Defection

"I'll call you when we get back to Fuchsia," she said. She leaned in and kissed me softly on the cheek. "Stay out of trouble without me."

I rolled my eyes sarcastically. "Sure, because I've been the one looking for trouble this whole time."

"Looking for it or not, you always end up in the thick of it." She smirked. "Though I wouldn't have met you if not for that, so who am I to complain?"

I smiled and pulled her close to me. "I should be back with Surge in Vermilion by tomorrow night. As far as I know, we had nothing immediately imminent on the Rocket front. So at least I'll have a moment to breathe and train."

She nodded and pulled back. "Make sure you get Blaine to acknowledge my communiqués. He still hasn't responded to my anti-piracy initiatives and I—"

I crushed her with a hug. "I'll mention it, Janine." I glanced up at the ship, at the shinobi standing at the top of the gangplank. "Leopold seems to be waiting for you."

She kissed me deeply this time, saying so much more than any words ever could. Then she pulled away and began her way up the catwalk to the Poison Fang. Janine turned and smiled at me, sheepishly waving. Then she turned back and made her way up the rest of the catwalk, disappearing into the ship.

I watched it go from Cinnabar's dock. The Fang grew smaller and smaller until it was little more than a smudge on the horizon.

Oak finally approached me from his waiting place on one of the benches lining the park opposite the dock. He'd given us a moment alone to say goodbye and let me stand and mope, but I couldn't do that all day.

It wasn't like it was forever, but it was the first time Janine and I would be apart since we'd met. I'd never even kissed a girl before her and I was scared of what the distance might do.

"Blaine's expecting us," Oak said as I turned to face him. "Called me again to ask when we were coming."

He lifted a ball and released his alakazam in a flash of light.

I pushed my adolescent romance from my mind. I had bigger things to worry about. "Did he say what he was calling about?" I asked.

Oak sighed and shook his head. "He's always been a cryptic bastard. He wouldn't say why he wanted a sudden meeting, but it's probably not a good thing. It usually isn't."

I sighed in response. The secrecy was something I'd quickly come to expect from Cinnabar's reclusive gym leader. "No sense keeping him waiting then."

Oak reached up and touched his alakazam on the arm. I mirrored his action and the docks disappeared with a small pop.

The oppressive heat hit me as I sucked in a breath. The ocean sprawled out in every direction from the island, itself seeming small and insignificant from the peak of Mount Cinnabar. I felt myself reminded of the harrowing battle atop Mount Ember and tried to put the victory on the caldera from my mind. Even if we had won, it had been a brutal victory that had cost us all.

"The scale of it really gets to you," Oak started, looking out at the sea. "Makes you realize how small we really are."

I stared out for a long moment. Cinnabar city sat nestled at the base of the volcano, resorts and pristine beaches spreading out away from the city proper. The ocean dwarfed all of it, stretching away to the horizon in every direction.

"Nothing but dust in the wind," I said quietly. "Views like this… places like this… they make you see just how little we matter as individuals."

Oak smirked knowingly, as if he'd been attempting to lead me to that conclusion so he could challenge it. "I'd like to think that even us specks of dust can change the world."

"A wishful fantasy," said a new voice. He stepped out of the doorway in the rock face. He was frail and lanky and hunched over a cane in his old age. I was given the impression of a powerful warrior succumbing to the ravages of time. "Especially with the coming storm."

"Blaine," Oak said. "This is Ranger Corporal Marcus Wright."

The bald man nodded gruffly. He frowned under his large moustache. "Surge's recruit?"

Blaine looked me up and down, eyes lingering on the crook in my previously broken nose and the patch of scarred skin that marred the left side of my face. My hair had been cropped short and my mangled ear was on full display.

"You remind me of him," he said with a wry grin. His eyes lingered on my scarred face. "You seem stubborn."

I nodded and let myself relax slightly. "I've been told that," I replied. "Good to finally meet you, Leader Katsura."

"Enough of the formalities," he said gruffly. "I don't like them and they'll just waste what little time I have."

"I agree."

Blaine turned back towards the doorway in the rock face. "Follow me then. We have much to discuss and very little time before calamity strikes us all."

I glanced back at Oak.

He frowned and I sensed the exasperation. "I told you he was direct about things."

I didn't answer and simply followed Blaine into the elevator.

Blaine's gym compound was built into the volcano itself. The elevator led us down into a chamber below the caldera, where the elevator shaft opened to reveal a stunning view of the magma chamber.

Two large platforms jutted out over the lava, one of them clearly the battle stadium with a large array of seats suspended from the ceiling of the chamber. The second platform was smaller and secluded on the opposite side of the structure the elevator was descending into.

"That is incredible," I said as the elevator entered the building. "It's beautiful."

"It's also on a timer," Blaine said gruffly as we stopped and the elevator opened. "We've got maybe three or four more years before the pressure is too great and Cinnabar blows." He glanced back at me as we filed out, seemingly enjoying the shocked expression on my face. "Glad you visited while you could?"

"It was going to blow in ten years back when you were twenty." Oak smirked as if to disprove Blaine's grim assessment. "At this rate, she's got another ten to fifteen left."

"Cinnabar is a fickle bitch, but I'm sure this time. I've tapped every magma reservoir and relieved every bit of pressure I could. She doesn't have much time left." Blaine turned away from the stadium and the large hallway leading to the main doors. "But either do I anymore..."

A younger man, towering over Blaine's hunched over form appeared from the doorway Blaine was leading us towards. He looked almost a mirror image to the old man, save for the fact that he appeared almost seventy years younger.

"Don't talk like that, grandfather. You've always beaten the timeline on everything else."

Blaine turned to face the younger man, scowling. "Bah, enough of this. We are wasting time." He pointed with his cane. "Follow me."

The younger man fell in line alongside me. "Glad to finally be bringing in other people to help us," he said. "Grandfather kept saying that we couldn't risk being exposed to Giovanni, but I don't think that matters anymore."

"Damian," barked Blaine as he barged into a messy lab. "Make us a spot of tea." The old man shuffled over to a large chair at the head of his table and sat down heavily.

Oak and I sat opposite him as the other man disappeared through a doorway to what I assumed to be a kitchen.

"Let's get on with the real reason I've brought you here then," Blaine began. He propped his cane up on the table and leaned back. "I'm defecting from Rocket."

I couldn't help the surprise and shock that came to my face. "I wasn't even aware that you were a part of Rocket."

Blaine simply smirked. "There are a great many people whose Rocket membership would astound you." He glanced over at Oak and seemed to smirk slightly. "Our dear professor here chief amongst them."

I sucked in a breath sharply as the two stared at me. "You're with them," I said as my hand dropped to my belt. I stepped away from the table and glanced between the three of them. "So this is a trap."

Blaine chuckled knowingly. "On the contrary, my defection is truly sincere. And I doubt that the dear professor intends to blow his cover until the moment is truly perfect."

"Marcus," said the professor in that same calm cadence. "Look at me. I am not your enemy."

I turned my gaze to him, a grim scowl on my face and my hand on Luna's ball. The deaths of Pride and Vector, Zapdos Squad, the Marowak, every run in with Rocket painfully fresh in my mind.

"I was just trying to challenge the League like every other trainer. And yet at every turn since Silph signed me, I've had Rocket on my back." I shook my head, trying not to lose my cool. "Tell me where I'm wrong, professor. You've helped me before with the cubone, but things look real clear from where I'm standing. If you're with Rocket, you're on the wrong side."

Oak looked at me pensively. He was quiet for a moment, then sighed long and hard. "I have been on the wrong side for far too long, despite my claims to the contrary." He reached up and massaged his temples. "But it's never too late to do the right thing." He glanced over at Blaine and gave a determined nod. "Perhaps it is time for all of us to do the right thing."

"Perhaps it is," Blaine replied. He leaned back as Damian deposited a large mug of steaming tea in front of him. He nodded in thanks, his gaze never leaving Oak and I. "Then you'll have to know the whole story."

I relaxed my hands, approaching the table. Damian deposited another pair of tea mugs on the table and sat in the open chair to my right.

"Surge knows some of this, so I don't know how much of it he's revealed to you," Oak began. "But I'll start from the very beginning."

I raised an eyebrow. "Surge knows some of this?" I repeated.

Oak nodded. "He was part of the original Team Rocket." He frowned, as if he knew he had just stunned me into silence. "I would know. I founded it." He sipped at the tea and nodded in thanks to Damian. "Nineteen years ago, I gathered the most powerful trainers in all of Kan-Jo to deal with a crisis. A group of cultists had woken Lugia in the Whirl Islands."

Blaine shook his head. "That was a goddamned shit-show. Seventeen islands sunken into the sea and a hundred thousand people dead before we could even mount a response."

"Surge was there" Oak continued. "Lance as well."

I frowned. "And Giovanni?"

Oak nodded. "He was one of those who answered the call. It wasn't Rocket yet… it… we were all trainers. We were all friends. They were my Aces, my response team to threats beyond imagining."

His eyes went hard and I could see that the memories were not something he was fondly recalling. "We stopped Lugia, but only by trapping it in a cavern created by the sinking of the Whirl Islands. We lost a few hundred thousand human lives because a sleepy god was woken up by a few reckless humans."

Blaine set his tea down. "It would not be the last time that humanity raised the ire of something greater." He shook his head and sighed. "No, our species decided to piss off the gods at a higher and higher rate. The Collector in Orange… those Galactic nut jobs in Sinnoh… the Unknown Incident in Johto…"

"There was a particularly devastating battle," interjected Oak. "against Lugia when it attempted to rise from the Whirl Islands once more. We lost a great many friends that day."

"A decision was made," said Blaine. "To create something to fight the battles we could not."

Oak scowled as Blaine fell silent. "Some… like Surge and Agatha, among others… disagreed with the idea. They were cut out of the plans." He turned and glanced at the old bald man hunched in his seat. "Some… like Blaine, Myself, Giovanni, Lance and a few others, decided that the danger had reached a tipping point. That something had to be done."

I stared at Oak in horror as he looked back at me. He sighed and I saw the true burden of the Champion's crown weighing on the old man before me. "Our first attempt was a sloppy attempt to recreate the adaptive abilities of Mew. It couldn't maintain cellular cohesion. We tried to salvage it, but instead we only wound up with a creature that could barely mimic the powers of others… the ditto."

He shook his head. "That failure should have warned us off. We created a weapon with our next attempt. A creature to rival any of the gods that the pokemon could throw at us. Something we could use to fight back against the overwhelming tide of natural catastrophe that these creatures wrought with their awakenings." His scowl deepened. "And we were victims of our own success."

"Fifteen years ago, an island seventy miles off of Cinnabar exploded. We said it was a dormant volcano. That the pressure had just grown too great and it finally blew." Blaine sat back, a proud smirk on his face. "In reality, the creature woke up. It rejected the purpose we had gifted it and chosen self-immolation."

Oak shook his head. "Except, as I said, we were victims of our own success. The creature survived."

"How?" I asked.

Blaine scowled deeply. "That is something that has yet to be determined."

"We call it Mewtwo. It was designed using DNA from a fossilized remains of creature that was discovered in an ancient temple in Johto." Oak nervously glanced at me and I felt the weight of his gaze. "I reformed my Aces to combat our new foe and found it impossible to find, let alone defeat."

Oak shifted and I saw the shame on his face. "I failed Indigo as her champion. This creature escaped my grasp and massacred all we sent to recapture it. A vote was cast among the remaining Aces."

"Lance replaced you as Champion," I said. "And Giovanni took over efforts to create a weapon… Mewtwo."

"Mostly correct," Oak confirmed. "I remained in contact and offered my assistance when needed, however I have found myself sidelined more and more over the years." He glanced over at Blaine. "And yet the situation has seemingly spiralled more and more out of control ever since my resignation. Attempts to capture the Storm Raptors as well as whatever unholy abominations Gideon created, along with their meddling in evolutionary science has made it perfectly clear. I am no longer on the right side, if I ever was."

I sat in silence, contemplating everything I had been told. The two old men were silent as they watched my reaction, Damian the only one making any noise as he lazily stirred his own tea.

"Marcus," Oak said calmly. "You have shown me that you have the moral compass to be trusted. If we are to move against Giovanni and Rocket then we are moving against Lance and the league itself. I need allies, and you do too."

"Say that I believe you," I began. "Let's say that I believe you're sincere and this has all gone further than you meant it. You're still responsible for everything Rocket has done."

Oak hung his head and failed to meet my gaze. "I know that. And I bear the burden of shame for what I have unleashed."

"Oak here has knowledge of an upcoming Rocket operation," Blaine interjected. "We want to help you disrupt it and bury his little paramilitary organization."

I raised an eyebrow. "On my own?"

Oak shook his head. "No, of course not." He smirked. "Giovanni has grown irritated by Surge's constant opposition. We want Surge. Erika and Misty too if we can convince them. Janine would be a plus as well, and we know you're close with Fuchsia's new Leader.

I nodded slowly. "And you have no secure means of communication with any of them."

Both the old men nodded.

Silence reigned once more as I contemplated what to do.

"I understand that we are asking a lot, but—"

"You're asking me to do something that I've been working towards since I joined the Rangers. You're asking me to help you put a stop to the man terrorizing Kan-Jo, who personally killed my first capture and is responsible for the deaths of far too many of my friends." I shook my head. "What kind of person would I be if I disagreed?"

Oak let himself crack a grin. "So you're in?" he asked.

I nodded slowly. "I'm in."

Oak looked as though a huge weight had lifted from his shoulders. "You don't know how much of a relief this is."

"Contact Surge," Blaine barked. "I'll forward Oak all of my intel and he can brief the both of you." He glanced over his shoulder at the doorway deeper into the complex. "I apologize," he said as he rose to his feet. "But what I am about to show you is highly sensitive and cannot leave this facility."

Damian got to hide feet and disappeared into the doorway.

"We recovered this after the Collector's airship went down in Orange," Blaine continued. "Ingenious bit of tech. It's a damn shame that man was utterly insane."

I raised an eyebrow. "Sorry if this sounds ignorant, but who is that?"

Blaine and Oak chuckled and shared a knowing glance.

The old professor looked at me. "I sometimes forget how often we change the story for the public." Oak sat back. "The Collector was a mad scientist, plain and simple. He built himself a massive floating fortress and attempted to seize control of Kanto's Storm Spirits."

"The birds?" I asked. Realization dawned on me as I thought back to the region threatening storm that had dominated the island chains south of Kanto in my youth. Pundits had called it the storm of the century and stirred up a huge panic before it suddenly dissipated. "Wait, that huge storm was them?"

Oak nodded. "Yes. A renowned machinist from Orange, Lawrence Gelarden III, made an attempt at capturing them. He almost succeeded before Lance and I stopped him."

Damian reappeared, pushing a strange looking table on a cart. He wheeled it over to Blaine, who flipped a small switch on the side of the table.

"We recovered this from the wreckage of Gelarden's airship." Oak said. "Along with a collection of other technological marvels."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Simply put," Blaine said. "It's a map."

The table lit up as a holographic display rose up. It zoomed in until I could make out the unmistakable outline of the Kan-Jo supercontinent as well as the archipelagos to the south. It pulled back even further, the southern shores of Sinnoh coming into view from the north and Hoenn's archipelago appearing in the east. A number of glowing markers rose from the map, a pair of them instantly drawing my eye.

I pointed at the silvery-blue marker over a pair of islands south of Saffron. "I know those islands," I said. My eyes moved south, looking for another marker over Sevii. It wasn't there, and I scanned the board looking for anything else that might confirm my suspicions.

"As you might suspect given your experience with them," Blaine said quietly. "It tracks the gods."

My eyes widened as I looked over all the markers. There were twelve in all, spread across the region. I found the crimson marker that I suspected to be Moltres south of Indigo Plateau in the Argent mountains, and a pair of violet markers lurking northwest of Cerulean. A lightning yellow marker sat near where the Kanto National Power Plant was and another trio of markers were entwined together in Violet City.

"There are so many," I said. Several of the markers were moving, albeit far off in the wilderness or out in the open ocean. More of the glowing beacons covered the rest of the regions, so many that I could scarcely believe it.

"We live in a world of monsters," Blaine said. "This device helps us keep track of them, and respond to them when necessary."

Oak pointed at the whirl islands and the silver marker there. "This is Lugia, one of our chief concerns over the past twenty years." He pointed over at the pair of markers that circled around an island in Johto's southwestern waters. "These two are Latias and Latios, protectors of the island of Alto Mare."

I pointed at the silver-blue marker south of Fuschia. "And this one is Articuno."

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "You know of the snow bird?"

I pulled up my sleeve and exposed the blue ring branded onto my forearm. "I encountered it after driving Rocket out of a secret base on those islands."

"Interesting," Blaine said quietly. "The second such trainer to be branded in under a month."

"No," Oak replied abruptly. "The third."

"Third?" Blaine asked.

I raised my eyebrow. I knew Riley had received a mark similar to mine from Moltres, but I didn't know that there'd been a third.

"Lance covered it up, but there was an incident at the power plant. Zapdos was freed from captivity and bestowed its mark upon a young woman."

"Does the third oppose Rocket?" Blaine asked.

Oak was silent for a moment, seemingly gauging how much he wanted to say. "I do not know," he finally replied. "She is an unknown."

Oak shook his head. "But that is immaterial." He looked at me. "When we recovered this map, we finally had the means to track Mewtwo." He pointed at the pair of violet markers north of Cerulean. "We suspect one of these markers to be Mewtwo. The other is unknown at the moment."

Oak leaned forward. "Every time we've attempted to move on Mewtwo, it teleports away. We can't even make contact with the creature, let alone actually recapture it." He sighed. "And yet, that is about to change."

Oak pointed to the largest city in Kanto, at the epicentre of civil disturbance that had been wracking the region. There'd been isolated protests against the failing economy of the region and the corruption but they'd been growing to a head in my time away from the mainland.

"Saffron," he said quietly. "The protests, the riots, the lockdowns, all of it is a guise for Rocket's true goal."

It hit me then. "Silph," I stated calmly. "They're after Silph's project."

Blaine looked at me with surprise. "You're smarter than I expected."

"No," I said. I knew my limits. "I just connected the dots. I have a friend in Silph. She mentioned her dad was working on some secret project."

I looked back between the two old men. "Rocket has heavily infiltrated Silph, to the point where they were able to pull capture location data off my pokegear and store a porygon in there to spy on me." I shrugged. "Makes sense that Rocket would be stirring up trouble to cover what they're actually doing within Silph."

"They're going after a pokeball," Oak relied calmly. "An upgraded version of the dark balls you encountered with that Tyranitar's trainer."

"Vicious," I said with a scowl. "I do remember those balls looking weird. He had a whole bandolier of them."

"They were mine," Blaine replied. "Or rather, a bastardization of a few of my inventions. If Giovanni has upgraded the capture matrix, then he could theoretically capture Mewtwo and turn the creature on those who might dare to oppose him."

"Do you think he'd go after Lance?" Blaine asked.

Oak shrugged. "Giovanni is obsessed with control, but he doesn't like being the frontman. He prefers to work behind the scenes. It's why he never challenged Lance for the Champion's throne."

"He's going to," I said suddenly. "If this Mewtwo is as powerful as you say, then he has nothing to fear if he controls it."

Blaine nodded as he came to the same realization. "He'll make his move once he captures it. Likely wipe away the existing Indigo leadership and assume control through the National Congress." He shook his head. "Giovanni's been currying favour with the civilian government for years. I always thought it was just to push more funding his way, but it appears that the corruption serves a more nefarious purpose."

"Gods are waking," Blaine continued. "Hoenn was nearly destroyed less than a month ago, the Storm Trio has been stirred from their slumber… Then there was the disturbances in Kalos and Sinnoh that cannot be explained…" he trailed off. "The gods are waking and Lance is going to be getting desperate for some results. Which means that Giovanni will be desperate too."

"We must move quickly if we are to upend his plans." Oak turned to me. "Do you have an encrypted line to Surge?"

I nodded. "We set it up after Celadon. It should still be good, completely off the Silph network at least."

Blaine nodded. "I'll give Oak a list of actionable targets within the league. You can forward it to Surge. With any luck, it'll delay this upcoming Saffron operation until we can truly combat Rocket."

"I will," I said. "Thank you both for doing the right thing. Maybe you guys started this with the right intentions—"

"But oftentimes, terrible things are done with the right intentions." Blaine shook his head as he struggled to his feet. "I wish you luck, Ranger. You're going to need it."

He turned and hobbled from the room, Damian turning off the map table and following him.

Oak rose from his own chair, glancing down at my tea as he released his alakazam beside us. "Well, we'd best be off."

I got to my feet as well. "So, how much time do we have?"

"Not enough," Oak replied. He placed his hand on his alakazam as he waited for me to do the same. "I will explain everything when we arrive at the lab."

I nodded and reached for the alakazam. The scene shifted and twisted for a brief moment, before we rematerialized in the quiet calm of a place I'd been once before.

"This isn't Pallet," I said cautiously.

"I know," Oak replied. "Unfortunately, there are a great many things I could not reveal in front of Blaine. Things that would change everything." He sighed heavily. "I would be a pariah even amongst the rogues of Rocket if the things that I have done were to come to light."

He turned to me and I caught a mournful look for a long moment. "I would… prefer that you not mention my dealings with Rocket to the boys. Everything I have done is for them and…" he trailed off again. "I would prefer to tell them on my own terms."

I nodded. "I can understand that," I said. I'd delayed and delayed in telling Janine about the promise to her mother, I had no right to judge Oak for harbouring those same feelings.

He strode towards the pair of low slung bungalow we had teleported in front of. There was a white fence ringing a small courtyard in front of the house, with a little fountain splashing away. There were a few small water types frolicking in the fountain. I reached out for horsea as we passed, brushing my hand against its bony crest as it preened for my attention.

A young woman, probably about thirteen or fourteen opened the door of the bungalow on the right. Her brown hair was up in a bun and her sleeveless shirt instantly drew my attention to the lightning yellow mark that wrapped around her wrist. Blaine and Oak had said that Zapdos had marked a trainer. Perhaps this girl was that trainer.

"Amber," Oak said in a cheerful greeting. "It's been too long."

"It's Leaf now," she replied curtly. "Grandfather is tired, but he was expecting you." She glanced over her shoulder and then back at us. "He says that your boys came as advertised."

Oak raised an eyebrow. "The boys are here?" He asked.

She nodded. "Red and Blue both." She turned to look at me and narrowed her gaze as she caught me studying the mark on her wrist. "Fuji doesn't like surprises though. Who is this?"

"This is Ranger Marcus Wright," he replied. "The boys and I can vouch for—"

"I can vouch for myself," I said, interrupting him. I pointed at the mark on her wrist. "I know that to obtain a mark like that, you must be a good and honourable person." I slipped the sleeve of my vacation shirt up my arm and exposed the mark that Articuno had left. "I earned mine when I saved the Lord of Snow."

She raised hers. "And I, when I freed the Lord of Lightning."

I nodded. "Then we understand that we are on the same side?"

She nodded in reply and waved Oak and I inside.

The bungalow was small and cramped, with a large living room dominating the space. There was a small kitchenette and a bathroom secluded on one side of the house and a bedroom on the other. A pair of futon beds had seemingly been hastily pulled into place, Red and Blue sitting as if they had been waiting and expecting us.

Old Doctor Fuji sat in an oversized chair, a large mug weighing heavily in his hand. "Sam," he said.

Oak nodded in greeting. "It's been a while," he said. "I see the boys are taking care of you."

"And then some," the old man replied. "They destroyed an anchor that Rocket placed atop Pokemon Tower, and then took my Amber on a dangerous trip to a power plant." He glanced over at the girl. "One that could have gotten her killed and has irreparably marred my life's work with divine intervention."

"We do not yet know what effect the marks have." Oak gestured to me. "My associate here has been marked himself over a month ago. He reported that Articuno offered assistance in a time of need." Oak looked back at Leaf. "I would imagine that Leaf was given much the same honour."

"Her name is Amber," Fuji said. His face went hard and his voice was cold. "She is Amber."

I glanced at the girl, who looked as though she wanted to jump at the old man. She said nothing though. After a moment, I saw her fists relax and watched as Red's hand found hers.

"Regardless, Red and Blue—"

"Are heartless copies of my work." Fuji struggled to rise, but found the strength to get out of his chair. His bones seemed to creak with the effort and I wondered if he was well. "Do not speak to me of the abominations you and Giovanni thrust upon the world."

Red and Blue both exclaimed loudly at that offence, but Oak silenced them with a raised hand.

"Fuji, I would remind you that these boys saved your life and kept your 'Amber' safe."

Fuji seemed for a moment as if he wanted to argue further, but kept silent. He slowly sank back into his chair. "Then I suppose the boys will be leaving now." He glanced over at them. "Amber and I will be glad to be rid of them."

It was Oak's turn to scowl. "Is that what Leaf wants?" he asked cautiously.

"I told you, her name is—"

"Leaf," she said forcefully. "My name is Leaf. And I do not wish to stay here anymore."

Fuji' shocked expression could have curdled milk. I was surprised that he didn't keel over at the sudden revelation. "You will do as I say, or I will—"

"You will do nothing," Leaf continued. "As you have done every time Rocket pushed your boundaries." She stepped back and proudly took Red's hand. "I will be leaving with them. Whether you accept it or not."

Silence reigned for a long moment. Fuji glowered at the boys, at Leaf, and most of all at Oak. He slowly shook his head and seemed resigned to it.

"Goodbye, grandfather."

She turned and stormed out the door as Oak stepped forward. "It doesn't have to be like this," he said slowly. "You know that you have a place at the lab. No matter what. History does mean something after all."

Fuji remained silent and looked away. Red and Blue slipped out after Leaf, motioning for me to do the same. Oak closed the door behind me.

"So," started Red. "Articuno and Moltres?"

I nodded and pulled back my sleeve. "Articuno branded me just after Koga died, and Moltres branded a Hoennic trainer when we rescued it in Sevii." I glanced over at Leaf, my eyes lingering on the yellow band at her wrist. "How'd you get yours?"

She shrugged. "Right place, right time," she said noncommittally.

Red and Blue both shot her shocked glances. "You're playing that down," Red said. "You were amazing!"

Blue looked back over at me. "Seriously," he started. "She jumped onto the back of Zapdos and rode it out of a collapsing building, while fighting off half a dozen Rockets at once."

She shrugged and I felt a sense that she was uncomfortable with the praise. There was more to this girl with two names than everyone was letting on, but she was clearly one of the good guys if the boys were to be trusted.

For a fleeting moment, I had the thought that this was all an elaborate con to draw me into a trap. But the absurdity of the idea sank that notion immediately. Rocket had far easier ways to get to me and I wasn't that important to begin with

"Sounds impressive," I said, moving on from my doubts. I nodded at her. "three marks, three birds. That has to mean something."

"Or it's just what anyone would have done," she replied bluntly. "Either of you would have done the same thing in that position."

"We weren't in that position though," Red interjected. "we were trapped outside the building because neither of us could keep up with you."

She shifted awkwardly, refusing to meet anyone's eyes as the boys sang her praises.

I smirked knowingly. A somewhat reckless trainer who was uncomfortable with praise and spotlight. Where had I seen that before?

"When I met Articuno, it told me that it would aid me in an hour of need." I met her eyes as she looked up at me. I saw something there, some sort of spark as I mentioned the snow bird. "Moltres said much of the same to Riley when we rescued it. Did Zapdos speak to you at all?"

She nodded. "It promised aid as well," she started. "and told me that we would meet again soon."

I felt a pit in my stomach. A third offer of aid and another ominous warning that the bird would meet its marked soon. "Three warning, three marks…"

"Something is coming," Oak said as he stepped out of the small house. "that much is clear enough. Things are coming to a head and there is little we can do to delay that now."

"Gramps?" asked Blue as he turned to face him. "What do you mean by that?"

Oak released his alakazam in front of the fountain. "We should return to Pallet before speaking," he continued. "I don't entirely trust that Rocket isn't keeping an eye on Fuji's house."

Blue released his own alakazam without prompting. I touched Oak's pokemon as Leaf and the boys mirrored me. We disappeared with a small pop, my stomach twisting with the unfamiliar sensation of teleportation, the smell of a salty sea breeze filling the air a moment later.

"Come," Oak said curtly. "Let's get inside." He massaged his temples as he stepped out in front of us. "Hopefully, Delia will be almost done with lunch."

Oak's lab was a chaotic mess. Aides ran to greet him, disappearing back to their work when they realized he was still occupied. The old professor led us through the crowded lab and into the living quarters that were no less crowded with loose papers scrawled with notes and heavy books laying forgotten in piles.

I sat at the cramped table, a platter of sandwiches sitting ignored in front of us. Despite the fact that I'd forgone breakfast this morning, I wasn't hungry. Tense conspiracies tended to have that effect. Given that the boys had dug in the moment they showed, I doubted that they felt the same.

Oak was seated across from me, carefully stirring a tea that had been steeping since we had sat down. He looked up at me and I saw the tension on his face.

"Marcus, I told you before that I would tell you the full story." He glanced over at the boys. "It's time that I told you four everything. I believe that the fate of the world depends on it."

"As I was saying before we left Lavender," Oak started. "things in Kanto are coming to a head." He nodded in my direction. "Marcus' work with the Rangers has ensured that both Fuchsia and Vermillion are set against Rocket, and you two have ridded Lavender and Cerulean of their influence."

I raised an eyebrow. I hadn't known about a Rocket presence in Cerulean. Admittedly, I was not privy to all of Surge's intelligence, but he hadn't mentioned Cerulean at all.

"However, despite these victories Giovanni remains almost untouchable." Oak sighed for a long moment. "As if he was being shielded from the blows we have dealt to Rocket."

"I take it that he was?" I asked.

Oak nodded. "Giovanni, and by extension Rocket itself, are Lance's solution to the question of survival."

He glanced over at the boys and Leaf. "I have told Marcus some of this, earlier today. But, my hands are not entirely clean of this. Before I resigned my post as Champion, we began a project. We were looking for a way to give humanity a fighting chance against the pokemon that we truly had no counter to."

Oak's eyes flitted to Leaf for a brief moment. "We thought cloning could be the solution. We thought that we could enhance one such creature and ensure that it was firmly under our control."

The boys were silent. Leaf squirmed uncomfortably and I wondered how much of this she already knew.

"After several failures, and my resignation from the head of the project, Giovanni succeeded at altering and cloning a Mew, theorized to be the most adaptable of all pokemon due to its dynamic genetic structure." Oak frowned. "Only, he overestimated his control of the creature and it escaped containment, immolating an entire island in the process."

He sighed and I caught him stirring his tea anxiously again. "I… I… failed in my duty as Champion. I resigned and Giovanni was given free reign to recapture the experiment." He shook his head. "It is difficult for me to explain what happened next."

Oak looked down at his tea and stirred it again. "I… we…"

Leaf placed a hand on his arm. "I can tell them," she said quietly. "Fuji… he told me everything."

Oak nodded in response.

Leaf took a breath, steeling herself for what was clearly a tough conversation. "Dr. Fuji specialized his research in human cloning." She frowned. "He called it the next step in medical technology, flash cloning organs to replace failing bodies… only… he was using that research for his own purposes."

She took another deep breath and paused. It hit me, before Leaf even needed to say anything. It just made too much sense. "Fuji's daughter died young. A car crash in Saffron took her life at only twelve years old." Leaf tightened her fists, a far off look in her eyes. "Her name was Amber."

Silence filled the room as the meaning of that sank in. Red and Blue both seemed to realize at the same time what it meant.

"You…" Red started, his face a churning mess of emotion. "you're a clone of the original Amber, aren't you?"

Leaf nodded. "A clone to replace the daughter that Fuji lost."

"It doesn't really change anything," Blue said with a grin. "You're no different than us, no matter how you were born."

She flinched at that comment and looked over at Oak, unsure of how to continue.

He nodded and got to his feet. "It's alright, dear." He put a warm hand on her shoulder. "I can take it from here."

Oak looked down at the two boys, smiling in that calm and serene manner. "You really are much less different from Leaf than you could possibly imagine."

Neither of the boys said a word.

"There was a night, like any other night. I was working late in the lab. Too late, to be entirely honest." He wrinkled his nose. "Agatha always did tell me that I worked too hard." He went cold and his hand fell off Leaf's shoulder. "I got a call, from my son. He told me that his wife was pregnant and he was going to be a father."

Oak looked away, clearly holding back the tears. "He told me to come over and celebrate. He'd bought a few Unovan cigars for the occasion." He looked over at the two boys. "When I got there… both my son and his wife were dead. Giovanni was waiting for me. He was waiting with the two of you." He looked from Red, to Blue and then back again. "He was waiting with a pair of clones, altered… no he used the word perfected, versions of both him and myself."

My shocked expression must have paled in comparison to the boys'. Both Red and Blue had their jaws slack, stunned and shocked fear in their eyes.

"He told me to raise the two of you. That you were our heroes to lead us after he prepared humanity for the future." Oak tried to offer a weak smile of reassurance. "I have done so, instilling a moral code in the both of you that I know means you will do what is right no matter what."

Neither boy said anything. I could hardly blame them. The revelation would have been enough to shock anybody.

"I understand that you both feel betrayed right now. I am sorry that I kept the truth of your origins from you." He looked over at Leaf, who seemed to offer Oak a reassuring nod of her own. "I had no choice but to cooperate after what he did to my son. No choice but to play along as one of Giovanni's puppets." He shook his head now, and I heard his voice swell with resolve. "I see now that there was always a choice. I just made the wrong one."

Red stood suddenly. He refused to meet anyone's eyes and stared blankly at the floor. "I… I need some air." He turned and walked away morose.

Oak opened his mouth as if you say something, but Leaf shook her head. She got up a moment later, following Red out of the lab.

Blue got to his feet as well. "I'm gonna go be alone with my team for a bit," he said. His voice didn't waver, and his eyes were hard. "I'll be back by dinner." He glanced over at me. "And I don't need you following me for some touchy feely shit. I'm ok, I just want some space for a bit."

I nodded. "I won't."

Blue looked over at Oak and then away. He grabbed his bag from the floor beside him and stormed out the door.

The woman from before emerged from the kitchen area. She crossed the kitchen and looked mournfully at the door. "Will they forgive us?" she asked, eyes locked on the door.

Oak didn't answer.

I got to my feet and shouldered my bag. "They'll be back," I said confidently. "because it's the right thing to do."

"That is not the same as forgiving us," the woman said. Tears were forming at the edges of her eyes and I could hear the pain in her statement.

"That it is not, Delia."

I looked between the two and cleared my throat, desperate to change the subject. "I believe that you had a cubone problem," I said. "and I'm eager to meet my new tyrunt."

Oak finally seemed to break out of the funk that had taken over him. He looked over at me and I saw some measure of the radiant calm return to his presence. "Right this way," he replied. "The staff will be eager to see you."

Indigo League Classified File #150 — Project Mew-Two

Successor to the failed Mew-One project, Champion Lance Wataru placed Viridian Leader Giovanni Sakai at the head of this project. Much of the original research of the original Mew-One was repurposed, and Dr. Ikiro Fuji was recruited to assist with enhancements to the cloning process.

Mew-Two was intended to be an enhanced clone of the pokemon Mew, whereas the original Mew-One was intended to be an exact replica. 4213 children with the latent psychic gene were submitted as test subjects for the project, with 1672 surviving into the second phase of the experiment and perishing before the third phase could begin. After the expiry of all remaining test subjects, a fresh clone was created that spliced together human and pokemon DNA.

The subject displayed extreme intelligence and clear sentience before the incident that resulted in its release into the wild. Mew-Two displayed violent and psychopathic tendencies from the moment it became self-aware. It immolated the facility it was created in and the island upon which it stood, sparing only Dr. Fuji and a secondary subject (a clone of Fuji's deceased daughter, dubbed "Amber-Two", both have been placed under League surveillance in Lavender).

Recapturing Mew-Two is considered the Indigo League's top priority. However, due to the sensitive nature of Mew-Two's origins, knowledge of this directive is limited to those under the purview of "Team Rocket" and members of the Indigo Elites.

Intermediate Trainer KT#07996101

Indigo Ranger Corps, Special Task Group, "Zapdos" Squad,

Corporal SN# 109-512-6591, Marcus Wright, current team:

Luna, Ninetales

Artemis, Aerodactyl

Acolyte, Marowak

Two, Porygon-2

Curie, Chansey

Hey, so this is something that I don't normally do. I detest ANs and usually omit them or limit them entirely. But, its been a long while and things have changed for me in my absence.

In October of last year, I was diagnosed with depression. I felt no energy. My work suffered. My personal life suffered. But I was getting a handle on it.

I suffered a concussion in January. It was the 7th concussion that I've had in my life. This one, more than the last few, really affected my personality and mood. I began suffering from severe depression. Medication didn't help, and I went off my meds and began to suffer from withdrawal. I attempted to commit suicide and spent some time in a mental health unit.

Things are different now. I am different. I'm in therapy. I am more serious about my mental health. I am more serious about my physical health.

All that, to lead into… I began writing this story with the vague intention of writing a short journeyfic. Marcus had no name and no personality. He was essentially a player character. But something happened when writing. I poured so much of myself into Marcus and the story. And I accidentally created a character that took on so much personal meaning.

In realizing that the story had grown beyond its original scope, I embarked upon some ambitious revisions to the early parts of this story. Chapter 5 in particular saw a massive expansion. Everything up to the Celadon battle was given at least some revision and I'm incredibly happy with the results. I improved as a writer and the story deserved it.

Thank you all for reading!