Ash had been through a lot in his rather short lifespan. He had quite literally fought gods, or at least their equivalents, seen several continents, and met more people than most others would have in their entire lifetimes.

Ash would have preferred to be back in any moment of his life instead of where he was right now. Ash had never chewed his fingernails before in his life, but he had reduced them to stubble within two hours after the envoys from Vanessa arrived.

They introduced themselves as some sort of priests, and were clad in white robes and wearing dark red cloaks over their shoulders. The introductions between the two sides took an entire half hour. The envoys were extremely loquacious and flamboyant- the only one who seemed to be comfortable talking to them on Ash's side was Wade. He was also the only one who didn't seem impatient as they walked- at a Shuckle's pace- towards their destination. As a matter of fact, it looked like he had been expecting it.

Ash had heard somewhere that when you died, in the afterlife, they made you watch your entire life as a movie. He just sincerely hoped that if they did, he'd get the option to fast forward over this bit.

It was clear to Ash that at this rate, the Pokemon Contest would have to be held tomorrow. There was no way that they were going to reach the stage, based on what the envoys had told them regarding how far away it was, before sunset.

After what seemed like forever, a small hamlet came into view in the distance. The envoys apparently felt the need to describe the hamlet and how it was one of the starting points for their religion- a topic that they went into for the next fifteen minutes.

Wade then turned to Ash and said, "If you're more interested in Arceus, Sir Ash, there is a monument and some ruins we could visit. It doesn't seem like it will delay our journey too much."

The envoys seemed to be pretty insistent on them visiting the place after that, so Ash just rolled his eyes and said that it was fine. Anyway they had to stop for supper at some point, and this seemed like a fine place.

The envoys led them into the village, and so Ash decided to talk to Wade. "How are you dealing with all of this? It's insane- we should just hop onto our Pokemon and get there as fast as possible."

Wade nodded. "I would advise against that, no matter how much I feel like doing the same. The customs of the people living in this territory are strange- there are various religious cults that only exist in this territory and sorts of, well, I suppose one should not say queer, but well- I find it hard to describe some of their rituals and traditions otherwise. Part of that which I've found is their need for mind-numbing ritualistic and elaborately delicate methods of going about their business- mostly for the upper class. It would not do to insult their practices."

Ash sighed. "So, this is like the place in Galea where all the weird stuff happens? I thought that was Freyja's domain."

Wade shook his head. "No, it was only Freyja who was an oddity- the rest of her people were quite normal."

Ash found himself distracted, however, as they walked into the village and he got a look at what 'normal' Galeans here looked like and how they lived. The houses were all made up of mud and hay and had roofs made up of some sort of shiny metal that Wade said was abundant but also apparently carcinogenic. There was quite noticeably a dearth of Pokemon involved in farms, Ash only saw half a dozen Miltank in the village. The people glanced out to look at Ash and his party, but they always kept their distance and parted away if they got too close. Ash saw a small boy- around four- running around naked who then shrunk towards a wall when he saw all of them. Ash could tell that several of his crew members didn't like the place and probably felt a mixture of pity for the people there and an urgent sense to leave as fast as possible. These people seemed to belong to a different timeline as compared to what Ash had seen back in Kanto, or even the better parts of Galea for that matter. He guessed that most of them had probably never even seen a computer- and it looked like something as simple to Ash as bicycles were a luxury here. The contrast with how people like him and Mr. Jennings were living was extremely apparent and sent his mind whirring. He had never seen this sort of inequality in any of the regions he had visited- sure, there were rich and poor there too, but here the change was just so… drastic. It was something that Ash had honestly never really given a thought to before this, but he remembered what Celera had said to him when she suggested laying siege to Aroughs… that Ash had always just seen the best parts of Galea.

In the center of the village there was a statue of a Pokemon that was so big Ash could only guess that it was lifelike. Around it was a shrine that looked so much richer and proper than any of the houses in the village.

"Here is a statue of our Lord Arceus, He who created the universe using his thousand and eight arms," one of the priests said.

Ash looked at the statue… and the first thing he realized that this was definitely not a statue of Arceus- at least not the Arceus he had seen. The lower part was actually surprisingly accurate, and the size matched the Arceus he had seen- which made him wonder for a second if the sculptor had actually seen Arceus. But the portion above Arceus's waist was different… it was far more humanoid, and the statue actually had several arms attached to it which all seemed to merge into each other. The head was like the Arceus that Ash had seen, but it had what looked like a crown on it, and even stranger, the Arceus statue had a huge tail with a barbed end.

Ash blinked as the envoys began some sort of long sermon which Ash ignored in order to whisper to Wade, "Is this statue really based off of Arceus?"

"It looks like some drawings that people made based off his likeness," Wade said. "The sculptor probably tried depicting the many arms by having them fused together… but the story I remember is that Arceus had only one thousand arms. Odd."

Ash considered telling Wade that Brock had also seen Arceus who looked nothing like this, but he guessed that even then the whole story was too outlandish to be believable.

"I do not know if this is real for that matter," Wade said. "There are more religious societies and faiths in this region to count- they all stem, I believe from a single one practiced around four thousand years ago."

Ash scratched his head and decided not to comment. He didn't get much of what the envoys were saying, so after they were done they decided to take quick (read: two hours long) break in the village to eat. Ash wolfed down his meal but saw how the priests daintily ate every bite- though the villagers around them seemed to eat just like Ash did.

The sun had set by that time, so they decided to rest in the village for the night before heading off the next morning.

Ash was woken up as the sun had barely come up to see that the people of the village were already moving up and about. He shook them up, and in Brock's case when he mistook Ash for Nurse Joy, had Pikachu shock him awake.

Ash made a mental note to find out, one he'd won the person who was in charge of this specific district, because whoever they were they were not doing a good job. Ash had seen quite a few members of the place go to the bathroom in the open and had taken time out to purify their drinking water supply before they headed out.


The collection of tents came into view in the distance, and at that point Ash had had enough and overtook the envoys and turned around later to see that his teammates were also following him, with the envoys looking shocked.

Ash ignored that and then increased his speed. There were a large number of colorful tents scattered throughout the grassy plain and the sky was a cloudless blue. It was a nice day for a Pokemon Contest.

What loomed over all the tents was a huge structure that was made of wood that could only have been the stadium meant for the contest.

Some guards saw Ash approaching and asked him to wait while they told Vanessa. Ash had to say that he thought that their armor was cool- if only Team Aqua had decided to dress up like that!

Vanessa came- Ash was surprised to see that she wasn't much taller than he was, and then there were some flowery introductions before Ash formally put his challenge to her.

"I think we should start soon then," Vanessa said. "I just need to wait for my other Trainers to arrive."

Two women walked towards Vanessa with excessive poise and grace while being trailed by a swarm of servants. Ash guessed they were the regents that he had heard about.

What snapped him out of his stupor from hours of inactivity was seeing a face that he remembered, though calling it a 'friendly face' was a bit of an exaggeration. And there were others with her.

"Jessie? James? Team Rocket?" Ash asked, bewildered.

"Yes, I do believe you know them," Vanessa said with glee, as if she was expecting some sort of reaction from Ash. "Jessie here has taken Elizabeth's place."

Ash noticed that Jessie and James were dressed up in what he guessed was traditional clothing wherever Elizabeth was from and that both of them, and Meowth, looked extremely uncomfortable as if they'd take an offer for being anywhere else but here in a heartbeat.

Ash wanted to talk to them as he had lots of questions, but the Pokemon Contest started.

Vanessa had another advantage on top of having six contestants- she got to choose the order in which the Pokemon Contests would be held.

Ash didn't want the Smart Contest to be first since he and his crew were severely under-prepared for that segment and he didn't want to start off with a demoralizing loss.

Thankfully, Vanessa chose to host the Beauty Contest first, probably thinking that it would give her the advantage.

The inside of the stadium, even though it was only a temporary construction, was every bit as magnificent as any of those of the Grand Cups that were hold in any of the regions he had been- only that there were no cameras and it seated far less people.

Aside from those contesting and the five people each party had brought to be judges for the appeals, it seemed that Vanessa had decided to go and invite various nobles from her domain as spectators.

The ten judges took their places, and both parties declared who would be participating.

From Ash's side Ash, Duke Hamnet, Wade, and Misty decided tot take part.

Vanessa, her three reagents, and two other Trainers whom Ash had never seen before opposed them.

Ash decided to go up first. For this part, he had decided to bet on Arcanine. Ash released his Arcanine- no expense had been left in grooming him for the Contest and so his fur sparkled and shimmered in the sunlight.

Ash's act was to use flames to surround Arcanine in an elegant whirl and have him use Flame Wheel to launch itself in the air. The main problem with doing this sort of act was that the flames were usually so bright that they usually ended up momentarily blinding people- but Ash had had enough practice to pull it off.

The scores from the judges came: Ash got eighty points out of a hundred. The problem was that no one knew if this was really a good score or not- they'd only know once the scores from other people came in.

Vanessa decided that she would follow up- and she sent out her Glaceon and did a small bow as her Glaceon began using Icy Wind, sending slender tendrils of ice around itself which it wove into a huge ice rose, which split the sunlight wherever it struck it, giving it a prismatic glow.

Ash removed his jaw from the ground- that was the best thing that he had ever seen. Her score came in- she had gotten a ninety-nine. Vanessa still seemed miffed though that she had lost one point and begrudgingly, Ash could honestly say that she deserved the full hundred.

Mary then followed up with a Petal Dance from a Lilligant that left a wonderful aroma in the air along with the shower of flowers, giving her a ninety. Catherine used a Cacnea of all Pokemon, and its Solar Beam was only good enough to get her a seventy-five.

Wade then went up, and he did much better than Ash. Once he set out his Milotic and combined Safeguard with Water Pulse, his Pokemon glowed just like one of the Badges did. Wade got a ninety-two, which was a big relief.

Misty used her Starmie to create a sort of water fountain to spray droplets around to create a rainbow from the sunlight- but as it had already been done three times already it kind of lost its pomp and she only got a seventy.

Once Jessie went up, Ash tried catching her eye to ask her what was going on, and several times throughout the Contest she tried contacting James and Meowth but couldn't find an opening to talk to them when no one was looking. From what had happened Ash had assumed that they had somehow found their way into Galea… well, they had a habit of turning up wherever Ash was. But the question was why they were working with Vanessa. Did they actually make some sort of deal willingly with her? But, they didn't look like they were enjoying it. Were they being forced into this?

Jessie used a Beautifly- where had she gotten that from?- which used String Shot to create a palace of silk in minutes. It was pretty good, Ash had to admit, and she got eighty-seven from it, but she didn't look too happy about that.

Duke Hamnet sent out his Altaria- whose wings had been cleaned until they were as white as pure milk and for this segment Altaria used its voice along with Dragon Dance to put on a performance filled with vitality. Duke Hamnet got a seventy-eight.

The other two Trainers from Vanessa's team weren't very good at got seventy each.

This meant that the top four Trainers were Vanessa, Wade, Catherine, and Mary.

Out of all of them, three were from Vanessa's team. There was a break of ten minutes in-between the Appeal and Battle rounds, which Wade used to talk to Ash.

"Wow, it's great that at least one of us managed to get in," Ash said. "Otherwise we'd have lost already."

"There is a problem though," Wade whispered to Ash. "I have not had proper time to train this Milotic for battle. It was time consuming simply finding a Feebas, and even more so putting on this act. I still am confident of my ability to win, but I would request that you teach it a few moves I have in mind."

"Sure," Ash said. "That's not cheating, is it?"

"No, no, this is part of the break," Wade said. "And it is within the rules for us to use a small help like that. But we cannot heal our Pokemon in the interval between battles once they start."

Normally the Battle Round would've worked classic tournament-style, but since three of the people were from the same team, Wade would have to beat every one of them, with his score resetting after each match.

Jessie stepped up first. Ash guessed that Vanessa wanted to tire out Wade a bit- but he knew that it was here that Vanessa had made a crucial mistake. She was probably the strongest fighter, and this would only give Wade enough time to get used to fighting with Milotic.

Jessie sent out her Beautifly, and now that Ash took a closer look, he could see that there was something wrong with the Beautifly. It was drooping close to the ground… did that mean it was sad? Pikachu also seemed to have noticed and sent a look of pity at it.

"Water Pulse!" Wade said and stream of water struck Jessie's Beautifly. Jessie tried counterattacking but it turned out that Wade was too strong and took out the Beautifly.

Wade wasn't allowed to heal before going against the next challenger, but he did get his hundred points back at the very least.

Mary wasn't a much better fighter than Jessie- she may have hoped that a Grass type would have the advantage against Milotic but that was taken out with an Ice Beam.

Vanessa was a bit better, but Milotic had learned Iron Tail recently. It wasn't a move that fell into the Beauty type, but the Glaceon couldn't take more than a few hits so it didn't matter much anyway.

And with that, Ash's team won the Beauty segment and so they had a victory in hand for this round. Vanessa looked furious- Ash guessed that this was probably the segment where she was sure that she was going to win.

The next round, which was going to be Cute, would be held the next day so the respective sides went their own ways. There was no hint of fraternizing between the two camps- not even one just for namesake.

Ash would've liked to check on Team Rocket, but it turned out that he'd have no time for something like that as he got busy in practicing for the next round.

A/N: Thanks for reading and all the reviews from last time. It appears that I did forget that Ash's Haunter had been evolved at some point and then wrote it down as a Haunter- that was a big mistake and I'll work on fixing it. Thanks chaosspeer, Julie Togepi (it isn't very much believable even if Brock decides to back Ash up), Something Dictionary Related, and Guest.

Do review if you liked.