A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys. To answer I have a dictionary here, I've checked and re-checked what Wade says and he says 'and those eight arms fell to the ground and transformed into small, bright, shining, stones. One of which I am wearing right now.' As in, he's wearing one of those eight, there are only eight Badges, no where do I see or misinterpret what I've written otherwise so maybe you read that wrong.

Thanks Hall Gowrt and Julie Togepi, nice to know you enjoyed that little surprise.

"Wait, wait," Ash said as his mind tried to wrap around the idea. "That's not possible. If that was true, I would've heard about it before in a story or something… somebody would've talked about it."

"It is a secret forgotten with time," Wade said. "Those who would become members of the Elite Four would be shown the moment upon their initiation along with the other tales they would be privy too. But I believe that now that is rather meaningless…"

Ash noticed that everyone else in the room had stopped what they were doing and a few of them were murmuring among themselves. It was kind of hard for them to concentrate anyway, Ash guessed, given that Wade's voice was projected all over the room.

However, sending a few angry glances at them throughout the room got them back to working and at the very least they seemed like they were trying not to listen in, but some or rather most of them were probably as shocked as Ash was.

Ash assumed that Selena must have had a separate room built in case she needed to make a private call… but at this point Ash guessed that it kind of didn't matter. Wade didn't seem to care, so Ash guessed they might as well continue like this.

"So what happens after that?" Ash asked. "I'm guessing Arceus wasn't very happy after that… and I know he breaks out because I've seen him…"

"Oh yes," Wade said. "The prison was hardly sufficient to hold Arceus for even a few minutes and he quickly broke free. And undoubtedly he was enraged but the legends go that he was then pacified somehow seeing the trembling people around him begging for forgiveness. So he did forgive them, and let them keep the power of his arms."

"Wow," Ash said. "That was pretty nice of him after what they did…"

"Oh no," Wade said. "It was hardly easy for Lord Arceus. His anger was so great that within himself, it morphed into a new Pokemon after taking a life of its own… I-I am not sure how to describe this, but Arceus essentially fragmented into two pieces- one made of rage, and the other a normal Arceus. The part of him filled with rage thankfully had very little thought of its own- I am given to believe that Arceus isolated his anger on purpose so that he could remain sane. And this large fragment of Arceus that was filled with anger was left buried beneath where the Elite Four's Headquarters are. With this deed done however, Arceus noticed that the humans had now begun fighting amongst themselves for control of the Badges and their power…"

"Not surprising after what they did," Ash said. Pikachu shook his head, as if saying, 'All you humans are the same.'

"And so he laid down the rules to who could have them- and that's how we've ended up with this system today," Wade said. "Now, that would have been all, and I believe that Arceus went to Sinnoh, but the problem arose when Selena decided to declare war on Kalos."

"Wait wasn't that the first Pokemon League Champion who did- oh yeah they're the same person," Ash said.

"In retaliation, the king of Kalos used a weapon with which he struck at Galea over and over. I am told it was a weapon of destruction like no other- capable of leveling cities thousands of miles away."

"Yeah, I've seen that," Ash said.

"Those shots were deflected using the Badges' powers," Wade said. "But the king of Kalos wasn't done yet. When he realized that nothing that he could do would directly harm Galea, he instead decided to pour all of the last of the machine's power into a different shot. This one was too large to deflect- but if it had been a destructive attack then it still would not have caused too much destruction and its descent could have been delayed for enough time to evacuate any area even if we could not deflect it… but here it was that the king of Kalos showed his cunning. Instead of aiming to destroy us, this last attack was instead aimed to bring life to the shell of Arceus that is left beneath the Elite Four's HQ. All it is is a hollow shell, but this ray would bring it to life."

"Wait… so that would kill us all, right if it's really angry?" Ash asked. "And not just us, if that part of Arceus is strong enough, couldn't it go on a huge rampage and wipe out the earth as well?"

Wade paused. "…Perhaps? I must confess that we have been far too busy wondering what was going to happen to us to focus on what will happen to us to worry too much about the rest of the world. But yes, that is a possibility, though I suppose at that time the king of Kalos was so enraged by his loss that he didn't care. And so, Selena was able to delay the descent of the ray as it approached Galea… but that was it. It could be delayed, but not denied. And so it slowly crawled towards Galea, and at the time it was hoped that over the centuries a permanent solution would be found."

"I don't get that bit either," Ash said. "Why are there two Elite Four Champions- and why'd Selena leave?"

"Why did she leave?" Wade asked. "I cannot be sure as I was not alive when she did abdicate, but from what I have been told she began to become very morose after her invasion attempt failed. She attempted again, as you might know, twenty years later, but she was thwarted yet again. She seemed to just… give up after that. Now why she bothered to come back and stay as a Gym Leader is completely beyond me- it would be something that wouldn't even be allowed for an Elite Four member if it weren't for that fact that she was the first Elite Four Champion and apparently many of the rules do not restrict her… but regardless, around thirty-three years ago, Phineas came. He was an early student of Selena whom she rejected, and he had trained in hopes of beating her. I do not know whether or not he knew Selena's true identity at the time of battle, but he managed to defeat her- but he chose not to claim her Gym Badge upon learning who she was. Instead, he marched onwards towards the Elite Four HQ whereupon, as he had defeated the first Elite Four Champion, was now eligible to challenge them in a row for the title. This despite the fact that he did not have eight Gym Badges. And there, he won and crowned himself the second Elite Four Champion. Or at least he would have- technically speaking the ceremony was never complete as he realized that the ray that the king of Kalos had launched was coming dangerously close to Galea. He stopped to challenge Fredrick and after taking his Gym Badge for himself he gathered the other Gym Leaders- namely, us, and said that it was time to act decisively. And that is why we separated Galea- so that as long as time in Galea remained frozen compared to the outside world, the ray would never hit. And the moment that the Barrier goes down, Ash, Arceus will be soon awakened and will wreak havoc on us all."

"Okay, you're sort of making sense," Ash said. "So if the Barrier goes down, we all die?"

"Yes," Wade said. "Selena knew that it would happen eventually but she chose to slow it down and see if she could come up with a way to avoid sending Galea into limbo… but despite all those years she failed."

"But then what's the deal with the Elite Four and all?" Ash said.

Wade let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh, now that was a whole new conundrum in and of itself. For some reason, once Selena and Phineas realized that drastic action needed to be taken immediately the rest of the Elite Four, however, were adamant that Galea not be separated from the rest of the universe, and demanded that we all stay and that no great harm would be incurred from Arceus."

"What? Why?" Ash asked. "They just wanted to sit around and die?"

"I do not think that is what they wanted," Wade said. "I believe that since they were living above where this shell of Arceus was for so long they may have been… connected to it in a way? Perhaps they thought they knew more of Arceus than the rest of us- regardless of why they thought so they seemed to believe that they could reason with this part of Arceus. Something that both Selena and Phineas realized was impossible."

"So… are you sure that it would kill us all?" Ash asked.

"Yes," Wade said. "Do you believe that so much rage stored like that would stay silent? And more than that, although I saw very little of the Elite Four I could not help but wonder that maybe based on their reactions they believed that mankind deserved to be destroyed by Arceus."

"Really?" Ash asked. "They'd think that?"

"I-I do not know for sure, but it was what I was guessing," Wade said. "Perhaps they felt like Galeans had committed a huge sin by treating Arceus like that and it was merely our fate to be destroyed… or maybe they really were deluded enough to believe they could stop or reason with that form of Arceus. And they were not the only ones- Sir Fredrick himself also seemed to agree with them. And so Phineas was forced to defeat him and take his Badge from him."

"Wait a second," Ash said. "Didn't you say that he took it before he went to crown himself Elite Four Champion? How would that make sense?"

Wade frowned and rubbed his face. "I apologize, these past few days have been very draining and not all my thoughts are in order… I may have made a mistake… yes, it makes no sense for Phineas to have taken the Badge before all of that. He must have taken it after then, when Fredrick refused to cooperate."

"But I thought the Elite Four couldn't take Badges," Ash said.

"Again, Phineas was never fully coronated, so to speak, so much like with Selena the rules apparently do not apply to him," Wade said. "And so Fredrick was gotten rid of, but the Elite Four were still very adamant against the entire plan. They began actively working against the Barrier we were casting and would have collapsed the entire thing. They had to be removed- and they were. But I do not know if Selena managed to kill them or not."

"Oh," Ash said. Of course he knew different, but there was a nagging voice in his head to tell him to keep that quiet. "And then I guess the rest is history?"

"Yes, the Barrier went up, but is now almost coming down," Wade said.

"Right," Ash said. "Hey, can you record this- can we reco- okay, thanks Jenkins, maybe we can send a copy of this to Gulliver. Anyway, yeah, could you maybe tell Gulliver this and my friends so they don't worry about where I am, 'cuz I kind of wasn't able to contact them right now."

Wade frowned. "Are you saying that you will not be able to yourself? Sir Ash, what are your- and for that matter, our plans of proceeding now?"

"Uh, right now focus on rounding up the last of Selena's minions," Ash said as he felt his head pounding. "I'll get back to you a bit later, thanks for all the info."

Ash motioned for them to disconnect the call. Wade looked like he wanted to say something but was cut off.

Ash couldn't help but think that parts of Wade's explanation didn't make much sense.

The main thing was that through his limited communication with Arthur, he knew that the Elite Four did not want all of Galea to die- they wouldn't have helped him stop Selena if that were true. And so Ash was sure that Wade was missing a part of the puzzle, and the only people who would know the truth as to why they were trying to wake up Arceus were currently frozen.

Ash began pacing around.

Should he go back and try to free the Elite Four?

It would be a huge gamble, and the thing was that if the Elite Four were wrong somehow they could end up killing everyone in Galea.

But the only real alternative was to go and try to talk things out with Phineas, but Ash's wrists shuddered at the memory of the cold chains and he discounted that immediately. He didn't know what Phineas was capable of so that course seemed too risky.

Plus, Ash thought, he did sort of owe the Elite Four. They had helped him escape, and helped him stop Selena. Surely it was only normal to return the favor?

For now though, his head felt very heavy. Any decision that needed to be made could always be made the next day, he thought.


Gary had managed to do a fine job of cleaning up around Cinnamon City.

There weren't actually any of Selena's old soldiers still hanging around the place as they seemed to have melted away at the mere sight of him and his comrades, but there was still lots of panic.

He had a talk with a nice old guy by the name of Mr. Jennings who seemed to be in charge of the area, and he had been asked to go and herd the commoners and see if they needed anything.

They were really stretched out thin though and so Gary was the only one in charge of an area over twenty square miles in size.

And while he had thought that the people in Ponyta City were downtrodden, it didn't compare with the sight that he saw here.

The peasants were absolutely terrified and the only good thing that Gary could discern was that food shipments were up and running again so that wasn't a problem.

All of them were ill-kempt and smelled like they hadn't bathed in ages, which was probably the case. Gary suspected all of them were suffering from tapeworms as most of them had to run into the bushes (they had run away from their villages and even there, he was told, there were no latrines) what seemed like every ten minutes. And they were infested with other parasites like lice and ticks as well. Most of them were completely illiterate and terrified of both him and his Pokemon.

Gary remembered what Mr. Jennings had said. "Ah, you don't need to worry about them not heeding your authority. The peasants of Galea are used to obeying whoever sends a large and threatening Pokemon their way."

In retrospect, Gary had to admit that while the man was highly affable, he was also pretty dismissive about 'the commoners.'

So all in all, it seemed that a good part of Galea had for now in Ash's absence reverted to some sort of weird form of feudalism with Gary and the others being the feudal lords.

And for some reason, he had to deal with almost everything that came up. Quite literally everything- things that he didn't even think could be part of his purview. How was he supposed to know how many plows they should have, or where the seeds needed to be planted? He knew about as much of farming as he did astrophysics.

In all the conversations he had had with Ash, he had noted that Ash had kind of forgotten to mention about all of these problems the peasants were facing. Of course Ash mentioned a few things in passing, but Gary had not imagined that it would be this bad. And why hadn't Ash done anything about it?

Gary told himself that Ash was, after all, still Ash, and hardly someone you would trust with major political reform and just maybe he had bigger things on his mind, but still…

His thought process was interrupted as a group of four men approached him. They bowed low and one of them spoke up, "Sire, there is distressing news. Some thieves have been taking from our food supply, and when we followed the tracks they appear to be of a Pokemon…"

Of course, all of them were terrified of Pokemon as none of them could use them to battle. Very few of them had any experience with using them for any other purpose as well and this was usually limited to drought Pokemon used for tilling the land.

Gary followed the men and saw the tracks for himself. They led out into the woods and the tracks had no discernible footprints, but were rather a single long line like the tail of a Pokemon.

"Some sort of huge snake," Gary said to himself. He followed the tracks- none of the others seemed to want to go with him so he dismissed them and followed the tracks for over an hour before he saw that they were joined by two pairs of human footprints.

Intrigued, Gary followed them to a small site where there was a blanket on the ground and piled on top of it was food and a number of other ornaments- some of which were of gold and silver.

Meaning that they were very valuable, especially for a Galean. And especially in these times.

So, this meant a human was involved, but Gary didn't seen any other people or Pokemon around. And surrounding the site were a huge number of footprints which all meshed up so that he couldn't make heads or tails out of it.

He supposed that the thieves would come back sooner or later for their loot and decided to have a stake out.

He climbed a nearby tree and adjusted himself so he was hidden about as well as he could have been. He didn't need to wait long as fifteen minutes later a few familiar figures walked in to the place.

"Oh, we've had a pretty good haul today, don't'cha think?" Meowth asked.

"Yes," Jessie said. "But it's too bad these people don't have much of anything, there was hardly anything worth stealing."

"And am I the only one who has some complaints about their food?" James asked. "I mean, most of the bread is sandy and there's nothing sweet around for miles. How do they eat this stuff all the time?"

"I'm assuming they got nothing else," Gary called out to them.

"The other twerp!" the three of them called out.

"I kind of forgot you guys were also here," Gary said. "Did Ash mention that- I don't remember, anyway, I see that being in a different country hasn't really changed you guys, only these people are already practically third world country ravaged after a war kind of poor so that's all even worse."

Gary sent out his Blastoise and it was clear from Team Rocket's expressions that they knew that they couldn't fight against him and were assessing their options.

And so they made a run for it.

Gary sighed. This was going to take up almost his entire day.

A/N: Thanks for reading. And we've finally hit 100+ follows! Thank you guys so much for all your support.