Epilogue

One day later...

Location: Aspertia City, Unova

Marshal stepped into a finely furnished office, stopping in front of the desk and saluting the young male executive with long, dark hair and glasses, who casually kept his feet on the table while shifting through some documents. It took a while for the executive to take notice of Marshal, who was forced to stand attention for a while.

"...Matthews, Cal, Nate, oh, even poor Bianca Blanc," the executive mumbled to himself before finally taking note of Marshal. "Ah, Commander Marshal! You were released from captivity, I see. I hope we learned to control our temper."

Marshal didn't respond. Aside from a band-aid on his forehead, he had no wounds or bruises on him from the scuffle earlier, but that's only because it took the power of four agents and a helicopter pilot to subdue him and use a taser on him before they put him in lockdown for the night.

"I was going through personnel files for the Beta team," the executive informed casually after sipping some coffee. "Terrible waste, overall. Same as these scientists. Losing such useful people makes me wonder if we paid too much for this, after all..."

Marshal didn't respond, though he stopped saluting and just merely stood still, staring at the wall over the executive and trying to restrain himself. Marshal knew full well that this young suit had planned the entire operation from beginning, and was the one who suggested using the strike team as security for the facility before the Team Rocket and glitch Pokémon invasions happened.

"Doctor Faust, Professor Krane, Professor Barret, Dr. Gideon, Lanette," the executive listed. "And that's just for the high-ranking ones. Oh well," he said and tossed the files away to grab some new ones. "At least the Alpha team fared a little better. It was a good call sending Mr. Wes Marston in, wouldn't you agree? Of course, the fact that you were there to give them some personal encouragement helped them."

Marshal had to control his tongue. Just a few more minutes... And after that, Marshal would see to it he wouldn't work for the likes of him again.

"Buck, Rosa, even Hilbert... hmm, I don't recall the cleanup crew finding this 'Amarillo's' body," the executive pointed out. "Yet your report lists 'Amarillo' as KIA."

"It is possible that very little... remained of 'Amarillo', sir," Marshal said quietly. "The teleportation unleashed enormous amounts of energy that could have destroyed everything in the vicinity. Thankfully, it also destroyed the so-called 'glitch Pokémon' the report mentioned."

"Yes, I was getting to that," the executive mumbled and took a bite of an apple. "That wouldn't have been so easy to cover up, wouldn't you agree? The cleanup crew found plenty of dead ones, but nothing we can't dispose of. So you know who got away, then?"

"Only three people and a Pokémon went through the teleport," Marshal informed. "All three have been identified and they ended up near Saffron City."

"And a Pokémon, you say?" the executive said with a raise of an eyebrow. "Hmm, my reports don't match that, but I assume it belonged to one of them. So, how are they? Let's start with our favorite gym leader, and I say that as one myself."

Marshal had to try to not to roll his eyes. "Jasmine's injuries were the most minor – she just said her legs were 'healed' somehow back there. When I visited her, she immediately asked to resign from the unit. I signed the papers and she was moved to Olivine City Hospital earlier today as a final favor from us. She will probably be resuming her gym leader duties."

The executive nodded. "It's for the best – standard surveillance for this one, nothing too invasive. And the illustrious Lieutenant?"

"Hilda is still in Saffron General," Marshal said. "Her injuries were the worst of the lot, and she has either been unable or unwilling to talk yet."

"Someone will visit her later," the executive said nonchalantly. "And she's tough – I'm sure we'll enjoy her presence again later."

"Sir, if you don't mind me making a personal observation," Marshal said, a slight edge in his voice, "Hilda just lost some very important people-"

"People dear to her, yes, yes, I know," the executive interrupted. "Believe me, I know her better than you do. I was the one who lobbied for her promotion and helped her got this job in the first place, not that she is aware of it. A favor for a friend, you could say. I'm sure you agree that she deserves it, hmm?"

"Sir?"

"So, what about our mystery man?" the executive asked as he put Hilda's file away. "Looks like he performed well enough."

"Surveillance cameras spotted him briefly at Saffron General yesterday," Marshal said. "We haven't been able to keep track of him since, as he's not one of our troops."

"We'll find him," the executive assured. "Good work, Commander Marshal. We'll call you when your services are needed again. For now, rest and enjoy yourself."

That was the last straw.

"With all due respect," Marshal said tremulously. "I won't do either of those things. I didn't just lose troops there – I lost a group of friends."

With a hurried salute, Marshal stormed out of the room, unable to hide his tears anymore.

~o~O~o~

Location: Olivine City Pokémon Center

A young nurse squeezed his way through two Chansey carrying an injured Pokémon to the rejuvenation chamber, storming to talk to his superior, who was giving instructions to one of her other underlings.

"Miss," the young nurse called out. "I can't find the Ledyba that was just dropped off."

"Over there," the head nurse just said with a nod towards the back of a room.

A young woman with long brown hair wearing a hospital gown and some bandages was playing with the Ledyba, along with several other mildly injured Pokémon, while feeding some of the more weakened ones.

"She's a patient sent here from the hospital," the head nurse observed. "Mutually advantageous: people recover faster when they get to be with Pokémon, and vice versa. Plus she's actually of help – I don't want to put a patient, an inexperienced one, no less, to work for us, but she insisted, and she seems to know Pokémon."

The younger nurse frowned. "But isn't she-"

"Yup, the gym leader, the one who took a year off for training," the head nurse said. "You're fairly new here, so I guess you wouldn't know this, but it's interesting... back when she was running the rock-type gym, people often approached her, wanting help training Pokémon or wanting her to use her technical skills, but she hardly talked to them and mostly stayed in the gym."

"She was a hikikomori?" the young nurse inquired, but the older one didn't seem to know what it meant.

"And look at her now," she said, "socializing with Pokémon and humans. And volunteering to help. I don't know what happened, but she's changed."

"Will she be returning to the gym?"

"...I don't know. She talked a lot, but she wouldn't answer what happened to her that made her end up in the hospital in the first place. Or about where she had been all this time. She may be physically fine, but..."

"But?"

"Never mind. We have work to do."

~o~O~o~

Location: Saffron City General Hospital

Hilda had been confined to a hospital bed and moved to a private room after a mild furious episode of struggling against the doctors, nurses and even the security. At the moment, though, she was entirely still, staring out of the window and at two Pidgey sitting on top of a lamppost. Her other hand was hooked to an IV while the other had been handcuffed to the bed.

A visitor shuffled his way awkwardly into the room, the guard assigned to look after Hilda having skipped out for coffee. It was Wes, who had allowed himself to be patched up at the emergency room before fleeing and hiding in the underground path that ran below Saffron City for the rest of the day. He had somehow acquired a new coat, mostly similar to his older one except that it was blue. He was still carrying the bag Yellow had given him.

Hilda didn't react to Wes' presence, however.

"Hi, Hilda," Wes said carefully and quietly. "I just wanted to make sure you're okay. They sent Jas back to Olivine this morning."

Hilda just looked out of the window instead of Wes.

"I don't know how much I can say," Wes said, looking around the room carefully. "But... I'm going to make sure I finish what we started. I'll make sure that what happened there wasn't in vain. I-"

"Go away," Hilda whispered hoarsely.

Wes blinked. "I'm glad you can talk, I overheard the nurses talking, so I got... Hilda, I can't possibly begin to-"

"Please go away," Hilda said, more firmly this time.

Wes sighed. "I will," he said. "I'm... sorry. Goodbye, Hilda."

It saddened him to see Hilda in this shape, wearing hospital gowns and confined to a bed, but Wes had to go. He left the hospital quickly, aware that the security guards were giving him curious looks, leaving Saffron City as quickly as he could through a hidden access to the underground pathway, not surfacing until he reached the route connecting Saffron City and Lavender Town.

There, he took the Griseous Orb briefly from the bag. The previous day, he tried everything he could to destroy it, having bashed it with a rock, thrown it against a wall and dropped it from as high as he could, but the artifact remained spotless, not a scratch on it. What was worse, every time Wes took it out of the bag, he heard a voice whisper in his ear:

"Don't be a fool. Bring the Griseous Orb to me – you'll be more powerful than any human who ever lived."

"Shut up," Wes said and crammed the orb back into the bag.

Wes prepared to go. All he knew was he had to get to Johto, but he also knew that the Committee would soon realize what had happened, and they wouldn't stop before apprehending Wes. The thought of one day seeing Yellow again gave him hope – but something else made him even more positive about the future:

For the first time in his life, Wes felt that he could be meaningful. That he could be useful to other people. That he had a calling. And that was worth fighting any flunky that the ones in charge would send his way.

~o~O~o~

Several days later

Location: Lavender Volunteer Pokémon House

"Mr. Fuji!" a volunteer cried, running after the owner of the house, who was taking a short break.

Fuji took his eyes off the paper, the headline 'Explosion at Navel Rock continues to baffle locals' taking up most of the front page.

"What is it, Reina?" he asked calmly.

"The Sandshrew finally ate some solid food," the volunteer said excitedly. "But then he went back to sleep. Isn't there anything we could-"

"A doctor was here a while ago to treat the worst injuries, but even then, Sandshrew didn't calm down. He almost attacked the doctor and had to be sedated. We can try, but I don't know how much we can do."

The volunteer looked saddened by this, and both her and Fuji looked at the corner of the room where the Sandshrew slept, though he kept tossing and turning and occasionally letting out a frightened squeal.

No one could know what Shrew saw when he closed his eyes: the visions of the skeletal Pokémon, the Distortion World, Bagon dying, Krane getting dragged away, Quill being caught up in a blaze of light that demolished the entire facility. But the worst thing was the image of a huge, centipede-like Pokémon with six claws, six wings and six legs, its eyes glowing at him as it taunted him.

Whatever it was, Shrew knew two things he had learned the moment he had touched the Griseous Orb: it was pissed, and it would come after him, one way or another.

Notes: Well, that took a long time, but I hope you like it. This is kind of a prologue to my 'Worlds Collide' series (a series with only one installment that's still in progress, but still. Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, followed and whatever. I couldn't have done it without you. Particular thanks to Ardtornismyname for his great ideas.

I would rather let the story speak for itself, but I will say this. First, there were a lot of errors in the early chapters - and there still might be. Regarding Marshal, I don't know about you, but the whole 'big, tough guy breaking into tears' breaks my heart every time (see Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist), but I couldn't dwell on that too much. And I feel bad for killing off Bianca, Rosa and Nate, which was done mostly because I couldn't think of parts for them in my 'main series'.

Shrew will return.