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Then...and Now?

Elder Days: the pseudo-mythical three thousand-year period between the Marring of Men and Pokemon and the Fall of Old Kalos.

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Theon and Ishmael recovered from the Sandaconda duel, but their hearts did not.

Though Theon had lost his challenge, he did not accept defeat, for he knew that too much rested on his ability to save the Galarian people, to preserve their heritage in the face of temptation and growing apostasy. After his body had healed from its physical injuries, Theon gathered his followers and allies to move to Turfield and Hulbury, also constructing Motostoke to form a watch over the southlands before the mountains.

When they learned of his plans, Penlod and his League of Nobles had gone into a cold war. They maintained their own cities and fiefs and paid little mind to the exiles except whenever their paths of ideology crossed. Aelfric's clan fled to the southern skirts of Galar before Dor Bendor, the Landless Land, where ice muttered and rivers steamed frost. Theon's folk sought them out, but Calyrex eluded its pursuers.

For the most part, the Galarians under the League of Nobles spurned the exiles and did not gloat over their victory, at least not in open discourse. But the mood of the people had changed for ill. Many of those who had first doubted the rule of the Twin Princes now wished to erase their memory, and their towns and settlements spread from Wyndon. The House of the Two Princes was broken and made into an arena for battles, and a place where a great tower would one day stand.

Ishmael's clan and Theon's folk swore blood-oaths and married each other's women, and thereafter there was a dark tint in the skin of the Galarians. Theon's clan mixed with others, and Penlod's legions of nobles intermarried with little harm done. Old wounds dulled, and total war was never to be had in Galar between those who wished to remember the Twin Princes and those that did not. They went out at night and carved runes upon standing stones, and salted hills with strange images and crafted many artifacts that bore the likeness of the Two Princes. But it availed them not.

The royal line had lost its power but remained unbroken. After a few short years, they had married other noble women and produced large families, but a direct linage from King Wulfhere and his older scions remained until the modern day, and they became inflamed with visions of the riches that had been stolen from them, and seethed about the opportunities forever denied to the royal line. They resented the very thought of Penlod and Theon and all others, but they recognized in the latter days that a secular state was needed for them to rise once more, and thus participated in the great erasure of Zacian and Zamzenta's memory.

One thousand and five hundred years later, two descendants of the old King uncovered an old lore book in their ancestral home, neatly kept and stored away. They learned that the Kings of old would bear a legendary Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield, and by bearing both artifacts they would rule over Galar with their ancient wergild fulfilled. It was also known that the Sword and Shield lay undisturbed in the Slumbering Weald, but they could not enter; the two Princes would not suffer them to pass into the confines of the land. They worked in their waking days to erase the statues and grand tapestries preserved by the Clan of Theon, forging new images of Mannish heroes that had cast Eterantus low, in a bid to further purge the memory of Zacian and Zamazenta.

Finding an ally in an executive with his own ends who had need of the Sword and Shield to act as a contingency for his schemes, the two descendants would swear oaths against Arceus and the Two Princes, their mortal enemies that they perceived had ousted them from the throne. In the months and years that followed, they watched the Weald with unceasing eyes, searching for some breach in the defense of the Two. They exaggerated their right to lordship, and accepted their legends and tales as fact.

And the Two Princes never forgot.

Eternatus hasn't, either.

Then Storyline:

Fin

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Now, Hulbury

Whenever an ancient being, invention, or concept suddenly becomes relevant after many years of obscurity, many people can be expected to doubt and disbelieve in its truthfulness or verticity. How fortunate for our cause that the Mbelekoro fits the former!

-Emrett Dialogues

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"Ah, Henry Sword," Rose said, seated at a table stocked with vittles. "Celebrate your victory! Eat, young master, eat! Fresh seafood straight from the Encircling Seas will be an entirely novel experience for one so young in years as you and your companion, Miss Sonia. Are still not able to watch the matches or the League Tournament due to old wounds swelling up again whenever you see them?"

Sonia had joined Henry's company a little while after he had left Hulbury Stadium victorious. "We ought to not talk about that right now! And what is Oleana doing to your food?"

Olena withdrew the small poison snooper that he had been hovering over Rose's platter. "Just a precaution, every dignity carries one of these. Ah, poison is the preferred method of assassination these days! Will it be in the food? The drink? The air? We cannot take gambles with the life of a Chairman, both national and regional. Chairman Bronze himself uses one."

A patron sat away from the four, eating a fresh cut of salmon. Instead of a human, it was a thinking machine with a spycam rotating in its neck, (which so blithely violated the Tercano Accords) through which Bronze and his aids watched the conversation. If it took a turn for ill, a squad of Association operatives would escort Henry and Sonia out of the building. Better that minimal force should be used than heavy...perhaps Rose had innocent intentions? No, that was impossible...

"Sorry if I was too forward with myself," Rose said. "I have experienced myself in the Champion's Cup, and I also am indebted to Magnolia for her research into the Dynamax phenomenon. Such comments slip out, I am afraid."

"Magnolia's research?" Henry said, picking at his food. "The Dynamax phenomenon?"

"So you suppose Macro Cosmos made the Dynamax Band unaided?" Rose cried. "Making Pokemon Dynamax in any place at nearly any time with the hidden power of a Wishing Star...it's because of the professor's research that we were able to even solve the phase-ampere distribution problem. I do support the concept of specialization, unlike the other Chairman, my rival and sometimes mutual ally."

"You were the runner-up in the Tournament twenty years ago," Sonia said, adoration in her eyes. "Eventually, you took up the post of League Chairman, while doubling as the President of Macro Cosmos! You have ethically supported Galarian industry for as long as you have lived, and I respect you more than I can say. Magnolia says there is always more to discover about the Galar Particle, and perhaps Macro Cosmos Laboratories will discover another groundbreaking revolution! Just imagine: tachyonic fission-fusion power!"

"That is an untested science," Rose said. "But we are looking into it. I believe that peace and prosperity in Galar will continue as long as the exploration of the various sciences endures, and new hands and minds shape the fates of the Earth. Space travel is another arena I intend to enter soon enough, but history bears relevance. The ancients had a better understanding of the world in certain ways than many of us do now, and they very well may have left hints to aid us. Now, we mustn't become too engrossed in the past so that our devotion gives way to occultist beliefs, but a firm belief in some mystical element is necessary to have an open mind. In this case, you ought to come to Hammerlocke if you think that my beliefs have some credence."

"I do!" Sonia squealed. "Hammerlocke...history...that means that I could see the Vault!"

"Yes," Rose said as he smiled. "You may! Quick-witted one, even for a researcher. Oleana, make preparations so that Sonia can have a look inside. It doesn't exactly cost peanuts to enter it! Both of you may come. Henry, eat a bit more! I am willing to pay any amount that is required to fill your stomach with the finest meals in Hulbury!"

As Bronze watched through the spycam, he felt waves of relief pass over him. Rose tried a few subtle cues to make Henry reveal if he had any contact with Bronze, but nothing was revealed from the quiet boy. The conversation soon degenerated into pleasantries and basic diatribes, without any bearing on the greater issue that concerned Galar. Perhaps the boy had seen through Rose's purpose? Mara eruni!* What a clever one!

Henry left for the Magnolia RV with Rose's blessing, and Sonia made her own preparations to leave for Hammerlocke at the League Chairman's pleasure. Bronze navigated the thinking machine out of the Captain's Table, where it would enter a hidden Association storage vault amid its wanderings. Tess computed that Sonia was likely receiving a call from Nessa about then, and a Porygon embedded in the Association network tapped the unsecured comsignal to eavesdrop on the conversation.

"Today's challenges have ended? But only an hour or so has passed since Henry's ended!"

"I know," Nessa protested. "But things aren't going right! I was defeated by Casey Shield, using a single Fire-type Pokemon! A single Fire-type Pokemon! Drednaw and Toxapex still had some injuries from the previous fight, the chemical mixture I gave them didn't quite make the cut to heal them. They were all dizzy and disoriented, releasing moves in every which direction...there was the added issue of her Scorbunny evolving into a Raboot mid-battle, my Pokemon couldn't stand against its speed and new strength! All challenges are postponed until I can get my Pokemon healed!"

"Of course, of course, I understand. I need to leave for Hammerlocke soon, but perhaps we have time for tea?"

*Mara eruni: Hisuian expression for surprise.

...

"What?" Bede snapped over the comlink. "Chairman Rose is no longer in Hulbury? I demand an answer, woman! I told you I would be in Hulbury, so he ought to be in Hulbury."

"Yes you did tell me that," Oleana said, sitting next to Ross in a soaring Flying Taxi en route to Hammerlocke Airport. "What about it?"

The plastiglass phone casing strained under Bede's clutch. "...!"

"He had a planned meal with a Gym Challenger, so his work has been delayed in Hammerlocke. He must return immediately! What the Chairman does is up to his own discretion, just as we do not tell you how to fight your Gym Battles. If you have no urgent business, you ought to hang up and spare us your pointless tirades."

"No, wait! Which challenger did he meet with?"

"Henry Sword."

Bede wholly lost control. "Treachery! Betrayal! False dealing! I was endorsed by Rose, but now you say that I cannot even have an audience with him? Yet why can someone recommended not by Rose, but in part by his rival and provider of funding, Chairman Bronze Tercano, talk to Rose? I demand an answer to why Henry Sword, that simpering, monosyllabic, mouse-like, watery, insignificant little prick gets to see the Chairman of Macro Cosmos, and not me! Tell me, woman, tell me!"

Oleana popped another antifatigue tablet from her side pouch, with a double helping of aspirin. "Is there some reason that you cannot understand that Rose's actions are his own? If he believed that you were important enough to address, then he would have stayed in Hulbury against my advice! Continue to gather Wishing Stars along with our other agents as you have been ordered! Good day!"

The comsignal dropped. "Who was that?" Rose asked.

"Bede, the one we endorsed."

Rose squinted, taking his eyes off the datatablet in his hands for a moment. "Bede...Bede. I swear that name rings a bell..."

...

Bronze, with his eyes hard and expression intent, surveyed the hidden command outpost in Wyndon where he conducted his operations in Galar, with his executive Bibliographer, Tessa Woodhall. All was going precisely according to plan...only a few more weeks, and Rose would be cut down, scraped thin, washed away like salt from a table. An aide came to address him, looking rather urgent. "I have some pending information, Supreme Bashar-I mean, Chairman Tercano."

Scowling, Bronze swiveled away in his chair. "I prefer to use the title I have actually earned, miss. Leave that 'Supreme Bashar' nonsense for Roria and its patriotic spectacles. What is your news?"

"Casey Shield, she...you ought to see for yourself, sir."

...

"I found another broadcast," Marvin said as he fiddled with the remote to the Magnolia RV's plasma screen. "Casey keeps appearing everywhere, especially on the talk shows"

Casey's revelation of her intentions in entering the Galarian League had spread over the region like fire in a field of reeds. In an after-challenge interview, Casey had come prepared, with a cutout with images of her missing Pokemon and an entire speech at the ready. The replayed scene showed the hapless woman who was attempting to elicit a discussion with her become overwhelmed as Casey filled the camera, holding her poster up high.

"Everyone watching!" the digital Casey pleaded. "I...I've been separated from my Pokemon in an unfortunate accident, and it has been a whole year since I started searing for these five! An Arrokuda named Kilo, a Toxtricity named Tera, Eiscune named Peta, a Stunfisk named Mega, and a Falinks named Giga!"

The reporter tried to take control of the conversation again, but Casey ignored her. "They're used to people, and will respond to their names if you call them! Anyone who catches sight of them somewhere...please tell me directly wherever I might be found! Find the contact address for the League Department and submit a lead if you have anything!"

"Seems as though this will get picked up by other radio stations," Henry mused. "You won with a single Pokemon, and one with an overwhelming Type disadvantage at that. It is likely that your success will be magnified to an unusual level under these circumstances...with Chairman Bronze and the Association looking for your Pokemon, combined with thousands of other people, we should find Casey's Pokemon quick enough."

"Eyewitness reports will pour in soon!" Casey yelled. "Henry, what did Chairman Rose talk to you about?"

"Nothing at all, really. Sonia was mostly excited about new opportunities for Dynamax research...and there was one thing that caught my fancy. Hammerlocke according to Rose has a 'Vault' of sorts, with relics of historical value within. That much I can deduce. Sonia and Rose discussed the past having a key to solving more issues regarding Dynamaxing and Galar Particles, and that the Vault could have something within it pertaining to such matters yet overlooked."

"Ah!" Casey gasped. "And that means?"

"There might be something in there that relates the Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield. I have dealt with many strange pieces of weaponry, but both relics overflowed with wonderous energy when I beheld them, even from afar. The Hero's Shield and Sword from the legend would have the same kind of blessed aura as well if the myth is history. I wish to see what they are, to take them into my hands..."

Henry looked up from his hands, ceasing his dark brooding. "Casey, is Hammerlocke's relic vault a public institute? It seemed as if Rose suggested that not everyone could enter."

Casey checked her Rotom Phone-Pokedex, coming to an answer. "Yeah, it is...sort of. It is costly to enter, but Macro Cosmos owns everything in there. That must be why Rose could get you in free."

"What doesn't Macro Cosmos own?" Marvin asked. "Macro: Mercantiles and Advanced Corporate Resource Oversight. They formed to be economic aid to a primitive Galar fifty-two years ago, but perhaps things have gotten out of hand."

"If I remember correctly," Casey said. "Macro Cosmos owns everything from energy operations and air flights, insurance, garments, plastiglass, durasteel, robots and Poke Balls, medicines and drugs, and all other bits of Galarian commerce and sometimes much more. Life in Galar wouldn't carry on if Macro Cosmos lost its funds! It is strange how Rose, as the Chairman of a private interregional conglomerate, has the power to freely operate a public institute. Wouldn't the power of the Council of the Change and the Rorian League limit his abilities to do that? What is Chairman Bronze planning to do, if anything?"

The Magnolia RV came to a halt. "Isn't it a bit too early to reach Motostoke?"

"This is rather curious," Magnolia said over the speakerpatch network. "A notification from the Association network has told me of a possible sighting of an Arrokuda about here through a roaming watcheye, and your young friend...Hop, I believe his name was, has jumped in front of the vehicle?"

"What? He's dead?"

"No, of course not. You ought to go outside and meet him, he might be hitchhiking."

The pressureseal door to the country road opened, with Hop standing on the path. "Oi! Shield! (small world, huh?) Long story: I was walking on this road training my Pokemon, and I passed through a small swamp thataway or so, and I saw an Arrokuda in a pond, and since I had heard your message on the telly I thought why not try calling its name, and I did, and it perked up, and-"

Casey seized Hop and ran howling to the north, moving with all the speed of the impulsive and unordered sprint of an animal.

...

"This is wonderful!" Bronze cried. "The girl has announced her little dilemma with the missing Pokemon! Oh, I know that the media can't stand to let a sob story like this slip through their mudraking talons! And that means more sponsors, more funds, and more resources to spare for the upcoming audit of Macro Cosmos. Tess, perform your calculations! Do you have anything new on her missing Pokemon or Rose's plans?"

"Rose is collecting Wishing Stars," Tess flatly stated in her Bibliographer haze. "Purchases in auctions for Macro Cosmos. Agents have been sent to seek them. Being transported to Hammerlocke. Likely some experiment with energy production at the Power Plant. Challenger Bede had also been ordered to obtain them. Erratic behavior. High probability of secondary or tertiary objective in obtaining Wishing Stars for Rose down to the sixtieth ordered variable."

Wishing Stars! Bronze was not exceptionally concerned, as Macro Cosmos Laboratories undertook exotic experiments with the strange artifacts nearly every day. These bulk purchases were surely draining Rose's coffers, however. Was there an underlying reason for gathering the Wishing Stars yet unguessed? Tess or any of her students could not make accurate predictions with an incomplete data set. "Understood. The Pokemon?"

"Search is going slowly. Little watcheyes or Rangers can be spared to search. All five Pokemon unaccounted for. Psychic traces suggest all are alive. An Arrokuda that responds to the name 'Kilo' had been reported at a fen near Motostoke. Watcheyes dispatched. Operatives dispatched. Pokedex Holder Casey is en route to the site of interest. There is a hidden menace in the moon."

There it was again! "Bibliographer, explain last query!" Bronze harshly said, although he loathed treating Tess in such an uncouth manner. They had toppled the Eclipse Lord, gone through the Rorian Gym Challenge, and defeated the independent thinking machine Thurrius at the Battle of the Forest of Elmoth, gaining an audience with the supreme intelligence of the Multiverse. Such bonds could not easily be broken.

Tess had reverted to her normal personality and looked rather confused. "I don't know, something about the moon piques my abilities. Keep an eye on it, whenever my limited prescience subconsciously detects something that even I cannot perceive, then it must be an insidious threat. We must keep on our current course of operations to end Rose's influence..."

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Now, Slumbering Weald

All of Arceus's angels come to us disguised.

-Galarian saying

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Bright light from the Star of Solgaleo covered all of Galar, and the mist-shrouded Weald was washed with its warm, rusty glow. Within it, unseen by mortals, the Swords of Justice came hurriedly to Zacian and Zamazenta's shrine in physical form, secretive and unglorified but moving swiftly nonetheless. As they paused in front of the fane, the Fana of the Twin Princes emerged.

"This land is small," Virizion said. "Why have we been called? Why have they awakened once again?"

Cobalion did not reply. His companions had fought since the Beginning, no warrior could outmaneuver them, and no sword could parry a blow from the Swords of Justice. Side by side, Cobalion and his fellows had vanquished demonic powers for as long as the rebels had existed, and had been companions in the Great Dance in the Timeless Halls before there had been any rebellion at all.

"It is serious business that brings the Elohim together," Zacian said. "We are still unbodied and cannot aid you very well. The Sword and Shield that we guarded have been seized, by whom we know, but where they lie now our gaze does not pierce. It seems as though you, the Swords of Justice, and our many other warriors scattered through the lands to destroy the last servants of the downfallen Mbelekoro are cowering. Is there an enemy that we know not of that you fear?"

Cobalion answered slowly and clearly. "Eternatus, the Prince of Darkness."

All eyes were now on the Two Prince's faces, and their reaction was much like every other warrior upon hearing the name of Eternatus: shock, disbelief, and a strange pause to see if anyone else would interject to say it was a mistake. No such reprieve came. The Swords of Justice continued to gaze at the Two with the same deadly serious expression, driving the gravity of the situation in mercilessly.

Zacian remembered the Rusted Sword. It was still gashed and discolored from the last time that she and Zamazenta had confronted the Umaiar Eternatus in ancient times. Zacian and Zamazenta had struggled against him for days unmeasured and over leagues uncounted before finally casting him down on the eve of the end of the Elder Days. Zacian could still remember the darkness, the shrieking and horror, the fierce, terrible grappling while pain seared every inch of her being. The evil of the demon had enveloped them like a toxic cloud, and half the time the two warriors had to maneuver and strike blindly, not even knowing if the other was still in the fight. To this day neither of them knew who had delivered the blow that had finally sent Eternatus into the deeps of the Earth. All they remembered was his heaven-shaking scream as he fell into a chasm, and seeing each other grievous wounds when the great darkness that surrounded them cleared like a melting fog.

"We know that you speak the truth," Zamazenta said at last, "For our power is waxing as his power also waxes. But why would Eternatus rise again or concern himself with Galar? He is a prince of kingdoms and great nations, not mere fiefs. What interest does he have now that the Mbelekoro is gone and can no longer guide him?"

Cobalion shook his noble head. "We cannot know. His domain is sealed, and the source of his growing strength is not yet revealed to us. But it is indeed Eternatus, without question. The stirrings in the Mbelekoro's realm indicate that the remaining demons are rallying to a new leader. The Spirit wants us here to confront him when the time comes."

"Eternatus was ruled by the Mbelekoro, and thus was his servant," Terrakion said. "Now there is no being upon Earth of the same order of being as him that remains loyal to the dark lord or wishes to continue his reign. Giratina has repented. Darkrai wishes only to hide. Yveltal desires to destroy all, disowning its former bonds of allegiance. Eternatus is the only one who could fulfill the position left vacant in the Evil Djinn's absence."

"This is true," Virizion said. "Eternatus will deign to return to the throne. There is no higher will to guide him, and although he was defeated long ago, there exists now no force so terrible or fell as the Logarians or Hisuians of old to battle the dark lord. But hope, a fool's hope still remains even if the second dark lord rises again. Some say that only great strength can keep evil at bay, but I have often seen through the ages that such deeds are accomplished by the very small and ordinary. Do you remember the days of the Golden Company, and of heroes coming from children?"

"I have heard of it," Zacian said. "And it is not a strange thing to me. It is oftentimes children who will resist power and lust the greater, and blind the eyes of the Adversary to their deeds and slip ahead of his wiles. Children have succeeded when the Wise faltered. We were called here for the sake of the Saints of Arceus and the Ransom. The Original One wants our presence here for a time, until we might leave again."

"Should we slay those who took the Sword and Shield ourselves?" Terrakion asked. "Then the Rise of the Second Dark Lord might be delayed, or prevented wholly. We must give our aid to Bronze Tercano who now seeks to oust the one who would unwittingly release the Prince of Darkness from Galar. There is still a Remnant of strength in these times. There is always a remnant."

"There is always a Remnant," the five echoed.

"We must not do such a thing," Cobalion said. "It is not appointed to us to slay wantonly and with little cause, and if we might redeem the two thieves, we should. We must wait at the Weald, watching for the time that Arceus commands us to act. We take charge of this land with the Two Princes. It must be made secure, and no demon is to enter it. The Remnant must go without our guidance, for at least a time. The other spirits will watchcare over Henry Sword and Casey Shield while the agents of the Enemy oppose them, and search out other members of the Remnant."

Cobalion drew his Sacred Sword from his brow and held it high. The other Swords of Justice did the same with Zacian and Zamazenta's bearing their own armament, and a small thicket of shining blades appeared, held aloft by strong Elohim.

"Eternatus," Zacian said in a low, musing voice. "We will meet again. For the Saints of Arceus and for the Ransom!"

"For the Saints of Arceus and for the Ransom!"