Aurian jolted awake the next morning, a scream dying halfway up her throat.

Ash drooled on her shoulder, still dead to the world. She envied how her brother could sleep through anything- including gunfire, as they'd found out in Orre. That was an interesting apology to Lance and the Armada.

According to her old-fashioned alarm clock, she and her patonai had two hours to prepare for their meeting in Lance's office. Plenty of time for Ash to get extra sleep and for Aurian to unravel her dreams.

She saw her father but couldn't reach him, Aaron's aura crystalizing as she extended her hand to grasp his. Red Chains bound her to a wall and drained her reserves, slowly but surely, as Giovanni diAngelo and Saturn watched with ravenous eyes. The last thing she remembered was her patonai symbol burning red over her heart as her aura spiraled out of control.

Aurian's scars tingled for several minutes, a constant itch that followed the captain while she pulled on her combat uniform and laced her boots. As much as she hated to admit it, her brain fed her sobering images before every major mission.

Life wasn't always guaranteed. She may not have appreciated the reminder, but it came in handy nevertheless.

She reached up, detangling her hair before starting the process of Kalos-braiding it as tight as she could.

One tug- her team members rested on her belt, ready for whatever challenges lay ahead. Two tugs- Lance's face flashed through her mind's eye, his steadfast confidence a blessing and a tall order. Three tugs- Riley's familiar side-eye made her smile. Four tugs- the trainees' enthusiasm warmed her heart. Five tugs- her Armada family was more of a home than Sandgem Town ever was.

Six tugs and a snag- Ash snored like a chainsaw; Aurian laughed in response.

She finished the braid, tied it off, and ducked out the door. Aurian's footsteps led her to Delia's room before she could process where she was going.

Delia opened after two quiet knocks and welcomed the younger patonai inside.

"Did you sleep all right?" Delia asked, handing her daughter a mug of chai tea.

Aurian stared into her mug, fascinated by the dispersion of tea out of the bag. "I guess so."

"That's not an answer I'm comfortable with."

"It's complicated," Aurian trailed off.

Delia joined Aurian on the couch. "You don't have to lie to me. You're never up after six hours of sleep on your days off."

"Nightmares," Aurian blurted, head in her hands. "Recurring. Happens before every major mission. I should be used to them by now but they still freak me out."

"Would you like to talk about it?" Delia put a hand on top of Aurian's.

Aurian took a deep breath in, deep breath out. "We never told you how bad our first Sinnoh mission was. Red Chain nearly took me out for good."

She rolled her sleeves up before continuing. "I was all but dead when Ash found me. His team singlehandedly destroyed Saturn's and he saved me just in time. That scene replays in my dreams every night before we deploy. When I woke up, Ash was still asleep. I thought a walk would clear my mind."

"He never did tell me exactly how he almost lost you," Delia put an arm around Aurian's shoulders, "but I think he'd want you to know that he didn't sleep the first week you two came home. He said he kept losing you whenever he closed his eyes."

A tear dripped down Aurian's cheek.

"You have every right to be terrified about what Lance and Riley are asking you to do. You wouldn't be human if there wasn't any fear. Aaron struggled with this, too."

"Really?"

"Oh, absolutely, especially leading up to our separation. I could never convince him to relax unless he was around you and Ash. Anxiety runs in the Borealis line."

Aurian stifled a snort.

"You and Ash are natural leaders, just like him. With great leadership and capability comes great pressure."

Ash poked his head in the door. "You can say that again, the looks I earned from the other divisions on my way here were ridiculous. You okay, Ri?"

"I think so," Aurian hugged Delia. "Thank you. It's nice to know that what I'm feeling is valid… and that I'm not the only one who's dealt with this."

"If Aaron were here, he'd tell you that courage is not the absence of fear, but acting despite the presence of it. Fear means you care about something enough that you don't want to lose it," Delia brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face.

Ash smiled. "I really like that. It's easy to get caught up in the 'no fear' mentality here. We're scared, and rightfully so. But it's our turn to make a difference. We're ready."

"I don't want to hold you too long," Delia passed her kids a bag of cookies. "Go take care of business. I made these before I left- eat a few but take the leftovers to Lance and Riley. Goodness knows they'll need a distraction at some point today."

"You're a saint, Mom," Aurian munched on a chocolate chunk cookie. "We'll pass these out when we see them in an hour."

Delia raised an eyebrow. "I thought you weren't deploying until midnight?"

"Side mission! We're headed to Temple ruins under Lily of the Valley Island," Ash said. "Shouldn't take too long."

Delia kissed both her children. "Stay safe, you two. I want you to come home on vacation when all this is over."

"Promised!" Aurian called, following her brother out the door.

"Well, we have an hour until we head to the Sinnoh coordinates," Aurian said. "That's enough time to tell our friends, right?"

Ash nodded. "Absolutely. Might not be enough to answer all of Maddie's questions, but we'll make do."

Five minutes later, Brock, Misty, Maddie, Max, Noah, and Michael burst into the patonai's bunker, sitting on both beds and the floor.

"Before we get started," Ash crossed his arms, "Misty and Brock, did Riley get you uniforms to use for today?"

Misty gave a thumbs-up. "We're good to go. Riley also asked if we wanted to take firearms."

"What'd you say?" Aurian leaned in.

"We thought about it for a long while and said yes. I'm not overly comfortable using a pistol, but if it helps the G-Men in the end, I'm in," Brock sighed. "We also don't have to aim to kill. Misty and I can get… creative."

Ash put a hand on Misty's shoulder. "You don't have to if you don't want to. Both of you are more than capable with your teams and your bare hands."

"No, I'd much rather have it and not need it than the other way around," Misty finished.

Maddie tucked a loose braid back into her bun. "Okay, you guys got back late last night. If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

Ash took a deep, slow breath. "What you're about to hear doesn't leave this room. Lance, Riley, and my mom are the only others who know, and we want it to stay that way until we're cleared to tell the rest of the Armada."

"Celebi dropped us in Rota on the day the Great War ended," Aurian said, eyes grave.

Max's jaw dropped. "No!"

"Did you see-" Brock started.

Ash nodded, eyes watering. "Brock, it was brutal. We were there long enough to have an incredible conversation. Then we saw all of it from beginning to end."

"We watched Father trap Uriel in the staff, were there for the sacrifice," Aurian cleared her throat, "and h-held his hands while he passed…"

Ash put his arms around his sister. "That's just the start. Right after Father's aura evaporated and all the crystals erupted, the leader of the old Rebel League sprinted into the Inner Sanctum in the Tree of Beginning. He was known in that time as John Cabot."

"Wait, 'in that time'?" Misty asked.

Ash's hands shook as he fought to gather his thoughts.

"We know him as Giovanni diAngelo," Ash blurted.

"Just when we thought this couldn't get any worse," Brock put his head in his hands.

Max groaned. "Or any weirder."

"Bingo," Aurian smiled. "He wanted to follow Delia to this time and kill us. Ash and I are still alive, so it looks like that didn't happen."

"My best guess is that the portal he used spat him out twenty years too early, which led to the man either building Rocket from the ground up or joining and taking over, the same way he usurped power from his family," Ash shrugged.

Brock shook his head. "Hold on, how did he not see you? I've been in that part of the Tree and there's nowhere to hide."

The patonai made eye contact and vanished.

"Since when can you do that?" Max rubbed his eyes.

Noah grinned. "Invisibility's a thing?!"

Ash appeared first, a wicked grin crossing his face. "Since Father taught us?"

"We already knew how to wield invisible aura. Disguising ourselves was the next logical step," Aurian popped back into view. Father also taught us one last trick that we can't talk about. Lance and Riley both explicitly forbade us from ever using it-"

"But as you know, we're pretty bad at following orders that don't make sense," Ash finished.

Maddie's eyes went wide. "I know you can't talk about it, but… is it really powerful or really risky?"

"Both," Aurian tapped her toes against the concrete floor. "We hope we don't have to use it, but we're prepared to do whatever it takes to take MissingNO down."

"Even if it means sacrificing ourselves," Ash finished, blue eyes sharp as steel.

Expressions ranging from alarm to straight fury collided with a riot of yelling from all assembled.

Misty shook her head. "We just got you back. I can't lose you again."

"Yeah, what she said!" Max squeezed in next to his mentor. "Does it have to be you guys?"

"Seems like that's what the universe wants," Aurian chuckled. "Cabot against Borealis again."

"Man, this is wild," Michael put his head in his hands. "But none of that answers why y'all are in combat gear twelve hours before we deploy."

Ash motioned for Aurian to pass over the locket. "Father sent us back with this. We weren't sure why until we saw-"

Aurian flipped the locket over, revealing the coordinates emblazoned on the back. "This leads to the Island. We deploy in an hour to see what he wants us to find."

"Isn't it super dangerous for you to go back?" Misty asked, "... wait, you can be invisible now, never mind."

"We're still getting used to it, too, no worries," Ash laughed.

Noah bounced up and down. "What do you think you'll find?"

"No idea," Aurian dug for the bag of cookies Delia made and passed them out. "We'll keep you posted."

Brock grinned between bites of cookie. "Man, this tastes like how a hug feels. Tell Ms. Ketchum thanks for us."

"For sure. Anyone have any questions that we didn't answer?" Ash asked.

Maddie raised a hand. "Not about anything you just told us, but yes."

The patonai nodded.

"That big photo with all the people in white," Maddie motioned to a large frame on the wall, "what's going on there?"

Ash smiled. "Initiation Day! It's tradition for the Armada to wear white. Even though we're not normally photogenic humans, Riley insisted on a picture. I'm glad we did it, even if we did all decide to face backward in protest."

"Hold on, who's that guy with the ponytail? I haven't seen him around," Brock asked.

Aurian's expression switched from one of peace to poorly concealed anger. "Saul Maldonado."

"Former second-in-command, right under Riley. Saul is the reason that Ri almost died in Sinnoh. Leaked our mission plans to Galactic, who kidnapped her out of uniform to finish their Red Chain research," Ash's ears burned red.

"He was memory-wiped and prosecuted on Lance's orders," Aurian said. "Life sentence for what he believes was an attempted double murder. We busted our tails to get him behind bars. Saul won't hurt anyone again."

Ash put a hand on his sister's shoulder. "What Aurian won't tell you is that she took point on the investigation. Did an outstanding job."

"Oh my God," Misty shook her head, "I'm so sorry. That must have been awful."

"So it goes. Better me than anyone else," Aurian grit her teeth.

"We need to head out," Ash pulled Aurian to her feet. "Everyone know where they're going?"

Max nodded. "Maddie, Noah, and I are radar-watching for Research once everyone heads to the Rocket base. We don't have to be there until ten tonight."

"We were planning on crashing in the Armada headquarters until it was time," Brock said. "I haven't played air hockey in ages."

"Don't let Eusine near that table, the puck will go everywhere except the goal," Ash muttered.

"That sounds like a good plan," Aurian elbowed her patonai. "We have no idea how long we'll be gone, but we should be back before sundown for some air hockey shenanigans."

Brock stood, offering a hand to Ash. "Famous last words. Best of luck, you two."

A half-hour later, the patonai appeared in the International Police base on Lily of the Valley Island, hoods up and armed to the teeth with spare Rota crystal and pokeballs.

"All right, let's see if Riley managed to superimpose old coordinates onto new tech," Ash booted up a palm-sized GPS unit.

Aurian bounced on her toes. "We didn't give our friends a straight answer. What do you think we'll find out there?"

"I don't know. It has to be good if Father sent us here," Ash said. "GPS is ready, let's go!"

The patonai waved to the front desk clerks before stepping outside, vanishing from view before the door closed behind them.

"I know you're still there, but this is so weird," Aurian murmured, following GPS beeps. "I can't feel your presence or your aura."

"That means it's working, but yeah, I'm with you. Super strange."

Ash and Aurian wound along the back of Stadium D, swinging north towards the Center. They walked for another five minutes before the beeps grew closer together.

"Hold on," Ash paused, Aurian bumping into him and falling headlong into a bush. "We don't need the coordinates. I know where to go."

Aurian threw her patonai a dirty look, then thought better of it. "Lead the way. I trust you."

Ash ran forward, following a near-hidden path through the twists and turns of the forest until he reached a familiar set of trees.

"GPS says we're here," he returned to view. "This is where Tobias tried to kill me."

Aurian took a step back. "Oh God."

"Look, the growth on most of these trees is new," Ash motioned to smaller branches off of larger trees. "Sceptile, Pikachu, and I broke most of those. What now?"

Aurian took the device from Ash and stood still once the beeps blended together. "Hold on…"

She pulled a stick off of a tree and knelt, drawing in the dirt until the Guardian crest materialized. Blue light radiated from the etching, a flash fading into a five-foot-wide hole in the ground.

"Shall we?" Ash grinned.

Aurian tossed the stick aside. "Tally ho."

Both patonai jumped together, expecting a short drop to the ground below. The duo fell for a minute, enveloped in the dark that threatened to swallow them whole. Blue light caught them and set them down on a stone walkway. Torches alighted in sequence, revealing a small path towards a foreboding building front.

"Where are we?" Aurian spun as she walked, eyes on the vast blackness over their heads.

Ash checked their GPS. "Says the path runs right under Stadium A. I wonder if the League knew this was here?"

"My gut says no," Aurian frowned. "If they knew, this would have been labeled a Sinnoh Heritage Site and none of the stadium complex would exist."

"Or Rocket would have turned it into a target and taken this out before the League could protect it," Ash paused at the threshold.

A huge Temple rested before them, battered and worn from the passage of time. Chunks of stone were missing from tall ridged columns, spiderweb cracks danced across segments of the ceiling. What once was a grand courtyard contained remnants of dead grass and flowerbeds, ghostly footprints resting in dirt long undisturbed.

Ash pointed at a waist-high column, topped with an outcropping of Rota crystal. "I think that's our next step."

The patonai approached, careful footfalls echoing through the facility.

Light flared from within when their hands brushed the surface of the crystal. When their fingers pulled away, a circle around the column erupted in blue flames, fencing them in.

"That's probably not good," Aurian muttered, twin aura spheres appearing in the blink of an eye.

Ash stepped back as four stone figures leaped into the circle, crystal swords and shields in their hands.

"Crap!" Ash hissed.

Aurian ducked a wild swing and knocked a guardian's feet out from under it with an aura-charged kick. "We can't counter the weapons, they'll absorb our aura!"

"Oh God oh God oh God," Ash's panicked mutterings fell in time with his punches. He worked his way around the first stone figure, aiming his strikes at cracks near the elbows and knees.

Aurian stumbled back, a right hook grazing her cheek, before wrestling a sword away. She lunged forward, both hands on the hilt of her new weapon.

Ash smashed a figure's shoulder, detaching stone from stone. He picked up the disembodied arm and threw it, creating enough of a distraction for Aurian to disable her opponent.

"When someone asks for a hand, they don't normally mean literally!" she stifled a laugh.

"Gotta keep you on your toes!" Ash landed a lucky aura sphere to the small of the figure's back, "go for the joints!"

Ash took his own advice, placing a hand in the crook of a figure's knee. He sent a blast of aura through the minute crack in the stone, igniting the silhouette from the inside before it shattered at his feet.

"Diggity damn," Aurian muttered, copying her brother's unorthodox method. Two minutes later, she managed to take out the third mannequin, shards of stone flying everywhere.

Ash made quick work of the last opponent, leaving the patonai breathing heavily in the middle of the courtyard.

The crystal in the statue flashed twice then faded. A second ley line of blue appeared in a blank wall across the way, tracing an outline of a door. As the lines faded, they etched into the surface of the stone, revealing a single door emblazoned with the Guild's crest.

"Any idea what that was?" Aurian asked.

Ash frowned. "I think I remember Riley talking about them during our first year of training? Praesidio… oh! Praesidio Custos. The Guild built these to keep watch whenever an entire Temple's staff left to assist other members."

"They did too good of a job."

"Are you okay?" Ash pulled Aurian to her feet.

She smiled, strapping the crystal sword to her back. "Never better."

"Nothing broken, bruised, anything?"

"Ash, I promise I'm okay. Look," she turned her hands over to reveal scratched knuckles but no bleeding, "nothing to worry about."

"Good."

"You're being unusually protective," Aurian raised an eyebrow.

"I mean… you're my sister. It's my job to take care of you."

"Ash, promise me that you won't forget that we were patonai before we knew we were siblings."

Ash gave her a quizzical look.

"God, that came out wrong," she laughed. "When we swore our patonai vows, we promised to trust each other in every situation we'd face together… including live combat, issuing orders, and whatever the hell kind of mess we've fallen into with all this."

She cleared her throat before continuing. "I wouldn't trade you for any other brother in the world, but that doesn't mean you have to shelter me. I had enough of that in Sandgem. Part of being patonai is that we have the freedom to trust that we'll watch each others' backs. The bombshell we just got doesn't change anything about how we've operated for the last three and a half years- all it's done is make us stronger."

"Aurian, why are you so smart?"

"Stop it," she flushed. "Promise me you won't protect me from everything we're trying to solve together."

Ash pulled his patonai into a hug. "I promise."

"Good," she passed him another sword. "If this wasn't a life or death situation, I'd geek out about these for the next week."

"Keep the geekery internal, let's walk," Ash pushed forward and opened the new door. "Five bucks that this leads to the Sanctum."

"That's not even enough for a number one combo at WhataTauros," Aurian said.

"Fine, ten bucks."

Aurian grinned. "Love you too."

Ash's hand went up in flames as they went further into the dark hallway, blue light throwing strange shadows. Sconces containing abandoned torches were set into the walls every thirty feet.

"I'm nervous about what kind of barrier we'll find this time around," Ash said. "If we hadn't come from an active-duty mission, those stone guardians would've kicked our asses."

Aurian nodded. "Hang on, I think that's the end of the hallway…"

Their narrow hallway opened up into an atrium, what should have been a stained glass ceiling dim and dark in the low light. Shattered glass littered the ground, crunching under the patonai's feet as they explored.

"I'm not sure I want to know what happened here," Aurian sighed.

Ash walked towards the far wall, hand resting on the cool stone. Runes flared into existence at his touch, taking up a large portion of the wall.

"Oh God," Aurian squinted, head tilting to the side. "You're far better at translating than I am."

Ash drummed his fingers against his leg, then pulled out his PokeGear. Five minutes later, he turned around.

"Okay, I think I have it. It reads 'to gain entry to the Sanctum, a riddle must be posed to prove your intentions as an ally: what would you sacrifice to save your patonai?'

Aurian's face fell.

"Yeah, they're not going easy on us," Ash muttered.

Aurian laid a hand on the runes, eyes closing. "I have half a mind to resurrect the Guild members stationed here solely to slap them for this."

"Good news is that we're in the right place," Ash said. "The runes directly mentioned the Sanctum. I'd bet good money that Father knew something is in there that can help us."

The patonai stood in stony silence for a quarter of an hour, weighing their options.

Ash thought back to the night he first met Aurian, her unwavering dedication to protecting- no, saving- him unheard of before that point. Until she fought Galactic with him, his idea of friendship was camp food under the stars, encouragement during gym battles, a pat on the back after a tournament battle gone wrong. Aurian went above and beyond what he expected, even from the start. She listened well, even on their first nights in the bunker, and was loyalty incarnate.

Aurian crossed her arms, leaning back against the stone wall. She never knew true friendship until she knew Ash. When all she wanted was to push everyone away, he refused to budge, stonewalling his way past her hardened heart. He was the first person she cried in front of after Sinnoh went wrong, one of the very few she could be vulnerable around, and personified kindness to everyone he encountered.

He was the last person she wanted to lose.

Ash approached the wall, startling Aurian from her thoughts.

"To save my patonai," he said, "I would sacrifice-"

"Myself," they finished, together.

The runed wall blinked out of existence, the Sanctum materializing before the patonai's eyes. The inner chamber of the Temple all but glowed with light from Rota crystals, which lined the walls and the ceiling much like the inside of the Tree of Beginning. An altar sat on an elevated platform across the room, candles long burned out resting in rusted sconces. Remnants of tapestries hung from the walls, depicting faded scenes from millennia of Guardian history.

"Whoa," Aurian breathed.

A pokeball blinked open, Cass appearing at her trainer's side. "This is incredible."

Ash released Raziel, the Lucario materializing at his side. "Raziel, you need to see this."

"Holy Arceus. I never dreamed I'd see the inside of a Temple."

"Me neither!" Aurian grinned. "All right, Father said there was something here that could help us. I have no idea what he meant- maybe we should split up and look around?"

The other three nodded, each taking a corner of the Sanctum.

"Nothing over here," Cass called, shifting aside a pile of fallen stone with her paw. "All I'm finding are cobwebs and Zubat droppings."

Ash snorted. "While I'd love to throw poop at Giovanni, I don't think that's what Father envisioned."

Raziel's ears perked, the Lucario stepping back. "I think this is it!"

Ash, Aurian, and Cass rushed over to find a rune circle in the floor, letters etched along three concentric circles on the outside edge of the formation.

"Something, something, the blood of the covenant aided by the blood of the womb," Ash said. "That sure is a lot of blank space in the middle."

Aurian squinted, eyes on fire. "Oh. Oh! Oh!"

She squatted, pointer finger glowing blue as she drew. Two minutes later, the Borealis family crest rested in the middle of the rune circle.

"How do you remember that?" Ash asked. "All I remember from the ancient families lessons was how many of the branches had people named Gabriel!"

The sigil pulsed twice, then exploded into a column of white light. When the brightness faded, a dull image pulled slowly into focus, revealing a third Lucario illuminated in a ghostly light.

Ash's jaw dropped. "No way."

"I suppose it's been a while, Ash. Now I know why I confused your aura with Aaron's all those years ago."

"Aurian, Cass, Raziel, I'd like you to meet someone," Ash couldn't help the smile that crossed his face. "This is Uriel, partner to none other than Aaron himself."

A/N: Hello, y'all! Thanks for reading C27 of Primary Intentions! I really appreciate your patience- things at work were so hectic I've barely had time to think for the last month or so. Thank you for hanging in there, I hope this update was worth it! My gratitude as always to thechinskyguy for his fantastic beta work and to all of you for reading. Please leave a review or shoot a PM over! Hearing from y'all makes my day.

One of the reviewers asked about the Lucario names- Uriel's was never stated, but I figured that giving him a traditional angel name would be fitting. All of that is Primary Intentions-specific world-building.

(PS- to the kind reviewer who pointed out the inconsistencies in Aurian's middle name- thank you! It's supposed to be Malachi in this iteration of the story but I missed it the first time around. Thanks for keeping me honest!)