The lab was utterly in shambles and I could forget on getting any useful data as all the computers were without a doubt, destroyed in our fight. I did go to the corner of the room because I noticed something a bit off with how a closet was placed, I moved it and there was a reinforced steel door behind it. I didn't even bother with the password lock and just proceeded to form an aura knife and cut the door out of its frame.

It took a good 5 minutes to do so but I was rewarded with a storage room that held a bunch of different relics pertaining to Groudon, but the thing that slightly worried me was the orb that was missing on a pedestal. Not soon after I finished skimming and grabbing anything useful out of the closet, I heard a feral roar that struck some unrecognizable feeling in me. Noting my symptoms I concluded I was feeling fear, but that was impossible, my emotions were all but destroyed.

So I rushed down the halls towards the main room, and when I burst inside narrowed my eyes at the scene. Maxie the leader of this fine establishment was holding onto the Red Orb that awakened Groudon and gave him control over it, or so I had thought as he absorbed it and became overwhelmed by its power. I immediately pulled summoned my all purposed rifle and opened fire at him, to my surprise the bullets melted before they could reach him. Then I could see the distortion from all the heat he was emitting and a rumble shook the entire place and I realized what he had done.

"RETREAT IMMEDIATELY."  Mother yelled through our comm's and we rushed towards the exits.

It seemed that Maxie had noticed and his next words sent chills down my spine.

"FOOLS."  one simple word and things started caving in on us.

"MOTHER!!!!"  I yelled as I lept at her in an effort to save her from both the falling ceiling and Maxie's giant lava blast. Time slowed and I wondered if I was going to make it or not and I had never felt so scared in my life.

My eyes widened when I touched her and saw her before me, I had made it in time and put all my aura into a final burst.

"AURA BURST" I screamed and I could feel the aura I had radiate out and push back against Maxie's similar attack that was surely going to decimate the entire top half of the mountain we were in.

When I awoke I felt that I was moving and looked up to see mother carrying me and running towards someplace.

"Mother-" I got out before she shushed me 

"Don't speak, your aura may have recovered from that necklace but your body needs a minute or two to readjust the flow." Said and I lay there silent for a minute or two before she set me down and I looked around. We were in a forest about 5 miles from the mountain and speaking of it, the entire top half of it was decimated and there stood Primal Groudon in all its glory. Lava overflowed into the surrounding forest as Groudon roared, and then I quickly dodged to avoid a blade of wind that flew at my head and cut the tree down behind me.

"Identify yourself, intruder!" Mother commanded and the girl revealed herself and I recognized her, another girl from A.R.C.

"Mother, be careful, she is one of the element wielders I was talking about, I managed to kill the fire one but he used up half my aura in doing so." I cautioned 

"it's alright, just back me up here." I obeyed her order and cast my aura onto her to protect her and what happened next was pretty unbelievable. 

This girl was creating wind blades that sucked in air at such a highspeed that a tiny cut would turn into a life-threatening wound. She could also send them at people crazy fast but Mother was doing a great job a dodging most of them except for the ones that were instantly formed right in front of where she stepped but I was maintaining my aura so it didn't really matter.

The girl met Mother halfway and they engaged in highspeed close-quarters combat, the girl was using her wind to accelerate everything she did while increasing her knockback as well. Mother landed an elbow to her right arm joint and quickly took advantage of the pain that she was feeling to sweep her before kneeing her in the face as she fell.

The girl got up and I realized she was also ascending to her second stage, then she moved so fast that even I had a hard time tracking her movements with my elemental sight and Mother was on a complete defensive and losing fast.

I then decided to try something that was incredibly risky and that was to give Mother my elemental sight, giving her a layer of aura was one thing, but putting my aura in her's was a pretty bad idea and Voltanuc informed me that those who had tried in the past had nearly killed themselves and their recipient. I was about to try the maneuver when I realized that why couldn't I just link our aura's, and so I tried to come up with how as I watched Mother block a flurry of punches before getting kicked in the chest and flying backward before she landed on a tree trunk in a lunge position before she kicked off at the girl and the tree fell over because of the force.

She threw a flashbang and I saw her grab the two daggers she kept at her side but to my surprise, the girl threw up a barrier made of tiny wind blades, so many that I could still barely register with my elemental sight. I tried to stop Mother but it was too late she plunged into the barrier and then to my shock, used up the aura I had cast on her to break through and stab the girl in the gut twice before twirling the leaving two deep gashes on the girl's chest. 

The girl staggered in shock and Mother went to for the kill but got thrown into the air by a blast of air and I quickly recast my aura while simultaneously establishing an Aura Link and transferring elemental slight.

As of expected of Mother, she didn't seem bothered by the change in her vision by the least, instead, she adapted to it so well that it was like she had trained in aura her entire life. Now Mother could fight on near terms with the girl and they dashed through the air trading blows and when they were fully visible again, both were bleeding from many cuts each had suffered.

They went at it again and I only watched on, however, I started getting distracted by what Groudon was doing. Which was absolutely nothing, which in turn was weird for a rampaging pokemon? Then I noticed unmarked helicopters closing in and then when people dropped from them I realized that A.R.C was here to try and either destroy or capture Groudon.

This was not out jurisdiction and with Mother busy fighting while other authorities like Champions, Police, and Pokemon Rangers closing in, we had to get out.

So I took command and ordered a full retreat back to the nearest safehouses and bases while designating leaders so I could stay and help Mother.

When I turned back around though, the girl was on her last legs and with one last slash, Mother cut her head clean off.

Mother then also fell to the ground in exhaustion from the no doubt grueling fight, but she only needed a moment's rest before she got up and we went to the near safehouse to treat her wounds.

When we arrived in Slateport city we brought her to a safe house and the doctor treated her while I kept an eye on the t.v and looked at the mountain in the distance.

Newly crowned Champion Wallace was already on scene with former Champion Steven Stone trying to defeat Groudon. Wallace had sent out Wailord and Gyrados, while Steven had his signature shiny Metagross, and Claydol. The Military was also hot on their trail as bombing planes flew in and Groudon shot down half of them by manipulating the lava that had spawned and shooting it at them, melting the planes in an instant. The rest of the bombs hit, but Groudon's outer body was pretty sturdy and it looked like it didn't do much.

Meanwhile, Artillery was set up in the forest and base which constantly started firing shells while Tanks rolled up and did the same. Helicopters also launched missiles and provided Machine gunfire. Then it was as if the pressure in the air had grown by a lot as Groudon roared and the lava from the volcano erupted with enough force to cause the rest of the mountain to go flying into pieces and the shockwaves created a massive earthquake in the area that instantly crumbled half the town's buildings in an instant.

Red plumes of lava fell and ash instantly covered and blocked out the sun which dropped the temperature quite considerably, the Militaries forces were halved and the two trainers were in pretty bad shape because they took a considerable brunt of the blast.

The doctor informed me that Mother was ready to go and we left, departing in different ways but our goal was to all get back to the main HQ or at least out of the region. I traveled with a small detail while Mother leads the majority then another deafening roar came and I saw Groudon look at me before paving a path of lava towards me and adopting a blackish aura and I recognized The Otherworldly Darkness' influence.

I told one of my soldiers to take my pokemon and go, while I propelled him off with my aura before Groudon literally surfed over on that lava and stopped right before me.

"HEY! Leave that guy alone!" I heard a kid shout behind me and when I looked over, it was like looking at a more stupid and slightly younger version of myself!

"Who are you?" I asked 

"The Name is Ash Ketchum and you should get going seeing as you have no pokemon on you, I'll help stop him." the person was also named Ash but with a different last name and so I went, leaving the kid to fight for himself.

The kid sent out a Swellow, Grovyle, Corpish, Torkoal, Glalie, and Pikachu to combat Groudon and started an assault with Steven and Wallace who had approached from behind.

I just stood there, awestruck at what was basically an odd clone of myself who even shared my first name! A feeling resonated inside and I could feel Voltanuc's confusion as he had tried to process what was going on.

"Impossible, how can there be TWO chosen ones?!?! Wait, no, Ketchum is the real, so who are YOU?" I could hear Voltanuc processing  and I was just as confused

My body was just frozen there, I couldn't move, as if some invisible held me down and forced me to look at what was going on. The fight raged on in front of me and Groudon gained more rage at these people every second, then it felt like some line just broke in me and my vision was engulfed in darkness. 

"So I finally meet the chosen pawn." This inexplicably complex voice spoke as a dark miasma slithered around me. This voice sounded like multiple beings speaking at once.

"Don't refer to me as a pawn." I coldly said to this bone-chilling darkness as it wrapped itself around me.

"You should know your place mortal, for you are merely a pawn in our schemes. In fact, you aren't even real in a sense, just a spirit inhabiting a fake body."

"I will not listen to your slander, monster. Nor will I obey you now be gone!" I yelled in defiance as more of it gathered around me

"You are being a hypocrite and stepping out of line, in fact, you so readily accepted the rebel Voltanuc's proposal, when all he did was lead you right to me." 

"I refuse to believe and support whatever twisted beliefs you try and force onto me." I still said I  defiance.

"Fine, then allow me to explain. You were created by me as a clone to Arceus' chosen one since I couldn't control him, and your body, soul, and very existing to serve and belong to me to use as I see fit. In fact, let me give you a little demonstration, slave."

I saw my fist lift itself and punch me in the chest, and my body started contorting in different directions, and I could feel my organs also doing the same before I was let go and dropped to the ground coughing up copious amounts of blood.

"Your entire life has basically been controlled by me, and let's not forget about your supposed "Mother" who is also under my control, I could even turn your pokemon to my side in an instant. You are powerless and condemned to a life in hell for your sins anyways, so just submit"

The subsequent info that flew into my head made it spin as I saw the war's of ancient times when all of the Legendaries and Mythicals fell to the darkness, even the greatest Aura Guardian fell at the hand of the darkness. Then I saw the painless paradise that was to be made and it looked beautiful, something I truly considered beautiful. There were no killings, no war, no lies. There still was grief and anger, but people dealt with such emotions by finding good ways to release them instead of killing and hurting other people, love was abundant, humans and pokemon lived in perfect harmony.

After being shown such a future I felt compelled and lost the will to resist and just started letting myself slip into the warmth that awaited.

"That's right, come over here and join us. I now have you, that Altair girl, and even both Lusamine and Lillie Aether. Now we can begin the process."

I didn't know if I was hearing correctly, did he say Altair and Lillie? No, no, no, why are they involved in this, why involve outsiders? Did they have special abilities? I had a feeling about Altair but both Aethers? In addition where was my aura and Voltanuc? My head spun with questions and I barely resisted the control and slowly got up. 

"What have you done with everyone? YoU WiLl pAy." I could hear my voice distort near the end and an unfamiliar feeling of what could be described as rage spread through my being.

"How troublesome, guess I'll do it the hard way, why did every single one of you struggle? You will regret resisting me, fool."

A mist shot towards me and infected my body as I struggled against myself, my body contorting some more. I had to think of something, give my power to someone, as I felt my mind start to blank out, and my vision started filling with glitchy effects I could feel my aura and Voltanuc shoot out and leave me as I collapsed. I only hoped it would make it to whoever I sent it to.

Who did I send it to?

Man this chapter was fun to write, and it is 2.5x longer than usual, I really hope you enjoyed it and this will conclude mark the beginning of a new arc, one which will set the main course of the story in motion, please bear with my slow updates and tell me what you think is going on with the double Ash's! To conclude I would like to thank iToxicEcho for being a very loyal reader, thanks for always reading my stuff the moment it comes out! Ja ne!