Present Day -Three weeks after Team Rocket's battle against Team Plasma in the Desert Resort…
Kair Yu
"I've got to give you credit," I wiped a sweaty brow with the back of my hand. Legendaries, was it me or was it getting hot in here? "You're good, kid."
A cracked pipe to my left was spewing steam into the tiny storage space. I couldn't recall if it had been me or the Team Galactic Grunt that had damaged it. Condensation dripped on us from the ceiling, much to the disgust of my Charizard who did his best to avoid getting wet. For some reason the fire type hated water.
"I'm better than good..." noting my Charizard's distraction, the kid grinned at me from beneath his ridiculous hair cut... or was it a wig? "Bronzor, Hypnosis."
"Charizard! Get your ass in the game! Use-" I didn't get to finish my order. Taking the giant metal plate's attack head on, he hit the ground, sound asleep.
"Oh no you didn't!" I had to growl. "You just thwarted my getaway!"
The Galactic kid didn't even bat an eye. He looked to be around eighteen or nineteen but had the serious, steely gaze of someone who had seen too much in his lifetime already. "You should have been more prepared. You are without a doubt the worst Pokémon trainer I've ever seen… Team Rocket."
"Hah," I replied with a chortle. The kid was good... but not that good. "Rule number one, never underestimate..." He didn't even see the flying jump kick. My boots made contact with his face and he hit the ground before I'd even landed. "...your opponent."
Loyal to its master the Bronzor came at me with a Confusion attack but a series of backflips was all it took for me to evade it. Another jump kick sent it flying into a pile of crates, leaving me the window I needed to withdraw my sleeping Charizard back into its Pokéball and hit the ground running.
The alarm had already gone off however, and as I made my way through the endless maze that was the Team Galactic base, I soon found myself completely surrounded by more spacemen with unfortunate haircuts. I skidded to a halt, cursing under my breath. I was a fighter, but there was no way I'd be able to get through a whole hoard of them and their Pokémon.
I had no other option.
"Alright," I said slowly, raising my hands. "You got me."
Somewhere in Unova...
A woman's wail broke the silence of an otherwise peaceful morning. A castle hidden deep within the forests came to life with the scurry of feet and cries of urgency. The time had come.
"Anthea, just breathe. That's right, now push."
The young, pink haired woman found herself surrounded by medics and sages but all she could concentrate on was the task at hand. Another contraption ripped through her body and she let out a loud moan. Panting, pushing until finally the tiny infant came free.
Wails were replaced with cheers of doctors and sages and the shriek of a tiny child that was quickly bundled up in towels. Her job done and her duty fulfilled, the Maiden Princess Anthea flopped back into the bed. Drugs kicked in and the pain soon subsided into a dull throb. Her mind began to drift before finally she gave into her exhaustion.
The child was a girl - that was a fact already known. What was also known was that she was destined to grow up to become a woman of great power. With striking blue eyes and brown hair that would slowly change colour has her power grew - she was destined to change the tides. 'Oh yes', Ghetsis grinned as he held up the child in his arms. Unlike his previous experiment, this would be a legacy worthy of holding his title. Ky'rei Mu – she would hold the very name of the Dragon she was set to possess.
"Welcome to the world young Rei. Welcome back... sister."
The cell wasn't the most uncomfortable I'd been in. This one had a decent bed at least, though I had no intention of using it. Cold, stone walls surrounded me, and my only link to the outside world was a small grate in the door that also served as an air vent.
I waited an hour perhaps two before the door came open and three figures stepped into the cell - two of the biggest spacemen goons I'd seen yet, and a red-headed woman dressed as an astronaut-ballerina. Mars of Team Galactic.
"I know who you are," She cut right to the case. "The infamous Kair Yu aka Aisha Valderez. Daughter of Giovanni of Team Rocket…. What I really want to know is what are you doing here?"
I simply smirked and leaned back on my bunk, sticking my hands behind my head. "I hear you have a new boss. What's he like to work for? What are the chances that Cyrus would have a mystery brother turn up just in time to rescue Team Galactic only one day before you found yourselves bought out by Team Rocket?"
Mars didn't drop her front, "What can I say? The universe works in funny ways."
"Ah before I forget," I seemed to have an epiphany. "That agent who beat my Charizard, you really need to give that guy a promotion. That Charizard received training from the Champion of the Joto elite four. He's not an easy opponent."
"I'll be sure to let the boss know," the woman, unimpressed by my ramble, rubbed her eyebrow. "You didn't answer my question."
I ignored her. "So, when will I have the privilege of meeting your new boss?"
"Hah!" Her hands shot to her hips and she gave me a defiant leer. "You have to be kidding me! No one sees Darius except the commanders. No one."
Those words barely left her lips when the cell door came open and there stood a man so tall he seemed to tower over everyone else. He was remarkably identical to his 'so-called' brother lest certain features such has a thinner frame and a younger face. Then there were his intense, violet eyes that looked as though they could see into your very soul.
I gave him a brief once over, not bad really... for someone who, before last week, was completely unknown to the general population.
"That is enough, she is coming with me," he spoke with a voice so devoid of emotion that he almost sounded like a robot. Oh yes, he was a relative of Cyrus, couldn't deny that.
Mars found herself flabbergasted as she was ordered to step aside and let me pass. I guess even emotionless robots sometimes deviated from protocol. That wasn't such a bad thing, especially considering that he was one of the main reasons why I was here.
"Did you really have to be so tall?" I quirked an eyebrow at Team Galactic's new leader.
Much to my disappointment he chose not to respond, merely directing me onward down the endless corridors that made up his establishment.
Team Galactic Grunt
The ocean breeze brought with it memories of a lifetime ago. A simpler time... before the world changed. The welting bruise under my eye hurt to touch and the brief sweep of my tongue across my lip brought back the copper taste of old blood. All of this compliments of Team Rocket's daughter.
This didn't escape the notice of my colleagues either as they felt the need to bring out the fact that I had been defeated by an apparent 'mere girl'. I heaved a sigh, ignoring the sting of sea salt on my fresh wounds. I wasn't much of a fighter myself, which was probably why I ended up at the wrong end of the woman's jump kick.
Not that it mattered. She was captured and once again Team Galactic was saved from the clutches of a Team Rocket takeover that I honestly expected would have happened sooner. Ever since Cyrus left, Team Galactic had found itself teetering on the edge, so to speak. With no real leader, no direction, we were fair game for the hungry ambitions of Team Rocket's Giovanni.
That was before a relative of Cyrus appeared on the scene - a man not much older than Giovanni's daughter herself. A man as mysterious as the background he'd apparently come from.
A wave caught my boot and snapped me from my thoughts. Digging at the sand around my feet, it washed away the foundation beneath me and left me sinking in the wet. While not the oceans I was accustomed to, the dirty old bay did it's best to imitate her big sister. She was not as fierce and the sand she toyed with was not as pristine or white as where I'd come from.
The sun was already setting behind the mountains in the west, causing pointy and jagged shadows to stretch out over the bay below and pitching Veilstone City into a premature darkness.
My eyes fell across the distant shapes of mountains – silent witnesses of Humankind's impact on these lands. Unmoving and yet as merciless as the sea. They held so many secrets.
I fingered a pokéball on my belt, reminded of the fact that it was Friday and I wasn't expected back at HQ until the next week. Without a second thought, I released my Skarmory from her sleepy hideaway. The steel- type bird greeted me with a yawn and a squawk before quirking her head at the messy state of my face.
"I know, I've neglected you," I admitted, feeling a twinge of guilt. "But I'm going to make it up to you. How about a trip to the mountains... like old times?"
The Skarmory offered no objections, merely bending down to allow me onto her back. She spread her metallic wings that glinted in the dimming daylight before we took off, chasing the sunset into the mountains.
Scarlett
"YAHHHHH! OMPH!"
The portal opened and we landed on the ground in a crumpled heap. Me and Pikachu that was. Lucky the little Pokémon was only light, so he basically bounced off my back and tumble-rolled in the dirt.
I heaved a moan and pulled myself to my knees, blinking under the light of a moon-lit sky. Huge rocks and boulders surrounded me and I shivered at the cool of the evening. Was that a clump of snow? Where was I? The air was thin here, making breathing more of a chore than usual. Though I was used to it. I'd grown up in the mountains after all.
"A mountain!" I suddenly realised. That's where I was... stuck on a mountain... somewhere. I found a ledge that seemed to just drop off into a black unknown. It was all rocks, no forest anywhere. The air tasted like a mix of metal and dust - nothing like the mountains I was accustomed to... so I was nowhere near Kanto.
Was I still in Unova? For some reason this didn't feel like Unova. For a start their mountains had trees... lots and lots of trees. My brow furrowed but little chance did I have to contemplate further as suddenly Celebi buzzed into my field of vision.
"Celebi!" I jumped upright.
The Pokémon pretended to be oblivious to our presence as it flew right past us and over a boulder.
"Hey! Wait up!" Immediately Pikachu and I took chase, doing our best to keep up with the stupid thing while attempting to clamber over and scoot around massive rocks and boulders that blocked our path – the fact that the only light we had to guide us was the moon didn't make the task any easier. "Don't leave us here!"
Scraping my arm on a sharp rock, I bit my tongue and avoided cursing. The little thing just stopped and giggled at us while still hanging in mid-air. Then without so much as a word, it Teleported from the scene and vanished.
"Celebi, no!" I hollered but it was too late. The little critter that had brought us here was gone, and I had no idea where here even was... let alone when...
"Oh Legendaries, what have I done?" I suddenly felt sick to the core, and very alone.
Pikachu nudged at my leg in attempt to offer me some sort of comfort that I was sure he'd done to his old Trainer times before.
The thought of Ash brought on a fresh wave of sick, but now along with it the thought that this time things would be different, I would make sure of it. Ash's killer - the man in the suit, would be out of the picture this time.
In the meantime however, I had to figure out why I'd been brought to this place. I offered the late Champion's Pikachu a thoughtful frown. He'd faced situations far more bizarre than this. He'd travelled the world, even met countless Legendaries.
"Pikachu, what would Ash do in this situation?"
The Pikachu quivered an ear, as if to take a moment to think before suddenly his nose started to twitch.
"Pika," it sounded in a hushed whisper, signalling around the boulder we hid behind.
Voices and flashlights were heading in our direction. People! What stopped me from jumping out and greeting them however, was the distinctly black uniforms they wore with red Rs on their chests.
"Team Rocket," I whispered, pulling back around the boulder so that they wouldn't see me. Maybe I was wrong, maybe we were in Kanto after all.
They seemed to be looking for something. They stopped only a few feet away from us and gathered in front of a loose pile of rock. One of them – a scientist – was holding a GPS that beeped urgently at him.
"It's right here. Get moving. We need to be out of here before the rangers come by at dawn." He ordered his people accompanied by Machoke to remove the great pile of rubble.
I barely heard Pikachu's silent warning. A hand touched my shoulder and I immediately spun, going to scream but another hand grabbed my mouth and hushed me. The shadow of a spaceman stood over me and again I had to resist the urge to scream and run away.
"Shh," he placed a finger on his lip. "I'm not going to hurt you."
I swallowed, "P..p..promise?"
"Don't you think if I was, I would have done so already?"
He did have a point.
"Alright... you can let me go now." For the first time in our encounter he moved into the moonlight and I spotted his face beneath the green wig of none other than a Team Galactic agent. He looked way younger but I recognised him immediately. "Wilbur?"
The Galactic agent pulled back several steps. "How do you know that name?"
His move allowed me to see him more fully and I realised he couldn't have been any older than nineteen. His stern, dishevelled features had been replaced with a youthful face and curious, green eyes – one of which was bruised pretty badly. He was lanky, like he hadn't quite grown into his limbs just yet, but he was still kinda cute and I couldn't help the blush that spread to my cheeks... until reality set in and I registered his affiliation. He was a member of Team Galactic!
I recoiled. What was I doing looking for a member of a criminal band?!
"You... you're part of Team Galactic?"
"Again, who are you and how do you know my name?" he questioned more sternly this time. The curiosity in his eyes was gone, only to be replaced with a glance so icy it could have knocked one of Dad's dragons clean out of the sky. "And what's going on for that matter?" he signalled to the Rocket gang that still worked just outside of our hiding spot.
"You told me your name," I offered in a hushed whisper. "You sent me to… well find you. And they… they're Team Rocket. I don't know what they're doing but…" I nervously glimpsed his Team Galactic uniform. "It can't be good."
The boulders Team Rocket worked on gave way to the black entrance of a cave. It looked as though there had been a locked door there once but it had been opened somewhere in the stream of time and left that way, only to be covered over with the avalanche of rocks.
The Rockets wiped away sweaty brows and caught their breath, before pulling out their torches and entering the chamber single file.
"What are they doing here?" I felt Wilbur's breath on the back of my neck as he leaned over my shoulder and watched.
I didn't need to suggest that we follow them, because the moment the last Rocket stepped into that cave Wilbur was on his feet, bounding from our hiding spot after them.
"Hey!" I hissed, going to grab for his arm but he was too quick. "We can't go in there. Team Rocket are dangerous. They can't be up to anything good."
"All the more reason to find it out," the Galactic agent retorted before disappearing into that hole in the wall.
"Oh man," I felt my stomach sink. Following strangers down scary black holes wasn't exactly my idea of fun. But what choice did I have? Whether he knew it or not, this guy was going to help me find Silver. "Come on Pikachu, I guess we're going too."
Wilbur
Five months. That was how long it had been since I was here last. Back when, even despite knowing full well what was to happen, I still found myself caught up in the hype. Team Galactic – so full of hopes and ideas of a fantastic new world. A new universe. It was all set to take place with Cyrus as our leader. Years of work about to come to fruition.
The stairs leading down into the ancient chamber glowed as bright as they had the last time I was here – leading us down into what our leader had called the Spear Pillar.
Team Rocket had already reached the main platform where Cyrus had summoned the great Legendaries Dialga and Palkia and used them to form his New World. But instead of bringing with them red chains and Lake Guardians, they possessed nothing more than machines and vials of coloured liquid... and a single orb that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. No bigger than a watermelon, the head scientist carried it in his hands. It looked to be made of glass but inside it glowed with a shifting spacescape of stars and galaxies.
"Sir!" The eerie calm of the chamber was interrupted by a Rocket agent typing madly on the display of what looked to be a scanning device. "Not only are the energy signatures still here, they're off the charts!"
"Excellent," the head scientist who still carried the orb grinned. "Proceed with operations as planned."
A large crane device was placed in the centre of the triangle – the very spot where Cyrus's universe had been created. Two metal arms reached up from the ground toward each other, forming what looked to be a giant, metallic archway. The tips of the 'arms' ended in metallic 'hands' that held either side of a large glowing rock.
A Meteonite stone! How in the world did Team Rocket get their hands on that? Especially since they were only found in one place – Unova. Oh yes I knew all too well the attributes of a Meteonite stone. A mysterious meteorite possessing the ability to supercharge anything it touched.
"What's going on? What did I miss?" I almost jumped at the figures that appeared beside me - the girl and her Pikachu. Still a good half way up the stairs, we crouched just out of view of Team Rocket.
I held a finger on my lip to shush her and we watched as Team Rocket's scientist place the orb on a small stand in the centre of this mechanical archway. He stepped back and sounded the order. A cannon shot the Meteonite with something that resembled a purple Hyperbeam, and all at once the stone came to life. The chamber was instantly lit up with sparks of supercharged electricity, hissing and snapping at anything within reach of the stone. A thunderbolt hit the orb below and suddenly, as if run by its own form of intelligence, the Meteonite unleashed all of its power on it. The orb was engulfed in white, so bright that everyone in the chamber was forced to cover their eyes. Great cracks began to form in the glass-like sphere and for a moment it rocked back and forth in the grips of the stand that held it.
Then SMASH! The orb exploded. Shards of glass sprayed all over the chamber only to vanish into small streams of light. The universe contained within the orb began to expand, filling the entire archway but never forming beyond its borders. Like an old, static television set we found ourselves peering into a gateway... looking out over a universe still in its birthing stages.
"Incredible," my eyes were fixated. I was simply speechless. This place... it was Cyrus's universe. They'd just reopened the gateway.
The Rockets seemed to be searching for something... or rather someone. Dressed in space suits, a man and a woman jumped through the portal only to be reeled back in several moments later bringing with them one more person.
My heart came to a screaming halt as they dragged him back through the gateway. He was barely conscious and slumped on the ground at their feet. But there was no denying it... those features... Cyrus.
"Hey you! Kids!" I barely even heard the shout, or saw the Rocket Grunt pointing in our general direction.
The teenager beside me leapt to her feet in a panic. She grabbed at my arm in attempt to pull me to my senses. "I think that means run!" she called urgently.
Rockets were already on their way up the stairs after us. I staggered upright, my head still spinning, and together we turned and bolted from the scene.
"I think... we lost them..." The girl wheezed, letting her body flop into the boulder we hid behind. She coughed in attempt to force air back into her lungs and wiped sweat from her brow, offering me a pre-dawn smile.
The sky was already changing colour, bringing with it the first glimpses of sunlight. We had run until we could no longer hear the voices of Team Rocket and our legs gave way. I was sure they would not bother to find us now. Not when they had what they came for... well I could only assume.
Cyrus... I couldn't get the thought out of my head... the images of him being dragged from that gateway into the clutches of the enemy. What were they going to do with him? What purpose would Cyrus serve to feed the ambitions of Team Rocket? And how did they manage to figure out how to re-open the gateway in the first place?! They had to have gotten their hands on top secret Team Galactic information for them to have even known the location of the Spear Pillar in the first place. A pit formed in my stomach. None of this was supposed to happen... the timeline was broken and things were reeling beyond my foresight. Had I done something to change it so drastically? I had been so careful!
"Hey, are you listening to me?"
For the second time the girl snapped me from my daze. She was rummaging about her bag that more or less resembled a garbage dump concealed in cloth. "You told me to give you something."
But my mind was already too far ahead. She already knew who I was... that wasn't supposed to happen either. Meanwhile, I needed to get to Cyrus. I needed to follow Team Rocket before they disappeared altogether.
She didn't even notice me call on Bronzor. "Bronzor, use Hypnosis."
The girl with her Pikachu took the full brunt of the attack and reeled. They were out before they even hit the ground...