"You killed my friend."

Durand blinked, apparently not expecting that after their battle with this so-called Zinnia.

"Excuse me?" Durand's brow furrowed, as if needing help to narrow her list of victims down. Was she serious? Ash found himself more incensed than ever. "I know we haven't come to blows since the atoll, and I certainly haven't touched your family! They are honorable fighters. I would not do them—or you—harm without cause. We were only playing before."

Perhaps she was speaking the truth under most circumstances.

But Ash's lips curled up into a humorless smile, suddenly backed up by Bruiser, Torrent, Dazed, Sneasel, and Oz. They didn't make an aggressive motion (for Durand's team watched them with razor-sharp eyes) but their presence gave him confidence.

"Maybe so," Ash said. "But were you playing at Devon?"

Durand's scar twisted as she frowned, tugging at her floppy sun hat while the blank-faced Shedinja hovered protectively over her shoulder. "I'm most confused right—"

"Anorith!" Ash exploded, fingers curling into fists. Durand blinked. "The Stones. Devon. Don't tell me you've been on such a rampage that you can't even remember that?"

Her jaw twitched. "I fought no Anorith. Even if I did, why would I have brought it harm? It could not hope to harm my family. Besides, I was too busy going after—er, I had other matters to attend to."

"Don't play coy," Ash hissed. Durand met his stare evenly. She seemed a little disconcerted by his vitriol, but made no move to fight him. Yet. "I've seen the reports. I've talked to Steven. You fought Mr. Stone, hurt his bodyguards, killed people!"

Ash needed to keep his temper in check, but the words he'd stewed over for a month now came bubbling out. He jabbed a finger at her, although he kept it far from her skin as Shiftry's dark eyes flitted to the extremity. All it would take was the briefest use of Razor Wind to slice his hand off.

No one would come out unscathed in that fight.

Ash's team was exhausted, but they were far from helpless. And he hadn't drawn upon all his strength—Ash had kept it as a last resort, but with Oz and (previously) Infernus within touching distance he could empower them with the Feather. They would feast upon Fire and Lightning and carve right through Durand's team at this distance, even if the rest of them would get cut down.

But Ash had faith it wouldn't come to that worst eventuality.

"Do not judge me for doing what was necessary," Durand said softly. "I take no joy in it. But I promise you that I did not kill your friend. I remember every soul that I reap."

Would she think the same of Rockets? Ash didn't think so. They were faceless monsters. They'd traded away their humanity the moment they'd taken on that uniform.

"Necessary?" Ash snapped, but bit back the next few words. Control. Dazed's mind brushed against his own, encouraging his calm.

Patience. She will know our truth, but she must be willing to listen.

Ash sent a mental nod back, then exhaled.

"I—you're right about one thing," Ash admitted. "You didn't kill Anorith. Not personally."

"Then what is all this fuss about?" Durand's brow furrowed. "I told you—"

"She was developing in a pod when your team, the Rockets, came into the cloning facility and pillaged the place," Ash interrupted. He took note of how Durand's lip curled up at the mention of the murderous Rockets. "They took those they could and killed the rest. They cut the life support. Bashed open nutrient pods. Broke the glass. Those fossils never had a chance."

Durand's face paled slightly at that. Her jaw set. "I didn't order them to do that."

"But they did it anyway," Ash pointed out. Let her see what she'd abetted! That cruel part of him took pleasure in shoving her face into the consequences. "Do I know everything? No. But I've learned a few things: you partnered with Rockets and now you're acting surprised when they acted like monsters. They couldn't have pulled off an attack like this without you. Innocents were killed!"

"They were pawns, not partners," Durand defended weakly. Her words were normally ladened with conviction, but now they rang hollow. Shiftry's bladed fan brushed gently against her forearm. Its eyes never strayed from Ash's team. "They were disposable by design. I know they did not escape justice. Your Steven Stone and his own partners saw to that."

No, they hadn't. Metagross had arrested those who surrendered and ended those who had fought.

"And I'm glad they're gone," Ash snarled. "Rockets are lower than dirt."

Durand nodded emphatically.

"But you know what I see? A dagger being broken while the hand wielding it jerks back to safety." Ash scowled alongside Torrent as the dragon levitated closer. His majesty both tempered Ash's wrath and built his own confidence further. "You led them! You enabled them. Opened up the door for them to rush in and loot the place."

Ash spat. "It doesn't matter if you planned for them to get their just desserts. It doesn't matter if you didn't pass down the order. Anorith never had a chance because you chose to be there."

Durand's eyes were fierce, indignant. Her lips curled and the scar upon her face twisted. She was no reed to be tossed about by the din of his anger, but Durand inspected him closely for a moment and loosened her sneer.

She saw his anger. She saw the pain. She saw the future snipped off like an errant thread.

Durand saw the injustice of it all.

Her eyes softened, and she plopped down upon the sandstone blocks of the Sky Pillar as if she were lounging for a picnic. Great winds howled all around them as they rested above the clouds. Adrenaline lingered in his veins, and Ash realized his hand were still trembling.

All he could think of was that little grave atop the hill at the Stone colony and Steven, who had watched a copy of his own beloved companion succumb to the dark.

Durand exhaled. "I am sorry for your loss, Ash. Truly."

Shiftry leapt atop her shoulders and rested his shaggy white mane against her hat while those deadly leaves grazed Durand's arms. She smiled briefly and rested her own hand against the grass-type's twiggy limbs.

Her voice was raw. "And I am sorry for my own part in it. I did not…you are right, Ash. Ask. You are owed some answers."

There a thousand swimming in his head, but only one came to mind.

"Why?"

Ash's demand rang in the great empty peak. Dazed's yellow fingers rested against his shoulder blade as her luminous stare took in the rest of Durand's team.

"I've followed you, you know. I thought I knew you, even if just a little. And you know what? I even liked you," Ash growled, frustrated at his own admission. "I've read your file a hundred times."

Durand looked curious at that, but Ash shook his head.

"You've fought the right people since you've come to Hoenn. It might not be the right way, you have the right ideas. The right goals. So why don't you have the right methods?"

Durand's fingers stilled in Shiftry's white mane.

"As much bad as you've done—and believe me, I could write a paper on it—there's plenty of good as well. Illegal operations broken up. Violations punished. Abusers turned in. But you've accomplished it by leaving a river of blood behind you," Ash said bitterly. "Justify it however you want. Say the ends are worth it, but it doesn't replace anyone who gets caught in the crossfire."

Durand's regret wouldn't bring Anorith back, nor any of the others she'd taken in her quest.

She was too composed to wince, but Ash saw something there. Regret? But it vanished swiftly as a frigid snowflake landing upon the sun-warmed earth.

"There are greater things in this world than a mere Master: institutions laid in stone, cultures poisoned by rot, and ways of life heedless to the injustice beneath their nose," she said. "It's beyond an individual to change them."

"Drake did. Alder did."

A bitter smile crossed Durand's tan face.

"I am no Drake. Even he burned the old world down to lead many hands in rebuilding a better one from the ashes. When the forest grows too tall and begins to strangle new life, it is only natural to burn the old growth away," Durand waxed on. "Besides, is Champion Drake your measure of morality? He's hoarded hundreds of lives in his Trench."

Durand saw her opening when Ash hesitated.

"Unova, Hoenn, Sinnoh…well, the Ranger Union, and Indigo all suffered," Durand said, raising one finger for each land. "Even Orre in its own way, yes?"

Ash nodded along. He was no stranger to these stories.

Cinnabar was left in ashes, Goldenrod was half-burnt, and a dozen smaller battles marred Indigo besides.

Hoenn suffered under siege until Drake and his forces broke the heaviest forays in the Battle of Lilycove. Sinnoh's southern territories (now the Ranger Union) were invaded by Kalos to occupy its attention.

And Unova, broken and battered by the National League's retaliation until Alder rose up and cut the head off the Ekans.

"There was one place unburnt by the Last War," Durand said in her lilting accent, voice aching with the longing of one who had known no home but the one beneath her feet for too many years. "Kalos remained untouched."

She raised a hand when Ash made to argue, and he fell silent as she preemptively cut down several of his arguments.

"We lost the resources and soldiers invested in Fiore, Almia, and Oblivia, but the National League was weary of war and putting out fires at home. They knew their greatest heroes would find their dragonfire extinguished by our fae. They lacked the stomach for an invasion against another fortified target, praise the Stag, and recalled their fleets from Onulo's tattered remains."

At least this was a subject he was well-versed in.

"Kalos was hardly the same after the Last War. They adopted the League system. Old conflicts were snuffed out. There might not have been a revolution like in Unova, but there was still lasting change as a result."

"Change?" Durand scoffed. "Kalos changed in the same way that I used to play with new hairstyles as a little girl."

Durand spared a dry laugh. "The National League was not eager for another fight, but they were terribly strong. Drake the Dragon Master stood on the horizon. The Blaze of Cinnabar laid in wait. There was a burning anger in their hearts. We might have made a costly fight of it, but we would have lost. Our leaders feared them at least that much."

"So yes," Durand continued, "Kalos changed. Class restrictions were loosened. Children could partner with a pokémon companion without a House's backing."

Her hand briefly clung to Shiftry's knobby wrist, and the creature made a rattling noise like wind through the canopy.

"All surface deep, I'm afraid. Perhaps it will settle into the ancient foundations with time, but the government only shuffled its hand. The Houses still reign in truth, if not in name. They offered crumbs to the starving man while keeping the loaf for themselves. The seeds are there, but it is too slow, and it is unjust."

Ash had been caught up in her speech, fascinated by her perspective despite the enmity he held, and he knew that Dazed was just as curious. His team still waited with bated breath for a fight, but they eased as a proper dialogue ensued.

But as she spoke with such incredible passion, Ash saw Durand unsheathed again, the naked blade beneath the amiable woman. That look in her eyes…it faded away swiftly, concealed beneath her amiability and soft voice, but Ash felt her fervor in his own spirit. Felt the righteous indignation.

The strength of her ideals and the devotion to her truth was awe-inspiring in the same way as a great tsunami: incredible in scope and beyond the fathoming of most, but terrifyingly dangerous.

Durand would grind the world into dust before compromising her beliefs.

And Ash'd already experienced a taste of that for himself.

"That's…not like the stories I've heard," Ash said measuredly. He recalled that blonde girl he'd become friends with at Professor Oak's summer camp. She'd spoken so fondly of her home's bright green hills, deep forests, and sparkling sun. Plus he'd never heard anyone so passionate about Rhyhorn racing before. "Is it really so bad?"

"Perhaps to those who don't care to look deeper." Durand dismissed his words with a wave of her hand. Slaking grunted and laid down behind her to allow the Rogue to lean back against a great leg the size of a shaggy tree trunk.

Ash immediately filed away the vulnerability of both and made plans on how to exploit that easygoing position. Should it become necessary, of course.

"Most are content with the life they have been given. They are happy with the small changes granted to them by the grace of the Houses. And why not?" Durand asked wryly. "They have known nothing else. But we climbed higher than most. We soared on our lonesome!"

Shiftry hugged her tightly as Durand's mood grew solemn. One of her hands went to a Pokéball that Ash presumed was Farfetch'd's (if the stylized leek sticker plastered on was anything to go by) as she spoke again.

"My loves grew greater and brighter, but the world seemed all the darker as we looked upon it from new heights. We rubbed elbows with those who would not seek to better the world with their influence, but to exploit it. We could bear it no longer!"

"So why'd you leave Kalos, then? It sounds like you had a battle to fight."

"The rot was unbearable. The stench of corruption befouled the air wherever I stepped, and greedy eyes followed us. We wandered the world instead."

Her voice was raw, but there was a fondness there. It didn't take a genius to realize that these were precious times to her, likely some of the last she had with her original team.

"I walked the ashes of the Ranger Union left behind by my people in search of the land and prosperity they were never permitted in Kalos. I explored Unova's neon-ridden cities and saw for myself the better world Champion Alder had coaxed from salted earth and twisted minds."

He listened intently, as much out of sheer curiosity and hunger for knowledge as he was to gather information for the League. His brain filed away every scrap of information he could to fill in those odd missing gaps in Durand's dossier.

If this last day had taught him anything, it was that information was a powerful weapon. Who knew what loose ends the League might be able to pursue with the intelligence he gleaned here?

No doubt Steven was going to go on a rampage after this. At least they might have something to aim it on if Durand let anything slip.

"We walked so many lands, delving deep into the frontier. We visited the Relic Castle and discovered the strength of our ideals. It was then that we knew what we must do. What we must become!"

Ash met Durand's forest green eyes as that glint of emerald fervor reignited.

He hesitated for a moment, but as he felt the connection, he reached out and snared that devotion for himself.

A scouring wave to clean the world of rot and man's darkness

Fertile ground, the beginning after the end

Balance

A bitter part of him was tempted to leave it there, to plumb Durand's unwitting mind for all he could. Ash doubted he could peer deep, but they'd built a tangible bond across there encounters. It was something he was capable of exploiting, although how much he could do without Durand catching on was another question.

He almost did it, but Dazed's wisdom during their training in Forina echoed within him.

'If you follow this path, I suggest you to share, never take.'

Even an enemy didn't deserve that; Ash wouldn't let this be the first step down a slippery slope.

Ash wasn't stupid. Durand might know nothing of what telepathy, or Aura, or whatever this connection was, but she was no fool. He wouldn't give her any reason to suspect anything amiss. She was a Rogue Master with a well-honed sense of paranoia, after all.

Instead, he fostered those feelings that Durand felt herself when she looked upon him and his team.

The warmth of curling with his team on a rainy eve

Exultant in victory, battle-lust blazing in his heart

And then a little trickle of his own.

Dread in his soul as ancient titans rose

Durand's lips curled into a smile as a distant look swept over her tanned, scarred face. Ash's spirits sank. "I will do my part in making a new world, Ash, just as you think to preserve this one."

"Who will you sacrifice to see it done?" Ash asked, exhausted. The adrenaline which had fueled him was wearing off, but it was the feeling of smashing his head against a brick wall that really did it for him.

Her face twisted. Shiftry's eyes squeezed shut as the rest of her team inched closer. The winds howled around the summit of the Sky Pillar.

"Everything," Durand rasped. Her fingers curled into claws as if ready to throttle an invisible neck. He saw the blade unsheathed once more, but this time Ash could recognize just how brittle her steel was. But then her fervor was shared between the Rogue and her adoring team. "We have done it before. If we must, we will do it again."

That was when Ash knew that Durand wouldn't—couldn't—take another road. This one might be paved with blood and death, but the bones of her family were its foundation. Her family had died for those ideals, sealed them in Durand's heart with as much finality as their dying gasps

Would Ash be able to turn away from such a path?

Dazed's fingers tightened against his shoulder, and Ash had his answer.

Durand sighed and the Rogue slipped away to be replaced by the visage of the smiling trainer. She reclined further into Slaking's furry belly—the great simian looked ready to pass out, though there was a fat chance of that happening around Ash and his team.

"You fight so hard for your League. You have such faith in them," Durand said. She wrung her hands. "I cannot fault you for that. But if you believe in them, why not put it to the test?"

Ash's eyes narrowed.

"You know your history. My head was empty at your age, full of nothing but battles and strategies!" Durand laughed, though it rang hollow. "How well do you really know mine?"

"I've done a little bit of research."

Malamar—Douceline, Ash remembered—waved its tentacles at that. It slipped suddenly into reality and Ash shot it a dirty look. He hadn't forgotten its parting gift, and it took all he had not to hurl his own at the malicious creature.

It had tried to put him into a coma, after all. If Ash wasn't what he was, he wouldn't have just shrugged it off. Humans and Confuse Rays didn't play nicely together.

"What is my greatest regret, then?" Durand challenged him. She looked like a woman on her way to the grave.

"Elite Four Malva—"

"Don't honor her with such a title!" Durand hissed, eyes wide with rage. She had jerked up from Slaking's embrace to stare daggers at Ash, hands twitching.

"Not her," the Rogue finished more softly as Shiftry brushed her cheek with a dagger-like leaf. All it would take was one slip to carve right through her soft human skin.

"Malva, then," Ash said, unwilling to test her further. Perhaps if he could hold her a little longer the League might arrive…no doubt someone had arrived by now, but Ash doubted that the peak of the Sky Pillar would be the first place they checked.

Only a madman would ascend the ancient tower.

Durand looked like she wanted to curse the name, blast the Sky Pillar to pieces, and rampage across Hoenn.

Ash was going to be pissed if she went through with it—she was the one who brought the Kalosian Elite up, after all, and Ash was all out of patience after all the shit they'd been through today.

But Malamar's eyes flashed blue and she took a deep, rattling breath. The malicious creature hovered closer, even if Dazed looked ready to murder the thing.

That didn't even begin to approach the way Bruiser eyed it.

Sorry, buddy, but it looks like you missed one last time.

"Thank you, love," Durand whispered. The hate drifted away. Or cooled, rather. Ash didn't think it was possible for such a deep, abiding fury to just vanish. It was always there beneath her skin, gnawing at whatever semblance of reality she'd managed to reconstruct around her. "A test for you and your League, Ash."

He was skeptical, but motioned for her to continue.

"Kalos has mold growing along its edges, but the rot is not so deep that it can't be excised. That filth Malva is its greatest victory, an appendage of corruption led by those who wish to see Kalos resume what they believe to be its rightful place…their rightful place. Fools! But they proved me one even greater."

Thick hate radiated from Durand like the Tyrantrum's draconic cloak.

"I walked in the highest circles and heard their schemes. I made my reports and saw them buried. I followed the rules! And what did I earn? Nothing. They came for me," Durand snarled, her face twisting with wrath, "so I came for them in turn!"

And what a fat load of good that did her. Durand's team was slaughtered by Malva and her ASTRE bodyguards. They were Masters, true, but no match for the organized defense of a League's highest authorities.

Durand had inflicted a few permanent wounds to the Fire Master's team, but she was made a rogue to be hunted for the rest of her days. No developed region would ever take her, and the targets of her crusade couldn't be found in the frontiers.

Her mind was broken. Her soul was torn to tatters.

Jacqueline was twisted into Durand.

Ash saw it in the set of her jaw, the scar across her face, the fire in her eyes.

He pitied her, but didn't dare show it.

"I fought for them, and now look at me! My own people hunt me. Peers! They think me a rabid Pyroar. I was doing them a damn favor!" Durand raged, snapping to her feet with suddenness that had Sneasel ready to slash. Even her own team worried. Each moved to assuage her sudden cracks in their own ways. "She walks free to sink her poisonous claws into whatever she likes. She whispers her poison while I'm scrabbling in the dirt. How is that fair, Ash?"

He winced, but didn't respond. Nothing would ease Durand's temper but her own family in this moment. The Rogue wandered like a lost Growlithe as she paced. She shook her head furiously and sent her hat and blonde hair fluttering.

"Give me more."

Durand whipped around. Her eyes were sharp and cold like emerald ice.

"I need more than that."

"What?!" Durand shrieked, the last vestiges of her composure fleeing before her wrath. She stalked up to Ash with her whole body shaking, but Shiftry hissed and leapt atop her shoulder even as Slaking's vast hand yanked her back before she could force Ash's team into action.

A single glance showed that Durand's team had no interest in fighting him—Bruiser was close, and Ash had proven just how formidable his team was. "I trusted that you—"

"Stop!" Ash's voice ached at the command. His throat was raw. To his surprise, Durand's jaw snapped shut. He wanted to rub at his temples to massage the last remnants of the Perish Song headache away, but couldn't afford such a show here.

"You think I can just go to Steven and tell him that Jacqueline Durand, the Rogue Master who attacked his family, has information about a dirty Lumiose League member and expect him to act on it? One of their Elite Four? No. I can't do anything with that. Give me more."

Durand gaped at him.

Ash frowned. "You know what? Here's something of a good faith offering. You heard about the raid on the Viridian Gym last year?"

She nodded, even if her face was set in a scowl.

"Lance went after Giovanni on my word." Ash relished the shock upon Durand's face. "I swear, it's true. Give me something to work with. Convince me. Your word is worthless to Ever Grande, but they just might listen to me."

"I expected you to go to Champion Lance," Durand retorted, suddenly keen and interested despite her flummoxed expression. "Not Steven Stone, who no longer wears the mantle. But yes, you are right…"

Perhaps he'd offered a clearer window into the strange dynamics of the Ever Grande League than he'd intended, but Ash shook it off. No time for regrets.

He'd pored over Steven's dossier on Durand (and made his own additions to it) enough that he knew Steven once had his own intentions to look into Malva and the circumstances behind the assassination, though who knew if that had ever happened with all that was occurring in Hoenn.

But Ash saw no reason not to urge Durand to spill everything she could while he had the chance.

"I do not know as much as I'd like," Durand admitted. Ash and his team listened intently. "Only what scraps I gleaned in the gilded crowds and tore from their minds later. They are 'Flare. For some, a glorified political club. For others, an insidious vine creeping its way through Kalosian high society, whispering of the glorious old days and heralding their return. They rig elections and stack positions in the great cities. They back brutes to assist them in hoarding influence and ill-gotten power."

Durand shook her head. "It is layers upon layers of corruption. A tangled web that I only saw a strand of. Some exploit it for financial gain. Others see it as a future path to power, or as a chance to crumble the League's foundation to return to the dark days of the past. But I doubt the Lumiose League has the organization or willingness to tear them up by the roots like the weeds they are."

Ash nodded along as she explained further details. He and Dazed filed away every little scrap—even when Durand wistfully spoke of her home in Laverre—to extract whatever they could from it. He focused in particularly on the specifics Durand could provide, especially names in the circles that Malva frequented when Durand was still on the fringes.

It wasn't much to go off of, if Ash was being honest. But if there was a chance Durand was correct about this 'Flare' and Malva's association with it (although he was taking anything the half-mad Rogue said with a dozen grains of salt) then it was worth bringing up.

Steven, Wallace, and Lance might not have any authority over the Lumiose League, but they did have Champion Diantha's ear. Both Lance and Steven had spoken fondly of the Lumiose Champion. While they were too distant to be friends of the close sort that Lance, Steven, and Cynthia were, Ash knew they regarded Diantha as someone worthy of respect.

They trusted her, and so would Ash.

We might not be there to purge this danger, but perhaps we will stir the first pebbles of a landslide.

Ash agreed with Dazed on that front. They weren't in a position to take action in Kalos, especially not on Durand's word, but they could provide some little scraps of information to those who could.

But as Durand finished, looking utterly exhausted as she spent herself in her frenzied explanations, Ash knew their time was growing short.

The League would find them soon.

Ash jerked his head toward the center of the Sky Pillar's vast triangular peak, idly noting it was large enough to rival the Indigo Stadium's battlefield in sheer area. The Draconids had truly outdone themselves with this work, even if his mind boggled at the question of how they'd even sourced so much sandstone, let alone assembled it into this glorious monstrosity.

"I'll make sure the right people hear about this," Ash promised. The sheer relief on the faces of Durand and her team stirred a twinge of pity. "But there's more I need to know, and right now you're the only one with any answers. So tell me: who is Zinnia?"

Durand's face instantly went flat. Suspicion bubbled within him. While she might have been open about this Flare, he couldn't truly trust any information she gave him. Not without verification. "A daughter of the Draconids. A mighty foe. She nearly destroyed us once."

Ash's face twisted. "Really? What, did she ambush you at the Pillar too?" He asked doubtfully. The Mega Salamence and its molten gold Draco Meteors flickered to mind, but Ash could hardly believe that they'd pose such an extreme threat away from the Sky Pillar. "They weren't that strong."

It likely sounded arrogant given the trouble she'd given Ash and his team, but it was true. The Draconid was a Master in full. There was no doubt about that. Her techniques were formidable. Her team was mighty and disciplined. They fought with long years of experience.

Kratyke the Tyrantrum and Mega Salamence were truly mighty foes who were easily capable of facing down Ash's family even without the amplification of the Sky Pillar. They had shone the brightest in their duels, but the rest had proven incredibly dangerous and used to lethal combat.

As useful as those fighters had been against Ash's team, they simply didn't have the formidable power of Zinnia's wrecking balls. It was difficult to gauge the exact boost given by the Sky Pillar's nature, but Ash gauged Tyrantrum and the others to be Champion-level. Mega Salamence might have been a match for Lance's Dragonite, albeit not in skill or experience.

But give that Tyrantrum back to Bruiser. Give Mega Salamence to Plume when her wings weren't clipped!

Ash wanted to spit on their names. Let them come again! Infernus would carve that crescent wing off for himself. He was hardly one to relish the thought of hurting a pokémon, but Zinnia had marked herself as a true enemy the moment she'd come to kill him—his team!—without so much as a warning.

It wasn't a battle or a challenge. It was an assassination attempt, and Ash would give her all the respect she deserved.

That was somewhere between the dirt (well, rock) beneath his feet and Executive Pierce. Perhaps that was being a little unfair to the sandstone, though.

Zinnia really did live up to Aurelia's legacy.

Durand looked at him oddly, then chuckled humorlessly. "What happened to you, Ash? You've sprouted thorns these past few months."

He ignored the burning in his arm. "I saw all the mountains in front of me. I had to catch up one way or another."

"You have all worked hard," Durand said, her accent thickening for a moment as she assessed his team, who looked back sternly. "Dragons are not my favored opponent, it is true, but do not underestimate Zinnia. She lives up to her ancestor's legacy. Our paths have crossed several times."

"You seem pretty familiar with her for someone you've only met in battle."

Durand hesitated at that. "One could say the same for the two of us."

Ash allowed her that point, but suspected there was far more that Durand wasn't telling him. Intelligence suggested that Durand was primarily associated with Aqua, yes, but it was no secret to the League that she'd run missions for other organizations while in Hoenn as well.

The elusive Magma was included in that number.

Those missions weren't Durand's normal fare. They usually involved corporate espionage, thievery, or raids that must've benefited both Durand and Magma in equal measure.

But they knew that already.

His mind spun with all the little fragments he'd picked up.

Durand had implied on their ascent that Zinnia hadn't exactly worn the Aqua uniform for fun—plus Ash couldn't see the benefit of Aqua pulling some bullshit like this when both they and the League had worked to maintain a tentative order in the face of the chaos which had swept Hoenn—and Ash couldn't think of many reasons to pull something like that without malicious intent.

A ruse? False flag? Zinnia hadn't come for a fight. She'd come to obliterate Ash and his team in a tactical strike before they could pose any resistance. That strategy didn't align with wearing a false uniform, but perhaps it had just been a safety measure.

This was all supposition, but Ash couldn't help conjecturing.

Perhaps an additional layer of deception in the event everything went sideways? Zinnia knew Ash's place at the Sky Pillar—he had his own suspicions regarding that, damn him for blabbing at the gala!—but she couldn't have known if he was truly alone.

Ash's affiliation with the League was rather well known, after all. Especially after his media stunt. She couldn't have known if Drake was visiting or if Steven had come by to train him. In that case, it made sense to wear the false uniform.

If she succeeded, then the chaos of Ash's death would've been messy enough. Ash's stomach already turned at the thought of all the paperwork he'd have to fill out when the League finally made it up here…

But if everything went wrong, perhaps the Aqua garb would send the blind fury of the League hunting on the wrong trail…

Zinnia was almost certainly the strange Dragon Master who had been obliterating whatever Ranger stations proved too good at their job.

Steven had suspected Magma to be pulling whatever strings they could to force the League off balance and gnaw at their flank, though Ash couldn't guess what had forced such extreme action.

It was too early to say for certain, but the sheer chaos which would unfold if this plot had succeeded fit Magma's shady methods. Ash kept thinking and thinking, piecing together anything he could so that he would be able to share it with Steven.

He winced. Oh, Steven was going to be furious.

"Are you alright?" Durand asked quizzically. He jerked himself back to reality, practically smacking himself for losing himself. This was hardly the time! "You're bleeding!"

"I'll be fine. I've had worse."

"Don't leave it," Durand advised. She dug around in a pouch at her waist and tossed him a few bandages and a vial of thick green paste. "It's not worth the risk of infection. Apply a bit of that antiseptic to the wound and wrap it up. Your League doctors can handle it from there."

A dragon's roar sounded from beyond the vast cliff of the Sky Pillar's edge. The winds howled ever louder.

His spirits soared. The League was here.

For a moment Durand blanched as if she'd seen a ghost—Ash and his team tensed, the thought of attacking and distracting her for the League to apprehend her crossing their minds…

And then Shiftry leapt forward at Ash in a cloak of Razor Wind with its dagger-leaves extended and desperation in its eyes.

One of Ash's teammates moved in a black blur almost too quick to track.

Sneasel's bone white claws met the Leaf Blade with a clang. He ignored the light red furrows carved into his thin limbs by the Razor Wind, and Sneasel hissed furiously as he stopped Shiftry in its tracks.

Ash's team squared themselves even as Durand's bristled, but Ash felt something still hidden. Something deadly.

Zoroark had never made its appearance, and Ash had no idea what else was waiting for them.

No one would win this battle, no matter how much Ash longed for the conclusion of their duel in the atoll.

His eyes met Durand's.

Hers were wide and afraid. Hunted and haunted.

"If we meet again, I will fight you."

"I would never ask you to betray your ideals, Ash," Durand said softly, almost gently. "Just as I hope you would never ask me to betray mine."

With that, she vanished, wiped from reality as if she'd never been there at all. Perhaps she never had.

One could never trust their perceptions around a Zoroark, even if Ash had equipped his team as best he could to handle its exotic abilities. But Ash wasn't willing to gamble his team's lives on a potential mirage.

No, he'd have to keep training Sneasel relentlessly—Dispel might be their only true counter to Durand's illusions.

But Ash heard the sounds of Durand's team returning, saw little flashes of light that Zoroark failed to cover, and then felt a vile rip in reality as she dipped away through an alien world. He just shook his head as the exhaustion of the day suddenly striking him like a hammer.

She was gone.

For a moment he breathed deeply of the thin air atop the Sky Pillar. Even a normal human might have detected something of the power there, the taste of something great and terrible that suffused the atmosphere—something more than the atoms and molecules which constituted the aether.

And for a heartbeat he remembered the flare of that power, the turquoise flame just waiting to be awoken in a storm of cinders. He thought of the potential which Torrent had dragged out of the air, the same potential which Zinnia's team had used to devastating effect.

Stellar flame, or perhaps the purest idea of it.

"We can use this," Ash said, eyes burning with a manic light as his hungry mind came ablaze with the possibilities. Just as Durand had taught them so much in their battle—exposed their weaknesses, revealed her strengths, and given him an idea of what was to come—so had this Zinnia.

And then he let it all slide away, took in his battered team, and rushed to embrace them all.

They fell against him to form a great pile of skin and fur and scale.

While he waited, Ash applied the paste.

XX

A sandpaper-like tongue scraped frantically against the wound. Sneasel whined as he practically snaked himself around Ash's neck to lean down to lick at his bandages. It didn't hurt as bad as Lairon's would have, so Ash bore the pain with little more than a small grimace.

"Easy, easy," Ash said as he inspected Sneasel for any injuries of his own. He bore a faint medley of wounds, but Sneasel was still in fighting shape. All he could do was sigh in relief and pet around Sneasel's scrapes and bruises.

Dazed did her part in psychically inspecting his team to feed various specifics and serious injuries to Ash, but Ash couldn't resist manual inspections as well. It was made a little harder thanks to Sneasel's fluffy black fur practically drowning him.

He whispered praise to those still standing, although they all shared in their silent hopes for those who fell in their defense. Desperate as he was to inspect Lairon and Plume, Ash didn't dare release them. Their injuries were too severe.

Would it hurt to apply a spray of Hyper Potion or dose of Full Restore? Probably not. His conscious teammates took well to them, particularly Torrent. The mighty Kingdra reared up immediately as the stimulants in the Full Restore kicked him into high gear.

But it was one thing to spray over a superficial wound. A snapped wing and crushed carapace were too complex for Ash to toy with.

It left his heart aching to leave them in stasis and potential uncertainty (for whatever fleeting thoughts they could maintain in that state) of the team's fate, but Ash suspected both of them would prefer unconsciousness after those injuries.

Still, he would take a hundred wounds like that over the alternative. Zinnia's team had been vicious and dealt out serious injuries with ease, but at least nothing life-threatening.

Not that Mega Salamence hadn't done its best with Plume. Ash renewed his determination to take that damn crescent wing for himself. There was no greater insult to a Salamence, and the brutal creature deserved nothing less!

It could have been so much worse, Ash reminded himself. The thought left him furious, torn between anger and terror on his team's behalf. They'd worked so, so hard. Those thousands of hours had kept them alive, but a single misstep could have ended it all…

"It's over," Ash said through gritted teeth to remind himself of that simple fact. He exhaled and poured out all the frustration and fear and anger he could. It did all the good of dousing Infernus with a water pail. "We made it."

Infernus, freshly released, spat a glob of molten spit onto the sandstone, although it didn't leave so much as a scorch mark. He was frustrated, but Ash suspected he was plenty happy with the battle he'd had with Kratyke.

Nothing brought Infernus as much pleasure as a good life-or-death scuffle.

"We could've fallen a hundred different times in that battle. There are futures where one or more of us was lost. Where we're nothing but ash and that monster flew off with no one the wiser. But you all became her monsters. Thank you," Ash said to them all. He infused every scrap of gratitude he could muster into the words even as he inspected the light damage Bruiser had received.

Bruiser's thick skin was tough enough to withstand most attacks, but he'd suffered some light burns from the draconic flames. Kratyke hadn't been agile enough to really strike back, and it was only the creature's aura which had seared Bruiser's hide.

They'd heal within a day or two. If only humans were so durable!

"What a mess!" Ash collapsed into Oz's crackling fur, smiling as Sneasel's fur poofed up with static before the dark-type leapt away. He reclined into Oz's warmth gratefully. The electricity coursing through her coat tingled as it bled into his skin and revitalized him just a little. He could lay here for hours!

A thought came to Ash. He began to rise, but was pulled back into Oz's embrace by a lazy grab. She was bleeding from various cuts and a few patches of striped fur had been burned away to reveal pink skin, but exhaustion was her greatest enemy now.

It was difficult at the summit of the Sky Pillar, but Ash trickled just a little Lightning into her to spark the Electivire back to life. She thrummed happily behind him.

Ash thought to plead with Bruiser to help him escape, but he couldn't muster the will to leave Oz's cozy hold.

"We need to grab the warp tile. Dazed, I hate to ask anything more of you after the day we've had, but could you…" Ash trailed off as Dazed gripped the metal disk in her delicate psychic grip and hovered it over to Ash without complaint. "Thank you."

The warp tile was so simple at first glance, yet this delicate piece of technology might hold all the answers they needed to hunt down Zinnia and unravel the threads of conspiracy.

A few of his friends looked quizzical. "The League can track this," Ash explained. He was careful not to touch the smooth metal lest he mar it with his fingerprints. Who knew what the League could lift from this?

Torrent, Oz, Bruiser, and Dazed listened attentively, although Sneasel was so exhausted from his battles that he seemed content to curl up in a ball a few feet away. No doubt he'd leave a mat of black fur all over this sacred stone…anyone lucky enough to study the Sky Pillar would probably be finding it for centuries.

At least that was how Ash felt when he found random Sneasel hairs on blankets and clothes he hadn't touched in weeks and months.

"I'm no expert," Ash said. "But there can't be more than a few thousand people who even know about these. The number of people with the means and knowhow to construct one is even more miniscule. This must be her worst case scenario!"

Ash smiled.

"Her initial strike failed—"

Each of his friends' eyes drifted to Lotus' Pokéball at that, gratitude radiating. Ash didn't hide his smile, and whispered even more thanks to the resting Spiritomb. Would Lotus rise for the next week? Probably not. But the Spiritomb had more than earned its rest.

Lotus had saved them all.

"—and she failed to break through our defenses."

Ash took Oz's heavy hand between his own and squeezed her thick fingers. She curled hers back and he jerked upright as the refreshing volts synchronized with the faint traces of Lightning that hadn't been chased away by the Sky Pillar.

"I…I couldn't have dreamt that you all fought better. She was at her best and we were at her worst, and each and every one of you held the line. You are Masters."

Torrent shuddered at that. His scarlet eyes squeezed shut for a moment, then snapped open to regard Ash with fondness. Bruiser's grey cheeks flushed red and Ash caught Sneasel hiding his watery eyes behind a black paw. Oz whirred like a power plant beneath him.

Dazed's eyes curved into one of her smiles and her pendulum leapt in her hand.

It took only a moment to secure the warp tile in one of his storage compartments to preserve it from any further disruptions. As eager as he was to claim the trophies Bruiser had taken from Kratyke, Ash had no doubt that this was the real prize of today.

"There's no way she was supposed to use this. Blast us into dust, fly away before the League knew anything, and vanish into the sky. That's what she meant to do. If it came to a fight, she probably expected to overwhelm us and then flee. Reinforcements was never in her plan. This was her last resort. Her get out-of-jail-free card."

Ash smiled humorlessly.

"Let's see how long it's good for."

Torrent's red eyes glimmered despite his injuries as he hovered higher in challenge. Draconic flame burst into existence around him. They were brighter and more eager than ever before at the apex of the three-faced Sky Pillar. Ash thought the power seemed desperate to manifest.

Ash reclined deep into Oz's embrace and turned his eyes to the clear blue sky. There were only a handful of clouds to mar his view, for they were far above where most dared to reach.

No, there was only the deepest blue and the void beyond it all.

His team followed his gaze. For a moment they just appreciated resting atop the world.

And then a dragon's roar split the sky and the beating of furious wings reached their ears.

They all sat upright at that, jolted to combativeness by memories of molten gold and furious turquoise flames, but it was Ash who signaled them to stand down.

Oz had hidden him behind her body even as a spear of lightning manifested in her grip, and she half-looked like she still wanted to spear the incoming Salamence with the Thunderbolt.

"Ease up!" Ash commanded as the Salamence circled the Sky Pillar once, then came crashing down with a guttural roar that quaked their bones.

Marvelous, Ash thought.

Its thick blue scales were made royal with age, overlapping in rows that would stand strong against all but the most fearsome attacks.

Even those nigh-impenetrable scales were marked with scar after scar, though most were thin and faint with age. It didn't escape Ash's notice that every scar upon the beastly Salamence was to be found on its front. Its noble face, slanted horns, barrel chest, and powerful forearms all bore memories of their past wounds, but this was not a warrior to flee any battle.

Grand red wings swept out—its wingspan must have been twenty-five feet in ful!—like bloody crescent moons. Fierce claws curled out from its feet to scrape against the sandstone, though even those eviscerating blades couldn't mark the great blocks which constituted the Sky Pillar.

And its eyes! They were timeless, yet tinged with that brutal edge that marked the Salamence species. While the grand dragons had aided and abetted countless heroes and fought nobly in many battles, there was no escaping that the Draconids had modeled themselves after the fury which ran through a Salamence's blood like lava.

They were warriors at their core, born to clash with fang and dragonfire as they soared proudly upon their hard-earned wings. Salamence were the destroyers of villages, the shaker of mountains, and death from above.

That power might be turned to good just as a flame might be fostered to warm the frozen or feed the hungry, but there was always the chance for it to slip its yoke and wreak untold havoc.

Torrent levitated forward in challenge, rumbling at the newcomer—and then its rider hopped off its back.

He was old yet strong, as if he'd grown sturdier and greater like an oak as the years passed him by.

He was small against the enormity of the Sky Pillar, but strode upon its sacred stone as if he were born to it.

He had a magnificent mustache.

He was Drake the Dragon Master.

Ash's injuries didn't stop him from snapping to attention. All he could hope was that he didn't make that horribly embarrassing noise like Flannery had when she'd first met Morma, but Ash wasn't sure he managed to pull it off.

At least he could blame the battle fatigue for that…

"You're late!" Was all Ash managed before his vision swam, the toll of the day finally making itself known in full, and collapsed painfully onto the stone beneath his feet.

Oz chuckled at his side, whirring in amusement, and Ash fought back a groan.

Oh, this was not how he had wanted this meeting to go…

XX

Riding a Hydreigon was one of the strangest experiences of Ash's life.

The saddle Drake provided was similar to Plume's, but Drake's bulky Hydreigon boasted more musculature than Plume could dream of. Not that Ash would be the one to tell her that. Hydreigon—which Drake tersely referred to as 'Henry'— was sleek and aerodynamic, but absolutely bulged with power beneath its dark-scaled armor.

That was to be expected.

No, what nagged at Ash the most was its serenity. He couldn't forget the snapping heads of Grey's Hydreigon in the Indigo Conference. Calling it a stupid, vicious brute might have been generous. The simple creature was so ferocious that it stood as a danger even to itself.

It had been a juggernaut to match Torrent.

That had been no easy battle, but even those distant memories left Ash's heart pumping.

They'd prevailed in the end.

Grey's Hydreigon had been formidable, but it was dumb and straightforward. Its secondary heads had even turned against each other in the end! Frustration was its enemy, and they'd utilized Torrent's self-control as a weapon against Hydreigon's wrath.

Henry the Hydreigon would scoff at such tactics. Whereas Grey's Hydreigon's three heads could only briefly coordinate before turning against one another, the tricephalic dragon beneath him was unified in a way that was simultaneously mesmerizing, fascinating, and deliciously horrifying.

The secondary heads upon its arms only possessed rudimentary nervous systems that reacted based on impulse and reflex more than anything, yet Drake the Dragon Master had somehow ensured they worked smoothly in sync with the primary head.

While the main head kept its eyes on Drake's Salamence (Victor, Ash remembered as he recalled one of Lance's tales about how a young Drake had won his starter in a game of riddles with the little Bagon), the secondary heads acted both efficiently and professionally.

One constantly surveyed the horizon for threats with its simplistic, unblinking eyes that reminded Ash of a Sharpedo's. The other watched Ash constantly, never wavering for a moment. It reminded him somewhat of Dazed's luminous gaze.

Ash took comfort in that.

Most Hydreigon had to be wary of their secondary heads. They were ravenous by nature and primarily meant to gobble up anything unfortunate enough to get in their way. It took a mountain of willpower and years of training to refine them into effective tools.

It took even longer for the main head to establish ironclad control over its lessers.

Grey's Hydreigon's secondary heads would have attempted to devour Ash in an instant.

Henry's left head watched over him protectively.

That alone said enough about the skill gap between the two trainers. While Henry might not be that much stronger than Grey's Hydreigon physically—both stood near the peaks of their species, although Henry had been pushed to the utmost limits—it was the discipline and mindset exhibited by the disturbingly peaceful Hydreigon that made it truly dangerous.

'Peace' and 'Hydreigon' shouldn't be in the same sentence unless it was 'Wow, this Hydreigon sure is good at tearing the peace into a thousand screaming pieces'.

There were a thousand and one different topics Ash had hoped to grill Drake about when he first set eyes on the man, but once he'd collapsed the old man had just shaken his head and looked Ash over. His dark eyes flickered briefly to the crude, gaping wound on Ash's forearm and gestured for him to climb onto Henry's saddled back.

Drake grunted as if he weren't talking to a bleeding twelve-year-old atop a mystical three kilometer high tower. "Tell your story later. Lots of people are worried. Let's go."

The Good Champion (damn Rawiri for getting that moniker stuck in Ash's head) seemed at ease here at the summit of the world. How many times had he walked here? But Drake paid their surroundings little mind as he tapped Victor the Salamence's neck and urged his partner into the sky.

They began their descent on that note, although Sneasel refused to leave Ash and remained clutched tightly in his arms as they rode Henry down to the small island at the Sky Pillar's base. Green motes of power flickered all around Henry as if eager to burst into a conflagration, but the Hydreigon didn't embrace them.

Henry just maintained a smooth glide to the bottom. Ash caught sight of a few dozen Rangers flying below. He'd expected a hundred fliers to have followed Drake, but it appeared that the Rangers' teammates refused to fly too closely to the Sky Pillar.

Or perhaps couldn't. Even Plume had struggled to fight past the iron grip of the atmosphere.

No, there was one who'd braved the ascent! Ash blinked as he caught sight of bright wings. They reflected brilliant rays of sunlight. The sight was almost blinding as they shot down the Sky Pillar's face, and even managed to distract Ash from trying to absorb all the thousands of murals and tales and grand deeds inscribed upon the sandstone.

That was Skarmory. Ash whooped in delight, relieved more than ever to see the familiar feisty bird, and gaped at the sight of a hard-eyed Steven frantically urging his partner up. Drake's Salamence and Hydreigon had probably left those two in the dust, but Ash was amazed that Skarmory was even willing to attempt to challenge the Sky Pillar.

"Steven!" Ash prayed his words made it through the thick air. Distance and wind obscured his voice, but Steven heard him through some miracle. The former Champion looked up with maddened eyes, then gaped right back as Ash gave him a thumbs-up.

A rock slide of relief came crashing down on Steven.

Drake and Victor stuck close to Ash, Sneasel, and Henry as they dove downward. Henry was kind enough to angle towards Steven and Skarmory once one of his scanning secondary head locked onto them. Ash patted Henry's dark hide gratefully at that, although he had no clue if the dragon could even feel such a light touch.

This height gave him perspective of his battle with Zinnia. The little Draconid village was shockingly peaceful and intact given the epic clash that had taken place there mere minutes before.

The Draconids' nigh-impenetrable buildings were essentially unharmed except for those rare spots where Kratyke's saber-like draconic fangs had managed to chip a few pieces off, and the stone island itself was entirely unharmed.

No, the real remnants of their battle were the blood and broken bodies of their teams. He and Sneasel hissed as they caught sight of gleaming metal shards where Lairon had been caught in Tyrantrum's jaws. Scales, slime, spines, and broken skin littered the village. There were even a few globs of turquoise ectoplasm steadily fading away, although a few Rangers had gathered samples in special canisters.

The scarlet sprays and red puddles were more difficult to pick out an owner for, but it was with a note of satisfaction that Ash realized most of the bloodshed was left over from Bruiser's brutal takedown of the Tyrantrum.

Kratyke left behind a veritable lake of blood as its vital organs were pierced by both Infernus' Plasma Blade and Bruiser's savage blows before finally being impaled with one of its own spines. Perhaps Ash had underestimated the damage it had taken. That was a lot of blood.

Some of Tangrowth's wriggling vines twitched here and there, but most had gone limp by now.

The sight of it all left Ash's stomach churning as he relived the fight. Perhaps it was a sign of just how many of these situations he'd been in, but aside from the exhaustion and fading shakes of adrenaline he felt peaceful.

Perhaps it was just the calm before the storm.

He was self-aware enough to perceive the searing anger and indignance beneath it all. But there was also glowing pride in his team's skills. They might have outnumbered Zinnia and her empowered dragons, but that had been their only advantage.

Durand's appearance might have sealed Zinnia's fate, but what she truly provided was a chance to pursue their attacker.

His team would have handled Dragapult and Salamence well enough, though it would've been bloodier and more dangerous without the reinforcements, but they would've been grounded and forced to simply watch in futile rage as Zinnia flew away from the Sky Pillar. They would have been left empty handed.

Things could have gone so much worse…

But now they were close enough to realize the full scale of the small army gathered at the Sky Pillar's base. There were easily a hundred pokémon swarming the island and a hundred more patrolling its nearby skies. Some simply established a perimeter while others inspected the site for any useful details.

His eyes narrowed when he saw a Ranger and their Kirlia assessing a few of Tyrantrum's bloody spines which had been knocked loose. A measure of possessiveness rose up inside him. Those belonged to Bruiser.

Ash quickly homed in on more familiar faces: seemingly half the Ever Grande League was there, including Winona circling the Sky Pillar on her Altaria with most of her team in tow, grim-faced Brawly with his Hariyama at his side, the mighty Sootopolitan Gym Leader Juan who worked with Glacia, Sidney, and Phoebe as they searched the rows of buildings, and even Champion Wallace himself. The Kalosian Hunters were present as well, but there was no sign of George Grey.

At least something was going his way today.

But they were only Ever Grande's representatives. Clair stalked from place to place with a few Blackthorn trainers trailing behind her, a fearsome scowl on her face that sent the Rangers scurrying. Blaine directed a few Rangers taking samples with Magmar coughing smoke at his side.

Volkner of Sinnoh looked as unimpressed as was possible in the vicinity of the Sky Pillar. He seemed as if he'd been called in for a job and wasn't too upset to have been unnecessary.

It was Flannery who caught his eye, though, and not just for her bright red hair that stood out like a beacon amidst the drab stone and hard faces. She was arguing loudly with her Rapidash. Judging by the wild motions she was making towards the top of the Sky Pillar it seemed as if she was trying to convince the fiery equine to try to leap to the top.

Rapidash were insanely gifted jumpers and could clear massive buildings with ease, but Ash wasn't so sure that would work on the Sky Pillar…

FIno stood with her and attempted to calm her down, and Ash caught sight of his Talonflame circling above—the moment it caught sight of Ash, the Kalosian flying-type shot down to Fino's side and chirped into his and Lucille's ears.

But all that was put aside as Hydreigon finally landed at the base of the Sky Pillar with surprising grace. Ash clutched Sneasel tightly as they dismounted beside Drake and Victor.

Surprise surprise, they were immediately swarmed by nearly a dozen League personnel.

Wallace approached with his white mantle fluttering about him in a rather good Lance impersonation, but a fireball cut him off before he could say a word.

Ash grunted as two strong arms wrapped him up in a hug that left his lacerated arm aching and burning, but he returned it as best he could.

The doctors might have to check for a few cracked ribs later on top of everything else. Oh well. He was willing to make that sacrifice in this case.

"Groudon's bloody bum!" Flannery shouted loud enough to leave his ears aching. Ash tried to speak, but she jostled him as she inspected his dirty skin marred by blood and the dust of battle.

Flannery's eyes went wide, but the longer she looked at his torn clothing and the light wounds which adorned him the brighter her fury grew, building up like a rumbling volcano.

It was tossed aside in favor of worry the moment she picked out his bloody arm.

Ash winced as he realized some of the blood still oozing from the hastily bandaged cut stained her skin and shirt during the hug. "My bad."

"You're hurt! Oh no—Piper we need you!" Flannery roared, jabbing her finger towards the cut. She didn't pay one whit of attention to Ash's apology. Piper scurried closer on her stocky orange legs. "Come on, cauterize that bad boy just like we practiced!"

His eyes widened in alarm and he took a step back as the Torkoal shone a bright red. Heat radiated from the dark shell in roiling waves and smoke billowed from the glowing vents.

Ash would trust Flannery with his life, but not his arm!

"What do you mean 'practiced'?" Ash practically leapt back. She was a great friend, fantastic fighter, and super Gym Leader (despite her own worries), but she was not a doctor. "Who have you been setting on fire?"

"Come on, stop worrying so much! Piper does a great job. You'll just feel a little bit of burning, right Piper?"

Piper surreptitiously shook her head at Ash. He couldn't help but notice that Flannery never mentioned who she'd been practicing on.

"I don't think that will be necessary," Fino said gently as he pried his granddaughter off of Ash. She sputtered, but the Fire Master kept a calming hand on her shoulder. "He's dressed it, see? It will hold for now. Let the medical professionals handle it, Flannery. They know what they're doing."

"But he's hurt!" Flannery protested. Her fists trembled with anger as her face went red as a tomato. Piper steamed beside her. Thick black smoke vented from the Torkoal's shell. "Who did this to you? We'll burn them to a crisp! Grandpa, do you think I could borrow Lucille? I need her to shove one of her fire arrows up someone's—"

Fino coughed into his fist to calm Flannery as Wallace finally interjected. But Lucille didn't look opposed to Flannery's plan, Ash noted. In fact, she had already pulled her thin wand out to conjure up some psychically bound fire to look more like a log than an arrow, then nodded her approval.

Flannery was still fuming, but she made way for the Ever Grande Champion. She sent Lucille a discreet thumbs up, though.

"Ash, you're alive! Thank the heavens," Wallace cried out. He looked as if he'd aged ten years since Ash last saw him, but with any luck he'd manage to avoid any grey hairs. Or perhaps he'd gone entirely grey and had just dyed his hair for the past few months.

"Glacia, contact Champion Lance and President Goodshow immediately and inform them that Ash is in good health! Lance is already on the warpath. We don't need him burning down the region in the meantime."

The resplendent Ice Master nodded and immediately pulled out a PokéNav, then stepped to the side to carry out her Champion's orders.

"I'm alive," Ash said with an exhausted smile, though it was torn away soon enough. "My team is in bad shape though. Plume's hurt, and so is Lairon. I need to get them help, now."

"We will," Wallace assured him, but blinked as Sneasel's nose twitched and the dark-type scurried off with a strange yowl. "The medical facilities at Ever Grande are already prepped. You'll receive the finest care we have on offer."

Ash exhaled in relief. There was no doubt that Ever Grande would take care of him, but it eased his spirit to know that they already had staff prepared.

"There shall be time for a full report later, but what happened? We received your distress signal, but we're still trying to put the pieces together. All we have to go off is the remnants of the battle and the testimony of a few Wingull who watched the battle from afar."

Ugh, those Wingull were a bunch of greedy jerks! They'd probably been waiting for the battle to end so they could root through any scraps left for them to pick over. Some of them had been brave enough to risk stealing his sandwiches even with Infernus or Nidoking looking over his shoulder.

Plume had put a quick stop to that.

"The trainer's name was Zinnia," Ash rattled off as Glacia approached with all the warmth of an iceberg, although Ash didn't miss the concern in her gaze. Wallace blinked as if the name was distantly familiar. As he spoke, Ash looked pointedly at Glacia. "Draconid, late teens or early twenties. Obscured her features. Dark hair. She's our rogue Dragon Master—I'd put my whole paycheck on it."

Sidney whistled. "Now that would've spiced things up. I was betting on a bastard child of Lance being the culprit, myself. Oh well, that was a longshot anyways. But when Claydol gives you ten thousand to one odds, you have to take 'em, right? I bet ole Grimsley would piss himself if he heard those numbers getting tossed around."

Glacia sent Sidney a frigid glare and he wisely shut up.

"But a Dragon Master? The Draconids are a bunch of loser has-beens. They haven't made a Dragon Master since Drake's little gaggle of freaks." Sidney sounded like he was trying to be helpful, but Ash suspected he was being anything but. Especially as Drake himself approached. "What do you say, old man? Have you been holding out any secret apprentices or bastard children on us?"

Drake glowered at Sidney. "You, maybe, but you'd be one hell of a disappointing legacy to leave behind. Give Cecilia my regards, by the way."

Sidney grimaced like someone had poured year-old Moomoo Milk down his throat. Did he want to know the story behind that one? Ash didn't think so. But at least it shut Sidney up for a minute.

The grizzled old man looked unblinkingly at Wallace, who looked even more stressed as Drake approached. "I know that name."

"And?"

"Zenia's girl. Current Lorekeeper. Looked at Lance like she wanted to sniff his hair. Didn't know she was a Master, though—old Zenia said she left for the Southern Continent ages ago. Guess I ought to pay the old bag of bones a visit after this."

"Disconcerting news," Wallace frowned. "We'll have to check Conference records, tournament reports, anything! For a Master to escape our notice…she couldn't have evaded us without help. Or without intention."

"Not like a Draconid to go more than five minutes without screaming their name to the heavens," Drake grumbled. Victor nodded sagely behind him. "Must be more to it."

"And what about Durand?" Sidney asked hopefully. He peered around as if she would leap out at any moment. "Maria confirmed traces of her team's current Distortional tracks around, even if this stupid rock is eating it all up."

"Henry thinks she's gone," Drake said gruffly to Wallace, who stood noticeably straighter in the former Champion's presence. "Got a sniff of a Distortional tear up top. Guessing that's her work. What do you say, boy?"

Ash nodded in confirmation. It sounded strange to his own ears as he began with, "She helped me. Came in with her full team to take some of the heat off, then carried us up to the top of the Pillar on her Noivern. I think I would've forced Zinnia away by myself, but there's no telling who we would've lost in the process."

Silence.

"Perhaps we haven't given Durand enough credit," Fino said mildly. Sidney sneered even as all heads turned to Fino. His word was just as valuable as when he'd stood amongst the Elite Four. "Perhaps this reveals more of Aqua's hand than they think."

He said nothing to that, even if he shifted uncomfortably at the sudden attention of the Masters.

"It's quite possible Durand came here of her own volition, but we've known for a while now that she has a soft spot for Ash," Fino admitted. "Durand's a strong supporter of Aqua, but she acts on her terms. Still! Forgive an old man's misguided hopes, but I pray this might be an olive branch on Aqua's behalf."

Drake nodded along, though the others of the Elite Four appeared skeptical at best.

Wallace's jaw clenched. "Reconciliation? If they wanted reconciliation then they would have come to the table a dozen offers ago!" He quickly reigned himself in when Flannery looked ready to leap to Fino's defense. Lucille's claws came down against her forearm and urged Flannery to reign her temper in. "My apologies, Fino. That was unbecoming of me, and you don't deserve such vitriol. It's a thought worth mulling over."

Fino didn't seem perturbed by the outburst. "Rough and disagreeable as they might be, I see potential for more in Aqua. At least they have a cause to fight for. That's more than we can say for Magma and whatever they're pulling their strings for."

Drake spared Ash a glance. "The islanders fight for their own. It's their way."

"Enough!" Wallace raised a hand. "This isn't the time for this. We can debate Aqua's merits, or lack thereof, another time, but they're the least of my worries at the moment."

The Ever Grande Champion took a deep breath. "Let's focus on our priorities: Ash is safe and intact, and it's our duty to get him to safety. We can pore over this mess afterwards. I wouldn't put it past our enemies to strike again while we're all centered in one place."

"Hoenn can hardly spare one of us," Glacia acknowledged. "The opportunity cost of this gathering is as incalculable as it is essential. We must return to our posts with haste."

Ash wavered on his feet, but Flannery was quick to support him. His body lightened as she offered him her arm, and it only enhanced further as Lucille's eyes flashed and psychically took some of his burden away.

He made to ease their anxious thoughts. "For what it's worth, Zinnia won't be in fighting shape anytime soon. We'll have a reprieve. Bruiser tore her Tyrantrum apart. Impaled it with its own spike!" Ash told Flannery. She looked ready to salivate. "Her Mega Salamence—

"Her what?!"

Wallace's eyes bulged alongside most of the Ever Grande Elite Four. Ash didn't miss the fact that Drake wasn't surprised. "A Tyrantrum? Access to Mega Evolution? Impossible! Improbable," Wallace corrected. A vein throbbed on his pale forehead. "How?"

Drake grunted. "Diarch vaults. Trophies. Tribute. The Draconids roamed wide, and the stones were great prizes."

Wallace wheeled upon Drake. "You knew about this?"

The old Dragon Master might as well have been carved from stone. "We'll speak later."

Wallace was absent of his usual grace and appeared ready to tear out his luxurious locks, but held his tongue in the face of Drake. "Later, then."

A tense silence fell over the gathered Masters until Wallace pinched the bridge of his nose. "Very well. Ash, we must get you to a hospital. I don't like the look of that wound, and—"

Ash wheezed as he was suddenly spun around to look into the frenzied eyes of Steven Stone. Metagross was nowhere to be seen (although Ash wouldn't have been surprised to see Steven riding the metal behemoth up to the top of Sky Pillar rather than Skarmory) and Ash grinned weakly at the man.

"What happened?!" Steven lightly shook him, then quit and wrapped Ash up in a hug. The man's pale face whitened even further as he felt the stain of blood against his expensive suit. His expression went cold as a Metagross. "Your arm! Where are they? If they're lucky, I'll leave a few scraps for Lance to—"

"Steven, you're hurting the boy."

Not much could have broken Steven out of his furious rant, but the other former Ever Grande Champion had that power. Just a few words broke the spell and left Steven in a modicum of control.

"I'm so sorry, Ash!" Steven was almost frantic, riding the edge of sanity, and Ash's attempts to calm him did nothing. What had this last month done to his teacher? Ash's heart broke a little upon seeing the raw fear in Steven's eyes.

But Fino's soothing presence washed over them as the old man took Steven's hands into his own. Steven's fingers shook as they were pried off of Ash's shoulders. They'd been stained red with Ash's blood.

Hoenn's Iron Wall had borne the weight of an entire region. It seemed that weight had finally sufficed to crack him.

"We'll take care of Ash," Fino said soothingly and led Steven away, although the Steel Master was rooted by Ash until Ash himself touched him and allowed just the barest wisp of Ice to chill his feverish mind. "See? Come. We need to plan our next steps, and you need some sleep. You sounded the alarm, and we're here now. It's all going to be okay, but Ash needs calm now, and that's the one thing you can't provide like this…"

Ash desperately wanted to chase after Steven.

So he did.

"Oof!" Steven grunted as Ash hugged him, although if it was a bit gentler than the one Steven had given Ash, that was only by virtue of his wounds. His arm was aching. With the danger gone his body decided it was time to process all the damage it had suffered.

Thankfully his journey thus far had done a fantastic job in preparing him for a little pain.

Steven's shaking arms embraced Ash right back. He was pretty sure he heard Sidney spit out some snide comment, but the Dark Master yelped as what sounded like both Flannery and even Glacia smacked him.

"We all made it," Ash said into Steven's chest. Steven nearly sobbed in relief. "We're hurt, but we're still kicking. And your training is why, Steven. You think we would've lasted ten seconds against her when we first stepped onto Hoenn's shores? You made us strong enough to survive. Thank you."

Steven was utterly gobsmacked by that. Fino sent Ash a fond smile before steering his stunned apprentice away. Ash caught the glimmer of tears in Steven's eyes and felt his own guts twist into a knot.

His poor teacher needed a vacation.

But Ash?

Ash wanted to fight even harder…after a long rest for his team, of course. He would dissect everything Zinnia had done. Every weakness of his that she'd exploited. Every place that she'd proven superior.

And he would make it his.

Flannery jogged to catch up to him with a worried look on her face, but Ash blinked as a victorious screech sounded out from nearby. A sharp claw poked him gently in his leg. "Huh?"

Sneasel grinned and proudly presented the limp trophy he'd snatched between his teeth.

Ash's nostrils flared.

The half-dead Dreepy did its best to curl into a ball and disappear, although it utterly failed in its task.

"How are you alive?" Ash marveled. "You're a stubborn little thing."

Seeker had done an absolute number on the thing. Half its head was simply gone, although it was currently reconstituting itself in ghostly wisps, and so much of its essence had been torn away that it looked one stiff breeze away from being dispersed entirely.

Perhaps it had.

Ash was a little surprised to find that the Dragapult had been willing to invest enough of its power into one of the proto-Dreepy to make a proper offspring, but this must have been a terrible loss for it. The Dragapult must have been truly desperate to make its escape for it to abandon one of its own.

With its current state, Ash suspected that Seeker had killed it twice over, perhaps thrice. But Seeker was no master of fighting ghosts, and it seemed she'd misjudged the Dreepy's resilience.

One more attack would've shredded the thing to a few slivers of ghostly gas and ended its existence. Perhaps it was the influence of the Sky Pillar that had allowed it to survive Seeker's frenzied attacks.

Sneasel cackled, raised his other darkness-infused claw, and then snickered again when the ghostly dragon squealed and attempted to escape his grip. "Stop."

Sneasel wrinkled his face at Ash, but was kind enough to oblige and end his fun.

Ash took the ghost from his teammate, aware of the many eyes on him at that moment and consciously disregarding them.

"You tried to kill me," Ash said softly. Dreepy nodded miserably. "You hurt my team."

Now Sneasel was properly mad, and it was a sign of his maturity that he didn't end the Dreepy on the spot. Dreepy cringed away, well-aware of just what a poor place it had found itself. No doubt it had hoped to evade the League entirely until it could slip away from the Sky Pillar and make a life for itself.

Then again, perhaps it had never planned to leave. What better place for a young dragon to strengthen itself than in the shadow of the Sky Pillar? It might have even ended up more dragon than ghost by the end of it.

None of the Ever Grande League members interfered. Ash could feel their curious (and perhaps assessing) gazes on him, however.

A brutal part of him that had reigned supreme during the life-or-death battle, a cruel part of him that enjoyed the struggle, that enjoyed watching these scum that had threatened his team be broken beneath Bruiser's fists and Torrent's Draco Meteors, considered breaking the creature before it could ever pose a threat again.

But it was the flicker of a dying ember.

Maybe Giovanni's son would have stewed in that anger, but the Ash Ketchum raised by Delia would never. The dark thought was quenched as suddenly as it came, and he softened.

"You've been abandoned by your trainer," Ash observed clinically. "Left for dead so she can save her own skin. Even your creator threw you away."

Dreepy grimaced as a little more of its face reformed. The 'flesh' was a brighter teal than most Dreepy would possess. No doubt a result of it feasting upon the latent draconic power here in an effort to restore itself.

It was young. Harmless. Terrified of him, and Ash wasn't sure he could forgive the damage it had done to his team. Nidoking had suffered because of the ghostly dragon, and Ash knew his team. They were willing to forget bumps and bruises (even Nidoking, finally!) but not this.

Part of Ash longed to take this little creature into the fold and shape it into a true monster that could challenge Zinnia's, to take everything he'd learned from the thousands of hours he'd spent training with Sneasel and Torrent and synthesize it into something new and glorious.

They could make such wonders together…

But it wasn't to be. Perhaps Ash would add a Dragapult to his team one day—he would love to, and he'd been practically salivating over Zinnia's even as it did its best to murder him—but he couldn't accept this one into the fold.

It was young, yes, but it had tried to kill his team with an excited squeal. Nidoking would gore it within a day.

And yet…

"I'm not going to hurt you," Ash said even as he plucked a spare Pokéball from his pack. He always kept a few in case the League needed him to catch a few troublesome pokémon for relocation. "But I can't let you go. The League can take you, sure, but I think I know another path for you. One that will raise you higher than Zinnia could ever imagine."

Just a glance told Ash that Dreepy only cared about security (and escaping Sneasel's wicked claws) and it frantically nodded. He was just glad the damn thing hadn't tried to detonate itself in some last ditch effort to bring glory to Zinnia's name or something stupid like that.

It wouldn't have ended well for the Dreepy. Sneasel was all out of mercy after the day they'd had.

And when offered an escape, it took it. Ash would work out the details later—he had no intention of forcing Dreepy one way or another, and the League would certainly have to interrogate it first—but he was just grateful for the closure.

He was so tired.

Ash didn't miss the knowing hint of a smile on Drake's lips.

But Ash's lips twitched wearily as Flannery came trotting up.

"Wow, that was awesome! Where did that little guy come from?" Flannery poked the Pokéball, which twitched at the touch. "Got a new teammate?"

"Not exactly."

"You know how much I hate you when you're cryptic," Flannery grumbled. "You're so lucky that I can't beat up an injured guy. I need a proper challenge, and that's sure not you, pal."

That little jab stoked a little of Ash's exhausted fire. "You think so? Let's get this arm patched up and then—"

"Enough!" Glacia was the picture of grace as she came floating over in her gown. Sidney stuck his tongue out at them from behind her while Wallace, Drake, and Phoebe engaged in some serious conversation. "You're both acting like children. We must get you to the hospital."

"...I'm twelve."

"Then you should act that way more often. It would ease all of our spirits." Glacia sniffed. Skarmory stalked up to him and screeched her horribly war cry even as her metallic talons clacked against the Sky Pillar's rocky home. "Skarmory has graciously offered to fly you to the Ranger outpost nearby to escape the Sky Pillar's influence. Juliet is waiting there for you."

"There's still more I need to tell you all," Ash insisted. "So much!"

"It will wait," Glacia said gently, wrapping a hand around Ash's shoulder to guide him over to Skarmory. Normally the ornery bird wouldn't take kindly to Ash trying to ride her (and would probably poke a few holes in him during the attempt) but she was remarkably soft right now.

That worried him more than anything.

"You have given us more than enough to work with, and we will take your report the moment you're patched up. Our hands are already full. We likely won't be able to make any moves for several hours yet," Glacia stated. "But your safety is paramount, Ash. Do not strain yourself. Rest."

Ash hesitated, but Flannery's pleading eyes sealed the deal.

"Fine," Ash allowed, but jabbed a finger over at the Rangers still standing over the absolute wreckage of Tyrantrum teeth, blood, scales, and spines. "But let them know all of that needs to get back to me! Bruiser earned it."

Glacia arched a pale blonde eyebrow but didn't question him further. She simply nodded.

"Leave it to me!" Flannery pumped her fist. "I'll turn it into a nice arrangement for your hospital bed! Doesn't that sound awesome?"

"It really does," Ash said contentedly as he mounted Skarmory and slid his feet into the stirrups left by Steven. He quickly returned Sneasel, who waved at Flannery and offered Glacia a brief bow before vanishing into the Pokéball. "I'm holding you to that!"

And with those parting words, Skarmory screeched and Ash finally left the Sky Pillar behind him.

He was already dreaming of the next time he'd return on Plume's back.

Ash would see the peak of the world with her. That was his promise.

XX

The next day passed by in a blur.

Ever Grande's medical facilities were primed and ready for Ash and his team the moment that Juliet deposited them into a specialized treatment room. Ash would be able to rest with his team once they'd seen their own doctors.

His insistence aggravated the doctors, but Ash refused to be put under until they told him the outlooks for his team. They wanted him to be psychically put under while they assessed his injury, and they were especially worried about the Distortion exposure after he dazedly told them of Dragapults attacks, but it could wait.

Ash had already seared any lingering remnants of the paradoxic energies away, scouring the writhing tendrils out of his body and soul. But try to explain that to a doctor.

All in all the news was about what Ash had expected: his team's superficial injuries (of which there were many) would be good as new within a few days thanks to generous and swift Potion application, more moderate injuries like the dents in Lairon's armor, Plume's snapped wing, and the severe damage to Nidoking and Torrent's hide would take perhaps a week.

Speaking of Nidoking, he bore the dubious honor of being the first of Ash's team besides Tangrowth to have to regrow an entire chunk of tissue. At least with Ditto cells.

They were grafted on within a few minutes of Nidoking being brought in thanks to the quick survey of an Alakazam doctor. Ash was assured that the miraculous treatment would regenerate the lost bone, muscle, and tissue within two weeks at the most.

As far as battling wounds went, a missing tail tip was fairly minor. It might've been worse if Dragapult had cleaved it off and infected it with the noxious energies that would make it more difficult for the mimic Ditto cells to gain a foothold, but the severed tail was a relatively clean wound.

They might have tried to attach the old bit of severed tissue, but Kratyke had apparently managed to step on it while Bruiser was beating the living hell out of the ancient creature. While the Rangers had managed to recover Nidoking's tail, it was rather…squished.

Perhaps that had been the Tyrantrum's final revenge.

But when the last of his team's wounds had been attended to and he'd written up preliminary reports recounting the battle for the League to act upon, Ash could finally rest.

He accepted the psychic oblivion without a fight.

It was time to heal.

XX

Ash awoke to a nightmare.

Look at you lazing about! Ugh, I can't believe Steven raised such a slovenly apprentice. We're going to have words, Steven. Words!

"Sneasel," Ash rasped. "Kill."

Alas, it seemed Sneasel was still snoozing himself.

Is that how you treat your guardian? I've remained by your side for an entire day. I've sacrificed all the necessities of life to preserve yours—I've gone without a bite of food, a sip of water, or a wink of sleep to see my duty through. Why, I haven't so much as blinked in my vigil!

Ash's eyes cracked open to glower at Claydol. His body ached all over, even if the worst of it was in his forearm. It was glued shut and wrapped tight in bandages thanks to the doctors' efforts. Things would be right as rain in a few days if his previous experiences were anything to go by, although the healing would sap his energy reserves dry.

Modern medical technology could speed up healing, but all the material and reserves had to come from somewhere. Life didn't spring from a vacuum…but perhaps Mew would argue that. Ash had no clue, honestly.

A cold flame flickered in the back of his mind at that. It watched and waited as it always did.

The construct spun lazily right above Ash's head, its clay body mere inches away from his eyes.

"You're making me dizzy," Ash complained. It might sound petulant, but as the events of the previous day came back in a rush Ash felt like he had the right to complain a little. "Do you have to do that right there? And how's my team?"

We are well, Friend-Trainer. All have been returned. Most sleep and wait for their bodies to be restored. The Plume is most upset about her wing. Her thoughts towards the Blood-Crescent are less than charitable. She and the Brute are of one mind.

Ash coughed out a laugh at that. His throat was so dry it came out as more of a hack. "They want that wing for themselves, don't they?"

Dazed's mind brushed softly against his own.

Indeed.

"Good. So do I."

Nothing brings a family together like shared hatred. Just ask Steven! I've never seen a group of people forget old rivalries so fast as when one of them turns out to be a dangerous sociopath. It warms my nonexistent heart. Personally, I think Pierce's side were just hoping they wouldn't get banished like in the old days. Or fed to the colony.

"Claydol, cut the shit!" Steven's long-suffering voice snapped. He sounded ancient. Even Claydol silenced at that, even if Ash doubted it would stick for long. "Ash, I'm so, so glad you're awake. Lance is going to be so upset that he missed you. He just left a few minutes ago to assist Wallace. The Indigo Elite Four have been on the warpath since the news broke."

Ash raised his head to peer at Steven.

He immediately wished he hadn't.

"Steven, you look awful."

Steven smiled humorlessly as he raked a hand through greasy silver hair. Dirt flakes littered his skin, marred by clean streaks where sweat had dripped through the muck. Dark circles hung like new moons beneath his red eyes. "I must be quite the sight."

"When did you last sleep?"

"Let's see…" Steven checked the ticking clock which hung over the door which led to the rest of Ever Grande City. "Two o' clock in the morning? Uh, ninety-seven hours. But Metagross has ensured that I receive microsleeps at opportune times. I'm functioning somewhat normally as a result."

Usually when he starts hallucinating, he didn't say. The shadow people tend to be the metric we go by. If he doesn't listen to us and go to sleep soon, I've decided to make them real. What could be more fun than a little sleep paralysis roleplay?

"Ninety-seven hours?" Ash asked, aghast at the news. "Go to sleep."

"I was going to," Steven defended. "But then the transponder went off! I have my duties. Sleep can wait. How could I rest when I know you've been threatened?"

Way to victim blame, Steven.

Steven scowled at Claydol and returned him into his Pokéball to ensure there were no further interruptions. His red eyes flickered to Ash's bandaged forearm and went hard as the Stone that was his namesake.

"Lance is hunting her even now, although there's been no sign of her yet. The skies will never be safe for this Zinnia again," Steven promised. "Drake's gone to Meteor Village. If the Draconids have anything to do with this, then it'll be left as nothing but a broken heap of rubble. Blaine has been called in to temporarily direct a handful of ACE squads—it's amazing how quickly things go to ground when the Blaze of Cinnabar comes calling."

Steven's normal distaste for Blaine was absent. It seemed he'd finally seen the benefits of the old man's presence.

Ash was silent. As much as he took pleasure in the thought of Zinnia fleeing like a hunted Rattata, the sheer hate in Steven's voice unsettled him. He was a kind man, awkward and well-intentioned and caring, and the vitriol hung around him like a dark cloud.

This wasn't the Steven he knew.

"I had to stay here until you woke up." Steven's voice cracked. He wrung his hands together. "I had to know."

"We made it, Steven. We're here. We're safe."

"And you'll stay safe!" Steven swore. "I'm going to hunt her, Ash. I'll tear down every mountain in Hoenn. I'll collapse every cave. I'll topple every monument! Nothing is sacred so long as Zinnia runs free. We've failed you, and I will correct it."

His eyes were like chips of flint and his hands shook. Despite all the anger and determination that filled Steven's words, Ash didn't think Steven sounded like Metagross this time.

He sounded like he wanted to cry.

He sounded human.

"She'll be broken, Ash. I don't give a damn whether it's by my hand or Lance's. She's overstepped! I can't begin to guess how Zinnia became a Master beneath the League's nose, let alone escape our notice, but this cancer has spread too long and too far."

Steven's nostrils flared.

"Metagross was right. I've been too gentle."

Ash's eyes squeezed shut as the sheer weight of Steven's despair washed over him. If only he could release Claydol himself! He could desperately use a bit of the snide psychic's help right about now.

Claydol had always been good at teasing the humanity out of Steven, even if it usually expressed itself in frustration.

Dazed rested at his side. The rest of his team were still asleep, utterly exhausted from their wounds. Ash's body was sucked dry of energy for this measly cut. They must have been sapped entirely.

Let them rest.

"Steven. Come here."

"Excuse me?"

"Come here."

Steven was a little slow—Ash blamed the lack of sleep on that, although the lack of Metagross smoothing his exhausted brain's work might be an equal factor—but finally did as Ash bid. Hell, he couldn't even walk straight!

He was tempted to just ask Dazed to put Steven right to sleep, but that might be rude. Even if he was doing his mentor a favor in the process.

The former Champion knelt at Ash's side. Concern filled his gaze. "Ash?"

Ash flicked him on the nose.

"Ow!" Steven's face scrunched up. He rubbed at his nose and looked at Ash with betrayal. Dazed's eyes quirked upwards. "What was that for?"

"Don't talk like that!" Ash scolded his teacher. "You're Steven Stone! A hero. You're my teacher. A friend. A lot of things. You might love your rocks and pebbles, but you don't have a heart of stone. I won't let you harden it for my sake."

"Rocks?" Steven sounded terribly offended at that. For a moment Ash even worried he'd truly hurt the man. "I've taught you better than that. While petrology is a favored field of mine, that only brushes the surface! Geomorphology, mineralogy, sedimentology, and so many others are all fascinating in their own right…"

Ash exhaled fondly as Steven went into a long, painfully explicit dive into the various fields he had a passing (obsessive, in other words) interest in, and by the time Steven finally felt the need to stop for breath Ash was pretty sure that he'd earned an honorary doctorate in every one of those subjects.

But that was the Steven he knew, and Ash relished the brief ray of sunlight into the darkness that had overtaken Steven.

Steven finally buried his face in his hands. "You distracted me on purpose."

Ash cracked a grin. "I know you too well. But I did learn a few things!"

The former Champion sobered. "I know you mean well, Ash. But…how can I forget what she's done?" Steven's gaze strayed again to Ash's bandaged forearm. "She hurt you! I can't let that go. There's so much evil in this world, and you shouldn't have to see any of it. But somehow it keeps finding you."

"I've been hurt before," Ash said, although that might have been the wrong thing to say as Steven's face twisted. "I'll be hurt again. But I'm alive, and it's your training that saw me through. Zinnia will be brought to justice," he hissed as he remembered his team's ferocious efforts. "Zinnia can run. She can hide. But she'll turn up sooner or later, and I'll be ready…if you and Lance don't get to her first, anyways."

Steven looked at him for a long moment, eyes shining with all sorts of frayed emotion, and while he didn't smile there was a sort of ragged amusement to him.

"If Flannery doesn't find her first. My memory's not the best at the moment," Steven confessed. Wow, who could imagine that sleep-deprivation could have negative effects? "But Metagross remembered all sorts of colorful comments she made at the Sky Pillar regarding Zinnia. Fino would have had her scrubbing the Gym floors for a week it it weren't so warranted."

Ash smiled at that.

If he wishes to reprimand Soul-Like-Beaming-Brute he only needs to deny her the chance to battle.

"That would be too cruel," Ash dismissed. "Battling's like oxygen for Flannery. She'd wither and die."

"Much like someone else I know…" Steven muttered. His eyes squeezed shut. "I've been a terrible fool, Ash. You've been in danger from the moment you came here. What was I thinking? I dangled real battles over you like bait, and it worked! What's wrong with me?"

"I wouldn't have had it any other way. I wouldn't trade these last nine months with you for the world," Ash said. "I need to be strong, and you've taken me farther than I could dream of. Also, this conversation is giving me Déjà vu. How many times have we had this conversation now? What's done is done. No point regretting the past when we have the future to look forward to."

"The future," Steven said. His eyes darkened, and Ash knew he was thinking of the hard days to come. "The future. The future!"

Ash shared a worried glance with Dazed, whose fingers curled tightly around her pendulum. He readied himself. Had they finally seen Steven snap?

"You… you should leave Hoenn," Steven's voice was taut. Controlled. But Ash knew his teacher—he saw the tension in Steven's jaw, the pressure coiled within his words like a spring, and the shaking of his hands.

He was in pain.

"Indigo is safe! The Plateau is indomitable, the region has been quiet, and who would threaten you when Lance the Dragon Master is watching over you?" Steven sounded wistful at that. Envious. He turned on Ash frantically, still frayed thin by his sleep deprivation. "And think how much you could grow! Your time is being eaten up by missions here, but there you could be raised up by five Masters almost full time. You could reach your full potential!"

Ash made to cut Steven off, but the man was like a bulldozer right now. Almost manic, which was downright disturbing on even-keeled Steven.

"There's only pain in Hoenn, but Indigo would be safe," Steven repeated like a mantra. He looked eagerly at Ash. "Lance wouldn't let you out of his sight after what happened yesterday! Do you know how many people would kill for the attention of the Dragon Master day in and day out?"

Gary would. Clair too, come to think of it. Ash almost smiled at the thought.

"Or Sinnoh! Cynthia spoke well of you, and you seem to regard her highly enough," Steven said. Ash flushed, and for a moment he feared that Lance had been spreading stupid rumors…but no, Lance would never do that to him. Steven seemed as blissfully socially unaware as ever. "Sinnoh's a bit chilly for my taste, but their geological formations are fascinating! Coronet alone is worth years of study, and I still inspect my core samples taken from the Underground when I need to cheer myself up. You'd love it!"

Ash raised a hand before Steven could get caught up in any additional fantasies. "I'm not leaving you, Steven. Not yet."

"Why not?" Steven didn't quite yell at him, but his voice spiked. Ash could feel the tumultuous haze of emotion and memory and feeling roiling off of him. He wished nothing more than to embrace it and soothe the man, but he couldn't. Not right now.

"Hoenn is dangerous, dammit! You were almost killed. Again," Steven's voice broke. "You and your team both. We—" Ash was guessing that referred to both Steven and Metagross, "—read your report seven hundred and sixty-two times. I know exactly how that battle went. You might have died in the first ten seconds if it weren't for Lotus! How can you expect me to let you stay here when there's a true Master after you?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Ash's words were steely. He rapped his fingers against the metal rail around his bed. "Hoenn still needs me. You still need me. Give me an escort if you want. I'm happy to travel with whoever you like, but I'm not done with Hoenn. Let Zinnia come. She won't be in fighting shape any time soon, and the whole League will be waiting for her when she is."

Steven moaned, but relented somewhat in the face of Ash's absolute certainty. "There's nothing to change your mind?"

Ash shook his head. "You're stuck with me unless Lance comes and orders me back to Indigo himself. Like I said, I'll work with whoever you want. Stick me with a bodyguard. But there's more to be done here."

"Your mother's going to kill me."

Ash's eyes lit up. "She's here?"

"In a nearby room," Steven said. He motioned to another chair by Ash's bedside that held an empty plate, a few drinks, and a couple of cushions that had made a makeshift bed. "She fell asleep after a twenty-hour vigil. We had quite the conversation during that time."

She has been very concerned, particularly after I regaled her with tales of our time in Hoenn thus far.

Ash went pale. "You what?"

Dazed polished her pendulum innocently.

She was quite riveted. I did not tell her of the Silver or of…other matters. I would not betray your secrets.

Claydol hummed.

I would. I did!

"She's going to put me right back into the hospital," Ash said faintly, ignoring Claydol's joke. "I might not see thirteen."

"I doubt she had any intentions of leaving your side until you woke up," Steven said. At least he'd been broken away from his worrying. "Dazed was kind enough to transport her to a bed that had been reserved for her."

"Thanks for that," Ash told Dazed, even if he was still reeling at the dressing-down he was going to get once he was all healed up. While his mom accepted the realities of life on the road, Ash had made something of a habit of going above and beyond…

"I'd advise you to sleep as long as possible," Steven said. "Professor Oak is here as well, although he's currently busy assisting Lance. I must confess that I've never seen him so fierce. I always assumed the legends of the One-Ringed Oak to be an exaggeration."

Ash thought of the look in Oak's eyes when he'd taken off to Orre. Perhaps those embers hadn't died entirely. "Nope."

Agatha wouldn't have retained that lingering kernel of respect for Oak otherwise.

Oh, what would she say about all this? He could only imagine how ecstatic Agatha would've been to have a proper quarry to hunt. Agatha might've been just as obsessed with Dragapult as Lance was.

He would've paid good money to see them fight for it.

Ash sighed as the fatigue overcame him once again, although he slurped down a glass of water and devoured a few snacks as they sat in pensive silence. Both had to process things, even if Ash was a little worried about the look on Steven's face.

His time in Hoenn had taught him that Steven didn't do well when left to his own thoughts.

"I'm not going to make it much longer," Ash admitted. He stifled a yawn. His arm itched beneath its bandages, but he took comfort in that. At least the medicines were doing their work. "Can you give me updates on how everyone is doing? I hope everyone from Indigo wasn't too worried…"

"They received news of a distress call and an assassination attempt," Steven said flatly. "It's a little late for 'worried'. But yes, I can tell you what I know. Will and Karen appointed themselves your personal guards until Lance put them back to work. I'm fairly certain you'll have quite a few cards waiting for you the next time you wake up."

Ash smiled at that, although it did make him realize that he should probably say something to his friends. How weird was that going to be? But he supposed the sadder thing was that it wouldn't be the strangest thing he'd ever told him.

Steven's words made Ash imagine the scene—Lance, Steven, Karen, Will, and Dazed all standing at his bedside in the security of Ever Grande City?

Ash might have been the most well-defended human on the planet for a few hours.

"Indigo's day-to-day operations are currently being seen to by Koga, although Sabrina is providing assistance. Koga did make time to check on you," Steven told Ash. "The Indigo Elite four have their own duties, but I expect Lance will remain here for some time. I wish he didn't have to keep cleaning up our messes…"

"Knowing Lance, it's probably infinitely preferable than staying cooped up in his office. Even if he probably wishes the circumstances are different."

"I suppose you're right," Steven sighed. "We've had to limit the number of visitors to only the most essential, but Flannery led the charge for Tate, Liza, and Roxanne to pop in for a bit. I'm sure others will be coming by as things calm down, but many are still busy blanketing the region in hopes that Zinnia's warp tile malfunctioned and dropped her in an inconvenient spot. Any sign of her would give us something to work with."

Ash yawned. "My bet's on getting dropped to the ocean floor. Or hurled into Mt. Chimney. A little lava bath might do her some good. Think we can get a betting pool started?"

"Absolutely not!" Steven groaned, horrified at the suggestion. His exhausted eyes. "Do you have any idea what Delia would say if she heard that? Dazed and I have spent the last day trying to ease her mind…despite Claydol's best efforts."

"She spoke to Claydol?"

"For a short time. I've never seen Claydol so quiet," Steven sighed dreamily. "It was wonderful."

He fought back another yawn. Steven frowned. "You must be exhausted. Go to sleep, Ash. We'll be here when you wake up again."

"You're one to talk," Ash grumbled. His eyes began to slide shut, although he suspected Dazed might have been psychically encouraging him to get some rest. "Promise?"

Steven and Dazed both nodded.

Promise.

And with that, Ash slipped back into blissful slumber.

XX

Ash's body needed rest, and rest it did. He woke up for brief periods over the course of the next day. While he felt terrible for worrying them, Ash did make a bit of a game out of guessing who would be present whenever he woke.

Steven had been dragged off to sleep at some point (Ash was pretty sure Claydol had given Dazed permission to subtly Hypnotize him) and was replaced by Lance and his mom, who he was able to reassure for a few minutes before he passed out again.

Both were practically frantic, but it seemed that assurances of Ash and his team's good conditions were enough to ease their minds somewhat. While his mom looked a bit like a ferocious mother Ursaring—Lance had wisely let her fuss over Ash for a few minutes before stepping in—they seemed to have ignored the past awkwardness of his mother tearing Lance a new one in Greenfield.

If only the cameras had been there to see that! Clair might have had a new favorite person.

Maybe that would balance out Ash having introduced Clair to her new least favorite person.

While his mother was a mainstay each time he woke up, Ash was pleasantly surprised to see all sorts of familiar figures resting in the various chairs that had been hauled up.

Will and Karen both embraced him the moment he woke up and chatted away to update him on additions to the Plateau. Flannery presented him with a massive plate of Lava Cookies and a small mountain of cards from Ever Grande League members, then ranted about the doctors refusing her 'victory monument' of Tyrantrum spikes and scales from being placed by Ash's bedside.

As for Bruno, he'd checked up on Bruiser before offering Ash a can of the black broth. Ash thanked a doctor profusely once Bruno had left for practically slapping the foul sludge of Bruno's hands when she saw it.

Professor Oak, Alakazam, and Arcanine stopped by several times, although their visits were always short. Ash hoped for Gary, Jon, and Amelia to make an appearance, but they didn't meet the requirements of the League. Ash was under lockdown for the next week.

All were regular visitors, but he was only ever up for a few minutes at a time before he gave into exhaustion. While Ash could have sparked himself to life with Lightning if he really needed to, he wanted to avoid that if at all possible.

Lightning might let him work when his body would otherwise fail, but he would suffer for it. You could only put off physiological needs for so long before you paid the consequences.

One visitor surprised him, however: Sabrina.

Ash was pretty sure that nobody else even knew that Sabrina had stopped in. He'd simply awoken to a mental nudge from Dazed and opened his eyes to see the Saffron Gym Leader standing silently at the end of his bed.

"I am pleased that you survived. I expected you would," Sabrina said in those even tones of hers. Ash found them comforting, even if it took a moment for her words to sink in.

"Wait, you knew what was coming?" Ash asked. Dazed bristled, and even Sneasel and Seeker watched her warily. The rest were still asleep, thankfully.

"I sensed that you were in danger, although the Sky Pillar obfuscates my perception. Danger has been your regular companion as of late."

"When isn't it?" Ash grunted. "But we're all alive."

"I am pleased to hear it," Sabrina said. Her scarlet eyes bored a hole into him, but Ash met them evenly. They were not so alien anymore. Was this how others felt when they looked upon his face? "You have borne your burdens well. You burn like a star to any with the ability to see the truth of things. What were once Brands have become your tools."

"The truth…" Ash muttered, and then he grasped for that lingering connection he still felt with Sabrina. He felt her like a brilliant ember in a sea of darkness, brushed against her, and heard the great psychic gasp as the weight of his spirit touched hers.

There was a Truth to everything, wasn't there? Eyes might lie or be obscured by illusion, but there was an objective reality to the universe if you could peel back enough layers.

But what would Durand have to say about that? She wasn't content with what was. She yearned for more, to forge her own path and make her own dreams a reality.

At this moment, Ash saw Sabrina's Truth.

A stone in the river perceiving the great currents of Time and Space, of probability and certainty, of the Concepts shining like beacons and warping the world in their image wherever they strode.

A whisper in the ear. A nudge on the shoulder. A helping hand steering the ship in the best direction she could perceive, although the currents swept her out to the deepest waters time and time again.

A steward not only of Saffron, but humanity.

A servant willing to throw themselves upon the pyre.

Torrents of information drove into Sabrina courtesy of Ash as well, but it was impossible to parse exactly what she gained. Did he even want to know? Cynthia's words had helped him time and time again, but everyone had their helpful untruths that they wrapped around themselves like a cloak.

It could be daunting to imagine what you really were with the niceties and white lies stripped away.

Sabrina's eyes squeezed shut and she trembled for a moment. Ash felt guilty for a moment, but tossed it aside. Sabrina would have cut the connection in an instant if it had overwhelmed her. Knowing Sabrina, she'd probably gleaned a thousand useful details from the flood Ash had shared with her.

"Apologies," Sabrina said evenly. Her voice betrayed just a hint of exhaustion. "I was…unprepared. You truly have grown since those days in Indigo. You have carried your torch well."

"We all have."

"I will not keep you from resting. While I came to wish you well, I have a question for you."

"Name it."

"Did you take from the Sky Pillar all that you must?"

Ash thought of the void waters of the Moon Stone, the taste of turquoise fire in every breath, and the clashing of Earth, Sea, and Sky around the Sky Pillar. The weight of something great and terrible—the Apterous Dragon, the greatest of them all.

The flaming gold of Mega Salamence's techniques, the viciousness with which Zinnia fought.

Everything he could incorporate into his own arsenal and synthesize into something new and wonderful.

Sneasel eyed Ash curiously as his fingers curled. "Yes, I think I did."

Sabrina smiled—smiled!—at that. "Then I will take my leave."

"Wait!" Ash called out as she made to step out of the room. Normally Sabrina might have teleported, but Ash had no doubt this whole section of Ever Grande City was utterly locked down.

She stilled.

"The Dragon Master, Zinnia…do you know where she is?" Ash hesitated as thoughts of his fruitless pursuit of Silver filled his mind. "And I need to find someone else as well."

"I've cast my perception far and wide in meditation. She has fled to a distant land, weak and grieving and eager to rebuild her strength, although I caught only a glimpse before she sequestered herself in a place obscured by shadow. Kalos is darkened by Oblivion," Sabrina said, her blank face cracking a bit at the mention of that. Whatever it was. "I am to be sent there as an investigator, but my sight is not so clear as it is in Indigo. Fate twists and breaks against the Concepts."

So Kalos would have their own struggles to deal with. Ash hoped they would wait for a time. But Sabrina was more well-informed than most, and the icy flame at the back of his mind listened intently. No doubt Mewtwo had already perceived various Legends ages ago, but perhaps a mortal perspective was interesting.

Ash had his hands full here. Kalos would just have to wait their turn. Groudon and Kyogre were a bit more than a trillion handfuls themselves.

"The Champion Lance has been informed of the details. I expect he wishes to hunt Zinnia himself, although I will urge him to be patient. I expect every road will lead her to Hoenn in time."

"I hope he finds her. Not that I wouldn't love to get my hands on her myself after a few months," Ash grumbled. But it was useful. So she'd gone to Kalos, huh? While part of him wanted to take off to try to hunt her, it was like finding a needle in a haystack. Kalos was a vast region, and no doubt she'd have gone somewhere that could feasibly hide her from the League.

For now.

"And the other?" Hope flickered into his voice. "You know who I'm talking about, right?"

"I cannot perceive him," Sabrina admitted. Ash growled with frustration. "Reality twists around you, Ash Ketchum. You are blinding. I have been able to perceive you since the St. Anne sank. You and your fellow survivors were exposed to power beyond mortal limits. They shine even today. I can sense them from hundreds of miles away"

She stared at him.

"My perception is great, but not without limits. I require familiarity. Elsewise the subject must have a source of power. Zinnia burns like a distant cinder in my awareness, a faint light in the corner of my vision. She has mastered herself just as you have. She has steeped herself in the Sky, although she has not claimed it for herself as you have your own Brands."

"So Silver is just another grain of sand on the beach," Ash surmised. "Great. Don't suppose I could tag him somehow if I run into him again? Make it to where you can find him no matter what?"

Sabrina was quiet for a moment. "Familiarity. You may mark him as you have been marked. I will find him then."

"If I can track him down," Ash sighed. Such a feat was proving almost impossible even with the resources of the Ever Grande League, although he might receive a bit more help now that Hoenn had finally calmed down a bit. "Thank you, Sabrina."

She nodded her acknowledgement, then turned. "I will take my leave. I anticipate the day when we meet again, Ash Ketchum."

"When we met again."

Once she was gone for good, Ash reached up and patted Dazed's yellow-furred arm. "I think that's the most obvious she's ever been. Either that, or I'm finally starting to go crazy and understand psychics."

I suspect the latter.

"Me too, Dazed," Ash sighed as he reached down to rub his fingers across Sneasel's feather. The little dark-type twitched happily. "Me too."

XX

"Cookies for you all!" His mom's cheery voice echoed throughout the hospital room. Sneasel perked up immediately, as did Lairon, although most of the others were still sleeping. While their injuries demanded vast amounts of energy to recover, it was also a simple fact that they'd thrown everything they had into keeping Ash and one another alive. "Careful, Sneasel! It's hot."

That didn't stop Sneasel, who blew a frosty breath over the tray of cookies delicately placed by Ash's hospital bed to bring them down a bit. He tauntingly snagged the one that Ash was going after and cackled as he ran circles around the room, flaunting his good condition compared to the rest of their teammates.

Ash just snorted and took his second option…and then threw it to Lairon, who looked up at him pleadingly. "Thanks, mom! I wish you could have one, Dazed. These would probably make you rethink your position on 'face-gashes'."

Dazed's nose wrinkled. It might as well have been a full body shudder coming from her.

I doubt that. I am content to relive the experience through your dreams.

"They're definitely worth dreaming about." Ash smiled up at his mom, who watched him cheerfully. While her initial good mood when he'd first woken up to meet her several naps ago had been a little plastered on, she grew more and more relaxed the longer she spent around him and realized he wasn't a fragile little doll.

All things considered, his forearm was just a minor injury. Especially compared to those his teammates had suffered in his defense. Ash would have been fine to go off to a normal guest room by now, but he wasn't about to leave his team when they could all be gathered together.

"You're so sweet," his mother said as she reached out to brush his hair with her fingers. "I'm just glad to see you eating! You worried me when you weren't very hungry."

"I think it was just the medicine," Ash admitted. He'd been a little queasy at first, but once he'd processed some of the meds he'd turned into an eater that would've made a Munchlax proud. HIs team was the same thanks to their bodies consuming every available calorie to hasten their healing. "You're a lifesaver."

Her expression tightened a bit of that and Ash held back a wince. Maybe that wasn't the best choice of words.

"I'm just so, so glad that you're all okay!" She repeated for the thousandth time, although Ash wasn't going to call her out on it. His mom had been worried sick, and it was a miracle she hadn't torn down Ever Grande's doors to reach him when she first heard the news. "It reminded me of those awful days last year…"

Ash did wince that time. "We made it through the storm, and this is the safest harbor in Hoenn. And if it makes you feel any better, there's no way Steven's going to let us go anywhere without an escort now."

"He'd better!" His mother snapped, then softened. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know Steven cares for you, and I know you hold him in such high esteem. I don't want to make things difficult for you right now, Ash, but I do think he's right."

She looked at him with big, pleading eyes.

Don't you want to come back to Kanto for a bit? You could relax in Pallet Town, visit me in Goldenrod…you could even stay with me! Assuming you ever get tired of your giant room at the Plateau, that is."

Ash did miss his private rooms, but those could wait. All he could do was shake his head. His mother had made subtle comments and arguments for a while now, but it seemed like she'd decided to come out swinging.

"I don't know if your apartment could fit my team," Ash tried to deflect. "Infernus might save you some on your heating bill, though."

"And leave me homeless when he burns the complex down," she chuckled. "No, we might have to work a bit on the logistics. But consider it. Please? Everything Dazed told me…it has me worried sick! How could so much trouble have found you here?"

"I guess I just have a knack for it," Ash said drily, even if he tried to be sympathetic. "But I'm not done with Hoenn just yet. Kanto's my home. I'll return one day, but I want to stick around at least through the Ever Grande Conference."

Delia sighed, no doubt well-aware that the Ever Grande Conference wouldn't begin for another three months. A long, long three months. Her lips pursed. "I can't force you, but—"

The doors slammed open.

Ash twitched, a little jumpier than usual thanks to Zinnia's attack, and Dazed's eyes shone like twin stars. Lairon scrambled to stand in front of Delia and Ash's bed, choking down his cookies all the while, and Sneasel practically teleported to Ash's side.

Those three alone could face down almost any trainer they came across.

But perhaps not this one.

Yet they all relaxed as stern-faced Professor Oak swept into the room with a grinning Arcanine behind him. Sneasel scurried away as the old canine rushed forward to try to lick his face, and Dazed was kind enough to raise a psychic barrier to stop Arcanine's hot tongue in its tracks.

Arcanine whined pathetically at the rejection, but sat down on the cold hospital tile. His tail wagged as Lairon rushed forward to bump noses with him.

"You're awake! How delightful. It's so good to see you in high spirits!" Professor Oak exclaimed. His white lab coat was dusty and a little worn, but was otherwise intact. No doubt Alakazam had prevented anything in Orre from coming within a mile of him…except for Agatha, perhaps. Ash's stomach twisted. "Are you feeling any better?"

We are fine. The others recuperate.

Oak looked relieved. "Wonderful. I was worried you'd be pushing yourselves already."

"Not after that fight," Ash said. He looked eagerly at Oak. "Have you had any luck?"

"None, although the Ever Grande League has been eager to rope me into solving their every problem," Oak groused. He was a little harsher and blunter since his time in Orre, Ash had noted, although perhaps that was just a result of the severity of the situation. He'd teleported to Hoenn the moment he heard that Ash had been attacked. "I'm ever so tired of being called in to clean up the League's messes."

Delia laid a gentle hand on Oak's shoulder as the scientist came crashing into one of the many, many chairs assembled around Ash's bed by now. He'd been quite the popular patient. "You're doing good work, Sam. I just hope you'll find her."

Oak's eyes squeezed shut. "Zinnia's nowhere to be found, I'm afraid, although they're trying to track the warp tile as we speak. Word's spreading, however. This won't remain hidden for long, and I'm worried to see the backlash against the League, Aqua, the Draconids…Emotions are running as hot as this abominable weather, and this sort of atmosphere encourages rash and impulsive decisions. Hoenn is a powder keg. Again."

That didn't do anything to ease his mother's worry. Ash didn't miss the look she sent him.

"Has anyone heard back from Zenia yet?" Ash asked, morbidly curious. Drake had said he'd visit the Draconid elder, but Ash hadn't heard anything more of it.

While he doubted this was some conspiracy on the part of the Draconids, there was always the potential for Zenia to have pointed her granddaughter in Ash's direction.

Not many had been directly told Ash was going to the sacred Sky Pillar on his lonesome…although he'd blabbed about it to essentially the whole world at the gala.

He'd thought nothing of it at the time, but not all the world was so friendly as they seemed.

Two men could keep a secret if one of them was dead. Anyone listening into his conversations would have heard about his plans for the Sky Pillar, and it only took one pair of loose lips to whisper secrets to the wrong person to have set Zinnia after him.

But why? Was it glory as Zinnia claimed, or was there more to it? The uncertainty gnawed at Ash. He wanted to know, damn it! Nothing got under his skin like a secret.

Except for Sidney, maybe. The Dark Master had stolen that honor from Gary ages ago.

"I'm not party to their discussions like I am in Indigo," Oak grumbled. He looked rather put out over the fact. "Lance has dropped bits and pieces, but the Ever Grande League doesn't hold me in their confidence. He's hinted that nothing incriminating was found, but I can't be certain."

Ash nodded along, even if he had to hide his sour expression. Zenia had taught him so much of the Draconids and their ways in the remnants of the Draconids' city. She'd been warm to him, eager to share her peoples' lore and legacy to an interested soul, and it made his heart ache to even consider that she might have been involved.

He would trust Drake if the Dragon Master deemed the woman innocent, but Ash couldn't deny that it was one hell of a coincidence that he'd confided in her and then her granddaughter had come after him less than a week later.

"But enough! It's been too long since we've seen each other face-to-face like this." Professor Oak smiled warmly at him. Arcanine lunged forward to lick Ash's cheek with his hot tongue, earning a laugh from the boy. "I wish it were under better circumstances, but I'm happy to make the most of the opportunity."

"It's great to see you again—I've missed you both. I love Hoenn, but it's been tough not just being able to hop over to Pallet for a day of rest," Ash admitted. A little trickle of guilt filled him as he imagined the rude interruption to both his mother and Professor Oak's hectic lives. "I hope you're not burning too much time for me… I mean, your research is important, and I know your classes are tough."

His mother blinked, then threw her head back in a wild laugh. "My classes? Oh, Ash. It's sweet of you to worry, but I promise I'll be just fine, sweetheart. They don't matter next to you. Nothing in the world could keep me from you right now."

"But—"

"I'm making the most of my time here to meet with Professor Birch at every opportunity," Oak said. "This visit was long overdue. My recent… sabbatical was essential and I gained valuable information, but I wasn't able to maintain contact with the other members of my project as I'd have liked."

Project SCRY, not that they could mention its specifics around his mother. But Ash gave Professor Oak a nod anyway.

"But tell me about your journey! You've kept me updated, but it's another thing entirely to hear the stories from your mouth. Tell me about your new techniques! Has Sneasel evolved yet? What about Seeker?" Professor Oak pressed, surprisingly eager. He almost reminded Ash of Flannery for a moment, bizarre as that comparison was.

Ash pointed at Sneasel, who was currently peering at Oak from behind the bedframe, and Oak's face fell. He coughed in embarrassment.

Professor Oak peered for a long moment at Ash's bandaged forearm, which Arcanine was currently whining at and trying to lick. Unfortunately, Sneasel had gotten territorial and scampered up onto Ash's chest to hiss at the great fiery canine.

Ash warmed immediately and began to fill Professor Oak, eager to catch the old man up on every detail he could.

Some things he kept under wraps—Sneasel's Dispel technique, for example, as he wanted to unveil that as a finished product, as well as the faint beginnings of his new theories for Nidoking and Torrent's growth—but Professor Oak's eyes gleamed brighter and brighter as Ash shared stories of Mind Breaker, Storm Surge, Plasma Blade, and the rest.

"Marvelous," Oak breathed, looking as if he were about to explode with excitement. He smiled over at Delia. "This may surprise you, Delia, but your son has become quite the trainer."

"I might've guessed!" His mother let out a peal of bright laughter, even if she shook her head a moment later. "You couldn't imagine the stories that Dazed has been telling me! I'm going to have to ask the doctors to check my blood pressure the next time they come in."

"We could all use a check-up," Oak admitted. "Since Orre, I've had this crick in my neck…"

Ash listened along for a while, chipping in eagerly, and was generally content to soak up every scrap of precious time he could with his mother and Professor Oak. How long had it been since they were all together like this? It felt like an age, even if it had been less than a year.

He truly missed it. No, he missed them.

Hoenn has been incredible to him. It had taught him so much, gave him challenges to overcome, and built him into something that the Ash of the Indigo Conference could barely imagine. He'd gained new friends, new family, and reforged himself.

It was a good change, overall, while change might introduce wondrous new things to your life, by definition it meant the loss of something as well. He'd just have to reclaim those little joys from his time in Kanto whenever he could.

Speaking of family…

An azure flame flickered in his mind.

Uncertainty weighed upon him like an anvil, but Ash found courage as Dazed's yellow fingers came to wrap around his own. He squeezed her hand back gratefully. "I—there's something else I have to tell you about."

His mother and Professor Oak immediately sensed the change in his mood. She leaned forward to study him, her worry plain as day on her face. "What is it?" Delia grasped his hand as Dazed offered it to her. "You can tell us anything, Ash. I promise."

"I know," Ash rasped, fighting the urge to turn away and hide it all. "If I couldn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. But I…" Ash hesitated, his throat clenching as he nearly rejected the thought he was about to voice. "I need help. I need advice."

"This isn't girl trouble, is it?" Professor Oak said lightly, then winced as Delia turned to glare at him. "Sorry, sorry."

Ash cracked a smile nonetheless. "Not that. Steven's done a wonderful job of explaining everything on that front."

Delia's eyes narrowed, but Ash didn't explain. The cold fire burned brighter with renewed interest.

"No. It's something else. Giovanni."

Professor Oak's eyes went cold even as his mother's hands gripped around his hand tight enough that she would cut the blood flow off if this went on long enough. Dazed gingerly loosened her grip with a deft application of psychic power.

"I've told you the story," Delia said with a voice thick with a thousand feelings. Her eyes, a mirror of his own, locked onto Ash. "But if you ever have any questions, you know you can ask. I'm an open book. You deserve to know where you came from."

Even if half of that was a cesspit of a human being. Ash appreciated her willingness to expose that vulnerable time to him, but he shook his head. "It's, uh, not exactly about Giovanni. He has a son."

Arcanine cocked his great head at Ash as if to say, 'obviously!' but Professor Oak immediately clued into the truth. "It's true, then?" He gasped. "I'd heard whispers from the Indigo League, but never any confirmation. Ever Grande has never held me in the highest esteem."

"His name is Silver. He seems like he's a year younger than me, and Domino, who's some weird mix of a bodyguard and foster mother, told Steven and I that he really is Giovanni's son and now he's running Hoenn all on his own and I've been looking for him with the team but we haven't had any luck and it seems impossible—"

"Oh, Ashy," Delia cradled him in a hug. Her warmth rushed over him, and Sneasel purred contentedly as he was trapped in the hug as well. No doubt he thought this was entirely for his own benefit. "I'm so sorry. I wish you'd told me earlier, but I know this must have been such a heavy thing to carry around with you."

Ash was quiet for a moment. "I beat the crap out of him. He's a halfway decent trainer, but he's a jerk and a Rocket. I almost arrested him, but he managed to slip away during another fight."

Professor Oak snorted, but he sobered quickly. "He was raised by Giovanni, then?"

It was impossible to miss the unbridled fury with which Oak spoke that name. Ash's heart twinged knowing what he did now. The Rockets had taken almost everything from the Oak family. They had hollowed the Oaks out worse than Lotus ever could have.

Unforgivable.

"It sounds like it," Ash said. "Domino was close to him, definitely some kind of personal enforcer. She knew Giovanni personally. But yeah, I think Silver grew up with him."

"That poor boy," Delia said softly, stroking her fingers through Ash's black hair. "Raised by Giovanni. What has he been through? Giovanni could never love like he was supposed to. Everything was his. He loved like we love a treasured possession or a useful tool. That's no way for a boy to be raised."

Ash bristled a bit. "Silver is still a Rocket. Or was. He's done bad things. But he's just a kid, isn't he?" He admitted once his spike of anger had fallen away. "Stupid, and I want to smack him and maybe beat him into the dirt a few dozen times for all the trouble he's caused me, but I'm worried about him. I've only heard a little since I've started looking for him, but none of it's good. The whole world's looking for him."

He took a breath. "I was just mad at him first," Ash confessed. "But I was talking to the team, and it made me think—would I be any different if I were raised by him? Could I have been anything but a little monster? Without you two, and Gary even though he can be a jerk, and Jon and Amelia…"

"Giovanni's actions are his alone to account for," Oak said. His face was pinched at the mere mention of the filthy Rocket. "And Silver surely has some amends to make. But you're right, Ash. He's a child, just like you. Old enough to know better, perhaps, but how can you ever know to search for the light if you've been raised all your life in the dark?"

His mother held him close. "You're a good boy, Ash. You have a good heart," she said. "I think that would shine through no matter how you were raised. But we're a product of our environment as much as we are our nature. We can't know what might be. All we can do is do our best with the cards we've been dealt."

Oak shook his head, frowning deeply. "That you're considering the boy—Silver," Oak corrected at Delia's sharp look, "speaks well of you, Ash. That compassion… once upon a time, I might not have been capable of it."

Ash didn't miss the little break in his voice at that, and he wished to reach out to comfort him, but Lairon was already on it.

"Ow!" Professor Oak yelped as Lairon lovingly licked his bare hand with a tongue like steel wool. "Oh, that's very nice of you, but please don't do that again. Ouch!"

Lairon was kind enough to oblige Professor Oak's request and headbutted his shin instead as his metal tail wagged wildly.

His mom moved to say something, but —

CLANG!

They all jumped as the door was kicked open.

"ALRIGHT, NO MORE SNOOZING!" Flannery roared. Piper followed dutifully behind, shaking her head at the Gym Leader's recklessness. Flannery grinned as she jabbed a finger at the hospital bed. "I'm tired of you being asleep every time I stop by! You're making me worried, and that makes me want to fight! All the crybabies coming to Lavaridge keep complaining about me being 'too brutal' and I've got some fire to burn off. Let's do this!"

As Flannery finished her epic challenge, Piper grunted something at her. The Gym Leader's eyes cracked open and she paled as she set eyes on Professor Oak and his mom. Both regarded her with utter bemusement. "Oh, uh, am I interrupting?"

"Just a family visit," Ash laughed at the horror-stricken expression on Flannery's face—his poor friend looked like she was ready to vomit like her Camerupt had after being headbutted by a flying Aron.

He would be lying if he said he didn't relish the moment.

"Uh, I can come back later!" Flannery squeaked and tried to wheel around, only to be stopped by Arcanine who had blitzed past her in a flash of speed to sniff at Piper. "Oh wow! You're so beautiful, aren't you? Look at that coat! Champion Wallace might steal you to enter into a contest or ten—"

Professor Oak chuckled as Flannery melted over Arcanine (who seemed quite content to soak up the attention) and Delia smiled at the redhead.

"We have plenty of space," Ash called out. He pointed at the dozen chairs arrayed around. "Take your pick. I'd hate to send you back to brutalize some poor innocent trainers."

Flannery's face scrunched up as she awkwardly sidled up to plop in one of the seats a few down from Professor Oak. "Hey! It's their fault for not knowing I'm in a bad mood. And it's better than when Grandpa battles them. You should see what Plinia does when they make jokes about her being blind and oh no, I'm supposed to introduce myself aren't I?"

"Professor Samuel Oak," the aforementioned man reached out to shake her hand. Oak winced as Flannery fervently shook his limb up and down. "T-that's quite the grip you have."

"Thanks!" Flannery beamed. From the look on Professor Oak's face, she was squeezing even harder. "I've been practicing with Bruiser. And nice to meet you! Ash talks about you all the time."

"Really?" Oak's eyes strayed to Bruiser, who was currently conked out with Seeker snoozing in a bed just a few feet down. He rubbed his newly freed palm and wrist, and sounded faint. "I couldn't have guessed."

"Delia Ketchum!" His mother said brightly. She thrust a plate of cookies in Flannery's face. "I'm Ash's mom. You must be exhausted from your duties! Want a cookie?"

Flannery's stomach rumbled, not that that was an unusual occurrence. Her eyes gleamed brightly as she was quick to grab a whole handful of cookies and stuff one in her mouth. "Do I! Wow, this is the best hospital visit ever. Thanks! It's really nice to meet you too, Ms. Ketchum. Sorry I don't have any cookies for you."

"Oh, don't worry! I'm just so happy to meet you at last. It's so nice to put a face to the name. Ash has told me so much about you, but he always seems to get distracted talking about your battles. You have lovely hair, by the way."

"Thanks!" Flannery said through a mouthful of cookies, much more at ease now that she'd been fed and welcomed by his mother and Professor Oak. Ash grinned at how easily she shed the awkwardness. He could learn a thing or two from her. "And yeah, battling's awesome! I've been training my butt off to beat Ash. One of these days I'll convince Infernus to come join the real team he's been waiting for."

Piper glared at Lairon as he inched closer to the cookie that Flannery had placed in the eager Torkoal's mouth. He whined at her…and then so did Arcanine. But it didn't seem like the Torkoal had any interest in sharing her treats.

Dazed watched them all with a vaguely disgusted look on her face.

"Want to see my cut?" Ash offered after a few minutes of conversation with her, Professor Oak, and his mom. He waved his bandaged arm at Flannery. Her eyes lit up. "It's starting to heal, but it still looks pretty gross."

"Nice!" Flannery grinned, although Delia cut that off before Ash could pull the edge of the bandage away to offer Flannery a glimpse. "You know, that wouldn't have been a problem if you let Piper cauterize it like she wanted."

Piper looked affronted at that.

"Like she wanted?" Ash arched his eyebrows even as Professor Oak and his mother seemed content to sit and watch for a moment. "I remember otherwise."

"Oh really?" Flannery grinned as her eyes burned with anticipation. "Them be fightin' words, Ketchum."

"They are. Sneasel, think you're up for a spar? We'll have to take it easy on them. It'll almost be a fair fight with you being so sore."

Sneasel yowled, Flannery argued back, and Ash grinned. His mom and Professor Oak just watched their banter as if they were utterly lost, but happy and amused all the same.

It was nice to have things going back to normal.

XX

Snap.

Snap.

Snap.

"Plume, it's fine! Stop biting the cast."

Snap.

"Plume!" Ash groaned from the rather comfortable chair he'd situated himself in. He'd just risen a few minutes ago and had been overjoyed to see that a few of his friends had woken up since Flannery and Professor Oak had left.

Steven had popped in a few minutes ago to let Ash know that there would be a meeting, then promptly walked him to the same meeting room that Glacia had led him to once upon a time.

"Biting it's not going to help you fly sooner," Ash told her, and she cocked her head at that. Plume had stubbornly demanded to accompany him, not that he was averse to it at all. But she hadn't taken kindly to the cast.

Most of the time she glared at it as if it was the cast's fault that she'd be grounded for the next week.

And the rest of the time? Well, that was when Plume decided that she needed to punish the brace with her razor-sharp beak.

Snap.

It probably didn't help that she'd been shot up with Potions, painkillers, and just about every drug known to both man and pokémon. While the doctors had assured Ash that she'd recover quickly, it still pained him to see Plume so…lost.

Snap.

And then he saw her eying his hat.

Ash's eyes narrowed. "This has all just been one big ploy, hasn't it?"

Plume looked at him aghast. It was the same expression she had when Ash had fruitlessly attempted to convince her for the first time that Sneasel couldn't fly just because he had a feather…not that it had stopped her from trying.

"Fine," Ash said as he took his beloved hat off his head and tossed it to Plume, who caught it gingerly between her beak and nibbled on the abused frame. He watched it with blatant worry as she caught up with him and Steven, her pleasure plain as day. "Just be gentle, okay? I don't know how much longer it's going to hold up."

"Negative six months or so if Karen had anything to say about it," Steven commented. He was a bit more lively than the first time they'd spoken in the hospital bed—Steven hadn't taken a mission since Ash had been hospitalized, and Ash thought it was doing wonders for him.

According to Claydol, Steven had even gotten an uninterrupted night of sleep for the first time in over a month. Ash was just going to pretend like it wasn't the result of Dazed's Hypnosis.

"If it weren't for Dazed, I think she might have tried to steal it and burn it. Flannery sounded as if she'd be willing."

"Karen probably would've raffled it off," Ash said. He had to fight the urge to watch over his hat protectively. It might be a little bit worn, but it was still functional!

That is a rather generous description.

"It still works," Ash defended to Dazed. Steven chuckled at his side as they passed by a pair of Rangers who smiled and waved at them both. He was fairly certain he'd run a mission with the two of them and he dipped his head respectfully back. "Keeps the sun out of my eyes. That's what a hat's supposed to do!"

Just as Plume and Dazed shuffled behind Ash, Claydol happily hovered uncomfortably close to Steven's head. Every time the former Champion tried to inch away to make some personal space, Claydol moved in sync to stay practically glued onto Steven's silver hair.

The construct flashed blue.

And if you keep it through the disgusting hormone cocktail you fleshy meat-creatures call puberty, you'll find that it repels potential mates just as well as the sun! People in general, really, if your sunny personality didn't do that already.

"Thank you, Claydol," Ash rolled his eyes. He'd long since learned not to take Claydol seriously. Otherwise one would constantly be pulling their hair out…which Steven looked pretty close to doing. Ash suspected that Claydol dialed it up on purpose just to get on Steven's nerves sometimes.

"He's twelve!" Steven massaged his temples as they came to the final door. "Claydol, can you please just go without saying weird things for…oh, an hour? Honestly, I don't know where you got this from. I was never this bad as a teenager!"

Only because Metagross filled your head with indecent thoughts of rigid lost limbs, blissful fragmentation, and strangely satisfying budding instead of the love poems and indecencies going through Lance's head at that age.

Ah, that sounded about right. Several of the people that Claydol attributed its 'unique' personality to were right behind that heavy door.

"One hour, Claydol! Please. You said you would be good if I let you attend the meeting with us."

Please, don't act as if it's the first time I've gone without causing a diplomatic incident. Remember how well I got along with Discount Drake's Ditto? So many discoveries were made!

"Discount Drake?" Ash asked. "Do I want to know?"

Steven had the same look on his face as Sidney had when Drake mentioned 'Cecilia' to the Dark Master back at the Sky Pillar. "That's Claydol's incredibly inappropriate name for Champion Drake of the Orange Islands. As for the latter…you don't want to know. You really don't want to know."

Ash wisely decided to take his word for it.

"They should be ready," Steven said, taking a deep breath. "Claydol, please keep your metaphorical mouths shut unless you truly have something to add to the conversation. Ash, don't feel any pressure. You're only here to chip in as needed given your experiences."

Claydol flashed an assent even as Ash nodded. He was hardly unused to being around prominent figures—to be honest, he really needed to prioritize spending time with normal trainers to ground himself a little—but it was rare that so many would be in some place.

His stomach fluttered.

And with that, Steven opened the doors to the Ever Grande conference room. Several notable figures awaited them—Lance leaned up against the central table talking to Wallace and a purple-haired man in a fine red suit who Ash recognized as Lucian, the highest ranking member of Sinnoh's Elite Four.

Lance grinned and waved at them the moment they arrived.

"Ash, Dazed, Plume! So happy to see you. Who else will be joining us?"

"Nidoking and Torrent, although they're both still pretty out of it," Ash said after calling back his own hello. "We'll see if they can stay awake the whole time."

"You mentioned that they took a beating, but I'm just glad they're in good enough shape that this meeting is a possibility," Lance said, rocking a happy Gabite on his knee. They'd spoken at length about the battle already and Lance had given his input, although he'd been overall pleased with how Ash had handled it. "It'll be good to see them both on their feet…or levitating, in Torrent's case."

Except for Ash spitting on Zinnia's legacy to goad her back, which Ash could admit was more than a tad reckless. It had been effective in keeping her fighting, but he'd given into his battlelust and fury to see her beaten and brought before the League.

The pragmatic thing to do would've been to prioritize his own survival over victory, and both Lance and Steven had spent the better part of an hour hammering that fact in. Steven was still too sleep-deprived to be much help (which Lance had ribbed him over) but Lance had been calm.

Too calm. Dangerously close to disappointed, even if he'd praised the overall flow of the fight after Dazed had shared her memories.

"We can spend the next twenty years hunting Zinnia down if we need to," Lance had said gently. Still, Ash had seen all the rage of Blackthorn burning deep within. A dragon always defended its own. "We know the threat now, and there's nowhere in the settled world that she can flee to safely."

Lance had put a warm hand upon Ash's shoulder. "But I would rather she escape justice for eternity than see you come to harm, Ash. Remember that. Don't be so eager to throw it all away to win a battle. Prioritize surviving the war instead."

As he was lost in his memories, Steven guided Ash to a seat at the great table which had been fashioned in the shape of Hoenn's mainland. He took a spot not too far from where Sudmauna would have rested off the southern coast.

Also not too far from the Sky Pillar, which was marked by a small length of wood like a spear shaft jutting from the end of the table. Plume tried to peck at it, but Ash sent her a look. To distract her, he plucked his hat from her beak and tossed it on her head instead.

Dazed rolled her eyes as Plume puffed up proudly.

Overall the room was just as he remembered: warm orange tones balanced out by greens and blues to soften it, while many of the decorations spoke of a nautical theme that Ash suspected to have been left by Drake himself.

Archaic weapons of bone and Gyarados fang, yellowing sea maps marking ancient trade routes, strange mechanical devices that undoubtedly served some purpose in seafaring, and other various trophies hung on the walls or were presented in glass cases to preserve them from the elements.

Oh, and he couldn't forget about the damn human skull bolted to the mantle above the crackling fireplace situated toward the back of the room. It was polished and cleaned of flesh, but its macabre stare and slack jaw watched over them in a grisly vigil.

Speaking of Drake, the former Champion and Dragon Master sat in a rickety old rocking chair that looked a few moves from crumbling into a hundred weathered pieces near the fire. The man ignored the rest, although his enormous presence seemed to fill the room.

The slumbering Salamence curled up in front of the warm red flames like a snoozing Growlithe might have had something to do with that, although the other League members all spared Drake a glance whenever his mustache twitched.

It was a pretty nice mustache, Ash had to admit.

Drake seemed fairly aloof for the most part as Lance, Wallace, Steven, and Lucian discussed all sorts of affairs.

"Oh, you haven't met!" Lance perked up as he caught Ash glancing over at Lucian. The man seemed timeless in a way, and his sleepy-eyed Girafarig seemed much the same. Both bore signs of strength and experience, a certain wisdom and keenness about them that couldn't be faked, but at a glance Lucian himself could have been in his thirties or in his fifties. He was old either way. "Ash, meet Lucian, acting Lily of the Valley Champion."

Ash's brow furrowed. "What happened to Cynthia? She left Acuity, right?"

Lucian betrayed nothing at that, although Girafarig looked up with some surprise. "Champion Cynthia has ventured into Coronet's Underground with Elite Four Bertha. There have been a few things crawling up from the depths, but such is the way in Sinnoh."

"I'd say I'm glad that I don't have to manage Coronet, but after the last few years that doesn't sound half-bad," Lance said with a laugh. Mael levitated at his side and nodded fervently, even if Ash couldn't imagine the powerful Kingdra enjoying a jaunt underground. "But I guess it's really just an entirely different headache."

"I'll trade with Cynthia if she'd like a change of scenery," Wallace jested. Ash thought he sounded a little too desperate for it to be entirely a joke. "White sands, a warm climate, and gorgeous landscapes might prove a lure."

Lucian's eyes glanced at Ash from behind his glasses. He smothered a cough. "She might have taken you up on that if it weren't for the daily rants you send. Besides, have you ever seen Cynthia after a day in the sun? Caitlyn was kind enough to send us the photos after Cynthia's stay in Undella. That woman burns like a Crawdaunt. No, I expect she'll stay in snowy Sinnoh."

Wallace looked as if he wanted to despair at that, but hid it well. He might have been stressed beyond belief after his time as Ever Grande Champion, but the Water Master was a phenomenal politician. It was difficult to pierce his smiling mask even amongst friends.

With that, the four men chatted.

Some topics caught Ash's attention like opinions on various Elite Four members' training objectives, to old battles that had never been aired, to the talk of various operations currently ongoing in Hoenn.

Aqua had secured the archipelago, although Brawly had done quite a bit of the heavy lifting alongside some of his Gym Trainers, and things on the mainland had gone quiet the last few days.

It was hard to pinpoint an exact cause—other than the sudden ferocity of the Ever Grande League as it swelled with Rangers and Masters from other National League regions—but Ash suspected it also had to do with news of Zinnia's absence spreading through whatever underground channels the organizations behind this used.

She'd been something of a safety net for Magma (if Ash's suspicions about her backer was correct).

A Ranger base was proving too effective or unraveling critical operations? Smash it with a Dragon Master.

A poaching operation was under threat? Smash it with a Dragon Master.

If their only objective was to enable the chaos and keep Ever Grande at its limits, then Zinnia was the ultimate solution. The League had to spread their Masters thin over countless square miles of territory. Zinnia only had to press at a few weak spots to tear the whole tapestry apart.

It was one of the reasons why the League was so diligent about monitoring Masters as a whole, but especially Nomads and Rogues. You never knew when one might rise up to cause trouble.

Drake sat around ignoring them all. His eyes were locked on that grimacing skull nailed to the mantle, and Ash thought he seemed lost. Whether it was memory or simply his own thoughts was impossible to say, but the former Champion seemed to have no interest in the idle chit chat.

But Ash soon grew more interested in Drake and Victor the Salamence than the conversation itself, even if he kept one ear open so that he wouldn't miss anything important. Drake seemed lost in his own little world, yet Ash suspected that he absorbed every word.

Curiosity mounted and he rose. Dazed and Plume shuffled behind him, although all three kept a respectful distance from Drake and his Salamence as they approached the fireplace. They stood for a few minutes and Ash kept his eyes on the skull.

What did Drake see in it?

"You survived your first assassination attempt. Well done. Lance taught you well."

Ash almost jumped when Drake finally spoke. It was like a mountain had risen to life with the way the room's energy shifted.

"Hopefully it's the last."

"Doubt it."

Drake didn't move except to pull four thick brown cigars from his dark coat, which he offered up to Victor. The Salamence cracked one open and breathed a little stream of fire over the ends, which lit up with bright embers.

The conversation went silent behind him, and he suspected—and Dazed confirmed by sending him a mental image—that all the other Champions had all turned their attention to the two of them.

Drake took a puff of one and stuffed two into Victor's jaws. The Salamence curled back up to watch the dancing of the flames. The Dragon Master offered up the other lit cigar to Ash without looking away from the skull. "Want one?"

"Drake!" Lance and Steven growled in unison. Lance came stalking up with Mael behind him, but the former Champion ignored both of his former students and just held it up for Ash. Watching. Waiting.

""No thanks. My mom would kill me."

Drake's lips twitched beneath his white mustache as he tossed the last cigar into the fire and watched it burn up in cinders. Victor grumbled at him, clearly annoyed at the waste. "Good. A mother should be more dangerous than any dragon."

Both Lance and Steven coughed at that. Dazed's eyes curled up in amusement, although Plume had gotten distracted by a mirror-like shield and was currently admiring her distorted reflection. When her perfection was infinite, what did it matter if only a fraction was captured?

Ash nodded up at the grinning skull. "Is that yours?"

Drake took a puff of his cigar and blew out a ring of smoke. He watched it float up lazily into the ceiling. Did he do this during meetings? Ash was pretty sure Glacia would kill Sidney if he tried to smoke inside Ever Grande's conference room.

Wallace didn't look particularly happy with it either, but he had a resigned look on his face. It reminded Ash of his own expression when he was dealing with Gary.

But Drake had built the place, so maybe he was afforded certain liberties.

"What makes you think that?"

"I've been to the Trench," Ash said drily. "I've met the Warden. You have eclectic tastes."

Drake finally looked at Ash. His eyes were dark and lined with wrinkles, weighted down by decades of experience at the top of the world, and swiftly turned back to the skull once he'd gotten Ash's measure.

But Ash had taken his as well.

While the former Dragon Master might have been somewhere in the ballpark of Professor Oak's age—albeit a few years older—just a glance told Ash that they were night and day. Professor Oak was warm and kind, but even when the fire of his younger years took over he felt remarkably human.

When Drake looked at him, Ash was reminded of an old Salamence surveying its domain. There was something wild in him. Something inhuman that had never been tamed by decades luxurious living in Ever Grande City, straining for the skies and spray of the salty sea.

Steven was the same way sometimes, though a reflection of Metagross rather than a Salamence. It seemed the first two Champions of the Ever Grande League had more in common than Ash had expected.

"He's not mine," Drake nodded up at the white skull. "Coral Buccalos. Said he wanted to watch over Ever Grande for eternity. I obliged."

Ash wasn't sure if that was quite what Coral had in mind, but he perked up at the name and looked at the skull in a new light. "That's Coral Buccalos? He was part of your personal guard! Water Master, first generation of the Ever Grande Elite Four…he ended up here?"

Drake shrugged and took another puff of his cigar. "Good man. Strong team. Where else would he end up?"

Victor the Salamence whined at the skull and flicked his tail up to brush against the shining dome. Whether it was a sign of respect or some bizarre good luck charm was impossible to say.

"Huh," Ash said, somehow still just as confused as he'd been when he'd first stepped over here. "Thanks."

Drake nodded once and went back to staring intently at the skull. Ash took the dismissal for what it was and stepped back over to the carved wooden Hoenn table to take his seat. His arm ached in its sling, but he was too busy thinking of the encounter to notice it much.

Everyone had mentioned how powerful Drake was, how he had single handedly reshaped Hoenn's political landscape and forged disparate cities into a (somewhat) stable union.

He had crushed the Unovan invaders and taken the fight to their own shores. He'd broken every enemy to stand against him and led the National League's forces in the Last War. He hadn't even lost a team member doing it.

Lance sang his praises day in and day out. Steven spoke of the man fondly. He was pretty sure that Rawiri had a crush.

Somehow, nobody had ever mentioned that he was a complete weirdo. Ash hid a grin at the thought, certain it wouldn't go over well here, but it relaxed him a bit. After the monumental reputation that Drake had attained, it was nice to see him as a person.

Albeit a strange one. Then again, who was he to judge?

It was like watching a pokémon pretending to be a man, and Ash found that rather comforting. Drake had no patience for words or niceties, and didn't seem to give a damn what people thought about him one way or another.

He was Drake, and that was enough. Everyone could take it or leave it.

Ash found it refreshing.

It is like peering into a mirror.

He blinked as Dazed's comment whispered into his mind, but was distracted by Lance and Mael grinning at him.

"He takes some getting used to," Lance chuckled, even if he kept it low enough that Drake shouldn't have been able to hear it. "Despite her best efforts, Glacia never quite managed to civilize him. Drake's still a nomad at heart."

Victor certainly heard if the lazy eye following them was any indication, but the dragon didn't seem to disagree. The Salamence just took another puff of his two cigars as Steven and Wallace watched disapprovingly.

"As charming as this has been, we do have a few affairs to discuss," Wallace said, bringing the attention back to the matters at hand. "Despite our efforts to keep the events at the Sky Pillar obscured while we pursue our investigations, word seems to have gotten out."

Steven's jaw clenched as he pulled a neatly folded newspaper from his suit pocket and tossed it onto the table. Lucian leaned over to check it out.

"Various publications have released stories about the attack on you, Ash," Steven said. "While they lack many concrete details—and we've checked over all the Rangers present to ensure they didn't leak the news—they've pointed the finger at Team Aqua. It's been a nightmare trying to calm concerned citizens and maintain the peace. Even our own Rangers have been in an uproar."

Drake stiffened at that.

"How could they have heard?" Ash inquired. "Wild pokémon if there are any that trade information with reporters, I guess. Either that or someone leaked it intentionally."

"We're leaning toward the latter, although Steven will be leading a team of investigators to try to determine the source. So far, each of the organizations publishing reports of the attack have claimed that an anonymous source sent them pictures, a basic breakdown, and other proof. Suspicious, to say the least, and we're hoping that it will provide yet another thread to chase."

"They'll have covered their tracks," Lucian said mildly. "Psychics might be able to glean some information, but—"

The great door cracked open again, and a shadow fell across the room.

Claydol stopped its lazy spinning. Girafarig's eyes lost their sleepy haze. Victor stretched and climbed onto his feet.

Lance, Steven, Wallace, and Lucian all shot to their feet and stood at attention in a flutter of capes and mantles. Steven shifted uncomfortably, awkwardly fidgeting with his hands until Claydol flashed blue and said something unheard to Ash.

Miraculously, it helped.

A short man who looked more at place on one of Hoenn's fancy beaches than in Ever Grande City walked in whistling a cheerful tune. His face was obscured by bushy white hair hidden beneath a backwards blue cap and a truly magnificent beard the color of snow. The man looked positively ancient, but the easy smile on his face shed decades.

The rocking chair's creaking silenced.

Drake rose from his humble throne.

Ash's eyes widened. Drake hadn't so much as twitched when he and Steven had come in, and hadn't deigned to pay Lance, Lucian, and Wallace any attention as they discussed matters of the greatest urgency.

But he and Victor stood for Charles Goodshow, President of the National League.

He'd met Goodshow briefly during the Indigo Conference, but it had been just a passing meeting. Lance had spoken of their encounter with Moltres, but Goodshow was a busy, busy man. Even that short meeting had shown Goodshow to be a warm man, kind and affectionate, and a symbol of what the League was.

Yet Ash knew so much more now. In the Last War, Charles Goodshow had proven himself to be a kindhearted force of nature and the epitome of what the National League represented—compassion tempered by the willingness to fight for what was right.

Together, Charles Goodshow and the first generation of the National League Champions—Drake of Ever Grande, Uther of Indigo, and Irene of Sinnoh—had remade the world with a gentle hand wrapped in an iron glove.

"My friends! It's so good to see you all," Charles Goodshow flung his arms wide as he entered. He spared a smile for each of them. "Drake, Lance, Wallace, Steven, Lucian…it's been too long since so many of us were in one place. And Ash Ketchum! It's been some time, hasn't it? It brings me joy to see you well after this tragedy."

Ash stumbled to his feet as well, even if his legs were a little unsteady from his time in the hospital bed and medications, and Goodshow raised his hand.

"Sit!" Goodshow pointed sternly back at the chair. Ash slunk back into it, although Plume fluffed up and distracted herself from the mirror to check out the one who dared to command her human. The Champions remained standing, heads bowed respectfully alongside their teammates for a few more seconds. "You're the last person to ever salute me, Ash. I know what debt we owe you. We can't repay it in our lifetimes. Not even in our successors' lifetimes! But we'll do our best to start here."

When Goodshow took a seat near the Hoenn table's eastern coast, the Champions sat as well. Drake came sauntering over to smoke his cigar at the table as well, but at least took the consideration to bring his ashtray with him so that he didn't mar the gorgeous surface.

"We've spoken plenty over these last few days," Goodshow said, shaking his head. "I know we've all read the reports A travesty! One of our own—a child—attacked with intent to kill. These last few years have been painful in many ways," he spared a glance for Lance, whose face might as well have been made of stone, "but this is a new low. We can't allow this to go unanswered!"

Lance's strong voice filled the room. "We will comb all of Hoenn!" he swore. "Sabrina claims she's sensed Zinnia in Kalos, but she detected her briefly in the mainland after Ash sent her packing. I've already reached out to Diantha to get a few of the Hunter Squads assigned to her case. If we're lucky, I'll be able to go and assist myself."

"The Dragon Master in Kalos, hmm?" Goodshow's soft eyes strayed to Drake, who tapped his burning cigar against the ashtray with a discomforted frown. "An international incident of this scale will need discretion as well as force. I'll inquire with Interpol as well."

"It's been a long time since I had a chance to test my dragons against Kalosian fairies," Lance laughed. "Maybe we'll have a chance to work out some of this stress! It's been too long since anyone put up a good fight! Hopefully Diantha and I will have time for a scrap."

Ash grinned at that, all the more certain in his upcoming decision. "She won't know what's coming for her."

"Diantha and I have plenty to talk about regardless," Lance said. "Durand's reports can't be verified by us, but they are…troubling, to say the least. It's not something we can give enormous weight to, but I'll give Diantha what Ash has provided us and what our own intelligence corroborates."

"Troubling indeed," Charles Goodshow said with a furrowed brow. "Yet another matter that will require great subtlety. Lumiose won't have an easy time ahead of it if even half of Durand's claims are true."

Silence.

"Our Rangers have already begun making inroads," Wallace cut in before things could derail any further. Perhaps it was just in his head, but Ash thought he seemed rather eager for Goodshow's attention. "I've already dispatched Sidney and as many squads as we can spare to establish an operating base in Lumiose while the Indigo Elite Four have been gracious enough to offer us their assistance."

"And Steven is doing the mind numbingly dull work of poring over terabytes of information," Lance chuckled. "I've never seen him happier."

"Metagross has taken point, but I've been offering my perspective while sitting at your side," Steven explained at Ash's questioning look. "You would be shocked at the sheer audacity of the corporate web! So many deals just waiting to be discovered by anyone eager enough to look. Such sloppy corruption! It's disappointing, really. You would think anyone willing to break the law would at least be competent about it."

"Or perhaps they just weren't ready for Stevagross to come in with the processing power of a supercomputer to dissect their every move!" Wallace smiled affectionately at Steven. Goodshow watched them all like a proud grandfather. "Your definition of competence can be a little unconventional."

Steven just looked flummoxed. "They only deal through a few layers of obscurity and subsidiaries. It's like they're asking to be arrested. We only had to cross-reference the activities and contracts of a few dozen companies to pick out the links once we had the serial number from the warp tile and analyzed the DNA sequences of the Tyrantrum. How reckless!"

Lucian just shook his head and stroked Girafarig's long ears. The creature's rear head trembled happily like when Ash found Sneasel's ticklish spots.

"I guess they had faith in their Dragon Master," Lance grinned, even if his jaw tensed briefly at the thought of Zinnia. "Misplaced as it may have been."

He reached over the table to offer Ash a fistbump, which he returned.

Goodshow plopped into a seat not far from Ash. The Champions took their seats as well. Gabite curled up on Lance's lap. Ash thought the little dragon looked a bit bulkier than the last time he saw him, some of the juvenility stripped away in favor of muscle and a sense of danger.

Gabite's evolution was near. Ash felt a burst of pride for Gabite, Devourer of Paperwork and Scourge of the Champion's Desk.

"There's a rot in Hoenn," Goodshow said wearily, for once sounding like the old man he was. "A cancer rooted in the memories of those who ruled before the League. We've tolerated it for too long. I hoped the allure of prosperity would satisfy their empty cravings, but alas! What can't be treated must be removed. We know what slumbers beneath our feet. We can afford no weakness."

"And what of the islanders? Are we certain that Aqua wasn't involved in this attempt? They stand to gain from any perceived weakness in the League," Wallace pointed out. Drake frowned at that. "It doesn't suit their usual tactics, but we know they possess the ability for subterfuge."

"Aqua has been involved in plenty," Drake said, his voice like gravel as smoke billowed out of his nostrils. "But I know their work. I know their leaders. This isn't their style—you'd be hard-pressed to find bigger fans of Ketchum within the League itself. They're on the warpath after this, even if the damn news is making things difficult."

Steven stroked his chin. "We know that, but will the rank and file accept it? Ash has earned their loyalty these past months. But Aqua hasn't made any friends. Unfortunately, I suspect our own will reward Ash's service with suspicion and anger."

"Steven Stone doing an emotional deep dive? I never thought I'd see the day!" Lance laughed and slugged Steven affectionately in the shoulder. Steven winced and rubbed gingerly at the site, which would probably bruise. Sometimes Lance forgot his own strength after being around massive dragons all day. "Good on you, man."

"It's only logical," Steven sniffed. "Cause and effect."

"And somehow even that's progress."

"Those emotions will need an outlet," Lucian said. "It's the way of things."

"Aqua is a prime target with the media whispering in our Rangers' ear, let alone twisting the opinions of the civilian population. It's a clever redirection," Steven said with a hint of Metagross shining through. It said quite a bit that it was so easy for Steven to bleed into that mindset even with Metagross (presumably) secure in their Pokéball. "We've reached a tentative accord with Aqua, and now our mutual appreciation of Ash's assistance may sink that ship."

Claydol spun over Steven's shoulder (at a respectful distance this time) and whispered into Ash and Dazed's minds. Lance's too, if the twitch of his and Gabite's mouths were anything to go by.

I love it when he's like this.

"But we do have a start," Steven continued. "Ash survived. He won. We know the identity of the attacker—although we must continue to be skeptical of information given that it was provided by Jacqueline Durand—and have confirmation of several key items that might offer us leads to her backers. She gave away everything in this brazen attempt. We have the missing pieces of our puzzle."

Wallace frowned. "Warp tiles…" he muttered. "Pilfered from several locations, but perhaps that's simply an easy out for those wishing to provide under-the-table assistance. Steven, you'll need to retrace those steps."

"We already have!" Steven said, clearly pleased with himself. It warmed Ash's heart to see him so in his element after the last few days of digging Steven out of his self-imposed hole. Who knew you just had to throw him a mind numbingly dull task to perk him up?

Actually, he should have thought of that days ago.

"I'm more concerned about the Tyrantrum," Steven said. "There are hundreds of warp tiles and their prototypes, but the Tyrantrum is a massive investment. Tens of millions of poké wrapped up in one destructive package, and the facilities capable of safely cultivating it could be counted on one hand. We've tracked the DNA samples to specimens synthesized by Retrograde Labs in Rustboro, although it doesn't perfectly match any recorded genomes. It's possible that there are links to their parent organization in Kalos as well. We don't have full access to their logs, although Diantha will be happy to oblige."

And there was Kalos again. How far did the web go? It seemed the upper crust and influential individuals suspected to be part of Magma's highly secretive circle had friends in all sorts of places.

"The Tyrantrum is risky beyond belief," Lance said, although he looked faintly jealous at the prospect. "Arrogance is a generous word for it. That's a glaring red flag to indicate the involvement of very powerful organizations. She must have demanded a high price for her service. I'm surprised she even released it at all against you, Ash."

"I don't think she had much of a choice," Ash admitted. "We outnumbered her, and she needed a force amplifier since Plume occupied Mega Salamance."

Drake's eyes locked on Ash at that.

Lance whistled and grinned like an idiot. "I wish I could have seen that! Plume knows how to put on one hell of a show," he said. "Speaking of Salamence, what about the Mega Evolution? We've locked down every known stone in the National League's territories for good reason."

Wallace peered over at Drake, his face a blank mask. "So we thought."

Drake grunted. "I put it in the records somewhere decades ago. Little Morma always wanted to get her hands on one. They had a few, but the Lorekeeper held the most valuable. Zenia confirmed that."

Lance glowered at the mention of the Draconid Elder. "I still think she's full of shit. Ash visits her a few days before he goes to the Sky Pillar and then gets attacked? The timing is suspicious, to say the least."

"You're the one who used to hit on the old bag of bones," Drake snorted. "Didn't think you were that hard up, but I guess Glacia shot you down one too many times."

Lance recoiled as Goodshow's bushy eyebrows shot up all the way to his cap. Ash and Dazed both hid their snickers…at least until Claydol projected an absolutely ghastly image into their heads that Ash was never going to speak of again. Ugh.

"Shut up!" Lance sputtered even as Wallace smirked. For a moment it seemed like Lance was the fourteen-year-old training under Drake rather than the Dragon Master he had become. "I told you that was just a joke, I wasn't really going to—"

"Children!" Goodshow raised a hand. Lance still glared at Drake, but composed himself. "We'll continue to investigate, but so far the signs lack any indication of organized Draconid involvement. Ash, you mentioned that you thought someone might have overheard your plans at the gala as well?"

He nodded. "I shared it in a ring of people. Let's see, there was Morma," Ash said, the swaggering Dragon Master always the first to pop up in his head when he thought of that night. Oh, if only he'd managed to battle her! Lance's face pinched. "Flannery, Roxanne, a few Devon guys, some randoms…"

"We'll review the camera footage," Steven said. "I signed an order to pull it the moment you mentioned your suspicions. Metagross and I will conduct interviews and piece the situation together. Drake, do you have any idea where Morma might be? She's elusive at the best of times."

"Wherever there's a fight to be had and scantily clad men to fawn over her." Drake rolled his eyes fondly. Victor the Salamence seemed to smile as he puffed on his cigars…although it appeared he'd accidentally swallowed one of the things. "Hell if I know. I'll send a Wingull after her with a letter. Briney's Peeko could pick an individual Magikarp from a thousand of its kind. She'll find her."

Lance laughed. "You know we have these things called phones nowadays, right old-timer?"

"You know I traded Glacia a dozen favors and my left kidney for every shitty love poem you ever wrote her, right?"

Ash watched with something between awe and horror as mighty, self-confident Lance shrunk at that. Lance had been a hero to him from the day he could watch the Indigo League's exhibition matches, and it was bizarre to see Drake standing here with every ammunition to remind the Indigo Champion that he hadn't always been the indomitable figure he knew today.

It is strangely magnificent. Do you suppose Champion-Mentor would share his work with us? It would be nice to have some new reading material. You all spend so many hours in the sea of dreams.

"I'll ask him later," Ash whispered to Dazed. Mostly because he couldn't wait to see the look on Lance's face. "But don't get your hopes up."

A shame. Truly.

Lance spared Ash a glance once he'd recovered from Drake's retort. His cheeks were still a little flushed (especially when Wallace leaned over to mutter a laughing comment into his ear) but at least he'd regained a measure of composure.

Steven patted his shoulder sympathetically. "For what it's worth, Lance, Metagross and I were rooting for you."

To be honest, Lance looked rather disturbed at the idea that Metagross had any interest in his love life. Then again, Ash suspected that Steven sometimes gave the imposing creature more credit than they deserved when it came to matters like this.

Don't forget me! I was your greatest supporter.

"You did help me with a lot of my lines," Lance acknowledged. "Thank you, Claydol. But I can't help but feel as if we've gotten distracted. Aren't we supposed to be setting a good example for Ash?"

Personally, Ash was just happy that the situation had improved enough that they could get lost in banter and old memories like this. He doubted they would've had a scrap of humor left if this meeting took place the same day as his battle with Zinnia.

"But let's focus!" Lance exclaimed, taking over the room once again. Drake watched with a little smile beneath his magnificent mustache as the Indigo Champion made himself known. "We all have our own threads to follow, but what of Ash?"

"We've spoken," Steven cut in immediately. "While Ash is opposed to the idea, I believe that he would be safest away from Hoenn. There are clearly parties interested in seeing him come to harm, although it is likely that they won't dare to strike again with such a powerful asset lost."

And while Zinnia might have survived their battle, she was lost. They'd thought him an easy target—and to be fair, without Lotus he would've been turned to dust in the first ten seconds, and his team had fought beyond their limits to keep him safe—but Zinnia was in exile.

With the League pressing down from all angles, it wasn't likely that she'd be able to continue operations in Hoenn anytime soon.

He soured at Steven's words. "I'm not going unless you give the order." Ash looked pleadingly at Lance. "I love Hoenn. I've loved traveling with Steven."

Lance hesitated. "I won't force you," he said slowly. "It would be the height of stupidity to attack you again after they've lost Zinnia. But there will be compromises."

Ash fought the urge to pump his fist in victory. That was Flannery's influence peeking through. "Name them."

"No more missions. And if by some twist of fate you do have to get into a fight, it will never be alone. You'll stick to the major cities until we can be assured that things are safe. Plume's fast enough that I'm not worried about you being ambushed, but you'll need to keep a tracker on at all times so that we can keep eyes on you."

That actually worked out fairly well for his short-term objectives. Ash had a hard time imagining Silver eking out an existence in the wilds. All the information he'd gathered painted him as a creature of the city, much like Gary. He nodded his understanding.

"I don't want you alone if you can help it," Lance continued. Steven nodded fervently, although Drake looked rather bored with the turn of the conversation. Ash suspected he'd go back to staring at Coral's skull the moment Goodshow took his leave. "I want a League agent with you at all times while you're in a city, or at least close enough to act in your defense."

"Gotcha," Ash said. It sounded a little stifling, but he was already thinking of ways around it. Well, not around it, but how to make it as painless as possible. Would Flannery be up for a brief vacation? At the very least they could get some good battling in!

Steven looked as if he had a few thoughts on the matter—and Ash didn't miss the uncharacteristically devious smile that flickered as he listened in—but said nothing.

"Steven, is the event you planned still on?"

"Assuming the last guest doesn't find herself preoccupied by other arrangements."

Lance smiled. "Good. Well, in that case I suppose I have my final requirement for you to remain in Hoenn, Ash."

"What is it?"

"Mega Evolution," Lance said with a grin. "Master it. Otherwise I'm yanking you back to Kanto. Lowly former Champion, present the box!"

Steven blinked. "Are you talking to me?"

No, the lowly former Ever Grande Champion in the room…oh, wait.

Even Wallace stared as Drake yanked a weathered old wooden jewelry box from his coat pocket and lazily tossed it onto the gorgeous polished table. "Drake, where did you get that? I didn't hear about any withdrawals from the vaults…"

Drake mostly ignored his concerns. "Ta da. Happy?"

"Very!" Lance beamed. He plucked the jewelry box and chucked it to Ash, who caught it with his good arm. "Check it out! It's a very nice rock."

"Drake, why do you have a Mega Stone?" Wallace despaired. "They're supposed to be registered!"

"Had it lying around from the war. Won it in a game of poker with Irene and Uther. She pulled it off the corpse of the marshal Kalos had in charge. Told me she had to yank it out of her Sableye's mouth," Drake grunted. "Found it wrapped in an old sock under my bed a few months back. Lance wanted it for the boy. I told Glacia about it, so it's fine."

Wallace just looked as if he wished to take a long and very strong drink at the moment. Ash got the feeling that the current Ever Grande Champion felt that way every time he had to interact with Drake—it was hard to imagine more polar opposites.

Lance ignored them both.

"You make it sound so undignified," Steven complained to Lance as Ash fumbled with the fine golden clasp.

Dazed was kind enough to open it with her psychic powers, saving him an embarrassing fumbling in front of Goodshow and the Champions. Even Lucian looked intrigued.

"Mega Stones deserve reverence! I've taken as many samples as I dare from mine, and the readings are truly bizarre. More similar to an evolutionary stone than one would expect, but subtly different in the most fascinating ways…"

"Steven," Wallace said gently. "I don't think now's the time."

"Oh, yes," Steven coughed into his fist. Ash was so, so glad that he was more himself again. That first day had been…rough. "Indeed. Apologies, Ash."

He waved off the man's apology and looked hungrily into the box as it popped open. Inside was a shimmering marble-like stone that burned like a bonfire to his senses. Ash brushed his finger against and felt the power which imbued it.

Life's mysteries bound in decillions of nucleotides interlocked and suffused by primordial power. Change! Potential! Yearning! Memories of before.

Ash pulled his finger away and peered deeper at the Mega Stone, hunger blazing within him. Dazed inspected it as well. Her pendulum trembled within her hand as she scanned it with her psychic perception.

The little stone was perhaps the size of a small fruit. It was comfortable to hold in his hand while still letting him clasp all of his fingers around it in a fist, but Ash felt the power within stir, like an ancient mind long awoken. It wasn't sapient, but it seemed to respond to his own presence with pleasure.

It wanted to be used.

Ash admired its warm orange sheen. It matched the vivid hues of Ever Grande City quite well, but he found particular interest in the marble-like twist that seemed to twitch within the Mega Stone. Faintly familiar, and Ash smiled widely when he realized it reminded him of a Pidgeot's glorious crest.

"Plume!"

She came clacking over on her talons, holding her head aloof as if expecting everyone present to admire her resplendence. Wallace clapped politely and eyed her colorful plumage and sleek feathers with a critical eye, although he smiled all the time.

If the Champion Coordinator found anything to criticize, he didn't dare voice it. Ash suspected if there was any fault to find in Plume, it was probably the threadbare cap atop her head. But she seemed to appreciate the accessory just as much as Ash did.

Plume pecked at the Mega Stone. Ash rolled his eyes. "Can you feel it?"

She shrieked loud enough to make them all (except for Lance, Drake, and Ash himself) jump.

"Your Pidgeot has a rather healthy set of lungs on her," Lucian said idly. Girafarig glared at Plume with both sets of eyes. "I didn't expect to be deafened today."

Plume looked down her curved beak at the Psychic Master and shrieked again.

Ash held up the Mega Stone so that Plume could admire the beautiful sheen, although she seemed just as interested in the twitching curl of color bound up in its center as she was her own reflection in the glass-like surface.

"We have Aggronite available, but we'll wait until Lairon evolves to assign it to you," Lance explained. "Mega Stones are precious. That's twice as true outside of Kalos. They're not a resource we can share easily. But welcome to the club!"

"Glad to be admitted," Ash said wryly. He thought back to the pin tucked into Steven's lapel and the shiny stone at its tip. "We'll need a bit more than this to Mega Evolve her, won't we?"

"The Key Stone is an essential part of the process," Wallace cut in. Charles Goodshow seemed content to watch them all speak with a smile on his face, likely happy that they'd wrapped enough of the business that they could spare this time. "It creates the synchronicity between trainer and partner, although Cynthia is better capable of explaining the phenomenon than I am."

Ash nodded. Steven had explained that to him after the raid on the Stone colony. Plume made a grab for the shiny stone and Ash just barely managed to yank it away with his good hand.

"You're acting like a Murkrow," Ash said with a laugh. Plume's eyes widened with outrage and she let out another fearsome shriek that stabbed right into their ears.

Steven winced. "Ever Grande has decided to provide one of our own Key Stones for you, although we'll have to construct a form that will allow it to be held discreetly on your person. We all have one."

Ash watched as Steven briefly exposed the small pin and its rainbow stone. Wallace winked at him as he pulled up the band of his floppy white hat to reveal the Key Stone embedded into its interior as a button. Lucian had his hidden in a bulbous socket at the end of his glasses, although it would ordinarily be hidden by his long sheets of blue hair.

Drake's was also hidden in his weathered old captain's hat that was almost as worn as Ash's. He only revealed it after Steven and Lance prodded him.

"What about you?" Ash directed at Lance.

"Oh, I found a good one." Lance grinned and pulled back his cape to reveal a small sheathe which held a curved bone-white dagger that he was all too happy to show Ash. It was plainly crafted from a discarded dragon fang, although it was difficult to tell what species it originated from. The rainbow color of the Key Stone shone beautifully at its pommel, although it was clearly a later addition. "I thought an old family heirloom could use some sprucing up. Isn't it awesome?"

Ash grinned as Lance handed him the knife, even if Steven looked more than a little concerned. "That's pretty cool! Have you ever gotten to use it?"

"I cut bread with it once. The curse of having a team that'll never let anyone near you."

He nodded sagely at that.

From there they went back to business. The Key Stone would be delivered to Ash when he visited Steven's apartment—that whole secret meeting was still planned, apparently, and Ash suspected that they intentionally held it back so that he and Plume wouldn't attempt any experiments without supervision.

A wise course of action, Friend-Trainer.

"Could Mega Evolution heal Plume's wing?" Ash asked. He was already imagining the glorious new form Plume would take, although the only images of Mega Pidgeot that were present in the League's archives were grainy ones from the days after the Last War.

Plume would far outshine that magnificent creature. He couldn't wait to let her prove it!

Steven shook his head. "It might have an effect once her wing has had time to set and heal properly, but Mega Evolution puts an enormous strain on a pokémon's body. It's an unnatural transformation, and unless the trainer and pokémon are truly in sync then it will be a painful experience."

"Mastered Mega Evolution is a straightforward process," Wallace explained. "Océane and I had a fairly easy time adjusting to the strain, although it can be…disorienting. The first time is the most difficult, but as your spirits become more familiar it grows smoother. Gentler. It would be dangerous to Mega Evolve more than once in succession, however."

Ash shared a glance with Plume, both suspecting that they'd have a relatively easy time with the actual transformation. They'd shared their experiences and brushed souls many times now as they manifested Concepts and expressed themselves to the world. No doubt Torrent would be in a similar boat if the League was ever fortunate enough to discover Kingdrite.

"It should be used as a last resort, my boy," Goodshow said urgently. "Mega Evolution has been a long tradition in Kalos, although it is the stuff of legends even there. The Houses hold it as a sign of prestige and providence's blessing, as do those fortunate enough to have come across the power on their own."

Steven rapped his knuckles against the wooden Hoenn table. "We like to keep our acquisition after the Last War under wraps," he said. "Most believe the Mega Evolution phenomenon to be restricted entirely to Kalos, if they're aware of it at all. It's nice to have an ace up our sleeve, and it prevents criminals and disreputable characters from attempting to acquire them."

"We've seen what happens when they get one." Ash scowled. Yeah, he could see why they wanted to prevent people like Zinnia from acquiring the ability—on her own, one of the experienced Elite Four members would probably be able to handle her pretty easily.

But with a Mega Salamence that displayed ability similar to Lance's Dragonite? Or perhaps a better comparison would be Drake's Salamence, although he'd never seen it in action other than in what few exhibition matches and challengers had made it to Drake.

No, a single Champion-level fighter was enough to tip the scales against a 'standard' Master, albeit it couldn't win a fight on its own. Not that any Master should ever be referred to in such a way. Each was a unique piece of art, every Master-level team a tapestry that could never be perfectly replicated.

And yet the Champions towered even above those lofty heights.

But if the League kept Mega Evolution hidden, then it would make bringing down Master-level fighters a dozen times easier when they could bring their own edge to bear. Every small advantage mattered in fights at that scale.

"Indeed," Steven said tightly. "It's not an optimal outcome. Zinnia is the first enemy we will have faced with Mega Evolution since the days of the Last War."

"Good fights," Drake growled. He stared Ash in the eyes, memories swimming across his expression. "But those pebbles are a crutch. You wouldn't believe how many Victor and I tore from their owners' hearts. Not bad in a bind, but it's better to rely on your own strength. It will never fail you. Magic rocks will."

Ash nodded along, a little shocked that Drake had strung together more than three words at a time. Still, he wasn't about to ignore advice from Drake. For a moment he'd seen more than the old brute and caught sight of the Champion he once was.

This was the man who led armies and forged Hoenn into one.

…he reminded Ash of Lance in that moment. There was no higher honor in Ash's mind.

They negotiated logistics from there, spoke of relations and trade and of assistance between the regions, and referred to various old stories and in-jokes that Ash couldn't understand. While Ash had a very thorough understanding of the Indigo and Hoenn Champions (well, Champion and his predecessors) by now, Lucian and Goodshow proved interesting.

Lucian might not have been a true Champion, but it seemed that he'd worn these boots plenty of times before. While he didn't interject frequently, he seemed familiar with the ebb and flow of conversation and always seemed to make his point at the opportune time.

Every word was cataloged. Every potential crack and flaw in an argument perceived. Lucian might not be a trainer of Cynthia's caliber (although that number could be counted both hands, with the majority of the fingers left over) but his mind was truly brilliant. It burned hot and ran fast as a factory's wheels.

Goodshow filled the room with light and warmth. While the Champions all respected one another and regarded the rest as friends, at times their disagreements ventured into arguments. They were passionate men, after all. You didn't become Champion without that flame.

But Goodshow never let it turn bitter. He assuaged, prodded, and tipped the scales of every conversation to ensure everyone softened and ended up somewhat happy. When one voice was drowned out he would draw attention to them. When voices were raised, he would redirect.

Charles Goodshow might never have trained a team for combat, but he possessed a strength all of his own. There was no other way he could have been the intermediary between three great Leagues and those outside for so long otherwise.

He deserved his title, Ash thought.

While Ash did his best to keep up, the fatigue steadily wore on him. He somehow found the trade talk and deep dives into the minutiae of managing a League fascinating (perhaps Steven really had corrupted him) but even his attention ran thin.

Steven was too busy giving a lecture on some new mineral reserves discovered by a Devon subsidiary to notice (and Wallace was bored to tears while Drake had tugged his hat low so he could shut his eyes for a bit) but Lance was quick to pick up on Ash's state.

"It's been a long day. I'm still a little worn out from my patrols earlier," Lance said easily. He looked to Goodshow for approval. "Mind if I take a breather and stretch my legs for a few minutes? I'll be back in a jiffy."

"A jiffy?" Wallace murmured to Steven, who looked rather put out that his rant had been interrupted. "Who says that?"

Oh thank goodness!

Claydol cried into their minds as Steven took a breath. The psychic then whined as Steven started right back up again, eyes shining with excitement as he went into the logistics of setting up mining camps which could coincide and benefit local wild pokémon populations.

Goodshow's eyes flickered to Ash and he nodded. "Of course! Take your time, Lance. I know these meetings can be a beating."

Take me with you!

Lance waved them off (and grinned at Claydol) before rising. "Ash, care to join me? I could use some company."

"Sure!" Ash said, grateful for the chance to dip out without making a scene of it. If this went on any longer he'd have to jolt himself awake with Lightning. And if he did that there was no telling how many drugs the doctors would have to feed him to knock him out.

With that, the two left. Dazed and Plume eagerly chased after them.

XX

"Thanks, Lance. I appreciate you getting me out of there. I needed a break," Ash admitted. "Not that it isn't cool to hear what goes on in the room where it happens, but…"

Lance shook his head. "Believe me, I get it. Not quite as exciting as you were hoping for, huh?"

"Meeting Drake properly was cool. We didn't get to talk much while Henry was flying me down from the Sky Pillar."

"The Sky Pillar," Lance whistled. "Drake took me there once. Never to the top, though, although he popped up a few times. He said that Dragonite and I would have to haul ourselves up there ourselves, but it felt…wrong. We made it halfway up before we felt like we were intruding."

"It's a sacred place." Ash shrugged. "Lots of power there. I learned a lot."

"I bet you did," Lance chuckled, although his expression grew sour as he recalled exactly what kind of education Ash had received atop the peak. They'd had opportunities to talk about the battle before (thankfully away from Ash's mom) and so he didn't prod again. "But yes, Drake is an odd one. He's a hard man to know. Sometimes he doesn't seem like a man at all—to be honest, I doubt he's happy to be stuck in Ever Grande for the next few days. He's always hated it here."

"He built the place," Ash said as they passed another history-laden hallway.

He would've loved to sit and pore over every manuscript and plaque that described the various artifacts preserved here (most of which were probably Drake's trophies) but didn't want to inconvenience Lance any more than he already had.

"Drake's done all sorts of things in the name of duty. That doesn't mean he likes them."

Ash looked at Lance closely then. Perhaps Lance had taken more from his master than he thought. "Fair."

"He's a great man," Lance said fondly. "Not many could have whipped me into shape like he did. I was such an ass back then! Oh, you would've hated me. Or wanted to beat my face in."

"You?" Ash laughed. "Steven told me stories, but I thought he was stretching things."

"I don't think Steven's capable of it. Claydol, maybe," Lance added. "No, I was on top of the world and felt invincible. You would've beaten me into the dirt when I first came to Hoenn, though! It would've done me some good. And you'd probably have been gentler than Drake was. My poor ego was left in tatters after he was done with me!"

Ash shook his head disbelievingly as Lance led him down some unknown hallway into Ever Grande City's labyrinthine network of tunnels and districts. They were headed downward, but not in the direction of the hospital as Ash had expected.

Lance offered Ash a wry grin as he led him down some unknown hallway. A Ranger saluted them, as did his Beautifly. Lance stopped and shared a brief conversation with the starstruck Ranger—Ash didn't know how Lance did it, but within the span of a minute he'd somehow proven that he remembered the Ranger's name from a meeting months before, asked after his family, and threw in a few genuine comments that left the Ranger radiant as they parted.

It boggled his mind. Could Ash ever do that?

If you wished. Your only limits are those you set for yourself. I am certain that Champion-Mentor would teach you such skills as eagerly as he would teach you battle.

Ash smiled briefly at Dazed. Plume had been returned thanks to the halls proving a little narrow for her wingspan, plus she didn't appreciate having to walk everywhere.

"How's your mom holding up?"

He blinked. "Pretty well. I'm a little worried that she's missing her classes, but every time I bring it up she tells me not to worry about it. But I guess she knows better than me."

"It's brave of her to make that leap," Lance commented. His cape fluttered behind him with every step they took. "It's easy to get stuck in the path you've walked for so many years. Not everyone has the courage to turn around and make something new for themselves."

"She's special," Ash said simply. "Unbreakable."

Lance looked fondly at Ash. "I took it upon myself to tell Delia the news, you know. She told me very nicely the importance of her being teleported to you 'right this instant'."

"Did she really?" Ash's lips quirked into a smile. "That sounds like her."

The Champion laughed sheepishly. "Well, nicely might be a generous word for it. I haven't been dressed down like that since…well, after Greenfield. Your mother might not be a scary woman, but you know she means every word she says. And it's even worse when she's telling you the same truths you've told yourself."

"She has a knack for that."

"It was a little nostalgic," Lance seemed far away for a moment. "It reminded me of when my mom still bothered to yell at me. But that was a long time ago."

Lance shook off his sudden burst of wistfulness as he took Ash down another hallway, then opened the door to reveal a cave carved from limestone walls. Craggy stone shaped around them to reveal a pool large enough for a Dragonair, but perhaps a little too small for a Gyarados.

"But enough of that! Welcome to Drake's Grotto! It was my favorite hidey-hole when Drake trained me. It's tough to find privacy in Ever Grande City, but this is one of the spots Drake carved in so he had somewhere to hide away from it all."

"It reminds me of Chinatsu's chamber," Ash commented as he took it all in alongside Dazed. There were various stone benches and platforms laid out for humans and pokémon to rest, and the water was cool and trickling, fed by some underwater spring. It was crystal clear and seemingly luminous in the faint light provided by the dim bulbs hanging above.

The cavern was simple and blunt, but that fit Drake.

"I wanted to share it with you while we had a moment. Ever Grande City can be a bit much, and I know it must be exhausting to have the spotlight on you all the time," Lance said. "I'll be sticking around Hoenn for a bit—although I foresee a trip to Kalos in my future—but I don't know how many opportunities we'll have to talk like this."

Ash nodded. "Who's holding down the fort while you're away?"

"Bruno is still here to help the Ever Grande League out, although he'll probably return home soon. Koga will take the lead. Will and Karen will be coming and going, but I want them in Indigo for the experience. It'll be good for them to run things for a bit without me there to cast a shadow over them."

"Things are still going well, then?" Ash asked. "As well as could be expected, anyways?"

Lance nodded. "All our fires have been put out…well, mostly. Chinatsu and Mamoru have been hanging out in her grotto for weeks now. At this rate I'm afraid they're going to saunter out of there with one of three things: a half-Ninetales half-Rhydon hybrid with a genetic hatred of my clan, a very confused thousand year old Tauros, or the First himself."

"Taimu wouldn't want that," Ash dismissed Lance's last concern with a casual shake of his head. "He'd want them to move on."

The Indigo Champion sent him an odd look, but shrugged Ash's comment off. He seemed to regard it as just one of those weird quirks that wasn't worth diving into.

"Well, we'll be busy cleaning this mess up, but I'm glad you'll be safe. Zinnia," Lance said, his face a little pained as some old memory came to bear, "isn't likely to come back anytime soon. But if she does, she'll be in for a world of hurt. She's made herself a lot of enemies. Not a wise move."

Ash grinned. "Speaking of Zinnia…"

Lance stared oddly at him. Ash supposed most people wouldn't be so excited to discuss their would-be killers.

But most people hadn't taken the trophies that Ash had.

"I have a gift for you."

"A gift?" Lance's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Catch."

Lance frowned as Ash tossed him an unmarked Pokéball.

"Remember how you've wanted a Dragapult?"

His teacher's eyes widened. "You didn't!"

"Well, it's not a Dragapult," Ash admitted, a wide grin on his face as Lance looked ready to shed a tear. The Champion marveled at the red-white ball, even if he didn't release the little ghostly dragon just yet. Probably for the best. "Seeker took out one of the Dreepy that Zinnia's Dragapult had and we recovered it after the battle. I thought about taking it on myself, but it did kind of try to kill us."

"It what?" Lance's eyes bugged out. He looked ready to toss the Pokéball in the pool, but Ash shook his head.

"It's a baby. Give it a chance. There's no way that my team would've been willing to work with it, but I've more-or-less forgiven it." Ash shrugged. "It's young. Malleable. Scared. If it's willing to turn over a new leaf, I'd say let it try. I just know that Sneasel would end up cutting it to ribbons. I'd rather avoid that."

Lance's eyes squeezed shut. "Ash, you're officially the best apprentice ever. But I don't know if I can accept this. If it laid a single finger on you or your team…"

"I won't make you accept it onto your team," Ash said. "Not my place to do that. But I'd consider it a favor if you at least give it a chance—you've given me so much, and I'd like to give back, even if just a little. Besides, I want to see Zinnia's stupid face when she realizes you trained her Dreepy better than she ever could have hoped to."

A ghost of a smile flickered across Lance's angular features. "You have a point there!" Lance said with a laugh. "Well, I make no promises. But I'll see if we can hammer something else out. What we are doesn't have to be what we become."

Ash nodded along even as a cold presence filled the back of his mind, curious as ever.

"But Ash, don't ever think you haven't given back to me," Lance said firmly. "Never think that."

He glanced away, but nodded nonetheless.

"That won't stop me from doing my best to keep it coming. Zinnia got off lucky, or I would've brought you her Mega Salamenceite too," Ash said absentmindedly. "And I would have had material for a mantle of my own."

Lance snorted.

"Next time," Ash said with a growl. "To the victor goes the spoils."

XX

What the shit, dude? An assassination attempt? That's stupid. Who cares enough about your ugly mug to do that? I haven't spent all this time feeding a bunch of obnoxious, smooth-brained reporters crumbs about your misdeeds just to see a bunch of stupid headlines that I didn't cause.

Stop being such an attention-whore, buddy. You're going to worry your mom. Call me when you get a minute, you prick.

Smell ya later,

Gary

Ash rolled his eyes, but made a note to call Gary sooner rather than later. His friend might be an obnoxious jerk, but that didn't mean he didn't want to leave him stewing in anxiety. That would just be cruel, and it might be beyond the scale of the prank Ash was planning.

But he outright snorted as he saw one from Jonathan, who'd responded to the brief update he'd sent out to Gary, Jon, Amelia, and a select few others.

Most of it was standard fare—they were worried, and Jon was asking if he needed to come down to Hoenn and 'beat up another dumb dragon lady once he beat up the first dumb dragon lady'—but Ash's lips curled as he reached the end.

WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL SUICUNE ON HER, HUH ASH? YOU RESERVE THAT JUST FOR YOUR BEST FRIENDS?

It was the last that truly caught his attention, though. Daisy.

Most of it was just her worries, questions about his health, and a few random comments asking after his mother and his team, but one part in particular earned an extra few seconds.

I know things are crazy right now, and you're probably drowning in attention, but I'd like to call in that debt you owe me if you're willing. There's a Normal-Rank Contest in Verdanturf later this week, and I'd love if you could come and join Lisia and I. We've already grabbed you a Contest Pass, so if you can make it we'd love to see you!

I've been worried about you. Let me know if you'll be able to make it. I understand if you can't, but I think it might be a really good thing for Hoenn to see you healthy and whole. You ARE healthy and whole, right?

Daisy went on along that path for a while, but it left Ash's head spinning. A Contest? It wasn't the worst idea, he supposed, and it would be nice to wrap that up. He'd have to think about it, but he also couldn't help but spot a potential opportunity…

Gary so owed him for this.

"How are you doing there, Oz?" Ash called out.

She gave a thumbs up even as she cycled power beneath the weight of one of Ever Grande City's great waterfalls which trickled into the grotto. It was no Final Falls, which Ash could hear thundering even from within the cavern over half a mile away, but this was one of the many torrents cascading down from within Victory Road.

Oz had escaped the battle with largely superficial injuries, and as such she was especially eager to return to training. Few other members of the team (except for Infernus, who had healed up within two days of his lava bath) were in any condition to spar with her, so she'd contented herself with charging up truly enormous surges of power beneath the distracting water.

Bruiser was kind enough to join her, even if he had been in a somewhat pensive mood since the battle with Kratyke. While he'd assured Ash that he didn't regret his manhandling of the Tyrantrum in defense of the team, serious battles had a way of leaving the Machamp rather somber.

He was lost in thought now, sitting peacefully atop a rock amidst the relentless pouring of the waterfall against his shoulders. Lightning arced and sparked, but such small discharges couldn't hope to penetrate his thick grey skin.

Machamp physiology was truly exceptional to manage such incredible strength, and the adaptations to compensate for the terrible forces their bodies subjected themselves to was enough to impart a great deal of toughness as well.

Oz seemed glad for the company, at any rate, especially as Torrent levitated closer to practice his command of the waterfall by cleaving it in two and making shapes from the resulting streams. The rest of the team were all arrayed around as well, although most were snoozing or half-passed out.

Ash was currently practically drowning in a puddle of black Sneasel fur, Seeker's tiny blue body wrapped around his neck, Tangrowth's happy wriggling vines, and Nidoking's broad chest.

Nidoking had taken countless heavy hits, and Ash felt a little sad every time he saw the bandaged stump at the end of his tail, even if the doctors assured him day after day that the tissue would regenerate relatively quickly. As far as appendages went, the tip of the tail was a small price to pay.

His leathery chest was still bandaged heavily, but Nidoking had practically hauled Ash in to lay up against him. Ash had finally gotten out of his sling, at least, and felt like the least injured member of the party.

Torrent was still down several layers of plated scales even after generous applications of Potions. Seeker bore a few small, fading cuts from Dreepy, although it had certainly ended up on the poorer end of that exchange.

While Tangrowth's injury had initially been a cause for concern—any wound dealt by a vengeful ghost was something to take seriously—it was fairly clean, all things considered. It had grazed a few organs, but Tangrowth was tough. If it didn't kill him in one go, it was something that he could bounce back from.

They'd initially been worried about lingering Distortional energies within the wound, but Ash had burnt it out with Fire when the doctors had left. He at least told the lead medical officer an abridged version of what he'd done, although the woman seemed…skeptical.

But you couldn't argue with the results. Once that was done, Ash had just plopped Tangrowth in a specially prepared field practically drowning in loamy soil and fertilizer to suck dry so that he could utilize Perfect Regeneration. No life was harmed in the process, so Ash was especially happy.

He hated seeing Tangrowth's round eyes turn sad and guilty when he stole life from others. Tangrowth was a giver in every way.

Perhaps he and Jirachi would get along.

At least Ash could boast a little when even the doctors were stunned at his rate of recovery. Tangrowth was a hardy species by nature, but they'd practically blinked and he'd been good as new.

As for Lairon, he'd mostly just suffered from dents and ordinary battle wounds. Kratyke's draconic fangs had pierced his carapace in a few places, but they were shallow. Lairon had known better than to trust his armor to deal with that kind of attack, so he'd leveraged his incredible maneuverability (at least relative to the Tyrantrum) to skirt around the edges of every attack while he and Nidoking parried the beast.

"Feeling better?" Ash tossed Lairon yet another ingot taken from one of Steven's painstakingly labeled boxes kept in his permanent quarters at Ever Grande. Lairon warbled happily before devouring it in a few crunches and wagged his stubby tail waiting for more. "Fine, fine. Only because the doctor ordered, though!"

Lairon's baby blue eyes lit up and he snatched the next out of the air. Sneasel looked distrustfully at the display after the way Lairon had convinced him to try eating one back when they were at Steven's apartment before the gala.

His armor had been damaged enough that he needed plenty of metal in his diet to rebuild and grow back to where he'd been. Lairon had taken to it with such enthusiasm that Ash was a little worried he'd get himself injured intentionally in the future—perhaps it was because of Oz and Plume's doting, but the steel-type seemed to enjoy being pampered.

Oh well. Ash had to admit that he loved treating Lairon to a few treats as well. The little guy had earned it!

Of course, that 'little guy' was coming in at around four hundred pounds the last time that Ash had checked. All the supplements and training and calories had done him good.

All in all, they'd enjoyed relaxing in Drake's Grotto. Ash had made a habit of stopping in as often as he could—he adored getting the chance to catch up with his mom and all the other visitors he'd seen from the Indigo and Ever Grande Leagues, but after an hour or so his social batteries were utterly spent.

He needed somewhere to go, and he thanked Lance every day for showing him this escape. With Steven having effectively sentenced him to house arrest in Ever Grande until his team was somewhat functional, this was the best he was going to get to true solitude.

It had been a little awkward when he once slunk into the cavern to find Drake himself there swimming with his own Kingdra and Dragalge in the shallow waters, but the man had effectively ignored Ash beyond a few small comments (mostly prompted by Ash) and they'd coexisted in solitude.

Ash had found it rather nice, actually. Drake had seemed a tad more relaxed with his team than he had in the boardroom. Tempting as it had been to challenge the former Ever Grande Champion to a battle, Ash would dishonor neither his team nor Drake himself by coming at him with anything but his best.

But damn it! His skin itched just thinking of that lost opportunity.

It is good to know that you will always be consistent.

Ash grinned. "What else would I be?"

Someone else.

"No worries of that," Ash said as he leaned further back into the pile of pokémon. "What else would I spend my time doing?"

Dazed had no answer for that, and they fell once more into a comfortable silence. Drake's Grotto was a peaceful place far from the troubles of the Ever Grande League. Ash could understand why the legendary trainer had carved this place out for himself. As mad as the last month or two had been, it had nothing on the chaos that had been rebuilding Hoenn during and after the Last War.

He would've gone mad trying to deal with all of those people.

Ash tossed a stray pebble into the pool, enjoying the ripples as they merged with the greater disturbance caused by the waterfall. "Isn't this waiting driving you all crazy? We've been cooped up here for too long."

Lairon whined for another treat. Ash obliged him.

"Well, you're having a good time," Ash said. "You'll hit five hundred pounds within a month if you keep this up!"

The steel-type puffed up, clearly pleased with the idea.

"There's just so much to do and nowhere near enough time to do it," Ash said. "I have so many ideas…Zinnia might not have realized it, but she showed me so much. We can learn from her. Her ferocity, the way that she manipulated the power of the Sky Pillar—that was her fuel."

We cannot shackle ourselves to the Pillar, Friend-Trainer.

"Of course not," he agreed. "But it's a starting point. That power was her edge, and we can take it from her. You felt it, didn't you? The weight of the sky, the tingle in the air. It was practically smacking us in the face at the Sky Pillar, but it opened my eyes."

Ash took a breath, sensing the faintest traces of that same power even in the stale air of the cavern. It was faint, like comparing distant stars to the glory of the blazing sun, but it was there. Perhaps he always might have been able to find it if he opened his senses to the world, but Ash doubted he ever would've noticed it.

It was part of the world, just as the sheer immensity of Groudon and Kyogre bled into the earth and waters. Background radiation, essentially, and he was so accustomed to it that he was simply blind to the power there. He paid no more heed to it than the insignificant details of his home in Pallet that his brain had learned to filter out ages ago.

The power was faint, more gossamer than the thick blanket which bled from the Sky Pillar, but it was everywhere.

"It's in the air. Subtler, but still present. Ready to be used. Ready to be wielded!"

Fantastic visions of turquoise flame and terrible destruction filled his mind, and Dazed used her psychic abilities to nudge his jaw shut.

You believe the Torrent can use it?

"Will use it," Ash corrected. "It's his birthright. We just hadn't realized it."

And that was only the beginning! Ash's thoughts trailed to the Moon Stone in his pack and the power which Nidoking and himself meditated upon day after day. The last few days of recovery had stalled their progress (they had a bad habit of falling into slumber the instant their minds slowed even a tad) but they inched ever closer.

It was still something of a mystery, but it was a mystery they were eager to scratch the surface of.

They talked more of the battle for a time and assessed their tactics, successes, and (most importantly) failures with one another, but after a few minutes an oppressive weight scraped against their minds.

"Lotus?" Ash called out to the keystone curiously. There hadn't been a whiff of activity from the keystone since the battle, although he'd expected as such. It hadn't taken any real harm, but Lotus had probably exhausted itself entirely with its heroic defense. "It's just us. You can come out if you like."

The weight grew stronger and battered against their spirits, although Ash didn't think it was intentional. That was just a side effect of Lotus emerging from its keystone. His team shifted and rose to stare at the Spiritomb as it sluggishly crawled out from the ancient rock.

Lavender gas flowed and settled. Green embers blazed. A jagged emerald line and matching eyes manifested.

"I'm so glad you're awake!" Ash's voice echoed throughout the cavern, contested only by the crashing of the waterfall. Nidoking and Torrent turned to face the Spiritomb with something uncertain in their eyes. "How are you feeling?"

No response, but that was what Ash had expected.

But it didn't matter.

"Lotus…thank you."

The Spiritomb's frozen gas stirred with uncertainty. Its flat expression twitched. Oblivion felt a little more distant with Lotus' being caught unawares.

Ash ignored the groan of his sleepy mind as he rose and fell to one knee before Lotus, who swirled with more and more uncertainty. The gloomy cavern's shadows darkened for a moment, but remained in flux. A little of its gaseous form retreated back into the safety of the keystone.

Those feelings intermixed with the pounding waves of apathy and hollowness and crippling evenness only intensified as the rest followed Ash's example.

Sneasel, Oz, and Bruiser rose and fell to one knee as well. Nidoking dipped his horn to the spirit while Torrent lowered his snout. Dazed raised her jeweled pendulum while Seeker fluttered atop Ash's head. Even Infernus (who was acting as a heater for them in the corner) manifested his blazing Plasma Sword to raise in salute.

Tangrowth's vines reached forth to grasp Lotus in a hug, although they phased right through the lavender gas.

Ironically, it was Spiritomb who looked as though it had just seen a ghost.

"You saved all of our lives at the Sky Pillar," Ash said with all the gratitude he could express. He radiated it into Spiritomb's souls just as he poured it into his words. Seeker chittered in agreement. "You saved me twice. You gave us a fighting chance."

Lotus' flat expression cracked a little. Confusion. A little pain. Helplessness. Joy. All swirled around like the writhing waters of a maelstrom. Memories burst into their minds.

He tore the infant from the mother, better them than him—

She failed to protect—

No, not his humans! His lightning surged, but fell upon flesh that reacted like stone.

Her village bound, captured, and escorted away to the Underground by rows of silver-armored warriors operating beneath the watchful gaze of flat red eyes—

Failurefailurefailure

"You're one of us, Lotus," Ash rasped. "You have been since we found you in that awful place. Everything we are from this point forward is because of you. Our victories, our losses, our every step…that's because of what you did that day. You've given us a new beginning. I can't wait to share it with you."

Roars of agreement. Rumbles. The swishing of plasma as Infernus waved his fiery blade around like a grinning maniac. Lairon's happy warbles as he leapt with such joy that he levitated. Tangrowth's happy rumbling.

Seeker fluttering near the Spiritomb to chatter at Lotus.

All the familiar feelings swirled about as usual beneath the sea of Lotus' apathy, but it cracked beneath Ash's words and the warm welcome it received. Lotus' face broke entirely, and the Spiritomb immediately sucked itself back into its keystone as Ash felt an overpowering embarrassment crack its facade.

And beneath it all the faintest note of hope.

It wasn't long before the lavender fog crept back out, although only a single emerald eye manifested to investigate them. When it saw that they were still there, Lotus grudgingly crept back out to the world. Perhaps its composure was recovered, but there was a little more motion to its gaseous body than before.

He spoke a little more to it, but Lotus seemed content to just sit and listen as Ash sat and strategized, joked, and laughed with the team. They rested a long while in Drake's Grotto, their little safe haven from the world, and Lotus soaked it in all the while.

But exhaustion reared its head as it always seemed to these days. Lairon was the first to go, gorged on snacks as he was. Even Torrent and Nidoking succumbed to the needs of their bodies, although both made it over to the pile to collapse with the rest of the team.

Only Infernus remained standing in the corner, his seemingly superhuman stamina carrying him along to continue honing his skill and control over his Plasma Blade to new heights. Ash was just grateful for the little openings constructed into the grotto to provide ventilation.

When Ash grew weary he moved to return Lotus, but was surprised to feel notes of disapproval in the waves of apathy begging him to succumb to oblivion. "You want to stay?"

The feelings intensified, although they were mixed in with general trepidation about being underground again. Spiritomb had been hidden from the sun and sky for far, far too long.

"That's fine," Ash said gently. He leaned back into the pile of his teammates and allowed his eyes to shut. "You can stay out as long as you like. Just wake me if you need to rest, okay?"

He sensed acceptance, and Ash tried to share the warmth suffusing him with Lotus even as the exhaustion called out like a siren's song.

A part of him feared he'd never reach this point with Lotus, but deep relief filled Ash as the Spiritomb watched over the cavern with Dazed.

No, not the cavern. The team.

Lotus held vigil.

It was a little ironic given how often he'd slept the past few days, but peace didn't come easily to him yet. At every moment a whispering voice in the back of his head (and not the usual suspect) tried to convince him that an enemy was at the door, or that danger lurked around the corner, or that their protections were flawed.

Sometimes it was convincing.

That feeling would fade with time—as Ash well knew—but for now it still bothered him.

Yet with Dazed and Lotus watching over him, Ash found not only sleep, but rest.

XX

"Are you certain? You could stay here for a few more days," Steven tried to convince Ash as they finished a bit of rehabilitation training. "A Contest doesn't seem like your scene, and the moment your involvement is leaked it's going to become a madhouse."

"I asked Flannery to check with Fino to see if he'd attend as a chaperone," Ash said. "He's up for it. And hey, maybe it'll convince people I'm alright. Cool some tempers. I've invited Professor Oak too, although I need to clear it with someone first."

Steven didn't seem overly happy, but he wasn't shutting it down immediately either. "What comes after the Contest?"

"I'm trying to work with Roxanne and a few other Gym Leaders to see if they'll be able to escort me around their cities. I'm still looking for Silver," Ash admitted. Steven knew that he'd been tracking the Rocket, even if the man seemed faintly flummoxed about Ash's obsession. But at least it meant he wasn't hunting Durand or Zinnia. No doubt he'd have to sit down and have that conversation eventually.

"I'm hoping he'll be around a city somewhere, and I figure it can't hurt to appear in a few different places while I check in with police and Gyms."

Metagross came to rest at Steven's side. Their blood red eyes hadn't strayed from Ash once this entire time. Ash had long since ceased to find it disconcerting.

Steven hesitated. "While Metagross and I will be auditing various entities these next few weeks, I will be happy to meet you whenever I can. I'll send over my schedule once things are finalized."

Ash broke into a smile. Nidoking grunted softly at Steven as he did a few gentle stretches with Bruiser. "Thanks, Steven. I appreciate that."

"We'll have either Lance, Fino, or one of the Elite Four with you as frequently as we can," Steven added. Ash nodded along, at least happy that he'd be able to needle them for the occasional spar or piece of advice. The former Champion shared a quick glimpse with Metagross as well. "But I wouldn't be able to sleep easily without assuring a little additional security."

With that said, Steven plucked a familiar Pokéball from his belt and offered it to Ash, even if he looked somewhere between less than comfortable and a tiny bit (and guiltily) relieved.

Ash took it and felt the weight in his palm. "Claydol?"

"Claydol will be a good protector," Steven assured him. "Claydol's complained endlessly the last few weeks, so I thought this might be an efficient solution to solve multiple problems."

Nidoking groaned.

"...you're dumping Claydol on us."

"You'll find Claydol to be a valuable asset, particularly defensively!" Steven protested, a little red in the face. "Dazed will certainly appreciate the extra training. And if it provides a little space for a week or two so that Claydol can experience the greener grass, all the better."

"Well, I won't turn it down. You know that Claydol is going to tell us all sorts of horrible stories without you there to cut it off, don't you?"

Steven grimaced. "I find that Claydol does that anyways."

True. "You've told Claydol about this, right?" Ash's eyes narrowed. "I'm not going to have a homesick Champion-level construct on my hands?"

"Of course!" Steven said, affronted. "Metagross and I delivered a telepathic message to Claydol earlier today."

Ash rolled his eyes. Words just weren't efficient enough, he supposed. Or it was Metagross who ended up delivering the bad news.

"Claydol was rather ecstatic, actually," Steven confessed. He looked cross for a moment. "I was a little offended, but I suppose the feeling is mutual. Ordinarily Claydol has the opportunity to pursue all sorts of unsavory outlets, but these past few months have been mission after mission."

He winced sympathetically. Nidoking sniffed Claydol's Pokéball with a tiny bit of suspicion, as if expecting the construct had already planned out some great inconvenience for when it was released.

"Things are getting better," Ash said. "Maybe you'll be able to relax a bit. These last few days seem to have done you some good."

"They have," Steven's gaze lingered on Ash's arm. It was almost fully healed, and they'd been able to let off the medicines so that his body could finish the rest naturally. He was just ready to go around for more than ten minutes without being utterly exhausted. "My mind's more at ease now than it has been in weeks, surprisingly enough. I suppose I have Dazed to thank for that."

Ash shook his head, hiding a smile. "I have no clue what you're talking about."

Metagross' red eyes burned a hole in him. "Sure," Steven said, shaking his head. "Sure."

An alarm on his PokéNav beeped. Ash sighed, feeling vaguely as if he were walking to his doom. While a Contest wasn't logically anything to be worried about (especially after the week he'd had), Ash still found himself nervous. That had more to do with the waves his presence would make, though.

Hoenn was still reeling after news of the attack had been leaked. While only a scant amount of information had been provided to the papers, even that little news (with Ever Grande's begrudging confirmation) had caused an absolute mess.

Despite the Ever Grande League's public and private position, Aqua had received the vast majority of the vitriol. They were a relatively known quantity (unlike Magma) which mainlanders already didn't feel charitable towards. Hearing that Ash's attacker wore their colors had only spiked tensions further.

He didn't want to deal with this, damn it. He just wanted to train! Ash couldn't wait for Steven to unravel this mess thread by thread.

"You should be going," Steven said, although he wrung his hands uncomfortably. "Stay in touch. I'm certain we'll be seeing plenty of each other in the next few weeks. And remember—"

"I'll be in Rustboro on the 17th." Ash laughed. "I promise."

"Good, good," Steven said, looking rather relieved at the news. "Well, Metagross and I have various interviews to conduct so we'd best be off as well. Would you like Juliet to take you? I know your feelings toward Bob."

Wasn't that the truth? Ash couldn't wait for Plume's wing to be fully healed so that they could fly together again. Until then they'd have to rely on League teleporters.

"No need for that!" A new voice rolled in like thunder. Ash lit up as Lance came swaggering out of Ever Grande City to stand outside the central building's great doors. He tossed a red-and-white Pokéball up and down as he grinned at them both. "I have an extra seat if you're interested. I know Saph has missed you."

"Yes!" Ash blurted out. No doubt Bob would just make snide comments about his arm the whole time, and he really wasn't in the mood. Not when half his team was still recovering. This Contest was going to be…challenging because of that, but Daisy had sounded so excited he just couldn't tell her no. "But where are you headed?"

"Well, I'd love to see your first Contest," Lance admitted. "I did a few back in my day, you know. Wallace dragged me into it, but I had a better time than I expected. Lev loved hamming it up for the audience! You'll have fun. But I'm going to do a fly over of Route 119. There hasn't been any sign of poachers recently, but I've found that catching sight of a Dragonite dissuades them from coming back."

"Understandably so," Ash said drily. He returned Nidoking and Bruiser after a quick warning, then looked up at Lance as the Champion released Dragonite and Saph, who cried out happily at the sight of Ash. "Alright, let's do this! Plume's going to be so mad at me."

"I'll keep it a secret if you will."

And with that, Ash mounted Saph's saddle and laughed as she took off alongside Dragonite in a rush of wind.

Verdanturf awaited them.

A/N: Well, that took a little longer than expected, but it also ended up being about 20,000 words longer than expected. So I guess it balances out. This chapter was a tough one to write—there was SO MUCH TALKING. One downside of Ash having an actual social life is having to deal with the fallout of major events like this, along with setting up the next phase of the story. Hoenn is coming to an end in some ways, although we still have a little time ahead of us.

I do hope you enjoyed the chapter, though! It ended up not being exactly what I wanted, but it felt like I just needed to get this hurdle over so that I can open things back up and move closer to what we saw before the attack during the Wallace Cup.

There were a few scenes/communications that I've had to put off for the next chapter, but I'm very eager to include them! With any luck it'll be shorter, although we know how that song and dance goes.

If I haven't responded to your review yet for the last chapter, I apologize! I've been trying to work my way through and get back to everyone (along with sending out Discord links) but between writing, reading, and real life it's been taking me longer than I hoped. But it's on my priority list over the weekend, so I hope to get to everyone soon!

Traveler officially hit 10,000 reviews last chapter and I am completely blown away by the enormous response! It made my whole year and was such an exciting note to go out of 2023 on. Here's to another year of Traveler (and likely several more).

Thank you so much for reading! And thank you as always to the mods for all of your help and feedback with the chapter!