A/N:

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

~Ernest Hemingway

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Things were peaceful for the rebellion when the Pokédex holders arrived, but this is war. In war, things are never peaceful long. It started off with a couple of reports of increased Team Rocket activity along Cinnabar Island. It didn't stay that way.

This is war, and things escalate quickly.

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"Why are there people called ruling lords and ladies?" Blue asked Wally one day. All of the 'dex holders were sitting together in Yellow's living room chatting when Blue decided to quench her curiosity. They had been started to find that the rebellion had a no training rule on Fridays, but were taking advantage of it anyways.

It was Silver who answered her. "There is a ruling Lord or Lady for each city or place on the map." He explained as he settled farther onto the couch. Blue nodded slowly.

"Think of it like this," Silver tried again. "There are different sectors of the rebellion in different places. Each sector is ruled by a Lord or Lady who reports to one of the Knights, who will then report the important things to Yellow."

"So then it's like a hierarchy?" Blue pondered.

Gold shot her two thumbs up. "Yeah," he smiled, "just like that!"

Lance glanced at Yellow, whom he was meaning to ask a question himself, only to see a younger boy passing her off a report. Seconds into reading it her face grew worried. He moved to her couch and settled beside her.

"Are you okay?" he whispered softly in her ear. Yellow jerked where she was sitting and squeaked. Lance felt her shock pulse through the bonds Viridian's Queen had with each of her knights and all of the children of the forest. Both Silver and Gold turned to look at them before nodding and returning to their chat with Blue.

Lance had found himself settling into a strange kind of friendship with Silver and Gold once they had found out that that Yellow had taken to calling him dear knight. He wasn't sure if it was because they thought she would pick him to be the third knight, or because they thought the bond between her and the children of the forest would stop him from being a threat. Either way both of the boys seemed to trust him to protect her when they weren't there.

Lance would have admitted to being honored had anyone asked.

"I'm fine," Yellow uselessly tried to reassure him. She froze at the no nonsense look he shot her. "It's Team Rocket again." She murmured to him. "They're trying to steal the firestones from inside the Cinnabar Volcano. If they get them they can evolve some of their Pokémon that they couldn't before."

Lance understood where her fear was coming from. Evolved Pokémon are far more powerful than those not evolved, and every advantage Team Rocket got just pushed the tide farther in their favor.

Lance ran his finger over the report on the mining Team Rocket had already done. "You could steal the first shipment before it went out." He pointed out as he read. "You could also blow up the mining rig, or break it somehow. Then they couldn't mine anymore."

"That would mean sending a team there to do it." Yellow frowned softly as she tried to work the mission out in her head.

Lance frowned back at her. "Do you not have a sector in Cinnabar Island? Who did the spying in the report then?"

"No, no," she quickened to reassure him. "We do have a sector in Cinnabar, but they're really small and not combat based. The island sees next to no fighting since it is so small. We do most of our breeding there, since the sands are so warm."

Lance nodded along with her. "It would help the eggs hatch. You breed the ice and water types elsewhere?"

Silver settled down on Yellows other side (effectively sandwiching her between him and Lance), and snitched the report from Lance's open palms. "We breed the ice and water types in a special breeding center up by Mt. Silver. Dragon types are the only ones we don't breed in mass, since so few are willing to train them." He ran his fingers over the brail bumps as he spoke. "And since when do you know brail?"

Lance shrugged. "Up until eight or so years ago Unova had a blind champion. At league meetings her reports were all in brail writing. Now Alder is the Unova Champion, but the skill stuck with me. You learned after Yellow went blind?"

Both men ignored Yellow's hissed out 'not blind, visually impaired!' as a glance passed between them. Lance wanted to know more about the so called 'accident' and Silver would tell him.

"Yeah, I learned after all that." Silver said as he passed the report back to Yellow. "Gold and Irene did too."

Deciding that they had ignored her enough, and that a change of topic was in need, Yellow spoke up. "What combat team are we going to send to Cinnabar? I need to send them to Lord Cinnabar before they can start their mission."

Silver hummed lowly as he thought that over. His eyes flickered randomly across the room without seeing what was there. "A group of four," he said finally. "They can go in partners."

"One set of two can get the shipment while the other deals with the mining machine?" Lance asked. Silver nodded in response.

"Send the married pair." Silver told Yellow. "The fire type trainer and his wife who is a scientist. They can deal with the machine."

Yellow blinked slowly for a second before smiling. "Dan and Maya? I do believe they're free of missions this week. Now who should the combat team be? We don't have any to spare at the moment, and I don't want to over work anyone."

Silver and Yellow pondered over who else they could send, but it was Lance who solved their problem in the end. "You could send some of those who came to rescue you guys." He pointed to the people across the room. "Give a small taste of what they're getting into."

"Sapphire and Ruby." A voice said from beside them. Gold settled on the arm of the couch beside Silver and smirked at the looks the people on the couch sent him. "They have the least amount of experience with this, since they're the youngest. We might as well shatter their rose tinted glasses at the early stage of the war."

"I'm not sure…" Yellow started, but lance shushed her with a gentle pat on the arm.

"You prefer they go through this with naïve views on war until they see something so horrid they can't lie to themselves anymore?" Lance asked her heatedly. "Or would you rather they learn how this is going to go down in a small skirmish."

"Push them into a pool or toss them off a cliff into an ocean?" She said softly. "They can go if you're sure they can handle it."

Yellow glanced over to the Hoenn Pokédex holders with a worried aura. "Gods, I hope they are ready." The others on the couch nodded along with her. Hopefully they weren't sending the 18 year olds into a battle they couldn't win.

"But," Yellow whispered forlornly, "this is war."