Pokemon from all across Valkaria (and some from beyond it) arrive to the thirtieth anniversary celebrating the end of the Silver War. Many Pokemon, especially some Gold Tribe and Seekers, are skeptical about the party, which was organized by General Grett. The grandiose design and festival which the ceremony has become, was thought by many to be unnecessary, too festive and less honoring, and just downright pointless. Though many respect the sacrifices of the Silver War, there are also some believe that Darkrai never actually appeared in the closing stages of the war, and that the war was conducted by former members of the Gold Tribe in the form of the Silver Tribe. This group, or movement, is called the Valkarian Exposure and is led by a former Commander Hypno known as Thomas Blake.

The party progressed on, with many old acquaintances meeting back up and some new ones meeting for the first time. Notable dignitaries included the Thieves with their King Snype, the Seekers and their leader Penance, SEC employees and their founder Hanso, the Gold Tribe and their leader Guardia, as well as many more surprising and some new faces. As the ceremony for the fallen was conducted, however, Thomas Blake got into an argument with another General, Riken, about the nature of the Silver War's end. Soon after, Grett revealed a surprising bit of information, his involvement with Darkrai, which promptly led to his appearance along the outskirts of Gold City soon after, along with an army. Grett was soon dispatched, and everyone got to work. The defense of Gold City had begun, with the Gold Tribe and other defenders clamoring over to the wall of the city, while others heading to the SEC Network points (there being three) to try and evacuate all the non-combating citizens to other cities.

Unknown to the defenders originally, a Greninja believed to be working, perhaps voluntarily, with Darkrai, has begun destroying the Network points. He has successfully destroyed Network point two with a Hyper Beam Cannon, and proceeded to Network point three. A fire had mysteriously begun around Network point three. The Greninja was discovered by Snype, Paradox (Penance), and other defenders of the Alpha Alliance. The Hyper Beam Cannon was fired, but the network point was thankfully not destroyed, and in the process of being moved (as it is somewhat portable by SEC employees). Though in apparent captivity, the Darkrai agent known as Gabriel, or Gabe, hinted at possible other infiltrators into the city. At the same time at Network point one, an Ursaring revealed himself and began causing mayhem around there as well, apparently with the goal to destroy the Network point there.

Meanwhile at the wall, the defense of the city began. Darkrai's army was vast and wide, but with the Gold Tribe, the Alpha Alliance, Hyper Beam Cannons and a small, evil Ralts, the walls were being held off. Stampedes and other Pokemon charged for the gates, but were held off. An enormous Wailord began to be carried by the Pokemon of Darkrai. It seemed to support a lot of weight on it, despite the Wailord's notoriety for being quite light. Even with some armor plating around it, it didn't appear to make much sense yet. However, with a bit of a psychic disturbance from Razathiel, the Wailord was initially tipped over and caused destructive damage to the armies of Darkrai. The Pokemon of Darkrai quickly recovered the Wailord, put psychic barriers around to prevent additional mishaps, and proceeded again forward to the wall. The Gold Tribe and General Warren headed over the gate to take on a few enemies close range, and the defense of Gold City continued.

At the wall, the giant Wailord that was being carried by the Darkrai forces was actually filled with Electrode. The 'mon at the wall managed to damage and partially destroy the wailord before it reached the wall, but it still ended up unleashing most of them closeby the wall and blowing up half of the main gate and taking down a good portion of the mon there. General Riken found Guardia there among the survivors and basically relayed the plan to her to do that mission she was planning tomorrow (check OOC) now instead, so she basically asked her to gather everyone she wanted to bring and take them to Network Point 3. They're all heading there now. At Network Point One, there were a group of Pokemon who were trying to destroy the Network there, an Ursaring, Machamp, and Ariados. They were tough opponents, particularly the Ursaring, but all were eventually taken out. Alex and Obsidian took out the Machamp with a sleeping dart, while Charlie took out the Ariados. A joint effort by Scar, Gaia (Naku NPC), Desmond (Naku NPC) and Atrox was used to take out the Ursaring. Gabriel arrived there too, and ended up destroying Network Point one in a concealed explosion at the same time as the explosion on the wall. So only Network Point 3 is left. In the end, Scar stayed behind to fight off Gabriel, while the rest continued on to Network Point 3.

From there, Riken and Guardia explained to the gathered about their mission, and of how they had to leave Gold City now to accomplish it. Fighting off the armies would only prolong the inevitable. The only way to win was to do what was originally intended: Find Cresselia. Along with that, they would get any help they could from the other countries in terms of fighting Darkrai's armies.

The group were teleported by the Network to Fort Ferrol, which was a relatively small outpost just north of Valkaria in an area known as the Valkaria Protectorate. It wasn't a country per say, as within it was only a collection of a few separate villages. Ferrol was half abandoned when they got there, including most of the Gold Tribe which was stationed there because they went off to help Gold City. However, there remained a couple of Gold Tribe members: 'Wraith' the Dusknoir, 'Whirlwind' the Fearow, and 'Reign' the Seaking. Along with them, there was a Seeker and SEC base, as well as a few dozen villagers who still occupied the village/fort.

The group spent the rest of the day resting, eating, and getting to know each other. Snype and Kaveri went on their second date, the first being in Gold City just before the attack. Guardia discovered Charlie, a traitor of the Gold Tribe and current member of the thieves, and confronted him. The brothers Joshua and Charlie met up, with the conversation going quite sour. Thomas, Sylvio, Cal, Raz, and Anna all met up and talked within the inn in town. The following day, the group gathered together to decide where they would begin their journey. After some debate, they ultimately decided on beginning in Tollen. From there, the group dispersed once more, everyone doing their own thing. At this point, Guardia once more confronted Charlie, with the two butting heads, but didn't resort to fighting. Guardia also spoke to Snype, frustrated that he had been hiding so much information from her about the extent of his organization. A similar conversation took place with Penance. Joshua and Cal also shared their reservations about trusting some of the non-Gold Tribe members of the group. The following day, they met again to discuss how they would get into Tollen, and what they would be doing once they got there.

They agreed to split up into three separate teams and proceed into Tollen that way. The thief team as it has been called, decided to go in through the last Network Point in Tollen. They snuck their way in with some help from SEC devices. The Diplomatic team tried the same way, but through the legal channels of the nobility in Tollen. The third team, the forest team, would head by way of the furthest Network Point in Beatruce and enter Tollen through the forest.

The Diplomatic Team: The Diplomatic team has made contact with Lord Marrow of House Ellia. He was fairly hostile to the group mostly because of their ties to the Gold Tribe, but also because of the fact that they were foreigners. Marrow alluded to the fact that all foreigners were generally forbidden inside Tollen, and there could be consequences for bringing them in. The Diplomatic team also discovered other names, including Lord Arron of House Durania, who was briefly mentioned. The diplo team convinced Marrow to give the guys a chance to explain themselves, and so Marrow went over to appeal to the other nobility to grant an audience before all of the dignitaries and nobility of Tollen, where they might be able to present their case for aid.

Also, the diplo team discovered that a portion of the network psychics have been taken hostage somewhere. Maybe something the thieves could investigate sometime. Lord Marrow returned around the same time that the two thieves were partially discovered in the palace. He was angry about the situation, asking if they had anything to do with it. The Diplomatic team assured them that they didn't, and Marrow informed them that the audience was set up.

The following day, the Diplomatic Team was presented to the audience, where the nobles of Argime gathered. Among the seated once who presided over the others were Lord Marrow, Lord Arron of House Durania, Lord Caellen of House Jenoscent, who was the son of the true head of the House (who was away because he was apparently ill), Deputy Commander Elewyn of the Royal Knights, and General Marcus Tyren of the Standing Army. Later, the savior everyone was referring to, and the Royal Commander of the Knights entered, who turned out to be the same Greninja Gabriel from Valkaria. In a slight state of worry, Thomas urged the diplomatic team not to mention Cresselia, so they approached the meeting from a call to aid for troops approach. The meeting surprisingly divided the nobles and military officials, with Lord Marrow and General Tyren supporting to toss them out, and Elewyn, Caellen, Arron and surprisingly Gabriel voting to hear them out more individually.

The diplomats met with various dignitaries following the meeting. They first met with Lord Arron of House Durania, who explained that he was informed somewhat of Gabriel, at least on the part of him being a nuisance to many nobles of Tollen, and also supported him being removed from power. Lord Arron explained his ties to the Brotherhood of Shadows, a group bent on getting rid of Gabriel, and of various other secret networks. He explained that if they were to help him get rid of Gabriel, he would provide them troops for their fight in Gold City, as well as any information they seek. He also asked as a condition for this that the diplomats ask the Queen to allow Arron to sit on the Throne of Rectitude, which is a position reserved for the most trustworthy of Tollen. The position involves that should no heir be named to the current ruler, that 'mon which current sits on the throne will take over as the ruler of Tollen. Currently, Gabriel is allowed to sit on the Throne.

Following the meeting with Lord Arron, the diplomats met with Lord Caellen, son of the leader of House Jenoscent. He was much more shy than his father, as he claimed, and clearly didn't have the knack to rule. However, he did say that his father was not sick, but rather that he was out of the city in secret, as he did not trust was Gabriel said, and he wanted to see the condition of Tollen for himself. Lord Caellen promised what support he could if the diplomats helped return his father to him.

Their next meeting was with the Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights, Elewyn. Elewyn seemed sincere in her support of the situation in Valkaria, offered support in troops without any favors or requests in return. It seemed that there were still quite a few Royal Knights who were brought up viewing the Gold Tribe in a relatively favorable light.

The meeting after Elewyn was with Gabriel himself. The meeting was an odd affair with many fronts and double meanings behind it. However, when he did begin to explain himself, Gabriel seemed intent on keeping his motivations somewhat secretly while still implying a few things, including that the presence of the diplomats in Tollen did benefit him as well as them. It seemed like it was all a game to him, with Gabriel even betting the diplomats that they couldn't bring him down within two nights from their meeting, where they were to attend a banquet of sorts, in which the Queen of Tollen would also be present.

The Thief Team: Two thieves, Charlie and Obsidian, decided to gather some information by infiltrating the palace of the Queen. Along the way, they heard something about a 'mon named Popous, who it was later found out didn't make it into the Royal Knights despite many thinking he should have because he was very skilled. Obsidian and Charlie also ran into a Herdier who was of nobility, whose House had the insignia of an Emerald Dragalge. The Herdier sniffed around when Obsidian and Charlie were close, but didn't comment on the thieves presence if he knew they were there. Charlie and Obsidian discovered a book, which detailed the line of succession of the General of the Standing Army. Apparently, the General has recently been replaced in the last year, from General Isabella to General Marcus Tyren.

Other thieves have been hearing continuous things about someone or something known as the Savior. From what they could gather, something has happened here in the last year which caused a lot of devastation of some sort, and many mon allude that the savior was the one to stop it, or save them from it. It is claimed that the mon was born in the Oddish Trail, a relatively poor and small part of the slums of Tollen. Other claims made him out to be from other parts of Tollen. The savior was clearly a prominent figure of some sort, having stopped the devastation known only as the Reckoning.

The thieves also planned a heist with a group they got in contact with after Snype saved a slum mon from a Royal Guard. The group mentioned something about another group known as the Brotherhood, but not much is known about it at present. On the day of the heist, Snype spoke with a citizen in Tollen named Popous, who somewhat upset about not getting into the Royal Knights, and thus was honorably discharged from the standing army. He passed on a bit of information that the Savior was a Greninja. The heist came, with the thief team meeting up with Roran (the initial 'mon who brought them the heist), as well as Joseph, Stretch, and a Bisharp named Creed. The group agreed to hit the shipping caravan as it traveled within the city, as it was found out that the most skilled Royal Knights guarded the entrances and exit to the city, where the supplies were bound. Jeice, another member of the heist, informed the group that there would be two standing army soldiers, and two royal knights guarding the caravan. The shipping job went off without much of a hitch. Except at the end of it, instead of leaving the knocked out royal knights, Creed suddenly killed the two Royal Knights.

The thief team took offense, but it was soon discovered that he was with the Brotherhood, and the shipping job was an initiation of sort to get the group to meet with them. He also mentioned that killing them would derail suspicion of another group with the Diplomatic team inside the capital. It was also found out that the Brotherhood stopped a Royal Knight from passing information on to the higher ups in the palace about them having SEC supplies, and therefore could be foreigners here. The Brotherhood asked to meet with the thief team that night.

The thieves returned to their hideout in a spa, where they met with a Seeker, who was one of the standing army soldiers posted with the caravan. There, he gave a good painting of the full story. A plague began in the capital, which killed the King and caused a lot of devastation. The borders were closed and all foreigners were dispelled to try and contain this Reckoning. It also seemed that a portion of the citizens, mostly nobility and those around the palace, seemed immune to the plague, which greatly angered the suffering poor and middle class. Finally, a Royal Knight came forward by the name of Gabriel and began to cure this plague. He became extremely popular among the people of Tollen, and so the Queen gave him a position of influence. The nobility were more hesitant to accept him given his roots, but agreed because they knew the people would protest if they did.

Following the meeting with the Seeker, the thieves met up with the Brotherhood in the same evening, where it was discovered that their leader was actually Isabella, the former General of the Standing Army. Isabella had begun to suspect Gabriel and his plans and for that, she believed Gabriel set her up in an assassination attempt against the Queen, and also an execution. Isabella escaped, and began working in the shadows to bring down the Gabriel. The two sides relayed further information about the situation outside, and Isabella relayed everything going on within the country, including her ties to Lord Arron of House Durania. They agreed on a loose partnership to bring down Gabriel by uncovering the past.

The first place they agreed to look, as suggested by Sylvio, was the events surrounding the Dark Tournament which took place over a century earlier. It was a similar incident that occurred during the Silver War, and was proof of Darkrai's involvement. Furthermore, Knights of Tollen as well as Gold Tribe fought together during this incident. Although it was initially covered up because of panic, there may have been some record left behind. The thieves sought to find this record, which Sylvio suspected was in the Raegal Center. The Raegal Center was constructed many years ago, and despite never being renovated, was allowed to stand from orders of the King directly without any explanation.

The thief group made their way inside the Raegal Center the following day and began to look for the records. They managed to discover it below the old library, but someone else seemed to track them as well. An Abomasnow formerly employed by Lord Arron, but who was recently 'outbid' into another 'mon's service, attacked the group and killed Creed. They met up with the brotherhood again later that day, where they discussed the event, as well as began tracking down further leads to bring down Gabriel.

The Thieves pursued several leads the following days. Skuld would go and find the Abomasnow and end up tailing him. From there he would learn that he was indeed in the service of the enemy, specifically General Marcus Tyren, who appeared to be allied with Gabriel. Other leads including diving into Isabella's memories, where they discovered a possible connection between the plague and Gabriel, and saw how Gabriel used a strange object to possibly influence the effects of the plague. Other leads were found in the palace, where Snype infiltrated and found an encrypted note. After the encryption, it was discovered to be from someone named 'Xander', and which details Gabriel's relationship with Darkrai. Snype would also find an interesting book known as 'Guardians', as well as a documentation of the orders of the Royal Knights, most of them which seemed against what was best for Tollen. A strange vial was also found in the room, one which gave Snype a vision of something menacing, perhaps of Darkrai's power, or even Darkrai himself.

Snype fled the scene, but not before also recruiting the help of Rupert the Mr Mime advisor, and also hearing the story of the old Royal Knight Alistair, who shared the tale of the Prince's death by hunting accident. It appeared that back then, the same vial Snype had found was used then by Marcus Tyren (then a Royal Knight) to make sure the prince died. Snype found one more piece of evidence in the form of love letters from a lesser noble named Pieter. The love letters, which were directed to the Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights, stated information about the previous assassination attempts of the Queen, and that connection not to Isabella, but to Gabriel and Darkrai's Agents. With all of this information in tow, the Thieves now had enough evidence to take down Gabriel. However, just before they would present it, Isabella ended up losing two pieces of the evidence after losing it in a tussle with Royal Knights loyal to Gabriel. Gabriel had apparently found out about the identity of the group looking for evidence and decided to put a stop to it. Isabella ended up losing the Guardians book and the Royal Commander schedule. These weren't extreme losses, but they did have some important information in them.

Snype was also attacked following the scene, with some of the strongest Royal Knights pursuing him. He ended up momentarily evading them, and wandered the city for a while, seeing it go to mayhem as soldiers entered homes in search of the thief team. However, Snype ended up being trailed by none other than one of the strongest warriors in Tollen, Marcus Tyren. Tyren was powerful, and was in the process of taking down and defeating Snype. However, he was eventually saved by Popous, whom Snype met earlier while in disguise. Popous took Snype to his home, where once the Sableye recovered, he shared his entire story with him. Popous listened and agreed to help at the banquet, adding another ally to the group.

The Forest Team: The Forest Team left before the other groups, on the evening prior. They transported to Beatruce, where they were directed onto the backs of water Pokemon, and traveled across the river into Tollen. Upon reaching the shores the following morning, they found the outpost there largely abandoned. They did see tracks going in multiple directions, and when the 'mon tried to sense out the place to see where the most activity was coming from, they found out that going north had a lot of death. The group therefore proceeded north, where they walked through the jungle for hours. They noticed the area was quite foggy, but discovered this was a combination of smoke and mist. They reached a body, one of the hellguards of Tollen, and then came upon a group of Hellguards, the last of a scouting team of over 80, now just half a dozen. The scouting team, led by Lieutenant Trace, was returning back to Fort Trantrea to reconnect with the remaining forces in the area. They talked about how they were attacked from all sides in the jungles, from three different forces no less. The Morrians, a group of wild tribe-like 'mon with painted faces, were the biggest trouble in the Northern area. They also said if they wanted more information, they should speak to Commander Darrell in Fort Trantrea.

A few hours later, they arrived at the fort. When the forest team arrived with the hellguards at Fort Trantrea, they found it under attack by a Morrian scouting party. With the help of the forest team, they managed to push back the Morrians, and the forest group met with the Commander. There, he relayed what he knew. He explained that he has not received any skilled Hellguard reinforcements from the capital in months, and recently, he hasn't even had any of the bad kind. There was no news from the capital. From a few Seekers Penance found, it was also discovered that any remaining Seekers in the country were drafted into the Hellguards from the standing army and sent to the warzone.

After some time, the place received a message from a nearby village, which said that there was a Tollenian noble from Argime there. However, at the same time, Fort Trantrea began to be under attack. The forest group was left to decide whether to pursue the noble or help the troops in Trantrea, and they decided to remain and fight. The battle lasted the entire night and into the morning, with the Morrians not retreating until the last 'mon standing. However, the Hellguards won with the forest team's help. As they rest and recover now, they decide on what to do next.

The forest team met up with a Seeker from Valkaria, Alexis, who was strangely transported here by a Network Machine. The reason for his transportation was a mystery then, but it usually doesn't malfunction on this level unless some sort of strong psychic energy was the cause behind it, likely from another Network Machine. With another Seeker and psychic present, Penance/Brynn decided to try and contact Argime through a long, psychic chain of connections. Even though it was far away, they decided to try. They connected with every Psychic they had in the area, and tried to extend themselves across the forest. Their signal was picked up, however not by Argime. Instead, they were surprised to learn that there was a second Network Point established on the outside of Argime in secret. According to a quick message, it was placed there for the Pentosarrs and Morrians to go and use to get a quick path into Argime straight into the city. The forest group is somewhat skeptical, believing that the message could be a trap, so they send a scouting team there first. Following this, they called for the army to arrive in the location, which is by a town called Brookerridge, to finally put the pieces of the plan into place.

The army showed up and positioned itself in Brookerridge, and soon after the army of the Morrians and Pentosarrs showed up. It was a conflict that took the entire night, but with the help of the Valkarians and some Seeker reinforcements, the Hellguards prevailed. With the Psychics now in tow, the forest team was now able to help out their friends in Argime, and share what had happened, but not before the Hellguards promised their full support in the war against Darkrai in Valkaria.

Together Again: The Thief, Forest, and Diplomat teams reunited at the banquet, where they shared all of the evidence against Marcus Tyren and Gabriel to the entire city and the nobility and other dignitaries of Tollen. The evidence was large, and the Valkarians found themselves with an advantage, until Gabriel decided to take matters into his own hands and try to force the Queen to drink from a cup, which many believed was probably poisoned. Little did he know that Rupert, the Mr. Mime adviser, had switched out the Queen's cup at the last minute, potentially saving her life.

Backed into a corner, Gabriel, Tyren, and what loyal Royal Guards he had with him decided to make a run for it, with the Queen in tow. The Valkarians and the Tollen defenders pursued. They squared off against Gabriel's best, in a fight for the city. Tyren eventually decided to stop running and face off against the tag team duo of Raz and Kaveri. In a tough bout, the two were eventually able to defeat the Agent of Darkrai and apparently kill him.

Meanwhile, Callimer, Snype, and Obsidian decided to pursue Gabriel, who had the Queen as a hostage. They were eventually able to get the Queen out of his hands, and Snype scurried away to bring her to safety. Eventually backed into a corner, both Obsidian and Cal fought with Gabriel. They appeared to be holding him off, but the Greninja was powerful. It became apparent that the Greninja was relying on some power of Darkrai through a small orb he held in his hands. When Snype returned, the three hatched a plan to get rid of the object in question. They were successful in doing so, much to the dismay of the Greninja.

Gabriel demanded the orb back, but the three refused, instead demanding that Gabriel surrender. Gabriel proceeded to ask if Snype remembered what he had first said to him when they first met. Snype shrugged it off as some lame line he said in Gold City, but Gabriel clarified that their first meeting actually came 30 years before. To the shock of the three warriors, Gabriel proceeded to recite words spoken by Darkrai to Snype many years prior, and then subsequently transformed into the legendary before their very eyes. They briefly tussled with the legendary, but were overwhelmed. Darkrai put them to sleep, but not before he explained to them the necessity of keeping them alive: chaos. Darkrai then escaped Tollen as the three fell asleep.

They were awoken by Guardia, and then shared their experience. Alex came soon after and helped to remove any possible power of Darkrai inside of them. Oddly enough, only Callimer and Obsidian had any corruption inside, while Snype remained free of it.

The next few days were spent recovering and reuniting, and a few days later, a meeting was held where the dignitaries of Tollen all gathered. There, the Valkarians nominated Isabella for her old position of General of the Standing Army, and Elewyn became the new Royal Commander. Lord Arron of House Durania was also elected to have the honor to sit on the Throne of Rectitude, much to the disagreement of many dignitaries.

The meeting also featured the Tollenians providing what aid they could, including Commander Darrell promising the entire Hellguard force once they need it. Elewyn, Marrow, and Arron also pledged Royal Knights number a bit of 100, and Isabella also promised her support through what remained of her Brotherhood members. Rupert promised what help he could through hired mercenaries, and Popous and Alistair agreed they would be present at the fight. Roran also set up an alliance with Snype with the new Brotherhood, one that was more thief-centered.

The meeting also featured a few notable events and reveals about other matters, including the fact that the orb around Zai's neck was the same one, or a similar one, to the one Gabriel had. Many theories were put forth about this. It was also revealed that Raz had a bit of Darkrai's power inside of him. Arron also shared some stories about Anatellia, and how legendaries were confirmed to walk with normal 'mon there. He recommended they go there. Isabella remembered reading something of the sort in the 'Guardians' book she lost, but could not remember more than becoming more than 'normal 'mon'. Marrow also brought out the Psychics of Brookerridge and shared a message they received, one which specifically said that Cresselia had been found in a hymn. After some more deliberation, the group eventually voted to go to Anatellia, to find help against Darkrai from other legendaries, and to find the origins of the message.

The group eventually returned to Fort Ferrol to once more rest and recuperate before heading to Anatellia. At this point, while they rested, they were met with two new individuals. One was a mercenary named Silence Quickslash, who was willing to do practically any job, including assassination. The other was a tribes'mon, a nomad from the unclaimed lands that traveled with a pack named Nyalla. Both agreed to accompany the group to their next destination, one as a contract and the other to eventually reach her tribe.

At one point in Fort Ferrol, a myserious Pokemon named Wem appeared before Raz, with only Raz apparently able to see it. It was a shapeshifter, appearing to continuously change its species at will. It mentioned that in Anatellia, not only was it said that legendaries sometimes walked among normal Pokemon, but that normal Pokemon could also walk among the legendaries. It appeared at the end as a Mew, and vanished without a trace.

The group arrived to their next destination, Anatellia, to a less than warm start, both literally and not. They arrived in the Network Point to find themselves in the beginning of a cave overlooking a long white sheet of snow with no visible areas of habitat, along with a group of 'mon known as the Sons of Arceus. The Sons of Arceus were one of the many sects in Anatellia. Sects acted partially like factions, but essentially were nothing more than glorified gangs now. The Sons were the strongest, however, and it was with their leader, Gaiyo Nyys, that the Seekers had a relationship.

Gaiyo introduced himself there, and it was clear he didn't appreciate foreigners being there. Neither did the rest of the Sons. But they allowed the group to remain (under watch) because of Gaiyo's relationship with Obsidian and Penance. Gaiyo led them to the city Reverence below, where they learned that the entire population of Anatellia lived below in the enormous caverns, rather than on the inhabitable surface.

Gaiyo led the group to his house, where he was hesitant on offering them help, but agreed to do so only if they also assisted him in matters going on in Anatellia. He even allowed them to pick the time when they could assist in these matters. The group decided to pursue a lead first, in the form of a legendary that was 'bonded' to Gaiyo. By that, it was meant that Gaiyo and a legendary formed an interdependent and mutual relationship which sometimes occurs between normal and legendary Pokemon. Gaiyo made a marker on the map to where the legendary was staying, and the group went to seek his guidance. He also sent two members of the group, Zai and Silence, on a special assignment to recruit a smaller sect up north.

The legendary 'mon turned out to be a Victini that went by Vee. It was rather cordial and spoke with candor on a lot of matters, a refreshing break from usual legendaries being so cryptic. Vee spoke to the group on a number of subjects. The first was Cresselia, and her location. Vee discussed in length about the message sent to Tollen, which appeared to come from the Victini. She explained about Cresselia, and her connection to a group of legendaries known as the Guardians.

The Guardians are a group of legendaries that aren't born legendaries, but are made. They began as normal Pokemon before they are chosen to ascend to a legendary status. They are selected to help protect and guard the world, to keep it in balance, according to Vee. In order to ascend, they must have two items: their Soul, and their spirit. The spirit is usually found sometimes clinging to another Pokemon. The soul is found in the same sort of stone that Gabriel had in Tollen. It was then learned the difference between Zai's stone, a Mega Stone, and Gabriel's, a Soul Stone. The Mega Stone is what allows normal 'mon to 'walk with legendaries', or to become powerful as them, and on equal terms with them, albeit for a short time. The soul stone is more permanent, allowing a normal 'mon to transform into a legendary permanently. Only it appeared Gabriel had figured out a way to break the permanence of it.

They also confirmed that Gabriel was indeed Darkrai, and that the Greninja form of his was merely his first normal form before he became a Guardian. It then recommended to go and ask the other Guardians about the rest of Cresselia. Now that they knew that the Queen of Tollen was the vessel, they had to find the spirit and the soul.

It was also revealed by Victini that one member of the group happened to be bonded with a legendary. It did not reveal who, though, as it seemed to want to keep that legendary protected, and Vee respected that. After a brief entanglement with Penance, it also stated that the Golduck had a lot of chaos inside of him, to the point where he could almost be a ticking timebomb.

The group headed back to Reverence following their discussion with Vee, with plenty of new information. However, meanwhile in Reverence, things seemed to have happened. As they learned from Gaiyo, an allied sect of his and another sect had a meeting that many didn't know about. Gaiyo wasn't able to uncover the reason or the identities, but he didn't like the secrecy of it. There was also a massacre at an allied sect's 'Rising Ceremony', a ceremony dedicated to the Legendary the sect worships. The Dark Moons, the sect that worships Darkrai, was believed to be behind it.

The group agreed that now was a good time to help Gaiyo with his errands. He sent them off to do three task. The first was to participate in the 'under-race', a race of 'mon riding on top of other 'mon without flying. The second was stopping a 'mon known as the Gambler, who had apparently been gambling with Sons of Arceus. The wager often had been forcing them to join Darkrai's side if they lost. The third task was to intercept a group of Earth Dweller scouts (a sect allied with the Dark Moons) and find out why they were poking around Sons territory.

The under-race went well. Raz, Cal and Kav worked together to defeat the riders from many other sects, including the Reverse Kings, and the leader of the Dark Moons, who was Roxanna, known as the Queen of Darkness. The Gambler task proved more difficult. Each member of the group Gambled in the task, but many ended up losing, including Snype, Thomas, Penance, and a Seeker with Penance. They all lost and were teleported away to one of Darkrai's camps. This one, located in the Path of Nations, a strip of land in between Anatellia, Karn, and Beatruce, had plenty of fighters for Darkrai's side. They met a General there, named Revoll, as well as discovered that the former Alpha Alliance General Grett was alive and well. Penance also became distraught at this point because he saw many of his Seekers, who he adored, turned to the other side. Only in the end, did Anna managed to win against the Gambler, secure the rest back to Reverence, as well as forced the Gambler to submit to the group and return a captive.

The third task seemed easy enough in the beginning. The group tracked down the Earth Dwellers, and intercepted them when they ran. They eventually discovered, however, that the Earth Dwellers were merely reporting in on populations of the area, just to see how many casualties there would be as a result of the bomb that was planted by Roxanna and the Dark Moons earlier. The group desperately searched for a location of the bomb, eventually figuring out from interrogating the Gambler (Ben) that it was in Arceus Orb, one of the larger structures in Reverence, and heavily populated. They found the bomb on top, a converted Mega Stone that only would be stopped if the right 'mon grabbed it. Grabbing it too many times, however, would cause it to go off. Before it detonated, Callimer eventually grabbed the bomb and stopped its detonation, and in the process scored himself a Mega Stone. However, during the bomb fiasco, the Gambler Ben managed to escape thanks to help from another Agent, Alai.

Gaiyo was thankful that the group was successful in completing the tasks. In fact, many Sons looked at them in a better light. He was more cordial, and he even shared with them about a place they could go to to get more info on the Mega Stones, called the Altar of the Divines.

The group set off there after a discussion about where to go next. The journey was approximately 3 days long. When they arrived, however, they found Roxanna there, along with a group of other Agents: James (a Blaziken mercenary), Alai, Grett, and Ben. They concocted a game (made by the Gambler Ben) that would form six pathways. In one pathway was the information the group sought about the Mega Stones. In the other, was the five Agents.

Before the game began, Raz elected to gamble for a chance to secure the info right away. He succeeded and scored the books easily, while the rest split up and headed down separate pathways. Pathway 1 led to James, the mercenary. Anna and Raz went down that path. However, James didn't seem very interested in fighting because he wasn't paid by Gabriel to be there. Raz caught him in a psychic trap and took him away. James didn't struggle much, only relaxed and slept. The second pathway had the books, which Raz collected. Down the third was Alai, who Kaveri had a brief discussion with, before they began to fight. Cal and Conduit went down the fourth pathway, where they fought Roxanna. Guardia and Snype headed to the fifth pathway, and Thomas and Abel went down the sixth.

Guardia and Snype managed to recover a few items in the game the Gambler set up in the fifth pathway. This included information about something known as an 'Ancian', which they had no knowledge of, as well as another Mega Stone, which belonged to Snype. They also managed to make the Gambler submit due to his tarot ability of random card drawing , which forces him to do anything the card suggests. He had to surrender and join their side. Unfortunately, the others weren't fairing well, especially Abel and Thomas, who were revealed by the Gambler to be paired up against the strongest Agent, Grett.

The others fared fairly well, including Cal and Conduit, who were in the process of defeating Roxanna. However, Guardia and Snype ended the game to save Abel and Thomas, and thus teleported everyone away from the Altar. Cal was initially angry about not being able to finish off Roxanna, but eventually calmed down. The group also figured out, thanks to Raz, that Ancian meant 'doorway', though the interpretation of what that meant was subject to much debate, as it could have meant a mental doorway, or possibly a physical one. Regardless, part of Gabriel's plan was to open the Ancian when the time was right. Snype also was convinced to hire the Agent James for a tremendous fee. There was much debate about this from the others, but they eventually conceded.

The group headed back to Reverence for three days, to find that much had happened in the time they were gone. An allied sect broke away from the Sons and the Reverse Kings. Furthermore, a trial was set up for a prominent Son of Arceus for the murder of a Reverse King. Gaiyo believed this to be a set-up by the Dark Moons. Then later, a very prominent and important statue belonging to the Reverse Kings was destroyed. The guilt was pinged somehow on the Dark Moons, who denied this. A few other escalations happened, but the result was civil war seemed to be on the path to break out.

Also during this time, Penance, who had previously been in distress after seeing many of his Seekers on the other side, fall into suicidal thoughts and into a coma. Command of the Seekers was temporarily given to Obsidian, and Penance went deep into his mind to try and figure out some things. The previous prison where Paradox now remained was found by him, along with a mysterious shadow presence in the form of Gabriel. There, Penance and Gabriel had a talk about Paradox, where it was revealed that Paradox wasn't supposed to be a separate entity, but rather a part of Penance that split off. Penance also requested that he go to the camp again, to talk to the 'mon there and possibly join the other side.

A few days later, he was arranged to be teleported to the camp of Darkrai, where he spoke to many individuals, and eventually agreed that Gabriel's side was the right side. Thus, Penance became an Agent of Darkrai.

The group arrived back to find that Gaiyo had called a meeting with the three main sects, the Sons of Arceus, the Reverse Kings, and the Dark Moons, to try and resolve this before they had to fight. The meeting went fairly poorly, and a fight broke out in which Roxanna attacked the group. The fight was brutal, but ended with Roxanna's defeat. There was much debate as to what should come next. Raz and Abel believed that Roxanna should die, but Ben, who was still their captive, pleaded for his friend's life. Cal eventually agreed to keep her alive for now, and Guardia affirmed the decision, much to the chagrin of Raz and Abel.

Even though they defeated Roxanna, Gaiyo explained that war was still inevitable. He was saddened by this, but he felt the Sons' chances of winning were still high. He did suggest that if they did win, they could try and help the group out with their own fighting. They also gave the group a set of information on multiple things, including the Guardians, and the Ancian. They also provided the group with a third Mega Stone that was given to Gaiyo by some explorers. The group left Anatellia after this, and headed back to Fort Ferrol to rest and plan their next move.

Pokemon from all across Valkaria (and some from beyond it) arrive to the thirtieth anniversary celebrating the end of the Silver War. Many Pokemon, especially some Gold Tribe and Seekers, are skeptical about the party, which was organized by General Grett. The grandiose design and festival which the ceremony has become, was thought by many to be unnecessary, too festive and less honoring, and just downright pointless. Though many respect the sacrifices of the Silver War, there are also some believe that Darkrai never actually appeared in the closing stages of the war, and that the war was conducted by former members of the Gold Tribe in the form of the Silver Tribe. This group, or movement, is called the Valkarian Exposure and is led by a former Commander Hypno known as Thomas Blake.

The party progressed on, with many old acquaintances meeting back up and some new ones meeting for the first time. Notable dignitaries included the Thieves with their King Snype, the Seekers and their leader Penance, SEC employees and their founder Hanso, the Gold Tribe and their leader Guardia, as well as many more surprising and some new faces. As the ceremony for the fallen was conducted, however, Thomas Blake got into an argument with another General, Riken, about the nature of the Silver War's end. Soon after, Grett revealed a surprising bit of information, his involvement with Darkrai, which promptly led to his appearance along the outskirts of Gold City soon after, along with an army. Grett was soon dispatched, and everyone got to work. The defense of Gold City had begun, with the Gold Tribe and other defenders clamoring over to the wall of the city, while others heading to the SEC Network points (there being three) to try and evacuate all the non-combating citizens to other cities.

Unknown to the defenders originally, a Greninja believed to be working, perhaps voluntarily, with Darkrai, has begun destroying the Network points. He has successfully destroyed Network point two with a Hyper Beam Cannon, and proceeded to Network point three. A fire had mysteriously begun around Network point three. The Greninja was discovered by Snype, Paradox (Penance), and other defenders of the Alpha Alliance. The Hyper Beam Cannon was fired, but the network point was thankfully not destroyed, and in the process of being moved (as it is somewhat portable by SEC employees). Though in apparent captivity, the Darkrai agent known as Gabriel, or Gabe, hinted at possible other infiltrators into the city. At the same time at Network point one, an Ursaring revealed himself and began causing mayhem around there as well, apparently with the goal to destroy the Network point there.

Meanwhile at the wall, the defense of the city began. Darkrai's army was vast and wide, but with the Gold Tribe, the Alpha Alliance, Hyper Beam Cannons and a small, evil Ralts, the walls were being held off. Stampedes and other Pokemon charged for the gates, but were held off. An enormous Wailord began to be carried by the Pokemon of Darkrai. It seemed to support a lot of weight on it, despite the Wailord's notoriety for being quite light. Even with some armor plating around it, it didn't appear to make much sense yet. However, with a bit of a psychic disturbance from Razathiel, the Wailord was initially tipped over and caused destructive damage to the armies of Darkrai. The Pokemon of Darkrai quickly recovered the Wailord, put psychic barriers around to prevent additional mishaps, and proceeded again forward to the wall. The Gold Tribe and General Warren headed over the gate to take on a few enemies close range, and the defense of Gold City continued.

At the wall, the giant Wailord that was being carried by the Darkrai forces was actually filled with Electrode. The 'mon at the wall managed to damage and partially destroy the wailord before it reached the wall, but it still ended up unleashing most of them closeby the wall and blowing up half of the main gate and taking down a good portion of the mon there. General Riken found Guardia there among the survivors and basically relayed the plan to her to do that mission she was planning tomorrow (check OOC) now instead, so she basically asked her to gather everyone she wanted to bring and take them to Network Point 3. They're all heading there now. At Network Point One, there were a group of Pokemon who were trying to destroy the Network there, an Ursaring, Machamp, and Ariados. They were tough opponents, particularly the Ursaring, but all were eventually taken out. Alex and Obsidian took out the Machamp with a sleeping dart, while Charlie took out the Ariados. A joint effort by Scar, Gaia (Naku NPC), Desmond (Naku NPC) and Atrox was used to take out the Ursaring. Gabriel arrived there too, and ended up destroying Network Point one in a concealed explosion at the same time as the explosion on the wall. So only Network Point 3 is left. In the end, Scar stayed behind to fight off Gabriel, while the rest continued on to Network Point 3.

From there, Riken and Guardia explained to the gathered about their mission, and of how they had to leave Gold City now to accomplish it. Fighting off the armies would only prolong the inevitable. The only way to win was to do what was originally intended: Find Cresselia. Along with that, they would get any help they could from the other countries in terms of fighting Darkrai's armies.

The group were teleported by the Network to Fort Ferrol, which was a relatively small outpost just north of Valkaria in an area known as the Valkaria Protectorate. It wasn't a country per say, as within it was only a collection of a few separate villages. Ferrol was half abandoned when they got there, including most of the Gold Tribe which was stationed there because they went off to help Gold City. However, there remained a couple of Gold Tribe members: 'Wraith' the Dusknoir, 'Whirlwind' the Fearow, and 'Reign' the Seaking. Along with them, there was a Seeker and SEC base, as well as a few dozen villagers who still occupied the village/fort.

The group spent the rest of the day resting, eating, and getting to know each other. Snype and Kaveri went on their second date, the first being in Gold City just before the attack. Guardia discovered Charlie, a traitor of the Gold Tribe and current member of the thieves, and confronted him. The brothers Joshua and Charlie met up, with the conversation going quite sour. Thomas, Sylvio, Cal, Raz, and Anna all met up and talked within the inn in town. The following day, the group gathered together to decide where they would begin their journey. After some debate, they ultimately decided on beginning in Tollen. From there, the group dispersed once more, everyone doing their own thing. At this point, Guardia once more confronted Charlie, with the two butting heads, but didn't resort to fighting. Guardia also spoke to Snype, frustrated that he had been hiding so much information from her about the extent of his organization. A similar conversation took place with Penance. Joshua and Cal also shared their reservations about trusting some of the non-Gold Tribe members of the group. The following day, they met again to discuss how they would get into Tollen, and what they would be doing once they got there.

They agreed to split up into three separate teams and proceed into Tollen that way. The thief team as it has been called, decided to go in through the last Network Point in Tollen. They snuck their way in with some help from SEC devices. The Diplomatic team tried the same way, but through the legal channels of the nobility in Tollen. The third team, the forest team, would head by way of the furthest Network Point in Beatruce and enter Tollen through the forest.

The Diplomatic Team: The Diplomatic team has made contact with Lord Marrow of House Ellia. He was fairly hostile to the group mostly because of their ties to the Gold Tribe, but also because of the fact that they were foreigners. Marrow alluded to the fact that all foreigners were generally forbidden inside Tollen, and there could be consequences for bringing them in. The Diplomatic team also discovered other names, including Lord Arron of House Durania, who was briefly mentioned. The diplo team convinced Marrow to give the guys a chance to explain themselves, and so Marrow went over to appeal to the other nobility to grant an audience before all of the dignitaries and nobility of Tollen, where they might be able to present their case for aid.

Also, the diplo team discovered that a portion of the network psychics have been taken hostage somewhere. Maybe something the thieves could investigate sometime. Lord Marrow returned around the same time that the two thieves were partially discovered in the palace. He was angry about the situation, asking if they had anything to do with it. The Diplomatic team assured them that they didn't, and Marrow informed them that the audience was set up.

The following day, the Diplomatic Team was presented to the audience, where the nobles of Argime gathered. Among the seated once who presided over the others were Lord Marrow, Lord Arron of House Durania, Lord Caellen of House Jenoscent, who was the son of the true head of the House (who was away because he was apparently ill), Deputy Commander Elewyn of the Royal Knights, and General Marcus Tyren of the Standing Army. Later, the savior everyone was referring to, and the Royal Commander of the Knights entered, who turned out to be the same Greninja Gabriel from Valkaria. In a slight state of worry, Thomas urged the diplomatic team not to mention Cresselia, so they approached the meeting from a call to aid for troops approach. The meeting surprisingly divided the nobles and military officials, with Lord Marrow and General Tyren supporting to toss them out, and Elewyn, Caellen, Arron and surprisingly Gabriel voting to hear them out more individually.

The diplomats met with various dignitaries following the meeting. They first met with Lord Arron of House Durania, who explained that he was informed somewhat of Gabriel, at least on the part of him being a nuisance to many nobles of Tollen, and also supported him being removed from power. Lord Arron explained his ties to the Brotherhood of Shadows, a group bent on getting rid of Gabriel, and of various other secret networks. He explained that if they were to help him get rid of Gabriel, he would provide them troops for their fight in Gold City, as well as any information they seek. He also asked as a condition for this that the diplomats ask the Queen to allow Arron to sit on the Throne of Rectitude, which is a position reserved for the most trustworthy of Tollen. The position involves that should no heir be named to the current ruler, that 'mon which current sits on the throne will take over as the ruler of Tollen. Currently, Gabriel is allowed to sit on the Throne.

Following the meeting with Lord Arron, the diplomats met with Lord Caellen, son of the leader of House Jenoscent. He was much more shy than his father, as he claimed, and clearly didn't have the knack to rule. However, he did say that his father was not sick, but rather that he was out of the city in secret, as he did not trust was Gabriel said, and he wanted to see the condition of Tollen for himself. Lord Caellen promised what support he could if the diplomats helped return his father to him.

Their next meeting was with the Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights, Elewyn. Elewyn seemed sincere in her support of the situation in Valkaria, offered support in troops without any favors or requests in return. It seemed that there were still quite a few Royal Knights who were brought up viewing the Gold Tribe in a relatively favorable light.

The meeting after Elewyn was with Gabriel himself. The meeting was an odd affair with many fronts and double meanings behind it. However, when he did begin to explain himself, Gabriel seemed intent on keeping his motivations somewhat secretly while still implying a few things, including that the presence of the diplomats in Tollen did benefit him as well as them. It seemed like it was all a game to him, with Gabriel even betting the diplomats that they couldn't bring him down within two nights from their meeting, where they were to attend a banquet of sorts, in which the Queen of Tollen would also be present.

The Thief Team: Two thieves, Charlie and Obsidian, decided to gather some information by infiltrating the palace of the Queen. Along the way, they heard something about a 'mon named Popous, who it was later found out didn't make it into the Royal Knights despite many thinking he should have because he was very skilled. Obsidian and Charlie also ran into a Herdier who was of nobility, whose House had the insignia of an Emerald Dragalge. The Herdier sniffed around when Obsidian and Charlie were close, but didn't comment on the thieves presence if he knew they were there. Charlie and Obsidian discovered a book, which detailed the line of succession of the General of the Standing Army. Apparently, the General has recently been replaced in the last year, from General Isabella to General Marcus Tyren.

Other thieves have been hearing continuous things about someone or something known as the Savior. From what they could gather, something has happened here in the last year which caused a lot of devastation of some sort, and many mon allude that the savior was the one to stop it, or save them from it. It is claimed that the mon was born in the Oddish Trail, a relatively poor and small part of the slums of Tollen. Other claims made him out to be from other parts of Tollen. The savior was clearly a prominent figure of some sort, having stopped the devastation known only as the Reckoning.

The thieves also planned a heist with a group they got in contact with after Snype saved a slum mon from a Royal Guard. The group mentioned something about another group known as the Brotherhood, but not much is known about it at present. On the day of the heist, Snype spoke with a citizen in Tollen named Popous, who somewhat upset about not getting into the Royal Knights, and thus was honorably discharged from the standing army. He passed on a bit of information that the Savior was a Greninja. The heist came, with the thief team meeting up with Roran (the initial 'mon who brought them the heist), as well as Joseph, Stretch, and a Bisharp named Creed. The group agreed to hit the shipping caravan as it traveled within the city, as it was found out that the most skilled Royal Knights guarded the entrances and exit to the city, where the supplies were bound. Jeice, another member of the heist, informed the group that there would be two standing army soldiers, and two royal knights guarding the caravan. The shipping job went off without much of a hitch. Except at the end of it, instead of leaving the knocked out royal knights, Creed suddenly killed the two Royal Knights.

The thief team took offense, but it was soon discovered that he was with the Brotherhood, and the shipping job was an initiation of sort to get the group to meet with them. He also mentioned that killing them would derail suspicion of another group with the Diplomatic team inside the capital. It was also found out that the Brotherhood stopped a Royal Knight from passing information on to the higher ups in the palace about them having SEC supplies, and therefore could be foreigners here. The Brotherhood asked to meet with the thief team that night.

The thieves returned to their hideout in a spa, where they met with a Seeker, who was one of the standing army soldiers posted with the caravan. There, he gave a good painting of the full story. A plague began in the capital, which killed the King and caused a lot of devastation. The borders were closed and all foreigners were dispelled to try and contain this Reckoning. It also seemed that a portion of the citizens, mostly nobility and those around the palace, seemed immune to the plague, which greatly angered the suffering poor and middle class. Finally, a Royal Knight came forward by the name of Gabriel and began to cure this plague. He became extremely popular among the people of Tollen, and so the Queen gave him a position of influence. The nobility were more hesitant to accept him given his roots, but agreed because they knew the people would protest if they did.

Following the meeting with the Seeker, the thieves met up with the Brotherhood in the same evening, where it was discovered that their leader was actually Isabella, the former General of the Standing Army. Isabella had begun to suspect Gabriel and his plans and for that, she believed Gabriel set her up in an assassination attempt against the Queen, and also an execution. Isabella escaped, and began working in the shadows to bring down the Gabriel. The two sides relayed further information about the situation outside, and Isabella relayed everything going on within the country, including her ties to Lord Arron of House Durania. They agreed on a loose partnership to bring down Gabriel by uncovering the past.

The first place they agreed to look, as suggested by Sylvio, was the events surrounding the Dark Tournament which took place over a century earlier. It was a similar incident that occurred during the Silver War, and was proof of Darkrai's involvement. Furthermore, Knights of Tollen as well as Gold Tribe fought together during this incident. Although it was initially covered up because of panic, there may have been some record left behind. The thieves sought to find this record, which Sylvio suspected was in the Raegal Center. The Raegal Center was constructed many years ago, and despite never being renovated, was allowed to stand from orders of the King directly without any explanation.

The thief group made their way inside the Raegal Center the following day and began to look for the records. They managed to discover it below the old library, but someone else seemed to track them as well. An Abomasnow formerly employed by Lord Arron, but who was recently 'outbid' into another 'mon's service, attacked the group and killed Creed. They met up with the brotherhood again later that day, where they discussed the event, as well as began tracking down further leads to bring down Gabriel.

The Thieves pursued several leads the following days. Skuld would go and find the Abomasnow and end up tailing him. From there he would learn that he was indeed in the service of the enemy, specifically General Marcus Tyren, who appeared to be allied with Gabriel. Other leads including diving into Isabella's memories, where they discovered a possible connection between the plague and Gabriel, and saw how Gabriel used a strange object to possibly influence the effects of the plague. Other leads were found in the palace, where Snype infiltrated and found an encrypted note. After the encryption, it was discovered to be from someone named 'Xander', and which details Gabriel's relationship with Darkrai. Snype would also find an interesting book known as 'Guardians', as well as a documentation of the orders of the Royal Knights, most of them which seemed against what was best for Tollen. A strange vial was also found in the room, one which gave Snype a vision of something menacing, perhaps of Darkrai's power, or even Darkrai himself.

Snype fled the scene, but not before also recruiting the help of Rupert the Mr Mime advisor, and also hearing the story of the old Royal Knight Alistair, who shared the tale of the Prince's death by hunting accident. It appeared that back then, the same vial Snype had found was used then by Marcus Tyren (then a Royal Knight) to make sure the prince died. Snype found one more piece of evidence in the form of love letters from a lesser noble named Pieter. The love letters, which were directed to the Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights, stated information about the previous assassination attempts of the Queen, and that connection not to Isabella, but to Gabriel and Darkrai's Agents. With all of this information in tow, the Thieves now had enough evidence to take down Gabriel. However, just before they would present it, Isabella ended up losing two pieces of the evidence after losing it in a tussle with Royal Knights loyal to Gabriel. Gabriel had apparently found out about the identity of the group looking for evidence and decided to put a stop to it. Isabella ended up losing the Guardians book and the Royal Commander schedule. These weren't extreme losses, but they did have some important information in them.

Snype was also attacked following the scene, with some of the strongest Royal Knights pursuing him. He ended up momentarily evading them, and wandered the city for a while, seeing it go to mayhem as soldiers entered homes in search of the thief team. However, Snype ended up being trailed by none other than one of the strongest warriors in Tollen, Marcus Tyren. Tyren was powerful, and was in the process of taking down and defeating Snype. However, he was eventually saved by Popous, whom Snype met earlier while in disguise. Popous took Snype to his home, where once the Sableye recovered, he shared his entire story with him. Popous listened and agreed to help at the banquet, adding another ally to the group.

The Forest Team: The Forest Team left before the other groups, on the evening prior. They transported to Beatruce, where they were directed onto the backs of water Pokemon, and traveled across the river into Tollen. Upon reaching the shores the following morning, they found the outpost there largely abandoned. They did see tracks going in multiple directions, and when the 'mon tried to sense out the place to see where the most activity was coming from, they found out that going north had a lot of death. The group therefore proceeded north, where they walked through the jungle for hours. They noticed the area was quite foggy, but discovered this was a combination of smoke and mist. They reached a body, one of the hellguards of Tollen, and then came upon a group of Hellguards, the last of a scouting team of over 80, now just half a dozen. The scouting team, led by Lieutenant Trace, was returning back to Fort Trantrea to reconnect with the remaining forces in the area. They talked about how they were attacked from all sides in the jungles, from three different forces no less. The Morrians, a group of wild tribe-like 'mon with painted faces, were the biggest trouble in the Northern area. They also said if they wanted more information, they should speak to Commander Darrell in Fort Trantrea.

A few hours later, they arrived at the fort. When the forest team arrived with the hellguards at Fort Trantrea, they found it under attack by a Morrian scouting party. With the help of the forest team, they managed to push back the Morrians, and the forest group met with the Commander. There, he relayed what he knew. He explained that he has not received any skilled Hellguard reinforcements from the capital in months, and recently, he hasn't even had any of the bad kind. There was no news from the capital. From a few Seekers Penance found, it was also discovered that any remaining Seekers in the country were drafted into the Hellguards from the standing army and sent to the warzone.

After some time, the place received a message from a nearby village, which said that there was a Tollenian noble from Argime there. However, at the same time, Fort Trantrea began to be under attack. The forest group was left to decide whether to pursue the noble or help the troops in Trantrea, and they decided to remain and fight. The battle lasted the entire night and into the morning, with the Morrians not retreating until the last 'mon standing. However, the Hellguards won with the forest team's help. As they rest and recover now, they decide on what to do next.

The forest team met up with a Seeker from Valkaria, Alexis, who was strangely transported here by a Network Machine. The reason for his transportation was a mystery then, but it usually doesn't malfunction on this level unless some sort of strong psychic energy was the cause behind it, likely from another Network Machine. With another Seeker and psychic present, Penance/Brynn decided to try and contact Argime through a long, psychic chain of connections. Even though it was far away, they decided to try. They connected with every Psychic they had in the area, and tried to extend themselves across the forest. Their signal was picked up, however not by Argime. Instead, they were surprised to learn that there was a second Network Point established on the outside of Argime in secret. According to a quick message, it was placed there for the Pentosarrs and Morrians to go and use to get a quick path into Argime straight into the city. The forest group is somewhat skeptical, believing that the message could be a trap, so they send a scouting team there first. Following this, they called for the army to arrive in the location, which is by a town called Brookerridge, to finally put the pieces of the plan into place.

The army showed up and positioned itself in Brookerridge, and soon after the army of the Morrians and Pentosarrs showed up. It was a conflict that took the entire night, but with the help of the Valkarians and some Seeker reinforcements, the Hellguards prevailed. With the Psychics now in tow, the forest team was now able to help out their friends in Argime, and share what had happened, but not before the Hellguards promised their full support in the war against Darkrai in Valkaria.

Together Again: The Thief, Forest, and Diplomat teams reunited at the banquet, where they shared all of the evidence against Marcus Tyren and Gabriel to the entire city and the nobility and other dignitaries of Tollen. The evidence was large, and the Valkarians found themselves with an advantage, until Gabriel decided to take matters into his own hands and try to force the Queen to drink from a cup, which many believed was probably poisoned. Little did he know that Rupert, the Mr. Mime adviser, had switched out the Queen's cup at the last minute, potentially saving her life.

Backed into a corner, Gabriel, Tyren, and what loyal Royal Guards he had with him decided to make a run for it, with the Queen in tow. The Valkarians and the Tollen defenders pursued. They squared off against Gabriel's best, in a fight for the city. Tyren eventually decided to stop running and face off against the tag team duo of Raz and Kaveri. In a tough bout, the two were eventually able to defeat the Agent of Darkrai and apparently kill him.

Meanwhile, Callimer, Snype, and Obsidian decided to pursue Gabriel, who had the Queen as a hostage. They were eventually able to get the Queen out of his hands, and Snype scurried away to bring her to safety. Eventually backed into a corner, both Obsidian and Cal fought with Gabriel. They appeared to be holding him off, but the Greninja was powerful. It became apparent that the Greninja was relying on some power of Darkrai through a small orb he held in his hands. When Snype returned, the three hatched a plan to get rid of the object in question. They were successful in doing so, much to the dismay of the Greninja.

Gabriel demanded the orb back, but the three refused, instead demanding that Gabriel surrender. Gabriel proceeded to ask if Snype remembered what he had first said to him when they first met. Snype shrugged it off as some lame line he said in Gold City, but Gabriel clarified that their first meeting actually came 30 years before. To the shock of the three warriors, Gabriel proceeded to recite words spoken by Darkrai to Snype many years prior, and then subsequently transformed into the legendary before their very eyes. They briefly tussled with the legendary, but were overwhelmed. Darkrai put them to sleep, but not before he explained to them the necessity of keeping them alive: chaos. Darkrai then escaped Tollen as the three fell asleep.

They were awoken by Guardia, and then shared their experience. Alex came soon after and helped to remove any possible power of Darkrai inside of them. Oddly enough, only Callimer and Obsidian had any corruption inside, while Snype remained free of it.

The next few days were spent recovering and reuniting, and a few days later, a meeting was held where the dignitaries of Tollen all gathered. There, the Valkarians nominated Isabella for her old position of General of the Standing Army, and Elewyn became the new Royal Commander. Lord Arron of House Durania was also elected to have the honor to sit on the Throne of Rectitude, much to the disagreement of many dignitaries.

The meeting also featured the Tollenians providing what aid they could, including Commander Darrell promising the entire Hellguard force once they need it. Elewyn, Marrow, and Arron also pledged Royal Knights number a bit of 100, and Isabella also promised her support through what remained of her Brotherhood members. Rupert promised what help he could through hired mercenaries, and Popous and Alistair agreed they would be present at the fight. Roran also set up an alliance with Snype with the new Brotherhood, one that was more thief-centered.

The meeting also featured a few notable events and reveals about other matters, including the fact that the orb around Zai's neck was the same one, or a similar one, to the one Gabriel had. Many theories were put forth about this. It was also revealed that Raz had a bit of Darkrai's power inside of him. Arron also shared some stories about Anatellia, and how legendaries were confirmed to walk with normal 'mon there. He recommended they go there. Isabella remembered reading something of the sort in the 'Guardians' book she lost, but could not remember more than becoming more than 'normal 'mon'. Marrow also brought out the Psychics of Brookerridge and shared a message they received, one which specifically said that Cresselia had been found in a hymn. After some more deliberation, the group eventually voted to go to Anatellia, to find help against Darkrai from other legendaries, and to find the origins of the message.

The group eventually returned to Fort Ferrol to once more rest and recuperate before heading to Anatellia. At this point, while they rested, they were met with two new individuals. One was a mercenary named Silence Quickslash, who was willing to do practically any job, including assassination. The other was a tribes'mon, a nomad from the unclaimed lands that traveled with a pack named Nyalla. Both agreed to accompany the group to their next destination, one as a contract and the other to eventually reach her tribe.

At one point in Fort Ferrol, a myserious Pokemon named Wem appeared before Raz, with only Raz apparently able to see it. It was a shapeshifter, appearing to continuously change its species at will. It mentioned that in Anatellia, not only was it said that legendaries sometimes walked among normal Pokemon, but that normal Pokemon could also walk among the legendaries. It appeared at the end as a Mew, and vanished without a trace.

The group arrived to their next destination, Anatellia, to a less than warm start, both literally and not. They arrived in the Network Point to find themselves in the beginning of a cave overlooking a long white sheet of snow with no visible areas of habitat, along with a group of 'mon known as the Sons of Arceus. The Sons of Arceus were one of the many sects in Anatellia. Sects acted partially like factions, but essentially were nothing more than glorified gangs now. The Sons were the strongest, however, and it was with their leader, Gaiyo Nyys, that the Seekers had a relationship.

Gaiyo introduced himself there, and it was clear he didn't appreciate foreigners being there. Neither did the rest of the Sons. But they allowed the group to remain (under watch) because of Gaiyo's relationship with Obsidian and Penance. Gaiyo led them to the city Reverence below, where they learned that the entire population of Anatellia lived below in the enormous caverns, rather than on the inhabitable surface.

Gaiyo led the group to his house, where he was hesitant on offering them help, but agreed to do so only if they also assisted him in matters going on in Anatellia. He even allowed them to pick the time when they could assist in these matters. The group decided to pursue a lead first, in the form of a legendary that was 'bonded' to Gaiyo. By that, it was meant that Gaiyo and a legendary formed an interdependent and mutual relationship which sometimes occurs between normal and legendary Pokemon. Gaiyo made a marker on the map to where the legendary was staying, and the group went to seek his guidance. He also sent two members of the group, Zai and Silence, on a special assignment to recruit a smaller sect up north.

The legendary 'mon turned out to be a Victini that went by Vee. It was rather cordial and spoke with candor on a lot of matters, a refreshing break from usual legendaries being so cryptic. Vee spoke to the group on a number of subjects. The first was Cresselia, and her location. Vee discussed in length about the message sent to Tollen, which appeared to come from the Victini. She explained about Cresselia, and her connection to a group of legendaries known as the Guardians.

The Guardians are a group of legendaries that aren't born legendaries, but are made. They began as normal Pokemon before they are chosen to ascend to a legendary status. They are selected to help protect and guard the world, to keep it in balance, according to Vee. In order to ascend, they must have two items: their Soul, and their spirit. The spirit is usually found sometimes clinging to another Pokemon. The soul is found in the same sort of stone that Gabriel had in Tollen. It was then learned the difference between Zai's stone, a Mega Stone, and Gabriel's, a Soul Stone. The Mega Stone is what allows normal 'mon to 'walk with legendaries', or to become powerful as them, and on equal terms with them, albeit for a short time. The soul stone is more permanent, allowing a normal 'mon to transform into a legendary permanently. Only it appeared Gabriel had figured out a way to break the permanence of it.

They also confirmed that Gabriel was indeed Darkrai, and that the Greninja form of his was merely his first normal form before he became a Guardian. It then recommended to go and ask the other Guardians about the rest of Cresselia. Now that they knew that the Queen of Tollen was the vessel, they had to find the spirit and the soul.

It was also revealed by Victini that one member of the group happened to be bonded with a legendary. It did not reveal who, though, as it seemed to want to keep that legendary protected, and Vee respected that. After a brief entanglement with Penance, it also stated that the Golduck had a lot of chaos inside of him, to the point where he could almost be a ticking timebomb.

The group headed back to Reverence following their discussion with Vee, with plenty of new information. However, meanwhile in Reverence, things seemed to have happened. As they learned from Gaiyo, an allied sect of his and another sect had a meeting that many didn't know about. Gaiyo wasn't able to uncover the reason or the identities, but he didn't like the secrecy of it. There was also a massacre at an allied sect's 'Rising Ceremony', a ceremony dedicated to the Legendary the sect worships. The Dark Moons, the sect that worships Darkrai, was believed to be behind it.

The group agreed that now was a good time to help Gaiyo with his errands. He sent them off to do three task. The first was to participate in the 'under-race', a race of 'mon riding on top of other 'mon without flying. The second was stopping a 'mon known as the Gambler, who had apparently been gambling with Sons of Arceus. The wager often had been forcing them to join Darkrai's side if they lost. The third task was to intercept a group of Earth Dweller scouts (a sect allied with the Dark Moons) and find out why they were poking around Sons territory.

The under-race went well. Raz, Cal and Kav worked together to defeat the riders from many other sects, including the Reverse Kings, and the leader of the Dark Moons, who was Roxanna, known as the Queen of Darkness. The Gambler task proved more difficult. Each member of the group Gambled in the task, but many ended up losing, including Snype, Thomas, Penance, and a Seeker with Penance. They all lost and were teleported away to one of Darkrai's camps. This one, located in the Path of Nations, a strip of land in between Anatellia, Karn, and Beatruce, had plenty of fighters for Darkrai's side. They met a General there, named Revoll, as well as discovered that the former Alpha Alliance General Grett was alive and well. Penance also became distraught at this point because he saw many of his Seekers, who he adored, turned to the other side. Only in the end, did Anna managed to win against the Gambler, secure the rest back to Reverence, as well as forced the Gambler to submit to the group and return a captive.

The third task seemed easy enough in the beginning. The group tracked down the Earth Dwellers, and intercepted them when they ran. They eventually discovered, however, that the Earth Dwellers were merely reporting in on populations of the area, just to see how many casualties there would be as a result of the bomb that was planted by Roxanna and the Dark Moons earlier. The group desperately searched for a location of the bomb, eventually figuring out from interrogating the Gambler (Ben) that it was in Arceus Orb, one of the larger structures in Reverence, and heavily populated. They found the bomb on top, a converted Mega Stone that only would be stopped if the right 'mon grabbed it. Grabbing it too many times, however, would cause it to go off. Before it detonated, Callimer eventually grabbed the bomb and stopped its detonation, and in the process scored himself a Mega Stone. However, during the bomb fiasco, the Gambler Ben managed to escape thanks to help from another Agent, Alai.

Gaiyo was thankful that the group was successful in completing the tasks. In fact, many Sons looked at them in a better light. He was more cordial, and he even shared with them about a place they could go to to get more info on the Mega Stones, called the Altar of the Divines.

The group set off there after a discussion about where to go next. The journey was approximately 3 days long. When they arrived, however, they found Roxanna there, along with a group of other Agents: James (a Blaziken mercenary), Alai, Grett, and Ben. They concocted a game (made by the Gambler Ben) that would form six pathways. In one pathway was the information the group sought about the Mega Stones. In the other, was the five Agents.

Before the game began, Raz elected to gamble for a chance to secure the info right away. He succeeded and scored the books easily, while the rest split up and headed down separate pathways. Pathway 1 led to James, the mercenary. Anna and Raz went down that path. However, James didn't seem very interested in fighting because he wasn't paid by Gabriel to be there. Raz caught him in a psychic trap and took him away. James didn't struggle much, only relaxed and slept. The second pathway had the books, which Raz collected. Down the third was Alai, who Kaveri had a brief discussion with, before they began to fight. Cal and Conduit went down the fourth pathway, where they fought Roxanna. Guardia and Snype headed to the fifth pathway, and Thomas and Abel went down the sixth.

Guardia and Snype managed to recover a few items in the game the Gambler set up in the fifth pathway. This included information about something known as an 'Ancian', which they had no knowledge of, as well as another Mega Stone, which belonged to Snype. They also managed to make the Gambler submit due to his tarot ability of random card drawing , which forces him to do anything the card suggests. He had to surrender and join their side. Unfortunately, the others weren't fairing well, especially Abel and Thomas, who were revealed by the Gambler to be paired up against the strongest Agent, Grett.

The others fared fairly well, including Cal and Conduit, who were in the process of defeating Roxanna. However, Guardia and Snype ended the game to save Abel and Thomas, and thus teleported everyone away from the Altar. Cal was initially angry about not being able to finish off Roxanna, but eventually calmed down. The group also figured out, thanks to Raz, that Ancian meant 'doorway', though the interpretation of what that meant was subject to much debate, as it could have meant a mental doorway, or possibly a physical one. Regardless, part of Gabriel's plan was to open the Ancian when the time was right. Snype also was convinced to hire the Agent James for a tremendous fee. There was much debate about this from the others, but they eventually conceded.

The group headed back to Reverence for three days, to find that much had happened in the time they were gone. An allied sect broke away from the Sons and the Reverse Kings. Furthermore, a trial was set up for a prominent Son of Arceus for the murder of a Reverse King. Gaiyo believed this to be a set-up by the Dark Moons. Then later, a very prominent and important statue belonging to the Reverse Kings was destroyed. The guilt was pinged somehow on the Dark Moons, who denied this. A few other escalations happened, but the result was civil war seemed to be on the path to break out.

Also during this time, Penance, who had previously been in distress after seeing many of his Seekers on the other side, fall into suicidal thoughts and into a coma. Command of the Seekers was temporarily given to Obsidian, and Penance went deep into his mind to try and figure out some things. The previous prison where Paradox now remained was found by him, along with a mysterious shadow presence in the form of Gabriel. There, Penance and Gabriel had a talk about Paradox, where it was revealed that Paradox wasn't supposed to be a separate entity, but rather a part of Penance that split off. Penance also requested that he go to the camp again, to talk to the 'mon there and possibly join the other side.

A few days later, he was arranged to be teleported to the camp of Darkrai, where he spoke to many individuals, and eventually agreed that Gabriel's side was the right side. Thus, Penance became an Agent of Darkrai.

The group arrived back to find that Gaiyo had called a meeting with the three main sects, the Sons of Arceus, the Reverse Kings, and the Dark Moons, to try and resolve this before they had to fight. The meeting went fairly poorly, and a fight broke out in which Roxanna attacked the group. The fight was brutal, but ended with Roxanna's defeat. There was much debate as to what should come next. Raz and Abel believed that Roxanna should die, but Ben, who was still their captive, pleaded for his friend's life. Cal eventually agreed to keep her alive for now, and Guardia affirmed the decision, much to the chagrin of Raz and Abel.

Even though they defeated Roxanna, Gaiyo explained that war was still inevitable. He was saddened by this, but he felt the Sons' chances of winning were still high. He did suggest that if they did win, they could try and help the group out with their own fighting. They also gave the group a set of information on multiple things, including the Guardians, and the Ancian. They also provided the group with a third Mega Stone that was given to Gaiyo by some explorers. The group left Anatellia after this, and headed back to Fort Ferrol to rest and plan their next move.

Back in Fort Ferrol, the group had a heated discussion about whether to keep Roxanna alive. Although there were disagreements, they eventually decided to imprison her. Cal and Snype also took the time to discuss their opinions about what the Ancian and the Watcher were, based on the books the group got in Anatellia. The group also ran into one of the Gold Tribe, who dropped of his daughter 'Rattles', a Ferrothorn to tag along with the group. They also learned about Penance joining Darkrai. Obsidian took the news hard, including engaging with Raz briefly in his anger.

Obsidian also learned from the Gold Tribe Dusknoir Wraith who had killed his father, as he was able to contact him in the afterlife. He learned it was a Grand General, Dorrian, who did the deed, a Tropius. Cal and Snype also began trainign with James on using their Mega Stones. James showed them a demonstration of the power, and Cal and Snype both attempted. Cal was able to get close, though not quite pull it off. Snype wasn't able to do as well, as James said there was something holding him back, like a secret he didn't share with anyone, or something of that nature. Guardia and Snype got into a bit of a heated discussion, though the two eventually made up.

The group also decided to finally make the trip to Beatruce to deal with the plague, and whoever controls it. Raz entertained the 'mon of Fort Ferrol with some exciting fireworks.

The group arrived in the capital city of Surina to a welcome atmosphere. Unlike previous cities, Beatruce enjoyed an alliance with the Gold Tribe and the Alpha Alliance. They went to meet with the Overseer, who led Beatruce's Senate. The Overseer, Julian Oriah, was a Tangrowth generally known to be fair but calculating. He had agreed to allow a meeting with the group. There, the group asked for assistance in Valkaria as well as information on Cresselia. Julian gave them the info he had heard from a Network Point in the Great Vantage, a part of Beatruce far north and in plague territory, and also where the Beatrucian Gold Tribe was last seen. In it, they had a message received about finding 'hope'. In another message, they also received the location of the one who created the plague, a Pokemon known as Bastille the Priest. He agreed if the group dealt with Bastille, he would provided Beatruce's armies. However, the Network Point was not strong enough to take them to both areas, only to one. With quick thinking from Anna, however, she managed to fix up the Network Points and split the group up. Anna, Guardia, Callimer, Rattles, Thomas and James therefore went to the Great Vantage to find hope, while Raz, Snype, Abel, and Able went to Mercurion to deal with Bastille.

The Great Vantage: The group arrived in the Great Vantage in poor condition. There were few guards, and many ferals in those canyons. They learned that the Beatrucian Gold Tribe, who sent the 'hope' message, hadn't been seen in weeks, but were last seen north. The group decided to head there, where they encountered numerous plagued 'mon. They also encountered a strange writing written on the wall. LE215. James looked at it at one point and mentioned seeing it in Anatellia before. Eventually, they reached the gates of the northern vantage, only to find it completely surrounded by thousands of feral 'mon. However, before they could be overwhelmed, the Beatrucian Gold Tribe arrived and assisted them. Led by Prime, the leader, they helped save the group through a secret passage through the canyon walls to the northern vantage outpost. There, the entire Beatrucian, what was left of them, remained. There was Firebird, Thunder, Prime, Mountain, Terram, Pyre, and a few others. The group learned most of the others perished, including Anzu, Abel's little sister.

However, the group learned the Beatrucian GT were watching a Musharna named Lia, who was what they identified as hope earlier. The Musharna was seemingly immune to the plague, could calm down ferals when they were next to her, and seemed to have other special abilities as well. The Gold Tribe had been trying to find a way back since discovering her, but had been surrounded by the path down, and knew the only working Network Point was south at the Great Vantage. There was a broken one north in a northern town, but they didn't know how to fix it. Thankfully, Anna said she could, so the group decided to go north. However, before they did, Prime said he had to get rid of a group of ferals west, who were the survivors of the Beatrucian Gold Tribe who had turned feral from the plague, including Anzu, Abel's sister. The group broke up again, with Cal, Prime, Terram, Firebird, Thunder, and Pyre going to finish the feral Gold Tribe, and the rest going to fix the Network Point in Warrington.

The feral group eventually found the infected Gold Tribe and fought them. They defeated them, though at the cost of the lives of Terram and Firebird. They eventually began heading back to meet up with the rest of the group at Warrington. Meanwhile at Warrington, the group managed to reach the town. Along the way, another code with the words LE215 was etched into the wall. The town was populated with feral plagued 'mon, though they all seemed docile and asleep. Carefully, they walked around them and Anna began fixing the Network Machine. After some time, however, the ferals suddenly awoke and began attacking. The group defended them, and soon after, the feral group arrived, just in time for Anna to fix the machine. The vantage group all left back to the capital.

Mercurion: Able, Abel, Snype, and Raz arrived in Mercurion to find the plague fully infected there. Ferals swarmed the streets, and a thick plague was surrounding the tallest building. They learned that Bastille resided there. They also learned that he could apparently see anything within the scope of the thick fog, and command others in it. Abel and Able decided to make a distraction in town, while Raz and Snype infiltrated the tower, being protected from the fog (Snype through the golden bracelet and Raz through a Magic Bounce armor he crafted). They encountered many ferals along the way, before finally fighting their way through Bastille. Snype and Raz fought the Agent for a long time, with him proving to be much tougher a fight than Roxanna and Tyren before him. In fact, he seemed too tough to be able to beat by themselves. The two knew they were outmatched, and Snype knew the only way he could beat him was to Mega Evolve. However, he had to relay what was holding him back. Snype whispered something to Raz, seemingly the final piece holding him from Mega Evolving, and did the act. From there, he was able to overwhelm Bastille. Seemingly defeated, Bastille quickly used a trump card, claiming he was holding Abel and Able captive. If they killed him, he would kill them with his fog. Snype agreed to let him go, but ended up backstabbing him with a tricky, powerful move he uncovered in his Mega Evolution. When Bastille died, the ferals in the city and throughout Beatruce seemed to become more insane, targeting everything in their path, including themselves. They seemed to become more disorganized though.

Snype and Raz quickly sought out Able, who was surrounded by ferals. After killing them off, she said Abel was in a similar situation. They went to where he was, only to find all of the ferals dead, and Abel standing there with none other than Gabriel beside him. However, before Snype or Raz could do much of anything, he disappeared. Abel claimed Gabriel said nothing much to him then. The group began to clear out the city of ferals, mostly Snype doing the work as he made the most of the mega evolution. Snype learned from a citizen that there may have been another Agent around Beatruce about a week before. A fire type that was hooded, but who had red and yellow markings. The group returned back to the capital, successful.

Meanwhile, back in Fort Ferrol, Obsidian, who remained behind to rally the remaining Seekers on their side, spoke to Scar in Valkaria to learn that a major offensive was happening in Albia soon, and would involve an invasion possibly of the Thieves Forest.

Pokemon from all across Valkaria (and some from beyond it) arrive to the thirtieth anniversary celebrating the end of the Silver War. Many Pokemon, especially some Gold Tribe and Seekers, are skeptical about the party, which was organized by General Grett. The grandiose design and festival which the ceremony has become, was thought by many to be unnecessary, too festive and less honoring, and just downright pointless. Though many respect the sacrifices of the Silver War, there are also some believe that Darkrai never actually appeared in the closing stages of the war, and that the war was conducted by former members of the Gold Tribe in the form of the Silver Tribe. This group, or movement, is called the Valkarian Exposure and is led by a former Commander Hypno known as Thomas Blake.

The party progressed on, with many old acquaintances meeting back up and some new ones meeting for the first time. Notable dignitaries included the Thieves with their King Snype, the Seekers and their leader Penance, SEC employees and their founder Hanso, the Gold Tribe and their leader Guardia, as well as many more surprising and some new faces. As the ceremony for the fallen was conducted, however, Thomas Blake got into an argument with another General, Riken, about the nature of the Silver War's end. Soon after, Grett revealed a surprising bit of information, his involvement with Darkrai, which promptly led to his appearance along the outskirts of Gold City soon after, along with an army. Grett was soon dispatched, and everyone got to work. The defense of Gold City had begun, with the Gold Tribe and other defenders clamoring over to the wall of the city, while others heading to the SEC Network points (there being three) to try and evacuate all the non-combating citizens to other cities.

Unknown to the defenders originally, a Greninja believed to be working, perhaps voluntarily, with Darkrai, has begun destroying the Network points. He has successfully destroyed Network point two with a Hyper Beam Cannon, and proceeded to Network point three. A fire had mysteriously begun around Network point three. The Greninja was discovered by Snype, Paradox (Penance), and other defenders of the Alpha Alliance. The Hyper Beam Cannon was fired, but the network point was thankfully not destroyed, and in the process of being moved (as it is somewhat portable by SEC employees). Though in apparent captivity, the Darkrai agent known as Gabriel, or Gabe, hinted at possible other infiltrators into the city. At the same time at Network point one, an Ursaring revealed himself and began causing mayhem around there as well, apparently with the goal to destroy the Network point there.

Meanwhile at the wall, the defense of the city began. Darkrai's army was vast and wide, but with the Gold Tribe, the Alpha Alliance, Hyper Beam Cannons and a small, evil Ralts, the walls were being held off. Stampedes and other Pokemon charged for the gates, but were held off. An enormous Wailord began to be carried by the Pokemon of Darkrai. It seemed to support a lot of weight on it, despite the Wailord's notoriety for being quite light. Even with some armor plating around it, it didn't appear to make much sense yet. However, with a bit of a psychic disturbance from Razathiel, the Wailord was initially tipped over and caused destructive damage to the armies of Darkrai. The Pokemon of Darkrai quickly recovered the Wailord, put psychic barriers around to prevent additional mishaps, and proceeded again forward to the wall. The Gold Tribe and General Warren headed over the gate to take on a few enemies close range, and the defense of Gold City continued.

At the wall, the giant Wailord that was being carried by the Darkrai forces was actually filled with Electrode. The 'mon at the wall managed to damage and partially destroy the wailord before it reached the wall, but it still ended up unleashing most of them closeby the wall and blowing up half of the main gate and taking down a good portion of the mon there. General Riken found Guardia there among the survivors and basically relayed the plan to her to do that mission she was planning tomorrow (check OOC) now instead, so she basically asked her to gather everyone she wanted to bring and take them to Network Point 3. They're all heading there now. At Network Point One, there were a group of Pokemon who were trying to destroy the Network there, an Ursaring, Machamp, and Ariados. They were tough opponents, particularly the Ursaring, but all were eventually taken out. Alex and Obsidian took out the Machamp with a sleeping dart, while Charlie took out the Ariados. A joint effort by Scar, Gaia (Naku NPC), Desmond (Naku NPC) and Atrox was used to take out the Ursaring. Gabriel arrived there too, and ended up destroying Network Point one in a concealed explosion at the same time as the explosion on the wall. So only Network Point 3 is left. In the end, Scar stayed behind to fight off Gabriel, while the rest continued on to Network Point 3.

From there, Riken and Guardia explained to the gathered about their mission, and of how they had to leave Gold City now to accomplish it. Fighting off the armies would only prolong the inevitable. The only way to win was to do what was originally intended: Find Cresselia. Along with that, they would get any help they could from the other countries in terms of fighting Darkrai's armies.

The group were teleported by the Network to Fort Ferrol, which was a relatively small outpost just north of Valkaria in an area known as the Valkaria Protectorate. It wasn't a country per say, as within it was only a collection of a few separate villages. Ferrol was half abandoned when they got there, including most of the Gold Tribe which was stationed there because they went off to help Gold City. However, there remained a couple of Gold Tribe members: 'Wraith' the Dusknoir, 'Whirlwind' the Fearow, and 'Reign' the Seaking. Along with them, there was a Seeker and SEC base, as well as a few dozen villagers who still occupied the village/fort.

The group spent the rest of the day resting, eating, and getting to know each other. Snype and Kaveri went on their second date, the first being in Gold City just before the attack. Guardia discovered Charlie, a traitor of the Gold Tribe and current member of the thieves, and confronted him. The brothers Joshua and Charlie met up, with the conversation going quite sour. Thomas, Sylvio, Cal, Raz, and Anna all met up and talked within the inn in town. The following day, the group gathered together to decide where they would begin their journey. After some debate, they ultimately decided on beginning in Tollen. From there, the group dispersed once more, everyone doing their own thing. At this point, Guardia once more confronted Charlie, with the two butting heads, but didn't resort to fighting. Guardia also spoke to Snype, frustrated that he had been hiding so much information from her about the extent of his organization. A similar conversation took place with Penance. Joshua and Cal also shared their reservations about trusting some of the non-Gold Tribe members of the group. The following day, they met again to discuss how they would get into Tollen, and what they would be doing once they got there.

They agreed to split up into three separate teams and proceed into Tollen that way. The thief team as it has been called, decided to go in through the last Network Point in Tollen. They snuck their way in with some help from SEC devices. The Diplomatic team tried the same way, but through the legal channels of the nobility in Tollen. The third team, the forest team, would head by way of the furthest Network Point in Beatruce and enter Tollen through the forest.

The Diplomatic Team: The Diplomatic team has made contact with Lord Marrow of House Ellia. He was fairly hostile to the group mostly because of their ties to the Gold Tribe, but also because of the fact that they were foreigners. Marrow alluded to the fact that all foreigners were generally forbidden inside Tollen, and there could be consequences for bringing them in. The Diplomatic team also discovered other names, including Lord Arron of House Durania, who was briefly mentioned. The diplo team convinced Marrow to give the guys a chance to explain themselves, and so Marrow went over to appeal to the other nobility to grant an audience before all of the dignitaries and nobility of Tollen, where they might be able to present their case for aid.

Also, the diplo team discovered that a portion of the network psychics have been taken hostage somewhere. Maybe something the thieves could investigate sometime. Lord Marrow returned around the same time that the two thieves were partially discovered in the palace. He was angry about the situation, asking if they had anything to do with it. The Diplomatic team assured them that they didn't, and Marrow informed them that the audience was set up.

The following day, the Diplomatic Team was presented to the audience, where the nobles of Argime gathered. Among the seated once who presided over the others were Lord Marrow, Lord Arron of House Durania, Lord Caellen of House Jenoscent, who was the son of the true head of the House (who was away because he was apparently ill), Deputy Commander Elewyn of the Royal Knights, and General Marcus Tyren of the Standing Army. Later, the savior everyone was referring to, and the Royal Commander of the Knights entered, who turned out to be the same Greninja Gabriel from Valkaria. In a slight state of worry, Thomas urged the diplomatic team not to mention Cresselia, so they approached the meeting from a call to aid for troops approach. The meeting surprisingly divided the nobles and military officials, with Lord Marrow and General Tyren supporting to toss them out, and Elewyn, Caellen, Arron and surprisingly Gabriel voting to hear them out more individually.

The diplomats met with various dignitaries following the meeting. They first met with Lord Arron of House Durania, who explained that he was informed somewhat of Gabriel, at least on the part of him being a nuisance to many nobles of Tollen, and also supported him being removed from power. Lord Arron explained his ties to the Brotherhood of Shadows, a group bent on getting rid of Gabriel, and of various other secret networks. He explained that if they were to help him get rid of Gabriel, he would provide them troops for their fight in Gold City, as well as any information they seek. He also asked as a condition for this that the diplomats ask the Queen to allow Arron to sit on the Throne of Rectitude, which is a position reserved for the most trustworthy of Tollen. The position involves that should no heir be named to the current ruler, that 'mon which current sits on the throne will take over as the ruler of Tollen. Currently, Gabriel is allowed to sit on the Throne.

Following the meeting with Lord Arron, the diplomats met with Lord Caellen, son of the leader of House Jenoscent. He was much more shy than his father, as he claimed, and clearly didn't have the knack to rule. However, he did say that his father was not sick, but rather that he was out of the city in secret, as he did not trust was Gabriel said, and he wanted to see the condition of Tollen for himself. Lord Caellen promised what support he could if the diplomats helped return his father to him.

Their next meeting was with the Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights, Elewyn. Elewyn seemed sincere in her support of the situation in Valkaria, offered support in troops without any favors or requests in return. It seemed that there were still quite a few Royal Knights who were brought up viewing the Gold Tribe in a relatively favorable light.

The meeting after Elewyn was with Gabriel himself. The meeting was an odd affair with many fronts and double meanings behind it. However, when he did begin to explain himself, Gabriel seemed intent on keeping his motivations somewhat secretly while still implying a few things, including that the presence of the diplomats in Tollen did benefit him as well as them. It seemed like it was all a game to him, with Gabriel even betting the diplomats that they couldn't bring him down within two nights from their meeting, where they were to attend a banquet of sorts, in which the Queen of Tollen would also be present.

The Thief Team: Two thieves, Charlie and Obsidian, decided to gather some information by infiltrating the palace of the Queen. Along the way, they heard something about a 'mon named Popous, who it was later found out didn't make it into the Royal Knights despite many thinking he should have because he was very skilled. Obsidian and Charlie also ran into a Herdier who was of nobility, whose House had the insignia of an Emerald Dragalge. The Herdier sniffed around when Obsidian and Charlie were close, but didn't comment on the thieves presence if he knew they were there. Charlie and Obsidian discovered a book, which detailed the line of succession of the General of the Standing Army. Apparently, the General has recently been replaced in the last year, from General Isabella to General Marcus Tyren.

Other thieves have been hearing continuous things about someone or something known as the Savior. From what they could gather, something has happened here in the last year which caused a lot of devastation of some sort, and many mon allude that the savior was the one to stop it, or save them from it. It is claimed that the mon was born in the Oddish Trail, a relatively poor and small part of the slums of Tollen. Other claims made him out to be from other parts of Tollen. The savior was clearly a prominent figure of some sort, having stopped the devastation known only as the Reckoning.

The thieves also planned a heist with a group they got in contact with after Snype saved a slum mon from a Royal Guard. The group mentioned something about another group known as the Brotherhood, but not much is known about it at present. On the day of the heist, Snype spoke with a citizen in Tollen named Popous, who somewhat upset about not getting into the Royal Knights, and thus was honorably discharged from the standing army. He passed on a bit of information that the Savior was a Greninja. The heist came, with the thief team meeting up with Roran (the initial 'mon who brought them the heist), as well as Joseph, Stretch, and a Bisharp named Creed. The group agreed to hit the shipping caravan as it traveled within the city, as it was found out that the most skilled Royal Knights guarded the entrances and exit to the city, where the supplies were bound. Jeice, another member of the heist, informed the group that there would be two standing army soldiers, and two royal knights guarding the caravan. The shipping job went off without much of a hitch. Except at the end of it, instead of leaving the knocked out royal knights, Creed suddenly killed the two Royal Knights.

The thief team took offense, but it was soon discovered that he was with the Brotherhood, and the shipping job was an initiation of sort to get the group to meet with them. He also mentioned that killing them would derail suspicion of another group with the Diplomatic team inside the capital. It was also found out that the Brotherhood stopped a Royal Knight from passing information on to the higher ups in the palace about them having SEC supplies, and therefore could be foreigners here. The Brotherhood asked to meet with the thief team that night.

The thieves returned to their hideout in a spa, where they met with a Seeker, who was one of the standing army soldiers posted with the caravan. There, he gave a good painting of the full story. A plague began in the capital, which killed the King and caused a lot of devastation. The borders were closed and all foreigners were dispelled to try and contain this Reckoning. It also seemed that a portion of the citizens, mostly nobility and those around the palace, seemed immune to the plague, which greatly angered the suffering poor and middle class. Finally, a Royal Knight came forward by the name of Gabriel and began to cure this plague. He became extremely popular among the people of Tollen, and so the Queen gave him a position of influence. The nobility were more hesitant to accept him given his roots, but agreed because they knew the people would protest if they did.

Following the meeting with the Seeker, the thieves met up with the Brotherhood in the same evening, where it was discovered that their leader was actually Isabella, the former General of the Standing Army. Isabella had begun to suspect Gabriel and his plans and for that, she believed Gabriel set her up in an assassination attempt against the Queen, and also an execution. Isabella escaped, and began working in the shadows to bring down the Gabriel. The two sides relayed further information about the situation outside, and Isabella relayed everything going on within the country, including her ties to Lord Arron of House Durania. They agreed on a loose partnership to bring down Gabriel by uncovering the past.

The first place they agreed to look, as suggested by Sylvio, was the events surrounding the Dark Tournament which took place over a century earlier. It was a similar incident that occurred during the Silver War, and was proof of Darkrai's involvement. Furthermore, Knights of Tollen as well as Gold Tribe fought together during this incident. Although it was initially covered up because of panic, there may have been some record left behind. The thieves sought to find this record, which Sylvio suspected was in the Raegal Center. The Raegal Center was constructed many years ago, and despite never being renovated, was allowed to stand from orders of the King directly without any explanation.

The thief group made their way inside the Raegal Center the following day and began to look for the records. They managed to discover it below the old library, but someone else seemed to track them as well. An Abomasnow formerly employed by Lord Arron, but who was recently 'outbid' into another 'mon's service, attacked the group and killed Creed. They met up with the brotherhood again later that day, where they discussed the event, as well as began tracking down further leads to bring down Gabriel.

The Thieves pursued several leads the following days. Skuld would go and find the Abomasnow and end up tailing him. From there he would learn that he was indeed in the service of the enemy, specifically General Marcus Tyren, who appeared to be allied with Gabriel. Other leads including diving into Isabella's memories, where they discovered a possible connection between the plague and Gabriel, and saw how Gabriel used a strange object to possibly influence the effects of the plague. Other leads were found in the palace, where Snype infiltrated and found an encrypted note. After the encryption, it was discovered to be from someone named 'Xander', and which details Gabriel's relationship with Darkrai. Snype would also find an interesting book known as 'Guardians', as well as a documentation of the orders of the Royal Knights, most of them which seemed against what was best for Tollen. A strange vial was also found in the room, one which gave Snype a vision of something menacing, perhaps of Darkrai's power, or even Darkrai himself.

Snype fled the scene, but not before also recruiting the help of Rupert the Mr Mime advisor, and also hearing the story of the old Royal Knight Alistair, who shared the tale of the Prince's death by hunting accident. It appeared that back then, the same vial Snype had found was used then by Marcus Tyren (then a Royal Knight) to make sure the prince died. Snype found one more piece of evidence in the form of love letters from a lesser noble named Pieter. The love letters, which were directed to the Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights, stated information about the previous assassination attempts of the Queen, and that connection not to Isabella, but to Gabriel and Darkrai's Agents. With all of this information in tow, the Thieves now had enough evidence to take down Gabriel. However, just before they would present it, Isabella ended up losing two pieces of the evidence after losing it in a tussle with Royal Knights loyal to Gabriel. Gabriel had apparently found out about the identity of the group looking for evidence and decided to put a stop to it. Isabella ended up losing the Guardians book and the Royal Commander schedule. These weren't extreme losses, but they did have some important information in them.

Snype was also attacked following the scene, with some of the strongest Royal Knights pursuing him. He ended up momentarily evading them, and wandered the city for a while, seeing it go to mayhem as soldiers entered homes in search of the thief team. However, Snype ended up being trailed by none other than one of the strongest warriors in Tollen, Marcus Tyren. Tyren was powerful, and was in the process of taking down and defeating Snype. However, he was eventually saved by Popous, whom Snype met earlier while in disguise. Popous took Snype to his home, where once the Sableye recovered, he shared his entire story with him. Popous listened and agreed to help at the banquet, adding another ally to the group.

The Forest Team: The Forest Team left before the other groups, on the evening prior. They transported to Beatruce, where they were directed onto the backs of water Pokemon, and traveled across the river into Tollen. Upon reaching the shores the following morning, they found the outpost there largely abandoned. They did see tracks going in multiple directions, and when the 'mon tried to sense out the place to see where the most activity was coming from, they found out that going north had a lot of death. The group therefore proceeded north, where they walked through the jungle for hours. They noticed the area was quite foggy, but discovered this was a combination of smoke and mist. They reached a body, one of the hellguards of Tollen, and then came upon a group of Hellguards, the last of a scouting team of over 80, now just half a dozen. The scouting team, led by Lieutenant Trace, was returning back to Fort Trantrea to reconnect with the remaining forces in the area. They talked about how they were attacked from all sides in the jungles, from three different forces no less. The Morrians, a group of wild tribe-like 'mon with painted faces, were the biggest trouble in the Northern area. They also said if they wanted more information, they should speak to Commander Darrell in Fort Trantrea.

A few hours later, they arrived at the fort. When the forest team arrived with the hellguards at Fort Trantrea, they found it under attack by a Morrian scouting party. With the help of the forest team, they managed to push back the Morrians, and the forest group met with the Commander. There, he relayed what he knew. He explained that he has not received any skilled Hellguard reinforcements from the capital in months, and recently, he hasn't even had any of the bad kind. There was no news from the capital. From a few Seekers Penance found, it was also discovered that any remaining Seekers in the country were drafted into the Hellguards from the standing army and sent to the warzone.

After some time, the place received a message from a nearby village, which said that there was a Tollenian noble from Argime there. However, at the same time, Fort Trantrea began to be under attack. The forest group was left to decide whether to pursue the noble or help the troops in Trantrea, and they decided to remain and fight. The battle lasted the entire night and into the morning, with the Morrians not retreating until the last 'mon standing. However, the Hellguards won with the forest team's help. As they rest and recover now, they decide on what to do next.

The forest team met up with a Seeker from Valkaria, Alexis, who was strangely transported here by a Network Machine. The reason for his transportation was a mystery then, but it usually doesn't malfunction on this level unless some sort of strong psychic energy was the cause behind it, likely from another Network Machine. With another Seeker and psychic present, Penance/Brynn decided to try and contact Argime through a long, psychic chain of connections. Even though it was far away, they decided to try. They connected with every Psychic they had in the area, and tried to extend themselves across the forest. Their signal was picked up, however not by Argime. Instead, they were surprised to learn that there was a second Network Point established on the outside of Argime in secret. According to a quick message, it was placed there for the Pentosarrs and Morrians to go and use to get a quick path into Argime straight into the city. The forest group is somewhat skeptical, believing that the message could be a trap, so they send a scouting team there first. Following this, they called for the army to arrive in the location, which is by a town called Brookerridge, to finally put the pieces of the plan into place.

The army showed up and positioned itself in Brookerridge, and soon after the army of the Morrians and Pentosarrs showed up. It was a conflict that took the entire night, but with the help of the Valkarians and some Seeker reinforcements, the Hellguards prevailed. With the Psychics now in tow, the forest team was now able to help out their friends in Argime, and share what had happened, but not before the Hellguards promised their full support in the war against Darkrai in Valkaria.

Together Again: The Thief, Forest, and Diplomat teams reunited at the banquet, where they shared all of the evidence against Marcus Tyren and Gabriel to the entire city and the nobility and other dignitaries of Tollen. The evidence was large, and the Valkarians found themselves with an advantage, until Gabriel decided to take matters into his own hands and try to force the Queen to drink from a cup, which many believed was probably poisoned. Little did he know that Rupert, the Mr. Mime adviser, had switched out the Queen's cup at the last minute, potentially saving her life.

Backed into a corner, Gabriel, Tyren, and what loyal Royal Guards he had with him decided to make a run for it, with the Queen in tow. The Valkarians and the Tollen defenders pursued. They squared off against Gabriel's best, in a fight for the city. Tyren eventually decided to stop running and face off against the tag team duo of Raz and Kaveri. In a tough bout, the two were eventually able to defeat the Agent of Darkrai and apparently kill him.

Meanwhile, Callimer, Snype, and Obsidian decided to pursue Gabriel, who had the Queen as a hostage. They were eventually able to get the Queen out of his hands, and Snype scurried away to bring her to safety. Eventually backed into a corner, both Obsidian and Cal fought with Gabriel. They appeared to be holding him off, but the Greninja was powerful. It became apparent that the Greninja was relying on some power of Darkrai through a small orb he held in his hands. When Snype returned, the three hatched a plan to get rid of the object in question. They were successful in doing so, much to the dismay of the Greninja.

Gabriel demanded the orb back, but the three refused, instead demanding that Gabriel surrender. Gabriel proceeded to ask if Snype remembered what he had first said to him when they first met. Snype shrugged it off as some lame line he said in Gold City, but Gabriel clarified that their first meeting actually came 30 years before. To the shock of the three warriors, Gabriel proceeded to recite words spoken by Darkrai to Snype many years prior, and then subsequently transformed into the legendary before their very eyes. They briefly tussled with the legendary, but were overwhelmed. Darkrai put them to sleep, but not before he explained to them the necessity of keeping them alive: chaos. Darkrai then escaped Tollen as the three fell asleep.

They were awoken by Guardia, and then shared their experience. Alex came soon after and helped to remove any possible power of Darkrai inside of them. Oddly enough, only Callimer and Obsidian had any corruption inside, while Snype remained free of it.

The next few days were spent recovering and reuniting, and a few days later, a meeting was held where the dignitaries of Tollen all gathered. There, the Valkarians nominated Isabella for her old position of General of the Standing Army, and Elewyn became the new Royal Commander. Lord Arron of House Durania was also elected to have the honor to sit on the Throne of Rectitude, much to the disagreement of many dignitaries.

The meeting also featured the Tollenians providing what aid they could, including Commander Darrell promising the entire Hellguard force once they need it. Elewyn, Marrow, and Arron also pledged Royal Knights number a bit of 100, and Isabella also promised her support through what remained of her Brotherhood members. Rupert promised what help he could through hired mercenaries, and Popous and Alistair agreed they would be present at the fight. Roran also set up an alliance with Snype with the new Brotherhood, one that was more thief-centered.

The meeting also featured a few notable events and reveals about other matters, including the fact that the orb around Zai's neck was the same one, or a similar one, to the one Gabriel had. Many theories were put forth about this. It was also revealed that Raz had a bit of Darkrai's power inside of him. Arron also shared some stories about Anatellia, and how legendaries were confirmed to walk with normal 'mon there. He recommended they go there. Isabella remembered reading something of the sort in the 'Guardians' book she lost, but could not remember more than becoming more than 'normal 'mon'. Marrow also brought out the Psychics of Brookerridge and shared a message they received, one which specifically said that Cresselia had been found in a hymn. After some more deliberation, the group eventually voted to go to Anatellia, to find help against Darkrai from other legendaries, and to find the origins of the message.

The group eventually returned to Fort Ferrol to once more rest and recuperate before heading to Anatellia. At this point, while they rested, they were met with two new individuals. One was a mercenary named Silence Quickslash, who was willing to do practically any job, including assassination. The other was a tribes'mon, a nomad from the unclaimed lands that traveled with a pack named Nyalla. Both agreed to accompany the group to their next destination, one as a contract and the other to eventually reach her tribe.

At one point in Fort Ferrol, a myserious Pokemon named Wem appeared before Raz, with only Raz apparently able to see it. It was a shapeshifter, appearing to continuously change its species at will. It mentioned that in Anatellia, not only was it said that legendaries sometimes walked among normal Pokemon, but that normal Pokemon could also walk among the legendaries. It appeared at the end as a Mew, and vanished without a trace.

The group arrived to their next destination, Anatellia, to a less than warm start, both literally and not. They arrived in the Network Point to find themselves in the beginning of a cave overlooking a long white sheet of snow with no visible areas of habitat, along with a group of 'mon known as the Sons of Arceus. The Sons of Arceus were one of the many sects in Anatellia. Sects acted partially like factions, but essentially were nothing more than glorified gangs now. The Sons were the strongest, however, and it was with their leader, Gaiyo Nyys, that the Seekers had a relationship.

Gaiyo introduced himself there, and it was clear he didn't appreciate foreigners being there. Neither did the rest of the Sons. But they allowed the group to remain (under watch) because of Gaiyo's relationship with Obsidian and Penance. Gaiyo led them to the city Reverence below, where they learned that the entire population of Anatellia lived below in the enormous caverns, rather than on the inhabitable surface.

Gaiyo led the group to his house, where he was hesitant on offering them help, but agreed to do so only if they also assisted him in matters going on in Anatellia. He even allowed them to pick the time when they could assist in these matters. The group decided to pursue a lead first, in the form of a legendary that was 'bonded' to Gaiyo. By that, it was meant that Gaiyo and a legendary formed an interdependent and mutual relationship which sometimes occurs between normal and legendary Pokemon. Gaiyo made a marker on the map to where the legendary was staying, and the group went to seek his guidance. He also sent two members of the group, Zai and Silence, on a special assignment to recruit a smaller sect up north.

The legendary 'mon turned out to be a Victini that went by Vee. It was rather cordial and spoke with candor on a lot of matters, a refreshing break from usual legendaries being so cryptic. Vee spoke to the group on a number of subjects. The first was Cresselia, and her location. Vee discussed in length about the message sent to Tollen, which appeared to come from the Victini. She explained about Cresselia, and her connection to a group of legendaries known as the Guardians.

The Guardians are a group of legendaries that aren't born legendaries, but are made. They began as normal Pokemon before they are chosen to ascend to a legendary status. They are selected to help protect and guard the world, to keep it in balance, according to Vee. In order to ascend, they must have two items: their Soul, and their spirit. The spirit is usually found sometimes clinging to another Pokemon. The soul is found in the same sort of stone that Gabriel had in Tollen. It was then learned the difference between Zai's stone, a Mega Stone, and Gabriel's, a Soul Stone. The Mega Stone is what allows normal 'mon to 'walk with legendaries', or to become powerful as them, and on equal terms with them, albeit for a short time. The soul stone is more permanent, allowing a normal 'mon to transform into a legendary permanently. Only it appeared Gabriel had figured out a way to break the permanence of it.

They also confirmed that Gabriel was indeed Darkrai, and that the Greninja form of his was merely his first normal form before he became a Guardian. It then recommended to go and ask the other Guardians about the rest of Cresselia. Now that they knew that the Queen of Tollen was the vessel, they had to find the spirit and the soul.

It was also revealed by Victini that one member of the group happened to be bonded with a legendary. It did not reveal who, though, as it seemed to want to keep that legendary protected, and Vee respected that. After a brief entanglement with Penance, it also stated that the Golduck had a lot of chaos inside of him, to the point where he could almost be a ticking timebomb.

The group headed back to Reverence following their discussion with Vee, with plenty of new information. However, meanwhile in Reverence, things seemed to have happened. As they learned from Gaiyo, an allied sect of his and another sect had a meeting that many didn't know about. Gaiyo wasn't able to uncover the reason or the identities, but he didn't like the secrecy of it. There was also a massacre at an allied sect's 'Rising Ceremony', a ceremony dedicated to the Legendary the sect worships. The Dark Moons, the sect that worships Darkrai, was believed to be behind it.

The group agreed that now was a good time to help Gaiyo with his errands. He sent them off to do three task. The first was to participate in the 'under-race', a race of 'mon riding on top of other 'mon without flying. The second was stopping a 'mon known as the Gambler, who had apparently been gambling with Sons of Arceus. The wager often had been forcing them to join Darkrai's side if they lost. The third task was to intercept a group of Earth Dweller scouts (a sect allied with the Dark Moons) and find out why they were poking around Sons territory.

The under-race went well. Raz, Cal and Kav worked together to defeat the riders from many other sects, including the Reverse Kings, and the leader of the Dark Moons, who was Roxanna, known as the Queen of Darkness. The Gambler task proved more difficult. Each member of the group Gambled in the task, but many ended up losing, including Snype, Thomas, Penance, and a Seeker with Penance. They all lost and were teleported away to one of Darkrai's camps. This one, located in the Path of Nations, a strip of land in between Anatellia, Karn, and Beatruce, had plenty of fighters for Darkrai's side. They met a General there, named Revoll, as well as discovered that the former Alpha Alliance General Grett was alive and well. Penance also became distraught at this point because he saw many of his Seekers, who he adored, turned to the other side. Only in the end, did Anna managed to win against the Gambler, secure the rest back to Reverence, as well as forced the Gambler to submit to the group and return a captive.

The third task seemed easy enough in the beginning. The group tracked down the Earth Dwellers, and intercepted them when they ran. They eventually discovered, however, that the Earth Dwellers were merely reporting in on populations of the area, just to see how many casualties there would be as a result of the bomb that was planted by Roxanna and the Dark Moons earlier. The group desperately searched for a location of the bomb, eventually figuring out from interrogating the Gambler (Ben) that it was in Arceus Orb, one of the larger structures in Reverence, and heavily populated. They found the bomb on top, a converted Mega Stone that only would be stopped if the right 'mon grabbed it. Grabbing it too many times, however, would cause it to go off. Before it detonated, Callimer eventually grabbed the bomb and stopped its detonation, and in the process scored himself a Mega Stone. However, during the bomb fiasco, the Gambler Ben managed to escape thanks to help from another Agent, Alai.

Gaiyo was thankful that the group was successful in completing the tasks. In fact, many Sons looked at them in a better light. He was more cordial, and he even shared with them about a place they could go to to get more info on the Mega Stones, called the Altar of the Divines.

The group set off there after a discussion about where to go next. The journey was approximately 3 days long. When they arrived, however, they found Roxanna there, along with a group of other Agents: James (a Blaziken mercenary), Alai, Grett, and Ben. They concocted a game (made by the Gambler Ben) that would form six pathways. In one pathway was the information the group sought about the Mega Stones. In the other, was the five Agents.

Before the game began, Raz elected to gamble for a chance to secure the info right away. He succeeded and scored the books easily, while the rest split up and headed down separate pathways. Pathway 1 led to James, the mercenary. Anna and Raz went down that path. However, James didn't seem very interested in fighting because he wasn't paid by Gabriel to be there. Raz caught him in a psychic trap and took him away. James didn't struggle much, only relaxed and slept. The second pathway had the books, which Raz collected. Down the third was Alai, who Kaveri had a brief discussion with, before they began to fight. Cal and Conduit went down the fourth pathway, where they fought Roxanna. Guardia and Snype headed to the fifth pathway, and Thomas and Abel went down the sixth.

Guardia and Snype managed to recover a few items in the game the Gambler set up in the fifth pathway. This included information about something known as an 'Ancian', which they had no knowledge of, as well as another Mega Stone, which belonged to Snype. They also managed to make the Gambler submit due to his tarot ability of random card drawing , which forces him to do anything the card suggests. He had to surrender and join their side. Unfortunately, the others weren't fairing well, especially Abel and Thomas, who were revealed by the Gambler to be paired up against the strongest Agent, Grett.

The others fared fairly well, including Cal and Conduit, who were in the process of defeating Roxanna. However, Guardia and Snype ended the game to save Abel and Thomas, and thus teleported everyone away from the Altar. Cal was initially angry about not being able to finish off Roxanna, but eventually calmed down. The group also figured out, thanks to Raz, that Ancian meant 'doorway', though the interpretation of what that meant was subject to much debate, as it could have meant a mental doorway, or possibly a physical one. Regardless, part of Gabriel's plan was to open the Ancian when the time was right. Snype also was convinced to hire the Agent James for a tremendous fee. There was much debate about this from the others, but they eventually conceded.

The group headed back to Reverence for three days, to find that much had happened in the time they were gone. An allied sect broke away from the Sons and the Reverse Kings. Furthermore, a trial was set up for a prominent Son of Arceus for the murder of a Reverse King. Gaiyo believed this to be a set-up by the Dark Moons. Then later, a very prominent and important statue belonging to the Reverse Kings was destroyed. The guilt was pinged somehow on the Dark Moons, who denied this. A few other escalations happened, but the result was civil war seemed to be on the path to break out.

Also during this time, Penance, who had previously been in distress after seeing many of his Seekers on the other side, fall into suicidal thoughts and into a coma. Command of the Seekers was temporarily given to Obsidian, and Penance went deep into his mind to try and figure out some things. The previous prison where Paradox now remained was found by him, along with a mysterious shadow presence in the form of Gabriel. There, Penance and Gabriel had a talk about Paradox, where it was revealed that Paradox wasn't supposed to be a separate entity, but rather a part of Penance that split off. Penance also requested that he go to the camp again, to talk to the 'mon there and possibly join the other side.

A few days later, he was arranged to be teleported to the camp of Darkrai, where he spoke to many individuals, and eventually agreed that Gabriel's side was the right side. Thus, Penance became an Agent of Darkrai.

The group arrived back to find that Gaiyo had called a meeting with the three main sects, the Sons of Arceus, the Reverse Kings, and the Dark Moons, to try and resolve this before they had to fight. The meeting went fairly poorly, and a fight broke out in which Roxanna attacked the group. The fight was brutal, but ended with Roxanna's defeat. There was much debate as to what should come next. Raz and Abel believed that Roxanna should die, but Ben, who was still their captive, pleaded for his friend's life. Cal eventually agreed to keep her alive for now, and Guardia affirmed the decision, much to the chagrin of Raz and Abel.

Even though they defeated Roxanna, Gaiyo explained that war was still inevitable. He was saddened by this, but he felt the Sons' chances of winning were still high. He did suggest that if they did win, they could try and help the group out with their own fighting. They also gave the group a set of information on multiple things, including the Guardians, and the Ancian. They also provided the group with a third Mega Stone that was given to Gaiyo by some explorers. The group left Anatellia after this, and headed back to Fort Ferrol to rest and plan their next move.

Back in Fort Ferrol, the group had a heated discussion about whether to keep Roxanna alive. Although there were disagreements, they eventually decided to imprison her. Cal and Snype also took the time to discuss their opinions about what the Ancian and the Watcher were, based on the books the group got in Anatellia. The group also ran into one of the Gold Tribe, who dropped of his daughter 'Rattles', a Ferrothorn to tag along with the group. They also learned about Penance joining Darkrai. Obsidian took the news hard, including engaging with Raz briefly in his anger.

Obsidian also learned from the Gold Tribe Dusknoir Wraith who had killed his father, as he was able to contact him in the afterlife. He learned it was a Grand General, Dorrian, who did the deed, a Tropius. Cal and Snype also began trainign with James on using their Mega Stones. James showed them a demonstration of the power, and Cal and Snype both attempted. Cal was able to get close, though not quite pull it off. Snype wasn't able to do as well, as James said there was something holding him back, like a secret he didn't share with anyone, or something of that nature. Guardia and Snype got into a bit of a heated discussion, though the two eventually made up.

The group also decided to finally make the trip to Beatruce to deal with the plague, and whoever controls it. Raz entertained the 'mon of Fort Ferrol with some exciting fireworks.

The group arrived in the capital city of Surina to a welcome atmosphere. Unlike previous cities, Beatruce enjoyed an alliance with the Gold Tribe and the Alpha Alliance. They went to meet with the Overseer, who led Beatruce's Senate. The Overseer, Julian Oriah, was a Tangrowth generally known to be fair but calculating. He had agreed to allow a meeting with the group. There, the group asked for assistance in Valkaria as well as information on Cresselia. Julian gave them the info he had heard from a Network Point in the Great Vantage, a part of Beatruce far north and in plague territory, and also where the Beatrucian Gold Tribe was last seen. In it, they had a message received about finding 'hope'. In another message, they also received the location of the one who created the plague, a Pokemon known as Bastille the Priest. He agreed if the group dealt with Bastille, he would provided Beatruce's armies. However, the Network Point was not strong enough to take them to both areas, only to one. With quick thinking from Anna, however, she managed to fix up the Network Points and split the group up. Anna, Guardia, Callimer, Rattles, Thomas and James therefore went to the Great Vantage to find hope, while Raz, Snype, Abel, and Able went to Mercurion to deal with Bastille.

The Great Vantage: The group arrived in the Great Vantage in poor condition. There were few guards, and many ferals in those canyons. They learned that the Beatrucian Gold Tribe, who sent the 'hope' message, hadn't been seen in weeks, but were last seen north. The group decided to head there, where they encountered numerous plagued 'mon. They also encountered a strange writing written on the wall. LE215. James looked at it at one point and mentioned seeing it in Anatellia before. Eventually, they reached the gates of the northern vantage, only to find it completely surrounded by thousands of feral 'mon. However, before they could be overwhelmed, the Beatrucian Gold Tribe arrived and assisted them. Led by Prime, the leader, they helped save the group through a secret passage through the canyon walls to the northern vantage outpost. There, the entire Beatrucian, what was left of them, remained. There was Firebird, Thunder, Prime, Mountain, Terram, Pyre, and a few others. The group learned most of the others perished, including Anzu, Abel's little sister.

However, the group learned the Beatrucian GT were watching a Musharna named Lia, who was what they identified as hope earlier. The Musharna was seemingly immune to the plague, could calm down ferals when they were next to her, and seemed to have other special abilities as well. The Gold Tribe had been trying to find a way back since discovering her, but had been surrounded by the path down, and knew the only working Network Point was south at the Great Vantage. There was a broken one north in a northern town, but they didn't know how to fix it. Thankfully, Anna said she could, so the group decided to go north. However, before they did, Prime said he had to get rid of a group of ferals west, who were the survivors of the Beatrucian Gold Tribe who had turned feral from the plague, including Anzu, Abel's sister. The group broke up again, with Cal, Prime, Terram, Firebird, Thunder, and Pyre going to finish the feral Gold Tribe, and the rest going to fix the Network Point in Warrington.

The feral group eventually found the infected Gold Tribe and fought them. They defeated them, though at the cost of the lives of Terram and Firebird. They eventually began heading back to meet up with the rest of the group at Warrington. Meanwhile at Warrington, the group managed to reach the town. Along the way, another code with the words LE215 was etched into the wall. The town was populated with feral plagued 'mon, though they all seemed docile and asleep. Carefully, they walked around them and Anna began fixing the Network Machine. After some time, however, the ferals suddenly awoke and began attacking. The group defended them, and soon after, the feral group arrived, just in time for Anna to fix the machine. The vantage group all left back to the capital.

Mercurion: Able, Abel, Snype, and Raz arrived in Mercurion to find the plague fully infected there. Ferals swarmed the streets, and a thick plague was surrounding the tallest building. They learned that Bastille resided there. They also learned that he could apparently see anything within the scope of the thick fog, and command others in it. Abel and Able decided to make a distraction in town, while Raz and Snype infiltrated the tower, being protected from the fog (Snype through the golden bracelet and Raz through a Magic Bounce armor he crafted). They encountered many ferals along the way, before finally fighting their way through Bastille. Snype and Raz fought the Agent for a long time, with him proving to be much tougher a fight than Roxanna and Tyren before him. In fact, he seemed too tough to be able to beat by themselves. The two knew they were outmatched, and Snype knew the only way he could beat him was to Mega Evolve. However, he had to relay what was holding him back. Snype whispered something to Raz, seemingly the final piece holding him from Mega Evolving, and did the act. From there, he was able to overwhelm Bastille. Seemingly defeated, Bastille quickly used a trump card, claiming he was holding Abel and Able captive. If they killed him, he would kill them with his fog. Snype agreed to let him go, but ended up backstabbing him with a tricky, powerful move he uncovered in his Mega Evolution. When Bastille died, the ferals in the city and throughout Beatruce seemed to become more insane, targeting everything in their path, including themselves. They seemed to become more disorganized though.

Snype and Raz quickly sought out Able, who was surrounded by ferals. After killing them off, she said Abel was in a similar situation. They went to where he was, only to find all of the ferals dead, and Abel standing there with none other than Gabriel beside him. However, before Snype or Raz could do much of anything, he disappeared. Abel claimed Gabriel said nothing much to him then. The group began to clear out the city of ferals, mostly Snype doing the work as he made the most of the mega evolution. Snype learned from a citizen that there may have been another Agent around Beatruce about a week before. A fire type that was hooded, but who had red and yellow markings. The group returned back to the capital, successful.

Meanwhile, back in Fort Ferrol, Obsidian, who remained behind to rally the remaining Seekers on their side, spoke to Scar in Valkaria to learn that a major offensive was happening in Albia soon, and would involve an invasion possibly of the Thieves Forest.

Following the group's successful defeat of Bastille and the recovery of Lia, the group rested in the capital. There, Abel became distraught when he learned about his sister's death. He wanted to talk or see no one. In the confusion of everything, Gabriel paid Abel a visit when he was alone and talked about his sister's death, and hinted that he may be able to help Abel if Abel helped him.

The group also met with the Overseer Julian Oriah, who thanked them for their help in getting rid of the plague, and who agreed to provide Beatruce's full support and armies. The group decided to dispatch part of the forces to Tollen as previously promised. After which, the Senators contacted Guardia and informed her that Tollen now would be providing their full support to Valkaria as well. Both Beatruce and Tollen were now fully on board.

Three weeks past as the group rested. During that time, Snype was visited by one of his thieves who informed him that they were running low on money, and if they kept paying James, they would be completely broke. Snype and Cal together asked for a bargain with James about fighting for free, if Cal were to beat him. James was unclear about accepting, but did mention the fact that he had been training with them because he had believed they had potential to become worthy fights.

After some more time, they were suddenly visited by Vee, who informed them that the Victini had run into Gabriel, who said he had found out about the Watcher. The group then discovered through Vee that the 'mon it stated was bonded to the legendary was among them, and that 'mon was actually bonded to the Watcher. It turned out unexpectedly to be Snype, who informed them that he found out only recently that the legendary he was bonded to was the Watcher.

The group headed into the Thieves Forest, teleporting there in order to save the Watcher from Darkrai. They headed in together, with Snype leading the way. From there, they walked for a while, before finally coming to the Watcher, who happened to be Celebi, the Guardian of the Forest. Celebi seemed very aloof of the matters of the world, and somewhat child-like. But she did know about Gabriel, which is when the very Greninja arrived.

Gabriel told them that he knew about Celebi, but didn't know the specifics, and it was one of them that betrayed them and led him there. After some guessing, James stepped forward and admitted to the betrayal.

Surprised, the group fought against Gabriel as Vee attempted to teleport everyone out of there. Gabriel began overpowering them slowly, and was on hot approach toward Celebi in order to take her. However, Vee managed in the last moments to teleport everyone back to Fort Ferrol. The group teleported in with relief, only to quickly discover that Guardia had taken a lethal blow, and died. Before she did, she named Cal new leader of the Gold Tribe, and ask them all, particularly Snype, to finish what she started.

Still in mourning, the group discovered that the location of Fort Ferrol had been compromised, and that Alai had infiltrated and rescued the captured Roxanna. With a quick decision, the group decided to abandon Fort Ferrol before Gabriel and his forces could come, so they teleported out all of the refugees to Beatruce, Selar Village, and Tollen. Thomas and a few Gold Tribes'mon would look after the refugees. Meanwhile, Vee, Celebi, and the rest of the group would go to the final country in search of the last piece of Cresselia, and for support: Karn.