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My exams are going on but I still had some free time so managed to squeeze in this chapter. I know you all have been waiting anxiously. Have fun. But don't forget to Comment.

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(In the Quiet Marriage Hall)

"Shush. Shush. It's. It's OK. It's OK." Grace says as she pulls Ash and Serena into a hug. She tries to stem the flow of tears from her eyes as Ash and Serena continue to sob into her chest. Delia softly pats Ash and Serena's back while wiping her own tears. Everyone is too stunned or mortified to say or do anything. Diantha, Cynthia and Looker are trying to revive Lance while the other people are trying to not to throw up on account of the dead bodies and the blood which is everywhere. Dragon Emperor is sitting on the chair with his head bowed and his hands having a fistful of his hair each.

"Dragon Emperor," Diantha says in a soft tone. Dragon Emperor, however, doesn't react to Diantha's call.

"Dragon Emperor," Diantha calls out in a louder tone. He still doesn't react.

Diantha takes a deep breath and then shouts "Dragon Emperor!"

"What?" Dragon Emperor snaps back as he sharply lifts his head. Diantha backs away as she sees angry rage burning in his eyes like smouldering coal embers. Dragon Emperor immediately softens his demeanour, takes in a breath of air and then looks back at Diantha.

"I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. It's just that the whole thing just got to me." Dragon Emperor says in a softer tone while internally reprimanding himself for losing his composure.

"Yes, what is it?" Dragon Emperor inquirers.

"Lance. Can you revive him? It seems our efforts have been in vain." Diantha says in a meek tone.

"I am not sure that's the best idea." Dragon Emperor answers back.

"Just do it," Cynthia says. Dragon Emperor looks at Cynthia with a passive manner but doesn't utter a word. A few moments later he raises his left palm and a blue light comes out of his palm for a few moments before it stops. Cynthia and Diantha breathe a sigh of relief when they see Lance stirring. He wakes up soon.

"My head," Lance says in a dizzy manner as he clutches his forehead.

"It's OK. You'll be fine." Diantha says. Suddenly Lance recalls something.

"Diantha, one of the servers. He was carrying a gun. We have to." Lance says in a panicked state.

"It's OK. It's OK. Everything's fine." Diantha says.

"Fine?" Lance asks in a confused tone.

"Well not fine but everyone is safe. To say the least." Cynthia says before she looks over Lance's shoulder. Lance turns around to see all the dead bodies lying in the pool of their blood.

"Are you OK?" Diantha asks. Lance doesn't reply. She's about to ask the question again when she gets the answer herself when she sees Lance throwing up.

"I told you reviving him was a bad idea." Dragon Emperor replies in an 'I told you so' tone as everyone sees Lance finally stop throwing up.

"How could. How could? How could you do this?" Burnet asks.

"Do what?" Dragon Emperor asks.

"Fight. Kill. That too so mercilessly." Lusamine asks.

"Mastery of sword is much more than mastery of mere technique. To defeat your opponent, you must think like them. Be like them. You must learn and adapt to fight in the ways they do. Only then can you achieve victory over them." Dragon Emperor replies.

"You didn't need to fight them at all. Much less kill them. You could have disarmed them with a simple disarming technique. But you didn't, you mercilessly killed them all. Slaughtered them like a savage." Oak says in an angry raised voice.

"You really think I wanted to do that? Do you honestly think I am so consumed by anger and violence that I would spoil my apprentices' wedding by spilling blood? I tried my level best to ensure that didn't happen. I tried to bribe them. I even begged with them but it didn't work. They had come prepared." Dragon Emperor answers.

"Yeah, by invoking some law which doesn't even exist. And since when did you start caring about obeying laws in the first place? You have broken every law in the book when it comes to the laws set by the governments of the Pokemon regions. So don't give me this rule obeying crap." Sycamore accuses the Dragon Emperor as many people agree with Sycamore's opinion.

"The laws of lesser men mean little to me. I am not obligated to obey them for I have a higher calling. There are some rules which even I can't violate. Even I am bound by the laws of nature. Especially when those laws are written by the God Pokemon themselves." Dragon Emperor says while standing. The last sentence of the Dragon Emperor causes a huge round of murmuring among the wedding guests.

"Bullshit. You're expecting us to believe that law that the dead assassin invoked was written by the Arceus himself. Why will Arceus, the God Pokemon, write a law basically legalizing murder in the first place?" Rowan demands.

"That is above your paygrade professor. Besides what do any of you know about the Pokemon world anyway? You think you with your pitiful research bordering on the inaccurate means you know anything about the Pokemon world?" Dragon Emperor asks as he walks towards the group of guests. All the professors give Dragon Emperor a pure look of venom on hearing that.

"We need to cover this up. No one can know about what happened here." Dragon Emperor says while turning to Looker.

"This is too much heat to cover up. 11 people dead here and all this evidence. Not to mention the guards and servers you say are also dead. We can't cover this up." Looker remarks in a quiet tone.

"No, they aren't dead." Dragon Emperor replies.

"But you said the servers and the guards were dead," Cynthia says.

"I thought they were. I couldn't detect any activity. But now I can sense that they are waking up. It seems that they were merely made unconscious with some agent instead of being poisoned on the spot." Dragon Emperor replies which causes a wave of relief to go through the people present.

"That's good but these people are dead Dragon Emperor. With all this breakage, debris and blood it is impossible to cover it up. Word will get out somehow." Looker says.

"Not if I can help it." Dragon Emperor says while turning around. He pushes his hand out and a fireball shoots out of his hand which lands on the region of the floor where the dead bodies are located. Everyone watches as the flames immediately erupt and increase in size and they engulf the entire portion of the floor where the corpses are located. Within a few moments the flames vanish and to everyone's shock, all the bodies, weapons and blood is gone. The Dragon Emperor then snaps his fingers following which every ounce of debris starts to fly in the air. Everyone watches with open mouths as all things repair, join and the completely restored objects fly back to where they were. After everything is over there is no sign of a struggle at all.

"Unbelievable," Lance says in a dazed tone as he looks around to see no sign of any struggle in the first place.

Following this, the Dragon Emperor begins pacing the room from one end to the other end. Everyone watches in silence as he continues pacing from here and there without even giving so much as a reaction to anyone present. The moment the Dragon Emperor comes to a halt and turns, everyone becomes stiff.

"Cancel the honeymoon. It's far too dangerous to be out in the public. I must go." Dragon Emperor says.

"Yes go. And don't bother coming back." Grace finally breaks her silence.

"I am not going to argue with you right now. For your emotions pollute your sound judgement." Dragon Emperor replies.

"Oh no, they don't. I don't want my children near a cold-hearted psychopathic murderer like you. I made a mistake when I allowed Ash and Serena to invite you to this wedding and I am not making it again." Grace says in a venomous cold tone. Dragon Emperor ignores her and then walks right up to Lance.

"The wine bottles are still poisoned. Have them taken to your crime labs for evidence testing. Escort Ash and Serena back to KIP. Have the vehicle they use for transportation checked for any explosives. Have them under constant supervision with armed guards. Any food, water or medicine they consume should be tested for poison first. Keep them safe till I come back or they will be hell to pay for." Dragon Emperor says in a serious tone as Lance gulps and nods. Upon seeing Lance nod, Dragon Emperor proceeds to exit the room but suddenly stops in his tracks much to everyone's surprise and horror. They see him turn around and flinch as he walks past them.

"What happened? I thought you were leaving." Lusamine asks.

"I was. I just forgot something." Dragon Emperor says as he goes to the table and picks up the sword with which he had fought the duel. Everyone breathes a breath of terror as the thought of who the Dragon Emperor is going to stab next comes into their minds. Everyone backs away when they see the Dragon Emperor raise the sword above his head but then they get taken aback as he drives the blade into the ground. Following this proceeds to pick up his Dragon staff.

"Why did you plunge the sword into the floor?" Dawn asks in a fearful yet curious tone.

"It is tradition. Whenever a trial by combat is concluded the instrument of death must be left behind by the Dragon Emperor to commemorate the memory of the fallen." Dragon Emperor quietly replies.

"That is a tradition?" Lillie asks in a bamboozled tone.

"Yes. Now this blade can't be removed from its resting place by anyone." Dragon Emperor says. Everyone's eyes widen as they see the cracks in the floor, around the place where the blade had been embedded, reseal themselves and the blade shines a shiny blue for a few moments. What's more shocking is that the Dragon Emperor bows his head forward in the direction of the blade before he teleports away. There is stunned silence in the room. Everyone steals a glance at Ash and Serena whose eyes are completely bloodshot and their faces bathed in tears.

(One Hour Later)

Grace and Delia look extremely worried as they wait outside Ash and Serena's apartment along with Ash and Serena. Neither Ash or Serena have spoken a single word on the drive back to KIP. Suddenly an armed man comes out of the apartment.

"The apartment is clear ma'am. No sign of explosives or any similar devices." the guard replies.

"Thank you. Thank you very much." Delia replies as Ash and Serena get to their feet.

"Just doing our job ma'am. You can now go inside. Me and my team shall stay out here on guard duty tonight. You can rest assured." Guard replies.

"Thank you," Grace says in a grateful manner as she locks the door behind her.

"Serena, you didn't say a word in the car. Please say something." Grace says in a worried tone.

"Mom, tell me something, am I cursed?" Serena asks.

"What? No, of course not." Grace replies.

"You're lying. I have been cursed since birth. First I didn't get to spend time with my father. We had to bury his body. Then I had to move away from Ash. And when I finally found him we almost died that too at our wedding." Serena says in a distraught tone.

"Serena sweetheart. It's not like that. There's nothing wrong with you sweetie." Grace says as she takes Serena into a hug.

"Ash," Delia says only for her to stop when Ash suddenly looks up. She gets frightened by the look on his face.

"Mom. There's nothing you can say that'll make me feel better. All I can think of is of how badly I want to strangle Calem with my bare hands. And I swear to you mom. The day he shows his face is the day I will snap his neck." Ash says in a bitter, broken yet seething with rage tone.

"Ash, shush. Don't say such things." Delia says as she pulls Ash into a hug.

"Mom. Why did Calem do this? I admit. I cheated on him and broke up with him. But I don't know what I did that he wanted to have me killed on the day of my wedding. Am I that bad that he would try to destroy my life completely? And uncle Gabriel? Why did he betray us like that? Wouldn't it have been best if Dragon Emperor had let us die? At least it would be more liberating than this hellish life we're going to now live in. My married life has been cursed right from the start." Serena says as tears stream down her face.

"Oh, my baby. Don't think like that. Everything will be fine. We're here, aren't we?" Grace says while crying as all of them share an emotional group hug.

(One week later in KIP Emergency Meeting Room)

"How are Ash and Serena?" Diantha asks in a tone clearly conveying that she's almost too afraid to ask.

"Not very good. I don't think any of us are, as a matter of fact. It's been one week but it just doesn't go out of my head. But they did manage to eat their normal quota of food last night which is a good sign. And I gave them each a sleeping pill to sleep it off. The Pokemon, thankfully, have no idea what happened a week back since they were conveniently knocked out." Grace says as she and Delia take a seat each.

"I think no one should see a slaughter like that. It would have been best if we weren't witnesses to that demonstration either. Look at my hands. They're still shaking." Diantha says as she grabs a glass of water to drink but the glass immediately starts shaking due to the shaking of the hands.

"We need to put our feeling aside and focus on the issue at hand. I blame Dragon Emperor for a lot of what happened a week back but the one thing we can all agree on is that if he hadn't been present at the wedding. Then we all would have ended up dead. So we need to have a discussion on this matter." Rowan says.

"Where is Lance? He was the one who called for this meeting along with Looker. I don't see him anywhere." Delia remarks.

"Palermo isn't faring any better. She cried last night as she apologized to me." Grace suddenly says.

"Why?" Cynthia asks.

"She feels that in a way all this is on her. I mean she said that she did a background check on Calem when he asked Serena out before Serena was admitted into KIP but it came clean so she gave Serena the thumbs up. She feels like she let Serena down. But I told her that this wasn't her fault. That she shouldn't blame herself for it." Grace replies.

"Well, on that front, even I owe you an apology, Delia and Grace. My background check on when Calem, when he joined the institute and became my apprentice, also failed. If only I had known at that time then maybe all this could have been avoided. I am sorry for what happened." Diantha replies.

"It's OK. You're not to blame. It's that Dragon Emperor who's to blame. The moment he entered Ash and Serena's life he put a target on their back. He brought nothing but death and misery into our lives." Grace says.

"Now now. You shouldn't be so critical of him. You're being over harsh." A voice comes out of nowhere. Everyone turns to see Looker and Lance standing in the doorway.

"Agreed. He does share the blame. But you shouldn't put it on his shoulders completely." Looker continues as both he and Lance walk to their chairs.

"Everything has gone wrong since that man entered our lives. Misery, political instability, death to name a few things. I don't know why I even allowed Ash and Serena to be his apprentices in the first place." Grace says in a loud tone.

"I am not saying things haven't gone wrong. But there are other factors to consider here." Looker argues back.

"You're only saying that because he avenged your wife and daughter's death." Grace shouts.

"Yes. He did. And I am grateful. The way they were murdered. I have spent the previous 5 years of my life trying to hunt them down. Whenever I found them. They beat me and left me alive each time so that I could live with the pain. One week back I was liberated from that guilt. Not my proudest moment. But still, I felt a huge wave of relief when I watched Dragon Emperor plunge his blade into the killer of my daughter and wife. My only regret is that I didn't do it myself." Looker says which causes everyone to be quiet immediately.

"Looker. I understand what you went through. I have never been married. I don't know what it's like to lose a daughter and I won't pretend that I do. But what the Dragon Emperor did. That was not justice. Justice is about peace. It's about harmony. What he did was cold-blooded murder and revenge." Diantha says.

"I know. But 5 years back, I swore on my wife and daughter's grave that I would not rest till I found and killed the people who killed them. A week back I finally felt that I could make peace with my past. I felt in my heart that the souls of my wife and daughter can finally rest easy. But all that is moot now. We should not deviate from the agenda of this meeting." Looker says as he wipes the tears forming in his eyes.

"Agreed. Now let's hear Lance's report on the coordinated militaristic joined operation of G-Men, International Police Agency and the Kantonian military against Team Rocket carried out four days ahead." Diantha says as Lance nods.

"Well, we did carry out a joint operation. We had to. After our interrogation of Gabriel revealed a location of one of many bases that Team Rocket owns in the Kanto region. We immediately decided to carry out an attack in response to what happened at the wedding. We had to. But things didn't go the way they were supposed to." Lance says as he opens up and his laptop and attaches the cord to connect it to the projector.

"What do you mean by that? Did they all escape?" Diantha asks with a shocked expression.

https://youtu.be/ZDZK_9BTVNE

"Not exactly. I'll explain. After." Lance is saying when he stops in his tracks. Everyone looks in the direction of the disturbance to see a sizzling sound being emitted. True to everyone's anticipation blue flames erupt and then a few moments later subside. Everyone stands up when they see the Dragon Emperor standing with his eyes closed.

"We need to talk," he says as he opens his eyes. An uncanny silence descends on the room as the Dragon Emperor stands while everyone else looks at him. Some angry, others upset and the remaining scared of what he has to say.

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I hope you enjoyed that. But there is more interesting stuff in the next chapter. But don't forget to vote and comment.

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