TWO MONTHS LATER
CAMERAN PALACE, ROTA
"Ready?" Ash asked, Aurian coming up behind him to the dead-end hallway.
The younger patonai rolled her eyes. "Ash, you don't have to say that every time we come here."
She formed twin aura spheres in her hands and channelled them into the wall in front of them. The exterior illusion melted away to reveal an ornate oak and gold door set with engravings from the history of the Guardian Guild.
Ash pulled on the handle and walked his sister inside of the greatest gift they'd stumbled upon in Cameran Palace- Aaron Borealis' Sanctum.
"What first?" Aurian pondered, crossing her arms. "Training? Research? Post-breakfast nap?"
"As great as that post-breakfast nap sounds, we actually need to get things done today," Ash said, scratching a sleepy Pikachu under his chin. "Reseach now, training after lunch? We do need to keep our strength up now that we have it back."
Aurian nodded and picked a book off of Aaron's desk. "Where'd we leave off?"
"The Crisis Meetings," Ash said, selecting a huge book with a green leather cover and flipping through to where his flimsy bookmark lay. "There are names that keep popping up out of temporal context and I need to find out why."
"Before or after?" Aurian asked, flopping onto the rug.
Ash frowned. "After. Much, much, after their times. It's rare, too. I've only read about it in five of the hundred-sixteen entries listed in these minutes from the Crisis Meetings. Something about sage advice and wisdom much needed. The minutes were kept by Guardians of the same familial line so we know they're consistent through the years."
"Wait a second," Aurian said, old paper whooshing past her finger, "I think I might've found something that can help-"
She called her brother over and pointed to the top of a page, the edge stained slightly from a papercut on her index finger. "Grandpa Azaiah wrote this on the innovations of the Guardians. The only problem is that it's in code, and I can't figure out what this chapter's purpose is. It details something called the Chronicle, and the rest is gibberish after that."
"The Chronicle?" Ash muttered, crossing his arms. "Wait... Ri, that matches a ritual in the Crisis Meetings. My author said that the Guild used the chronicles to gain the opinions of Guardians past."
"What if the Chronicle wasn't a book..." Aurian's eyes lit up.
Ash's jaw dropped. "But a method of speaking to the departed spirits of former Guild members. Holy crap, Ri, do you know what this means?"
"We can talk to Father! And Grandpa Azaiah! And all the family we never knew-" she trailed off, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Ash said, offering his sister his handkerchief. "It looks like the only times the Chronicles were ever consulted were in times of extreme danger within the original Guild headquarters, which are now ruins north of the Palace."
Aurian shrugged and blew her nose. "I'd say that this qualifies as an emergency, we're the only wielders left on the face of the earth. If we can survive MissingNO, we can rebuild a Guild. We have the Teams to pull it off. What kind of device is it?"
"Can't tell, honestly," Ash said, flipping through his book. "There's a second volume of crisis meetings that I haven't started yet. I'm hoping that our author gets a little more descriptive in the future.
A knock on the door scared the patonai onto their feet, aura blazing in their hands.
"Who is it?" Aurian called.
Ilene poked her head in the door. "Easy there, I'm not an enemy. Lance really trained you two for combat, didn't he?"
Ash rolled his eyes. "He did too great of a job. All that's left of the two of us are combat reflexes and bad memories. What's up, Ilene?"
"I wanted to give you this," the Queen said, passing over a small, thick envelope. "It's a thank-you letter from this year's Tournament winner. The postman dropped it off with the morning newspapers."
"Now that was fun," Ash replied, a grin crossing his face. "The little guy was excited enough that he won the tourney! He nearly wet his trousers when two real live Aura Guardians came out to show him how to hold Father's staff to start the fireworks."
Aurian nodded. "I'm sad that we only get to do that once a year. Can't we have another one, Ilene?"
The Queen groaned. "Aurian, it takes us two months to get ready for a tournament. My staff and I need that other ten months to actually get things of importance done, like moderating laws and regulations to keep the kingdom running. It's not all fun and games for me like it is for you."
"I'd like to see you make it through minutes for every Crisis Meeting without falling asleep, Highness," Ash said, an eyebrow raised.
"Fair enough. How is this research of yours coming along, anyways?"
Aurian grinned. "We just stumbled upon a way to contact the spirits of deceased Guardians, which means that we can talk to Father again!"
"Oh, that's wonderful news!" Ilene said, clapping her hands. "I'm sure you two have a lot of questions for him."
"We don't want to disturb him in the afterlife," Ash answered, "but we need help deciphering his notes. Honestly, his handwriting's worse than mine sometimes."
Aurian smiled. "And we get to speak to our Grandfather Azaiah and the people we should've known in our original time, like Father's patonai and his younger siblings. But we can't open the Chronicle yet, we don't have the right tools. I don't know if we ever will-"
"But we're not letting that stop us," Ash finished. "Not yet, anyways."
Ilene nodded. "Good for you. Have you told Riley about this?"
"No, but we need to after we gather more solid information," Aurian said, marking her page and closing her book.
You haven't heard from him in a while, have you?" Ilene asked, crossing her arms.
Aurian shook her head. "No, we haven't-"
Ash's Pokegear rang, shattering the peace within the halls of the Sanctum.
"Speak of the devil," he muttered. "It's a video call, Ri."
Aurian groaned. "Is this what I think it is?"
"We're about to find out."
The patonai squeezed into the camera angle and accepted the call. Lance, Riley, and Steven appeared on the screen, purple circles under their eyes and massive Thermoses of coffee in their hands.
"Borealis. Borealis," Lance said. "We have a mission for you."
"Two months, Lance!" Ash groaned. "You couldn't let us have two freaking months of sabbatical?"
Steven winced. "I understand your outburst, but this is serious. Cabot's awake."
The patonai froze, hearts pounding as memories of MissingNO and Lily of the Valley rushed through their heads.
"If you both feel prepared enough to do so, we'd like for you to speak with him as Aaron's kids, not as military officers. Get as much information out of him before we lock him up forever. He might know more about other splits of Andan in foreign regions that didn't participate in your mission," Riley said, fire in his eyes.
Ash frowned. "You say that as if there's trouble."
"Yes," Steven said, "there is. That's the main reason we called. We've been getting rumors that Kalos has been seeing a rise in illegal criminal action."
"That didn't take long," Aurian muttered. "They've been in the League... what, all of fifteen months?"
"They're called Team Flare. They've been attacking beginning trainers," Lance said, noting the enraged looks on the patonai's faces. "We want you to pose as new trainers and flush them out for the International Police. Are you in?"
Aurian looked at her brother. "It was nice while it lasted."
Ash smirked. "You know us too well, Lance-"
"We're in."
(A/N): Hello, everyone! If you're reading this, it means that you've reached the end of Primary!
Thank you all so much for putting up with my oddly-timed and incredibly long hiatuses and I'm so so proud of how this turned out. I have you all to thank for that. Every single follow, favorite, and review pushed me to put out my best writing and I appreciate that so very much. A few specific thank yous are in order:
thechinskyguy: This story wouldn't be anywhere close to what it is today without you, friend. It's been a blast having you as my beta for the past two years and I've really benefited from your help and your advice through it all. Thank you for being such a good friend and for your patience when my schedule grew kinda nuts.
EmeraldDragon1: You were the first to see what this story was truly capable of and were a great help through the first few chapters. Thank you for pushing me well beyond my boundaries through your editing skills and for giving me the inspiration and courage needed to pull off a few of the craziest plot twists that I've ever attempted.
WritingForMuffins: Thank you for being my first consistent reviewer! Your kind words always brought a smile to my face when I needed motivation to push through the darker parts of the fic. Hope you'll stick around for Secondary!
EclipseWing: You have a knack for spotting my shortcomings in each chapter and I can't tell you how thankful I am for your reviews. Thank you!
japaneserockergirl: Thank you for all your great advice and your many complements.
Darkrai6543/DraconianPhilosopher: You're so incredibly sweet and I haven't thanked you enough for your fantastic reviews. They were always timed to hit exactly when I needed to pick up the pace during my hiatus periods, hmm...
emosewa-13: Thank you, friend, for your wonderful enthusiasm, which was greatly needed through Chapters 19-24. Your kind words really lightened the mood and I'm very grateful for that.
MidnightHunter563: You never quite gave up on me through the hiatus periods. Thank you for that, friend.
And lastly, thank you, my dear readers. If you'd like to read a little more of Ash and Aurian's adventures, check out As It All Fell to Pieces or Zero Hour, which is a short one-shot about the twelve hours leading up to the patonai's deployment to Sinnoh. If you're up to it, please leave a review for things I can improve on for my next big adventure or things that you'd like to see in Ash and Aurian's adventure to Kalos in Secondary! I'm not sure when the first chapter will be out, but I'd like to have it most of the way finished by the beginning of January, maybe a little later depending on my wacky schedule. Thank you all for three fantastic years and I hope there are many more where those came from. I love you all.
Until then, this is PL, signing off.