The New Normal – 3-9 – Interlude – Agatha
She gazed upon her wrinkled and frail hands with a solemn grimace. For all of her achievements as a trainer, age was not something that she could stop. Time continues to pass, unheeding of your wishes.
If she was honest, her age was one of the main reasons she was so bitter and spiteful. She hated feeling powerless to stop the steady march of time; and she detested and, admittedly, feared being weakened by her growing age.
As each day passed, she knew her time in the Elite Four grew shorter. Her enemies started to circle around her like scavengers to a dying prey. Her grip on power was waning, and they knew it.
She would be the first to admit that her abrasive attitude made her little friends, but in her youth that hardly mattered as she had the power and capacity to back up her vicious tongue. She would have never foreseen the day where her body would betray her like this, gradually turning her too weak to even command her team properly.
It was like she was failing her Pokémon. As Ghosts, they hardly changed with age, and unlike her, only grew stronger with time as they continually refined their skills. It was a bitter situation to be in, and her mouth only grew more acidic as reality closed in on her. To know that all that she had done would eventually collapse on itself when her body eventually failed her, and she would finally be removed from the Elite Four, and possibly as the unofficial puppet master behind Lavender Town as well.
However, her unexpected apprentice has been a recent spot of hope for her old bones. She certainly never expected to obtain an apprentice in the first place, but a sudden bout of sympathy for a lost orphan has proven to pay unexpected dividends as she discovered and nurtured her apprentice's innate talent as a Pokémon trainer.
Karen has come far since the day she took her under her wing. Agatha had all of her recent battles saved somewhere on her new digital computer, with the help of her assistants of course. A feeling of pride coursed through her as she watched her apprentice tear through the Dewford Fighting type Gym with dismissive ease, making use of her Sneasel's superior mobility to avoid and dodge attacks while retaliating with hard-hitting attacks of his own.
Then when the Gym Leader sent out his Hariyama, a single Confuse-Ray was enough to end the match. Oh, it took a bit longer before it got knocked out, but the confusion rendered it useless. Agatha let out a small smile of pride at the sight of her apprentice winning using the methods that she had taught.
If her apprentice proved to be a successful trainer in her own right, then Agatha would have been satisfied knowing that she had someone who would remember her and carry on her legacy. However, when a boy far too young to be in the Elite Four suddenly joined their prestigious ranks, and her apprentice managed to catch his wandering eye…well, then things changed.
At first, Agatha half-expected Karen to be leading the boy by the collar by the end of the week. John looked so taken with Karen that she thought that hormones would do the rest. But from the conversations she had with Karen, that never happened. Oh, it got close, but apparently John had some brain in that skull of his.
Although she was initially disappointed at missing an opportunity to put the newest member of the Elite Four effectively under her thumb, later events made her reverse her opinion. As John won his great victory against Drake, she realized that he was no young boy, but rather a formidable and strong political figure in his own right that would likely affect the course of Indigo.
And thus, when John returned to Indigo, she forcefully dragged him aside and took his measure. He seemed kind, easily impressed, and somewhat naïve, but not so much so that he would become easily led around the nose and still had strength in spades. But most importantly, he clearly cared for Karen, and that's all she wanted to know. She came out of that conversation with a smirk, knowing that her plans to use John to support Karen's career was likely going to work.
That opinion only solidified itself as Karen continued to speak about John while she remained in Hoenn. It only proved to Agatha that, despite the two of them not giving into their baser instincts, they both seemed to enjoy each other's company and treated each other as close friends. That was perfect for her purposes.
Then John impressed her even more, showing off his mind for politics as he began working with Gym Leader Giovanni to publicly fight back against that horrid tide of criminals, further boosting his popularity. He then went one step further and made a deal with Lance to install the latter as Champion. Oh, the two of them may have tried to hide the fact between them, but Agatha was no idiot and was able to read between the lines of the news reports. If those two were successful, and they most likely were going to be since Pryce still had his head firmly up his own arse, then John would only continue to grow in popularity and influence.
She recognized that as talented as Karen was, there was a cap to her potential. Considering the other contenders in her generation, Karen was not strong enough as a trainer to challenge for the Championship. But with John in the picture, who had already proven himself to be a great trainer in his own right, then who's to say how far the two of them could reach together?
Just look at the new egg experiment that Karen was aiding with. Though the egg had yet to hatch, Karen had excitedly informed her about the possibilities stemming from such a critical experiment. Agatha herself didn't particularly care about discovering new Pokémon, not at her age, but she understood that this would likely give her apprentice an in with the respected scientific community.
Agatha wanted to ensure that the responsibility of maintaining the prosperity and safety of Lavender Town could be passed down to safe hands, someone who would have the influence and power necessary to continue her legacy of a strong and secure Lavender Town. And it had to be protected, as Lavender Town did not possess a Gym Leader to call its own. And now, she saw the union of John and Karen as a vehicle to continuing her legacy. If Karen could persuade John to help maintain and grow Lavender Town like she knew Agatha wanted, then Agatha could rest easy.
She just had to make sure that they got together.
A.N. The ageless tradition of a grandmother trying to get her 'granddaughter' set up with a guy she approves of + Foreshadowing. Hope this shows that John's mark on the world is increasing!
TLDR – Agatha wants her successor to be powerful enough to protect Lavender Town. Sees John and Karen as the perfect power couple, one with influence and one with loyalty to Agatha, to protect Lavender Town. Thus, she tries to play matchmaker.
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