Hey, I'm back! Sorry it's been forever since I last updated. Writer's block is the worst. I promise though, this story will be finished. Updates will probably be a little more spaced out than I would like so I have time to finish the story. Once I do finish it though, updates will be weekly, so that while this story will eventually be coming out at a regular pace, I'll still have time to work on my next story (and yes, already envisioning it). Figured I'd give my readers this chapter though for being so patient. Leave a review please, I still love reading them (Thank you majabreum for taking a sledgehammer to my writer's block)


Chapter 22

As mentioned, the council members formed a semi-circle around the room. They were all representatives of their respective regions, by strength, status, or popularity among the other legendaries who couldn't otherwise attend. Lugia, Ho-oh, and Celebi, representatives of Johto, sit on the left. Next to them are Lunala and Solgaleo from the Alolah region, then Zekrom and Reshiram from Unova. The Hoenn representatives, on the right, consisted of Latios, Jirachi, and Rayquaza, followed by Xerneas from Kalos. Most of the Sinnoh council members sat at the head of the semi-circle with Arceus; Dialga on his left, and Palkia and Giratina on his right; the exceptions were Darkrai and Mespirit who, should they be needed, stood with the Johto legendaries, closest to whomever is speaking. Mew is the sole official representative of the Kanto region, however, due to Mewtwo's involvement in Vesta's rescue, and the connection of this incident with the Kanto Trio, all the Kanto legendaries were present.

As Moltres took his place with Mew, Articuno, and Zapdos, near Dialga, Mewtwo guided Vesta towards the pool in the center of the room. Vesta's eyes were darting all over the place, her eyes widening, and her body beginning to tremble, she was obviously starting to panic.

"Hey," Mewtwo whispered to her, catching her attention, "Have you ever been in a court room?"

"Yes, but it was full of humans!" she hisses back at him.

"What did you expect after entering the Hall of Origin?" Mewtwo asks rhetorically, "Look, this is no different; they're not here to battle you, they're here to listen to your story…"

As Mewtwo was busy calming Vesta, Arceus turned to Articuno and Zapdos, "Have either of you discovered any unusual disturbances in places you frequent other than the Orange Islands?"

Zapdos spoke first, resolutely holding his head high, "Yes. I found human footprints in the dust accumulated in the old power plant near Mount Moon."

"And my nest in the caves of the Seafoam Islands has been disturbed…" Articuno added miserably.

Having overheard their statements, Vesta whispered to Mewtwo, "If they 'frequent' those places, wouldn't they have noticed sooner?" Unfortunately, the birds still overheard her quieted voice; Articuno lowered her head, truly hurt by Vesta's words, and even Zapdos lost some of his composure and seemed ashamed.

"The word tends to stretch with the lifespan…" Mewtwo answered awkwardly—now pitying the trio. She's rather straightforward. "Are you ready?"

"I think you already asked me that." Vesta said as she stiffly approached the pool.

Oh...my…Arceus! Mewtwo thought, gritting his teeth through a sudden wave of aggravation, Did she have this fiery spirit before or after gaining Moltres' abilities? Is this her returning to normal?

'Do not use that phrase here of all places Mewtwo, please.' Arceus said privately to Mewtwo.

'Did you hear me say it out loud? Get out of my head!' Mewtwo retorts. He follows Vesta towards the pool and places his hand on the back of her head. She jumps at the sudden contact, "It's alright," Mewtwo reassures her, "This is just how things are done here."

"Mewtwo's role is to relay memories into the pool, to be both seen and stored. Originally Mew would fulfill this duty, however, she's been allowing Mewtwo to take over from time to time," Arceus explains to Vesta, "As you tell your story, those memories in relation to it will be brought to the surface and easier for Mewtwo to locate. This method is more efficient, otherwise he would be picking through countless memories, most likely stumbling across ones that are irrelevant and/or private."

Mewtwo facepalmed as Vesta's face reddened at Arceus' words, which were supposed to be reassuring. Mespirit, being the first—and strongest—empath, was reacting to both Vesta's embarrassment and Mewtwo's exasperation, resulting in a very interesting array of emotions on her face before she regained control and shut out the strong emotions.

"One more thing," Mewtwo said to Vesta, "I advise against looking down into the pool as it shows your memories, it would be too distracting. You can revisit them after if you need to." Vesta nodded her head, understanding.

"So, girl, let's begin with your name," Arceus begins.

Vesta gulped, then steeled herself, "Victoria. Victoria Riley." An image flashed in the pool, showing Vesta—with a darker brown hair, than the current auburn.

"And how old are you?"

"I'll be seventeen in a month," she answered. It was an unnecessary question, but the normalcy it got her to relax.

There was a slight pause before Arceus began the real questions, "As you heard earlier, Articuno and Zapdos noticed evidence of human activity in the Seafoam Islands and the Power Plant, are there other humans who Team Rocket has experimented on?" Vesta nodded, "How many?"

"I don't know how many before us, I only know that those ones were…unsuccessful. It's just two others that I know of, one for each power. My older brother, Jack—he's nineteen now—has Articuno's abilities. And my boyfriend, Th—I mean—Lucas, has Zapdos' abilities…he's also nineteen."

The image in the pool shifted to show Vesta sitting with two older boys, they were talking, but; it was obvious who was who, Jack's, hair was stark-white, and he had ice blue eyes, his skin was almost a deathly pale, giving him ghostly appearance. The other boy, Lucas, had dark brown eyes and a similar skin tone to Vesta's, he had jet-black hair, standing up in an unruly mess in a similar manner as Ash's, only Lucas probably had a valid excuse—static.

"And how long have you possessed these abilities?" Arceus continued.

"I…Team Rocket kidnapped us—me, Jack, and Lucas—when I was fifteen," Vesta inhales a shaky breath, "I'm sorry, I wasn't able to keep track of time after that, but…after I escaped, I found out that it's been about two years that we've been trapped there."

Arceus turns his head to Mewtwo, "Mewtwo?" he asked.

Mewtwo knew what Arceus was asking, "Assuming that the process was done in stages, the amount of testing needing to be done before actually conducting the experiment could've taken a few months. Add that to the time needed for their bodies to prepare for and adjust to each stage of mutation, my guess is she's been like this for about six months—eight at most, if her body adjusted quickly."

The image in the pool shifted during this exchange. Vesta was in a lab, lying on an examination table, fighting the straps that held her down as scientists surrounded her, drawing blood, taking skin samples, and various other tests before the scene went black.

Arceus sighed and looked back at Vesta, "Start from the beginning," he told her.

Vesta kept her eyes lowered, but also averted from the pool, "The three of us were training to be Pokemon Rangers. We'd all finished our textbook work and basic training, and it was time to gain experience out in the field. Lucas was the first one to notice we were being followed…"

The image in the pool was shifting, while Vesta began her story…


Victoria, Jack and Lucas were walking along a trail through the forest. Victoria had brown hair and brown eyes, so did Jack, who, compared to Victoria, was slightly pale. Lucas' dark hair was short neatly combed over, and he had dark irises to match. Victoria was checking their mission report on a tablet, Jack was scouting ahead, and Lucas, with his arm wrapped around Victoria's shoulders, was whispering a joke in her ear, distracting her.

Looking behind them, terror suddenly showed on Lucas' face, "Run!" he shouted. Jack looked back, confused, before he saw a Team Rocket grunt leap out of the bushes behind them; chaos ensued as more followed.

As Jack, Victoria, and Lucas took off running, with the criminals chasing after them, Victoria shouted, "The Capture Stylers! They want to use them to poach pokemon!"

Jack was the first to act, he took out his Styler and smashed it against the next tree he passed, rendering it useless, Lucas and Victoria following suit. But that didn't stop their pursuers, in fact, they were now smiling victoriously.

"Dammit! Why are they still following!?" Lucas growled out.

"The hell would they want with us!?" Jack asked, equally confused.


The scene ended with Team Rocket catching up to the children and tackling them to the ground.

"It was my fault…" Vesta said, tears streaming down her face, "If I'd kept my mouth shut about the Stylers, we could've at least used them to try and defend ourselves…But…no…we couldn't have, there were too many Team Rocket members chasing after us, we'd have only endangered any pokemon we got to help us."

Vesta was obviously conflicted, between what the right course of action would've been, "It couldn't be helped," Arceus said softly, "You cannot blame yourself, as a novice, for 'in the moment' decisions, nor can you blame yourself for a thought that didn't come to you." Vesta sniffled and nodded her head blankly. "What happened next?"

"Next was all that testing Mewtwo mentioned," Vesta answered, "After that though, we were all put in separate rooms; four walls of concrete, completely empty except for a cot. The only good thing was that there was a window on the steel door, and Lucas was just across the hall from me, he was able to motion to me to say that Jack was in the room next to mine." The pool was showing the scene just as Vesta had described it, each of the children fighting against the Team Rocket members repeatedly forcing each of them separately out of the rooms and in the direction of the lab, "Once the testing was finished, a scientist entered my room with a needle to begin the…mutations," Lucas suddenly appeared in the window of the door to his room, looking longingly to Vesta, also trying to reassure her that he was okay, when he placed his hand on the door however, he suddenly jumped back, surprised, "We didn't realize at the time what was happening to us, but that same scientist would come back every time our bodies seemed to get used to their current state, pushing us a little further. After every injection, Lucas would end up shocking himself anytime he came in contact with metal, it'd go away eventually as his body adjusted to it. Jack ended up with a cold as his body temperature gradually became lower with each injection, even progressing to hypothermia if his temperature dropped too fast." Vesta paused to collect herself again before continuing, "My temperature slowly climbed, and I would become feverish. One day, that scientist came in again, but this time with a different needle," in the pool, Vesta could be heard screaming as she thrashed around her cell, brushing a hand furiously at her arm, trying to swat away an invisible enemy, "It felt like they had injected liquid fire in my arm. I couldn't take it, and I remember passing out."

The next memory that showed in the pool was one that struck home for Mewtwo. One next to the other, the teens were floating in stasis tanks, conscious. Jack, on the far right, was shivering, as frost accumulated on the glass, most likely from the cold now escaping his body. Lucas, in the middle, was in obvious pain, thrashing around in the fluid in his tank as his body was repeatedly shocked by his own powers, which he was not yet used to. As for Vesta, Mewtwo noticed lots of air bubbles were floating to the top. She was making the fluid around her boil!

"I didn't realize it when it started, but those repeated injections were only preparations, and fractions of the power we would end up receiving. That last one though, was a power boost. When I woke up in that tank, it felt like I was burning alive. I was actually grateful when I was knocked out again."

As Vesta was talking, Mewtwo noticed Mespirit giving him a very concerned look. For her, it was impossible to miss the growing anger that he was barely containing. If he lost control, even for a second, while he was still connected to Vesta, he could hurt her.

Quietly, Mespirit picked up a stone and floated over to Mewtwo. She didn't want to disturb Vesta, nor clue her in on Mewtwo's current state of mind with his personal feelings about her endeavour. She gently placed a hand on Mewtwo's shoulder and hovered next to him, activating her empathic powers, allowing his anger to flow through her and into the stone. Mewtwo immediately relaxed, letting out a quiet sigh of relief as his shoulders dropped and his muscles loosened. Because of Mespirit's ultimate mastery as an empath—being able to relay emotions from one living being and into an inanimate object, rather than another living being—humans came up with the idea of 'stress rocks' to serve as a symbol of her healing.

"When I woke up again, out of that tank and back in my cell," Vesta continued, "My biggest fear was that the scientist would come in with another one of those needles, beginning that process again." In the memory pool, Giovanni suddenly walked through the door and into Vesta's cell, "But then…"


"Congratulations girl!" Giovanni said to Victoria, holding his arms out in victory, "You have survived the trials of receiving Moltres' powers." Victoria kept her eyes lowered, and upon hearing no response from her, Giovanni continued, "Tell me, how does it feel? All that power coursing through your veins."

"Why don't you go to those scientists and find out for yourself?" Victoria spat at him.

Giovanni's smile fell, "Well…I can see you're still tired from your endeavours, perhaps you'll be in a more pleasant mood tomorrow.


"I kept watching through the window Jack and Lucas were brought out of their rooms to be taken to an arena to practice their abilities; first being dragged, but later…complying," Vesta said, "I didn't find out why until later…"


After an estimated month or two of helplessly watching Jack and Lucas leave their cells and return exhausted, the door to Victoria's cell opened and, instead of dragging her out with them, Jack and Lucas were motioned in to visit her.

Giovanni's voice could be heard from just outside, "Remember what we talked about," he warned the boys, both nodded, their faces blank.

As the door shut, locking the three youths in, Jack and Lucas glanced at eachother, Lucas nodding determinedly, while Jack seemed to brace himself. Something was up, Victoria could already tell, but she was too happy to see them to care at the moment. She sprang from her bed and rushed at the boys, hugging them both tightly.

A few seconds of peace was all they had before Jack hissed through his teeth and wrenched himself away. Victoria was shocked, and more than a little hurt, at the sudden retreat, until she saw him rubbing at the skin of his neck, "II'm sorry, I didn't mean to—."

"It's alright," Jack said reassuringly, "They haven't been teaching you to control it…"

"Yet," Lucas emphasised, bringing Victoria's focus back to him, "Hey Vicky."

Vicky?! Lucas never called her that, "What have they done to you? Where have they been taking you? Lucas, what do they—,"

Lucas put a finger to her lips to silence her, "I'll tell you as much as I can, let's go sit down." After a moment's hesitation, Victoria went to sit back on her cot, Jack sitting next to her, but keeping a gap between them so he didn't get burned again. Lucas sat on the floor in front of them, "Listen Vicky, the only reason they let us come in to visit you today is to try and convince you to join them."

Again with the Vicky… Jack and Lucas were acting very strange, "And why the hell would I do that?" Victoria asked, anger building up in her, "Don't tell me that's what you've done!" When both boys nodded slowly, she felt like knocking their heads together, "Why?" she hissed through her teeth.

"We didn't have a choice," Jack said shamefully, "At first we fought against them, and every time one of us disobeyed orders, the other would be punished…beat…but when they threatened to hurt you next…we couldn't—." Tears began pooling in his eyes; he was terrified, and shaking.

She didn't really have much choice but to forgive them, they needed someone to, "Why did they do this to us?" she asked quietly, "What do they want?"

Both Jack and Lucas were hesitant to answer, but Lucas eventually did, "Mewtwo," he said.

"And they expect us to battle him," Jack added, "Apparently with the power of the legendary trio, and with enough training, best case scenario, we'll be strong enough to give Team Rocket the distraction they need. At least they're realistic that we won't be able to actually overwhelm him."

Victoria was bewildered, looking between the boys like they've gone mad, "Mewtwo? But— They couldn't, he's under the protection of the INPL!"

"And you think that scares Team Rocket?" Jack scoffs, "They've been doing this for years."

"Back to the point, these guys aren't playing around," Lucas said, "they didn't do all this for nothing. And if you refuse to follow orders, we are the ones who'll be punished," he motioned to himself and Jack, "I hope you understand."

Victoria, looked between the two of them uncertainly. Was she really going to do this?

"Vicky," Lucas said, catching her attention again, and emphasising every word, he asked, "Do you hear me?"

She focused on his expression, it was a determined form of resignation, and when she looked to her brother again, there was fear, but the same level of determination, he gave her a subtle nod.

Now she got it, what they were saying was NOT the message they were trying to send her. Whatever the cost, Mewtwo could not fall back into Team Rocket hands. She knew Jack and Lucas were planning something, but she didn't know what, and she couldn't ask, "I hear you," Victoria said sadly.

"Good," Lucas said, before letting his voice become more cheerful, "Now, let's change the subject shall we? They're letting us spend the day with you, we could try to help you control your abilities, or chat, or a little of both?"

"Maybe a little of both," Victoria said, grinning slightly, trying to forget the dreadful start to this meeting.

Jack took in a shaky breath, "Let's just talk for now, I don't feel like doing anything else right now."

Vesta nodded understandingly, "What about? And nothing dreary please."

"Well," Lucas starts thoughtfully, "since we have these super humanpowers, we should have names."

"You know what, on second thought, let's help Victoria with her abilities," Jack said.

"You're not serious?" Victoria asked Lucas.

Lucas was laughing at both of his friends' reactions, "Why not? We should have some fun with this, shouldn't we?"

"Alright Sparky, it sounds like this isn't the first time you've had this idea," Jack said, "So what's Victoria's?"

Giggling at Jack's choice for Lucas, Victoria said, "Well since I know you've got a thing for mythology Lucas, did you pick 'Hestia' for me?"

"Close," Lucas said, "Very close. Vesta.'

"Pffft, right deity, wrong culture," Jack laughed.

Victoria was happier with it anyway, 'Vesta' sounded stronger to her.

"And I was thinking 'Thor' for myself," Lucas added.

"Of course you were," Jack commented, "I'll just stick with Jack, thank you."

"Like Jack Frost," Lucas said thoughtfully.

"Oh come on! That's no fun!" Victoria whined to her brother, when he gave her the I'm-not-falling-for-that look, she gave up, "Fine, 'Jack' it is, Jack."

The rest of the day continued with Jack and Thor coaching Vesta on controlling her abilities, at least so she wouldn't burn them accidentally again. She had to be much more careful with Jack than Thor, due to his sensitivity to heat, and vice versa because of how cold his skin felt to her.

When the door opened and the boys were told to leave Vesta's cell and return to their own, the mood immediately took a turn for the worst. If Vesta wasn't going to obey their orders, it was doubtful they would let the boys in with her again, and worse, they were going to get hurt for it.

She gave her brother a hug and whispered in his ear, her voice strangled, "Are you sure about this?" She was met with a quiet 'mm-hmm'.

There was no going back now, and as Lucas came forth to hug her, he whispered in her ear reassuringly, "I love you, no matter what." He faced her, kissed her, then he was gone, taken from her cell and returned to his own, doors shut between them once again.