A/N: Patience, everyone! Patience! The story is coming when I can write it. I don't want to wreck it by rushing.
Ch 3
"What's that?" Articuno asked as he and the other legendary birds of Kanto flew towards Cerulean City. Moltres glanced over at the ice bird's direction, then followed his gaze to the shadowy figure in the distance, soaring towards the forest near Pallet Town.
"I dunno. We don't have time to check it out, though. The others are waiting." the fiery legendary replied and the trio winged their way to the Unknown Dungeon.
Raikou had by then given up on Jirachi and just lay on the ground, grumbling under his breath as the tiny Psychic snoozed on. The three birds descending with Ho-Oh following behind startled the group slightly but they were then able to gather themselves.
"Okay, so what are we here for? What's the big emergency?" Zapdos muttered, "I lost my spot at the Power Plant, if anyone cares."
"We have to wait it out until the Regis make it here." Celebi remarked, "But basically we must go to the Indigo Plateau and destroy the Earth Seal before it grabs hold of Raykyoudon and uses him to kill us all."
"What exactly is this Earth Seal you keep blabbing on about?" Lugia grumbled, "And why should it concern all of us? We're freaking legendary Pokémon! We can handle anything!"
"Not when it concerns the weather!" Celebi snapped, "Even Mewtwo's little storm is nothing when compared to the super-cells that Raykyoudon can conjure under the wrong path!" She looked heavenward. "Once he is born, Raykyoudon will have all the powers of the three elemental legendaries of Hoenn, the ones who helped create the land and the sea and the winds of this world. If he misuses them under Cipher's command, the world will cease to function. The winds will fall still, the land will shatter, the seas dry into desert." she murmured as the legendaries stared at her in shock. "Our world will surely die then. All of our powers, pitted against that storm, with Raykyoudon safe within it, could never stop it. We'd die before we could even get close to him."
"Wouldn't it be better to kill him now, while he's still a human punk?" Mewtwo grumbled, resting his chin on one paw as Mew sat on his head, holding herself up by grabbing his ears. Celebi shook her head.
"We need him alive. As long as the technology for creating Shadow Pokémon exists, we'll need Seth alive to counter it." she replied and frowned, "Anyways, I like him. He's a good person and we need more of those in this world."
"My way's more fun." Mewtwo pouted.
"So how do we wreck this Earth Seal machine? Do we hit it with Psychic powers or fire or electricity or what?" Raikou growled as Jirachi continued dozing on his back.
"Well, see that's the problem right there. I'm not exactly sure what we should hit it with." Celebi muttered. She looked up at Ho-Oh, "Any ideas, Bird of Life?" The legendary thought carefully, then sighed and shook his head. "We're in a jam, guys. The Earth Seal relies on the power of a legendary to make it work. For all we know, hitting it with any of our powers will make it stronger than before."
"Then this is a time when we can only do what we can and hope for the best." Suicune put in, "Let's go to the plateau and attack the machine and hope that the process of saving the world doesn't ultimately kill us all as well." The legendaries agreed and continued waiting for the final three Pokémon to appear.
Seth slowly woke and looked around him in a daze. He was in a room, large and regal looking, with huge windows that led to a balcony on one wall and beautiful paintings on the others. He lay in a bed, warm and comfortable under thick blankets and soft pillows. Confused, he sat up, rubbing at one eye as he tried to remember what had happened to him.
"I wish I left you to die in that stupid lab! I hate you!"
"I wish I threw you into the Deep! I hate you more!"
A slap, a pain that shot across his face and struck his heart, then only a cold icy wall that sealed him from her. A cry moments later and a crushing weight around him. The Snag Machine...
Gasping as the memories returned in a rush, Seth grabbed his left arm and winced as he found the machine gone. He remembered now; it was crushed in the grips of that Pokémon. Rayquaza.
He slid out from under the covers and looked himself over for injuries. Save for the ones to his pride and heart, he was healthy, dressed only in his shirt and jeans. The trench coat was hung neatly on a coat-rack not far from him and his boots were placed together below it. Wary of his surroundings, Seth explored his new 'prison', searching for an exit, a weapon, and the identities of his captors.
He searched the pockets of his jacket for his Pokémon. Of course, the balls were gone. A shiver went up his spine. Where were Jupiter and Pluto? He checked the rest of his pockets and frowned; whoever took his Pokémon also took his wallet and PDA. Dressing quickly, he explored the rest of the room.
A table beside his bed had a silver tray laden with food, presumably his breakfast or lunch. Seth glanced out the window, afternoon. Must be lunch. Instead of eating, he examined the decorations of the room, searching for hidden cameras, panels and weapons. He found one hidden in a vase of roses and promptly shoved it lens first into the beef stew that had been served for him.
"I eat nothing you set before me! Got it?" he snapped into the room, sure that any secreted microphone would pick up his words and carry it to his captors. "I know it's you, Cipher! Whatever it is you want to do with me, you can just forget it!"
The door opened before him; he had checked it and found it locked. Picking up the vase again to use as a weapon, Seth waited to see who would step in. To his shock and irritation, it was Fein, still dressed and posing as him.
"You know how long I took to make that stew? Ingrate." he grumbled and shut the door again, locking it once more. "You better eat something! Sera's ticked off with the both of us, y'know!" he shouted as he walked away. Seth smashed the vase against the door and yelled in a fury before sitting back in bed, scowling at his feet.
He could only blame himself for this mess. He hadn't looked over his shoulder like he usually did. If he had, he would have known which way to dive to avoid getting caught. Now without his Snag Machine, without his Pokémon, he was nothing more than a normal, old, everyday thief. Seth hated that feeling, the feeling of obsoleteness. It made him feel as if he were being used and meant nothing to the world in general.
The world...
The world would be destroyed if Cipher was able to get him to that Earth Seal thing Nett had told them about. How could he have been so stupid as to have fallen right into their laps? Seth looked around quickly, thinking. If they needed him so badly that their plan was useless without him, then perhaps he could use that to his advantage. After all, what did he have to lose? He had already lost everything when Brendan stole Rui right before his own two eyes. He hated Hoenn more than ever, for bearing the two Pokémon that gave him life, for bearing the two trainers that acted as though their one goal in life was to ruin his own.
Seth glanced over at the tray and took note of the dishes of food. The camera in the stew bubbled unappetizingly, but the salad looked crisp and delicious, the cut of steak still sizzling from the grill, the hot green tea served in a dainty porcelain cup filling the air with a tantalizing smell. After a few moments, he sighed and pulled the tray towards himself.
Sitting blind in his lab thanks to an errant bowl of beef stew, Ein leaned back in his chair and grumbled to himself. He had wanted to take the information as soon as Rayquaza had brought in Seth, who had fainted after seeing the great height it took him, but Sera had other ideas. She talked on about how, if he was treated like the deceased Wesley, they could coerce him into actually helping them out instead of fighting them every step of the way to world domination. He didn't think it would work, Fein wanted Seth put on display so he could compare himself to the Snagger and see if his disguise was as perfect as he claimed, and Gonzap... well, Gonzap had this strange look in his eyes that was driven away when the corporate princess rammed her stiletto's heel into his foot and chased him back into whatever room he had been working out.
"Bloody hell." Ein grumbled again and sat up when the microphone in Seth's room crackled to life again.
"Ein, I know you're out there. I've finished your stupid lunch. I have a proposition you might be interested in. It's about that little Earth Seal toy." Seth's voice came in, dark and icy. He wondered briefly about it, then dismissed it as a reaction to himself. "Tell me where my team is, and we'll have a little talk about my role in this scheme of yours."
"I'll be damned. It worked." Ein murmured in surprise and flipped on the speaker, "Ah, Seth! Glad to hear you're awake! Um, stay right there! I'll come and get you and we can talk in my lab." He glanced over at the four Pokémon trapped in the Shadow Machine, all clawing and pounding in efforts to break out, the two Psychics hindered by a pair of devices that made it painful to use their innate powers.
"Whoever made the steak should go back to cooking school. It was slightly burnt." Seth added as the scientist stood and made his way out towards the room.
Rui sat in the back of the helicopter, completely unresponsive to any attempts to talk to her. Red had taken note of the group's welfare and finally made a call to a friend of his; Gary Oak, he had mentioned. The Gym Leader of Viridian City wasn't able to make it in, but his chauffeur was dispatched in a chopper to fly out and pick up the small band of heroes. Upon the Champion's orders, the helicopter made its way to the Power Plant to break the siege on the building and restore the power to Kanto.
"You two are the biggest jerks I have ever met!" Silver raged at Brendan and May, "Have you been taking lessons from my sister? How could you do such a thing to them? What is wrong with you?" The trainers looked glumly at each other and sighed. May raised her hand.
"It's all my fault." she murmured, "I'm sorry, everyone, but I wanted to be his girlfriend, even if it was just for a couple of days." Brendan stared at her in shock and disbelief. "But he was so darn loyal to that redhead. I thought... I thought that if I could break them up... I'd have a chance. I mean, why go out with some girl who doesn't even have a Pokémon, when he could have had a Champion for a girlfriend?"
"You were cheating on me?" Brendan fumed and stormed from her, planting himself in a new seat, "I should have seen this coming. Gah, I'm such an idiot..." May winced as Silver tapped her foot.
"Well, there you are. Now you don't have any boyfriends!" she lectured and looked over at Rui. "Cipher has Seth now. And the one thing we need to save those Shadow Pokémon here has been destroyed. What can we do?"
"It's bigger than that." Rui said softly and the group gathered around in relief to hear her speaking again. "Cipher is going to complete him. Seth is going to become Raykyoudon." She looked up at the confused faces of her friends, not bothering to hide her tears. "The Pokémon that took Seth is the same one from my nightmare. It's going to kill all of you. Seth will turn into Raykyoudon and the world will die."
"The dragon? That was Rayquaza, a legendary Pokémon from Hoenn." Brendan remarked aloud, "I wondered why it was here. According to Hoenn legend, Rayquaza has the ability to seal the weather conditions of an area. That local area can't be affected by rain or drought or anything unless it leaves. It uses the wind to manipulate the climate."
"Rayquaza, Kyogre, and Groudon." May murmured and gasped, "Raykyoudon! It's all three put together as one!" Rui nodded sadly.
"Seth isn't a normal person. Cipher created him from DNA taken from Groudon and Kyogre to be a super-legendary Pokémon. They wanted him to have the power to control the weather. It didn't work. They must have been missing one more piece of DNA." she murmured. "Now they have it and they're gonna use it on Seth to finish the experiment."
"A being with all that power is a serious threat to the world. What would it be capable of doing?" Red asked as the Pikachu on his head yelped in shock.
"My dream said he would kill the world by stopping the elements. Winds, water, earth and sunlight, all of it would stop working." Rui murmured. Pikachu shook his head and leaped down from Red to cry out to the group.
"It's worse than that! Ash, listen to me! Groudon doesn't just have power over sunlight and heat; it controls ground, too! It created land! It has the power to destroy it, too! Trust me; I've done a lot of learning about ground types!" Pikachu cried as Red translated it for his friends, who gaped at the mouse. "If Cipher can make this Pokémon exist, and it goes crazy, they won't have a weather god! They'll have a demon that can go out of control and destroy this planet! It can shatter the world just by thinking about it! With power over the land, Raykyoudon can just break Earth into pieces and send it all flitting away into space like an old puzzle!"
"Oh God." May whispered as Rui wailed and covered her face with her hands. "Think of it. The continents just shattering, waters flooding, the heat of the sun sucking moisture out of everything and the winds... The winds would seal the world from the atmosphere. We'll never have rain unless he commands it, we won't have air to breathe unless he allows it! We won't even have Earth if he gets the idea to just screw us all!"
"Red... what are we going to do?" Silver asked shakily, "This is more than just stopping an evil team. This is preventing a cataclysm that's on the verge of beginning!" The trainer looked down at his partner's pale face and nodded.
"We do what we can. First, we restore power to Kanto and see what's going on at the Plant. Then we go to the Indigo Plateau. The Shadow Pokémon will have to wait, we can't let Cipher finish the Earth Seal." he remarked and headed for the cockpit, "Rui! Stay on this helicopter! Everyone else, get ready for battle!"
"But you're all going to die!" Rui screamed, "Why won't you listen to me? You can't stop Seth or Rayquaza! They're going to kill you!"
"If there's a chance that we can stop it, we'll take it at any cost!" Silver declared, courage returning with the plan, "We'll stop the Earth Seal no matter what! Even if we have to destroy Seth to do it, we'll save the world!" Rui sobbed as she hugged the broken machine in her arms.
"Let me go back." Seth's voice from the dream echoed in her head, "I have to go back to the beginning. It's all you can do to help me."
"Go back." Rui whimpered, "I have to let Seth go back when I see him. But back to what? To where?"
Seth looked up as Ein opened the door to the room and watched him warily. Calm and collected, the Snagger stood and walked up to him, allowing himself to be taken to the laboratory. They said nothing to each other as they entered the room.
"Now then..." Ein finally said after making sure everything was locked and secured, "What did you want to propose?" Seth didn't answer right away, merely studied the older man. "And if you think of trying anything to harm me in any way, take a look at that machine over there." the scientist added with a sly grin, jerking his thumb at the Shadow Machine. The twins and the nearly purified Pokémon pounded against the barriers holding them prisoner.
"Seth! Get us out of here! He's going to make us Shadow! Save us!" Pluto cried, pawing at the force field that held them all. Seth glanced at them coolly, then turned back to Ein. "Seth? What's the matter with you?"
"What makes you think I care anymore?" the Snagger asked the scientist. Ein looked startled. "You probably saw what happened when I trusted others. I was rejected for what I was." Seth clenched a fist tightly and glared up at him. "I want to make them pay. So here's my deal. You dragged me into this, right? I'll help you with the Earth Seal, getting the damn thing started and all. Conquer the world for all I care. It was gonna go to hell, anyway; you might speed up the process." He grinned maliciously, "All I want in return is the ability to go back to those idiots in the forest and pay them back double what they did to me!" The Pokémon cried in shock and disbelief.
"How do I know you're actually going to do this? What if you're lying to me?" Ein prodded, suspicious of this sudden change in Seth's attitude. He had expected a cry of outrage at the sight of his beloved twins about to become Shadow Pokémon, not an uncaring glance in their general direction. The Snagger walked over to the computer and picked up the two ear pieces that Ein had planned to use on him.
"You want your information? Take it. You need it to finish the plan." Seth replied with a cryptic smile as he placed them over his ears, "Well? Boot up the transfer process and let's do this. We don't have much time. Red and the others are making their way to the Power Plant to restore the electricity to Kanto's cities. The sooner we have the Earth Seal operational, the better." Ein blinked a few times, then smiled as he started up the machine.
"Welcome back to Cipher, Mr. Evice." he murmured as he opened the program and watched the temperature control read normal, sure proof that Seth was willingly allowing the transfer of data.
Seth merely smiled cruelly as he leaned back against a table and watched the data flow. Yes, I'll go back. And then the real fun begins, he thought to himself, letting his hand slide unnoticed underneath his jacket sleeve to touch the silver steak knife bound to his arm...