Ch 13

Alpha Team-

Rui and her group appeared at the base of the tower moments after the helicopter dropped off Wes and Nascour. Turning to her PDA, she opened the file for the blueprint of the tower and watched the layout bloom onto the screen. Crossing her fingers, she pressed the keys for searching out the tracking chip and watched with the others as they peered at it, waiting to see what would happen.

"Come on. Work." Silver whispered as the lines scanned the screen, searching the tower layout for the chip. Moments passed and Rui held her breath, then cried happily as a single green blip appeared on the map.

"It did it! It found him! The chip is working again!" she exclaimed and zoomed on the map, "It looks like he's... in the sub basement?" She blinked and looked at her friends in confusion. "I don't recall the Realgam Tower having a sub basement."

"There's got to be an entrance to it around here, somewhere." Silver muttered, scratching her head under her hat. "This tower was built with lots of secret rooms and halls. That sub basement must be where that party is; it looks like a pretty big room."

"I remember only what Wesley told me about the tower long ago." Anca sighed and closed her eyes. "He told me that many of the tower's functions required that water be taken into the ground. To that end, all tunnels and moisture collection systems within the Realgam Tower led into the earth. If this tower is built similarly, then the best way to head down would be through those same vents."

"The ventilation system! Anca, you're a genius!" Silver declared as Rui tucked away the PDA, "A room that size full of people needs plenty of air! There must be a vent that leads straight into it!"

"Where can we find the entry then?" Rui asked as the three women dashed for the wall of the tower, darting around statues and fountains of silver and gold to avoid the security. "I doubt it will be so easy to get into the tower." Anca nodded her agreement as Silver ran her hands over the walls of the tower.

"Anything is easy to get into if you know how. Red taught me a lot over the years we've worked together." she remarked and looked back at them with a half-smile. "Red is a mercenary, in case you didn't figure that out. He and Pikachu, and sometimes me, go around the world in search of jobs. His clients usually hire him to take care of bad company or steal some inside information for them. So breaking and entering is as second nature to him as Pokémon battling."

"Not a good job for a young man like him to have." Anca muttered as Silver returned to her searches. "And this Seth boy, he looks much like Wesley did... what is his job?"

"He used to be a Snagger for Team Snagem, a Pokémon thief. One day, he turned on them and then he ran away and saved me and we've been saving Pokémon ever since!" Rui told her with a smile, "When we rescued all the Shadow Pokémon in Orre, we thought it was all over, so Seth made himself kind of disappear. He would only show up when I mailed him that I was going to visit my grandparents. Then he would come with me and stay with us until I went back home to Zirconia City."

"Baha! Got it! And you didn't believe me when I said it would be easy." Silver snickered as she popped open a lightweight panel with grating on it. "My God, you'd think they'd put bolts or something on this. An amateur could break in here!"

"What do you think we are?" Anca remarked haughtily and smiled as she crawled into the vent after Silver, "This is gonna be fun! I've never done this before! Hah! Debs, your mother's a spy!" Rui followed her in and sighed.

"Seth, hang on. We're coming for you. But what are we going to do about Wesley? His spirit is in your body!" she murmured worriedly.


Wes sat stiffly as dozens of young women were paraded before him, each one accompanied by a relative as they danced to the music playing through the auditorium. The entire scene was set up to resemble classical balls of royal days and Wes couldn't help but wish for death to come sooner. Evice clapped his hands, eyes roaming the room as he sought out a girl that he felt would be 'the one'. Wincing almost submissively each time the Arcanine growled deep in its throat, Wes cast another longing look at the shining hoverbike on the other end of the stage where he sat on a velvet coated chair.

"This time isn't mine, and neither is this body. I shouldn't be here. I can't stay and I can't let my father fulfill his maddened fantasies." he murmured and let his own gaze roam the area, searching for an escape route, a possible distraction for his crazed parent, a weapon to use against the Arcanine holding him prisoner, anything to set himself free. Evice turned and walked up to him, holding out a plate of chocolate cake and a single glass of a sparkling liquid.

"Here. You're supposed to be enjoying your party! I've gone through all this trouble to set it up for you and you don't even want to taste your favorite flavor of cake?" the portly man asked.

"Dad, you're insane. Remember? You're nuts, this whole scheme of yours is nuts and I'm supposed to be dead! What the hell have you been doing for thirty years, besides trying to resurrect me like a zombie?!" the gray haired man snapped at him.

"Now, now. Mind your manners. Ah! Here's our next lovely applicant!" Evice remarked as a young woman with shining blonde hair walked up to them, violet eyes sparkling. "This is Lianna, daughter of Grace Windsor of the Windsor Corporation in Hoenn. Isn't she simply divine?" he introduced them and began to walk away, "I trust you two will get acquainted in my absence? I have many wedding plans to make!"

"So, you're the famous Wesley Evice? That's an interesting Pokémon. Do you usually keep him on that leash?" Lianna asked sweetly, looking as if she wanted to be somewhere else. Wes sighed irritably and looked away from her.

"Look, I don't want to be here. This thing is chained to me and I need to get out of here before that crazy man who claims he is my father returns." he growled, "So unless you are willing to help me escape, please leave me alone."

"My mother says that you're not the real Wesley. That you're some other guy who looks like him and sounds like him." the young woman went on uncomfortably, eyes searching the room. "And anyway, I don't want to be here either. I have someone back home I like and, no offense, but I don't want to marry you." Wes laughed bitterly and looked back at her with a wry smile.

"Same here. And who I am is complicated. I'm Wes, but at the same time, I'm not. Don't try to figure it out, it's probably what drove... Evice... insane." he answered softly, deciding that he would no longer refer to the man as his father.

"The third link." Lianna suddenly said and Wes turned his gaze back on her in confusion. "It's faulty. My mom's company makes chains and other equipment for prisons and juvenile detention facilities. That chain is one of ours." she added in a soft voice and flicked her hair back, swaying back and forth as if trying to entice him. "She's watching me right now, act like you really like me." Wes glance briefly by her and noted a woman with tight lips and golden hair tied in a bun staring hard at him. He quickly smiled up at Lianna and took her hand in his, a smile that grew wider when the woman looked victorious and turned away to jabber with some other high official.

"Why are you telling me this?" Wes asked suspiciously as the girl curtsied to him.

"Because it's mutually beneficial for us. If you break that third link, you can escape. If you escape, I won't have to marry you." she whispered, "It'll take time and effort, but you can break the chain and get out of here. I'll have to find my own way of going back to Hoenn." She began to drift away to avoid suspicions from the other girls looking for a chance to talk to Wes. "Good luck and nice meeting you, Mystery Man." He waved back to her, then went straight to the link, working at it with his free hand in attempts to snap the chain. Each link was connected to another solidly, save for the one Lianna pointed out. The link there had a small gap in the metalwork and if he could twist it enough, Wes could slip it off and be freed.

"Once I'm loose, I'm going to find out exactly what is going on here and why I'm getting such a strange feeling about all this. There's more to Evice's plans than just me getting married!" he growled.


Beta Team-

Ignoring the trainers yelling in a fury over their 'cheating', Red, May and Brendan hovered near the cliffs of Mt. Battle on HeartSong's back as the Hoenn Champion read the final entry in the old journal. Teleporting to the mountain had been risky and dangerous, and the fact that the three were sitting on the Latias as they were warped was basically all that kept them from falling towards certain death. Pikachu briefly contemplated asking Red for permission to kill the young man shaking his fist at them from the floating pavilion, then decided it wasn't worth the electrical output.

"Okay, according to Wes's entry, the Time Flute is near the peak of the mountain. Let's circle around up there and see if we can find something that will lead us to it." May remarked and sent the Latias up higher. Red scanned the cliffs and peaks for clues, then blinked and turned to the two trainers with him.

"Who's going to play the Time Flute once we get it?" he asked. Brendan blinked back and turned to stare at May, who only stared back in equal confusion. "Don't tell me neither of you know how to play that instrument." Red went on flatly. The boy smiled at him.

"Hey, thanks! Saves us all some embarrassment then, huh?" he remarked and Pikachu returned to his previous contemplation, this time replacing the Mt. Battle trainer in his mind with the Hoenn one grinning stupidly at them. Red glared at him, then pulled the MasterDex from his pocket.

"If we're lucky, there's some info about it on the Net. Dexter, search Time Flute, images and information." he ordered curtly. The red device immediately set to searching the Internet, connecting through a tiny satellite dish that unfurled from beneath it and aimed for the nearest hotspot. "Continue circling the mountain. Look for anything that doesn't look like it should be there while I keep looking for data."

"Okay, Boss." May muttered under her breath and sighed. "I'm starting to wish I'd gone to Realgam instead. They must be having such cool battles there right now..."


Alpha Team-

"Fire Wheel!" Silver ordered, defeating the last Pokémon the security peon had. Desperate to flee and save his own hide, the grunt raced from the room and dropped a key in his haste. Rui collected it and turned the card over in her hands. "Ugh, you freaking idiot! Why the hell did you send out a Steel-type Pokémon when you know damn well I always start with Fire?! Don't you watch the televised tournaments, you jerk?!" the champion continued yelling after the retreating peon before turning to Rui and Anca. "So, where next?" she asked brightly.

"This Card Key is for a laboratory stationed somewhere in here." Rui murmured in mild confusion and turned to her map. "The tracking chip is still in that big room. But the layout says that this smaller room two halls down from it is the lab." She closed her eyes and thought hard. "If Seth doesn't remember us, then we'll have to reinstall his backups. The ones Nett has are too old to use. If we used them, he won't know who you are, Silver. He'll think you're an enemy and might attack you."

"So, either way, we still lose Seth." Silver muttered. Rui shook her head.

"Ein had Seth back during the journey. He would have pulled a fresh copy of data from him the moment he got his hands on Seth." she answered, "There's a good chance that the copies are here in Realgam with him. If Nascour is trying to take over the world with him, he's going to need those copies too."

"Why? If Wes is a super-legendary Pokémon like you said he is, then why go through the trouble of getting data about him?" Anca asked. Rui pocketed the key and glanced at her.

"It's the data in his mind he's after. Seth not only is a Pokémon but he's the most advanced data storage unit ever created. Seven years of his life doesn't exist because his memories of that time were overwritten with the entire database of information and research Cipher had collected. And every day of his life, every thought and emotion he has are saved as memories, also able to be downloaded and looked at by special computers." she replied, "So he can also get information from them the same way we get it out of his head. Nett has that same computer at his house; he built it from plans stored in the old backup. If we can get the new copy of Seth's memories, we can restore the true Seth."

"Right, so let's go! To the lab!" Silver announced and dashed out of the room with the two redheads following behind.


Wes looked around briefly, then slipped his hand free from the chain, rubbing his wrist gingerly with a smile of relief. With girls passing by constantly, complimenting him, flirting, teasing, doing everything in their power to win him over, he found plenty of cover for his escape, forcing smiles and faking compliments of his own as he fidgeted with the link. He gave the party a final disgusted look before getting to his feet and quietly slipping back from the huge Arcanine sitting put on the stage. Its ears barely flicked and he paused, fear creeping though his body. When it didn't move, Wes forced himself to keep moving. Reaching the door, he slipped through it and finally began to run, dashing down the hall faster than he thought he could move.

"Wh-what have they done? What has Evice done to bring me back like this? Why am I dressed this way? How can I move like this, as if I could all my life?" he whispered to himself as he turned the corner and kept running. He kept one hand out to keep track of his path. This part of Realgam was new and unfamiliar to him. If he could keep following a single wall, he would eventually find an exit, right?

Wes moved on until he heard voices and footsteps coming up towards him. He stopped abruptly and looked around for a place to hide. No doors, no columns, not even a stupid potted plant. He was completely in the open. Cringing as the voices and steps grew louder and closer, Wes moved into a fighting position, the change in posture so fluid and perfect he briefly wondered if it was something the former inhabitant of his body had trained constantly to do.

"...And if we can just get the data back, we can get Seth back too!" a girl remarked brightly.

"I'm surprised there aren't more grunts around. I suppose all the security is in guarding the auditorium." another's added in a bored tone. The girls turned the corner and stopped as the elderly woman bumped into them from behind.

"Why did we... oh." she murmured in quiet surprise as Wes stared at them in confusion.

"Anca? How did you get here so fast?" he asked Rui. She shook her head and looked tearful.

"I'm not Anca. I'm Rui Roane." she corrected, "Seth... Wesley, right? I'm sorry, but thirty years have gone by since you died." Wes straightened and looked down at the floor, letting that information sink into him and finally register it as undeniable truth. The older woman stepped forward and reached her hand out to him, trembling but never touching him.

"Wes, it's me. I'm Anca. Oh, Wesley, it's been so long and you look just like you did so many years ago, before that horrible day." she murmured, "Is it really you?" Wes shut his eyes and nodded slowly, trying to hold back tears as Anca sobbed once in joy. "Wes! You're back!"

"I'm not supposed to be here." he said quietly, "I don't know anything anymore. Who is Seth? Who did Evice murder to bring me to life?"

"Evice? He's free?" Rui asked fearfully. Wes looked up and stared at her in confusion, then shifted to understanding.

"You've... faced him before, haven't you? You've met him like this?" he inquired. Rui nodded. "With Seth, right? Can you tell me who he is? I want to know who it is that I may have killed coming back to life."

"On the way to the lab, people! We don't have time to stand around here and chat!" Silver declared, "It's not going to be long before security finds us here and if they get us before we can get those backups, Seth and all of us are gonna be dead for sure!" She grabbed the young man by the arm and motioned to Rui. "Lead the way!"

"Okay!" the redhead answered and ran off, following the map as the others dashed after her, "I'll tell you the whole thing as we go, Wes! Please trust me when I say that Seth isn't dead! Not in the way you think!"


Beta Team-

Red flicked through the pages of data and sighed. The Time Flute was different from normal musical instruments, the knowledge on how to play it was almost nonexistent as it seemed to be a closely guarded secret by those who knew how to create them. He looked over at the cliffside again and glared at a red and white box perched conspicuously on the rocks.

"Is that it?" he demanded as the Latias floated to it. May shrugged and reached out a leg to kick at it.

"Could be. Any leads on the fingering for it?" she asked as HeartSong used her psychic abilities to lift the box and take it to her trainer. Red shook his head.

"Aw, man, you mean to say that Seth's the only one who can play this thing?" Brendan complained. May opened the box and lifted out the flute, marveling at the shimmering effect of the glass-like metal and the mysterious coil at the end of the instrument.

"I'm not saying that. Just that Seth is the only one we know who can play it. If there's a way to find someone else who can play the flute, then the problem's solved." Red answered.

"Well, we have it now, and the journal with the music that has to be played with it, so let's haul tail for Realgam Tower!" May declared and packed the flute back into the protective box, "Red, where's the tower?" The older man checked his MasterDex and pointed south. "HeartSong! Go south!" The Latias nodded and swerved, pigtails ruffling as she sped for the southern area of Orre. "Let's hope there's still some action left for us when we get there!"


Alarms ringing as group reached the lab nearly startled them to death as Wes swore softly under his breath. Rui threw open the door and ushered them all in, shutting it tightly behind them once they were safe inside.

"Evice must have noticed I went missing. He must be furious, too." Wes muttered and looked sadly at Anca, "I'm sorry for everything, Anca. The way things are, maybe I should have stayed in Neon Town with you that day, so long ago." Rui rushed to the computer console and searched around, finally locating the new hard drives that contained the most recent backup of Seth's memories.

"Don't say that, Wes. You would still have gone anyway. That's just who and what you are. Things happen. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but it is never the fault of the people involved." Anca told him firmly and looked over at Silver, who stood before the door with her Typhlosion standing by her.

"I'll keep watch. Rui, do whatever you need to do and fast!" she exclaimed. The redhead slid the drives into her pack and studied the monitor. She made a gasp of surprise and pointed at it.

"The second Earth Seal is stored somewhere in here! We've got to destroy it and all this information here! We can't let Cipher get this data back!" she exclaimed. Wes ran up and scanned the information quickly.

"You find the device and destroy it. Let me handle the data. I remember how Cipher set up the database. It should still be the same." he told her and put his hands on the keyboard, typing quickly. Rui nodded and jogged to Anca, pulling her along to help.

"The new Earth Seal looks like an armor of some kind. The schematics on the screen said it looked kinda like this." she told her, pointing at the Snag Machine on her arm. Anca nodded and the two split up to search the room.

"That alarm is getting annoying." Silver grumbled at last and Wes looked up at the flashing lights and the sirens before returning to the computer and typing in another set of commands. The alarm shut off. "Hey, thanks." Silver remarked with a grin, looking back at him, "What are you doing, anyway?"

"I'm purging the database of all information. There. Done." he answered with a grim smile, " I just sent a couple of gifts out that will cripple Cipher for good."

"Found it!" Anca cried as she pounded on the glass case protecting a suit of body armor covered in exposed circuitry and wires. Rui tossed out the Blaziken with a yell.

"Blaziken! Sky Uppercut! Destroy that armor!" she called out and shielded herself as the fighting bird slammed its fist into the case, then proceeded to cheerfully pummel the second Earth Seal. The alarm went off again as Blaziken pulled the armor free and went on ripping the circuits apart. Silver made a face.

"How many alarms does this place have?" she grumbled. Wes rejoined them and looked around.

"Quite a lot. Where to next, Rui?" he asked in concern. Rui closed her eyes and thought hard.

"We have to escape this place and get back to Nett. There we can reload the back up and..." she trailed off as she looked over at Wes again and found him pale, "Wes?"

"It's here." he whispered and stared at the door in terror, "It's found me!" The group jumped and cried in shock as the door to the lab suddenly was slammed by a huge weight. Wes leaped back and raised his arms to cover his head and face. "Don't let it near me!" he screamed.

"What is that?!" Silver cried as the Typhlosion took on a wary battle stance.

"The Arcanine!" Wes shrieked, "The one that killed me thirty years ago! Evice did something to it to make it even more insane!" Rui's eyes widened in realization as the creature continued slamming the door.

"A Shadow Arcanine!" she whispered in horror and looked at her arm, the Snag Machine gleaming in the light of the alarms. "What now? I... I don't know how to use this for snagging!"

"We need a plan, people! And we need it fast!" Silver yelled as Anca squealed in fear, shoving furniture against the door and jumping back at each mad roar from the other side.

"I don't know what to do! I never thought I'd have to face this just to get Seth back!" Rui wailed back. The two other women backed away quickly as the door suddenly began to grow red and hot.

"That's too bad, because that Arcanine wants in here in a real bad way!" the Johto Champion yelled in answer, tossing out the Gyarados to counter the flames with water.


HeartSong descended not far from the tall tower and unloaded her passengers. May returned the dragon to its ball and watched Red send Pikachu out to scout. Brendan looked up at the tower, shielding his eyes from the sun.

"God, that's huge." he muttered as Red checked the MasterDex.

"Security's not so bad. Something must have tripped it up already." he remarked after a quick hack into the surveillance system revealed scattered peons and smiled as Pikachu raced back to him and confirmed the panicked guards. "Silver must have done her work." He led the way towards the tower, the two trainers following closely behind. "Pikachu, did you find an entry point?!"

"Yeah! Follow me! There's a ventilation duct with Silver's scent on it! The girls must have used that to get in!" the mouse answered and turned towards it. Within a few minutes, Red was crawling through the space quickly with the Hoenn trainers, following Pikachu's tracking sense.

They emerged among a group of panicked grunts and momentarily prepared themselves for a fight. However, the screams of terror and alarms were so overwhelming to the peons that none of them bothered to stop and recognize them. May raised an eyebrow, then winced as a crazed roar sounded not far from them.

"What was that?!" she exclaimed, head twisted back and forth in search of the source of the roar. Red cocked his head and listened, frowning.

"That's an Arcanine. It sounds very wrong, though." he muttered and watched Pikachu sniff around again. The mouse squeaked and raced off, followed quickly by the trainers. "Hurry! I don't like how this is turning out!"


Rui bit her lip as Wes paced anxiously, staring at the door as if unsure exactly when the object of his terror would burst through and devour him.

"I can't keep this up forever, guys! Somebody think of something!" Silver yelled as the water attacks went on. Rui slipped an arm around Wes's own and hugged him in reassurance. Anca watched them, heart aching to do the same for the young man. Her time had passed on; Rui was trying to comfort both the boy that didn't belong, and the lost man she loved dearly.

"If I tell you about Seth, do you think you can calm down a little?" Rui whispered. The young man shrugged nervously, eyes darting back and forth from the door to Anca. "It started before I met him in Phenac, but I can only start from there." As the desperate efforts to keep the Arcanine at bay and the destructive force of the Blaziken worked on the remnants of the Earth Seal 2 went on, the redhead recounted the many adventures she had with the Snagger, highlighting parts that portrayed the aspects she loved most about him. Wes began to relax, listening as the life and personality of the person he was inhabiting was described to him.

"If I had heard this when I still lived, I would have thought the whole thing to be an insane dream." he murmured, "I wish I could meet Seth, face to face. He sounds like the perfect person to resume my dream in my stead; the one who can truly rebuild Orre and make it the paradise I wished it could be for Pokémon and people alike."

The door and the furniture barricade suddenly caught fire and Silver called back the Water-Flying Gyarados and her Typhlosion, searching for a different Pokémon to use. Anca screamed in fright as the barrier began to be shoved aside.

"It's getting in! Hurry! Can't anyone make it leave us be?!" she screamed.

"Pikachu!" a voice screamed back and the Arcanine raged loudly, feet stomping away from the door at a fast clip.

"That was Red and Pikachu!" Silver realized and grabbed a fire extinguisher, putting out the remaining flames that blocked their path, "Come on! We have to go help him!" The group scrambled to clear away the debris as the Blaziken finished the wreckage off and was recalled by Rui. Slamming open the door, Silver scanned the halls and yelled as she saw the tail end of the Arcanine disappear down the corridor. "There it goes!" The group gave chase as Silver dashed after it, threatening certain doom if the Pokémon dared to harm her fiancé.

"Wesley, you've been a very bad boy. I throw this wonderful party for you and you repay me by running away again!" Evice's voice scolded from the intercom. Wes gazed upward at one speaker, a frown on his face. "Don't give me that look. I've sent Nascour to get you, but I suppose I must do things myself. Stay right where you are until I arrive, or that wretched redhead's friends will die."

"Evice, I am not yours to control! I never was!" Wes yelled, "I died before my time, that is true, but it is no reason to distort all of nature just for your selfish purposes!" He shook his head and turned to his friends. "Let's get out of here. I want to be as far from that crazed Pokémon as possible."

"I have to snag it." Rui corrected softly. The group stared at her. "Seth wouldn't leave a Shadow Pokémon like that, not even one as twisted as that Arcanine." she went on firmly, "I have to snag it and hope that Seth and I are strong enough to open its heart and heal its mind."

The Arcanine led them out of the confined spaces of the halls into a large room, where it immediately halted and breathed out an intense Flamethrower that seared the room and forced the trainers it had been chasing to throw themselves to the floor. Silver screamed as she saw Red dive for the tile and curl up protectively, May and Brendan sprawled on the floor with cries of pain as they came inches from being set aflame. Rui pulled out the PokéBalls with the female Eons within and set her face.

"Here goes. Seth, give me strength." she whispered and hurled them out, "Neptune! Saturn! Let's go!" Wes stared at her in horror, then swallowed hard as he stepped forward.

"I'll help, too. It's really after me, so I should be able to keep it distracted for you." he told her shakily. Rui nodded at him and took a deep breath before yelling out to get the crazed dog's attention.

"Arcanine! For all the horrors you've put everyone through, I'll do my best to restore your true self!" she cried and threw out the Blackglasses and Twisted Spoon. "Neptune! Light Screen! Saturn! Confuse Ray! Let's battle!" Rui gave her first commands, this time relying only on her own strength and the hope that Seth, somewhere, would help her in his own way.