Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, its world or characters. Only the story and original characters herein.

Chapter One

Walls flashed past as the young boy raced down the hall, his dark hair pressed beneath a Pokemon League cap. Everything was metal, sterile, and uninviting. Door after door passed by, each place harboring secrets he didn't want to know. Once already he stopped to look inside, wondering if the room held any clue for him, but what he found inside forced him from the room, slamming the door behind him.

Ash didn't know where he was going, but he was willing to bet it wasn't through any small door, and he didn't want to open anymore anyway. The atrocities Team Rocket committed behind closed doors were infinitely worse than what they did in open view. Which only made him more afraid for his friends.

They'd all come in together, determined to stop Team Rocket's latest plan, just like they had in the past. This time though, something was different. No Rocket grunts or executives tried to bar their way, no pokemon were left as guards. There was nothing but an empty building.

That thought was their first mistake.

Maybe they let their guard down, lulled by the silence and emptiness, or maybe they just weren't prepared. Either way, when the Rocket hideout turned into a fun house of traps, they fell right into them. Ash came in with those closest to him, his ever faithful Pikachu and his best friends Misty and Brock, but now he was alone.

They'd tried to fight, hands reaching for the pokeballs to save themselves, but it all happened so fast. Ash managed not to get caught, but seeing his friends snatched away made him frantic. He'd tossed out a pokeball, intent on summoning his powerful Charizard to save them - only to watch the ball bounce to the ground. In that moment of confusion, he lost all chance to save his friends. They disappeared into the traps.

He tried his other pokeballs after that, but none would open. His pokemon were lost to him as much as his friends.

Now he ran through the hideout alone, desperate to find where his friends were taken. Even stopping Team Rocket hardly mattered anymore. Much as he wanted to punch their lights out, he wanted his friends back more. They had to be somewhere. They had to be okay.

The repetition of the hideout finally gave way and Ash skidded to a stop. His breath came in gasps as he stared around the large room that opened up before him. Machines littered the room. Lights flashed across the consoles and the room filled with the hum of technology. A giant monitor adorned the far wall, but it sat black and silent. The room, for all it held, was barren.

He looked all around the room, brief glances flicking from wall to wall, but saw no other doors, no other paths onward. It was a dead end, and his heart plummeted even as exhaustion burned through him. How long had he run, only to find his friends nowhere in sight?

The giant screen flashed to life, drawing his eyes to it. Anger stirred at who he saw there - Giovanni.

"Ah, Ash Ketchum," the Rocket leader spoke, his words slow, unconcerned. "I somehow knew you'd find your way to my control room."

"Where are my friends?" Ash demanded. Nothing else the blasted man said would matter.

"Your friends," Giovanni chuckled, and Ash clenched his jaw harder. "They're safe, and I'll even show them to you. Wouldn't you like to know what I'm up to first though? You children came here to stop me after all."

"I don't care what you're doing!" Ash snapped, his short patience fraying. "We'll stop you! Now let my friends go!"

Giovanni just shook his head, though he didn't look the least bit upset. "A child could never stop me, and you are clearly nothing but a child.

"So be it! Here are your friends." A wall off to Ash's far left slid down into the floor as the Rocket leader spoke. Behind it was a wall of glass, locking away a much smaller room. As the first wall slid down into the floor with a click, Ash gasped. His friends were there - Pikachu, Misty, and Brock. Shackles held their unconscious forms to the wall.

"But first," Giovanni's voice cut through Ash's worried thoughts, stopping him before he could move toward them, "perhaps you'd like to meet my new friend." The camera panned over to the side, its focus shifting from the man's close form to one much farther back. A large cage sat in the background, its bars thick and close together. Spaced around the cage were fifteen coffin shaped blocks embedded into the bars, yet it was the ominous energy pulsing through the metal that most caught Ash's attention - that, and the form trapped within.

His breath caught. It was impossible. There's no way Team Rocket could catch him. He's a god!

"Arceus..."

Giovanni stepped back into the scene, close to the camera lens, and wearing a confident smirk. "Very good, Ash. Not many would recognize such a pokemon on sight, but you never were just anyone."

Ash snapped out of his stupor to glare at the man. "Let him go! You can't hold him, you have no idea what'll happen!"

"Oh but I do! I have great plans for him." Giovanni flicked his wrist, a clear dismissal. "But you're not interested in any of that, so I won't bore you. Instead, I'm going to give you a choice." The whir of machinery increased as two panels slid open, one on each side of the room. Ash glanced between them, suspicious, and a little worried. "In just moments, my machine will finish the circuit around Arceus and he'll be mine to control. But just before that, I'm going to start venting the air from the room holding your friends."

Ash froze. He wouldn't- "And we're starting now," Giovanni said, sending Ash another smirk. An electronic beep sounded over their connection, then the sound of a fan, dull to his ears, but its effect on his friends clear. Their hair and clothes flapped, pulled upward as the air escaped their room.

Ash sent his darkest glare at the screen. "Giovanni-"

"The switch on your left will release your friends," the man spoke over Ash's words, "while the switch on your right will release Arceus from my cage. Choose fast, Ash Ketchum, the finale is only seconds away!"

Why? Why would the Rocket leader give him a choice like this, a chance to stop his scheme before it even started? Even at the cost of those dearest to him? Would Giovanni kill his friends no matter what Ash chose? Would the switches even do anything when Ash pulled one? Or was it all a scam, a way to torture Ash for defying him so many times?

He had no way to know, but in those seconds, as he watched his best friends slowly suffocate, it didn't matter. Stopping Team Rocket meant letting them die there in that little room. If he saved them, they could still fight, together. They'd stop Giovanni, free Arceus, and save the world one more time - together. It wasn't like this was his only chance.

He had to believe that.

So he ran, pushing his legs as fast as he could manage to reach that switch. He couldn't let them die. He couldn't do anything without them. Every time he'd ever done anything worthwhile, it'd been with them at his side. They'd understand, and everything would be alright in the end.

His eyes burned and his vision blurred as he slammed into the wall by the switch and yanked it down.

Everything had to be alright.

It had to be.

A/N: Short first chapter because I wanted a clear cut separation between this part and the next. With this intro out of the way, its onto the main story!