Outsiders (ZnT/Pokémon Reverse Summon)
Season 1, Episode 16, Chapter 3

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The cavern was silent and tense as both pairs of trainers stared at each other. No one said a word nor moved a muscle. Even if they wanted to, they couldn't. All of them were too flabbergasted to even try. How else would one respond after seeing themselves? Louise and Saito desperately wanted to dismiss what they were seeing as a trick of the light, a hallucination, or even just another example of the highly reflective crystals which gave Reflection Cave its name. But the bruise on Saito's chest erased all doubts. He was hit with magic, and the only person he knew that could cast magic was Louise, and the girl opposite them looked exactly like her. The only difference was the outfit she was wearing, which was, indeed, a Team Rocket uniform that replaced the red logo with a rainbow-colored version. The boy opposite him was the exact same, and it threw both his and Louise's mind for a loop.

"You're not Louise Vallière," Louise growled, keeping her wand aimed squarely at the imposter. "I'm Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, not you."

"And I'm Saito Hiraga," Saito added. From the corner of his eye, he saw his Pokémon quickly glancing between him and their doppelgängers, and they were just as lost as he was. Poor Esprit and Tanuki looked like they were about to have an aneurism.

"So it would seem," the other Louise calmly replied, aiming her own wand at Louise as well. Saito and Louise tried their best to ignore the fact that Louise's voice came out of her mouth, but neither of them could. Neither mage moved to cast anything, but it was clear that the first sign of movement would send the spells flying.

"Lower the wand, now," Louise ordered, narrowing her eyes.

"You first," the other Louise countered, and neither seemed willing to back down.

"No, I don't think I will. Not when I'm face to face with an imposter trying to frame me and my best friend," Louise insisted, but the doppelgänger shook her head.

"I am no imposter, although I do admit I can understand why you may think that," the other Louise admitted. Louise glanced at Esprit, who shakily looked up at her trainer and nodded.

'She's…she's telling the truth,' Esprit announced. Tanuki then quietly barked at her, and Esprit translated, 'Tanuki says their Auras match yours exactly. Saito, Louise, Derflinger, they're…they're you.'

Louise and Saito looked at Esprit and Tanuki incredulously, then slowly swiveled their heads back towards their doppelgängers. Trying his best to remain calm, Saito asked, "How is this possible?"

"The crystals…" Derflinger muttered, his eye widening as he glanced at one that stretched from the ceiling to the floor of the adjacent cave wall. "The legend was true?"

"Yes, it was," the other Derflinger answered, his voice sounding rougher and with a noticeable edge and lack of joviality.

"Wait, wait, wait," Saito cut in, raising his hands up. "Derf, are you saying that they're us from…another world?"

"World, universe, timeline, take your pick," the other Saito answered, now breathing more normally. "Hell if I understand it. Point is, we're not from around here."

Louise narrowed her eyes. She wanted to disregard that statement, but then she thought back to how she arrived to Kalos. After a moment, she sighed and admitted, "I suppose the existence of a…multiverse isn't exactly an alien concept to us."

"No, it is not," the other Louise remarked. "Tell me, how did you arrive to Kalos?"

"I attempted to summon my Familiar and kept accidentally trying to summon one from Earth," Louise answered. "Arceus didn't like that and intervened, bringing me to the Hall of Origin to be…interrogated. After he refused to let me complete my summoning, I protested and challenged him, after which he sent me here to prove my worth in a year's time. I arrived in Lumiose City, where I met Professor Sycamore who kindly took me in. You?"

"The same," the other Louise replied, her face softening. "Being ripped from our homes was…an unpleasant experience."

"That it was," Louise admitted, then glanced at Saito and her Pokémon. "But it hasn't been all bad."

"I suppose so," the other Louise said. The atmosphere seemed to cool slightly, but neither party fully relaxed.

"Mind telling us what you're doing here?" Saito demanded.

Their alternate universe counterparts glanced at each other then at Esprit, Tanuki, and finally themselves. It was clear to everyone that trying to lie would be a fruitless endeavor. Not only would Esprit be able to tell if any of them were lying, it would be nearly impossible to lie to themselves.

"The Boss was interested in these crystals, for obvious reasons," the other Saito answered, gesturing to himself and his Louise and Derflinger. "He sent us in to investigate and find out if they could be successfully harnessed."

"Harnessed for what?" Louise asked, narrowing her eyes.

"And who's the Boss?" Saito added.

"I'm afraid we're not at liberty to say at the moment," the other Louise replied.

"Is that so?" Saito asked, then looked at the rainbow-colored Team Rocket uniforms they were wearing. He then asked, "Let me guess: you two work for your world's Team Rocket?"

"Don't be ridiculous," the other Louise shot back, shaking her head. "Neither Saito nor I are aligned with those petty criminals."

"Oh really? So I guess wearing their uniform is just a fashion statement?" Louise asked in clear disbelief.

"No," Louise's doppelgänger replied then gestured towards herself with her free hand. "These uniforms signify our allegiance to Team Rainbow Rocket."

"Team Rainbow Rocket? What, is that some kind of splinter group?" Saito asked, fishing for information. He had researched Team Rocket a fair bit over the years, but never once had he heard of a Team Rainbow Rocket. At the very least the coloration now made sense, if only somewhat.

"Splinter group? Hah!" the other Saito laughed and shook his head. "Nah, Team Rainbow Rocket is much more than that. So much more."

"Enlighten us, then," Derflinger ordered as he removed himself from has scabbard, "because I fail to see how a simple name and uniform change makes you any different."

"Motivation and scale, one could say," the other Derflinger answered, but the first merely scoffed.

"That's what they all say," Derflinger declared, narrowing his eye as he stared his other down. "People like Team Rocket, Rainbow Rocket, Flare, that Reconquista group Louise talks about, they're all the same. Same now as they were thousands of years ago. They make claims about them being stronger, better, purer than everyone else, so they have the right to run over those who stand in their way."

Louise and Saito nodded in agreement, but to their surprise the other Derflinger merely chuckled. He then said, "Ah, I see now. You're still idealistic, aren't you? Still clinging to the belief that people are good and that things like honor and justice matter."

Derflinger narrowed his eyes, then replied, "I'm not blind to people's darker impulses, but for the most part? Yeah, I am. Generally, people are good, and in my experience the good and honorable get farther in life than those without."

"Then you're a fool," Derflinger's other declared, surprising the ancient Honedge. The other Derflinger seemed almost incensed as he continued, beginning to rant, "How can you say that honor matters after everything you've seen? We're thousands of years old, and I can't even count the number of times ruthlessness and pragmaticism triumphed over honor and justice. Those only matter if everyone plays by the rules, which doesn't happen. I've seen kingdoms fall and empires rise, reaching heights none ever thought possible, only to fall and make way for new ones. Those ideals you still cling to are nice and all, but in the end I'm done standing up for something so ephemeral and pointless."

Derflinger narrowed his eye as he stared down his jaded counterpart. Louise and Saito, on the other hand, gasped in surprise as they glanced at the other Honedge. It was then that Louise's doppelgänger spoke up, wanting to the add to the conversation.

"I think I'm beginning to understand the relationship between this world and my own," she admitted, then narrowed her eyes and asked, "Tell me, Louise, what was life at the academy for you?"

Louise shifted her attention back towards her other, then replied, "It was…difficult."

"Yes, yes it was," the other Louise admitted, nodding along. "The mockery, the bullying, all because of things we had no control over. Tristainian society was built around magical prowess and ability, and try as we might, traditional forms of magic never worked for us. All because of something we were born with. After all we've seen, I think you'll agree that's a very backwards way of thinking."

Louise stared at her counterpart, then nodded. "Yes, it is."

"I hated my classmate, you know," the other Louise continued. "At first, it was simple jealousy. 'How come their magic worked when mine didn't?,' I'd ask myself. For a time, I convinced myself that if I just kept trying, I'd get my magic to work and they'd stop, perhaps even come to like me."

Her voice lowered, and she darkly said, "Obviously, that didn't happen. Neither of those things were going to happen, especially the latter. In their eyes, I was an embarrassment, a weakness in the inherent superiority of the nobility. One that needed to be shoved away as fast as possible. Even if I got my magic to work 'properly,' it was clear that they were never going to respect me. The bullying wasn't going to stop, and my teachers had all but given up on me like everyone else, so they weren't going to do anything to stop my torment. After I realized that, I decided I no longer wanted everyone's respect for they didn't deserve it. They never showed me any, and I figured that if I couldn't get them to respect me, I'd get them to fear me."

Louise's eyes widened in horrified realization while her dark counterpart smiled wickedly. "I learned a good lesson that day. Turns out that careful applications of force, and liberal use of my family name, is a very good motivator. No one bullied me after that."

"Founder…" Louise mumbled, knowing exactly what the other Louise was implying. After all, there had been numerous times when she had thought about blowing away those who mocked her. Sometimes she nearly gave in, but always managed to stop herself. Clearly, this Rainbow Louise did not, and set her down a very dark path.

"While I can understand fighting back," Saito admitted, balling his fists, "I don't understand how that led to you two joining a criminal organization. Mind explaining that one to me?"

"It's not like we intended to," the other Saito replied, shrugging nonchalantly. "Don't get me wrong, Team Rocket's cool. How they can just go in, do what they want, and no one to tell them otherwise, and when your parents keep holding you back to 'keep you safe' while everybody you know is starting their journeys, you really want a taste of that kind of freedom. Especially after those ten-year-olds kept beating me. You know how humiliating that is?"

"Yes, I do," Saito admitted, not wanting to think about the times he lost to children much younger than he was, or to his peers who had been traveling for much longer than he was despite being the same age. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to join Team Rocket."

"Hey, the Boss approached us, not the other way around," the other Saito insisted. "After we kicked Team Flare's ass at Ambrette Town. At first, we said no, but when Team Flare attacked Cyllage not too long after, he stepped in and helped us fight them off. We saw just how powerful he was, the team he had assembled under him. After that, he offered us access to his resources, networks, support, training, and more if we joined him, and after seeing what he was capable of, how could we say no?"

Derflinger, Louise, and Saito stared at their doppelgängers silently as they contemplated their words. Then the other Derflinger added, "I'm pretty certain the Boss wouldn't mind having you three join up, too. This way at least you'll be on the winning side when everything goes down."

They narrowed their eyes and shook their heads. Louise then said, "I think we'll pass."

"Shame," the other Louise remarked and sighed. Then her eyes narrowed and cast, "Rock Smash."

"Shit!" Saito cursed as he and Louise dived away. A series of explosions went off on the ceiling above them, sending chunks of rock falling. Before any of them could crush the trainers, though, Esprit grabbed them with telekinesis, holding them up in midair.

More explosions followed, forcing the trainers and their Pokémon into cover. Once they reached relative safety, Louise began trading explosions back with her counterpart, shattering rock and crystals all around them. The latter caused the Rainbow Rocket members to curse, telling them that they clearly intended to make their escape through one.

"Ah, to Hell with this!" the Rainbow Saito spat as he released his Pokémon, Rainbow Louise doing the same.

'Oh, that is freaky,' Esprit muttered as she focused her attention on the other Esprit, whose face held a wickedness that wouldn't have looked out of place on Maindo. Speaking of, to her surprise she saw that Maindo had a counterpart as well, one who looked rather calm and composed despite the chaos around them.

'Huh, maybe this Maindo's nice?' she asked herself as Rainbow Maindo looked at them. Then, when Tanuki poked his head out from behind cover, Rainbow Maindo's face broke out into a cruel grin as the Kirlia held his hand aloft. Tanuki then felt his throat constrict and he found it hard to believe, and others could only watch in horror as Rainbow Maindo began to laugh manically.

'Oh no, he's just an even bigger asshole,' Esprit muttered, then prepared to strike back only for Maindo's Pokéball, still strapped to Saito's belt, suddenly open and release the familiar Kirlia. He looked confused as he swiveled his head around, trying to make heads or tails of what was going on, while at the same offhandedly firing a Shadow Ball at his counterpart that forced him to drop Tanuki.

Rainbow Maindo quickly picked himself up and snarled, then formed a Shadow Ball of his own just as Maindo turned out to see what was going on. To Maindo's surprise, his doppelgänger's was larger and crackling far more energetically than his own, and when it fired it came at him with such speed that he was unable to teleport away. He was flung back into a cavern wall, and he fell into his knees while panting heavily. After a few moments, he looked up at his smirking counterpart incredulously.

'Okay, what the Hell have I been sensing?' he asked, looking around and rubbing his eyes as he looked upon the interdimensional interlopers. Narrowing his eyes, he asked incredulously, 'Is…is that Tanuki? Is that me? Is that me stronger than me? I'LL KILL ME!'

Maindo roared at the top of his lungs as he formed the largest Shadow Ball he could and shot it straight towards Rainbow Maindo. His counterpart blocked it with another Shadow Ball, forming a large cloud of smoke that obscured everyone's view. They coughed and covered their mouths, trying to block out the smoke as it slowly dissipated thanks to Aile blowing it away with flaps of her wings, but when the smoke cleared they saw that Rainbow Louise, Rainbow Saito, Rainbow Derflinger, and their teams had run off in separate directions.

"Dammit!" Saito cursed, trying to figure out what to do when Louise sprinted after her counterpart.

"Go, I got her!" Louise shouted, her team right behind her. Saito looked at her as she went, then saw that Derflinger had given chase to his own counterpart as well.

"Alright," he mumbled, then ran off in the direction of his counterpart. With any luck, he'd be able to catch up to him in time, then they'd finally be able to put a stop to this.

Saito, Louise, nor Derflinger might know exactly what this Team Rainbow Rocket wanted, but it was clear it had to be stopped no matter what. Nothing else mattered, but as they ran, they didn't notice that the crystals began to shimmer and ring.

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Hello, everyone! Here's the latest chapter of Outsiders! Special thanks to Darwin Candidate, Grendel4823, and Yuri Vampire for their help in bringing this chapter to life.

The battle between Saito and Louise against Saito and Louise is officially underway, but not after a hearty exchange of words between both parties to set the tone. As you guys can see, this isn't a case of Evil vs Good. Rather, all three members of the Rainbow trio had slightly different experiences or made different choices that taught them different lessons. Lessons that our heroes could have learned and thus put them on a different path. There'll be more about them learned in the next chapter, but rest assured I think you guys are going to enjoy it.

Now, onto the Q&A:

Steelrain66: A little bit, yeah. As for who Team Rainbow Rocket are, they're Team Rocket from a different dimension that used Ultra Space to reach across into different timelines where the villains won then brought them over to fill their ranks.

KRCustom: You'll have to wait and see.

.549: Yep, we're really excited to showcase this segment. We think it's going to be very interesting.

KiroZen: Well, in a way reality was broken. That's what happens when you deal with multiversal shenanigans.

Slayer of The Abyss: There are so many possibilities, yes, which is why I'm really looking forward to exploring them.

Vein Bloodborne: Oh, things are definitely going to be confusing and strange.

keybladelight: Not necessarily evil, but definitely no longer on the side of good. You'll see more of that soon.

NexusPrime42: They definitely had different experiences and learned different lessons, that's for sure.

Boshwa: Really, that anime episode actually inspired this chapter. We wanted to explore the possibilities of this environment, and Reflection Cave's anime properties offered the ultimate opportunity to do so.

That's it for this time. I hope you all enjoy and let us know what you think!