Disclaimer: I don't own pokémon.

Note: This chapter has been edited but there may still be a few mistakes, so feel free to point them out if you notice them. (When I was editing I realised I'd accidentally said May has brown eyes... What a dollophead I am! And anyone who gets that reference is amazing :D )

This is the third re-write of this story, and just as they say it's third-time-lucky! I'm definitely not going to change this story again, just improve it wherever I can!

Enjoy.

Prologue

Misty smiled grimly as she watched her Starmie execute a powerful, deadly accurate Hydro Pump, demolishing the targets she had set up earlier.

"Well done," she called as Starmie sprang over to the red-headed trainer. Starmie's gem gleamed like a polished ruby in the sunlight. "We've worked long and hard for this, and tomorrow we can finally achieve our goal: winning all eight gym badges. We just have to beat Giovanni tomorrow and collect the Earth badge to complete the set. Since he uses mostly Ground type pokémon, I don't think we should have a problem."

Misty had been training five years for this. Two of those years she had spent in the company of her best friends, Ash and Brock. They had been the two happiest years of Misty's life. When her sisters had made her return to the Cerulean Gym she went without complaining, focusing on building, honing, and training herself alongside her pokémon. When her sisters finally returned they let Misty pick up her journey from where she had left off: taking the Gym challenge. And so now, after a year spent re-adjusting to travelling with just her pokémon by her side and no hot-headed young Ash to lead her off course, she was ready to face the eighth Gym Leader.

"This is it Starmie. Five years we've worked together, and it all comes to a head tomorrow. We should probably get some rest so as not to be worn out for the battle," Misty decided, returning her faithful pokémon to its pokéball.

Just as she was entering the pokémon centre though, a poster caught her eye. She hurried over to the window where it was clearly visible and read it in shocked disbelief. It said:

Due to the war soon to break out

All children between the ages of

Four and eighteen will be required

To attend school.

The streets are no longer safe

For under eighteens:

They might be captured at any moment

So to prevent them from being hurt

They must have a proper

Education, in order for them to learn to

Defend themselves.

Any children not in school by September 1st

Shall face dire consequences.

Thank you for your co-operation

- King Thomas, Monarch of the Kanto Region

Misty stared at the poster. No. This can't be happening. Not when I'm so close… No! There had to be a way around this new law.

Forcing herself into action, she ran into the pokémon centre and stopped suddenly at the front desk.

"Good evening Misty, is everything all right?" asked the young Nurse Joy, looking up from her paperwork and recognising the teenager stood before her.

"How could they pass a law saying all children under the age of eighteen should go to school? There must be a way around it!" Misty shouted angrily.

"Ah, I forgot how young you were. There's nothing to be done about it, I'm afraid. I-" Nurse Joy began, only to be cut off.

"But I can't go to school! I have one of the most important battles of my life tomorrow!" Misty argued like a petulant child.

Nurse joy gave her a look of concern. "I'm afraid there's no escaping the law. However, there is something you could do to leave school early…"

"Anything," Misty promised eagerly.

"Well, I was researching the law last night and it said that if, at the age of sixteen or above, a student could win the Kanto Challenge and prove themselves able to defend themselves in these troubled times, they would be allowed to leave school and do whatever they wished," Nurse Joy explained, smiling.

Misty frowned. She was only fifteen, and she wasn't sure if she could wait a whole other year, but it was better than nothing. Thanking Nurse Joy, she turned to go to her room.

"Misty, wait - your sister, Daisy, called and said she was coming to pick you up at nine O' clock this evening," Nurse Joy remembered. "She said you were to be packed and ready for her to collect you, as she was taking you first home and then to school… Misty? Is everything all right?"

Misty's face had turned white. "But- but I don't have to go to school until September 1st… I can still have my Gym battle tomorrow…" she trailed off as Nurse Joy shook her head sympathetically.

"Misty, September 1st was yesterday."

Dawn was watching the raindrops slide down the car window as she leaned back in her car seat, sadness accumulating in her chest. "Just one more day," she whispered. "One more day and I would have collected my fifth ribbon."

"Lup," agreed Piplup mournfully from where he was curled up next to her.

"We're nearly there," said her mother from the driver's seat. She glanced up at the mirror to look at her daughter, worried. Dawn was usually bright and cheerful, but today all the energy seemed to have leaked out of her.

Dawn mumbled something in reply and closed her eyes, sighing.

"Oh Dawn, I know you were just about to collect your fifth ribbon, but you'll get another chance. Everything is going to be okay." Johanna understood only too well what her daughter was feeling, and tried to be as positive as she could. "Besides, you know Barry and Kenny are both enrolled in the same school, so you'll at least have some friends."

"Mum – nothing's okay. It was the biggest moment of my life, and the stupid King tore it away from me and is sending me to some stupid school where I'll probably have to do maths all day," Dawn retorted. As for Barry and Kenny... well, Dawn supposed she was glad she wasn't going to be alone at school, but that didn't change the fact she was still going to school. A school where they enforced uniforms. Dawn shuddered at the thought.

"Maths is a good skill to learn," Johanna replied, taking a corner sharply and jolting everyone, causing her Glameow to complain noisily. "Besides, it wasn't just the King, it was the whole court. And I do think they have a point. War is just around the corner and it's not safe for you out there in the world any longer."

For the first time emotion crossed Dawn's face – anger. "You know I'm able to take care of myself! Ash taught me loads when we were travelling together, as did Brock. I bet they don't have to go to school!"

Johanna raised an eyebrow coolly. "Brock is older than you, so he's not expected to school. And as for Ash, he is the same age as you so of course he will have to go to school. Speaking of which, here we are."

Johanna pulled the car into a small lane next to which lay a huge, castle-like building. Dawn stared at it in horror. It was grey and dirty; looking like it hadn't been used in centuries. The rain which pounded down didn't help the foreboding-looking building look any nicer.

"War hasn't broken out yet - there's still time!" Dawn cried desperately, clinging to her seatbelt as her mother stopped the car right outside her new school.

"War is imminent, Dawn," Johanna said sadly, getting out and beginning to unload her daughter's trunks from the boot of the car. "There's nothing any of us can do to prevent it."

May stared around the dormitory of her new school. It was large, drafty, and the webs of Spinaraks hung in the corners, making the brunette shiver. She was perched on the edge of her ancient-looking bed, trying not to freeze. None of her pokémon were with her: the school policy stated that the pokémon of new arrivals must be held in the schools pokémon centre until they were declared fit and healthy. She missed Blaziken already.

"Well, I suppose I could go and explore," she murmured to herself. She glanced once more around the dormitory at the other empty beds, and sighed. None of her room-mates had arrived yet, which just made her feel lonelier. It was six girls to a dorm and accordingly there were six sets of beds, closets and dressers lining the stone-walled and stone-floored room.

She had arrived a few hours earlier after her Dad had pulled her away from the biggest contest of her life: the Kanto Grand Festival (Since she had already won the Grand Festival in Hoenn.) He had done it because it was September 2nd and to delay meant taking things up in court, which her Norman did not want to do.

May lay back on the bed only to jump up again when a thick cloud of dust rose up. Coughing, she stumbled away, waving her hand in front of her to clear the air.

As she recovered she reflected that it wasn't her Dad's fault, it was the stupid law. Why couldn't they have waited just a tiny bit longer to pass the law? School hadn't even started yet, to give all the pupils a chance to arrive. Any that failed to turn up by the end of the week would get into major trouble.

May left the room and decided to look for the kitchens. She was already hungry, even though lunch had been only three hours ago. She wandered down empty passages where flaming torches were placed at certain intervals. The school was more like a castle in the way it was built and the corridors reassembled a labyrinth. May paused when she reached fork in the passageway and bit her lip. Looking around, she sighed. Truth be told, she was lost.

"This place gives me the creeps," she muttered out loud.

"You should feel fight at home then," a smug voice said from behind her.

May whirled around to see her green-haired rival leaning against the wall, twirling a rose between his fingers.

May gaped at him. "Drew! What are you doing here?" she exclaimed, appearing not to have heard his previous comment.

Drew's eyes twinkled as he said, "Close your mouth, you'll catch Combees otherwise."

The brunette narrowed her sapphire eyes. "My mouth isn't that big!" she retorted, but she did snap it shut. "What are you doing here anyway?" she asked with a glare.

Drew smirked. "Talking to you."

May was about to snap something else at him when she remembered the terms they had last parted on. "I cannot believe you just left me there!" she accused suddenly.

Drew winced. "What a fast subject change…"

But May was determined not to let him off the hook that easily. "Why didn't you help me?" she asked again.

"Here – catch." Drew tossed the rose up into the air and May caught it on reflex. She stared down at it, dumbfounded.

"Umm..." she stammered. "What's this for?"

Drew laughed. "See you later, May." He pushed off the wall and, with his hands in his pockets, began sauntering back up the passageway.

"Hey – wait! I'm..." May called after him, but he was already gone, "lost," she sighed and glanced down at the thorn-less rose in her hands. Strange, she reflected. I've not won a contest, or even participated in one recently. So why would he give me a rose?

It was a few minutes after Drew had left her when she came to question two things: first of all, how had Drew known where she was? She didn't think he was stalking her, but it was still weird. And second, had he really called her a creep, after everything that had happened? She frowned, determined to get to the bottom of Drew's strange behaviour.

Meanwhile, she was still lost.

White glanced at her watch nervously. Her train was late and it was already two days past the date she should have been in school.

"Sni, snivy!" Snivy nudged White's hand as the ticket collector waited patiently for the pale skinned girl with wavy, chocolaty hair pulled up into a high ponytail to fish her ticket out of her purse.

"Sorry, here it is," the fifteen-year-old mumbled, handing it over.

"My!" exclaimed the ticket collector in surprise. "All the way from Unova, are you?"

"Yes, sir. The new law, you see; I'm supposed to be in school," White twirled a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail around her finger.

"Don't they have schools in Unova?" he asked suspiciously, wondering if she might be a spy come to Kanto to ferry information back to her government.

White shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, but my father comes from Kanto and I wasn't allowed to enroll in school in Unova, so they sent me here," she explained nervously. The ticket collector frowned but handed her back her ticket.

She wasn't sure why she was so nervous: She had been travelling with her pokémon for six months before the law was passed, and was usually unfazed by new situations. It must be having to go to school in a foreign region, she decided as she stroked Snivy absently. What if everyone noticed she was foreign and tried to bully her? Well, if that happens then I shall defend myself, she thought determinedly. She hadn't spent all that time training her pokémon all for nothing.

The whistle blew for her station and she stood up, collecting her belongings. As she left the train she noticed with an unsettled feeling that she was the only person getting off at the desolate, rainy station.

She could just see her new school ahead of her and what she saw made her shudder. "Please someone, kill me now," she muttered as she began walking with Snivy at her side, only half-joking.

"Hurry up Miss Crystal; we have to leave now, before your Father fires me for not getting you there on time," called a middle aged man to his boss' daughter, a pretty fifteen-year-old girl with long silvery-white hair, grey eyes and an explosive temper.

Crystal was in her room, staring out of her window at the beautiful view. "Ready to go back to school, Vulpix?"

"Pix!" the small orange pokémon nodded, her eyes narrowed in determination.

Crystal smiled thinly. "Good. This is our chance to start afresh. Robin told me the Academy have introduced new security measures since I was last there, so it'll be interesting to see what they've done with the place."

Vulpix wound her way around her mistress legs as she crossed the large room to pick up her expensive bag. "Vul, Vulpix!"

"Oh, don't worry, I've not forgotten him. When we next meet I'm going to make sure he wishes he was never born," she promised darkly.

"Miss Crystal!" the call came again.

"Don't worry Guy, Father won't fire you. You've been his right hand man for years," Crystal called back. Vulpix jumped onto her shoulder as she slowly walked down the stairs. "The Ice Academy is soon going to regret ever asking me to come back to them."

While everyone was settling into school in Kanto, an eighteen-year-old boy with long green hair and pale grey eyes was sitting, quite still, in the middle of an important meeting.

"Just remember: never forget why you are there – to protect your Region at all costs," a bald man was saying.

N heard the rustling of paper and then a short silence before the bald man spoke again:

"Understand?"

N nodded dutifully. "Yes, your Honour. Nothing shall come between me and the mission."

"Good. Tell me once more what your mission is, and then be off. Your train leaves in twenty two minutes."

N sat straight up in his seat. "My mission is to keep the girl free of any hindrance so that she may grow to fulfil her part in Team Plasma's ultimate destiny," he recited it as though he had spent hours learning it.

"Good. There is hope yet for Team Plasma." The bald man watched in satisfaction as N left his place and exited the room obediently. Yes, there was hope yet.

Thank you all for reading!

~ Jay