Selena found herself, as she had often found herself, lost in an uneasy sleep. For a moment, it was blissful, only to be suddenly interrupted by a dream so vivid it could not have simply been a figment of imagination.
She was in an empty Pokemon arena, and opposite to her was a man in a mask. The seats were empty and yet sounds of cheering and booing still came.
And, like she had a thousand times before, she began battling him.
And, like all those times, she lost and fell to her knees.
The man started laughing and removed his mask to reveal a face that Selena had grown to hate more than any face in the world. His Majesty's face.
Soon, catcalls echoed from the empty seats. Leering and jeering at her. Mocking her, how she, once a Trainer without peer, was now simply second best.
Second best to the Emperor.
She woke up, screaming, not something her staff were unused to. They came, inquired for her well being, left some snacks and water if she needed it, and then left.
She turned and attempted to go back to sleep again… she would need it to deal with her ever-growing list of problems. The pretender was now poised to invade Linnea's territory any day now, and yet His Majesty, for all his greatness, had still done nothing; leaving her to deal with the problem alone.
And therein lay the canker in her heart. She could not bear that she was second best to him and that he currently occupied a place that was higher than hers, a place that was, in her opinion, rightfully hers to hold.
The nightmares had started several months after they had overthrown the Elite Four, and over the years their repeated occurrence had nearly driven her mad. But she didn't snap- no, she didn't- she channeled her hatred towards the one who deserved it.
Soon, she would overthrow both the pretender and the one whom she hated even more than him, His Majesty. Soon, she would hold sway over all of Galea.
She fell asleep, not unaware of the familiar sensation that she was being watched.
The room however, to all appearances, was entirely empty except for her.
Linnea had been training nearly non-stop. Not only had she continued to push herself, she had also ordered her Gym Trainers to start training again.
She had won her territory over sixty years ago, but with the coming peace of the Gym Leader's Accord, while she had not slipped completely into inactivity like Marley, with all threats out of sight they were similarly out of mind as well. A result of that was that she had to put in some considerable effort to remember things about battling she had forgotten, and to whip herself and her Gym Trainers in shape.
Among the foremost of her Gym Trainers was her old tutor Li-han, her right-hand man, and most trusted advisor, despite the fact that he disagreed with her so many times she spent a not-inconsiderable time wondering if she should dismiss him.
"I need time to fully bring my Gym and my Pokemon back to fighting capacity," Linnea said. "I do not doubt that that child will try and invade before that occurs. In that event, order the people to abandon their cities immediately, and to burn the grain stores and anything that might be useful to the enemy. I do not think that their food supplies will last for too long."
The old man, who had by this point been reduce to using a cane for support said, "A scorched earth strategy, my child? It would potentially displace millions of people!"
Linnea glared at him. Li-han didn't even flinch. By this point he was probably too old to care what people thought of him, or to care what Linnea might do if she got too upset.
"Tell me, sensei, what was the population of this territory before I seized control of it after two years of war?"
"Twelve million," Li-han said.
"And how many were left at the end?" Linnea asked.
"A little over two million," Li-han said. "Many still remember the terrible famines, the-"
"I do not want the details again, I was there, in case you have forgotten," Linnea said. "And how does our population currently stand?"
"Approaching ten million," Li-han said.
"Then let it go back to two," Linnea said. "That can't possibly be that huge of a loss."
Her mentor was about to say something else, so she angrily interjected, "You do not understand, sensei, as I do. I must stop this child. If he gets past me, he will continue to attempt to return to his home, and will destroy the barrier as a result. When that happens…, well, it is necessary sometimes for a surgeon to amputate a limb rather than letting the patient die…." she trailed off, not sure if she should say more, or if she would even be allowed to say any more.
"There is another, small matter," Li-han said, his face visibly showing how broken he was from the inside. Linnea suppressed images of the earlier famine from popping up, but clearly Li-han couldn't. "There is a man by the name of Alan Lazar requesting asylum."
"I know," Linnea snapped. She had read the report.
Alan Lazar was the Elite Four's earlier secretary- he had managed their personal affairs for a time before ultimately betraying them when that prat His Majesty decided to overthrow the Elite Four. As such, he was one of the few people in all of Galea save for the Gym Leaders who knew the true reasons why they had rebelled, and as such once the rebellion was over he was offered a simple choice: he could go join his former employers, or he could swear upon the Gym Badges that he would not mention what had happened to anyone and join the Gym Leader's organization.
Being a pragmatic person, he chose the later option- and it turned out that he didn't lack talent. He was assigned as Selena's left-hand man very quickly.
Apparently though, Mr. Lazar had had a falling out with his mistress and was urgently seeking protection from her. The details were all hazy- there was only so much one could jam into a written letter that had to be carried by a Taillow so that it wouldn't be caught by Selena.
"He has sent us another letter though," Li-han said. "He says that in exchange for protection he is willing to part with certain information regarding his mistress that he assures you will be worth your while. As of yet, he has not formally broken down relations with Lady Selena yet, but says that he does have a way out of her domain and into ours."
Linnea seriously considered this proposal for a moment. What information could he have on Selena that would be considered so valuable? It could be a bluff… but then he must have known that Linnea would kill him if he did, and unlike Selena she wouldn't do it with any remorse or a hint of mercy for all the years of his service.
What intrigued her even more though, was that what caused this sort of rift to appear in the first place. Alan Lazar was known to be quite loyal to their overall cause… what had changed in the past few weeks?
At the same time though, Linnea was not certain she could hide him without Selena knowing, and she did not want to ruin her relationship with the Seventh Gym Leader.
Truth be told, Selena was the only Gym Leader that Linnea sort of got along with, and Selena and Linnea were perhaps the only people among the Gym Leaders whose relationship could be termed as 'somewhat being like friends.'
After all, let's look at the others: Marley was usually too lazy to do anything, let alone socialize. Thomdolt mainly angered everyone with his exorbitant prices, complete lack of concern for the ecosystem, and truth be told, scared them with his knowledge of poison. Freyja was mainly the laughingstock of the whole group. Wade was known to be quite remorseful of how they had treated the Elite Four and occasionally openly voiced his criticism of the policies they had adopted after, and anyway, he was probably the one who brought the pretender into Galea. Vanessa didn't truly care for anyone, and of course, His Majesty was no one's friend. Most of them regarded each other more as enemies than as allies.
Of course wasn't as if Linnea had any affection for Selena- she didn't doubt that Selena would order her killed if it suited her, but the truth was also the same the other way around. And in a way, Linnea respected what Selena was willing to do for the protection of Galea, and the two woman had mutual respect for the other. Not to mention Selena did scare Linnea a bit, while the two talked like equals, Linnea knew that in their relationship, she was the inferior one.
In the end, she didn't consider some information worth the risk of offending Selena, not with the pretender about to strike. "Tell Alan that he should go lick the heel of some other Gym Leader- he will not receive asylum from us." She did however, decide not to inform Selena about it. Perhaps, after the pretender had been dealt with, she could restart negotiations with him.
Linnea didn't even formally dismiss her tutor- she just went back to training. Li-han slowly turned and shook his head, a tear flowing down his cheek as he thought of what was to happen to the people.
As for the reply, Li-han sent a Chatot this time to make sure no suspicious would be aroused from Selena… though his hands still trembled while he attached the letter. Selena's information network was the stuff of legends; she was rumored to be nigh-on omniscient when it came to what happened around Galea. Technically, Li-han was protected by being under Linnea's command.
Then gain, Li-han wasn't worried for himself.
Professor's Oak Laboratory, Outside of Galea
Professor Oak's hair had seen better days. Several days of no showers and of groping around in dusty corners of his laboratory and other places had made it look little better than a crop field recently devastated by a tornado.
The rest of Professor Oak wasn't faring much better.
The cause of the Professor's distress- the disappearance of one Ash Ketchum, a child he had watched over for so long he was now almost more of family than his actual grandson.
And, six weeks earlier, he had disappeared! His only clue was that Ash had been in the vicinity of what locals called a freak storm- a storm that had literally swept out of nowhere and had been gone in under ten minutes. There were reports of odd electromagnetic activity emanating from the storm, and more than one person reported seeing odd shapes in the clouds.
He had made no headway though. Ash's mother had tried to seem not to been too worried, she seemed to believe that her son would turn up any minute now with the tale of a latest adventure, but Oak could tell that she too was worried.
Oak had believed that Ash might turn up any day for some time too. But there was tracking software within Ash's Pokedex- he had to contact the Pokemon League and explain the emergency before getting permission to see it of course- only to see that Ash was currently nowhere. And it wasn't as if the Pokedex was broken, no, if it was broken (a highly unlikely occurrence given how durable it was, otherwise Ash would have broken it long ago) the signal emitting mechanism was separate and would still keep transmitting. Not to mention another signal would be given if a circuit had broken.
But none of those things. No, the Pokedex seemed to have straight up just vanished without a trace.
And so, Professor Oak had tried to investigate on his own, to come to a complete and total dead end.
There was a knock on his door and Professor Oak sighed. It was probably Professor Sycamore, who, also being a fan of Ash, had decided to 'help' with the effort… meaning most likely he was going to interfere and/or give some ridiculous crackpot theory, Professor Oak thought.
It was Professor Sycamore. After a shake of hands and the usual useless greetings, Professor Sycamore smiled as if he had the solutions to all of Professor Oak's problems (in reality he was a cause of most of them) as he unrolled some very, very, old-looking documents.
"What language is this?" Professor Oak asked.
"Ah, first let me explain where this came from," Professor Sycamore said. "This is with greetings from the library of Scepter Four itself."
Professor Oak would have face palmed if he wasn't so tired. Scepter Four was rumored to be a shifty secret society allegedly responsible for almost all that went unseen around the world.
The reality was far less glamorous; they were the adult equivalent of a group of kids coming to share scary stories around a campfire every week. Oak knew this because he had been a member way back in his university days as an undergrad.
"It isn't that bad, this one has some credible sources," Sycamore said as he noticed Oak's expression. "It is quite an interesting thing regarding the area where Ash disappeared." He shifted the stack of papers he had brought to show what was a very old- and also incorrect map of Kanto. The outline of the continent was drawn wrong, and it seemed almost unrecognizable compared to a modern map of Kanto in some places. "Now, this is a map by sixth century cartographer Vesuvius, though you may note it is inaccurate in various places. Take a look at this…" He pointed to what looked like a large land mass towards the east.
"What is that, Johto?" Oak asked.
"No, Johto is towards the west," Sycamore said. "This island, or land mass, is alternatively called Galliuh, Galiah, Galia, Zalea, or Galea in various chronicles depending on whose work you're reading. Apparently, this used to be rather close to both Kanto and Kalos in the past."
"And what does this have to do with a Trainer disappearing?" Oak asked.
"Well, you see, the problem is that this region- it doesn't actually exist," Sycamore said. "It is mentioned far too many times for it to just be the stuff of legends, but you only need to look on a modern map to see that there isn't anything like it." Sycamore then pulled out another map, this time one that showed the region of the seas near the Sevii Islands. It was a plot of various currents and was clearly a modern map. "This is from my friends at the Sevii Islands' Naval Research Lab." He pointed to a certain spot. "If I'm not wrong, Ash disappeared around here, right?"
"Yes," Oak said, finding himself interested despite himself.
"Well, there is something you might have heard of called the Nathan Problem- after the famous oceanologist- no? Well, basically, the currents around the Sevii Islands don't add up according to expected patters. Initially, most people thought this was due to inadequate research or primitive computer models, but it became increasingly clear that they deviated so much that there was something else responsible for it. It was then though that a certain student got a rather crazy idea, and in fiddling with the computer models he realized that there was only one thing that could cause such a large deviation- if there was a huge land mass somewhere along the lines of right here." He pointed to a spot east of Kanto. He then pulled out another drawing. "Based on how the currents changed, he got the computer simulator to plot what the land mass would look like and this is what he ended up with."
Professor Oak looked at a continent roughly the size of Kanto, with a rather large island to the north and several smaller islands scattered around it.
Sycamore then took out another, older, map. "This is what Galea was supposed to have looked like."
The two maps did coincide well, or at least as well as one could expect given how they had been drawn- one was made using ancient cartographic methods and the other was made based on deviations of ocean currents. Errors were to be expected.
"This old map is the most detailed one I've found," Sycamore said. "And, reportedly, whoever drew it actually happened to go to this place- which he called Galea as the inhabitants of the region called it."
Oak took a closer look at the map, and he couldn't help but notice the details. The one made by the computer just showed the outlines of the place, but this showed various details. "What are all of these lines? And…. why are parts of the map shaded different colors?"
"I'm not sure," Professor Sycamore said. "There are numerals written in the shaded areas as well, going from one to eight. Based on some written records, I think they somehow demarcate territories that Galea is divided up into."
"Eight territories?" Oak asked. The first three were relatively small and at the southern tip of the continent, while the fourth and the sixth were very large and towards the north. The fifth seemed to take up a large portion of the ocean and the smaller islands. The seventh was at the tip of the continent, while the eighth was the large island to the north of the continent. There was also a star marked in the eighth territory, but Oak couldn't tell what it meant.
"Yes, each ruled by a separate warlord- or at least that's all much I can fathom from whatever I've read. The records speak of people wielding fantastic power there in the form of what I can gather to be gemstones," Sycamore said. "Anyway, the real reason I know so much about this is because this was supposed to be the country that invaded Kalos so long ago."
Professor Oak raised an eyebrow. "You mean, that entire war in which the king, AZ, had his Pokemon killed?"
Professor Sycamore nodded. Everything that had happened in the past year didn't need to be repeated between them, which all included what Team Flare had done and what had happened to Sycamore's old friend, Lysandre.
"The story goes that these eight factions continuously warred against one another for power and supremacy," Professor Sycamore said. "Until they were united under one rule by a woman who crowned herself Empress. After maintaining a period of relative peace, her eyes began to drift towards other territories and she launched a full-scale attack on Kalos. She was repelled, eventually, and then a weapon was built by AZ to take revenge on Galea. However when the weapon fired at Galea it was apparently deflected somehow by… well, the sources aren't clear on this, but apparently the warlords and the Empress had some sort of special powers to defend themselves as long as they were within Galea, which was why they didn't want to leave to come and personally attack Kalos and instead sent soldiers in their stead. After that when AZ's Flabebe left him, the king's younger brother took over and initiated peace talks with Galea. The Empress was haughty and would have none of it, and twenty years later she massed another enormous army and sent it to try and conquer Kalos again. This time, a typhoon came and washed away most of her fleet before they even landed, and what ragtag group did manage to reach their destination surrendered. After that, there seemed to be what I can make out to be an uneasy peace between Kalos and Galea, with some trade and exchange of historians and whatnot."
"Did you say that the Empress and the people in charge didn't actually join the battle?" Oak asked.
"Um, yes, while the King of Kalos personally engaged in battle to defend his country, the craven Empress and her retinue didn't leave Galea. The drawings never seem to show the Empress' face, but instead show her and various others holding gemstones which look remarkably like Gym Badges, which had powers that apparently worked only within Galea so they didn't dare leave and instead sent other soldiers to fight on their behalf."
Professor Oak took a minute to digest all of that. "That's very well and all for history, but what does it have anything to do with finding Ash?"
"I was just getting to it, but sorry, I think I may have rambled a bit too much, but the point I was trying to make is to first convince you that Galea, as a matter of fact, does exist. Back in Kalos almost everyone takes it as truth, but there are a few dissenters who say that it was Kanto and not Galea that waged war with Kalos and the names got mixed up, mainly because there's no way to explain how a continent vanished," Professor Sycamore said.
"That's the story I heard in history, I think, that Kanto went to war with Kalos," Professor Oak said. "So, what you're saying is that this place…. Galea, just up and vanished somehow?"
"Kind of," Professor Sycamore said, "you know how the Distortion World exists on a what might be called a different dimension? I'd say that something like that happened with Galea. It, well, it's still there, just we can't get to it. I can't work out all the details, though Bill is working on them, but it appears that small things- like water or air molecules- can get through whatever separates Galea from the rest of the world. Now, the freak storm into which I believe Ash vanished into isn't the first recorded one in history. There is an account of a pilot who had flown into a storm near exactly where Ash was. I have a copy of his mission report."
Professor Oak squinted and read the bulk of the report.
During a flight over the Sevii Islands, I suddenly ran into a rapidly-approaching group of storm clouds that seemed to have materialized almost instantly. My co-pilot, a Patrat, had been nervous all throughout the flight and began making incoherent noises as the clouds approached. All of my instruments including my compass suddenly failed working.
The storm however, seemingly abated as quickly as it had started. My Patrat had calmed down somewhat and so I turned the plane around to get a view of where I was.
While most of my instruments had begun working again, what they showed me made no sense at all. My compass had earlier shown that north was at three o' clock, while now it had shifted to ten o' clock position. Worse yet, I couldn't see a sight of any of the Sevii Islands, just water all around.
I tried my radio, but I was unable to contact my base for some reason. After a while, I noticed land, but it was unlike any I had seen in the region. There was a flock of Wingull- leading me to think that this was perhaps Hoenn, but Hoenn was several hundred miles away from where I had been. I also didn't recognize anything in the landscape below, but I saw what looked like to be some cities and forests, as well as plains.
I then decided that my best hope would be try and return to where I was to try and return from where I had came from. I still couldn't contact my base. As I returned, a very similar storm suddenly appeared, and there was a repeat of the same events.
I was then able to locate the Sevii Islands quickly and returned to my base, but to my astonishment, the other members remarked that I had been gone for over two weeks. Even though I was not carrying a watch, I could only guess that my journey should have taken, at the most, four hours in total.
I was later sent for psychiatric evaluation, but they couldn't find anything wrong with me.
"So, what you're saying is something like this happened to Ash?" Professor Oak asked.
Professor Sycamore nodded. "I would consider it a likely possibility."
Professor Oak rubbed his forehead. "I asked you for some concrete help with finding Ash Ketchum, and instead you come to me with what sounds like a fairy tale very much?"
Professor Sycamore was flabbergasted. "But Professor Oak- surely with all I've presented you it is hardly possible to deny-"
"I can't deny that maybe you're right," Professor Oak said. "But the moment I do that, I am left with the question, what am I to do about it? If Ash has been transported somewhere else, what are we to do about it?"
Professor Sycamore quickly understood and said, "That's what I was about to get into. With the help of Clemont an a few of Team Flare's earlier scientists- don't worry, they're perfectly trustworthy-"
"That's also what you said about Lysandre," Professor Oak said. "And about the food at that Hoenese restaurant once. Look how both turned out."
"What I was saying-" Professor Sycamore said, pretending as if Professor Oak hadn't said anything, "is that we think we might find a way to get through."
"You can get a person through to Galea?" Professor Oak asked, incredulous. If this was true, it would definitely be the discovery of a century.
"No, no," Professor Sycamore said, wringing his hands. "The technology is in its very nascent stage, and at best within a week we might be able to send and receive radio signals- you know, something basic like maybe a nursery rhyme. Then we would go further with sending a mechanical probe, and only after a lot of testing could we possibly consider sending a human."
Professor Oak said, "I've heard enough, and personally I want nothing to do with this."
"What? But why?"
"Aside from the fact that it seems like a crackpot idea?" Professor Oak asked. "Because it's obvious that you have no need for me in this plan."
"But we do!" Professor Sycamore said. "We'll need Pokemon and equipment for this-"
"You can borrow whatever you need," Professor Oak said. "Just let me be."
And that was that.
Selena's right hand man was a young professor of twenty-six years of age called Jenkins. The morning after she had had that nightmare yet again, he had delivered a report to Selena regarding their leads on who had hacked their systems.
Jenkins noticed that Selena looked… pretty much the same as always. His mission had not exactly ended up in a success, so he had been hoping for a slightly cheerier mood.
"We were able to locate where the Roserade had been sent from," Jenkins said. "It was from our own university here in Constantinople."
Ah yes, Constantinople, the gem of Selena's territory and- though the other Gym Leaders wouldn't admit it- of all of Galea as well. It was Galea's largest, most populous, and technologically most advanced city. Its roots went all the way back to when the first Empress of Galea had emerged and declared it her working capital.
But that wasn't what Selena was interested in. "Are you telling me that who sent the Roserade to the boy did it through my own servers and through my very own city?"
Jenkins gulped. This was not going as well as he'd hoped. "Yes, milady. We found that a computer in the university belonging to a certain woman named Morgan Fey. Her card had been used to access the computer and it was from there that the Quick Ball with the Roserade had been physically placed before transferring it. We found Morgan Fey dead in her apartment."
Now, the thing was, though Jenkins was Selena's right hand man, he still probably didn't know more than thirteen percent of his mistress' secrets. And that was probably overestimating it. So, to his shock, he noticed that Selena didn't seem too surprised by what he had just said. He didn't voice this out loud, but it occurred to him that possibly Selena had already known, interrogated the girl, and killed her, though if this was true why she had sent him to go and find her was anyone's guess. He could tell though, that there was something about this that he didn't know.
"So, are you saying that whoever set this up killed her to silence her?" Selena asked.
"We believe that, yes," Jenkins hastily said, not wanting to voice his other theory out loud.
"And what does all of this tell you, Jenkins?" Selena asked.
Jenkins gulped before thinking about what he should go with, and just decided to tell the truth for now. "Well, from what I gather, whoever did this had access to our intelligence and was probably also listening to the conversation between Ash and uh, Mr. Jennings, was it? With not-inconsiderable skill, they used Morgan's computer to upload the Quick Ball. Based on this, we can only assume that they were a high-ranking member of our own organization, and this means we have a traitor in our midst."
Now, Selena was a good actress, but Jenkins had been with her for a long time. What did that expression mean? He was now certain that Selena was hiding something, but decided to plough on. "Though I cannot point out who exactly at this point, I would say I suspect Alan Lazar."
There was nothing fake about Selena's surprise at this. "What? Why?"
Jenkins regretted saying it as he didn't have much solid evidence, not to mention as Alan was Selena's left hand man and just a rank beneath him, it might seem more like bitter politicking than an actual accusation. "Milady, there has been a change in his manner lately. Not to mention, there have been an unusual traffic of exotic Flying Pokemon near his residence." While Selena invented and promoted use of telephones and the like, with one major reason being that she could listen in on nearly everything that happened in Galea, but of course old methods of passing on information like through Pidgey still existed…. but then again Selena knew how to intercept those as well. Most of the time, at least.
"I will hear no more," Selena said. "I have excellent reasons to trust Alan Lazar. He would not betray us for the pretender, for he, unlike you, knows what we have to lose. He would not have helped the pretender at all."
Jenkins bowed and said, "Forgive me, milady."
"Return to your duties," Selena said. She then turned to a model map of Galea and her thoughts moved to the pretender. It wasn't just her, she suspected that nearly all of Galea, regardless of whether they admitted it or not, was watching for Ash's next move with bated breath.
Up till now, Ash had been little more than a nuisance. But if he succeeded against Linnea, he would control half of Galea's Gym Badges, and he would now control Galea's break basket, and could rapidly change who was starving out whom. Selena knew that Constantinople was readily stocked for several years at least, and it didn't seem like Ash was the type to try and starve his enemies out, but it could never hurt to be too careful.
Even more than that though, if Ash won, it would mean that symbolically, he controlled half of Galea.
Selena doubted that even His Majesty could sit idle then.
A/N: And so, that ends the longest chapter I've ever written in this fanfic and that too without Ash in a single scene. Then again, chapters in the Pokemon fandom seem to be pretty long from whatever I've seen (they're also long in other ones too, but in some communities more than a thousand words per chapter is considered to be fine).
Anyway, I'd just like to say that I had no idea how to explain Galea's disappearance to the rest of the world. I mean, in Pokemon, it is never explained how new regions just seem to randomly happen upon another region. And how many regions are there? Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and now a new one under Sun and Moon. And that's just the main ones, there's also Ransei, the Orange Islands, Orre and I'm sure I've forgotten some. But anyway, the story I'm sticking with is that when the Gym Leaders broke away from the rest of the world, they also wiped out information about Galea from everyone's memories at that time, though they couldn't alter records so someone could always rediscover it.
Also, a good portion of the war with Kalos is taken from Pokemon X and Y. I don't know how Team Flare played out in the anime but I'm assuming it was close to what happened in the games. If you don't know what happened, well, it is a rather really long story.
Several of the city's names in this fanfic might sound familiar... because I'm terribly making up new names and mostly just borrow others. So if you think you've heard of Kingshead, Constantinople, or Aroughs... then you probably have.
Thanks for the review Julie Togepi, and I noticed Jennings was changed to Jeggings and Hamnet to Hamlet... was that autocorrect? Because that's happened before.
Thank you all for reading, and do please review if you liked!
On a side note, Pokemon Go's been amazing. I've tried it, but I wished you could battle other players, but it seems fun anyhow.
