Chapter 1: Renegades

"Are you ready, Mr. Yamamoto?" the young man asked. "W-we've got him ready, in the room just outside. We can escort him in if you're ready."

Ash nodded, "Yes, that's fine. You followed all of my instructions, right?"

Eric nodded, "Yessir— we confiscated his Pokemon at Lavaridge Town, hypnotized him for the journey and then only awoke him once we were safely underground." Then he held up a hand and blurted out suddenly, "And at least a mile into the catacombs!"

Ash smiled with a shake of his head, "You're doing fine, Eric. I'm sorry I made you repeat the instructions so many times…" He scratched at his head and laughed, "I guess I was just a little anxious."

Eric seemed to lighten a little and his shoulders lifted. "Th-thanks for saying that, sir. I'll just… have them bring him in, then." And he turned and shuffled down the narrow corridor that wound away and to the left. Ash gave a dull glance to the two chairs that he had dragged into the caverns and placed in this little chamber, next to his sleeping pallet. He didn't know whether to sit or to stand, and he had a feeling that he'd just change his mind the moment he walked into the room regardless of what he chose. He hadn't expected this… hadn't expected any of it.

But he didn't have time to get lost in reflection, because they appeared down the corridor suddenly, one man in front of and behind him. As ordered he would not have eaten in two days, and was by now weak from hunger and exhaustion. In some part of his mind he shuddered at the way the rest of him regarded the thought— natural, unflinching. The times had done their work upon him, and as he stared into Hibiki's face, his change in expression told Ash that it must have been evident in his own. "Ash, you look…" he trailed off.

"If I look worse for wear," Ash commented, grimly but honestly, "then the years and your sins can't be far behind you, Hibiki."

Hibiki grimaced as the two men escorting him forced him into the chair at the front of the chamber, the one facing away from the passageway. He seemed to wilt a little beneath the flickering torch light as they took positions behind him and at the threshold, respectively. Then he shook his head, "My sins… the way you talk, you'd think I'd have known what was about to happen."

Ash crossed his arms, and glared, "You were my first pupil. More than most of them, you should have known that that was not in the name of innovation, or the advancement of our kind. You were there with me, when we stormed the radio tower in Goldenrod, you fought beside me against the fanatical remnant of Team Rocket, so crazed to see that man return that they murdered everyone inside— men, women, and children."

Hibiki's face strained with emotion, and he riled in his chair a little, "I never met him! I never knew what he was like, I didn't— I couldn't…" He shook his head and sighed. "Look, I'm not even going to try to explain myself to you, Ash. The first time I tried to put together a meeting with your people they beat me within an inch of my life and left me for dead, and nothing I said could make them stop. Nothing I said could satisfy them. I don't think there's anything I can tell you that will make you feel better about this. It just… is what it is, now."

Ash turned and spat, unable to look the man in the face. "Two of those men watched as their children were dragged away to be thrown into the ranks of the Psycho Squad, and when one tried to stop the officials from taking his teenage son they shot the boy on the spot and ordered his body left there as a warning."

Hibiki hissed through his teeth, frustrated, "Ash, you know I've never had anything to do with his Military Police."

Ash turned and struck Hibiki with the back of his hand, striking him across the face. "You have something to do with all of this, Hibiki!" he roared. "When you let yourself be party to Giovanni's designs you condemned yourself right along with him! I mean, come on! At best he was just trying to profit off the subjugation of a complex species, but I guess even that was too limited for his imagination!"

Hibiki spat out the blood that was pooling in his mouth, and anger clouded his eyes as he said, "You think I wanted things to go like this? I couldn't have even imagined it! Stealing the powers of a near god-like Pokemon... it's ludicrous!" Hibiki shook his head. "You really believe I would have supported this if I had known the truth?"

Ash's jaw clenched and his own voice trembled with rage as he spoke low, "It doesn't matter what you would or wouldn't have done, Hibiki. You did support it." Ash felt his fingernails dig into his palms and an absent part of himself wondered if he might draw blood. "In a little less than a year and a half, he's made our world a living hell. The obedient masses live in poverty, any dissenters are jailed or killed, and those of us who want to get away from it all have to live in holes in the ground."

"What are you gonna do about it, Ash?!" Hibiki bellowed. "What?! You wanna do what your friends did, you wanna beat me senseless? You could always do what the P.S. are doing— have a Pokemon wipe my identity from my mind! It'd be a kind of… a kind of poetic justice, don't you think? Or you could just skip right to the main event and kill me!" His outburst disarmed Ash, made him remember himself, and suddenly he felt shame for letting his emotions get away from him. Hibiki went on, though his voice was resigned, "Because, honestly, unless that's what you plan to do there's no point in dragging this conversation out. You either listen to me, to what it is I came here to tell you, or…" he trailed off.

Ash could only stare at him now, unsure of what to say or do. He hadn't thought through just what would happen when the man actually stood in his presence. The past year had been a whirlwind, with little time for any real forethought. He had spent most of it fleeing for his life, hiding in caves or forests or on the properties of whoever would allow it. Four months ago he had managed to stow away on a sea vessel bound for Hoenn, and there stumbled upon a handful of fugitives on the run from the Military Police (grudgingly known as the Psycho Squad by the people). They had put their heads together and managed to dig out some catacombs in the rocky northwest of the region, and had been hiding there ever since.

Hibiki took Ash's silence for permission, and began to speak, "After that day I was forced to work with the Alpha Division at Alpha Corps. We all were— the Baum's and me. They made us use those machines to flog the minds of psychic Pokemon, removing their identities and turning them into tools for the company's use. Anyone who refused was killed immediately and replaced on the 'assembly line'; they didn't even bother to drag away the bodies. Hilbert was one of the first…" he paused for a moment, paling as he spoke. "When he said no, they shoved a rifle into his mouth and fired until the clip was empty. Rosa turned and used her machine to have the Pokemon she was supposed to work on fry her mind and stop all bodily function."

Ash's anger was entirely diffused now, and shakily he took his seat. Hibiki looked him in the eye, "You wanna know how the Psycho Squad was made? How they got their name? We worked those machines until the fuel ran out, and then they used the Pokemon to do to half the people working the 'assembly line' what we were doing to them with the machines…"

Ash took a deep breath, "How did you get out of it?"

Hibiki shook his head, "I was one of the lucky ones… I had to keep my brain so that I could continue to butcher others' minds. They call them the Psycho Squad because there's clearly something wrong with the Military Police, like they've lost their minds. People don't realize that that's exactly what's happened. Those people… they'll probably never get their souls back."

Ash sat forward, "Why, Hibiki? Why is he doing this?"

He stirred anxiously, "I don't know. Not for sure. He's creating an army, and it's already spread to so many of the other regions. Kanto, of course, is entirely under his control now, and so is Kalos at it's back— they share the same landmass, after all. Johto and Hoenn aren't far from being overrun, and I think Sinnoh is the only one that's been able to mostly keep it's freedom— being an island, and all. But I don't know anything about Unova or the rest…"

Ash dry-washed his face. "Takahashi said something about wanting to master all of the legendary Pokemon, that that's why they wanted me. I'm really the only one who knows where to find all of them— most of the ones we know about, anyway."

Hibiki nodded, "They're still looking for you, and fortunately for you they have no idea where you are. They still think you're in Kanto somewhere. But I don't think they're looking very hard anymore… Giovanni's new… abilities have already helped him to locate a couple."

"How do you know?" Ash asked.

"Because as soon as we produced a new crop for the P.S. we were told to send them to various locations across the globe," Hibiki answered. "They're just waiting until their numbers are high enough to try at the Pokemon."

Ash crossed his arms, "They won't get far. The psyche's of even the smaller legendary's are massive when compared with the average Pokemon or human-being."

Hibiki sighed, "They won't need those machines or the brain-washed Pokemon for the legendary's, Ash… Not with what Giovanni can do."

Ash's eyes went wide. "Y-you're not serious."

"You remember the riots at Alpha Corps., don't you?" Hibiki asked. "Back when the Kanto campus was first 'voted' the headquarters for it's government?"

Ash nodded, "Right, that's when they first announced the compulsory drafts for the Military Police. People went nuts, brought Pokemon and weapons and tried to literally destroy the place. The news said the advance divisions of the Military Police were the only thing that kept…" Ash trailed off, realizing what he was just about to say was probably propaganda. "Oh, but…" he muttered.

Hibiki nodded and completed the thought for him, "But you know not to believe everything you hear on the news, don't you? There were no advance divisions. There was just… Giovanni. I saw the whole thing from inside. He stepped out the front door, stretched out his hand, and with the clenching of his fist the entire mob just… dropped dead. It wasn't flashy; he needed it not to be flashy, so he could tell people whatever he wanted. But I could hear it, and I could feel it. I don't know what the limits to his powers are, but I'd wager it would take a lot to find out."

Ash stood up again and crossed to the back of the room, needing to take a little space for himself from what he was hearing. The constant flicker of the torch-light messed with his eyes and gave him frequent headaches, and with Hibiki's words adding nausea to it he was now becoming increasingly uncomfortable. He turned to look back at Hibiki, "Why are you telling me all of this?"

The man's eyes fell, and he stared into his feet as they stretched out before him where he sat. "What I did was… wrong. I knew it that day, and I know it now. And everything I've done since is worse than wrong, it's sick. Maybe it would have been better to do what Hilbert and Rosa did, as terrible as that was. I don't know. I just… I can't…" he paused trying to find the words, and instead simply commented, "They let me keep my soul, but I'm not really sure I didn't end up losing it along the way."

"What do you want, Hibiki?" Ash asked, at a loss. "Do you want me to forgive you, is that it?"

Hibiki shook his head. "No, that's… that's not what this is about."

"Then what?" Ash prodded.

"I came because… she sent me," he answered.

Ash's eyes narrowed, "I don't know what that means, Hibiki."

"Yes you do," he retorted unfeelingly. "You might be able to hide from the world down here, and even from the people hiding with you, but you forget that I know you. You're not running for your life, you're running from it. Things are bad now, but they're about to get worse and the one person who might be able to stop it is you."

Ash shook his head, "If she really believes that… then why… why didn't she come herself?"

"It doesn't matter what she believes," Hibiki told him. "It doesn't matter what I believe, or what anyone else believes. All that matters is what you believe, and what is true. We might be the only two people left alive who know you well enough to know that you're still stuck on the idea that because people died, because people made terrible choices— that somehow, you failed."

Ash felt his brow furrow at that answer. And he would almost have tread on into the dialogue at hand if some part of him hadn't been pricked by it. He turned his head to get a closer look at Hibiki, to see if he could get a good look at his eyes. Then he simply commented, "You didn't answer my question."

He made a face at that, "Y-yes, I did."

Ash crossed his arms again, "No, you didn't. Sure, you managed to grab at something I said to get there, but you were in too much of a hurry to take this conversation to it's point."

Hibiki laughed. "Fine— she sent me because she knew you'd refuse to meet with her if she asked."

Ash shook his head, "That's probably true, but I don't buy it." And he began to cross the room to where Hibiki sat.

"W-what? What are you talking about?" Hibiki countered as Ash took the man by both shoulders and thrust his face uncomfortably close to his. "W-what are you doing?" Hibiki protested.

"I'm getting a good look at your eyes," Ash told him. "You've known me for a long time, Hibiki, but you forget that I've known you just as long. You're just as observant as you claim but that emotional crap you just spewed sounds more like somebody else."

"What are you talking about?" Hibiki commented, beginning to struggle against Ash's grip. "I just told you why she sent me! Will you stop?"

Ash sighed and let go, turning away. "Yeah, and you're answer was about as full of it as Hibiki is right now. You're using him as a lodestar to track my position, you sent him in so you could locate me unawares and then teleport in. So why don't you just drop the charade and—"

A flash of purple light lit the room for a moment and suddenly a young woman stood next to Hibiki, an Alakazam standing right behind her. Her cream-colored skin was still quite fair, but the last few years had etched a few care-lines into her brow and near her eyes. Her once long, feminine and raven-black hair was cut short at the ears, and swept over her head onto her left side— a stylish choice that was true to the spirited young woman he knew, but perhaps a little utilitarian as well (if the rumors about her… Resistance, were true). Still somehow slight of frame and vigorous of presence all at once. Even so, he could see that the times had aged her a little beyond her years.

The two men guarding Hibiki and the room were more surprised than anyone and they started at the arrival of this new person, but Ash held up a hand indicating for them to hold their positions. Hibiki looked up at her with a knowing expression, "I told you he'd figure it out."

She gave him a dry look, "He only caught on when I started talking for you."

Hibiki shrugged, "You shouldn'a talked, then."

She swatted his shoulder, "I was just trying to—"

"Stop, stop," Ash said, holding up a hand to silence them and pinching his sinus passages with the other. "I don't know why you two are working together, and I really don't care. I just wanted to be left alone down here—"

"Pff," Hibiki guffawed. "If you wanted to be left alone then why did you rescue every runaway you found out here in Hoenn?"

"I was just trying to—"

"You were trying to help," Suma finished for him. "Because that's what you do, or at least to a point. Actually you want to do a lot more than that but you won't because you're angry at yourself and scared that you'll mess it up."

At that he leveled a finger at her, "Look, just because you can read my mind, it doesn't mean you—"

"I don't have to read your mind to know that, Ash," she retorted. "I know it because I know you— the last time something like this happened you went and hid in the mountains for a decade, but we don't have a decade to wait for you to get over yourself." She crossed the room and stared him in the face, angry tears beginning to roll down her face. "He's coming for them, every legendary Pokemon we know of. And if we can't figure out how to stop him? You're the only person who can find them, who can warn them. Maybe the only person they'd even listen to."

Ash drew in a deep breath and let it seep out in a low growl. He looked past her at Hibiki, "What does he want with them?"

The man shook his head, "I wish I knew. I worked closely with him for a while, but even if I had been able to see clearly back then, I doubt his goals now are what they were then."

"What do you mean?" Ash asked.

Hibiki's brow furrowed, "He's different, now. Before he was just cold, calculated, sociopathic. But now… he thinks he's a god or something. All of those qualities have swollen, grown too big for a human persona. I wouldn't even call the man 'Giovanni' at this point… and maybe I wouldn't even call him a man anymore, either."

Ash considered what he said and then gave his attention back to Suma. She just stood there, glaring at him and weeping silently. He sighed, exasperation building up, and shrugged his shoulders. "Look, you're practically psychic now. Why can't you just—"

"Because I'm scared, Ash," she interrupted. "And it's not just me, there's a whole world full of people out there, terrified out of their minds."

And that pulled at something inside him, and a great swell of emotion that he had kept long buried suddenly flooded his mind. He turned and practically roared as he threw his fist into the cavern wall, probably breaking a knuckle or two but too emotional to really care at the moment. "What do you want from me, Suma?" he bellowed. "Do you want me to save you, is that it?! Don't you realize I can't save anyone? Look, just look at how many people have died because I couldn't save them— Pikachu, Misty, Hilbert and Rosalind, May, your coworkers, my wife; we still don't know where Brock and Dawn and Ryuji are, or if they're even alive." He waited a moment, letting that last name sink in and only a little comfortable with his insensitivity. "And lets not forget the thousands of people killed over the past thirty-five years because I couldn't stop this or that criminal organization in time, or prevent the catastrophes they've caused."

Suma threw a fist of her own, but she must have forgotten she was still psychically linked with Alakazam, because instead of a vain flap of her right arm a burst of psychic energy erupted from her hand and pelted the side of the cavern, shaking the room considerably. Perhaps the most disturbed by her outburst were the guards, both of whom lost their balance and fell on their backsides. As they rose they started for Suma, but Hibiki grabbed at both of their wrists, emphatically shaking his head at them both. At that they both hesitated and waited a few feet away.

"I didn't ask you to save me, Ash!" she answered him, her voice cracking against the strain. "And if you have really believed all these years that that's what you were supposed to do, then your own stupid and unrealistic expectations are the only reason you're so pissed at yourself."

"Then what do you want?" Ash roared, crossing the room to stand before her again.

"I want you to help me!" she cried, striking his chest with her fist. Once again, she had forgotten her psychic link with Alakazam, and the blow sent a burst of psychic energy through Ash's body and sent him sprawling across the floor and rendering him unconscious.


His vision was murky as he came to, and his head throbbed— probably from scraping against the cavern floor. Voices, muffled at his still returning consciousness, chattered above him. "…still breathing."

"It hasn't even been a minute, yet, Hibiki…"

"…knew we should have done something when we…"

A muffled laugh, and then, "If I hadn't stopped you, you'd be crumpled up on the ground right now."

Another voice interjected, but somehow Ash thought he didn't hear it with his ears. "If you'll stand aside, I'll untangle his mental faculties." Ash heard the shuffling of feet around him and then, suddenly, he could both see and hear again. He took a moment from where he lay to survey the group before him— his guards, Frederick and Gunter physically debated with Hibiki and Suma for rights to stand closest to him, while in front of the four of them and a foot from Ash stood Suma's Alakazam. The corners of his mouth turned upward, and he realized that the Pokemon was smiling at him. "I apologize for not intervening sooner. I should have anticipated her emotional behavior much earlier."

Suma groaned at his words, but Frederick and Gunter both gripped their ears vehemently. "I can hear it but I can't hear it!" Freddy grumbled. "It feels… wrong."

Gunter searched the room, still gripping his ears, "Who's talking?!"

"Relax, both of you," Ash chided, rising to his feet. "The voice you hear is just the psychic projection of Alakazam's thoughts." Both men seemed to relax upon understanding it, but were probably at this point pretty well distressed. Ash sighed and waved them off, "Go on, you could use a break."

Frederick lowered his hands, "No way, I'm not leaving you here alone with—"

Ash simply raised his eyebrows and said, "Go." Both men glanced nervously at each other, but complied. The other two shared their own nervous looks and Ash shook his head. With a supplicating gesture, he said only, "Sit," and sat himself upon the ground cross-legged. Suma and Hibiki sighed and joined him, but Alakazam kept his feet.

"I can't really…"

Ash smiled and waved off his concern. "Don't worry, just… make yourself comfortable." The Pokemon nodded and shuffled off into the corner. Ash looked wearily back at the two, young people before him. He shook his head again, "You guys are gonna wear me out."

Suma laughed, though seemed still a little nervous. "I'm sorry I, you know… Hit you with a blast of psychic energy and boggled your brain… and stuff."

He shrugged with a sigh, "It… happens? Whatever. Don't worry about it."

She nodded, then looked at Hibiki, who gave her an urging nod towards Ash. She made an anxious face and then gave her attention back to her old teacher. "I didn't come here to ask you to save us, Ash. I came to ask you for help. I think I know you pretty well, but I also think that by now you should know me pretty well. Like, you should know by now that there's no way I could just sit by and watch the world fall apart. That's not who I am."

Ash smiled, somewhat sadly, "Yeah, I know."

She nodded, emotion returning to her eyes. "But unlike you, I'm not under any illusion that I should just try to save the whole world… and yeah, it's because I know I can't do it. But I've got to do something… I just don't want to do it alone."

Ash felt himself press up against the wall, lifting his knees against his chest and clenching his fists tightly as his arms wrapped around his legs. "I… I don't know, Suma. I don't know if I can do it."

"I don't either," she told him simply, to his surprise. And perhaps for the first time since she arrived he allowed himself to look her in the eye, as she went on, "I have no idea if we can succeed. But I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't try… and I need you if I'm gonna do it."

Ash laughed, somewhat bitterly, "Me? How am I supposed to be any help to you?"

She took a deep breath, as if her answer was harder for her than she liked, "Next to Ryuji… Next to Ryuji, you've probably been the most important person in my world, Ash. You were my teacher, my friend… one of the closest things I have to family. Even if you didn't do anything… I would just want you there for me." Tears began to stream down her face again, and her eyes fell to the ground. "I haven't been able to find him, Ash… I can't find him. I've spent every spare moment I have searching, physically and psychically, but I don't know where he is. I don't think he's alive anymore, that they're alive anymore... I just want to find him so I can..." she trailed off. "And even if he was here… I'd still need you. I'd need you both." Small sobs began to wrack her slight frame, and Alakazam came to stand beside her, placing a comforting hand upon her shoulder. "If we have to die," she cried, her voice breaking now, "please… at least let me die with the people I love."

He could only sit there now, watching silently as she sat there weeping. She tried to wipe at the tears with her sleeve but they just kept coming and it was no use. And at last he thought he understood her pain, and maybe even the pain of his old friends Misty, Brock, and so many others. Life was, after all, lately so full of suffering… and to have to endure that, and the fear that came with it, alone? No, perhaps it was his own pain he finally understood. It wasn't just failure he had been running from. It was the loss, it was the sudden and ripping loneliness.

And now, of course, he knew what he had to do. Daggum young people, always making him do stuff… he sighed, and rose to his feet. His sudden movement alarmed Suma and Hibiki, and they watched him carefully. And looking her in the eye, he said, "No."

She was taken aback at his response. "No? N-no, what?"

He shook his head, feeling a little indignant himself. "No, I will not just go with you to keep you company. That would be a complete waste of both our time."

She jumped to her feet, a cocktail of emotion in her eyes, "So you'll help?!"

He groaned. "Ugh, yes." She screeched at that and tackle-hugged him, and he groaned again, "Hey, watch it! You just knocked me out, remember?"

"Sorry, sorry!" she muttered, helping him back to his feet. "I just got excited." She grinned and scratched at her head sheepishly.

He shook his head and smiled a little himself, "Yeah, I gathered."

Suma turned to Alakazam and took him by the shoulders, shaking him a little, "Did you hear that, Al?— he's gonna help!"

Alakazam took both of her hands and gently removed them from his person, "Yes, I heard." Then he made a sound Ash took to be a chuckle.

"Hm," Ash wondered, "so you've taught him to air his thoughts like speech, huh?"

Suma smiled, "If you're talking about the fact that everyone can hear him now, that was his idea. He thought it would make others more comfortable if he communicated as much like us as possible."

Ash nodded, "That's impressive, to be sure. And did I hear that right, you nicknamed him?"

Suma laughed, "Again, his idea."

"I thought it would make me more relatable to other humans if I had a simpler name," Al explained. "And yes, that's probably the result of my conditioning, concerning the fact that my only lasting relationships have been with humans."

Ash nodded, "Right, that's what I was thinking. You know, it would be interesting to maybe take some time to consider how that has affected your perspective— forming human-like relationships."

Al nodded, and seemed as though intrigued by a thought he had never considered. "Yes, that would actually be interesting. Perhaps we can discuss it sometime… over coffee."

Ash felt his brow leap, "You drink coffee?"

"Uhm, Ash?" Suma interrupted.

"Yeah?" Ash answered.

"Maybe we can make small talk later?" she suggested.

"Ah," Ash remarked. "Yeah, probably a good a idea." He hummed as he considered what he would do next, but then he really didn't need to think about it much. "Eric!"

He had hardly finished speaking the young man's name when his head poked around the corner, "Yes?"

Ash almost chuckled, as he had figured some wouldn't be able to resist eavesdropping. "Call them in." The man grinned, and lifting his hand to his mouth whistled before entering the cavern. Behind him filed in twelve other young men and women, the runaways he'd befriended over the past year. Once they were all in, they watched him carefully as he studied their faces. They were eager, and probably already knew what he was going to say. But, just to get a reaction out of them, he said it anyway. "Pack your things— we're moving out!" And they cheered to hear it.