A/N: Sorry for the delay, I'm way behind on lots of things, but I hope you're enjoying the story. For many of you trying to figure out where Seth is, think carefully. The answer was hidden in one of the earlier stories, more precisely the last story in the Global series. It should make sense; The Beginning is not a when, but a where. And this where is the why that became the reason for Seth's creation. Get it? No? Oh well. And what is up with the edit system? I can't get this chapter in right!! Agh!!!!!!!


Ch 4

Pyrite Hotel wasn't the greatest of places to spend the night, but Rui's reputation for hanging out with Seth earned the gang of heroes a better room than most. May and Silver sorted through their Poké Ball collection to pick out a good team for use in the colosseum. Rui leaned back in her chair and sighed, gazing out the window at the dying day. Brendan watched her worriedly, then pulled up a chair beside her.

"Penny for your thoughts." he remarked with a smile. Rui grinned slightly, then resumed her sad expression.

"I wonder if Seth is okay, wherever he is, and if he's thinking about me. Does he know I'm coming to find him? Does he know what happened?" she asked as she continued gazing outside. "Everything that's happened to him, I can't help but feel it's my fault." She closed her eyes and smiled wanly, the four Eons looking up at her in confusion. "If I hadn't been captured, hadn't dragged him into the fight against Cipher to begin with, he would be safe in another region, maybe even another country."

"Then he would have fallen to darkness all the more rapidly." Red suddenly said, stepping into the room with a pack slung over his shoulder and the Pikachu sitting on the other. Rui looked at him blankly. "I know how Seth thinks, how his mind works, mainly because I was in that same situation." he went on, "Without knowing love, without feeling love, a person tends to feel hatred all the more potently. With Seth, if he learned to embrace the hate he must have been feeling then for Snagem, the outcome of that day in Kanto would be far different."

"Are you saying he would have gone ahead and destroyed the Earth?" Brendan asked. Silver and May paused, listening in from their seats at the table. Red nodded. "Geez. The man needs to get laid."

"So it's not your fault. Nothing is. Seth did all of this, not just for the world, but for you." Red told Rui gently, "He loves you enough that he wouldn't let anything keep you from having anything you wanted, even to the point of sacrificing himself."

"I didn't want him to sacrifice himself; I wanted him to stay with me!" Rui declared, "But my dream said that if I said that to him, he would turn into a monster and we would all die!"

"Because it would have been the same as saying you didn't trust him to keep you safe, to keep his promises to you. And if you didn't trust him, you couldn't love him." Red explained with a half shrug. "And for Seth, not having that love meant everything can go to hell, because he has nothing, is nothing, may as well be nothing."

"Where do you think you're going?" Silver suddenly asked pointedly, glaring at his solid black outfit of heavy cloth and the obviously loaded backpack. Red blinked back at her and looked sheepish.

"Ah, well, you know the Snagem Hideout is open for excavation and all..." he began and she stood up, fists on her hips.

"Red! You were going to go and infiltrate that ruined building by yourself, weren't you?!" she demanded to know. Red grinned and shook his head.

"Nope! Rui's coming with me!" he corrected. The new 'Snagger' looked up at him in surprise.

"I am?" she asked.

"She is?" Silver echoed and frowned, "Why? Why not take me along? We're partners at this when we can be."

"Because you're supposed to be covering our tracks." Red muttered, "You and May turn all attention on you at the colosseum while Rui and I gather the info we need at the Snagem Hideout and this Nett kid."

"Tonight?"

"We'll hit the hideout tonight. The talk with Nett comes in the morning." the older trainer replied, "That's when you two enter the colosseum challenge and keep the cops and cameras, if any, trained on you guys. I don't want Orre to know that we're poking around their institutions less than legally."

"Why would you need me to go?" Rui asked as Brendan sighed in boredom and propped his feet up on the table.

"You know the way to the hideout and its layout, right?" Red asked, "You've been in there with Seth before, correct?" She nodded, remembering when Seth had faced off against his old boss for the UFO directional disk that led them to The Deep. "Then you'll be my guide through it. We'll see if Seth is there, and if he's not, we'll search it for more clues as to where the Beginning could be."

"All right then. To the canyon!" Rui declared with a smile, bringing the sunglasses down over her eyes, "I'll be a Snagger yet! I'm going to make Seth proud!"


Rezrik groaned again. The peon and his group had gotten their latest orders from Nascour and not a single one of them was happy about it. Orre was not the most wonderful place for them, and though the law wasn't as strong as the ones in Hoenn, Johto and Kanto, it was still a dangerous place to be for criminals. Smaller teams were still trying to make themselves to be the replacement to Team Snagem, though far less intimidating. Without the Snagger technology, any new criminal 'team' looked and acted incredibly pathetic. Trainers had no fear of them and taught their Pokémon to fight back with powerful moves if anyone tried to take their Poké Balls.

Orre was crawling with trainers now, and those self-defense Pokémon, and all because it was the busy season with the colosseums' Grand Champion Challenge. Yet another attempt to recover the funds Cipher squandered on their criminal ways and put it to work on the terra-forming project. Rezrik rubbed his head and sighed. Things weren't going well.

"We gotta get into the Shadow Pokémon Lab and see if the kid's there. Looks like we're posing as trainers to get passes through the Retoh Pass and into Orre." he told his group.

"God, this bites. So many Pokémon out in there now and we have nothing to steal them with! If it hadn't been for Sera and her stupid idea of trying to implement the Earth Seal so soon, we'd still have at least ONE Snagger and Snag Machine!" a female peon dressed in violet griped.

"Actually, if it hadn't been for Seth to begin with, we'd all have Snag Machines. But that's just me." another peon pointed out and shook his head, "Ah, whatever. So when do we do the cross?"

"In the morning. It's too late to do anything now and I'm beat." Rezrik muttered and opened his duffel bag, "Try to pick out some inconspicuous outfits, people. We don't want any undue attention."

"The least the boss could do is get us a hotel or something. I'm sick of sleeping in the woods." the woman grumbled. Rezrik pulled out a brochure and waved it.

"He did, Loraine. We have reservations at the Goldenrod Inn and we better check in soon." he remarked with a wry grin, "Dinner is served in about an hour."


Rui held on tightly as Red flew the Charizard to the ruined hideout where Seth had made his escape so long ago. It landed gently and they climbed off, surveying the area. Though it looked abandoned, lines of yellow police tape criss-crossing the various entrances alerted Red to the idea that the place might be watched. He set the pack down and let Pikachu jump from his shoulder to the ground.

"So now what?" Rui asked and jumped when both man and Pokémon shushed her, "What?" she added in a whisper.

"Place might be bugged. Pikachu, run mode five. Check for bugs and alternate entrances." Red murmured and clipped a belt around the mouse. He nodded and winked before scampering towards the building, tiny scuttling sounds in the darkness from his paws scratching the sandstone beneath him. Red pulled out the MasterDex and flicked it open, watching the screen.

"What is Pikachu gonna do?" Rui asked softly, lifting her sunglasses and peering at the screen with him. She watched as the black LCD suddenly lit up with a half dozen little green dots scattered about. "What in the world-?"

"Shh. This is where Pikachu does his thing." Red murmured with a grin, and looked up, "And... three... two... one..."

A wave of soft blue light suddenly erupted from near the entrance of the Snagem hideout, a bubble that expanded and filled the canyon, followed with the sounds of popping and sizzling. Red stood and pocketed the MasterDex with a smile and gave Rui a graceful bow, holding his hand out to the building.

"After you, m'lady." he teased.

"What? What happened? What about the bugs?" Rui stammered in confusion. Red straightened and laughed as he watched the ball of yellow fuzz disappear into the building.

"That was Pikachu's EMP Burst. Fried every single bug and tracer in the area." he replied and walked on with the girl following quickly. "Now we just have to see if he can find a safe point of entry for us before we try the front door."

"What's wrong with the front door?" Rui asked, eyebrow raised at him.

"Let's just say, me and front doors don't exactly have friendly relations." Red muttered darkly, suddenly falling into a somber mood. Rui didn't press into it, recognizing the expression that Seth himself used so often to prevent further questions about his past.

"Red! No other entrances are available unless you're the size of a kid again! You're gonna have to go at it from the maw!" Pikachu yelled out as he scampered from the front gate and reached them.

"That's okay. Was there anything unfriendly around it?" Red replied, eyeing it warily as they walked up to the rusted old gates that served as the building's front entrance.

"Nothing. Whatever toys used to be there must've gotten trashed by Seth when he blew outta there. Means less work for me, thank Ho-Oh." the mouse answered.

"Right, so now it's safe. Let's go." Red remarked aloud and led Rui inside, "Remember, move slowly, move carefully, act as if there is always someone waiting to jump you just around the bend. Do you know how Seth moved in buildings?"

"Yes." Rui murmured softly, taking the lead once they were past the first hall and glancing down the ruined corridors that trailed off to who knew where.

"Then do that." the older man went on, "Now, let's find Seth's room here..."


Evice sat back in his lounge chair, gazing at the television screen before him as he reached out for a handful of fruits from a bowl beside him. Nascour watched the video with him, an uncomfortable look on his face. The Cipher head had gone to a cabinet filled with videotapes and brought down several to watch, smiling happily all the while. The moment Nascour saw the dates on them, he knew he was in for a long night.

"Look at him. So strong and beautiful, my dear son. I can't wait until he returns to me." Evice murmured, watching a small boy run in circles around a Growlithe pup on the screen. The boy laughed playfully and hugged the Pokémon's neck, looking up at the camera with deep blue eyes, silver-gray hair combed down neatly.

"Sir, your son has been dead for nearly thirty years." Nascour said as gently as he could, "Seth is not your son."

"Of course he is!" Evice remarked brightly, fast forwarding the tape to a birthday party. "He has the same hair, eyes and intuitive perception of Pokémon; there is no doubt that my son has returned to this mortal coil!" Nascour sifted through several newspaper clippings on the desk.

"Mr. Evice, Seth was the result of genetic manipulation first devised by the researchers on Cinnabar Island in Kanto and DNA enhancements developed by Team Rocket. There is nothing about him that is human-born." he said with as much emphasis as he dared, "That young man is no real man, but a Pokémon in human form. And a dangerous one at that. We must devise a method of controlling his powers."

"He will do as I say, because he is my son and it is the way a family works." Evice pointed out and clapped his hands in time with the happy music on the tape. "It's almost his birthday, isn't it? We'll have to get him a present!" The other man groaned under his breath. "What do boys like in this day and age?"

"Sir, the orders to have the Shadow Pokémon Lab investigated have been sent. We should have reports on the findings sometime tomorrow." Nascour began to say.

"That bike he got from Snagem... whatever happened to it? I want to give him one for his birthday, a better one!" Evice suddenly declared and sat upright, a joyful expression on his face. "Yes, that's it! I want the development team to work on building a speeder like the one he had, but I want it to go faster and have all manners of interesting toys built into it!"

"But..." Nascour stammered, growing nervous at this train of thought coming from his master. Evice jumped up and headed for the telephone on his desk.

"I want the team to get started on it at once! Tonight! I want them to drop everything they are doing and get to work on this present!" he exclaimed, "My son will be returning soon and I want to have a gift fit for a prince on his birthday!"

"This bodes most unwell." Nascour sighed as he watched him dial the numbers while the tape played on, the little boy making a wish to go on a Pokémon journey to Kanto one day before blowing out all the candles on his cake.


Caterpie watched the strange young man curl up in a ball on the floor of the cave. The sun had set long ago, but Raykyoudon wanted to play around some more before finally exhausting himself and dropping off to sleep. The Pokémon thought over its new charge. Obviously this was a human that thought he was a Pokémon, but then why did he smell like a Pokémon when he should smell like a human?

And there was this business about the Beginning that he had to stay at for some reason. What was so special about that little clearing? Why was it called The Beginning? It was just some stupid little meadow where the berries grew fat and the Butterfree liked to hang out when they weren't off trying to see how high they could fly before they turned purple from lack of oxygen.

Raykyoudon shifted in his sleep and blinked himself awake. The Caterpie took notice and sidled up to him.

"What is it now? Bad dream?" it asked. The man shook his head sleepily.

"It's too warm." he complained and sat up. Caterpie inched along outside and let the wind graze over it, testing the temperature with its feelers.

"It's summer, and we haven't had much rain in this area. I felt a major storm off to the northwest, but that was just some weird disturbance with nature's balance that got fixed up. Probably by the Chosen Master, it's his job." the Pokémon paused in thought and furrowed its tiny brow, "Although, come to think of it, isn't he past his prime for that whole 'save the world' gig Lugia stuck him in? Who's the new 'Chosen One' for this era?"

"It hasn't rained?" Raykyoudon asked as he came to stand with it outside, completely disregarding the Pokémon's other words in favor of information he wanted. He smiled happily. "I can make it rain! Then it will be nice and cool and we can all sleep better!" The Caterpie looked up at him incredulously.

"You? Make it rain? How? By dancing around in your underwear again? By the light of Ho-Oh, I thought you blinded me when you did that strip stunt..." it began to gripe. Raykyoudon closed his eyes and spread his arms out, palms facing the heavens as he concentrated. The Caterpie watched him for a moment, then blinked as it heard the rumbling of distant thunder. It gazed up and looked shocked as thick black clouds formed in the sky, lightning flashing from within as they churned with the winds and thunder boomed. In just a few minutes, fat raindrops were pouring down on the two and Caterpie let out a yelp before racing back into the dry cave.

Raykyoudon opened his eyes and relaxed his stance, looking pleased but tired from his efforts. He blinked and lifted his hand to the rain that cascaded down on him. He had created this, had used his power to bring rain to a forest that needed the nourishing water. So why did he have this sudden gut feeling that what he just did could spell disaster for him later?

"I made it rain for the Beginning. At the Beginning, blood rained and it was followed by tears." he murmured, "Do I have something to do with the blood and the tears?"

"Get in here before you catch a cold!" the Caterpie yelled and Raykyoudon scurried into the cave, the strange thought fleeing his mind as he began happily shaking himself off and getting his new friend all soaked.