"That's enough..." Aizen panted for breath and dropped down to his knees. His head was aching terribly, and his body seemed drained of all energy.
"Meta..." Dexter worriedly called out.
"Give me a minute..." The violet-eyed boy assured his partner.
The events of the last day still bothered him, and Lyla's words were fresh in his mind. He needed to become stronger. And he could not wait anymore after he asked Dexter to show him how the battle had progressed.
Watching his Pokemon up against an army of Humans and Pokemon constricted his heart. He should have been there with them as their eyes and commander, not huddled up in a basement, at the mercy of his weakness.
Aizen spent the last two hours pushing his Psychic Focus to its limit and bearing the Psychic Energy of Metagross. He aimed to make his mind feel threatened enough to tap into more Power, and Aizen knew better than anyone else that it was not a pleasant feeling.
When pushed into a corner, the mind retaliated by making him hallucinate and by giving him a distorted version of his reality. And Aizen went through hell in the past hour, experiencing things he would never wish even upon his enemies.
Luckily for him, Dexter was very powerful. He managed to drag him back to reality before his mind was about to blank out, which would have put him in an indefinite coma.
Aizen wiped away the tears from his cheeks when his breathing calmed down. He reached inside his heart and let loose the Aura Powers he had locked before starting the training.
The soothing feeling that spread in his body as the Aura started healing him up, made him nearly moan. He lay down on the soft grass and closed his eyes, relishing all the feelings pouring down on him.
He could still see, and even feel everything around him. He saw beautiful auras of Pokemon in the woods. He felt what they were up to, what mood they were in, and how healthy or sick they were. He could even sense the feelings emanating from the earth and grass he was lying on. But it was not long before he had to gain back control over what he allowed to reach him.
The negativity of the world rushed at him hungrily to devour him, but it was repelled away when he raised his guards and tightened his link with nature.
Nature was beautiful, but it had its ugly side as well. Be it Psyhcic or Aura Powers, they were not without their drawbacks. One could cause you to lose your emotions, and the other could drive them so high that you could go mad. And then there was this aching temptation to control everything for Psychics, and the addiction of Emotional-High for the Aura Users that corrupted them.
Aizen opened his eyes, and the blue glow in them disappeared after a couple of seconds. He checked this watch and learned that he had rested for over half an hour.
A smile crept on his lips when he saw how protectively Dexter was hovering by his side.
"Thanks, Dex." He stoop up and placed his hand on the golden cross on Dexter's head.
"Meta..."
"Go ahead." He nodded, and Metagross teleported away to hunt for food.
Aizen took a deep breath and looked up at the sky that was cast. Rain was on its way, and he had only 5 minutes in his appointment for lunch with Bill and Uncle Joseph.
"Come out, Aerius." He plucked the ball from his belt and threw it in the air.
The beautiful bird sang the moment the white glow subsided and then lowered its head to Aizen to earn some pats.
"How are you feeling?" Aizen lovingly caressed its head and inquired.
"Preee!!"
"That's good." He laughed. "Let's go. I need to get to Lavender Town in under 5 minutes." He climbed on the back of Aerius, and the massive bird shot up to the sky at a breakneck speed.
Aerius playfully performed acrobatics in the air, sending Aizen's heart racing with adrenaline pulsating in his veins.
They were only a few miles away from the Town, but Aerius took his time playing around with his Master. Exactly after 4 minutes, Aizen reached his destination.
"You can fly around and have fun. I will play with you later." He promised and teleported down to the ground, right outside the Pokemon Center.
His sudden arrival made a couple of trainers yelp in surprise, and he apologetically smiled at them before heading inside the Center.
Aizen took the corridor that led to the Suites and found the one where Bill and Joseph were staying at. He waited outside the door for a few seconds and knocked exactly when the clock hit 2 pm.
"Come in." A deep gruff voice answered. It was not loud, but Aizen heard it clearly in his ears.
He found Bill seated on the couch with his laptop, working on something. And on the other side of him, was a man who looked to be in his late forties, over two decades younger than his age. He had the typical Stone features of steel-blue eyes, but his steel-blue hair now had a good amount of white hair among them.
"Good Afternoon, Uncle Joseph." He politely bowed and raised his head with a bright smile. "You seem well."
"I am but an old man." Joseph chuckled before he fondly smiled at the Orayen Prince and gestured for him to sit by his side. "My Apologies for not arriving on time yesterday, the enemy was stronger than we anticipated. And we were caught off guard."
Joseph immediately got down to business and asked Bill to hand over the footage of their battle at the Silph Co. Headquarters.
Aizen sucked in a cold breath when he saw the number of Mega Pokemon that were involved in the battle. The Headquarters of Silph Co. was in ruins, and Joseph simply couldn't do anything other than to let Lance and the rest of the Action Team deal with the enemy while he and his Pokémon protected the citizens and the surroundings from the ongoing battle.
However, the most shocking thing was the presence of a powerful Psychic in the enemy squad that went toe to toe with Lance in a battle.
"There were a lot of witnesses of the battle, but we managed to stop the footage from being leaked online." Bill, who closed his Laptop after finishing his work, informed him.
"Did you get anything out of the prisoners?" Aizen asked after watching how everything transpired.
"Both of them killed themselves before we could interrogate them." Joseph shook his head. "Even after all we did, there were two civilian casualties. The Indigo Council is hard-pressed, but it is a good thing that we managed to capture those grunts of Team Rocket from the Power Plant. The official narrative of the incident marks it a win for the Indigo Council against Team Rocket." He sighed.
"Do we have any leads on the enemy?" Aizen looked at Bill and asked.
"Nothing concrete, but we do have some assumptions." Bill lightly smiled.
"Go on."
"They were in a Cell of 5, and were caught off guard by our presence at the site, which means that they did not expect us to, at least, arrive before anything happened. The one leading the Cell was a Psychic, but others showed no signs of having any Powers. And even after they were hard pressed against us, they did not call for backup." Bill meaningfully looked at him. "Now there could be several reasons for that. First, the mission was not that important, and their lives didn't have any value to the organization. Second, they do not have high numbers and could not spare a backup Team. Third, the Cell was confident that they could successfully retreat or that they have very strict codes in the organisation that they needed to follow. Fourth, it was all a ploy to keep us engaged while the real target was something else."
Aizen stared at him in the eyes before nodding to him to continue.
"The Team has agreed that it could not be the First reason. The presence of a Powerful Psychic in the Cell means that the mission was important, and it is highly unlikely that Team Doom is strong and big enough to consider the life of Powerful Psychic as something dispensable." Bill said and Aizen nodded to his words. "And the Team hopes that it was not the Fourth reason. Our hope is based on the fact that we have received no information of something major happening other than the incident at the Power Plant. They wouldn't need to keep us engaged somewhere else if we have no way of knowing what their real target was."
"That's fair." Aizen nodded.
"We are inclined to go with the Second and Third set of reasonings." Joseph joined in the conversation. "The organization was unheard of, and something big with high numbers would have left some clues and trails. Which we have found none so far. However, even if they have small numbers, their strength is real. All five members of the Cell had Pokemon with Mega Stones, capable of temporarily achieving their True Forms. The Psychic even had a permanently evolved Mega Alakazam and a Mega Scizor. And all the Pokemon we fought against were well-trained and powerful."
"We are up against a team that has resources, as well as members willing to selflessly sacrifice themselves to save the rest of the Cell." Bill sighed. The two prisoners that they caught had sacrificed themselves to allow their leader and two companions to escape. "They are dangerous and driven by their goals."
"Did your Metagross get a read on his Psychic-Focus?" Aizen turned to Joseph and asked.
"No." He shook his head. "He did not get a read on his Psychic Focus. They are wearing devices on them that protected them from Psychic Pokemon getting a read on their minds or marking them. The Psychic had one that hid his Psychic Focus as well."
"Here..." Bill pulled out a device from his pocket and tossed it to Aizen.
It was a small device that could be worn behind the ears, hidden under the hair.
"I have checked it for any trackers. There are none. You can keep it."
"Thanks." Aizen smiled at him.
"Now, tell us what happened in the room with you," Bill curiously asked, and his Father's eyes became very serious.
"You didn't see the footage?"
"We did, but it was cut off when that Tyrantrum approached you. Your Metagross already shared the memory of his battle with mine, so we know how things transpired outside." Joseph informed him.
Aizen frowned and did not know how to explain the situation. He did not want to inform them about Lyla.
"We found that Tyrantrum dead, Aizen." Joseph seriously looked at him. "We found no traces of any energy in its body. And you have me curious how a Dragon did not even have a speck of Dragon Energy inside of his dead body."
"I don't want to answer that." Aizen lowered his head and replied.
Joseph and Bill stayed silent for a while after they heard his words.
"Did you lose control?" The old man seriously asked.
"No." Aizen shook his head and heard Joseph sigh in relief.
"All good then, but tell us about that Cube." He changed the subject.
"It is a weapon created by someone called Ronan in Team Rocket. From the information I received, Ronan is dead, and the old scientist in the room used to be his assistant. They call it Tesseract. I don't know how it works, but the scientist said that it is capable of Mass Destruction and killing Legendary Pokemon." He revealed.
"Did they manage to get away with it?" Joseph asked.
"No. It is in my possession and at a safe place." Aizen truthfully said. "It is capable of Mass Destruction, but it is only capable of injuring weaker Legendaries. Maybe kill some minor Legendaries, but that's it."
"That's it?" Bill looked at him in disbelief. "Anything that can kill Legendaries, minor or not, can kill any Mega Pokémon!"
"Bill. I have it." Aizen seriously said. "They won't get their hands on it. And it won't be used to kill anything."
Bill sighed at his words, nodding and sinking back into the couch.
"How do you know that it can only injure weaker Legendaries?" Joseph curiously asked.
Aizen apologetically smiled under his eyes. Bill was curious too and wanted the answer.
"Vow of silence." He whispered, and his friend's eyes widened in shock.
"You..." Bill's eyes subconsciously looked at the base of Aizen's neck, where the necklace was hidden under his shirt.
He knew that Aizen had a secret Pokemon on him and he had always pestered him to tell him about it, but the Prince had never given in.
Bill guessed that perhaps it was some Minor Legendary or even a Legacy of a stronger one, but only now that he heard the words of Aizen, did he understand what it actually was. Things made sense to him and he got some answers as well. He also understood how Tyrantrum died.
The words of the Dragon King were still fresh in his mind, and there was only one Progenitor Pokemon that was not imprisoned by Arceus, and it was the Crimson Queen. Had he not known what a Vow of Silence was, he would have never been able to understand what Aizen was hinting at.
Joseph could see that there was a secret between his son and Aizen. As a father, he was well aware of Bill's character and could get a read on him. He smiled when he saw Bill nod to Aizen and turn solemnly quiet.
"Let's eat." He got up and said.
He was not going to intrude on their secrets, and he already got his answers. All he cared about was how Tyrantrum died and what the Cube was. And since Aizen did not lose control, as he had feared, and the Cube was not in the enemy's hand, everything was fine.
But there was still something he had to talk to Aizen about, and he hoped that the Prince would make the right choice.