Hey guys!

This story has now gotten to point where things that will happen in the Sinnoh-storyline in the upcoming chapters affect the things that NOW happen in the Alola-storyline. So keep that in mind.

I'm not one to plan every intricate detail of my stories before writing them, so this will be a challenge for me too. I apologize if this causes the chapters to be confusing at parts. I promise, everything will be explained in the end!

Kukui turned on his heels, hand still stuck to the doorframe, and fixed a firm look at Ash.

"Ash? You know this man?"

Ash was looking at Tobias, blank faced. After a few seconds he turned his head to look at Pikachu, but Pikachu hadn't stopped staring at the man, a strange gleam in its eyes.

"Pikachu?" whispered Ash. "Do we know him?"

Pikachu, paws curling on Ash's shoulder, muttered something Kukui had no chance making out. Ash's blank look only turned blanker.

"We had a pokemon battle with him? I don't remember that, Pikachu."

Kukui, not liking that one bit, turned back to the stranger.

"If you have something to say, you can say it right here. Tobias."

Tobias didn't seem impressed by Kukui's intimidation. He crossed his arms with an annoyed sigh and leaned around Kukui to talk to Ash.

"Hey, kid. A word? Now, please?"

Ash looked from Pikachu to Kukui to the man and shrugged hesitantly.

"Uh, sure, I guess."

"N-now, just hold on a minute", said Kukui, but Ash had already ducked under his arm and was standing in front of Tobias with a straight back and a polite smile.

"So… Watcha wanted to talk about?"

Tobias gestured over his shoulder and said, "Follow me. I need only you to hear this." He glanced at Kukui at that, and there was nothing in his cold blue eyes that allowed an argument to happen. Kukui ground his teeth, feeling helpless.

"Ash-"

"It's cool, Professor", said Ash, and he looked so casual that Kukui finally let his hand drop to his side, giving up arguing for the moment. "Thing is, Pikachu knows him, and it didn't attack. He must be an old friend of mine I just don't remember right now."

There was something resembling amusement on Tobias's face. "Friends", he muttered, a smile twitching up one corner of his mouth. He said, louder, "Good. Let's go over there."

Kukui stood on the threshold, watching as the pair walked towards the beach, a courteous distance between their bodies. Burnet stepped up next to him, a frown lining her face as her eyes followed Ash.

"And who's that guy?" she asked quietly, sharply.

"No idea", said Kukui, and Burnet twirled around to stare at him.

"No idea? And you let him leave with Ash? Alone? Now?"

Kukui stuck his hands in his lab coat pockets, shoulders hunching. "Yes, I know. But Ash trusts him, because Pikachu trusts him, and I have no argument against that. His name is Tobias. He's someone they met in the years between now and that… event, in Rota."

"I don't like it", said Burnet. "Why does he show up now? Ash has been here for over a year now and no one's come looking for him like this."

"I don't like it either", said Kukui slowly. "But you gotta remember that for this Ash, it makes no difference. That guy, and us? We are literally on the same line with him in Ash's eyes. He knows none of us, so why should he take our advice over Tobias's?"

Burnet fell quiet at that. Her arm snuck around his and they stood there, side to side, and watched the pair walking slowly along the shoreline.

"What are we gonna do now, Kukui?" she asked after a minute. "With your class, and Manu, and that guy around? How long can we keep Ash hidden from the world? And what do we do when… someone, anyone, finds out?"

The pair had stopped walking. Kukui watched as Tobias took something out of his pocket, showing it to Ash. Ash, with a curious tilt to his head, took a step forward and leaned down, his cap shading his face completely.

Burnet stepped away from Kukui, farther out to the porch. "Ash is a goddamn Champion, Kukui! The first Champion of Alola! He fought Tapu Koko, and won!" She took a shaky breath, her hand with the wedding ring settling on her lower stomach. Protective. "We can't stop them from interviewing him, and you know that. And when they find out there's something wrong with him-"

"Nothing's wrong with him, Burnet", said Kukui, glancing away from the pair for a second. Shoulders bunching up, his hands curled into fists in his lab coat pockets.

Burnet rolled her eyes, hissing, "You know what I mean! It's gonna be a circus out here. More than it already is. We need to come up with something solid that will save Ash the pain of explaining, what he just explained to you, to thousands of people on tv!"

"I know!" snapped Kukui, turning to stare down Burnet, the built-up frustration finally starting to boil over. "Just… Let's just wait, for now? Okay? Let's see who this Tobias guy is, and what he's-"

He turned back to look at the beach, and the words died in his throat. Ash was jogging back towards them, Tobias lazily following him.

Breathing hard, Ash paused by the steps, looked up at Kukui with wide eyes and asked, "What happened in Kalos?"

Kukui blinked.

"What?"

"What happened in Kalos last year, Professor?" asked Ash, sounding increasingly alarmed. "I had a Greninja there, didn't I? What happened to it?"

"I- I mean, um", stammered Kukui. "I only know that… I only know you battled with a greninja in the Kalos finals. That's all. There was something about that greninja, something special, but it was never made public. And you never talked about it, Ash. I asked you once, about the crisis and… But you didn't want to talk about it then, and I never asked again."

He looked at Burnet, "Honey? Do you now?"

Burnet shook her head, face pale. "I'm sorry Ash, I just don't know. You have never spoken about it to us."

Ash swallowed hard, looking at Pikachu on his shoulder. "Pikachu?"

Pikachu looked tense, apologetic. "Pi, pikaka pikachu. Pikachu pika-pi."

Ash gnawed on his lip, falling quiet. Kukui cleared his throat, eyeing the slowly approaching Tobias suspiciously.

"What on earth did Tobias say to you? Why do you need to know this now?"

"Greninja is still in Kalos", said Ash, instead of answering. "Pikachu knows that much. But it could be anywhere in there."

Ash scratched the side of his head, twitching anxiously. "How big is Kalos, Professors? Do you think I could go there and find-"

"Ash!" said Kukui sharply. "Why do you need to know?"

Ash stared at him, wide-eyed, for a moment. He looked at Pikachu, and at Burnet. And then, he turned and looked at Tobias, who had reached his side again.

"Um…"

Tobias scoffed. "I can take Ash to Kalos", he said plainly. "There's something we need to check out. Just in case."

Kukui couldn't wrap his head around that sentence. It bounced around in his mind, turning over and over, but the words just did not make any sense. And even less sense made the fact that Ash was still just standing there, saying nothing.

"Excuse me", said Burnet, and her tone startled even Kukui. By the gods did she sound angry. "You. Tobias. Before you say one more word, tell us even one good reason why we should listen to you here?"

"It's fine", said Ash hurriedly, while donning the worst poker face known to man. He glanced at the man again. "Tobias is… He's someone I knew. We did something together, in the… past, y'know? I dunno really… Anyway, I gotta check on Greninja, make sure it's okay…"

"Why wouldn't it be okay?" asked Burnet slowly. She stepped closer to Ash, descending the steps one by one.

"Um…"

"Pika-chu pikapikachu?" Pikachu murmured and Ash's eyes brightened suddenly.

"You're right, Pikachu! Tobias, isn't Greninja safer there, like right now? If no one knows where it is, then they can't find it, right?"

Kukui's stomach lurched.

They?

Tobias consider Ash's words for a moment before nodding. "You might be right. They will probably come here first then, in that case. For your Pikachu. And—" He shrugged. "—for your Melmetal, dusk form Lycanroc, and that ultra-beast if it's still with you."

"Who will come?" asked Kukui, fear settling deep into his chest. "Is someone after Ash?"

"After his pokemon mostly, but yes", said Tobias evenly. "It's none of your concern. I'm here to help Ash deal with them."

Kukui balked at him. "It's plenty of our concern! Ash has lived with us for a year, he has friends and school here and he's the brand-new Champion! And he's…" Kukui grimaced. "As you noticed, he's not entirely—himself right now."

"The timing could be better, I agree", said Tobias. "But it is what it is. A group back in Sinnoh called Team Corpus is activating again after years of staying in the down-low, and they have some old beef with Ash, so to say. And, since the league battles are recorded and available for anyone, they know a lot about him and his quite-unique band of pokemon. And what they also know, thanks to the recent championships, is that he's here, in Alola, right now."

"And… what does this mean for him, exactly?" asked Burnet with dawning dread in her voice. Her hand hovered behind Ash's shoulder, the instinct to comfort so deeply ingrained that it seemed to physically pain her to keep herself from touching him.

"Many of Ash's pokemon would be worth tens of thousands of dollars on the black market", said Tobias bluntly. "And these people? They want that money. They will come for him, and they won't stop until they get what they want."

Kukui looked at Ash. The sweet, silly, courageous Ash with a team full of rare and special pokemon, and Kukui wondered how it was possible that his day, after everything, still, still kept getting worse.

"You shouldn't worry about me, Professor", said Ash quickly, noticing his look. "They are probably like Team Rocket, and I know how to handle Team Rocket, for sure! And Tobias'll help me, right? So I'll be fine!"

Kukui felt empty inside. Empty of anything to do or to say. Helpless.

He wanted to wrap Ash into the thickest blanked they owned and hide him in his lab in the cellar and never let anyone or anything with bad intentions to get close to him. He wanted to keep him safe.

But Ash wouldn't be safe in their house right now, would he? Everyone and their grandmother knew that Ash lived with him. He wouldn't be safe.

"Kukui, what do we do?" asked Burnet, voicing his thoughts. She looked up at him, eyes wide but jaw set, strong even in the face of danger. "He can't stay here! But ah… people will ask questions Ash just disappears. They'd want to know where he is."

"That's why I'm suggesting he leaves town", said Tobias matter-of-factly. "Maybe not to Kalos, since that would draw them closer to Greninja, but somewhere else. Somewhere they wouldn't expect to find him."

He turned a steady look at Ash. "Here's what I think you should do. Agree to talk to one of the papers. Tell them you're taking time off for personal reasons. Maybe you're going to Kanto to see your mom, or to Unova to help a friend. And then, I'll make you disappear."

.

.

"So, listen up everyone", said Lance, once Ash had very briefly, very vaguely explained what went down between the roof caving in at the Tree of Beginning and him waking up at the pokemon center the next morning. Lance slammed down a map and a stack of documents on the table and leaned over it, hands braced on the table's edges.

"As you all know – except you, Lucario, forgive me – we only just wrapped up the massive operation that was taking down Team Magma and Team Aqua. One of the biggest ops the G-Men has ever done, and gods know we'll be cleaning up that mess for a long time to come. But I got my team on the case, and while they sort that out, I have for the past few weeks started looking into the huge, stinking pile of s-" He coughed, and his eyes flicked from Ash to May to Max, "-dirt, that is Pokemon Hunter J. And here's what we've got so far."

He pointed a finger at one of his documents, a long list of something, but the names and numbers on it meant nothing to Ash. He leaned closer anyway, Pikachu crawling up onto his shoulder.

"These are recordings of Hunter J's activity over the years", Lance explained. "Mostly, they are civilians reporting their pokemon getting stolen by her. Some are deals that fell through due to police involvement or other disturbance. Some are just sightings of her around towns or camps. But what my point is, and what is so interesting about these is…" He paused for a second, his finger sliding down the list only to land on a specific date at the very bottom. "Here. See? Something happened here. Nothing's been heard from her in months. For a bounty hunter as successful and brash as she is, that is quite unusual."

"So", asked Brock, "what do you think happened?"

Lance stood up straighter, releasing a long breath. "Well, we had a few theories about that. She's got a lot of enemies, and that's no secret. Maybe she got whacked. But no, as it turns out, what she was actually doing was spending a few months in the down low tracking down a very big catch for a very big prize."

"Mew", said Ash, hands curling into fists on the tabletop.

"Exactly", said Lance. "Mew. And for her to accept a deal that impossible, that tricky, the payment must've also been ungodly large. No one just goes out there and 'catches Mew'. It might take years to even spot one. But, sadly for us, Hunter J is frighteningly smart. Like you told me, she had tapped Kidd Summer's equipment and followed her around on her missions… and she got lucky. That bastard."

"Lance", said Abigail, rolling her eyes.

"But", said Lance, raising his voice, "what this tells us about her client is that they are powerful, they are interested in rare pokemon, and they are scarily, scarily rich. There aren't many people who fit that description, so the good news here is that we already have a rather good idea who they are."

"Really?" asked May, sitting up with a hopeful smile. "Who?"

Lance took out a set of blurry pictures, spreading them on the table. "There's this organization called Team Corpus, who-"

"Corpse?" asked Max, horrified.

"No, corpus", stressed Lance. "That's a linguistic resource of- Anyways. This is Saga, the team's leader." He pushed one of the pictures on the table, showing a beautiful blue-haired older woman with sharp, intelligent eyes. "Without going into too much detail, she is an exceptional businesswoman, and she owns a legitimate charitable organization called 'The Saga Foundation' that functions as a front for everything evil and twisted behind the scenes. Including, but not limited to, the theft of valuable pokemon."

"And you think these guys paid J to catch Mew?" asked Ash. A lot of Lance's explanation was going over his head, but he was pretty sure he got most of the important stuff, so that was good.

"99 % sure, yeah", said Lance with a nod. "The foundation is a real thing – they research and organize old pokemon scriptures, dig up mythical items they then restore and present to the public, things like that. It's mostly funded by public and private donations and Saga and her family's own money. And Saga – according to some sources, has been having some health issues in the recent years. She's not totally unknown to the public, but she keeps a low profile. Hep public image is very carefully crafted. No one would expect her to be corrupt, and the police is very unwilling to look any deeper into a reputable charity organization."

He sighed and looked down at the documents and pictures. "And the fact of the matter is, so far we got barely anything on her. Our plan now is – and Kellyn actually came up with this – is to either try to buy something from her or sell something to her. Something stolen and illegal that we can then use to incriminate her with. The problem here is that Saga never shows her face during a deal, so we'd need something to happen that would require her to come to the scene herself. We just don't yet know what that something is."

Lance looked around the room, his eyes settling on Ash. Ash, uncomfortable and not knowing what was expected of him, swallowed thickly.

"Man, this stuff's so complicated", he said miserably. "Do you guys mind if I go outside for a minute?"

"Oh", said Lance, sounding a little disappointed. "No, sure, go ahead. I can talk this over with Kellyn – and Brock, if you'd like to stay and listen?"

Brock nodded, actually looking like he was interested. Ash jumped up, restless and ready to go. "May and Max, you wanna come with me?" he asked. "We could go for a walk or something."

"Oh gods yes", said May emphatically.

"I'm in", agreed Max, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses and then hiding a yawn behind his palm. They all got up quickly, gathered their things and walked through the mostly empty lobby out into the sunny clearing.

Fresh air hit his face; the smell of a forest strong in the air.

"Man, this place's great", said Ash, looking around properly for the first time since he arrived. He breathed in deep, looked up at the wind-blown treetops that almost hid the clear-blue sky behind their thick branches. Sun was filtering through the gaps and there was a sort of freedom in the air, a promise for an adventure still ahead, that made Ash want to just bounce on the balls of his feet and sprint into the unknown without looking back.

"Yeah, we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere", said Max, holding his pokedex in one hand. "Like as deep in a forest in Sinnoh as you can get. It's pretty nice here."

"There's a lake over that way, I think", said May, pointing along one of the less-traveled paths that weaved its way away from the poke center, into the forest.

"Awesome, let's go there", said Ash excitedly, and without waiting for his friends to agree he was already on his way. Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and led the way, its clever paws flying on the gravel.

After a minute of running, Ash started to feel so faint he had to stop and brace himself against a tree-trunk. He stood there for a moment, gasping for breath, the world coming slowly back into focus. He looked around, but Pikachu was nowhere in sight.

"Ash, what's up?" asked May, jogging towards him with Max on his heels. Ash, not wanting to alarm his friends, stood up straighter and smiled nonchalantly.

"Nothing, I just…"

"We know you're injured. It's what happened with Hunter J, isn't it?" asked Max bluntly. He crossed his arms and glared at Ash with a look that dared him to 'just try and lie to me, Ash, and see what happens'. "You didn't just escape the aircraft with Lucario by flying away on Swellow's back, did you? No way Swellow can support both of your weights."

Ash twitched nervously. "Well…"

"You didn't jump out of the plane, right?" asked May, somehow sounding both anxious and long-suffering. "Right?"

Ash, very nervously, laughed, "No, of course I didn't!"

"He did, didn't he", deadpanned Max.

"Arceus", groaned May, slapping both hands over her face. "Ash, no! How are you still alive?"

"That's crazy stuff, even for you", said Max, sounding impressed despite himself. "How far up were you?"

"Uhh…" Ash glanced around, his fingers itching for Pikachu. Maybe he was being stupid, but he really didn't like losing sight of his buddy so soon after finding it again. He shrugged. "Well, I dunno. I fell through some clouds, so I guess kinda far up."

"You fell through some clouds?" repeated May, her eyes widening almost comically. In the event that there was anything that could be classified as comical about the situation. "Please, please tell me how you are still alive after that, Ash?"

"Swellow helped, y'know?" said Ash. "I didn't lie about that. But Lucario also did some Aura stuff with me and we dropped into this pond all smoothly. Didn't hurt one bit."

Max and May stared at him looking a bit skeptical. Unfairly skeptical, in Ash's opinion.

"And half of your body is covered in bandages for no reason, then?" asked Max.

"All that happened before the Aura stuff", said Ash. "Anyway, can we move on? I really wanna find Pikachu. It ran off and didn't come back, so I'm getting a little worried."

May still had her eyebrows raised way up to her hairline, but she nodded. "Fine. Let's leave it for now, but once we find Pikachu, I'm expecting to hear the rest of it, alright?"

"Alright", said Ash, happy to drop the subject. He turned on his heels and headed deeper into the forest, eyes flicking around searching for the splash of yellow that was so, so familiar.

"Pikachu!" he called, and almost tripped on some strange gadgets that were laid across the path. He stumbled forward and came face to face with a very startled James.

"Twerp!" the man shouted, grabbed Ash by the shoulders and pushed him away from himself – and even though Ash was feeling much better than before, his vision still whited out for a second from the sudden pain.

"James?" he groaned, holding his arm. "Team Rocket?"

"Why is he here?" yelled Jessie, peeking her head up from the bushes, her pink hair covered in fallen leaves.

"He was supposed to be in Kanto", said Meowth from the other side of the path, holding a thick metal wire in its paws.

"Wobbuffet", said Wobbuffet.

"What are you doing here?" demanded Ash, annoyed and worried. "Did you do something to Pikachu?"

"Oh, you're asking what we are doing?" said Jessie, and her smile was dangerous. "Well, here's the thing, twerp – you better prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To uni-"

"Hold on", said Meowth, cutting of James. "What did he say about Pikachu?"

James shook his fist towards the pokemon. "How dare you-"

"Just listen to me, idiot", Meowth snapped. "We don't got his pikachu, correct? But his pikachu is apparently missing-so where is it?"

"Oh", said James, and that was the last thing Ash heard before he had sprinted off into the forest again, leaving the group behind.

"Ash, wait!" called May. She and Max had again caught up with him, and were glancing over their shoulders in confusion.

"Was that Team Rocket?" asked Max. "How are they here?"

"Dunno", said Ash, out of breath again. He slowed down to an easy jog, noticing marks of struggle in the surrounding forest that looked recent. Snapped branches way up into the trees and down into the bushes, like something big had crash-landed there. He muttered, "What do you think happened here?"

He stepped off the path and trudged into the bushes, May and Max following him closely.

"Hello?" he called. "Anyone here?"

And then a voice from somewhere ahead shouted, "Pikapi!"

"Pikachu!" Ash sped up, heart thrumming in his chest. "Pikachu, where are you?"

"Pikapi, pi-ka!" Its voice was coming closer, and soon Ash could see it, standing on a rock with an anxious look in its eyes. "Pikachu-pi pika!"

"It says to follow it", explained Ash as Pikachu again jumped ahead, leading the way into a place where the marks of an accident finally led to an end.

They led to an injured pokemon. To an injured latias.

"Is that…" begun Max.

"A latias", gasped May, stepping towards it tentatively. "It looks really hurt, poor thing."

"Look", said Max quietly, pointing at its wings. "Is that a net? It looks like it might've been caught in it while it was still flying, and that made it fall off the sky."

"That's awful", said May. "Who would do such a thing, and to a legendary pokemon?"

Ash dropped onto his knees next to the latias and started peeling off the thick metal net. It was wrapped tightly around the pokemon, and it was whimpering softly, its body trembling under his fingers.

"You'll be okay. Don't worry", Ash muttered. "I'll just get this off and there's a pokemon center really close by. You'll be alright."

"Wait, was this-Team Rocket?" asked Max angrily. "Did you see the equipment they had? I bet they could've shot latias out of the sky!"

"Ugh, those jerks!" May hissed. "They totally would!"

Ash had managed to get most of the wires off latias, but one of the loops was tightly wrapped around one of the delicate fins on the bottom half of its body, and the feathers there looked severely damaged and twisted. Ash was worried to touch it, fearing that jostling it would really hurt latias.

"Just hold on a bit, okay?" he said, hand gently brushing along its neck. "I gotta think how I get this thing off."

He got up, and suddenly Pikachu leaped on him, screaming a warning. Alarmed, Ash stumbled backwards and narrowly avoided a wave of energy that hit he ground exactly where he had just kneeled, blowing up a huge cloud of dust and sand into the air.

"Stay away from my latias!" someone snarled. "The next one won't miss!"

Ash whipped his head around, looking for the attacker. Max and May were behind him, also watching the woods, tense and nervous. It was quiet for a while, the only sound coming from the whimpering latias.

Leaves rustled in the forest that surrounded them, twigs snapping under heavy boots.

Snap—and then, silence.

"Do you see him, Ash?" whispered Max, inching closer to him with May on his heels.

Ash nodded slowly. "Uhuh, maybe…"

He thought he could see a shadow moving behind the billowing dust, and he indicated Pikachu to look in that direction. Knees bent, hand on his belt, he would be ready to defend at any point, were the person to attack.

No attack came, though, but instead the stranger continued speaking.

"Step back, or Darkrai will use dark void on you." The voice was calm but laced with obvious threat. "This is your only warning."

Dark void would make them fall asleep, Ash knew. And they really, really didn't want that.

"Yeah, alright, alright", he said, loudly, and he backed away, pushing Max and May along with him. "We weren't gonna do anything to latias! It's hurt, and needs help!"

The dust had settled enough that they could see the shape of the person now. He was a tall, slender man with a darkrai by his side, and once he had made sure that Ash had moved far away enough from latias, he rushed forward and crouched by the injured pokemon.

"Latias", he murmured, gently checking it for injuries. "Are you alright?"

He turned around, and there was a threat of violence in his glare.

"Who did this? What do you know?"

"We don't know anything!" said May, offended. "We just found it like this, and tried to help!"

The man looked from her to Ash, and raised his brow. Ash stared back at him, speechless.

"And what's your problem, kid?"

Darkrai. Latias. The blueish-gray hair and the unique red cape wrapped around his shoulders. Ash was so surprised it took a while for his brain to connect the name to the person he was seeing, but eventually, he did.

"Tobias", he said blankly. "You're Tobias, from the-"

He'd been about to say, "from the Lily of the Valley conference", but managed to stop himself just in time. Because, as Ash had to remind himself time and time again, that hadn't happened yet.

Tobias stood up slowly, his one visible eye narrowing in suspicion.

And yet again, Ash had terribly messed everything up.

Updated 15/December/2020

Hi guys,

I think I will stop posting here on ff net. I'm gonna finish posting The Mew Complex here, and then move completely over to AO3.

I recommend going to my page there (archiveofourown org /users/railou) and subscribing there to my profile or to this fic for further updates.

All my future works will be only on AO3.

I hope to see you there!