Shattered truths

Summary: A tale of Champions: One dead. One disgraced. One forgotten. Hoenn, ripped apart once more by the claws civil war remains to the naked eye, little more than a graveyard. Some things in this world are better left undisturbed. Realistic Pokémon AU. Set after R/S/E but before BW2.

Author note: I've found that many fics on this site don't really have a good description of the fic (apart from a summary which can be very misleading.) I've noticed that some of the better ones have a short intro that allows the reader to know what they are getting into and whether they want to read on or not.

Key notes about this fic- it will go at a quick pace, and there will be scenes inappropriate for those under 13 years of age- it is M rated for a reason (not smut but gory scenes of death/torture.) It will be set in Hoenn, but scenes are not exclusive to just this region. (i.e. there will be scenes in Kanto and Unova.) Pairings have already been decided, but the fic is not about romance.

Full circle hasn't been abandoned- I lost the copy of the story that I had written on my old laptop- so I'm slowly rewriting it.

Review below if there is anything you would like to see (e.g. a mega evolution- new or old, a particular character etc.) or if you have any general comments.

Prologue

"Natural laws have no pity." - Lazarus Long

First came the storms. With it came food shortages, famine and unemployment.

Then came the rumours. With it came pictures and stories of terrible happenings.

Then came the army. With it came desperate demands for volunteers, later changed to conscription of every-bodied male over 21.

Then came the destruction. With it came the smell of death and the harrowing sense of loss.

Then came, well there was soon nothing left to come for. Soon enough, the monsters were finally sated in their bloodlust. But by then, everything was gone, nothing was left, nothing to left to live, nothing left to rule. Or so that's what they all thought.

Then came a hero. With it came the courage to climb to the very top of the Sky Tower and to summon an even bigger monster to put an end to this terrible war.

Hoenn was saved- what was left of it. That's what they all said. That's what they all thought.

The truth was that Hoenn was never really saved. The monsters never really went away. They went back into a deep slumber, dormant, waiting for another fool to call upon their powers again.

Then came a man. With it came dreams of power and delusions of grandeur. Then came the beast. With it, like the past, came the war, came the end.

A loud, primal roar of angry shook the air which was already heavily saturated with mystic, draconic energies. A by-passer or onlooker could have been forgiven if they had assumed that the source of this noise was some sort of beast or terrible monster from an old hag's tale. A lesser man would have described the situation as being one of a cruel irony given that it was the man who scrambled to his feet, his face a mask of unbridled rage and defiance who appeared to be the monster as opposed to the atrocity that towered over him.

This atrocity could have easily have been mistaken for a God, in fact, several distant civilisations which existed eons ago had worshiped this creature as a deity. Seven, perhaps eight metres in height and coloured a regal green with faint black and yellow symbols sporadically tattooing its serpentine structure it levitated itself several feet off the ground, dark, brooding yellow eyes carefully focused on its target. Given what this monster could do, with regards to the devastating power that it wielded, it wasn't farfetched to label it a God. Much less was it to label it an atrocity. Perhaps it was because it was an atrocity, it was a God as only a God would feasibly have the power to be so terrible.

The ruins that surrounded the two appeared to have borne evidence to justify this claim. Chunks of pewter grey stone, occasionally splattered with a crimson red were positioned sporadically around the battlefield. The ground that the man stood on was tattooed with jagged cracks and unnatural craters. Motionless bodies, some torn in two, with others separated at the head or neck lay around the battlefield like a child's forgotten toys.

The silent impasse between the two had an ominous resemblance towards the portentous calm before the storm. The man or rather the beast knew that the beast or rather the God in front of him had the power to destroy him in his entirety. He was no fool. A fool would be dead by now. Perhaps he was a fool whom had simply wandered too deep into fate's treacherous spider web. But it didn't matter if he was a fool or not, mustering all his remaining courage, he stood in front of the atrocity, his posture a depiction of open defiance.

This act of defiance seemed to pose a challenge towards this atrocity, and it riposted with a terrifying roar that shook the foundations that this world was built upon. Never in his life had this man experienced anything like this before. Never had he witnessed the feeling of terror and awe simultaneously. A bright flash brought him back to the present, but to his shock and later his horror, the beast was gone.

"No." The man whispered quietly to nobody in particular, his voice becoming more strained and hoarse by the second. "No, it can't end like this." He cried out desperately, seemingly in denial as tears started to form as he caught sight of the pale pink body that was formerly known as his Milotic. Abandoning all pretences of walking, he scrambled over to the body on his hands and knees, the green haired trainer looked more an ape than man. Gently the trainer cradled the monster's head in his arms like it was a baby, a faint wail escaping his lips as copious amounts of tears began to pour down his cheeks like the rain.

"I will be back." The man vowed several minutes later, as he stared hatefully at the spot that the beast once stood. "I WILL BE BACK!" He screamed to the heavens as they began to open up, sending down torrents of rain as if they were somehow answering or rather mocking his vow in the fashion of a true divine being.

Chapter 1- Shattered Truths

"It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable." Eric Hoffer

Several months later

A faint scribbling sound could be heard from a man who was sat down, Indian style with his face hunched over a small book. Occasionally the man would glance upwards to the walls around him but never for much longer than a couple of seconds. Long, dark, wavy hair that was parted in the middle hung down the sides of his face, with lines of concentration etched into his forehead as he continued to work.

Suddenly a soft wailing sound was heard which caused the man to stop his work and look up apprehensively. Taking a deep breath, the man gently brushed some loose hair away from his eyes and behind his ear before looking back down at the book.

"Come on Chace." The man whispered to himself as he continued to write, "No need to get distracted now." Several more minutes passed and with it, relative normality was resumed with the only audible sound being the faint scratching noises of pen on paper. But once again, a soft wailing noise could be heard, but this time it was much louder. Closing his eyes, Chace closed his book and carefully tucked it in a small satchel before standing up.

Staring silently at the ruins around him, Chace began to feel the fleeting claws of panic start to grasp him. Something here did not feel right. It wasn't the feeling of foreboding that he got when a sandstorm or flash flood were imminent. This feeling was hard to articulate, but all Chace felt was an emasculating sensation of terror. It was something about a deep booming noise followed by several loud pops that was enough to unnerve a certain individual.

"Nimbus." Chace whispered as his trusty Flygon materialized next to him in a small flash, "Get me out of here now," he ordered, ignoring all pretences of stealth and subtlety.

Carefully climbing onto the back of the dragon, Chace was silent as they flew out of the ruins and into the desert. As soon as they did so, Chace felt a searing heat and instinctively looked behind him to see a large grey ash cloud in the distance. The sky was normally a deep blue at this time of day, but now it was a dark grey. Chace didn't miss the sound of more deep grumblings in the distance as the loud booming noise that he heard before returned at a higher volume.

An indiscernible yet intense noise followed this booming noise as suddenly ash began to rain from the sky like a bastardized version of snow. Fearfully, Chace turned back to see something that he was sure that was going to stay in his mind until the end of his life. Large amounts of magma flowing from the distance through the distance, coming closer to where he was.

"Motherfucker." Chace swore, losing all sense of composure and decorum as his Flygon sped up down route 111, beating its yellow wings as quickly as it could. It was imperative that he got out of here now and warned the townspeople of Mauville city before it was too late.

It wasn't the magma that terrified him, it was more the case that the ash did. He had flown through sandstorms on Flygon before without incurring any problems, but he had never tried to fly through ash. Granted, these dragons lived in the desert as it was their natural habitat, thus their bodies were equipped to protect themselves from the elements, however, he doubted that immunity to volcanic ash was a trait of his species. More importantly, he simply did not want to know what volcanic ash did to one's lungs, be it human or Flygon. With that in mind, he urged his beast on and after several panicked minutes of flying, the two had reached the outskirts of the city with magma literally and figuratively hot on their heels.

In the distance, Chace could spot a couple of shapes move. Upon closer inspection, he could make out a young boy of about 10 or 11 years old, wearing the standard attire of shorts, t-shirt and baseball cap. Screaming at the top of his lungs for the boy to run, Chace watched in horror as the boy ignored him and kept his attention on a battle between a Zigzagoon and Skitty.

"Run you idiot!" Chace screamed as he drew closer to the boy and his battle. In almost slow motion, Chace watched in horror as the boy whipped his head round to see the source of the noise before his facial expression shifted from annoyance to shock before settling on one of pure unadulterated terror. The magma, as if it was a sentient creature of some sort, suddenly surged forwards and quickly washed over the boy and his Pokémon, their screams of pain being drowned out by the roar of the storm.

"Holy shit." Chace swore before hurriedly instructing Flygon to speed up. The frantic race between beast and nature continued up until the edges of the city, when the magma seemed to speed up, mercilessly destroying everything in its path.

"Everybody run!" Chace screamed as people began to stare and point and the man and his dragon. Soon more screams joined his own as people all over, began to flee. But the magma proved to be merciless as Mother Nature was said that have been. Strangled screams of horror were heard as bodies were washed up by the flowing magma, as if it was a wave at a beach. All around him, terror had become the order of the day.

"Ali, defog." Chace turned to see a girl of about 15 or 16 position herself carefully on what appeared to be a large blue bird with cloud-lie wings covered in fluffy, white feathers.

Stopping Flygon and turning around to watch the girl and her dragon, Chace looked on as the magnificent creature flapped its wings, sending out a large gust of wind from it. But to the horror of everybody, the attack seemed to do nothing to the ash cloud.

"Dragon pulse." Chace ordered as he watched the other dragon attempt to diffuse the ash cloud once again. He watched dispassionately as a large orb of swirling draconic energy impacted the ash, but was quickly swallowed up.

"Shit this isn't working, we need to get out of here now!" Chace called out desperately to the other rider, who nodded frightfully in agreement as the ash cloud moved even closer to the duo.

Several frantic minutes of flying followed those words before the two stopped to look behind them. The cloud of ash seemed to just hang in the air, whilst the magma remained rampant in its path of destruction on the ground. Chace felt a lump in his throat as he stared, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. One thing was clear to everyone who was alive. Mauville had fallen.

Team magma admin Tabitha bit back a snarl as he threw himself to the ground behind a shield erected with great haste from his Camerupt. The giant camel snorted loudly but held firm, smoke exiting its wide nostrils as it tanked the beam of white light that came from the other side of the battlefield.

Keeping his torso flat on the ground, Tabitha lifted his head up ever so slightly so that he could see across the battlefield, under a gap between his Pokémon's mammoth sized legs. His eyes widened as he watched a Clawitzer edge forward and crank open its oversized navy blue claw where a sphere of cerulean coloured energy began to form.

"Shit." Tabitha swore to himself as he quickly scrambled to his feet, returned Camerupt to his pokeball before sending out a Pokémon that resembled a large, black mud-statue with oddly coloured runes printed on its body.

"Claydol, shield." The admin bit out, watching carefully as his psychic type began to quickly set up barriers of opaque blue and pale yellow in front of them. Immediately after, a sphere of crackling blue energy impacted the shield but to his relief, it dissipated with an angry hiss. Despite this small victory, the opposition gave him no respite as shown by pair of Liepard making their way across the battlefield, weaving and jumping around and over any obstacle that got in their way.

"Turtanator." Tabitha commanded as he released the dragon-type from his pokeball. "Use shell trap on those Liepard."

With a grunt the large, bipedal turtle shook its tail, sending out large blobs of molten rock that scattered the battlefield. Tabitha watched in silent, smug satisfaction as a Liepard nimbly dodged one trap before another landed on its back leg, the contact causing the trap to explode and blow apart the dark-type.

Turning back towards Claydol, a smile escaped his lips as he watched the psychic type's shield hold firm against another the volley of blue energy fired by the opposite Clawitzer. Tabitha opened his mouth to give his Pokémon another command, but suddenly something large and blue smashed into the side of Claydol, shattering the mental shields of reflect and light screen that the ground type had set up. Tabitha watched in horror as the jaws of the beast, a Gyarados, open its maw impossibly wide and fix itself onto the side of Claydol.

"Claydol!" Tabitha screamed as Turtanator stepped forward to tackle the atrocious Pokémon, but a sphere of draconic energy landed on its chest. He watched in horror as the bulky fire type stumbled forward as it took several more shots to the rest of its torso.

"Shelly." Tabitha growled as he watched the dark skinned Aqua leader emerge from his right, eying the oversized serpent chomp on Claydol's motionless corpse. Tabitha tensed his body as he prepared himself to fight his rival but a shockwave of pure energy suddenly rippled through the air and sent both him and Shelly flying. Snarling as he scrambled to his feet, Tabitha watched as his opposite number did the same before fumbling with a bracelet on her right wrist.

"Gyarados, mega-evolve." The woman in blue whispered, a malicious smirk forming on her face.

With a roar that could have rivalled a legendary beast, the atrocious Pokémon closed its eyes as its body began to grow a bright white. Several seconds passed in this metamorphosis before the water type emerged once more. The fins on its back and face had grown to astronomical proportions, where once there was a pale-yellow belly, it was now replaced with a menacing black colour accented with blood red raised scales that ran down its side with a single red stripe below its chin. What was already a monster, had become something unfathomable, something best left untouched.

It was at that point in time with the Team Magma admin Tabitha knew he was done for. But he wasn't going to keel over and die, he would be damned if he went out without a fight especially against his nemesis.

Throwing out two Pokeballs to release his remaining Pokémon, he watched in a humbling silence as his faithful Camerupt and Mightyena appeared in front of him. Unfazed by the size of its rival, Mightyena growled aggressively as it adopted a protective stance in front of Tabitha. Camerupt simply snorted and took a step forward, making the ground shake a bit as he did so. A small smile flickered amongst his normally stoic features, as he prepared himself for his last fight.

"Metagross, mega evolve." Tabitha turned around to see a large pewter grey robot with a gold metallic cross situated in the centre of its face glow ominously. Several seconds later, the gargantuan robot emerged, its cross now a deep blue and its legs had become arms.

The monster roared as it advanced at a speed far quicker than something of its size should be capable of moving at. Tabitha watched in shock as one of its giant arms smashed aside an Aqua Clawitzer whilst simultaneously throwing a rock with another arm in front of a beam of light fired by the Gyarados.

At this point in time, Tabitha felt a giddiness as if the tide had turned and that Magma wouldn't lose this battle. This giddiness turned too horror as he watched a Magma Torkoal glow a bright pink as it was viciously torn apart by telekinesis. Upon closer inspection, Tabitha noticed a man stand behind the gargantuan, and quickly recognised him to be the Pokémon league champion; Steven Stone.

Baring his teeth in a snarl, Tabitha ordered his Pokémon forward, Steven Stone was no friend of Magma and that the Hoenn champion was the bigger threat, Shelly and Aqua be damned. It had appeared that Shelly and the rest of Aqua had come to the same conclusion as seen by Mega-Gyarados' renewed attack on the league champion. To any rational person who were watching the skirmish, it would be impossible for the Hoenn league champion to fight effectively a war on two fronts. But to his shock, the cobalt haired man simply stood behind his monsters as he directed attacks with a machine-like efficiency.

Duking quickly as a Clawitzer's attack was quickly diverted by a barrier of gleaming yellow light that was erected by the Metagross, Tabitha ordered his surviving Pokémon back. It was no use trying to fight the champion head on, and he wasn't naïve enough to believe that Aqua and Magma would directly work together to swarm him. The smartest solution was to look for an opening or weakness of some kind which he could target and exploit.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched a young girl of perhaps seven or eight years of age run out in the middle of the battle after her cover was blown by a stray beam of light.

"God forgive me." Tabitha whispered as he steeled his heart before ordering Camerupt to target the young girl who looked like the metaphorical Buneary caught in headlights.

As expected, Steven Stone did not miss this attack and he ordered Metagross to shield the young girl. Tabitha watched dispassionately as a bolt of dark energy fizzed against the steel type, left exposed by this move. He watched the champion cry out as if he felt his partner's pain before he heard Shelly scream "Hyper beam."

The atrocious Pokémon at her side reared back its head before firing an ungodly amount of light at the Metagross. Metagross had recovered and had managed to partially deflect the attack, but it was clear that the champion and his team were now pushed on the defensive. This was quickly exploited by the rest of Aqua and Magma as they poured forward, Mightyena from both teams attacking in packs, forcing the champion backwards even more.

Like Goliath, the Pokémon league champion fell. An arrow to his shoulder followed by a pulse of dark energy fired by the Gyarados. Raised on a pedestal like a God, he fell like a mere mortal, his body ripped to shreds by the attack.

In response to this, Tabitha shuddered as he heard the desperate, pained moan from the bemouth steel type that had just witnessed the evisceration of its master. "Shit." Tabitha swore as he watched the gargantuan steel type glow iridescently, Tabitha was now sure that he had a no chance of surviving. Looking upwards to the dark sky, littered with streaks of orange and grey, Tabitha stared at the stars as the world around him turned to dust, ignoring the screams of terror that had occurred around him.

Taking another desperate look backwards towards the graveyard that was Mauville, Chace wore before shaking his head in disgust. "We need to keep moving south along Route 110 to Slateport, we don't know if the magma or the ash will continue to spread. We need to get the people there to evacuate."

"I think the people at Slateport have bigger problems." The girl on the Altaria responded quietly, refusing to meet Chace's eye as she spoke.

"What do you mean?" Chace asked, a quiver of nervousness creeping into his voice; he did not like the idea of something being worse than a natural disaster of this magnitude.

Several silent seconds passed, before the girl replied, her voice weak and hoarse, as if she had a lump in her throat. "Team Aqua." She whispered fearfully.

"What do you mean Team Aqua?" Chace asked, not missing the fear evident in her voice, "I thought that they had disbanded under Archie."

"I thought that too, as did the rest of Hoenn." The girl replied, "But somehow they're back." Taking a deep breath, she turned towards Chace to look him in the eye. "They're back and they've taken Slateport."