AN: So I wake up today, read the news on Serebii, and find the secret power associated with Magearna is called "Soul Heart"… I'm not even going to begin to laugh as to how I inadvertently predicted the name for that, considering I've been calling the ability that Lenora and Misty have as Heartsoul since Chapter 20, which was around 12/31/2015 when it was finished. All I did was use the titles for HG/SS as a basis for the name of the power they use, and then Magearna does more or less the same thing but in reverse. I'm just internally laughing at this little bit for the moment, but regardless, any actual comparisons are probably minimum at best.

Also this chapter will be relatively fast paced. Why? Part of an in-joke I have with Castelia City; it's the largest city in the game but takes only a short amount of time to actually progress through and move on.

Truth and Ideals Chapter 27:


Iris had dragged Cheren and Bianca all across the city by this point, even passing by a building with Team Plasma grunts guarding the entrance to. Without realizing it, though, Iris and co. had already passed the building without even noticing Team Plasma. Oddly enough, Burgh had yet to return to from Liberty Garden to his Gym, the latter was right across from the hijacked building in question.

"… Was that them?" One of them asked.

"Clingy guy and a blond? That's two of them, but where's the Aura Sage?" The other asked, before being turned around all of a sudden, gasping as he was face to face with Ghetsis.

"… Come again?" Ghetsis asked, genuinely surprised by what the grunt had referred to Ash by.

"T-The Aura Sage, sir. I mean I know there's the Seven Sages in our group and then there's the unrelated Aura Sages but-" The grunt kept going on until Ghetsis hushed him to calm down.

"Relax. So you say there's apparently an Aura Sage among our enemies…?" Ghetsis asked, as he lead this particular grunt back into the building, where severe other grunts and another, elderly man standing in the same room… along with Munna right beside them all.

"First a trainer with a Lucario, and now the possibly he could very well be an Aura Sage. Ridiculous." Ghetsis muttered to himself, as he was turned away from the grunt, and looked towards Aldith lurking in a corner of the room.

"Bring him to me. I must see this for myself."

Four minutes later…

Iris and Ash's friends finally met back up with Ash and N around a small restaurant near Burgh's Gym, and Ash was, rather hastily, downing a glass of ice cold lemonade.

"So using Aura is that bad on your senses? I never knew that." Iris said, referring to the numerous, empty glasses that Ash had on his side of the table. Cheren and Bianca were quietly eating, though N didn't seem to so much as touch his own plate at all.

"So what's wrong with you? Not hungry?" Iris asked N, as N shook his head.

"More like unfamiliar with this kind of food…" N said.

"Come on, silly! It's just a plain hamburger!" Iris told N, trying to reassure him all the while a waitress came by to give Ash another refill, while taking the empty glasses away.

"At the moment, I'm more worried as to Ash's health at this point than trying to feed myself. I mean, you guys didn't really have to invite me along for lunch." N told the group, as Ash quickly began to down another glass of lemonade, prompting a response from Regulus from within his Poké Ball.

((I've never seen cases of Aura Sages overhydrating themselves, but how many of those have you had thus far?))

((Seven. Maybe ten tops.)) Ash had answered.

((Well maybe your body will need time to stabilize, as in, stop gulping down every drink you're buying at the moment and wait…))

((After how drained and parched I was from facing Victini, not just yet.)) Ash told Regulus again, all the while N was looking rather worried about Ash at the moment.

"Is this normal for him?" N had asked Cheren.

"… More or less. He's typically had the bigger appetite out of all of us anyways." Cheren told him, as he looked to the side and noticed Bianca had left her seat, which at first, didn't catch him too off guard…

"Hey! Look what we have 'ere, boys!"

… Until the familiar yelling of one of the three hooligans from before echoed across the rather large room, causing Cheren, Iris, and N to turn towards the situation… and see that Bianca was caught in the midst of it.

"Looks like we've found the curvy lady of that group from before, eh, boss?" The woman from before had asked, as the "boss" was busy scarfing down some liquid from a mug.

"Ya! That be the wench alright! Hehehe!" He laughed, all the while Bianca was trying to get out of this spot, before the other male of the group was quick to grab her from behind, causing Bianca to yelp in surprise.

"Where do ya think you're goin', lassie? We're just beginning to have fun!" The man had said, his eyes unnaturally red from before as he was quick to grab hold of a part of Bianca's chest as Bianca began squirming to get out of his large, strong grasp of her.

"Hey!" Cheren suddenly yelled as he had stood up to confront the three of them, sending out Servine in the process. "Leave her alone!" Cheren ordered, as the other two goons had walked up towards Cheren, each of them sending out a large, muscular Pokémon with concrete pillars in hand, and the other sending out a large, wart covered, Frog-like Pokémon.

"So, you lookin' for a fight baby?" The male had asked, all the while the other male suddenly began yelling out in pain as Bianca had managed to get loose off his grasp, with Bianca visibly mortified, and parts of her clothing torn all the while her Emboar had the larger male held up in the air, despite his smaller height.

Iris, being the only sane one at the moment, immediately took hold of Ash's Xtransceiver and began dialing for Officer Jenny, before immediately getting up to walk towards the goons. Ash, seeing the situation, tried to get up to defend his friends, but N held him back.

"Probably not a good idea to get in a fight in your current condition…" N whispered to Ash, as Ash looked at N with confusion. "Besides, Iris seems to have this covered."

Covered wouldn't even begin to describe how the situation was going, as both of the Pokémon sent out by the goons were down on the ground from a larger, tusked, Draconic Pokémon with a green hide. Iris herself, meanwhile, caught the attention of the boss just as Officer Jenny silently arrived and stood beside Bianca.

"Alright, I had warned you three more than once today. Do I seriously need to arrest you again?" Jenny had asked, all the while the three goons looked at her and laughed.

"Well, if it ain't the Officer. Or, rather, that's the implication you even have the guts to stand up to us, ya smug c**t."

An awkward silenced filled the restaurant with that word alone. Officer Jenny had a calm, yet absolutely furious expression, and all the while everyone else was staring agape at the scene now.

Before it even hit any of them they didn't even see it; the three goons were being dragged off and taken custody by other Officer Jennies the moment everyone became focused again, with the original having stayed behind with the group.

Iris and Cheren looked over at Ash and N, who had finally joined back up with them.

"Sooo… I was not ready for today." Ash said.

"I don't think any of us were." Cheren added, as Officer Jenny was busy filling a report over her Xtransceiver. Bianca, meanwhile, had arrived back on the scene in a fresh new set of clothes she had ready for an emergency, all the while Bianca calmed herself once she looked at Cheren, as Cheren calmed down just the same.

"So… Are you hurt, Bianca?" Cheren asked Bianca, as Bianca shook her head.

"No, just… mildly agitated." Bianca said, as Iris sighed.

"At least you managed to handle yourself on your own even after me and Cheren arrived." Iris said.

"Well you did call me onto the scene to take them off for what they did regardless. Sexual assault isn't anything to laugh at around here." Jenny told them, as the group nodded, with the exception of N who simply had a confused expression. This alone prompted Jenny to eye him strangely.

"… Are you related to that Ghetsis guy that's taken hostage of a building earlier?" Jenny asked, all the while this suddenly alarmed the group as a whole as they were quick to bolt towards the building in question, as did N.

"Hey! Wait up! There's something you might need to know!" N yelled after them, as within a few minutes, a Team Plasma grunt from the building in question walked out to see the group charging towards them like an angry mob, and quickly screamed before running back into the building all the while two higher ranking grunts sent out Pokémon to deal with Ash and company.

Cheren's Servine was quick to dispose of one of them by utilizing her speed and agility, alongside Leaf Storm, to send her target Watchog down to the ground. Just the same, Ash's Dewott made relatively short work of a smaller, Poison Type Pokémon that was sent out by repeatedly slashing at it with Razor Shell much like how his fight before was.

"Dang it, these guys are strong!" The one grunt yelled, as the other began to nearly bolt back inside before seeing Burgh's Beedrill rush them as Burgh himself walked out of his Gym to face off against the grunts.

"So a Watchog, a Trubbish, and a Purrloin. How quant." Burgh said to the grunts.

"This coming from the gay one of the gym leaders."

"Maybe I'm gay, or maybe stereotypes are just plain BS! Mmm!" Within seconds, Beedrill Mega Evolved into Mega Beedrill upon Burgh activating his Key Stone, as Beedrill was quick to send all three grunts back inside, and when the group entered the building, they were ready to fight…

… Only to see Ghetsis, and two of the elderly sages present on the scene with the grunts hiding behind them.

"Idiots, you're supposed to be our guards not the other way around! Learn some manners to our guest!" One of the elders spoke up, before the other responded as well.

"Personally, Rood, I thought it was kind of fun to try and take over a building right next to the Gym. Especially during what is clearly rush hour given how quickly everyone moved not too long ago." The other said, all the while Ghetsis simply let out a low grumble of annoyance to get their attention.

"Bronius, I do believe now is my chance to speak and-"

"Munna!" Bianca said, cheerfully running up to her Pokémon as Munna floated up to her happily as well when Bianca hugged her missing Pokémon.

"… If you'd let me finish, I was just going to say that we already had a base of operations fully established; these two pranksters of the Sages simply believed that hijacking this building would accomplish something." Ghetsis said, as Ash approached Ghetsis and didn't look all that happy.

"So, you're Ghetsis of Team Plasma? Why do you steal people's Pokémon?" Ash asked, as Ghetsis looked at Ash with a bit of an intimidating glare.

"As if you have the right to know, but that aside; Team Plasma more or less believes people like yourself are abusing Pokémon more than helping them." Ghetsis said, just as Ash responded with his aura igniting, catching Ghetsis by legitimate surprise as his attitude was no longer found on his expression.

"… My my, so you're the Aura Sage I've heard my grunts speak of?" Ghetsis asked, as Ash nodded.

"Still training to be one, but I suppose you could say that." Ash told Ghetsis, all the while Jenny and Burgh were ready to arrest Ghetsis and the sages for disrupting order in this particular building.

"But, er, if you could do me a favor and try and see if you could spot me, I'd be thankful for that." Ghetsis said, before suddenly shouting, "Now, Aldith!" before the area building suddenly became filled with a dark, powerful smoke as everyone inside began to cough from it.

Ash, trying to use his own Aura Sight to try and spot Ghetsis, was unable to detect anybody's aura due to this smoke. Not until the smoke cleared did it reveal that Team Plasma had already escaped…

… And N had just mysteriously disappeared from the group.

"Looks like they got away…" Burgh said, as he looked at Ash. "I'm assuming that smoke blocked your ability to see auras as well?" Burgh had asked Ash, to which Ash nodded.

"Yeah. It wasn't painful, but it completely blocked out anyone's auras from sight." Ash told him, all the while Officer Jenny sighed.

"This has been just too long of a day for me… Mind if I begin debriefing exactly what had happened so I can alert the other Officers? I've been getting reports that Team Plasma has been spreading all across Unova as of late, so every bit of information is important." Jenny told the group, as Ash stepped forward.

"Well, you see…"

Meanwhile…

"And what did we learn today, young King?" Ghetsis asked of N.

"To keep your friends closer and your enemies closer? Yeah, I've got all of that in my mind already." N told Ghetsis, before adding, "Why did you want me to group with them for a while, anyways?" N had asked, as Ghetsis grumbled.

"Inconveniences after inconveniences, and believe me when I say this…"

"… They're not the only problems I have to suffer from either." Ghetsis said, as he pulled up a picture of a strange Pokémon on a monitor for N to see. "I'm also pretty sure you're familiar with the abandoned project Colress was working on?" Ghetsis asked N, as N nodded.

"Well, there's been a situation; somebody continued working on them…" Ghetsis said, as he pulled up a radar which pinpointed a signal from a moving entity heading towards Nimbasa City.

"… They escaped not long after the scientists let their guard down, slaughtering everyone stopping them from escaping." Ghetsis told N, as he looked over at the rather horrified N.

"Do you understand now what you must do, Hero of Truth?" Ghetsis had asked, showcasing a map to a desert up north towards a desert-like area.

"Yes…" N said, before looking at a picture of Ash and co. that was taken in secret while they were still in Castelia City.

"I will stall for the time we need for Reshiram's revival."

To Be Continued…


AN: Sooo… A lot happened in this chapter. Especially the unusual amount of swearing this time around, better keep a good check on that since now the three goons from this Chapter and Chapter 25 are no longer present to justify that much swearing of that kind. Anyways, this took all day to get finished, and nearing the end I was tempted to scrap what I had written and start again with what happens in this chapter, but I decided I liked the unusually faster pace this chapter moved at. Then again that's also what you get when trying to have so much happen in so little amount of words.

Mainly because now I can fully begin to prepare for Nimbasa City… and boy what a whammy that one will be once the Castelia Arc is finished. Hey, at least that'll be tame compared to Chargestone Cave at least.