{8 Years ago}

A young Anabel who looked like she was 10 was riding in the car with her parents. They were just getting back from visiting a family friend.

Anabel's parents were pretty well renowned as trainers, so much that a man named Scott approached them and offered them a position, to become Frontier Brains and run something he called a Battle Tower.

At the time the battle tower wasn't even built, it was barely even halfway done, and although Anabel's parents seemed relatively uninterested Anabel seemed like she wanted to check it out.

But they weren't the only ones, the family friend from earlier was someone named Palmer, and he was also interested in the position, normally you'd think there would be a Pokemon battle to decide who gets it, but you wouldn't have met Scott.

Scott suggested that they run the Battle Tower together and if it was successful he would build one in Palmer's home region Sinnoh.

Palmer agreed but Anabel's parents agreed under the stipulation that when Anabel came of age she would take over, which Scott happily agreed to, making so that Anabel was the rightful heir of this Battle Tower.

Palmer agreed and even had a talk to Anabel talking about things that she should grow up strong, and he also talked about a son he had that he would send over to challenge her when he becomes a trainer, that is when he isn't a baby.

And that is what led them to now, they were driving back home, everyone had their spirits high if only they knew what was coming next.

As the trip continued Anabel slowly drifted to sleep, and in her dreams came images of these strange Pokemon, these Pokemon had weird figures unlike anything she ever saw herself, and they all looked at her.

Then the accident came, at an undisclosed time at an undisclosed place Gabriel and Elena's charred remains were found next to their burnt car, although Anabel's body was never found it was just assumed that she was disintegrated in the explosion, labeling everyone as deceased from a fatal car accident.

But this was no accident, it was caused by those Pokemon, the Ultra beasts, and Anabel didn't die, she was taken into Ultra space from a wormhole that she unintentionally was forced to open.

–

{Back to present}

Ash explained what he knew to them, making Looker and Anabel look in shock.

The words that she along with her parents were supposed to be dead hit Anabel like a bucket of cold water, she couldn't believe what was being said.

"H-how is that possible!" Anabel argued, "That can't be true, it doesn't add up, I'm only 14 the numbers don't add up!"

"Your right they don't," Ash said, "You should be in your 20's but for some reason, you appeared not a much older than when you disappeared,"

"H-how is that possible," Anabel said in pure disbelief, "It doesn't make sense, how would I have disappeared 8 years ago and still remain the same age, no you must be lying!"

"I'm not, we already established this, those wormholes are wonky, I don't know much about them but I do know they defy all logic, meaning it's not impossible for you to have traveled through time, heck you might not even be our original Anabel."

"You might be from another reality, where things turned differently and you came here to replace the Anabel who really did die, I'm not even sure if that's even true like you might not even be 14, like I said I don't have all the answers."

Anabel had to take a seat taking everything in, she couldn't even remember anything before when she awoke on Alola, but the thought that this might not even be her reality, the fact that she should apparently be dead, circled in her mind.

Looker and Ash both noticed her, Looker put a hand on her shoulder as Ash continued talking, "I said you wouldn't like what I told you, but that is more or less it, I could dig up more information that you would want besides that."

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"But if you want more answers then I recommend going to that so-called Battle Tower, from everything I know you are still the heir to it, I can't promise you that you'll find anything more, but it might cause you to remember some things."

"Here I can download some stuff to this computer for that,"

"Why?" Anabel's voice trailed, "Why are you so willing to tell me all this, I know we asked you but… I guess I mean, why did you specifically try to contact us, there are far more members, and yet you specifically came for us."

"Hmm, well, I suppose I could say that I am just helping a damsel in distress, but that wouldn't be the full truth." Ash said, "In truth, I don't really know why myself, before I started looking into it I didn't know all that much about the context around you."

"But if you mean why I'm telling you about the Battle Tower, well that's even more nuance, I suppose I want to see where this goes, isn't that why we do anything pure boredom, buuuttt I suppose I've taken enough of your time, and I think People are coming so I guess I should leave you to your vacation."

Looker blinked for a moment, "Wait how do you know that?"

"Oh I hacked into the cameras, I can see everything, anyway listen to what I say or don't, I need to hang up." then before they could say anything the computer turned off.

A few seconds later a captain opened the door and looked inside, "Oh you guys are still here?"

Looker stood in front of Anabel, "Yes we were just getting some stuff before we go on the vacation we were given."

The commander nodded, "Alright, I'm sorry to disturb you I just thought I heard talking, I suppose it was just you two,"

Then the commander closed the door letting them stay in peace again, well peace was subjective since Anabel was still lost in thought thinking about everything Ash/D. told her.

Looker put his hand on Anabel's shoulder, "It's ok, we'll figure everything out, but for now how about we look at whatever D. gave us."

Anabel silently nodded as she was frowning, and they looked through the information Ash downloaded onto their computer, every article, every sighting, and the news of what happened in between those years she was missing at least the important stuff.

—

{Back on Cinnabar}

Blaine was finishing up some work, Lance asked him to look over some of the gooey remains of Zapmolcuno, but he was also looking into who it was that sent him that anonymous message warning him of Team Rocket.

He couldn't find anything of note on anything, and what made things worse was that he was still researching ways to stop the Cinnabar volcano from erupting.

He knew about the countdown for a long time. How could he not but when he was stuck working with Team Rocket he lost track of time and now the countdown was even more imminent, maybe if he stayed and never went to Team Rocket, he could have prevented it altogether but now he isn't sure.

And to put the cherry on this Sunday of misery his arm is burning more than ever and Lance issued a Gym leader meeting.

Blaine rubbed his brow as he packed up his computer, he was going to make one final run-through of the bottom of the volcano to look for any changes, by his estimate he might have 2 years at the most to prevent Cinnabar's destruction or just to evacuate everyone.

But when he walked into the room there he saw someone he wasn't expecting, Ash with an Abra as they read something.

Ash noticed Blaine and waved the page, which he could now see as one of his statistical charts about the behavior of the volcano.

Blaine walked up to Ash, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you have left or gone to find something to do, and where are your friends?"

Ash looked up to the ceiling, "Well let's just say they think I'm, let's call it 'knocked out' so they don't really know I'm here."

Blaine sighed, "Well whatever the reason I recommend you go back and wait for them, I am going to leave shortly and I really shouldn't leave anyone inside."

"Yeah, I guess being inside an Active Volcano would be pretty dangerous," Ash said emphasizing the word Active

Blaine looked at him sadly, "So you know?"

"Yeah, I'm not an expert but Environmental Biology did teach me a thing or two,"

"So you also know that this volcano is going to explode…"

"Yeah, and that's part of why I'm here, I think I can help you."

Blaine raised his eyebrow, "Help? What do you mean, I've spent a lot of time doing this and I haven't found something that can prevent it."

"But what if you don't?" Ash said,

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not saying let it erupt, and destroy this town, no that would be bad, but we have Pokemon we can do things about that."

"But volcanic Ash is good for creating fertile ground, and if you manage to redirect Lava to the ocean you might be able to create a base for more land, of course, It would require more work than just that, but the option is there."

Blaine thought to himself, thinking about what Ash was saying, "I suppose it is theoretically possible to do that but I'm not an expert and I don't know how the process of creating new land with the Lava would work."

"There is an essay workaround for that," Ash smiled, "All we need to do is contact Alola for information."

–

{Team Rocket main base}

'How did things go so wrong?' Giovanni's muffled voice said as he buried his hands into his face and pulled up.

In Front of him were Arlo and Sierra who both explained everything from Zapmolcuno escaping to their birds going on a rampage and following Zapmolcuno, to even for some reason the Champion appeared and took care of Zapmolcuno.

Even how apparently Cliff was captured and they lost Articuno and Moltres, and to top it off apparently the Admin he had stationed inside the International police was captured due to arrogance.

Giovanni was upset, but he wasn't at them, he knew it wasn't their fault if he swapped places with them he probably would have done the same thing since at their level they would have barely scratched a Champion-level Pokemon.

How does he know this, because Giovanni is also a Champion rank trainer, and he tested them personally and they couldn't even take down 1 of his main Pokemon.

But that's beside the point, Giovanni was frustrated, "Alright, the main question I have is how did Lance find out about this, we specifically chose that moment because, by the time a message could be sent, we would already be gone."

Sierra looked down, "I couldn't say, I can think of any number of reasons, but as much as I don't want to admit it I think there might have been someone who told him."

Giovanni sighed and sat in his chair, "That is certainly a possibility, but I can't think who could both get into our private and encrypted files and have access to tell Lance."

Arlo scratched his chin, "My first guess would be a new recruit but that wouldn't be possible, they would need to get past all levels of security and not even I can do that.

Sierra scratched her chin, "Do you think it was that scientist, the one who suggested reviving this project, I haven't heard anything about him, since he came back."

Giovanni nodded, "That would be possible, and I also haven't heard from him, but we'll give him some more time, he might be on the run much like a lot of our other scientists until then Arlo your mission is to dig into the files and try to find something."

Then he turned to Sierra, "As for you, stand by and wait to see if Colress calls back,"

Sierra and Arlo nodded, as Sierra asked, "And what about you sir."

"Me, well it's about time I go back to my Gym leader duties, after all, Lance just announced a Gym leader meeting."