A/N: Hall gowrt- I was wondering what you were talking about when I noticed that I didn't explain it like I had meant to. There was supposed to be a segment or I envisioned one with Jessie and James and with the Arbok and Weezing reuniting where they learn a bit more about that, but that didn't happen and I realize it sounds like a big deus ex machina. I might polish it over when/if I decide to fix a few things with this fanfic. Thanks to Julie Togepi as well for your review.
Ash was counting on the fact that it was late- about ten at night if he was correct based on the moon's position, and that this would mean that Phineas would probably be sleeping.
The Badges certainly didn't remove one's need to sleep, so unless Phineas was a night owl that would mean that for a few hours at least, Ash would not be detected.
The portal had led him to some forested area, but the familiar hills were there off in the distance.
Ash called upon his Badges to once again shield him from anyone trying to find him- anyone save for Arthur that was. He also decided against flying once again and decided that he would make this journey on foot.
Gregor's Gengar, who had been traveling with Ash up till this point as a shadow attached to him winked at Ash but didn't say anything else. Hoopa was also trying to be discreet this time as well as it flitted through the trees, practically invisible.
With a sigh, Ash said, "Sorry buddy, but the more of us there are the more likely it's gonna be that we're gonna be caught."
"Pi pii," Pikachu moaned sadly as Ash withdrew him into a Poke Ball. "Okay, let's go!"
Ash had a vague idea of which direction they were supposed to be going in, of course, but that still meant that he had no real clue of where he was supposed to be headed.
It felt as if his senses were heightened, and he hid his Badges within his jacket extra carefully and made sure that their ethereal glow wasn't visible. For the same reason he continued to stumble in the darkness- any light source would have easily given away his position to anyone looking to find it.
He kept scanning the sky- wondering if he'd see a black shadow of Phineas' Charizard cross it.
Over the next hour, he didn't run into any people, but he did startle a large number of Pokemon, which was not something that you wanted to be doing when you were trying to go unnoticed- but try as hard as he might he kept stumbling on their habitats and they usually got very defensive but Gregor's Gengar took care of them swiftly and with little noise whenever this got to be too much.
He reached the gentle slopes of the hills- or were they mountains- eh, it didn't matter, and began walking in between the valleys of them when something hit him like a splash of cold water.
Ash!
"Arthur?" Ash whispered.
Ah, yes. Good to see that you have returned.
"Yeah, Selena's been defeated," Ash said. "Do you know where Phineas is?" he asked anxiously.
After he was unable to find you, he came directly here near our headquarters, most likely assuming that no matter where you were, you would come here directly. Once he got wind that you had defeated Selena and had withdrawn, he assumed that you had left for good and flew away somewhere. He may or may not be asleep, regardless, you only have a few hours at most. How did you get onto the island undetected?
"There were these weird portals… things," Ash said even as he continued to trudge on. He described as quickly as he possibly could the weird thing he had found by that tree.
Most likely those portals formed due to the Barrier breaking down and for some reason are still standing.
"You don't know exactly why?" Ash asked.
I would probably take several days to unravel the equations necessary to explain their existence. But thank Arceus that they were there. Please hurry, Ash, the sun will come up soon and with every minute the chances of you being caught increase. Please also correct your course slightly, you'll want to go nineteen degrees west of north for the shortest route.
All through the night, Ash continued walking with Arthur occasionally telling him to go around a nest of Pokemon or something else that would delay him. As Ash scanned the hills he couldn't help but feel his wrists shudder once again as he thought of the place where he had been imprisoned.
He wanted to ask Arthur more on what had happened, but now he was scared of making even the smallest noise as even the sound of him stepping on a twig seemed to echo as loudly as a foghorn.
He was acutely aware of every sound around him as the darkness itself seemed to be extremely oppressive, as if it was trying to choke him.
The sky began to lighten ever so slowly to his relief- but it also meant that time would be running out.
As the sun's first rays began peaking over the hills, Ash was dismayed to find that he was still quite a distance from his target destination. At this rate, he would not reach there until dawn of the next day.
Good, you are close enough that I can teleport you to me.
"Oh," Ash sighed with relief and closed his eyes as the light went out all around him only to reappear standing some distance from what was the largest hill in the area. Beyond it was the ocean and unlike the others at the top Ash could make out what must have been a huge building to be discernible at even this distance.
You must make the rest of the journey on foot. There is an ancient ward around this place- the only way you can get in is to say the name of the current Elite Four Champion.
Ash felt the energy from whatever ward was around the foot of the hill and said, "Phineas."
He tentatively stepped forward and met no resistance.
Fly up now with haste, child! Once you are within these borders he cannot hope to spirit you away from either within or without it!
Ash released his Charizard and mounted up. He rubbed his legs- walking that much had hurt and as the sun now finally showed itself Ash felt a gust of wind run past his ears as he soared up and away- a journey that would've taken him hours on foot done within minutes.
The building was impressive- it stretched on for what seemed like acres and was much bigger than even the largest coliseum that Ash had ever been in. Ns Castle could have easily fit inside the thing and left in room for much more.
It was made up of gold-tinged marble and upon it were countless gardens. No one must have been inside for several decades now and there were weeds growing all over the place and nests of wild Pokemon as well.
He avoided those nests and entered a window that led to a room filled with scrolls that were now covered with dust.
This was a bit problematic as it caused his Charizard to sneeze, drenching the delicate papers in flames.
"Ah! Extinguish!" Ash said when he finally regained his senses and grabbed one of his Badges. "Where are you Arthur?"
Take the door on your left and go down the staircase. After that travel to your right for perhaps a hundred paces and then go down the staircase.
It took what seemed like over an hour for Ash to get even somewhat close to where the Elite Four were, but now he had decided to release his Pikachu for some company given he was no longer at risk for being snatched away.
The rooms in the palace- headquarters, whatever it was called, were all large and usually had hordes of wild Pokemon moving through them. Ash saw no humans around, but most of the Pokemon gave him a wide birth- save for a large group of Primeape who were hanging around the gigantic dining hall who chased him for a few minutes before Pikachu shocked most of them.
The first thing that told him he was finally there was the intense cold he suddenly felt- as if he had walked into a walk-in refrigerator.
There was a large chamber ahead of him, and as Ash touched the doors he had to suddenly withdraw them as the cold was so intense it felt like touching fire. He saw that ice crystals had grown over the iron doors which were probably frozen in place, and he could now see the wisps of vapor coming from his mouth.
He told himself to calm down- after all, with the Badges the ice couldn't hurt him.
It may not be able to kill you, but it can certainly freeze you in place much like it has done to us. Tread lightly, or you too will end up a prisoner like we are.
Arthur's 'voice' in Ash's head was louder than ever before. "Wait- can you hear what I'm thinking?"
At this distance, yes. We are frozen in place directly, but the enchantment also means that we are so cold at the moment that the air around us also freezes. That is only superficial however, which your Charizard should be able to melt.
At Ash's word, Charizard opened its maw to let loose a torrent of flames at the doors, which afterwards it then opened with a gust from its wings.
The chamber inside was huge and covered completely in ice. Sunlight came from one of the windows and struck one of the four figures that was covered in ice- but the ice was so thick that whoever they were was obscured. Ash could only faintly make out the silhouettes of four figures.
But Ash barely had any time to take this in as the cold suddenly intensified. It was so bad that Ash found that it froze the moisture coming from his breath and he had suddenly grown a beard of icicles. It was so bad that the flame on Charizard's tail began to flicker and Charizard was forced to back up several spaces.
The doors froze again, and without them keeping the cold in it spread to several meters behind Ash and he slipped over the ice as he tried backing away. He would have hit his head very hard had not the Badges intervened and stopped his fall at the last second.
He slid on the ice back and away from the room as much as possible and broke off his weird beard. Pikachu similarly slid away, and Charizard was nurturing the flame on its tail.
Ash had never felt this kind of cold before, ever. Not even while fighting Regice.
"Charizard, try melting it again!" Ash said.
Charizard opened its jaws again and used another Flamethrower. It worked, to some extent but it didn't carry further than the door and Charizard couldn't keep it up forever and the moment he stopped, the ice refroze almost immediately.
"This isn't working," Ash said.
Use your Badges to augment your Pokemon's flame- and we will use our own energy to attempt to break free as well.
"Ready for another try, buddy?" Ash asked his Charizard who nodded, stamped his feet and glared at the ice defiantly. As if it was a personal affront to his Charizard that he couldn't melt it.
"Badges, make the fire from my Charizard hotter and melt away all the ice there, and break out the Elite Four, and uh, yeah, thanks," Ash said.
This time, a raging inferno, hotter and brighter than anything that Ash had ever seen, erupted from Charizard's mouth and as Ash was forced to look away due to how bright the flames were, he heard a loud hiss as the ice melted to water and was instantly boiled to give rise to steam.
The flames didn't peter out this time and continued deep into the room where they struck the four figures trapped within the ice.
Ash was worried about maybe burning them, but he remembered that these four probably were better protected than he was.
This continued for over two minutes before his Charizard was forced to stop. There was a crack in two of the figures, and they opened up for two men to walk out of them.
One of them was short- just a head taller than Ash with silvery hair that reminded Ash of Steven, Hoenn's Elite Four Champion. The other one was a giant of a man with rippling muscles and dark brown hair and piercing eyes.
Both of them were wearing purple robes studded with what looked like real diamonds. Both of them were covered in tiny ice crystals, and looked very cold and had beards much like Ash had had a few minutes ago, but they ignored this and turned to the other spires of ice and began cracking them open. A women with long scarlet hair and similar eyes, wearing robes like the others, walked out who Ash guessed was Emily, but he couldn't really find any similarities between her and Celera. The other was a man with jet black hair and eyes which immediately focused on Ash, or rather something that seemed to be behind Ash.
They all seemed to have trouble moving, and the moment they tried to walk they slipped and fell, though much like Ash had, they stopped as they were about to hit the floor.
Emily glared at Ash. "Who is this?"
Ash turned out the inside of his coat to reveal his Badges to her.
Ash had assumed that after so many years in ice, the Elite Four would have trouble walking around or crawling- he had heard that muscles didn't work properly if you didn't use them enough. But they seemed to have no problem sliding over the ice, so maybe it was just one of the benefits of reaping the Badges' powers.
"Excellently done," the short man said. "'Tis I, Arthur. Now, if you will pardon me, I need to be sure of all that is happening…"
Ash felt Arthur reach into his mind and go through them- like a computer would go through all of its files. He saw as Arthur went through each of his memories all the way up to his childhood with superhuman speed and was done with them in minutes.
"He could be coming here any instant," Arthur said. "We need to act swiftly if we intend to raise Lord Arceus."
"Wait, what?" Ash asked, alarmed. "Won't that kill everyone?"
Arthur stared at Ash apologetically. "I… do beg your pardon, both for breaching your privacy… but also I had assumed up till now when I was inside the reaches of your mind that you had known that that was what we were to do all along. It seems that you doubted if that were true… but no, Sir Wade did not lie to you. I had assumed you knew and agreed with us."
"I don't get it though!" Ash said. "You- you helped me stop Selena right? So why would you do that if you wanted to kill everyone?"
"Because Selena did not deserve to be the one to wipe out humanity," the large man said. "Humanity had wronged Lord Arceus so long ago." He looked at Ash's Badges with disgust. "What are those but a symbol of our sins- sins we committed against Him? We have all reaped the fruit of our ancestor's sins for too long, and it is time that judgment is passed unto us at long last. It was not Selena's place to destroy Galea- that right belongs to Him and Him alone."
"I won't let you!" Ash said and reached for a Pokeball as Pikachu growled angrily at the Elite Four and his Charizard stamped its feet and roared as loudly as it could.
But before he could act, he felt something press up against his throat. It was a Gengar's claw.
"Should we kill him?" the man with black hair asked.
"No, no," Arthur answered. "He has helped us after all, and is but a boy. Ash, Gregor's Gengar is loyal only to Gregor, and he will order it to stop you like it did with Selena. Calm down, it will be but a few moments before we are all delivered from our suffering. There is no meaning in putting up any resistance anymore."
The ice began to melt very rapidly now with all of their 'beards' gone, and the Elite Four raised their hands in unison and Ash felt their power resonate through the Badges and watched as they undid the Barrier surrounding Galea.
He wasn't sure what he should do- the Badges would have allegedly protected him from all harm, but these people also had their powers as well. Could he really challenge them? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hoopa look at him and Ash nodded, his decision made.
Gengar roared in pain as Hoopa struck him with a Shadow Ball, and then Ash's Pokemon began launching attacks at the Elite Four.
They didn't even try to protect themselves as the attacks just passed away harmlessly around them. Emily glared at Ash but she seemed more annoyed than angry and it didn't stop the others in the slightest, who seemed content to ignore Ash. Their eyes were focused on the roof as if they could see beyond it and look directly up at the sky above.
Gengar recovered from the blow, and instead of retaliating at Hoopa, it instead turned towards Ash and Ash felt the world fade around him as his Pikachu shocked Gengar and then Ash found himself lying down on the floor all of a sudden. He was so sleepy so suddenly and he wanted nothing more than to take a nap...
It was then that his Charizard walked up to him and blasted him with a Flamethrower- much like it had done so back in the days when it had been a disobedient Charmeleon.
Now, that didn't really hurt Ash but it woke him up in time enough to see Hoopa repeatedly pounding Gengar, who was having trouble fending off three attackers, one of which was a Legendary, and two others who had faced many Legendaries themselves.
"Gengar, withdraw," the dark haired man said and Gengar melted into the shadows.
But the Elite Four did not stop. And Ash glanced out a window to see what was happening.
Phineas was sleeping. It had been several long days- he had not caught more than a few minutes of shuteye ever since Selena had invaded, and with the boy seemingly having vanished he had seen no point in squatting near the Elite Four's Headquarters.
He had instead gone to be with his people, who he suspected needed the support of their Gym Leader in this tumultuous time. The damage to property was immense, though thankfully very few lives had been lost.
Once he had reassured everyone that Selena was gone, and settled out a few issues, he suddenly felt like collapsing and went into the nearest log cabin he could find and hit the hay on the nearest bed he could find.
Now, this was technically someone else's property, and by nature he was not accustomed to 'appropriating' things that belonged to his subjects like the others, but at this point he had been too tired to really care enough to go looking for whoever owned this place and ask for their permission.
He had hoped to have a long nap, but this was interrupted as his Charizard broke out of its Pokeball by itself and shook him awake.
"What happened?" Phineas asked. His Pokemon would not have woken him up unless they sensed trouble.
Charizard pointed to the window. Phineas looked outside and saw that the sky seemed to be peeling away, leaving behind a dark void in its place.
It was happening.
The Barrier was going down.
Phineas swore and burst out of the cabin, all weariness now gone. He pinched himself to be sure that this was not just a bad dream, and he saw a large pulse of pink light descend across the sky.
He mounted up on his Charizard even as he knew that it was far too late now.
The pulse of light which could have easily been mistaken for a shooting star now grew bigger and bigger as it descended towards the hills to the north. Phineas was not even a quarter of the way towards them as it landed- the King of Kalos had now succeeded in his mission, so many thousands of years after he had launched it.
Arceus was now awakened.
