Chapter Text
Thousands of years ago, in a once great kingdom known as Pokelantis in the Kanto region, it was a turbulent time for the land, a war had rampaged in a blind pursuit of power, turning what was once a utopia into a deserted wasteland of smoldering ashes The sky was dark and the ocean churned; the tension in the air was palpable.Black smoke from a burning, broken city clouded the sky, bodies of fallen people and Pokémon littered the ground, including both soldiers and civilians, old and young.
This war was fought to claim the power of legendaries and mythicals for selfish means, in particular the legendary bird that governed the boundaries of life and death - Ho-Oh.
Little did anybody know that today would be the final day of the war… as their Queen, named Samiya, had realized a while her husband had gone a bridge too far, and was ready to stop his reign by any means necessary. However, the Queen ever being optimistic wished to give her King one last chance to redeem himself.
A towering temple floated on the sea, kept in sight of the seaside kingdom, once acting as a beacon, but its light had long faded.
—
Two figures stood out from the carnage.
One a giant rainbow-coloured bird, bound to the earth by blue crystalline chains.
The other figure was King Akuma, a black-haired man clad in robes, laughing maniacally before the chained creature. He raised a stone sphere clenched in his hand. However, he paused his actions upon hearing footsteps….
Akuma paused and turned towards a woman he was all too familiar with, "Ah, my lovely Queen, here to bear witness to my glorious victory?"
However, the woman did not share the King's enthusiasm. The woman was a long-haired brunette with tan skin, purplish-sapphire eyes, dressed in white silks and ornamented with golden jewellery; her face wore a fatigued expression.
"Please Akuma," the woman began, "This has gone far enough, this isn’t right!"
"Insolence! Stay your tongue! Our kingdom "'s victory is almost upon us! With this weapon I’ve crafted, we will win this."
Tears swelled in the woman's sapphire eyes, "Our kingdom?" she gasped, "Look around you! Our people lie dead, and for what?"
“For the ultimate prize!” Akuma proclaimed with passion
“Your ultimate prize has done nothing but bring death and despair. I tried to turn a blind eye but this new plan of yours is insanity! I never agreed to these extremes!”
"Silence!" shouted Akuma, a bolt of shadow lashed out from him, knocking the woman off her feet.
The woman paused the shadow of the man she once knew, gritting her teeth, she raised her hand, and with a flash of light, the stone sphere ripped from the man "'s grasp.
"What are you doing?" Akuma snarled out in a confused and hurt tone.
"What I should"ve done several years ago, I once believed there was good in everybody.. But it"s clear the man who was my husband died long ago and all that"s left is this disgusting creature.” The queen’s tears welled as she activated the spell.
"It is the price needed for a perfect world, give me the sealing stone, Samiya!" Akuma bellowed these orders out with venom, and the whites in his eyes turned blood red as purple electricity cracked through his fingertips.
Samiya cried out "No!" in a vain effort to reach out to her husband"s heart, but deep down she knew the man she loved had died before this war ever started.
The man raised their hands, and forces of shadow lunged forward.
Samiya held out her hands as light crackled from her body.
Shadow and light clashed as the sound of thunder crackled.
A stray spark from Samiya"s light lunged into Akuma"s eye and he fell onto the ground.
"No! Traitor! Why have you betrayed me?" screamed Akuma..
"The only person that has betrayed you is yourself," Samiya raised her hand with the sphere stone, chanting under her breath.
Akuma coughed violently, clutching the earth beneath as black smoke siphoned from his body and into the stone sphere, his body slumped and remained motionless...
The blue chains that had bound the rainbow-coloured creature broke; it sounded a haunting cry, a wave of energy echoed from it and across the sky… the chains began to part as a rainbow appeared overhead.
As Samiya simply cried as she clutched the lifeless body of the man before her, the stone sphere lay amidst the wet dirt... silent... waiting...
---
Sealed in a stone chamber…
This is where Akuma would remain for several thousand years, stuck in a slumber but still aware of the passage of time. But this would change one faithful day, thanks to the arrival of a teenage boy named Ashton Satoshi Ketchum, or Ash for short.
Ash was an aspiring Pokémon Trainer from Pallet Town traveling the Kanto region with his partner Pikachu, and three of their best friends. Ash’s closest human friend was Brock Harrison, an up-and-coming Pokémon Breeder, with talent for cooking and first aid. Alongside them, there was May Maple, an aspiring Coordinator whom Ash had been acting as a mentor towards over the past year or so. Alongside them there was her bratty but loveable younger brother, Max, who acted as the group"s navigator with his PokeNav.
This group had already traveled together in May"s home region of Hoenn, but they had a total of two new quests for them in Ash"s home of Kanto. Ash had been recruited to participate in an invitational challenge called the Battle Frontier, where Ash would have to fight seven of the strongest trainers in the region in a variety of battle formats, claiming a Frontier Symbol from each of them, having already successfully obtained Six Frontier Symbols. Meanwhile, May was on the last leg of her second Contest Season, having successfully obtained five ribbons, she was only a couple of weeks away from participating in her second Grand Festival, where she"d compete against the region"s best Coordinators for a shot at becoming Top Coordinator.
As the group marches onward to the Battle Pyramid, Ash"s last trial for the Battle Frontier, a bump appears in the road… or rather a hole.
Falling into a maze of underground ruins and meeting the Frontier Brain Brandon who tells the group of the ruins connections to an ancient lost kingdom of Pokelantis and the legend of King Akuma who sealed away a legendary Pokemon known as Ho-Oh within those very ruins.
Upon hearing this Ash is buzzed with excitement as he remembers the day he set out on his journey with Pikachu and seeing the fabled Ho-Oh flying over a rainbow. However, Brandon sensing arrogance in the boy demanded he stay put till Brandon could bring him to safety. However, this downplaying of Ash’s skills made him only more determined to seek out Ho-Oh and prove his worth.
Spurred on by Brandon‘s belittlement, Ash raced on ahead, determined to prove his mettle by finding and challenging Ho-Oh to a battle, leaving his worried friends and Brandon to chase after him.
---
Ash ran down one of the tunnels that ended with a stone door, "Let"s see now..."
May, Max, Brock and Brandon ran as fast they could but before they could reach Ash the stone door flipped and Ash and Pikachu disappeared.
"I told him this is not a place for foolish kids," said Brandon, "We must find the mechanism that opens this door!"
---
Ash gazed around the room. It was pitch black, and Ash couldn't see anything besides the eyes of his best friend.
"Whoa, talk about weird, you okay, Pikachu?" asked Ash.
"Pika," Ash’s trusty partner nodded reashuringly.
Suddenly, the sconce on the wall burst to life with fire, lighting the room. There in the middle sat a stone throne with a stone orb sat upon it.
Ash ran over, picking up the orb and holding it above his head, "Ho-Oh, come out!"
Brandon finally opened the door and abolished Ash’s actions but it was already too late..
"Light! Come forth from the darkness...." came a mysterious disembodied voice.
Black smoke curled around Ash, as he doubled over, dropping the stone orb which rolled over towards Brandon.
Brandon picked up the orb.
A dark laugh boomed from Ash as his now black eyes widened and locked on towards his friends. "First, you’ll bow before me, then you’ll give me every Pokémon you have in your possession."
Black smoke curled from Ash, grabbing a hold of the other"s Pokeballs and lifting them into the air.
"What are you doing!" said May as she and the others grabbed a hold onto their Pokeballs before they got out of reach.
"Yeah what’s wrong with you Ash?" asked Brock.
"How dare you, you do not speak to the legendary Akuma, the King of Pokelantis in such a way!" snarled “Ash” in a deep, twisted voice.
Brandon grimaced, "I fear the King of Pokelantis has possessed your friend."
"No way!" May said in a pained tone
"Hear me, King of Pokelantis, I have a proposition for you!" said Brandon.
"I’'m listening..." the king said in an amused tone as he gazed at May's worried expression
"I challenge you to a Pokémon Battle. If I win, you release the person you have possessed."
"And if I win?" the King said in an annoyed voice
"If you’re able to defeat me, my Pokémon will be yours, and the world shall bow down to you once again." Brandon said this in a calm tone, which just made Ash’s friends tense and caused the King to sprout a wicked grin.
---
Brandon, the king and the others arrive in front of the Battle Pyramid.
Scott is there to greet them, "It’s great to see you guys, you’re in for a tough battle, Brandon."
"He looks like a foolish child to me." Brandon rebuffed with a glare
"But Ash is just one step away from becoming a Frontier Champion," Scott said in defense confused.
"You're wrong, all I care about is becoming the ruler of the entire world!” King Akumla bellowed out before shoving Scott out of the way Move aside! No one stands in my way!"
"Sounds like he has a sore throat." Scott said oblivious to the direness of the situation
"He"s not himself today..." May said before easing Scott into what was happening.
---
"What? Ash is possessed by the King of Pokelantis?" said Scott, surprised clearly in his voice.
"Brandon is sure that’s what happened," said May.
"You get to the point where you think you "'ve seen it all..." Scott muttered to himself
"He sure seems to know a lot about what’s going on," said Brock.
Scott smiled, "He divides his time researching rare Pokémon and ancient ruins, plus his time as a Frontier Brain."
"Sounds like a busy guy," said Max.
"Now I wonder just what Ash- or should I say what the king has in store..."
Unable to see any other way, the group agreed to Brandon’s plan.
Akuma had no idea what all these procedures were for nor did he care, though one thing that caught his attention was that the power that the boy’s soul possessed was not dissimilar to his own.
The King then brought Ash slightly to the forefront of their shared mindscape, allowing Ash to make use of his tactical knowledge. With Ash’s advanced battle knowledge, Sceptile was sent out to battle Brandon’s Regirock due to type advantage and being the strongest Pokémon currently on Ash’s person.
---
The battle began with Akuma commanding to use Leaf Blade. Sceptile dashed forward and used a Leaf blade, but Regirock easily glanced off the hit with Iron Defense. The King growled in frustrated before commanding Sceptile to spam Bullet Seed. However, Regirock’s heightened defenses just tcaused the seeds to ricochet away from Regirock and all over the stadium. The onlookers thankfully dodged the deflected bullets; however, unbeknownst to anybody one of these seeds had hit the Brandon’s satchel, where he had stored the sealing stone, which caused it to form a small crack in the artifact.
Akuma realizing direct attacks wouldn’t work scanned the area before forming an idea. "Alright Sceptile uses Bullet Seed on the Ceiling!" commanded the possessed Ash.
Sceptile looked back baffled while Ash had shown reckless abandon to others' property in the past, it was rare for him to do it deliberately especially when his friends could be caught in the crossfire.
Growing impatient as Secpitle yeilding King Akuma "Don't stand there, do it!" the King bellowed out.
Sceptile was still unsure about the plan but felt he owed Ash the benefit of the doubt. Ash sacrificed hsi safety for Sceptile countless times and recently rebuilt Sceptile's confidence after he suffered heartbreak. Sceiptile felt obeying Ash here was the least he could do.
So Sceptile put away his doubts and sprained the ceiling leading to its remains landing on top of Regirock seemingly crushing the Legendary Golem.
Sceptile sprays Bullet Seed at the ceiling, and debris falls on top of Regirock.
"That"s awful!" May said in a disappointed tone
"Yeah, Ash would never do something dirty like that!" yelled out Max.
"You want to win that badly? You’re just a coward!" said Brandon.
"Coward? No one ever calls me coward-" Ash"s voice sounds back to normal.
"It’s Ash!" exclaimed May in relief.
The King then resurfaced and gave a sharp glare to May, one stronger than he had given to anybody else today. "Haha, you can call me whatever you want so long as I win!" the King laughed
"At least he came back for a little while..." Max said in disappointment, while May grew nervous, much to King Akuma's delight.
However, the debris began shifting revealing Regirock still had alot of fight left in him. At the command of Brando, Regirock began charging a Hyper Beam.
“Jump behind that man as a shield,” Akuma said pointing towards the ref. Once again, Sceptile was confused and unsure of the order, but Ash had never steered him wrong before… so Sceptile quickly brushed off any fears and followed the command to the letter
"Stop!" Brandon pleaded in disbelief at what had just transpired. Regirock, hearing his trainer, Regirock dissipated the Hyper Beam before it could hurt Samuel the Referee. Regirock then looked to his trainer for a new plan
Brandon was appalled at what lows this King would sink, he also couldn't help but cynically wonder if Ash"s influence was somehow causing the king to be even worse than the legends let on.
While Brandon was lost in thought, Akuma and Sceptile surprised Regirock with a Leaf Blade against Regirock’s leg causing a critical hit that bypassed the defense buffs earlier applied.
Brandon, regaining focus quickly, commanded out, "Regirock use Lock On!", having determined it was time to break out his secret weapon
A red light shot from Regirock and landed on Sceptile.
"Now Hyper Beam!" Brandon bellowed out ready to take down Ash"s ace with pinpoint accuracy.
Regirock unleashed Hyper Beam. On Akuma's order, Sceptile dodged, but this simply caused the beam to curve and hit Sceptile directly no matter where Sceptile jumped to. With this blast, Sceptile crumpled to the ground in defeat.
The referee raised his hand, "The battle is over! The wi-"
"It’s not over yet!" demanded the vile King, unwilling to honor the terms of any agreement that he couldn't benefit from.
"But Sceptile is in no condition to battle!" the referee protested.
The King snarled in frustration but knew this peasant was correct, so he turned his attention to Ash’s OTHER strongest Pokémon. "Alright, Pikachu, I choose you!" much to everybody’s horror.
"Stop it!" May pleaded out, hoping to reach her first and precious friend
"That’s not fair to either of them!" said Max, wanting to reach the trainer he admired so much.
"Ash, you have to listen!" Brock yelled out to the teen he had come to view as a brother.
"Don’t you hear them? Aren't they your good friends?" Brandon yelled out.
While the King’s influence was strong, Ash’s heroic spirit burned bright enough to break through and command Pikachu "My friends... face me, do a Thunderbolt!" shouted Ash.
Pikachu unleashes a brilliant Thunderbolt, shocking Ash with 100,000 volts of electricity and damaging the King’'s grasp.
Brandon, seeing an opening, quickly grabs the stone sphere in his hand, failing to notice its damaged structure as he recites a chant.
"Light come forth from the dark and returns to the dark. Dark comes forth from the light and returns to the dark."
Darkness streams from Ash’s body as his friends look on.
The darkness steadily siphons into the stone sphere. For a few seconds, there was a sense of relief and calmness... However, the stone’s prior damage caused by Bullet Seed led to the crack in its foundation to grow. The crack soon expanded, engulfing the entire seal in a swirling shadow orbiting the stone!
The stone sphere now stood completely shattered, and the King’s darkness reclaimed itself in his new home: Ashton Satoshi Ketchum.
Ash drops to his knees, his hands clawing at the ground beneath him as gasps of pain escape him, a mixture of the two voices escaped in a pained tone, "Stop, let me- The worl- I can't-," however, the gesture was futile
Soon the body’s eyes haze over, and the body goes limp, falling over unconscious.