A/N: Thanks for the review, Julie Togepi. And yes, propaganda does have its disadvantages, as I liked to point out.

Edmund dialed the number only to be taken to someone who told him to stay patient while they routed his call.

After an agonizing five minutes, he was told by a robotic female voice that Lady Linnea was busy training and would not be taking calls right now, but he could leave a message after the Kricketot's chirp.

Edmund sighed and said what had happened in three short sentences as the phone then disconnected.

He turned around and buried his face into his hands, wondering what he was going to do. With all the negativity going through his head, it would have been a delightful feast had a Shuppet been near by.

Instead of trying to work out a solution though, he found himself drawn to the comforts provided by a strong bottle of wine, and after a few glasses he found himself laughing and sobbing alternatively until he finally fell asleep.

He was jolted awake a few hours before midnight. A guard was hurriedly telling him that a mob had seized all their explosives and had surrounded the citadel. They were rioting outside, but they had yet to try an assault on the citadel, which was most likely to be unsuccessful. The citadel was extremely well fortified and could last against a much larger force for a long time.

Bad news kept trickling in, like how the enemy apparently had siege weaponry, which, to all eyes, seemed to be extremely formidable.

With the citadel well stocked they could hold out for an almost indefinite time, which, was in part- to Edmund's chagrin- the fact that little more than a tenth of the city's garrison had elected to hole themselves in the citadel. The rest had either sided with the mob, or had decided that making their way towards the citadel was too dangerous with the streets in practical anarchy.

And to top it all off, Lady Linnea was apparently asleep, exhausted from a day full of training and wasn't taking any calls.

While Edmund knew that the angry mass of commoners was not much of a problem, he had no delusions about what the barbarians outside the gates of Aroughs could do.

The walls would be of little use against them.


The dawn of the next day left Ash and his siege party waking up to find that the gates of Aroughs had opened up, and there were white flags flying all around.

"Could be a trap," Gulliver had said, thereby unnecessarily saying what practically everyone in the siege party was thinking out loud.

"Well, only one way to find out," Ash said. "Everyone else stay back, I'll go on Arcanine and move towards the gate and find out what they want."

"Are you sure? I could go instead, after all, they recognize me, and they might lose their fear once they see you," Duke Hamnet said.

Ash smiled, one that his Pikachu returned. "I don't have to show them my Badges… not yet at least. When you gave them the message, it was at a relatively safe distance, but if you just walk in there alone, or if all of us walk in there, we could get ambushed. I don't know if I can defend a party that large using my Badges, so I think it's best I do this solo to get an idea of what they want."

Duke Hamnet nodded, seeing the sense in the plan. "Another thing, Sir Ash, though this might be of little consequence, apparently we managed to find some radio signals coming from the sea."

"Oh," Ash said, completely unsure of what to make of that.

"What does it mean?" Gulliver asked.

"The thing is the only thing from the sea would be in Wade's domain-"

"So he's finally contacting us? What's he saying?" Ash asked.

"Nothing, Sir, all that we could pick up was the nursery song 'Mary Has a Little Mareep' played over and over. It seemed to be directed everywhere, but didn't seem to come from any of the stations we know to be Wade's but does seem to come from the sea," Duke Hamnet said.

Ash just scratched his head. He had heard that nursery rhyme before in Kanto and Kalos too once. "Huh- well that's weird. But I guess there's nothing we can do about it. Tell me if the message changes or something."

Once the sun was up properly and Ash had finished his morning routine, he and his Pikachu slowly rode towards Aroughs on an Arcanine. They made sure to be slow and walk in full view of the people massed near the gates, a crowd which only seemed to grow larger and larger as they saw only a solitary person riding towards them.

Ash and his Pikachu took a good look at the crowd. Most of them were soldiers, but there were some civilians and even some children who seemed to have sneaked in there without anyone's permission.

"I'm here to negotiate terms for Sir Ash's army," Ash said as he drew close enough, trying to change his voice so his Kanto accent didn't stand out as much. "Which one of you is the leader?"

One of the soldiers stepped forward. "Well, no one truly speaks for us all or leads us, but I've been, ah- well, elected-" in truth the man had the responsibility heaped unwillingly on him, as no one wanted to be the one to deal with the barbarian, "and I guess that would be me." He then took a good look at Ash. Ash fidgeted slightly, on second thought, if he had wanted to hide who he was, he really should have also changed his clothes. "Does…. Sir Ash usually send you to negotiate his treaties for him?"

"Uh, well you could say that I'm an important part of it," Ash said. "I- I mean, we, wanted to know if your surrender was genuine."

"I see," the man replied, and looked at Ash with a sad look kind of how one would look at an abandoned Poochyena left on the sidewalk. "Does Sir Ash usually send children to scout out dangerous areas for him?"

"Uh, well," Ash mumbled under his breath. He had enough bad PR already, but he wasn't sure if this was a good time to tell them of his identity. Yet. "Well, I usually do a lot of the dangerous stuff… I suppose you could say that."

"Ah. It was simply that I had a son only a few years older than you are… he was working as a scout," the man barely repressed a sob at this. "What- what exactly had happened to them?"

"Oh, all of them were captured," Ash said. "I- ur, Sir Ash ordered that none of them were to be killed. I can't really speak for him but I think if everything goes well he'll release them."

The man let out a breath of relief and there were whispers throughout the crowd, which were getting louder by the minute.

"So, all of you have surrendered?" Ash asked. "Where is Lady Alarice?"

"Lady Alarice is ill currently, and her place has been taken by her son, Sir Edmund," the man replied. "And, all of us have not surrendered. Most of us have, but a few of Lady Linnea's loyalists have barricaded themselves in the citadel, but that's all they've done. If what you want is grain, there's plenty of it in the silos kept near the citadel."

"Lead the way," Ash said.

As they made their way through the streets, they were constantly surrounded by a crowd that melted in their path as they advanced. Citizens of Aroughs, of all ages and occupation seemed to want a glimpse of this invader to satisfy their curiosity.

Ash wasn't sure what he should do- should he smile and wave to the crowd? Or just stoically move on like they didn't exist?

In the end he found himself unable to do either- he just stole some glances at the crowd. The people would always avert their eyes when Ash's gaze met theirs.

The silos were huge- and as Ash took in the inside of one, he couldn't help but think that this was more than enough grain. At least, he thought so, it wasn't really like he had much clue about how much grain would be needed.

"I hope this is satisfactory," the man leading him had said. "Our harvests have been good under Lady Linnea- and we've had a large surplus this year anyway since the market's shrunk and we're not selling to a good part of Galea anymore."

"I think it is," Ash said, stealing a glance at the citadel. He could swear he saw the reflection of a telescope pointed at them. "Well, I'll be going back to report then."

He withdrew his Arcanine and then mounted his Fearow, going back towards camp as fast as he could.

"To think- the child's remarkable with Pokemon at even this age!" one of the ladies said, despite herself.

"But his clothes are weird," another one said. "And what was with those marks on his cheeks?"

Ash was able to reach back camp within a few uneventful minutes and landed to see that Gulliver and Duke Hamnet were already waiting for him.

"It went pretty well," Ash said before he had even landed. "They'll give us the grain, and from what I can tell, there's a whole load. But the thing is that some of them haven't given up and are locked up in the citadel."

Ash gave them a longer version of what he had seen.

"Ah, well then," Duke Hamnet said, rubbing his hands excitedly. "So some of them have decided to put up a fight. Well, we should probably evacuate the area around the citadel and then lay siege to it then."

Ash and Gulliver exchanged looks.

"I don't really see the point," Ash said. "There aren't enough of them to really do anything. It seems like a waste of time."

"Yes- but there's always the risk that-" Duke Hamnet began.

"Oh come on, we know you're just rarin' to get some fightin' done, but don't go around pickin' a fight for no reason," Gulliver said.

Duke Hamnet reddened. "I assure you that that is not the case! We have good reason to try and take the citadel- they might still have explosives and they might be getting desperate! In a moment of helplessness they might decide to start executing their own citizens, or try to burn down the grain supplies! Plus, there food has to run out sooner or later, so something will have to be done."

Ash rolled his eyes. He would do something, of course, but what exactly was something they'd need to work on. "Let's start getting the grain going first."

"As you wish," Duke Hamnet said. "Also, it may interest you to know that the transmission has stopped broadcasting."

"Huh," Gulliver and Ash said at once.


Meanwhile, Edmund finally managed to get a line to Linnea, who instantly looked furious.

Edmund gulped. Clearly the message had gotten through.

"How did this happen?" Linnea asked.

Edmund elaborated on the army and the mob, but conveniently left the part about his mistake out.

"And to conclude, the people of Aroughs have negotiated a deal with him. One of my guards found that he had already sent a representative," Edmund said. "They seem ready to hand over the grain, Milady, and it is known to be sufficient to feed this city for a long time."

Lady Linnea was too furious to speak and just disconnected at that moment.

"Wait!" Edmund said, almost throwing himself at the screen. "What are we to do? What of our reinforcements?"

Lady Linnea, meanwhile, had spun around and left to summon Li-han. This had some explaining to do. Before that though, she attempted to contact Selena with no result.

"What happened, Milady?" Li-han asked, noting that his pupil in no way looked calm.

Linnea responded by giving a rather rushed version of everything that had happened. "And the real question that arises from this- is why hasn't Selena warned me about this?"

She got up and started pacing around the room. "It isn't possible that she didn't know- she must have known. You can't hid an army that large from her spies! Why didn't she tell me then?"

"I don't know, but there has been no communication from Lady Selena's domain for some time," Li-han said. "As far as we can tell, there is something… odd happening and that has consumed all her attention."

"How long does a phone call take!" Linnea screamed. "Whatever, what's done is done, but make sure now that the rest of people begin evacuating and doing my scorched earth strategy properly!"

Li-han protested. "But surely now there is no point? Aroughs is enough to feed them for several months alone… if a battle is inevitable we should-"

"Do not explain my job to me!" Linnea said. She smiled, a dark twisted version of what should be an expression of contentment. "And I'll have a word with dear old Edmund… they won't be getting the grain. Even if I have to sacrifice a hundred soldiers for that purpose."

"There is one other matter then," Li-han said. "We picked up a radio transmission from across the sea."

Linnea raised an eyebrow. "Has Wade started to finally talk to us?" Wade had become as reclusive as His Majesty following when they had made a blockade against him… why was he back in the picture now?

"I do not know," Li-han said. "It didn't come from one of his established stations strangely enough, and stranger still the content of the message was just a nursery rhyme played over and over."

Linnea's gaze could have bored holes through steel. "Is that important enough for you to come and tell me? A nursery rhyme? What does Wade want to say? The entire world's going crazy…"

Li-hand couldn't disagree with that.

A/N: And that ends that. Also, if you thought that it is way too convenient Selena isn't helping out Linnea, don't worry, that's explained later. (Yes, it is rather tiring saying that, but that's how it is.)

Thanks for reading again, and do review if you liked!