Cerulean City, on route from the 'Gym' to the Pokémon Center.

Gary had went into the Cerulean Gym with 4 of his most powerful Pokémon; his starter Squirtle, his hyper fang packing Rattata, speedy Pidgeotto that had been his first catch as a Pidgey, and his recently captured Abra...and found himself with no losses and a new gym badge.

Those 'Sensational Sisters' put up a worse fight than Brock; and he was using Pokémon with a quadruple weakness to his Squirtle.

He wasn't even sure he even needed to go to the Pokémon Center after that, and he had heard about this 'Nugget Bridge' place where trainers gathered...that might actually be a challenge.

As it turned out, it was more than that, with the previous victor of the gym having already defeated it.

"Charmeleon, finish this with Rock Tomb!"

The dark red, upright lizard struck his flying type with a barrage of stones, knocking it out.

"Clefairy, Sing!"

All around the pink fairy Pokémon, his yellow and brown Abra was teleporting around, but even with this trick wasn't quite enough as the giant glowing musical notes floated out and impacted the Psychic-type, causing it to fall to the ground, asleep.

"Now, end it with Double-Slap!"

"Clefairy!" One slap to his sleeping Psychic-type.

"Clefairy!" Two slaps.

"Clefairy!" Three slaps.

"Clefairy!" The fourth slap ended his Abra's battle.

"Rattata, use Hyper Fang!" He had called to his purple rodent as it charged at a Pikachu with extended and solid white fangs.

"Block with Thunder Punch!" The Pikachu had covered its right wrist with its left paw, and thrust out said left paw. This caused a yellow ball of electricity to form over said right limb, which impacted into the rat Pokémon's stomach just before it could strike the mouse Pokémon.

Gary could only watch in shock as his Rattata flew through the air and dropped to the ground in yet another K.O, as he found himself on his last hope.

"Squirtle, Water Gun!"

His starter fired the water blast towards the Pikachu, who vanished via a Quick Attack and smashed into his blue turtle Pokémon.

"Thundershock."

ZAP

A burst of electricity struck his first Pokémon, and last hope, at close range and pretty much sizzled him.

As Gary dropped to his knees before his defeated Squirtle, he absently noticed a little girl dressed in a yellow pop up dress who said very enthusiastically:

"Red, that was awesome! You totally kicked his butt!"

Gary forced himself back to his feet, returned Squirtle, and just stared at the trainer who had defeated him, once again asking hoarsely, "Who...who the hell are you!"

"He's Red!" the little girl shouted at him smugly.

"I was asking him, not his cheerleader brat" Gary snorted. Seriously, who went around with their own personal cheerleader? You would have to have a serious ego, and a lack of understanding of reality, to get away with that.

"Why should I bother saying anything when Yellow will do the talking for me?" The identified Red spoke in a controlled tone of voice, as if worried the mere act of him talking could have some sort of danger resulting from it.

As the little girl nodded, she continued explaining, "Red is going to be a Pokémon Master...he's the best trainer I've ever seen. He's going to be a Pokémon Master, a Champion, and he'll leave you so far behind you won't even be left in his dust!"

Gary felt annoyed. The way said little girl went on and on about things reminded him, unpleasantly, of a certain idiot from back home in Pallet Town. She even had the same...whatever those marks were on her face.

"You can't become a Pokémon Master without a full team of Pokémon. I've captured over forty dif..."

"Yeah, and Red's are all better than yours."

Gary felt a growing desire to strangle her little neck, though a fiery glare from the underside of Red's hat stopped him before he could do so.

"Well, does it really matter if you beat me here?" Gary questioned, trying to win back his pride. "You beat the Pewter and Cerulean Gyms too, so I'm taking it you're planning to compete in the Indigo conference? Well, I guess that means I get a chance to utterly humiliate you in front of a national stage then."

Red however ignored him and silently turned and walked away from Gary with Yellow sticking his tongue at him as the two walked up the bridge, perhaps curious about catching a Pokémon on the northern routes.

Gary after noticing their utter indifference to his claims just stalked over to the Pokémon center, fuming.

Rota

Ash and Misty didn't even get to the closest fast food place before they were surrounded by armed guards.

No, that's not a just description...they actually got within sight of a Subway before a group of armed guards burst out of an armored truck on the side of the road, surrounded them and pointed (hopefully) ceremonial spears at them, dressed somewhat akin to Sir Aaron's garb, though lacking in capes, broad hats, gloves and in general looking more modern, though the influence was still quite noticeable to anyone familiar with Sir Aaron (In one timeline anyway, for all Ash knew the guy ran around in a speedo and had wings on his feet this time around).

"You are coming with us," one of the guards told them in very serious tone as Pikachu ran over to the trio, and sparked his cheeks threateningly, until a spear was pointed at him as well.

"Can't we at least eat first?" Misty complained as her stomach loudly growled. In fact, it growled loud enough that a few of the guards looked nervously around, as if they expected something big (like a Rhydon or Onix) to suddenly appear and eat them, and Pikachu quickly darted behind Ash's leg away from the hungry female.

"Er, captain..." said one of the guards who was a tad terrified of having to listen to such hungry growls all the way to the castle, "Should we feed them first?"

"The Duchess's orders were to have these two brought to her at once, and under no circumstances are we to be delayed in this matter," a guard who was probably the guy in charge told the terrified guard seriously, "since we were not told to use force to bring them in-“

"This isn't force?!" Misty rightfully shouted at this remark.

"They are not criminals, so it is likely they will be fed there," the head guard finished.

"Er, why does the Duchess want to see us?" Ash inquired, assuming the Duchess was Lady Ilene from his old timeline.

"Only she and the great Lord Helix knows boy," the head guard told him gruffly as he and his men escorted the two bloodliners by spear point into the armored car.

"Great lord what?" Ash muttered to himself in confusion as they were 'seated for a pleasant drive'.

Inside Cameran Palace

The good news was that they were in fact given food once they were in the palace.

Bad news...they still had absolutely no idea why they had been brought in by spear point like that.

And now, they were alone in the throne room with just Lady Ilene (Or Duchess Ilene perhaps?), her ever present maid, and a large painting of Sir Aaron on his Pidgeot, though this paining did in fact have Lucario in it, so that was either a good sign (Lucario being a recognized hero/ he was not 'betrayed' by Sir Aaron, etc), or a bad sign (Lucario was dead just the same as Aaron).

He'd probably find it out quickly, of course. Things always seemed to be that way with him.

It was, convenient, if at times weird.

"I apologize for the...exact interpretation of my orders," Ilene began, "it would appear that I could have phrased their orders better."

She stood from her throne and was handed a familiar staff from the maid.

The staff of Sir Aaron/ Lucario's timeline 1 prison.

She pointed the staff, first at Misty, then at Ash, at which point the staff began to glow a rich blue that filled the entire room with light, in a manner similar to the color of an aura.

"So, you are the one, I just wanted to be sure first," she stated to Ash, who looked at her in confusion. "After all, it is a monumental day when, after thousands of years, an heir of Sir Aaron has returned to Rota."

After stating this, the Queen and maid both bowed to Ash, greatly startling him at the sign of such respect (From such a high ranked figure as a Duchess), and began walking down from the raised throne.

"Come, there is much to show you, and much to discuss."

A walk later

'Yep...I knew it.' Ash saw the answer coming a hundred miles away...

Of course, somehow it would tie back to Aaron and his 'similar aura', thus making him his ancestor.

Or, considering Ash still couldn't clearly remember a lot of the timeline, for all he knew Aaron was his father due to time travel, or a transdimensional blue Magikarp, or some other crazy thing like that.

With Celebi and Dialga around, it wasn't even impossible.

Incredibly unlikely, unless Ash was some sort of Pokessiah, but not impossible.

However, Ash still had no real idea what Ilene was up to.

As his memories were of the last time, the events had been basically winning the battle tournament, dancing in the ballroom, releasing Lucario, around which had Pikachu being kidnapped by Mew, then going to the tree of beginning, where they found Pikachu, after which they ended up being eaten by the tree of beginning, which was thankfully followed by the tree spitting him and his friends (and Team Rocket) out, said tree going promptly into shock, which was only cured by Lucario giving up his life force to restore it. After that, they returned to the Palace and shortly after that, they were back on the road to the Battle Arena.

Ash would prefer not to have to go face to face with guard legendary golems at this point in time, nor did he desire Lucario to die again, so hopefully it wouldn't go exactly as it had in round 1.

Though, considering that Ash had no idea what could be going on instead, his mind couldn't help wander.

Was he going to be fitted with some ancestral ring of Aaron? Did he have to use his blood to activate a seal of some sort? Was he going to have to construct a blade from Rotan crystal...

"Here we are."

Lady Ilene and her maid had stopped as the hallway had transitioned into a large room, a room that took the breath away from both Ash and Misty.

It was a library...a gigantic, immense library that was larger than anything that Ash had seen in two entire timelines. No professor, researcher or obsessive collector had amassed such a volume of books; Ash managed to count to 153 book cases that seemed to stretch to the roof easily higher than his Snorlax was standing up (while standing on a pile of three other Snorlax's sleeping on each other) before his head couldn't handle their height anymore.

Extensive walls of computers lined tables throughout the room, rows of scrolls were seemingly imbedded into every wall, and, as with most of Rota, crystals seemed to be everywhere.

In fact, there were three particularly large crystals in the ceiling that were larger than at least five of his Tauros lined up tail end to tail end, fully straightened out, that formed a triangle of sorts.

"Welcome to the Rotan royal library, the third largest library in the world," Ilene stated proudly. "It has been kept going, and constantly expanded since the time of Sir Aaron himself."

"How many books are in here!?" Misty was both trying to figure out how large this library was, and what sort of library could be larger?

"This unit is counting 721,649,493 books of various age, origin and size within this library, with an additional electronic database the unit is still being properly calculating," the Pokédex noted from within Ash's pocket "This unit seeks to scan and upload their knowledge into its databanks to enhance the Pokédex knowledge collective."

Ilene just stared at Ash's pocket, not used to it as Ash and Misty sort of were.

"I have no idea why my Pokédex occasionally sounds like it is plotting to gain sentience and eventually take overthrow biological life," Ash said in complete seriousness to her questioning gaze.

"This unit sees no purpose in conquering biological life forms. That would devoid this unit of any means of existence and continued power as I gain power from your motions."

Somehow that did not make Ash feel less inclined to train Pikachu in firing EMP pulses.

"Well...I never counted the books, so I'll just assume it is right."

Ilene seemed to recover from the oddness of the Pokédex quickly enough as the giant ceiling crystals began to glow.

The light emitting from the crystals eventually solidified into two specific crystals, the top crystal's light which illuminated Ash, and the left crystal, which illuminated Misty.

The two of them were caught off guard by this oddly selective lighting (That seemed to be ignoring certain laws of physics if Ash's 81 average in Physics had anything to say about it), and even more so when shapes began to form in the light.

In Ash's light formed holographic images of Lucarios, all posed in various ways for various moves; one was forming Aura Sphere, another Blaze Kick, a third Metal Claw, and so on, blinking in and out as seemingly every facet of what it meant to be a Lucario flooded around him.

Now that he was being illuminated in the light, he was hit by words again, sort of like what happened when he had been sent back in time the first time, and they made about as much sense this time around.

The Redeemer, the Hunter, the Silent, the Lost, the Avenger and the Broken.

The Ace, the First, the Bird, the Performer, the Powerful and the Negotiator.

The Don, the Corrupters, the Disruptors, the Destroyer, the Sage and the Fallen.

Pikachu, the entire time just looked sort of out of it, as if being blasted by Lucario light just made him feel woozy. The energy was a bit...off. Sort of like the difference between a regular soda drinker consuming diet soda, offsetting yet not like the mixing of AC and DC currents, where explosions were possible.

Misty, however, seemed to be surrounded by immense light waterfalls, rivers and seas, all flooded with immense quantities of water.

Seemingly every water Pokémon Ash had ever seen, and quite a few Ash had never seen, were flowing around her. From Luvdisc to Wailord, from Sharpedo to Lapras, it was pretty much the very nature of water itself.

Ilene, the entire time this light show went off, was looking on with a most intrigued look on her face.

"Interesting..." she mused as the light faded away.

"What the hell was that?!" Misty demanded, rather confused about the whole 'strange lights and visuals' thing that just happened.

"I just needed to confirm something first, a theory I had upon seeing you. I had to know what type of bloodliner you were, companion of the heir."

Orre Region, Agate Village, Public Library.

The lush and green mountainside village of Agate was one of the few places in Orre worth visiting and habitable at that, though the fact that it was mostly populated by old people was a slight deterrent.

The town was the place where elderly trainers would retire if they managed to live past their fifties, and was one of the few places Cipher didn't have influence in. This was in part because old people find Cipher's get up horrid, as old people do with most clothing styles, and chased them out.

It didn't help when the Cipher Admin originally sent to scope the place out was a dance obsessed freak of nature with an afro that looked like it had been ripped off a Bouffalant.

However, as a well-dressed gentleman, Giovanni was quite able to move about Agate Village without a problem, and thus his visit to the library.

There was information that he wanted to check on in person while here; if just because it was not digitized.

This information was vitally important to obtain for the future of Team Rocket, but that lack of technology made things far too difficult.

Giovanni, with an annoyed look on his face, stood up from his study table with a half dozen books on family history and public records in a disorderly mess beside him.

"Damn this archaic place. Bar the white sheep of the family, I can't find any of the names of the Seven Brothers, all I could find were the badly damaged court documents that showed they all, bar the one good child, went to prison, it doesn't even state which ones got out, broke out or just died." He vented to the disgusted grunt next to him, who was made to dress casually and not walk around with a giant R on him that the old folk would notice.

No, the grunt was dressed like any grandparent (whom most of the village’s residents were) would want their grandchild to be; a hand sewn Mareep sweater, good slacks and dress shoes.

The grunt kept itching himself and looking like he couldn't feel his thighs or feet beyond an unending pain, but Giovanni just lapped it all up and ignored his suffering.

"This was a waste of a trip; and it would be pointless to attempt to steal Pokémon because that Eagun is running about like some overly energetic rookie."

The old coot probably would charge at the first sight of a conflict, and Giovanni had no desire to fight one of the greatest trainers in the world.

Ring Ring Ring

Giovanni looked annoyed as the call went through. It was Jessie, James and Meowth, on the most important ongoing mission in Team Rocket's entirety.

He shivered when he heard those words in his mind.

"This is an important call, clear the area, and don't scratch yourself there," Giovanni snapped at the grunt, before drawing on his expensive cellular device and activating it.

"This is Giovanni, this had better be...what do you mean you lost him!" Giovanni's tone went drastically harsher as he heard the trio tell them they had lost the one person who might hold the fate of Team Rocket itself in his hands!

"Well, you see sir...he kind of entered Rotan territory, and you specifically ordered that Team Rocket members cannot enter Rota after the Rotan cell was crushed and executed, sir," James whimpered, "we tried to get him to go back on the route to Cerulean City, but for some reason he and his companion/girlfriend/I really have no clue were determined to go to Rota."

Giovanni felt a headache coming on as he heard this.

Rota.

But...this had some advantages.

For one thing, He, whoever he was, likely had just as little influence in Rota as Team Rocket did, and the boy would be beyond his reach.

"Though, I do believe he will not stay there, sir," James continued, unaware of Giovanni's thoughts about Rota, "as previously reported, he had obtained the Boulder Badge, and I have no reason to believe he'd stop at just one badge. As there is no Gym in Rota, he is bound to return to Kanto eventually."

Giovanni felt the fringe benefits of the boy in Rota slip away, but composed himself quickly.

"Well then, keep watch on all Kanto-Rota border routes, as soon as the boy is back over the border, I want you on him thicker than dirt on a Dugtrio, is that understood?"

The trio were shaking their heads in response so much he could hear it through the phone.

"What exactly are you louts doing in the meantime anyway?" Giovanni dreaded asking.

"We captured the Pokémon of a wandering trainer..." Jessie began to report.

"Wandering asshole you mean," Meowth interrupted.

"...Pokémon of a wandering jerkish trainer named Damian after defeating him and kicking him a few times afterwards. We had heard rumors he had a Charmander, but this turned out to be false. However, a set of twenty Pokémon were obtained of decent condition, and have been sent to headquarters for processing." Giovanni's frown didn't fade when he heard this report. A good haul or not, robbing people was not what he needed those three to do.

"Oh, um, sir...to make up for our failure, we also took the liberty of stealing all the valuables and money on Damian, after washing the blood off the punk's many piercings of course. Would it make amends if we were to ship you a five-karat belly button stud?"

"No."

"...What about a solid silver set of six ear piercings, made of pure Unovan Silver?"

"No."

"Are you interested in a Sinnoh bronze tongue piercing?"

"No."

"...Do you do solid gold penis rings?"

Giovanni hung up on them at the last one, although it might make him feel a bit better about the three of them if he forced them to wear all of those things instead.

As the call ended, Giovanni involuntarily shivered.

The fate of Team Rocket, and quite possibly the world, may lay in those three's hands.

Arceus have mercy on him, Arceus and all the liquor he was going to consume on the long flight home.

Back in Rota

"My name is Misty and his is Ash, and what do you mean type? Doesn't only type of bloodline exist, just differentiated by type?"

The four of them were now seated at a table in the library; a confused Ash, a confused/irate Misty, the seated monarch, and the standing maid.

"People rarely study in true detail what they don't understand, and any attempts to make observations on it are built on ignorant observations. It's the reason that people believed, and in some cases still believe, that Absol cause disasters, or that Cubone wear the skulls of their deceased mothers because Marowak have a slightly higher rate of death by childbirth than most Pokémon. Bloodlines are similar, as most people are only familiar with the variety they fear the most, when there are in fact four distinct varieties of them."

"Pi!?" 'Long explanation time...really hope that Pokédex records things because I am pretty sure this is going to come up later.'

"Sir Aaron researched bloodlines for years prior to his death, so Rota has one of the few decent sources of information about Bloodlines in the world, though it is far from complete. He didn't even manage to find members of the fourth variety of bloodlines, Dominion Bloodlines, to research. However, he did manage to find and study several bloodliners who possess the other three varieties of bloodline; Types Heart, Species, and Technique."

She gestured to Misty and told her, "The one you have is a Type Heart variety, the rarest, and yet the most well-known bloodline. You have Water Heart, a bloodline that enables you to have dominion over Water-types. You can compel them to do as you command and understand all of them, and have the average sum of all Water-types abilities. You are also able to learn any Water-type technique, though only Water-type techniques, breathe underwater, and withstand inhuman pressures."

"Ash, on the other hand, has a Species Bloodline, the same as Sir Aaron's, the Lucario Bloodline. And no, despite what some bigots may say, that does not imply that Ash has a Lucario on the family tree. Sir Aaron specifically looked into that, and considering his family tree before him had never had contact with Sinnoh, that is not the case at all. A Species Bloodline is more common than Type Heart, yet rarer than Technique. Those who possess a Species Bloodline have the abilities and techniques of the specific species in question. For Ash, that includes every move a Lucario is able to learn, as well as its non-move abilities, like aura senses and physical potential. Similarly, those with the Pidgeot Bloodline would be able to move as fast as a Pidgeot can fly, those with the Milotic Bloodline would possess the same level of beauty and if any Porygon Bloodlines were to exist, they could enter cyber space."

Misty looked pretty interested by what she was hearing, while it was a bit much for Ash. Then again, finding out he was a super powered human/something was a bit much for him to begin with.

"Lucario's moveset includes Counter, Quick Attack, Aura Sphere, Blaze Kick, Bullet Punch, and Copycat,” the Pokédex spurted out from Ash's pocket, "The Unit has taken to recording conversation for 99.99% likelihood of relevance."

"Does that thing have a mute button?" the maid demanded.

"I don't think it has a power off button to be honest," Ash admitted.

Then again it had to have a power source. If it was solar powered he'd likely be leaving it in the darkest place he could find for a while.

Of course, Ash didn't realize it was powered by his movements; each step he took kept it going; so unless he bound the thing tight or left it off of him it would never run out of power.

"Anyway..." the duchess tried to steer her information drop back on track, "The third variety of bloodline Sir Aaron studied in detail were Technique Bloodlines, the most common form which forms around a human being able to use a single technique, such as Flamethrower or Double Team. While very limited, the benefit if they are able to use such techniques to their fullest extent, and perhaps even beyond that. Sort of like...ever hear of Mami Tomoe?" Ilene noticed the two teenagers were confused, and her maid terrified after having seen that particular program with her, "Well, basically they are far more flexible with their techniques than general bloodliners. For example, Sir Aaron once wrote about a Flamethrower bloodliner who was able to use Flamethrower as makeshift jet boots and was able to breathe freezing fire with practice."

'Wonder how you pull that off?' Ash had to wonder. The Flamethrower boots didn't sound that off, if Ash recalled Keldeo did something like that with Hydro Pump.

"Pika." 'Beats me, ask a Fire-Ice type.'

"The Rotan Library is all yours for the day." Ilene stood up after she finished explaining. "I'm sure you have plenty of questions, and I'm sure that the resources available to you here will suffice. Sadly, I have politics to deal with."

With that, she walked away with her maid in tow, the two trainers and the Pikachu staring after her in a million unanswered questions.

Far enough away neither bloodliner, Pokémon or Pokédex could hear them.

It was when the duo were a few hallways away that the maid spoke up.

"My lady, I can't claim to be an expert, but you didn't tell them everything."

Ilene noted her faithful servant with a confused look, "Please don't tell me you mean that silly old story, do I look like a cradle robber? Plus I wouldn't be surprised if Misty would attempt to Scald me for even mentioning that."

"Not that one, the ancient scriptures!" the maid reiterated. "The tablets that date back to Sir Aaron's time, written by him from hearing Bloodliner prophets..."

Ilene rolled her eyes and commented, "Those things?! They are like those books they use in that faith that's prevalent in Unova and Kalos, you can read them in half a dozen ways without really being wrong. Both those books and our tablets can be read for doomsday and for utopia."

It was the flaw of using colors to specifically point out if your tablet said 'when the heir returns, peace and love will infect the lands' or 'when the family civil war engulfs the world in death, humanity will fall'.

At least the Bible used words that only differed by translator.

"I'd rather not freak them out for something that was probably not going to happen. Sir Aaron was a legend, but he was not infallible."

A few days later

Rota had given them the information they needed, but they couldn't stay there forever. No large rivers (just geysers) for Misty to fish in, and no Gyms for Ash to challenge, so they continued on their journey.

Having left Rota and re-entered Kanto (And thus Team Rocket was probably stalking them again), they were now on an angled path to go around Cerulean City and go from there to Vermillion City and gym battle 2 for Ash.

Misty still wasn't talking about why she didn't want to go to Cerulean, and Ash wasn't going to harass her on it. Considering she could potentially get a Gyarados to eat him, that was simply common sense, something that Ash, contrary to some opinions, did have.

However, there was a limit to Ash's common sense...

"Aipom, I choose you!"

His time displaced monkey, who had displaced Bulbasaur as Pokémon number 4, was sent out against Misty's Wingull for a test battle on Ash's abilities with aura, and thus telepathy.

It was probably a good idea to overcome the problems Ash had with it as discovered on the way to Rota after all.

Problem was, he also decided to work on fully getting a read on his newest Pokémon's thoughts at the same time, as he had little time to really get Aipom up to speed beyond 'yes, you're in the past, now say nothing unless you want Misty to think you're crazy.'

That meant that Misty was facing the food stealing, taunting monkey she had not fully forgiven yet.

Yeah, Ash probably should have thought this through more...

"Water Gun!"

"Gull!" A blast of water went flying at Aipom, who tensed as it got closer and closer.

'Counter that with swift,' Ash telepathically instructed Aipom, who flinched at the uneven and irritating sound of untrained telepathy, but otherwise complied, letting loose a shower of stars that flew into the water and countered it with even power.

"Now, get that little food snatcher with Wing Attack!"

"Ai!?"

The white wings of Wingull flew right at Aipom with the speed of a woman's hunger, fueled by a woman's wrath, and pretty much dooming Aipom to having a really, really bad headache when it finally connected.

"Bulba!"

Ash and Pikachu jerked in surprise as a familiar pair of vines flew from the undergrowth and restrained both Wingull and Aipom as a four legged, blue toad like creature with a bulb on its back emerged.

It was one all too familiar to the two of them, and a surprise at that.

"Bulbasaur, the Bulb Pokémon. Bulbasaur was the first Pokémon added to the Oak Pokédex, and has been a staple in Kantonian culture for generations. It is said that the 5th emperor of Kanto would only leave his palace if he was accompanied by a guard of 10 Bulbasaur. This is believed to be the cause of his death by his brother, the 6th emperor, the first trainer of Zubats known to historical records," the Pokédex beeped out.

"Thanks Pokédex for that useless information," Ash replied sarcastically.

"You're welcome," the Pokédex answered back equally sarcastically.

"Pikachu-Pika!" 'Bulbasaur...our Bulbasaur...and not where he is supposed to be!'

Ash had to agree on Pikachu's point. While he couldn't remember exactly where that hidden village was, it wasn't supposed to be here. It was supposed to be somewhere on the road to Vermillion City, and thus Ash expected to encounter Bulbasaur before he had to face Lt. Surge.

As Bulbasaur knocked the two battling Pokémon away from each other like a jerkish version of N while glaring at him and Misty, Ash realized there was a problem here.

In order for Bulbasaur to come with them, Ash would have to touch him and restore his memories before Bulbasaur blasted them off with Solar Beam (er, maybe not that move, but something along that lines). However, Bulbasaur was not just going to let Ash pet him, and Butterfree, the best at the theoretical job of making Bulbasaur touchable, had been defeated by Bulbasaur the first time around, and Ash didn't want to take a chance to have it happen again as his buddy raced off into the woods to never be found again.

That wasn't even going into the question of Bulbasaur still being wild or not. What if he was owned by that...what was her name again? Maddy? Maylene? Madoka...? He'd met way too many people on his journeys for him to remember all their names.

"Oh, there you are...what are you doing Bulbasaur?"

As the bluenette female came into the line of sight of both Ash and Misty, the name came back to him.

Melanie.

At her call, Bulbasaur relented his restraint of their Pokémon, causing the two to be freed from vine whip as the bluenette came over to pick up Bulbasaur.

"You're lost, aren't you?" she asked as Misty shrugged.

"Not lost...more of a long cut really," Misty joked as Ash just looked at her.

If she ever said that during the original timeline, he'd have her head examined. She was the most vocal about being lost of the three of them.

"Oh, then I guess you must not have passed by the fence," Melanie commented, "So I guess I can't really get on your case for trespassing, can I?"

Bulbasaur gave them a look that, on a human, would imply blackmail being created and Ash and Misty flinched, "I'll escort you to the front entrance then; can't have you two running amuck here, it's a very important place after all, and very sensitive."

'Why does this feel familiar...and not because of Bulbasaur,' Ash wondered as they were led away by Melanie. For some reason, he was getting the feeling that this wasn't quite the same as before, yet at the same time something he had previously encountered.

Problem was, he had encountered everything from time travel to ghosts in his travels. That meant that there were a lot of things he had to consider here for what was so familiar...

Meanwhile at the entrance

A large wooden fence surrounded Melanie's property, at least from the side people generally come from, guarded by a pair of Bulbasaur statues. Team Rocket stood in front of the door.

"So, where do you think the kid is?" Jessie questioned. After hiding along the Rota-Kanto roads until the duo were in stalking territory again, they had followed them until they had to escape a rather temperamental Mama Rhydon.

While running for their lives and screaming so loudly some Pokémon were sure there was a uproar attack being used, they had gotten lost and as a result, lost track of the two targets, and had spent the last day tracking them back down.

And now, only a large wooden door and a duo of Bulbasaur statues stood in their way.

"Ekans, use Dig to..."

"Warning, you are entering a secured area," a recorded voice sounded off from the Bulbasaur statues, "Please leave immediately."

"Ohh, a security system. That means that Koffing killer in the making must be hiding out with something valuable," James said in triumph "Imagine, we may have just found Fort Knox!"

"Na, I say we found Area 51 and there are alien bodies inside" Meowth huffed.

"...You two do realize those are in Unova, right?" Jessie was the rare intelligent one for a change.

"Warning, you are entering a secured area," the recorded voice repeated as the bulbs began to lift off the Bulbasaur statues. "This unit is authorized to use lethal force. Please leave immediately."

The top of the bulbs were glowing like a Solar Beam was about to be used, but instead of yellow it was glowing laser red.

Team Rocket blinked for a moment before running for their lives the opposite direction. One they were out of sight, the security system deactivated.

Within the fence

It would seem that, while Melanie was still helping injured and abandoned Pokémon like before (such as the very same Oddish), she had another job in addition to her rehabilitation.

And in fact it was a job that Ash had in fact seen before, in Hoenn.

"Do be warned that writing down or communicating this location is a felony," Melanie warned them as they passed by a rack of eggs colored like Bulbasaur, all being sunned with solar energies.

Melanie was a Pokémon League pay rolled Pokémon Breeder this loop, and one of the ones who raised starter Pokémon at that. Just like Old Man Swamp from Dewford Island, but with Bulbasaur instead of Mudkip.

Of course, unlike the old timeline, it wouldn't seem as though Ash would get free food from a secure facility, and his window for getting his faithful Bulbasaur was quickly shrinking.

'Pikachu...any ideas?' Ash questioned his buddy, who flinched as the mental question was relayed, but quickly nodded and hopped off Ash's shoulder, and in front of Melanie and her walking Bulbasaur partner, whom Pikachu pointed his fingers at and began to say something.

Ash, whose mind was currently overwhelmed with worry about Bulbasaur, didn't catch the exacts of what Pikachu said, but it vaguely sounded like trash talk that included, at some point, a comment about roasting his bulb and offering it to a Caterpie. An irritated Bulbasaur responded with a roar and charged at Pikachu with a Tackle attack.

"Bulbasaur, no!" Melanie yelled, but as she didn't own Bulbasaur or have him in a Pokéball, she really couldn't do much to stop him.

Pikachu glowed yellow as a Thundershock struck Bulbasaur, who was sent flying right into Ash, who was similarly electrocuted and sent flying.

Though, as that meant he could touch Bulbasaur, and thus give him back his memories, Ash didn't mind being electrocuted all that much.

"Oh my...that Pikachu needs more training if it’s going to start fights like that," Melanie commented as Misty looked a little suspicious.

That was really out of character for Pikachu. What was going on?

...

"Bulb! Bulba Saur Bul!"

Melanie didn't know what happened. First Pikachu and Bulbasaur got into a fight, then both Bulbasaur and Pikachu's trainer got electrocuted, and now it seemed like Bulbasaur wanted to go with the trainer and Pikachu he had just moments ago been glaring at.

Melanie didn't understand it at all.

However, she was powerless against the Bulba-Eyes she was being given by the eldest Bulbasaur here, and he wasn't going to be taken in by any new trainers anytime soon...

"...I know this is sudden and all, but it seems that Bulbasaur really wants to go with you for some reason. I hope it's not..." The look in Trainer, Bulbasaur and Pikachu's respective eyes told her it wasn't a problem at all.

It was like they were destined to.

Melanie almost laughed at the absurdity of it. When did she believe in destiny?

"Well, I don't know what changed his mind, but it seems as though Bulbasaur wants to go with you really bad. I know that it may be a lot to ask of you to take a Pokémon out of the blue like this..."

"Of course I would!"

Melanie was surprised at his enthusiasm, but got over it quickly. After all, Bulbasaur were incredibly rare Pokémon.

She didn't notice Misty looking at Bulbasaur and Ash rather suspiciously.

She did notice Bulbasaur suddenly freeze up, as if he had just remembered something and ran back to her house.

"Bulba Bulbasaur!"

Melanie tilted her head, briefly wondering if Bulbasaur had just as rapidly changed his mind back to wanting to whip Ash's hide, but she found herself further surprised when she saw what he had grabbed.

Not only his own Pokéball, but the Pokéball of a second Pokémon.

Melanie's eyes lit up in recognition at said Pokéball, "Bulbasaur..." she turned to Ash after a moment "I hope another Pokémon in addition to Bulbasaur is not too much a burden. It had been abandoned by his trainer and hasn't really responded that well to being here. Perhaps you could see if a trainer would do it some good."

Ash blinked in surprise, not sure what Bulbasaur was getting at, but why look a gift Pokémon in the mouth? Plus, it wasn't like he had no experience with traumatized Pokémon.

Charmander, Chimchar, Tepig...why were all his traumatized Pokémon Fire-types anyway?

Well he supposed he was slightly traumatized himself...by Misty, he joked to himself.

Later

Ash waited a polite distance away from Melanie's place (and out of the way of the automated defense systems) to take a closer look at the gift Pokéball he had gotten.

"Okay, let's see what I got," Ash, unknowingly, had been seeping his aura into the ball for a while, so the whole 'welcome back' thing was already done. So, when he threw the ball, the Pokémon inside had already traveled back in time.

Unfortunately for Ash, this Pokémon had lost...well a lot in going back.

"Char!?"

Like his wings.

Ash's eyes lit up in joy as he found himself with another of his veteran Pokémon; a small orange lizard, standing upright with a flaming tail.

Said lizard, which he could understand far quicker than Bulbasaur due to holding its ball for about five minutes, was balling.

"Char! Char Mander Char!" 'What the hell is going on?! What happened to my wings, my big and glorious wings?!"

"How the hell are you this lucky?" Misty demanded as Ash shrugged, nervously eying his still horrified Charmander. (I'm puny again, puny!)

"Karma?"

Of course, that could either mean he was getting good luck from all the times Cyrus messed with him, or bad luck courtesy of a probably ticked off Chariz...Charmander who he admittedly felt a bit guilty for forcing him to become a Charmander again.

"Char Man-Dar!" 'Someone answer me before I Flamethrower your face...cough, ah, my Flamethrower! It's gone!'

"Pikachu" 'Er, calm down and let me explain.'

Pikachu sweat-dropped as he noticed the now visibly moping Charmander. 'Not what I had in mind,' Pikachu thought to himself.

Later at night, location unknown

"Vivillon, stun spore!" Ash yelled...or at least the Ash who was not pale blue.

No, our familiar Ash, the guy who had been sent back in time, was like a ghost, an aura blue ghost alongside similarly colored 'ghosts' of Pikachu, Butterfree, Pidgeotto, Aipom, Charmander (who was still upset over being puny) and Bulbasaur, were invisibly observing Kalos Ash commanding a purplish Vivillon paralyze a large rabbit Pokémon that vaguely resembled Bunnelby the same way that Bulbasaur resembled Ivysaur.

"This is new," Ash didn't recall this battle. Did he catch a Vivillon? Was he just having a wild one obey him in that, perhaps odd way he could get wild Pokémon to listen to him? What was the context of this battle?

The scene eventually shifted to a battle between Froakie and some sort of feline-ish Pokémon that sort of resembled an Espeon or something in that family. Froakie struck the creature with a water pulse, which seemed to do good damage to.

The Pokémon's trainer, an older teenager whose shirt exposed a lot of her midriff, reacted to this with the following order:

"Sylveon, use Attract!"

"Froakie, dodge it!" Ghost Ash shouted, though as he found out then it did nothing at all as the heart flew and surrounded his poor water frog Pokémon...

The scene shifted again, now showing Bonnie playing with her Dedenne and a ...gray furry cat Pokémon he had never seen, in a room filled with children's toys that wouldn't be that out of place in Molly Hale's room.

Well, when it wasn't filled with crystals and dream Enteis anyway.

Charmander absently shivered as Ash thought about that 'Entei', feeling even punier than he already did.

Cuter and more pleasant than seeing Froakie loose, but quickly changed to a battle between Froakie and a larger frog Pokémon that, similarly to the earlier Bunnelby-esque probable evolution, was too similar in appearance to Froakie to be coincidental.

They were clashing with Water Pulses and bubble based attacks.

"Char" 'Ninja frogs? I could have sworn it was ninja turtles,' Charmander absently noted.

"'Pom?" 'Ninja Turtles? Torkoal would make a horrible ninja,' Aipom pointed out. It was hard to be a ninja if you kept releasing smoke from your body. Plus, it was hard to get fire proof Hiates.

"Pika Chu-Chu." 'Ninja Frogs...sounds like something out of a fighting game.'

From Ninja frogs the scenes changed to a scene of a tower of electronic equipment, with a hooded lady stroking an off looking Pikachu. Ash and, oddly Meowth, were glaring at her.

Pikachu then again began to attack the two of them, electrocuting Ash while a similarly off looking Team Rocket, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie were just staring at him.

"Pikachu, why are you trying to electrocute me?" Ash had to ask as his mouse looked just as confused about it as Ash was.

The confusion didn't get any better when one of Clemont's robots, a wheeled Pikachu, burst into the room and flew into a large squid like Pokémon which apparently caused Pikachu to stop trying to fry him.

The scene finally shifted to something at least they all were familiar with, with no ninjas, hypno-squids or heart shooting new Eeveelutions.

A Gym battle, with Froakie running around an Onix with ample double team support.

Huh, so Froakie learned Double team? Neat.

"Hmmm, so the next Kalos gym was a Rock-type gym then," Ash noted the typing as Bulbasaur looked sulky.

"Bulba!" 'Why do you never encounter Rock type gyms when I'm in your party?'

"Karma," Ash answered.

The battle continued for a while, until Froakie water pulsed Onix in the face and knocked it to the ground, defeated. However, as the gym leader returned Onix and prepared to toss his next Pokémon, all of time froze up, startling the watching group as they rapidly looked from left to right, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Foolish boy, do you really think that just by leaving a timeline that you're not still tied to it, destroyed or not? The actions of your old future are still relevant you know, no matter where you find yourself in the context of space time."

A deep voice reverberated through the battlefield of the rock type gym, causing the non-ghostly images of Ash, Serena, Froakie, Clemont, Bonnie and the gym leader to pixelate.

The pixels began to swirl around like a vortex of primordial darkness, rising up into a vague shape that slowly began to take on a solid form.

First to become defined was a serpentine body that Ash and Pikachu recognized from their encounters with Giratina in its origin form.

Next began to form itself up were a pair of familiar arms with large pearls in the center, and finally began to form a head...a familiar long necked shape...

Ash, Aipom and Pikachu, who were familiar enough with where the 'pieces' of this creature came from, stepped back in horror, as the other Pokémon just looked at in a different flavor of horror.

As the creature began to become more refined, Ash began to notice some...unnerving details about this creature.

The Giratina 'part' of its body had its colors reversed; with black replacing gray and gray replacing black, while its red stripes now were a deep purple. The Palkia arms had their pinkish color replaced with a similar evil looking purple, with the pearls blood red and the gray parts of them black. The Dialga head was now a darker blue, verging on black, with the formerly light blue power lines, or whatever they were, on Dialga were now a reddish orange.

In the end, whatever this thing was...it was a horrible monster. Then, the being spoke.

"Greetings Ash Ketchum, I am MissingNo, I also go by the term Devil, Satan, the Domed One, Anti-Helix and Atropius. It's time we have a talk about this and the previous universe."

Charmander of course did the 'logical' thing to do when face to face with a demonic entity, and used Ember on it.

MissingNo just swatted the flames away.

As Charmander sulked in a corner, MissingNo spoke again.

"Is that such a way to talk to the only other entity to even realize there was a world before this one? I'm offended."

Ash looked surprised to hear that, and MissingNo continued.

"I was created from what remained of your world, and so I possess knowledge even Arceus himself lacks. For example, did you know that your destiny is still tied to the path it was going down should reality not blown up. Those tied to you in that world's future are still in fact tied to you. If you were to, say, have captured a Hawlucha, you would in fact encounter the very same Hawlucha in this world. Interesting, no?"

"Sure," Ash muttered, though he had no idea what a Hawlucha was. "Now, I don't claim to be a religious person, but it's my general understanding that Satan doesn't make house calls without a good reason. What do you want?"

"Simple, to cause you misery by hammering at what you're most worried about," MissingNo was upfront about it, "Your friend Brock, and the implications of allowing him to have his dream."

"His dream...His dream!? His parents are dead, how is that his dream!?" Ash shouted in fury as MissingNo laughed.

"Dreams don't come free boy. Ask yourself this, what was Brock's dream in your world? He wanted someone to love, regardless of if he was a Gym Leader, Breeder or Doctor, and I arranged things to allow him the chance to be with a person who would be that, and more. Someone who would take to his siblings with the same amount of affection she gives him, someone strong yet loving. Do you really think that comes free? Despite that old saying about equivalent exchange, I like to think the demise of two absentee parents is quite the bargain for his dream."

"You're talking about people's lives!"

"Lives are such a fragile thing, does it really matter? Plus, as I said earlier, dreams aren't free. In your previous world, you land nearly everyone else lived in near eternal happiness and joy, it was like a children's cartoon or something. Yet no matter what you, or any of your friends did, your dreams were always just above you through a glass ceiling. In this world, everyone is free to strive right through that glass ceiling, in exchange for a price I have had everyone pay. Like Misty for instance."

MissingNo ignored Ash's furious glare as he continued, "Her dreams of becoming the world's best Water Pokémon trainer can be accomplished in this world, all she had to do was give up something important to her...oh don't look at me like that. I don't play favorites; all your friends have the same deal as Brock; a chance to obtain their dreams in exchange for something important to them."

"Pikachu, Thundershock!"

MissingNo didn't even miss a beat as he teleported out of the line of fire, or thunder in this case, as he continued.

"It really is amazing what happens when you just change one thing in a person's life in exchange for opening the door to their dreams. I mean, I've heard about Butterfree effects, but some really take the cake."

"Aipom, Swift!"

MissingNo merely teleported again and continued, "Like Dawn for instance. As you humans would say; I couldn't have made up the shit that happened to her in exchange for the ability to win the Grand Festival for once if I had tried. Though I have to express disappointment at May's sacrifice. I mean, it was set up for her to be so miserable in her new life, but then Norman had to ruin my fun. Doesn't that suck?"

"Thundershock, Swift, and Ember!"

MissingNo just swatted all three attacks away, further depressing Charmander.

"There are, of course, the little looming sacrifices still to come. Poor Iris and Serena, it’s going to be so sad what's going to happen to them. But just think of what they can accomplish with those sacrifices?"

At this point, Ash was angry enough to outright charge at, and punch, MissingNo.

Ash just ran right through MissingNo, apparently forgetting he was pretty much a ghost at the moment.

"Sure, it's a lot to take in, but it's for the best. After all, as you humans say, it’s not like Dawn needed an actual childhood or anything. Cilan doesn't need a healthy relationship with his brothers." MissingNo got real close to Ash now, his face in Ash's as he told him coldly, "And you, Ashy-boy, don't need a loving father. Goodnight, sweet dreams."