Operation GEAR: The Angel of Reckoning

by The Great Butler

A girl and her friends set out on a search for truth in a land torn apart by political and religious strife. However, they are unaware of what they are stepping into: the grasp of a terrifying, inescapable enemy that aims to bring down mankind's greatest achievement, the Pokemon League. Soon, the truth becomes clouded, and a desperate struggle for survival begins.

23. Team Rocket VS Team Plasma (Part 1)

I know a lot of people have probably been waiting for this ever since I announced that it would happen. Well, here we go.

One thing I feel that I should mention is that since this chapter and chapter 24 will heavily use flashbacks, it's probably a good idea to explain how I've been denoting regular scene breaks against flashbacks. Regular scene breaks are shown by "-:-", while flashbacks are "~:~." A scene break inside a flashback is "-:-", "~:~" is only for the beginning and end of flashbacks.

-:-

CHAPTER 23: Team Rocket VS. Team Plasma: Best Wishes From the Past (Part 1)

-:-

The evening sun broke through the clouds, casting a brilliant orange glow over the western Johto sea as gentle waves lapped against Olivine City's docks. The city's southern commercial district was its most built-up area, although as time marched on, a number of the buildings were left to rot as abandoned husks. The remaining stalwarts that stood in the decay reaped the rewards of great business, driven by a mix of tourism and shipping traffic.

One business that ranked among Olivine's most successful was a Thrifty Megamart. Built in the image of the chain's other stores around the world, it stood not far from Olivine Port, its neon signs flickering in the light of the setting sun.

The market's interior was clean and well organized, again matching the standards the chain set. A throng of shoppers wandered through its aisles, each in their own search for their needs for the coming night, all to the sounds of upbeat music filtering through the Megamart's radio system in the background.

Among the shoppers that evening was Matt, quietly heading in and out of the store's various sections with a basket in his hand. He really wasn't looking for much outside of one particular item, and when he found it, he stopped and stared at it on the shelf.

"Sonata Coffee, imported from Unova! Special price, 4 for ₽1,000!" the sign on the shelf read.

Sonata Coffee, the drink Nekou had specifically requested he find before everything that had happened. As he stared at one bag of the coffee in his hand, Matt found himself remembering those events again, even though they had only just happened.

~:~

"Someone want to explain to me what the hell is going on?" Bunny demanded. She was far from the only one agitated by the situation Nekou led them to in the back of Team Rocket's truck. "You're kidnapping us, aren't you? When Olivia's sick, even?!"

"What's happening?!" Amanda cried, tightening her grip on Matt's arm with her right hand while instinctively reaching for her Poké Balls with her left. "We're being kidnapped?"

"What's happening is that our so-called friend Nekou just marched us right into Team Rocket's hands!" Bunny lashed around to face Nekou, who was sitting next to Ariana with her hands held tight in her lap, staring down at the floor. "I knew it, I just knew it. How long have you been with them?"

"How long have you known?" Nekou kept on avoiding Bunny's burning glare while also evading her question.

"Since that Pierce told us that Giovanni was dead in Ecruteak," came Bunny's sharp, almost hissing reply. "Matt knew it then too."

The mention of Matt made Nekou flinch, though it went by without notice.

"What should we do?" Amanda spoke up, tugging at Matt's arm as she did so. "We can't get kidnapped by Team Rocket!"

Matt had been silently clenching his teeth while Bunny and Nekou argued, but with Amanda's entry into the exchange, he had to answer. "I don't think we're actually being kidnapped…" he uttered as he sat down opposite Nekou and Ariana, taking Amanda with him. "I don't… I think there's more-"

"Are you seriously okay with this?!" Bunny snapped.

"Stop it!" Anabel finally yelled, interrupting the escalating dispute. Having inserted herself into the fray, she seized Nekou by the shoulders and directly confronted her. "You said were calling a really good doctor in Olivine, the one who always takes care of you. You said they'd have exactly what Olivia needed. Did you lie?"

"No, I didn't…" Nekou answered as she hung limply in Anabel's grasp. "I called exactly who I said I would. She's right there."

With that, Nekou gestured to behind Anabel, prompting her to turn around and finally register that Rosalie was there. The wheelchair-bound scientist had paid little attention to the scene around her, instead focusing her efforts on getting Olivia's unconscious form onto the stretcher.

"I don't know why I'm even giving you a chance to introduce yourself," Anabel said to her, "but who are you? Are you really what Nekou claims you are?"

"Just call me Rosalie," she replied. Even as she talked to Anabel, she remained focused on securing Olivia. "If what I just heard you say is what Nekou said to you about me, she told you the truth. Correct me if there are any missing details, but from what Nekou told me when she called, Olivia's been having seizures?"

"I've only witnessed one," Anabel said, "but Matt-"

"As far as I know she's had at least two other ones," Matt finished, cutting Anabel off in a fit of nerves.

"She's breathing well, at least," Rosalie informed them, "but if the problem is seizures, I need to see if there's anything unusual going on in her brain and I don't have the equipment right here on hand to do that. Once we get back, that's where I can do it."

"Back?" Anabel wondered. "Back where?"

"The base we set up in Olivine City," Ariana said to the group.

"This can't be happening," Anabel muttered as she threw herself down next to Matt. "You're joking, right? You're taking us to your base and I'm supposed to believe this is all because Team Rocket is somehow the good guys this time? That this is all about helping Olivia?"

"You might not want to believe this, but I really wouldn't let anyone hurt Olivia." Finally overcoming the fear of her friends' impressions of her, Nekou managed to turn her eyes up to look at them with a hardened defensiveness. "Honestly, if we wanted to do something to Olivia, we would have by now, and we haven't… but that's probably not enough. I don't blame you if you don't believe me… but you deserve to know who actually is going against you. Matt and Bunny never told you who they ran into on the Magnet Train."

"Who we met on the Magnet Train?" Bunny said in surprise. She didn't understand the significance of what Nekou was alluding to, but Matt did. He said nothing and all but stopped breathing, his face turning even paler than it usually was.

"Maman, just… please show Anabel that video."

"Right." Ariana took up a tablet that had been sitting next to her and tapped its screen several times. After a beat, she swiped her finger across it twice, then presented the screen to Anabel. "This happened during the crisis in Goldenrod City, while we were trying to take a Meteonite away from Polaris on the Magnet Train. Look who was there."

The video quality was less than ideal, but there was no mistaking what had appeared on the screen - the image of Dr. Yung confronting Matt, Bunny and the Team Rocket members on the Magnet Train. Anabel gasped the moment she saw him.

"I was always in Polaris. Enigma Shadow outlived their use for us, so we got rid of them from within. Of course, you and your old friend Rich helped me out."

"We wouldn't if we knew what you really were doing!"

"Oh yes you would. Maybe you're too much of a bleeding heart to admit it, but I was able to get into Rich's head real good. Does that make you feel bad? Or are you not bothered, judging by how you're working for Team Rocket now?"

"Do you really think I'm going to listen to you?"

"I don't really care if you do or not. It's not like you're getting out of this. Mewtwo, get rid of them!"

"Stop making her watch that!" Matt abruptly shouted, pushing the tablet away from Anabel's line of sight.

Even the brief length of the clip she'd seen had Anabel reduced to a state of shock. Just seeing and hearing Yung turned her paler than Matt had seen her since just after Rich's death. For a dumbfounded moment, Anabel stared at where the tablet had been, her eyes wide and sunken back into her head, rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped tightly around her abdomen.

"Why is he here? Why? Why?" she mumbled over and over to herself. "He, he… he's the one, the one who took them from me… Amelia and Ophelia…"

Unaware of what Anabel meant, Bunny directed a questioning glance in Matt's direction. He saw it and covered his mouth so Anabel couldn't see it.

"The twin daughters who died before they were born," he whispered to Bunny, "Olivia's sisters… Yung was the one who poisoned her and caused it…"

Bunny gasped and covered her mouth with both her hands. Anabel, meanwhile, had remained adrift in her catatonic state, completely failing to notice any of the conversation around her.

"Why? Why does he keep coming back? He took Amelia and Ophelia from me, how much more does he want to-"

Anabel's spiraling thoughts were cut off when Ariana unexpectedly moved to her side and embraced her. All Anabel could do was look back, dumbfounded, as the Team Rocket executive smiled faintly but firmly at her."I can't totally say I understand what it must feel like for you to have to face this again, and I know it doesn't mean anything coming from someone like me, but I'm sorry."

"Don't… don't worry about it," Anabel weakly insisted. "I have to keep going… or at least try to. Olivia needs me…"

"And we're telling you the truth about wanting to help," Nekou suddenly interjected. "I couldn't hurt Olivia, not now, not ever… I'll do whatever I have to to prove that to you." Out of the blue, Nekou's speech raced ahead, her thoughts lagging well behind her words. "How about this? Anabel, watch everything we do. Not just me, all of us. Watch everything we do and if you so wish, turn us over to the cops! I don't care!"

"You sure about what you're saying there, little miss?" Petrel asked, looking back from the driver's seat of the truck.

"Honestly, Petrel, it doesn't matter all that much right now," Ariana answered. "Without Giovanni, Team Rocket's pretty much destroyed. Stacia's doing her best but she doesn't have the support and loyalty Giovanni always inspired. He was just good at getting people to follow him."

"You're right about that," Petrel admitted. "Anyway, we should probably be heading on back to the base now."

"Wait," Bunny interrupted. Unsure of how what she was about to say would go over, she clenched her fists and breathed deeply, searching for the confidence within herself to proceed. "I… I don't think I should be here right now."

"Honestly, I can't blame you…" Matt said to her, catching her by surprise. "But, what will Olivia think when she wakes up and sees you're gone?"

"I'm not leaving because of her, tell her that. It's true, anyway. I got a message from Jacob back in Ecruteak City, remember? He wanted me to investigate what the secret of the Coronet Rosary is. I think… I think I'll go off on my own for a while and work on that. There are a couple of leads I want to follow."

"I have to respect that then, from one archeologist to another." Matt extended a hand to Bunny, and after a brief moment, she shook it. "Be safe out there. Polaris might still target you looking for Nekou and I."

"You know me, I'll be fine."

With that, Bunny opened the back door of the truck and carefully climbed out. Before she closed the door, she took one last look back at Matt, Nekou, Anabel and Amanda, searching for something among them that not even she could identify. Once Bunny finally closed the door, it was Amanda who broke the subsequent uncomfortable silence.

"This does feel like it might be a bad idea, if you want my opinion," she said. "How long have Team Rocket been the bad guys again?"

"This whole mess involves you and your brother far, far more than you know, Amanda," Ariana revealed to her. "There's something else that neither of you know about. Matt, you'll be the only one who can see this, but…" she swiped her finger over the tablet's screen a few more times, "...I think hearing this one is going to be enough."

The image Ariana presented Matt with was an unfamiliar one, at least visually. He could see a woman dressed in a fur coat, her face hidden by the the red, white, and blue of a Braviary mask. Behind her stood four figures in matching outfits, while an Electivire held firm in front of her.

"You be quiet!" an unfamiliar male voice from just off screen threatened her. "We don't know what Polaris is planning, but I'll tell you that Team Rocket will prevent you from doing it so we can rule the world!"

Neither Matt nor Amanda was prepared for what came next. As soon as the woman on the screen spoke, both of them understood immediately what Ariana had been alluding to.

"If that's what you believe in, defeat me."

"That voice!" Matt gasped in horrified surprise. "Is that…"

"That's our mother, no doubt about it!" Amanda said to finish his thought. "What is she doing?"

Matt focused back on the screen, searching for an answer to Amanda's question. By that point a Cofagrigus and Swoobat had appeared between Mercury's Electivire and the people off screen. The Swoobat was flying toward Electivire, ringed by blue flames produced by Cofagrigus.

"I'll give you credit for having the courage to attack head-on. Foolhardy, but courageous. Electivire, take all that out with Electroweb!"

"That's her alright," Matt confirmed as he watched Electivire cut Swoobat down using electrically charged threads. "No doubt about it."

"What is this exactly?" Amanda demanded of Ariana and Nekou.

"This happened right after you passed by Mr. Pokémon's house en route to Violet City," Ariana explained. "Our agents wanted to take that Meteonite piece that he acquired, but they were ambushed by a Polaris team looking to collect it from him. One of the Shadow Triad was there, but the one actually sent for Mr. Pokémon to hand it off to was your mother… one of Polaris' leaders, like Yung."

Ariana stood back up and surveyed her three-member audience. They all looked utterly haunted by what they had learned, and none of them spoke as they tried to completely understand it.

"I don't totally understand why yet," she continued, "but both of your families are at the center of this. Yung was always a member of Polaris, which means they've been pulling the strings from the very beginning of everything you're involved in. The only question that remains is just how much further back have they been at this?"

~:~

"She's a member of Polaris… Matt thought to himself, clenching his teeth as he moved down the aisles toward the Thrifty Megamart's checkout lines. "But for how long? Was she one of them before Amanda and I were even born? But that would mean… Team Galactic…"

Those thoughts quickly got to Matt, causing him such stress that he stopped walking to compose himself. He glanced at the shelves around him, where he spotted a Mimikyu doll.

"That looks sort of like Pikachu, but not the same. Kind of looks like something Nekou would like."

He reached towards the doll, and while he did so, more memories of what had happened after leaving Olivine Gym came to his mind.

~:~

"Nekou, you can't be thinking straight! Just… think about the risk of exposure you're putting us through right now!"

It had been a direct drive from Olivine Gym to the abandoned hotel that Team Rocket turned into their base, and after Bunny left, it didn't take that long for the others to arrive there. Ariana brought them right up to the floor with Trevor's bar, where Anabel promptly split off to follow Rosalie into another room with Olivia. That left Matt and Amanda to meet the rest of Team Rocket, and Ada was less than thrilled with their presence.

"I get paid to be an analyst here," Ada continued, nervously adjusting her laptop in her arms, "and I'm telling you on both a professional and private level, this is a terrible idea."

"I didn't have much of a choice," Nekou countered. As close as she was with Ada, the tension in the room left her unable to look directly at her teammate. All she could do was mutter bitterly while peeking at Ada from the corner of her eye. "I know you agree that Rosalie is the most qualified to treat Olivia right now."

"That's not untrue, but…" Ada's objections died off in her throat, halted by a barrier erected by her own conflict over the situation. "Nekou usually knows what she's doing, so I trust her, but…"

"I don't think any of us has any intention to do anything to you," Matt ventured, "at least right now. It's more important that Olivia get help, and I'll hold you to that."

"But right now, you owe us a lot of explanations," Amanda added.

"I'm not going to lie and tell you otherwise," Ariana said, "but right this moment, there's little else I can do besides introduce everyone else. We're most of the only ones in Team Rocket left. You already met Rosalie and Petrel, and obviously Nekou…"

"Wait, I know him too." Matt pointed at Proton, who was sitting on the other side of the room and keeping to himself. "We ran into him in Ilex Forest, I remember."

"Oh, that's right. I nearly forgot." Ariana shrugged. "And back on the Magnet Train, Ada was there to help you, too."

"You were the one with the Milotic who helped us beat back Yung and his Mirage Mewtwo," Matt recalled. Ada allowed herself a slight smile at his compliment, but her nerves ensured that she remained quiet. "Pierce was there too, and in Ecruteak City." As he spoke, Matt remembered something and brought his hand to his chin. "There was one other person when we were fighting Yung. I didn't get a good look at him, but I could have sworn he was-"

"That's right, it was me," came a voice from behind Matt and Amanda. They turned around, and Matt saw Trevor standing behind the bar, calmly polishing a glass. "I knew you recognized me, but we didn't exactly get a lot of time to talk back then."

"I thought I did. But what are you even doing here in the first place? What made you give up your career for this?"

"That's a story for another time, really," Trevor wistfully said, closing his eyes.

"Heh. How did I know you were going to say that?" Matt replied with a laugh.

While Matt and Trevor conversed, Ariana turned to Ada as she stared down at the floor. Ariana put a hand on her shoulder and said, "I know this is a tough thing for you to deal with, but I promise you it's the right choice. You alright?"

"I… I believe you." Ada replied, keeping her eyes locked squarely on the floor tile directly in front of her. "I'll be fine."

"Good. Can you give me an update on what those three are up to?"

"Oh, of course." Balancing her laptop in her arm, Ada quickly tapped a sequence of keys. She exhaled, finding relief in being able to focus her attention on something else. "Jessie, James and Meowth are still off in the sub working on mapping the Adenosine Base. That job is going to take them more time than this."

"Got it. Let me know if anything develops from them."

~:~

With his purchases paid for and stuffed into his bag, Matt shuffled toward the Thrifty Megamart's exit, past rows of shopping carts and shelves overflowing with numerous types of Berries. The sun was lower in the sky than when he entered, casting the last beams of daylight over the seaside city.

Usually, he would have noticed such a beautiful image, if for no other reason than to memorize it and paint it for Amanda. But at that moment, he was so lost in his own thoughts that he wouldn't have noticed even if the sun had simply disappeared.

"She was a member of Team Rocket from the very start…" he silently mused, "...but it's also true that none of them did anything to hurt Olivia, or any of us… and they've been helping us against Polaris every time it comes to that. I should be angry at her for not saying anything, yet… I can't condemn her for it, either. I'd be a total hypocrite. If it's something she needs to survive…"

Matt carried on in a daze, so wrapped up in his musings that he nearly collided with the Thrifty Megamart's exit doors, stopping just short of walking right into them before they could open. He caught himself, leaving the panes of glass to slide out of his way and allow him to step out into Olivine's salty air.

Almost immediately, his contemplation was interrupted by a bitter voice from his right. "Matt Chiaki, I need to talk to you."

He froze in his tracks and turned his head quickly discovering that Mitsumi had been leaning against the market's brick wall in wait for him. She threw the cigarette she had been smoking to her feet and ground it out with her heel, then stomped forward with a harsh glare.

"I hope you heard me. I need to talk to you, right now."

"About what?" Matt said back to her. "Who are you?"

Mitsumi briefly stepped back, her face contorted into a look of genuine hurt. Before Matt knew it, though, her anger at him returned. She grabbed him by the collar of his coat and pushed him against the wall with surprising force.

"Of course you don't remember me. Why am I even surprised? But I know you know what this is." Mitsumi reached into her pocket and produced her International Police badge, but didn't allow Matt the chance to recognize it. "I'm Agent Mitsumi of the International Police, and I've been waiting a long time for this."

"I don't get what you're talking about!" Matt sputtered. "What did I do?"

Suddenly, the doors of the Thrifty Megamart opened again, this time allowing Silva to step out. He was eating something, but nearly choked when he saw his partner and Matt. "Mitsumi, we were just supposed to talk to him!"

Mitsumi paused for a moment to consider Silva's words, then released her grip on Matt. "I'm not going to apologize for that, but fine. Allow me to introduce my partner, Agent Silva…" Finally noticing what Silva had been doing, Mitsumi raised a brow at him. "Were you eating Poké Snacks again?"

"Aha, you're funny when you want to be," Silva laughed, completely avoiding the question. Mitsumi grimaced in disgust at his non-answer, before the agent cleared his throat, eager to shift the topic of conversation.

"Let's just work on the case…"

"Fine. Matt, I'll level with you right now. We know you've been staying close to a member of Team Rocket. Don't lie about it, we know this for a fact. I want you to set up a meeting between us and a representative from Team Rocket. We have questions about their motives and relationship to Polaris."

"How do you expect me to do that, exactly?" Matt asked.

"I don't care. Just find a way to make it happen or I arrest you, Nekou, and every other Team Rocket member I can find as soon as possible," she threatened. "If I had my way I'd be taking the lot of you in right now, but our superior wants us to find out about anything that might put Team Rocket back on our side again in this."

"Your superior?"

"We're subordinates of Looker," Silva explained to answer Matt's question. "He contacted us and told us a rather interesting story. And yes, he did tell us that Team Rocket might be on our side in all this and said to confirm that."

"Fine, fine…" Matt slightly raised his hands to show his surrender, but realized it wasn't necessary and quickly stopped. "I'll do my best."

"You are to bring the representative to this location by the specified time," Mitsumi said, pushing a card into his hands. "The arrangements will be taken care of."

Mitsumi left no chance for Matt to respond. She turned and walked off, with Silva following after quickly glancing at him. Left alone, Matt looked at the card he had been handed.

"Sushi High Roller, huh? I guess at least the food will be enjoyable."

-:-

When Matt found himself at the center of an argument for the third time in the past few hours, and the second just involving Ada, a belated realization due since immediately after talking to Mitsumi finally caught up with him.

"How did I ever think trying to get them to talk to the police was a good idea?!"

"I'm putting my foot down here!" Ada fumed to Nekou as they both sat at Trevor's bar, Matt standing helplessly behind them. "What am I even here for if I'm not analyzing risk? I told you bringing them here was a bad decision, and then he comes back and tells us he talked to the police? What did you think was going to happen? The police will just follow him here!"

Nekou didn't reply to Ada's question. She simply raised her glass to her lips and drank from it, allowing an ice cube to fall out into her mouth so she could crunch on it. Her peer's uncharacteristic unresponsiveness only made Ada even more upset, leading her to slam her own glass down on the bar.

"What's with you? This isn't like you at all!" Ada abruptly spun her barstool around, turning her accusing glare on Matt. "You did something to her, didn't you?"

"What?" Matt gasped. "Why would you even say such a thing?"

"Because this isn't the Nekou I know!" Ada angrily said, gesturing to the still-sulking Nekou. "The only thing that could have changed her is being around you!"

"Now, now, Ada, go easy on him," Trevor intervened.

"You too?!" Ada demanded as she spun back around. "Is everyone here losing their minds? You actually still think we can trust him?"

"He didn't bring the police directly here after all, did he? Don't you think they'd be here by now?"

In an instant, Trevor had cut right to the bone of Ada's argument. She hadn't thought about the possibility he raised, but as soon as she heard it, she realized he had a point.

"I still don't trust him," she said, "I think it's a setup."

Matt was, again, lost in thought as he watched Trevor and Ada converse. He was searching his memory for something, anything that he could use to try to convince Ada of his intentions. As he pondered what had happened, Mitsumi's words echoed in his mind.

"If I had my way I'd be taking the lot of you in right now, but our superior wants us to find out about anything that might put Team Rocket back on our side again in this."

"I don't blame you," he said to Ada, "I don't understand everything about what's going on either. The agent who told me to set up this meeting said that if it were up to here she would have already arrested everyone here, and that their superior wanted to find out anything that would 'put Team Rocket back on our side again in this.' Why would they talk about Looker like he worked with you before?"

This got Trevor's attention. "Looker?"

"You know him?" Matt knew he shouldn't be as surprised as he was. "I guess that makes sense…"

"We had a bit of a bargain between ourselves and him in Sinnoh and Unova," Trevor explained. "When it came to fighting Team Galactic and Team Plasma, we were all on the same side."

"So if Looker is really the one who wants to talk…" Ada said into her glass, "...then maybe…"

Ada tightened her grip on her glass and trailed off. The whole situation still felt strange to her, but she couldn't ignore the truth about their past alliances with Looker, either. Seeing this, Trevor picked up a glass he'd poured for himself and swallowed it all at once, then stepped out from behind the bar.

"Don't worry about it, Ada," he said. "I'll go. If they want to know about why we're fighting Polaris in the first place, I've been there from the beginning."

"What are you talking about?"

The question was Anabel's. She'd just entered the room, with Amanda and Rosalie at her side. It was plainly obvious how tired she was, from the slight bags beginning to form under her eyes to the short, slow steps she was taking.

"It's more important how Olivia is," Nekou replied. "How is she doing?"

"She's still asleep, but she's stabilized," Rosalie said. "I need to do some further tests and monitor her brain activity to see if I can figure out exactly what's happening when she has the seizures. But don't worry, she's resting comfortably right now."

This news brightened Nekou's mood a little, prompting her to return to her drink with a modest smile instead of the blank expression she had before.

"Anyway, since you asked…" Matt reached into his pocket and produced the card Mitsumi had given him. "Trevor and I are going to talk to Looker's subordinates at the Sushi High Roller here in Olivine City. They want to know about the reasons Team Rocket and Polaris are fighting in the first place."

"Anabel, you should go with them," Nekou blurted out. "You deserve a break. Go with them and have a nice meal."

"I appreciate the thought, but I don't know if I feel comfortable leaving Olivia alone."

"Wait, I know!" Amanda reached out to her side, finding Anabel's shoulder. "Anabel, you let me protect Olivia. You know how strong I am better than almost anyone. If my Pokémon and I stand guard, nothing will ever happen to her. Go enjoy yourself for a little while."

"I know I can count on you, Amanda." Anabel adjusted her tie and smoothed a few wrinkles out of her jacket. "Just promise me one thing. If her condition changes, call me right away."

"Of course."

-:-

Out over the ocean, there would be many types of Pokémon you could expect to see in the skies above. Wingull and Pelipper would probably be one's most immediate expectations, but there would be a good chance of seeing Pokémon like those in the Pidgey and Ducklett families crossing as well.

One Pokémon few, if any, would expect to see would be Woobat. Yet, as unusual as it was, four Woobat were flying over the ocean making up Routes 40 and 41, flitting around the Adenosine Base. Or so they were to the naked human eye, A closer glimpse revealed them to be mechanical in nature, highly sophisticated drones equipped with radar functionality. They were transmitting to a submarine deep below the surface of the sea. Within it, Jessie, James and Meowth sat at matching control panels before a set of flickering monitors. The screens displayed a number of maps and other information, chief among them a partial diagram of the oil platform the robotic Woobat were circling.

"Ada wants a status update on the mapping," James said to his partners.

"Tell her we just gave her one," Jessie replied.

"You know how she'll react to that. She'll just tell Ariana, and then Ariana will get on our case…"

"Or they'll get the bob-cut glasses girl after us," the red-haired agent realized. She sighed in defeat. "Withdrawn. Tell her the scan's at…" Jessie looked over the screens and hit several of the keys on her panel. "...looks like about 72% completion."

"72%, got it," James confirmed. He typed a series of figures into his own panel, then said, "Transmitting now."

"Won't be long now before we're running down those halls trashing the place!" Meowth declared. "We gotta get revenge on Polar-"

Meowth's excitement got cut off when Jessie's Goomy slithered over the top of his chair and began chewing on his head. He flailed in a fruitless attempt to pull the Dragon-type off, and when he fell off the chair, Wobbuffet rushed over to try helping him.

"Get off me, you little slug! Jess, James, do something and help me!"

"Wobbuffet!" the blue Psychic-type Pokémon exclaimed.

-:-

The sun soon slipped beneath the horizon, bringing the darkness of night to Olivine and the rest of Johto. As the moon started to peek out from behind the clouds, the mood of the city changed. The last of those leaving their workplaces for the day filtered off the streets, soon to be replaced by people seeking the pleasures of Olivine's nightlife.

Not far from the harbor, among all the other restaurants and bars, stood a stately brown building. Its outer appearance was fairly nondescript, aside from the bamboo stalks and paper lanterns outside its windows. This was Sushi High Roller, one of the most popular high-class restaurants in the city.

Matt, Anabel and Trevor passed through its heavy doors and found themselves at a gold-lined front desk. They were greeted by a hostess wearing a cerulean furisode.

"Welcome to Sushi High Roller," the hostess said to the three, gently bowing her head and smiling. "How may I help you?"

"We have a reservation," Matt replied, producing the card he'd been given by Mitsumi. "Well, actually, we're meeting someone here, they made the reservation."

The hostess took the card from Matt and scanned it using the computer at her desk. "I see. Yes. Please follow me this way."

The young woman stepped out from behind the desk and gestured for Matt, Anabel and Trevor to follow her. It was a busy night for the establishment, but few of the other diners took notice of the rather odd-looking trio. They passed by numerous tables on their way to a short staircase, which was cordoned off until the hostess released the rope blocking the way.

"Your table is this way," she explained. "The others in your party haven't arrived yet. I will send them when they get here. Please enjoy your time at our restaurant."

Matt and the others voiced their thanks to the hostess, and ascended the stairs while she returned to her post at the front of the restaurant. At the top was a single table, raised up to overlook the others. A number of elaborate paintings hung on the walls nearby, while a line of bamboo stalks filled the space on the edge of the platform.

"Those paintings are great…" Matt said, attempting to break the awkward silence between them after they sat down. "I'll have to bring Amanda here once she can see again."

"You really watch out for her, eh?" Trevor leaned back in his chair. "As a sibling should. That I'll tell you for sure…"

"I wish I knew that feeling…" Anabel uttered, her voice hollow. The sickly pallor of her face was plain in the light of the lamps around the table. "I was an only child. I wasn't really lonely… I had plenty of friends, especially once I discovered I was able to talk to the living things around me. But at the same time, I wished I could have the bond I could only get from other family members."

Matt and Trevor exchanged worried glances at each other while Anabel talked. For her part, she didn't notice either of them, nor did she stop to get a sense of what her audience thought. Just that one thing Trevor said about siblings had broken down a barrier in her mind, and she couldn't help letting everything out.

"But then," she continued, "I was happy for a long time to just lose myself in books and then my job at the Battle Tower. I forgot about that wish I had for a bigger family for a long time, but when I met Rich, it came back. Everything was going to go so great, until…" Anabel's words were becoming more and more strained as she spoke. Matt could see that her hand was on the table trembling. "Yung took Amelia and Ophelia from me before they were even born, and his poison damaged my system so badly that I could never try again. I wanted to have a big family and I didn't want Olivia to feel that certain loneliness I did, but now I can't even give her that…"

Stunned by Anabel's sudden baring of her soul, Matt was frozen in his chair, unable to react. Trevor, on the other hand, was moved by it.

"You listen to me right now," Trevor said, holding on to her hand to reassure her. "You haven't got a single reason in the world to trust me yet, but listen to what I say. I've been watching Polaris rip up families like yours for decades. If my word has any value to you, I promise that we're going to put a stop to it."

Anabel seized up. All she could do in that moment was stare down at her hand in Trevor's, her eyes wide.

"I can't ask for your help," she said after a pause, pulling her hand back. "It lacks meaning if I don't do it. I have to see to it myself that Yung is stopped after everything he's taken away from me."

"It's understandable you'd feel that way, my friend." Trevor folded his hands on the table in front of himself. "You must also understand, though, that Yung is Polaris and Polaris is Yung. You can't separate one from the other, and that's why we need to be together in this. Beating him and beating Polaris… we do those and we both get what we want."

"Wait," Matt spoke up, "I heard you say you've been watching Polaris for decades. What does that mean, exactly? Does that have something to do with why you just abandoned your career?"

"That's the story I came here to tell," answered the actor.

"Then you best get ready to tell it."

Matt, Anabel and Trevor had been so caught up in talking among themselves that they hadn't noticed Mitsumi's arrival. Behind her stood Silva, and next to him was Zinzolin. Even though Ghetsis' former henchman had gotten rid of his heavy coat in favor of ordinary street clothes, Matt recognized him immediately.

"Why is he here?" Matt complained, pressing his fist into the table.

"I should ask you the same question," Mitsumi bitterly countered as she and her companions sat down. "I told you to bring someone from Team Rocket, so you bring the Commissioner too? Why drag her into it? For support after what you did?!"

"Mitsumi!" Silva scolded her. "I know being here is hard for you, but don't take it out on Anabel!"

"I'm here because I chose to be," Anabel explained in a low voice. "I want to know what exactly is driving Polaris and…" she briefly peered at Trevor, "I have to know who's on my side, because I will protect the family I have left… at any cost."

Mitsumi's expression softened. "I… that's not what I expected to hear. Please forgive me. I'm sorry for lashing out like that."

Anabel nodded and flashed a small smile at Mitsumi. Noticing the pair sharing their moment, Matt meekly asked, "Can you tell me what I did?"

"You really don't remember me, I guess…" In an instant, Mitsumi's mood turned dark again. She scowled and reached into her coat, saying, "You don't remember me, but I know you remember this."

The International Police agent placed an object just smaller than her hand onto the table, then withdrew to allow Matt to see it. As soon as he did, he gasped and put his hand over his mouth.

It was a patch bearing the insignia of a sleek, golden letter 'G.'

"I'd… I'd know that anywhere, I haven't forgotten that," he uttered in horror while Anabel and Trevor looked on. "Team Galactic… just who are you exactly?"

"One of the two survivors of Team Galactic's top secret Project Cortex…"

Hearing those words made Matt inhale so deeply that the sound would have disturbed the other tables, if they weren't sitting in an area by themselves.

"What's she talking about?" Anabel asked him. She could see his arm trembling from the signals it was receiving.

"I… I don't remember all the details… honestly, I don't think I ever knew everything. All I know is that it was a secret project Cyrus, Team Galactic's boss, had my father working on. I realized I had to get out from there when I found out they were planning to use…"

"That's right, you saved your sister from their experiments!" Mitsumi angrily interrupted. "You left the rest of us behind. Cyrus wanted to remove all elements of the human spirit so he could create a world ruled by cold logic. One of his early plans was to have your father experimenting on the brains of orphans he collected…" Silva held Mitsumi's hand in an attempt to reassure her, but she pulled it away from him. "All of the test subjects died except for two of us. I was CR-004, and the only other survivor was CR-002. But I ended up being Cyrus' so-called favorite. He thought he saw something special in the way I thought differently than the rest… something he identified with. Being his favorite meant I got special treatment, and by that, I mean torture. He was determined to stamp out any form of emotion I still had… and even after all of that, when your mother left them, she took 002 with her to Polaris, not me… I was trapped in his clutches for years thanks to the two of you! And now I sit here, looking at you… it's well known what you had done to yourself to turn yourself into a machine… to think Cyrus tortured me for years hoping to remove parts of me, and you just up and have a part of your brain replaced with computers…"

"I… I don't…" By that point, Matt's entire body was shaking. "I'm sorry for everything. There's nothing I can say…"

"I didn't expect you'd have anything to say," Mitsumi bitterly said. "There's only one reason I'm here now, to get the truth about Polaris and Team Rocket. That's why he's here."

"I'll tell you right now, there's a limit to my knowledge," Zinzolin warned. "I only directly served Ghetsis, so what I don't know that much about everything going on above him."

"Well, the deal we gave you was protection in exchange for everything you do know," Silva reminded him, "so don't get any ideas about putting anything over on us."

"Oh, I'm not going to withhold anything from you. But let me tell you this right now…" Zinzolin leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Everyone sitting at this table now, all of you should be afraid of Polaris. Deathly afraid. There's nine more leaders at least equal to Ghetsis in rank, some of whom are much more frightening than him."

"That's horrifying to just think about…" Matt muttered.

"Gotta agree there," concurred Trevor.

"But there's more than that," Zinzolin continued. "There are a lot of times when they know things that they shouldn't logically be able to know. Things that happened to people in the past that none of them were there to witness, events that haven't happened yet that they somehow anticipate with perfect precision… they somehow know. There were rumors going around the base while I was there. They say the leaders of Polaris have an oracle, someone who tells them everything that has and will happen."

"Wait, what did you just say?" Matt snapped out of his earlier stupor, slammed his hands down onto the table and jumped to his feet with such force that he nearly knocked his chair over. "Did you just say they have an oracle? Is that specifically the word they used?"

Zinzolin cocked his head at Matt, but eventually nodded, prompting Matt to sit back down and bury his face in his hands.

"What are you thinking?" Anabel asked Matt.

Matt pushed his hands back, first over his forehead and then through his hair with an audible sigh. "Remember what Nekou and I told you the other day?" he asked. "How Polaris could have brought Rich back and may be blackmailing him into acting as Father?"

"You said that if they had a Tenganist with the appropriate Transcendence, they could have pulled Rich's consciousness out of Gaia and given him a physical body again. I remember…"

"Who ever said he was the only one?"

A suffocating silence settled over the table. The implications of Matt's suggestion were immediately obvious to Anabel, and she covered her mouth with her hand. Trevor and Zinzolin remained stone-faced, and it fell to Mitsumi to break the silence.

"What exactly are you saying?" she demanded.

"If they have someone who's explicitly being called an oracle," Matt explained, "and they were able to resurrect someone as they probably did with Rich… I should have known there was more to this story. More to why I'm a target for some reason… they resurrected Saeko Oryo too. She's still alive. They resurrected her and are holding her hostage to stack the deck using her Transcendence, which was literally called 'The Oracle.'"

"Saeko Oryo…" Silva repeated. "Looker told us about that name.."

"That's right, he did," Mitsumi said. She stopped to consider her next words carefully. Looker had told them virtually everything he heard, about Saeko, Dark Matter and the Tenganists. What she had no way of knowing was how much of it Matt knew. For all she was aware of, the information she, Silva and Looker held was vital evidence that could be compromised if she disclosed it. "If Polaris truly does have control of someone with such power…" she finally said, downplaying the thread she could have followed. "You tell me the truth about how Team Rocket and Team Plasma came into conflict with each other, and do it now. If Polaris is to be stopped we must understand exactly how this happened from the beginning."

"Alright, I'll get this started then. Just be warned, it's gonna be a real long yarn of a tale." Trevor again leaned back, this time crossing his legs before he continued speaking. "I bet this is gonna surprise you, right off. Did you know it actually goes back over twenty years?"

"No," Mitsumi said in surprise, "I didn't. I must say, though, that it's hard to believe."

"It's true," Zinzolin interjected. "I've been involved for that long too."

Neither Mitsumi nor Silva said anything, choosing to turn their attention back to Trevor. Seeing this, he continued to tell his story.

"You see, even after I had my breakthrough role in Full Metal Cop, I worked another job. You have to keep a steady flow of cash coming in to pay the bills, you know? Anyway, between roles I was working as a bartender in Virbank City. My two coworkers… they were Anthea and Concordia, the two Tenganist women Ghetsis had held hostage. The ones we saved in Ecruteak City."

"Is that really true?" This time it was Silva's turn to direct a surprised question at Zinzolin. Ghetsis' treacherous advisor answered it with a swift nod.

"We became very close friends, Anthea, Concordia and I. Things were good for a while, until… well, I'm never going to forget that day. The day I first lay eyes on Ghetsis Harmonia."

~:~

Virbank City, situated right up on the ocean, was the largest of the cities in southwest Unova. Its aging infrastructure and heavy focus on industry gave it a grimy feel, but underneath that grungy veneer was a sense of community as solid as the bricks that composed its buildings. In spite of its ungainly appearance, the people who lived and worked there loved the city, which reflected in the homely air the industrial town managed to accumulate about itself.

A heavy rainstorm had settled in over Virbank City that day, and Trevor gazed out at it from behind his bar as he pensively wiped a glass. Anthea and Concordia sat side-by-side opposite him, holding their faces up while leaning on the bar.

"Hasn't even started letting up…" Trevor said to them. "No wonder it's been such a slow day. If it was up to me, I might just call it here."

"It's not like it would make a difference," Anthea said back. "I could probably count on my fingers how many customers we've had today."

"Your fingers?" Concordia teased. "More like on one hand."

"It's slow enough that I'm ready to begin throwing a few back myself," Trevor decided, setting the glass down in front of himself. "You ladies want anything?"

Before either Anthea or Concordia could answer, their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the bar's front door opening. The man entering the bar was impressively tall, his head mere inches from the top of the doorway. He closed the umbrella he had been carrying and put it in the stand next to the door, then turned to the three employees of the bar, putting his hands in the pockets of his black leather jacket as he did so. Each part of his appearance clashed with the others, from his slicked-back green hair to the jacket to the white suit he was wearing underneath.

"Good evening," he said to them, smiling. "It would appear I have the place to myself."

"You earned it for coming out in this storm, I'll tell you that," Trevor replied. "C'mon over. It's not like there's a rush."

Even before Trevor finished giving his invitation, the man had started to approach the bar. Anthea and Concordia both stood up, expecting to have to busy themselves serving him, but when he sat down, he shot a sly smile their way.

"No, stay. I'd rather enjoy your company." Trevor didn't understand what exactly the man meant by this, but the way it was said and the smirk the man gave as he said it sent a chill down Trevor's spine. The man himself called no further attention to it and instead said to Trevor, "Fix me a Red-Striped Basculin, please."

"Right away."

Trevor wasted no time in starting on his task, hoping to push the strange sense of menace his customer exuded from his mind. Focusing his attention on the ingredients he needed to use soothed him, as it always did. Even when working on movies he kept what he needed to mix drinks with him in his dressing rooms. It was always a welcome relief from a tough day of filming.

Behind him, the man was quietly and carefully taking in his surroundings. "This is quite the nice place you've kept," he finally said. "I'll have to remember to come here again."

"If you're gonna be around here regularly I might as well ask you your name." If he had to admit it, Trevor already wished the man would just leave and never return, but he knew it probably wouldn't happen.

"My name is Ghetsis," the man answered. "I decided to come to Virbank City because I'm planning to make a movie."

"Really?" The mention of making a movie drew Concordia into engaging with Ghetsis. "All three of us are trying to make it as actors, too…"

"You say you want to make it as actors, but your friend here has already done that," Ghetsis pointed out, making Trevor's face turn red. "Don't worry, I understand the reality of the business means work can be sparse sometimes."

"So why not tell us about this movie you're working on, then?" Anthea asked.

"I'd be happy to." Ghetsis reached into his coat as if he was going to take something out, but when he withdrew his hand, it was empty. "I envision making a historical epic, the likes of which will change the world. I've been studying Unova's mythology at some of our top universities, and the story I want to tell is one about the Hero of Ideals taking his place as the king of Unova alongside the legendary Pokémon Zekrom. I want to chronicle their rise to the throne and all of the battles they must fight to reach their rightful place. Can you envision what I'm talking about?"

"I think I can, actually," Anthea said, raising a finger next to her face as she thought.

"Didn't the two princes end up realizing the mistake of their conflict and lay down their arms, with neither of them taking the throne?" Concordia wondered.

"That's the way it happened 2,500 years ago, perhaps," Ghetsis mused aloud, "but that's not the story I want to tell. The king who rules over the people must be driven by an ideal that defines every aspect of his life. The alternative is to have a king who is driven by the truth, and look at the way this world is. The truth is that the world as it is is doomed to face endless war!" Ghetsis grew increasingly animated as the volume of his voice escalated, climaxing with him clenching his gloved hands and pounding them into the bar. "A king who is driven by the truth of the world will do nothing but maintain the status quo. Therefore, it is only right that the king should be someone who will tirelessly fight for an ideal world."

"You sure have a vivid picture of your screenplay in mind, don't you?" Trevor's teasing masked his own unease with the stranger. As he finished preparing the drink and placed it in front of Ghetsis, he looked the aspiring filmmaker over, searching for any sign of his true motives. Much to Trevor's frustration, Ghetsis remained a complete enigma. "Anyway, here's that drink you wanted."

"Thank you." Ghetsis reached into his coat again, this time producing a handful of bills that he placed down in front of himself. "I apologize for getting emotional. This is a subject I feel strongly about. It's why I dream of making such a movie."

"Please forgive me if I'm being too forward, but…" To solidify her determination, Concordia brought her fist up against her chest. "...are you looking for people to act in it?"

Ghetsis didn't give any sort of answer at first, and his lack of reaction made Concordia fear she'd ruined any opportunity his project might have held for her. He deliberately allowed many long seconds to pass before directing a wry grin at her. "Now, now, you're rather enthusiastic, aren't you? Don't worry. To tell you the truth, I might have the ideal roles for the two of you."

"Really?" both Anthea and Concordia said together.

"Yes. You see, in this story as it was in the past, the king has a pair of trusted advisors who are closer to him than anyone else in his cabinet. They're known by the epithets of "Goddess of Peace" and "Goddess of Love." I think you two may be the ones who can play those roles."

~:~

"That day was when our nightmare began," Trevor concluded. Aside from Zinzolin, his audience was clearly fascinated by the tale he was telling. "I should have done something, I really should have… from the moment I met Ghetsis I never liked him, but I thought I was just being paranoid. Anthea and Concordia wanted those roles so badly, I couldn't bear to intervene and possibly end up stopping them. But I should have…"

"This is all true?" Mitsumi asked. "And it all has to do with the story I told you you're here to tell?"

"It's true, all of it," Zinzolin interrupted and answered for Trevor. "Trust me when I tell you this: you have to know the entire story from the start for everything to make sense."

"He's right," Trevor added. "After that day, Ghetsis probably came to our bar more often than not. He was always there running through parts of his screenplay with both Anthea and Concordia, but it wasn't just that. I stood by and watched as he tried to ingratiate himself on a much more personal level with both of them. And believe me, when I say 'personal,' I mean personal. Especially with Concordia… it seemed like he favored her more of the two. I don't even want to think about why."

"What you just implied is disgusting enough to make me lose my appetite, that's for sure," Matt quietly said.

"A couple of months passed with the situation staying pretty much the way I just described it," Trevor continued. "I guess if it had stayed that way forever, things wouldn't have been as bad as they ended up. But then, there was one day where everything seemed off. Concordia was acting strangely and it looked to me like Anthea knew why, but I didn't. That was a busy day so I didn't have too much time to think about it, but once business ended for the day and we were closing… well, I should have seen it coming sooner."

~:~

The clear sky over Virbank City that night allowed the moon to give Trevor all the light he needed as he kicked open the back door of the bar and entered the adjacent alley. He had two large bags of trash in his hands, and barely enough space between the two buildings to drag them both to the dumpster at the end of the alley.

"I hate having to do this on days like today," he mumbled to himself. "More customers, more money. But more trash too. Ugh…"

When he reached the dumpster, Trevor released the trash bags, slouched and took a deep breath. He had to take a moment to stretch and work out the tension dragging the heavy trash brought upon him. Before he could open the dumpster and throw the bags in, a loud crash from just around the corner of the building pierced the relative quiet and made him jump.

"Let us go!" he could hear a voice - Anthea's voice - shouting.

"What is this?! Who are you?!" Concordia added.

"Why, my dear Goddesses, they work for me."

Reacting out of instinct, Trevor hid behind the dumpster. He noticed a piece of broken glass lying on the ground nearby, so he picked it up and turned it back and forth until he could see what was going on in front of the bar in its reflection.

Ghetsis was there, accompanied by a group of men in dark suits and sunglasses. The men had dragged Anthea and Concordia out of the bar while Ghetsis watched, his hands planted firmly in the pockets of his coat. When they saw Ghetsis, both Anthea and Concordia pulled back in horror, but their captors held them firmly in place.

"What are you… why are you kidnapping us, Ghetsis?" Concordia's voice made it sound more like she was begging instead of merely asking a question.

"Kidnapping you? Oh, no, I wouldn't call it that." From his vantage point, Trevor could see Ghetsis reach out and stroke Concordia's face. Just thinking about the act made his skin crawl. "You two should consider this a great day in your lives. You've passed your auditions! You got the roles! We must leave immediately so you can spend the coming months preparing for what comes next."

Concordia shrank back upon hearing this, but Anthea only fought more fiercely.

"I can't go anywhere like this! I have people here in Virbank who need me!"

Almost immediately, Ghetsis' face and tone turned dark. "Oh, I know. I'll see that they're taken care of, don't you worry."

Behind the dumpster, Trevor heard what Ghetsis said and immediately began to panic. He reacted before he could even think, dropping the glass and fleeing down the alley with such haste that he nearly tripped over the garbage bags he'd brought with him.

~:~

"I did nothing to try and save the two of them," Trevor confessed, "but I knew that if Ghetsis got to Anthea's kids before I did, something even worse would happen. It's haunted me ever since then… it would have been me alone against at least five people, so I would have failed… but I did nothing to help them. I should have tried."

"But Ghetsis never found the children, did he?" Mitsumi questioned.

"That's right. As soon as I saw Anthea and Concordia being kidnapped I fled to their apartment. The three of us were very close back then, so I sometimes looked after the kids for them. In order to protect them from Ghetsis I took them away from that apartment and hid them. Not long after that, I managed to get them out of Unova on a ship to Kanto. I don't even know what I was thinking back then… really, I wasn't thinking. I just knew I had to get them far away from Ghetsis as quickly as possible."

"That one Team Rocket member, Pierce, he said he was the son of one of them," Matt recalled. "Anthea's?"

"Yes," Trevor said, nodding.

"Then how did he end up in Team Rocket?"

"I couldn't exactly keep being an actor after fleeing Unova, could I?" Even though Trevor tried to make his question sound humorous, the slightest hint of bitterness slipped through into his voice. "If I were to appear in another movie, Ghetsis would see me and be able to track me down. I had to lay low… and unfortunately, money was in short supply for someone trying to survive and raise two young kids on their own. I did what I had to do - Giovanni's mother was the big boss back then, and her ambitions were a lot more traditionally business-oriented. I got recruited to contribute my skills and make training videos for the rank and file and the like, and I quickly realized that Team Rocket could provide the protection for the children that I could not."

"To think that it would fall to Team Rocket to protect orphans…" Mitsumi bitterly noted.

"Mitsumi, you alright?" Silva asked her, taking notice of her agitation. He put his hand on her shoulder, but she immediately pulled away.

"I'm fine," she snapped before turning her attention back to Trevor. "Keep talking."

"That's actually the end of my part of the story," Trevor said, "so unless Zinzolin has something to add…"

"I'll tell you what happened after Ghetsis took them, is that something you want to know?"

"Talk," Mitsumi flatly ordered him.

"Fine, fine, don't worry, I'll tell you everything." Zinzolin cleared his throat before he continued. "Even as far back as twenty years ago or more, Ghetsis had the bulk of what would become Team Plasma working to secretly build a castle underground."

"We all saw it," Mitsumi interjected.

"That is so, I suppose. I was stationed at the castle while it was under construction, as were most of my colleagues. Ghetsis and a select few of his inner circle, though, they lived at Ghetsis' estate in Lacunosa Town. That's where he took Anthea and Concordia when he kidnapped them. I didn't know what went on there. Ghetsis was very secretive. But I will tell you this, when Ghetsis finally brought them to the castle, they weren't alone."

~:~

Nearly a year had passed since Ghetsis kidnapped Anthea and Concordia from Virbank City. He'd gone into hiding since then, secretly supervising the construction of the castle from his Lacunosa estate. Vast wouldn't even come close to describing the scale of the palace, even before its completion. It was more like a small city, one that would serve as the seat of power for Team Plasma's kingdom upon its rise.

While the rest of the castle was under construction, enough of the first floor was complete to provide lodging for the soldiers that would go on to become Team Plasma's main fighting force. A central meeting hall had also been finished, and it was there that Ghetsis had summoned Zinzolin to. He stood in the candlelight of the hall awaiting his master, making sure to smooth the wrinkles out of his violet robes before Ghetsis arrived.

The grand double doors opposite Zinzolin were slowly opened by a pair of soldiers in white uniforms, allowing Ghetsis to enter with Anthea and Concordia behind them. While Ghetsis' appearance had remained much the same as a year prior, Anthea and Concordia had changed immensely. Gone were their ordinary street clothes, replaced by elegant, flowing gowns.

"Welcome back, Ghetsis," Zinzolin greeted him, bowing as he spoke. "To what do I owe this honor?"

Ghetsis placed his hands in his coat pockets and stepped aside, allowing Zinzolin to fully see Anthea and Concordia. They remained completely silent and did not even make eye contact with him.

"Zinzolin, I want to introduce you to some people who will be very important in the future. Meet Anthea and Concordia, the Goddesses of Love and Peace."

"So you found the ones who will be the king's counselors…" Zinzolin said.

"Not only that." Ghetsis gestured toward Concordia, who was carrying a small bundle in her arms. Zinzolin stepped closer to get a better look, and realized he could see a tiny face and a small amount of green hair. "This is the real meaning of our meeting today. Zinzolin, this child is N. He is the one who will be our king."

"The Hero of Ideals…" Zinzolin gasped, "...and the one who will serve alongside Zekrom. I knew this day would come eventually, but still, to set eyes upon him is overwhelming."

"If you consider merely seeing him to be overwhelming, I can't wait to see the look on your face when you find out your role in his preparation."

Ghetsis often said he couldn't wait to see peoples' reactions to events, even in the past. Zinzolin was already well aware of that habit, so even while he hoped to learn he'd have an influential role in Ghetsis' plan, he remained guarded. Ghetsis teasing something in a way that made it sound positive in order to surprise the person he was speaking to was another habit of his.

"You're going to be responsible for giving him the education he will need to be a strong and just king for the people when he comes of age," Ghetsis continued. "The king must be well versed in the reality of this world before he can change it. But I'm getting ahead of myself… his ideals must be fostered first. Zinzolin, you are to keep him in the castle garden and seclude him from all people. He is only to have contact with the Pokémon I bring here for the purpose of living with him. Am I clear on this?"

"Yes, yes you are." Zinzolin exhaled heavily when he realized Ghetsis was being direct with him. "If I may ask, though, how will he survive if he has no contact with humans?"

"The Pokémon will raise him. They will identify with him and he with them. A boy who has no contact with humanity and Pokémon who were cast out by humanity… they will come together to foster in him the ideal of a world where Pokémon are liberated from the oppression of people. That is the world he and Team Plasma will lead us all into."

~:~

"Ghetsis never told me where the boy came from," Zinzolin explained, "but I firmly believe to this day that Ghetsis himself was his father."

"Maybe that's why Ghetsis waited a few months before kidnapping them instead of taking them immediately," Trevor surmised. "He was seducing Concordia, like I said… perhaps he was waiting for her to…"

"Don't finish that sentence, we all know what you were going to say and don't want to think about it," Matt interrupted. "Although it does give me one question - is this really the same Ghetsis we're talking about here? Let's be honest here, the one I know wouldn't have waited a day let alone months."

Zinzolin couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, it's the same man, but your naivete can't be faulted. Twenty years ago, Ghetsis was a much more stable and patient man than he is now. That was back when he was dedicated to goals that he knew would take years to realize. Once he lost those dreams his mental state decayed, creating the Ghetsis of this time."

"Wait, there's one thing about that I don't understand," Silva said. "You said Ghetsis tasked you with giving N his education to become king. The information that we had previously suggested that Ghetsis himself was the one who did that."

"That's true from a certain point of view. Ghetsis 'educated' him by bringing Pokémon that were harmed by humans into the castle. As I said, they were the only ones who were allowed to be around N. He could hear their voices as they raised him, and he grew to identify with their suffering. It was all part of Ghetsis' plan to create a king who would fight for the ideal of Pokémon liberation."

"But what does this have to do with Polaris?" Anabel wondered out loud. "I'm missing something here."

"What you're missing is that Team Plasma was always a part of Polaris, from the moment of its conception," Zinzolin revealed, prompting Anabel and Matt to lock their eyes on him in anticipation of what would come next. "Ghetsis was a member of Polaris dating back far before I ever met him. He organized Team Plasma as a division of Polaris under his own leadership when he became one of the ten Chromosomes, the leaders of Polaris who make up a board called the Sacred Helix. Before that, he was nothing but a member of Unova's high society with great political ambition."

"We know all of that already," Mitsumi complained. "We know all about N's upbringing, too, so get to the next part involving Team Rocket."

"Alright, fine." Zinzolin sighed and stroked his beard for a moment before speaking again. "There's a little more about N before I get to that, though. It's necessary for context. Once he had grown into a young man, been educated and grown obsessed with the ideal of Pokémon liberation, the Dark Stone finally appeared to him. Once that happened, Ghetsis took N and some of us others to Dragonspiral Tower, where N would summon and ally with Zekrom."

~:~

North of Icirrus City, standing well above the forests surrounding it, was the ancient structure known as Dragonspiral Tower. Nobody knew for sure where it came from or when, but it was an icon in Unova's mythology. It was said that long ago a king had sealed up Zekrom in the form of the Dark Stone at the tower's peak. On that ominously cloudy day in northwestern Unova, if Ghetsis had his way, Zekrom would be summoned to the side of a new king.

The need for his businessman persona had long since expired, so Ghetsis discarded it in favor of a new look much better suited to his ambitions. Adopting the role of another advisor to his self-created king, he clad himself in blue-and-yellow robes bearing patterns that formed large eyes. Armor resembling the battlements of a castle rested on his shoulders, emblazoned just below his neck with the symbol of Team Plasma.

Zinzolin and five other men, all dressed in robes that matched each other except for their color, followed behind Ghetsis as he approached an altar in the garden atop Dragonspiral Tower. They were in turn followed by Anthea and Concordia as well as a group of Team Plasma soldiers.

"We're here," Ghetsis declared, stopping before he reached the altar and turning around. "My king, please, step forward."

The six sages, the Goddesses and all the soldiers parted, creating a direct path to the altar for N. Wrapped in a plain, cream-colored cloak, the now-grown king silently passed all those he believed to be loyal to him, stopping only when Ghetsis put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you prepared to ascend to your rightful throne, my king?"

"Yes," N replied, avoiding eye contact with Ghetsis or anyone else.

"Very well. This is the moment your entire life has been leading to." Ghetsis looked to the crowd of soldiers and gestured with his head to the altar.

Two soldiers broke off from the rest of the battalion and approached the altar themselves, one carrying a heavy case emblazoned with Team Plasma's symbol. Unlike the others, who had standard-issue white uniforms with blue hoods, the pair wore black-and-gray tactical uniforms instead. They carried the case right up to the altar, where they placed it on the ground, opened it and carefully removed its contents - a pitch-black, spherical stone with three curved ridges in its surface. Moving with great caution, they carried the stone from the case to the altar, where they gently placed it before backing away.

"Thank you, Aldith, Barret," Ghetsis said to them. He then stepped back himself and said to N, "Your time has come, my king. Zekrom awaits you. Step forward and take your rightful place as this era's Hero of Ideals."

N said nothing and simply walked past Ghetsis, who smirked before turning around to watch him. He stepped before the altar, spread out his arms, and looked up towards the dark, cloudy sky.

"Great dragon of ideals, Zekrom, hear my voice!" N called out. "From my birth I have lived amongst the most abused and neglected Pokémon, and my heart is connected to theirs! We speak as one! I come before you with the voices of the millions of Pokémon worldwide whose freedom and well-being have been denied by humanity! Great Zekrom, hear our voices as I tell you, this is my ideal - I will fight for a world where Pokémon are freed from humans and live in the complete freedom they deserve! Come to my side and lend me your power!"

A spark of blue electricity coursed through the stone, and it twitched slightly as if responding to N's words. Overhead, the clouds darkened further and slowly began to rotate, with the eye of the vortex opening up directly above the tower. Ghetsis, his fellow sages and the soldiers all stared up in awe at what was developing.

"The time we've waited for has finally come," one of the sages, whose robe was brown, said to the others. "We'll be able to liberate Pokémon and get mankind to treat them with the respect and understanding they deserve…"

The stone continued to tremble and spark, its activity growing more and more violent as the vortex overhead strengthened. When bolts of lightning began cracking the sky, a blue light enveloped the stone. It rose up off the altar and floated in the air, shooting electricity off in all directions.

Ghetsis carefully watched the levitating stone. N was the one bringing it to life, yet all the years of planning he'd put in made Ghetsis the real one causing it. It had been all thanks to Ghetsis' work - the years of isolating N from humans and only allowing him contact with abused Pokémon - that N became the ideologue driven by blindingly powerful ideals that he was. Those ideals were what Ghetsis needed to draw Zekrom out, but they had a beneficial second effect - N was so driven that he would remain completely naive to Ghetsis' using him as a puppet.

The stone suddenly shot up into the sky and dissolved into the clouds, infusing its light throughout them. The lightning over the tower intensified, and the center of the vortex projected blue light down like a spotlight. Finally, a huge, dark figure emerged into the light, coming into the sight of the Team Plasma members.

As the shape descended, its rugged, saurian features became clearer and clearer to those looking up at it from the tower. It had thick, strong legs, hooked claws, angular wings and a cone-shaped tail that glowed with the same blue electricity breaking through the sky all around it.

N couldn't help himself from looking directly up into the light and meeting Zekrom's gaze. The intensity in the dragon's red eyes overwhelmed him, surging through his body in much the same way its electricity would. That power, that incredible, bursting aura, seized N so deeply that for the briefest moment, he felt doubt about what he was doing.

Zekrom saw N take a step back and halted its descent. The dragon was well aware of that moment of doubt as soon as it flashed through N's mind. It roared, breaking the air with a cry that sounded like the rumbling of thunder. The conical generator inside Zekrom's tail sparked to life in front of the members of Team Plasma, filling with bright blue light seconds before Zekrom rained a storm of lightning bolts down on the tower, throwing N, Ghetsis and the rest of Team Plasma around like rag dolls.

~:~

"N's heart was appropriately filled with the ideals he needed to summon Zekrom," Zinzolin recalled, "but at the critical moment, just as Zekrom appeared, N's resolve wavered. It was brief, but it was enough to make Zekrom not see him as worthy at the time. Zekrom passed down its judgment upon all of us, and by the time we came to, it was gone. We tracked it to Nuvema Town before we lost track of it, and Ghetsis sent N on a quest through Unova to strengthen his resolve."

"Wait, you said Nuvema Town?" Trevor said in surprise. "I know when that happened. Three of our agents were there and had an encounter with Zekrom in Nuvema Town, so that must have been right after you summoned it."

"Stop for a minute." Mitsumi put her hands down on the table, a bit more forcefully than she intended. "Don't just skip ahead like that. Why were you people in Unova in the first place? What brought you there?"

"You're right," Trevor replied with a small laugh. "Sorry about that. Alright, let's go back to the beginning, before any of us went to Unova. I should tell you, the story from here isn't just what I saw, it's based on what I was told afterward, too."

~:~

One thing that always surprised members of Team Rocket when they were called to speak to Stacia was how much more elaborate her personal office was compared to Giovanni's, despite him being the head of the organization. He was satisfied having only what he needed to work, while she indulged herself in some of the luxuries Giovanni saved for his living space. Paintings filled the spaces between the lamps on the walls, and she even had a piano next to the full-length windows that gave her a panoramic view of Viridian City in the distance.

Of course, the Team Rocket members would only notice the office if they weren't consumed by fear of why they had been summoned to her in the first place. Many who had to go there were. Trevor and the rest of Nekou's team, however, weren't. While Stacia sat at the head of the office and tapped at her laptop, Trevor and Rosalie waited at the ornate table in the center. Nekou herself was the only one ignoring decorum, casually drinking a can of beer while spread across the couch opposite Stacia.

Giovanni's secretary finally looked up from the laptop and huffed in annoyance at what she saw. "Get your feet off my couch," she said contemptuously.

"Oh, alright." Nekou made no effort to hide her own irritation as she turned to sit upright, though hers paled in comparison to frustration evinced by Stacia's fierce glare. "So you called my team in here for something, right? Are we going to get one of the legendary Stacia scoldings?"

"You keep up with what you're doing and you'll get worse than that," Stacia immediately shot back, "but no, you're here because Giovanni has a mission for you."

"It's a little unusual that we'd be getting those orders from you and not from Giovanni himself," Rosalie commented.

"Mister Giovanni is very busy with his own preparations for this mission. This is something that could change the balance of power in the world, and tip it into Team Rocket's hands for good. Look here." Stacia pressed several keys on her laptop, causing a holographic image projected from the center of the table to flicker to life. "This is the Unova region, which is far away from Kanto."

As soon as Trevor set eyes on the landscape of Unova in the image, he brought his hands to his face and clasped them over his mouth.

"It has come to our attention that there is an artifact owned by the museum in Nacrene City that is said to possess great power," Stacia continued. "When I say great power, I mean world-altering power. It will come as no surprise to you that we must obtain that power for Team Rocket."

Trevor lowered his hands, bringing them to rest in his lap. "You're right about that, it's no surprise. What's our assignment?"

"Infiltrate the Nacrene Museum and gather intelligence on the artifacts contained within. You are to learn about anything that could be taken for Team Rocket's benefit and return that intelligence to Headquarters."

~:~

"For us, it was a typical job, even if I was nervous about going back to Unova," Trevor continued. "Infiltration, spy work, nothing we hadn't done a million times before. That's what our little team did."

"And what kind of work did you do in Unova this time?" Silva questioned him.

"The same type of thing we always did. Each of us had our own part in it. Nekou's the one who does the actual infiltration, but Ada and I create her cover identities first. That time, we created a character we named Jane Hammond, who supposedly was an archeologist working on documenting ancient items from different places."

"Wait, that name… I've heard that name before." Matt brought his hand to his chin. "Colress, that's it! Back at the Battle Hall, Colress thought that was Nekou's name when I ran into him. Did I accidentally blow her cover…? Or did he already know and was just messing with me?"

"So we established a character for Nekou to play, then the four of us - Nekou, myself, Ada and Rosalie - we traveled to Unova and put up a base of operations at the Driftveil Luxury Suites hotel. Ada and Rosalie stayed behind to provide remote support, and I accompanied Nekou to Nacrene City to act as a lookout while she investigated the museum."

~:~

Nacrene City, located on the banks of Unova's eastern river adjacent to the Skyarrow Bridge, was a unique place even among the region's diverse locales. It wasn't a city of traditional buildings, be they like the houses and small apartment buildings of Striaton and Nuvema to the east, or the skyscrapers of Castelia across the the bridge. No, much of Nacrene City was made up of old warehouses, repurposed for both residential and business use. It was a bright, colorful place, with artists having turned the buildings, the streets and everything in between into one big, citywide canvas.

One of the few structures that didn't fit in with Nacrene's unique style was its museum, a palatial building in the northern part of the city. Inside, each of its spacious exhibit rooms only furthered that image of splendor with their golden walls and blue marble floors.

Nekou was waiting in the first of the exhibit rooms visitors entered, taking pictures with her phone from underneath a giant Dragonite fossil anchored from the ceiling. For her character, she wore a pink dress and a black sun hat, and she had further changed her appearance by cutting her hair to roughly half its normal length.

"Miss Hammond?"

Upon hearing herself being addressed, Nekou stashed her phone away in the sash of her dress and turned to the thin, bespectacled man who had called to her. He wasn't alone as he approached her. At his side was a muscular, dark-skinned woman, and next to her, a pink, rabbit-like Pokémon.

"Yes?" Nekou adjusted her glasses, making sure to covertly press the tiny button on the stem that made them start transmitting footage to Trevor outside.

"I apologize for keeping you waiting," the man said, placing his hand against his chest and tilting his head forward. "I'm Hawes, the assistant director of the museum, and this is our director, Lenora. She happens to be the Nacrene Gym Leader and my dear wife, too!"

"You two make a cute pair," Nekou complimented them. It wasn't a part of her character, either - her playful grin made clear just how genuine it was.

"No need to flatter us, you know!" Lenora replied with a hearty laugh. "So, I'd like to know exactly what kind of research you're working on. My aide mentioned you wanted to talk with me about something, but I want to hear what it is in your own words."

"Well, I'm conducting research on behalf of Malie University in Alola," she explained, recalling the backstory created by Trevor and Ada. "I've been going here and there, looking into stories about different powerful artifacts. My studies led me here. I want to document anything of the sort that you might have, so my research can be as comprehensive as possible."

"You know, dear, I think I might know something she'd be interested in," Hawes said to Lenora. "Since she's from an Alolan university."

"I think I'm getting what you mean." Setting her eyes on Nekou as she spoke, Lenora proposed, "Miss Hammond, since Alola's mythology heavily centers on the sun and moon, how would you like to see something that could be considered an artificial sun?"

Nekou's eye twitched the instant those words hit her ears. "An artificial sun?" she thought. "Such a thing would be unimaginably fucking powerful… it could change the balance of power in the world… and tip it right into Team Rocket's hands! Just like Stacia said!" She brought her cheerful side back to the surface, but this time, it was more of an act. "Yes, that sounds exactly like the kind of thing I'd like to see! Please take me there!"

"You're an upbeat one, aren't you?" Lenora teased. "You remind me of myself. When I was little, my dad always brought home bones from the mine he worked in. Looking at them captivated me and fostered a desire for adventure that brought me to where I am today. Come on, I'll show you what I'm talking about. This way."

Lenora started to walk away, gesturing with her hand for Nekou, Hawes and the rabbit Pokémon to follow. She guided them down a wide hallway linking the room with the Dragonite fossil to another exhibit room. Nekou couldn't help but glance around at the paintings lining the walls as she walked, but it was something else that caught her attention enough that she had to force herself to not stop walking.

Going the opposite direction down the hallway, heading back towards the Dragonite room, were three men dressed in identical dark suits and black sunglasses. Their coordination wasn't what struck her about them, though. It was what they had stitched on the breast pockets of their suits - a shield, half black and half white, bearing a blue 'P' overlaid on a backwards 'Z.' The symbol of Team Plasma.

She made sure to adjust her glasses as they passed by, ensuring that an image of the men and the symbol got sent to Trevor. "Can't tell if they looked at me…" she thought, feeling a chill run down her spine.

"Miss Hammond?"

Hawes' voice snapped Nekou back into reality, and she returned to her false persona. "I'm sorry, I got distracted," she said, forcing herself to sound as sweet as possible.

"No worries," Hawes replied with a smile. He gestured to the right and said, "Come this way, please."

Hawes led Nekou over to Lenora, who was waiting for them next to a glass case. She frowned, put her hands on her hips, and said to them, "Let's see some more dedication." Nekou and Hawes responded with pouts of their own, and as soon as she saw them, Lenora couldn't help but laugh. "I'm just teasing you, come on!"

"I'm tough, I can take it," Nekou responded. "Let's just see that artificial sun of yours."

"You got it. Audino?" The rabbit Pokémon, who had followed closely at Lenora's side, trilled softly and handed her trainer a tablet computer she'd been carrying. Lenora tapped the screen several times, and stepped aside to allow Nekou a better view of the case. Inside was a chunk of rock, its black surface covered with cavities. "This is called a Meteonite. It's a piece of a much larger object that entered Earth's atmosphere in ancient times, where it broke up into pieces that landed all over the planet."

"Meteonite? What makes it different from an ordinary meteorite?" Nekou wondered.

"This one is made of a unique element we don't yet fully understand," Lenora tapped on the screen a few more times, then raised her finger as she started to relate its information. "There is a volcano called Reversal Mountain in eastern Unova. In ancient times, it experienced a major eruption, filling Unova's sky with volcanic ash. The sun was blocked out by the ash, and subsequently, the survival of Unova's people was threatened. It was in this most desperate time that the people of Unova discovered a Meteonite much larger than this one, and realized that it shined with a light like that of the sun. To survive, they took the Meteonite and put it in the sky, allowing it to act as the sun until the day the air became clear once again. For them, the light of the Meteonite..." Lenora lowered the tablet to her side and turned to the others before finishing, "... was truly the light of hope."

"Amazing," Nekou whispered to herself. She stepped closer to the display case, having to stop herself from reaching up and taking the small Meteonite right then and there. "If we can get our hands on the whole thing, Team Rocket will be free to do whatever the fuck we want! And if Team Rocket can do anything, then so can I…"

"Impressive story, isn't it?" Lenora asked Nekou. "We've got some more materials about that era in our library, if you'd like to see them."

"Oh, of course!"

~:~

"It was to obtain the Meteonite that Giovanni sent Jessie, James and Meowth to Unova. Well, that was one reason. Needless to say, when I found out that Team Plasma was involved, it terrified me. The memories of what happened in Virbank City never faded from my mind, not then, not now."

~:~

It wasn't long after Nekou finished gathering intelligence at the museum that Trevor contacted Giovanni. The Team Rocket boss received the call at their headquarters in Kanto, and when the subject matter became clear, he swiftly brought Dr. Zager in on the conversation. He had three holographic screens projected in front of him from his desk, displaying Trevor, Zager and a still image of the Team Plasma logo from Nekou's recordings.

"Why is that here?" Zager demanded, losing control of his voice. "Where did you see that symbol?"

"Nekou saw it while she was doing some work at the Nacrene Museum," Trevor answered. He had a better handle on his volume than the scientist, but his weary look gave away that he was just as distressed.

"Team Plasma, a division of Polaris led by Ghetsis Harmonia," Zager identified. "I never worked with him, but his ambition and drive were well known throughout Polaris."

"We've known for a long time that there was a secret organization operating in the shadows of Unovan society, so it's not much of a surprise that we'd run into them when we went there." Giovanni scratched Persian, who was sitting faithfully next to him. "I already have Stacia selecting the next agents who I'll be sending to Unova to work alongside you and your teammates, Trevor. They'll be acting on the intelligence you've gathered, so stand by for your next orders."

"Very well."

With that, Trevor disconnected his end of the conversation, making his screen disappear. Now alone with Zager, Giovanni said to him, "It appears that the conflict you warned us would come is almost here."

"I'm worried that we've only seen Team Plasma and not the rest of Polaris, to tell you the truth," Zager confessed. "Polaris intends to destroy the entire world and recreate it according to their vision. If they're hanging back and letting Ghetsis do all the work, I fear this may be a trap."

"It could be, but this is still an opportunity that Team Rocket cannot pass up. The Meteonite, a cosmic object that can harness energy like an artificial sun… if Team Rocket can obtain it, it will be a valuable weapon when the rest of Polaris emerges."

"I can't argue with that. Now, please excuse me, I have some preparations of my own to do."

"You are dismissed."

Just as Zager ended his own communication and the remaining two screens vanished from Giovanni's desk, the doors to his office opened and Stacia entered. She said nothing as she crossed the room, moving with deliberate, practiced steps. Once she reached Giovanni, she took a black folder from under her arm and slid it onto his desk.

"I informed the agents assigned to the project to return here immediately," Stacia said as Giovanni reviewed the papers in the folder.

Giovanni looked up and replied, "Well done. Thank you."

"I'm certain they'll be perfect for the job."

"Good. You can go now."

Stacia bowed, then turned around and started to leave the office. As she did so, Giovanni laid the folder down on his desk, spreading the three documents inside across it.

They were personnel files of Jessie, James and Meowth.

~:~

"So that was when Giovanni decided to send more agents to Unova, and he sent the three Stacia selected. Jessie, James and Meowth were the ones who encountered Zekrom in Nuvema Town before it disappeared."

"There was so much more to that than I expected…" Matt said to Trevor. "To think those Meteonites are that powerful… now what I saw on the Magnet Train makes a lot more sense. And Nekou knew…"

"Don't hold it against her," Trevor said. "From what I know, she wanted to keep Olivia safe. Back during that battle in Goldenrod, you and Bunny ended up going to retrieve the Meteonite while Nekou kept Olivia with her, right? You've seen how hard Nekou will fight to protect people she cares about. There was no safer place for her to be."

"Is that really true?" Anabel wondered out loud. "I'm her mother. I have to be the one to protect her."

"That's totally understandable," Trevor agreed. "Once we go back and Olivia's feeling better, I hope you and Nekou will have a heart-to-heart about that. Olivia really likes her, and she really likes Olivia. I want to see all three of you work something out."

"So what you're saying is that you decided you were going to obtain this Meteonite," Silva said, recapping what he'd heard, "and three more members of Team Rocket were sent to Unova to do it. What else happened before you fought Team Plasma? That didn't happen immediately, did it?"

"No, it didn't. Even with everything Nekou learned from the Nacrene Museum, we lacked something we needed to find the big Meteonite. Any guesses what it was?"

"It's not going to be something as simple as a map, is it?" Matt ventured. "It never is…"

"If there was a map, someone else would have found it by then," Anabel said in agreement.

"You're actually not all that far off," Trevor revealed, making both Matt and Anabel look at him in surprise. "It wasn't a literal map. What we needed was a way to track the energy of the Meteonite. Think of it as like a magnet drawing in metal. We found a lead to that when we learned of the Dreamyard."

"The site where research on the energy of dreams was being conducted?" Mitsumi questioned for confirmation.

"Indeed. It was thought that if the Meteonite had could act as an artificial sun, then using another powerful type of energy might reveal the Meteonite's own energy field to us and allow us to track it. Giovanni sent Jessie, James and Meowth to the Dreamyard with plans for a mechanical weapon Dr. Zager designed to absorb the Dream Energy. Even though they got disrupted, they managed to acquire enough of the Dream Energy for Dr. Zager to examine. And he made an incredible discovery with it."

~:~

None who passed by the abandoned building in a small town between Striaton City and Nacrene City would have thought much of it. With its walls beginning to crumble and many of its windows either cracked or completely missing, it didn't exactly have much to call attention to itself. It was just one of many old buildings that had fallen into disrepair in an urban landscape.

And that made it perfect for Jessie, James and Meowth to use. They gathered around the computer terminal they used for communications inside one of the building's ruined offices, and when they entered their login information, Giovanni's face flashed onto its screen.

"Ready, sir," James said. "All units assembled."

"Good," answered the trio's boss. "Your next mission will take place in the Desert Resort."

"The Desert Resort?" Jessie inquisitively repeated, her eyes widening slightly.

Giovanni's image was replaced on the screen by a map of Unova, which promptly zoomed in on the region between Castelia City and Nimbasa City. "The Desert Resort is located here," he explained. "There is a meteor called a Meteonite buried somewhere in this area. Your mission is to locate and secure it."

With Jessie, James and Meowth watching attentively, the image on the terminal's screen changed again. This time, it displayed a computer-generated animation of a large meteor approaching Earth.

"A long time ago, this Meteonite burst into our atmosphere, broke apart, and was scattered around the world," Giovanni continued, with the screen illustrating his words. "It's said that the largest piece of it can be found in the Unova region. Even one tiny fragment of this Meteonite can unleash an enormous amount of energy. Very soon after the analysis of the energy sample you sent us from the Dreamyard was completed, we located an enormous energy flow in the Unova region that has an identical energy signature, and the center of that energy flow is located within the Desert Resort."

The screen changed once more, returning to Giovanni's image.

"So now, if we can obtain the Meteonite, we can alter the energy balance of the entire world. This is the key to Team Rocket's plan for world conquest." Giovanni's bold declaration drew ambitious, excited smiles from his followers. "Also, we'll be sending you an additional agent for this most important mission."

An electronic personnel file materialized on the screen, revealing both a full-body image of Pierce and a great amount of information about him.

"The significance of which I'm sure cannot be overstated," James said in agreement.

"Proceed to the rendezvous point immediately," Giovanni commanded.

"Sir!" all three members of the trio responded, saluting their boss.

~:~

"That certainly fills in one critical point, why you were in the Desert Resort in the first place," Silva said. "The picture's starting to fill out, but what I don't get is why Team Plasma hasn't done anything yet."

"We were doing our own research into the Meteonite," Zinzolin answered. "That's why we had men at the Nacrene Museum and the Antimony Research Lab…"

"Antimony Research Lab?" Anabel interjected. "What's that?"

"I was actually about to get to that," said Trevor. "So at that point we had a basic idea of what the Meteonite could do and where to find it. What we still needed was a way to understand in real terms how we could use it for our own gain. Obviously, with Team Rocket's scientific prowess we could study it and find all that out ourselves, but with Team Plasma's activity we needed a way to move the clock forward. The Antimony Research Lab was our ticket to that."

~:~

After finishing their work at the Nacrene Museum, Trevor and Nekou returned to the Driftveil Luxury Suites, where Ada and Rosalie were waiting for them. The four had no further orders at the time, so all of them took the opportunity to enjoy their accommodations while awaiting word from Giovanni or Stacia.

That morning, Trevor, Ada and Rosalie were sitting around a table in the suite they'd turned into a command center. Trevor and Rosalie were caught up in a conversation about his past in Unova while Ada quietly read on her laptop.

"I really would like to go back there," Trevor said to Rosalie, "even if it was to just see a movie in the Pokéstar Theater again. But you know, I can't… it would be too risky. I'm too worried someone will recognize me, and if Ghetsis finds out it could jeopardize everything we've worked for. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize." Rosalie took a sip of coffee before continuing. "There are other movie theaters around. There's one right here in Driftveil. If I really want to see Mystery Doors of the Magical Land right away, I can go to one of them."

"The experience of seeing a movie at the Pokéstar Theater isn't like anything else. That's why I feel bad. I'll never forget the feeling of seeing a movie there for the first time as a kid… that's why I even decided to become an actor in the first place. It changed my life. I feel bad that I'm preventing you from experiencing that."

"Like I said, don't worry about it." In an attempt to help Trevor feel better, Rosalie reached out and grasped his hand, then smiled at him. "Once we beat Team Plasma and get rid of Ghetsis, there'll be plenty of time for me to see all the movies I want there."

"Speaking of," Ada abruptly interrupted, "I just found something in the news that you two might find interesting…"

"What is it?" Rosalie asked her.

"Let me just read it to you…" Ada leaned in closer to her laptop's screen and started to repeat what was on it. "The Antimony Research Lab will be hosting a function for the media, as well as scholars and scientists from around the world, at which it is expected that new information on the facility's work on alternate energy sources will be presented. Sponsored by the Aether Foundation, the Antimony Research Lab has been conducting experiments on the unique elements found in meteorites, with the goal of finding a new source of energy that is both low-cost and sustainable. The staff of the laboratory did not respond to request for comment, but a statement was provided to Unova News by President Lusamine of the Aether Foundation. She says, "We are very proud of the encouraging work the Antimony Research Lab is showing us. While humanity has made incredible advancements using fossil fuels, it is important to make the transition away from them in order to preserve the environments of humans and Pokémon. We will be providing more information as it is announced by the Antimony Research Laboratory.""

"The unique elements found in meteorites?" Rosalie repeated. "Does that sound like what I think it does to anyone else?"

"So you noticed it, too…" Ada confirmed. "We have to get into that laboratory. If we had the Meteonite research they have, it would send our goals much further ahead…"

"You can say that again." Even though she had been bathing in the adjacent room, Nekou had been listening to the whole thing and by that point stepped out in a loosely-tied bathrobe to talk to her teammates. "Ada, you up for forging me an invite?"

"Absolutely, you know I always am."

"We better contact Giovanni first, though," Rosalie said. "As big an opportunity as this is, we might need help from the other agents for it."

~:~

"That's exactly what happened," Trevor continued explaining. "We called Giovanni and he told us he would have Pierce send Jessie, James and Meowth to help us get the data out of the Antimony Research Lab. It was a good thing we did, too. It wasn't an operation we could have done on our own. Our job? Get in that party and find a way to take everything that lab had."

~:~

Nekou sighed as she surveyed the hall where the function was being held. It wasn't that she disliked parties, far from it. No, this wasn't a party at all. The report Ada read about the event called it a function, and Nekou couldn't think of many more words that would accurately describe it. Function. A word that carried an air of dignity around it, though looking at all the finely dressed people around her, Nekou thought she would call it snobbery instead.

"I hate this," she muttered to herself as she worked her way through the crowd. "All these stuck up…"

"Just focus on why you're there," Rosalie said to her. An image of the scientist was projected onto the inside of the masquerade mask Nekou traded her sun hat for. "If the lab is doing a presentation on their work, their people should have to have access devices on them. Get as close to the high-level staff as you can and we should be able to do the rest remotely, then pass it off to Jessie, James and Meowth so they can break into the research wing."

"I'm going to need a spa day to unwind after this." Nekou stopped walking when she noticed a table covered with food and drink on ice. "Or I'll just enjoy this as much as I can while I'm here."

"Welcome, miss," the man running the table said to Nekou when she approached. She flashed him a forced smile in return. "Would you like anything?"

"What is it?"

"Clauncher claw meat imported directly from Ambrette Town," he answered, "and vintage wine made from Bluk Berries harvested at one of Unova's finest wineries."

"Fu-" Remembering that she was still in character, Nekou caught herself and fumbled, managing to say instead, "...fantastic, that sounds fantastic! Of course I want some!"

Nekou eagerly accepted both a small plate of the Clauncher meat and a glass of wine before making her way over to a place where she could sit down. While she ate, she continued to survey the room. Even among all the formally-dressed people there, when she spotted the three men in the dark suits bearing Team Plasma's symbol, they immediately stood out to her.

"Rosalie, you seeing that?" Nekou whispered.

"Crystal clear," Rosalie replied. "They weren't exactly subtle to begin with, but their movements are getting more and more suspicious… they really must be after the Meteonite too."

"I think you're onto something. First the museum and now here? You don't think they figured us out already, do you?"

"It's not impossible that they might have." Rosalie shut her eyes. "We can't give up our mission now, though. We can beat them."

"I hope you're right about that."

Just then, the lights in the hall dimmed, and a spotlight went up on the stage at the head of the room. The people in the crowd, who had been talking among themselves, all turned to watch as a bearded man in a lab coat stepped out and walked to a podium that had been set up on the stage. He adjusted the microphone in front of himself, fixed his large green glasses and ran a hand through his thick blonde hair before finally addressing the crowd.

"Thank you all for coming here tonight," he said to them. "I am Faba Antimony, the illustrious leader of this laboratory. All of you, you will be the first to receive the honor of knowing what we are developing here. Wicke, my dear, if you please."

Faba extended his arm towards another scientist who had entered the stage, a woman wearing pink-framed glasses. She nodded to him and then tapped the screen of the tablet she held in her arms. In response to her prompting, multiple projections of green windows bearing graphs, diagrams and other types of data materialized in the center of the stage.

"Imagine a world where a single object could provide enough energy to run not an entire city, but an entire region," Faba declared, urging his audience to share in his fantasy. "Not only is this world often cruel to its inhabitants, its inhabitants are not kind to it either. Our ever-increasing population places ever more strident demands upon our society to provide for them, but we do not treat our planet with the respect it deserves. In order to provide for ourselves, we pollute, we consume, we destroy. And when we do, Mother Nature punishes us, lashing out by taking away the environments we need to survive and bringing down her harsh judgment in the form of extreme weather and natural calamity. Looking into the far-flung future, this situation is truly not sustainable. That is why, with the assistance of the Aether Foundation, my Antimony Research Lab is here to act as a line of defense for the survival of both the planet and those living here!"

Unable to stand still behind the podium any longer, Faba disconnected the microphone from it and walked closer to the holographic projects. The eyes of the crowd followed his every movement, and Nekou was careful to watch him as she continued drinking so everything would be recorded.

"We must end our reliance on fuels that are torn from the earth and then end up fouling the atmosphere," Faba continued, "thus warming our planet and causing ever more extreme weather. Environmental destruction threatens the survival of both humanity and Pokémon, and both I and the Aether Foundation believe that this must be stopped. I… well, not just myself. My dear Wicke and my son are working here too… the personnel of the Antimony Research Lab are working on a new energy source that will give us the ability to end our reliance on planet-destroying fossil fuels. This," Faba said as he pointed at a projection that overtook the others, "is the Meteonite. It is made of an element that we currently believe is not found natively on this planet. In Unova's ancient past, it is said this was used as an artificial sun following a devastating eruption of Reversal Mountain. That age is long past, but it is time for the modern era to learn a lesson from it. Using the Meteonite today, we will be able to replace all of Unova's power plants with a clean, limitless energy source! This evening is a celebration of the bright future the Meteonite holds for not only Unova but the entire world, so please, enjoy what we have brought you. This celebration will be only the first night of many."

~:~

"So Faba, Wicke and their son started mingling with the crowd and talking abo-" Trevor cut himself off with a sudden laugh he couldn't suppress. Turning to Matt, he said, "Oh, right, their son. You're gonna laugh when you hear who it is."

"It's someone I know?"

"Someone you know from quite recently, no less." Trevor took a deep breath, deliberately drawing out his revelation. "It's Colress."

Matt couldn't help but gasp at stare at Trevor for a moment, his uncovered eye going as wide as it possibly could. Yet as the initial surprise wore off, he simply took off one of his gloves and put his metal hand against his face.

"It all makes perfect sense now," he said to himself with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Anabel asked him. "Who is that?"

"Back in Ecruteak City, at the Battle Hall, he was one of the other competitors. I lost to him because Cordelia didn't have any moves that would really work on his Klinklang. Thing is, he's really a member of Polaris who was working with Ghetsis, but also, when I ran into him he asked me about Nekou using the Jane Hammond alias. Now I get it. He knew all along who she was, what Trevor's describing now must be when they met…"

"Wait, no, this doesn't make sense," Mitsumi interrupted. "Team Plasma members were at the function, Colress worked there on Meteonite research… it all implies that there's a connection between Team Plasma and someone who's a high-up in the Aether Foundation, plus this is much earlier than any other known link between Colress and Team Plasma."

"I know how it sounds, but that isn't the case," Zinzolin told her. "Faba never had anything to do with us, and Colress didn't join Team Plasma until after this."

"Unless you're lying to cover up the truth," Mitsumi shot back.

"Why would I do that when it would risk my deal with you? Lying to you after telling you this much would be a fatal mistake." Zinzolin raised his finger for emphasis. "No, it's very simple. While N was on his journey through Unova, Ghetsis tasked the rest of us with finding new ideas and recruits to bring into our fold. It is true that we were looking for the Meteonite and ended up recruiting Colress after the incident in Castelia City ended. I'll even add something new - by the time of the event at the Antimony Research Lab, Team Plasma already knew that Team Rocket had come from Kanto and was up to something in Unova. We knew that because we were monitoring police activity and found out about a report filed by the Officer Jenny of Striaton City."

Mitsumi hesitated, but ultimately sat back in her chair. "Fine," she bitterly said. "Go on."

"I guess that means Team Plasma only knew about Jessie, James and Meowth," Trevor mused before continuing his story. "So anyway, Faba, Wicke and Colress… all three of them went to talk to the people attending the event. Matt, you already guessed it, but Colress was the one Nekou ended up targeting."

~:~

A group of people had clustered around Colress, filling the space between him and Nekou, but she still was able to clearly see him. She could hear him going on and on about the research he was involved in, praising himself and his intelligence all the while, but she cared little for the particulars.

"Tell me I can go after him," she asked Rosalie through their remote connection. "Tell me I can go after him instead of Faba."

"If he, Faba and Wicke are running the show over there, they should all have access to the lab's systems," Rosalie replied. "Go wild."

"Oh, I am going to enjoy this one." Nekou slowly licked her lips while considering exactly how to approach Colress. An answer came to her quite quickly, so she took a deep breath to focus her mind, adopted the phony smile of her persona, and pushed her way through the throng around him. "That's fascinating, Mister Colress! Only someone as smart as you could come up with something like that!"

What she said had little with whatever Colress had been talking about, and Nekou knew it. But what she also knew just from watching him for a few minutes was that he was someone easily manipulated via his vanity and ego.

"That's Doctor Colress to you," he smugly said to her, "but I'll forgive that little error of yours because you're right, my dear."

"Got him. Like a Venomoth to a flame." Keeping her true thoughts to herself, Nekou smiled sweetly at Colress. "My mistake. It's only natural someone involved in such difficult work would have a doctorate. Where'd you graduate from?"

"Oh?" Colress put his hands in the pockets of his lab coat and turned to fully face Nekou, then adjusted his glasses before he spoke again. "I graduated from Opelucid University. Your curiosity has me intrigued, though."

"I'm from Malie University in Alola myself, that's why I asked." Nekou extended her hand to Colress. "Jane Hammond. My work is on documenting rare artifacts from all over the world."

"Ah, another academic!" Any hesitation Colress had about the situation evaporated at the presence of someone of comparable intelligence, and he eagerly shook her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Hammond! I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about our work on the Meteonite for your research. As long as you cite me, of course!"

"You don't have to worry about that at all," Nekou assured him with yet another false smile. "Can the Meteonite really be used as an artificial sun?"

"Everything we've found says yes! With our small samples of the element, we've observed a type of energy that reacts with the energy within the earth itself. Our experiments have shown that its energy has comparable effects to those of real sunlight. That's consistent with all the evidence from the time of Reversal Mountain's eruption we've found, too. Not only were the ancient Unovan people able to get the necessary benefits sunlight provides from it, its energy was so great that it even was able to affect the weather. The Meteonite was able to stave off the prolonged winter that the eruption threatened to force upon Unova! Incredible, no?"

"Yes, that is incredible…"

Nekou was already actively reviewing all the potential uses Team Rocket could have for the Meteonite in her mind when a text transmission from Rosalie appeared on the lenses of her mask.

"Detecting an access device. Unstable signal. Get closer."

Luckily for her, Nekou already knew exactly how to approach the situation this change brought on. She took a long sip from the glass of wine in her hand - her second - then groaned and wiped her forehead with the back of her free hand.

"Whew…" she sighed, "...your father wasn't kidding with this stuff. I'm feeling a little woozy, so how about we go somewhere a little more quiet and keep talking?"

"That's a fair request, my dear." Looking over his shoulder, Colress said to the others who he had been boasting to, "Sorry, but I will be spending some time with my new acquaintance for now. I'll be back."

Colress took Nekou by the hand and led her to a nearby doorway, which allowed them into a long hallway lined with potted plants. Once they were out of the crowded hall, he let her hand go so they could walk side-by-side.

"What about what your father said?" Nekou asked him. "Is there really a way for the Meteonite to provide enough energy to power all of Unova?"

"Not with the small samples of it that we have," Colress explained. "There are bigger ones out there, including the one that the ancient Unovans used as their artificial sun. Once we get that, we'll change the world!"

"Do you know where that one is?"

Colress shut his eyes and put his hands in his pockets again. "Unfortunately, not yet. A survey we conducted using the energy of the small Meteonite we have indicated that it might be somewhere in the Desert Resort, but who knows right now where its exact location there is."

"So we aren't the only ones who know about that," Nekou thought. "Sounds like it'll be tough to track down."

"You should know, being from Malie City and all. That's not too far from Haina Desert and I know very well the reputation that place has."

"Got a lock on the access card, but it's weak. See if you can get closer."

The instant Rosalie's message flashed across Nekou's lenses, she knew what she had to do. She could see a coat room with its door left open only a few feet away. That would suit her needs perfectly.

Before Colress even realized what was happening, Nekou grabbed his arm and pulled him into the coat room. She kicked the door closed behind her and pushed Colress against the wall, keeping him from moving by pinning his arms down.

"Now what is this all of the sudden?" Colress's wry grin made clear that he already knew the answer very well. "Something tells me artifacts aren't the only thing you're interested in studying."

"No." Nekou didn't look him directly in the eyes. "I like that brain of yours. I like what you've got in there. I want it."

"Is that so."

Nekou licked her lips again and pushed herself against Colress. "That sure is so," she whispered, running her finger around his curl of blue hair as she slowly moved her face closer to his. "There isn't anything I enjoy more than someone who knows a lot. And you do know a lot, I can already tell."

"You aren't wrong about that, my dear…"

While Colress talked, another message from Rosalie appeared on Nekou's mask. "We got it. Pull out so the raid team can go in."

"...so why don't you take that mask off so I can get a look at that face?"

"Close your eyes," Nekou replied in a breathy voice. "I have a surprise for you."

Colress did exactly as he was told, an act Nekou couldn't help but roll her eyes at. He had no idea that she was pointing not her face but her arm at him until a cloud of orange power sprayed over him from the device on her wrist. In an instant he was overcome by a violent coughing fit, his spasms forcing him off the wall and into one of the coat racks. His legs quickly failed, sending him bowled over on the floor as he continued to cough.

"What did you do to me?!" he yelled at Nekou, who was straightening out her dress as if nothing had happened. His voice was quiet and strained as a result of the powder's effects.

"Stun Spore," she answered indifferently. "Don't worry, you're not gonna die. You'll just be spending some time by yourself in here, and I'll be blunt, it ain't gonna be fun."

"Why?" Colress choked. Speaking was becoming more of a struggle as the paralysis took hold. "Why would you do this?"

"I did it because I do what I want. That's how I live." She looked down on him, though because of her mask, he couldn't see the harsh gaze she wore. "There isn't anything else worth doing in life when you get down to it. When that Stun Spore wears off, try learning something from that."

With that, Nekou went to the door and left the coat room, reassuming her false persona as she went. She gently closed the door behind her, leaving Colress there to remain hidden.

-:-

Meanwhile, outside the lab, Jessie, James and Meowth ran along one of the walls surrounding its perimeter. They'd received all the key data copied from Colress's access card, and armed with it, they were ready to carry out their own part of the mission.

When they stopped, Jessie turned to James. "We're all set," she said to him, giving him a thumbs up.

"Right," he replied, returning the gesture.

Nothing more needed to be said, so the trio threw ropes with grappling hooks attached over the wall and used them to scale it. Once they were atop the barrier, they put on high-tech goggles that revealed the extensive grid of security lasers spread out before them.

"Hmm… just look at all those sensors."

Jessie's words were unmistakably true, in fact, they might have been an understatement. The wing of the facility where actual research was carried out was blanketed with security devices, combining together to create a net with barely any space between its lines.

"Trip just one of those and we'll set off the alarm," James noted.

"That's tight security!" Meowth added.

"Which goes to show you how valuable the data they're protecting is," Jessie said with a smile. "Ah!"

With graceful, smooth motions, Jessie leaped down off the wall to land within its perimeter, then deftly worked her way through the web of sensors. James and Meowth quickly followed, and within moments they reached the building. Using a card programmed with Colress's information, James was able to open the doors of the lab's research wing, leaving only some more lasers between them and their goal. Most would be caught by the sensors, but the training the trio had gave them the ability to easily pass them all by.

Before long, they arrived at their destination - a spacious air vent directly above the room where the lab's main servers were located. James moved one of the tiles, allowing himself and his teammates to look down directly into the chamber.

"Looks like this is packed with sensors too," Jessie observed.

"Then let's give 'em our little surprise!"

Meowth's suggestion prompted a grin from James. "Right," he said as he took out a small black cube. "Here goes."

A tiny propeller emerged from the top of the cube, lifting it out of James's hand and down into the server room. It carefully navigated around the sensors and landed on the array's central unit, where it deployed a connection to the system while the propeller folded into a transmission antenna.

"Excellent," James said. During the probe's journey, he'd set up a laptop to manage the download, and managed the infiltration with Jessie while Meowth kept watch over the room.

"Connection?" Jessie asked Meowth.

"I'm on it," replied the Pokémon.

"Password protected, as suspected." A green window with a field for entering the password appeared on the laptop's screen, and James chuckled to himself at how easy the entire thing was. "Not a problem."

James entered the access codes stolen from Colress into the terminal, prompting a rain of glyphs to zoom by as within mere seconds, any resistance the server's security could have put up melted away.

"We have access!" he exclaimed. A single tap of a key brought all the same data Faba had displayed at his speech up on the laptop's screen.

"That's the Meteonite data?" asked the smirking Jessie.

"Correct!" The data windows moved to the perimeter of the screen, and a status bar appeared in the space in the middle. "Copying now."

-:-

The next day, Pierce was walking down the dark tunnels of an abandoned part of Unova's subway system. He'd just finished meeting with Jessie, James and Meowth in order to collect the device containing the Meteonite data, and was on his way to give Giovanni a report.

"I'm impressed at how good they really are," he thought to himself, looking down at the cube in his hand. "Who would have known three like them could be shaped into such exemplary agents?"

As he neared a track switch, Pierce stopped and surveyed his surroundings. He was so deep into the disused region of the subway system that he reasoned only people wanting to hide themselves would bother going that far. Of course, that worked perfectly for him.

He reached into his trench coat and retrieved a small disc, which he set on the signal box next to the tracks. It activated when he pressed a button on its side, producing a hologram of Giovanni with Stacia at his side.

"Giovanni, sir, I have obtained the data about the Meteonite retrieved from the Antimony Research Lab. I'll begin the transmission now."

Pierce held up the cube and pressed two buttons on opposite sides of it at the same time. A few seconds later, Giovanni looked away from the camera for a brief time.

"We are receiving it now," Giovanni confirmed. "Pierce, for your next mission I want you to arrange for Jessie, James and Meowth to receive a dummy Meteonite, which they are to replace the Meteonite on display in Nacrene Museum with. Some of our other agents within Unova already possess it, so with the information you possess you will be able to arrange the drop. I am sending Dr. Zager to work with you directly in Unova. Once those three replace the Meteonite in the museum with the dummy, I want you and Zager to pick them up so that Zager can examine it himself."

"Understood, sir."

-:-

"We're finally in Nacrene City!"

A few more days had passed since Pierce's last transmission to Giovanni. In that time, a group of three young people made their way to Nacrene City. The boy in the middle of the group, who wore a blue-and-white jacket and had his Pikachu riding on his shoulder, couldn't help himself from shouting out his excitement.

"Look at all these cool buildings!" one of his companions, a girl whose Axew rode in her voluminous violet hair, said.

"They're actually unused warehouses," explained the third member of the group, a taller young man wearing a suit with a bow tie that matched his green hair, "which the city leases to artists. And because of that, Nacrene City is known as the city of art."

"Wow, there's beautiful art everywhere you look!" the girl exclaimed while looking at a display in the window of the art gallery they'd stopped in front of.

"The city is also admired for its style, so it's the city of admiration too."

"Well as far as I'm concerned, you can call it what you want," the boy with the Pikachu said to his friend, "but I came here to Nacrene City for one reason. A Gym battle!"

"The city's museum just happens to be the site of the Nacrene Gym!"

"Yeah?" This surprised the boy, but he never stopped smiling as he talked to his finely-dressed companion. "How awesome is it to have a Gym inside a museum? Let's go there now!" He pumped his fist into the air, a gesture his Pikachu matched with a cheerful cry.

However, as they walked off, they remained unaware that they were being watched. Nekou, still in her disguise, had been standing in the entrance of the gallery and eavesdropping on their conversation. Having heard everything, she took out her phone and placed a call.

"You three," she said into the device once the recipient of the call picked it up, "those kids you call twerps are heading over to Nacrene Museum right now. You should wait to head there for a little longer."

"We're in no hurry," Jessie responded from the other end. "So don't worry about it."

"Our mapping program is still working on the museum's layout anyway," James added. "There's no need to rush."

~:~

"Wait, stop," Mitsumi interrupted. "Something about this is bothering me."

"Oh? What is it?" Trevor asked her.

Before laying out her concern, Mitsumi glanced around the table. Silva, Zinzolin and Anabel were all paying just as much attention as she was, but Matt was sitting perfectly still, staring at the table and lost in thought over what he was hearing.

Finally, Mitsumi took a breath. "Why did you even continue this operation if you knew Team Plasma and Polaris were there to oppose you?"

"If we were just trying to gain power, then maybe we would have left and tried something easier," Trevor admitted, "but once we knew Team Plasma was on the hunt for the Meteonite too, we had another reason to pursue it. You see, Team Rocket wants to keep things the way they are. The only change we want to make is to be the ones in control. Team Plasma and Polaris, though… they want to destroy this world's order. Ghetsis just wants to be a king, but the bigger presence of Polaris behind him… let's just say that if Polaris destroys this world, there won't be anything left for you to stop us from taking over. It's about survival and that puts us all on the same side."

"That certainly tracks with what Looker told us," Silva whispered to Mitsumi. "About Polaris and Dark Matter and everything."

"I can't disagree with you there," Mitsumi agreed. She turned back to Trevor and told him, "Keep going with your story."

"Alright. So Jessie, James and Meowth had to take a day to finish mapping out the museum and wait for an opening to carry out their mission. That next night, after the museum closed, they got that chance."

~:~

With the museum closed for the night, Jessie, James and Meowth knew the time was right to make their move. Jessie and Meowth went inside to carry out the actual replacement of the Meteonite, while James stayed behind in their truck to assist the operation.

"R1 to R2, R1 to R2," he said to his teammates from his place at a computer terminal in the back of the truck. "Hacking successful. I've taken command of every one of the building's controls. I can arm or disarm the security system at will."

Inside the building, Jessie was walking calmly down a hall toward the Meteonite exhibit with Meowth at her side, both of them wearing the same goggles that helped them in the previous infiltration. She carried in her hand a small case containing the fake Meteonite.

"Understood," she said. "Let's continue with our mission."

The pair reached the opening where the hallway connected to the exhibit room they were searching for, and stopped before entering it. Jessie surveyed the room and activated her goggles, revealing all the security sensors surrounding each of the exhibits. Before long, she spotted the case where the Meteonite was held.

"Target confirmed. Deactivate system."

"Consider it done," James replied. "I'll give you twenty seconds."

"Ten seconds would be more than enough," Meowth said smugly.

"Right. Proceeding. Three, two, one…"

As James counted down, Jessie and Meowth got ready to run.

"...go."

The security sensors deactivated at James's prompting, leaving the exhibits unguarded. Jessie and Meowth rushed in, rolling the case containing the false Meteonite alongside them as they rushed toward the real one. The case opened up by itself, giving Jessie access to the dummy Meteonite while Meowth got in front of her and leapt up to take off the glass covering the real one. Jessie followed by acrobatically jumping over the exhibit, snatching the real Meteonite and setting the fake one in its place in the blink of an eye. Meowth finished by dropping back down to replace the glass, and they arrived at the other hand of the chamber in time to put their prize into the case as soon as it stopped rolling.

They took a moment to watch the lasers go back on in satisfaction before turning and leaving.

~:~

"Once we obtained the Meteonite from Nacrene Museum, the next step was to confirm it was what the Antimony Research Lab claimed it was," Trevor further explained. "For that purpose, Pierce brought the three of them aboard Dr. Zager's helicopter, where he has a mobile laboratory. As soon as they all met up, Zager put that Meteonite from the museum under a beam of the energy from the Dreamyard."

"And what happened?" Anabel asked.

"The analysis definitively confirmed that the Meteonite was made of an ancient element not native to this planet, as the lab's work had indicated. That wasn't the only thing, though, oh no. It also displayed a potent reaction to the energy showering it, which made very clear just how its power could be used. Armed with all of that knowledge, only one step remained - going to the Desert Resort and finding it. And that wouldn't take long."

~:~

The Team Rocket helicopter flew slowly over the dry, craggy landscape of the desert between Castelia City and Nimbasa City, surveying the area using a signal from a satellite dish attached to its bottom. Inside, the small Meteonite had been put into a container so it could act as the signal's source. Pierce and Jessie were watching the piece of rock, while James and Meowth sat at two of the helicopter's computers.

"Sensor readings?" Jessie asked.

"None yet," answered James.

Finding himself somewhat impatient for results, Pierce turned to Zager and questioned him, "Well, Dr. Zager?"

Standing at a computer of his own, Zager answered, "Excellent, if we're able to maintain these coordinates."

"Coordinates holdin' at one-two-one-six," Meowth reported from his terminal.

"We've picked up something!" James exclaimed.

Pierce looked up at the mobile lab's main monitor, where the flow of energy in the area was all being focused into one spot on the map. "Oh my…" he uttered, the weight of the moment robbing him of any further words.

"Yes, I've found it!" Zager excitedly announced to the others. "The Meteonite!"

The helicopter came to a stop over one particular part of the Desert Resort, pointing the dish squarely at a point where, deep underground, a huge Meteonite awaited.

-:-

Less than a day later, another Team Rocket aircraft was on its way toward Unova. This one was much bigger and served a very different purpose than Zager's helicopter. It was Giovanni's personal jet, a silvery shuttle emblazoned with the Team Rocket logo on the sides and front.

In his plush quarters, Giovanni sat in a chair as luxurious as the one in his office. He was calmly thinking about what would happen when he landed until he was interrupted by the appearance of a Team Rocket grunt on a screen in front of him.

"Update. Arrival in the Unova region imminent."

"Very good." Giovanni dismissed the grunt, then leaned back in his chair, smirked, and laughed to himself. "The Meteonite… exclusively for the power and glory of Team Rocket!"

END of CHAPTER 23