Update 9/2/13: I have written a sequel to this fic, called Chasing a Hero.

A New Life

This is quite possibly the oddest crossover within a single fandom on this site: Pokémon Colosseum crossed with Pokémon Conquest.

I wandered onto the unfamiliar land. I had told the ship driver to take me someplace remote, far away from Orre, and he wasn't kidding around with that. He suggested someplace called "Ransei," a fairly large island far away from any other civilization. Looking out on it, it definitely did not resemble Orre at all. It was entirely green, trees and bushes and grasses of all sorts growing wildly, with no signs of either the desert or the city that was so ubiquitous in Orre. This place was green enough to rival even the Relic Forest in Agate, and that forest was blessed by Celebi itself.

A tap on my shoulder broke me out of my reverie. Turning around, I found Rui, the innocent-looking redhead girl who had followed me since I met her in Phenac City. "So you're sure about this, about leaving behind Orre?" she asked me.

I nodded. I had saved it; I had gotten rid of all the Shadow Pokémon, and I had returned them all to their original trainers, those from whom they had been Snagged. I was no Hero of Orre, however. I was done with Orre.

"All right, then," she said, turning around and waving goodbye to the ship and its driver, who honked the ship's horn back at us before sailing off. Turning back to me, Rui asked, "So where are we going now?"

I shrugged and gestured forwards, towards all the greenery. I walked into the meadow, trying to accustom myself to the unfamiliar feeling of a gentle breeze that ruffled my blue trench coat, the soft tickle of the grasses on my ankles, the warm but not overbearing sun.

"You know," Rui said, running to catch up with me, "the ship's captain assured us that this place was inhabited. But I don't see any signs of habitation."

I didn't respond, still trying to take in the scenery. Rui looked at me before just smiling and shrugging. She knew I didn't talk much.

We walked aimlessly for a good half an hour. Suddenly, we found ourselves in front of a tall hedge, one that was suspiciously flat and extended both left and right for quite a while.

"Well, this looks manmade," Rui said, demonstrating her knack for stating the obvious. Still, her straightforward observations had often kept me grounded in reality on our difficult journey through Orre; I had come to appreciate them.

I looked back at the tall green plant that blocked our path, and I reached for the Pokéballs at my belt. I called out Espeon, but before I could even call out an order, I found myself struggling against a vine that had mysteriously wrapped itself around my waist.

"Wes!" Rui called out behind me before she, too, got tangled up in vines.

Espeon suddenly gave a fierce growl and turned towards the hedges, giving me just enough warning to stumble out of the way before a section of the hedges swung open like a door and a green lizard-like Pokémon leaped out—a Treecko, I recognized.

Rui, unfortunately, did not react in time, and was promptly knocked over by the Treecko. I called out her name in concern, but as I tried to fight my way towards her, I was suddenly punched in the back, and I found myself falling head-first into the tall grass.

At least it was a soft landing.

"What are you doing here?" a voice demanded.

Squirming to get the stranger in my field of view, I got a glimpse of a bronze breastplate before the stranger was knocked violently aside by Espeon. I vaguely wondered who would still be wearing breastplates in the modern era, when I felt something grab me and jerk me to my feet.

Here was yet another unfamiliar person, with a large, unfamiliar snake-like Pokémon slithering behind him. His blue and yellow clothes weren't nearly as medieval as the other person's, but it seemed to be marked with a variety of insignias and emblems that I did not recognize.

Then, oddly enough, he smiled at me. Turning to the other man, he said, "Takakage, I think that's quite enough. We haven't even given these people a chance to explain themselves."

"They were clearly about to tear down the hedges," Takakage said, still trying to avoid Espeon's attacks. "And this Espeon is attacking me; what am I supposed to do? Let the man free?"

"I would say that's not a bad idea," the other man said. "I can only presume that Espeon is attacking you because you tied up its Warrior, first."

Warrior? Was he referring to me? They certainly couldn't have thought that Rui was a warrior.

The vines around my waist suddenly went slack, bringing me back to reality. Motonari had untied them, and was rolling them back into a ball and tossing them aside into the grass.

I wasted no time in leaping back as far as I could away from Takakage and the other man—and running straight into Rui. We fell awkwardly into a tangled heap on the grass.

"Look, Takakage, you scared the two of them so much that they crashed into each other in panic," the man said.

I rolled off of Rui, apologizing profusely for squishing her. She didn't seem to mind much, though, since she was up on her feet in a flash, greeting the two men.

"Hello, sirs! My name is Rui, and this is Wes. We come from the Orre Region, which is kind of far away from here. What are your names? And if you don't mind my asking, why did you just tie us up like that? It's not very nice to do so to people."

I smiled. How very like Rui to act so bubbly to the people who, a moment ago, had tied her up and knocked her to the ground.

The man with the large snake Pokémon smiled. "See, Takakage? They're not nearly as aggressive as you thought they were." Turning back to Rui, he said, "Hello, Rui. I am Motonari, the Warlord of Greenleaf, and this is my son, Takakage. And as for why we tied you up… We're in Ransei; aggression and fear of Warriors will be common while you're here. I assume Orre is different? Not much information makes it to us from there. We're rather isolated from most of the world, but Orre is especially distant from us. I've seen maybe a map of the region, and some fairly recent news that two rival criminal gangs seemed to have fought each other to the ground, with both groups being disbanded, thanks to a mysterious hero and an equally mysterious heroine—but that's all I've ever heard about there."

I looked at Motonari awkwardly at his description of what I and Rui had just been through in Orre, but Rui just barreled on with her talking. "We're not warriors, Motonari; I don't know what you meant by that. Wes is a just Pokémon trainer, but I don't have any Pokémon at all. I'm just following him—and I'm definitely not a fighter."

Motonari looked confused for a moment before his face lit up in understanding. "Orre is one of those weird places where you use those tiny Pokémon-carrying balls to transport Pokémon, isn't it?"

"You mean Pokéballs?" Rui asked. "Of course we use them."

"Ah, then you must be completely unfamiliar with how Ransei works. I think we should head back to the castle to give you a full explanation, but in short, I guess this place is a region in constant war, with each of the seventeen kingdoms here obligated to have no more than six Warriors—people who have Linked with Pokémon—in the standing army. We attack each other and steal each other's kingdoms if we win a battle, but kingdoms change hands several times a year."

"How violent!" Rui exclaimed in horror.

"Still, it's mostly become a game to us ever since the Great Hero of Ransei unified the land. No one is seriously injured, after all, and oftentimes invaders return kingdoms to their former Warlords—that's the title of a ruler of a kingdom—after a few months."

I raised an eyebrow. That was one heck of a game, betting entire kingdoms on a Pokémon battle—and yet everyone here seemed to be all right with this. If Orre was a land of rogues and ruffians, this Ransei seemed to be an odd mix of rough-and-dirty fighting and refined, polite games. Ransei was a kind of Valhalla, where everyone battled constantly for fun and glory, instead of for life and death as Pokémon battles were for in Orre.

I looked at Motonari in the eyes. "Do you have six Warriors in your army, Motonari?"

He furrowed his eyes in confusion. "What do you mean? Why do you ask?"

"Ransei sounds like a pretty cool place," I replied. "I would love to join your army."

Rui snapped her head towards me, mouth half-open as if to say something, but she remained silent. Takakage, as well, looked at me as if I had a Dodrio growing out of my head.

I listened to the sound of a breeze rustling the grass as I awaited Motonari's response. "You're in luck," Motonari finally said. "My army consists of just me and my three sons, including Takakage over there. You're welcome to join us. Still, I'm not the most active Warlord; I much prefer to stay in my library and research than be out on the battlefield. If you're looking for battles, the Greenleaf army might not—"

"That's fine," I said. "It'll be a nice change from Orre."

Motonari nodded. "Very well. And what about you, Rui? There's still one spot in the army, if you'd like to join."

"I… don't have any Pokémon," she said quietly.

"Ah. Well, either way, we have extra rooms at Greenleaf Castle that you can stay in, along with Wes. And if you change your mind, you'll still be welcome to join us."

Rui bowed towards him gratefully. "Thank you so much, Motonari!"

He smiled and said, "I'll have to ask you about Orre, too, to add to my records of other regions. But this is not the most comfortable place to interview you. Let's head back to the castle. We have a lot to discuss about both your old life in Orre and your new life in Ransei."

Author's note: This was an odd little crossover - but then, Colosseum/XD and Conquest are by far my favorite three Pokémon games, and I just had to cross them.

Obviously, unlike my other Conquest fics, this fic was not based off of any historical event. Nevertheless, Takakage was indeed Motonari's son; his other two sons briefly referred to in this fic are Motoharu and Takamoto, both of whom are also in the game as generic Warriors. Historically, Takamoto was Motonari's successor, but the other two have the distinction of being two of the few generic Warriors to have speaking roles in cutscenes in the game.

Published July 24, 2013

Sequel added September 2, 2013