Chapter 16: Reunion of Many Paths

The freighter landed in the delta of Naiad river in the early dredges of morning, the veil of night still dominating the hemisphere. Rivers of stars flowed and swirled in the night sky, giving a tiny amount of light to the invading army below. Archer, mounted on his pokemon, watched with smug satisfaction as he studied the scene unfolding before him. Ryhorn and Rhydon were being hitched to supply and medical wagons, infantry were organizing themselves into their formations, the battalion commanders shouting threats and commands to their charges. The sounds of preparation were music to Archer's ears. He spotted the Rhyperiors getting large baskets hooked up to the beasts, each basket holding iron shot and cannonballs. Rhyperiors were the key to his victory; with their ability to launch stones from their palms, they were living artillery. By using their abilities, he would be able to knock down the massive structures of Cameran Palace, without the need for cannons of guns.

Stella trotted up next to Archer, riding her Flygon, who was protected with hardened leather pieces, with a lightweight metal plate covering the dragon's chest. "Is everything going well with the preparations?" Archer asked.

"Yes sir. Everything is flowing well, just as we rehearsed."

Archer went back to the scene. "Good. Then taking Rota will be much easier than expected, eh?"

"Well, according to our sources, we picked the time to invade during their trainer festival. There will be many trainers with strong pokemon."

"True, but those same trainers will have no idea how to fight like we do, even if they have strong and fierce pokemon. They'll be inexperienced and will fall by the wayside quickly if they don't surrender. Your fears are misplaced, Stella."

Stella fiddled with a curl of her hair. "Alright."

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Eldrin, bedraggled and soaked from the river, pulled himself from the currents onto the shoreline. He barely remained alive during his ordeal, relying on his pokemon, Huntail, but the pokemon grew exhausted from fighting the rapids and Eldrin was forced to return the pokemon before it killed itself from exhaustion. His muscles cried out in agony with the exertion as he laid there on the rocky shore, too tired to even move. He felt the first rays of sunlight warm his dripping clothes and he wondered if he would die here, where he was lying. His eyes noticed a shadow grow on the earth in front of him. He slowly lifted himself off the ground to look into a set of very familiar, icy blue eyes.

"Well, what do we have here?" Archer asked, atop his steed, a Rapidash, the gray-black flames indicating that it was a 'shiny' pokemon. Archer was dressed in black armor that seemed to cover his body like a beetle's carapace. It gleamed in the sun's rays. His sword, with its ruby pommel, was strapped to his belt. " It seems that someone failed the Master, or shall we say, I?"

Eldrin could barley comprehend what Archer had just claimed. He was the Master now? He spotted Stella just behind Archer, riding her Garchomp. A long train of soldiers, wagons, and pokemon were trailing behind. "Is Captain Archer invading Kanto? Is he mad?" he wondered.

Archer leapt off of Rapidash and gave Eldrin a nudge with his foot. "Pathetic," Archer sneered. "Once you were the Master's valued spy, now you are nothing more than a swamped Raticate, dragging yourself on the ground." Archer bent down next to him and lifted the weak man off the ground by his shirt. Elrdin didn't resist, couldn't resist. "You see," Archer announced loudly, his voice ringing off the canyon walls, addressing the whole army. "I do not accept failures in my army, nor remnants of the bygone age, where failure was accepted at one point in time, never punished, never dealt with. But," he intoned, his voice changing completely. "I, on the other hand, will deal with failures as I see fit, as they come." He lifted Eldrin higher into the air, to the point where Eldrin's shoes barely scrapped the ground. He stared with frightened eyes as Archer's free hand snaked towards the hilt of his sword. He pulled the sword from his scabbard, raising the weapon high in the air. "Here is I deal with failures, like him!" With a smooth movement, the sword sunk into Eldrin's chest. Eldrin gasped once before he went limp with death, blood slowly pouring from the wound. Archer jerked the sword out, dropping Eldrin's corpse. He lifted the sword in the air again, blood dripping from the now red metal, showing it to the crowd.

"A new time has passed now! With the passing of the Master's pet, so has the new age of man begun. No more will we skulk in shadows, waiting for our enemy to do things for us. No more will we watch as terror organizations like Team Rocket and Team Galactic reign over the lands with an iron fist, spreading fear and suspicion. We will be the bringers of peace, beginning with the power of Sir Aaron and his tomb. On to Rota!" Archer mounted on Rapidash, but not before wiping his sword on Eldrin's clothing and giving the corpse a kick into the rivers, back to where he came from. Stella had to hide her pale face from Archer, lest he saw it as weakness and he determined that she needed to join her ex-comrade.

Archer spun Rapidash from the crime scene and down another narrow canyon that broke off from the river. Like a mighty beast coming to life, the train followed slowly behind.

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The night seemed to pass too slowly for Blaidd, who kept awake for the entire night, worried. He never expected to find Eldrin and his comrades to go after him once again. He thought he had broken away from their reaching grasp. "But it seems that I didn't," he thought to himself as he poked the embers of the dying fire with a stick they had scrounged. Now it seemed that they had decided to go after Ash now, and it was all his fault. "I'm the teacher, I supposed to protect him!"he mentally roared as he flung the stick into the fire, sending embers and ashes into the air. "But now, I have brought the war to him." he shook his head at the depressing thought. "No, I cannot think like that. This wasn't me, but the prophecy. He had already been chosen in the first place, that I can't change. I can only tech him and protect him from this group and their misguided ideology. I'll find them. I WILL find them!" he promised to the sky. He hunkered back down in the wool blanket he was wrapped in, and closed his eyes, his conscious somewhat at ease.

Morning came swiftly and Blaidd found himself being shaken awake by May. "Blaidd," she said softly. "You need to get up. We need to get going quickly, to look for Ash and Misty."

Blaidd nodded and slowly disentangled himself from the blanket. He was thankful that Max wasn't the one that woke him up, otherwise his identity might be revealed.

The four ate a meager breakfast of nutrient bars and canteens of water. The ate in silence until a shrill cry above them disturbed their meal. The four trainers's hands flew to their pokeballs, fear honing their reflexes. Brock looked up in the sky. "Wait!" He cried out. "That's Ash's Staraptor!" His presumption was correct as the bird pokemon landed in a back wing, churning up the embers and ashes from the previous night's fire. Brock went to Staraptor and poured some water down the panting bird's throat. After chugging down some of the canteen, Staraptor started to trill and screech, pointing in a southerly direction with his wing and hopping frantically.

"It seems that Staraptor wants us to follow him," Blaidd observed.

Brock started to pack up his things. "Well then, we'll follow him after we pack up our stuff."

"Do you think it's Ash and Misty?" Max inquired to May.

"It has to be. It's the only thing."

After a quick clean up of the site, including scattering the ashes to the wind, to throw the stalkers off their trail, if they were still pursuing; after the battle along the trail, it appeared that they had eliminated the threat. Staraptor led the way, wheeling and cawing in order for the group on the ground to follow. It seemed to take forever in their opinion, but the wait was worth it once Ash and Misty came into view. Pikachu broke off from the party and charged for Ash, who caught the rodent pokemon in his arms. "Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed, holding his most faithful and loyal pokemon in his arms tightly. "It's nice to see you too buddy."

"Pikapi!"

Blaidd stepped forward to clasp a hand on Ash's shoulder, an uncharacteristic gesture for him. "It's nice to see you again. I'm glad you are fine."

"Nice to see you too Blaidd." Ash was about the mention the unexpected healing, using his Aura, but decided against it, in respect to Misty. A part of him felt that it would have been impolite to blab to the whole world that she had been seriously injured.

May, however, spotted a thin white line running down Misty's calf, something that she hadn't noticed before. "Misty, what happened to your leg?" Ash mentally chided himself. One would think that healing with Aura would erase all traces of the wound, including scars.

"Apparently not."

Misty glanced down at the faint scar. "I hurt myself while I was in the river."

"But it looks like it's been healed for years, but I've never noticed it before."

Blaidd gave Ash a look. "Was it Aura?" It wasn't a question."

Ash nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty weird. It just,... happened."

Blaidd pondered it for a moment. "That is very unusual. It takes a very experienced user of Aura to do any healing, for it takes a severe drain on a person's mental and psychical facilities during the healing. During the healing process, the healer is transferring his energy and strength to the other. You said it just happened?"

"It was like the Aura was pouring out from my hands, like liquid flames." He had no other way to describe it.

"You seem to be shaping up to be a very interesting pupil to say the least," Blaidd chuckled. "It is interesting though, many of your abilities are focused in the defensive aspect of Aura, which would explain why your Aura spheres are nowhere near as to what they could be."

"Really, I thought it was because I was still learning."

"That too, but the first theory makes more sense in your case."

"Oh," Ash felt a twinge of disappointment. Blaidd smiled, another rarely seen gesture.

"You should feel proud, not disappointment. To have defensive abilities in Aura is actually very rare, for many Aura users tend to study the more offensive facets. It will be interesting to train you to say the least." Blaidd pointed northward. "Rota is only about a week away. From there, you can make your decision on whether to keep training or not."

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Gary stirred from a restless sleep, eyes going to the wristwatch he wore. He had the shifts of the guards figured out; they rotated in eight hour shifts, meaning that three changes meant that a day had passed. He counted each guard change, going up to the twelfth one as of now. "Four days," he thought dejectedly. "Four miserable, stinking days since we've been here." Dawn stirred next to him, her dark hair running across his skin like a silken curtain. He suppressed a shudder and he knew it wasn't from the damp cold; he had long since gotten used. He shook his head as his fingers massaged the pendent he kept hidden, waiting.

He heard boot slapping on the cobble stones of the prison and he studied the guard as he traversed the barred door. He wore a simple mail suit, with a long dagger strapped to the side. "So, I just got word that Captain Archer landed at the delta." the guard stated.

"That quickly? That must have been an impressive ship he got from Giovanni then," the other guard, the one on duty at the moment, whistled, clearly impressed.

"Yeah, shame we couldn't join him. I heard the Rota filled with riches and nice land."

"Rota?"Gary wondered. "That's where Ash is going."

"Did you see the size of the army he brought with him though? It's a bit of an overkill if you ask me."

"There's no such thing as overkill with that man. He's thorough and ruthless, to say the least. I do have to admit, it is a bit much, since the people of Rota are just a bunch of farmers."

"Yeah. You taking my shift?"

"That's what I'm here for, isn't it."

"Good. This stupid job is so boring. When do we transfer the three?"

"In a day or two. Captain Archer's sending in a unit of soldier to transport them."

"Well, that would be at a tiny bit of excitement around here." Gary heard a groan. "I'll see you around."

"Okay, see you." Gary watched with half lidded eyes as the other guard left the prison cell.

"A day or two," Gary thought. "We're going to have to leave much sooner than I wanted." His hands pulled out the pendent he kept hidden. "Time to break free."