A/N: Fenrir's Phantom, it wasn't really up to a poll. I've kind of already decided a good chunk of how the story will continue. I am open to one idea though, should I bring in someone else from outside somehow? I don't want to use it as a plot device over and over, but I was considering bringing someone, perhaps Team Rocket into the story. Thoughts on that?

"No," Ash said, as he took a look at his Pikachu, who was looking at him with the same sad eyes as when he had earlier almost told Gulliver that he'd leave the place if he'd get a chance. "I can't just let someone like you back in charge." Not after what Marley had done.

Marley's calm demeanor evaporated and he began shouting until he was foaming at the mouth again. The whole thing really annoyed Ash, and unconsciously, his fingers brushed the Irresolute Badge and he shouted, "Quiet!"

Marley instantly stopped talking and making a ruckus, though he looked as defiant as always.

"Very good, Sir Arthur," Mr. Jennings said. "With that over, I would suggest that we carry on with the execution as immediately as possible."

"Execution?" Ash asked.

"Indeed," Mr. Jennings said. "I assume that you'd want to perhaps give Marley a trial first, before going with having the noose prepared?"

"Wait, the noose?" Ash asked. "We can't just go and hang Marley!"

Mr. Jennings said, "Ah, of course sir, Marley was a Gym Leader after all, and it wouldn't do for him to be executed like a simple peasant. I'm assuming that you'd prefer he be sewn into a carpet, and then trampled upon by several Rapidash instead?"

"No," Ash said, rather freaked out by what Mr. Jennings was describing. "I'm not executing anyone."

This seemed to completely baffle Mr. Jennings. "Sir, I can understand compassion, but do you have any inkling of what this man has done over the years of his reign? My skin crawls merely at thinking of them. It would be a grave injustice to let his actions go unpunished."

Ash was about to answer that it wasn't his place to go and punish people, but then he remembered that in this case it apparently was. A few seconds into his reign and he was already lost as to what to do. "I'm not killing him though."

"Well, for the time being," Mr. Jennings said, "we should have him locked up then. And his Pokemon removed from him."

Marley gave a frantic look at his Serperior, and Ash felt a queasy feeling in his stomach. It was obvious that while Marley may not have cared for his Slakoth-Slaking, whatever, he did seem to care quite a deal about his Serperior. And it seemed so inherently wrong to Ash to take away someone's Pokemon. The only ones he knew who were cruel enough to do that back where he came from where the bad guys. "I'm not going to take his Pokemon away from him either. I guess locking him up would be the right thing to do though."

"But Sir Ash!" Mr. Jennings protested. "Within three days Marley will be able to challenge you for the Gym Badge again! He can't challenge anyone else, but he's free to challenge you for his Badge back!"

"And he'll fail at it," Ash said. "I have the upper hand now, as the Gym Leader. Not to mention it will take much longer than three days for his Serperior to recover."

"So, you're just going to let him go?" Gulliver asked, surprised. "But Ash, I mean Lord Ash- surely you're going to do something about-"

Gulliver was interrupted as a messenger burst into the room. "Lord Marley! There is a-" he paused as he saw that Marley looked a whole lot less haughtier than normal, and then his eyes found Arthur and the Irresolute Badge pinned to his chest. "Uh, well, there's a phone call, Selena is asking for Lord Marley."

"Selena... the same one who controls the barrier?" Ash asked.

"The same," Mr. Jennings said. "I wonder what she wants."

"I want to talk to her then," Ash said. He walked out of the room and Mr. Jennings motioned for some of the guards to watch over Marley.

Ash was led to what he was told used to be Marley's office/chambers though what it was called now depended on what Ash wanted to call it. Ash sat down, and Pikachu began napping on the floor (it had had a pretty long and tiring day, so Ash didn't disturb him.)

The first thing that registered in Ash's head when he saw the telephone screen was that the woman sitting there was absolutely drop-dead gorgeous! It was like Giselle had an older, hotter, blue-haired sister! Not to mention she was dressed up like an empress. Dawn and Selena probably would've gave their front teeth to have that outfit. It probably cost a fortune.

At the same time though, there was something about her that also seemed to say that she was a whole lot meaner and far more arrogant than Giselle was.

She looked at Ash for a minute, confused, and then saw the Irresolute Badge he had. "Oh dear. Marley lost, didn't he?"

"Yes," Ash said. "Are you Selena, the seventh Gym Leader?"

"Yes child," Selena said and yawned. "Well, since you've now won, there are some things that I suppose I'll have to tell you, or rather, make sure you understand..."

"Wait," Ash said. "First of all, I just want to go back to Kanto. I came here during a storm-"

"A storm at sea, I know that," Selena said. "There seemed to be an odd fracture in the barrier separating Galea from the rest of the world earlier. It has repaired itself, thankfully, however."

"Wait- but I have to!" Ash said. "I need to go back."

"Sorry, but I cannot open it," Selena said. "The barrier gets more unstable as time passes, and I just will not risk it and the lives of everyone in Galea in order to send one person back. And anyway, I don't see why you'd want to go back. I still remember parts of the rest of the world before, and unless it has changed much, I don't think what is outside would be better than what you'll acquire as a Gym Leader. So just sit here and relax with your newfound power."

"I don't want this power!" Ash said. "I just want to go back!"

Selena raised an eyebrow elegantly. "You've been offered almost unlimited power, and you don't want it? In that case, I'll be happy to take it, but you aren't going to get any closer to going back home."

Ash sighed. "Everyone I know is outside. My family… my friends…. My other Pokemon."

"And you cannot give them up?" Selena asked. "Surely you must understand that the spatial-temporal barrier exists to prevent Galea from destruction? Are you memories more important than so many innocent lives?"

"And you still won't tell me any of why it's there in the first place," Ash said. "And if I came here without everything going wrong, I bet I can get out too. And I'll find a way to do so, even if I do have to get to you first."

Selena began laughing. On the one hand it sounded like the purest music, but at the same time was also condescending and Ash felt his cheeks go red. "Child, do you have any idea who you're dealing with? Marley was hardly a great Gym Leader. I doubt you'll even get past Thomdolt. And for that matter, do not forget that I wrote the Accord myself… and made sure to include some rather interesting loopholes in it. There are quite a number of things that I can do to hamper you."

As if right on cue, the telephone went off, and the computer began displaying an error message.

Ash stared at the screen for ten minutes wondering what was wrong before Mr. Jennings came in. "Sir Ash! We have a problem! Something- or someone, has hacked into our online archives and records, and we seem to have lost most of our data. All systems are currently offline for now, we should be able to get them right up by tomorrow morning, though the data loss may be irretrievable."

Ash explained what had happened with Selena.

"Most likely, this is her doing," Mr. Jennings said. "She controls most of the technological innovation in Galea, and this would explain how she plans to delay you. Or, perhaps it is a warning that you should not mess with her."

"But is she allowed to do that?" Ash asked. "I mean, shouldn't there be something in the Accord that says she can't go around infecting our computer servers?"

"Actually, computers were only introduced from her domain to other parts of Galea around twenty-five years ago," Mr. Jennings said. "That was after the Accord, so it would probably not have been covered under that."

"But then you guys probably still have lots of written records, right?" Ash asked.

"Yes, or at least we did," Mr. Jennings said. "Maintaining written records was problematic not least due to the cost, but because we had to keep hiring and training new people to maintain them, and Marley did not like to have that sort of information fall into other people's gazes so often, so he converted a lot of the important ones to our digital archives and then burnt the originals. Not all of it was completed, mainly due to laziness and inefficiency, but a good deal of our archives currently exist simply on a hard drive."

Suddenly, Pikachu sprang up and began making fierce noises and sniffing around. Ash hadn't seen Pikachu upset like that since the one time he'd tried cooking something special using Brock's recipes for him and it had not turned out good.

From the screen of the telephone a small figure came out. It was a strange thing, but something that Ash recognized without even needing his Pokedex: a Porygon-Z.

Pikachu began snarling angrily and made a lunge for the Porygon-Z. Unfortunately, the rest of Ash's and Mr. Jenning's Pokemon had been knocked out so there wasn't much they could do.

The Porygon-Z dodged the attack and went for Ash, though it wasn't exactly going for him, but rather, his pocket, or where the Pokedex was after it turned into a small blue ball of energy. Ash's Pokedex blinked different colors for a few seconds before the Porygon-Z emerged and returned to the telephone/computer thing.

They were all tense for the next ten minutes as they waited for something to happen, but it didn't look like the Porygon-Z was going to return. Perhaps it had gone back to its owner.

"I think we've discovered the virus that has been infecting our computers," Mr. Jennings said.

"Why didn't it attack us though?" Ash thought. "I mean, if it was sent by the other Gym Leaders, wouldn't they have known that our Pokemon were probably tired?"

"I do believe the Accord would have forbidden it from attacking you directly, sir, or your Pokemon. It seemed to want something with the device that you call the Poked-" Mr. Jennings was interrupted as his phone began ringing, and he apologized and answered it. The conversation didn't last longer than two minutes, but Mr. Jennings did not look happy at the end. "I'm afraid there is bad news. Most, if not all, of our records appear to have been taken. Without records, we don't even know how many people there are, who the prisoners are, what they're in jail for, who owns what, how much grain and fruit we have, or almost anything else we need to run this place effectively. It's almost too much- too much to-"

Mr. Jennings collapsed after. Ash called for a medic.

Mr. Jennings came to in about an hour, and it seemed like he was going to be fine after some rest, thankfully.

That was more than what could be said for their attempt at governance.

A/N: And so, we have the ending of the Marley arc. In case you don't know, Giselle was the obnoxious girl Ash met in The School of Hard Knocks! where he mentioned he thought she was pretty... though he never has overtly for anyone else.

It occurs to me that this arc was a bit short and didn't allow for that much world building or character development, but this was sort of the beginning and the other arcs will be longer.

While I do know that a lot of things haven't been explained, this being a mystery fanfic and all, but we are done with one whole arc here and thanks for reading up till now, and I would like to know what you guys have thought of this chapter and the story so far, so do drop a review sharing what you thought it was like.