Departing from Skyla's personal aircraft, the team comprised of Sonia, Elesa, and Olivia began their search for the temple of purification located somewhere in the Region of Orre. Landing on a seemingly abandoned airstrip, Sonia took the liberty of leading her sisters in chains through the event, but not before realizing how sorry a state the land was in.
"What is up with this place?" The honey blonde woman breathed, taken aback by the endless desert that stretched as far as the horizon. "There's nothing here! There's not even people in the air traffic tower. Is there any sort of life at all around here?"
"Well, we did see a bit of a forest area on the western side of the island." Olivia noted. "We could probably start there, but we will need to refuel."
"Leave that to me, sisters." Elesa offered. "Why don't you explore the area? See what kinda stuff is laying around here?"
Nodding to their pilot, Sonia and Olivia began investigating the area, hoping to find something to give them a clue about their location. Truly this land was a desolate and dead one, with no signs of life at all, human or not. Surely there would be some sign, indicating what exactly had taken place here.
Making her way around the control tower, Sonia stumbled upon a very peculiar craft. It's was a motorbike unlike any she had seen before. There was no front wheel on the vehicle. Instead, it looked as if it would propel itself in a sort of levitation as the back wheel would do all the driving.
A massive engine block on the front looking of incredibly weight made Sonia begin to doubt her theory, but upon finding the bike's start up button, Sonia pressed it, her theory proven right before her eyes as the craft came the life, it's giant front heavy portion becoming lifted into the air for support.
"Hey Olivia, I found something!" Sonia called out to her ebony sister.
"What is that?!" Olivia said as she turned the corner, taken aback by the motorbike just as much as Sonia herself was.
"I don't know, but I think I've found our ride to check around the area for our Master's purification temple." Sonia said excitedly, the prospect of doing her Master's bidding being the sole reason of her humble existence. "Hop in."
Taking note of the smaller passenger cart bolted to the side of the bike, Olivia hopped in, barely able to squeeze into the small compartment.
"Do you know how to drive this thing?" Olivia asked, questioning the knowledge of her slave sister.
"Relax, sister!" Sonia chuckled, revving the massive engine. "I've got this!"
Without any warning, Sonia floored the gas, leaving the airfield in the dust. The honey blonde slave laughed carelessly as the duo sped across the desert floor, laughing like a giddy child as she tore through the desolate land.
Olivia would have found the bubbly personality of her slave sister cute had she not been desperately holding onto her seat for dear life, fearing the inertia would rip her right out of the cart from the speed. After becoming more adjusted to the speed of the bike, Sonia and Olivia both became more comfortable with limiting themselves, slowing down enough to where they could look around and observe their surroundings.
As the two traversed the sprawling desert plain, Olivia looked to her right, eying then foot of the massive volcano, a massive landmark signifying the center of the Region. Seeing something in the distance, Olivia shouted out to Sonia.
"Sister, slow down for a minute!" She called out. "I see something!"
As Sonia slowed the bike down to a halt, Olivia rummaged through a carry bag she brought with her on the trip. Alongside the box containing the shattered Life Stone was a set of long distance binoculars, a gadget made by her Master's friend Clemont for missions that required surveillance over anything else.
Zooming into the foot of the dormant volcano, Olivia gasped at the sight of a familiar vehicle parked in the area. It was Team Rocket's airship, with a handful of grunts patrolling around the area.
"We've got company." Olivia said, handing the binoculars to Sonia.
"I see what you mean." Sonia remarked, scoping the area out further. "Wait, it looks like they're guarding something besides that airship!"
Sonia zoomed the binoculars further in, taking note of a cave entrance with mining equipment stashed in crates nearby.
"It looks like our Master's enemy is here for something." Olivia remarked, wondering why they're enemies would be here of all places. "Could they be here to prevent us from purifying the Stone?"
"Not sure, but it's worth investigating." Sonia replied, revving the engines full speed towards the mountain.
"I'm not saying we should disrupt their plans. I mean after all, our glorious Emperor honored us with some of his Pokémon just in case." Olivia began to say. "But we should remember, it's only the three of us, and one of us is staying behind to watch the plane."
"Agreed, sister!" Sonia remarked, putting her finger to her ear to speak into her communicator. "Elesa, did you get all of that?"
"Yes I did, my fellow slaves." Elesa replied over the radio. "I will soon be done with the fueling. I will keep the plane guarded until your return."
As the Sonia and Olivia closed in on their mark, they readied a pair of pokeballs as they made their way in a beeline towards the enemy. Driving in the wide open desert in broad daylight was all the duo could manage at the moment, calling upon Ash's Pokémon for the assist.
"Talonflame, come out!" Sonia called, the Falcon Pokémon emerging in a flash of light from its ball.
As the Pokémon flew alongside Olivia, the ebony slave put a Pokeball each in its talons.
"Fly above them and release these two when I give a signal." Olivia commanded Ash's Pokémon.
With a nod from the Fire/Flying type, it took off, raising high into the air, positioning itself above the squad of grunts completely ignorant of its presence.
As the bike grew closer and closer to the outpost, a grunt patrolling on the outskirts began to make out the shape of the bike through the waves of heat. Before he could signal his allies however, Olivia struck first, reaching into her bag for yet another piece of standard Team Rose field equipment.
A flare gun already equipped with a shell was held in the slave's hand. Upon her squeeze of the trigger, the shell was fired, a column of black smoke trailing from the gun far into the air.
"We've got company!" The grunt on patrol yelled, grabbing for his poke ball.
"What?!" The squad's leader gasped. "More of the local raiders?!"
Before he questioned could be answered, Talonflame used its razor claws to hit the buttons on the pokeballs in its talons, releasing the two Pokémon within. As Ash's Melmetal and Lycanroc descended from the air, the Wolf Pokémon used its signature Accelrock to crush one of the five grunts, striking the man in the chest with the massive rock on the top of his mane.
As Melmetal fell onto the the enemy's airship with a massive rumble, it did what it did best and began to devour the vehicle, consuming it with its liquid metal body.
"What is that thing?!" Another grunt gasped, shocked at the Pokémon she had never seen before.
"It doesn't matter, you fool!" The squad leader shouted, calling out his Rhydon. "It's destroying our way off the backwater Region! Take it out!"
Before the squad leader could command his Pokémon however, Talonflame and Lycanroc double teamed the giant beast. As Lycanroc used Bite on the Ground/Rock type's massive tail, Talonflame struck the Pokémon repeatedly with a barrage of Steel Wings, knocking the Pokémon out with a combo of powerful moves.
After dissolving a good portion of the enemy ship, Melmetal turned its attention to the enemy, jumping to the ground and readying its club-like fists. With a horrifyingly powerful Double Iron Bash, Melmetal brought down the other few standing Team Rocket members, rending all but the squad leader unconscious from the pain.
After the trio of Pokémon ensured the man wouldn't escape, Olivia and Sonia finally arrived on site, parking the bike nearby. After kneeling down, Olivia was about to interrogate the man before he spoke up first.
"Oh, I recognize those uniforms now." He chuckled through the pain Melmetal had inflicted upon him earlier. "You're those Team Rose slaves. Riley warned us about you. And here we thought we were about to be attacked by some of the island tribal bandits again."
"What does that mean?" Olivia asked him.
"This Region's a total shit hole." The grunt coughed up. "Boss told us that some group called Cipher use to run things here. Used to turn Pokémon into monsters before they collapsed under their own weight. Now all that's left in this region is a bunch of shit eating bandits who salvage scrap and rob each other in this wasteland."
"Monsters?" Sonia asked the man. "What's that mean?"
"There's something down in those caves those Cipher guys used to corrupt Pokémon, turned them into Shadows of their former selves. That's what our new boss wants in the cave down there."
"It's a miracle you clowns have existed as a crime syndicate for long." Olivia scoffed. "We didn't even need to hurt you further to spill the beans on your boss."
Realizing he had so simply ratted out his Boss' plan, the grunt gulped, afraid that Riley would do to him what he did to Giovanni. Keeping his mouth shut from that point on, the grunt sat propped up against the hill, his other grunts beside him completely unconscious.
"You three stay here and keep and eye on these guys." Sonia commanded the Pokémon. "If there's trouble, retreat and meet up with Elesa back over on that airfield in the distance. Talonflame, you can keep the balls just in case."
With a caw in response from the Fire/Flying type, Olivia and Sonia began to make their way into the cave. The trek through the man made cave system nearly seemed endless, up until a certain point where it spilled out into a far more open, naturally formed cavern going further into the mountain.
Following the trail, the duo began to hear the sounds of voices. Proceeding further, Olivia and Sonia found themselves in a tunnel with a gap in the walls, revealing a giant chamber, filled with the glow of magma.
In this room, Olivia and Sonia noticed a glowing rock, unlike any they had ever seen. Looking further at the stone embedded in rock, with flowing magma lava falls on either side of it, a third dripping substance was pooling beneath the stone. A strange, dark purple liquid seemed to be coming from the stone itself, the amber glow of it unlike the liquid that seemed to drip from it.
The rock was not alone in the room however, as another squad of Team Rocket grunts were around the room, with Riley standing in the middle, simply basking at the rock before him.
"I don't mean to sound ignorant, boss man, but what exactly is that thing anyways?" A grunt beside Riley asked.
"Oh please don't be so modest, you are ignorant!" Riley mocked his subordinate. "This is a Griseous Orb. A conduit of the Distortion Pokémon Giratina itself!"
"Giratina?" The grunt replied. "You mean the one who defied Arceus as he shaped the world?"
"Ah, so you do know your history!" Riley replied, almost impressed. "Yes, Giratina, the defier, the defiler, the rebel. He created antimatter, the secret ingredient we need to corrupt the Red Chain to serve my will even further."
"This that dark purple stuff the key to this?" The grunt asked.
"Precisely." Riley said, using his aura powers to walk on screens made of aura, seemingly walking on air until he stood before the embedded Stone, leering at the powerful artifact.
Smashing the surround bedrock away with his staff, Riley took the Orb into his hand before commanding his grunts to use their equipment to harvest the pool of purple liquid. Just as the group finished their work, Riley began to sense the presence of Olivia and Sonia nearby.
"I smell a few rats scurrying in the rafters, ladies and gentlemen." Riley taunted, ensuring his words reached the two hiding slave girls. "Let's flush em out with a little something special."
Waving to one of his henchmen, the grunt planted a large device on one of the cave's support columns.
"I'll deal with their leader soon, but it would feel so much sweeter knowing how much it would hurt his soul to hear they died in a cave in, wouldn't you say fellas?" Riley cackled manically as one of his other grunts held up a glowing black box.
Olivia and Sonia only caught a glimpse of it. What it made however, was a whole other story. Upon the press of the button, The box hummed an ominous pitch, with the burst of energy ripping a hole through space time right beside the group.
"That's and Ultra Hole!" Olivia gasped as the group began entering the wormhole, running into the room to stop the enemy from escape.
"Olivia don't-" Sonia called out as the object on the support pillar exploded, the entire mountain's cavern system shaking.
"This place is gonna blow!" Sonia screamed, noticing the magma reacting to the blast.
Rushing out of the caves as fast as the two could, Olivia and Sonia contacted Elesa over their communicators for a hasty pickup.
Exiting the cave system and back onto the surface, Olivia and Sonia breathed the fresh air in deeply, glad they made it safely as the cave entrance behind them collapsed completely.
Before they could begin to question what just occured, Lycanroc got the attention of his temporary trainer, it's barks muffled by something.
As the Wolf Pokémon wagged his tail in Joy, Sonia noticed a strange, seemingly hallow stone brick cylinder in its mouth.
"Where did you get this?" Sonia asked as the Pokémon lay the object in her hands.
Seeing that the Pokémon was using its paw to point at the now nearly fully devoured airship, the duo turned to the Team Rocket squad leader still subdued by Melmetal and Talonflame.
"What is this thing?" Olivia asked him.
"Some sort of purification silo." The grunt responded. "Belonged the a group of Aura users who lived in the forests to the east."
"Past tense?" Sonia followed up.
"Riley had us 'deal with them'. He said he would cut down anyone who followed the ways of the old Aura Guardians, whatever the hell that meant." The grunt continued talking, forgetting the resolve he previously tried to muster to protect his Boss' interests. "He just told us to do whatever with it. Was gonna pawn the thing off myself, but I don't see that happening anymore."
Before further questioning could be made however, the two slave women realized just how powerful the bomb Riley placed was. After feeling the ground tremble from a terrible earthquake, Sonia and Olivia looked up in horror as the mouth of the volcano began to breath a heavy black smoke.
"She's gonna blow any minute now!" Sonia gasped. "Elesa, where are you?!"
"Coming up on you now!" Elesa said over the comm, touching the plane down nearby.
After having Melmetal scoop up the grunts, Olivia and Sonia withdrew Talonflame and Lycanroc, running to the back hatch of the cargo plane. Throwing their prisoners into the back of the plane, Melmetal returned to its ball, with the plane taking off right as the volcano exploded, throwing boulders of debris several miles outward.
Narrowly dodging a volley of flying magma and molten rock, Elesa flew straight home. After looking out the window to see the terrifying might of the volcano's eruption consuming all of the land of Orre, Olivia looked at the cylinder Sonia held in her hand.
After taking the object, Olivia began to fiddle with it, realizing that only those with a power of aura could unlock it. Knowing that only her Master could make use of the strange object, Olivia and the other two slaves could only pray to their God Ash that this was what they were looking for, as they now knew that the Region of Orre would be a place impossible to return to now.
Flying home, Sonia and Olivia began to get some rest, awaiting the time when they could be in the warm embrace of their magnificent Master. As they rested however, evil lurked in the shadows, a place the fallen Aura Guardian had seem to now find comfort in.
"Wonderful use implementing your former Boss's Ultra Hole research, my minion." Riley said.
"But sir, those two in the caves with us. If they escaped then that means they would surely have found the purification cylinder on our boys who were guarding the entrance!" The grunt warned his boss. "If they purify the Life Stone, they'll be coming right for us next!"
"I'm counting on it." Riley said with monotone in his voice, seeing his plans all falling slowly, yet surely into place.
The final battle to decide the fate of the planet would soon be upon him, but first, he needed some time. And time is exactly what he intended to buy.