon - it wasn’t about to blindly attack when doing so would only bring Victini more needless pain. 

In the air above them, AJ was all too aware that, so far, she’d done nothing more than sit there like a lump and watch. As much as she wanted to pull out every member of her team and go ham on Giovanni, with that barrier in the way, they weren’t going to accomplish much. She was momentarily distracted from this thought, however, when her eyes bounced from the caged Victini over to the construct Giovanni’s men had been building in the background. 

It was fully formed now, nearing completion, his men putting on the final touches, and with a tremendous heave and with psychic and flying-type pokemon to help stabilize it, they lifted the construct up and set it on its feet where it stood a good ten meters tall. 

Now that she could actually see the full thing, she could see that it resembled a miniature radio antenna. 

AJ’s eyes bulged. She’d been so distracted by Mewtwo’s appearance and the Victini-powered barrier, she’d forgotten all about the other threat!

“Lance!” she shouted, yanking a ball off of her belt and summoning her Togetic, but she needn’t have said anything - he’d apparently noticed as well, and as though taking Giovanni’s taunt to heart, they all began peppering the barrier with blasts, desperate to break through - Dazzling Gleams and Dragon Pulses, Thunderbolts and Flash Cannons, Shadow Balls and Hydro Pumps, their pokemon attacked the barrier from every side, searching desperately for an opening. 

Special attacks were no use. Her mother’s Starmie tried a Rapid Spin and Ash’s Pikachu went for an Iron Tail, but both bounced off the barrier harmlessly. Mewtwo teleported around through the air, blasting them from all sides, aided by Togetic and Dragonite and Aerodactyl and Archeops, but the barrier seemed to completely surround Giovanni’s men. Brock even tried to bring out his Golem and have it tunnel from underneath, but it was no use. 

And with every attack, Victini screamed in agony as its energy was siphoned to protect its captors. AJ felt awful, wanting nothing more than to save it, but if they couldn’t get through the barrier, what chance did they have? 

In the middle of the chaos, as all eyes were focused on tearing the barrier down, none of them noticed as several pokemon who hadn’t been present before suddenly appeared from out of the darkness, going not after the barrier, but after Mewtwo.

A Dusknoir simply materialized out of nowhere, as if it had been hiding out of sight and waiting for this exact moment, and blindsided the distracted Mewtwo with a powerful Shadow Punch that caught it straight in the face. 

Mewtwo, who’d been hovering about a meter above the ground, took the blow and was sent sprawling. It recovered quickly, however, looking more shocked than hurt, and turned its angry glare on the Dusknoir, preparing a retaliatory Shadow Ball, but before it could fire it off, the Dusknoir vanished again. 

In its place, an Umbreon appeared, leaping from the shadows behind Mewtwo and sinking its teeth into one of Mewtwo’s legs. It swung down, lashing out with its arm to drive the attacker off, but Umbreon was already gone, melting into the darkness again as Dusknoir reappeared, blasting Mewtwo with a face full of Hypnosis. 

Mewtwo shook its head, fighting it off, but before it could recover, it took a full-powered punch from a Pangoro who appeared from the side that sent it sprawling. Again, before it could get up, Dusknoir was there with another Hypnosis. 

Giovanni must have had some of his men send these pokemon out before they put up the barrier, and they were utilizing type advantages and the cover of darkness to gang up on it while it was distracted. It managed to blast the Dusknoir away with a Psycho Cut, but again, Umbreon was there, catching Mewtwo in its blind spot with a Snarl. 

With all of these Dark and Ghost-type pokemon, Mewtwo’s psychic powers weren’t working. It couldn’t sense their presence or predict their moves. It lashed out at Umbreon with a Shadow Ball, but then a Malamar showed up, and Mewtwo was caught in a battle of psychic supremacy. Normally, it would have been stronger, but that strength advantage meant little against Malamar’s Dark typing, and distracted, Pangoro crept up again from behind. 

This time, however, Mewtwo was ready, and it spun around, letting out a Focus Blast directly to the Pangoro’s gut and sending it flying. Umbreon tried another assault and met the same fate, but Mewtwo then found itself caught between twin blasts of Hypnosis from both Malamar and Dusknoir, and this time, regretfully, it succumbed. 

By the time AJ realized that Mewtwo was actually in danger it was too late. Someone lifted some kind of gun - more like a bazooka, actually, and one that was plugged into Victini’s cage via power cable - and fired it off, straight at Mewtwo. 

The shot slammed into Mewtwo’s back, knocking it off its feet. It hit the ground face-first, the force of the blow snapping it back to consciousness, but it was too late. 

Whatever had struck it wasn’t a simple projectile. It had latched onto Mewtwo’s back and quickly began unfolding and expanding, encircling its torso, extending across its shoulders and down its arms and legs. Now that it was larger, she could see it looked almost like armor - complete with a breastplate, shoulder greaves, and protective plating around its abdomen, thighs, arms, wrists, and ankles. Only its hands, feet, and tail were left exposed.

By the time Mewtwo realized what was happening, it could do nothing but flail and let out a piercing psychic scream of rage and terror before a helmet snapped in place, covering its eyes and mouth in a black, chitinous cage, and its scream abruptly cut out. 

AJ shouted at her Togekiss, ordering her to aim her next attack at Mewtwo, not knowing what this armor was supposed to do but knowing that whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. But before she could get an attack off, Giovanni barked, “Mewtwo! Come!”, and in the blink of an eye, Mewtwo teleported away and was at Giovanni’s side. 

AJ’s blood ran cold. Every time she thought things couldn’t get worse, they somehow did. 

Giovanni was actually in control of Mewtwo. Somehow, for whatever reason, this armor compelled it to obey Giovanni’s command. 

The only thing worse than having to battle Mewtwo was having to battle a Mewtwo that was under Giovanni’s control. 

Desperate, she once again shouted for Togekiss to target Mewtwo, hoping that if she could land a blow she could maybe crack the armor and set it free - and it seemed like Lance had had a similar idea, as Togekiss’s Aura Sphere was joined by another Hyper Beam from Dragonite - but both attacks exploded harmlessly in the air as Mewtwo erected a psychic barrier around itself to shield it from harm. 

With a self-satisfied smirk, Giovanni stepped forward - exiting the protective barrier created using Victini’s energy and entered instead into the bubble formed by Mewtwo. 

“Good,” he said, more to himself than to anyone in particular, but she could still hear his voice clearly over the shocked silence. “Know your place, mutt. Yet still, I see that placing you back under my heel where you belong has not encouraged Mew to finally show itself. Troublesome, but not the end of the world. Look - it seems as though we already have reinforcements.”

It took AJ a second to realize that the night had somehow seemingly grown darker. She glanced around, confused, before finally realizing that there were no longer any stars in the sky. Clouds had appeared seemingly from nowhere, obscuring the moon and crackling in fury as the wind around them began to whip into a tempest. 

There was a roar in the distance, and turning around, AJ could see figures approaching across the darkened hills, gaining fast. The flaming wings of Moltres were easy to see, even in the darkness, as were the crackling electricity that sparked at every one of Raikou’s steps. 

From every direction, the legendary pokemon who had been hiding were coming out. They must have hidden themselves away at Mewtwo’s command, but now that it was in trouble, now that their home was in danger, they were coming out in droves - Zapdos and Spectrier and Regirock and Chien-Pao and Heatran. Some she knew from her brief stay here, others she’d only heard about in stories. 

They were coming to help them. 

And they needed to turn around and run away. 

“Now then,” she heard Giovanni say from below, and she quickly turned her attention back to the scene playing out before her, “everything is falling neatly into place, just as I planned - but there is still one potential hiccup that I need to deal with. What say you and I step away and settle things once and for all, Ketchum? We don’t need these distractions - let’s go somewhere nice and quiet where we can test out Mewtwo’s new… upgrades. Perhaps if I grind you into a fine powder, your cowardly father will finally show his face.”

“Fine,” Ash said quickly, and AJ could have sworn she saw him glance up in her direction. His expression was lost in the darkness. 

“Excellent. I’ll leave the rest of you to clean up here, then.”

One of the grunts behind him saluted, and, ignorant of her mother and Brock’s shouts from overhead or the way that Aerodactyl quickly dove down low, as though they were going to physically intervene, Giovanni barked an order at Mewtwo. In the blink of an eye, the three of them - along with Giovanni’s Persian and her father’s Pikachu, Espeon, and Charizard - disappeared. 

She had no idea where they’d gone. Mewtwo had clearly teleported them somewhere, but there was no telling just how far its extraordinary powers would allow it to teleport, even carrying six others. Still, she doubted they’d left the Sanctuary. They had to be somewhere nearby. If she could just find them…

No, there wasn’t time for that now. AJ leaped to her feet atop Metagross, waving her hands frantically in the air, shouting for the approaching pokemon to turn around, to flee. But they either couldn’t hear her from that distance or they simply didn’t care. They continued pressing onward, growing closer and closer, nearly upon them now.

The grunts Giovanni had left behind were moving, forming ranks behind their impenetrable shield, and she saw a short, squat older man with gray hair and round, orange glasses fiddling with something near the base of their radio tower. 

With a toadlike smile, he lifted his hand and grabbed onto a lever, and pulled. 

There was no obvious indication from the machine that it had been turned on - no flashing lights, no telltale whine, no motion. Victini’s cage perhaps began to glow a bit brighter, but that wasn’t much to go on by itself. 

However, as soon as the lever was pulled, the gaggle of cloned pokemon below them began to scream, clutching at their heads and thrashing about wildly. 

AJ instinctively grabbed Pichu, crouching low on Metagross’s back and half-expecting to be bucked off, but nothing happened. Her pokemon - and the others that came with Jade or Lance or her Mother and the others - were all seemingly unaffected. It was only the wild pokemon below who were crying out in agony as the invisible and inaudible radio waves began to wash over them. 

The violence began almost immediately after. As though possessed, the previously terrified and impotent cloned pokemon who had gathered to defend their home began lashing out at one another. She watched a Meowth leap up and start slashing at the face of a Dewgong, only to be blasted away by a Blastoise; saw that one same Charmander who had practiced its fire breathing with her Arcanine turn that same newly-honed flame on a Venusaur, only to get wrapped up in flaming vines and hurled away into the darkness. 

“We must stop the machine!” she thought she heard Lance shout, but a moment later, a darkened shadow fell over her, and she turned just in time to see that same Moltres bearing down on them from behind. 

It opened its beak and let out a fierce, frenzied cry, setting a jet of white-hot flame straight toward them. 

Dragonite and Aerodactyl scattered, and Metagross tried to dodge, but it wasn’t nearly as aerodynamic as the others and was forced to throw up a psychic shield to protect them, the heat searing through and burning against AJ’s cheeks. 

They managed to pull away, but as they turned to prepare a counter-attack, they saw that the Moltres had flown on, apparently not even noticing them in its rage. It sent another fire blast at the cloned pokemon down below, scoring a direct hit on some and scattering the others, before crashing headlong into the Victini’s protective barrier. 

She thought she saw some of the grunts calling out more pokemon to fight it off - and probably try to catch it - but she didn’t have time to do anything about it as more and more frenzied legendary pokemon were arriving and everything around them quickly devolved into chaos. 

Something streaked by them at high speed - a Latios, maybe - crashing headlong into Moltres and forcing Metagross to swerve wildly to avoid the blow, and AJ completely lost sight of her mother or Lance or even her own Togekiss. As they swung about, trying to regain control, something manifested out of the blackness in the air - a Darkrai? - and it seized Jade in its arms. 

She let out a cry of pain as Metagross bucked, trying to aid its trainer without throwing them off, but it couldn’t see. AJ lost her balance and nearly fell, but Pichu, who clung on to her coat, let off a quick Thunderbolt directly into the Darkrai’s face, driving it off. 

Jade was on her knees, gasping and shuddering. She was in bad shape. They needed to get out of the air - they were sitting ducks up here!

“Metagross, take us down!” she shouted, but something white loomed out of the darkness behind them, and she turned, horrified, to find an actual Lugia floating in the air behind them. Its mouth was open wide, and she could see energy pooling in its mouth, forming into an orb, preparing to fire. 

That was an Aeroblast. There was no mistaking it. She’d never seen one in person before, and she wasn’t eager to see one now. 

“Down!” she shouted at Metagross, slapping her hand frantically onto its steel head. “Take us down! Now!”

It tried - it really did. But it was too slow, and before it had descended more than a couple of feet, the Lugia let its aeroblast rip, carving through the air and crashing directly into them. 

Metagross tried to throw up a shield, but it wasn’t strong enough. It shattered under the force of the blow, and at the last second, it turned its body to try to take the brunt of the hit and shield AJ and its trainer from harm - but they were still high up in the air at this point, and as it turned, they began to fall. 

The blast hit Metagross directly in its belly, and the resulting explosion sent AJ and Jade flying in opposite directions. The last thing AJ remembered before blacking out was seizing Pichu in her arms and holding on for dear life. 

Chapter Text

Ethan let out a shout, ducking swiftly behind a nearby boulder as the ground where he’d been standing was suddenly awash in a deluge of toxic sludge. The snow quickly melted, turning the ground into a foul-smelling pile of muddy goop that cleanly cut off his path toward the cave. 

With a snarl, he turned and barked an order, and a split-second later the Weezing who had thought to obstruct his path found itself literally shocked as his Jolteon tackled it from behind, letting loose a nasty Discharge that took down not only it, but its trainer and two of the men standing behind him. 

Pushing himself to his feet, Ethan staggered onward, stumbling through the cold  and the dark and the knee-deep snow as the battle continued all around him. 

He was exhausted. The cold and the altitude were sapping his strength faster than he’d anticipated, and combine that with having to force their way uphill, and he was already ready to keel over and call a timeout. 

Only, there were no timeouts in war. All around him, the fighting raged on, the mountainside wracked with screams and explosions, people and pokemon churning the snow brown and sometimes red beneath their feet as they charged, their makeshift battle lines undulating like the tide. 

He had no idea how long this had been going on. Realistically, it can’t have been more than a few minutes - maybe twenty at the absolute most - but it felt like hours. This battlefield was nothing like he’d ever experienced before. Even the attacks the Alliance had been experiencing over the past two weeks had nothing on this. There, at least, the fights were in towns where there were streets and buildings to naturally direct the flow of battle, police officers and Gym Leaders to provide backup. Here, on this wide-open field in the dead of night on a frozen mountain, hopelessly outnumbered? 

This wasn’t what he’d trained for. There was no sportsmanship in this - no pride, no victory. Only chaos and madness. 

And to make matters worse - as that was apparently possible - it seemed like Ethan’s worst fears had been realized. The wild pokemon who had at first been on their side, fighting back against the criminals, had all suddenly lost their minds, lashing out at anything and everything around them, now fighting Ethan’s group and each other as much as they were fighting Giovanni’s men. It had turned what was already a wild and chaotic battlefield into a free-for-all melee, like being in the middle of a giant mosh pit - only deadlier.

In front of him, he watched as someone’s Conkeldurr swung one of its heavy pillars and knocked a wild Stantler off its feet. As it lay there, dazed, the Conkeldurr’s trainer clearly decided that this Stantler wasn’t worth capturing, and after another curt command, the Conkeldurr raised its pillar back into the air, dangling it over the Stantler’s head, poised to strike. 

Ethan’s Scizor was there in a burst of speed, and with a swift Bullet Punch to the face, the Conkeldurr was sent stumbling backward, dazed and confused, buying the Stantler enough time  to get back to its feet and flee. A second Bullet Punch caught its trainer, the would-be murderer, in the face, and as he hit the snow, unconscious, the Conkeldurr, clearly not knowing what to do without orders, simply stood there, looking foolish, until a wild Mamoswine Bulldozed its way straight through it. 

Ethan didn’t see what happened to the unconscious man. He hadn’t intended to leave him where he’d get trampled, but…

If this is what war was like, then he prayed the Alliance never went to war. 

Ethan had most of his pokemon out by now. With how wild and chaotic the battle had become, he had no choice not to. His Typhlosion he kept at his side, both for protection as well as the light and warmth the flames on his back provided. Around him, he had his Jolteon, Scizor, and Hitmontop on the field, utilizing their higher mobility to keep enemies at bay. 

He’d lost track of his friends almost immediately - which was especially concerning, seeing as how Kris had been literally right next to him when they’d first joined the fray, but now he had no idea where she was. He’d tried to follow Sammy, who looked to have been rushing for the cave, but Hilda and N’s dragons had drawn the ire of every enemy on the mountain, and no sooner had Ethan joined the fight that he found himself surrounded on all sides by enemies, and in the process of fighting them off, he’d lost track of everyone else. 

He could still see - and hear - the Unovan Legendaries, raining blasts of fire and lighting down towards Giovanni’s airships, which means that Hilda and N were both probably ok, wherever they were, but he couldn’t speak for the others. 

He took a second to hop up on top of a boulder and look around. The skies were clear overhead, but it was still night time, and with all of the people and pokemon rushing around, visibility was nearly zero. In fact, he wasn’t even sure he was moving towards the cave anymore. Mt. Silver’s tallest peak was now somehow behind him - when had he gotten turned around? 

A shout from the side drew his attention, mostly because the voice it belonged to was clearly younger than any of Giovanni’s men that Ethan had run into thus far, and with a gesture to Typhlosion, the two turned and hurried over in that direction. A younger voice meant there was a good chance it was one of his friends. They’d do better if they moved as a team instead of all operating solo like this. 

He arrived at the scene of what was clearly a pitched battle between human trainers. If it wasn’t for all of the chaos around them, you’d almost think this was just a normal pokemon battle. 

On Ethan’s side of the field, with his back to him so he didn’t see him approaching, was a familiar face.

It was Hilbert - Hilda’s twin brother. And he was losing. 

Badly. 

He’d summoned to the field both a Kingabit and a PorygonZ, and both appeared to be in poor shape. The Kingambit was hunched over, holding its side and grimacing, while the PorygonZ was twitching in an odd sort of way. That is - an even more odd sort of way than usual. 

Across from him on the battlefield were a Camerupt and a Sharpedo. From the way the snow was melted, it was obvious that the Cemerupt had been doing its job. This was not a friendly type matchup for Kingambit. 

Behind the two opposing pokemon stood two older men whose faces Ethan instantly recognized from all of the League briefings he’d taken part of over the last two weeks. On the right stood a man with near perfect posture, his red hair now streaked with gray but still perfectly combed back, falling just below his ears, and wearing a stern expression framed by square glasses that hid his eyes. On the left was a large, muscular man with a blue bandana tied around his head and face full of closely-shaved facial hair. Even in his winter coat, he still somehow looked like a pirate. 

It was Maxie and Archie - the leaders of Teams Magma and Aqua, the infamous gangs whose turf war had nearly torn Hoenn apart over two decades ago. Ethan’s first run-in with a serious opponent, and it was to be two at once. 

As he watched, the Camerupt let off another powerful Eruption attack, sending gouts of flame spewing all across the battlefield. Hilbert’s Kingambit was a sturdy pokemon, but it wasn’t agile enough to dodge the attack, and with its natural weakness to fire, it shouted in agony as the flames fell around it. 

PorygonZ tried to assist, leveling a Tri Attack in Camerupt’s direction, but before it could get it off, the Sharpedo, using Aqua Jet to gain speed and dodge Camerupt’s attack, suddenly rammed into it from the size, Crunching it between its powerful jaws. 

Hilbert let out another shout of dismay as the Sharpedo tossed the now limp PorygonZ from its jaws and quickly recalled his partner. His hand trembled over his belt as he struggled to decide on which pokemon to call next, but as he did, he called out to his opponents, his voice trembling with anger and emotion, “Tell me what you did with my Victini!”

Archie let out a loud, boastful laugh that seemed to come straight from his belly, while Maxie, adjusting his glasses, said simply, “Awfully demanding for a loser, aren’t you?”

Hilbert yelled something unfit for television, prompting Archie to laugh again and Maxie to sigh and shake his head as though he was actually disappointed by the crude language. 

“I’ve had enough of this. Camerupt - one last Flamethrower to put them out of their misery.”

The Camerupt obliged, opening its mouth and letting out a fierce blast of fire directly in Kingambit’s directly, and the already weak and injured pokemon could do little other than brace itself for the inevitable. 

Then Ethan’s Typhlosion was there. He charged into the battlefield, leaping clear over Kingambit’s body and matching the Camerupt’s Flamethrower with one of his own, pushing the offending flames back. When the Camerupt stopped attacking, looking surprised at the interruption, Typhlosion stood up straight on its hind legs and let out a roar of challenge.

“Hey, now!” Ethan called, coming to a stop beside Hilbert and offering the other boy a reassuring nod. “Two against one? That’s no way for grown men to behave.”

Archie frowned. “Who’s this guy now?”

At his side, Maxie rolled his eyes so hard Ethan thought they were going to topple out of his head. 

“That’s Ethan, you absolute dunderhead. The Grand Champion of Johto?”

Archie blinked, then scoffed. “He doesn’t look so grand to me. Sharpedo! Aqua Jet! Show ‘em what it means to be King of the Seas!”

The Sharpedo took off like - well, like a jet, propelling water out of the opening on its back with great force, zooming across the snowy battlefield at high speed, aiming right for Typhlosion. 

Predicting the move, Ethan called out, “Now - Wild Charge!”

Typhlosion hunkered down on all-fours, sparks of electricity shooting all over its fur as it barreled toward the swiftly approaching Sharpedo. The two collided with an almighty crash, water and snow and steam flying in all directions as both were blasted backward. Ethan knew the Aqua Jet would have been painful for Typhlosion given the type advantage, but the Wild Charge would have hurt Sharpedo just as much. 

Archie gawked, looking absolutely ridiculous. 

“I told you he was a Champion,” Maxie said with the air of someone who could not handle their partner’s stupidity any longer.

“That’s right,” Ethan said. “So maybe you two idiots want to rethink your lives and back down now. Because I promise I won’t be gentle.”

Archie’s scowl darkened considerably and he took a menacing step forward. 

“What was that you punk-?”

But he was drowned out as Hilbert quickly shouted, “No! No one leaves until you tell me where Victini is!”

“The boy is determined, I’ll give him that much.”

“Heh, yeah. Who’s this Victini anyway?”

Maxie reached up to rub at the bridge of his nose. 

“It’s the power source, you dim-witted buffoon. Do you not pay any attention at all?”

“The what?” Archie asked, but then it seemed to click in his head as he said, “Oooh, the power source! Haha, kid, you may as well give up on that right now. Giovanni gave it to Charon for his little experiment and they took it into the mountain. You ain’t getting that thing back, no way, no how-”

He cut off with a pained ‘oof!’ as Maxie smacked him in the abdomen, looking irate. 

“Cease your rambling at once, you imbecile! You were instructed not to speak of it!”

“So what?!” Archie shouted back, rubbing his stomach and looking pissed. “It’s not like these whelps are gonna get past us anyhow!”

In his mind, Ethan was already connecting the dots. Victini plus power source plus Charon plus experiment… The radio frequency. They must be using it in some way to power the frequency they meant to use to drive the wild pokemon mad. Now that he thought about it, he and Lance had needed to knock out a group of imprisoned Electrodes to stop the radio frequency in Mahogany Town all those years ago. It stood to reason that they’d need a decent power source up here as well, and what could be better than a legendary pokemon with infinite energy reserves? 

Hilbert seemed to be thinking the same thing - or maybe he wasn’t thinking at all and had only heard ‘power source’ and ‘Giovanni’ - because he immediately tried to turn and race off towards the direction of the cave. Ethan had to reach over and grab his arm to stop him. 

“Hang on,” he said. “Let’s take these guys out first and we can go together.”

Across the field, Archie let out another spiteful laugh. 

“Oh-ho! You talk big, don’t you, Golden Boy? But we haven’t played all of the cards in our hand just yet - have we, Maxie?”

Maxie nodded, looking dour. 

“Yes, I suppose… As it is a Champion we’re up against, now would be the time.”

And both raised their right hands, showing off the familiar bracelets they wore on each wrist. The bands were made of silver, and in the center was a round, rainbow colored stone. 

Ethan blanched. Their pokemon could mega-evolve?!

Both men tapped their bracelets and raised them high, letting out a commanding shout, and as one, their pokemon on the field began to emit an iridescent glow. 

The twin humps on Camerupts back began to swiftly fuse together, forming one large, singular hump that resembled the peak of a volcano, its body growing slightly larger, its legs thicker and more sturdy, its fur growing more shaggy and darkening to a deeper shade of red. 

Sharpedo looked more or less the same, only slightly bigger, and it grew a series of spikes all over its body and its jaw became larger and more pronounced. 

In the blink of an eye, both pokemon had mega-evolved, temporarily attaining a higher stage of evolution that upped their threat factor significantly. 

Ethan could only groan. This was just great - no one told him they could do that. It’s not like Mega Evolution was a foreign concept to him or anything; his Scizor could do it, and he was planning on training his Gyarados how to as well, and maybe even his Tyranitar if he could get his hands on a Mega Stone for it. 

No, the problem was just that Ethan didn’t have his bracelet with him. He didn’t carry it around with him most of the time, seeing as how it was so valuable and rare. He usually only used it in certain tournaments where Mega-Evolution had been approved. It was usually considered bad form to Mega Evolve a pokemon when your opponent couldn’t. Same with those Alolan Z-moves. 

Not surprisingly, these criminals didn’t operate under the same honor system. 

At the looks on their faces, Archie let out another laugh. 

“Aw, look at them! Shaking in their boots!”

To be fair, Hilbert actually did look like he was shaking. He’d gone very pale when his opponents Mega Evolved, and though his Kingambit was still doing its best to stand on the field, it was clearly on its last legs. The fact that Hilbert hadn’t switched it out yet seemed to imply that he was out of usable pokemon.

That meant that it was all up to Ethan now. 

Maxie made the first move, calling a command to his Camerupt who responded immediately, causing the ground to glow beneath Typhlosion’s feat. 

Ethan yelled and Typhlosion dodged out of the way as the powerful Earth Power attack caused the ground to explode upward in a blast of dirt and flame. At the same time, the Sharpedo - even faster now than it was before - zipped in close, jaws wide, ready to sink its fangs into Typhlosion’s torso.

At his command, Typhlosion let loose with an Eruption, spewing flames in all directions mainly meant to drive Sharpedo back, but he was broadsided by a Lava Plume straight from Camerupt’s back. The attack didn’t do much damage - wild Typhlosion lived in volcanoes, after all - but the force was enough to knock Typhlosion off its feet and send it sprawling to the ground. 

“Don’t let ‘em get back up!” Archie cried. “Liquidation, now!”

The Sharpedo shimmered, its body melting into water as, with burst of speed, it rushed violently forward, ready to slam into Typhlosion’s back and douse its flames. 

That would be extremely dangerous. Thinking fast, aware that the lava that coated the ground around Typhlosion’s feet would make it slippery and hard to move in, Ethan ordered a quick “Dig!” that had his pokemon tunneling underground, barely avoiding Sharpedo’s blow. 

Hilbert at least tried to help. Despite Kingambit’s poor condition, he ordered his pokemon to try a Brick Break on Sharpedo, but the Mega Evolved pokemon was simply too fast, and it easily dodged the hit, zooming around the makeshift arena like a torpedo and nailing Kingambit with an Aqua Jet that sent it stumbling backwards, absolutely exhausted.

Ethan had to think fast. He couldn’t stay underground for long - he was a sitting duck for an Earthquake right about now, though maybe Maxie was conscious enough of their surroundings to know that may not be a very smart idea. Not only would it potentially damage his allies in the surrounding area, it could also trigger a rockslide or an avalanche. If it was Archie in command, Ethan knew the man would risk it, but Maxie seemed to be - ironically - the more cool-headed of the two. 

His gambit paid off, as the Earthquake he feared didn’t come. However, that didn’t stop Maxie from ordering another Lava Plume - this one aimed directly at Kingambit. 

Ethan was forced to command Typhlosion to surface again and use its body as a shield to protect his teammate - but this left him wide open as Sharpedo nailed him with a direct hit from another Aqua Jet.

This was going poorly. The biggest problem was the type matchup. In a one-on-one bout, Ethan was confident that his Typhlosion could take either of these pokemon on, even if he was at a disadvantage. But with both of them acting together, and with him having to protect Hilbert, things were stacked heavily against him. 

If only he had his other pokemon around. Either Jolteon, Scizor, or Hitmontop would all be an excellent counter to Sharpedo - but he’d sent them out separately to guard the way as they headed toward the cave and he’d lost track of them in the battle. He still had his Tyranitar as backup in case Typhlosion fell, but he’d just have the same typing problem that he had with his Typhlosion. That only left-

As his hand twitched toward his last pokeball, ready to pull out his Gyarados and make this a real two-on-two brawl, Archie unexpectedly cried, “Now - Icy Wind, at its feet!”

Ethan blinked, not understanding. Icy Wind was a move Sharpedo could learn - but it was a relatively weak Ice-type attack, and a special attack no less. Sharpedo was a physical attacker, and with Typhlosion’s fire-typing, Icy Wind wasn’t going to do much of anything at all.

Then he looked down and began to panic. There, at Typhlosion’s feet - the Lava Plume from Camerupt that had been pooling on the ground around him was beginning to rapidly harden under Sharpedo’s Icy Wind, trapping its feet in place. It could no longer move.

He tried to order a Dig or a Bulldoze, but with Typhlosion’s back legs stuck in the ground, it couldn’t move, and its body was long enough that, even if it bent over and touched the ground with its forelegs, it wouldn’t be able to reach back and dig through the rock around its feet. He was well and truly trapped.

“Kingamit - use Brick Break again, but on the ground by Typhlosion!” Hilbert yelled, but as his Kingambit tried to move, Camerupt let out another Flamethrower, keeping it at bay. 

“Now we got ‘em!” Archie cried victoriously. “I knew this brat was all talk. Sharpedo, now - Liquidation!”

Sharpedo let out a roar that sounded more like a blender gargling as it began to charge up again, the spray of water from the jet on its back slowing slightly as it built up pressure, ready to burst forth. 

Then - before it could move, before Ethan could think of an escape, before any of them had a chance to blink - a voice cried out, “Superpower!” and a large, blue reptile burst onto the scene, seizing the Sharpedo in its scaly, muscular arms and suplexing it into the ground where it stayed, twitching feebly from the surprise attack, half buried in the snow. 

Archie could only gawk, but to be fair, the exact same expression was on Ethan’s face. It took him a second to recognize the Feraligatr that had arrived to save the day before the same familiar voice shouted, “Now, Hydro Pump!”

A powerful blast of water burst forth from Feraligatr’s mouth, and the Camerupt, heavier now than ever with its even larger single hump, took the brunt of the blast straight to the face. With its combined Fire and Ground-typing, water was its worst enemy, and Camerupt went down with a pain wail in a spray of water and steam. 

Then Kris was there, bounding up beside him with a grin and a wink. 

“Somebody call for a rescue?”

As Maxie recalled his Camerupt, looking stunned, Archie stomped his feet into the ground like a petulant child and cried, “Hey! That’s not fair! You cheated!”

“So what?” Kris shot back, nonplussed. “You’re a dirty criminal piece of trash - your whole life is cheating!”

“Sharpedo! Get back up - now!”

To its credit, it complied, shaking the snow and dirt off of it as it faced Feraligatr down. Only, by this point, Hilbert’s Kingambit had managed to free Typhlosion from the cooled magma that had trapped it, and suddenly, it was facing not one but three pokemon, and this time without its partner to back it up. 

“Archie - we should retreat,” Maxie said, tugging at his companion’s arm, but the other man balked. 

“What? Retreat?! I don’t know the meaning of the word!”

“Then learn! The situation has turned against us! Let’s get back to the ship and get our team healed before Giovanni learns of this!”

That seemed to shut him up. Earning Giovanni’s ire seemed to be much worse than whatever wound retreating would cause to his pride. With a condescending sneer that would make you think he’d actually won this battle, Archie recalled his Sharpedo and followed after Maxie, shouting as he retreated that he’d be back like a villain from a Saturday morning cartoon. 

“Should I follow ‘em?” Kris asked, her eyes peeled as she glared after their retreating backs, but Ethan shook his head. 

“No - they don’t matter. Not right now at least. They let slip that Hilbert’s Victini is what’s powering the radio frequency, so it must be in the cave with Giovanni and the others. We need to stick to the original plan and follow behind them so we can trap them inside and shut it off. And no more running around solo - there’s safety in numbers.”

A familiar bark sounded out behind him, and he turned to find Jolteon returning to his side. He could see Hitmontop a little ways away, trying to fight off a rogue Glalie. Hopefully Scizor was nearby as well. 

They had Hilbert recall his team, and Ethan pulled out several Revives and Full Restores from his backpack. It would take a bit for them to take effect, and he’d still need to get them to a Pokemon Center as soon as he could - but they would do for now, and his team should be back on their feet before too long. He and Kris could protect him in the meantime. 

“Hey hey,” Kris said as they waited for Hilbert to treat his team. “So, what did you think? I was pretty impressive out there, huh?”

“Oh, sure,” Ethan joked. “A surprise attack and a type advantage can really go a long way, huh?”

“That’s odd,” she said, scrunching up her brow. “That didn’t sound like a thank you.”

Ethan rolled his eyes but offered up a sincere, “Thank you.”

“Nope, try again. I need you to really feel it. Say, ‘Oh, most wonderful and divine Kris, who I worship and adore-’”

“Yeah, ok. Hilbert, you ready?”

“Yeah,” the younger boy said, straightening up and handing Ethan back his medicine pack. “And… sorry. I swear I’m a better battler than that, I just… I didn’t mean to be dead weight.”

Ethan patted him reassuringly on the back as the group set out once more toward the cave - but moving in the right direction this time, and with a better chance of getting there as they were moving as one. 

“Don’t sweat it. This is…” He gestured all around them and frowned. “Well, kinda mad. It’s enough to throw anyone off their game.”

“Yeah,” Kris chimed in. “Ethan’s supposedly the Champion, but even he needed to be saved.”

The look Ethan gave her made the mountainside feel warm in comparison. 

“...Is it ok to just leave Hilda and the others behind?” Hilbert asked, changing the subject, and Ethan sighed. 

“I mean… I don’t want to, obviously, but we don’t really have time to waste here. The sooner we find Giovanni and shut off that radio signal, the sooner this will all be over. We need to focus on our priorities.”

“Right. Priorities.” Hilbert repeated, suddenly looking determined. 

“That, and I’m sure Hilda can look out for herself. And she’s got N and… Well, I actually don’t know where Sammy is, but he’s probably close by.”

“And he knows the other way into the Sanctuary, so if things start to look bad for them, he can get them out.”

Or so he hoped - assuming Sammy hadn’t already gone down and was lost somewhere in the middle of the battle. 

But no - no time for pessimism. Now, they just had to do what they could. They would worry about the rest later. 

Up ahead, a roving group of wild Misdreavus floated by, casting Hypnosis in every direction and wailing like they’d gone mad. There was still a long way between here and the cave. Shouting to his Jolteon, he forged ahead, Kris and her Mismagius coming up beside him, leaving Typhlosion to guard Hilbert and bring up the rear. 

And so the team of three pressed on through the snow and the fighting, heading towards the mountain. 

AJ jolted upright with a sharp gasp, eyes wide and frantic as she looked around, trying to collect her bearings. It was dark, and she could hear the sounds of screams and explosions all around her. Her body ached in several places, but as she palpated her face and arms and torso and legs, she was relieved to find that they were more bruises than anything serious. What had happened?

She’d been in the air on Metagross, together with Jade and Pichu. Giovanni took Mewtwo and teleported away with Ash, his goons activated the radio tower, the pokemon went crazy, and… 

The Lugia. It had blasted Metagross and sent her and Jade flying. That was the last thing she remembered. But they’d been pretty high up there - how was she ok?

Something at her side gave off a musical cry and nudged her arm, and she turned, startled at first and then relaxing almost immediately upon realizing it was just her Togekiss. 

Of course - she’d been out of her ball when the Lugia had appeared. She must have somehow managed to catch AJ and carry her safely to the ground. What a hero. 

Without really thinking about it, she leaned over and did her best to wrap her arms around Togekiss’s torso, murmuring her fervent gratitude and praise while in her mind she kept trying to wrap her mind around the situation they were in now. 

Her dad had been taken by Giovanni and she’d been separated from the rest of the group. Were they still doing ok? And what about Jade? She’d been with her when the Lugia had attacked - where had she been blasted off to? Had Metagross managed to protect her, or had Lugia knocked it unconscious in the air, sending them both tumbling to their doom?

A thought struck her and she sat upright, her eyes flying open in a panic. 

“Where’s Pichu?!” she asked, hurriedly rising to her knees as she tried to look around in all directions at once. He’d been in her arms after they’d been knocked off of Metagross! Had she accidentally let go of him when she lost consciousness?!

But no - with a nudge from Togekiss, her attention was turned to a nearby hilltop where she could see her Pichu was crouching, peeking over the top of the hill and spying on whatever was lying beyond. 

She felt a wave of relief wash over her. He was ok, then. Good. Togekiss had saved them both. 

Now that she knew her partners were alright, the question became what to do now? 

She can’t have been blasted too far away, which must mean that the tunnel exit and the mini radio tower had to be nearby. That was the cause of the bulk of the commotion. If they could stop it somehow, then they could focus all of their attention on Giovanni and his grunts - and the legendary pokemon would regain their senses and be able to help them. 

The problem was that shield. AJ had no idea how to break through it, but she knew that the others - at least Lance, Iris, her mother, and Brock - were there, or had been, and Jade likely was too, assuming she was ok. And once Sammy and Ethan and the others caught up, the bulk of their attention would be on the radio tower. One of them would probably come up with something. 

But while they struggled to figure out how to stop the radio frequency and hold off the legendaries, her father would be battling on his own against Mewtwo and Giovanni. She didn’t know where they were or how the battle was fairing, but despite what everyone had always said about how good Ash was in a fight, she couldn’t help but worry. This wasn’t a League sanctioned brawl. Giovanni wouldn’t play fair - he already wasn’t playing fair. And if he defeated Ash and returned to the radio tower with Mewtwo in tow, well… The odds of them stopping the frequency would drop dramatically.

Picking herself up, AJ made her way up to the top of the hill, crouching down beside Pichu and keeping herself low so she wouldn’t be spotted. Togekiss came up beside them, and together, the three gazed out over the battle-torn Sanctuary. 

With the heavy cloud cover, the night was nearly pitch black. Aside from the occasional burst of color from the odd special attack in the distance, indicating more fighting in random locations all around them, there wasn’t much to see. Nothing there but the sound of violence and the trembling of the ground beneath their feet. 

There was a lot of commotion over to the left. Judging by the number of combatants, she assumed that must be where the exit to the tunnel was - where the radio tower was. She thought she could see a Dragonite up in the air, but it was so dark out it was hard to tell for certain. 

AJ turned, letting her eyes rake the skies, hoping for a clue about where her father and Giovanni might have gone off to. She wasn’t expecting to see a big neon sign that read ‘big climactic battle this way!’ or anything like that, but there had to be something…!

There, way off in the distance, almost out of sight… She could see lightning bolts and gouts of flame lighting up the sky. Honestly, that could mean anything - there were any number of electric and fire-type pokemon in the Sanctuary right now. But the frequency of the blasts seemed to indicate a battle was going on, and since most of the human combatants should be over by the radio tower, that would mean there was at least a chance that that was Pikachu and Charizard. 

She felt something tug at her sleeve, then a second later, Pichu was shouting in alarm, pointing somewhere over her shoulder.. 

AJ turned and felt her face go blank with shock as the same Lugia from before soared overhead. It let out a cry of challenge as it spotted them, swooping in low, ready to strike. 

AJ felt her battle instincts suddenly flip on as she shouted “Pichu, Thunderbolt!”

She couldn’t remember what type Lugia was supposed to be, but it certainly looked like a flying-type pokemon, so Pichu should be effective. Her partner let out a cry as a blast of electricity fired up towards the approaching Lugia, but it swiftly twisted to the side, avoiding the attack. 

They may have missed, but it bought her enough time to get to her feet and work out a quick plan in her head. If this had been any normal pokemon encounter, she’d have been fine letting Pichu handle it on his own, but she knew he wouldn’t be enough to take down a legendary pokemon by himself. Especially since Lugia was supposed to be one of the stronger ones - at least as strong as Hilda’s Reshiram, if you believed random dudebros on the internet. She supposed she’d find out. 

But with it being a legendary, she felt no shame in ordering Pichu up onto Togekiss’s back and sending them off into the sky together. There was too much at stake right now to care about a ‘proper’ one-on-one bout. She’d ask for a rematch later once everything was said and done, if she ever got the chance. 

Lugia, for its part, took stock of her pokemon taking to the skies and retaliated by whipping up fierce whirlwinds in an attempt to knock them out of the air. Unfortunately for it, while it may be stronger than Togekiss, Togekiss was the better flier, and it easily zipped its way around the gathering winds, avoiding the more tempestuous pockets of turbulent air, and before you knew it, it was up behind Lugia’s back. It flipped acrobatically around Lugia’s body, and Pichu seized his chance to leap down on top of Lugia. 

A second later, Lugia let out a roar of pain and frustration. Her plan had worked, and Pichu’s Nuzzle had been a success. Her tiny partner leaped off Lugia’s back as the much larger legendary struggled to flap its wings, its body locking up intermittently from paralysis before suddenly staggering as Togekiss slammed into it from behind with a high-speed Sky Attack. 

The Lugia faltered, falling several meters before catching itself, but as it turned, furiously searching for AJ’s pokemon, its movements slowed considerably from the paralysis, it found itself the subject of an aerial bombardment in the form of Thunderbolts and Aura Spheres as Togekiss - having caught Pichu mid-fall - zipped around it, the two of them peppering the stronger pokemon with long-distance attacks. 

It occurred to AJ then that it wasn’t just the paralysis that was giving them a hand here. The radio frequency that had enraged the wild pokemon had also apparently driven them of their battle senses, and all that was left to them was blind rage. Rather than try to counter any of their moves, Lugia seemed intent to try to power through them, charging ahead blindly and being easily avoided by Togekiss’s superior speed. 

It was just like AJ had been the night that she’d challenged her father to that terrible battle. All blind rage and bravado, no tactical sense whatsoever. 

Before long, a combination of paralysis and the constant barrage of attacks had worn Lugia down considerably, and it was now left feebly flapping its wings, trying to stair airborne but hovering dangerously close to the ground. 

Togekiss swooped in low, and hearing AJ’s shouted command, Pichu leaped off her back once more, landing atop Lugia and letting loose with everything it had. 

The Thunder struck Lugia directly in the back, and with a weak cry, it fell from the skies, crashing into the ground with a thunderous roar, her Pichu leaping back onto Togekiss’s back at the last second. 

Suddenly fearful, AJ rushed forward down the hill toward where the Lugia had fallen, worried that it may have broken its neck in the crash - but no. It was alive, still breathing and stirring feebly. That was good. It would be fine, eventually. 

Still, she felt awful. None of this was Lugia’s fault. Not only had it been driven out of its mind, it hadn’t even been allowed to battle properly. Any triumph AJ may have normally felt at overpowering a legendary pokemon was lost, replaced by anger and pity. 

The sooner they stopped this madness, the better. And the best way to do that would be to find and put a stop to Giovanni. Only, what was the best way to do that? 

Flying would be faster, but… With the skies full of crazed legendary pokemon, risking flight was asking to be swatted out of the air and sent falling to her death. Plus, Togekiss wasn’t much larger than AJ was and she couldn’t fly long distances with her on her back. Her greatest asset in the air was her mobility, but with AJ there weighing her down like a sack of stones, she’d be a sitting duck. 

No, they couldn’t fly - which meant they would need to travel across the ground. And in that case…

She plucked one of the pokeballs from off of her belt, recalling Togekiss with a quick thanks, then swapped it for another, calling out her Arcanine in her place. Her loyal friend pawed the ground with an anxious sort of energy, ears pricked up and alert as it scented the air, scouring the perimeter for trouble. 

“Alright bud, listen up,” AJ said, seizing fistfulls of his fur and clambering up onto his back. Thankfully, he lowered himself down to make it easier for her, and a moment later she was seated just behind his shoulders, Pichu scrambling up to the top of his head like a figurehead on a ship. 

“We need to go fast. You see that, over there? Where it looks like there’s lightning and fire shooting up into the sky? I think that’s where my dad is battling Mewtwo and Giovanni. We need to get there fast to back him up - but we’re probably going to be attacked by rogue pokemon - especially legendaries - along the way.”

The battle still sounded out all around them, the cries of legendary pokemon driven mad, clashing against one another, making the ground tremble and the air crackle. Deliberately racing out into the heart of that was actual insanity. This was a suicide mission, plain and simple - but what other choice did they have?

“We can’t afford to stop to face them all, so just keep running. No matter what happens, no matter who tries to stop us - just keep running.. Because if we don’t stop Giovanni, then… Well, we’re probably all going to die. Think you can get me there?”

Arcanine barked in affirmative, widening his stance, ready to go. Pichu let out a battle cry from above, gesturing straight ahead. 

She took a moment to breathe deeply and brace herself. All around them, across the blackness of the night, she could hear the sounds of distant battle and the screams of pokemon. Flashes and explosions lit up the skies as though the world had been taken by a terrible storm  - a storm that would not end until they brought Giovanni to his knees. 

“Alright then - let’s go!”

Arcanine exploded forward at a dead sprint, its powerful legs surging across the ground at high speed, and together, they raced off into the night. 

AJ hunkered low on his back, both to reduce wind resistance and to keep her hat from flying off her head, her fists tangled up in his warm mane to keep herself from being thrown off. Pichu slid down Arcanine’s neck until he was in between her hands, a safer seat for him by far. The wind roared in her ears, drowning out the sound of omnipresent battle, but she could still see explosions lighting up the sky and coloring distant hillsides like New Year’s fireworks. 

Arcanine’s legs were fast and strong, and it bounded effortlessly across the verdant hills of the Sanctuary almost as though it were flying. Before she knew it, they’d reached the top of the first hill, then were racing down it and already heading up the second. At this pace, they’d make it to Ash and Giovanni in no time. 

But of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy. Almost as soon as the thought had popped into her head, the hill in front of them literally exploded like an erupting volcano, chunks of earth and fire sent flying through the air in all directions, and Arcanine was forced to rapidly change directions, nearly throwing AJ off his back, as the massive figure of a Groudon clawed its way up from out of the earth. It opened its powerful jaws and roared in rage and madness into the pitch-black sky, spewing molten lava all around and setting the green grasses ablaze. 

They looped around the Groudon, eager not to catch its eye, only to be forced to change directions again on a dime as a veritable tornado whipped past them. There was a pokemon of some kind hiding inside of it, but it was too dark and too far to see - but the tornado came to a violent, tempestuous halt as a bat-like pokemon with wings like crescent moons swooped out of the darkness, beating its wings and blasting it with powerful winds of its own. 

A volcanic eruption on one side and a veritable hurricane on the other, Arcanine raced on between them, AJ shouting encouragement from behind, both buffeted by the wind, not sure that he could even hear her words over the tumult. He was moving fast, but with all of the unexpected obstacles, it was difficult to say if they were even making it any closer to their destination. 

They crested another hill and had to jump at the last second to avoid a pitched battle between some of Giovanni’s goons and an out-of-control Keldeo. They rounded the next only to find some sort of golem-like creature with a blood red spherical torso and arms that looked like the top and bottom halves of a dragon’s jawbone, firing off Dragon Pulses at everything that moved and shrieking in unintelligible beeping cries. 

Everywhere they looked, everywhere they ran, there was chaos and battle. So many legendaries - so many more than she’d ever seen at any time while she was staying here. But why? Why were they here now of all times? They would have been safe if they’d just stayed away. 

But then, as she hugged Arcanine’s neck tight, racing through the darkness with her heart in her throat, she thought back to how they’d come rushing as soon as Mewtwo was in trouble. In her mind, Mewtwo had only ever been a monster - her own personal prison warden and a threat to all of mankind. But to these pokemon, it was clear that Mewtwo was someone important to them. Their friend, their protector - their family. If it was in trouble, how could they stay away? Was that not exactly what she and the others had done for Ash? 

Speaking of, as they crested the next hill, AJ could see that the once-distant flashes of fire and lightning that she had hoped were indications of her father’s location were closer now than ever. They were only a few more hills away. The sight of it almost made her laugh from relief; even with all of these unexpected diversions, they’d been making progress after all! They’d be there in no time, and once they were, they could-!

A figure burst from the darkness. A truly massive dog-like pokemon, bigger even than her Arcanine, and in its jaws it held clenched, of all things, an enormous, ancient broadsword. 

With a feral howl that seemed to rip through her, freezing the blood in her veins in pure primal fear, it leaped forward, neck twisted back, sword ready to strike, and Arcanine, caught mid-leap, was unable to twist or move to avoid the blow. AJ could do nothing more than throw up her hands and scream as she prepared to be cleaved clean in two. 

But the blow never came. With a burst of light that shone even through her clenched eyelids, one of her pokeballs on her belt burst open of its own accord, and in a flash her Aegislash was there, firmly positioned between her and the unknown pokemon, and it caught the would-be fatal sword blow on its massive shield with the sound of a terrible gong. 

She barely had time to contemplate what had happened. Just as soon as the strange pokemon and her Aegislash had appeared, they were gone, lost behind her in the darkness as Arcanine continued racing ahead, undeterred. They were leaving them behind. 

“Wait, what are-?! Stop! Arcanine, stop!”

She seized his mane in her fists and tugged on his hair like reins, trying to get him to slow down, to turn around, but he was ignoring her. The sounds of battle called out from the darkness all around them, and every step he took carried them farther and farther away. 

“Stop!” she shouted again, growing desperate. Why wasn’t he listening?! “Go back! We left Aegislash behind, we can’t-!”

The ground before them erupted as a small pokemon who sort of looked like Mew, only it was blue and had twin tails, soared out of the darkness, peppering the ground with waves of psychic power, and Arcanine was forced to turn once more, now following the path of the river as it looked for a crossing. 

It was at this point that AJ considered leaping off of Arcanine’s back and into the river, hoping that the water would prevent her from getting hurt. She couldn’t leave Aegislash behind - not in this chaos, not against some unknown crazed legendary pokemon! - and if Arcanine wasn’t going to turn around, then she’d do it herself. 

Only, at that exact moment, a figure swooped down from the clouds, its pointed yellow wings crackling with electricity as it squawked with violent rage. A Zapdos. And it was coming straight for them. 

At the same time, the surface of the river began to roil, and out of the depths emerged something that almost looked like an enormous red Drednaw - only on its back it had some kind of mechanical hoop that glowed with blue nodes and was letting off a massive amount of steam. She thought it might have been the pokemon known as Volcanion, but in the dark, it was too hard to tell. 

She wasn’t sure if the two pokemon were aiming for them, or if they were targeting each other and they just happened to be in the crossfire, but regardless, just as before, she saw the telltale flash of a pokeball being opened of its own accord, and with a burst of speed, her Togekiss rocketed into the air and slammed into the Zapdos, knocking it off-course and away from AJ. 

At the same time, a third pokeball opened, and Milotic dove into the river, and just as the Volcanion was about to emit a powerful jet of scalding steam in AJ’s direction, Milotic used Aqua Tail to send a wave of water cresting over it, cooling it down enough that the steam explosion didn’t fire.

A moment later, Milotic turned and fired off an Ice Beam - only not at Volcanion. She shot the beam at the river’s surface just a little ways in front of where Arcanine was running, forming a bridge of ice that stretched to the opposite bank, and without slowing down, Arcanine turned to race across it, making it to the other side of the river in no time flat and leaving the others behind, just as he had with Aegislash. 

“Stop!” she shouted again, practically hysterical, yanking on Arcanine’s mane with enough strength that she was tearing up bits of his fur. “Go back! We can’t leave them! Go back!”

But just as before, he ignored her and continued running as fast as his legs would take him.

Too late, AJ realized what was happening. Her pokemon were sacrificing themselves to buy her time to get to Giovanni. She’d told Arcanine before not to stop, no matter what happened - that they didn’t have time to stop and face every Legendary pokemon who came their way - and he was taking her order to heart. 

If she had to stop and battle every pokemon who crossed her path, they’d never make it to Giovanni in time. She knew that. She had said that to him before they set off. But when she’d said that, she hadn’t meant that they’d leave their friends behind to fight on their own! Each by themselves, against multiple crazed legendary pokemon?! They could die! What did any of this matter if she had to lose her partners in the process?!

Tears were dripping down her cheeks, stinging cooly in the night air as they ran on. As they did, she kept one hand clamped firmly around her last, unopened pokeball, desperate that she would at least stop that one from jumping out and sacrificing itself for her. 

If she had been thinking clearly, however, she would have known that was a pointless endeavor. After all, Hydreigon was the one and only pokemon on her team whose pokeball settings had not been set up to let her release herself from her pokeball due to how dangerous and unstable she could be. Hydreigon was not the partner she should have been worried about at that moment. 

As they ran, their destination now painfully near, a piercing yowl rented the air from somewhere off to the right, and AJ barely had time to look up and see a familiar yellow feline pouncing at her, its body crackling with powerful electricity. It was Zeraora - the same pokemon who’d been Pichu’s dedicated training partner during that last week that they’d stayed in the Sanctuary.

With one hand clinging to Arcanine’s mane and the other clamped tightly over Hydreigon’s pokeball, she was unable to stop what she knew was about to happen. 

Pichu leaped up off of Arcanine’s back, ignorant of AJ’s cry of dismay, his little body beginning to glow and give off the telltale yellow sparks of the Volt Tackle move he’d been practicing and perfecting for so long with Zeraora’s help, and he crashed into his friend, sending them both tumbling into the darkness, left behind. 

This was too far. Leaving Aegislash, Togekiss, and Milotic behind was hard enough, but Pichu? You may as well ask her to chop off her arms and legs and swim across the ocean to Kalos. 

Momentarily forgetting herself, she prepared to leap right off of Arcanine’s back, no longer caring how fast he was running or that she was liable to break half the bones in her body in the process, but before he could, Arcanine suddenly dug in his paws, skidding to a rather dramatic halt. 

They were up near the top of another hill, and just before he slid to a stop, Arcanine pivoted and bucked, throwing AJ off and sending her sprawling to the ground in a painful heap right on the hilltop. Disoriented, she struggled to pick herself up off of the grass and check to make sure she hadn’t been seriously injured, ready to give her pokemon a piece of her mind, when she noticed that they weren’t alone. 

There was another pokemon in front of them - one of those Unovan dogs, their version of Johto’s legendary trio. What was it called again? It stood tall, with a long neck and antlers not unlike a Stantler, though its fur was a metallic blue and its horns the garish fake-gold of orpiment. Cobalion, she thought it might have been, but she wasn’t sure.  

It was standing on the hillside, stamping its feet and tossing its head, foaming at the mouth as though it had gone rabid, and when it noticed AJ, it lowered its antlers and began pawing at the ground as though about to charge. 

Arcanine let out a bark, meeting her eye and jerking his head in the direction of the opposite side of the hilltop, but AJ didn’t understand. She was too busy worrying about the legendary pokemon who was about to run her down. 

As the Cobalion began to charge, Arcanine let out a challenging howl and raced towards it, its body wreathed in flames as it met the pokemon head-on with a powerful Flare Blitz. They clashed for a moment, shoving against each other, feet digging up the grass in muddy clumps, and she thought for certain that the legendary was going to win the power struggle and throw her Arcanine off. Instead, the Cobalion let out a roar of rage and pain as, to her surprise, Arcanine powered threw and forced the legendary back, knocking it off of its feet and sending it toppling down the hill. Looks like all of that training with the legendaries had paid off after all. 

He turned again, catching her eye and jerking his head towards the opposite side of the hill behind her. Then, with another howl of challenge, it raced back into the darkness in the direction he’d sent the Cobalion tumbling. 

AJ forced herself to her feet, shaking both from the force of her fall as well as the shock of the last few minutes. Her entire team, or just about, was lost somewhere out in the darkness, separated and alone, with wild, out of control legendary pokemon attacking them on every side and Giovanni’s stooges roaming the darkness looking to capture any weakened pokemon they could find, and here she was, powerless to help them. 

She needed to get to them - but how? She didn’t even know where they were. How far back was Pichu? Milotic and Togekiss? Aegislash? How long would it take her to find them without Arcanine? Would they even make it on their own for that long? 

An explosion sounded out from behind her, and she turned, remembering the hill she was standing on and the way Arcanine had been gesturing. In spite of herself, she climbed up the rest of the way on unsteady legs to the crest of the hill, and looking down, felt her stomach drop out. 

Down below, in what almost looked like the exact same area she’d used as her training grounds before, were two men facing off across their makeshift battlefield. 

He’d done it. Arcanine had brought her safely to her father. 

From her position, she was almost exactly midway between both Ash and Giovanni, though neither seemed to notice her standing off to the side on the hilltop, owing both to the darkness as well as the intensity in which they were focusing on their battle. The battle itself seemed to consist exclusively of Pikachu and Mewtwo, the latter of which was still decked out in that strange armor that allowed Giovanni to control it. 

Mewtwo appeared to be the source of most of the explosions, and it was teleporting wildly around the battlefield at Giovanni’s command, firing off Shadow Balls and Focus Blasts and waves of psychic energy from every vantage point, tearing up the ground with every blast and leaving the once peaceful field a smoking crater of violence and destruction. 

Pikachu, for his part, was a yellow blur, his agility making him move so quickly that he too almost appeared to be teleporting. Every now and then it would fire off an electric blast at Mewtwo, but with the way it was quickly teleporting around, it seemed almost impossible to hit. Neither side seemed to have actually dealt much damage to the other, but it looked to AJ that Pikachu was exhausting much more energy in the fight than Mewtwo was. If this was a battle of attrition, Mewtwo had the upper hand. 

Giovanni hadn’t called any other pokemon out to join the fight, though his Persian remained ever at his side, lazing in the grass and watching the battle unfold through glittering eyes. 

Ash, however, had called the rest of his team out - only, they weren’t participating in the battle with Giovanni. Instead, AJ could see that he had his Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur position in a rough semi-circle around his side of the battlefield, and they were apparently working together to drive off any crazed legendaries who drew too close. Even as she watched, she saw Charizard fire off a gout of flame and Blastoise use its water cannons to threaten away what looked like Yveltal as it flapped its umbral wings sinisterly overhead. 

On the ground at Ash’s feet, she saw the limp, unconscious form of his Espeon. Snorlax was nearby, upside down where it had apparently been thrown through a rock formation and had been unable to get back up. The fact that neither had been safely returned to their pokeballs yet spoke volumes about how desperate the situation truly was. 

Her eyes lingered on the fallen Espeon for a moment, and she couldn’t help but think back to her team, lost somewhere behind her in the darkness. They could all be in the exact same shape - or worse. And what of the others? Her mother, Jade, Uncle Brock, Lance… How were Sammy and Ethan and Hilda faring outside? Had they made their way through the tunnel yet? Had they arrived to back the others up, or were they facing their own catastrophe out on the mountainside?

Below, Mewtwo let off a blast of powerful psychic energy that nearly caught Pikachu, forcing it to twist and streak away last minute, gauging out another crater in the earth. Off to the side, she saw Venusaur lash at something with its heavy whip-like vines, only to let out a roar of agony as whatever it was sent the whips back, smoldering. 

There wasn’t time for this. She couldn’t just stand here and mourn her partners and family and friends, especially when she didn’t even know yet that they weren’t doing just fine. She needed to act. She needed to get down there and help her father stop Giovanni. 

Only… As she reached out, her trembling fingers brushed against the last pokeball on her belt and she felt her fear and despair threaten to overwhelm her again. 

Hydreigon. All she had left was Hydreigon. And she wasn’t… She couldn’t… 

How could she bring Hydreigon out in a situation like this?! She was barely trained - had never really battled before, not without losing control. She’d basically be another wild pokemon driven mad by Giovanni’s radio frequency if she brought her out now! 

And what about all of her trauma?! This was not how you helped someone heal from years of terror and abuse! She couldn’t expect Hydreigon to perform in a battle on the best of days, but against Mewtwo?! In the middle of an active warzone?! 

But what other choice did she have? The world was literally falling apart all around her. Her team was gone, and her friends were gone, and there was nothing standing between her and the end of the world other than her father and his lone Pikachu. 

She stood still for a moment, alone on the hilltop, letting the sound of battle and the roar of the wind wash over her. 

This was it, then. Her only options were to stand and fight with Hydreigon or sit on the ground and cower as the world fell to pieces around her. But the second wasn’t really an option - not for her. Not for anyone with half a brain or half a heart. And certainly not for a Champion.

She plucked the final pokeball from her belt and clicked the button, summoning her Hydreigon. 

As expected, the moment she touched the ground, Hydreigon began to panic. As if the sound of distant screaming and the explosions filling the air wasn’t already bad enough, her empathic powers seemed to instantly seize hold of the tension permeating the entire Sanctuary. 

She balked, three heads twisting wildly, letting out cries of fear and confusion as her powerful tail twitched across the ground, her emaciated wings beating frantically through the air. 

This was the moment, AJ knew, that she was supposed to be trying to calm her down. Reach out and touch her, let her know she was there, whisper soothing words and false promises that everything would be ok. 

But in this moment, AJ couldn’t bring herself to fake it. She could feel every ounce of anxiety and fear welling up in her Hydreigon echoed within herself. What was it her father had said to her that day in the sunflower field? 

“The problem is that when you call her into battle, she instinctively reaches out to you empathically, looking for something to ground her. But you aren’t grounded. What she’s searching for isn’t there. You’re lacking it.”

When he had said that to her before, it had stung like few words ever had before. How dare he - him of all people - stand there and tell her what a failure she was? 

But she could concede now, especially here, in this moment, that she was absolutely not grounded. She did not possess the effortless confidence that real Champions like Lance or Cynthia or Leon - or even Ethan - seemed to exude without a thought.  

She was scared, and powerless, and alone, and everything was falling apart and she didn’t know what to do. Her current mental state was only making things worse. Just like it had the night she’d battled her father. 

But there was a difference, now. Before, when she’d battled Ash that night outside the cabin, on the day they’d first truly met, she’d been filled with hate and anger and self-righteous indignation. She’d summoned Hydreigon out against common sense and her own better judgment to force her to fight in a battle in which nothing but her own pride was on the line. 

This night was different. This wasn’t about pride, or vengeance, or hate. This was about survival. This was about saving themselves and the ones they loved. And maybe - just maybe - that could make up the difference. 

AJ stepped forward, reaching out her hand and resting her forehead against Hydreigon’s chest. She wanted more than anything to ground her. To be her pillar of support. To look her in the eyes and tell her everything was going to be ok, and to mean it with all of her heart. 

But she couldn’t. Her heart was thundering in her chest, full of fear and sorrow and anxiety. Everything was wrong, and she never wanted to do this to her, but they were all out of options. 

“Please,” she said, voice barely more than a hoarse croak, all but lost to the wind and battle. “I’m so sorry, but please… I need your help.”

Hydreigon stilled under her touch, no longer thrashing, but AJ thought she could sense her pokemon’s emotions in that moment. It wasn’t calming down - no, it had frozen from fear, from the realization that her trainer was just as scared, if not more so, than she was. 

“P-Pichu is gone,” AJ continued, trying not to cry. “A-and our friends are gone, and w-we’re all alone. But if that man wins, he’ll… H-he’ll hurt them all and take them away forever, and I can’t…!”

She wanted to slap herself. This wasn’t helping. Pull yourself together, AJ! You’re a Champion! It isn’t over till it’s over! You fight till you win or you die trying - those are the only options!

With a herculean effort, she took ahold of her fear and sadness and forced it down. There would be time for that later. For now, the battle was still raging - and she still had one partner by her side. 

One partner - just Hydreigon. But that meant she wasn’t alone;  neither of them were. No matter how dire the odds, they could still choose to stand and fight and bring their friends back. But only if Hydreigon could trust her. 

Hydreigon, for her part, was silent for a moment, and AJ was certain that she’d been paralyzed by terror. Before she could figure out what she could do to remedy that, however, her Hydreigon shifted, pulling away from AJ for a bit before lowering her central head till they were at eye level. Then, slowly, she pushed her forehead against hers. 

Feelings and emotions flooded into AJ’s mind. It wasn’t quite like a psychic’s telepathy - rather than thoughts or images, she was experiencing a rush of feelings, like someone else’s emotions were being poured into her. Yet somehow, intuitively, she understood what they were, what they meant. 

At first, it was horrible. Loneliness and despair, blacker even than the skies overhead, lanced by occasional spikes of fear and pain that struck like bolts of lightning. She’d been alone for so long - trapped in a cage, injured and humiliated for entertainment, unable to save herself, unable to help her friends who suffered all around her. 

Then, like the sunrise, hope bloomed inside of her, driving back the shadows, and AJ realized she was experiencing what Hydreigon had felt the day that she and Hilda had arrived to save her from the Menagerie. 

You fought for me, she seemed to be saying. Now I fight for you.

Then, with a sharp twist, the emotions shifted, and somehow, AJ knew she was no longer sensing Hydreigon’s feelings, but anothers. 

For a moment, everything seemed wild and red - a chaotic roar of hatred and rage that yearned to burn the world to ashes. But somewhere buried underneath, she could feel an echo of something similar to what Hydreigon had just shown her. Loneliness and pain and fear. 

It was Mewtwo. Somehow, empathically, Hydreigon had connected to the monster under Giovanni’s control, and like a slap to the face, AJ realized that there was more at stake here than just the safety of her friends and her family. 

Mewtwo was a victim in all of this too. And sure, it presented a very real threat to her and the people she loved - but that didn’t make what was happening to it ok. It had been enslaved once again by its abuser, forced to bend to his every will, forced to harm the pokemon it had sworn itself to protect and defend. A prisoner in a cage, just like Hydreigon had been.

AJ pulled away and opened her eyes, feeling her tears already drying on her cheeks. 

“We can save them,” she said, feeling the fear and the anxiety start to melt away, replaced by a new, bold sense of purpose and determination. Not just their team, not just her friends and family - all of them. Mewtwo and the legendaries and all of the pokemon who were suffering under Giovanni’s cruel thumb. Every pokemon enslaved and forced to battle against its will. If they defeated him here and now, then it would finally all be over. “We can do it - together. You and me. Are you with me?”

Hydreigon reared back, tossing all three heads into the air as she roared in anger and challenge. The fear wasn’t gone completely - neither in AJ and nor Hydreigon. She could feel it, even without touching her, echoing out across the night. But there was something stronger than fear, now - a furious anger that burned with righteous indignation. 

Hydreigon had been unable to save herself from the abuse she’d suffered - she’d been unable to save her friends who’d been trapped in the Menagerie alongside her. But she could save these pokemon here and now - save her new friends and teammates who had been scattered about, lost across the battlefield. And AJ was going to help her do it. 

“Then let’s go!” she shouted, seizing hold of one of Hydreigon’s underdeveloped legs as her pokemon beat her thin wings, taking to the air. 

Below them, the battle continued as before, the sky crackling ominously overhead as Mewtwo and Pikachu - oblivious to AJ and Hydreigon’s approach - continued duking it out. 

Lightning flashed and psychic power distorted the air. The ground quaked and shuddered beneath their might. She thought she saw her father’s Charizard turn, noticing their approach out of the corner of his eye and readying a Fire Blast to drive them away, clearly thinking they were a rogue legendary, only to stop and stare in surprise when he recognized them. 

Below, Mewtwo let out a psychic blast that had Pikachu dodging nimbly backwards, easily avoiding the blow, but it quickly became apparent that the goal had not been to hit Pikachu but merely to clear up some space. As Pikachu dodged, Mewtwo held up both hands and fired off a Focus Blast - only it was aimed not at Pikachu, but at Ash. 

Pikachu immediately shifted into action, leaping into the air and, with a powerful Iron Tail, it slapped Mewtwo’s ball of murderous energy, diverting up and into the sky, out of sight. 

However, at the same time that Pikachu moved to defend its trainer, Mewtwo turned and, taking advantage of their distraction, fired off a powerful Psyshock in the direction of Ash’s Venusaur.

It was a dirty move - but she supposed there were no rules in a life-or-death battle like this, and no one had ever accused Giovanni of having honor. Venusaur, whose back was turned, trying to protect Ash from the crazed legendary pokemon all around them, didn’t see it coming, and Ash could do nothing more than turn and scream in warning, but it was too late. 

Or it would have been. 

A split second before the powerful psychic attack would have struck Venusaur from behind and very probably put it out of commission, AJ and Hydreigon were there. Hydreigon tanked the hit, letting the psychic energy seemingly evaporate on contact with her hardened scales, shrugging off the attack with the sort of indifference only a dark-type pokemon could possess. Before Mewtwo could counter, she let off a furious Dark Pulse, forcing Mewtwo to teleport rapidly backward to avoid the blast. 

AJ released Hydreigon’s leg, calling out to Venusaur who let out a roar of gratitude before she turned her attention back to her father. 

Their eyes met, and she came to a sudden awkward halt. 

For a moment, she hesitated, not sure what to say. The memory of their last meeting - of him telling her how sorry he was, of him pushing her away again - flickered through her head, and her emotions seemed to roil violently within her, as if even her heart didn’t know what she was supposed to be feeling in this moment. 

Her father, for his part, was just gawking at her as if he couldn’t believe his eyes, seeming to have momentarily forgotten the world-ending battle he was currently engaged in. 

“AJ?!” he said, practically spluttering, and she gave herself a mental shake. Now was not the time. Focus on the battle first. Their stupid family drama could come later.

“Yeah. Hi. You’re welcome.”

Not that she actually cared about whether he thanked her or not for saving Venusaur, but it was the only thing that came to mind. 

“Where’s Pichu?” he suddenly asked. Another sharp spike of fear and anxiety stabbed at her heart, but she forced it down, not willing to think of where he could be or what could have happened to him, alone in the dark and the chaos that surrounded them.

“...I don’t know,” she said after a moment, and Ash suddenly looked grim. 

She half expected condolences. Or maybe even a pity-filled silence.

Instead, he straightened up, looking determined as he seized the bill of his cap and twisted it around backward. “Alright. Then let’s hurry and get this over with. After we save Mewtwo we can go find Pichu together.”

“Right,” she said, nodding emphatically, and without realizing what she was doing, she grabbed the bill of her hat and turned it around backward as well. 

Across the battlefield, Giovanni was smirking. 

“Well, isn’t this sweet?” he called out, barely audible over the din of distant battle. “What a lovely father-daughter reunion. A pleasant way to end your stories, isn’t it?”

“Shut up, you old creep,” AJ muttered mostly to herself, but her Hydreigon let out a three-headed roar that drowned it out completely. 

“But I notice,” Giovanni continued, unperturbed, “that I still don’t see Cole anywhere. Don’t tell me that coward is hiding away, letting his children do all of the fighting? I always knew he wasn’t much of a battler, but I never dared think he’d stoop this low.”

“Sorry,” Ash said, his voice thick with condescension. “You aren’t really important enough for dad to deal with you. I guess you’ll have to make due with us.”

“Very well then. I was getting bored here, just one-on-one. Mewtwo is in need of more strenuous testing, so I’ll allow the interruption. Come at me together, and allow me to prove my superiority once and for all.”

He tapped his cane against the grass, a virtually inaudible action, but Mewtwo seemed to react, straightening itself and preparing to charge. 

“You ready?” her father asked, his voice pitched low so only she could hear. 

“Are you?” she countered, and he smirked. 

“Alright then. Show me what you’ve got, kid.”

With a burst of speed, Mewtwo surged forward. Pikachu charged forward to meet it, and from behind, her Hydreigon drew back its three heads and braced herself to attack. 

The battle had begun.

Chapter Text

Sammy let out a shout, ducking low and nearly falling on his face in the snow as a rogue Icicle Shard came flying by overhead, nearly taking his head off. 

The wild Froslass wasn’t attacking him directly - she’d just been blasting attacks off wildly, spewing ice and ghostly ectoplasm all over the hillside and cackling in that frigid way her species did that sent literal chills down the spines of any who heard them. Or at least, she was cackling - right up until Sammy’s Dragonite nailed her with a precision Dragon Pulse that blasted her back into the night and out of sight. 

Everything around him at the moment was utter chaos. Sure, things had been dicey at first - way outnumbered and with no idea where Giovanni was, but even against those odds, he’d still been somewhat confident. After all, he’d had four Champions at his side, and Kris who was near that level. So while he may have been one of the weaker battlers on the team - the jury was still out on Hilda’s boys - he’d still believed they’d had a reasonable chance at victory here. Especially if they could get to Ash in time. 

But that was before. Before the radio frequency had apparently been activated. Before the wild pokemon had turned against them and transformed the battlefield into a full-on every man for himself melee. Before he’d been separated from the others and found himself alone, a solitary island of sanity in this ocean of absolute mayhem.

He was supposed to be going to the cave. That was the plan, at least. But somehow, in the chaos of the battle, somewhere between the Ursarang who’d tried to take his leg off or the criminal lackeys he’d had to battle to save his Corviknight from being kidnapped, he’d gotten turned around and before he knew it, he’d somehow ended up going backwards - away from the caves and towards the enemy airships. 

He had no idea how that had happened, and he knew that he was going the wrong way, but at this point he’d decided it would be better to just take to the skies and swing around to the alternate entrance. Now that the wild pokemon were going… well, wild, it was obvious that their initial plan had failed. Giovanni had managed to activate the radio frequency, which meant that turning that off was top priority. 

The only problem was, he was having a hard time finding a second to breathe here. How was he supposed to be expected to climb aboard his Dragonite and recall his other pokemon when every two seconds, something or someone was trying to remove his head?!

Sammy pushed himself upright, breathless and partially numb from the cold, and had to throw himself to the side almost immediately as a wild Donphan came tearing down the mountainside, kicking up snow and mud and nearly bowling him over. 

The disturbance seemed to have shaken a den of Furret from their hidey-holes, and as a gaggle of about four or five burst wildly out of the snow, Sammy’s Silvally leaped forward, slashing at them with his heavy claws, driving them back. 

At the same time, a Noctowl swooped low out of the darkness, clawed feet extended as though it intended to rake Silvally across the back only to instead receive a face full of Sludge Bomb courtesy of Sammy’s Gengar. 

Still stumbling from the Donphan attack, Sammy collided with a tree and paused to try and catch his breath when from out of the branches, a Sneasel dropped onto his head. He let out a scream as their claws began digging into his face and neck. It didn’t seem like it was trying to claw him up, only hold on and screech, but it still hurt. Before it could do any serious damage, Sammy was rescued by his Gallade, who knocked it off with a quick slash of his elbow blades and sent the creature darting off into the night. 

Sammy wiped at his face with his gloved hand, grimacing. There was some blood, but not that much. It probably looked worse than it was, but the cuts stung in the freezing air, pulsing with the pounding of his heartbeat. 

He currently had four of his six pokemon out of their balls right now, forming a rough ring to protect him as they fought their way across the battlefield. He’d have had them all out if he could, but Corviknight had been hurt in one of the earlier skirmishes and was resting now, and Leafeon couldn’t move around easily in all this snow. He was grateful he’d had the foresight to change the settings on their balls before coming back up the mountain, otherwise he knew she’d be out right now as well, refusing to go back in. 

But this was no place for her. Not that she couldn’t fight - but her movement would be so restricted with all the snow that she’d just wind up an easy target. Not like Dragonite or Gengar, who could fly, or Silvally, with his strong legs that could power through the snow, or Gallade, who could clear a path with his psychic powers. She’d be pissed at him, of course, but it was his call at the end of the day. She’d have to get over it. 

Dragonite let out another blast of Dragon Pulse, scaring off a Skarmory who had been circling overhead, while Silvally and Gengar dealt with a roaming pack of Snorunt. This was going really poorly. With all of the crazed wild pokemon and roving bands of Team Whatever stooges kidnapping pokemon, there wasn’t time to get on Dragonite and fly away without being attacked - not without abandoning Silvally and Gallade. 

If only he’d thought to have Gallade teleport him straight to the cave entrance when they’d first arrived… It was too late now, as he couldn’t teleport very many people at once, but if he’d done it when the battle had started… No, because then he would have been alone, and the fighting had already reached the caves by the time they’d arrived, so he would have just popped up in the middle of a fight and probably would have been hit by something. Whatever - now wasn’t the time for ‘what ifs’ or ‘could’ve beens’, he needed to get moving. But where to? 

It was then that he realized, as explosions rang out closer than ever, that moving closer to the airships had also put him closer to Hilda and N’s legendary pokemon. The twin Unovan dragons were still standing, and had even somehow gained some ground, heading towards the airships. They’d been aiming most of their long-distance fire and lightning attacks toward the ships since the fight began, but thus far, a wall of psychic barriers had managed to prevent any of them from being destroyed. 

If they could blow those ships up, that would be great - it would make it harder for Giovanni and his men to get away with any stolen pokemon. But more than that, the dragons being there mean that Hilda was probably nearby. If he could get close enough to them, he could hide in their protective bubble and he should have time to recall his team and get on Dragonite!

This would be the perfect time for a Gallade teleport, but since he couldn’t take more than one person at a time…

Taking a deep breath to steel himself, he relayed his plan to Gallade, who sent it out telepathically to the rest of his team and, together, they began their mad dash towards the dragons. 

It was a rough and wild couple of minutes. They sprinted through the snow and the dark, Gallade at his side and Silvally bringing up the rear while Dragonite and Gengar soared overhead and tried to fend off anything that drew too close. Gallade had to save him from a rogue Machoke at one point who nearly caught him with a Mega Punch that would have ended his career. A duo of would-be pokemon kidnappers tried to take them from behind at one point, only to fall to Silvally’s Crush Claw. And he also definitely didn’t slip and fall about twenty feet down the mountainside and nearly break his leg again. 

But finally, after too much running for his exhausted legs and not enough oxygen at this altitude for his burning lungs, he made it - back to where Reshiram and Zekrom had formed the allies’ makeshift resistance base. 

And things were clearly going very poorly. 

He could see Hilda and N standing near the dragon’s feet, shouting orders to a small group of pokemon as they struggled to protect the dragons from harm. He could see a Zoroark and a Goodra, a Gardevoir and a Golurk and an Emboar. Several powerful pokemon, forming a protective semi-circle and fighting to keep their little bubble safe. 

But they were severely outnumbered. While a large portion of Giovanni’s stooges were still out roaming the battlefield and capturing every pokemon they could, and many were focusing on maintaining the protective shielding that kept their airships protected, there was still no small number of them advancing on Hilda and N. They and their pokemon had them outnumbered nearly a dozen to one, and if it wasn’t for the odd pot shots that the dragons would take into the growing crowd when they weren’t blasting the airships, they likely would have already been overtaken. 

So much for taking a breather, Sammy thought glumly. Looks like getting to the Sanctuary and stopping the radio frequency wasn’t in the cards. He’d have to hope the others could handle it on their own. 

Sammy wasn’t really a battler, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t know how to battle. With a quick order to his crew, he grabbed hold of Gallade’s arm and, in a blink, they teleported, appearing on the ground beneath the towering Reshiram and Zekrom - right in between Hilda and N. 

Hilda whipped her head around with a startled “Wha-?!”, but Sammy was already giving orders to Gallade, sending him into battle. 

From this vantage point, the fighting was even worse than it had seemed from afar. Hilda’s Emboar was really the only pokemon who seemed to still have some steam left in him, holding the center of the line and laying about with Arm Thrusts and Flame Charges and keeping his section of the battlefield on lockdown. 

No one else was doing as well, clearly exhausted from a battle that seemed never-ending. 

The Zoroark went in for a Night Slash against the enemy Cofagrigus, but before the blow could land it was broad-sided by an unexpected High Jump Kick, courtesy of a Mienshao, that send it flying backward, crashing into the snow in a heap near N’s feet and visibly shuddering. Nearby, Hilda’s Golurk struck an enemy Bronzong with a Shadow Punch that made the pokemon’s bell-like body ring out with a low tone, making Sammy’s skull rattle, but before it could follow up, a Perugly pounced on it from behind, scouring its normally tough earthen body with a Shadow Claw that had the goliath staggering backward with a low moan of pain. 

On the other side, they weren’t fairing much better. Goodra tried for a Mud Shot to keep the enemy Pyroar at bay, but the creature was too fast, dodging the hits and waiting for its opening. While she was occupied, she was unable to help her partner Gardevoir, who took a powerful Poison Fang from the large, imposing Drapion who had her pinned near a fallen tree. As she stumbled back, it lashed out with an X-Scissor that knocked her to the ground, wounded and poisoned and unable to flee.

It drew back one of its massive claws, dripping with venom, ready to strike - and then Sammy’s Gallade was there, blades flashing in the night as it opened up with a fierce Close Combat, striking Drapion six or seven times in rapid succession and sending it stumbling backwards. 

At the same time, Dragonite swooped in from above, crashing to the ground with a furious roar and nailing the enemy Pyroar with a surprise Aqua Tail that sent it flying back into the crowd of grunts. On the other side, Gengar pelted the Bronzong with Shadow Balls while Silvally pounced on the Purugly with another savage Crush Claw. 

“Sammy!” Hilda breathed, looking winded but relieved to see a friendly face. “Thank Arceus - what are… Have you seen my brother?”

Sammy shook his head, looking grim. 

“No. I thought I might have seen Ethan a while back with a couple other people, but it’s so dark, I can’t say for sure. But he might have been with him.”

Hilda nodded, her face an odd mix of tense, battle-ready fury and overwhelming concern. Being lost out in this chaos didn’t bode well for anyone. Sure, Nate may have been with Ethan - or he may have been mauled to death by a rampaging Mamoswine. There was no way to know for sure until the battle ended and they found him. 

On the battlefield in front of him, the enemy lines seemed to pull back a bit, reconsidering how to advance now that Sammy had shown up unexpectedly to reinforce Hilda and N. This was good, as it gave Hilda’s pokemon a chance to pull back and catch their breaths. Her Emboar still seemed raring to go, panting heavily with spittle flying out of its mouth as it glared death at his opponents, but the rest of her team looked battered and beaten. He watched as his Gallade, ever the gentleman, bowed low and offered a hand to help Hilda’s Gardevoir back to her feet.

Across their makeshift battlefield, the crowd parted a bit to allow an older man to push his way forward. He was a tall man, and lanky; maybe somewhere in his fifties with hair that was the pale green color of absinthe. He was wearing a full-body cloak in swaths of blacks and grays like a super villain from a Saturday morning cartoon, and he was carrying an odd sort of silver cane that had a large shield insignia with what looked like the letters P and Z emblazoned on the front. 

Sammy had no idea who this weirdo was supposed to be, but the question was answered almost immediately as N stepped up beside him, his fists trembling and glaring for all he was worth. 

“Ghetsis,” the older boy seethed through clenched teeth. “I knew you had to be here.”

The strange man let out a humorless chuckle. 

“Ah, there you are, Natural. I had wondered where you’d run off to. And I’m not surprised to see you conspiring with such… company.” Here, he shot Hilda a disgusted look, like she was something unpleasant he’d scraped off the bottom of his shoe. “You always were such a disappointment.”

“He’s ten times the man you ever were, Ghetsis,” Hilda snarled, and the older man turned to her with a thin-lipped smile. 

“So good of you to bring both of my dragons back together for me, girl,” he drawled. “Saves me the work of having to go and hunt you down so I can take them back.”

“I’d like to see you try,” she seethed. “I’ll gladly kick your teeth in. I’ve done it before - I’ll do it again.”

At this, her Emboar let out a savage roar and beat the ground with its meaty fists, the flames on his shoulders growing in size together with his rage. 

Sammy had no idea what was going on here - something something Team Plasma, personal drama, who cares. But it seemed like he was going to be getting a front row seat whether he wanted it or not.

Someone else pushed their way to the front of the crowd - a woman, maybe mid thirties, with short-cut red hair and a black-and-white snowsuit. He thought he recognized this one as Mars, from Team Galactic. 

“Hey now, old man,” she said - which sounded odd coming from someone twice Sammy’s age, but whatever - “No one said these dragons belonged to you. Giovanni said it was first come, first serve.”

Another man pushed forward, this one in his early forties, with the most ridiculous mane of red hair Sammy had ever seen. It stuck up in all directions like he’d put his finger in a light socket. The funniest part was, this was clearly an intentional style choice, as his hair flowed seamlessly into his beard, which was also styled in the exact same way. He thought he recognized him as Lysandre, the leader of Team Flare.

“We’ve wasted enough time here,” he said, his voice low and steady. “You’ve had your fun - now let us end this swiftly so we can move on. One should not toy with their food.”

Ghetsis scoffed, but made a ‘very well’ sort of gesture with his free hand, and all around them, men began pulling out pokeballs, summoning more and more pokemon to the field. 

What momentary reprieve they’d gained with Sammy’s arrival quickly faltered as their pokemon became swiftly overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Out of options, Sammy pulled out his last usable pokemon - Leafeon - in the desperate hope that she might be able to help, but there were simply too many. 

The main combatants surged forward - Drapion and Purugly and Cofagrigus and Pyroar and Bronzong - reengaging with Hilda and Sammy’s pokemon and pushing the fight, but they were aided by the dozens of newcomers newly summoned to the field. None of the new pokemon seemed as strong as the others, but they fired off attacks from a safe distance, pelting Sammy and Hilda’s pokemon with Acid Sprays and Water Guns and Thunderbolts and Confuse Rays. Several of them took to the air, and with the other pokemon distracted, they began attacking Reshiram and Zekrom, slowly overwhelming them with sheer numbers.

Emboar tried to charge forward and was swiftly overwhelmed. Gallade sent a Psycho Cut at a Golbat overhead but found himself unable to fight to his fullest while protecting Gardevoir. Silvally was tackled to the ground by an enemy Raticate who sank its fangs into its leg, making it cry out in pain, and Dragonite managed to take down three opponents simultaneously before being deluged in a wave of sludge fired from the tail of a Skuntank. 

Even Leafeon was being overrun. She managed to score two well-placed Leaf Edges on a Poliwrath and a Nosepass before finding herself the object of a Chandelure’s ire, struggling to dodge back in the deep snow as the ghost pokemon peppered the ground with Flame Bursts.

This was bad. They desperately needed a miracle. Either Ethan and Kris heroically returning, or AJ and Jade managing to shut off the radio frequency just in time for the wild pokemon to regain their senses - something. Anything! 

Only, Sammy wasn’t naive enough to believe in miracles. After all, he was no Ketchum. He couldn’t expect random nonsense to just happen to him. He didn’t just happen to find Mews while walking along riverbanks, or discover the person you didn’t know you were looking for during random hiking trips in the mountains. 

He was an Oak. And an Oak knew that to obtain something, you had to work for it. There were no miracles. This really might be the end.

So imagine Sammy’s surprise when a familiar voice shouted, “Now - Dark Pulse!” and an Umbreon leaped onto the field from somewhere behind him, letting out a fierce howl and blasting a wave of dark energy forward into the enemy hoard, catching the Chandelure off guard and knocking it to the ground. 

Before Sammy could understand what had happened or where this pokemon had come from, there were suddenly more of them. More pokemon and more people, charging across the snow or descending from the skies, coming from behind and rallying to Zekrom and Reshiram’s position. 

He saw a blue-haired woman he didn’t know ordering her Empoleon into the fray as it laid about with its steel-tipped wings, tanking attacks and taking down foes with reckless abandon, forcing Mars and her Perugly back; saw another blonde woman have her Delphox blasting at the airborne enemies with psychic rings of burning fire and driving them off. And there - that man! Sammy knew him! That was Max, the current leader of the Petalburg Gym in Hoenn - and that was his Gallade, sending Psycho Cuts into the crowd and taking down Giovanni’s flunkies in a fierce surprise attack! What was he doing here?!

Someone clapped him on the shoulder and he jumped, turning in slack-jawed surprise to find his father coming up behind him, shouting another order to his Umbreon as he stood protectively in front of Leafeon, his daughter. A Glaceon raced up beside him, peppering their opponents with shards of ice. At the same time, someone shouted his name and caught him from behind in a rib-cracking hug. 

“M-mom?!” he spluttered, absolutely floored. “Dad?! What- How- Why-?!”

“You didn’t think we were going to sit this one out, did you?” his dad asked, looking affronted, while his mother completely ignored his questions,  exclaiming in shock over the cuts on his face. “You and AJ said Ashy-boy was up here, right? Well, where is he? I don’t see his ugly mug anywhere.”

“He’s not-... He’s in the Sanctuary with-... Who are all of these people?!”

His mom and dad he could understand - sort of. They’d been part of the meeting back at the League, so he could sort of believe that they’d decided to drop everything and come rushing over. But these other people? That gym leader from Hoenn?! How? Why?!

He did a double-take when he noticed two familiar faces. There, fighting near the edges, were AJ’s Aunt Daisy and her Uncle Tracey, shouting orders to their Dewgong and Azumarill and plugging holes in their defensive line.

“They heard AJ’s callout on the news,” his mother explained, now wiping at the bloodstains on his face like he was a little kid who got hurt on the playground and not in the middle of an active war zone. “And as soon as they did, they came running. You may not know this, but Ash had a lot of friends back in the day. How could they stay away if they knew he was in danger?”

“But…” Sammy stammered, utterly confused. “We… There was no evidence, she just said that all and ran off without explanation. How did anyone believe…?”

His mother had stopped wiping at his face finally and was now meeting his gaze with a sort of knowing look. 

“After hearing her, it was sort of hard to doubt. Besides, you Oaks don’t always understand this, but sometimes it isn’t about evidence or proof. Sometimes, when people want to believe something badly enough, they make it come true.”

“Yeah, I gotta hand it to you kids,” his father said, turning to smirk at him while their Umbreon, Glaceon, and Leafeon battled it out on the field in front of them. “You somehow brought forward the most insane sounding story known to man, and not only managed to convince Lance and Gramps, but me, your mom, Misty, Brock - heck, multiple Champions bought into your craziness, and now people are coming out of the woodworks to back you up. From all over the Alliance, from what I hear - though most of ‘em aren’t going to make it here in time.”

“So then…” Sammy said, looking around and watching another woman he didn’t know with short brunette hair cheering on a Blaziken as it let out a roundhouse kick that swatted the approaching Mienshao out of the air. “These people are… What, Ash’s friends?”

“Some of ‘em,” his father grunted. “There’s Dawn. Serena’s here somewhere - I heard she just happened to have been in Sinnoh today to judge a Contest. May and Max are here too, and that’s Tracey - oh, but you know Tracey.”

But there were more, Sammy was realizing. More and more people arriving in a slow trickle, in ones or twos or threes - some of them old enough to be more of Ash’s friends from back in his glory days, who believed his daughter’s impossible plea for help over the TV and had dropped everything to come running - but there were several others who were far too young to have known Ash Ketchum. Some wore coats that bore the badge symbols of famous Gyms, and another he thought he recognized from Elm’s lab. That man was one of the old, retired Rangers from the station at the foot of the mountain. Two of them were teens even younger than he was. 

Had they… Had they just come to help? No personal connection to AJ or Ash or the League, just good people with the simple desire to stand up and do the right thing?

The battle in front of them was still raging, but bolstered by their surprise reinforcements, their opponents were being slowly pushed back. Sammy’s Gallade joined up with Max’s, two whirlwinds of blades and martial prowess. His Dragonite soared overhead with Gengar and Hilda’s Golurk and someone’s Jumpluff, protecting the Unovan dragons from aerial attacks, aided by Delphox and Dewgong who fired attacks from the ground. Silvally joined Leafeon and his parents’ pokemon as they prowled the ground around the dragons’ feet, catching any strays who made it past the wall of muscle that was Emboar and Goodra and Blaziken and Azumarill and Empoleon. 

“Retreat!” Sammy heard someone yell. “Fall back to the ships and regroup-!”

The voice cut off with a high-pitched wail as a figure dropped down from the darkness overhead, landing in the middle of the enemy hoard, and with a roar and powerful Aura Sphere, a section of the enemy number was blasted away, sent literally flying off their feet, landing in disoriented heaps in the snow, people and pokemon alike. 

There in the center stood a very familiar Lucario, who was already turning to fire off another blast. 

“Well now - this is a party!” came a loud, blunt voice from behind them. Together, Sammy and his parents turned to find a Metagross landing in the snow. It wasn’t Jade’s, however - this one wasn’t nearly shiny enough to be hers because its owner clearly didn’t spend half of his life polishing it like she did. 

Instead, climbing off of the sturdy pokemon’s back were two faces anyone in the Alliance would recognize on sight - Steven, the Grand Champion of Hoenn, and Cynthia, Grand Champion of Sinnoh and, it was argued, the toughest trainer in the Alliance. 

It was the latter who had spoken, stomping forward across the snow in her black boots and scowling around at all the chaos with a look that could only be described as exhilarated. 

“I haven’t been able to cut loose like this in ages! But where’s Lance at? And where’s Ketchum?! Don’t tell me I came all this way for nothing!”

“I think we have more pressing matters to deal with, Cynthia,” Steven cut in. From his tone, you’d almost think he was bored. “Judging from the scene before us, I’d say Giovanni’s radio frequency wasn’t just a crazy hypothetical after all.”

“Yeah, what’s the story? I just got here - you, Oak. Summarize. Where’s Ketchum? Where’s Giovanni?”

“Ash is still in the Sanctuary,” Sammy said hastily. He was pretty sure Cynthia was addressing his father and not him, but as his dad wouldn’t know what was going on either it’d be faster for him to explain. 

“When we arrived, the fighting had already started, but the radio frequency hadn’t been used yet, so we split up. AJ took Lance and Iris and half our group into the Sanctuary through a secret entrance while the rest of us were going to make our way to another entrance in that cave over there in the hopes that we could catch Giovanni before he made it to the Sanctuary, but before we could, they started using the frequency and everything went south. I don’t know where Ethan and Kris are, but right now we’re trying to get to those ships to cut off their escape route.”

Cynthia blinked, then turned to Steven with a frown. 

“Did you get all that?”

He nodded. 

“Stop the ships, get to the Sanctuary, cut off the radio frequency, defeat Giovanni.”

“Oh. Well alright - sounds easy enough.”

“You’d think,” Sammy said, exasperated. None of that was easy. He had the wounds to prove it. “But they’re protecting their ships with a psychic barrier. Reshiram and Zekrom have been blasting it for all they’re worth but they can’t get through!”

“Well then let’s fix that,” Cynthia said, shrugging as though he’d said his shoes were untied. She turned to Steven and he nodded, ordering his Metagross to fly up into the sky. 

“Have the dragons focus as much of their fire power as they can on the barrier,” Steven said. 

Sammy was half tempted to say they’d already tried that, but thought better of it. Instead, he called out to Hilda and N, who were standing not far away, Hilda’s Emboar still duking it out with Ghetsis’s pokemon, and relayed Steven’s order. A moment later, both dragons fired off their long-range blasts once again, their tail engines whirring and whining at an ear-splitting volume. 

From a distance, Sammy watched as the twin blasts slammed against the psychic shield. It undulated under the force of the blow, rippling violently like a heat mirage, but managed to hold just as it had every time before. 

Then, out of the skies, Steven’s Metagross descended at a rapid pace, its body spinning like a UFO before violently slamming into the psychic barrier with a powerful Meteor Mash. The addition of the sudden physical blow proved to be too much, and the barrier shattered under the combined might of Metagross and the Unovan dragons’ attacks. 

Now freed from the barrier, twin beams of fire and lightning tore towards the ships, ripping holes in their sides and causing the engines in two of them to blow. As the attacks slowly petered off, Sammy could see flames beginning to grow in the distance. 

“That’s two down,” Steven said curtly. “I recommend having the dragons continue their assault until they take out all of the engines on the ships - however, try not to destroy them entirely. We don’t know how many captured pokemon have already been transported inside and we don’t want to accidentally hurt or kill any of them.”

“I’m on it,” Sammy’s father said. “You can leave leading the recovery mission to me and Leaf. We’ll round up the others and save as many as we can..”

“Excellent,” Cynthia said, giving his father an approving nod before suddenly turning her attention to Sammy. “And you-”

“I’m going to take you to the Sanctuary,” he said quickly, already guessing her intention. This worked out well for him, as that was where he was trying to get to initially anyway. 

“That’s right!” she said, slapping him on the arm with a little too much strength and nearly knocking him over. “I love it when I’m surrounded by competent people. Now - which way is it? That cave you said?”

She turned and started walking in that direction as though she was just going to bulldoze her way there.

“Wait!” Sammy shouted frantically, reaching out and actually grabbing Cynthia by the arm. He removed his hand just as fast, as though afraid she was going to bite it off, but the look she gave him was neither angry nor annoyed. She just looked curious. 

“What is it?”

“Don’t- Don’t go that way. We’d have to fight our way through all this mess and it’d take forever - I’ll take you to the other entrance, the one AJ took Lance through. We have to fly to get there though.”

“Then let’s go!” she shouted. “Oh, uh - but Steven, wanna give me a ride again?”

The older man rolled his eyes, but nodded. In the time it took for his Metagross to make its way back to them, Cynthia recalled her Lucario and Sammy took a moment to recall his entire team - other than Gengar and Dragonite. He’d be flying on Dragonite, but he wanted Gengar out just in case they were attacked on the way there. 

Even with their pokemon recalled, however, the battle lines were still rapidly shifting in their favor. With the psychic shield down and their ships aflame, most of the enemy forces had been forced to pull back to try and save the ships, which had allowed Sammy’s side to push forward, bolstered by their reinforcements. Even now, as they took to the air, heading off toward the last spire of Mt. Silver, more and more people were showing up to lend a hand. 

“I have to warn you,” Sammy called out as they headed off. “I don’t know exactly what we’re going to find in there. There were a lot of legendary pokemon living in the Sanctuary, and if the radio frequency is affecting the wild pokemon out here, it’s probably affecting them in there as well. Things are probably going to get very dangerous.”

“Good!” Cynthia shouted back, looking eager. “I’ve been hungry for a challenge!”

Well. Can’t say he didn’t try to warn them. 

Then again, if he had to rush into a battlefield against potential dozens of crazed legendary pokemon, there was probably no trainer on earth he’d rather have in his back pocket other than Cynthia. 

Well, except for maybe Ash Ketchum. 

He tried to quell the voice in his head reminding him that Ash was already in there, together with AJ and Lance and Iris and maybe even Ethan if he’d already made it - and still they hadn’t managed to stop the radio broadcast. And that did not bode well for what they were going to find in there. 

Whatever was happening, he prayed his friends were safe. 

With an ear-splitting roar, AJ’s Hydreigon reared up, all three heads extending back like a trio of threatening Arbok as, from their gaping mouths, red, blue, and yellow elemental energies began to manifest, forming into crackling orbs. 

The Tri Attack ripped free, spewing pure beams of fire, ice, and lightning that ripped across the battlefield, digging furrows into the earth and setting grass and bushes ablaze as Mewtwo, the intended target, teleported adeptly around them, cleanly dodging every hit. 

It tried to retaliate, warping high into the air and readying another Focus Blast, but just as suddenly, Pikachu was there, having zipped around and climbed Hydreigon’s back, launching itself off of Hydreigon’s central head with a Quick Attack that changed rapidly into an Iron Tail, the attack missing Mewtwo by inches as the pokemon was forced to teleport away again. 

That was how most of the exchanges had been going during this battle to determine the fate of the world. Hydreigon letting loose and peppering the field with a barrage of wide-range special attacks, forcing Mewtwo to dodge into one of the few safe spaces in the battlefield, leaving it free for Pikachu to target - only for it to barely escape by the skin of its teeth. 

It was frustrating. Mewtwo was simply too fast, its rapid teleportations too unpredictable. Try as they might, they just couldn’t seem to pin it down. 

For a wonder, however, Hydreigon seemed to be performing exceptionally well. Listening to AJ's commands, not losing herself to fear or outrage. She wasn’t sure if this meant that she would necessarily be good to go in any future battles, or if her and AJ’s combined fear for their friends’ safety and anger against Giovanni’s particular brand of evil had just been enough to help her push past her fears this once, but either way, she’d take it. 

And in truth, AJ knew that, realistically speaking, she should have lost this battle already. Hydreigon were a powerful species with enormous potential - but for now, that was really all her Hydreigon had. Potential. She was completely lacking in real-world battling experience, and it showed in how slow she could be to react or how poor her aim was. Having never really been trained properly, her weaknesses were all too apparent, and it should have been a simple matter for Giovanni to take them apart. 

As it stood, though, Hydreigon actually had several things going for it in this particular battle that seemed to be making up the difference. 

For one thing, she was a Hydreigon. What she lacked in training, she could at least somewhat make up for in raw power and her natural tankiness. Her attacks may not always be accurate or come out as fast as AJ would have liked, but they covered a large radius and still packed an impressive punch, meaning Mewtwo was forced to evade more often than not or risk taking substantial damage. 

Then there was her typing. Dragons were already a very hardy and resilient species as a rule, but Hydreigon’s Dark typing was the real clincher here. Most of Mewtwo’s more powerful attacks were of the Psychic variety - Psychocks, Psybeams, Extrasensory, etc. It would fire those moves off rapidly at Pikachu, tearing up the ground and distorting the air, but those moves would wash harmlessly off Hydreigon’s scales, rendering most of Mewtwo’s attacks useless. It had other moves at its disposal, of course, but neither Shadow Ball nor Dark Pulse had that much effect against Hydreigon, so while she’d taken a bit of damage in the battle so far since her dodging wasn’t quite up to snuff, it really wasn’t all that much. 

The other benefit to being Dark type was that it completely negated one of a Psychic pokemon’s greatest assets. That is, generally speaking, Psychic type pokemon could either read minds or see partially into the future, at least to a certain degree - it varied a bit by species, but it was true more often than not - which could make them terrors on the battlefield as they often knew what you were up to a second before you did. This was the main reason for why Mewtwo had been able to dodge most of Pikachu’s attacks thus far. Though the tiny electric mouse far outmatched it in speed, since Mewtwo knew what was coming, it was able to consistently teleport out of the way before being blasted by a Thunderbolt or an Iron Tail. 

However, that didn’t work against Hydreigon. As a Dark type, Mewtwo was unable to read her mind or glimpse into her future, so even though she was slow and her aim wasn’t great, it was still forced to react to her attacks as they happened rather than a split second beforehand. 

Then you had to consider what a Hydreigon was as a pokemon. A large, powerful, three-headed dragon with a well-developed empathic sense that made up for its poor eyesight. While she was slow and made for a very large target, Mewtwo wasn’t able to get the jump on her owing largely to the fact that she could sense its emotions, meaning she always knew where it was. Every now and then it would try to teleport behind her to let off a sneak attack in her blind spot, but as she could sense its rage, it always gave itself away and she was always ready to let off a Dragon Breath or a Dark Pulse to chase it back. And with triple the heads came triple the attacks, and since those heads had long necks and could twist around nearly 360 degrees, there was virtually nowhere Mewtwo could hide from her. 

But even with all of that working in her favor - even with her type advantage, her immunity to Mewtwo’s strongest attacks and abilities, being able to track its every movement and her wide-range powerful special attacks coming from three heads at once - still, AJ knew that by all rights, she should have already lost this battle. Mewtwo was just too strong. All it would take was a couple of well-placed Focus Blasts and she knew that her undertrained Hydreigon would be down for the count. 

No, as much as it galled her to admit it, the strongest asset she had in this battle actually had nothing to do with her Hydreigon. It was her father’s Pikachu. 

The little electric rodent darted all over the battlefield in a yellow flash too fast to even see. Every time Hydreigon’s wild attacks created an opening, it was there to capitalize on it. Every time she left herself open to an attack, it was there to defend her, knocking away Mewtwo’s Focus Blasts with a powerful Iron Tail and firing back with an attack of its own. 

It was as though Hydreigon’s main role in this battle was primarily to cause distractions. She was too strong for Mewtwo to ignore outright, but not enough of a threat for Giovanni to worry that she’d take them down. Pikachu was the key player here, batting cleanup while Hydreigon did her best to set them up for success. 

And that was frustrating in a way. She hadn’t come all this way to play second fiddle, but when so much was at stake and when all she had to contribute was an under-trained pokemon, you did what you had to do. 

Admittedly, however… In spite of the dire situation and her still conflicted feelings about her father, she had to admit that there was something altogether thrilling about battling alongside this Pikachu. 

She’d heard the stories. She’d seen it battle first hand during their disastrous duel on the night they had met. But nothing could compare to watching it really let loose in a prolonged, high-stakes battle such as this. 

Mewtwo should have been many times stronger than a Pikachu, especially one that should have been nearing the end of its battling glory days. And yet at every turn, with every move, this Pikachu defied all expectations. 

Here it was, going toe-to-toe with a literal clone of Mew itself, having battled it alone for several minutes before AJ had arrived to back them up, and still it didn’t slow down, matching Mewtwo dodge for dodge, blow for blow. 

Its sheer speed was nearly a match for Mewtwo’s teleportation. The power behind its Thunderbolts was enough to rival even Mewtwo’s most powerful Shadow Balls and knock them off course. And no matter where Mewtwo moved, what angle it attacked from, no matter how relentless its onslaught, Pikachu would not back down - and gave back just as good. 

And for a wonder, as AJ stood behind her Hydreigon, shouting encouragement, working her hardest to help her partner and provide backup, she couldn’t help but watch Pikachu out of the corner of her eye with a dawning mixture of awe and envy. 

She wanted that. Not her father’s Pikachu - no, she wanted what his Pikachu had. Not just the power and the skill, not just the grace under fire, not just the never-say-die attitude and overwhelming competence. 

She wanted what it and her father shared between trainer and pokemon. She wanted a bond that strong with her own Pichu - with all of her partners. Not just because she was a trainer or even the Champion, not just because she wanted to be the very best. But because she could see in the set of her father’s shoulders and the glint in his eyes that, even with two party members down, even with the other three busy dealing with distractions behind them, even against all odds and with only Pikachu in his corner - there was no doubt there, no hesitation, no fear. It was as though, even with everything stacked against them, he never doubted the outcome of this match. His trust and faith in Pikachu was immovable, and she knew Pikachu felt the same. 

And for the first time in her entire life, she could admit - at least in private, to herself - that she admired that in him.

On the field, her Hydreigon let out a Hyper Voice from its central head, one that Mewtwo easily evaded, though the powerful sonic vibrations from her roaring caused a boulder half buried in the hillside to suddenly shatter. 

Mewtwo appeared overhead once again, preparing another Focus Blast, only for another of Hydreigon’s heads to swivel automatically and fire off a quick Dragon Pulse, forcing Mewtwo to teleport away. It reappeared down on the ground, beneath Hydreigon’s body, ready to strike from below - and in a blink, Pikachu was there, gaining speed with a Quick Attack and catching Mewtwo with a glancing blow to the leg right before it disappeared again. 

That wasn’t their first time landing a hit, but they hadn’t been able to do any substantial damage thus far. That armor it was wearing had managed to absorb most of the blows, and they hadn’t been able to land anything powerful enough to break through those defenses. Even with AJ’s sudden appearance, the battle still wasn’t going well. Mewtwo really was just that strong. 

“I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up,” AJ said, casting a worried gaze at her Hydreigon. She was putting up an excellent fight, all things considered, but she wasn't inexhaustible. All of these repeated special attacks in rapid succession were quickly eating through her stamina - which wasn’t very high to begin with. 

A few paces to her left, her father shook his head, his eyes locked on the battle and his body tense as though it were him, not Pikachu, who was racing across the battlefield locked in combat with Mewtwo. 

“We just have to keep it up for as long as we can,” he said. “We’ll get an opening. We just have to make sure to capitalize on it when it comes. Keep your eyes peeled.”

Easier said than done. There was no guarantee at all that there’d be an opening, but there wasn’t any sense in giving up just yet either, so she returned her attention to the battle, wracking her brains for some way she could help to turn this fight around. 

It was then that the greater battle around them suddenly returned with startling clarity. AJ had actually managed to forget about the chaos with the legendaries gripping the Sanctuary for a moment, but that all changed as a new arrival announced their presence with terrible fanfare.

With a roar that made the very world seem to tremble, the blackened cloud-covered skies above them parted as, through a funnel in the storm, a veritable god of nature descended upon them. 

Its emerald scales seemed to twinkle in the darkness, its serpentine body undulating effortlessly through the air as it flew without the need for wings. The legendary dragon of Hoenn, Rayquaza, spiraled down towards them, body jerking erratically as, clearly driven mad by the radio frequency, it opened its mouth and let out a powerful Hyper Beam - aimed directly at them. 

Her Hydreigon tried to react - it aimed a Hyper Beam of its own back at Rayquaza, using all three of its heads, trying to push the blast back or at least cancel it out, and the two energy beams collided with a terrible explosion just over the battlefield, briefly illuminating the battlefield in a burst of pure white light. 

While she was distracted, Giovanni seized his chance. With a curt command, Metwo was there, letting out a Focus Blast straight into Hydreigon’s stomach, and with a pained roar, her pokemon was blasted backwards, crashing to the ground in a tumultuous heap. 

Her father’s Pikachu jumped in, fighting Mewtwo off while Hydreigon struggled to recover. All the while, overhead, Rayquaza swooped in closer, its body twisting hypnotically as it flew, readying an empowering Dragon Dance as it opened its mouth to roar in maddened fury and challenge. 

From behind, Charizard took to the skies, the only other pokemon on their side who could fly. Letting out a Flamethrower, it tried to push the crazed legendary back, only to be hit by another Hyper Beam that split the Flamethrower in half, slamming into Charizard’s torso and blasting it forcefully backward. Its body collided with the ground with a terrible crash, digging a large furrow as it slid across the once pristine grass. 

This wasn’t good. Mewtwo alone was already more than enough to handle, but now a crazed Rayquaza too? Her father’s Blastoise turned and tried to fend the legendary off with Hydro Cannon, but this left only Venusaur to deal with whatever other legendaries they’d been fighting back as a team, and the situation was very quickly turning around on them. 

As she shouted to encourage her Hydreigon to rise, as her father’s Pikachu battled for all it was worth, as Blastoise tried to keep Rayquaza at bay and Venusaur’s roars of pain and anger echoed out from behind them, something overhead seemed to flicker. AJ looked up, past Rayquaza, waiting to see yet another legendary pokemon coming out of the woodwork ready to ruin their day - and was surprised and alarmed to see what appeared to be a flaming meteor falling from the clouds, aiming directly for them. 

She tried to shout in warning, but with Hydreigon still struggling to get up and the rest of her team gone, there wasn’t anything she could do but brace herself and hope to every god she could think of that this wasn’t the end. 

At the last second, or so it seemed to AJ, the meteorite suddenly swerved, slamming straight into the back of the unsuspecting Rayquaza, knocking it clean out of the air, and together, both it and the meteor crashed into the hillside beside their battlefield. The resulting tremor knocked AJ clean off her feet and uprooted a nearby tree. It was sent tumbling down the hillside toward Giovanni, who was forced to call Mewtwo back to stop it, and it caught the tree with its psychic powers, heaving it to the side where it lay on the edge of the battlefield, limbs snapped and torn. 

Up on the hill, Rayquaza was stirring feebly - conscious, but clearly dazed and wounded, only half of its massive serpentine body visible from her viewpoint, the other half obscured beyond the distant hills. Dust filled the air from the impact, making it harder to see than it already was in the darkness, but after a moment, a figure stepped away from the Rayquaza, brushing dirt off of its scaly hide and looking fierce and triumphant. 

It wasn’t a meteor at all, she realized with a gasp. It was a Garchomp. 

But it wasn’t going crazy like the other wild pokemon, which meant that this one must belong to someone-

Almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind, another figure soared out of the darkness on white wings. For a wild moment, she thought it was her Togekiss making her way back to her, and she felt elation surge through her from tip to toe - only to then recognize the person riding on its back, and she realized with a swoop of crushing disappointment that this was not her Togekiss at all. 

It - and the Garchomp that had saved them - belonged to Champion Cynthia, who was now leaping off of Togekiss’s back, surveying the scene and Rayquaza’s form with an expression of pure elation and delight. 

“Well I’ll be,” she called out, glancing around and spotting AJ and her father down below. “You really are alive!”

“Cynthia?!” AJ called, flabbergasted. Sure, she was disappointed that this wasn’t her Togekiss - but how on earth was Cynthia here?! She hadn’t been part of their group!

“Sorry for just dropping in,” she continued, sounding almost lazy. “But I heard AJ’s little broadcast on the news - that was a good punch, by the way - and I figured that, even if you sounded absolutely crazy, coming up here would still probably be more fun than not. It’s a good thing I did, too.”

She cast a wry look at the Rayquaza who was slowly pushing itself back up, shaking off its disorientation and looking more pissed than ever. 

“We can talk later,” her father shouted, his eyes still fixed on Mewtwo. “Could you do us a favor and keep that Rayquaza and the other legendary pokemon busy while we deal with Giovianni?” 

Across the field, the older man smirked as he ordered Mewtwo forward again. It seemed like he’d been waiting to see what Cynthia would do before continuing the fight. Her Hydreigon was still struggling to rise. 

“Yeah, sure - but you two owe me,” Cynthia said. “In fact you still owe me a battle from before, Ketchum - don’t think I’ve forgotten about that. And you!” she added, jerking a finger in Giovanni’s direction. “You’re lucky you’ve got these soft-hearted idiots to deal with. ‘Cause if either one of them fails to take you down, I’m coming at you next - and I’m going to rip that black heart of yours right out of your chest.”

She didn’t wait for a response - not that Giovanni seemed inclined to give her the time of day. Rayquaza was up now, roaring in rage, and a moment later, Cynthia was issuing orders to her Garchomp who immediately launched itself off the ground, slamming into the Rayquaza and tackling it backwards. 

The two dragons disappeared from sight, falling behind the hill and out of view. Cynthia followed, leaping atop her Togekiss once more and soaring after her pokemon with a wild cackle. 

At almost the same time, she heard Venusaur cry out in fear and pain from behind her. 

Almost in spite of herself, AJ turned around, conscious of the fact that Pikachu was once again going toe-to-toe with Mewtwo alone with her Hydreigon fought to right itself. This was no time to be taking her eyes off of the battle, but she couldn’t herself be taken from behind by surprise either. 

Venusaur’s flower was on fire, and it thrashed around, whipping itself with its tentacles as it struggled to put out the flames. Blastoise was at its side, desperate to help, but it was busy using its powerful water cannons to fend off the crazed legendaries who were still attacking. 

AJ counted three out in the darkness. A small figure that looked sort of like Mew, only it was blue with two tails and a round, yellow head; something that looked almost like a Goldeen, only it was made of fire and sported two massive orb-like eyes; and behind them, charging across the dark to join the fray, most terrifying of all, one of the guardian deities of Alola, whose impossibly bright white mane glowed in the dark like a second sun. 

It was the fire fish that was attacking Venusaur and had set its petals alight, and it kept up the pressure, blasting scorching waves of flame from above while her father’s pokemon tried to rally. Every time Blastoise tried to turn and fire off a saving spurt of water, the small blue Mew - Uxie? - was there, raining down waves of psychic energy. Blastoise seemed to be tanking most of them with its sturdy shell, but the problem was that, intentionally or not - and in their crazed state it was hard to say - the psychic energy kept diverting the water meant to save Venusaur. 

Before Blastoise could find a way to turn the situation around, Solgaleo was there, and it slammed into Blastoise in a fierce tackle that had the larger reptile retreating into its shell defensively a split second before they crashed into the hillside, Blastoise half buried in the dirt. 

AJ screamed reflexively, out of pokemon and unable to help, and Ash turned, tearing his gaze away from the battle at hand, desperate to find a way to help his outnumbered pokemon - but with Pikachu busy with Mewtwo, Venusaur assailed by flames and Blastoise pinned beneath Solgaleo, and with Charizard and Espeon and Snorlax all down for the count and Cynthia too far away and too busy to notice, there was nothing they could do but watch. 

Watch as a very familiar voice cried out “Hyper Beam!” and a blast of pure, white energy tore across the ground, slamming into the Solgaleo and pushing it back. 

At the same time, there was a glint in the air as a purple, ten-pointed star zoomed through the darkness towards them. The Starmie fired off a quick Water Gun that slashed across Venusaur’s back, cutting through the flames, before swiftly growing into a full-on Hydro Pump that swallowed the strange flaming fish in a torrent of raging water, and it fled back into the night with a hiss of steam. 

AJ turned and was astonished to find a familiar red-haired woman racing toward them out of the night, her massive Gyarados slithering awkwardly behind her. 

“Mom?!” 

“AJ!” her mother gasped, looking winded and as though she’d run all the way here. “I finally found you! I-”

And then she cut off, her eyes growing wide as she and Ash made eye contact. 

There was a very pregnant pause in which these two very awkward, estranged adults simply stared at each other in the darkness as battle raged on all around them. No one said anything. The look on her mother’s face was more fragile than AJ had ever seen. 

Then, from off to the side, Solgaleo was back. Roaring out in madness and rage, it charged forward, head bent low, flames flickering along the edges of its glowing white body.

Her mother’s Gyarados roared back in challenge, and, though it was unable to move as fast on land, proceeded to charge Solgaleo back. 

“I’ve got this covered!” her mother yelled, tearing her gaze away from her daughter and her not-so-late husband and putting on her Elite Four face. 

Dark energy began crackling along Gyarados’s body as it prepared an Outrage for the swiftly approaching Solgaleo, but a split second before the legendary could collide with her mother’s pokemon, it suddenly face-planted into the ground. AJ could just barely make out familiar vines wrapped around the pokemon’s feet - Venusaur’s Grass Knot, an attack she was intimately familiar with - before Gyarados pounced, letting loose with its Outrage straight into the now wide-open Solgaleo. 

Over head, the Uxie tried to press forward and was driven off by Starmie, and as the now-weakened Solgaleo tried to free itself, it was caught from behind as Blastoise, freeing itself finally from the ground, slammed into it with a surprise Skull Bash, effectively knocking the legendary down and leaving it stirring feebly on the grass, its glow greatly diminished. 

AJ forced herself to look away. There wasn’t time to play spectator. With Cynthia handling Rayquaza and her mother there to back Ash’s pokemon up, their perimeter had been effectively stabilized, and it was time to get back to the battle at hand. The last thing she saw before turning away was her mother reaching out and petting Venusaur’s back, her father’s pokemon greeting her with recognition and joy at being reunited. 

In front of her, the battle had raged on while her back was turned, but little headway had been made on either side. 

Pikachu launched itself forward, twisting like a corkscrew, firing off powerful sparks from its cheeks and Mewtwo was forced to twist around, seizing the Pikachu with its psychic powers, halting it in midair. Trapped, it was now at Mewtwo and Giovanni’s mercy. 

Or it would have been - but her Hydreigon let out a roar of rage, finally managing to force itself back up, and with Mewtwo preoccupied with holding Pikachu in place, it was unable to teleport away in time. 

Enraged and driven by anger and pain, her Hydreigon lashed out with a vengeance. With dual Crunches, Hydreigon seized Metwo’s arms in the powerful jaws of its two extra heads, its fangs digging into the armor plating, and at AJ’s command, at point-blank range, she fired off a Dark Pulse from her central head, swallowing the Mewtwo in a ferocious blast of dark energy. 

As Mewtwo cried out in pain, its psychic hold on Pikachu faltered and broke, and her father’s pokemon, now freed from Mewtwo’s psychic grip, surged violently forward, cheeks crackling in the night, crashing headlong into Mewtwo and landing a direct blow directly to the chest. 

AJ had to stop herself from letting out a cheer. They’d done it - they’d landed two direct hits! One of which would have been super effective! The battle wasn’t over yet, but this was a good sign - they were getting the hang of things and the battle was swinging in their favor!

Giovanni yelled out a command and Mewtwo teleported away, reappearing on Giovanni’s side of the field. It was clearly breathing heavily, and she could see a dent and burn marks on the front of its chestplate. They’d definitely done some damage.

“I tire of this,” Giovanni said suddenly, and though he certainly looked irritated, he still had that same cocky, self-assured gleam in his eyes. “And I’m afraid I don’t have all night to stand around and play with you children - though I do still have one last feature that I wish to test out. So let’s say we end this with style, shall we?”

AJ wanted to ask what on earth that was supposed to mean, but it turned out she didn’t have to. 

Across the battlefield, Giovanni raised his arm, showing them the back of his hand - or more like his wrist, as he tugged his sleeve down, revealing a silver bracelet inlaid with a rainbow colored stone. 

AJ felt her blood suddenly run cold. 

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me-”

“It is time, Mewtwo!” Giovanni cried, slamming his cane once more into the grassy ground. “Show these impudent children the power of human ingenuity!”

The stone on his bracelet began to glow, and as it did, so too did Mewtwo’s armor - particularly the chestplate, where it appeared there was a similar stone embedded into the sternum area that she had previously taken for some kind of glass node, but which she could now clearly see was a Mega Stone. 

Somehow, impossibly, Mewtwo was Mega Evolving. 

Its body seemed to shrink, its long torso and limbs shooting inward until it was about the size of Mew, though it was still the same shade of lavender and still decked out in the armor that let Giovanni control it. 

Despite now being Mew’s size, its body looked wrong, all angles and sharp edges. Somehow after shrinking, rather than being adorable like Mew, it gave off the aura of something sinister and strange. Like Mew, it floated in the air now, though oddly its tail seemed to have migrated from the base of its spine up to the back of its head for some reason, which only added to the wrongness of the image. 

Once the glow had faded away, it was done. Mega Mewtwo, floating in the air, smaller yet somehow more terrifying than ever. 

“Now then,” Giovanni said, practically oozing smugness as he reached out to stroke the top of his Persian’s head. “Finish them.”

With a burst of speed, Mewtwo rocketed forward, flying through the air like a bullet and aiming straight for Pikachu. 

Pikachu vanished with a burst of Agility, racing across the ground as though in response to the challenge, but somehow, impossibly, the newly mega evolved Mewtwo was keeping up. They flickered across the battlefield, almost too fast for AJ to follow, until suddenly, Mewtwo teleported. Vanishing from racing along at Pikachu’s side, it suddenly appeared several feet in front of Pikachu, floating directly in its path, and it fired off a powerful Shadow Ball that scored a clean hit right in Pikachu’s face, sending it flying backwards with a pained cry. 

Hydreigon roared in fury, drawing her heads back and readying another Tri Attack, but in the blink of an eye, Mewtwo was there - disappearing and reappearing right in front of her. 

Giovanni barked a command, and in another flash, Mewtwo’s breastplate glowed, and Mewtwo suddenly shifted forms, growing taller, limbs and torso rapidly returning to normal size, only thicker, more muscular. Was it undoing the Mega Evolution? No…

AJ barely had time to gawk at the fact that this Mega-Evolved Mewtwo could apparently change forms before her Hydreigon was hit with another Focus Blast at point-blank range, straight to her solar plexus. 

Her dragon was blasted backwards again, this time with a high-pitched wail of pain that made the hair on AJ’s neck stand up. She hit the ground on her back with a loud crash that made the ground tremble, her wings crushed beneath her weight at her heads twitching, breathless and in pain. 

That blow had been much stronger than the last one. Clearly, this form traded its newfound speed for power.

Her father shouted - not a command, just in anger - and Pikachu was there, rushing to Hydreigon’s aid, having shaken off the attack and successfully gotten back to its feet. It charged at Mewtwo, Quick Attack quickly morphing into a Volt Tackle as it raced across the grass, sparks crackling off of its body as it leaped into the air, body twisting, poised to strike Mewtwo from behind. 

“Now, Reversal!” Giovanni shouted, and Mewtwo twisted, catching Pikachu in midair with its psychic powers, flipping it around and utilizing its own momentum to send it crashing face-first into the ground. 

Before it could recover, Giovanni issued another command, and Mewtwo turned, forming another Shadow Ball in its hands and fired - not at Pikachu or even at her injured Hydreigon, but directly at her father. 

But just as quickly, Pikachu was there - somehow recovering from its previous blow in record time, it was up, clearly hurt but still racing toward its trainer, using every ounce of its phenomenal speed to get ahead of the Shadow Ball and knock it off course. 

At the same time, Mewtwo moved again, charging up another Focus Blast and aiming it once more at her already downed Hydreigon. 

Of course, AJ realized. Giovanni must have known that Pikachu would have continued defending Hydreigon, just as it had been doing the entire battle. The only way to get a clean shot was to get Pikachu out of the way - and if it wouldn’t stay down, then he’d just have to give it two targets to try to protect and let it decide which one it valued more. Naturally it would pick its own trainer, leaving Hydreigon wide open. 

Except that Hydreigon was already down. This was now the second Focus Blast she’d taken to the chest in only a few minutes, and two super effect attacks from a pokemon as strong as Mewtwo was already more than enough to leave her out of commission. 

She was still down, still twitching feebly, unable to right herself or even catch her breath. There was no need for this - she was already out of the battle. This was just cruelty for cruelty’s sake. 

For a moment, fear and concern had AJ thinking irrationally and forgetting about her pokeballs entirely. She could have just recalled her Hydreigon, but something about this moment had her acting just as she had that night during the raid on the menagerie. Unable to stop herself, AJ darted forward, throwing herself between Mewtwo and her Hydreigon with her arms spread wide, knowing that, realistically, she was far too small to stop the blow. This was going to hurt - a lot. But she couldn’t just stand there and let Hydreigon be attacked. 

Mewtwo didn’t hesitate. Whipping its hands forward, it let off the blast, and AJ could only squeeze her eyes shut as she braced herself for pain. 

A second before her eyes closed, she saw a yellow flash. 

With a bang like a car backfiring, Mewtwo’s Focus Blast was knocked off course, and AJ was saved. 

For a wild moment, she thought her father’s Pikachu had managed to save her - that it’s speed was so incredible that it had succeeded in getting to Ash, deflected the Shadow Ball, then somehow zipped all the way over to her and Hydreigon and saved them from the Focus Blast as well. After watching the way it battled that evening, she almost believed it could have pulled it off. 

However, when she forced her eyes back open, it wasn’t Pikachu she saw. 

Instead, right there, standing protectively in front of her and glaring for all he was worth, was her Pichu. 

Something in her chest seemed to inflate like a balloon.

It was him! He was alive! Against all odds, he’d fought his way alone across the battlefield and had made his way back to her! He looked a little worse for wear - his fur singed and standing up weirdly in a few different places - but as he looked back at her with a confident gaze and a hearty cry, she felt her heart melt into goop in her chest. 

Pichu was back. They were together again. And now, somehow, she knew everything was going to be ok. Any challenge they faced, they could get through together. Even this. 

Across the battlefield, Giovanni let out a rude scoff. 

“You cannot be serious,” he said, sounding disappointed and, strangely, insulted. “That Hydreigon was one thing - even as poorly trained as it was - but this? This… rodent? You think you can challenge me with that pathetic little excuse for a pokemon? I don’t know how you made it past Lance, girl, but no matter what your heritage, you are no Ash Ketchum.”

AJ scowled and straightened up, meeting Giovanni’s glare head-on. 

How many times in her life had she heard someone compare her to her father? And how many times in her life had even the idea of being like him filled her with rage and derision? 

For once, however, the comparison didn’t set her off. She still had problems with her father, sure - and she still didn’t want to be him. But even though Giovanni had clearly meant his comment as an insult, it instead had the opposite effect. 

Feeling strangely emboldened, AJ called back, her voice firmer and more confident than it had been all night, “You’re right. I’m not Ash Ketchum.”

Giovanni sneered in a dismissive sort of way, ready to turn his attention back to her father, but she continued. 

“My name is AJ. AJ Waterflower-Ketchum. Kanto’s current Champion - the youngest Grand Champion in Indigo League history. And together, me and my best friend here are the ones who are finally going to put you in the ground where you belong.”

Pichu let out a challenging shout, letting electricity dance along his cheekbones. 

This man - this monster - was the most evil being AJ had ever had the misfortune of laying eyes on. His ego had led him completely off of the path he’d originally set himself on, had led to the creation of criminal organizations that had terrorized the Alliance, had led to decades of theft and kidnapping and abuse of pokemon, and had ultimately been what had first torn her family apart when his actions led to Cole being separated from his wife and child and virtually held hostage on this mountain. 

It seemed like all of her problems recently, big or small, could be laid in some way at this man’s feet. The war that had torn the Alliance apart over these last two weeks, Mewtwo’s existence and the traumas that had led to it being as violent and dangerous as it was - she wouldn’t even be surprised if that traveling menagerie that had abused her Hydreigon was in some way connected to Giovanni’s international crime syndicate. 

And that was to say nothing about all of her stupid family drama. It was hard to say exactly how much of this could be attributed to him - her father leaving was his own fault, but him getting trapped here by Mewtwo, or the fact that he himself had grown up fatherless which had probably contributed to his anxieties about fatherhood that had led to him leaving in the first place, that all likely had something to do with Giovanni. 

And even now - now that they were all together again, now that they could finally go home with Cole and Grandma Delia - he was still here, causing problems! She wasn’t even sure what she really wanted from Ash, but how was she supposed to figure it all out if this old man kept getting in her way?!

But she was going to stop him. Together, with her mom watching their backs, she and her dad were going to take this idiot down, and then finally - finally - she could maybe start getting some closure. After she let her mom have her say, of course. 

And if that meant Ash coming home and being a part of her life for once, well… Maybe that wouldn’t be such a terrible thing after all. 

Across the battlefield, Giovanni sighed as though disappointed. 

He opened his mouth to say something no doubt dismissive and condescending, but before he could get a word out, both he and AJ froze. 

There, on the ground in front of her, Pichu had begun glowing. 

For a wild moment - likely because she’d just seen Mewtwo do it and she had it on the brain - she thought her partner was Mega Evolving. But that was obviously stupid; Pichu as a species couldn’t Mega Evolve, and it’s not like he had a stone or she had her bracelet for it anyway, so that wasn’t even possible. No, the only reason he could be glowing like this right now would be if he were… If he…

AJ’s eyes grew wide. 

Was he really…? Now, of all times…?!

Still glowing, she watched as his tiny body began to grow and elongate, his torso growing thicker, finally matching the size of his head. His large, fluffy ears began to narrow, and his tail suddenly shot outwards, growing several sizes larger than it had been previously and resembling a jagged lightning bolt. 

When the glow finally faded, her partner pokemon shook his head as though dazed, then squared off again on all fours, letting out a fierce shout, his voice now slightly lower pitched than it had been before, the sparks jumping off the newly enlarged electrical sacks on its cheeks now bigger and fiercer than ever. 

“Pichu…?” she breathed, feeling stunned. But no - not Pichu, not anymore. He’d finally evolved. He was a Pikachu now. 

She felt a whirlwind of emotions wash over her then. Excitement and dismay, happiness and sorrow, eagerness and regret. This had been something he’d wanted, right? He hadn’t felt forced to do this just to protect her? True, this would open up a world of possibilities for them in battles, but if he came to regret this after the battle was over-

Behind her, Hydreigon let out a pitiable moan, and she jumped, remembering where she was. Snatching her ball off of her belt, she quickly recalled her pokemon, holding her ball up to her cheek and breathing heavily. 

“You did so, so well, Hydreigon,” she whispered, feeling pride mingle with grief inside of her. She really had done exceptionally, even without proper training, and against her own fears she’d managed to buy enough time for Pichu, Cynthia, and her mom to arrive, and had even landed a direct blow. She should be proud. “Now get some rest and let Pichu - I mean… let Pikachu take over from here.”

She clipped Hydreigon’s ball back to her belt and squared off again, wiping at her cheeks with the back of her gloved hands and forcing her head back into the game. 

Whatever the case, ultimately, Pichu was the one who had made the choice. Even if he’d done it to protect her, he’d still been the one to choose to evolve. And she would respect that choice, and accept all of the good - and the bad - that came with it. 

Though she would miss his cute, floppy ears. 

On the field, her Pikachu was joined by another as her father’s pokemon raced over to stand beside him. They chattered at each other for a second, her father’s pokemon looking stern and ready, favoring its back leg a bit. For his part, her Pikachu looked like he was bursting with energy, clearly excited by his recent evolution and eager to show off. 

Footsteps on the grass behind her announced her father’s presence, and she hazarded a glance in his direction, not sure what he was going to say or how he would react to this new development. 

Instead of making any awkward comments or observations, however, he instead said, “That was some timing.”

AJ snorted and shook her head. 

“I’m half convinced he was just waiting all this time for a moment that was dramatic enough to suit his ego.”

Her father let out a bark of laughter, and AJ stood just a bit taller, feeling some of her Pikachu’s excitement and energy rubbing off on her. Her Hydreigon had done well, but now it was time to show off what she could really do with a pokemon she’d actually been able to train. 

Across the field, Giovanni was shaking his head again, looking bored. 

“I cannot fathom why you are both grinning. You must see that nothing has changed - a slightly larger rodent is still just a rodent.”

“Sure,” her father replied glibly. “But you were struggling enough with just one ‘rodent’ before. Are you sure you’ll be able to handle two?”

Giovanni scowled, tightening his grip on his cane. 

“We begin again, Ketchums - only this time, I fully intend to crush you both under my heel where you belong.”

“Ditto,” AJ spat back, squaring off. 

Behind her, and all across the Sanctuary, the battle raged on. 

Chapter Text

When Cole finally opened his eyes, he found himself in a world that was pleasantly warm and draped in soft shadows. 

He recognized his surroundings almost immediately, however - which was a surprise to him, considering how long it had been since he’d last seen the trappings of modern convenience. But there was no hiding the look of a hospital room, even if the TVs were a bit fancier now, the beeping machines around him mysterious and strange. 

Oddly, the thought that they’d improved the quality of their beds over the years bubbled up in his mind, but that probably had less to do with the beds being good and more to do with him not having had a real mattress in nearly half a century. 

None of that really mattered though. Because there, floating right over his bed, directly in front of his face, was Mew. 

Its bulbous eyes, alien and fey, glittered like stars as it cocked its head to the side as if to ask how long he was planning to sleep for. 

He scoffed, letting the memories Mewtwo had tried to erase wash over him. He’d let his son get the better of him. And, wonder of wonders - Mewtwo had apparently gone along with his mad plan. Well, if there was one thing he’d learned about Ash over these past twenty years, it was that the boy simply had a way about him. He could make friends with just about anyone. Even Mewtwo, after a spell. 

But of course, their plan hadn’t worked. Mew had followed him, just as it always did. That was the whole reason he’d stayed up on the mountain in the first place - because for whatever reason, this creature had attached itself to him. Anywhere he went, it followed. And that meant danger. 

A part of him wondered if Ash had known that would happen. Knew that Mew would follow Cole, knew that that half of his plan was doomed to fail. Because while he was certain that Ash had meant every word he’d said about wanting him to finally go home, Cole also knew that the main point of that plan had been to spare AJ from their shared fate. If he could send Cole home too, he would - but AJ and her friends had always been the central objective. Whether Mew followed Cole and he was forced to retreat back to the mountain wouldn’t matter as long as she was safe.

Cole sighed, closing his eyes for a moment as though trying to muster up the energy to move, then finally relented and pushed himself upright, already regretting having to leave the bed. It really was the softest bed he’d had in ages. Would be a shame to leave it behind. 

But he couldn’t stay here. He had to go back - back up the mountain. Back to where Mew would be safe. That was his home now. He didn’t belong here anymore. He no longer had a life here waiting for him.

He thought briefly about taking this chance to finally say goodbye - to find a phone and try to ring up Delia, maybe write her a letter… But no. Those wounds would have long-since healed. No sense in prodding at the scars. She deserved to live her life free of his bad luck. And besides, the longer he stayed, the more he would start to miss the conveniences of modern society. Electric heat and lighting. Actual toilets. 

But maybe he at least had time for a proper bath… 

His toes touched the floor and he winced reflexively. His feet were bare, and the ceramic flooring was cold. In fact, upon inspecting himself he found he was wearing nothing but a thin hospital gown. That wasn’t going to work. Sure, he had more clothes up in his cabin, but… Maybe he could find some new ones before heading back? Some nice boots would do wonders. Then again, he didn’t exactly have any cash on him, so… 

He was just considering getting up to see if AJ or her friends were around, maybe at least get to see his granddaughter one last time, when Mew floated back into view. 

It seemed anxious. Its tail twitched from side to side like an erratic, off-tempo pendulum, its little arms pressed into its tummy in that way he’d come to learn meant it was worried about something. When it saw him looking, it jerked its head off toward the door and let out a little cry as though telling him they needed to leave. When he didn’t respond right away, it seized the corner of his gown and tried to drag him up.

Cole frowned. In all of his years, he’d never seen Mew look this concerned. Or really this focused on anything at all. Well, that is, never since the night that it had stolen him away. The night that Giovanni had led his newly-formed Team Rocket to that fateful riverbank outside of Cerulean. Where he had battled his best friend for the last time and had left his old life behind him forever. 

Finally frustrated with Cole’s lack of motivation, Mew floated back and reached out, tapping Cole on the forehead. 

Images flickered through his mind. Airships surrounding an icy mountain in the dark of night. A war-torn battlefield where pokemon were being kidnapped en masse. AJ and Ash, standing in the Sanctuary, battling against Mewtwo. And there, standing behind him - older and darker and yet somehow still so familiar… 

Giovanni was in the Sanctuary. 

Cole was up before he’d even realized he’d stood. His eyes scanned the perimeter frantically, darting around from chair to counter, looking for his clothes. He’d have Mew warp him up in this gown if need-be, but he’d really rather not show up half naked if he could help it. 

Of course this would happen. Of course it would be now of all times - the first time he was away from the Sanctuary in decades. Had Giovanni timed it that way intentionally? No - no, he was too obsessed with Mew to risk letting it slip through his fingers. This must have just been dumb, blind chance. But if he had found the Sanctuary, then all of Cole’s worst fears were being realized. He needed to get up there, now, before-

“...Cole?”

He paused in his search to glance over toward the door and felt the breath leave his body. 

There, framed in the doorway, was a vision from the past he’d thought he’d never see again. 

She was older now - though, of course she was. So was he. The youthful glow of her cheeks, the luster of her hair, all the tiny details from memories that he’d so jealously coveted over their decades of estrangement, were gone now. Now, wrinkles adorned the corners of her eyes, streaks of gray ran through her hair. The perfect vision of his wife in the prime of her youth had faded beneath the relentless flow of time, leaving behind a woman much older, much less familiar. 

And yet still every bit as beautiful as the day they’d been torn apart. 

He opened his mouth and tried to respond, to call out her name, to tell her that yes, it was him - it was Cole. That he was so, so sorry. That he’d never meant to leave her or Ash. That he’d loved her every day that they’d been apart. But his mouth had gone dry at the sight of her. His tongue felt goofy and twisted and disobedient. Forty years later, and he was still a tongue-tied buffoon at the mere sight of her. 

Her expression was difficult to read. Her face was completely blank, yet her eyes bored into his own as though sifting through the years and facial hair he’d obtained while he was away, trying to find the familiar man buried somewhere underneath. She had one hand on the doorframe and another held up protectively to her chest, fingers clenched and knuckles white. 

She looked so… guarded. So wary. He’d never wanted her to look at him like that. Like a stranger. The thought of it stabbed like Icicle Spears to the heart. 

Mew floated forward, staring at Delia with its wide, unnerving eyes like she was the most fascinating creature it had ever seen, its body slowly spinning in the air like a corkscrew.

She stared back, confused but not alarmed. He half expected her to shout or cry out in surprise. After all, this was an actual Mew right in front of her. But either she was made of sterner stuff or else simply didn’t recognize it for what it was, because she immediately turned her gaze back to Cole looking confused and demanding. 

And he wanted more than anything to give her answers - to tell her everything that had happened and let her scream at him like he knew he deserved. 

But there wasn’t time. Ash and AJ were fighting, the Sanctuary was in Danger. Giovanni needed to be stopped. 

Just like before, his old friend’s turn toward evil was tearing him away from the love of his life, and he was powerless to stop it. 

“...I’m so sorry,” he finally managed, his voice coming out in a rasp. “But I… I have to go. Ash… Our son, he… He needs me.”

Delia swallowed. He’d braced himself for her to shout, to lash out at him, anything, when he said he had to go. Instead, at the sound of their son’s name, her lips seemed to spasm and her eyes filled with fragile emotion. 

“S-so then… What Ashlynn said to those reporters… I-it’s true? Ash is alive…?”

Cole had no idea what she was talking about with AJ and reporters, but, “Y-yes, he… He’s alive. He’s up on Mt. Silver. He’s… He’s been with me. But I’m sorry, I can’t- There isn’t time to explain, I have to go-”

“In that?” Delia asked, sniffling as she struggled to hold herself together, and at her gesture Cole looked down, remembering he was mostly naked and wearing only a night gown. 

“W-well,” he said, suddenly flustered. This is not how he’d wanted to look when he saw Delia again. “I mean… I don’t exactly have much choice. I don’t know where my old clothes went-”

“I’ll ask at the nurse’s station,” she said, wiping at her eyes and taking deep breaths. “And then… And then you’re taking me with you to find Ash.”

Cole literally gawked. 

Take her? Up to that mountain? That place that trapped his family members? That place where Giovanni was, where his battle was raging? Was she insane?!

“It’s too dangerous to-!” he began, but this was clearly a mistake. Her demeanor switched faster than an angry Morpeko. 

“If it’s safe enough for my son and my granddaughter,” she said, suddenly rising to her full height, her tone demanding complete obedience and her eyes daring him to argue, “then that’s where I’m going to be! So you either take me with you, or I’m pulling one of Ash’s pokemon from Oak’s lab and having it carry me up there itself!”

He knew he should try to fight back, but the sight of her face twisted up in anger was somehow incredibly nostalgic and endearing. 

Cole nodded almost without thinking. To his surprise, Mew did the same. 

“Good,” she said, nodding to herself and looking satisfied. “Now wait here - I’ll be right back. And don’t even think about leaving me behind again!”

She said the last with a sharp glare for Cole, then a moment later she had swept away, off to find his clothing. 

Cole blinked, feeling rather like he’d just been struck by a particularly large wave, then turned his stupefied gaze back to Mew, who was staring back with a similar expression. 

“Well,” he said blankly. “You heard the lady.”

What else was there to say?

Jade let out an involuntary shriek as Darkrai swooped in low, aiming directly for her. Its arms, so creepy and ghostly, were reaching out, fingers extended, ready to seize hold of her again and flood her mind with debilitating and nightmarish thoughts for it to feed off of. 

Before it could reach her, however, her Mawile threw herself forward, racing across the field and tackling the approaching Darkrai with a fierce Play Rough, her tiny arms pummeling, massive rear jaws reaching around to pinch and bite. 

Darkrai groaned in that way it had that sounded like rattling chains, shying away from the super-effective Fairy-type attack before eventually vanishing once more into the darkness and disappearing from sight. 

Jade let out a relieved sigh, rubbing her arms as though she were cold. She hated ghost pokemon. 

Ok, sure - Darkraid wasn’t technically a ghost type, but like… C’mon. Look at it.

She made sure to thank Mawile as she returned, but she kept her eye on the battle around them to make sure they weren’t caught by surprise again. 

The fight hadn’t been going well. After she and AJ had been attacked and AJ had vanished, the others had quickly formed a sort of semi-circle along the outside of the protective barrier Giovanni had erected around the makeshift radio tower. Partially to keep close to it, as their goal was to find a way - somehow - to take it down, but also partially because the barrier at their backs meant no rogue legendaries coming at them from behind. 

At the moment, it was just her, her dad, Lance, and Iris. They each had two or three pokemon out, forming a defensive wall around one side of the barrier and trying to fend off the crazed legendary pokemon as they tried to figure out what their next steps should be. 

Lance was still up in the air riding his Dragonite, while a Dragonair and a Charizard remained on the ground, holding the right side of their formation. On the opposite side was Iris, who had called out her Hydreigon to hold the left, with her Archeops flying above to provide support. 

That left the center of their formation to her and her father. She had her Metagross up in the air together with his Aerodactyl, while she remained on the ground with Ninetales and Mawile. Her dad’s Golem and Onix had joined her, and while they were mostly acting of their own accord, they knew her well enough to take orders from her, and she’d had to occasionally when they were pressed by anything particularly nasty. 

Her dad, for his part, was behind them all, trying to figure out a way past the barrier - but so far, no dice. He had his Kabutops out at his side mainly for protection, as every now and then more of Giovanni’s goons would pass through their barrier, either to try and attack them, or, more commonly, to try to get out into the Sanctuary and try to capture more pokemon. 

But as annoying as they could be, they were nothing compared to the legendary pokemon themselves - and it actually seemed like most of Giovanni’s men were content to hide safely inside the barrier where the legendaries couldn’t get to them. Darkrai aside, Jade had already had to fend off several pokemon over the course of the last… however long it had been since this madness had started. A small flock of Galarian Zapdos, Spectrier, Crescelia, Mespirit… Her Sableye had gone down to that pink Tapu guardian from Alola, and her dad’s Onix had nearly been taken out when Celebi made a surprise appearance. It had taken everything she had - all six of her and her dad’s pokemon that were out right now to fend it off, and even then she was convinced they’d only managed it because it had gotten distracted by something else and disappeared. 

Even now, the fighting was fierce and chaotic. Iris was battling a Regigigas on her end, while Lance was distracted by something that looked like a huge stone Stantler - only instead of horns, it instead had some sort of ancient brass vase on its head that had gone green from years of accumulated verdigris. Overhead, several Moltres soared, fighting amongst themselves just as much as they were the people and pokemon down below.

They couldn’t hold out like this forever. Eventually, they’d be overrun. She had no idea where AJ was, or where Misty had gone off to - though she hoped they were together. She had no clue how bad things were out on the mountain, or how Sammy and the others were doing, or if they had to worry about more of Giovanni’s goons flooding in from the tunnel behind them. 

Though that at least seemed unlikely, as it looked like the protective barrier they’d put up around the radio tower had all but blocked the tunnel entrance. She didn’t think that had been intentional - or if it was, whatever their plan was had backfired, as Jade’s team knew of other entrances to the Sanctuary that Giovanni’s did not, so all it really accomplished was preventing their side from getting more help. A small silver lining, but it was something, at least. 

Still, though - if they didn’t figure something out about this stupid radio frequency, things were not going to end well. She could see the slipshod tower even now, encased protectively in this stupid orange energy bubble. The thing wasn’t all that big, and only had a few goons and Charon there to guard it. It wasn’t even cemented into the ground! They’d built it on-site and clearly didn’t intend for it to stay long, as it was just standing there on the grass on its stilt-like legs. It would be child's play to destroy - she could probably do it with her bare hands! Well, maybe. The point was, shutting it off would be so simple… if they could just get through the barrier. 

That was a big ‘if’ though. And with every second that ticked by, their odds of victory grew ever more dim. 

If only AJ was here. Sure, she probably wouldn’t know how to get through the barrier either, but Jade always felt more confident when her friends were around. 

Something flickered up in the sky, and she squinted up at it, frowning. With the cloud cover, in the dead of night, it was hard to make anything out, but… Well, if something was flying at them, it’d have to be a pokemon, right? And right now, that probably meant another rogue legendary to deal with. 

Except that her Metagross wasn’t reacting. With its psychic powers, it could sense most things that were coming their way. Unless it was something like Darkrai again, which - she was so done with Darkrai, let it go pick on someone else for once. But Darkrai were, well… dark. Like, literally. They wouldn’t have glinted in the darkness like that. That suggested something with a shiny body. Something that could catch light and reflect it. Like a rock or steel type pokemon. Yknow, like her Metagross…

As if summoned by her thoughts, as the dim figure in the distance grew closer, it slowly formed itself into the recognizable shape of a Metagross. 

Only it wasn’t her Metagross, obviously; that guy was right above her. So then who? No one else who came with them had had a Metagross…

Her answer came when the new Metagross touched down on the grass nearby and two males leaped off of its back, coming right toward her. 

“Jade!” Sammy called, for once discarding his normal ‘too cool to care’ attitude and racing over to her, his face full of concern and relief. 

“Sammy!” she shouted back, throwing her arms wide and catching her friend in a rib-cracking hug. “You’re ok! And you brought…”

She paused, staring at the older man as though he were some never-before-seen creature. 

“...Steven Stone?”

“How do you do?” he asked, nodding politely as if they weren’t currently in the middle of a life-or-death battle for the fate of the world - though he did thankfully summon a Claydol and an Aggron which he sent to help assist Lance and Iris in their battles. She saw Sammy’s Dragonite and Gengar already joining their protective line; they must have already been out of their balls before they’d arrived.

“I… But… How…?” she spluttered, utterly baffled. Steven Stone hadn’t been with them when they’d arrived on the mountain. Where had he come from?!

“He heard from the League,” Sammy explained, pulling away from Jade and taking a moment to resummon his Gallade and Leafeon. “Him and Cynthia both - they came to help, along with loads of other people. Including my parents.”

“Cynthia’s here?” Jade asked, then a second later added, “And your dad?!”

“Yeah,” Sammy said, laughing slightly. “I guess people heard AJ’s plea over the news, and a bunch of Ash’s old friends are crawling out of the woodwork to help. They’re backing up Hilda and the others out on the mountain, so I led Steven and Cynthia in through the other entrance so we could deal with the radio frequency.”

“But where’s Cynthia?!” Jade asked, looking around. Honestly - Cynthia being here was a huge boost, almost as big as Ash himself. Next he was going to say that Leon had managed to make it here too all the way from Galar and she could go take a break. 

“She took off on her own,” Steven said, looking disgruntled. “Almost as soon as we entered the Sanctuary, she left, saying something about us needing to split up. Though I think she was just looking for something tough to fight. Anyway, that’s not important now - can you tell me what this is all about?”

He made a gesture towards the area behind her, and the three turned to examine the large orange dome that made up Giovanni’s barrier.

“That,” she said dully, “is why we haven’t been able to shut off this stupid radio frequency just yet. It’s some kind of force field that Giovanni cooked up. It’s being powered by a legendary pokemon - that Victini that was stolen from Hilda’s twin brother. It’s in there together with the radio tower they built that’s sending out the frequency, but we can’t get through it.

“We’ve tried just about everything we can think of.” Here, Jade had to pause for a moment in her explanation as one of the Moltres soared low overhead, blasting everything - them, the barrier, other legendaries - in gouts of Fire Spin. Thankfully, her and Steven’s Metagross were able to throw up Light Screens to keep the flames at bay. “We’ve pounded that thing from every angle. Physical attacks or special, here on the ground or from up in the air - dad even tried digging from underneath, but the thing is a perfect sphere - like an unpoppable bubble of doom. We can’t get in.”

“Fascinating,” Steven said, looking intrigued, but when he caught her staring daggers at him he quickly added, “From a purely scientific standpoint, of course. I’d love to see how it works - but that can wait till we figure out how to shut it off.”

“Well, it can’t be impenetrable,” Sammy added, adopting his signature Oak expression as he frowned at the barrier, puzzling it over in his mind. 

“Um, excuse me?” Jade asked, feeling slightly annoyed. Was he calling her a liar? Did he not just hear her whole explanation? What exactly did he think they’d been doing here this whole time?!

“No, he’s right,” Steven said. “Look - the barrier doesn’t block out everything. That we can see the people inside means light is passing through. And it seems as though air can probably get in as well - otherwise, they’d risk suffocation. What about sound? Can you talk to them on the other side?”

“A little,” Jade said slowly, frowning back at the barrier. She hadn’t thought about any of that, but now that he mentioned it, it seemed obvious. “It sort of sounds like they’re behind a pane of glass, though - all muffled-like. Does that… Do you think we can somehow take them out with, like, a laser?”

Out of context, she knew how silly that must have sounded. It was a mark of just how tense the situation was that Sammy didn’t immediately start teasing her about it. 

Steven shook his head, looking doubtful. 

“No, I would imagine not. I assume you’ve tried Hyper Beam? Yes, of course - which means that even if light is getting through, not enough of it is to cause any actual damage. Perhaps the rays of light that form certain pokemon attacks are simply too large - or perhaps there’s something else at play we don’t know about that’s stopping them from working.”

“If there’s air passing through, we could try for something like Stun Spore or Sleep Powder,” Sammy offered, but Steven shook his head again. 

“We can try, certainly - but I imagine we’d see the same result. Based on just my initial impressions, the barrier is likely some form of extremely tight netting made of Victini’s energy. The gaps in the net are large enough to allow oxygen to pass through, but I doubt spores would do the same.”

“Ok, then audio attacks then,” Sammy pressed. “Does anyone have a pokemon who knows Sing?” Jade and Steven shook their heads. “Alright - what about Hyper Voice or Round?”

“Iris tried a Hyper Voice earlier with her Hydreigon,” Jade said. “It didn’t do much.”

Sammy cursed, but Steven merely continued to look pensive. 

“If only we knew more about this barrier,” he murmured, then shook his head. “In any case, time is of the essence. Let’s regroup with Lance and Iris and we can begin the process of trial and error from there. With so many brilliant minds in one place, I’m sure we’ll figure this out.”

Wasting no more time, Steven and Sammy headed off in Lance’s direction while Jade volunteered to go and grab Iris. Her dad had already seen the new arrivals and was moving towards them, so there was no need to fetch him. 

Iris wasn’t far - their protective semi-circle can’t have been larger than the circumference of her house back in Pewter, but the battlefield was too loud to simply shout for one another, so she had to jog over to get Iris’s attention, as the older Unovan Champion was still engaged in her battle with Regigigas and hadn’t noticed Steven’s arrival just yet. 

Unfortunately for Jade, however, as soon as she split from the others, it seemed some of the grunts within the barrier decided to make a move, as a group of people - really no more than five or six, but still enough to easily outnumber Jade - suddenly charged out of their protective barrier and into Jade’s path. 

Her Mawile and Ninetales, who had been accompanying her, quickly ran in front to place themselves between Jade and the newcomers - but Jade knew they were exhausted after fighting so many crazed legendaries. Battling six-on-one was already a tall order, and she was no Champion. She could only hope that Steven or her dad would notice and come back her up before she was overwhelmed. 

Pokemon emerged from pokeballs - the standard Kantonian criminal fare; Raticates, Golbats, Weezing, etc. Though there was one particularly nasty looking Honchkrow in the midst who seemed eager to pluck Jade up like a tasty bug. 

The leader of the group was a man in his forties, with short sky-blue hair and an angular face that made him look perpetually annoyed. His coat and pants were pure white with black trim, and he had a scarlet R emblazoned on his chest. So - this one really was one of Giovanni’s goons. A Rocket man through and through. 

“Two of you, deal with this girl, quickly,” the man said, giving Jade a quick once-over and dismissing her just as fast; apparently, non-Champions weren’t worth his time. “The rest of us, let’s catch Iris from behind while she’s occupied. We’ll take her out and take her pokemon in the process - and catch that Regigigas as well. Charon will not outdo us! Let us show Giovanni that we were always his most loyal allies!”

His men let out a cheer, but Jade didn’t have time to consider her first move. Something had caught her eye and it had successfully distracted her from everything else. 

There, just over their shoulders. The ground behind them was moving - bulging slowly outward, as though the hillside had developed a disgustingly huge boil that was seconds away from rupturing. 

And maybe Jade had made a disgusted face at the thought, because one of the Team Rocket grunts frowned at her, then turned around to see what she was staring at. 

Then the boil burst - metaphorically speaking - spewing dirt and grass into the air as from up out of the ground, a Tyranitar appeared. 

The massive, stony behemoth roared, shaking dirt off of its olive green carapace before taking stock of the situation and, after a moment’s deliberation, spun around and slapped the nearest Team Rocket grunt with its tail, sending them flying. 

At the same time, from out of the hole in the ground, more figures appeared. A Typhlosion emerged, the flames on its back roaring to life as it charged into the huddle of awaiting Rocket grunts, their terrified screams filling the air.  And following right behind was a large, ferocious Feraligatr, blasting powerful streams of water from its mouth and rending foes with its massive claws. 

And there, right on their heels, shaking the dirt off as they clambered out of the hole in the ground were a few extremely welcome and familiar faces - Ethan, Kris, and Hilda’s twin brother, Nate.

The Team Rocket leader cursed, turning around to face the new threat, ordering half of his men to do the same, but in the chaos of the battle, none of them seemed to know what to do. As part of their number fell to Ethan’s heroic and timely arrival, Jade ordered her Mawile and Ninetales forward, blasting the thugs with beams of frost and chomping them within cavernous jaws. 

It was a massacre, with Team Rocket caught in a pincer. One brave idiot tried to break ranks and run, only to be blasted off of his feet by a wayward gout of flame from a crazed Galarian Moltres. 

Feraligatr seized a Raticate in its meaty claws and hurled the terrified creature at a nearby Weezing, knocking them both to the ground. Nate had called out a tired-looking PorygonZ who nonetheless supplied a powerful Tri-Attack that blasted a grunt off of his feet seconds before he could call out a second pokemon. 

“You!” the leader shouted, pointing at Ethan as though he were some sort of mortal nemesis that he’d wandered battlefields for years searching for. “Finally, I have you! Prepare to-!”

Jade’s Ninetales hit his Honchkrow from behind with an Ice Beam, freezing its wings and sending it toppling out of the air with a horrified squawk. It landed directly on top of the man’s head, knocking him to his knees, disoriented. 

As the last of his grunts fell to pieces around him, the kneeling man looked up, horrified, into Ethan’s merciless glare. 

“Hey, Archer,” he said, then snapped his fingers. "Bye, Archer."

A second later, his Typhlosion body-slammed the man. When it got up, Archer was on the ground, stirring feebly, one of his legs bent the wrong way.

“Dude,” Kris said, walking over and frowning down at the guy. “You killed him.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. 

“I did not. I mean, he deserves it, but… whatever. He’ll live.”

“Ethan!” Jade shouted, hurrying over. “Kris! You made it! How- Why did you come up from underground?!”

All three of them looked worse for wear, covered in dirt and scratches with their hair all a mess. Then again, Jade knew she probably didn’t look much better.

“It’s that stupid barrier,” Kris explained, glaring over at it while Ethan poked around at the unconscious Team Rocket members and their pokemon. They didn’t exactly have a way to restrain them, so they’d need to just stay put for now. “We tried to make our way through that cave - that waterfall was freezing, by the way - but when we got to the exit, the way out was blocked by that weird orange force field… thing. And from there it was either turn around or find another way in, so… We tunneled.”

She shrugged at the last as though explaining why she took the bus instead of driving into the office. Still, Jade had to hand it to them - it had worked, however unconventional. 

“What’s the situation here?” Ethan asked, finally finished with his inspection of the unconscious men. “I see the radio frequency is proving tougher to stop than we’d hoped.”

Jade sighed, then launched into another abridged version of what had happened since they arrived in the Sanctuary. Honestly, when had she been declared Captain Synopsis? 

None of the news was good, of course, and their increasingly tense expressions as her explanation went on seemed to show that. But when she got to the bit about how the barrier was being powered by Nate’s Victini, the poor boy seemed to snap. 

He tried to charge at the barrier by himself, as though he could run straight through it through sheer willpower. Both Ethan and Kris tried to grab him, but he slipped through their fingers, sprinting straight at the edge of the barrier, shouting the name “Victor!” as he went - and rebounded off of the barrier so hard that he landed flat on his butt, absolutely dumbfounded. 

A couple of the grunts inside who were holding those weird rods that marked the edge of the barrier laughed. 

“Come on,” Ethan said, offering the younger boy a hand and pulling him to his feet. “Up you get. If it was that easy, the others would have done it already. Use your brain a bit. You can’t keep charging in like that.”

Nate was nodding, looking an odd mix of angry and embarrassed as he brushed off the seat of his pants and not meeting anyone’s eyes. 

Jade, however, was busy staring into nothing. In her mind, she was replaying Nate’s fall over and over again. Then, the sight of Ethan’s Tyranitar emerging out of the ground popped into her brain again. 

It was like two previously inactive circuits in her brain had suddenly connected, and an idea bloomed to life in her mind.

Falling… Falling… 

That could work…!

Wait - could that work? It seemed almost… too obvious. Surely Sammy or Steven or - heck, even her dad should have already thought of it, right? But maybe not - maybe it was so obvious that it was too obvious? Was that a thing?

Whatever. 

“I have an idea,” she said quickly, turning to the others and feeling excitement building inside of her. “Ethan, Kris - will you send your pokemon to back up the others? Nate, come with me.”

The others complied, Ethan and Kris calling out more pokemon and running to plug lines in their defenses, both Feraligatr and Ethan’s newly summoned Jolteon using ranged attacks to back up the Metagross and Aerodactyl as they battled the Moltres in the skies. 

On the ground, Steven and Sammy had formed a small huddle with Lance and her father, Lance’s Dragonite having apparently successfully driven off that giant stone Stantler thing, and the group turned to face her and Nate as they jogged toward them. 

“Hey, Nate - you’re alive!” Sammy said by way of greeting. “Your sister is worried sick about-”

“I have an idea!” Jade shouted, running Sammy over. 

Sammy looked surprised and a little dubious - though whether because she’d interrupted him or because it was she - Jade specifically - who had an idea, she didn’t know. She wanted to smack him either way. 

“You do?” her dad asked, sounding equally surprised and doubtful. She wanted to smack him too. 

“Yes! I do- I mean, I think I do. I… What was it you said? Something about… things still passing through the barrier, and… that’s how we can beat them, or…”

She was rambling. Her thoughts were all disorganized. She was really bad at this sort of thing even on a normal day - and today was not a normal day. The adrenaline had her thoughts all discombobulated and she was struggling to put her Ducklets all in a row. Her dad and Sammy were both staring at her with twin looks of resignation, like they’d each had their fair share of hearing her try to explain her thought processes in the past and knew what was coming to them. They were both definitely getting smacked. 

“What is your plan?” Steven asked, not knowing her well and thus having no clue what he was in for. 

“We dig.”

There was a beat, and then her father sighed, rubbing at his eyes. 

“Jade, hun… We tried that already-”

“No!” she said quickly, waving her hands through the air. “I don’t mean - We don’t dig inside, I mean - Look, gravity!”

Now they were all confused. This was bad. She was too exhausted and too excited. Her words weren’t coming out right. Sammy was rolling his eyes now, and she felt her confidence start to waver a bit. Maybe this was too stupid to work. Even Lance was looking at her like she was wasting their time.

“Just take a deep breath,” Steven said, displaying a level of patience that in this moment seemed otherworldly. “It’s all right - there are no bad ideas. We need all the help we can get. What was that about gravity?”

Jade did as he said, taking a deep breath in through the nose. Come on, girl, focus - you don’t have time to be a ditz right now. The people and pokemon you love are in danger. 

“It was what you said before,” she began again, more slowly this time. “About how the barrier isn’t impenetrable - stuff from the outside can still get in, like air or light. But that’s not all, right? I mean, look - they’re all still standing on the ground. Gravity can still get in, too.”

“...Yes, we can see that they’re still standing on the ground, Miss Jade,” Lance said flatly, and she nodded, aware of how dumb she was sounding. 

“Right, yeah - so I was thinking. If we can’t get in there to them, what if we get them out here to us? What if we make them fall out?”

There was a pause as the group all seemed to stare at her with the same identical blank face. Were they not getting it? But she’d explained it so well!

“Wait,” Nate said, speaking up for the first time. “You’ve lost me. How do we make them fall-?”

“We dig!” she said quickly. “Dig a hole, underneath them! Not to go in, like we tried before - no, we dig a big hole underneath the section of the barrier where the radio tower is! Then the ground will cave away and the tower will fall - right out of the barrier!”

Silence again. Seriously, what was this? Were they all spontaneously telepathic now and communicating with their thoughts? Why was no one speaking?!

“That,” Sammy said, his face at first flat and annoyed but then slowly shifting as he spoke, “is so unbelievably stupid… that it… might actually be genius?”

Jade blinked. 

“Do what now?”

“Yes, I think… I think your plan may have some merit, Miss… Jade, was it?” Steven said, frowning as he peered into the barrier. “But do we know for certain that solid objects can pass through the barrier from the inside out?”

“We saw Giovanni do it earlier,” Lance said. “He walked through it just before that pokemon - Mewtwo, you called it? - teleported him and Ash away. At the very least, it worked in that instance.”

“Yeah - and a guy named Archer and his goons just did it a second ago! Nate saw, he can back me up!”

Nate didn’t say anything, still looking confused. 

Steven, however, was nodding, and he was looking more and more confident. 

“Excellent. And even if it doesn’t work for whatever reason - a simple fall alone could be enough to break the thing. Look how slapdash the construction is - several of those components are quite fragile. A good smack could cause them to cease functioning altogether.”

“So then…?” Jade asked, looking around. “Does that mean it’ll work?”

Steven shrugged. “Can’t say for certain until we try it, but… Well, I think it’s well worth trying.”

Her dad grinned and brought an arm around her shoulders, giving her a paternal squeeze. 

“Good work, kiddo,” he said, smiling at her. “I’m proud of you.”

She laughed, knowing full well that it was silly to feel so happy at a compliment in this situation - especially when they hadn’t even tried her plan yet - but she chose to bask in the moment anyway. If this didn’t work, it could very well be their last. 

And honestly, she knew the plan was at least a little insane. Digging a hole? To make the bad guys fall down? What was this, a Saturday morning cartoon?

If it was just them working with shovels, it really would have been madness. But it wasn’t just them - they had their pokemon there to help. They had Aggron and Onix, Golem and Gigalith. They had Tyranitar and Claydol and two Metagross. This mad plan would require a lot of digging, but with all of their pokemon combined, it would be done in no time. 

And if it didn’t work, well… They’d think of something then. 

“Alright, team,” her dad said, clapping his hands and looking ready. “Let’s get to terraforming!”

The battle recommenced in a furious burst of speed as all three combatants let loose with Agility, streaking across the grassy field in blurry streaks of yellow and violet. 

As Mewtwo, now in its smaller form again, readied another Shadow Ball, her father’s Pikachu brought out a Double Team, flooding the field with afterimages and throwing off Mewtwo’s aim. She called out for her Pikachu to do the same, and the field was suddenly awash with Pikachus, flickering all around them, dozens and dozens of identical yellow rodents racing in Agility-boosted zigzags and no indicator of which two were the real ones. 

Giovanni barked an order and Mewtwo spread its arms, readying a Psychic to blast out in all directions - but before it could get it off, her father’s Pikachu was there, its tail glowing silver as it slashed violently towards Mewtwo’s helmeted head. 

Mewtwo twisted at the last second, hand coming up and glowing purple, mere inches away from Pikachu, only to be knocked aside as her own Pikachu crashed into it from behind with a Headbutt, catching it off guard. 

And that was how the battle seemed to go, at first. When Mewtwo was in its smaller form, it was a match for the Pikachus in speed. If it had been battling them one-on-one, then the sheer difference in power would have more than tipped the scales in its favor. But when facing two opponents at once, ones who moved so quickly, it found itself struggling to let off its stronger attacks without being taken from behind from surprise.

It tried to shift to its larger, stronger form every once in a while, but the trade off for extra power meant it was slower in this form, unable to keep up with the Pikachus, and it would quickly flounder under the onslaught of attacks, struggling to aim at targets who moved faster than you could blink. 

This wasn’t like the last round. Where before, Hydreigon had had the power and type advantages on her side but lacked the speed or control to reliably land a hit, her Pikachu was almost the exact opposite. 

Speed was one thing he had for days, and while he may not be quite used to his new body just yet, he still had worlds more control than Hydreigon did. His moves were far more accurate, his dodging quick and precise, and if he didn’t hit quite as hard as Hydreigon could, especially without the type-advantage, that didn’t matter because he at least could actually land a blow. 

Frustrating as it was, however, she had to admit that Ash’s Pikachu still had hers beat in terms of sheer skill and strength. She told herself it was just because Pikachu still needed time to adjust after evolving, but she knew it really had more to do with experience. It’d simply been around longer, had more battle experience. Her Pikachu would get there, eventually, but the comparison was a little unfair. 

Her Pikachu was moving a little faster, she could see, but she had a feeling that had more to do with the injury her father’s Pikachu had taken to its leg than it did her pokemon actually being quicker. 

But that didn’t mean that she was left playing second fiddle again. Her Pikachu may not hit quite as hard as her father’s, and may not know all of the same moves - honestly, the more she saw Iron Tail in action, the more determined she was to have her Pikachu learn it for its sheer versatility alone - he still had his own slew of skills that he brought to the table that her father’s Pikachu lacked. Namely, skills picked up from having spent so long in the Pichu stage. 

While her father’s Pikachu utilized its years of experience as the ace of its team, firing off powerful attacks in the form of Iron Tails and Thunderbolts, her own Pikachu worked on what he did best, setting his team up for success. Before his evolution, that had been his primary role in her squad. 

Electric Terrain sent rippling sparks crackling across the ground, empowering the Pikachus’ moves. More Double Teams and Agilities were tossed out, letting him take over the defensive role and allowing her father’s Pikachu to press the attack. She’d send him in for Quick Attacks or Thunderbolts when it looked like the other Pikachu needed a breather, but in the downtime when she wasn’t having to bail her father’s Pikachu out, she’d order the odd Nasty Plot or Charge, just to keep in her back pocket. 

Meanwhile, all around them, the battle continued. She could hear crashing and explosions coming from beyond the hill where Cynthia had disappeared. Rayquaza’s roars had ceased a few minutes ago, so she could only assume the older women had won and was now holding the hill on her own against whatever had come to replace it. 

From behind, her mother watched their backs, commanding both her team and Ash’s remaining pokemon as they held the line and kept the rogue legendaries at bay. She’d managed to recover Charizard at some point, having had it dragged over to lay beside Espeon, who had at last started to stir, returning to the conscious world but clearly unable to battle any further. 

She wished she could see how the battle was fairing on the other side of the Sanctuary - or even back outside on the mountain. All she knew for now was that the radio frequency clearly had not been shut off yet, as the legendary pokemon were still rampaging all around them. She could only hope that the fact that they hadn’t been swarmed by Giovanni’s lackeys just yet meant that her friends were still fighting, wherever they were. That wasn’t much to go on, but it was something, and she clung to that hope like a drowning woman. 

Before her, her own battle carried on in hectic fervor. Mewtwo let out a fierce blast of Psychic, tearing up the ground and eviscerating nearly a dozen of the Double-Team Pikachu echoes, forcing her own Pikachu to dart backward to avoid the blow. 

Her father’s Pikachu tried to take advantage and catch Mewtwo off-guard with a Thunderbolt from off to the side, but Mewtwo countered easily with another Shadow Ball that interrupted the Thunderbolt in midair, causing another ear-splitting explosion. 

Her own Pikachu followed up with another Quick Attack which Mewtwo dodged by teleporting away. It tried to use the brief moment it had gained to pull out a Calm Mind, but her father’s Pikachu was already there, quick as literal lightning, charging it down with its own Quick Attack, clearly intending more to disrupt the would-be empowering move than to deal any significant damage. 

To their credit, aside from Mega Evolving, Mewtwo hadn’t really been able to pull off any empowering moves, though not from lack of trying. It was just, every time it would pull back and try for a Calm Mind or a Nasty Plot, one of their Pikachu’s was there to interrupt and stop the move from succeeding. Once or twice, it had managed a successful Psychic Terrain, overriding her Pikachu’s Electric Terrain, but with two against one it was a fairly simple matter to have her father’s Pikachu distract Mewtwo for a moment so her own Pikachu could put the Electric Terrain back into effect. 

Honestly, the part of her that was a professional battler found the entire situation completely unfair - there was a reason two vs one battles weren’t sanctioned by the League. But considering the dire circumstances, her sportsmanship would have to take a back seat. 

Suddenly, Mewtwo teleported away, reappearing high up in the air. In a flash, it shifted from its smaller, speedier form to its larger, more muscular form, and brought its hands together, touching at the wrists, palms extended, as if it was about to whip out the gnarliest Shadow Ball yet. 

Only, it wasn’t a Shadow Ball. Instead of the familiar orb of crackling purple energy she’d become accustomed to, the very air around Mewtwo began to twist and warp as though it had been enveloped in a heat mirage. 

Then, too quickly, the warping air became suddenly visible, transforming in a bright, phosphorescent pink, the psychic waves turned tangible and began raining downward across the battlefield. 

They hit the ground with a staccato of loud ‘whoomfs!’ like miniature sonic booms that rattled her brain in her skull, tearing up the ground like it was being slashed with giant knives. The Pikachu clones were torn to pieces under the onslaught, and, quickly realizing there was nowhere really to hide, her father’s Pikachu stopped running and turned, squaring off on all fours and letting off the strongest Thunder it could muster. 

The bolt of pure electricity met the physical wave of psychic energy in midair, setting off explosions and filling the sky with a dazzling array of vibrant pinks and yellows fit to give anyone a seizure - but it was obvious within seconds that this wasn’t going to be enough. Strong as her father’s Pikachu was, this Mega Evolved Mewtwo was simply stronger. In a direct test of might, it was going to lose. 

“Pikachu!” AJ shouted, hoping she could be heard over the din. “Helping Hand!”

She’d lost sight of her partner in the chaos, as the Double Team afterimages were torn to pieces along with the battlefield and the electric light show danced blindingly in the sky - but she trusted him to keep himself safe. And for a wonder, it seemed he’d heard her, as a moment later he was there at her father’s Pikachu’s side. Pressing one cheek up against the other Pikachu’s, they linked their electric energies and joined forces to push the approaching attack back. 

Her father’s Pikachu should have been the stronger - but a combination of exhaustion on its part, mixed with the handful of Nasty Plots and Charges she’d had her partner sneaking in midfight, meant that in this moment, it was her Pikachu who packed the bigger punch. And with their forces combined by Helping Hand, and with the boost from Electric Terrain, the Thunder attack suddenly grew outrageously. 

Multiple separate bolts of lightning split off from the main Thunder attack. Forking outward jaggedly like the branches of a swiftly-growing tree, they spread outward and met the Psystrike attack head-on. A series of explosions rocked the air, like they’d been standing directly beneath a New Years firework display, and with a duel cry from both Pikachus, the central bolt of Thunder pierced the veil of Mewtwo’s attack and, with a bang that put all others to shame, struck the monster where it hovered in the air. 

The Psystrike cut off abruptly and the lightning faded. For a moment, all was quiet. Even the sounds of distant fighting seemed to dim as though muffled by all of the dust that hung in the air, obscuring her vision and hiding both Mewtwo and Giovanni from sight.

“That was good,” came a voice from her side, and AJ turned to find Ash grinning with a look on his face that could only be described as pure exhilaration. “That was really good!”

Despite herself, AJ felt the corners of her mouth twitch upwards. 

“Yeah, well… Couldn’t have done it without you.”

Which… Well, it was true, ok? Her Pikachu would have never had the time to get those Charges and Nasty Plots off without his Pikachu keeping Mewtwo distracted. That had truly been a team effort. If either of them had been alone, they would have lost the match right there. 

The weirdness of experiencing what might have been the most positive interaction she’d had with her father yet was short lived, however, as the dust that hung over the battlefield was suddenly dispelled, as though having been pushed away by a large invisible hand. 

There, standing once more on the ground, was Mewtwo. Facing them down, standing tall and still as though nothing had happened. 

Even in the dark, however, AJ could see this wasn’t necessarily true. Black burns ran up its body and even marred its armor. That Thunder attack had scored a clean hit and had clearly done some damage. That it was remaining upright was more likely due to the influence of Giovanni’s mind controlling armor, forcing it to stand tall.

And the thought of that sickened her even further. It was already awful enough that Mewtwo had been enslaved and forced to battle against its will - but knowing that it wasn’t even allowed to wince when in pain set her blood aflame. 

She should turn that Thunder attack against Giovanni next. See how he likes being electrocuted. Maybe a little shock therapy would fix that twisted ego of his. 

From behind Mewtwo, Giovanni was staring them down, though for once he wasn’t smiling. His expression had grown dour, and it seemed like he was more than ready to be done with this. She could only hope that at least part of that had to do with a growing concern that he might actually lose this battle. 

“I’m impressed,” Giovanni called out, and a part of AJ wondered if he was just stalling for time to give Mewtwo a chance to catch its breath. In all fairness, however, their Pikachus could use a breather as well. 

“I had thought for certain that, even outnumbered, nothing short of Mew could be a match for Mewtwo in its Mega Evolved form. I suppose we still have work to do before it meets my standards.”

AJ felt her lips peel back in a snarl. Every word out of this man’s mouth made her want to commit unspeakable acts of violence. 

“Though I must say, I seem to have underestimated you as well, girl,” he continued, this time turning his heartless gaze on AJ. “After seeing that pathetic excuse for a Hydreigon of yours, I’d thought you defeating Lance was a fluke - or perhaps that he’d lost all of his stature in his old age. But perhaps there is more to you after all. This might be the second most impressive Pikachu I’ve ever seen.”

That back-handed compliment should have set her off - especially because he’d just inadvertently compared her to her father and declared that he was better. Instead, the words just sort of washed over her, barely heeded. Compliment or criticism, who gave a Rattata’s fart about the opinions of some delusional old psychopath? 

This delusional old psychopath wasn’t ready to concede just yet, however, and he stamped his cane into the grass again, his expression growing maddening.

“Now, Mewtwo - we finish this now! I want you to go all in! No stopping, no resting, until you’ve buried these vermin beneath the dirt!”

At his side, his Persian let out a challenging roar, but Mewtwo didn’t make a sound. It couldn’t, with its mouth and mind trapped behind that infernal helmet. But it still reacted, immediately reaching out, extending one arm behind it, and seized the fallen tree that had tumbled down the hillside earlier in the battle during Rayquaza’s attack. 

It whipped its arm forward, and the tree moved. Seized in its psychic grip, it was hurled forward like cast from an invisible sling, directly at the two Pikachus. 

They scattered in opposite directions, one lone tree easy enough to dodge for creatures so fast - but a split second before the tree hit the ground, it suddenly exploded, ripped apart by psychic force, sending pieces of wood shrapnel flying in all directions and forcing the Pikachus to take off as quickly as they could to avoid the explosion. A few pieces even struck her and Ash, stinging and stabbing into her face and arms. 

It became immediately clear that the goal hadn’t been to hit the Pikachus, but instead to separate them - as a split second after the tree exploded, Mewtwo shifted into its smaller form and took off after one of the Pikachus; her own. 

“Pikachu!” she shouted, trying in vain to warn him, but Mewtwo was simply too fast. In a blink it was there at her Pikachu’s side, readying another powerful psychic blast that tore a hole into the dirt nearly big enough for her to sit inside - but miraculously, her Pikachu managed to dodge it, leaping high into the air countering with a Thunderbolt of its own. His attack missed as well, however, as Mewtwo flipped around, displaying a level of aerial acrobatics that only a powerful Psychic pokemon such as itself could employ, and a moment later her Pikachu was blasted backwards by a surprise Psyshock from behind. 

Then her father’s Pikachu was there, leaping into the fray to buy time for her Pikachu to stand. They exchanged several special attacks for a moment, blinking around with Agility-boosted movement so fast that it was dizzying just to watch, but when her father’s Pikachu tried for another Iron Tail, Mewtwo dodged and swiftly shifted into its larger, more muscular form, catching Pikachu with a double-fisted Counter that had its small form smashing into the ground with a pained cry. 

“Nuzzle!” AJ shouted, hoping they’d get lucky and her partner would be able to touch Mewtwo long enough to paralyze it, but Mewtwo was again too swift. Changing forms once more into its smaller, speedier size, it dodged the hit and fired off another Psychic that, thankfully, her Pikachu was able to dodge. 

By this point, her father’s Pikachu was back up again, injured but still moving, and it charged into the fray alongside her own Pikachu, the battle lighting up the night in flashes of bright purple and yellow. 

Her Pikachu may not have her father’s experience, but he was still putting up a good fight. If he was still a bit weaker than the other Pikachu, the difference in power seemed negligible in the context of this battle. But it was quickly becoming apparent to AJ that there was a second problem holding her back. 

As quick as her Pikachu was, most of his attacks were failing - either being interrupted or else missing entirely because Mewtwo was dodging them. Dodging because she had to keep shouting commands to him, and the delay between her words and his actions was more than enough for Mewtwo to read and counter. 

Ash didn’t have this problem, battling now as he had against her a couple of weeks ago without issuing a command. Giovanni didn’t appear to be having this issue either, as while she occasionally heard him shouting orders, most of the time he appeared to be silent. She didn’t know if that was because he’d had Mewtwo form a telepathic link so he could give orders through thought or if it was because he had some sort of audio transceiver in the helmet that he was speaking into. She highly doubted he trusted Mewtwo to act of its own accord, but however he was doing it, AJ wasn’t hearing his commands either. 

Which meant the only person in the battle operating under this ‘handicap’ was her. And it was clearly holding her Pikachu back. 

She’d shout an order, but by the time she got the words out, Mewtwo was already reacting. She’d assumed this was because it was a Psychic-type pokemon, but her father’s Pikachu wasn’t struggling nearly as much. It had to be because it was reacting to her commands - because with every order she gave, she revealed her hand.

Feeling frustrated that her failing as a trainer was making things harder for Pikachu, she spoke without thinking. 

“How are you doing that?! What’s the trick behind your pokemon battling without you having to give them orders?!”

“There’s no trick to it,” her father said, still gazing out onto the battlefield in that strangely fixated way he had. “It’s just about trust. Pokemon know how to use their bodies and moves better than their trainers ever will. We exist to help them reach their full potentials - to help unify the team behind a common goal and to establish an ethic of teamwork - but a trainer is never going to be able to command their pokemon better than the pokemon can command themselves.

“Instead, you just need to trust in your bond. As long as you and your pokemon are united behind the same goal - as long as you have faith in them - you don’t need to give orders. They’ll know what to do. Just believe in them.”

Well, that just sounded like a bunch of waffle. There was no way that just letting your pokemon run free on the battlefield was a better way to battle than having a trainer direct them. They had centuries of pokemon training culture to back that up. A pokemon raised by a trainer was almost always stronger than a wild pokemon. Clearly he had to know what.

But then again, maybe that wasn’t what her father was saying. Maybe it wasn’t about being let loose without direction - maybe it had more to do with experience. ‘Trust in your bond’, he’d said. 

With Hydreigon, they’d had almost no practical battle experience. When she went wild in battle, like when she’d battled Ethan or even Ash later on, she’d been easy to defeat. When they’d battled Giovanni, AJ had had to give most of the orders - not because Hydreigon didn’t know how to use her body, but because she lacked the knowledge gained from the experience of battling to use her skills to their fullest in a combat situation. 

But Pikachu wasn’t like that. They’d been traveling together - living and battling together - for years. He knew her better than anyone. He knew how she thought when it came time to battle, he knew what tactics and strategies she liked to pull out, what moves he had at his disposal to accomplish them. 

More than that, however, he knew her heart - and she knew his. And she knew that he felt the same way about Mewtwo and what Giovanni had done to it. 

Trust, then. She could do that. She already trusted her Pikachu more than anyone in the world. If Ash could pull this off, so could she. 

…Ok, well, maybe now wasn’t the best time to go trying this, but the stakes were too high to go falling behind now. 

But how was she supposed to convey this to Pikachu? 

Cupping her hands around her mouth, she shouted out to her starter, “Pikachu! You’ve got this! I know you can do it!”

A split second later, she felt immensely foolish. 

That… had sounded really dumb. And it was so vague! What did that even mean?! How was he supposed to understand what she meant by that?! Look - he was staring at her right now, head cocked to the side and looking very confused. Even Ash had looked at her askance, though he at least had the grace not to say anything. 

She tried gesturing furtively toward Ash and his Pikachu as if to say ‘Let’s do what they do!’, wishing for a moment that her Pikachu was psychic and could read her mind. That would make things so much easier. Unfortunately for them, he was not - though he did glance back and forth from Ash to the other Pikachu for a moment while the other Pikachu traded blows with Mewtwo. Did he get it? Was their bond strong enough to overcome her awkwardness?

A second later, her Pikachu squared back up and immediately used Double Team, sending another group of afterimages streaking across the battlefield. 

Well… that maybe wasn’t exactly what she would have ordered, but it wasn’t a bad idea at all. And he’d used a move without her telling him what to do. Trust, her dad had said. She’d have to trust him. If he could act on his own without waiting for her orders, he’d be that much faster. 

Her father’s Pikachu managed to land a glancing Iron Tail on Mewtwo’s shoulder, only to be blasted away again, its tiny yellow body bouncing across the destroyed, muddy ground. 

Before Mewtwo could follow up, however, her Pikachu was there, the afterimage clones all converging together, leaping over the bits of ruined tree and scattered piles of branches and leaves, all converging on Mewtwo simultaneously in a group Headbutt. 

Obviously, only one of the clones was real, so this wouldn’t do any more damage than a regular Headbutt would - but Mewtwo was able to let off a Dark Pulse that blasted outwards 360 degrees, catching all of the clones and eviscerating them in one go. In the chaos, she almost didn’t see the real Pikachu as he was sent flying back. 

Trust, she kept repeating in her mind. That wasn’t the tactic she would have ordered, but she had to trust Pikachu had a reason for it. And she’d learned something from that exchange as well - something she hadn’t fully put together yet. Had he realized it too? No - he must have. He might have known all along, and she was the one who hadn’t seen until now. 

On the battlefield, her father’s Pikachu was back. Covered in dirt and looking worse than ever, it nevertheless refused to back down, and it and Mewtwo exchanged a series of special moves - Thunderbolts meeting Psyshocks and Shadow Balls in midair, sending waves of static-charged air blasting all around them. 

The exchange lasted for several seconds to almost half a minute, lasting far longer than their usual exchanges did. Then, finally, after sending another Psyshock into the ground and forcing Pikachu back, Mewtwo seized the chance to shift forms again to its larger, more powerful size. 

Instead of leveling an attack against its current sparring partner, Mewtwo turned. It and Giovanni had clearly noticed her Pikachu’s absence, and, perhaps thinking he was hurt and trying to catch his breath, decided to seize this chance to try and rid themselves of one of their opponents once and for all.

There, standing in the middle of the battle field amidst the torn up earth and the discarded remnants of the destroyed tree, Mewtwo placed its hands together again just as it had before - wrists touching, palms extended - and readied another Psystrike, this one clearly intending to level the area around them and catch her Pikachu wherever he was hiding. 

But once again, as predictable as the sunrise, like the hero from a storybook, her father’s Pikachu was there - racing back onto the field, desperate to get to Mewtwo before it let off its attack. 

AJ knew what was about to happen. She’d seen this exact scene play out before, when her Hydreigon had been the one in danger. 

Pikachu’s Quick Attack quickly transformed into a Volt Tackle. Emboldened by the Electric Terrain that still sparked across the ground, it leaped high into the air, its body twisting, wreathed in crackling electricity as it flew towards Mewtwo like a tiny yellow rocket. 

Moments before it collided, Mewtwo twisted, just as it had before, and caught Pikachu in its psychic grasp. A Reversal. It was doomed. 

Or it would have been, had the pieces not finally come together in that moment. 

When her Pikachu had tried the group Headbutt with his clones, Mewtwo had countered with a Dark Pulse, hitting all of the clones simultaneously and dispersing them, catching the real one in the process. But why? A psychic pokemon as strong as it was, surely it should have been able to sense which Pikachu was real among them. It only needed to hit the real one - why waste the energy on a full AoE blast like that? Sure, the earlier Double Teams had been effective as well, but they’d probably managed to throw off its telepathy thanks to the sheer speed of the Pikachus’ Agility. But this was just one of them, and he had clustered the clones all together. Why the need for such a large attack? 

And why ready a powerful Psystrike to bring her Pikachu out from hiding? Sure - it may have just been a feint to bait her father’s Pikachu into attacking so it could catch it again, but if it could sense where other pokemon were, then it should have known where her Pikachu was. There was no need for such a wide-range move.

After all, her Pikachu wasn’t hurt or trying to recover. She knew that. After the Headbutt had failed and he was blasted backwards, she’d almost lost sight of him - but only almost. She’d seen him quickly recover and dart underneath the cover of a pile of fallen branches from the destroyed tree. She’d watched him there, hiding, biding his time and using Charge, waiting for the other Pikachu to create an opening for him. 

And if she knew that, there was no reason Mewtwo - who was such a powerful psychic - did not. Not unless Giovanni’s helmet was interfering - either by inhibiting its telepathic powers, or because Mewtwo was simply incapable of acting on its own without Giovanni’s express orders. And from his vantage point, Giovanni could not see her Pikachu. He didn’t see the mistake he’d just made. 

Every fiber of her being wanted to scream - to shout the order, to give the command that she knew needed to come next. But to do so would be to reveal their hand. It would give Giovanni and Mewtwo a chance to escape. 

Trust. 

As her father’s Pikachu was frozen mid-Volt Tackle, its body suspended in midair, still sparking wildly, Mewtwo, who was fully focused on it, preparing for the powerful reversal that would no doubt send Pikachu crashing face-first into the ground again, did not notice the movement behind it. With its concentration focused entirely on her father’s Pikachu, it was unable to react as her own suddenly erupted from out of the pile of leaves where he had been hiding, directly behind Mewtwo, it’s body sparking with its own Volt Tackle, empowered by the Charge and the Electric Terrain. 

He slammed head-first into Mewtwo’s unguarded back, discharging all of its collected energy straight into Giovanni’s chestplate with a bang like canonfire. 

Mewtwo reacted instinctively. Its chest jerked forward from the force of the blow, head thrown back in pain, arms spreading wide as the full force of the impact registered across its body - and its psychic hold on her father’s Pikachu was released.

A split second later, it was hit by a second Volt Tackle, this one straight to the chest, almost exactly opposite where her Pikachu’s attack had landed. There was a second bang, a second flash of light, and as the two Pikachus hit the ground and danced back, all eyes were trained on Mewtwo. 

It was smoking. Black burns painted all across its body. 

The armored chest plate it was wearing cracked and groaned. The gemstone embedded in the sternum fell away. 

Finally, in a staccato of sharp cracks, the chestplate shattered into pieces, each shard landing impotently in the dirt at Mewtwo’s feet. 

“No!” Giovanni shouted, aghast, but it was too late. His armor had been destroyed.

AJ had to physically stop herself from screaming in sheer excitement. They’d done it! They’d broken the armor! They’d won!

On the battlefield, Mewtwo seemed to be convulsing. It was still in its larger, muscular Mega Evolved form, but it was twitching, arms grasping first at its wounded torso and then fitfully pawing at its head where the helmet was still obscuring its face. It shuddered, its tail whipping fitfully in the air, then began to thrash, struggling with the helmet. She could hear the sound of ragged breathing and pained, desperate groans. 

It was clearly struggling with the helmet. Feeling suddenly concerned, AJ took a step forward as though to go and help it, but her father threw out an arm, holding her back. She glanced at him, but he said nothing, still staring warily at Mewtwo. 

“Mewtwo!” Giovanni barked, stamping his cane on the ground like a judge banging their gavel. “Mewtwo! Listen to your master! Do not stop attacking! Go - fight them! Obey me!”

But it was no use. Mewtwo wasn’t listening, still thrashing on the spot, fighting with its helmet. 

Giovanni’s Persian stepped forward, placing itself protectively between Mewtwo and its trainer. Both Pikachus retreated closer to their trainers as well, but they kept their eyes warily on Mewtwo. 

Suddenly, like a bolt of lighting out of the blackened skies overhead, AJ realized what was happening. Her blood ran cold. 

They’d broken the armor, and in so doing, they’d broken Giovanni’s control. He was no longer manipulating Mewtwo. 

But the radio frequency hadn’t been shut off yet. And without the armor, without Giovanni’s control, Mewtwo would be no different from any of the other legendary pokemon living in the Sanctuary. Driven into a mad, battle-crazed rage.

Finally, with a roar of pain and fury that echoed not just across the battlefield but also psychically across all of their minds, the helmet Mewtwo was wearing was torn apart like it was made of aluminum foil, and there, mad and injured and full of all of the bloodthirst and fury it had carried with it since birth, Mewtwo stood. Panting and shaking and ready to run wild. 

It still wasn’t over. 

Chapter Text

The Sanctuary was far from quiet. The distant sounds of battle still called out from amongst the once placid hills, particularly in the area directly behind them where her mother still battled to hold the crazed legendaries at bay. 

Yet AJ had eyes only for one legendary. The one standing alone on their makeshift battlefield, covered in burns and bruises and breathing raggedly, the crumpled and broken remains of the armor that had once enslaved it laying in desolation at its feet. 

They had beaten it. Finally freed it from the clutches of Giovanni’s mind control. Hit it with the toughest moves their pokemon could muster. And still, it would not fall. Somewhere, mixed in with all the terror and exhaustion that AJ had been experiencing over the course of the last hour or so was an undeniable glimmer of respect.

Just how strong was this creature? And what would it finally take to bring it down?

Across the field, Giovanni slammed his cane repeatedly on the dirt like an angry child, desperate to regain control of the situation and compel the pokemon to action. 

“Mewtwo! Heed my commands - obey me! I am your master! Remember your place!”

It happened in the blink of an eye. 

One moment, Mewtwo was standing still in the middle of the grass, writhing and moaning as it grasped fitfully at its head as though in great pain. The next, it had teleported over and was now standing directly beside Giovanni. 

For a wild moment, AJ actually thought it had listened to him and she felt a fresh surge of frustration and alarm wash over her. But Giovanni’s Persian had its hackles raised, and the moment Mewtwo had materialized, it pounced, fangs bared and claws extended, ready to strike to protect its master. 

With almost casual indifference, as if it hadn’t even noticed the creature at all, Mewtwo flicked one of its hands and a Psychocut caught the Persian mid leap. It was blasted backwards, hitting the ground hard and rolling for several feet, twitching feebly and struggling to rise. 

Giovanni staggered back, looking aghast and holding up his cane protectively in front of him like it was some sort of shield. 

“S-stop!” he gasped, for once having completely lost that air of malevolent superiority that he’d so prided himself in. His free hand grasped feebly for the pokeballs hanging on the belt around his waist. “I… I command you…! I am your-!”