Previously on Pokémon: The Lost Child, Empoleon and Sceptile were left wondering what to do after the defeat of the Brotherhood. Zoroark went her separate ways to pursue other interests. Empoleon and Sceptile were left with even more questions about Deoxys' vague warnings, so they travelled to an old village occupied by The Brotherhood in the hopes of finding answers.
"Greenwood Town, I remember the last time we were here," Empoleon said.
"Yeah, I believe we were nearly killed by a Cacturne, and then Zoroark killed him," Sceptile said.
"That was quite an unusual experience," Empoleon said.
After a bit more walking, Empoleon chimed in to say, "Are you sure that this is the right way, Sceptile?"
"I am sure, I have been tracking our movement to find our way backwards," Sceptile answered.
"I didn't know that you could do that," Empoleon responded.
"Trust me, it's not the easiest process to do, but it is helped out by the fact that there aren't many Pokemon of our species, especially ones travelling together," Sceptile responded.
"That is very interesting," Empoleon commented.
The duo continued walking; eventually, they would arrive in Greenwood Town. However, when they get there, the place is not at all what they expected to see. It was nothing like what it was like the last time they were there. The entire town was in disarray; there were dead or unconscious Pokémon all over the place, buildings were torn up, and several Pokémon were fighting each other. It looked like the entire town had gone to hell.
"Well, this is not what I expected to see," Empoleon said.
"What in Arceus' sake happened to this place?" Sceptile said in utter disbelief at what he was seeing.
"What should we do, Sceptile?" Empoleon asked.
"I'm not sure, I guess we go into town and see if we can figure something out," Sceptile suggested.
"Well, I guess it's not like we have much else that we can do," Empoleon said.
Empoleon and Scpetile went into the town, walking across the bodies of several Pokémon. Some were sitting on the ground, and it seemed like they were in constant pain. Empoleon and Sceptile approached Ludicolo, who was just lying on the ground and was calling out, "Help me."
It unnerved Empoleon and Sceptile quite a bit, and they were hoping that Ludicolo could perhaps answer and tell them what was going on. So Sceptile asked, "So could you possibly tell us what is going on? This town wasn't like this last time that we were here."
"No food, no water, attacks, attacks I don't understand; please help us, please," Ludicolo said, continuing to scream out like crazy at them. Empoleon and Sceptile still felt incredibly awkward about this and had no real idea what happened. Empoleon and Sceptile walked away while Ludicolo continued screaming out, "Help!"
"I don't understand any more than before," Empoleon said.
"Neither do I know what could have possibly happened to this town," Sceptile said.
In the distance, the duo heard a voice that was saying to them, "You two must be outsiders, I am surprised you want to come to a hellhole like this."
Empoleon and Sceptile turned around to see that it was a Meinshao. Meinshao didn't look as terrible as the rest of the Pokémon did, which was giving Empoleon and Sceptile some comfort in the hope that maybe they could find out what happened in this place.
"Hello Meinshao," Empoleon said very awkwardly, having no idea how to initiate the conversation.
"There is no need for that; let's skip straight to the questions," Meinshao responded in a surprisingly blunt tone; she meant business.
"What happened to this place, Meinshao? We were here not too long ago, and it was, well, maybe not fine but not like this," Sceptile asked.
"I am not even fully sure myself. All that I understand is that for the longest time we had been receiving outside help from a group called The Brotherhood. However, a few days ago, the resources from them just stopped coming. When the town got wind, they all panicked and started fighting for the last scraps of food and tearing the entire town apart."
Empoleon and Sceptile were quite taken aback by this. They never expected that their defeat of the Brotherhood would have consequences like this. They were the ones that defeated the Brotherhood.
"Well, I know what the Brotherhood is," Sceptile interrupted Empoleon's speech to prevent him from saying what he was about to say. Sceptile continued by saying, "The Brotherhood has just forgotten about you."
"Whatever it is, we don't have them anymore," Meinshao said.
Sceptile hurdles Empoleon behind, out of hearing range from Meinshao, and Sceptile tells Empoleon, "You can not tell Meinshao about us taking down The Brotherhood, can you imagine how angry it will make her?"
"I didn't consider that," Empoleon responded.
"We need to be very careful though; don't say anything," Sceptile demanded.
"Alright, jeez, I won't," Empoleon responded.
"Is there something wrong back there?" Meinshao asked. She notices that Empoleon and Sceptile are whispering about something privately, but she can't hear exactly what it is.
"It's nothing important; I just wanted to say talk to Empoleon," Sceptile explained.
"Yeah, so that is what happened to us," Meinshao said.
"I'm sorry to hear about that, Meinshao. How about this? Why don't we help you rebuild the town?" Empoleon offered.
"I appreciate that offer, but it is a lost cause; this town is beyond saving," Meinshao said.
"If you all have that negative attitude, of course it is beyond saving, you just need to believe; look at all of the Pokémon around here; if you all banded together, you could all rebuild the town," Empoleon said.
"I am kind of with Meinshao on this Empoleon; I don't see how we are going to be able to fix this," Sceptile said.
"If there is a will, there is a way," Empoleon said.
Empoleon started getting ready to do his thing. He started climbing on top of a nearby building, where he would be in view of every single Pokémon inside the village.
"Listen up everyone," Empoleon shouted.
Empoleon was very quickly able to get the attention of everyone inside the village. Well, everyone who was still alive, that is. They all had nothing else to do, so something like this happening caught their attention quickly.
"Listen up everyone I know that you are all likely doing very badly and feeling like it is all hopeless. But let me tell you that there is always a way; if you all band together and work to create a better life, you can do it. You don't need to just sit around here waiting for some kind of unknown force to help you with supplies; it is time for all of you to make your own life," Empoleon yelled out.
Nobody knows how, but somehow Empoleon's speech inspired the population of the village. They should not just sit around doing nothing.
"That Empoleon is right; we have to do something," a Starmie said.
"We don't need The Brotherhood, we have each other. It is time to rebuild this place," a Banette said.
The entire town, those who were still alive, jumped to their feet, cheering Empoleon's speech and preparing to begin rebuilding the town. Sceptile and Meinshao were shocked that this worked, Empoleon was able to inspire the entire village to work together to bring it back from collapse.
The town started by working on rebuilding itself, with the rock types using their skills for materials and the fighting types using their strength to be able to repair them. Empoleon and the other water types were using their skills to make water, and the grass types were starting to grow food for the entire town to eat. Sceptile also helped out with that, but he didn't have many skills in that, so he wasn't able to do an insane amount.
"I can't believe that this is working so well," Sceptile said.
"Being on this journey in this world has made me realize some things, one of which is that we have these incredible powers to support ourselves. The Brotherhood was able to put this town under its control by having them rely on their supplies. They had no idea what to do after the Brotherhood was taken down."
Meinshao overheard Empoleon's conversation and yelled, "Wait, I thought you said The Brotherhood forgot about us, not that they were taken down!"
Both Empoleon and Sceptile realize that this is not good, and Sceptile tries to save it by saying, "Oh, I guess we made a mistake."
"I am not convinced. Tell me the truth about what happened," Meinshao said.
"Alright, the truth is that we were the ones that took down The Brotherhood. They were an evil organization that was seeking to cover the entire world in an eternal nightmare," Empoleon said.
"We aren't the ones that wiped them all out either. While we were stopping their plan, there was a random explosion that went off that destroyed the base. We only barely escaped with our lives," Sceptile added.
"This, this can't be," Meinshao said, stunned at what she just learned.
"I know it probably sounds crazy to you, but trust us, we are telling the truth," Empoleon said.
"You did help us rebuild the town, so I have to believe you. I am still upset that you both lied to us," Meinshao said.
"It was my fault; Empoleon wanted to tell the truth, but I told him not to," Sceptile said.
"We can go if you want; that's why we came here." Empoleon realizes that they never asked about Arceus, so he continues by saying, "Yeah, that is right, we were supposed to ask about Arceus, we are currently seeking info on them."
"Arceus, I think I have heard that name before. I can't tell you much, unfortunately. I swear I remember hearing that name before, very recently in fact," Meinshao said.
"Maybe it was nothing, looks like another dead end," Sceptile said.
"Wait, wait, hold up I just remembered. Around a day ago, there was a Pokémon that dropped by the village. He was saying something about how he was looking for Arceus and how he was behind the "base's destruction," as he put it. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I wonder if that might have something to do with this," Meinshao said.
"Out of curiosity, who was this Pokémon?" Empoleon asked.
"An Aegislash," Meinshao said.
Empoleon and Sceptile were left in shock by those words. It couldn't be, but it had to be; he was alive.